The Angels Talk About The Passing of Time

 

I love flipping through my writings from years gone by because much of the information from Spirit and the Angels is timeless.  Here is one of those writings.

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Thirteen years ago, we celebrated my mother-in-law’s eightieth birthday.  It was a wonderful time!  Friends and family gathered to pay tribute to her eighty years.  The stories were funny and often, touching.

Later, when everyone was gone, the Angels tapped me on the shoulder, and said that it was a lovely gathering.  I had been thinking what it must be like to live to eighty years old, and I guess I formed it as a question because the Angels were coming in to answer.

The Angels told me that humans were getting longer lives so that they had the opportunity to finish all the lessons and to have the chance to get to the place of “no illusions”.  This means that people are getting to see through the illusions and to see the perfection of all beings.  To me, this means being without expectations of how things should be, or, of how things are.

They went on to say that there are other reasons, and that I could sit in meditation and talk about them, soon.  The hint being that I need to do more meditations.

Of course, the Angels can see the complete picture, and we cannot.  Still, I think that I like this explanation!

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Many blessings,

Judy

Magpie Drops In

Magpie dropped to the path ahead of us (the dogs and me), and began to chatter.  Slowly, the chattering took form in my mind.  Here are some of the thoughts.

• Spend time in the present for this is where your power comes from.  In the present, you will be open to all that is available from the Oneness.
• Magpie does not dwell on the past; we remember the lessons.  One lesson is that a man with a long stick that smokes (gun) will hurt or end us.  Remember the lessons and let go of the emotion, the scene and all the blame!
• Walk more.  Even though we fly, we walk on the ground because it does ground us.  Humans do not walk enough.
• Play more.  Magpies enjoy each other and other animals.  We play.  We see you compete, we do not see you play.

I contemplated what Magpie was saying and realized that I can do better in being in the present.  I worked to stay in the moment as I wrote this blog.  I realized that my mind is like a herd of cats, different thoughts wanting to go different places.  I had to consciously work back to the moment.  When I did that, I felt more energy.  I am grateful to Magpie.

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

Cheetah Says “Sprint When You Can”

Not all of us were made to run marathon races.  Some of us were made to be sprinters.  We like to go fast!  Cheetah comes in to talk to us about the lessons she has learned from sprinting.

• Sprinting – going really fast – gives you the element of surprise when you are stalking food (working) or when you are simply having fun.
• The short, fast run keeps your muscles toned, your wind and lungs maxed, and your heart tuned to a low resting rate.  You become a prime, physical specimen.
• When you sprint, your focus is quite sharp for a short period of time.  Then you can stop and rest and look around.  This is when you become very aware of your environment.  What happens then is that you see a bigger, clearer picture that is different then when you are moving slower but more consistently moving, such as one would in a marathon.
• If you wish to give yourself more time at the destination, then one needs to sprint to it, and not run towards the destination slowly.

As I listened to Cheetah, I was amazed at the wisdom in her words.  She indicated that she and her kind have been around about eight million years, and that they have not changed much in that time.  The last bit of wisdom, then, is that sprinting may preserve the species.

Many blessings,

Judy

Lessons From The Dragon

Picture of dragon from an email so origin is not known,

The legends of Dragons are about how fearsome they are, how they hunt humans and other animals, and how they must be destroyed.  Over and over, Dragon has been showing up for me in the last several days and nights.  She comes in as a protector, as a guide, and as a teacher.  Dragons, in some cases, are immortal.  In their disgust with the human’s predatorial and aggressive behaviour to dragons and especially to other humans, Dragons shifted to other dimensions or to very hidden caravans below the Earth’s surface.

Now, Dragon and her kind are returning to this plane.  It is time, she indicates, for dragons to re-join humans as humans become more loving and kind.  She says that we have lessons to learn.

