The Magic IS the Mundane

My dearest lovelies….Some days are for confronting the really big questions; today is one of those days and THIS is one of those questions.  How passionate are you about your life?  Seriously.  When you take a step back and really look at your life, do you get excited?  Do you see it as a privilege?  Aa punishment? Or are you just sort of in it drifting through the days unconsciously waiting for the magic to find you? 

Several months ago I started to ask myself the same question and I have to tell you, it’s sort of changed everything. 

For reasons I don’t completely understand, a lot of us, myself included, subconsciously wait for some sort of catastrophic event to happen before we are shaken up enough to recognize that things are not working…or that we want more…or that we just want to feel something that resembles enthusiasm for our lives again…or maybe for the very first time ever.

It was a series of BIG, crappy events this past Summer that prompted me to sort of take a serious step back and really look at where I was in my life as opposed to where I wanted to be.  That’s when I got the biggest gift the Universe has ever given me; I woke up one morning and realized that I didn’t need to tear up everything, I didn’t need to run off and join the proverbial circus to be happy, I just needed to quit taking my life for granted.  And that one realization literally changed everything because the moment I really faced my mortality….not in a sad sort of way but in a “Hey, what the hell are you waiting for?” sort of way, I couldn’t help but get excited enough to want to make some really fabulous changes.  The good news is that they were not big changes, and they didn’t cost a thing!  They were more like adjustments to how I chose to see everything and what I was actually looking for.  That’s the real game-changer….

I think what typically happens in life is we wind up waiting for circumstances to change for us before we decide to make any sort of a move…  We have all these big, fake contingencies lined up as a means to avoid any sort of accountability or movement because let’s face it, change is scary.  But I’ll tell you what…NOT changing….living a life that doesn’t make you happy, waiting for someone else to give you permission to change your circumstances….well if you ask me, that’s even scarier.  Sitting there and telling ourselves that we will change anything ONLY when something else happens first is sort of a BS fear based way of saying “nope, not ready, but thanks anyway.”  Haven’t we lived that way long enough?

I could give you a list of reasons not to enjoy and be passionate about your life as it is in this exact moment or I can gently place my hands on your shoulders, look you in the eye and say, “sweetie….isn’t the mere fact that you’re breathing on your own something to celebrate?” 

I have to be honest with you, I know a lot of people who are going to read that statement and say, “yea, but…..I don’t have enough money, I hate my job, my partner left me, my parents didn’t treat me well, it’s Monday…..”  The list goes on and on. 

I know that a lot of us have been through some horrible STUFF….we feel beat up and broken, we feel frustrated, disappointed, sad and just plain exhausted.  Even worse yet, some have gotten so used to the dissatisfaction of life we just don’t feel anything.  But that does not need to be how we feel today, that doesn’t need to define who we get to be NOW or how we feel NOW.  All of that STUFF is our HISTORY!!!  All that STUFF, even though it feels like its with you today is YESTERDAY’S emotional trash and it’s time to leave it at the curb.  You don’t have to carry it around with you anymore.

Contrary to what you might have been telling yourself or have been lead to believe, none of that garbage could be further from what this life is supposed to be about.  Being passionate about your life is as simple as how you choose to see your world; in other words, one conscious choice in either direction and it’s the dawn of a whole new day.  Seriously.  If you wake up every day expecting bad things and bad people to happen to you, then that’s exactly what you will get because it’s all you’re capable of seeing.  If you go out into the world looking for devils, then all you will ever see is devils. 

But what if you wake up every day looking for the very best of life?  What if the first thing you do before you even put one foot on the floor is just take a breath and say THANK YOU?  What if the next thing you do after that is look outside…. Do you see trees?  Flowers?  Snow?  Look at it…..really LOOK at it and see the intrinsic beauty in every single part of it and don’t take one thing that you see for granted.  Some people are not fortunate enough to actually SEE any of it….but you are.  Say thank you!  Enjoy all if it!

This is where being passionate about your life starts.  One simple decision to look at things differently or maybe SEE things for the very first time, literally has enough power to change everything!   

It does not matter one tiny bit what your life looks like right now, the fact of the matter is that you….YES, YOU…were born with a divinely charged magic wand that holds so much power it can fundamentally alter the entire course of your life.  It can even help you to lead by example and potentially help someone else to change their life too….it’s called perception and it’s been your birthright all along.

How do you choose to use your power of perception today?  We certainly aren’t guaranteed a life free of set-backs or heartache or let-downs….but HOW you choose to process what happens is what matters…. You always have the ability to see things as happening TO you or FOR you but nobody can make that choice BUT you.

We really don’t know how long our life line is do we?  Doesn’t it make more sense to do our best to look for the magic and the miracles in the “mundane” versus waiting for what we perceive to be the BIG events?  What if you decided that the breath you just took IS the really big stuff?  I know it sounds super simplistic….and I know from personal experience that it’s not always easy to see the good during what can sometimes feel like a mountain of obstacles, but the work is worth it.  Have you ever actually climbed a mountain of obstacles?  The view on the way up and over those obstacles is absolutely amazing!  Everything so much shinier and even the shadows have no choice but to shrink a bit when bathed in so much light!!

