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Our Future Collective Vision

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
 The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

Those of us who are aware of our ability to create a collective vision must do the work. We must plant the seeds for the New Year opening before us.

Let’s begin with what we want for the collective whole. 

Inclusiveness

I started to write peace and changed that to inclusiveness because if we experience inclusiveness, it will in fact bring peace to the entire world. Simply viewing all people as equal, which we are, helps us see ourselves in the lives and hearts of others wherever they are on the planet. The most important thing we can do is to eliminate any feeling of separateness and to cultivate an awareness of vast inclusiveness. Not only will that make us feel less alone, it will help us experience empathy for everyone else on the planet. Inclusiveness is an outstanding place to begin to change our future.

Self-Responsibility

We are responsible for everything that we experience. We create with our thoughts. And its limitations come from what we believe we deserve and what we believe is possible. When we change our thinking, we change our entire life. Do the work.

Monitor your thoughts. Monitor your beliefs. And guide them in the direction of your choosing. You can create your own life by managing your beliefs and thoughts and intentions. 

Collective Power

We must use our collective power to change the world for the better. That means seeing the good in all. That means always choosing for the highest good. And it means believing in a future of collective oneness – a oneness of serenity, inner peace, and the well-being of everything on the planet.

That seems like a difficult vision to hold but we must do the work. Use your imagination to see a healed planet in place, to see people living in cooperation and collective support. Picture your role and how you can expand it and increase your place of service. 

Our future begins with each of us right here and now and the choices we make, and the actions we take. 

Choose a particular place of service for the coming year. It may be one you have been working on or it may be a new one. Make some plans on how you want to participate in the coming year. 

Add an element to your spiritual practice that sends a blessing to the planet. I have a bell I ring. If you want it to be focused on something specific like the environment do that. If you want to be in a group of people do that. Send positive, loving, supportive, healing energy to the planet every single day.

We are interconnected. Each strand in this web of life carries our thoughts and actions and affects the whole. Our future responds to the here now –  with what we think and say and do. Let’s create a powerful new inclusive future with our thoughts, our deeds, and our imagination. 

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I take responsibility for helping to heal our planet through my thoughts, words, and deeds. 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

• Pick an area of concern that you have for our planet, or our circumstances and begin to focus your energy and support on that.
• Choose one or two areas you want to actively contribute to in the coming year and  do that. 
• Do the work!

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Inner Work For The Future

There are so many opportunities to contribute to the future that I hardly know where to begin.

What is affecting us now has to do with the rising Divine Feminine and how her increasing power is affecting the Divine Masculine. It is a power struggle. The Divine Feminine is persistently and gradually assuming the power the Divine Masculine once held. 

I wonder what kind of world we will create. I know the feminine qualities of inclusiveness and caring and compassion will be part of it. Our leadership form is more nurturing, more supportive, more encouraging and more inclusive. Guiding our governing towards the highest good for all will certainly play havoc with special interest groups. I think saving the planet will be at the top of the list because we must have a place to live. I’m sure giant efforts will be made to stop emissions and create space for the planet to heal. 

How do you envision our future and what role will you take?

What Do You Keep Putting Off and Why?

Is there something you should be doing but you’re not doing because you keep putting it off? Do you know why you keep putting it off? 

It could be that what you want to do is hard or challenging. It could be that it’s not really what you’re supposed to do. It could be someplace in between. But when you are stuck trying to figure out why you were stuck, you have an opportunity to work past it or through it or around it. Check for beliefs that are no longer yours. Or beliefs that lead to ideas and concepts that may no longer be true. Examine and organize and  gradually eliminate experiences that  keep you from a shift in awareness and perception. 

It could be you are not aware of the possibilities and potential of a particular choice. I certainly had no idea of the opportunities I would have with this move to long-term care – physical therapy being one of them. It’s hard to imagine a new “next” if you have no idea what is possible. So exploration and self education is one way to explore new possibilities.

What is calling in your life? What do you want to replace in your life that is not working? Stop putting that off. 

Know Your Value

I am gaining a whole new view of myself and my place of service and my value. It is totally wrapped in moving out of isolation.  We need to experience responses to our words and our actions to know our value.  We need to see change or results in order to experience our impact. 

What proof do you have of your value? What signs of the actions you are taking are showing up?

As I move into my new life, I am watching how I feel, how people are responding to me and if possible, how my life changes. I will stay aware of new opportunities, new friends and new results that stem from my actions and choices. 

When you change, the world around you changes. Be aware of what you are creating by your beliefs and actions.

The Dream We Hold

There is so much not working in the world that I don’t know where to begin my dream. I actually happen to be one of the light workers. Those of us who are holding High Watch for the world continue to raise our sites and our actions in order to heal and whole our planet.

We have to look beyond what is showing up in our world to see what is possible. In order to do that we really have to trust the power of the universe to guide us. 

We have to trust that certain things are happening in order for those of us who are observing the power of the changing universe, can get the message about the steps we are to take next. And how we are to take them.

We Have Access To Enterprising, Industrious Energy

The Universe is ready to support us but there is an unfolding progress and we have to do our part. 

Nature shows us a pattern of rest and rapid growth.  That is the pattern we are to follow – stillness, expanding inner awareness and growth.  

We have to do our part.  We have to do the work. 

What kind of work do we do to prepare for growth?

In nature gardeners help plants grow by cleaning away other plants that are crowding them.

As a person, are you overworked with non-nourishing companions? Are you someone who does not believe in yourself, have a weak spiritual practice, and do not take care of your body? All of those need correcting.

Nature works in cycles of unfolding and we must learn to be both aware and patient. What are the signals, the nudges we are getting and are we paying attention to them?

Be aware of the cycles of the universe regarding rest and action and allow space for the power of life to unfold. 

Take Time To Reflect

How are you doing? Are you going in the direction you want?  Are you accomplishing what you intended? What new doors are opening for you?

Choose a time for monthly reflection. You might pick the time of a New Moon as the beginning of a new cycle.  Perhaps set new goals, or change directions, or make a simple course correction.  You might find a time at the end of each day to look back over your day and the small gifts and nudges you received and offer gratitude. When will you  

take time to reflect?

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Calming Breath

Your breath is an instant doorway to calming yourself down and refocusing with clarity. When you find yourself in a stressful situation take a deep breath and then another.  And another  – until you feel centered.

When you find yourself unable to make a decision pause and begin to breathe slowly and deeply until you feel centered again and can make a clear decision.

The breath is a simple and powerful tool that you can use anytime anywhere in any circumstance. Begin to use your breath for centering and moving forward. 

===OUTER  WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

Do Something Thoughtful For Another Today 

As an old person on a walker, the idea of doing something thoughtful for someone today is an interesting opportunity. It can be as simple as a compliment or a suggestion that helps to solve a problem or simply engaging in a warm smile and exchange. I have had interesting conversations around the Qigong book “Head-To- Toe Healing”  by Master Chunyi Lin as I share an acupressure point treatment for a lot of physical problems. I have had a conversation with a 17-year-old nurse’s assistant about her future career and as I engage more deeply into conversation, my circle of friends is growing.  

Doing something thoughtful for another person takes many forms. It could be that you open the door professionally for someone. It could be as simple as encouragement or a compliment to let someone know they are doing a good job. Become aware of how what you do and say impacts others and perform a thoughtful act of kindness for someone today. 

When Was The Last Time You Laughed Out Loud?

I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud. That’s a pretty sad state of affairs. I do know that my entire experience of positive exchange with others has increased tremendously since I moved as in going from 0 to 100 by simply moving across the street. My heart has opened and my spirits have lifted. How about you? What is currently lifting your spirits?

Begin by noticing the things that make you smile inside. What warms your heart? Where can you find more situations like that? Put on your happy face and go exploring. 

How Is Your Relationship with Your Parents?

My mother was my Girl Scout Leader and she passed me on my horsemanship badge.  I had read Margaret Campbell Self’s Encyclopedia of Horses three times.  I knew my stuff.  The gift she gave me was to listen and let me share with her my love of horses and all I knew. She listened and gave me room to share.

She saw to it that I got one year at Hollins in Virginia where I got to meet other smart girls from all over the country. My father was a shy man and a steady conscientious provider. 

What memories do you have of your parents loving you and helping you grow up?

Parents are people who have a calling of their own to answer.   I answered my own calling when my girls were raised and my two boys were in high school by having them go live with their remarried father after I had raised  them alone for three years.  I went to New York City and began my calling as a holistic healer. Thee years after I got to New York I stepped in to raise my granddaughter.  I was in my 50s living alone in New York City. Give some thought to your parents as people living their lives rather than just as your parents.  Like you, they had their own calling and relationships and mere humanness to manage and they did the best they could.

If you are still angry with a parent, try to heal that wound by having a conversation and try to see what was going on in their lives at that time.

What is your relationship with your parents and have you thanked them recently for choosing to bring you into the world?  

Alone Time

What is the quality of your alone time? Do you collapse with fatigue or move into nurturing meditation? Do you spend time worrying or simply living your best life?

Notice the choice you make and move toward nurturing, healing, alone time.

Lay Down Your Burdens

When life gets too tough, pause and go within to that place of serene security and inner wisdom and turn your problems over to the Universe.

Trust what you find there. Trust the reassurance. Trust the wisdom. Trust the answers.

In shaman journeying we use our imagination to go to our Sacred Garden.  In every object and image there is a message meant only for you to interpret. Ask for help.  Ask for guidance and interpret whatever images show up. I have three or four guides that show up regularly. Here are two of my podcasts 

Foundation For The Journey Within – Create Your Sacred Garden and Unleash the power of your Sacred Garden 

If your burden seems heavy, ask for help in carrying it. 

