A Story of Reconnection

Our corner of humanity is in the midst of an unfolding happy story of reconnection that needs sharing.

Almost two months ago we received a letter; more exactly Court received a letter from an address we weren’t familiar with. This letter stood out too. It was in a fancy envelope, obviously a handwritten personal letter. I had to open that letter addressed to my husband. After reading the letter for the third time I headed out to find Court and read it to him.

It started: Dear Mr. C. J. Cressy, and proceeded to explain that the writer of the letter, Judy, was looking for her birth mother, a woman named Carol. As I read the details of the letter to Court his face reflected shock and then confirmation that his sister Carol, and the woman that Judy was looking for were one and the same person.

Well holy doodle, you could have pushed either of us over with a feather. Although Court was at a loss to understand how Carol could have had a child that he didn’t know about, we agreed that I should phone Carol immediately with the news. Within moments Carol was on the phone. I asked if she was sitting down, and then read her the letter. When I heard Carol begin sobbing at the first paragraph I knew a little of what a midwife feels at a birthing. This was a re-birthing and congratulations were definitely the order of the day.

That evening as Court and I sat and reflected on the events and conversations of the day, we both noticed that we felt like a new baby (already happily married with two teenage sons) had come into the family. It was the same wonderful cozy yet expansive feeling we felt when my son Jarod and his wife Jeannette recently had their son Oliver. Carol was ecstatic to hear from Judy. Court is delighted to welcome a new niece in the family. Family and friends on both sides have been queuing up with the intention of getting together eventually for one huge group hug.

Judy has taken to using her birth name by way of accustoming herself to this new world that has opened up…so now it’s Judy-Lynn. Carol and Judy-Lynn made first eyeball to eyeball contact a week ago. A wonderful nerve wracking, spine tingling few hours of tears, hugs and laughter, joy, hope and promise…

I stand as witness to the joy that is coming to so many from Judy-Lynn having the courage to reach out…I stand as witness to Carols courage when she put her name on the list of women willing to be found by the child given up for adoption…I stand as witness to Judy-Lynn’s friend Joanne and the perseverance it took her to wade through the tons of legal paperwork for her friend. I stand as witness to aspects of Divine Feminine energy working through each of us. I stand as witness to the beauty and joy that comes to open loving hearts and spirits with willing minds. I stand as witness to the power and wonder of reconnection.

Today's Blessing from the Garden

There is always something to distract you from work in the garden. The first picture is of Court holding a red winged black bird that he saw fly full force into a window. It’s a gut wrenching sound, one that we hear a couple of times a year, especially during mating season. Court picked him up off the ground where he had fallen head first and held him to warm him. Within a few minutes the bird was holding his head up, and holding on to Court’s hand with a vengeance.

We decided to place him gently back in a tree, the second photo. As I moved around the tree to take the picture his head swiveled to follow the motion, but it didn’t startle him as it should. Ten minutes later when I again approached the tree he flew off to land in the grand daddy fir tree above the chicken coop. It seems that the large sunflower eating beak of the black bird offers him some protection from those types of accidents. Smaller beaked birds like the juncos and towhees have died from flying into the window with less force than this fellow.

Despite the discombombulating feeling of hearing a bird hit the window,it is wonderful when our efforts at helping bear fruit. The chance to help and hold a wild bird and, in this case, capture a beautiful picture is a garden blessing indeed.
PS...I finished digging the potato patch.

Let This Be You

www.heavenletters.org

Let This Be You, April 8, 2008

God said:

Today is your debut. This is the day of your coming-out party. You are coming out of the past and beginning a new venture. This is the springtime of your life. No matter what, no matter your age and circumstances, you are taking a new step, and you know now that you are walking right into My heart. You come right in, and you tell Me a story. You tell Me how your day is going.

Of course, I have accompanied you all along. You are not telling Me anything new. Nevertheless, I am happy to listen to you reveal your story to Me. Your story is entitled "My Life and Times." You are the one telling it, and you scripted a lot of it too.

Every day you write your own story. You may or may not have an outline. Even if you do, you may or may not be able to follow it.