Fall in love with your life today….love it unconditionally and with all your heart and soul no matter what it looks like right now…. Don’t wait one more minute…. You deserve that….you really do and you’re always just one decision away from knowing it.  My sincerest hope is that today is the day you decide to embrace and celebrate your beautiful life and be passionate about it just because you can! 

Wishing you bliss and blessings,

Heather

All images and text are the property of Heather Hanson and may not be copied or reproduced without express written consent.

DIvine You

Some days are for remembering the truth of who you are…..who you were before the world chimed in and told you who it expected you to be.

Whether you remember it or not, we are each Divine beings cut from the same beautiful quilt of humanity. You and I are made up of every conceivable reflection and version of ourselves that ever was or ever will be.  Regardless of what your life has looked like or what you have believed to be true about your SELF, the one certainty in your existence is that YOU are truly divine. 

Your connection to that divinity can never be severed…..it can never be taken away from you, it is the essence of who you are.  Long before you were even a prayer on someone’s heart or a fleeting wish, you were a divine spark of potential.  That light constantly glows deep within you and make no mistake, no matter what you do, or what you have been told, that light, that divine spark can never be extinguished or taken away from you.

Sadly and for so many of us, the longer we are “here” the more we begin to believe that our spark simply doesn’t exist or that it is somehow damaged..  We start to feel afraid that who we authentically are is simply not enough, so we do what we think we need to in order to fit in and blend.  We become whatever we must just to feel like we’re a part of something and that we have a connection to the people around us.  So without a clue as to what we’re doing, at a very young age we begin to create masks for ourselves. 

At first we don’t create them intentionally, we don’t even really know that we’re doing it, we just sort of hide behind whatever it is that helps us fit in the best.  Most of us are terrified of being the kid left alone on the playground at recess so we intentionally shrink ourselves a bit; we dim our own divine light just enough that  the other kids will like us.  The moment we realize it’s working, is the moment we have created our first mask.

Over the journey of many years we become certain that it feels good to wear our masks. At some point we almost convince ourselves that we are in fact, truly the person behind the disguise.  Think about the last costume party you attended. Initially that alter-ego masquerade mask is exciting and perhaps a bit liberating as we put it on and step into a version of ourselves we’ve always wanted to experience.  But then as the evening wears on the mask begins to itch, we can’t enjoy the food, the drinks or even the character we were trying to be because the mask has now become a hinderance, a burden, and a distraction that leaves us unable to focus on anything else.  When we can’t take it anymore, we finally pull it off, leave it on a coffee table somewhere when nobody is looking and as we do, we exhale a sigh of relief because we are free. 

I think many of us forgot a long time ago that life was never designed to be a costume party.  Unfortunately, as we get older and understand a bit more about how the world works, we start to see what masks we need to create in order to fit in, to get the job, the promotion, the friends, the significant other.  We start to see what sort of masks make us more likable, more popular, more loveable, more accepted.  And so, layer after layer, with each mask we create, we move further away from the divine authentic nature of who we truly are.  We become a constantly changing version of who we believe we are supposed to be.  We are exhausted, we are confused, and we don’t understand why we can’t quite get comfortable in our own skin. 

Our ego doesn’t understand this level of discomfort because all it wants to do is protect us, so it wraps us in more and more layers of masks as a way of keeping us safe. Ironically, we truly believe that the more masks we wear, the less of our beautiful individuality and ourselves that we show the world, the safer we are and the better our ability to connect with those around us…. 

We tragically and constantly forget that long before we even took our first breath, we were already tethered unconditionally to one another and to our most amazing connection; the one that we have to the Divine Source of who we are. (God, Creator, Spirit or whatever name you identify as the Creator of all things).  That Source created you perfectly in his/her image with unlimited possibility, individuality and potential.  You were never intended to be like anybody else.  You were not created so that you could eventually shrink who you are to fit in or to blend.  You were created to shine out loud in your own luminous humanity of endless colors.  You are, at your most authentic, exactly who you are supposed to be.

Can you imagine what it would feel like to live in the space of THAT sort of freedom every day?  To never have to create another mask but instead to just be who you ultimately are?  What if you could really wake up every day remembering and embracing your true self?  What if you could know just how much you matter and how connected you are to every single one of us without ever having wear even one more mask?

That freedom is available right now but for most of us who have never really let the world SEE us, nothing could sound more terrifying.  Right?  Actually, I think it’s far more frightening to constantly worry about one of the masks slipping off or someone seeing past it before we believe we are ready. The stress of all those masks hardly seems worth the effort when the reality is that you have absolutely nothing to hide.

Let’s be honest, most of humanity is made up of people who have been creating masks for themselves too.  Much like you, they didn’t know they had a choice, they just assumed that if you saw them without their masks you wouldn’t like them either.  They too forgot all about their divine nature. 

 The simplest truth is that the moment you decide to listen to the voice that has always been with you everything changes.  The instant you finally hear the voice that keeps tugging at your heart trying to get you to re-member who you are will be the precise moment that every mask you have ever created will simultaneously cease to exist. You and everything that was ever intended for you will be free. 

