“I send the energy of love and gratitude to the waters and all living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings. To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, planktons, corals, algae … to ALL  living creatures … I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I Love You.”

In the Bible, Exodus 3:14, Moses asks God for His name, and God answers “I am the I am.” There are many, many translations of this Hebrew passage, from the literal to the esoteric, and I won’t go into all of those. I would just like to propose a thought on the way we speak about ourselves, and the way that this passage is presented in the Bible.

It is widely believed that the Divine is in everything, everyone, every rock and stone, every leaf and breath. Even in us.
What if, when God answered Moses (and for the time being, let’s assume that’s what really happened), what if God was giving us a clue about our own potential divinity. About the Divine Spirit in us.

What if each time we said the words “I am” and then finished the phrase with an adjective – we were actually being given a chance to accept and share the Higher Self, or Christ, or Buddha in each of us.

If that were the case, maybe we wouldn’t so habitually say things like: I am fat, I am scared, I am broke, I am exhausted.
Maybe we would take more care, access the Highest bit of us, and say things like: I am great, I am loved, I am happy, I am hopeful. Maybe we would pause for a moment before answering, before using those powerful words: I am…

If you take a moment to really think this over, you might see a possibility here, that our words can mean more than just a quick description of our current mood. That our words might be a proclamation of who we know we are on a much Higher Level, and who we know we are as Children of the Divine, and who we know we are deep within our hearts.

And by the way, this isn’t a Pollyanna approach, always thinking positive and never acknowledging the more difficult or dark parts of life. You cannot ignore what’s not working for you – this is where you get that valuable information: the contrast that you need, to decide what it is that you DO want.

This article is just a thought, to help you shift your focus from what is “wrong” in your life, to what is “right”. Or “right enough for now”. Or even “just a little better than yesterday”. Just a little encouragement to create a habit of focusing on the brighter side of things, rather than perpetuating negative circumstances, with negative speech.

I’ll start: So how am I doing right now, you ask? I am hopeful, and I am grateful.

As I watch helplessly, the goings-on off the Gulf coast, I feel overwhelmed with emotions, from anger, sadness, disappointment, blame…
Being a born and raised Louisiana girl, and being very protective of my “motherland”, it was initially a bit difficult to move past these sorrowful feelings.

As I was asking, in prayer, to be uplifted spiritually, out of the depths, eventually I arrived at gratitude and awe.  These emotions surprised me, in relation to this oil spill.  The gratitude finally came when I meditated on the beauty of our planet.  On the innate ability of the earth to heal herself, much like we humans.  With as much turmoil and strife that we sometimes experience when reinventing our physical or emotional selves (think: healing crisis).

The awe came as I thoughtfully wondered if the earth herself is in revolt, having lost her patience with more subtle warnings…Is she fighting back against the many crimes against her?  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.  Is the earth the ultimate scorned woman?

And if so, do we collectively have the ability and power to soothe her?

I believe that our prayers are heard and felt, not only by Divine Source, but energetically by every living thing on the planet…Why not the Planet herself?  So when you get angry and frustrated about this situation, before that anger takes a toll on you, take a deep breath, and try to shift your feelings to something more resourceful… Please send your loving and thankful thoughts to our earth home.  Thank her for supporting us, and promise to support her to your very best ability.

I think she hears us.

Alyssa helped her son, by delivering information about what her child was inhaling, while sleeping.  What a blessing!

How Intuition Saved My Son, by Monica Wilcox

Dads and moms

Some fathers bring the gift of rule-stretching to their parenting: sneaking out for an ice cream before dinner, showing P.G. 13 movies if they feature hyper-space, sending the kids off to the park with a box of Twinkies and a four pack of Monsters.  This conveniently elevates fathers into the “nice guy” role.  But women, especially mothers, bring their own gifts. One of which is an intuition so acute the brokers on Wall Street dream of possessing it; preferably in a handy pocket inhaler.

The condition

At two months old my son developed a single, quarter-sized psoriasis patch on his cheek.  If we didn’t cream it regularly it would crack like drying mud and bleed.  When we moved from the dry climate of Colorado to the humid hill country of Texas the spot disappeared.  We thought our days of psoriasis had come to an end.

One month before he entered his Kindergarten classroom it returned with a ferocious hunger, working its way over his skin like an oil spill over a naked coast.  It circled his ankles, climbed over his backside, bubbled across his shins and forearms.  We soaked the boy in so much Vaseline we could have safely floated him from Corpus to Cuba, but the crusty patches continued to spread across his body.

