The Smiling Spirit

Archive for December, 2009

I just wrote a charm for my journal and I love it so much I want to share it. I got to thinking about the section of my journal where I write out my goals and intentions and I wondered if there was anything I could do to make that space more…. special…. sacred…. specifically focused.

My journal is a big, fat, three subject notebook. The first section is my journal. I use it for my everyday journaling about whatever. The second section is extra. I use it for jotting down things or writing out spells, charms, or affirmations. I have a three ring binder where I keep all of these things for organizational purposes but that’s a whole other post.

The third section is where I write my goals and intentions, along with any thoughts or feelings I have about them. On the thin cardboard separator that serves as the “cover” of my intention/goal journal, I’ve written this charm:

∞

~ I call upon the powers untold ~
~ I will the desires herein, unfold ~
~ For the highest good of Everyone ~
~ As it has been written, so it shall be done ~

∞

I read through this charm once before I even open my journal and then again after I’ve written whatever I’m writing. I know it takes faith and I know magic is a very personal thing and I want to encourage you to have faith in whatever YOU believe in. As far as your magic goes, the more of yourself you put in, the more you’re going to get out.

If you’d like to copy my charm and use it for yourself, I give my full permission for that. However, I implore you to at least change it up a little. Add your own words or feelings. Make it your own. Life is subjective and so is magic.

Here we are, only a few days after the Solstice. The light is building and so is your life. It’s taking shape for the next year to come. Take advantage and grab the reigns. You’re in control and you have the power!

Manifest the life of your dreams!!!

We’re having quite a snow storm today. Blizzard, totally! It’s tapered off at the moment, for the first time since 6pm, last night. We were the only school in the county that was in session today. My boys went, but we drove them to and from instead of having them ride the bus.

Kevin came home from school and went straight outside to play in the 3 feet of snow we’ve gotten in the past 20 hours….

He comes in after about 5 minutes and says, “Mom, can you get me new gloves and help me fix my coat so the snow doesn’t go up my sleeves?”

I take his flimsy, cotton gloves that are all wet and help him put on a more appropriate pair of gloves. I tuck them in his sleeves and send him back outside to play.

Ten minutes later he comes in again. “Mom, can you fix these gloves. I can’t keep the snow out and my wrists are really cold!!”

This is when I was struck by absolute genius!

I unzipped his coat and pulled his arms out. I got a fresh, dry pair of the flimsy cotton 1 size fits all gloves and put them on his hands. Then, on top of them, I pushed on a pair of pink (for breast cancer awareness), rubber, cleaning gloves. The kind you would wear when you do dishes. They went almost to his elbows. After that, we pulled his coat back up and tightened the bottom of the sleeves and zipped him back up.

He was insulated, water proof, covered all the way up to his elbows, and with the grip of the rubber, he can even turn door handles on his own!

That new 2 pack of rubber gloves is the best $3 I’ve ever spent I think. Never have we found such a grand solution to this problem. When Kev came back in, I asked him how they felt. If he was cold at all. He said his hands were warm and dry and while he would NEVER take pink gloves to wear for recess at school, he completely agreed on the value of wearing them at home.

So, that’s my tip for keeping little hands warm and dry in the winter wonderland of white outside this winter season.

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I have just received my first holiday gift and I have to share it with you all!!!! If you’re looking for something to send, especially to someone far away…. this is BRILLIANT!

My fantastically wonderful BFF Ash sent me a gift from Restaurant.com!! I got an email from HER email address, so I wasn’t afraid to open it. It was a beautifully colored and festive notice saying my friend had sent me a gift to “Feed it Forward”. To redeem, click here and be ready with “this” code.

Once at the site, I put in my code in an obvious place and verified. Then I typed in my zip code and was given a list of restaurants in my area. This was super easy to use. I do believe I’ll be “Feeding it Forward” this year too.

What a fantastic idea! Thank you again, Ash :) You’re an angel. XoXo!

