awareness

Sent or Delivered – Day 905

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Sent or Delivered? – Photo: L. Weikel

Sent or Delivered

It’s always amazing to me how Spirit will sometimes turn the most mundane objects or tasks into opportunities to send (or is it deliver?) messages. I guess the answer to that question (sent or delivered) depends entirely upon the recipient. Spirit can send a million messages – or a single message a million times – but that act alone doesn’t ensure a single one will be noticed, read, heard, or received in any way.

A piece of garbage that blows out of the back of a garbage truck can remain on the side of the road for days or weeks, or even much longer than that. It might get whisked into a roadside gully where a thunderstorm washes it into a stream, ultimately delivering it into a river. It might even make it to the ocean if it doesn’t get caught on a rock or buried in silt like the skeleton of a dinosaur.

There’s a chance that piece of garbage was sent as a message for someone to find and pick up. But if the intended recipient chose not to walk before the rain or went a different direction – or just wasn’t paying attention – then that sent message might never get delivered.

Ah, which tells me that it takes the efforts of two for Spirit to actually deliver a message. Spirit’s acting alone in sending is only the first affirmative act. But we need to do our part if we’re to give Spirit the satisfaction of claiming delivery. We need to see it and recognize the effort as the message it is.

Act On It?

It’s romantic to think that all messages we receive we act upon, but let’s face it: we don’t. I think we’re probably lucky to bat .200 or so in just recognizing a message has been sent and we snagged it as it passed by.

But following it? Actually listening to the message? Yikes. That entails a lot of steps. Receiving the message, recognizing it as such (and not dismissing it as a random piece of garbage), realizing it could actually be a message intended for us on some miraculous level, and then choosing to respect the message. And by that I mean respecting it enough to take the time to contemplate just what the message might mean and how it could apply specifically to our life.

Is this meant for me?

How does it apply?

Does it answer a question I’ve been mulling over?

Does it make sense?

A Picture or a Word

All of which makes me wonder just what I was being told and shown this evening. I believe the application calls for some contemplation. But no matter what, “Message sent – and  delivered.”

Bifurcated Sunset – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-206)

Flourishing – Day 890

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Lamprocapnos spectabilis; aka Bleeding Hearts – Photo: L. Weikel

Flourishing

22 Days Ago – Photo: L. Weikel

On March 28th of this year I wrote a post about the spiky looking sprouts emerging from the earth that I knew would eventually yield blooms that resemble bleeding hearts. I included a photo of the plant and mentioned that it would be fun to pay attention to how much it would change and how long it would take those changes to manifest. I posted an update on the growth status twelve days later. And now, 22 days along, I present you with a flourishing Lamprocapnos spectabilis.

It’s amazing to me just how quickly this plant has burst onto the scene of my garden. I’m glad I documented the scraggly initial emergence, and then its gawky adolescence. Watching this transformation over the past three weeks renews my awe over the utter magic that Mother Earth surrounds us with day after day.

Twelve Days Later – Photo: L. Weikel

Appreciating the Details

It’s so easy to get caught up in our day to day lives and forget to pay attention to what’s unfolding before our very eyes. I realize I do it all time, in spite of my intention to savor the present moments that comprise our lives. Ah, the road to hell.

But hey. Every once in a while I manage to bring my awareness right down to the nitty gritty and witness something amazing – like the explosion of growth shown here. Or the dozen or so goldfinches descending upon our feeders. Or the sun salutations a tulip did today in our garden.

I’ll share the tulip photos tomorrow, perhaps. Unless there’s something more pressing to discuss. I have such feelings over the potential for a new beginning to take root in our country if there’s a verdict in the Chauvin trial that brings accountability. But maybe that’s a topic for another day. Perhaps, if we’re lucky, we’ll discover deep-rooted change is finally flourishing and a whole new wave of awareness and equality will take root throughout our country.

Nine Days Later – Flourishing – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-221)

Progression – Day 867

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Sprouts – Photo: L. Weikel

Progression

A couple weeks ago (or maybe it was only days, time’s been so skewed for me lately), I mused over the possibility of taking photos of the buds coming up out of the ground. I’m pretty sure I specifically made reference to documenting the progression of either the crocuses (croci? crocae?) or daffodils, or maybe even both.

But instead of either of these traditional harbingers of spring, I’m choosing a more unique and perhaps slightly less stereotypical spring blossom to track: Lamprocapnos spectabilis (aka Dicentra spectabilis) or Bleeding Heart.

