Remembrance Day 2025

 

Today, we pause to reflect, honour, and remember. On this day, we honour the Canadians who have served and sacrificed in times of conflict and peace, as well as those who continue to serve today.  We all need to recognize that the many freedoms we are fortunate to enjoy are because of the profound contributions of Veterans and their families within our communities. Today and always, we remember. Blessings, Judy

Black Bear Is A Teacher

Yesterday, we went to Elbow Falls to spend some time outside while it was so warm.  However, when we got there, the Falls were closed due to extreme bear activity.  We went on to another pond, and spent a couple of wonderful hours.  On our way home, a good sized black bear stopped and looked at us, and then crossed the road at a trot.

Black Bear is about being un-encumbered.  It is about the freedom to roam, and to be respected.  Black Bear is about connecting to the wildest part of who we are.

Black Bear is a teacher.  She talks about the perfect timing for things:  new projects, new creativity, new lessons about growth and spirituality.  In her wisdom, she demonstrates the power of retreat.  Most beings do not get enough sleep.  Black Bear says that bears and other creatures like her, know that it is imperative to the creative process of life to get lots of sleep, and to be at one with self.  For humans, this retreat may be for meditation, or for a silent retreat, or even for a retreat into the wilds of nature.

When we emerge from retreat, we will again appreciate the abundance of life, and the sweetness of the world.

Blessings,

Judy

Bucking Bronco’s Message

 

July and August are especially about rodeos and exhibitions across Alberta.  One of the more popular rodeo events is the bare back and saddle bronc riding.  I believe that this influence is why a spirit wild horse wandered into my meditation with thoughts to share.

**********************

Today is about freedom.  A bucking horse comes galloping and bucking across my meadow in my meditation.  Bronco has some thoughts to share.

• Freedom is about NOT being restrained. 
• Throw off anything that does not suit you. 
• If you want to go some place new, full steam ahead at a gallop. 
• Exercise is not just about walking – it is about running and jumping. 
• When your head is down, it is hard to put a rope around it. 
• There is always someone who wants to saddle you with something. 
• Don’t let anyone touch your ears! 
• If you let them, people will run you in circles.  
• When someone holds out a carrot, they definitely have a hidden agenda.

Blessings,

Judy

Teachings From A Holstein Steer

One of my memories of my childhood is a black and white Holstein steer. He was one of Dad’s feeder steers in the corral.  For some reason, Harry, which is what we called him, liked kids.  He would come over and stand beside us, bringing with him a mouthful of hay.  Or, after he’d finished at the water trough, he would come over to have his shoulders rubbed or the spot above his eyes and below his horns rubbed.  

 

Picture of a Holstein bull to approximate the size of the steer.

Dad was worried that he might hurt us because he was so big.  However, he was extremely gentle with us.  My brother and I got to the point where we would get up on his back and talk to him, and get him to walk around the corral.  The other steers just seemed to think he was the oddest thing.  They would stare at him when he was with us kids.  If we were riding Harry near them, they would snort or bellow, and move away.  At one point, my brother and three of his friends were all sitting on Harry’s back. All the boys were ten years old.  

One day, someone left the back gate unchained and when the steers rubbed against it, the gate opened.  The thirty or so steers stampeded to freedom.  They ran out into another big field, and when they saw how green the grass was, they stopped running and began to graze.  After realizing that the steers were out, Dad organized my brother and I in a chute arrangement and Dad and our dog, Flash, headed out to the field to round the steers up.  They came running in as fast as they ran out, and were prepared to run past the gate, over top of my brother and I, and head east.  Harry was running with the rest of them.  When he got to us, he slowed down and stopped with both of us kids in front of him and out of the way of the other cattle.  When the herd passed us, Harry went around us and trotted off after them.  Yes, we eventually got the steers back in several hours.  After all, they would not want to miss their evening feeding.  

What I learned from our time with Harry, through the playing with him, and his affection, are the following ideas:

• It is okay to have interests outside of your friends and family.  New interest broaden your horizons.
• Always protect your friends.
• When people gang up on you, you don’t need to get angry or be afraid; simply stand firm.
• Kindness and affection know no boundaries. Love is permanent in your heart.
• Sometimes you need to break the patterns in order to see how good routine and life, in general, are for you.
• Just because it seems you have a lot in life, it doesn’t mean that you can’t aspire to something else.
• Four legged friends are sometimes truer than two legged friends.
• Friends may pass through your life, however, the memories last a lifetime.

