Friday, August 29, 2008

Visit to an Amazing Hospital in Stockton, CA

This past week I was invited to attend a kick-off for a "No One Dies Alone" Hospice Volunteer Program at the Community Hospice in Modesto, CA. It was a beautiful event and I was honored to be a part of it. It reminded me of how volunteers are the true heart of hospice. They are such dedicated and loving, spiritually motivated souls who do this work. It is always inspiring to be among them -- and all hospice workers, for that matter.

On my way home to Seattle, I also had the honor to speak informally with a group involved with palliative care at the St. Joseph's Medical Center in Stockton, CA. I was greatly impressed by this group, especially because of how they seem to be promoting the body-mind-spirit connection, not only among their cancer patients, but also among their entire staff at the hospital.

I heard that very recently, during the course of a day, they had 155 staff members receive hands-on Reiki treatments from practitioners who made themselves available to them. Hospital staff being cared for in this way is something I'd not heard of before. This is truly a sign of our times! We are not only learning about, but also practicing new ways to care for the caregiver in ways that help us connect the body, mind, and spirit. This is most encouraging and enlightening to me. Is there anything like this going on in your corner of the world? If so, I'd love to hear about it.

By the way, if you'd like to know more about Reiki, a form of "laying on of hands" healing using light and energy that originated in Japan, you can go to pp. 206 - 207 in my book, THE LAST ADVENTURE OF LIFE (2nd ed.). Or, you could visit this website for more information.

Deep Blessings of Hope and Healing, Dancing Heart~~~

Monday, August 25, 2008

Listening to Silence

I wanted to share this poem that I came across by James Dillet Freeman before I head for Modesto, CA today. I'll be sharing with a hospice volunteer group that's starting up a "No One Dies Alone" program -- a wonderful way to make sure that every single person has support at the very end of their lives! Here's the poem:

There is a music just in being still,
A sound of silence that you only hear
When you are in attunement with God's will
And listen in your soul, not with your ear.
Then comes a blessedness that is not sound
Or soundlessness, and you become aware
Of the beauty that is always all around
Us and the truth that is forever everywhere.

How are you honoring the Silence in your life?!?

Also, I've just begun preparing some U-tubes to go on my website. I hope to have some of them up within the month. Have a blessed day filled with Gratitude and Deep Blessings, Dancing Heart~~~

Thursday, August 21, 2008

DAY SEMINARS -- First One This Sunday in Bellingham!

As a way to teach and help people move through the grief and forgiveness (life review) work in my book, I am starting to offer Day Seminars. These will be interactive and transformative, addressing questions such as: 1) What or who do I need to grieve and let go of in my life right now? 2) Who do I need to forgive in my life at this time to help me live more fully in the moment? and 3) What are some ways that could help me relax and bring more Joy and Delight into my life right now? You will be given time to delve into an old grief and spend some reflective time with it. We will then share in dyads, then as a larger group. We will do the same around some forgiveness issue you are dealing with. Then, I will share some relaxation and healing tools from the book so you will experience these first hand. If time permits, we will view together a magnificent film called Appointment with the Wise Old Dog: Dream Images in a Time of Crisis by David Blum, a musician and conductor who shares his drawings of a series of inspirational dreams he had during a long period that he lived with cancer.

These "Joyful Transitions" seminars would be especially helpful for someone moving through a grief, caregivers, or someone who has a friend or family member who is troubled, sick, or dying. But actually, anyone interested in joining us could benefit from these seminars because we all have grief and forgiveness work to do! And the more we let go of these, the more freedom we have to live in the NOW.

If you are interested in attending the first of these seminars in Bellingham this Sunday (24th), please contact me immediately. Otherwise, there will be others coming up in the Puget Sound area soon. Please go to the "Schedulted Events" page of my website to see the details. Also, if you or your organization would like to host a day seminar, please contact me and we will arrange one.

Enjoy these last days of summer, Dancing Heart~~~

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Friday, August 15, 2008

The Call -- Awakening the Angelic Human (or the Divine Self)

This week, I would like to introduce you to some information from a friend and colleague that you may find very helpful at this time. In the present earth's culture, the message of the soul is largely gone unheard and ignored. Often the doors of transition open and close before a person has the opportunity to reveal the message encoded within cellular memory.


In her book, The Call ~ Awakening the Angelic Human, Toni Sar'h Petrinovich defines the physical embodiment of the gifts that each person carries – the actual reason that he or she made the decision to incarnate into earth and distribute a particular message before resuming life in the etheric realm. "Angel" means "messenger". Each person living in earth is that messenger as the choice to awaken to the delivery of the message is consciously chosen.


Have you heard the subtle voice of your soul speaking through your heart? Do you wish to answer The Call inviting you to unfold the attributes actually contained within your DNA? Now is the time! Read The Call – Awakening the Angelic Human to understand the ease in which you consciously become the messenger – an Angelic Human.


To order: www.sacredspaceswa.com/Angelic Human

Blessings of Light, Love, and Understanding, Dancing Heart~~~

Friday, August 8, 2008

Gangaji on "Facing Death"

A couple of days ago I learned about a most remarkable piece through my friend and faculty member at Daytona Beach Community College that's available for viewing, on line. It is called "Facing Death," and in it, Gangaji, an awakened woman shares her truth about the Gift of Death and Grief in a powerful way. After an introduction, she sits with half a dozen people who are in some kind of deep pain to allow them the space to be with that pain. When you have some time, I highly recommend that you view it here.

Gangaji was born in Texas in 1942, into a noncommunicative alcoholic family. She grew up in Mississippi without a happy childhood. Even after she moved to S.F. as an adult, she continued searching for truth, and a teacher who could point her in the right direction. Finally, her prayers were answered in 1990 -- 48 years after her birth -- when she met Poonjaji, a disciple of Ramana Marharshi, in India. Her new teacher pointed out that she herself was "freedom" and "truth." This realization and looking into her new teacher's eyes transformed Gangaji.

Following the Advaita, or nondualistic tradition, Gangaji directs her students to ask again and again "Who Am I?" To be quiet, and fully present in the moment. To be willing to surrender wholeheartedly the sense of personal identification, acquisition, and doing. To stop trying and instead, not go anywhere -- the secret of going deeper. There is nothing to accomplish. All that is asked of us is to BE, in the current, present time, attending to what is happening right now.

When I encountered Gangaji online, I was deeply moved. I feel as if I have found my teacher and mentor. Thank you John, and thank you Gangaji, for the gifts you offer me at this time in my life. May the Gift of Death and Grief show you who you really are -- a beautiful Child of the Universe!

In Love and Light, Dancing Heart~~~