The worst was his scalp. I’d pull apart his thick sandy hair to find what looked like the flesh of a carp after a few days on a sunny bank. If I scraped at it, a thick layer would peel back revealing the tender blood fed inner layers of his skin. It took six weeks from that first blemish until he had spots puckered along his eyelids

Seeking help

Of course we took him to his pediatrician, who immediately diagnosed it as psoriasis, prescribed two creams; one for the tender skin and one that was supposed to sandblast the spots from his body.  He gave us the current medical rigamarole: drink lots of water, bath as little as possible and don’t use harsh soap.  He assured us everything would be much better when summer returned and the long hours of sun exposure would force his outbreaks to consistently peel.  Long hours in the sun? Were we jumping from the rooftop of psoriasis onto a truck bed of skin cancer?

We came home with a slim $300 tube of western medicine to begin the nightly routine of dabbing cream on a hundred sores. It was a thirty minute process and although it only cleared up 50% of them, I will say the boy learned a great deal of patience that winter.  In February the school nurse called to ask why I was sending my child to school with chicken pox.

A whisper

Summer came but the psoriasis stayed.  An alarm began to go off in my gut; my intuition was churning.  There were large portions of his arms and legs we could not clear up no matter what we tried.  He was becoming self conscious of the way it looked and I began to wonder who was going to apply cream to his unreachable areas when he went to college.  I also became concerned how the steroid in the prescriptive cream would impact his health over time.  A life time of steroid cream sounded as promising as intense sun exposure.

So I took him to my dermatologist, who confirmed the diagnosis and the cream we were using.  She offered us one other option: regular visits to a non-UV sunbed. This would alleviate the psoriasis but not cure it. The cream was starting to look affordable.

Insistent intuition

My intuition went from a drone to a scream. I started talking to other parents who had a child suffering from psoriasis only to find families as frustrated as ours.  One exhausted mother, on her doctor’s advice, was giving her daughter a bleach bath twice a day to alleviate any bacteria irritating the sores.

I was unwilling to accept a lifetime of steroids and embarrassment for my son without a fight.  Why did I think there was a fight to be had; a possibility of trumping a “genetic” skin disorder?  Because try as it might, logic will never get past the intuition bouncer at club motherhood.

I kept turning back to the beginning. Why had he gone from absolutely healthy to a mistaken case of small pox in a few weeks? Could this possibly be a food allergy? Could it be a reaction to the stress of starting school? I decided the least I could do for him was open my own little investigation. I made an appointment with the central Texas pediatric dermatologist (a nine month waiting list) who kindly informed me they had never heard of a food allergy connection.

My intuition had climbed up onto its high-horse and there was no pulling it down. It was yelling at me now, telling me it was foolish to wait nine months to meet the specialist while other avenues could be looked into.  But where to turn?  A nutritionist? Acupuncture? A herbalist?

Beyond medicine

Once you’ve stepped beyond the proverbial “medical box” you find there is quite a bit of room for exploration. I decided to make an appointment with Alyssa Alvord, a psychic medium, who came highly recommended and has an outstanding reputation. I’d pay $90 for a seat in the specialist’s office, so why not spend $70 for a bit of guidance in this new territory?

After I briefly explained to Alyssa how the psoriasis had exploded before kindergarten, she asked simply “What happened to his bed around this time?”  I had been prepared for “whey allergy” or “emotional stress” but this question threw me.  I explained that there had been no change to his bed but we had relocated it into a new home that July.  “It’s the new carpet.” She stated, without validating that, yes, in fact we had installed new carpet. “Specifically, it’s the formaldehyde fuming off the backing of the carpet.  Anything with formaldehyde: shampoo, detergent, dryer sheets, will inflame his system until he reaches an intolerance level which will trigger the psoriasis.”  Alyssa went on to tell me exactly which store I needed to go to purchase an eco-safe carpet sealer and how to go about applying it.

Labor of love

I had a choice.  I could either sacrifice my back to a full day of hand brushing this clear gel over my carpet or I could wait months to see what the medical specialist thought.  It came down to this: If he was allergic to formaldehyde I could save him years of discomfort, embarrassment and expense.  Was it worth some hard labor to find out?  If you’re a parent, you already know I was sweeping my upgraded new carpet with an oversized bristled broom two days later.

One week; that’s all it took to receive our answer.  One week and 90% of his breakouts were gone, two weeks and only a few spots were left on his scalp.  We haven’t used a prescriptive cream on his body since I sealed the carpet. We came full circle when the psoriasis began to creep back onto his shins again seven months later; the carpet sealant wears off after six months.  By all accounts an environmental contaminate had triggered a physical reaction in my son’s skin. Even more amazing was the power of my intuition, which I believe is connected to the same spiritual energy as Alyssa’s. A woman’s gut should never be ignored.

The necessity of intuition

I contacted both dermatologists to inform them that it appeared formaldehyde had triggered my son’s psoriasis. Since neither had heard of any connection between psoriasis and environmental contaminants I was met with skeptical interest by one and total disqualification by the other.  This was incredibly frustrating since I’ve met so many children over the last year suffering with this ailment who may be responding to the overexposure of a chemical in their own environment. I wasn’t asking our local doctors to hold a press conference but I was hoping they would consider the possibility with their other patients.

