Smoke Signals

A smoke signal is one of the oldest forms of long-distance communication. It’s a form of visual communication that is used over long distances, usually as far as the eye can see. North American Indians had a vast array of understanding using this complex signaling system. Each tribe has its own signaling system and meaning. How it was done, was a signaler started a fire using damp grass which would cause a column of smoke to rise. The smoke location was very important, for instance if it came halfway up the hill, it would signify all was well, but if it was on top of the hill, it would mean immediate danger. You see, I believe that sometimes The Creator talks to us this way.  He is signaling for our attention. But, do we see it? Most of the time we are too busy, or we ask for a sign and look elsewhere. Sometimes we didn’t ask at all, but our focus was in the wrong direction or perhaps our eyes are looking for it to come in a different shape and we miss it all together. Pay close attention to whats around you, you just never know what might be your next Smoke Signal.

Koosah Falls. The word Koosah is a Chinook word meaning “sky”.

Doorway

Healing restores the soul, but more importantly gives life to the spirit. 

Many times we are our own doorway to our healing.  We either welcome it in or we block it out. We were designed with a magnificent chance to uses what’s between our ears, the human brain. The mind, is a powerful tool. What we focus on becomes our strength.  Are we focusing on our blessings we have, the good, the positive things we see, the growth we see or are we focusing on the negative things, the stuff you are without, the progress you “have not” made?  Do you see dark or do you see light?  

Not only can our ‘mind focus’ change our direction, so does our tongue.  Our words have power and can create life or death.  Be aware of what you say, because you just might be the one that allows a disease to take root, but as for an advantage on the flip side, you can squander death!  Having said that, it can be a hard choice…. There comes a dying of ourselves and shaking off the old habits, a renewing of our minds, and almost always there will be a heart attitude adjustment that needs addressing. These can be minor or they can be a big shift.  Its different for each person and for each situation, but like we all know working out and building muscle and shedding fat comes pain and soreness…. There is pain in stretch-marks.

God gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.(Rom 4:17)  Do you believe it, will you receive it, will you walk in it, will you take part of it?

The doorway is up to you.

The lost votes

If you think your vote doesn’t matter, it won’t especially if you don’t voice it. Transfiguration comes as it is consistently worked on, it never happens over night. I never had to fight to vote, nor was I alive during the beginning of the Women’s suffrage movement.  I was born with the right to vote, and in that great blessing, I believe I took it for granted.  My generation and the younger has seemed to be distant from what our elders have fought for.  We have lost track of what our country is based on and the ideals people have fought for since its inception. It never occurred to me as something special that many around the world fight and wage war for.  As for me in particular, I thought that my vote didn’t matter if my choice went against the popular vote and I most surely thought that all politicians are crooks and frauds. It was all a wash anyways, but that is a lie. All votes matter, this is never the way things change. You have to keep pushing. You have to keep working. You have to keep building. YOU HAVE TO STAND UP FOR WHATS RIGHT. Make a stand and live by it. If we never stand up then it will continue to slip away.

As more people sit back in their homes with this way of thinking, it will never improve in any fashion.  The most power comes with numbers, the more voices it has, the stronger it can echo and move through time.  Make a stand and VOTE!

 

Goodbye Taylor…

Have you ever had a friend that gave so much that you weren’t sure you were able to match? Or one that was there for you when ever you needed them, through the sorrowful nights when your heart ached and the night was blue? When your soul was lonely and you didn’t know what else to do but sit alone in a darkened room?  Or perhaps a friend that was with you sharing your high points rejoicing in the euphoria? Taylor was that for me.  She was there, through thick and thin.  I dreamt of one day having a friend like her and on one wintry day 9 years ago she walked into my life.  But just like she entered she had to exit. Sadly the time had come for her to walk out and bless someone else with her presence.  Thanks for being such a gift, literally.  Your exit came at a time that offered its hand further than I knew.  Adios amigo!

The MIGHTY little ONE

Birds have always been a mainstay in my life, especially the last 5 years or so.  I seem to notice this beautiful exchange when I am in need the most.  It may be coincidental, but even in that I find some meaning. Lately I have had regular visits, from Chickadees, Sparrows, Quail, Ravens, Steller’s Jays, Robins,Vultures, and a mixture of unidentified flyers.  But just like the seasons, my visits seem to ebb and flow from a particular species that want to be that particular seasons constant friend.  I was waiting for my visitors to show up after I put my Hummingbird feeder up, but to no avail they didn’t show.  I was beginning to wonder if perhaps they were not in this area anymore and for what reason that caused them to be absent. The time was growing with no visual, whatsoever. I was just about ready to move the feeder, when something remarkable happened.  I was sitting on my back porch pondering and in deep thought, looking out into the vast wild grass and ponderosa trees beyond the feeder. When suddenly my elusive friend shows his face. He hovered ever so softly above the feeder, flew to the right and back over again then landed and took a drink.  My soul leaped and my spirit awoke.  I knew this meant something.

