Search Results for: Sacred Garden

Do You Feel The Pull Of The Unknown?

Living Our Deeper Song

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

As children we had big daydreams. There were no limitations because we didn’t know what challenges we would face. 

As we grew to adulthood our dreams and expectations became a little more grounded in reality and unfortunately, a lot less fanciful.

I’m sitting here at 90 and I still get to make stuff up. I’m not going to ignore reality but I am going to use my imagination to envision the cleansing of the world in a gentle way and the emergence of strong, loving, all-encompassing energy in which our world and we thrive.  Pay attention to the emerging opportunities and trends and insights and try to expand and explore them as they open. Pursue those wild dreams and the opportunities they present. Allow yourself to feel the pull of the unknown and follow its call. 

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I take time to explore the unknown and bring new opportunities into my life.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

• Identify an area you would like to explore for inspiration and motivation like music, writing, poetry, or friends.
• Learn more about that aspect of life and the potential it holds for your personal exploration and expansion.
• Add elements of that newly explored path to your life and spiritual practice. 

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Connect With What Has Gone Before You

I listened to quite a number of talks on the Ancestral Summit on The Shift Network and what drew me the most were ways to deepen my relationship with nature, with the Planet Earth as our evolving home and as a resident of the Cosmos we still know so little about.

The idea that ancient rivers and mountains and oceans were there long before the inhabitants, however small, appeals to me. I like learning that way before my lifetime, people from Asia and Siberia walked across the land bridge to Alaska and became the American Indians. I don’t have much affinity for the time of the dinosaurs. 

How do I get my messages and lessons from nature? How do I transform and adapt the offerings of nature? How do I deepen my connection with nature? How do I learn its lessons of patience and gradual change and adaptation? How do I hear our combined heartbeat? 

I no longer travel so I cannot go to sacred landscapes. I live with my view of an enclosed garden and a Midwestern sunrise. And of course, the great shape-shifting mid-western clouds.

I have two house plants to honor nature and three small pinecones I used to celebrate the Winter Solstice and a fluffy dried flower like a hair bow on my plant stand. And I have fifty or so crystals I speak with every day. Those are the tools I have in my space to create and deepen my connection to nature. I use them all to create a deeper connection and honoring of nature. 

Work with what you have. Grow where you are planted. 

I could create a nature ceremony with a container in which I place a little twig, a leaf, a rock and a shell. I could make up a song to the elements. I actually do sing to the directions each morning. When the weather changes, I will go outside and sit in the sun and meditate in the garden by the Koi pond. I have a lot of crystals but I do not have a rock that I picked up on a nature walk. I do have a twig and some dried leaves that are symbols of nature. How do I sit in a small space and deepen my connection with nature? 

I open my heart and use my imagination. I will travel in my imagination deep into the core of Gaia while it is still molten and changing to feel the power of the earth continuing to create herself. 

I can spend time with the moon even when I can’t see it from my window. I can raise my sights and expectations to the ongoing movement of the planets. And I can wonder about their interactive influences as they change positions in the sky and affect the energy of our planet.

I might watch my house plants for new leaves as a sign of Nature’s ongoing and continuous change. I just want a way to contemplate nature in my spiritual practice, to be aware of our continuous change and evolution, and experience myself as part of that ongoing change. 

I’m going to begin to reach over and touch the leaves of my two live plants every day – perhaps create some sort of a blessing or honoring. 

I have had yards where I would go barefoot in the grass but that was a long time ago. How are you going to deepen your experience of our planet earth?

Expand The Elements Of Your Spiritual Practice 

A spiritual practice should be fluid. It can be fluid in timing. It can be fluid in the elements it contains. And it can be fluid in its location. But a spiritual practice needs to be consistent in your life.

There can be elements of contemplation which include meditation and journaling. There can be elements of connection which could be in the form of ceremony. I use my drums and native flutes each day to sing to the directions and the rising sun. I also create a ceremonial connection with my crystals each day. 

Journaling is an important part of a spiritual practice because writing things down allows you to look beneath the obvious into deeper truths. I often journal at night for reflective contemplation of the lessons and experiences of my day. A shamanic journey can be part of your spiritual practice. 

