Happy New Moon in Aries

2016-04-07 

Are you feeling change in the wind and a newfound excitement for what the future holds? 

If so, you are feeling the New Moon’s effect on you. 

Today’s New Moon comes to link your past with your future. Looking back at the past you may see there was a lot of chaos and feelings of being overwhelmed and wondering where you were going to end up. The news is good as you look to the future. Are you sensing that change is coming?  Well, you are right because this next month will bring with it the gifts of direction and renewed organization where chaos was reigning before.

As with any time of tremendous change caution is urged so that the change can settle into your bones, so to speak. It has to be birthed into your being and that takes time to mature. Allow yourself some much needed time alone. Go out into nature. Bath yourself with essential oils such as:

• ·         Orange: Emotional balance, overall health, cleansing/purifying
• ·         Tangerine: Cleansing, healthy immune system
• ·         Vetiver: Calming, grounding
• ·         Lavender: Calming, skin health and recovery
• ·         Chamomile: Calming, immune healthy immune function

A new moon represents the end of one phase and the beginning of a new one.  It means there are so many new opportunities lie before you. You are looking at a time to put your intentions and prayers to the future with renewed hope and peace. This is a time to let go of old habits and traits and things and people who do not serve you for your highest good. It is a time to make your vision board including all your hopes and wishes for your life. 

Remember though, not all things will come to pass within this new moon period. It is just that this is a time where you can see clearly what serves you best and is a time to get those intentions and prayers down in a tangible form, such as a vision board or a list in your journal. A new moon’s inspiration lasts until the next new moon which occurs on May 7, 2016.  It is best however to make those intentions known early in the cycle rather than waiting for the last days, as your sense of being able to see clearly diminishes as the days go by.

This new moon definitely brings a huge sense of change, enthusiasm and higher consciousness. It also has some other aspects that it brings into our lives. The position of Uranus and Pluto is diminishing after bringing years of confusion and turmoil. The other is the position of Saturn and Uranus that is new and fresh bringing with it structure and solidity for the changes occurring for the rest of this entire year.

This New Moon of April 2016 exemplifies the perfect transition from one spiritual place into a new one.  Bringing order out of chaos and it will be something that stays throughout the rest of 2016, so one needs to take it slow and allow for the change to solidify in your life. Change that is going to totally transform our life doesn’t some fast and furious. It comes slow like a flowering plant come to life in the Spring. 

Allow this new Moon to be the start of true Spring in the fertile soil of your soul. It’s time to grow!

Healing Touch ~ Reiki

I open my eyes to the new day. Before I even move there is that pressure I know so well. It's a migraine morning. I roll over, find my Maxalt and take one. My eyes hurt from the bright sun shining through the bathroom window. I roll over and try to fall back asleep. I hear Gracie running into the bedroom and know she's about to jump on the bed to say good morning. She arrives as I thought and settles herself on my pillow. Next comes the sound of 80 pounds of love about to take a flying leap onto the bed, which means Esme will be the next to greet me this morning. Sure enough that 80 pounds of love leaps onto the bed, straddles me and licks my face to fulfill her role to make sure Mom is awake. They both jump off the bed, having completed their morning mission.

Sleep is not an option. It's way to bright from the bathroom window, so I head for the kitchen to get my morning meds on board. Hot chocolate is the preferred choice instead of the acidy coffee which will make the nausea worse. I make sure there are two Zofran in with my meds. I heat up a scone and go to the couch where I recline back, sharing the heating blanket with Marty, who is sitting on the loveseat studying for his A&P test. I get my pills down, the hot chocolate feels good. I realize that it is 16 degrees outside and have my answer for the arrival of this migraine.

My spine is in agony. From the top of my cervical vertebrae to the lowest sacral vertebra, the nerves are screaming in unison. I know the Maxalt should be working by now, yet there is minimal head relief. I get up from the couch and get myself into the Reiki room. I turn on the calming music, use some essential oils called Transformation and set my intentions for the vasospasms to subside and for the spinal nerves to calm down. As I climb onto the table and lay on my back I feel the pain so acutely and the nausea comes rolling in again. I put the eye cover over my eyes and begin to breathe. Breathing deeply in with healing light, breathing out all that is negatively affecting my body. I fall asleep.