You have an intention every day. I do not mean the intentions to accomplish this task or that, but rather your deeper intentions, a more subtle level of intention, like your intention to do well by the world, like your intention to be happy, to give happiness, like your intention to give up selfishness, like your intention to grow, like your intention to love and to love from now on. Let Us call your story then "My Intention to Love." Carry that intention. It is like a high beam of light that you shine on your life.

Let your intention be more than to merely get through the day without too much debris.

Let's entitle your story "How I Create a Beautiful Day in My Life." What a great title for the beginning of a day. Let everyone steal that title from you. Let it be mass-produced. Let's put it on your calendar.

What will be the story of your life today? You can only write it as you go along. You know that. There are twists and turns to your story. They cannot all be predicted nor prevented nor made to your specification. All you know is that you have a day before you, and that, regardless of everything else, it is up to you to create it. Beloveds, whose day is it if not yours? Perhaps you slip and fall down on ice. You might protest that you did not create the fall, you did not incur it, for who would incur it, you say. And yet you fell - who is there to argue with about it? Your fall is already past. Now what do you do? This is what I am talking about. What do you do now? Your fall does not have to be your downfall.

Here is where you definitely have choices. You can get up. You can be of good cheer. Even if you cannot physically lift yourself, you can get up. You can be what you want to be. You can, spiritually speaking, get up, brush yourself off, and embrace a new balance in your life.

Even if your ankle twisted or broke, you, beloveds, have choices. You may not have a choice about sitting around with your foot up for a while, but how you greet this experience is entirely up to you. Even if you are in pain, how you choose to deal with the pain, that is up to you. If not you, who then?

You may not be able to release yourself from pain, yet you can release yourself from its hold on you. Pain, physical or emotional, does not have to ruin your day. Did someone say it had to? Get up from it, and go on.

Someone is going to trip and fall today. Someone will continue to love Me and love the world and love himself and love those around him just the same. Someone will rise above occurrences. Let this be you, beloved. Let this be you who rises above any spills. This is how you bless the Universe.

Now, come, tell Me how your day is going.

A Message from a Field Mouse

A mouse dropped by unexpectedly. He was carried in by the tail held between the teeth of the cat. My husband re-caught the mouse by the tail and delivered him safely outside. We conjectured about the stories that mouse would take back to the nest about black cats and bipeds. I wondered what the mouse message was. A couple of hours later this “parable” came in the email…I don’t know who the author is.

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

What food might this contain?' The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning :
There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!'

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, 'Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.'

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, 'There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!'

The pig sympathized, but said, 'I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.'

The mouse turned to the cow and said 'There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!'

The cow said, 'Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose.'
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died.

So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

REMEMBER,,,,

EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY;

OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON.

One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a friend!

Create Your Own Paradise

A fall bouquet to accompany this prayer from the InSpirit Newsletter...

...in the final days of this summer that has been both glorious and filled with the hardships of life, go into your own heart and open yourself to love, to the love of your own self and all that you have created in the world. Open yourself to the love of Great Spirit. Open yourself to all of the mirrors that you see in your garden and feel the love of the universe that is reflected there. All of life supports you in your journey towards enlightenment.

Open yourself to the possibility of being, instead of always becoming and longing for something that you can’t even name.

Celebrate all of the changes in your life. Write them down, paint them, sing and dance them alive. Express the goodness of your heart and share your light with all who experience you. The world needs your light

Great Spirit, Mother Earth, Powers of the four directions, my ancestors,

And all those who love me, hear me now.

This is a prayer of thanksgiving for the miracle of life. When I awake

in the morning, Great Spirit, and I take a breath of morning air,

I look toward the sky, searching the morning light for your face,

and when I find it, a radiance comes to me, so beautiful and blissful

that I cannot put words to the gratefulness that is in my heart.

There is much pain and confusion in this world.

And oftentimes I lose my way, and I know not what to do.

Then I sit in silence, and I listen to the high north wind in the pine trees,

and you sing to me. I open my eyes and I look at the flowers

and the miracle of beauty that they are. Again I see your face,

and I wonder at my ignorance. So days go by, and I follow my path of heart,

And I pray to you, Great Spirit, grateful and strong from your grace.

The four-leggeds and the winged ones bring joy to my life, and I thank you

for their presence all around me. Their purity of being reminds me of you,

and I know that they are mirrors, shiny and brilliant with your reflection.