One of my favorite recorded journeys is The Backpack Journey in which you truly are asked to lay down your burdens.

Go within and ask for guidance and trust the answers that you are given. 

You are not alone in your journey. Your inner wisdom is there to guide you. Ask for help to lay down your burden and be aware of how much assistance shows up – and in what form.

What am I curious about?

What Do You Want To Learn This Coming Year?

I love to learn but I am full up with Qigong and flute classes and drum  classes and I have no idea what new paths of learning will come to me this coming year. 

I look at learning as a form of exploring. I love attending the free summits that are offered by The Shift Network and others. I learned about Shamanism that way and more about Qigong that way. Also that is how I found my teachers.

But I honestly don’t know what I want to learn in 2023. It may be more in the form of what I learned from interaction with the loving staff here than any class. I know that relationships are going to expand my awareness of the depth of the capacity in others. 

When something resonates go explore it. Find out enough about it to know if it’s something you want to do. Be prepared for surprises. Something may show up that never crossed your mind before. Then go do it. Learn it. Take a class or two. And see what resonates with you.

Notice what classes your friends are taking, what they are studying, where are they are learning it and do some exploring and see if something calls to you. I’m not through learning by a long shot but I just don’t know what I want to learn next. It will show up and I will recognize it. And maybe my next lesson is not in the form of a class but in the form of an ongoing interaction with another person. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for that one. 

What do you want to learn in the coming year? Do that.

Reorganize For The New Year

I had a hard time finding things on my desktop because I was putting them by year not by category. And then I never knew what year something happened and so I can never find it. My awareness of this less-than-stellar filing system started when I was looking for some poems I had written but they were kind of all over the place. The end of the year is a really good time to rethink the organization of your life including your desktop. My suggestion is to keep things by category and leave the dates out of it in case that’s your tendency to do. I have a group of poems I identify by where I was when I wrote them – like New York City. I do have the newsletters in one folder. I do have all the emails to my friends in one folder but each friend has his/her own document. I do have my journeys and journaling in one folder. See how this works. Perhaps you take time to go over your organizational systems in whatever part seems to be the most frustrating to you and keep the reorganization simple.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

Center and Adjust

My spiritual practice has changed recently for two reasons – my arthritic fingers and the fact that I have a suite-mate. My fingers now bend to the side so when closing a flute hole, my finger doesn’t cover it completely so it is not in tune. If I were playing better, I would not mind the open door to the hall.  I still drum and sing but softly because of the other person in the room, and it is my intimate spiritual practice. I have a very quiet and private spiritual practice now that I am not living alone.

I do meditate each morning and could do it longer but it gets pretty busy rather fast around here. And I want to get better at my Qigong practice. 

What kind of changes do  you want to make to your meditation practice in the coming year?

===DEEPER SONG DISCOVERIES===

Insights and Resources to Explore

Listening

 “Anyone can listen. All you have to do is stop talking. But to be a good listener, you have to stop talking and be interested.

Genuine curiosity is the precursor to understanding, and a good listener helps the other person feel understood.”

James Clear

===GUIDANCE FROM OUR COSMIC COUNSELORS ===

Listen Beyond the Voice Within 

My Journey to The Cosmic Counselors: Please give us guidance for the New Year.

I go to my Sacred Garden and to the meadow which is surrounded by large trees. Wee folk dance and sing and are joined by a lot of squirrels who seem to be my frequent guides.

The message I got is of one great industry and anticipation and moving forward to get a great deal done. I see a beautiful golden path laid out before me. I know it is the work I am already going to do here at Evergreen. In the center of the large green is a rock altar around which are the Cosmic Counselors and a majority of my guides holding hands and singing a song to the well-being of the planet. Get the job done. I turn and the path opens before me. It is beckoning me to my particular role in the unfolding of the coming year. I skip along the path. 90-year-old me on my walker skips down the path. I am joyously exploring new possibilities and a rich and deep and wide path is opening before me. I have a great deal to learn, and a great deal to share. I am a translator and explorer and an adventurer. There are shape-shifting clouds in the sky and I see several interesting scenarios play out that are part of our potential upcoming year. The message is for us to stay open and be inquisitive.

End of journey.

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations 

Passive Income

Passive income is money that comes in when you are doing something else like sleeping.  It is a product on your web site that appeals to your target audience that you charge for.  I don’t have one on my web site because income will mess with my social security. But give some thought to what you might offer. People sell recordings of a course they gave.   It might be a series of podcasts with a specific result that you sell. It could be your artwork applied to a bag or sweatshirt. Become aware of the many forms of passive income and see how you can create some of your own. 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Support and Encouragement for our Unfolding Role in the Future

Goodbye 2022

Has it been a good year? What did you learn? How did you change? What new pathways opened for you?  How did your place of service change?  What skills did you acquire? Or sharpen?

I feel like I was blasted out of a cannon of isolation and increasing depression. Those insidiously creep up on you and are hard to recognize because of their stealth. 

My new path has begun to unfold in the last two months of this year and it has propelled me into a whole new future. Sometimes change happens slowly and sometimes it just shows up and bops you on the head. 

I have no idea how to learn to recognize diminished capacity because it is often slow and subtle and insidious. Sometimes it’s only one change that is a trigger that lets you know how stuck you really were. 

In my new environment, I watch new ideas appear, new opportunities to serve unfold and new friends with whom to deepen my relationship.

How did you change this past year? What did you release this past year? What did you learn this past year? What new paths are you considering? 

Be aware of your many choices as the new year unfolds before you.

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

Does Your Path Have a Heart?

Listen to my
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the
Deeper Song Website

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

What Are Your New Year Visions?

What do you envision for 2023? Not a resolution but a vision.  What do you want to create? What do you want to experience?

I want a positive outcome for the two hip replacements I will have this year. I want to expand my contribution to the Evergreen Community and deepen my friendships.  And I’d like to be surprised. 

What are your hopes had dreams for the coming year?

===CARA’S CORNER===

Expectations

We should periodically do a reality check on what we believe we deserve and what we believe is possible. This week I asked my physical therapist if I would ever get off the walker even with hip surgery and she said I shouldn’t count on that. I didn’t know that. But now I can make my plans around that. It means I must learn to walk further and stand up straighter. And walk the halls to practice. 

That knowledge helps me keep a realistic expectation of what hip replacement surgery will make possible. And I can always be the exception.

What kind of goals do you set for yourself? What do expect can happen?

Walking the halls is an interesting goal. There’s a fish tank in one hall, a turtle in the community room and a bird down my hall. Not exactly exciting goals but they are measurable.

I want to establish and anchor my Qigong practice in my life. I could meditate more, I am getting braver about playing my flute when I know it can be heard down the hall. I still sing my morning chants but softly because I have a suite-mate. I have begun to play new rhythms on my big drum in my meditation and that is inviting new songs 

Make room for yourself. Make room to expand. Make room to grow. 

Make room to explore.

Raise your expectations for the coming year.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Expectations

I want to expect enough of myself but not too much that I can’t achieve it.

I want to expect enough of myself but not too much that I can’t achieve it. I want to challenge myself to try harder and reach higher and achieve more.

I want to expect enough of myself but not too much that I can’t achieve it. I want to challenge myself to try harder and reach higher and achieve more. I raise my sights and move into a new year.

– Cara Lumen, December, 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take.  Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song  

I help adventurers who are ready to explore the new possibilities in the emerging energy of the Divine Feminine to align their dreams and choices with what is emerging as possible today so that they go beyond their own expectations.

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How Has Your Path Widened With Opportunity?

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
 The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

You know the saying “When one door shuts another one opens.” So how has your path widened with opportunity lately and have you even noticed?

Slowly and gradually give yourself more space to move in and you may also discover all sorts of interesting off shoots that invite you to go exploring. You always have a choice. But first you have to notice what changes have presented themselves and what you want to do about them.

I’m a writer and I have dry macular degeneration which means I am gradually losing my eyesight. There is no known cure.  I’m working on it metaphysically but I also know I have to work on my own belief system of what is possible and what I deserve.

There is a reason that I have been given this opportunity (I’m not going to call it a challenge) because I have some serious work to do and my calling is to share what I learn with you. And I have begun to find ways to adjust to this new opportunity.   

When we hit a bump in the road one of the first things we ask is “why me?” And if you think about it you will ask “What is my lesson here?” 

If I were to make a guess about my own situation it would be that this is a really strong challenge that I must move through and share my process with you in order to encourage you, perhaps give you ideas for your own solutions, and maybe even alleviate some fear as I hopefully and successfully move through this process.

So my first largest lesson is to trust that I have the strength to work through it. I know I do. I’m a very creative person and I will find creative new ways to work around or with this “opportunity” as I choose to call it.

Because so many people have written me in response to my series of shares on downsizing and moving into long-term care facilities, I know that sharing this process around my eyes will offer some solutions and encouragement to others. 

What new opportunities presented themselves to you in the form of what could be viewed as a challenge? And how do you plan to move through it? How has your path widened with opportunity? Where is it leading you?

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I look closely at the doors that open and the opportunities that unfold before me. I go exploring.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

• Sit down and make a list of the opportunities that have presented themselves in the past year.  
• Choose one or two that really resonate and go exploring. 

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Follow The Nudges

I was never much of a dreamer. My opportunities seemed to open up spontaneously as I enthusiastically and perhaps impulsively took a lot of different classes in   New York City.That impulsive, in-the- moment pattern has continued most of my life with seemingly impulsive but on-target choices.

I’m not as much of a dreamer as I am an impulsive responder. And I think I’m an easy mark because I love to learn. 

So I’ve really never had a grand plan or an unfulfilled dream. I resonate strongly in the moment of choice and follow my inner calling. I guess that makes me more of an adventurer than a planner.  

