Curses

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GCW speaks of curses

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What is a curse, but a blanket of energy that holds you down, originated by angry ugly feelings that become words, and kept alive through belief and repetition.

Know this: Your words have power. The power to harm, the power to heal. You have more power in this world than you can ever imagine!

Do you choose to harm others or heal? If you choose to harm, I ask you before you set anything in motion, to look in the mirror. Look at yourself in the eye and for once, be truthful with yourself. The ugly words that flow from your lips harm you first and most. For you are an integral element of the web in which all things are one.

Cursing others is cursing yourself. Polluting the land is polluting your personal environment. Hurting others physically ends up hurting you. There is no escape from this immutable truth. If you wish to hurt, it is a cry for your own healing, for wholeness, for clearing of your own clouds.

The spark of divine light is within you, only obscured temporarily by clouds, like stormy weather obscures the blue sky. You are not your angry words, you are divine light.

Make this your daily practice: Allow yourself to become the light that you are, and allow your light to illuminate our world.

Newborn babies

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Beloved newborn

Grandmother Cottonwood speaks of newborns.

You know you are in the full presence of the divine when you are honored to hold, or look at, be near, or touch a newborn infant. All the universe is contained within this tiny perfect being. All possibilities, all collective wisdom, the web of life is reflected in her.

The newborn radiates trust and peace. She allows you to contemplate the divine light she brings to your family, to all who call this planet home, for she is an expression of the infinite unending love that holds this universe together.

Allow yourself to learn from the little one. Let her teach you to simply be, to bask in the simple joys of life in a body. Let her teach you the sense of wonder as you open your eyes to the magical world of material form before you each morning.  Learn to see through her eyes, everything, fresh and new and magical.

Allow yourself to be moved and changed by this new relationship, to connect and feel and know once again where you come from and who you are. A miracle of divine light.

Spring is here

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Tree as healer

Now that spring is here, I ask you to touch your hand, your bare foot, perhaps your cheek to the earth, the cool sweet soil, the dewy grasses, the wet sand, the bark of a beloved tree, and allow her energies to fill and restore and heal you.

You were made for the earth and she was made for you. Feel the comfort of her pulse and rhythms, the knowledge that you are home.

I especially invite you to lay under a friendly tree with deep roots. Allow the energies of your home to encircle and fill you with the power your ancient ancestors knew, attuned to her from time immemorial.

You connect in this way to the web of all creation, all living creatures, all spirits, all energies that sustain life on our dearly beloved planet.

Do the right thing

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Early spring vine

My dears, I want you to know that no matter what mistakes you think you’ve made, no matter what you have left undone, or unsaid, no matter the ugly words that have come from your lips, you can choose differently from now on.

Do not limit yourself to “the way I’ve always been” or “my personality” or “that’s how I was raised.” Why would you choose powerlessness?

I tell you here and now that you have a choice in the kind of person you are. There is the inner part of you that only you know and outer part that you present to the world. Allow those two to become one- the two halves to become a whole.

Do what you know to be the right thing. Say the kind thing. Cease all excuses!

Step up to the shining example of your true inner self that is aligned with the source of all creation.

Loosen up!

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Tree swing

Why are you so careful all the time? Are you afraid of a misstep, a mistake, getting dirty? I tell you you must sink your toes into the mud and let it ooze. Hear the squelching noise as you lift your foot. Admire your perfect footprint! It is proof that you too can loosen up and go barefoot once and awhile.

No matter your age there is still a playful child inside of you, wanting to escape the tight clothes, the stupid meetings, wanting to play and be free!

Skip stones across a little steam, climb a friendly tree, swing on a rope swing above the fragrant lawn, make a sand castle, spin with your grandchildren in a made up dance. Laugh at the funny noises you invent. Play here under my branches. Make a little play house, create a shelter to call your own.

Pretend.  As you pretend you dream.  As you dream you create your world.

Color

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GCW speaks of color

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Summer color

Life needs color! Mix and match have fun, for color never hurt anyone. Be bold and playful. You are too careful! Break the rules. Then contemplate why there are rules, who made them and why you should waste any more of your precious time worrying about them!