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I’m learning that I can’t have a specific exercise practice. I’m finding that when I set out to do something like run every day, I do it with the best of intentions. Sometimes I go a whole 10-15 days before it happens, but it always happens. I become bored to freaking tears.

Don’t make it harder than it has to be!!
Back in the day, say…. 1700, no one got out of their bed in the morning and went running down the street just for the heck of it. Jogging? When nothing is chasing you? Why? They worked. Hard, physical labor. That’s how they stayed healthy and in shape. We, here in the information age are a bunch of unhealthy fatties who have information coming out our ears about how to become healthy, but few people take the step to become so.

Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s just not as hard as everyone wants it to be. Do ya have 50 pounds to lose? DO SOMETHING! You must choose. Fifty is a big number. Start with ONE. Lose ONE pound. That’s just not that hard. Some assuredly wise old person, somewhere in history once said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Boy, now that I said it, I think it was Buddha. SEE.. wise, old, and in history. I wasn’t that far off! (LOL)

Variety is the Spice of Life!
I’ve been wanting to add more variety to the things that I do to stay in shape. It’s harder for me here in the NE USA to continue being as active in the winter months due to the bone chilling cold and white flakies that fall. Monday, when I made this plan, I had exactly one month until my Mister’s birthday on Jan. 7th. I have an extra… 10-15 pounds that’ve been holding on for a little over a year now. This month, they go. I just don’t need them anymore.

I want to surprise him for his birthday with a little…. naughty marital bliss… and I’d prefer to be missing handle A and handle B for the event :) I’ve decided to incorporate some regular old fashioned calisthenics, some yoga, and some light weight training into my exercise routine to shake it up a little and help me spend less time on the treadmill.

Changing your exercise up is great for your weight loss goals!
Your body gets used to what you’re doing, even if you regularly do nothing. Then when something changes, it sort of shocks your system and changes your metabolism so you burn differently. If you’re a couch potato, just taking a 10 minute walk once a day will make a difference. It’s the change. Like I said in my post, “How I’m Changing My Life“, change ONE thing, and your whole life will change. It can be no other way. All things are connected.

My goal is to make a schedule (isn’t that ALWAYS my goal?) and do one form of exercise each day. This 10 pounds isn’t gunna know what hit it!

Here is a REALLY awesome yoga video I found on youtube. I think this is the one I’m sticking with for now. It’s an entire 43 minutes long! Only video I’ve EVER seen on youtube that was this long. I’ve done yoga with a DVD before, but I’ve never found one that was very… quiet… meditative. That’s kinda what I wanted. This one is like that. It’s sloooow and fluid and relaxing. I enjoyed it very much.

I know New Years is just around the corner, but don’t wait! Now is the perfect time to take a step in the direction you want your life to move in. Don’t be trendy and make a New Years Resolution… be proactive and make a choice to be who you want to be, right now! Now is all there ever really is anyway.

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Does Size Matter?
I hear a lot of talk about the size of manifestations and synchronicity. Is there such a thing as a small manifestation? A small synchronicity? Personally, I don’t think so, and I’ll tell you why.

I see synchronicity ALL THE TIME! I can’t even tell you how often I’m standing somewhere and something will pop into my head and moments later, I see it or something related or hear the song or answer the phone and it’s her or any other number of things that can happen in an incredibly coincidental way.

When these things happen, I know they’re just for me. I know they’re a manifestation of the thoughts I was thinking and the way I’m feeling. They’re a manifestation of my connectedness to God. They’re the Universe moving energy through me.

It is What it is.
It’s not a free car or a bag of money, but it’s a manifestation. Every little thing that happens is just for you, because really, you’re the only one here. Everything that happens in your life is the Universe showing you how connected you are. If you’re struggling in some way, it’s the Universe showing you where your connection is faulty. Showing you where you need to let go. Showing you where to shine your light. How convenient is that!?!

