Pray For ?

 

The poster says,” Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”

-Bruce Lee

This past year, many of my friends and family have had huge challenges to face.  Sometimes it was financial, sometimes health, and sometimes unbelievable storms that wrecked things. 

The poster talks about praying for strength.  I think that this year - 2025 - we all will need extraordinary strength to deal with all of the events that will transpire.  Some may not touch us directly, however, everything touches us indirectly. 

Today, I wish you strength and peace and hope.

Judy

Crab Motion

 

Sometimes, in my meditation, I have the most unusual interactions with animals.  This post is about Crab and comes from a meditation journal from several years ago.

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Crabs typically walk sideways (a behaviour which gives us the word crabwise). This is because of the articulation of the legs which makes a sidelong gait more efficient. – Wikipedia

Crab also moves forward and backward.  Crab says that motion, regardless of the direction, is still motion.  Motion carries you as you work through your purpose.  Purpose is simply taking action, doing what you know you need to do without the prompting or without following other’s expectations.  

When you are in motion, you are searching.  Although you may believe that you know the destination, along the way, the destination may change.  Thus, you are ever watching for the signs that move you along.  

Crab is always looking for food and for safety.  She tells you that along the journey that you are taking, life will be better if you remember to care for yourself, as part of safety, and that eating the foods that suit your body will also ensure your safety and health.  Specialists and doctors all have different ideas of what the best foods are.  You can tell what foods best serve you by simply holding them to your heart and hearing/feeling/knowing or seeing that the food suits you, or not.

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Blessings,

Judy

50 Golden Rules For Life

Picture of mountains in Elbow Falls Wilderness Area - by J. Hirst

Often, I find that I need a pick-me-up mental or spiritual boost on some morning.  I read a lot and sometimes find nuggets of good information in places I do not expect to find anything useful.

Last month, I was scanning LinkedIn and found this wonderful posting by Alvin Foo on LinkedIn on February 24 2024.  His thoughts and his rules for life are worth sharing.

50 GOLDEN RULES FOR LIFE.

1. Never shake hands at anyone without standing up.

2. In a negotiation, never make the first offer.

3. If they trust you a secret, keep it.

4. If they lend you a car, return it with a full tank.

5. Do things with passion or don't do it at all.

6. When you shake your hand make it firm and look that person in the eye.

7. Live the experience of traveling alone.

8. Never turn down a peppermint pill, the reasons are obvious.

9. Take advice if you want to grow old.

10. Come eat with the new person at school/office.

11. When you text someone and you're angry: finish, read it, delete it, and rewrite the message.

12. At the table you don't talk about work, politics, or religion.

13. Write your goals, and work on them.

14. Defend your point of view but be tolerant and respectful to others.

15. Call and visit your relatives.

16. Never regret anything, learn from everything

17. Honor and loyalty must be present in your personality.

18. Don't lend money to someone you know won't pay you back.

19. Believe in something.

20. Tend your bed when you wake up in the mornings.

21. Sing in the shower.

22. Care for a plant or a garden.

23. Keep an eye on the sky every chance you get.

24. Discover your skills and exploit them.

25. Love your job or leave it.

26. Ask for help when you need it.

27. Teach someone a value, preferably a small one.

28. Appreciate and thank the one who extends your hand.

29. Be kind to your neighbors.

30. Make someone's day happier, it will make you happier too.

31. Compete with yourself.

32 Treat yourself at least once a year

33. Take care of your health.

34. Always greet with a smile.

35. Think fast but speak slow.

36. Don't talk with a mouth full.

37. Polish your shoes, cut your nails, and always keep a good look.

38. Don't put your opinion on issues you don't know.

39. Never mistreat anyone.

40. Live your life as if it were the last day of it.

41. Never miss a wonderful opportunity to remain quiet.

42. Recognize someone for their effort.

43. Be humble, even though not all the time.

44. Never forget your roots.

45. Travel when you can.

46. Give up the step.

47 Dance in the rain.

48. Seek your success without giving up.

49. Be fair, stand up for those who need you.

50. Learn to enjoy moments of loneliness.

Many blessings,

Judy

Sea Gull is a Spirit Animal

Sea gulls live in seaports and around big water.  There are many gulls in Calgary as they follow the river system.

What do we know about gulls?  Well, many of us are fans of the book “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” because it was about following your heart and achieving as much as you could achieve.  It was inspirational and a heart warming story at the same time.  Yet, Sea Gull is often chased away and regarded as a nuisance bird.  Why is that? 

                                                           Picture is from unsplash.com

  

Sea gulls live in seaports and around big water.  There are many gulls in Calgary as they follow the river system.