Blessings,

Judy

Buddha Speaks On Generosity

The practice of generosity is the practice of freedom, and it carries with it all the joy and pleasure that are associated with liberation. Indeed, there may be no greater sense of fulfillment in life than the simultaneous feelings of human interconnection and pure freedom that arise from an authentic act of selfless generosity.

- Dale S. Wright, “The Bodhisattva’s Gift” 

 

It is hard to imagine in our world filled with so much abundance, that we collectively seem to have trouble with generosity.  The other part of generosity that puzzles me is that so many people want to tell you a) that you should be generous, and b) how much you need to give in order to be generous.

The conflict for me is the judgement and control that seems to be in our society around generosity.  If generosity must come from the heart, how can someone set standards of giving, or pass judgement on those that they perceive do not give?  

The passage above caught my attention because it says “generosity is the practice of freedom”.  The words resonated deep within me.

Generosity is taking time to do something kind for someone else, without acknowledgement from anyone other than the receiver, and if it is anonymous, then without acknowledgement at all.  How wonderful is this gift to self!

Blessings,

Judy

Love Is In All Beings

 

 

Horse on its mum's lap
Some pictures just don't need captions.
There is nothing like Mum's lap no matter who you are. 

This is a newborn offspring of Taskin, a Gypsy Stallion owned by Villa Vanners of Oregon ..
These pictures were taken immediately after his birth on April 6.   The mare lay down, and then he trotted around and crawled right up into her lap

 

 

 

One of my friends knows how much I like animals. She has gifted me with a set of animal pictures that are amazing!

There are some BIG messages in these actions.

1. All beings on Earth are capable of love.
2. Love is about acceptance, caring, responsibility, and freedom.
3. All beings do better with love.
4. Every being does better with a hug!

Blessings,

Judy

Black Horse on Freedom and Energy

As I sat in meditation.  I asked what animals wanted to come in, and what they wanted to talk about.   One of the first animals through the archway was a beautiful black horse.  It was as though a great wind was blowing through my room.

The Black Horse said:

People talk about freedom and the most common thing in the conversation is that there are a whole lot of things that they do not want to do.  Horse has always known that freedom is about making the choice to keep the community – the herd – together and to protect one another.  Horse has learned that freedom means nothing if you are open to attack from the wolf.  Freedom is only a benefit if you can feed, water, and have young.

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For more wisdom from horses, see the following blog posts:

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2024/10/black-horse-in-meditation.html

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2023/09/horse-on-sleeping.html

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2023/11/horses-world-compared-to-ours.html

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2023/09/horse-on-community.html

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2024/07/dream-of-winged-horse-guide.html

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2023/07/a-pinto-horse-visits-in-dream-time.html

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2023/02/thoughts-from-young-colt-spirit-animal.html

Many blessings,

Judy

Allow Yourself Freedom

The poster reads, “From this day on, when I look back on the past, I will smile and say to myself “I never thought I could do it…but I did… I overcame all the people who tried to bring me down.” 

My friend Vivian sent this poster to me.  It made me think of all the times that people have said to me, “It can’t be done.” When I moved to Calgary for work, my friends said that I would not like living there.  They said that I would not have friends.  They also said that I would not succeed. 

When I mediated and checked with Spirit, I heard the words “do what you need to do to allow yourself freedom to choose.  I moved.  I prospered.  I have lots of friends.  I have succeeded! 

When people  believe that they are defeated, I feel sad!   There is nothing better than achieving a goal for self.

Blessings,

Judy

Generosity

Poster reads - We make a living by what we get, but we make  a life by what we give.

The practice of generosity is the practice of freedom, and it carries with it all the joy and pleasure that are associated with liberation. Indeed, there may be no greater sense of fulfillment in life than the simultaneous feelings of human interconnection and pure freedom that arise from an authentic act of selfless generosity.

- Dale S. Wright, “The Bodhisattva’s Gift” 

 

It is hard to imagine in our world filled with so much abundance, that we collectively seem to have trouble with generosity.  The other part of generosity that puzzles me is that so many people want to tell you a) that you should be generous, and b) how much you need to give in order to be generous.

The conflict for me is the judgement and control that seems to be in our society around generosity.  If generosity must come from the heart, how can someone set standards of giving, or pass judgement on those that they perceive do not give?  

The passage above caught my attention because it says “generosity is the practice of freedom”.  The words resonated deep within me.

Generosity is taking time to do something kind for someone else, without acknowledgement from anyone other than the receiver, and if it is anonymous, then without acknowledgement at all.  How wonderful is this gift to self!

Blessings,

Judy

Angels On Opening Doors

 

The Angels crowded around the meditation room, and the peace and love and harmony massaged the soul.  The Archangels guarded the space to keep all that was in the room safe and sacred.  