Don’t Wait for the Jumbo Size to Pay Attention!
When an electrical line isn’t working and there’s a broken wire somewhere, an electrician has to search and figure out where the disconnection is located. How much easier would it be if the broken, disconnected spot on the wire jumped up and screamed, “Hey! I don’t feel good over here in this area!!” The electrician would automatically know where to put his attention to reconnect the flow of energy.

The same goes for you and your life. Wherever it doesn’t feel good is where you need to look. You will likely notice an absence of synchronicity in this area too. There is still synchronicity at work. Synchronicity never rests. We tend to label synchronicity as a good thing, though. A happy sign. That’s what’ll be missing. The delightfully synchronistic things. You’ll be left with the “Why does this always happen to me” kind of synchronicity. Unfortunately it’s thoughts and beliefs like this one that create the disconnection in the first place.

See Them All, Big & Small!
When you see something synchronistic in your life, it’s important to notice… acknowledge it… be grateful for it… love it. Maybe you were just thinking about something and then, BAM, a commercial comes on TV about it. Maybe you were just thinking about someone, and didn’t see the someone, but saw something that they have or something that is related to them or anything like that. It’s all synchronicity. It’s all your connection. It’s all God speaking TO and THROUGH you.

Nurture Your Nature.
Having a direct connection to the Universe and manifesting all the happiness you can stand into your life is the same as anything else. You have to nurture the connection. It’s a talent. How do you become more adept at a hobby or talent? You practice. You nurture it. You feed it.

I make a point, at least once a day, to talk to the Universe and feel it’s presence. Be here with it… in it… of it… connected. This is what happens when you meditate. That doesn’t mean sitting in the lotus position and trying not to think is the only way to feel connected to God. I also like to be in nature, observing the amazing beauty around me. I will often launch into a heart felt list of things I’m SO grateful for. It connects me.

Seeing and acknowledging small and large manifestations and synchronicity also amplifies your connection. When you see, acknowledge, and express gratitude…. it’s like slipping the Universe a note that says, “I see and adore you!”

That’s what makes life… come to life.

So the next time you think of something seemingly meaningless and then see a synchronicity related to it… don’t count it as a small synchronicity and wish you could do better. See it as the entire cosmos… all the energy that resides within this Universe.. God… The Creator.. The Source.. manifesting a love letter to you in the form of something you’ll recognize. It could say “I love you” all day long by showing you a billion different things, but if it’s not in a “language” you recognize, what would be the point?!

It’s all for you….. because you’re worth the trouble and you deserve the joy!

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I am SO enthused today!! I am excited because my life is changing!!

I want to scream this from the highest mountain tops and ensure that everyone on the planet hears me!! You can change your life by changing ONE THING! Do you want to know what that one thing is? If you knew, would you do it? Because it’s so simple that even a child could easily do it. Are you ready, because I’ve already told you. It’s “One Thing”. Change ONE THING and all of your life changes.

Here’s the epiphany. Here’s what jolted my entire being yesterday.

I had a bunch of errands I had to run yesterday. I normally refuse to run errands, or do anything else for that matter, on Mondays, but with the recent and impending holidays, I’ve been a little off my schedule. I decided that since I have to conduct some business at the bank, I will stop at the food bank after and sign up to volunteer. Giving more in the form of volunteer work is something I had listed on my list of personal goals that I made on the full moon last week, so I was actually a little excited to be moving forward with that so soon.

I sat in the waiting area watching this little girl of probably 2 as she played and drove her mother to distraction as they waited to see the same woman I was waiting for. They were waiting to ask for food. Just typing that now chokes me up a little. I had plenty of time to sit in that chair and watch that child and contemplate what her Christmas would probably be like if her mom couldn’t even afford to feed her. It was utterly heart breaking.

After they’d been called back, I began a litany of gratitude in my mind. It was all I could think about. I have more in my life than I ever could have dreamed of and I listed off as much of it as I could, sometimes repeating myself just because the first acknowledgment wasn’t enough. They walked by me on their way out and I smiled and waved to the little girl as she passed, so grateful to her for the experience of being in her presence and having my mind broadened.