I’ve been surprised the past couple of years by how this plant seems to almost magically appear, fully formed, overnight. I’m certain my surprise at its dramatic arrival into my awareness is a result of my lack of attention. So I’m seeking to bring more attention to my Bleeding Heart plant this year, and part of my efforts will include documenting the progression of its growth.

Learn Something New

I distinctly remember my mother introducing me to this particular flowering plant when we were weeding behind the stone farmhouse in which I grew up. The garden we had always felt so wild, planted as it was on a small hillside with old mortar and stone walls lining the perimeter. There were snakes and worms and voles and moles in that garden. Bees and salamanders. And among the flowers were the bleeding hearts.

I can’t remember the words my mother used but I can remember the awe I felt when looking at the blossoms and wondering how amazing it was that a plant could so obviously resemble a heart splitting and releasing a single drop of precious blood. It bordered on the magical that a plant could mimic something so human.

Ever since then, I’ve always associated these flowers with my mother. I don’t know why. She taught me the names of lots of things; why do these, as well as the scent of lilacs, always bring her back to me so vividly?

When looking these flowers up (so I could know their proper name), I discovered that the blossom, when turned upside down, resembles something quite different than a bleeding heart, and hence is the basis of its ‘other’ name.

While you can certainly look it up yourself, I’m going to wait until my little sprouts grow up and let them reveal their other name to us themselves.

(T-244)

Timelessness – Day 782

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Spartacus Greets the New Year – Photo: L. Weikel

Timelessness

Maybe it was the way the sunshine of the morning was almost imperceptibly overtaken by a gray comforter of overcast. The sleet that started prickling us as we rounded the final turn of our walk hastened our gait. The warmth of our fireplace beckoned. A sense of timelessness set in as daylight dimmed so dramatically that we had to check the time. Had we lost a few hours somewhere?

Was it the weather? Was it the arrival of the first day of the year on a Friday – giving us a full weekend to get used to the fact that we’re no longer under the spell of 2020?

Was it the haunting memory of last night’s images of a nearly empty Times Square?

Out of Sight

If you are lucky enough not to be part of the front line troops in our most recent war, it was almost possible to imagine life unfolding in any configuration you might want to fantasize today. The cranky closeness of the clouds was the perfect screen upon which you could project any fantasy of reality you might want to conjure.

That’s such a strange facet of our reality right now. We have the world at our fingertips. But we also have the ability to cut ourselves off from the vast majority of it. For instance, living out in the country as I do, it’s a fact that if I choose not to look at my phone or computer or turn on my television, I can remain in total ignorance of the chaotic lives hundreds of thousands of people are living (and thousands are losing) every single day as a result of this pandemic.

It feels disrespectful and cold-hearted to realize that ‘out of sight, out of mind’ is both so easily employed and radically true in our country. Especially when you hear people saying that Covid-19 is a ‘hoax’ simply because they don’t know anyone who’s sick or died from it. Yet.

I’ve written before about my sense that it’s part of my personal responsibility as a member of society to maintain an awareness of what’s unfolding in our lives politically and otherwise. I’ve also written that it’s essential to maintain a healthy balance. We can become so consumed by anything (whether we judge that thing to be ‘good’ or ‘bad’) that it can do us harm by making us oblivious to the rest of our lives.

Cocoon

Today, though, with the weird color of the daylight and the remarkable quiet when we took our walk, it was stunningly easy to imagine the world to be much different than I know in my heart it is.

Perhaps there is some merit to total withdrawal every now and then. If we project onto our personal screens of overcast clouds a vision of a world where people honestly care as much about their fellow Earthlings as they do about themselves, maybe it will matter.

I can say one thing for sure. I could use another couple days of timelessness and projection of a better world. I’m glad we still have the weekend ahead of us.

Be well. Take care of yourselves. Spread love and kindness, not virus.

(T-329)

August Arrives – Day 628

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Photo: L. Weikel

August Arrives

Yes, by the time this post is read by any of you, August 2020 will be here. We will be seven full months into the cataclysmic year of 2020 and embarking upon month number eight.

Who amongst us isn’t freaking excited by the prospects? Huh? Come on. I know I can’t be the only one on the edge of my seat with anticipation over what revelations and curveballs await us this month?