I never had a dream. And I’ve been handed a great many positive things in my life. College was simply an expectation. For that matter, so was getting married and having children. But then I hit the 80s as a single woman in New York City and began adventuring. That’s when I became a metaphysician.

And even now I trust my life to simply unfold. I follow my nudges and hunches and go adventuring. 

Do I have a dream or a plan? Not at 90 I don’t but I do recognize the path is opening and I have a strong calling to follow it. And I didn’t expect that to happen at my age. But here I go exploring – again. 

What Do Pagans Believe In?

“Pagans believe that nature is sacred and that the natural cycles of birth, growth and death observed in the world around us carry profoundly spiritual meanings. Human beings are seen as part of nature, along with other animals, trees, stones, plants and everything else that is of this earth.”

I am a pagan.

“Pagans have been broadly defined as anyone involved in any religious act, practice, or ceremony which is not Christian. Jews and Muslims also use the term to refer to anyone outside their religion.”

That still makes me a pagan, a follower of nature and a caretaker of our planet.

Are you a pagan?

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Set Up Protection

I now live in a long-term care facility. That means there is a lot of unbalanced energy coming from the residents. I set up protection around me and strengthen it even day. Each morning, I clear out any negative energy that was released during the night through my dreams and sleep. I set up a transformative sphere that keeps negative energy out and transforms my own energy to keep them positive.

I can use the Transformative Sphere in any situation – from being alone to being in a group of people. The Transformative Sphere is there in an instant to transform any negative thoughts or energy you come across.

Offer gratitude for the protection and proceed along your path.

Be aware of the times you need protection. You can put it up in a second.

===OUTER  WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

What Do You Need To Release?

The Winter Solstice December 21 was the beginning of a time of release that extends to March 21st. This is a time of release, to let go of the old self, and to prepare for new beginnings—the new growth of spring.

What beliefs do you need to examine and which ones do you need to release?

Since I’m no longer living alone and now have this great group of support people around me, I need to  change my beliefs and intentions around how I want to participate in the world now. This is a perfect time to let go of the old and to bring in the new.

What do you want to bring into your life? What choices and habits do you need to change for that to happen?

I need to be less anti-social. I have recently begun to sit in my wheelchair in my doorway and speak to anyone who goes by. It makes me feel a tad social and helps me to know who is here too. 

What do you need to question? What do you need to release? Do that.

What Is Missing From Your Life And What Steps Will You Take To Correct It?

Sometimes you don’t know you’re missing something in your life until it shows up again. I thought I had an abundance of friends with whom I talked on Zoom on a regular basis until I moved and suddenly had a great deal of in-person interaction with vibrant younger people in deep service on the staff here. It was this dramatic change that made me realize what I had been missing in my life. It has brought out a different aspect of me that I haven’t shown for quite a while, as in I’m kind of wise-cracking funny sometimes.

Fixing something is not as hard as figuring out what is missing in the first place because things just gradually disappear or are replaced in your life and you don’t notice they’re gone.

I had several things I should leave out – like watching too many reruns of Diagnosis Murder and Murder She Wrote and playing Spider Solitaire. I have not done any of those in my eight weeks over here. And I’ve been a lot more productive online writing on my computer. And I’ve had more in-person conversations than I’ve had in the past 13 years.

I think the hard part is that whatever is left gradually changes and you’ve made subtle adjustments all the time as it just snuck away. If something left abruptly, you would probably notice it. 

I can truthfully say that physical activity was pretty much missing from my previous life but now that I have access to the recumbent bike in physical therapy. That’s a three day a week bit of exercise that I get to do. And I’m counting sitting in my wheelchair Pearl and exercising my legs to rock back and forth but I want to increase my daily practice – by quite a bit. I am the only guy that can make that happen.

You get busy and don’t take time to see your friends. Or you make a new friend and leave some of your old friends behind because you don’t have time for all of it.

Life is like a river flowing. It moves around and over but progress is up to you because you always have choice in your life and the things that are important to you. Do that.

What is missing from your life and what steps will you take to correct it?

How Do You Offer Comfort?

I actually have no business writing this because I don’t think I’m particularly good at offering comfort to anyone. I walked this world alone for far too much to know how to accept comfort let alone give it. That’s because I know that my response to my feelings are totally up to me. So I guess my version of comfort would be to help people find their own inner strength to keep going. Not to say “I’m sorry” but more to say “How can I help you regain your balance?”

That’s an interesting idea actually because people are given a problem and are looking to regain their balance so they can continue on with their life. What steps would I take to help someone regain their balance? 

I don’t have a clue. Because on one hand the person has to have time to grieve what she’s gone through. To help someone in grief is to help them regain their balance and tread a new path without whatever has gone away. So I suggest that in a very gentle fashion you help someone look to the path ahead and make some choices around how they want to continue.

I haven’t been in that situation many times in my life. How would you like to the comforted?  Do that for someone else.

Mindful Eating

I don’t eat mindfully but I wish I would. There was a scene in The Wedding Planner where Jennifer Lopez who obviously lived alone, very mindfully brought her TV tray to the couch, and carefully laid her napkin in her lap and set about to eat alone. She was a wedding planner making people happy but she was also taking care of herself even in her aloneness. She was treating herself with love and dignity.

On the other hand, I continue to watch the alarming and depressing news as I eat. I have a better choice and I need to make it. I will turn and look out of my very large windows to see what changes I can observe in nature I can see. That’s pretty simple – actually turn my view in a new direction. Will you join me? 

The People We Serve

I recently had the most fascinating conversation with a nurse from the agency who works for the jail in Jackson County, Missouri which is a tough neighborhood in Kansas City. She has worked there for five years and is the most no-nonsense woman I have met in my life. She is young and seasoned and likes working there because the doctors give her a fair amount of autonomy.

It was interesting to hear her talk about people repeating their offenses simply because they were mean. That’s an interesting take on it.  I don’t know anyone who is mean and I’m glad I don’t. I guess the opposite of mean is kind. I started to write that I’m too self-focused to turn and be kind but I have certainly been open to meaningful conversations with many of the staff here and in filling my own openers and curiosity I am undoubtedly filling a need of theirs.

Are you aware of how you serve others? It may be as simple as your presence with your upbeat view of life and your motivating work ethic. Know that your mere presence has an effect on others. Be a light in the world.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

Winter Solstice

The Winter Solstice is a major turning point. The explanation I needed to hear and pass along was in Nick Polizzi’s newsletter. (Founder of The Sacred Science)

“Ancient cultures like the Egyptians, the Maori, the Maya, the Celts, the Druids, the Inca and so many others – all celebrated Solstice. 

In the Chinese Taoist tradition, winter solstice is considered the most yin (dark / feminine / damp) day of the calendar. Energy comes to a momentary point of pause, before it gives birth to yang (light / masculine / heat).

Yin and yang form the basis of Chinese medicine and according to this school of wisdom, one cannot exist without the other. These two seemingly opposite forces are intimately connected and complementary.”

Winter Solstice is a time of deep change. What do you want to create in the coming year? How are you looking to expand your place of service in the unfolding new year? What changes will you make at this energetic point in time?

My current path is new and unfolding. The person who gave me a shower today is James and he came over from Africa at the age of 18. He likes to listen to African music and I showed him my Kalimba (thumb piano) and Djembe (drum) and made a new friend.

My path widens. And deepens.

===DEEPER SONG DISCOVERIES===

Insights and Resources to Explore

The Top 10 Guided Meditations of 2022 from Mindful Magazine

===GUIDANCE FROM OUR COSMIC COUNSELORS ===

Listen Beyond the Voice Within 

How Can We Deepen Our Place of Service?

My Journey to The Cosmic Counselors:

I find myself in the misty circle in the center of the forest. I stand in a circle of light workers.  We are there to be placed in service. There is a humming noise. It is the sound of the gentle flapping of the wings of a lot of butterflies. They fly around us. We understand that we are to take flight and go beyond the familiar to seek our place of service. We are to climb the nearby mountain and view the entire valley. We are to contemplate on our choices and select one or two to explore to see where we most resonate and how we might serve. We make our decision based on what we observe, what we feel, and what our inner guidance tells us.

It may be an entirely new place of service or it may be a deeper expression of what you were doing now. Explore the possibilities before you make your choice. We, as butterflies in service, understand and fly off to find our next adventure.

I find myself back in my Sacred Garden. The Directors sit by my side. “What did you discover,” he asks. “That I have found my next place of service – the staff here at Evergreen. And that form is unfolding. I am to follow my inner guidance and go exploring to find the most impactful place and way that I can serve.” My journey ends. 

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEARERS===

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Participate

We had a Christmas party for the residents here. Many people had a staff member bring them. Maggie brought me. I met more staff – the manager of the website to whom I immediately offered to write a couple of articles and the CEO who asked if his daughter, who is into crystals, could come visit me. I guess I’m getting known for my different ways. 

My lessons are two-fold.  Do you own thing and reach out in service where you feel called.

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Support and Encouragement for our Unfolding Role in the Future

In Honor of Winter

In the depth of winter, 
I finally learned 
that within me there lay 
an invincible summer.

― Albert Camus

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

The Backpack Journey

Listen to my
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the
Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

My New Helper

My newest helper is a wheelchair. She is sleek and black and tells me her name is Pearl. She was measured to fit me and she has a bag on the back to carry the foot holders. And she is going to be a great new place for me to sit during the day. She’s very comfortable. And she will take me on adventures too. I mentioned to a nurse named Stephanie that I wanted to have some flowers for her and she said “We have lots of flowers around, let me go look for some.”  She soon came back with a perfect purple fake flower and promptly put it on the front of Pearl’s arm.  It is a jaunty effect. 