The location of your meditative practice can change. Being outside adds a whole depth of sounds and experiences. Nature will add a depth of awareness to your meditative practice. 

I can’t use candles where I live but I certainly could have a small altar cloth upon which I arrange various objects that have meaning to me that become a signal that I have begun my ceremony. The mere act of setting up an environment for a meditation deepens your receptiveness.

I live in a small space but I have an altar space made in the shelves of a fairly narrow bookcase. I turn my desk chair toward the window, pick up my drum and play and sing to the elements and the directions. Then I turn and speak with and touch each of the crystals on my altar. I intuitively listen to their messages and offer gratitude for various aspects of my life. I use my Indian rattle to send a blessing to my day and my health, and my life expression. I also play my Kalimba thumb piano to bless my day.

What elements and patterns will you weave into your spiritual practice? Keep it fluid.  You might make changes at the Solstice or Equinox or new or full moon or simply in the moment.   Keep your spiritual practice fluid and relevant. 

I’m going to add a daily reading to my practice. The Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell’s translation and The Essential Rumi, Colman Barks translation are two I will begin with. I also like Deng, Ming-Dao’s work. I may choose to write something based on what I read. That helps me understand and apply the concept. Journaling helps me find ways to bring those concepts into my daily life. 

I can make up my own poems as part of my spiritual practice. I could draw as part of my spiritual practice. Bear in mind I’m a pencil and stick figure artist but that would not prevent me from recording what I see in my imagination. 

Experiment with different elements for your spiritual practice in different locations and at different times of day. But do develop a regular spiritual practice. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Acknowledge The Small Wins

It was a small step and a huge win. Physical therapy gave me permission to sit in my desk chair again and walk around my space using my walker. I was mobile again. It had been nearly three weeks since my hip replacement surgery. I was as excited as if I have won the lottery. I had a new level of work to do.

Small wins could be the source of great encouragement. Take those wins and expand on them. Let them take you to a next level. I’m doing core strengthening exercises while sitting in my chair and I can do them all standing up too. I do leg strengthening movements while sitting in my chair and I am now encouraged to step onto the hall and stand, to hang onto the railing and do more standing exercises. It gives me a great sense of freedom to have this self-responsibility back again. 

I lost my strength because of surgery. But I had spent the last year and a half losing my strength because I wasn’t doing the work. Part of that was depression but it was still my responsibility.

Whatever physical steps you choose to take to care for yourself, celebrate them. Be grateful for them. Do them with joy and enthusiasm and pleasure so you don’t lose them. 

===OUTER WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

How Have Your Objectives Changed?

When we are observant, we will see that our objectives change with some frequency. I may set out to cross a field and stop as I find a lovely rock to pick up and examine and consider. I may see a butterfly that catches my attention. It might rain on me and I need to seek shelter. Life is not one straight uninterrupted path, it is a series of adjustments and detours and course corrections. Be flexible as you move through life and let your goals change as you gain more insight and information. 

I don’t question my goals every day, but I do see if what I have chosen to do that day still resonates with my thinking and my needs and adjust accordingly. Be flexible as you take your journey and explore some side roads. Life is one big adventure. 

Continuous Learning

I love to learn and because of my diminishing eyesight I am exploring new venues for learning. I found one podcast I like to listen to. I can still manage to read e-books. I have not tried audiobooks yet but someone recently said they found audiobooks were read too slowly. I’m a very fast reader. I’m going to explore videos, particularly when it comes to learning how to do certain things. 

In ancient times there was always a storyteller who, through his or her story time, taught moral values and insights for living. I’ve never tried to craft a teaching story but I think everything I write is about what I have learned.

Is there something you wanted to learn along the line but kept putting off that it is time to take action on? Exploring is interesting. It helps you find areas of interest that you were not familiar with and invites you to take time to explore them more deeply. See if you can push yourself a little in some aspect of your learning to open a few doors and wander down a few unexplored paths. 

Monitor Your Influence

We influence others by our very presence. We influence others by our attitude. We influence others by our choices. We infuse others by the way we look at the world. Be aware that every word you speak and every choice you make is how you want to be present in the world. Be aware of the impact of your mere presence and make sure it is how you want to show up in the world. 