What do we know about Sea Gull?  Sea Gull eats rubbish, pulls apart garbage bags if they smell good, eats dead fish as well as live ones, eats dead meat that washes onto shore or is road kill, eats vegetation, and makes messy nests out of whatever garbage it can find.  Sea Gull is noisy – she talks all the time to all those in the flock around her. There is a very loose social structure in the flock, and yet it is honoured.

So, if Sea Gull shows up in your life, what message is she bringing you?  It may be several messages or one message that will resonate with you.  Sea Gull shows up because:

1. She finds garbage around your house/yard and she is telling you to start recycling, reusing, and rethinking what you are eating and buying and throwing away.
2. She says you are eating out too much or eating too many packaged foods.  She eats what is immediately around her – the original 100 mile diet.  Are you eating healthily?  Sea Gull does – even if we consider it garbage.
3. Sea Gull flies around and soars and wheels and has fun.  She asks you to lighten up and go out and try new things – yell a little.  Making noise is good for your primal self.
4. Are you too quiet?  Do you need to find some friends?  Sea Gull has a lot of friends and is quite comfortable expressing herself.  Perhaps you need to take lessons about communicating and about relationship building from Sea Gull.
5. Sea Gull treats her flock members with fairness and respect. Situations like first come, first served are common and the others wait.  Are you too pushy?  Do you respect others, or do you consider yourself above the common Gull?

Enjoy the teachings of Sea Gull.  She does not usually show up often.

Blessings,

Judy

New Year’s Day - January 1 2024

 

It is here!  The New Year!  2024! 

We all look forward to a wonderful, fresh start when a new year rolls around.  What are you looking for?  Improved health?  A new job?  Better relationships with family and friends?  A trip to a faraway place?

These are all wonderful goals.  Before you look to the future, take a few minutes to think about what things did not go well in 2023.  See if you can decipher why those events went from perfect to chaos.  Remember to take responsibility if you had a role in why things did not go according to plan.  If the fault was another person or group of people, maybe look at whether you need to have them in your life.  We all need to shed the things and people that do not serve our life.

I suggest that you add a couple of things to your goals.  These are:

-regular exercise

-meditation at least once a week or more

-deciding to put healthy, wholesome food into your body

-being loving everyday

I do wish each of you a fantastic 2024!  I believe that for all the wars and corruption in our politics around the world, that 2024 will be a positive year for all people, if the person lets it be.

Happy New Year!

Many blessings,

Judy

Happy vs Unhappy People Who Volunteer

My friend and I were walking with our dogs and talking about life.  She chairs a fund raising event that has run annually for thirteen years and raises over $50,000 each year.  She has been very successful at running this two day event.

We were talking about what makes people join groups and volunteer.  Her experience over the years is that people are happy to volunteer and help with an event when the end goal helps a lot of people and when the event is fun to participate in.  She says that she has been very lucky to have strong volunteers that are generous with their time and that have great ideas and throw their whole effort into being part of the event.

Recently, however, some of her staunch volunteers have had to pull back because of ill health or simply ageing and not able to do the level of energy that is required.  She has taken on new volunteers.  Some of these volunteers, she says, are simply unhappy all the time.  They find fault with the event.  They find fault with new ideas.  They say that they are happy to help and yet they do not want to put a lot of effort into their volunteer-ship. They complain about the timing of the event, the length of time it runs, about the customers that come (and spend a LOT of money), and about the venue.  She says that these folk are simply unhappy with life and want to take their unhappiness out on her and the others that love the event.  She finally suggested that they may not want to volunteer at the event since it did not meet their standards.  Then these folk were incensed that she suggest that they were not good enough to help out!  

Our discussion was around how she could meet the requirements of these six volunteers.  My thought was that you cannot make unhappy people happy because happiness is not a validation that comes from outside of people - it comes from the inside - from the enjoyment and self satisfaction of life in general and doing things that makes the person feel happy inside.  It is a losing battle to try to please an unhappy person.  My suggestion was to give each of them a very limited role that did not touch on too many other people because an unhappy person will work to make everyone unhappy.

My friend reworked a schedule around that idea and parsed them out so that none of the six worked at the same time or in the same group.  She met with them individually and walked though what was expected for their short volunteer time.  She said it worked to minimize the problems.  She expects to have another successful event.

Many blessings,

Judy 
 

Archangel Uriel’s Chant

 Picture from Angel Speaks – Archangel Uriel

 When I took my Angel Therapy Training years ago, one of the Archangels that I have really come to enjoy working with is Archangel Uriel.  I love the feeling of joy and love that flows around me when I work with this angel.  Below is one of the chants that Archangel Uriel shared with me.  I hope that it helps you.

