Winter Solstice, Christmas and tradition

This story was forwarded to me from a friend and it moved me.....so I decided to share it with you.... And, no, I'm not a Wiccan nor a Pagan nor do I belong to any fringe religious group. I just simply enjoyed the story so here it is....


Five minutes before the Winter Solstice circle was scheduled to begin, my mother called. Since I'm the only one in our coven who doesn't run on Pagan Standard Time, I took the call. Half the people hadn't arrived, and those who had wouldn't settle down to business for at least twenty minutes.

"Merry Christmas, Frannie."

"Hi, Mom. I don't do Christmas."

"Maybe not--but I do, so I'll say it." she told me in her sassy voice, kind of sweet and vinegary at the same time. "If I can respect your freedom of religion, you can respect my freedom of speech."

I grinned and rolled my eyes. "And the score is Mom -one, Fran - nothing. But I love you, anyway."

People were bustling around in the next room, setting up the altar, decking the halls with what I considered excessive amounts of holly and ivy, and singing something like, "O, Solstice Tree."

"It sounds like a...holiday party." Mom said.

"We're doing Winter Solstice tonight."

"Oh. That's sort of like your version of Christmas, right?"

I wanted to snap back that Christmas was the Christian version of Solstice, but I held back.

"We celebrate the return of the sun. It's a lot quieter than Christmas. No shopping sprees, no pine needles and tinsel on the floor, and it doesn't wipe me out. I remember how you had always worked yourself to a frazzle by December 26."

"Oh honey, I loved doing all that stuff. I wouldn't trade those memories for all the spare time in the world. I wish you and Jack would loosen up a little for the baby's sake. When you were little, you enjoyed Easter bunnies and trick-or-treating and Christmas things. Since you've gotten into this
Wicca religion, you sound a lot like Aunt Betty the year she was a Jehovah's Witness."

I laughed nervously. "Yeah. How is Aunt Betty?"

"Fine. She's into the Celestine Prophecy now, and she seems quite happy. Y'know," she went on, "Aunt Betty always said the Jehovah's Witnesses said those holiday things were Pagan. So I don't see why you've given them up."

"Uh, they've been commercialized and polluted beyond recognition. We're into very simple, quiet celebrations. "

"Well," she said dubiously, "as long as you're happy."

Sometimes long distance is better than being there, 'cause your mother can't give you the look that makes you agree with everything she says. Jack rescued me by interrupting.

Hi, Ma." he called to the phone as he waved a beribboned sprig of mistletoe over my head. Then he kissed me, one of those quick noisy ones. I frowned at him.

"Druidic tradition, Fran. Swear to Goddess."

"Of course it is. Did the Druids use plastic berries?"

"Always. We'll be needing you in about five minutes."

"Okay. Gotta go, Mom. Love you."

We had a nice, serene kind of Solstice Circle. No jingling bells or filked-out Christmas Carols. Soon after the last coven member left, Jack was ready to pack it in.

"The baby's nestled all snug in her bed," he said with a yawn, "I think I'll go settle in for a long winter's nap."

I heaved a martyred sigh. He grinned unrepentantly, kissed me, called me a grinch, and went to bed. I stayed up and puttered around the house, trying to unwind. I sifted through the day's mail, ditched the flyers urging us to purchase all the Seasonal Joy we could afford or charge.

I opened the card from his parents. Another sermonette: a manger scene and a bible verse, with a handwritten note expressing his mother's fervent hope that God's love and Christmas spirit would fill our hearts in this blessed season. She means well, really. I amused myself by picking out every Pagan element I could find in the card.

When the mail had been sorted, I got up and started turning our ritual room back into a living room. As if the greeting card had carried a virus, I found myself humming Christmas carols. I turned on the classic rock station, but they were playing that Lennon-Ono Christmas song. I switched stations. The weatherman assured me that there was only a twenty percent chance of
snow. Then, by Loki, the deejay let Bruce Springsteen insult my ears crooning, "yah better watch out, yah better not pout." I tried the Oldies station. Elvis lives, and he does Christmas songs. Okay, fine. We'll do classical ~ no, we won't. They're playing Handel's Messiah. Maybe the
community radio station would have something secular humanist.

"Ahora, escucharemos a Jose Feliciano canta `Feliz Navidad'.."

