Since I wrote. I cofacilitated a church retreat this past weekend and celebrated creating reality. Two years ago I stated that I wanted to do retreats and now it is happening. I will be doing three retreats this spring. Too cool. Intentions are powerful tools. Heard a great story on the retreat. A young woman wanted to surprise her boyfriend on Valentine's Day and take him to a play since he had never been. She blindfolded him and drove around DC looking for the theater. She got lost and was slow in moving through traffic. To be funny he had written "Help Me" on the window fog. Soon a bull horn sounded, "Pull over, immediately". She did so without suspecting in the least what was wrong. The police office approached her car and said, "Miss, what is going on here?". She sweetly replied, "I wish I could tell you but it is a surprise". I imagine that it was about this time that her boyfriend removed his blindfold. Finally the police had her step out of the car and place her purse on the ground. With enough explanation the police let her go only to pursue her within minutes to return the purse that she left on the road. Ah my goodness what a hoot.

I have been busy and not posting. I did a Shalom retreat this past weekend and was ordained a shaman. It was fulfilling to be ordained in a delightful community and recognized for the healer that I am. The ordination was unplanned and while at retreat I had no communication with anyone outside of the retreat. I have to chuckle because over the weekend my daughter was trying to decide how she would describe me to someone and came up with, "She's like a shaman, well, not exactly like a shaman, but yes a shaman". She's got the intuition also. Hope all of you that come to this site are comfortable on your spiritual path. in peace, Sage

Linear time has so little relevence to me anymore. I breathe, I am in the moment and that is all there is and it is more than enough.

Most people intuitively understand what "compassion" means and are able to experience it for strangers such as the Katrina victims. Fewer people are able to experience it for themselves or their partners. An ingredient of compassion is non-attachment to the outcome and we tend to be attached to an outcome in our partner's (or family's) life situations. And we tend to be very attached to an outcome for ourselves. That attachment seems to come with judgment rather than discernment. We want to be able to discern and make choices in life, however judgment is simply toxic. It is toxic to the judger and the judgee and shrinks the heart. Compassion takes place in an expanded heart and expands the heart.

Around 1995 my oldest daughter and I drove to Syracuse to have Thanksgiving with a cousin. On the way my daughter worried about a co-worker who did not show up. She tried calling him and was unable to reach him. She knew he was going through a lot of transition and wanted to support him. She was also struggling to figure out what to do with her life after college. "I know I want to be a healer, Mom. I just don't know what kind".
It was a delightful visit and we joined the long line of cars on the highway heading south on 95 that Sunday. In addition to being hungry, we each had a strong intuitive hit that we were to get off at a specific exit. We drove up to a very crowded restaurant, looked at the long line and declared we were too hungry to wait. We saw CAFE written across the closest hill and drove to the top. We found a delightful little place, ordered healthy, scrumptious sandwiches and sat down to eat.
A man and woman sat at the table next to us and I heard my internal intuitive voice suggest an interaction with them. I stood and approached their table. The woman turned to my daughter and asked if we were playing a word game. We each laughed because we had been playing a word game all weekend. My daughter shook her head no. I stood and said to the man, "I am supposed to say something to you and ask for something in return". He nodded. The woman with him grew excited and said, "He says this happens in his life all the time". My daughter laughed and said, "Yeah, I know what you mean."
I said, "I know you know this, but wanted to remind you that death is merely a transition". The woman began to cry and laugh and explain her father had just died. The man reached into a battered brief case and extracted two crystals, giving one to me and one to my daughter. He explained that he is a shaman and mines the crystals in dried up underground salt lakes and they are already polished and with 18 facets. He called them, "the healer's healer".
We drove the rest of the way home in gratitude and wonder at the delights of the world. After I got home, my daughter called to say she had been in touch with someone from her work and the man she had worried about had died. She said crying, "Mom,I hope that death is not only a transition, but a promotion". Me too, honey.