What if today is that day?  The choice has been yours all along.  Itchy, scratchy tedious masks or blissful, happy, light-as-a-cloud divine freedom?  Choose wisely!

Wishing you bliss and blessings,

Heather

all images and text C 2018

Heart of the Moon

Some days are designed for reflection…for quiet contemplation and for gratitude. 

It is the most wonderful blessing that today of all days, the very first day of the year, we are going to be greeted by a magnificent and awe-inspiring Super Full Moon this evening.   It simply doesn’t get any more magical than that!  No matter where you are in the world, regardless of what side of Mother Earth you call home, sometime this evening you and I will be able to look up and share the light of the very first full moon of this brand-new year.  It’s really nothing short of awe-inspiring, isn’t it? 

If you allow yourself to get very still and just BE in this moment, you can almost feel the energy of this moon swirling all around you.  This is a day for the magic of possibility and potential…a day for celebrating what we have achieved, for enjoying the harvest of last year’s efforts and for setting intentions for the future.  This a day to recognize that there are no real obstacles standing between our imaginations and the manifestation of our dreams….there is only the illusion of limitation.  This is a day for remembering that truly, ALL things are possible and that means ALL things, to all people, not just a few lucky ones….ALL things….ALL people…and that means you too!  It is a new day, a new year and we have so much to celebrate!

I am so happy to share my love of the moon and so much more with you because for the last few months I find that I am in an inspired new head and heart space.  I feel like a veil has been lifted and suddenly I can see the magic and even the miraculous in what used to feel so mundane and taken for granted.  With inspiration perched firmly on my shoulder, I cannot help but feel like I need to make certain that I share what keeps showing up…so I started drawing again, I started writing again and that’s literally just the tip of the iceberg! 

I am quietly and very intentionally meandering down a beautiful new path; a road I find to be less traveled and a wonderfully peaceful detour from the chaos of my never-quiet, constantly creative mind.  I have taken a most incredible turn that has lead me towards a magical and most divine place I had never been to before…and as I’m sure you can understand, when you’re excited about something you just can’t wait to share it.  As we move gently into 2018, I look forward to introducing so much of it to you, but for today, this wonderful day for reflection and gratitude, let’s just stay in this inspiring place for a while longer and start this new chapter with our hearts turned toward the moon…..

Perhaps you haven’t even noticed, but between the Full Moon and the New Moon every single month, she is always doing something to get your attention and lend you her light in any way that she can!!

Two times a month, (at the very least) regardless of what is happening in the world, in your home or in your heart, you have an on-going invitation to stop whatever it is that you are doing, be quiet for a moment, turn your head up to the sky and let your heart go within...  If weather permits and you can go outside, that’s fabulous; and if not, any window that allows you to stand in the light of the moon will do.  This momentary pause is available and waiting patiently for you every single month….it doesn’t cost a thing, you don’t have to dress up, or even clear your schedule….you just need to be still, look up, breathe and let her Divine energy re-fuel your heart and soul!  How incredible that the Creator (God, Source, Spirit, the Divine) of ALL things amidst every other miracle He(She) blessed us with in those first six days also gave us this incredible luminary hanging high in the sky as one more very visual reminder of what is truly possible when we lean into the light.  

For me, these two nights of the month are so special that I started to think of the Full and New Moon evenings as micro-holidays.   As a matter of fact, in the Jewish religion, the New Moon is a holiday specifically for women called Rosh Chodesh (which translates to; Head of the month).  It is said that because of the women’s loyalty to God and not worshipping idols during the era of the Golden Calf, God gave them a great reward; he gave them the New Moon and their very own holiday.  It became customary for the women to literally take the entire day off and the men would step forward to handle everything!  They would do the cooking, the housework and tend to the home while their wives, sisters, and all the other females in the villages took time to rest, rejuvenate, celebrate, and share their gratitude for the moon and a brand new month!  I can’t see any reason why a holiday like Rosh Chodesh which insists that all women take the day off wouldn’t be a fantastic addition to the calendar today!  Can you?

Amidst the constant craziness of life, these Divine monthly lunar events (and make no mistake, they are truly Divine in origin) need to be some of the moments that matter…. Whether it is the evening of a full or new moon, the opportunity is still the same.  Like a trusted old friend, there is always available for you a quiet moment between you and that magical luminary high in the sky who can’t wait to shed her light on your next chapter.  Every month the moon silently listens and then cheers you on as you decide to set down and release anything that no longer serves you…. She is among your greatest cheerleaders always using her light to illuminate any fears or misgivings you had so that you can move past them and begin to plant your new seeds of intention.  If used properly, the divine energy of the moon is like a beacon flooding your conscious and subconscious desires and wishes with light so that if you have felt stuck, you can now do what is necessary to bring your greatest desires from wish to fruition!  But first you must invite her in and take a very intentional moment to hold space with her.