• Treasure does not feed your soul.
• What you eat may not appeal or even be acceptable to others.  This is their lesson, not yours.
• We each look the way we look on the surface.  One needs to get to know the being before making judgements about who they are inside.
• All beings have the physics within them to deconstruct and to reconstruct themselves (teleportation).  Most will need help with the mechanics of doing this.
• Telepathy has always been on the planet Earth.  However, due to the toxins in processed foods and in drugs, it has been bred out of most humans.  Only those aboriginals living in isolation are able to comfortably use that part of their brain.
• Dragons are known for their healing skills.  They wish to share this with all of you.

I was surprised at the Dragon’s list of lessons.  And, I am curious to see how Dragon will work with me and with the rest of humanity. 

Many blessings,

Judy

Why Challenges Repeat On Us

 In past postings, I have talked about the lessons that we get in life.  This poster featuring a quote from the Buddhist teacher, Peña Chodron, explains the concept quite well.

Let me give some examples.  An acquaintance of mine was having a terrible time with dating.  She was using a dating app and it would seem to connect her with some great guy.  They would go out for a month or so, and then he would dump her.  She was feeling extremely awful about herself.  Her confidence took a huge hit as did her ability to trust and to manage her time. 

She finally did some self work using the Tapping Process, took a break from dating and deleted the dating app.  She spent close to a year doing things for herself and going out with girl friends to do things that she liked.  She even adopted a rescue dog.  She loved taking him to the dog park and taking walks with him.  You guessed it, on one of her outings, she met a wonderful man, with a dog, and found that they are very compatible.  They are good fun to be around and they are slowly combining their houses to one.

The lesson was that as long as she was trying to control her process and manage dating, meeting the right guy wouldn’t work.  When she let go of control and went with the flow, then the Universe “helped” her find a companion in two ways.

Many blessings,

Judy

Cedar Waxwing

  

  Cedar Waxwing – picture from www.phase.com

As the leaves float off the trees, flocks of birds hit our yard to pull berries and seeds off the trees.  The last of these flocks this year are the Cedar Waxwings.

Over the past two weeks, when my dog and I walk in the woods, one or two cedar waxwings fly along with us and sing a song of trills and whistles.  Since they are trying very hard to get my attention, I spent some time finding out about the bird.

First, the birds are migratory, and arrive in Calgary in the early spring, any time in March.  They come in flocks of hundreds, and several flocks visit our back yard, and sit on our mountain ash, eating berries.  Cedar Waxwing’s diet is pretty much always fruit and berries (it loves the sweetness of life) except at breeding time, when it will eat insects as well.  In fact, the berries that it eats may affect the coloring of the feathers, making the light red/orange a much more vibrant red, and changing the yellow color to a more orangey-red hue.  

Second, while their favorite habitat is woodland with access to lots of berries, the Waxwing loves to be near open, running water, such as a stream, creek, or river.  Waxwing needs lots of water to help process its sugar rich diet.  

Third, Waxwings mate in early summer, coming together as a pair only for the season.  They make their vows as a couple by passing flower petals or some food back and forth.  They may have two nests through the summer as the eggs hatch within two weeks, and the young leave the nest after eighteen days.  Both parents feed the young.

Waxwing teaches lessons around going beyond the physical demands of the body (food and shelter needs found in the base chakra) and speaks to the joy of belonging, for they belong in flocks and pairs (which is what the second and third chakras, orange and yellow in color are about), and Waxwing sings of the sweetness of life.  Its love of running water is about letting all emotions run off your body.  Feel them to the utmost and then let them go.  It is stuck emotions that cause pain and illness, for many people.  Waxwing’s mask is a reminder that sometimes all that other see is the mask that they perceive.  And, for many of us, our truth is hidden, even from ourselves.  

Wishing you days of light and laughter.

Many blessings,

Judy

Buffalo Knows - Spirit Animal

- Picture courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art

The buffalo has always had a special place in my life. When I was six or seven, I tried to get into the buffalo compound at the zoo because it was so fascinating to see these large creatures eating hay just like our cows did. When I was fourteen, a lone buffalo crossed the prairie from about fifty miles to the north of our farm to some two hundred or so miles to the south of us where he would join a small herd. The sight of this buffalo going straight across the fields, regardless of fences or humans or interference from dogs, was amazing!