I was getting annoyed. The radio doesn't usually get this saturated with holiday mush until the twenty-fourth.

"This is too weird." I said to the radio, "Cut that crap out."

The country station had some Kenny Rogers Christmas tune, the first rock station had gone from John and Yoko's Christmas song to Simon and Garfunkel's "Silent Night," and the other rock station still had Springsteen reliving his childhood. "--I'm tellin' you why. Santa Claus is comin' to
town!" he bellowed.

I was about to pick out a nice secular CD when there was a knock at the door. Now, it could have been a coven member who'd forgotten something. It could have been someone with car trouble. It could have been any number of things, but it certainly couldn't have been a stout guy in a red suit—snowy beard, rosy cheeks, and all--backed by eight reindeer and a sleigh. I blinked, wondered crazily where Rudolph was, and blinked again. There were nine reindeer. Our twenty-percent chance of snow had frosted the dead grass and was continuing to float down in fat flakes.

"Hi, Frannie.." he said warmly, "I've missed you."

"I'm stone cold sober, and you don't exist."

He looked at me with a mixture of sorrow and compassion and sighed heavily.

"That's why I miss you, Frannie. Can I come in? We need to talk."

I couldn't quite bring myself to slam the door on this vision, hallucination, or whatever. So I let him in, because that made more sense then letting all the cold air in while I argued with someone who wasn't there.

As he stepped in, a thought crossed my mind about various entities needing an invitation to get in houses. He flashed me a smile that would melt the polar caps.

"Don't you miss Christmas, Frannie?"

"No." I said flatly, "Apparently you don't see me when I'm sleeping and waking these days. I haven't been Christian for years."

"Oh, now don't let that stop you. We both know this holiday's older than that. Yule trees and Saturnalia and here-comes-the- sun, doodoodendoodoo. "

I raised an eyebrow at the Beatles reference, then gave him my standard sermonette on the appropriation and adulteration that made Christmas no longer a Pagan holiday. I had done my homework. I listed centuries; I named names--St. Nicholas among them.

"In the twentieth century version," I assured him, "Christmas is two parts crass commercialism mixed with one part blind faith in a religion I rejected years ago." I gave him my best lines, the ones that had convinced my coven to abstain from Christmassy clichés. My hallucination sat in Jack's favorite chair, nodding patiently at me.

"And you," I added nastily, "come here talking about ancient customs when you--in your current form--were invented in the nineteenth century by, um... Clement C. Moore."

He laughed, a rolling, belly-deep chuckle unlike any department-store Santa I'd ever heard.

"Of course I change my form now and then to suit fashion. Don't you? And does that stop you from being yourself?" He said, and asked me if I remembered Real Magic, by Isaac Bonewits.

I gaped at him for a moment, then caught myself. "This is like `Labyrinth', right? I'm having a dream that pretends to be real, but is only made from pieces of things in my memory. You don't look a thing like David Bowie."

"Bonewits has this Switchboard Theory." Santa went on amiably, "The energy you put into your beliefs influences the real existence of the archetypal-- oh, let me put it simpler: `in the beginning, Man created God'. Ian Anderson."

He lit a long-stemmed pipe. The tobacco had a mild and somehow Christmassy smell, and every puff sent up a wreath of smoke. "I'm afraid it's a bit more complicated than Bonewits tells it, but that's close enough for mortals. Are you with me so far?"

"Oh, sure." I lied as unconvincingly as possible.

Santa sighed heavily.

"When's the last time you left out hot tea and cookies for me?"

"When I figured out my parents were eating them."

"Frannie, Frannie. Remember pinda balls, from Hinduism?"

"Rice balls left as offerings for ancestors and gods."

"Do Hindus really believe that the ancestors and gods eat pinda balls?"

"All right, y'got me there. They say that spirits consume the spiritual essence, then mortals can have what's left."

"Mm-hm." Santa smiled at me compassionately through his snowy beard.

I rallied quickly. "What about the toys? I know for a fact they aren't made by you and a bunch of non-union Elves."

"Oh, that's quite true. Manufacturing physical objects out of magical energy is terribly expensive and breaks several laws of Nature--She only allows us to do that on special occasions. It certainly couldn't be done globally and annually. Now, the missus and the Elves and I really do have a shop at the North Pole. Not the sort of thing the Air Force would ever find. What we make up there is what makes this time a holiday, no matter what religion it's called."