So now I have another friend and helper to get me where I need to go.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

The Helper

Help comes in all forms. We just have to learn to recognize it and accept it. 

Help comes in all forms. We just have to learn to recognize it and accept it. It may be an idea or something physical that helps us move forward.

Help comes in all forms. We just have to learn to recognize it and accept it. It may be an idea or something physical that helps us move forward. Stay open to the pathways that the Universe opens and go exploring.

-Cara Lumen, December 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take.  Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song  

I help adventurers who are ready to explore the new possibilities in the emerging energy of the Divine Feminine to align their dreams and choices with what is emerging as possible today so that they go beyond their own expectations.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and suggest they
Join the Deeper Song Community

Past Issues of this newsletter are being curated on my site on a page called Insights.

Our Global Deeper Song Community

Our Deeper Song Community extends throughout the planet. Welcome new Deeper Song Explorers. I’d love to hear of your experiences –  caralumen@gmail.com or let’s discuss on the Deeper Song Explorers!

Subscribe to this weekly Deeper Song Newsletter at www.deepersong.com

My Books

Do You Have Moral Clarity?

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

The reporter was talking about how in the January 6 committee, the women were the ones who stepped in to report the misdeeds. The consensus was that women had a greater sense of moral clarity than the men did. I stopped to consider what it looked like and felt like to have moral clarity.

Moral clarity is about knowing right from wrong. We each have our own moral values. Where do they come from? How do they evolve within us?

I am watching many Republican politicians say one thing on a personal level and expressing an entirely different opinion to the news. They totally defy what is showing up as truth. 

What makes some people recognize and talk about a moral truth and others brush over it in denial? A lot of it in the US seems to be political ambition.

And so it is the women who have reported on the gross immorality that had taken place in the United States government under Trump.

Morality is about knowing right from wrong. The problem with the US situation is that those male politicians who know the difference between right and wrong are consciously choosing only what will forward their own political ambitions. And this is causing a crisis in the United States politician because Republicans seem unwilling to acknowledge the truth.

Too many people in the States are overlooking our truth or history. Others are trying to eradicate that truth from schools and laws and books in an effort to what? Eradicate history in this country by not telling how immoral the white population in particular was. 

How do you gain moral clarity? You look for your answers in a variety of resources. Learn about a topic from a variety of resources. Get clear about your own moral code. Be clear about what you believe and make certain that it is founded in truth.

When women stepped forward for the January 6th Committee, they had great moral clarity about what was right and what was wrong and their testimony blew the lid off the January 6th Committee reporting.

Be very clear about what is right and what is wrong. Develop your own strong sense of moral clarity and live by it.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I will work hard to stay on the right side of moral clarity 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

• Look closely at what you see as right and wrong and make sure it is based on truth.
• Keep strengthening your moral sense of what is right and wrong.
• Live by those standards.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Path Corrections at the Winter Solstice

December 21st is Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the beginning of a new season. It is a good time to make corrections to your path.

First see how your path has changed. With hip replacement surgery scheduled, my goals have changed – walking better is now at the top of the list.

Notice what new doors have opened and which ones you wish to walk through. There is a whole new group of healers to work with in some form that is gradually revealing itself. I have to go exploring to find what path suits me the best right now.

What has changed and what new opportunities are opening up new possibilities? Examine your choices to male certain they are still rewarding and fulfilling ones. 

Keep exploring!

Give Yourself Permission To Follow Your Heart 

Sometimes we get so caught up in our worldly existence that we forget to follow our heart. Have you stopped recently to talk to your heart? To know what it wants for you next and know how that feels? Do you know what it’s telling you to do?

Perhaps write it down on a blank sheet of paper and begin to prioritize by simply listing your passions. Then look over the list and begin to prioritize them. What did you discover? How do you need to rearrange your time? What new choices do you need to make?

It helped me to identify a large umbrella that holds a lot of my activity. It’s been tricky to identify because I love to write, I like the mental stimulation. It is all of those things. And probably more.

I have a dry macular degeneration and am gradually working with diminished eyesight. So I really have to understand what lies beneath this need and desire to write to see how I can continue to address it even if the form has to change. 

What does your heart want? What does your heart need? And what new forms can you find to express that in?

Put aside the world you have created and sit with your heart. Make certain that you listen to it. Make certain that you express your heart in all that you do. How will that change what you have in your life right now? Give yourself permission to follow your heart and do some rearranging of your life choices. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Being In Nature Is Healing

I haven’t been outside very much in the last two years so it was really great when Nathan, one of my care partners, put me in my wheelchair and wheeled me out into the garden that is actually right outside my window. There is a koi pond and Master Gardeners take care of the garden. I told Nathan that anytime he had free time, I would go outside. I mentioned that to Stephanie, a nurse’s aide and the next day she came and took me out too! I got here with two types of philodendron but maybe this next summer I can get a red leaf coleus for summer and bring it inside in the fall. Do you have enough nature in your life? Go buy a plant and talk to it…

===OUTER WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

On Being Resourceful

Imaginative, intuitive, creative, bright – being resourceful is all of those things. It means thinking outside the box. It means looking around corners, it means exploring new paths. Sometimes it means taking chances. Go explore the unexpected or the unusual. It is that moment when you draw on your inner wisdom, your practical experience and your free-wheeling imagination with a deep knowing and a healthy amount of trust in order to make a decision and try something new or different or unexpected. 

How often do you do that? Are you an adventurous type who goes exploring at every opportunity? This is not about bravery, it’s more about having fun and trusting your instincts and insights.

Notice when you respond from your inner wisdom and learn to trust it as a wise guide and creative innovator.

Being resourceful is about using what you have at hand to move yourself forward in a unique and unexpected way. Do more of that and see how your life changes. 

Choosing A Life Of Service

Service takes many forms. It can mean helping people who are helpless and it can mean helping people who are strong. It’s your choice, your place of service.

In the 80s when I became a Reiki master teacher we stood in a circle and were asked to share how we would use Reiki in the world. The person before me said, “I’m going to teach all the poor people.” I knew then what I was to do. I said, “I am going to help people who are already flying to fly higher,” And so I have. 

Choose your place of service – helping people reach their own potential, helping people overcome a setback, helping the environment or a cause. Go exploring to see what calls to you and then do the work.

On-Going Learning

Over the past seven years, I have depended heavily on The Shift Network for the on-going education that I wish to receive. Beside their paid classes, they have free summits on all sorts of topics that allow you to explore a topic and make informed choices. I have extensively studied Shamanism and Qigong. I have studied the Native American Flute and the drum and sound healing. As I understand the topics better, I found other teachers I wanted to study with.

Sounds True is another resource for interesting classes and books. I need to remember to explore TED Talks more regularly because there is great information there. They give away a lot of free information in order to draw you into their work. Go exploring more to find new topics to explore. 

My problem is that I don’t know what I want to learn next. I looked into sound healing but it’s not a deep calling for me although I have some tuning folks and use sound in my spiritual practice. 

What topic do you want to explore next? What do you want to learn next? Do some research and find some free introductory classes to take you more deeply into a topic so that you know what you want to commit to learn next. 

I love to learn. I hope I never stop. Right now, I don’t know what I want to learnnext so I guess I’ll just wait until something knocks on my door and calls out to me. Keep exploring, there are great learning opportunities out there. Get on Google and find them. 

Be Present At Work

I become so absorbed in writing that I disappear into my work. It is rewarding, exciting, stimulating and satisfying. I totally lose myself in the process of creating and capturing and responding to an idea I want to explore. 

How do you feel when you are at work? Are you fully present? Are you having a good time? Do you leave your work with a feeling of accomplishment? Do you leave with a feeling of satisfaction at work well done? 

Perhaps pause before you leave your place of employment to offer gratitude for being able to do work that is rewarding and satisfying and provides a good quality of life for you and your family. 

If you can do none of those things, you deserve to find yourself new employment. 

First list your passions – those that interest you and have called to you throughout your life. What kind of profession allows you to work with those passions? I have volunteered to write newsletters for assorted organizations for free because I love to organize ideas into written form. I have written radio content. I have written television commercials. I have written poetry and books and podcasts and newsletters. Writing is at the core of the majority of my jobs. But I’m also a really good organizer so sometimes I have had jobs that call upon that skill more than any other. 

Identify the skills they give you the most pleasure. Identify the skills that are the most marketable. And keep an eye on your overarching passion as you find the perfect place of employment. 

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEARERS===

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Shared Vison

I’m working on my vision for the world and I’m having a hard time because there sure are a lot of places that need help. 

I think my vision should start with the planet or we won’t have a place to live. One solution would include eliminating all the fossil fuels and using the many remaining replacements that have already appeared. In my vision I will raise the consciousness of everyone to individually take mindful steps to care for our planet by way of the products we use, what we recycle, how we care for the earth around us. So raising our collective consciousness about preserving the planet would be high on my list.

Then we have the people who hate other people. The vicious eruption of hatred in the US is my first thought because that’s where I live. But there is hatred and suppression going on in way too many places in the world. I don’t understand evil or purposefully doing harm to another so I think my vision will include an opening of hearts and a sense of a peaceful world community. That’s a big one. And it’s going take some doing even to imagine that. But it is our imagination and visioning that are the core creator of the creative process to make change happen. 

So part of my process needs to be actual visioning. I have to visualize a peaceful, whole, healed, vibrant planet. I have to envision people coexisting peacefully. I have to envision those people mindfully caring for the planet and for the animals on the planet and for each other. And somehow I have to envision everyone caring about the well-being of everyone else. 

If our imagination is one of the ways we create change, what kind of world are you imagining? 