I know that much gives away so that I may live.

The sacred give-away I receive and return, ever grateful for your flowing power within me. Without you, I could not see the beauty that you have given us.

I feel the sun on my face, and I know your warmth, and I know that everything is perfect. I give thanks as I walk my path of beauty.

For you, I live all the days of my life. HO!

In this month of September, go to your garden in your dreaming and in meditation; talk with your guides and allies. Walk with your power animals, ask them how you can express all of your beauty and gratitude in the world? What is holding you back from sharing your dreams and your light? Weed out and release what no longer is necessary to your growth and harmony. Allow your dreams to get plump and juicy with joy, love, and humor! Enjoy this time of transition, and embrace the change that comes with the season.

In Love and Spirit,

Lynn V. Andrews
author of Medicine Woman Series
http://www.lynnandrews.com/

Rainbow Warrior by Lynn V. Andrews

"I am a new warrior of spirit, I exist in a world of sacred balance.
I balance with one foot in the physical world of material substance,
and one foot in the dimensions of spirit and sacred life.
My course is set by my ally - the winds of time.

Mother Earth give me life force - the life blood of my sacred body.
The plants give me nourishment and healing as I ride the windhorse of my intent - my sacred warrior's transport of buoyant joy
into a new and unknown world of harmony.

I am truly a new warrior, an androgynous spirit being of light.
My weapons are the shields of awareness, the symbols of ancient truth and the sacred giveaway.
Like the angels that surround me, few see me for who I really am.

I do commerce in the world, I raise my family.
I live a life dedicated to freedom. I immerse myself in the physical world
so that one day I can give it up, because I can only give up
something that I have truly have.

People learn from me through example, because of the integrity of my own life and spirit.
I move into the world with confidence and wisdom.
I am always open and learning tools of knowledge, and I share these tools with my brothers and sisters.

I am a warrior of the light,
and I live the integrity of that truth with great care
and from a center within myself that is pure goodness -
the embodiment of a peaceful soul.

I walk with confidence the path of heart and personal power. Ho!"

by Lynn V. Andrews author of the Medicine Woman series

What Would Love Do?

Love observes and reserves,
Love feels there is always more to the story.

Love supports and cherishes,
Love feels there is more where that came from.

Love learns and grows, changing gracefully,
Love feels honoured and grateful for the responsibility.

Love ignites, strengthens and impassions
Love feels itself the answer.

Love accepts human darkness with dignity,
Love feels eternal compassion in the face of the illusion.

Love works for the good of the whole,
Love feels oneness with all life forms.

Love defies the illusion of time,
Love feels a soul connection despite death.

Love speaks with tender care and attention,
Love feels others feelings.

Love manifests as light and joy in our lives,
Love is what love would do now.

December 21, 2005

A Happiness Barometer

As a young woman I believed we had only to be kinder to ourselves and each other to fix all the worlds problems. One day in conversation with a friend I was very earnestly exploring the ways in which kindness would lead to happiness and more kindness and happiness...the perfect circle amen. My friend very sincerely shared the opinion that my ideas were polly annish...utopian...in short not concrete enough to pull off the miracles I was inferring a kindness circle would conjure.

Years later the opportunity to return to the conversation with the same friend showed itself and I was much better prepared to finish the conjuring act. I had discovered that one of the reasons that people pooh pooh the power of happy people...there isn't a standard by which to measure or gauge happiness.

Happiness is a lot like the weather...changeable. It made sense to me to adopt the barometer as a way of measuring and gauging happiness.

Some few among us have lived childhoods that didn't infringe on our sense of perfectness. For the rest of us building a happiness barometer from scratch,we may need to spend some time in a playground. When we've lost our feel of and for that perfect state of grace we were born with, we reclaim that feeling, even fleetingly, by sharing the company of young, carefree, joy filled children.

On my happiness barometer I placed a moment I found in my early childhood, a moment in which I unconditionally loved and approved of myself. (It took a year and more of feeling around to find that moment.) That moment is the standard by which I measure how true to myself I'm being.

We are perfect beings who have agreed to fit ourselves into the limitations of a human vessel in order to experience the illusion and forget who we really are. May our awakening and remembering be filled with the strength, compassion and wisdom of peace that is at the core of our every perfect being. So be it