"Don't tell me," I said, rolling my eyes, "you make the sun come back."

"Oh my, no. The solar cycle stuff, the Reason For The Season, isn't my department. My part is making it a holiday. We make a mild, non-addictive psychedelic thing called Christmas spirit. Try some."

He dipped his fingers in a pocket and tossed red-gold-green- silver glitter at me. I could have ducked. I don't know why I didn't.

It smelled like snow, and pine needles, and cedar chips in the fireplace. It smelled like fruitcake, cornbread savory herbal stuffing, like that foamy white stuff you spray on the window with stencils. It felt like a crisp wind, Grandma's hugs, fuzzy new mittens, pine needles scrunching under my slippers. I saw twinkly lights, mistletoe in the doorway, smiling faces from years gone by. Several Christmas carols played almost simultaneously in a kind of medley. I fought my way back to my living room and glared sternly at the hallucination in Jack's chair.

"Fun stuff. Does the DEA know about this?"

"Oh, Frannie. Why are you such a hard case? I told you it's non-addictive and has no harmful side effects. Would Santa Claus lie to you?"

I opened my mouth and closed it again. We looked at each other a while.

"Can I have some more of that glittery stuff?"

"Mmmm. I think you need something stronger. Try a sugarplum."

I tasted rum ball. Peppermint. Those hard candies with the picture all the way through. Mama's favorite fudge. A chorus line of Christmas candies danced through my mouth. The Swedish Angel Chimes, run on candle power, say tingatingatingating . Mama, with a funny smile, promised to give Santa my letter.

Greeting cards taped on the refrigerator door. We rode through the tree farm on a straw-filled trailer pulled by a red and green tractor, looking for a perfect pine. It was so big, Daddy had to cut a bit off so the star wouldn't scrape the ceiling. Lights, ornaments, tinsel. Daddy lifted me up to the mantle to hang my stocking. My dolls stayed up to see Santa Claus, and in the morning they all had new clothes. Grandma carried in platters with the world's biggest Christmas dinner. Joey's Christmas puppy chased my Christmas kitten up the tree and it would have fallen over but Daddy held it while Mama got the kitten out. Daddy said every bad word there was but he kept laughing anyway. I sneaked my favorite plastic horse into the nativity scene, between the camels and the donkey.

I came back to reality slowly, with a silly smile on my face and a tickly feeling behind my eyes like they wanted to cry. The phrase "visions of sugarplums" took on a whole new meaning.

"How long has it been," Santa asked, "since you played with a nativity set?-"

"But it symbolizes-- "

"The winter-born king. The sacred Mother and her sun-child.. Got a problem with that? You could redecorate it with pentagrams if you like, they'll look fine. As for the Christianization, I've heard who you invoke at Imbolc."

"But Bridgid was a Goddess for centuries before the Catholic Church-oh." I crossed my arms and tried to glare at him, but failed. "You're a sneaky old Elf, y'know?"

"The term is `Jolly Old Elf.' Care for another sugarplum?" I did. I tasted gingerbread. My first nip of soy eggnog the way the grown-ups drink it. Fresh sugar cookies, shaped like trees and decked with colored frosting. Dad had been laid off, but we managed a lot of cheer. They told us Christmas would be "slim pickings." Joey and I smiled bravely when Mama brought home that spindly spruce. We loaded down our "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" with every light and ornament it could hold. Popcorn and cranberry strings for the outdoor trees. Mistletoe in the hall: plastic mistletoe, real kisses. Joey and I snipped and glued and stitched and painted treasures to give as presents.

We agonized over our "Santa" letters...by now we knew where the goodies came from, and we tried to compromise between what we longed for and they thought they could afford. Every day we hoped the factory would reopen. When Joey's dog ate my mitten, I wasn't brave. I knew that meant I'd get mittens for Christmas, and one less toy. I cried. On December twenty-fifth we opened our presents ve-ery slo-wly, drawing out the experience. We made a show of cheer
over our socks and shirts and meager haul of toys. I got red mittens. We could tell Mama and Daddy were proud of us for being so brave, because they were grinning like crazy.

"Go out to the garage for apples." Mama told us, "We'll have apple pancakes."