Do You Have A Strong Sense of Purpose?

In this new phase of my life, I am working to identify and define my new sense of purpose. 

I had a Care Evaluation meeting recently and was able to share with some of the staff how vital it is been for me to be in contact with this caring loving staff and how it has pulled me out of the depression I was not even aware I was in. It turns out the staff is really glad to have me in their lives too. That’s good.

My purpose is not about shoring us up but it may become that in the course of interactions in which I encourage someone or help them clarify their role. My purpose for this next portion of my life is still unfolding. What I know to do is to be observant and aware that my new role is gradually unfolding and making itself known. 

If you don’t have a strong sense of purpose for this phase of your life, spend some time meditating about it. Maybe do some journaling around your thoughts. Sometimes writing down one idea helps us get to the idea right underneath it. It’s like gradually peeling back layers. 

I do have one strong overarching purpose – to be in service as an explorer and interpreter of metaphysical ideas.  That seems to be a steady role that I play in my life. So perhaps my role is to go exploring and share what I learn. I like that.  Do you have a strong sense of purpose? What is it?

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

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

Release What Is Not Needed Through Ceremony

One of the ways we move forward is to release ideas and concepts and beliefs that we no longer need or want or hold. 

I do not have this well established in my life but one of the ways to free yourself is to create a ceremony to helps you release what is holding you in place, what is preventing you from moving forward.

What you really can change is what you believe along with attitudes and habits and expectation. The first step is to identify what is holding you back and what you would benefit from releasing. 

As my body continues to heal from my hip replacement surgery, I get to raise my expectations for myself and my body. So, one of the things I could do is create a ceremony to release all of the beliefs based on past experience that no longer serve me.

How I release it is up to me and my imagination. I could write it on a piece of paper and tear it up in little pieces.  I could write it on a piece of paper and burn it in a fire. There is dissolvable paper you can simply make disappear. The idea of prayer flags has emerged in my consciousness recently so I could create a prayer flag out of a scarf or a piece of fabric and put it out in my garden to let it release concepts that no longer serve me or send blessings to things that I want to help change. 

Experiment with the form you use for releasing what no longer serves you and perhaps create regular releasing ceremonies. You may choose times that are aligned with the new moon or a full moon or beginning of the month or any other method of marking a period of time to consciously clear out and release beliefs and attitudes and expectations that no longer serve you. 

Add a regular releasing ceremony to your spiritual practice and continue to clear the path before you. 

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

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Give Your All Whatever You Do

“I’m agency, I don’t know where it is and the nurse is agency too,” said the person I had asked for a snack in the middle of the night. An hour or so later, the Agency nurse came in and when I asked her for a snack she said, “I’ll find it,” and she did. A few hours later I asked the first person to help me get dressed for the day and she said, “I’m supposed to leave in a few minutes.”

Which one of these two women do you think will have the most positive experience of their life and work? 

We reap what we sow. When we move through life with a willingness to participate in and learn and grow, we have a very positive experience. 

As we choose to continue to do work that is not satisfying or rewarding, it will poison everything else that we do. 

This is not just about having a right job. This is about how you approach whatever you do. When you approach your work in the world as meaningful, helpful to others, and do your best work, it will bring you a very satisfying experience. 

If you don’t like your work, figure out what you do like to do and do that. 

How do you view the work you’ve chosen to do? Do you look forward to participating in your work life every day? Do you enjoy the people that you work with? Do you continue to learn and grow and expand your own skills through that job? 

I’m not even going to say bloom where you are planted. I’m going to say if you are not blooming where you are now, get up and go plant yourself in another field so you can express yourself by calling more deeply on your skills and insights. 

If you need to get more training, get it. If you need to change careers, do that. At any point in your life be sure how you do spend the majority of time off of work is satisfying and rewarding and meaningful. Do you need to make a change?

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

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations 

Redefine Your Purpose

I want to be more proactive in the evolution of our planet at this point in time. I want to help raise awareness of our individual potential roles and help the planet heal herself and evolve into a powerful home for light workers. The first thing I’m going to do is visualize. 