Glad to See July End

Don’t get me wrong. I’m the last person to challenge worse. But I have to tell you: this last day of July has been a rough one. I’ll almost certainly write about what made today particularly discomfiting for me, but I have to sleep on it and assess the damage tomorrow.

But it’s not looking good.

Let’s just say the wild, torrential rain that accompanied some excellent thunder and lightning last night took an unexpected toll.

Biodiversity Project

I might as well use this opportunity to remind everyone that tomorrow is, indeed, the first of August. That means it’s time once again to lend your energy and intention to the Perelandra Biodiversity Project, which I’ve been encouraging participation in for well over a year now. (And just so it’s clear: I have no financial interest in Perelandra. I do not get a single penny for my enthusiasm. I simply love the concept and the sincere dedication of the organization and its founder to promoting our conscious partnership with Nature.)

This process, using Essence of Perelandra, is incredibly simple and quick. The whole procedure from start to finish takes no more than five minutes. And the loveliest part about it, in my opinion, besides the potential for fulfilling the overarching intention of restoring balance and harmony between all living things on your land or in your space, is the simple act of bringing awareness to the land on which you live.

Whenever I open Sacred Space, I specifically include and ‘call in’ the Spirits of the Place where I am doing the ceremony or engaging in sacred work. As a species, we’ve grown more and more oblivious to the sentience of anything other than other humans. Some people acknowledge the sentience of animals (especially their pets), but fewer and fewer still consider wild animals, insects, or plants as having a form of consciousness. It’s extremely rare for anyone outside of our brothers and sisters who retain their indigenous roots and connections to accord the land – and Mother Earth herself – sentience.

So beyond the explicit intention of restoring and healing the balance of diversity ‘in our own back yards’ that the Biodiversity Project fosters, I personally love the awareness it brings to each of us who engage in it. In the midst of these chaotic, uncertain, and oftentimes frightening times, engaging in this process asks us to simply STOP for five minutes and BE with where we are. It asks us to acknowledge our interconnectedness with All That Is. And it’s so incredibly simple and easy.

Simple – Like Wearing a Mask

The ease with which we might make an enormous difference in the energetic balance of our environment (including the environment within our own selves) by doing this simple process is akin to the huge difference the simple act of wearing a mask can make in protecting all of us and contributing to stopping the spread of the Coronavirus.

I guess I’m left wondering why we resist engaging in little steps that very possibly could make a humongous difference in the trajectory of our existence here on Earth. Are we afraid they won’t work and we’ll look foolish? If they don’t work, and we all die or the Earth becomes so out of balance that climate change inundates us (and kills us all in other ways besides the current pandeminc) to whom will we look foolish?

Community

Another significant benefit to engaging in the Biodiversity Project is knowing that I’m joining people all over the world in a collective and sincere effort to make things just a little bit better. I love envisioning the web of interconnected love and caring that is established when I contemplate our united efforts.

As August arrives, if you have a bottle of Essence of Perelandra, join me. Read the instructions here and take a moment – at any time during the 1st day of the month – to help reclaim balance and healing for us all. We’re all connected. What benefits one benefits all.

If you don’t have a bottle of Essence of Perelandra – order one for September 1st. Goodness knows, I’m sure we’ll need more and more intentions set for balance and healing by then.

And although I’m sure I don’t need to say it, I will say it anyway: Wear a mask. For you. For me. For us.

(T-483)

Climate Change Advocacy & Awareness – Day 348

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Photo: L. Weikel

Climate Change Advocacy & Awareness

Sorry to say it, but I dropped the ball here: I should’ve announced this event at least a week ago, but didn’t.

On the off chance you may be a last minute pick-up-and-go type of person and in the mood for a drive to the Poconos tomorrow, there’s a program being offered that could help you get your climate change advocacy groove on. (Phew – that was a long sentence.)

Three advocacy and educational organizations, Brodhead Watershed Association, PennFuture, and Brodhead Trout Unlimited will be co-hosting “A Day for Environmental Advocacy and Awareness” tomorrow. From 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., three different workshops will be offered at the Brodhead Creek Heritage Center, 1539 Cherry Lane Road, East Stroudsburg.

Advocacy 101

In the first session, from 10:00 to noon, a workshop will be offered on Meeting With Your Legislator. All the little things that cross your mind when you contemplate actually making your position on climate change known to your local, state, or federal representatives will be covered.

