Article Highlights:

• A good idea for you
• Light up someone’s day

Scroll to the end of this article for a brief description of all the sessions I offer.

Spiritual people sometimes have this odd idea that we shouldn’t enjoy compliments, positive feedback, praise.  It’s important not to “need” it if we’re more evolved, right?  Enjoying it isn’t humble, either.

That’s an odd idea to me. It makes no sense for a species as communal as human beings.  Sure, praise can get all wrapped around our pahooties and go straight to our heads.  But that’s what imbalance does with everything, so the problem is the imbalance, not the compliment.

Receiving praise and compliments is good, it encourages us, lifts our spirits, makes our day sometimes. It seems to me we could enjoy giving and receiving a whole lot more of it.  And, hey, we do “need” it.  It’s good for us, it helps us grow.  We often long for it secretly maybe because there’s not enough to go around much of the time…because of the odd idea.

We don’t need to criticize ourselves for wanting it or liking it, for gosh sakes. What an odd idea.  Odd OLDE idea.  By the way, I’m constantly struck by how very many odd ideas we have all the time, aren’t you?  Useless, outdated, or never-were-true, don’t-work, under-the-radar, hard-to-notice OLDE ideas.  Mini-mind churns them out like gospel, often.

The idea that compliments could make someone’s head swell is a funny one to picture, isn’t it?  Not that it can’t happen, but not in most circumstances, really.  Many people are hungry for lack of enough encouragement and praise.

Sincere compliments are a wonderful way to share light, to spread love, to open hearts, including our own.  No need for me to carry on and on here, we all know this even though we get distracted or self-involved and forget.  

So I thought I’d just remind us today of what a nice thing, a fun thing it is to do.  It nourishes both the giver and receiver.  This week let’s be more forthcoming with praise, a kind word.  Let’s spread a little more thoughtful and encouraging observation as we go about our day – let’s really notice people and enjoy them more.  It think it would be a fun thing to do together.  If you agree, join me this week in making someone’s day. (more…)

Article Highlights:

• A great sky-shot of the planets all lined up in order
• The wind beneath your wings
• What NOAA said about the alignment

You can read about my brand new session in full here, it’s discounted $30.  Or scroll to the end of this article for a brief description of all the sessions I offer.  

Dear Star Gazer,

No doubt many of you have had your eyes on the skies and your ears tuned to your favorite astrologer this eclipse season, so you’ll have known there was a somewhat unusual alignment of all the planets coming up this past week.  

We’ve been living in that coming-together energy since May, as more and more planets were converging nearer to their reunion.  And from what I hear from others they, like me, have the feeling that even though some turbulence remains the norm, there’s also the feeling that “things” are beginning to come together.  It feels like Things are lining up!

Do you sense the upsurge too?  A feeling of a nice lift of wind beneath your wings?  I sure do.  And I thought that was worth celebrating together a moment, pausing to acknowledge it.  Something has shifted and though difficulties still face so many, there’s a feeling of more support and even a bit of sparkle in the air from time to time.

I’ve mention before that I subscribe to the Space Weather newsletter, that shares facts and information for NASA and NOAA – interesting real-time events going on in the heavens.  In last week’s newsletter, I saw the above picture.  It offers us the perfect visual for this feeling of things lining up.  

I printed it out and put it on my refrigerator, a visual talisman reminder of the larger alignment underway for us all: things are beginning to line up for greater ease and better results than recently it seems.  

Even after the exact alignment shifts as the planets move along at their different rates and trajectories, this infusion we are experiencing will continue to flood our system.  So I’m keeping the picture as visible representative of that.  

I thought you’d enjoy what they said about the picture on the website:

“Planets before Breakfast: How many planets can you see before breakfast?  Tom Harradine of Brisbane, Australia woke up early Thursday morning [last week, June 9th] and found the entire solar system sprawled across the dawn sky:

“This might not be a very spectacular image, but it is relatively unique,” says Harradine. “Captured here in a single photograph are all the major planets of our Solar System, spanning about 90° across the eastern dawn Brisbane sky. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn can be seen with the unaided eye. Uranus and Neptune require binoculars.” (more…)

Article Highlights:

• On the way to something else…
• Brilliant wisdom from a 10 year old

For info about my sessions, scroll to the end. 

BRAND NEW SESSION!  ON SPECIAL, $30 OFF. 

Dear world server,

Having established that we all share a simple Life Purpose, let’s add another shared interest re: purpose.  Service. Most of us feel an inner urge to make or be a difference.  

We want to serve others.  Among us, there’s a strong feeling of being here to help make the world a better place, to help with “the shift,” isn’t there?  

On my way to something else recently, rustling through old files, I came across this very early blog, from Dec 30 of 2006.  It fits nicely in our ongoing series exploring Life Purpose so I’m sharing it here.  It’s short and sweet and deconstructs our over-thinking about being of service.  What a relief.

What Does It Really Take to Solve World Problems?

Let’s begin today with a wonderful truth spoken by ten year old (!) Marco from Bulgaria, who said,

“Open the eyes of your heart, and solve your problems in a new way.  You believe it will take years or lifetimes to solve things like hunger, disease and violence.  Is it possible that it is simple, and that your need to see it as complicated has been the the very thing that has kept you from the answer?”

I think that’s an illuminating question, don’t you?  Our minds have a learned preference for complexity instead of simplicity.  Our egos also have a rapt fascination with the complicated – which allows for maximum cleverness, strategy and personal heroism.  Together these keep us in a more adrenal-laden quest for the complex view and solution. 

This creates complicated, confusing and often overwhelming lives.  Simple methods seem naive and boring; we tend to discount them.  We just aren’t that interested in the obvious or easy, we mistrust it.

Could it be that, as ten year old Mario said so wisely, the need to see a problem as complicated is the very thing that prevents the answer?  So often genius and innovation have come out of simple moments, sometimes even as “accidents” stumbled upon on the way to something else (like today’s blog).  What could be more simple?

In the simple there is often wisdom and greater ease.  Therein lies serendipity and the profound.  But before a solution is even considered, our minds most often first tell us of the many difficulties standing in the way, the resources not at hand, the extensive time needed.  

We go straight to what can’t be done and the dire consequences of that.  Despair rises, overwhelm short-circuits our energy and we often don’t even get started with the thought process let alone actions. (more…)