I am awakened my a gentle touch on my forehead.
Marty has come to check on me. He gently

soothes my forehead and I ask him if he would massage my spine. Once he begins to run his thumbs on either side of my spine I realize just how much pain there is in my cervical area and then down in my lumbar area. More deep breathing is needed to release the toxins built up in these areas. Gracie jumps up onto the Reiki table and settles herself next to my left shoulder. I strat to tell her to get down because this is too much pain for her to handle. I feel Esme jump up and try to settle herself between my legs. She immediately jumps down and lays on the floor beside the table. She cannot take the pain, probably because of the false pregnancy she is dealing with.

Marty continues to rub along my spine and I continue the breathing  I am still concerned about Gracie being on the table so I reach up to rub her and assess how she is taking it all in. Her entire spine is extremely hot. She's helping to take the pain away. I start to tell her to get down, only to realize that she is the feistiest of our girls. She assures me that she can handle this. As soon as I feel the pain subside I thank Marty for helping and turn onto my side.






I get up and take a hot bath, which I need to wash away any toxins that are lingering on my skin. I need the water also because I am connected to water. I need to immerse myself to keep balanced and grounded. The water does what it is supposed to do and when I rise out of it to dry off the nerve pain down my spine is gone. I can now get ready to do see my Physiatrist for Mannitol shots in my lower back on the right side.

I am grateful for Reiki.
I am grateful for my Reiki table which has been infused with healing.

I am grateful for a kind and loving husband who has healing in his hands. 

I am grateful for Gracie who is a healing being.
I am grateful for Esme who also knows how to heal.

I am grateful for the wisdom which has come with age so that  know what to do to bring healing to my brain which migraines come.








I am grateful for God's healing that flows abundantly...living water that we all need.

Memories in the Caverns of Our Minds

I have been thinking a lot about memories since I lost a number of photos from our trip. I even commented to a friend that some things are just meant to be seen with our minds. But what happens when our memories vanish? When dementia takes hold of the thing which holds our memories as if it were an old piece of luggage that we have lost the key to opening it.

I awoke this morning thinking of all the beautiful people I was honored to spend time with while working for hospice. Especially those who had some form of dementia, from mild to the one we all dread...Alzheimers. They were my challenge people for in order to connect with them I needed to find out what they liked when they were young and I could usually get through the plaque in their brains to tough some magical place within.

 

One gentleman had designed airplanes and jets. No one could get through to him, not even his son who loved his dad very much and was so hurt when he had to place him in an Alzheimer unit to live. The first time I went to visit him he thought I was his wife. He got up and we walked the hallway arms entwined and it didn't matter to me if he thought I was his spouse. At least we had things to talk about. In subsequent visits I watched as he went farther and farther into the recesses of his mind and finally became non verbal. 

 

On a whim before I was to see him I visited the library and checked out some books with colorful photos of planes and jets. I sat down beside him and opened the book to the page of one of the planes he had designed and also flown in. He turned his head and his hand came up to point at the plane and he said, "My plane." I was elated. He had spoken from that deep crevice in his brain that remembered one of  'his planes.' 

I spent the rest of our visit turning pages in the book and reading to him the description of the plane and when it was used and what for. 

The next visit I brought the book again. This time when I sat next to him his hand came up immediately and he tried to open the book himself. I helped him and we started on the page of 'his plane' only this time when I would turn the page to another plane that he had worked on or flown in, he would point and say, "My plane."

I called his son and told him that he may want to bring some of his dad's model planes to put in his room and center his conversations around the planes. He did as I suggested and soon his dad was talking to him once more, but only about planes.

I don't know why it worked. I was continually in awe of breaking through to my patients with Alzhiemers. Sometimes it was me who found the key, sometimes it was the nurse, sometimes it was the social worker and sometimes it was the hospice volunteer. This team of people who dedicated themselves to giving the best care they could tried and tried to find a way to break into the mind riddled with the plaque of dementia. 