The farmers along the buffalo's path all reported on its progress. In many instances, it frightened the cattle and caused some minor stampedes from one side of the pasture to the other. Buffalo simply ignored them all.

Buffalo, in the natural setting, always faces the storm, always finds the shortest or easiest path between itself and its destination, and generally moves with the herd for safety and protection - unless it has a different calling. If a major storm interferes with Buffalo's travels, he finds the middle of the storm and simply walks through the storm, head down, to get through the weather in the shortest possible time. Buffalo never wonders whether the decision is the right one, it simply "knows".

How many lessons can Buffalo give us on living life? The most basic are: 

1. always follow the easiest path. If the path is not easy, then that destination is not for you.

2. in times of difficulty, put your head down and keep going. This is the quickest way to get through the problem.

3. always follow the crowd, unless it doesn't make sense to you. Then, move out and follow your own path without letting anyone or anything deter you.

I wish you "Buffalo Medicine".

Blessings,

Judy

You are a Visitor Here

  

   "Lady Traveler" from Microsoft Clip Art....

 

                                                           I have been experiencing many different lessons of life over the past twenty years.  Early in this adventure, after each experience, I usually would say, "Wow!  That was intense! I am glad that I am through that!"  As I grew older and wiser, I realized that the lessons were the journey. And, as I traveled around the world, I realized that the lessons of life were very much paralleled by the challenges one faces traveling in different countries where we cannot communicate in a common language and thus revert to signing and engaging in a genuine exchange.  Words do limit how another interprets what one says. 

I had pretty much forgotten about my earlier discoveries as I am busy learning new things all the time.  Then, the other day, I found this passage when I was working through some Buddhist teachings.  I loved the phrasing!  It took me back to the earlier times when I was a visitor in so many countries and cities.  

May you enjoy this teaching as I did!

                                      Dhammavadaka

Remember always that you are just a visitor here, a traveler passing through. Your stay is but short and the moment of your departure unknown.

None can live without toil and a craft that provides your needs is a blessing indeed. But if you toil without rest, fatigue and weariness will overtake you, and you will denied the joy that comes from labour's end.

Speak quietly and kindly and be not forward with either opinions or advice. If you talk much, this will make you deaf to what others say, and you should know that there are few so wise that they cannot learn from others.

Be near when help is needed, but far when praise and thanks are being offered.

Take small account of might, wealth and fame, for they soon pass and are forgotten. Instead, nurture love within you and and strive to be a friend to all. Truly, compassion is a balm for many wounds.

Treasure silence when you find it, and while being mindful of your duties, set time aside, to be alone with yourself.  
Cast off pretense and self-deception and see yourself as you really are.

Despite all appearances, no one is really evil. They are led astray by ignorance. If you ponder this truth always you will offer more light, rather then blame and condemnation.  
You, no less than all beings have Buddha Nature within. Your essential Mind is pure. Therefore, when defilements cause you to stumble and fall, let not remorse nor dark foreboding cast you down. Be of good cheer and with this understanding, summon strength and walk on.  

Faith is like a lamp and wisdom makes the flame burn bright. Carry this lamp always and in good time the darkness will yield and you will abide in the Light. 

Note - I believe this was written by  Shravasti Dhammika ... I thank you for this writing.

Blessings,

Judy

Horse on Community

Sometimes, when I meditate, animals will come through what looks like a huge gate or arch way.  It seems that this is a way that the Universe opens the door for me to learn.

In this meditation, several horses came through the arch way to chat with me.  

Some unusual things were happening with them.  The two horses spoke with one voice.  Their movements were almost identical.  The pictures that they shared with me were similar, and not exact.  I asked them why there was this discrepancy in their movement and pictures.  They laughed!  They said that they were each unique and had no reason to copy the other.  They said that they were community so shared thoughts and lessons, and what they knew, for the good of the herd.

I had a short conversation with them.  I learned much!