As our environment becomes more entrenched with chemicals and higher levels of pollen, wouldn’t it be wise to question the body’s ability to handle exposure to these contaminants?  If these concerns are not addressed by the medical profession than maybe they should be pushed by the intuition of millions of women.

Children have a strong intuition but do not possess the knowledge or language to follow it.  This makes the intuition of their parents even more critical.  Shouldn’t we stand as the primary expert of our child’s health? Shouldn’t we stand as the expert of our own health? When our gut begins to scream do we feel confidant enough to step up as a health advocate, and if need be, to go beyond the assumptions of western medicine for an explanation in the unproven?

Trusting my gut,
Monica

published at  http://www.owningpink.com

There are, many times, that this feeling of needing to be rescued from our own financial issues is very real.  And why do some people keep finding themselves in that position?  Where the job didn’t work out…or just as soon as you have your money situation pretty stable – some big medical bill arrives, or the dog needs surgery, or the plumbing goes berserk?

Or the debt just keeps growing and growing, with no end in sight?  We’ll get to more specifically How To Solve these money problems next month, but one of the first steps is to heal the rescue pattern.  For some people, the following will help:

If you take a deep breath, and allow yourself to daydream about your life, your past…can you remember a time when you felt that you needed to be rescued – for real – not financially?

Like, were you in a car accident?  Were you mugged?  Were you learning to swim, and truly felt like you were in danger (even if you really weren’t)?  Did you watch a house or building burn down?

If you ever felt like you were in real danger, or felt like you might need a good rescuing — this can translate in your mind as a trauma situation, that can then become a thought pattern.  And if you believe that your thoughts can influence your reality, even a little bit, then what we have here is an underlying subconscious thought/trauma that’s popping up, every time we get stressed or in trouble, “OH NO, RESCUE ME!  I can’t do this on my own!”

The answer to healing this is multi-faceted and complex, but the first step in releasing this type of pattern, and taking care of yourself financially, is to remember the original issues or events.  Then as you’re thinking of them, affirm, out loud:  Even though I needed rescuing in the past, I know now that I can rescue myself, all is well, and I am safe.

Every time you think of your current financial situation, or a past trauma where you needed big-time help — repeat that affirmation.  Begin healing your financial issues at the core.  Not everyone has this Rescue pattern, but if you see yourself in this scenario, today is a great time to start releasing yourself from the bondage of the past.  You can be the rescuer that you’ve been waiting for!

I’ve had so many questions about 2012, and I anticipate many more between now and December of 2012 — so I’ll start addressing these now, with the information that I’ve been given.

First of all, I can tell you that I don’t believe that the world will end in 2012. I DO believe however, like the words to that R.E.M. song, it’ll be “the end of the world as we know it.” Things have already starting changing – we’re in the middle of a really big shift in awareness, consciousness, and electromagnetism.

What I mean by that is that we’ll go through a lot of changes, which have already started. The 2012 thing isn’t an event that happens in just one day, or even one year. It’s already started, it’s been building up for the last several years…and the approximately 5000 year cycle will end in Dec 2012. Then there’ll be a “cooling down” period of several years, before we start to feel more stable again.

THE PLANET

As far as the planet goes, lots of people have lots of different ideas and scary predictions for 2012…I intentionally didn’t see that 2012 movie, so I wouldn’t have those frightening images in my mind!

What’s happening physically is that our solar system is in the shortest part of it’s orbit, bringing us the farthest away from the core of the Milky Way. This is the 5th or 6th cycle of this, according to ancient records. Our position in this orbit determines how we experience the natural magnetism of the earth and the core of the Milky Way. It’s the change in magnetism that’s causing all the issues.

The intuitive information that I’ve been given, is that we will experience more natural disasters between now and Dec 2012, unfortunately. More earthquakes (bigger earthquakes), more flooding, more hurricanes (big ones), etc. You can see this has already started happening – and it’s no coincidence. I’m sorry to say that the info that I received, was that these will continue, and become more frequent as we approach December 2012.

These events will gradually lessen in frequency and severity after that date…it’ll take several years after that, for things to return to “normal disaster proportion.” Not as frequent, not as severe, and not in big clusters of events.

Also, you can expect our natural resources (oil, water, etc.) to be further depleted, between now and then.

WIRES AND WAVES

Not being a scientist, I can’t explain exactly what is happening electromagnetically – but I can tell you that we’re in a shift on that front. We’ll most likely see more and more wireless type devices, more electromagnetic “pollution”, leading up to 2012…then we’ll probably see some sort of change on that front. The information I’ve been given is that, for our personal health, we must protect ourselves from this type of pollution. Turn off your cell phone at night, while you’re sleeping – or keep it in another room. Turn off your wireless router at night.