 

It is wildly believed that hummingbirds are carriers of ‘this’ world and the ‘other world’. It is also said that it is impossible for this little bird to fly 500 miles in one go, since its tiny body cannot store enough energy for the long journey. Amazingly this bird is unaware of the report and manages to do so nevertheless!! They represent durability, continuity, and endurance, as they are the most prodigious flyers. They can hover, move vertically, or horizontally and even backwards. They can flap their wings faster than any other bird on the planet at a rate of 50-75 times per second. In Brazil, it is known as the ‘passaro beja-flor’, which means ‘flower-kisser sparrow’.

I think the Heavens had a message for me, that when things look impossible, don’t listen to the reports!  Keep on keepin’ on! Keep flying in any direction the wind takes you, in the path that lays before you and calls you by name… go and do the impossible! And then, you just might get a kiss from Heaven.

So every time I see one of these mighty little ones, I lean in a little closer and listen…

Weeds to Flowers

What is a weed you ask? Well as Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it, its a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.  I then can’t help but to notice how many people think us humans are mistaken as weeds of the earth.  We are not mistakes, nor have we been forgotten or discarded.  We were made for a purpose, just as a weed.  In the dictionary a weed is stated as “a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants.”  But you see we were wanted and we were specifically designed for a purpose to be in partnership with the earth and with one another.  When we open ourselves to see beyond our view and horizon, we allow ourselves to blossom from a weed into a flower.  As Luther Burbank puts it, a flower is an educated weed, so may we all become educated weeds.

 

Open(to the)Season

A new season has come, as I have pushed further than I had imagined.  I take delight as it draws on the margin of good. I have seen a side of me that I now know must change. The old vainer has lost its luster and the rust is starting to show.  Life does do its share of wear and tear, as well as to the level we allow it. Nature, nurture, fate, fortune and pecking order all can have its impact too, but in the end it’s what we choose and how we decide and respond will out weigh them all.  We can never change the ones around us, only ourselves.  We have to be willing, open and honest with ourselves on where we are at first and foremost. That’s the beginning in changing in any direction.  If we are constantly nagging and pecking at the ones around us to change, how much more do we need to change within ourselves? Today is a new day, be thankful for where you are, where your going and always enjoy the weather whatever that may be.  May the wind be at your back pushing you onwards!

Roots that run deep

I never saw a discontented tree.  They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do.  They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!  ~John Muir

Trees are like love.  There is more substance underneath which runs deep, than that which is on the surface.  For trees, the roots are the foundation of its existence, similarly with love, there is far more substantial matter below the surface than what is actually visible.  Along this journey of life somewhere, a seed is planted, blowing in on the wings of the wind. Some of these seeds take significant time, others take little, but each one is different, whichever the case it needs soil, nourishment, water, sun and time.  Just like love; without nourishment, the right foundation and a vital life force, it can not survive, no matter how great it started out or how well intended the intentions are. However, in the right soil, the seed flourishes. It sprouts and grows into a beautiful sapling which will then turn into a mature evergreen for the roots to hold up the mass through the trials of weather and storms that it will endure during its lifetime. Love needs just the same to survive, to be able to absorb the nutrients from its surroundings.  If left unattended it will surely die.  It can not walk, or live without help, it needs others to exist.

May we all learn more from our conifer friends, and may the roots of your love blossom and prosper into a beautiful tree…

Illusionist Dream

Frost of Relativity

I am a firm believer in we create the world around us. Now you might be thinking well just look around, what about this or that and all the tragic things in life that happen to innocent people, how can good people create that? I am not sure anyone really has a fulfilling answer to that question, but sometimes things in life just happen that are out of out control, and bad things at that, and then there are the great things that happen too. But what I learned in all times, is how we deal with them that matters and is what truly makes a difference.  I figure if I am going to be in this world regardless of anything else and have to live in it, well then I want my world around me to be good as much as possible. So If I bless the things in my life, people around me, talk good to them and about them, and love the beauty I see, don’t take it for granted, be thankful for the small things as well as the big things, laugh and love often, smile to people I don’t know, be aware of what comes out of my mouth, and let go of all the negative in any form, then shoot there will be a little more sunshine that’s in this world.  And well even if I didn’t do all of those things correctly, at least I can try to do some right? We could always choose to look around us and see what is missing, but what’s the use in that? What is going right in your world? How about you celebrate that, and then maybe, just maybe you will start to realize more of the right and not be focused on the things that are missing. What you focus on becomes bigger and then all the other stuff seems to fade away or become not as important.

We carry around with us the capability to change the atmosphere we influence. As this life keeps ticking away, it’s becoming older and getting more diluted.  What once stood stoic and strong is now crumbling under our weight.  We need more light bearers; ones that bring joy and hope, and ones that encourage, not ones that tear down, step on and crush everything they see. People if we ever want to become that ‘better than we were’ or that elusive progressive illusion we’re always chasing, then we need to make some big changes and fast; because if we continue down this path, we are destined to become the great ice-cold nation covered in the frost of relativity.