I went back next and spoke with the woman I’d been waiting to see. She took my name and number explaining that the woman I actually need to speak to is out today, but that she’d be in contact with me in a day or two. I left there feeling almost high from the burst of gratitude and the knowing that I would make a difference.

On the way home, I stopped at the grocery store and spent $50 on some peanut butter, chicken noodle soup, spaghetti o’s, and mac and cheese and then dropped the boxes off at my boys’ school for their food drive. I love the food drive we have every year because it ALL stays right here in our little town. The food bank I’m volunteering at is in the next town over, but it’s the only one around. The schools food drive in distributed to families in need, right here in our area. You could be helping your own neighbor.

Here’s the thing though….. Because I began moving in the direction on ONE of my goals, several more have been suddenly and quite unexpectedly set into motion. And they’ve been set into motion directly relative to my just doing the things I did yesterday.

This is why I can’t stress the importance of taking the time to make a list of goals, enough. The Universe takes the shortest route from point A to point B. If you have ALL your destinations laid out, it’s easier to map a direct route hitting all the places. Just like the trip I made yesterday. I first went to the bank at the furthest location. Then the food bank, the store, the school, the gas station, and home. I put everything in the perfect order to cover everything as I worked my way back home. If I didn’t know everywhere I had to stop before I left the house, I could’ve been driving back and forth all day.

Everyone has things in their lives they want to change. Things they want to do, stop doing, learn to do… I can promise you that the secret to doing those things and changing your life is to make a list of those things, so you’ve defined what you want, and then pick just ONE thing, and take a step in it’s direction. It’s truly mind boggling.

I hope your week has started on a high note. I know mine sure has. I have so much more to talk about but a homemakers job is never done :) More on me changing my life as developments… well… develop.

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I recently changed the look of my blog and changed the title tag line to embrace who I’ve become. My blog is an expression of me and as I’ve changed over the past couple years, so has the look and feel of my site. After I chose to embrace the little witch in me and changed my site to reflect her, I lost 14 subscribers :) I didn’t think I’d run off so many people by adding the words “Solitary Witch” to my description, but I did. So, for everyone who stayed behind and didn’t jump to judgment, I’d like to talk about it a little bit in honor of this Spirit Day. Sunday has become the day when I find myself sitting in contemplation of my Spirituality and faith, so here’s what’s on my mind.

How & when I first encountered witchcraft.

When I was 23, I got my first computer (w/ 1 gig! LOL) and my first real opportunity with internet access. I’d always been very interested in psychic phenomena and other things generally labeled metaphysical. It didn’t take me long to start running searches on words like; psychic development, psychic abilities, ESP, lucid dreaming, out of body experience, etc. You can easily see my area of interest.

I found myself on Steve Pavlina’s website, reading about how to develop my psychic abilities. I didn’t really HAVE any abilities at the time. I’d had some eerie experiences with deja’vu and some weird dreams, but nothing off the charts weird, and to be honest…. off the charts weird was what I was looking for. It wasn’t so much that I thought it was cool or just found it interesting, but I always felt like it was there. I’ve always felt like I was on the verge of something big. Nothing I could describe or even understand, but I’d lived my life since probably about 10 or 11 years old feeling like I was half a breath away from an epiphany that would change my life, and if I could turn some corner, somewhere, fast enough, I could catch a glimpse of it.

That might sound sort of weird, but it’s the only way I can describe it.

On Steve’s site, I was introduced to the concepts of subjective reality and law of attraction. As soon as I read it, I knew it. It was like being reunited with one’s long lost sibling when you didn’t even know they were missing…. but recognizing them immediately and completely upon first sight. That’s how it felt to me and as soon as I acknowledged it, I knew, bone deep, that this was the epiphany I’d been waiting for.

I began reevaluating my entire life. The way I felt about my past began to change. The way I felt about my future most certainly changed. All things were suddenly possible. I read everything I could find for a month or more. I acquired books and ebooks on lucid dreaming, obe, life after death, and loa. I even started praying, which is something I’d not done since I was a child. My flame was ignited and i was burning for the depth that I knew I could find if I looked.