Different Angels talked about the coming changes to everything – where fear would be erased, and the blueprint for fight or flight would cease to exist.  They talked of flying and of lights and of energy.  They talked about the rippling of time between locations and planets.  Most of it was over my head in terms of science.  However, the feeling of freedom and joy captured my heart, and a yearning was born.  Or, perhaps it is better to say that it was awakened.  I think I may have always had this yearning.

Then the Angels talked about how many of us will be making huge career changes to get us in place to doing what we love, and to be in different places to be carriers of light – love, compassion, and generosity. They spoke of amazing opportunities opening up, like doors to far away places.  The Sid the changes will be healing for all involved.  

I was excited by this prophecy.  The time frame feels like several months.  The idea of doors opening is beautiful, and comforting.  And, even, as my nephew would say, “Sweet!”

Many Blessings,

Judy

Words of the Day - Honesty and Clarity

Today, when I pulled my words for the day, I was surprised to see the words “honesty” and “clarity”.  I have been in a place where I am getting clarity on my life.   Clarity means to have clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity.  It also means the state or quality of being clear or transparent to the eye as in “the clarity of pure water”.  

However, the honesty part is harder to come by.  It seems that everyone tells small lies.  We are raised that way.  Think of all the things that you were told as a child about Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the horrible things that might happen to you if you did not do as you were told.  All the things we heard from parents and teachers was mostly a lie.  And, they had been raised that way.  

When we read something in a book or in a paper or on the internet, or when we hear things on the TV or radio, we are hearing mostly lies.  Honesty use to mean  the quality or fact of being honest or upright or fair.  You could count on the people that you trusted to be truthful or sincere, or frank.  We all want that freedom from deceit or fraud.  

The word honesty made me think of our friend who lost his house because the mortgage company did not accept his mortgage payments.  They returned them unopened.  You see, there was bailout money available to the company if they had a certain percentage of mortgages default.  The company made more money on the bailout then what the mortgages were worth.  The environment was set up for them to be not honest for their mortgagees, and yet to be honest to their shareholders, and to bring in a certain quota of money.  

Isn’t it ironic that we can be dishonest and honest at the same time?  It all depends on the point of view. 

Blessings,

Judy

Danger For The People

Rain is the first image

Fish is the second image 

(figure from The Ancestors’ Path by John Lavinnder)

When I asked what was important for me to share with the world today, the above sequence came up in “The Ancestors’ Path.  I pondered the teaching.  The Season reflected is “winter”.  The direction is “north”, and the moon phase is “waxing or growing” with the intent that people understand and are motivated.

The translation of this is that some rain is good for the Earth.  Too much rain, and the people and the land suffer.  The underlying message is that bad leaders make life difficult, and war like.  In fact, on message says that “unscrupulous leaders use war to cover bad leadership.”  Those of us that live in North America have seen a lot of bad leadership over the last decade.  We see it in our government and in our corporations.  We see it in the way large pharmaceuticals and automotive companies control government, and work with government to take away some of the freedoms of people.  We see it in how the financial businesses gouge people for interest and user fees.  There is not any reciprocity.  That means that all of the inequities must end… they are pouring down on us, and we are drowning.

The action plan for this path is “escape from tyranny”, or “take a risk that moves you beyond the control of others”.  

My wish for each of us is that we become free from unrelenting financial burdens created by bending the truth, and by the masking of outcomes… for example, how mortgages are sold.

May each of us move to independence in thought and action,

Many blessings,

Judy

Buffalo’s Guidance

                                          

I sit quietly and fall into my meditation.

Snort, and pawing, and more snorting.  I know that Buffalo has arrived.  As ever, he comes in with his big head shaking a greeting, and his snorts telling me that he is well.  He settles in for a visit.

Buffalo has visited before and provided a view of the future, where things are just a bit wilder, and where animals each have their own power.  

Today, Buffalo is talking about restoring balance to the plains and mountains, and indeed, to the world.  Buffalo says that keeping the animals locked up is not the answer to restoring balance.  Nor is conservation of animals the way to go.  Some species need to die down before they can evolve to the next thing that they were meant to be.  And, in some cases, that species is no longer required as a training place for souls.  A new, improved (isn’t that what marketers say?) animal is waiting to be activated by soul groups.  

Buffalo says that the challenge that faces humans is not that the other species are dying; the challenge is that perhaps the human race has reached its pinnacle and needs to die off.  Buffalo says that his kind is pushing for more freedom, much like humans have been for a very long time.  He complains that fences are too much control, although he understands the need to keep animals off roads and railway tracks.