• Although there is a leader determined by strength and ability to fight, Horse is basically not political.
• Every horse in the herd has its place.  To lose a member of the herd is to disrupt the community and throw it out of balance.  Mostly – we as humans do not feel this loss.
• The herd is healing to its members.  The community gives the individual strength to overcome.  
• The Oneness helps the herd to see what must be healed or mended.  Oneness strengthens, and does not divide.
• All herd members but the premier stallion takes turns guarding the foals.  This is again to protect the herd and its growth.  This is a wonderful design in Nature to ensure that the young survive.  The adult horses do not attack and abuse the young.  
• The healthy members protect the weaker members and they especially the elderly horses.  The elderly horses carry the memories of the herd and share them freely.  They are the historians.  
• Horses believe in karma – that if they do not follow the “Horse” code, that they will return in the same circumstances until they do understand and follow the horse code.

Blessings,

Judy

How Fast Do You Get Up After Being Kicked Down?

Sometimes it seems like life doesn’t treat us very well.  And, we all have stories where it seems like everything was against us, and yet we pulled ourselves up by the socks and we kept going.

I do some speaking from time to time, and I am always looking for good stories to tell.  One of my friends sent me this story.  It is so good, I thought that I would share it with you.  

Blessings,

Judy

Get Up

Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. A baby giraffe falls 10 feet from its mother's womb and usually lands on its back. Within seconds it rolls over and tucks its legs under its body. From this position it considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges of the birthing fluid from its eyes and ears. Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its offspring to the reality of life. 

In his book, "A View from the Zoo", Gary Richmond describes how a newborn giraffe learns its first lesson.  The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself

 Picture from National Geographic: Kids

directly over her calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels. 

When it doesn't get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts. Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs. 

Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they'd get it too, if the mother didn't teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it. 

The late Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin. 

Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these exceptional people. He said, "I write about people who sometime in their life have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished and they go to work. 

"They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified, and for years they get nowhere. But every time they're knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they've accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do." 

- Craig B. LarsonIllustrations for Preaching & Teaching from Leadership Journal

Blessings,

Judy

Pacing Yourself

The life lesson that I am having difficulty learning is how to pace myself both to get things done and to give time required for healing my tendons in my leg.  You see, I want to do everything on my list immediately so that it is done.  This need to get things done has been an undoing for my healing process because I do “things” too quickly and too forcefully.  I put strain on my body.

I am learning that you can still do everything if you do them slowly and easily, and allow for short breaks between tasks.  Even dog walking had to change so that my pace is slower and my strides shorter.  The doc put a limit on the distance that I can walk at one time. 

Change about pace is a challenge.  Relearning what the balance is to provide both exercise and healing is quite eye-opening.  Our bodies are self healing. In my case, I was interfering with my healing. 

Blessings,

Judy
 

Change and Growth In Your Life

 Have you ever gotten a vehicle stuck in the snow or in the mud?  Do you remember how difficult it was to get out of being stuck, especially if you had to do it all by yourself?  Do you remember that often, you could not get un-stuck without calling for help from a tow truck driver or from others near by?  

To change the stuck in the snow situation, we had to change the thought that we could get un-stuck with no help.  Realizing that we were wrong and accepting that we were wrong is a big change.  It is also a metaphor for life where we have to move along and take responsibility for needing to change.

Too often, folks get stuck in a rut… a situation that is not healthy for them or for those around them.  Instead of making up their mind to change and grow, they instead play the victim and blame everyone and everything in their life for how stuck they are.

Very early in my spiritual journey, several of my teachers explained that each road block or stuck situation in my life was a chance to learn and to change.  Making that shift in my approach to life was a challenge because I was not raised that way.  Each time that I was feeling stuck, I had to learn to step back and to look at the lesson that the situation presented.  I learned so much!

I learned about setting boundaries, and about saying NO.  I learned about changing or releasing expectations.  I learned that people are exactly who they appear to be and not to have expectations about their behaviour.  I let relationships go.  I learned that when there are not any blocks to what I was doing, I was in the flow.  I was in balance. I learned to let people leave my life when they were trying to manipulate me, boss me around, or take advantage of me.  I learned over time how to be me.