The truth is, we are all divine beings inventing and re-inventing ourselves over and over throughout the course of our amazing lives.  We have the capacity to call towards ourselves anything that we need and release whatever it is that no longer enriches us.  With the moon as just one of our Divinely created guides, two times each month we have an invitation to get quiet, tune in and be in the light of a space that can’t wait to work alongside you while you work to bring all your hopes and dreams into the tangible world. 

As the hum and buzz of the holidays begins to subside a bit, it is my sincerest wish for you that tonight as this Super Full Moon rises high in the sky, you will take a moment and look up in quiet celebration and gratitude for all that you accomplished and experienced in 2017.  Pause for a moment and remember just how far you have come and how miraculous this journey has been so far!  There is always so much to be thankful for.  If we give ourselves the space to be very still, that big beautiful moon can’t wait to bathe us in her magic and truth-revealing light just in time to energize our spirit as we step into the dawn of a brand new year!  Happy Full Moon to you! 

Wishing you love, abundance and magic!

Heather

Forgiveness

Happy and healthy New Year to you lovelies!  It’s been a while and I truly hope that you are happy and well!  If you have a moment, I would really love to share something with you….it’s sort of my wish for you and a part of a much bigger project that I’ve been working on for 2018 and beyond…

Sometimes people say things that stick.  About a year ago, my dear friend Paula told me that “some years are for learning and some years are for teaching.”  I had no idea how much truth and comfort those words would eventually bring me, but I can tell you from personal experience, and even if you look back on your own life, I think you will agree; truer words have never been spoken.  As it turns out, I believe that 2017 was a major learning year for me; perhaps THE learning year above all others. The lessons I have learned and am continuing to unpack are not always framed in the happiest of contexts, but I’m starting to realize that after seemingly endless efforts, when the Universe wants to give you something, be it wisdom or opportunity or even an invitation to change, rest assured, it will do will do whatever it has to in order to get your attention

My big game-changer lesson this past year has been all about forgiveness….both given to others and to myself.

When I decided that I really needed to end this year by sharing with you what I have learned about forgiveness, I asked myself what the words that I associate with a lack of forgiveness would look like.  What would heavy-hearted words like “burden, grudge and anger” look like if they were suddenly to become tangible items that we could actually see?  The resulting image is part of a much bigger series of drawings that I have been working on, but we’ll start here for today… Today it’s all about luggage and the burden of carrying around so much anger, heartache and anything else that prevents our hearts from expanding and letting light in.  What you see in my drawing is what comes to mind for me from personal experience as a result of making the choice (And make no mistake, it is absolutely a choice) not to forgive somebody or ourselves for that matter.  We wind up dragging around and being tethered to oversized, heavy, beat-up old luggage being weighted down even more with the heaviest and most cumbersome ball and chain you ever did see!  There is no growth, no forward movement, just mud and weeds.  Can you imagine?  We literally CHOOSE to drag this old, outdated crap around with us instead of just setting it down.  But why?

I know a person who has actually made a habit out of being angry, scorned and choosing to withhold forgiveness.   She will spend the rest of her life choosing to be a victim who wears that rage almost like a tragic weapon she can conveniently pull out anytime things start getting a little too happy for the person who hurt her!  So many other beautiful emotions just waiting to be embraced and no matter what, this person always finds their way back to anger and carrying the burden of almost 25 years of pain.  To me, it would be like walking around with a piece of glass in your foot and choosing not to pull it out…. The sad truth is, eventually that glass splinters, other people blindly or even intentionally step on the pieces that broke off and before you know it, everybody closest to the person originally carrying the glass are walking around with shards of glass in their feet too….the anger almost becomes contagious and spreads out into the lives of anybody who crosses its path.

My experience is that it somehow feels safer to stay pissed and hurt because if we don’t, if we decide to begin the healing process or offer our forgiveness, than we are putting ourselves at risk that it may happen again or worse yet, we are going got have to take a look at ourselves during the healing process too…..and sometimes isn’t it true that the scariest place to look is really into our own truth-telling mirror.   

Healing and the raw truth that comes with it can leave us feeling open, exposed and vulnerable.  Since we have no crystal ball, unless we cut all ties with the person who hurt us (and YES, in some cases, this is absolutely necessary) we have zero guarantee that it won’t happen again.  But to be honest with you, this is not what forgiveness is about.

Forgiveness, genuine forgiveness doesn’t come with conditions or guarantees or even promises…but it does come with something even better. Forgiveness comes with freedom. Forgiveness comes with generosity and benevolence.  Forgiveness gives us the ability to move forward.  It leads by example and brings us into big beautiful healing light versus wallowing in heavy darkness.  Forgiveness brings us closer to our Divinity and our true nature.  

In our hearts, we must re-member that people do not hurt one another just for the heck of it.  It may sometimes appear that way, but peel back all the layers and you’re left with someone who themselves has been deeply hurt.  More often than not, that hurt never had a chance to heal and so it festers and winds up manifesting in ways that are not healthy, are often hurtful and will eventually become part of a pattern if we don’t interrupt the behavior at its source.