 

This beautiful mind of my patient connected with flight. Something that was at the core of who he was. The very last time I saw him he was laying in bed, curled up in a fetal position. I had brought a book with me that I had bought which actually mentioned his name as  having been instrumental in the building and test fights of  'his plane.' I read quite a bit of the book to him and then told him that he was about to take flight without a plane and how exciting was that! He barely reached his hand up and I took hold of it and I sat there for a long time in silence. Then I began to sing to hymn I recalled from my childhood, "I'll Fly Away" and when I finished the song his grip on my hand loosened and I knew we has getting ready to fly away. I called his nurse and his son. It wasn't long after they arrived that he indeed took flight from this world. 

I gave the book to his son. I cried. He cried. Not for sadness, but for the joy that the beautiful man was now with his wife in the place beyond here. His mind was clear once again. His memories totally intact.

Being in the depths of Carlsbad Caverns was like trying to find my way through that plaque of Alzheimers. We spent a very long amount of time in the Big room, yet one wouldn't think we were in the same room because when you look at a formation from a different angle, it looks totally different. When I was a little girl we visited the Caverns and it was at a time when we had to go with a guide. We got so far into the caverns and the lights would be turned out. You couldn't see anything at all. I remember thinking, how in the world did the early explorers ever find their way out of the caverns. They did it with ropes and head lanterns. They mapped the caverns inch by inch, following their headlamps. 

They are still mapping parts of the caverns today.

 

 

 

 

Going deep where there is no natural lighting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is what you have to do when you have someone you love slip into the deep caverns of their brain. You just have to put on your headlamp and go slowly in by inch to find a beautiful place inside their brains that comes alive with a little light being shown it. It is well worth it to search for that place where you can sit together and connect once more.

 

 

I didn't set out to write about dementia, just memories. Make some great ones on the rest of your journey here on earth. You just might need them to connect with your loved ones some day.

 

Check this site out about memory study today:

 

 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/what-scientists-now-know-about-repairing-memories-1566240/?no-ist

Never Leave Marty Alone in the Garden

Marty Matzke​ is a wonderful, awesome man.....and I love him always. He is a great handyman, he can do just about anything that needs done around the house...BUT...he is NOT to be trusted around my landscaping. It has taken years to get the plants to grow abundantly as they are, and I enjoy my jungle, which is my oasis in this high desert of northern Arizona.

Last fall we had to cut back the wonderful grapevine due to black rot.So it hasn't come back in all it's glory yet.

I have been very protective of all the plants this year as I realize just how old they are and a lot of them need to be moved this coming fall.

There isn't a whole lot that I can do by myself due to my knees both being OOC (Out of Commission), and my balance is pretty well shot, and I have already fallen once this year going out to feed the birds.  I hate to ask Marty to do something that I used to be able to do with no problem. So, I decided while he was working a 48 hour shift that I could simply put some garden fencing onto the pergola and attach it to the eave of the house so that the wisteria will grow over the top of the pergola. 

The wisteria has just become this huge jungle plant and when I go out into the back yard with it all unkempt I always think of when we lived in Owatonna, MN and we would go dancing out at the Jungle and I sing out loud, "Welcome...to the Jungle." 

So I managed to drag the extension ladder out to the back yard and get it into position and even got the green garden fencing attached to the pergola, then I ran out of staples to attach it to the eave of the house, so I had to stop working on it. When Marty came home I simply asked him after we made a trip to get staples, if he could finish that portion. He went out to look at it and laughed at my work and said that would never do. He would fix it right after he got the irrigation line running that he was working on. Two days later he finished his project and was ready to work on the wisteria. He was outside for a long time while I was in the house working on my scrapbook journal. He came inside to shower and nap before going into work that evening. He told me that he couldn't finish the project because he needed to order more fencing.

I go outside to see why in the world he would need more fencing and I almost fell over in a dead faint.

He had taken down the English ivy from the posts that the vines had grown up on. He had stretched the green fencing between the posts and stapled it half way up the posts. Why? What just happened to my beautiful ivy? It was all a mess. My Irish came on full blown. I went into the house and asked him what in the world was he thinking? He told me that I had told him I wanted fencing put up there. I told him I had not! He insisted that I had, and I knew that his German was up so I just went outside immediately and tore down the fencing and got the garden tape out and had to pull the ivy back up and attach it with the garden tape and ties back to the poles.  I cancelled the order for more fencing 

A foot note here, he had removed the garden bench and the beautiful iron headboard I had behind it. So I had to trim everything back to where the cement slab begins so I could see where everything should go back to.