Turquoise, pink magenta violet, red, orange. The colors of the sunset… Fill your home with all tints and shades, all hues blues, greens, cerulean, ocean, sapphire- get scarves or pillows or curtains, or bedspreads or rugs, or socks, or clothes or paint for your rooms in those pretty colors you adore. Be like a kid in a candy store! Plant flowers, little summer jewels that delight with their form, color, and fragrance.  Give this delightful gift to yourself

Wrap yourself in color from head to toe. Let your eyes delight in the interaction of adjoining and overlapping colors. Allow yourself to be dazzled! Fill your world with the visible spectrum. Your senses are meant to bring you delight and joy.

Get started now! Enliven your world!

The wall and the water

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A creek in central Iowa

The facade, the wall you’ve created to protect yourself and your heart must crumble. It has become the most poignant of prisons. Built to keep yourself safe, but in reality, hemming you in, trapping and keeping you a captive.

Can you feel the subtle tightness in your neck and chest? It restricts your expression, your voice and breathing, your experience of life. Feel the tense muscles in your gut and back and butt that create a sense of heavy armor… As if the tight energy could keep an arrow or mean word from penetrating the tinder pink center of your being.

Only you know how to open this prison and set yourself free. I know you can pretend. You did it as a child, and you were really good at it. Who did you pretend to be then? Who are you now?  When did you build your wall?  Do you know your wall is optional?

Practice becoming water, waves on a lake, ripples in a stream, falling rain, a drop in the ocean. Don’t just think about being the water, become the water, the flow, pulled by gravity. You can’t be water and be tense. You can’t be both water and a wall at the same time.  Become water each day and feel the walls of your prison dissolve and wash away.

Drop everything

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Early spring Robin

At times it is right to let go, to release your hold, just as trees in autumn drop leaves to prepare for winter. You may simply need to release your grip on all the details of your life for a time- All the worries, fears, all the tickly and prickly little things that make your brain race in circles with no finish line in sight.

Let your brain rest. Be content. Allow yourself to be empty.

Change gear, unplug from the shiny blinking objects that demand so much of you, that suck the joy and life from you. Lay on the sweet cool earth, nestle your body against the trunk of a sturdy tree, put your ear to the soil, hear the rhythm and heart beat of the earth. Know that you are meant to be here, are beloved. You don’t need to prove yourself by constant action that frazzles your nerves and wipes you out.

Burn your epic to-do-list and rest!

Should?

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My dear, the word should is not your friend!

Should is the voice of mom, dad, church, teacher, doctor, expert, all rolled into one. It is a word that holds you back and ties you down. It is a word generated by the mind, the fearful self critical mind, not the heart or the voice of your soul. It is not the real truth of you.

Of course, sometimes what you “should” do and what your heart wants to do are in alignment. Can you discern when this is true? Do not lie to yourself!

Do you fear that you will not belong, that you will be cast out if you follow your heart and not your shoulds? Perhaps it is time for a new group, new friends, a new tribe that celebrate the deep inner beauty and kaleidoscope of gorgeous colors and patterns that is you!

I repeat myself yet again. Follow your heart for that is where your true riches are found.

Have faith, spring is coming

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Little snow monkey

Hang on, winter weary humans, spring is coming! In the meantime, don’t wish your life away! Have faith like my roots that reach deep into the soil below the place where ice and cold and snow can touch them – deep into the warm dark earth, our home.

Have faith and trust that all is well! Behind the heavy cloud cover is the blue sky, beneath the snow, the grass waits, beneath the dead leaves and frozen soil, all manner of living things sleep, ready for the return of the sun.

Do not despise this time of year. Do not hate your circumstances. Do not live in the future imagined sunny day; for when you live in the fantasies of your mind, you negate the only thing that really matters, your most precious gift, the present moment!

You make yourself powerless when you live only in your head! It is your body and heart that live here and now. Find a way to fully inhabit your body, for then you will find true joy. Find something to take pleasure in each day, even if the snow lies until June!

You have been given a treasured gift- life here on earth. Use it wisely