The Guides say that your own natural electromagnetic field is being negatively affected by these signals. This affects your immune system and your nervous system, mainly. (Early symptoms: trouble sleeping, nightmares, anxiety, depression, recurring infections, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, immune issues, etc.)

LIFESTYLE & RELATIONSHIPS

Here’s something else you might find interesting: there will be a separation of the “wheat from the chaff” (it’s already started)…So, there will be some folks who, even during these dark times, will seek God (the Divine), seek goodness, seek positive community, seek healing, and engage in the process of remembering who they are (a deep remembering, re-connecting with your Divine self).

And then there will be those who do just the opposite: they will seem to be more disconnected from their own truth, from other people, from the Light of the Divine. They will essentially be “forgetting” who they are. These folks will also become kind of “seekers of darkness” (the phrase The Guides used). This means that they will actually seek out negativity, dark destructive habits, revenge, and tearing others down. It may even seem to be “in fun” and lot of people won’t take their dark efforts seriously. But take notice here! Strange, right? We all know someone in this group.

This is where relationships and communities can become strongly divided. If you are starting to be attracted to folks who radiate more positive vibes – go with it! And if you’re feeling that some people are just too draining and negative for you, that’s ok. It’s that natural division happening.

And if you find that you’re hiding from your problems more, and looking for more ways to escape your life – get some help! You have plenty of time to shift what road you’re on…All you have to do is be headed in the right direction, of truth, love and acceptance. You don’t have to have it all figured out by a certain date! You just have to accept that you are part of the Divine, work on loving and accepting yourself, and want to contribute more positively to the world. The details will fall into place if your intention is to be a person “of Light”.

So what are the symptoms that we will feel, now that we’re approaching 2012? Some of you more sensitive types (and some that are not so sensitive) will be feeling some of the following:

More unstable emotionally

More unstable financially

Increasing sensitivity, physically and psychically

Feeling like you are starting to “see through” people’s facades, you know when someone’s not being truthful

Starting to trust your intuition more and more – getting more “evidence” than ever before

A gradual (painful, uncomfortable, but necessary) return to your more “authentic self”

Relationships falling away that aren’t supportive or positive (even family or spouses)

Jobs falling away that aren’t supportive or positive

OVERVIEW

Yes, this will continue to be a difficult time in some ways. Natural disasters will become more frequent and more severe. You’ll either be drawn much closer to those you love, or you will break free…the middle ground won’t really exist anymore…at least for a while. (The “keepin on, keepin on” folks will be forced to make a decision, through some situation or means.)

And pay attention to your health, more than you ever have before. We are all under the influence of changing magnetic forces, and we must keep our bodies strong and healthy, and our minds positive and supportive. If we stay flexible and loving – we’ll be just fine! And none of us will achieve that alone – supporting each other is paramount now more than ever!

We have reason to be excited about the coming years – it may be uncomfortable and strange at times – but time is giving birth to a new age, and we’re here to be a part of it!

What am I to learn here?  What is the gift?

Both of these folks are devoutly Christian.  Really good, nice people.  Honorable.  Both feel that what I do isn’t “of God”.  Now, I know, with no doubt, no exception, that what I do, and who I am, IS of God.  My world, my work, my life – is of God.  Just like You are of God, too.   The faith I have in the Divine is what enables me to effectively use these God-given gifts.  And that relationship is always growing and changing – but I wouldn’t be here, be able to do anything – without this relationship with the Great Spirit.

So, knowing my truth – I chose to not confront these people, just to let them have their opinions, and to allow them to be in their truth, unchallenged.  Was that the right thing to do?  I’m not sure.  But, I believe that we all have a right to be in our truth, whatever that is, and if we find out later something different – it doesn’t mean that we were wrong – it just means that our truth has changed.

So as I reflect on this, and reflect on my Southern Baptist upbringing (where my gifts – who I am – wasn’t understood or safe for me), I spend some time this morning in meditation on I Corinthians 12-14 (Revised Standard version):

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”

and

“Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For … he who prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. … I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues… If any one thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord. … So, my brethren, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues; but all things should be done decently and in order.”

Does this make one of us right, and one of us wrong.  I don’t think so.  Acceptance comes in many shapes and forms, for example – how long did it take me to accept myself?  Just the way I am?  “Make love your aim” really stands out to me this morning.  Every day I remind myself “I love and accept myself fully”.  I also love and accept those folks, who don’t necessarily love and accept me.  Which is harder to do, accept yourself, or others?  Is it important to have acceptance from other people?  Sure feels good, but is it necessary?  And am I willing to accept that I attracted this experience, to feel momentarily un-accepted?  Or is the whole lesson for me to up the ante on accepting myself as one of God’s children, gifts and all…