It’s one thing to rail against what you know to be true about climate change, feel the pain of reading about its effects on birds and animals (including humans), or experience the anxiety and fear engendered by extremes in weather, an increase in wildfires, and rising sea levels. But it’s a whole other thing to effectively, coherently, and cogently bring those concerns to the attention of those who actually make policy.

A second session, aimed at honing your ability to write an effective ‘letter to the editor’ will take place from 1:30 to 2:30.

During a lunch break between those two sessions, there will be an opportunity to get a close up look at a variety of ‘clean cars’ – from hybrids to electric.

Birds and Climate

The day concludes with a third session, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.: a “Birds and Climate” Walk and Talk. This program, which I’m particularly looking forward to attending given my recent angst over the disappearance of the birds from my feeders as noted here, here, and here, will be led by Darryl and Jackie Speicher of the Pocono Avian Research Center. The Speichers will be teaching about how climate change is impacting bird populations, their migration, and of course, their habitats.

Follow the Links

If you’re interested in learning more and are up for a road trip to the Poconos, I urge you to follow the links provided and register for the sessions you wish to attend. It may be late notice to them, but it will give them a heads up that you’re coming.

Give Yourself Plenty of Time

I’ve heard from a local up there that this weekend will probably be prime for ‘leaf peeping,’ thus the roads will be rife with tourists. (Technically, I guess we might qualify?!) All the more reason to attend this event! We all need to do what we can to preserve and protect our amazing earthly environment for generations to come.

Again, my apologies for not sharing this information with you sooner. But if it works out that you can attend, I hope the organizations involved will welcome some last minute attendees.

I don’t know if anyone will answer on such late notice, but there is a phone number for the Brodhead Watershed Association: 570-839-1120 and an email address: info@brodheadwatershed.org.

Maybe I’ll see you there!

(T-763)

Circles or Spirals? – Day 201

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Image: thenounproject.com

Circles or Spirals?                          

A lot of people seem to think about life in terms of circles. “What goes around comes around,” for instance, is a fairly common phrase.

Based on my experience, though, and the details of my life I sort of relentlessly try to track, I’m more inclined to think about life in terms of spirals.

For instance, let’s say we experience something uncomfortable, perhaps a form of harassment at our workplace, and we deal with it by feeling ashamed, hiding ourselves away in our cubicle, and trying to make ourselves invisible.

Then, ten years later, you suddenly encounter a situation that’s nearly a carbon copy of that first situation.

Another Pass on the Hamster Wheel?

Some people would perceive this as circular: we believe we’re being subjected to the same situation because we didn’t get it right the first time. Can you hear and feel the judgment and self-criticism in this approach? I hear it; and I’ve felt it, too.

And I’ve learned that I don’t want to look at the situation that way. I prefer to see it as an opportunity to put into action the skills I’ve cultivated and the understandings about myself and life and just people in general that I’ve learned over the past ten years.

So after working at two other companies and seeing, experiencing, and learning about all sorts of other situations, observing how others handled those issues, and recognizing that what you’d experienced ten years earlier was not, in fact your ‘fault’ simply because you are a particular gender, you have a remarkably similar experience to the one ten years ago. And you respond in a completely different manner. In fact, you respond in a way you would never have dreamed you’d respond ten years ago.

Awareness of the Spiral

If I’m able to remain aware enough in my life to recognize a pattern coming back to me on my spiral, I feel challenged and maybe even a little bit eager to see how I’ve hopefully raised my awareness and cultivated my personal power enough to meet the situation from a place of grace or at least compassion and understanding of myself and others.

As I write this, especially when I read that last sentence, above, I realize I may be sounding way more lofty and a lot more pompous than I feel.

Trust me when I say that I aspire to greet certain situations that are ‘returning to me on the spiral’ with more grace, understanding, and compassion – but that doesn’t mean I succeed.

Closed Circuits of Circular Experience

And yet…I am never, ever the same person who experienced a situation one moment and then a remarkably similar one some time later (or had an encounter with the same person pushing our buttons, for instance). We are never the same from one moment to another – so it is almost impossible to be stuck in a closed circuit of circular experience.

Even though it is nearly impossible for us to be stuck in a ‘closed circuit of circular experience,’ we can choose to look at our repeated experiences as bad luck. Or we can develop a belief system that tells us that everybody is out to screw us. In essence, we can choose not to change or learn.

I recently realized that Karl and I are currently dealing with a number of life experiences that have eerily similar hallmarks of many situations we encountered thirty years ago. We’re flirting with feelings, looking at opportunities, and responding to challenges that are astonishingly similar to those we dealt with thirty years ago.