While it is not our responsibility or our job to go around attempting to fix everybody we perceive to be hurt or broken, we do have the opportunity to share with them an incredible act of selflessness that may in fact help to begin the healing process for us too.  We never truly know someone else’s story.  We never know what their life experience has truly been like, we only know what they have allowed us to see or the story we have created amidst our own perceptions and based on our own history.  But you know from your own life that everybody has a true back story and not all of them are fairy tales.  Perhaps amidst holding on so tightly to all our heartbreak and pain, we can realize that we have another option; we have the ability to forgive. 

The truth of the matter is that we will probably never forget whatever it was that lead us to this place of even needing to consider forgiveness. Going forward, we may not choose to have a relationship with the person who hurt us or we may choose to work alongside them and do what it takes to heal in the hope of building an even stronger relationship.  The context and outcome isn’t the most important part of the story…the gift is in the choice we make to offer our forgiveness. 

Think about it, pray about it, journal about it….do whatever you need to so that you will be comfortable with your decision and in the meantime, let me promise you this, and I speak from a place of true personal experience…  The right answer won’t be the easiest one.  For a while it may feel like you were the only one forced to give up something…or that the person you forgave got off too easy.  None of that is true, and none of it is relevant, those feelings are based in fear and come from ego.. What you are giving, this beautiful and such selfless act of forgiveness comes from a place of love….from your heart.  All that matters is that you made a tough but very healthy and potentially life changing decision for both of you to finally and permanently set an enormous burden down. By doing so, the Divine light that is always burning within you will most definitely grow exponentially brighter and may even help to light the way for someone else!  As the old saying goes; a candle to one, is often a candle to many.

As you go forward into a brand new year, I wish you love, I wish you good health, bliss and an abundance of blessings but mostly I wish you the ability to offer a true kindness in the form of unconditional forgiveness to the person or persons you know need it the most…. May you both know and share the blessing of a heart that is finally free of the burden of so much unnecessary weight!  

Happy New Year!

Love,

Heather

Soul Audit 2017

Hello there lovelies!! You probably noticed that I haven't been around much....turns out, I've sort of been on a self-prescribed hiatus the last several months trying to figure out what makes sense for me, for Ruby and for life in general. Sounds serious, right?

Well, I'll be honest with you because frankly, I don't believe in sugar coating or beating around the bush, so here it is....this past nine-ish months have been nothing short of a massive Shit Storm for me....and I mean that with a capital S!! Blech!

There were two major turning points in my life this year...one of them I knew was coming and the other completely blindsided me and left me feeling a lot like emotional road kill.  Nothing felt real and I woke up every day feeling as though my own once laser sharp instincts and judgment had abandoned me without warning.  I was doubting almost everything I had once taken for granted....

For a while it felt like every time I turned around I was getting sucker punched and for each step forward I took I was taking 5 more backwards... I'm not going to bore you with all the gruesome details, nor am I sharing this with you so you can feel sad for me....quite the contrary actually.  I'm sharing it because with all that pain has come what will probably be one of the greatest lessons of my life and if that lesson can help even ONE person to feel better about their own SHIT STORM, then that means we will be able to use it's power for good!

Admittedly, I had been quite lost the last several months and questioned pretty much every detail of my life....I'm an over-thinker by nature so for me this meant repeatedly turning over every rock and looking into every single nook and cranny of my life trying to figure out how it had all gone so terribly wrong.  I didn't realize it then, but I now understand it as sort of a "Soul Audit" (my new phrase for 2017).... a really DARK and painful audit, but an audit none-the-less.

The trouble was, the more I searched for answers, the more I kept coming up empty and was literally stuck.  I couldn't move forward, there were no clear paths to help me put this all back together again and I was feeling pretty f'ing broken.  But then, as can typically happen when you decide to ask for Divine help, I was given one of those clarifying life moments that slowly started to turn things around for me.

Having been left with what felt like nothing more than a million pieces of my own broken heart scattered all around me, my knee-jerk reaction was to act fast and without thinking try to scoop up all of those pieces and force them back together again before they were lost forever.  I spent months trying to do just that; I was desperately trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together ( I was Humpty in this story)....and it never worked.  Not once...not even close.  The harder I tried the more pieces kept disintegrating and it was almost too much to bear....

One day with all hope seemingly slipping through my fingers, I shared my painful frustration with someone I consider to be very wise and she looked at me and said, "Heather, what you're doing is emotional suicide...the pieces will never fit the way they used to because there are too many tiny little shards missing that you can't even see.  There are slivers and even chunks that are broken beyond repair or shattered to smithereens... your heart and your life will never look or feel the way it used to because it can't; it's physically and emotionally impossible." 

WOW...in an instant, the light bulb was ON; it was blindingly bright and just when I thought my head was going to explode, she went on to say, "Instead of trying to grab every single piece, why not take a step back, take a good look at what is scattered around you and just pick up ONE piece.  Pick up the one that calls out the loudest, the one that is still relevant and makes sense to hold on to.  Take that piece and use it as the NEW foundation to slowly start adding additional pieces...and then if another piece still seems to fit, pick up that one...one at a time slowly and intentionally until you have all the pieces you still want.  The rest you can just let go of...you can't use them and you don't need them anymore....they are no longer part of your story.  Wherever there are holes now means you get to create and mold new pieces...you choose what they look like...you decide what fits." 

