This wooden rooster is taking wing...

Over the past few days some things have really come together for me. Martifly was telling me about an extraordinary retreat she went to on family relationships. She learned how the ‘flow of love’ works. "It flows like a river….when two parents have a loving relationship, love flows to the children, and so on down the generations. But when a child isn’t filled up, and they think they need to care for the parent, the flow of love dams up." This resonated so strongly within me. I can't remember a time when I didn't feel I needed to care for my parent. And this is just exactly how I feel now, with my own children. When I'm triggered by something they do (the worst for me is when they're fighting with each other), the river of love within me dams up and I over-react with too much anger and have to shut everything down. I know intellectually what this is about and have blogged about it -- I felt I had to keep things peaceful in my nuclear family out of great fear of violence. And I know intellectually that I don't need to fear that now... blah blah blah. But the knowing doesn't always change the doing, you know?
Well, then today I went to see a healer and she told me some amazing things. First, that my own personal dominant element (in Chinese medicine) is wood. Nobody's ever told me that before. This is the element that contains forgiveness, compassion and patience. None of which are my strong suit! She said that she sensed that I'm depleted (I'm really working on my iron levels, but was told it will take about 3 months to bring them up to normal levels) and so I would be experiencing a lack of those things. And how! This makes sense of the strong judgment I feel, as well as the lack of compassion and patience with myself and others. She said that I have to cultivate the wood within me, and until I have enough wood, there won't be a very strong fire (energy, passion, excitement, verve). Doesn't that just make so much sense? Then she did a healing treatment on me with tuning forks calibrated to "om" and I had the most amazing visions during the hour she treated me. I saw myself sitting at the feet of Ghandi and Amma. I saw myself doing sun salutations on a beach and then sitting and meditating in the early morning sun. I saw my face soften and I kept seeing the flow of my love building momentum. I kept seeing swirls and little houses built on sticks (and I don't know what that means except that when I lived in Malaysia I lived right on the ocean and was surrounded by houses built on sticks? maybe it went along with the visions of the ocean and the swirls?) I saw myself awaking morning after morning, greeting my children, doing a sun salutation, and then sitting in the sun to meditate. I saw my vision for myself -- one of calm and slowness and deliberateness and presence manifesting in my life. When I awoke from the treatment I had a profound feeling of peace and calmness and gratitude and hopefulness.
And now we're off to the ocean! Brent is in between jobs so we're taking these precious two weeks to just BE together as a family and to fill ourselves up! There's sure to be morning meditations and sun salutations on the beach... We'll be in Maui until the 26th. Aren't we blessed?! Ommmmmmm
p.s. My chinese zodiac sign is the rooster. So now I know I'm a wooden rooster!

I Make Requests Rather Than Complain...

I've taken on this challenge, which I learned about from my all-time, always-inspiring, favourite blog, 37 Days. And oh.my.godess. It is the hardest thing I've ever taken on. (and that is a statement, NOT a complaint!) No, make that impossible (okay, there, now I start over again)WHICH I'm turning into I'mpossible...one no-complaints second at a time. I'm on Day 1 of Day 4. I think the longest I've gone so far is 5 hours. My goal is 37 days. he he he
It's changing me in ways I never anticipated. I'm seeing myself, my thoughts, my reality in a whole new light. Check it out and let me know what you think. More on that later...

History

I know, I know. You believe what you believe and no book ever written will change that....

Okay, but what if I could guarantee you that your relationship with Christ would be DEEPENED by reading this book? Truly! If there was information out there that could radically deepen your faith in God, wouldn't you want to know what it is? Well this is where it is: "The Pagan Christ" written by an ANGLICAN PRIEST, Tom Harpur.