A friend dragged me to a women’s event of some sort at the local Day’s Inn one day. I didn’t want to go at ALL, but with a laid off husband, 2 yr old, and newborn…. getting out of the house was the main objective so I agreed to go. While there, I had my first encounter with a psychic. We had our Tarot cards read. As we sat chatting after my reading, the psychic and I discovered that through family, we each knew who the other was. She invited me to her sewing shop and I promised to stop in being that, as it turned out, her shop was a mere 3 blocks from my house.

That night, I dreamed of her. She told me she could help me and in my dream, I knew I’d prayed for guidance in this metaphysical pursuit and that she was the help I’d been sent. I went to her shop a couple days later and told her what my interests were and about my prayers and dreams. She smiled knowingly and told me to get my hands on the book “Practical Solitary Magic by Nancy B. Watson” and read it, and that I could come back anytime I had a question.

I had that book in hand within a week and I still own my original copy. I have made reference to it so many times. It has served me well. But it was through this book that I realized that solitary witchcraft and Christianity and LOA are basically the same thing. I took the metaphysical and psychological ideas I got from that book and the Christian ideas I’d learned growing up and the law of attraction concepts I was readily learning and I found myself transformed into this new person.

Where I went from there.

I dove into LOA after that. Law of attraction and the psychological and metaphysical things I’d learned from my solitary magic book made the way I understood Jesus and the Bible shift. The things I’d been taught were interpretations belonging to the person/people teaching me. I’d come into some knowledge that had given me some experiences that had changed the way I interpreted the Bible. One of my biggest epiphanies during this time was realizing the fact that I actually had the CHOICE to change my interpretation. Wow! What a revelation.

Over the past six years or so, I’ve been growing at what I would consider an amazingly fast rate. That’s not in comparison to the rate of anyone elses growth, because frankly, I’ve only recently (about a year and a half) been conversing with other people about growth and Spirituality. I say it is an amazingly fast rate because it makes my head spin. I have moments of clarity that rock my very soul and it takes me weeks of contemplation and prayer to wrap my head around it. Often it seems that as soon as I do, another moment comes hot on the heels of the first and sends me reeling anew.

One of the things I’ve learned is non judgment. That means that you don’t judge someone based on what you think you know of them, but it goes much deeper than that. When you cease judging everything, based on what you think you know, what you know… changes. It became a living miracle to simply stand in the forest when I stopped THINKING it and just DID it. Before, I would stand in a forest with a running mental commentary in my head, bombarding my experience with judgments and labels.

“What a beautiful day. I love the trees. It’s so sunny out here. It’ been sunny all week… and busy. What a busy week. I hope next week isn’t so busy. If I stay ahead of everything, I won’t be so busy. *sigh* I suppose I should start a to-do list….”

I know that you know exactly what I mean. My thoughts would run right away from me, and it all started with me judging the day as beautiful. It’s not that labeling something as beautiful is a bad thing, but I learned that one judgment sends my mind into a flurry of other judgments and labels. I feel such a sense of presence and awe when I can stand, blank minded and without judgment. It feels like the true magic that IS life is pulsating and speaking to me when I just observe.

With this discovery, I began making every attempt to stop consciously judging. I still do. It’s a daily thing. With this non labeling life I began to build, I also continued to build my faith. My faith was just that, my faith. I would not label my beliefs. As soon as I say Christian, you judge. As soon as I say new age, you judge. If I were to say witch…. oh the judgment. Judgments about who I am or who I must be based on what other people know, don’t know, and are afraid of. No thank you! I even stopped labeling myself as straight, bi, or gay when I filled out profiles because each label brings a judgment.

Why I finally decided to label my faith & how I define my life now according to the faith I’ve chosen.