Oh my gosh....this is the stuff that has the power to change everything right? Of course it does....but not immediately...nope, not even close....until recently.  I've been playing those words over and over in my head for the last several months because they made such profound and beautiful sense but I couldn't make them work for me.  I was not ready to let go of what didn't fit.  I was not ready to trust myself enough to know that I had everything I needed to create whatever I wanted to use in order to fill in those holes.  All that old stuff I was carrying along with me, the shards and slivers; they were too familiar...they were comfortable and so even though I kept cutting myself on all the sharp, chipped edges, I kept trying to make them fit anyway.  I was terrified that if I left them behind I would wind up with a cold, beat-up, swiss cheese looking, broken heart...

Turns out, I was wrong.

One day after months of being absolutely terrified that my creativity was gone forever, I suddenly felt like creating again...I designed a pattern for myself and made some simple fabric flowers...and I didn't stop, I just kept making those damned fabulous flowers and I LOVE it. Without any warning or even effort, I felt a tiny spark ignite somewhere deep inside of me that I believed was snuffed out forever.  I also started journaling about possibility again.   I allowed myself to write about positive things other than what I thought was broken...and I felt the spark getting a little brighter...  I began giving myself permission to jump in and devour things I had always wanted to study like Kabbalah, the Hebrew alphabet and even dusted off my 40 year relationship with Tarot Cards.... I started doing things for no reason other than they made me feel happy. 

Then one day I took a step towards offering forgiveness....I didn't fully embrace it, but I moved a little closer to it and I actually felt a little lighter.  Every day since then is like a dance; two steps towards forgiveness, one step back...cha cha cha...no rushing, no pressure, just intentional movement in the direction that sustains that lighter feeling for me...

I didn't realize it until just recently, but all of those things and even those tiny steps are the new pieces just for me and they are literally bringing me back to life....one little piece at a time is slowly filling in the holes.  

I used to think that once something was broken it would never be as good as it once had been.  Now, and for the first time in my life, I truly understand that with a lot of patience, some serious soul-searching and learning to nurture and heal ourselves, there is real hope.  If we are willing to do the work, we might just put ourselves back together better, stronger and more beautiful than we ever dreamed possible. 

My heart has a long way to go, but each day I work my ass off to be intentional about how and what I create to fill in the holes.  These days, instead of something I believed was forever broken, I'm starting to see my heart as a never-ending, always evolving art project that's growth and repair is only as limited as my own imagination and potential.

My hope, my prayer is that if your heart has suffered a bad break you will remember that with time and intention, you are the only one with the ability to put it back together again. You can't expect it to look the way it used to because all of those old pieces just don't serve you anymore but when you are ready, your new pieces will be fabulous and wonderful and full of amazing and happy possibility!  This I know for sure!

Thank you so much for taking the time to walk with me for a moment!

 

I wish you unlimited bliss and blessings!

Heather

 

Teshuvah for EVERYBODY!!!

     So you've been hearing about this whole Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur thing forever but think there is no place for you at the table because you’re not a Jew, right?  Wrong!  Sorry to my Jewish people who wanted to keep all this goodness just for us, but  to my way of thinking, there is already enough separateness in the world without the lines in the sand that religion has helped us to draw.  I really believe many parts of the beauty and symbolism within ALL religions exist to be shared and made accessible by ALL and for all, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do!  Today I’m offering up the keys to the High Holy Days Teshuvah Castle and YOU are cordially invited!

     So, yes, here we are wading towards the deep end of High Holy Day heaven (the time of year when Jews celebrate the New Year,  Day of Atonement, and Sukkot) and that can only mean one thing; it’s Teshuvah season baby!!  What?  Teshuvah….TE-SHU-VAH….(yay, you just learned what I know is going to become your favorite Hebrew word) 

     You've already missed out on the last 30 days, but the next 10 days leading up to Yom Kippur are your chance to get in on Teshuvah which quite literally means ‘to return’ or ‘turning.’  In the simplest terms, it’s about apologies, atonement and turning back towards a Divine state of being closer to our Creator.   It’s when you and I (Jew and non-Jew alike) acknowledge that we regret a decision or action(s) we’ve made, we regret having used lousy judgment, hurt someone’s feelings, a mess we’ve created or even a bad attitude towards someone or something and we take the necessary steps to make amends, atone, or in the simplest terms, own our shit, apologize and make it right.

     Since I tend to be sort of a visual girl, think of it like this; Teshuvah is that beautiful and Divine place within each and every one of us that remains completely untouched by the real world; it’s the place where our soul resides in its most pure and original state.  Picture Teshuvah as an essence within each and every one of us where all the ugly stuff gets to be bathed in divine light and made whole and clean again.  You can access it anytime you want, but the key is that you have to WANT to.  

     This time of year during the High Holy Days, we take a good long look in the mirror, atone for our sins and ask that we be written in the Book of Life for a good and sweet coming year.  Teshuvah is the “reset” button that helps us get there; not by erasing everything we have done and pretending it didn’t happen, but instead by asking us to take a good long look at it, apologize for it and decide to make it right and do better as we go forward.  There isn’t a soul alive who isn’t entitled to and invited to step back and do a little “soul accounting” during the High Holy Days and EVERY day for that matter.