Blessings,

Judy

Staying in Synch

Today, I was trying to figure out why the podcasts on my iPad were not updating the way that I expected them to.  I started checking every setting.  What I found was that the “Synch” check box on my settings has some how become unchecked.  Now, since I never go in and change my settings, this seemed to be quite a “weird” thing for me.  I felt that maybe there was a lesson waiting to be learned.

I went to my podcasts and I listened to a Zen Buddhist lesson on “Being Present”.  There were several things that inspired me about this lesson.  One was that the emphasis through sutras and through stories was around being in the present moment.  If you cannot be in the present moment, and need to dwell on the past or the future, then what in the present moment is causing you so much pain?  

The second item in the teachings was that each act of living is about being in the present moment.  If we cannot be in that moment, then we are missing most of our life.  That too makes sense to me because I see so many people wasting happy and fun moments by texting or being on the phone, or trying to get away from themselves in some way.  

The third item I enjoyed in the teaching was around recognizing that each person is living perfectly in their present moment, and that we do not need to impose our ideas of what is going on.  I start to laugh as I read this because back in my second item, I realized that I was imposing judgement on those who choose to text in the present moment.  (I still wish they would not text while they are driving!)

I realized that Spirit was giving me a “hands on” lesson about staying in balance and harmony with my passions and my path.  When all is going well, then little thought is required because a person simply rolls with the flow of what is going on.  We are living in the present moment.  However, when we start to over think our actions and try to second guess all the people around us, then we are “out of synch” with our purpose.  Our harmony is compromised, and therefore life seems choppy and full of obstacles.  The serenity is gone. 

 I am truly grateful for the lesson.

Many Blessings,

Judy

Who Do You Want To Be?

  

One of the things that a person undertakes when they begin the practice of Buddhism, is to figure out who they are.  This is a difficult thing to do because many times we have been shaped by so many people, beginning with our parents, that we truly have no idea of what we like.  We are much like the bride in the movie, “Run Away Bride”, who does not know what kind of egg she likes because she has always liked what her fiancé liked.  Here is a simple meditation to do each time you sit in meditation. Try to answer one question per meditation.  

Enjoy the journey!

WHO DO I WANT TO BE? 
Mentally project yourself 5 years into the future: how would I like to be, having accomplished what I want to accomplish, learned what I want to learn, did what I wanted to do.
- Which qualities have I developed in myself?  
- Which are the most important lessons I have learned?  
- What have I done for others that I feel most happy about?  
- How did I manage to stop underestimating myself?  
- How did I manage to stop underestimating other people?  
- How did I manage to stop pretending that I cannot do things?  
- Which kind of powers and abilities did I discover in myself?  
- Which kind of powers and abilities did I find in others?  
- What can I do right now in order to be this person in five years?  
- If it feels right, make a commitment to yourself to make this vision reality.

Many blessings,

Judy 

Why Do I Compare Myself To Others?

                                

A big lesson that many of us have to learn is that we cannot keep comparing ourselves to other people.  If we were all exactly the same, then we could compare.  Since each of us is unique, comparison does not work.

In fact, the Angels say, that when we start comparing ourselves to others, we are really reacting to a mirror of a part of ourselves that we have not yet dealt with, and that we need to put to rest.  That is a huge idea!

In comparing to others, we are pulling out the parts of us that need to be worked on.  Whether it is physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual work, when a comparison pops up, now is the time to do the work.

Ask yourself:

Why is this comparison of "xxxx" so important to me?

• Why do I need to learn this at this time in my life?
• What is the bigger lesson here?
• Who else is affected by my lesson?

Many blessings 

Judy.

Loving Kindness For People

One of the challenges of being around people today is having to deal with people who have huge egos.  Through their ego, they believe that they are right all the time, that they know everything, including all the answers, and that we, the audience are just ignorant, and must listen to them.  Truly, it gets tiring!

We see the egos at work, in stores and restaurants, and sometimes in our family and friends.  When people are so egotistical and rude, it is really difficult to wish them "loving kindness".  Yet, the lesson for us is that those with egos are the ones that need loving kindness.  We can be humble and we can help others, quietly and lovingly, without the noise.

Many blessings.