I don't remember having the pancakes. There was a dollhouse in the garage. No mass-produced aluminum thing but a homemade plywood dollhouse with wall-papered walls and real curtains and thread-spool chairs. My dolls were inside, with newly sewn clothes. Joey was on his knees in front of a plywood barn with hay in the loft. His old farm implements had new paint. Our plastic animals were corralled in popsicle stick fences.. The garage smelled like apples and hay, the cement was bone-chilling under my slippers, and I was crying.

My knees were drawn up to my chest, arms wrapped around them. My chest felt tight, like ice cracking in sunshine. Santa offered me a huge white handkerchief. When all the ice in my chest had melted, he cleared his throat. He was pretty misty-eyed, too.

"Want to come sit on my lap and tell me what you want for Christmas?"

"You've already given it to me." But I sat on his lap anyway, and kissed his rosy cheek until he did his famous laugh.

"I'd better go now, Frannie. I have other stops to make, and you have work to do."

"Right. I'd better pop the corn tonight, it strings best when it's stale."

I let him out the door. The reindeer were pawing impatiently at the moon-kissed new-fallen snow. I'd swear Rudolph winked at me.

"Don't forget the hot tea and cookies."

"Right. Uh, December twenty-fourth, or Solstice, or what?"

He shrugged. "Whatever night you expect me, I'll be there. Eh, don't wait up. Visits like this are tightly rationed. Laws of Nature, y'know, and She's strict with them."

"Gotcha. Thanks, Santa." I kissed his cheek again. "Happy Holidays."

The phrase had a nice, non-denominational ring to it. I thought I'd call my parents and in-laws soon and try it out on them.

Santa laid his finger aside of his nose and nodded.

"Blessed be, Frannie.."

The sleigh soared up, and Santa really did exclaim something. It sounded like old German. Smart-aleck Elf.

When I closed the door, the radio was playing Jethro Tull's "Solstice Bells."

__._,_.___

A Recipe For A Good Life

1. Take a 30 minute walk everyday. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day breathing deeply and relaxing your body and mind. Talk to a higher power about what is going on in your life and turn your problems over to that power. Finish up by looking for some positive evidence in your life that allows gratitude to bubble up in your heart.

3. When you wake in the morning, complete the following statement. ‘My purpose is to _____________________today. Today I am thankful for ______________.’

4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food manufactured in plants.

5. Drink green tea and lots of water everyday. Eat more blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, walnuts and almonds.

6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

7. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead, invest your energy in the positive present moment.

8. Eat 200 clean calories every two to three hours throughout the day to keep your energy and appetite in perfect and consistant balance.

9. Remember that life isn’t always fair but it’s still good.

10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

11. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Nobody else does.

12. You are not so important that you have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

13. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.

14. Don’t compare your life to anyone else. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

15. Nobody is in charge of your happiness except you.

16. Frame every so-called ‘disaster’ with these words, “In five years will this matter?”

17. Forgive everyone for everything.

18. What other people think of you is none of your business.

19. Love heals everything but ~ you must give it and receive it.

20. Remember that however good or bad a situation is, it will change.

21. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all that you need.

23. Each night before you go to bed, complete the following statements: “I am thankful for ___________. Today I accomplished _____________________.”

24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

25. When you feel low make a list of the positive experiences you’ve had in your life. You’ll be smiling before you know it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Laughter

Laughter is the best medicine. That's not news. But how long has it been since you had a good long belly laugh? It's good for your spirit, your body, your mind and all around good for everyone. There's even a practice called laughter yoga. It's a wonderful practice. If you can't find something to make you laugh, if you can't remember something from your past that triggers a good giggle then go out and rent some funny DVDs or recordings. I love watching the old George Burns and Gracie Allen Shows. I also crack up watching Jack Benny, Bill Cosby, George Carlin and "I Love Lucy". Get yourself a good giggle this week and give thanks for the ability to laugh. Babies laugh before they can talk. It's natural, it's normal, it's good for you. I remember sitting in church with my sisters and getting the giggles and not being able to stop. I remember sitting with my friend Karen and laughing until tears came to my eyes because I dropped a tomato out of my taco. Silliness is good for you. It's a good time to lighten up! Go to www.youtube.com and do a search for babies laughing and that should get you started.