So, if you’re looking to get in on the whole Teshuvah craze happening right now (for the next ten days), here are a few things you can do in order to make that happen!  

1-      SPEAK IT OUT LOUD  Whatever you did…..say it out loud.  Somehow hearing our own voice makes it more real and far more powerful.  So say it out loud my friend, give it wings and prepare to set it free.….the Divine energy who breathed you into existence is always listening.

2-      FIX IT/APOLOGIZE  Begin from a place of love and say you’re sorry to the person or persons you wronged.  Why should the Divine be the only one to forgive you?  Why not spread it around a bit and apologize to the actual person you hurt so they can forgive you too!  Say it like you mean it and keep saying it until they hear you! 

3-      FORGIVE YOURSELF  It doesn’t really do any good if your Creator and all the people you’ve  wronged have forgiven you if you’re not going to forgive yourself.  You’re human and you fumbled; probably more than once if we’re being honest, right?  You owned it, you apologized for it (multiple times if need be) and now it’s time to forgive yourself and move forward.

4-      DO BETTER.  That’s right….DO BETTER.  Period.  Simpler words have never been spoken.  This is your chance for a blank slate, a do-over, a Mulligan (for all my friends who enjoy golf) and yes, a divine "Reset."  So, as you go forward with your beautiful life, begin everything from a place of love, think before you act, make good choices and be intentional about putting good  out into the world via your renewed fabulous attitude, your positive actions and your whole-hearted intentions.  Do better this year and next year when we get together to do this again, your list will be much shorter and we can all get to dinner much faster!

Until then, I wish you, all of you, La Shana Tova (a good Year) and blessings of love, light and an abundance of all good things!!

Thank you for being here and if you like what you read, will you please CLICK the LIKE button and tell a friend….it lets me know you’re out there

Wishing you bliss, love and magic,

Heather

New Moon On Monday....AND a Solar Eclipse!

A new moon and a solar eclipse today?  Can we talk about how incredible this is?  Can we talk about the potential and possibility this brings?  Can we talk about how excited I am?  Holy shitake!!!  What a magical day!!!

Okay….let’s start with the Solar Eclipse…
I won’t bore you with the science that goes along with this cosmic rarity because I know you can read that information all over the place.  So, instead let’s just chat a bit about what this eclipse has to offer and I'll assume that you are willing to step right up and delight in the litany of gifts it can bring.
Simply put, I like to think of a solar eclipse as a harbinger of change and deliverer of truth.  Pretty fancy and monumental stuff, right?  Well, anything less simply wouldn’t be giving this fantastic event (coupled with a new moon) its proper credit. 

Ever play with one of those wind-up Jack in the Box toys?  You wind and wind and wind never knowing when that sucker is going to pop right open and set that bobble headed clown free.  Well, a solar eclipse is sort of like that.  Today is that day, except instead of the creepy clown, the box is going to pop open and reveal all sorts of feelings, fears and emotions you have kept hidden; maybe even from yourself.    
Eclipses bring clarity (if we let them) and have a beautiful and very necessary way of ripping the bandage off things you might not have wanted to deal with just yet.  Today you may find yourself annoyed, anxious, sad or even surprised by things that you didn’t realize were weighing on you.  Don’t ignore them or pretend they aren’t there, they exist so that you can learn from them.  Every feeling, good or bad, has a message for you.  It might be time to ask yourself what truths you have been hiding from that you can now acknowledge and set free today?
Teachers in one form or another have always shown up and tried to get your attention in order to show you certain insights.  Sometimes it is merely to show you who you do not want to be.  Other times they lead you into situations that essentially force you to see things you haven’t wanted to acknowledge.  They have also served as wonderful guides leading you to embrace and celebrate change versus running away from it.
Today as the moon completely blocks out the sun for a moment, we can close our eyes and turn away as a means of ‘protection,’ or, as we avert our eyes, instead of closing them, we can pause to let our gaze linger elsewhere and intentionally become aware of what is actually happening around and within us.  Maybe both figuratively and literally, we will SEE or FEEL things we may never have noticed before.  Perhaps they have been there all along and we just weren’t willing to notice?  Ready or not, here they come!

Eclipses are also a wonderful time to set goals, and perhaps even make a leap towards honoring whatever your dreams and visions are for yourself.  If they’ve been hanging around just under the surface, today there will be no ignoring them and honestly, I bet that if you open your mind, you’ll find that to be a really good thing!!  
That being said, if one momentous eclipse has the power to bring all of this magic with it, can you imagine what we are capable of if it happens to fall on the day of a full moon too?  OH.  MY. STARS!
Duran Duran didn’t write a whole song about a New Moon on Monday just because its pretty!  No way sister!  There is wondrous work and adventure to begin today!