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations 

Nothing Happens Without A Purpose

We may not like this, but nothing happens without a purpose. It is a lesson, a door opening, an opportunity knocking, but whatever it is, it is something we need to examine and consider and explore and learn from.

And sometimes if we don’t get the lesson, the lessons just keep coming back at us. It’s taken me three years of semi-isolation that included two years of gradually increasing physical impairment to get that I needed to move into long-term care. That was a long lesson. When I got here, it took me about a day to figure out that my new friends were among the staff and they were younger people who were joyously and deeply in service and it turned my life around. So some lessons take a while but others can be pretty instantaneous. 

I think pretty much everything is a lesson. A casual encounter with someone who inspires you and motivates you to take a next step. A meaningful relationship that shows you how to be steady and compassionate and caring. A failed project is a wonderful lesson. It frees you up to open new doors and have new experiences. 

I had to get pummeled before I made the decision to make this move. But that was because I didn’t get the message sooner even as my physical condition began to change.

My previous major cross-country moves were all done quite impulsively and the decisions were made in a matter of minutes if not seconds. The need for this move across the street has been beating me on the head for over a year. 

Nothing happens without a purpose, we just have to get the message. What message has been trying to get to you?

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

Journey to the Sacred Feminine

Listen to my 
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the 
Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

What Are Your Expectations For Aging?

Granted this is long-term care but in talking to the staff, they can only identify one other resident that is looking for mental stimulation. I will try to meet him. Why do we give up our minds as we age?

One of the reasons I got so isolated over a year or two was there was no one interesting to talk to. It was a senior community and I was the only person being active in worldly things. I had one good in-person friend who was the social worker but the rest of my friends were all online and we still meet regularly on Zoom. Therefore I had only one person to have an in-person informative conversation with, so I unknowingly and gradually became quite isolated.

So why are all these old people sitting around being old? What happened that they gave up their personhood in order to just be old? 

Is that an expectation we hold for ourselves? Is it our expectation we hold for others? Is the way of old people to sit around and just be old? Uninterested in much? Never learning anything new? 

Now I admit that I am behind on some technical things because I don’t have occasion to use them. And now I have this eyesight thing that makes it all a bit tricky. Do we get behind because we stop exploring or stop pushing ourselves a bit? Probably. I think aging is like any other point in our life, we have to keep pushing ourselves and stretching ourselves and exploring and trying new things. 

I’m one of five people in this whole community that will keep up their maintenance physical therapy. Five people out of 30 on this wing. I watch my suite-mate sit in her wheelchair all day and make no effort to restore her strength as she watches reruns of 50-year-old game shows and western shows. She refuses to go to physical therapy, she allows herself to be lifted in and out of bed. She’s quite a bit younger than I am. 

We have to do the work. We have to do our version of whatever it takes to keep moving, to keep our brains agile, to maintain our relevance in the world. 

I maintain my feeling of relevance by writing this newsletter. I write it because it helps me learn what I need to learn next and it opens my heart to share it with you. I don’t exactly see myself taking any more online classes because the money is no longer there but I sure will find other ways to learn.

What are your expectations for aging? Are you raising the bar high enough? 

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

On Raising The Bar

I have to set my own goals. I have to raise my own bar. I am the one in charge of my destiny. 

I have to set my own goals. I have to raise my own bar. I am the one in charge of my destiny. Do I expect enough of myself? Do I continue to challenge myself? Do I continue to expect the best for myself? 

I have to set my own goals. I have to raise my own bar. I am the one in charge of my destiny. Do I expect enough of myself? Do I continue to challenge myself? Do I continue to expect the best for myself? I am the only one who can do that for me, I must do the work.

Cara Lumen, December 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take. Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,
Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song 

I help adventurers who are ready to explore the new possibilities in the emerging energy of the Divine Feminine to align their dreams and choices with what is emerging as possible today so that they go beyond their own expectations.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and suggest they
Join the Deeper Song Community

Past Issues of this newsletter are being curated on my site on a page called Insights.

Our Global Deeper Song Community

Our Deeper Song Community extends throughout the planet. Welcome new Deeper Song Explorers. I’d love to hear of your experiences – caralumen@gmail.com or let’s discuss on the Deeper Song Explorers!

Subscribe to this weekly Deeper Song Newsletter at www.deepersong.com

My Books

Pay Attention To The Signs

Living Our Deeper Song

Pay Attention To The Signs

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
 The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

We are guided by the universe in many different ways. Sometimes it is a circumstance. Sometimes it is an interaction with others, sometimes it is simply a deep knowing.  

We must learn to communicate with the universe, the unseen world, and we must learn to interpret the guidance we receive, even the most subtle messages.

Notice the processes you go through to make a change. The questioning, the doubt, the worry, trying different versions on for size. Each time you may use a different path of discovery to uncover the subtle messages.

Some signs are silent, like the gradual changing of the colors of fall. Some changes are rampant like thunderstorms rapidly darkening the sky and a sudden downpour filling the creeks to overflowing. Change is always present. We can use it to move forward in the direction of our choosing.

I made a list of the changes I want to make in the coming year. In my case it centers around two hip replacements and the recovered ability to walk more easily. 

But there are other areas of growth that I want to explore and expand. And I’m going to let those unfold as I live my life.

I’m in a new environment and I get to watch how I respond and what changes I am prompted to make. I must be observant and aware and make my choices conscious and forward thinking. 

And of course, there will be surprises, opportunities for new friends, new insights, new online learning adventures to expand my awareness and my potential. Can you sense and see the steady stream of offerings from the universe and consider each one of them fully? Make a choice, add it to your life and then keep looking for the changes that manifest. Pay attention to the signs the universe gives you as your path widens with opportunity.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I am ready for change. I stay open to the signs and signals of the universe and I choose my path wisely. 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

• Listen to the signs and signals and insights that the universe gives you. Start a list of possibilities.
• Explore the potential for those possibilities and listen to your inner wisdom as you do. 
• Design a series of actions to provide you with the experience of well-being in the coming year. 

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Create A Charging Station For Yourself 

My new place of service is the remarkable and dedicated healing staff of the Evergreen Community which is now my home. I had an idea to create a charging station so that anyone who entered the room would receive the healing, balancing and supportive energy from this charging station. And they don’t even need to know it existed.  

On the dresser in my room is a Himalayan salt lamp with a wrought iron design of a forest. I decided to use the salt crystals to hold the intentions.

The Rainbow Weavers is a group of dear friends who meet monthly on Zoom and they helped me create my charging station. We took turns charging the rocks with specific intentions for every person who comes into my space.

In my case, because people come in and out all the time, we did some general space cleaning for my room, although a thorough space cleaning takes more time than we had in our Rainbow Weaver’s meeting on Zoom. It seemed important to also put positive, clearing energy on the threshold for protection and to clear the energy as people came in and out. So one of my decisions was to put a dreamcatcher on the door to my room for protection and to hold more positive energy there too.

For our meeting on Zoom, I took the salt crystals out of the lamp and we took turns entering a specific quality into one rock at a time. We choose a quality that they wanted to offer then to people who came into my room. Some of them were: inner peace, centeredness, deep understanding, clarity, confidence. You get the idea.

So now that any time someone comes into my space, they receive positive energy for their lives and for their profession.

What kind of a charging station will you make for yourself? Where will you put it? Invite a Cleaning Station into your space and notice what changes occur.

Observe And Let Go

Sometimes we have rocky days. Sometimes we worry. Sometimes we are angry. Sometimes we are scared. And sometimes we are very happy. When you have an extreme emotional response, simply observe it and let it go. Release it, particularly if it has a negative effect on you.

That’s easier said than done you say. Not if you wrap a little ceremony around it. Thank it for its input and release and send it on its way. Particularly if it is a worry or concern. Note what steps you can take to correct the worry, then release it. Then take the steps you discovered.

Dwelling on a situation or problem or concern clutters up the space you need to give it in order for it to resolve organically. And it will resolve – with or without your worry and concern. Life is in a constant pattern of change so nothing will ever stay the same.  

Observe and get the lesson. Then release it to its natural unfolding. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Give Yourself Permission

Do you need to give yourself permission? Do you need to give yourself permission to be well? Do you need to give yourself permission to be happy? Do you need to give yourself permission to be successful? 

Isn’t it interesting how we can stop ourselves from attaining a certain goal simply because we don’t believe we deserve it or believe it is possible? How much are we stopping ourselves simply by not giving ourselves permission to succeed? Look closely at what is not manifesting in your life and give yourself permission to have it. Change is really that simple. 

===OUTER  WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

CreativityAnd Imagination Are Powerful Tools- How Well Are You Using Them? 

We make stuff up. We use our imagination to create new situations, new inventions, new circumstances. We also use our imagination to create unfounded fears.  

Inventions are created by our imagination.  New possibilities are created by our imagination. And sometimes our imagination makes up things that simply are not true.

Our creativity and imagination are powerful tools for bringing things into manifestation.  We are to cultivate them and encourage them and hone them so they help us create our best lives.

We use our imagination to explore possibilities, to see how an idea fits, how it feels, and if it’s something we want to bring into our life. 

We use our creativity to figure out ways to bring elements of our imagination into being. Learn to use both your imagination and your creativity in all aspects of your life to explore, to examine, and to create. Creativity and imagination are powerful tools. Learn to use them well. And often.

The Power of Mental Stimulation 

I had more mental stimulation in my first month at Evergreen then I’ve had in the last 13 years and it has made all the difference in the world about how I feel about life. This mental simulation is coming from the staff who is deeply in service.  These are mostly people fairly early in their career path, and they are full of enthusiasm and the desire to live more deeply. And that is not the case with a majority of seniors I have lived with for 13 years. I have gradually withdrawn into my own counsel and leaned heavily on my online friends.