It took me a couple of hours to get it done, a job that the two of us have done together before, but I think my adrenalin was maxed out because I was finishing it when he comes out ready for work and asks me why I took it down. I did not answer him, he just got one of those 'You talkin' to ME?" looks and left me alone.

This is the before Marty photo

This is how I left it that night.

 

That evening I really did some heavy thinking because I knew that I would have never asked him to put wire up for the English Ivy, it doesn't grow that way. Then, a light bulb came on in a corner of my brain and I remember having a conversation with him LAST SUMMER about a totally different garden area...one that doesn't even exist now. I had wanted a vine that I had planted in the dog park to be trained to grow up the back of the house on our bedroom side. I asked him LAST SUMMER when we had that garden to please put some up. Well, our Grand-dog Charlotte ate some of the purple grass plants that I had planted on each side of the vine, and she got very, very sick. I dug those things up and Marty filled in the garden and I put my blue bottles over that section. No more plants in the dog park!

When he got home the next day I explained everything and my Irish was back to normal and his German was back to normal. Love was in the air! He moved the bench back into place and I got the rest of the runners attached to the pole.

His next day off he worked on getting the wisteria vine trailing onto the pergola. Know how he did it? If you guessed that he used my idea you would be right.He attached some green fencing to the pergola, and then after fixing two places where plaster was coming down and bees could get in, he attached the fencing to the eave of the house like I had intended all along. Yet he said that his was was better than mine. I still do not understand the difference except he used something other than the staples to attach it to the eave.

 So at the end of the day  we were both happy with the way everything looked and my oasis is back to it's peace filled status.

What have I learned from this opportunity for growth?

NEVER LEAVE MARTY UNSUPERVISED WHEN IT COMES TO LANDSCAPING PROJECTS.

Boundaries & Limits - Keys to Freedom

I received this in my email box and I whole heartily agree with it all, so I thought I would share it. Why create the wheel when one already exists?

I have always said that boundaries are a good thing and we should practice them every day because they help us manage our energy. We use boundaries to stay aligned with what we want to be and have in our lives, and what serves us best. While we tend to think of them as a means of keeping people and things out of our lives, they really don’t. Instead, they act as the energetic admission criteria for our connections. Limits represent how far we can or are willing to go in any situation and they become limitations when they prevent us from moving forward. Together, boundaries and limits are our keys to freedom because they help us manage our energy, who we connect with and who connects with us, what we allow into our lives and what we reject.

Imagine yourself without boundaries, where anyone and anything can enter your life at will and do whatever they want to do. Have you ever had no boundaries with someone? They do not respect you and do whatever they want to do and you tolerate it, until you reach the moment where you can no longer do so. Then you react in anger and blame them for mistreating you but it isn’t their fault, you had no boundaries, no way of communicating to them what you consider to be acceptable behavior, and how you expect people to act around you. Do you have boundaries for the amount and type of respect, honor, and love you want from others? Is it time to set some boundaries? They may not make others change their behavior, but they will remove the people who don’t respect and honor you from your life.

Limits represent the most or the least that we will do in a situation. For example, I enjoy many outdoor activities but I don’t like camping. So while I will go hiking, kayaking, and  spend time in nature, I won’t do activities that include camping. What are your limits with the situations and people in your life? What are you willing to do and where do you draw the line? It’s important to know our limits because they, with boundaries, teach people how to act around us. They represent the energetic price of admission for everyone and everything we connect with or who want to connect with us.
Limits become limitations when we are afraid to allow change and transformation to occur. If we limit ourselves to what we have known in the past, then anything new becomes part of a fear zone that we are afraid to enter. Boundaries become walls when are afraid that we have to defend ourselves against people and situations. That only happens when we aren’t grounded in our own energy and don’t respect our own boundaries. If we, for example, are so concerned that people won’t like us, then we will willingly remove our boundaries to have the love we want from others, whether or not they are a good fit energetically.