Lower-Self, Middle-Self, and Higher-Self

Millions of years ago, when our animal like ancestors were trying to survive the numerous threats from other, bigger, more fierce animals, and from the natural earth elements, it was necessary to have an effective fight or flight mechanism. If a saber-toothed tiger was about to jump out to gobble them up, an automatic emotional response was the only thing they had to move them from being dinner, to having dinner. A nervous shock was needed to activate the adrenals to release the adrenalin into their blood stream so that their bodies, their muscles, their minds and all their senses became acutely focused and strengthened. The emotional alarm system commanded full attention. When the tiger was ready to pounce, instincts told them to run or to fight for their survival. In general, as survival mechanisms go, our animal ancestors were programmed for automatic duality--automatic feeling of otherness, threat, and paranoia. Survival required instant domination of consciousness to meet the perils of the jungle.

Survival and happiness in 2008 now depend on tuning in to the overall situation involving ourselves, the people around us, and the total environment of the here and now. Perceptiveness, wisdom, and oneness are now the ingredients of effective and happy living. But our biocomputers are still programmed for jungle fight or flight--for a fast release of adrenalin for that, all-too-familiar, rapid heart beat--automatic anger and fear. We tend to make mountains out of molehills and this constant distortion destroys our energy, our insight, and our ability to love. For us to survive in our current social and global environment means that we must have instant perceptions of oneness--of love--of compassion with everyone and understanding of everything around us. When we learn to cut through our paranoid jungle programming, we are on our way to higher consciousness and happiness.

Paranoid individuals who cannot love themselves and others tend to get heart trouble, ulcers, other psychosomatic diseases, are accident-prone, etc. This is evolution working to remedy this primitive jungle alarm system. In the future, humans may have nervous systems that are automatically structured to produce instant insights that facilitate love and oneness. In truth, that is where our survival lies. How do we advance the human mind on its evolutionary journey? We need a system to override our jungle programming, that monkey brain chitter-chatter I write about, so that we can enjoy living here and now, with clear perception, elevated feelings of love and oneness.

Lower-Self Mind is the survival mind. It is the ego mind. The ego's primary purpose is survival. We cannot exist without it. It assumes responsibility for the body and identifies with the body. It is the part of us that wants to breathe and operates with the illusion that "I" is a separate individual being. The ego is afraid of death. Whenever any problem comes to the body the ego becomes very alert and focused in the body. This is not a bad thing. I used to hear spiritual teachers say to "surrender your ego" and I couldn't understand how that could be possible. But what they were saying is move up in your conscious awareness to the place of your heart where love heals and elevates all vibrations. If left in the place of ego centered awareness the mind will become competitive, isolated, fear based and not at ease.

Middle-Self Mind is the intellect and is ego directed, subject-object oriented, power conscious, and constantly involving the rational mind. It is inflexible and guarded using personal patterns and habits as a form of surviving social expectations. It is the tool of consciousness and contains knowledge. The intellect carries with it the past, the present and also speculates about the future. It is the birth place of rationalization, and explanation for the purpose of defense from the judgment from 'others'.

Higher-Self Mind is full of wide ranging insight and deep intuitive understanding giving full flexibility of flow in mutually supportive and loving ways without the blocks of preconceived beliefs and outmoded personal patterns and habits. It is the divine spark of Source. It is the real you, the part that knows the truth and is connected to the Divine Matrix of Universal Mind.

Our biocomputers are the most remarkable instruments in the universe. The only challenge is to learn to use it properly. It is capable of handling two million visual inputs and one hundrend thousand auditory inputs at one time. It is capable of making millions of simultaneous computations and operates continually throughout all parts of our bodies every second. When you learn how to operate your exquisite mechanism, you will be able to fully realize your potential for a happy life.

Most of us live in the lower and middle self mindsets charactorized by trying to find enough security, sex, pleasant sensations, ego rushes, love and attention, prestige, money, power and status. This active struggle leads to constant worry, resentment, suspicion, anger, jealousy, shyness, and fear. We create the bickering and turmoil in our lives through this struggle to 'find' happiness outside of ourselves. Oh, certainly you can experience flashes of pleasure in sex, and other physical sensations, like the high from alcohol and drugs, and the feeling of winning the lottery when a big chunk of money comes our way...but these are fleeting feelings. True and permanent happiness, true security comes from a place deep inside of our own conscious awareness.