Every Day We Get to Choose

Did we learn anything from how we walked through those experiences three decades ago? Have we shifted, evolved, regressed, closed down, or expanded our awareness since then?

Each day – sometimes from one moment to the next – we get to choose. Are we on a hamster wheel? Or are we ascending a spiral that teaches us new aspects about ourselves and who we are, that gives us an opportunity to transform our lives by responding differently to similar situations or applying concepts we’ve embraced in the interim?

Photo: L. Weikel

(T-910)

Electricity Restored, Awareness Heightened – Day 113

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 2 Comments
Aftermath: Still Ominous – Photo: L.Weikel

Electricity Restored and Awareness Heightened

I’m delighted to report that our electricity was restored at approximately 4:30 this afternoon.

The last time we lost our electricity for any significant amount of time was in 2012, after Hurricane Sandy, when it was out for something like ten days or so. What an awful, deeply uncomfortable ordeal. A tiny, insignificant taste, I realize, of what so many others have endured following tornadoes, wildfires, and hurricanes. But enough of a taste to leave a stark impression.

But during that profoundly uncomfortable and very chilly time, we had guests. Our dear friends, Karen Ward and John Cantwell, founders of Sli an Chroi (Path of the Heart) from Dublin, Ireland, were visiting us and presenting a wonderful retreat on Celtic shamanism and spirituality.

Asking Our Guests to Rough It

Karen and John were troopers throughout that experience in 2012. It was uncomfortable, to say the least, for them to ‘make do’ in our home without heat, lights, or running water. Nor did we yet have our fireplace installed (that came a mere two months later – lesson learned!), so we would sit briefly each night, swapping stories over candlelight before retiring to our respective bedrooms and the comfort of cuddling under piles of comforters!

Friends Come Through In a Big and Generous Way

At first we weren’t even sure if we would be able to follow through with offering the program, for we knew no one personally or commercially who had space that was not impacted by the electricity situation. Finally, one of my closest friends in the world offered to host our retreat in her living room – by the light and warmth of her gas fireplace. Janet and her daughters generously opened their doors and quite literally saved the day for all of us!

What a wonderful retreat it ended up being, too. Filled with magic and playfulness, wisdom and ancient insights, we spent the weekend reconnecting with our ancestors (Irish or not, it didn’t matter) in profound and meaningful ways.

Photo: L.Weikel

There are many aspects of our work together that weekend that I could write about here. And there’s a strong chance, too, that I’ll harvest ideas from those myriad experiences as we wend our way through the next 998 posts in my 1111 Devotion. But the one thing I want to focus upon this evening is yet another example of the power of words.

Naturally, a major focus of many of our conversations (of pretty much everyone, everywhere you went in our community) that long weekend centered upon the status of our electricity. It was not uncommon, if one were to simply grow quiet for a moment, to hear several conversations being carried on at once, each one of which was peppered with the phrases, ”We’ve lost our power;” “I have no power;” “How long will we have to be without power?” “When did you lose your power?” – and innumerable variations on that theme.

We’ve Lost our POWER?

It was our Irish visitors who called our attention to our flagrant disregard for the power of our words. In fact, they didn’t know what Karl and I were talking about when we picked them up at the airport and started babbling about our ‘lost power.’ That’s simply not the way a disruption in electrical service is described in Ireland. Ever. As a result, they were acutely aware of the precise words we were using to describe our situation, for they sounded so odd and curiously out of place.

And they noticed it even more when we gathered at Janet’s home for the retreat. They were astonished by how all these Americans were going on and on about having lost their power. They were appalled at our lack of precision with our vocabulary, and rightly called us out on it.

Precision is Important

Thus, since October of 2012, I know I, and my entire family, have been careful to exercise precision in our language when a situation such as last night’s occurs.

To be clear? Our electricity cut out last night. We did not ‘lose our power.’

Has paying attention to how we describe this situation made a tangible difference in our lives? Who’s to say? One thing I do know, however, is that this was and is a case of walking my talk.

I know the power of words. I have seen how the way we phrase our description of situations can have a remarkable impact upon our perception of experiences. And I have seen words, used often or forcefully enough, wield a great deal of power.

So I pass along this lesson from my Irish brother and sister on to you: Use your power well. And don’t ‘lose’ it indiscriminately!

Aftermath: Brilliant Sky – Photo: L.Weikel

(T- 998)