I was recently struck by another epiphany. Back in August of this year (09) I was explaining to someone that, what I or anyone else does as a practice to consciously manifest makes no difference. It’s a subjective experience. What works perfectly for me might never work for you. How you manifest consciously hinges completely off of what you believe and how you see your world. I went on to explain that Christians have rituals they perform such as communion and mass and confession and prayer. Witches have rituals and spells. New agers use things like vision boards. It’s all what you believe in and what you’re comfortable with.

Then I suddenly realized… I’ve been so busy purposely NOT labeling what I believe, that I now found myself manifesting by default because I wasn’t putting any real consciousness into my manifestations. I kinda make vision boards and I kinda meditate and I kinda make intention lists and I kinda keep a gratitude journal. I kinda do so many different things and don’t put a lot of myself into any of them

I hadn’t been manifesting by default the way I did before I realized the effect my thoughts and beliefs had on my life. I had changed my mind. I had changed my life. I was happy. The things I was manifesting into my life reflected the happiness I was feeling on a pretty constant basis. I had no specific focus for my intention though. I had no specific entity that I was sharing with or talking to. I was generally addressing the universe at large. That was okay for a long time. Now I was realizing I needed something more specific.

The idea of a guardian angel or spirit guide(s) became incredibly appealing. A best friend waiting in the wings to listen to me, empathize with me, understand me, talk to me, guide me…. to help me consciously manifest magic in my life. These ideas brought me to the concepts surrounding archetypes and archetypal energies. These were concepts first reintroduced to me through the book, “The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire by Deepak Chopra”, and became a large part of my new angle on my Spirituality. They were reintroduced because I’d read about them in my solitary magic book, but passed them by at the time because it just didn’t resonate with me then.

I went back to Practical Solitary Magic and started reading again. I felt like I was reading about myself. I knew these things and believed in them and was more comfortable with the concepts than I’d ever been in the past. I realized that I’d “gone green” on Earth Day 2008 and that my connection to Mother Earth had grown clearer since. My connection to my psychic side began growing when I changed my diet. More whole grains and natural and whole foods…. MUCH less processed anything.

The thing that turned on the little idea light bulb above my head was Murry Hope’s definition of magic. Murry says, “Magic is concerned with the conversion of universal energies into practical frequencies that can be utilized according to the needs of the occasion. These energies in themselves are totally neutral, having no affiliation with any belief, system or personality either here on Earth or anywhere in the cosmos, their manifestation at the magical level being colored entirely by the nature and intention of the user.”

I’ve always thought that changing your life by changing the thoughts you think is just like magic. When I read the above definition again, I realized….. it IS magic. It can be nothing else. It’s harnessing the powers of the Universe according to what you desire and turning energy into form. How is that NOT magic. And I immediately liked the idea of being in control of magic. I’ve also realized that I apparently have a brilliant capacity for moving energy and healing myself.

It seems, I realized quite suddenly one morning in August 09, that I didn’t have to choose to define myself as a witch because I turned into it without even realizing. Here I am…. My mother, the Earth, lending form to my body allowing me to manifest the consciousness that my father, the Spirit has given me. I live inside my life as though it is a gift. I live inside my life as though all the energies at work around me are my guardians and here to assist me in my growth. And if I feel lost, I just call out for their help and they’re there.

I actively love my Mother & Father and treat them with honor, respect, and my deepest gratitude. They in turn support me in all of my desires. I’m a mother, a wife, a healer, a (more all the time) psychic, lucid dreamer, a gardener, and among these and many more things, I am a conscious living being with the power to purposely affect the events and happenings in my life. The only real difference between now and one year ago now is that one year ago, I’d refused to label my beliefs and now, I’ve accepted what I am.

I don’t dance around naked under the moon… although I wouldn’t be against it. (LOL) I do small, personal, ritualistic things to focus my energy and intent to set manifestations into motion during the new moon. Speaking of which, I’ve been living lunar for one year on the winter solstice this year.

My life really isn’t any different from anyone elses if they believe in the law of attraction and conscious manifestation. As Edie Brickell said, “What I am is what I am, are you what you are, or what?”

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Enjoy These Great Resources!

• Need Help? You Can Heal Your Life
  
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