New Moons are actually my favorite, most magical, full of possibility lunar experiences!  They are seeds waiting to be planted, and blank pages perfect for you and I to come and fill up with our most desired wishes, hopes and dream.  They are beginnings and intentions and all of those day-dreamy plans you’ve been dying to make but instead you let fear get in the way….  Today is the day to say, “screw you fear and practicality!!  Instead, I’m going with authenticity and possibility!”

New moons are a time to think, they invite us to take pause, set our limitations free and really commit to anything we would truly like to see come to fruition in our lives!  Today, the soil of your imagination and possibility is perfectly tilled and ready for you to begin planting! 

What would you like to plant today?  What sort of seeds will you be offering today?  What would it look and feel like if you really decided to follow your bliss and align your intentions from a place of absolute truth and fearless possibility?  What if you didn’t let your history dictate or get in the way of your future?  What if you didn’t permit other people’s expectations to inform what makes you truly happy?  What if you finally embraced the knowing that all of your excuses are just the voice of fear and resistance in disguise as a way to keep you from feeling true joy?

How many people have you known that literally spent their whole lives waiting for the perfect moment before they decided to leap?  Well, here’s a hot little news flash for you….every breath, every moment, every additional hour is the PERFECT MOMENT passing you by. 

Today is the perfect day.  Today you have at your disposal a beautiful new moon ripe with possibility and charged with all of the energy and wonder that the solar eclipse brings! It is a one-of-a-kind, fantastic day to believe in the power of your own unique and brilliant divine magic! I hope that you will really take the time to plant your seeds and get ready to cultivate and create your very own garden!

That being said, I would love for you to join me in a little  New Moon Manifestation Ritual I have created!  I think I told you before, I’m a visual girl, so while it is also perfectly fine if you choose to just write down in a journal what you would like to create or manifest in your lives, I need bells, whistles and a little bit of fire! 

Please, you do what is comfortable for you!!! 

New Moon Manifestation Ritual

For this you’ll just need a few things

• A Bowl of Water perhaps scented with your favorite oils and/or flower petal
• Towel for drying
• A candle and matches
• Pen and paper

Once you have gathered your supplies, create a quiet space for yourself.  It could be a table top, a special corner of a room or even outdoors.  You can make it special by gathering up a few symbolic or personal items like the ones I have in the photo above, or leave it plain and just be with your candle!  It can be a permanent space or one that you just use for the evening….whatever works for you!  Please just be certain not to light your candle near anything flammable.
Once you’re all set up, take a moment and dip your hands into the bowl of water, rub them gently together as if you were washing them.  As you are doing this, see all of your fear, all of your apprehensions, excuses, all of the shadows that kept saying no…..see all of your self-imposed and perceived limitations being washed away.  Acknowledge that your heart is open and you are ready to step into a place of pure and truely divine possibility.  
Dry your hands, close your eyes and take a few deep, calming breaths.  When you are ready, go ahead and light your candle.

Once your candle is lit it is time to take a few moments, sit quietly and write out what you would like to manifest in your life.  Would you like to invite forgiveness, courage or some sort of new feeling into your heart?  Would you like to make a request?  Do you have dreams and wishes you would like to manifest?  Is there something new you would like to cultivate in your life?  Do you want a new job?  Be as specific as possible.  Be very clear about what your intentions are.  Write as many or as few things as you like.
Once you are finished, sign and date your list.  A few more steady and very intentional deep breaths and then, with confidence and conviction, slowly read your list out loud.  As you speak, see the words of your wishes, your hopes and your intentions drifting slowly off into the abyss so that the Universe can collect them and help you to set their creation in motion.  Visualize every word, every wish as it disappears into the sky.  If you would like, go ahead and read your list out loud a few times until you are focused on seeing your intentions drift off into the night.

Once you have read your list, take a moment to express your gratitude to our Creator/Source/G-d/Divine (whatever you call that which IS) for the many blessings already in your life and for those yet to come.  Say a prayer of thanks for these "seeds" that you have just planted.  Feel deep in your heart the truth that your intention and belief in their possibility has already set divine wheels in motion.  Take a moment to be still and hear nothing but the sound of your own breathing.  As you exhale and blow your candle out watch as the smoke carries your intentions and gratitude out into the world so that it may, like a wave or ripple effect, deliver ongoing blessings and abundance to any who cross your path! 
Fold up your list, tuck it safely under your candle, in a special wish box or even a drawer as long as you know where it is.  Over the next few weeks as your wishes, dreams and intentions begin to manifest in your life, refer back to your list, read the remaining intentions out loud again and each time you put it away offer a prayer of gratitude and blessings out into the world!

Thank you so much for joining me on this most magical and wondrous of days!  Above all else, I hope that you will remember....while special days like today do bring a certain sort of  uniquely incredible, powerful and blessed energy and potential with them, you have access to this sort of divine possibility available to you at any given moment.  You are created in love....of and from a divine light that never stops burning within you.  Everything you have ever or will ever need to create the life you have been searching for, the life you have been waiting for, has been within you since the moment you were prayed into existence!  Your divine magic and all of the gifts that come with it have been with you since long before you even took your very first breath!  Please hold that knowledge as your truth each and every day!
I wish you an abundance of bliss and blessings!
Heather