You will know you are ready for growth into the happines of higher self awareness when you realize the futility of trying to 'find' happiness through the lower self desires. Although they are seductive and masquerade as "needs" they lead us from one illusion to another. They line up, one behind the other, as we search for ways to not feel our insecurities, our fears and vulnerablities, in short....our feelings. When we suppress and close off our feelings, we cannot contact the universe within us, we cannot hear our intuitive voice, and we certainly can't enjoy being alive.

John F. Kennedy

I was sitting at my desk in one of the seventh grade classrooms at Hawthorne Intermediate School when the principal interupted our studies with the grave announcement over the innercom system that our beloved president John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been shot in Dallas Texas. I remember looking over at my friend Sharon Volland and seeing her breakdown into sobs of grief.

Walking home early that day and watching the faces of the adults in the stores along Hawthrone Blvd, I searched for someone to say he was going to be okay even though we had been told that he had died almost instantly. I didn't want to believe it. I was afraid. What would happen to our country now? What would become of his beautiful children?

November 22, 1963 changed everything for me. It changed everything for our country. We lost our innocence that day and the sixties became the decade that revealed all of that anger and loss.

45 years ago today, we stood and cried for all that was lost.

New Age

We are giving birth to a New Age. The end days of the old ways of doing things is the chaos you see around you. Fear overtakes the weak minded. But fear will only give birth to a new age of fear. What we put our attention on, what we vibrate in our hearts is creating the New Age. We are the creators of the new reality. Watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec-DekKhGHQ

Focus not on what is slipping away. Focus on the new beginnings of the new age. Focus on Inner Peace. Move to the eye of the storm and allow the chaos to fall away.

The Rune picked for today:

Uruz

Strength
Manhood, Womanhood
A Wild Ox

The Rune of termination and new beginnings indicates that the life you have been living has outgrown its form. That form must die so that life energy can be released in a new birth, a new form. This is a Rune of passage and, as such, part of the Cycle of Initiation.

Growth and change, however, may involve passage into darkness as part of the cycle of perpetual renewal. As in Nature, the progression consists of five parts: death, decay, fertilization, gestation, rebirth. Events ovvurring now may well prompt you to undergo a death within yourself. Since self-change is never coerced--we are always free to resist--remain mindful that the new form, the new life, is always greater than the old.

Prepare, then, for opportunity disguised as loss. It could involve the loss of someone or something to which there is an intense emotional bond, and through which you are living a part of your life, a part that must now be retrieved so you can live it out for yourself. In some way, that bond is being severed, a relationship radically changed, a death experienced. Seek among the ashes and discover a new perspective and new strength.

The original symbol for Uruz was the aurochs, a wild ox. When the wild ox was domesticated--a nearly impossible task--it could transport heavy loads. Learn to adapt yourself to the demands of such a creative time. Firm principles attach to this Rune, and at the same time humility is called for, since in order to rule you must learn how to serve. This Rune puts you on notice that your soul andthe universe support the new growth.

Future Possibilities

In each and every moment there is an abundance of possibilities for each of us to experience. We are only limited by our imagination.

Each of us has an innate power that we have yet to discover in ourselves. Some of us see glimpses of it from time to time but have not learned to manage it in our everyday lives. We allow our emotions to run the show instead of our higher mind's intention.

I remember when I was 8 years old and I had decided I wanted to stay home from school. I didn't like school much. I didn't fit in very well and it was hard to make friends. Psychic children often have this problem. I didn't understand it at the time and thought there was something wrong with me that kids didn't want to play with me. I struggled a great deal in those early elementary school years.

On this particular day I told my mother I wasn't feeling well. I told her that I was very sick and needed to stay home. It was a lie, of course, but I had to convince her because she wasn't likely to let me stay home for no good reason. So, I laid in bed and complained of a stomach ache and a fever. I should have received an award I was so convincing. I worked it like a professional thespian getting so completely into the 'sick' character that within an hour I was actually sick. I remember being astonished at the first sign of real illness. It was an exciting moment. It was a powerful moment. I had intentionally created an illness and I knew I had done it. Why I didn't think to use that power at school to create friendships I don't know. That was the day that I knew how powerful humans are. We can make ourselves sick and we do. We can make ourselves weak, we can make ourselves anything we want and therefore we can make ourselves well. It's all a matter of focused attention and the creative use of emotional vibrations.

What we can do on the micro level, in our bodies and in our personal lives, we can do on the macro level as well. The great teacher, Jesus, said that the miracles he performed were the very things we could do and that we could do even more.