What would it look like if everyone on the planet recognized themselves as a conscious light worker – moving around the planet with awareness and conscious care, doing no harm, always preserving and asking others to do the same? A colony of light workers spreading its influence teaching others to honor and care for Mother Earth. 

We know from experience that particular awareness is not everywhere. But those of us who choose to do this work do it with purposeful devotion and others are attracted to follow. As we deepen our relationship, we deepen our sense of wholeness and oneness, others see our light and are drawn to it. It changes their awareness. They modify their choices. 

Just as you want your own home to be nurturing, you want to help create nurturing in all corners of your being. That means that we must raise our individual consciousness and do no harm to earth. No harm to animals and humans and plants. 

This is an individual quest – an individual raising of our consciousness. As consciousness we share ideas with others. Of course, we want to take action to stop harm from being done. 

Switch your intention and begin focusing on preserving our planet.

Begin by adding more ceremony of gratitude to Mother Earth. By monitoring your own footprint on the planet to be sure you are doing no harm. Share that awareness with others. So that Gaia is given time and space and care to heal herself. Do more ceremony and ask how you can help. Then do that. 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Support and Encouragement for our Unfolding Role in the Future

Keep Your Eyes On The Light

Those of us who are aware that we are here called to raise our vibration must keep our eyes on the light. We must make certain that our lives reflect what we want to see in the world. We must continue to explore and experiment to find more effective ways to keep ourselves in the space of higher vibration, to live our lives as an example of that so others see that possibility within themselves. 

Look back over your experiences to see what new awareness has opened up for you, what new friends inspire and motivate you and how the choices you make are reflected in to the world.

Keep your eyes on the light and keep moving toward it.

=== DEEPER SONG PHILOSOPHIES ===

Consider This

This quote was in the homework for my Tai Chi class with Deng, Ming-Dao. I really like the images. It offers a new way to view life.  

“The supreme ultimate is born from the limitless that is the mother of the ten thousand things. They divide in movement.

They combine in stillness.

They never go to excess:

they follow, bend, engage, and extend.”

—Excerpt from “Shanxi Wang Zongyue’s Taijiquan Treatise,” Wang Zongyue (c. fifteenth century?

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

Expanding Awareness 

The Gaia Gateway and Your Soul Star

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

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

Here’s an app to identify crystals: Rock identifier

That same company also makes an app called Plant Identifier. 

===REFLECTIONS===

Where Are Your Roots?

Change your opinions, keep your principles;

Change your leaves, keep intact your roots.

– Victor Hugo

Where have you planted your roots? And how are they supporting you? 

As we grow, we extend our roots into new territories, some of which are more nurturing than others. The roots that are the most nurturing are aligned with the direction we want to grow. They help our growth be stronger and faster and more supportive of us in our lives. 

Sometimes we put out an explorer root into a new topic or a new idea only to find that it is not for us. It does not nourish us. It does not take us where we choose to go. That is when we return and put out other feeder roots and go exploring.

Cultivate only the roots that nurture you.  

===CARA’S CORNER===

Take Love Where You Find It

I’m a 90-year-old who just acquired a Care Bear in the Bingo Swap Shop at my long-term care facility. This sweet-faced orange stuffed animal brought tears to my eyes as hugged it. I guess we’re never too old for a little love whatever the source.

I am surrounded by kindness so why do I feel emotion from looking at and holding an orange stuffed bear with a compassionate smile on her face? 

We have to give love to ourselves. How do you do that? It feels like this bear is here for me. Supporting me. Cheering for me. Offering me love. She is reflecting my self-love back to me. I think I should begin to have conversations with her. Discussions with her. Get her feedback. It’s like having a really close friend in my corner cheering me on. I’m a very strong woman but today I needed cheering up by a stuffed animal. Be open to support where and when it finds you. 

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Feeling Love

I have to learn to feel loved. What is the barrier and how do I dissolve it?

I have to learn to feel loved. What is the barrier and how do I dissolve it? Do I feel unworthy? Or do I simply not take time for self-love? 

I have to learn to feel loved. What is the barrier and how do I dissolve it? Do I feel unworthy? Or do I simply not take time for self-love? I am worthy of love. I am deserving of love. I will do a better job of loving myself.

– Cara Lumen, February 2023 

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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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?

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===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.

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