He shook his head and gave me a lick, and told me he needed to get back to the others, and he was gone.

Blessings

Judy

Happy vs Unhappy

From the site - https://jessicadimas.com/spiritual-quotes/

I was reading an article about a First Nations village in Northern Alberta that had to be evacuated because the fire was coming so quickly.  Many had dogs in their families.  The evacuation team said that after the people were settled safely, they would come back for the dogs.  Before the helicopters got back, another village was under evacuation order and the helicopters never got back.  Three people stayed to look after the sixty dogs hoping that the fire would not wipe them all out.  Five days later, the people were allowed to return.  All rushed to find their dogs and according to the eye witnesses, many cried tears of joy.

It made me think about happy people.  Happy people are filled with love and joy and have an abundance of both to share with others.  I know because I am lucky enough to have several very happy friends.  They are always working on little projects and learning new things.  I have never heard them blame anyone else or any circumstance for their place in life.

Many blessings,

Judy
 

Be Your Original Self

              

Nature creates species of things and then lets them develop the way that they need to.  Very few things in Nature are identical.  The amount of freedom and creativity within Nature is awe inspiring.

Humans however, seem to think that they need to "copy" someone else.  They believe that to mimic is to show praise.  Instead, it shows absence of originality and creativity.  To copy is to minimalize the beauty of the self.

Today, be your original self!

Many blessings,

Judy

Christmas Eve with Spirit Animal - Cardinal

                              

“This year, work to be like Cardinal. Here is Cardinal's message.

• Eat only those foods that agree with you, and that provide you with the nourishment that you need to keep your body healthy.
• Feed someone else.  Cardinal’s feed one another when they are tired, sick, or mating.  In the presenting of food, we show our worth.
• Go to places that you have never been before.  Be adventuresome.  This is the true calling of all beings, to go and see new things.  Staying in one place, with the familiar, is a form of fear.
• Take up a physical activity – mountain climbing or rock climbing, walking, running, swimming, hiking (in the mountains), biking, kayaking, or playing some sport.  Cardinal stays fit by flying and hopping through the trees. Physical health gives you freedom.
• Find a class that interests you, and take it, even if it is outside your normal range of what people think you are about.  Cardinal has always watched other birds and learned from them, and than passed this on to their flock.
• Go outside and listen – not with a music thing in your ears.  Listen to the sounds of all of us birds, and of all of Nature.  This will help you grow and to feel the beat of life that is growing louder in Mother Earth.  It will help you find balance.

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Blessings,

Judy

Spirit Animal - Nightingale's Song

  

This picture of a Nightingale Bird from common-nightingale-night-5a959ce8c673350037c9f3a4.jpg (1500×1000) (thespruce.com)

Since I was little, I have been intrigued by tales of the Nightingale.  She is featured in many fairy tales, such as “The Nightingale” by Hans Christian Anderson.  In all of the stories, people want to own the Nightingale to possess her beautiful song.  

For this Christmas, Nightingale brings a message that true freedom is not about being able to capture and control things and people or animals; true freedom is about being free to let all beings act and live exactly as they are meant to… unconditionally as nature intended.

Nightingale’s message is also in this beautiful traditional Christmas carol from Spain. 

The Gift

A poor orphan girl named Maria
Was walking to market one day
She stopped for a rest by the roadside
Where a bird with a broken wing lay
A few moments passed till she saw it
For it's feathers were covered with sand
But soon clean and wrapped it was travelling
In the warmth of Maria's small hand
She happily gave her last peso
On a cage made of rushes and twine
She fed it loose corn from the market
And watched it grow stronger with time
Now the Christmas Eve service was coming
And the church shone with tinsel and light
And all of the townfolks brought presents
To lay by the manger that night
There were diamonds and incense
And perfumes
In packages fit for a king
But for one ragged bird in a small cage
Maria had nothing to bring
She waited till just before midnight
So no one would see her go in
And crying she knelt by the manger
For her gift was unworthy of Him
Then a voice spoke to her through the darkness
Maria, what brings you to me
If the bird in the cage is your offering
Open the door and let me see
Though she trembled, she did as He asked her
And out of the cage the bird flew
Soaring up into the rafters
On a wing that had healed good as new
Just then the midnight bells rang out
And the little bird started to sing
A song that no words could recapture
Whose beauty was fit for a king
Now Maria felt blessed just to listen
To that cascade of notes sweet and long
As her offerings was lifted to heaven
By the very first nightingale's song

                   -Unknown Author  

You can listen to Garth Brooks sing this beautiful Christmas song at The Gift - YouTube.  Remember that links to YouTube change over time so this song may disappear.

Many blessings,

Judy