This dramatic change in who I have become around these younger people propelled me into a whole new level of enthusiasm and energy and participation. My sense of humor has returned. People are interested in what I’m doing and thinking. There are many warm and humorous exchanges throughout my day. some are interested in my website and some have listened to my podcasts. None of the seniors at Ridgeview had a clue what I was doing. Once again it was the younger staff who were my friends. But there were only a few of them over there.

Keep an eye out for gradual changes that sneak up on you and are destructive to your overarching expectations. I participated when I first went to independent living at Ridgeview village but then it got to the point where I had been there and done that. I am also a fan of people who are actively learning and exploring their world and my friends are all 30 years younger than I am. This new group of people I am touching base with are mostly 50-60 years younger than I am. I am interacting with and touching lives several generations ahead. That’s an interesting feeling to acknowledge your role in the future through your interaction with another person. 

I’ve had more mental stimulation in these first six weeks than I have had in the last 13 years. Keep an eye out for the subtle changes that lead to isolation and loneliness. They can sneak up on you and be quite destructive.

I’ve taken a lot of classes over the years, including recently, but this personal interaction is quite different and incredibly stimulating and rewarding. Go hang out with people who stimulate you mentally. It will make a big difference in how you experience your life. 

What Do You Want To Learn Next?

I’ve been giving some thought to what I want to learn next and I’m still at the searching stage.

I am taking my seventh Qigong class and part of my progress will come with the hip replacements when I am able to stand up better. I will have lots of physical catch-up work to do then. A lot of recovery work.

Perhaps my next step is not so much about learning as it is about doing. Putting into action all these things on which I have spent so much time and enjoyed learning.

I have to learn some new skills to compensate for the dry macular degeneration. I would really very much rather not have to do that because so much of my mental stimulation and entertainment comes from learning on my computer. I have to trust that will work out for the highest good and that there is not much for me to do right now. 

So maybe my emphasis is not so much about learning something new as about owning things I have already studied and know that I want to add to my life more deeply. 

This doesn’t mean I won’t be tempted to take another class but perhaps I will focus on deepening and applying knowledge rather than acquiring it.

So I will keep a close eye on the free summits that are on The Shift Network and other places, find a few podcasts to follow, and perhaps try my first audiobook. What do you want to learn next?

The Three Pinecones

Three small pinecones sit in a round wooden dish on my desk as my honoring of Winter Solstice, December 21st. They are the perfect size for my space and remind me of the grace, beauty and tenacity of the evergreen. I will use them as a role model for my life.

One of the staff got them because another member of the staff was aware that I needed them and my request became a line item in a meeting.  Someone knew where some pine cones from an art project were stored and brought me three.

How will you honor the Winter Solstice? What kind of small reminder can you keep around you to support you in deepening awareness of your path? 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

A Lakota Prayer

This came from Nick Polizzi
Host of Remedy: Ancient Medicine for Modern Illness
& Founder of The Sacred Science

Sometimes all that’s needed to shift our reality is a little wisdom, spoken to us with gentleness and a pure heart. I came across this powerful Lakota prayer a few days ago and wanted to share it with you. I hope it helps you on your path. I know it did for me.

Lakota Prayer

Great Mystery,
teach me how to trust
my heart,
my mind,
my intuition,
my inner knowing,
the senses of my body,
the blessings of my spirit.
Teach me to trust these things
so that I may enter my Sacred Space
and love beyond my fear,
and thus Walk in Balance
with the passing of each glorious Sun.

According to certain traditions, the Sacred Space is the space between exhalation and inhalation. To Walk in Balance is to have Heaven (spirituality) and Earth (physicality) in harmony.

At the core of this timeless wisdom is the word “trust”. When did we stop trusting ourselves? When did we start giving that trust, that power, away?

In many ways the healing path is a process of reestablishing that trust with the infinite that resides within us, just waiting to be activated.

Create Your Own Solstice Ceremony for Gratitude and Change

As with every change in season, the Winter Solstice is a time for introspection, resolution, and re-choosing in order to have new choices and make some path corrections. So whether in your hemisphere it is time for Winter Solstice or Summer Solstice, this is a good time to pause and look over where you are and rechoose where you want to go.

In your Solstice Ceremony, create some time for introspection. How are you doing? Is your life going the direction you want it to? What is standing in your way? What do you need to change? What do you need to release?

My suggestion is that you take several areas of your life that seem to be the most dominant at this moment and ask yourself these questions: How are you doing? What do you want to change? Exactly what steps do you want to take? 

How are you doing? 

Some areas of your life will immediately jump out at you as needing to be changed or modified. I have had such dramatic changes since my move that they are dramatically noticeable. What might have been on my mind six weeks ago is no longer there. So simply start where you are and look around and see what is working right now and what’s not. Go with what’s working.

What do you want to change? 

I have two areas to focus on to create change. The first one is my physical state. I am expecting a major shift when I have my first hip surgery in January followed by another one three months later. Because I have access to physical therapy here, that will make a huge difference in changing my mobility problem.  I expect that whole process to open up entire new avenues of participation for me.

The second level of change I see has to do with how I participate in the world. I’m on a roll with that one. My new focus is the kind and caring people on the staff here. Their presence and our interaction just pulled me out of a five-year period of isolation. And that is going to make a huge difference. How I see it unfolding has definitely begun.

The third opportunity is my eyesight and I just have to trust and know that I can handle this change but I’m not looking forward to it. I’m not sure exactly how I will handle it. My participation online is hugely important to me so I will keep working very hard to find ways to keep doing that.

When you identify an area for change, get creative about how to fix it. And with your belief that you can fix it, start there. Identify a noticeable place to begin, a place in which you could begin to create change that will affect the whole. It helps if that change is really noticeable right away. 

I think my plan is loosely to identify what needs changing, to clear out what is not working and then go exploring.

Sometimes things start to clear out the minute you start changing directions. As I began to get physical help, my options changed. I have physical help to do physical things that upgrade the standard of living and that releases me from the challenge of trying to do it myself. They are offering nursing skills and physical therapy that I did not have access to before. Getting outside help is one way to help yourself make change.  

I have so much work to do around my changing eyes. I have to work on my internal fear level. I have to look at my options to replace how I do my work. I have to work on both my fear level and my hope level. Some changes are easier to do than others. But change is ever-present. We have to learn to embrace  and work with it. 

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEINGS===

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Deepen A Connection

Who would you like to get to know? How will you go about doing that? 

As we fly through our busy lives, it’s a good idea to take time to notice who is around you and choose someone to get to know better, especially with people you know have similar interests. Perhaps deepen your acquaintance by asking them how they are expressing themselves around your shared interest. 

Take a conversation deeper by sharing your concerns and feelings or by asking their opinion on how they might solve a problem you have, or their opinions on a topic. Deepening an acquaintance is as simple as taking time to ask a question or two that broadens your understanding of each other and enables you to get to know each other on a deeper level. Who do you get to know better today?

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

How to DeepenYour Cosmic Consciousness

Listen to my
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the
Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

The Power of Downsizing

I learned such a huge lesson about possessions when I had to downsize so dramatically in order to move to Evergreen. I really had to get down to two core areas that are important to me – my spiritual practice and my writing and connection with the world through the computer.

This was interesting because I had to give away some major crystals. I had to give away most of my drums and other musical instruments that I had gathered to be part of my spiritual practice. I did that by gradually gathering around me the crystals I wanted to keep closest and would fit into the space that I would have. And when it was full, I had to stop. And the rest Ilet go. 

What are you hanging onto that is crowding you? Apparently, my son-in-law is holding onto all sorts of things from his parents. When you add all the crystals I gave to my daughter, their house is even fuller. I suggested what I had just learned – the idea of choosing what you really want now and let the rest go. What can you clean out today? What are you ready to release to make room for something new?

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

On Making Room

I let go. I let go of things I love in order to make room to move forward with a lighter load.

I let go. I let go of things I love in order to make room to move forward with a lighter load. I thank them, bless them and release them.

I let go. I let go of things I love in order to make room to move forward with a lighter load. I thank them, bless them and release them.

My space now holds only what supports me in moving forward. 

– Cara Lumen. December 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take.  Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song  

I help adventurers who are ready to explore the new possibilities in the emerging energy of the Divine Feminine to align their dreams and choices with what is emerging as possible today so that they go beyond their own expectations.

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 The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

I’m beginning to think about the year ahead. What do I want to learn next? 

There are some physical things I want to accomplish. I will have both hips replaced and that will certainly affect my mobility which I then need to cultivate and improve upon. I am now on restorative physical therapy and get to ride a recumbent bike three times a week and do some stretching exercises at a counter. I love it and it is making many encouraging differences. What circumstance is improving for you that will open new doorways of opportunity?

I have to get creative about working around the dry macular degeneration which is affecting my eyes. That means cultivating the use of more podcasts as a major learning tool for one. What doorway seems to be closing for you that you have to seek out new avenues of opportunity to explore?

What new in-service goals are you setting for yourself? I have this entire population of very kind supportive staff that I wish to support in return. The form that will take seems to be unfolding over time. My sense is that it will be in one-on-one interactions. Even as I write that I know it is so much more than that. I am already setting a new tone, a new expectation for myself. My role is unfolding and making itself known.

What do I want to learn? I want to keep practicing Qigong. As my body improves, I want to establish that as a thoughtfully done daily practice standing up the way it should be done. The hip surgery will make that possible. 

I’m not sure what my spiritual goals are yet but I want to both expand and deepen them. I have choosen to leave the door to the hall open during the day and there is a lot of traffic going in and out between vitamins and temperature and other things so I’m still working on how I am to be in service. I’m really working out learning everyone’s name and have certainly established some friendships already. I have not met any other residents except my suite mate. 