We need boundaries and limits to be clear in our intention for our lives. It doesn’t serve anyone when we are without boundaries because without them, we attract people and situations from our fears, rather than from our highest energies. We also need to know and respect our limits, those things that we do not want to do or do not believe we can do, without allowing them to become limitations.  And we need to respect others’ boundaries and limits too, honoring their choices whether or not we agree with them, allowing what resonates and is aligned with us to joyfully connect with us and everything that does not, to move on along its own path.

And in case you were wondering, I have been camping before and it’s because of my former camping experiences that I won’t do it any more. I prefer a soft bed, hot shower, and room service for breakfast.

Copyright (c) 2014 by Jennifer Hoffman. All rights reserved.  You may quote, translate, reprint or refer to this message if you mention the author name and include a working link to http://enlighteninglife.com

Don't Fight These Hands

 by Tenth Avenue North

Why are you striving these days?
Why are you trying to earn grace?
Why are you crying?
Let me lift up your face, just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love?
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough?
To where will you go child?
Tell me where will you run, to where will you run?

'cause I'll be by your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
And please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands at my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in and give you life
I wanna give you life

And I'll be by your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
And please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Here at my side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
And please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

'Cause I, I love you, I want you to know
That I, yeah I love you, I'll never let you go
No, no

And I'll be by your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
And please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Here at my side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
And please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Here at my side
My hands are holding you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFvQQt6Nbh8



This song was playing as I drove up the mountains today bringing home our new vehicle. I love the words, 'don't fight these hands that are holding you,' and I became so completely immersed with the goodness of Spirit that I felt tears running down my cheeks. The love of God in that moment held me so close that I could feel totally loved and accepted for who I am.


I realized a few weeks ago that I was actually afraid to pray for anything that I wanted or felt I needed in my life. I shared this with my daughter Sarah one afternoon as we talked about praying for her new job to come into her life. It is easy to pray for someone else, but my track record of praying for things and situations to change for the better just plain old sucks. Long life story of unanswered prayers and relationships that are so broken I cannot repair them.

A few days later we went to surprise Sarah for her birthday. We met her in the parking lot of the Vineyard church she worships at. How I have missed that kind of worship, the kind that just flows with the Spirit, no one looking at their watches to see if the pastor goes over his allotted time. Everyone there to worship God in their own way,  and it was just a beautiful worship service. They sang a song which I was not familiar with but soon I was singing with my heart and soul the words of God's love for me. We were singing to God: How great is your love for me? In other words, how great is the love that God has for each and every one of us?  That love is so great that there is absolutely NOTHING that can separate us from that love. Nothing. Not one thing. No matter what it may look like on the outside, whether prayers seem to fall on deaf ears....God's love still holds me up, holds you up.

Right at the moment that I 'got the message' of the song I realized that the prayers have been answered, just not the way that I think they should be answered. The answer came and God's love washed over me, like waves washing over me in the ocean. 


Here is what the Spirit spoke to me that July 13, 2014 (F.Y.I. it would have been my Mom's 94th birthday, so of course I could hear her also saying that everything is gonna be all right)

How much do I love you Charlotte? More that I can ever know

I want you to love them as I have loved you.Okay, but I thought I was already doing that.

How do I love you? You wait for me to come to you in my brokenness.

Yes, that's it, I wait for you to come to me. I never plead with you. I don't push you. I wait for you to come running into the throne room, like the child of mine that you are. You jump into my lap and tell me all the latest news. I listen and then what do I tell you? You tell me to leave my concerns with you and that I can go along and play in this garden of life because you have everything handled.

That's it. I just simply love you until you lay your burdens down, letting go of even the tiniest thread of "I can fix it", and you step back and allow me to handle anything that concerns you.

I left that service with a clean heart and left my cares with God. I came home and put my prayers in the Reiki bowl with all the other prayers from clients and friends. Guess what?

Sarah - new job.
Marty - passed his math with an A
Us - new car (one that has everything I asked for and more)

All within these last two weeks. Is God still on the throne? Can I get an Amen?

Oh, and those relationships that need mending, somehow, someway, some day...if it happens that's fine by me, and if it doesn't...it is not a reflection of my worth in this glorious Kingdom of God which is NOW...not in some future place, but Now, God...Your kingdom come and Your will be done....