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Dearest ones of light!  I greet you!  I, Uriel, am delighted that you are all now looking at the changes taking place in a kinder, more loving light.  I give to you this chant to use to move forward with grace.

Chant for Grace

I call on the Goodness in the heavens and on the earth

To bring me to forgiveness of myself and all souls.

I call on all souls to forgive me for my actions in all my lifetimes.

I offer love and compassion to all those that I have scorned.

I offer loving kindness to all those in need.

I surrender my need to clutter my life.

I choose my actions each day, and accept the responsibility of my choices.

I now choose actions of love, health, and happiness.

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Use this chant to help shift all the thoughts that go around in your head and make you unhappy.  

Have a blessed day!

Sending many blessings,

Judy

Affirmations are a Gift!

The image below is from www.mysticmum.co.uk.  What a wonderful poster!

Yesterday, I watched a short movie called “THE STRANGEST SECRET”.    The key point in the movie is that by changing what you think about and how you think about anything, you can change your life.  This same thought was the theme of the movie “A KNIGHT’S TALE” starring Heath Ledger.  In fact, the theme was – You can change your stars!

Listening to Nightingale talk sent me back to a sales and marketing course that I took many years ago.  In that three day workshop, I learned ten affirmations that I still use today.  Here they are:

1. You like yourself unconditionally. You really like yourself. 
2. You always speak in positive terms about yourself and others.
3. You enjoy and appreciate everyone you meet. You like them, and they like you.
4. You always decide for yourself what is best for you, and you allow others the same right.
5. You accept complete responsibility for your life, and for your reactions to all situations.
6. You enjoy excellent health, and you are easily able to relax at any time.
7. You are always calm, confident, and self assured in your interactions with others, with groups as well as with individuals.
8. You are very creative in all areas of your life, always tapping more and more into your super conscious mind.
9. You have an excellent memory, and you easily recall names, numbers, and information.
10. You are a total winner and you are completely successful at everything that you undertake to do.

When I say them, I change the word “you” to “I”.  When I listen to them as a meditation, I keep the word “you”.  Repeating each affirmation five times solidifies the meaning in your mind.  Five is the number of “getting things done”.

I asked my guides if affirmations work.  They responded that affirmations are simply mantras.  In a recent blog, I gave this explanation of a mantra.

Mantra repetition simply means  repeating a sentence or group of words that have a phonetic significance. 

Mantra is intrinsically related to sound. Mantra is sound, and sound is reverberating in everything in this universe. When water flows, the gurgling sound it makes, is mantra. When wind blows through the trees, the  rustling sound it produces is mantra.  When we walk on the earth, our footsteps produce sound, and that too is mantra. 

Many eastern mantras are repeated 100 times at a sitting.  Imagine the change in your body, mind, and spirit if you repeated the above affirmations 100 times a day.  Why not try it? Start with five repetitions of each affirmation, and see what change happens for you.  Let me know the results.

Many blessings,

Judy

Making Choices

 

Over the past year, have you noticed that you seem to need to make a big choice and a bunch of little choices each week?  While it may not seem like the choice is part of your spiritual journey, most of the time it does end up supporting one of truth, health, happiness, wisdom, love, kindness, and compassion.  

For quite a few people, the Covid pandemic caused them to make a choice to withdraw from daily life - work, friends and family, and making choices/decisions on a daily basis.  For many, it was the end of relationships. Choices were made taking in to account health, happiness, and love, especially self-love.

Many people like to judge the choices that others make, labelling the choice as right or wrong, good or bad.  It is impossible to know what the best choice or right choice is for another person because we can never know exactly what is going on in another person’s life.

My suggestion is that you make a choice not to judge, but to allow.  

Many blessings,

Judy

Comfortable and Wise

  

Picture’s origin is not known as it was part of an email.

The most comfortable and wisest people are those who watch their health when they are healthy; guard their country when it is untroubled; and cultivate their fields well when weeds are nonexistent or scarce.
—Venerable Chwasan, “The Grace in This World” - a Buddhist

The Archangels share many ideas with us, and the wisdom today is about being on guard.  This means that we must not slip into complacency about health, protection, growing our food, and tending our animals and children. 

Mankind is a caretaker of many things, and over time, mankind has forgotten how to care-take himself and others.  This is a tragedy that has transpired into many businesses that profit from the idea of doing your caretaking for you.

Today, choose one thing to be more mindful about.  It may be looking after plants at home or in the office.  Become the best that you can be at this task.

Many blessings,

Judy