How to perform a miracle? Believe it. Know it. Feel it. Breathe it. Surrender doubt and fear and feel as if your truth is already created. It isn't helpful to ask for change because that puts you in the position of needing change therefore you will continue to need change.

If you are reading the papers, watching the news or listening to others talk about this economic downturn and the negative prospects of your investments or savings then you are likely to be experiencing fear and possibly anger. Those emotional vibrations create a toxic bio-chemical environment in your body that creates disease. It is the birthing soup of cancers, neurological disorders, heart disease and psychosis. Are you sure that's the path you want to take yourself and your family?

It's true that emotions are contagious. It is true that what one person feels vibrates outside of their body to contaminate a good 10 feet or more of space around them. Like a virus, you could be susceptible to those energies. More and more of what we feel may not be so much of our own stuff but stuff we pick up on our daily travels.

Learning to manage energetic vibrations is more important now than ever. We have entered a time of a great shift. We have access to more cosmic energy than we are used to due to a transition in global positioning. The veil that is thinning allows us to access these energies to amplify our feelings and intentions.

What is it you want to feel? Who are you becoming? What experiences do you want to create for yourself and the world?

Five minutes a day is all we ask. Take five minutes everyday to breathe deeply, relax and see and feel what life feels like as you the person you have already become. Does this person feel radiantly healthy, strong and fit? Does this person feel happy and peaceful? Does this person feel grace and love? Does the world feel safe and restored to balance and harmony?

There is a movie, "The Neverending Story" that tells a story of the 'great nothing' that comes to devour all that is. It's a story of a spiritual warrior who goes out to confront the 'great nothing'. He has many challenges on his quest but he continues. He has to face his darkside in the mirror. He has to know himself. He has to overcome sorrow. In the end he believes he has failed as the great nothing has destroyed all that he knows. But there is one grain of light remaining and from that one grain of light all can be restored. It is the grain of self acceptance and self empowerment. It is the grain of enlightenment.

If you can access a grain of light within you, you can create a world of peace around you.

Celebrate Your Life, The Good News!

The Celebrate Your Life Conference this month was held at the new Sheraton in downtown Phoenix and it was wonderful. I had a chance to be with some of the greatest minds in new age science and spirituality. Gregg Braden, Wayne Dyer, Bruce Lipton, Marianne Williamson, Alberto Villoldo, and many others.

I was most impressed with Gregg Braden's presentations on the technological advances measuring the electromagnetic fields of the Earth as well as the human heart. There is a project that is monitoring the vibration of human consciousness and its effect on the magnetic field of the Earth. His work and the work of his collegues is impressive and encouraging. The global shift I learned about via my psychic work now has the science to explain it. The hope that 'we' will collectively respond to this change with love instead of fear is what moves me to do my work. Gregg Braden encouraged me to continue with what I teach.

With that, I will start a new class in January. It is a six month class designed to advance clients with their abiltiy to shift their emotional vibration to the higher fields, from fear, anger, resentment and disease to willingness, courage, love and enlightenment.

We are alive at a remarkable time. We have the power to affect the change we are experiencing in a positive way. We have the science and spiritual technologies to create a brilliant future for our planet and our children. Please join the party!

www.greggbraden.com
www.glcoherence.org
www.elizabethaleccia.com

Our New First Family

It's over. I am as grateful for the end of this campaign as I am for the results. We made a good choice, I believe. One thing I know for certain is that no matter which one we had elected we would still have times ahead of disappointment and times of pride in our choice. I see great things ahead for America and, of course, trying times as well. No presidency is without challenges. I pray for this family to be safe, well and strong.

Our new leader asked us to be of service. He said this is not about him it is about us. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We all need to do our part to make our country strong again. To be the great leaders of peace, prosperity and Democracy for the world of countries and cultures and the Planet Earth to recover, each of us needs to be of service.

If you are disappointed in the results you will need time to heal from the lies that were repeated daily until some were hypnotized into believing them. I hope you will find, within you, the determination, courage and willingness to move forward together. I hope you will find it in your heart to support the new vision and direction for Peace and Prosperity of all.


We are Americans. We are all patriotic. We all want what is best for our country, our people and the world. Let's get to work.

P.S. I received this today.... "Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama ran so our children could fly."