You're judging this book by its cover. It's title. Take a second and look at your cover. your title. Would it be fair for me to judge you by your cover? What would I say? "Oh, I'm not going to listen to her, she's ____ and _____ and _____! Just look at her!" Ridiculous, right? Nobody can tell who you REALLY are by glancing at your cover and reading your title. Of course not. Okay, so what meaning are you placing on the title? What have you decided the book is about? Are you willing to let go of all that and give this amazing 193 pages a chance? What if it's the best thing you've ever done for yourself? I could go on and on. But you're probably getting the gist that I really want you to read this book, right? Oh good! Then we're on the same page...

I can absolutely promise you one thing: that you will not be sorry you gave this book a chance. The information in this book is history (and herstory, btw) that misguided men have tried very hard to eradicate from the earth. This information, this HISTORY, if widely known would end wars and hostility and separateness and "us" vs. "them" mentality for good.

Chicken Love

We've been blessed with the cutest little chicks there ever were. Annika and Pedar adore them and spend countless hours "caring" for them. Annika built this little stable by herself out of old cedar shingles, filled it with straw, carefull placed chicken wire around it to keep the babies safe and transports the chicks to the stable where she and Pedar feed them out of their hands. This little chick in her sweater is called "Bella" (yes, named after her adorable cousin) and is her favourite.

He He He

Can you keep up? I can't!!!

Samhain

We had a spooky filled-with-fun day on Halloween. Lots of scarey masks (to scare off the people who might try to prevent us from performing our rituals), telephone calls from our friends afar who were celebrating Samhain in their own way, lots of sweet treats (to celebrate the New Year), a big bonfire (The word 'bonfire', or 'bonefire' is a direct translation of the Gaelic tine cnámh. With the bonfire ablaze, the villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family then solemnly lit its hearth from the common flame, thus bonding the families of the village together) shared with friends, and pine needles woven into circles and then cast into the fire with a wish for the new year. We ended the day trick or treating (have you read "The Pagan Christ" by Tom Harpur yet? no reason to be anti-pagan. It's like saying you're anti-human. We are aLLLLLLLL pagan, people. Don't be anti-history! prove me wrong! really! do! READ THE BOOK and then prove me wrong. please.), eating delicious pumpkin pie (made by moi, the best EVAH!) and watching fireworks. Happy New Year!

Dinner for the Dead

The night before Samhain we had our annual ancestoral dinner. It was a very special time for all of us. We set the table for 4 extras and invited my mum and dad, my Grannie, and Brent's Grandpa, in a circular ceremony around a candle. We brought out photos of them all as well as special heirlooms we have from each of them. I have some old perfume ('Oscar') of my mum's and Annika and I wore a bit of it. We used our best china, our REAL silver (an heirloom from my mum), and when we said our blessing before the meal we held hands with our guests, who were seated between each of us 'living' folk. We told our favourite stories about each of our guests and it was really hilarious. (Aside: the night before we were watching "The Wizard of Oz" as a family and Annika suddenly turned to me and said "Who is Dorothy Anne, mum?" I got goosebumps. She shouldn't know that was my mum's full name.)
Pedar was a wee bit confused, asking frequently "are they here, mummy?" And then running to the door when I said yes. We explained to him that they're always here, always with us, but they're even MORE 'here' when we invite them special and tell stories about them. He seemed to get that...
We talked about what we want to let go of and what we each want more of this next year. And earlier in the day with very special friends we did some releasing from the year. We lit a fire in the very sacred circle of cedars down by the creek and we burned 'old stories' that we no longer want to hold onto or have as part of our lives in this new year.
I have to say, it was the very most special New Year's Eve for all of us.

Superfun Pumpkin Day

These are photos from our annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch at our local orchard. Brent took the kids this year and I joined them later. The train is pulled by a tractor and the cars are made out of old apple boxes. Usually there is much frolicking and pumpkin loving in the patch, but this year it was too wet so the train just went past the patch and kept on going. The choosing occurred amongst the avalanche of pumpkins and pumpkin headed folk near the buildings. Such fun!

What About You

Beautiful!