It’s not like it was when I was alone in my own living room. But I do get to sit by a big window and observe the seasons and the movement of the morning sun. That’s a good place to begin one’s spiritual practice each day.

What changes will you make in your spiritual life? You might consider a new form of meditation or ceremony or move your spiritual practice to a different time of the day. Perhaps you experiment for a month to see what resonates. 

Spend some time looking closely for what needs have emerged and how you can creatively meet them. Explore and experiment and make some creative plans to meet your needs in the coming year.  

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I am willing and ready to make the changes that will deepen my daily life experience.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

• Identify the areas of your life that need improvement.
• Look at the areas of your life that are working and see what elements make them successful. 
• Look for any new needs. Examine what you are doing now, explore different ways to explore new avenues and create a new plan for the coming year. 

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

What Is Missing From Your Life?

Ask yourself, “What is missing from my life and what step will I take to correct that.”

Now that I have spent nearly six weeks here in long-term care I can look more closely at the rhythm of my life and identify what is missing, what I want to add, and how I will do that.

One thing I have learned is that I had grown more and more isolated before I moved and having this much daily interaction with really kind people is making a huge difference in my emotional well-being. Notice how your life changes when you redirect your attention. 

I already have plans for after my hip replacements to walk in the garden here and sit out in the gazebo in the sunshine. I also know that the staff is going to be a source of personal growth and mental stimulation for me. It will not come from other residents. That helps me plan and focus my attention and my activities. 

I love to learn and I’m going to explore more podcasts as one of my resources. And I have yet to try audiobooks.

What new venues will you explore in order to expand your life experience? Do you need to join a group that shares your interests? Are there some causes that you care about? Do you need a friend who shares your interests? Are there classes that you want to take, a new activity to undertake? It’s good to always keep learning. At least I find that to be so.

Notice how you spend your time and be more selective. For instance, I was watching way too many television reruns and playing way too much Spider Solitaire. With this new environment and these new friends, I have stopped that and there’s a very large space left to rethink how I want to experience those hours, not simply make them pass by. So far it’s taken the form of a gradual increase in my writing. 

Rethink your choices, go exploring, and expand your experiences. Life will be more fun that way. 

Celebrate Your Uniqueness

There is only one you and that’s a good thing. One you to be in the world, only one you to be a friend to your friends, and only one you to do the work you do. There are certain things only you can do so do them with love and pleasure and skill. Celebrate your uniqueness every moment of your life. Be the best “you” you can be. It will make the world a better place.  

How will you be a better you today? 

How Do You View Change?

I’ve been in my new home in long-term care for six weeks and I realized that the experience of change stems directly from how you view the opportunities that open up because of that change. 

For instance, there are a whole lot of physical things I no longer have to be concerned about. I am well fed. I am well cared for. I am well nursed. My laundry is done and my vitamins are brought to me. And I have nursing available 24/7.  I have new opportunities and access to things like physical therapy that I did not have before. I have a whole lot of new friends among the staff, for that is the group that I identify with. They are the movers and shakers here and I am still a mover and shaker.  

If you focus in the wrong direction, you can make yourself pretty miserable. Instead of the smallness of my space I focus on the feeling of being tucked in. I sit in the morning sun by my nearly floor-to-ceiling windows to watch the birds at the feeder start their day. And I am safe. 

I really do celebrate this return to socialization with people who are interesting to know. I was spending huge amounts of time alone at Ridgeview and relied only on my wonderful friends online who are all in the vicinity of age 60 and are actively pursuing the next unfolding phase of their lives. I had very few in-person interactions. Now I have daily interactions with caring people and that has lifted my spirits tremendously.

When you find yourself in a new situation, don’t mourn what you left, celebrate what you are in the process of discovering. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Degrees of Discomfort

The nursing aides will give me a Tylenol when I ask but they always ask what degree of pain it is. I’ve been having some discomfort after I do the recumbent bike. So I have created a new level of so-called pain. A whimpering one. A cranky one. And a whiny one. Got to find your chuckles where you will. 

What Is Missing From Your Life and What Steps Will You Take To Correct That?

Several times a year it is really important to pause to see what is missing from your life and what steps you are willing to take to correct that. Maybe one big correction is staring you in the face or maybe you see a series of more subtle changes that need to be made. It’s a good idea to contemplate what changes you want to make and create plans around how to do that.

The hip replacements are going to change things for me for the better so that is a major focus for my year. This new environment has offered me a new service project and I have to figure out other ways to enrich my time. Each one of those is a really big project and the physical change will show me the most apparent steps to take. 

My new place of service has been identified and has a lot of unfolding to do. 

I don’t know where my love of learning will take me. I will just let that one unfold. I don’t have money for online classes anymore but there are many free ways to learn online. 

Leave room for the unexpected and be willing to go exploring.  What is missing from your life and what steps will you take to create that? 

Take Time For Self-Healing and Regeneration

Everything we are experiencing outside of ourselves is a reflection of our inner state. How are you doing? How is your life unfolding? You are the one who gets to make the changes. You are the one who will cause the shift. As within, so without. Do the work.

We are like a tree. We are in one place, this planet, with everything we need. 

Trees can’t receive help from outside sources for healing since they stand in one place. So they have everything within they need to heal while they are standing. A plant can grow a stem longer reaching for the sun or send its roots deeper into the earth. All kinds of inner movements are done to survive and thrive. We have all we need within us. We just have to do the work. 

As this world goes through such traumatic changes this will be a good time to spend some time in solitude and go within for answers. We need silence and inner work to do this. It is time to go within to repair and replace and strengthen on all levels.

What steps will you take to renew yourself? On the physical plane, the emotional plane, the mental plane and the spiritual plane? Or is it an interesting eclectic mix?

Work with the powerful vibration of colors and see where it leads you. Imagining feeling the space around you changing slowly and see how it affects your inner experience.

How will you set about meeting your current needs? 

Do the inner work, keep it simple it and pay attention to the guidance you are given both within and without.

===OUTER WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

How We Interpret Things

We make decisions in many moments in our lives based or how we interpret what has shown up. We may interpret based on a mood we are in. We may interpret from partial information. We may interpret from incorrect information. We may interpret from our feelings and needs in that particular moment. And all of those places and interpretations will change from day to day and even from moment to moment. So when you make a decision also look at where you’re coming from in order to make that decision. What beliefs? What information? What limitations and who is involved in the project itself? And be aware of those as influencing factors in your choice. Your mood will change, your circumstances will change, the opportunities to be flexible will change as you make decisions and move through your life. Be aware of the basis for the interpretations you make and adjust accordingly. 

In Pursuit of Peace

“Power is influence over external events.

Peace is influence over internal events.”

–James Clear

Cultivating inner peace is one of the most important and impactful things we can learn to do. We do it through introspection and we do it through listening to the multitude of messages from the universe. You attain peace by cultivating an awareness of the impact of your choices and the results that you are having and adjust accordingly. From that inner perspective comes great power over the external aspects of your life.

Actively cultivate inner peace through your meditation and spiritual practice. Live your life with an ever-deepening awareness of your inner resources. 

The View From The Other Person’s Side

Why is the other person responding the way she/he is? What is going on with their lives and their beliefs that creates that particular response? This is a particularly helpful awareness when someone is doing something that is totally opposite from what you choose to do. It doesn’t mean that you have to agree with them but if you can extend your awareness and even your empathy to the person with whom you are in conflict, it helps you understand them from a different viewpoint. Take time to understand where the other person is coming from and begin to build your relationship from there.

Keep Doing The Work

Use it or lose it, particularly as you get older and a little less agile. This no-doing on any plane sneaks up on you. 

There is so much encouragement and so much help in this long-term care facility and I have to be certain to do the work.

No one is going to do the work except you. No one is going to challenge you but yourself. No one is going to create the change accept you. 

Yes, there is lots of help here. All I have to do is follow their advice. That’s my role. That’s my responsibility. Do the work.

I had given up while living alone in my apartment. If it was hard, I stopped doing it. My life really changed as my walking capacity diminished. I couldn’t take out my trash. I couldn’t walk to do my laundry and I did not like walking the halls for exercise because it hurt my body and was not particularly fun to do. I had no encouragement or support. I was on my own to provide my motivation and I was not doing a very good job of it.

So what changed? I got access to help. I now have a restorative physical therapy person who comes to get me three times a week. I have access to a recumbent bike that I love to use as well as loving the results I am getting. And I have encouragement.

If you are stuck in a downward spiral, whether it’s physical or emotional, get some support to move through that and change directions so that you are motivated to help yourself again. It can be professional help, it can be help from a friend, it can be a change to a whole new venue. Perhaps you can be the friend offering encouragement and support to another. 

Here’s another thing I noticed. The more help I got in my independent living apartment, the less I began to do for myself. And that may be the trap that we all need to look out for. It became easier and easier to leave things for my homemaker to do.  And I kept doing less and less.  

My spirits have lifted by being around these incredibly loving and supportive people who encourage me at every turn and help me with the things that are no longer possible for me to do. 

So what is the difference here? I had help in my apartment and I did less.  I have a lot more help here and I’m doing more and want to keep doing more. What shifted within to make me want to do the work to get myself back on track?

I think the answer is hope. The recumbent bike helped me turn the corner. I love doing it, I can do it and it’s making a tangible difference. The prospect of the hip replacements opens up a whole new world of possibilities for change for me – and hope.  So is part of this shift about hope? The whole idea that I may be able to walk in the garden again is a very stimulating prospect and goal. We can plant things in a garden here but my goal is to simply walk in it.

I have gone from subconsciously giving up, to actively pursuing change with great positive expectations. In one sense I had given up because I didn’t know how to create the change for myself. I needed the insights and encouragement and skill that I have found here.

My hopes were raised with access to physical therapy and they have skyrocketed with a prospect of hip replacement.

What kind of spiral are you in regarding the circumstance in which you find yourself? Look for answers and find the ones that simulate and motivate you into action. And do that. 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

How Well Does Your Spiritual Practice Nurture You?

Is your spiritual practice designed in the best possible way to deeply nurture you in body, mind and spirit? Perhaps you would like to rearrange some of the elements you have placed in your spiritual practice and add new ones.

Your spiritual practice is meant to nurture you in all aspects of your life. It should be a source of serenity and comfort, a source of well-being and ever-expanding spiritual awareness. 

Our spiritual practice should nurture our body.  Physical practices like Qigong and Yoga have a spiritual base as they nurture and strengthen your body temple, but all exercise when done mindfully is spiritual.

A balanced spiritual practice both strengthens and calms your mind so that you move through your life with clarity of purpose and awareness of the nudges and insights the universe is constantly offering you.

And of course, a spiritual practice is designed to deepen your awareness of your oneness with all – your far-reaching interconnectedness in the Web of Life. It teaches you to listen to the voice within. It teaches you to become aware of the support and insights the universe constantly provides. It feeds your soul so that all you can be always comes from that place of oneness. 

Perhaps take time to examine the gifts your spiritual practice gives and see how you would like to alter it. Perhaps strengthen the physical element you pursue in order to quiet your mind and body to prepare to move into the deeper levels. Perhaps add drumming or singing to honor nature, the directions and the unfolding day. There might be some words of wisdom that you choose to contemplate. I have a box full of quotes that I like and I can pull one out each day to contemplate. Of course there is meditation. There are rattles. There are bells. There are crystals. How are you expanding and deepening your spiritual practice to nurture yourself on all levels – body, mind, and spirit? Do that. 

On Being Different

Although I am the only vegetarian resident here in Evergreen Long Term Care, I have met at least one vegetarian on staff.  My suite mate has crosses hanging all over her walls and her daughter brought her a small Christmas tree. I celebrate Winter Solstice and am trying to figure out where to get a pine cone for decoration. I’m the only resident who has dream catchers and sun catchers in the window. But then I have been joyfully a tad different all my life.  

When you find yourself in a situation in which you find you are quite different, what do you do?

I just do my own thing in my own space. I already know my friends are all going to be staff members. Follow your own path and encourage others to follow theirs.

We can learn from different cultural traditions. I remember a Jewish friend of mine in New York City who prepared a Passover supper for a few of her non-Jewish friends and explained its meaning and symbolism. 

Celebrating Winter Solstice is perhaps a time to strengthen some facets of your spiritual practice. 

Perhaps add a few simple elements that you use to celebrate. I have added paper that is dissolvable in water to help me release things. Experiment and thoughtfully add a few elements to your ceremony and find new ways to celebrate your own spiritual version of Winter Solstice. 

===GUIDANCE FROM OUR COSMIC COUNSELORS ===

Listen Beyond the Voice Within 

Releasing

Speak to me of releasing.

I go to my Secret Garden and am invited to cross the reflecting pond to join the three Cosmic Counselors in a circle. In the center of our circle is a fire. “Speak to me of releasing,” I say.

The first Cosmic Counselor says, “Releasing is about letting go and you can do that in many ways.” The fire in the center of our circle flares up and smoke rises to the sky. The smoke escapes and disappears in the darkness. The second Cosmic Counselor drops a piece of dissolvable paper with writing on it into water of the reflecting pool. She watches her words dissolve and disappear. The third Cosmic Counselor joins her at the reflecting pool and thoughtfully tosses a small pebble into the pond and watches the ripples disappear against the opposite shore.

“Find a form that seems to resonate with your feelings about releasing and create your own ceremonial words and manner of releasing.” 

Maybe you find a different form for what needs to be released. When you prepare to let something go, pay attention to the images that you release and the feelings they evoke and any messages that come in. It can be a simple ceremony or a complex one. Set an intention to release whatever you want to release and set about doing just that. Look to be sure you release it all.  Experiment with another form for the ceremony or repeat the one you did. 

Create your own ceremony for different purposes. Clear yourself with a Releasing Ceremony. Bless your day. Offer gratitude in general or for something specific. Create a ceremony of Blessing.  

Be conscious of what needs to be released. See if you can find a core belief that is stuck. Or an underlying fear that is holding you back. You may want to experiment in order to create the most effective releasing ceremony for you.

Once you feel you have released whatever you have chosen, notice how you feel. Is it lighter? Is it clear of pain? You might be tired from finally letting it go. And all of those responses might change with each releasing ceremony. It depends on you. And how often you do a releasing ceremony depends on you and what you have allowed to build up and how completely released you feel around whatever it is you have chosen to release. You might use a cycle of the moon as a time to have a releasing ceremony or the ending of a month. You decide when to create a releasing ceremony. If you choose to do one on a regular basis, that allows you to look over your life to see what needs to be released and create a ceremony that allows you to do so.”

I find myself across the reflecting pond sitting on the bench into my Secret Garden. Ancestor rabbit is there holding a bottle of soap bubbles and I sit in the shade of my worries and blow them away.

End of journey.

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEARERS===

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

What Is A Light Bearer?

What is a Light Bearer and what do we do? I believe we are a group of humans with Guides from the Unseen World who are here to not only hold High Watch for the planet but to be its protectors. That means we are to live our best lives in service to the highest good for all. We do that with our focused energy and our mindful actions. It will take new forms but being a Light Bearer means that our heart is focused on the well-being of the whole earth and all that it encompasses.

As Individual Harps we must play our sweetest song and at the same time stay in harmony with this grand diverse orchestra of Light Bearers. Stay aware in your own heart that you are being called and continue to elevate your role and perform with your participation.  As Light Bearers we play a higher role in the evolution and well-being of our planet. You will be led to the work you are to further, the work you are to lead. That work is evolving as is your role. As an individual light bearer, make sure your daily light falls softly on the world around you and is uplifted and nurturing to whomever see it. Because a Light Bearer is an adventurer, it is our obligation to continue to expand our knowledge and our beliefs and our role and bring that awareness into our daily life expression. Have an open heart and focus on the highest good for all. That is the role of a Light Bearer. 

We are each individual harps in this Orchestra of Light Bearers. We must play our individual instruments well. And at the same time, we must keep our individual harp in harmony with the whole. We can do that. Raise your light and see where and how you are to expand your role in the world. 

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations 

The People You Are Around

I am finding very interesting, intelligent people to talk to among the staff. I talked to the head of maintenance about the 3-D printing of homes, recharging solar cars and artificial intelligence. Can you see why I love the mental stimulation here?

I have met a fellow writer and a fellow metaphysician and fellow vegetarian and the only other Cara I have met to date. This is the most in-person mental simulation I’ve had in the 13 years I’ve been in Kansas. I’m loving it. 

People are good at their jobs.  They like their work, and they like helping people and it shows.

Does your joy and appreciation for life show in how you express yourself?  I bet it does. 

=== OLD WOMAN HUMOR ===

I was getting ready for my shower.  We are wheeled down in a wheelchair to the shower room, helped to undress, hang on to grab bar and are positioned in a shower stool with a back and are given a shower by a Med Aide. I mentioned to my 82-year-old wheelchair-bound suite-mate that I had only been given showers by men so far and she said, “Aren’t you lucky!”

Who says we’re too old.

=== DEEPER SONG PHILOSOPHIES ===

Be a spot of ground where nothing is growing,
where something might be planted,
a seed, possibly, from the Absolute.

-Rumi 

Imagine you are an open field. You can plant whatever crop you choose in this field. It is as a spot of ground from the Absolute. What do you plant? What do you grow? What do you harvest? Keep cultivating the space where you are planted and make sure you are living your best life and are offering your best gifts to the world. Plant your field of life carefully and harvest it with love. 

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

Journey to Our Ancestors to Expand Our Consciousness 

Listen to my
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the
Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

An Unexpected Kindness

I received an unexpected gift. Unexpected Blooms is a company that takes flowers from weddings and other occasions and recycles them into lovely bouquets to give away. Mine is a lovely arrangement of mauve roses and white snapdragons among other beautiful flowers. It was totally unexpected.  I wrote a thank-you note on my computer to be sent to them. Not only because I was happy and surprised to receive it but I want to encourage them to keep doing this really thoughtful act of kindness. What perfectly good something can you re-purpose to give to those who have less than you do? We have a place called Savers that is a thrift store that supports the Boys and Girls Club. I used to like to shop there a lot too but my kids gave away a whole lot of my stuff when I moved to the smaller place. 

Look around and notice how much you have that you really don’t need to see how you can pass it forward and put it in a box and give some of it away. Maybe in the summertime pass along a few extra vegetables or flowers from your garden. But most of all look at the possessions that you have that you don’t need anymore and don’t care about anymore and see what you can pass forward to grace someone else’s home. Share the wealth.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Letting Go

I let go of things. I let go of worries. I let go of what is not working. I clear my space and I make room for new insights and understanding.

I let go of things .I let go of worries. I let go of what is not working. I clear my space and I make room for new insights and understanding. What do I want to invite in? What do I want to learn? What experiences do I want to have? What deepening understanding? 

I let go of things. I let go of worries. I let go of what is not working. I clear my space and I make room for new insights and understanding. What do I want to invite in? What do I want to learn? What experiences do I want to have? What deepening understanding? I clear my space. I declutter my life and throw open the doors to new adventures. 

-Cara Lumen, December 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take.  Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song  

I help adventurers who are ready to explore the new possibilities in the emerging energy of the Divine Feminine to align their dreams and choices with what is emerging as possible today so that they go beyond their own expectations.

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