mediumship

Dance of energy

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2015-10-11 09.51.12

Autumn cottonwood

GCW speaks of the energy in all things

Have you felt and sensed that all living things are permeated and surrounded by their own atmosphere? Have you felt the pull toward another, or a feeling of being repelled and wanting to keep your distance?

All is a dance of energy. Pay attention for this is your sensitive radar. You all have it! Tune in and let it guide you through life. It is more powerful, sensitive and smarter than your smartest shiny blinking object. And no monthly plan!

When you tune in, this energy may manifest as feeling, as bodily sensations as gut instincts, as knowing, as simply appearing in the right place at the right time for no apparent reason.

You were given these bodies that are so much more than any of you can imagine! Expand your experience. Expand your knowing and pay attention to them. Take time to tune in to the miracle that is you. No rushing about and staring at blinking objects while trying to tune in!

Quiet your minds, the frenetic energy, the reeling thoughts, the ever present judgments, and the world will be a more peaceful place. Your thoughts are the energy that create the tapestry of your life. Choose thoughts that support the life you wish to create!

Thanksgiving

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DSCN1958

GCW speaks of Thanksgiving

How beautiful it is to acknowledge all the blessings of this life – of your physical existence here in this place at this time. The food that delights the senses and enlivens your physical bodies, the shelter that provides you with a warm and welcoming home, those objects that give you pleasure and make your life easier… the magnificent beauty of the natural world… those beloved friends and loved ones, the most precious gifts of all…

To give thanks is to feel these blessings lovingly in your heart and know the support of the universe. It is to experience deeply the connections between all things and all beings.

You are meant to be here! NEVER FORGET THIS! The universe fully supports your existence! Do you know this? If not, reexamine your beliefs!

Every particle in this universe to the far limits of your awareness and beyond is supported by love, which is the thread that weaves the tapestry of creation!

Feel it. Know it. Live it.

When you embody and allow this exquisite love to radiate from the center of your being you become the very energy of appreciation. It is your priceless birthright!

Winter

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2013-01-01 00.00.00-504

GCW is on far left

GCW speaks of winter

The shift in seasons from autumn to winter reminds us that all living things must die, ourselves among them. There, that’s out of the way!

So many fuss about the cold of this coming season. Do you wish to add the energy of fuss and complaint to the web of all things? Would you prefer endless summer? That is available elsewhere, not in this place.

The cycles of light and dark, seasons, the rise and fall of waves and our breath are intimately intertwined with our cells and our energy. We have been created for this ebb and flow of the life force, the time of growth and fruiting, and the time of rest and pulling inward. When you live by the clock and calendar, by human devised definitions, by the preset schedule, you limit yourselves severely! You do not allow the flow of the natural world to provide you clues for the structure of your lives. You create your own climates and curse the one outside that is too cold, too hot, too humid, too wet, but this is a curse on the earth that you have evolved to exist in so successfully. Cease and desist!

Bless each flake of snow, bless the northwest wind. Bless bright sunlight sparkling on a million ice crystals. Bless each day of your life with your inner warmth, and light. Find something to bless each winter day. Then if you dare, express your delight at living on this planet so exquisitely attuned to support our precious lives.

Not good enough?

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Jack-in-the-pulpit berries

Jack-in-the-pulpit berries

Grandmother Cottonwood speaks of “Not good enough”

My dear, you constantly strive to improve yourself! You think your best effort is not good enough. You think less of yourself when you do not measure up to the standards, weights and measures others have devised to define and control!

When will you realize your precious and delightful energy is better spent on creating your unique life, blazing your trail into the unmeasured un-analyzed territory of the heart, knowing and trusting yourself? The source in you is inspiring and guiding you each step of the way. Tune in! For the growing, expanding, unfolding, exciting, inspiring place is deep within you and nowhere else.

This will allow you to unfold into the rich full human being that you are designed to be, not a clone of someone else, not patterned after an ideal model, praised by the media and your mom.

You are first and foremost here to be and discover your own desires and bring them to fruition, to grow toward the sun in your own way, at your own pace. Let go of “Not good enough” once and for all.

The spirit world

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Tree as healer

Tree as healer

GCW speaks of the spirit world

My dears, there is no separate “world” in which spirits are confined! All things that you can see taste touch small and hear are so much more than the outward physical manifestation you sense with your bodies.

When you tune into your feelings, when you observe your thoughts, you are tuning into your own delightful energy – AKA spirit! Yes, you are spirit as well as body! Understand, feel, know and sense that and you will deepen and enrich your earthly experience beyond measure.

As you become more sensitive, you will begin to open a window to the wider spectrum of experience. You will begin to know what lies beyond the everyday experience of the physical world. You will be shown the underpinnings of this life, the source in which all things are one.

You cannot be told! You must experience and travel this path for yourself. A teacher can guide you if you flounder and resist. But know this: Your heart is the compass to navigate the unseen realms, the foundations of all that is. Trust it!

Going beyond what you know with the senses is to deepen and enrich and make incredibly precious your life here in the body in this place at this time.

Music

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Summer song

Summer song

GCW speaks of music:

Music is like life itself, flowing, expressive, full of feeling; each moment a new tone- with a melody you can catch on to, can repeat sometimes. Just as a stream flows, the notes of music forming a stream that delights, refreshes, surprises, inspires, and continues until the final chord. Or do your prefer repeating patterns, repeating ideas?

Then the final note fades away leaving a deep silence. Deep silence is the backdrop to all that is, to all that is sung all that is spoken in this world. Deep silence is the paper that your life song is written on.

A song is like one lifetime – Silence between notes, between songs the foundation of spirit every lifetime is built on. Next lifetime a new song. Variations on a theme.

Family

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Autumn in Iowa

Family of growing things

Grandmother Cottonwood speaks of family:

Technically, in the great classification system devised by humans in which all things are separate, we are not defined as members of the same family. I, a magnificent and glorious Cottonwood tree, am not related to your potted snake plant, your beautiful shiny philodendron, your red flowered geranium according to this way of seeing and analyzing the world. Worst of all, this system states that I am not related to you, my many layered human friend.

Yes, we are not family by blood or sap. We do not share hair and eye color. On the surface of things we share very little in common. Your bark is very thin and would never stand up to winter storms of summer suns like mine does.

Can you guess where I’m going with this? Then you already know that you and I and all living things, all rooted things, all six legged things, all bacteria in the soil, all creatures on this earth are intimately intertwined and interwoven of the same stuff, the same energy – the stuff of life that permeates and enlivens all. I am here to tell you that you must expand your idea of family! We are family. We all belong together in our shared home.

Let us take care of each other and love each other! Let us know that each of us from the tallest redwood to the tiniest speck of algae to a minuscule deer tick to a new human baby, each of us belongs here, is desired, wanted, needed, loved and cherished by all that is. Each of us has our part to play in the great web of life, which is our extended and beloved family.

Rushing and resting

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Tiny seedlings and concrete

Tiny seedlings and concrete

GCW speaks of rushing and resting

You’ve built your human world right over our world. You’ve divided, paved over, fenced off, mown down, and altered our world beyond recognition – so your noisy motors and machines can have access to every bit of space. You leave untouched only those places that flood or where the soil is unsuitable for your mega plans.

You rush here and there, in your cars looking neither right nor left. Missing out on your present moment while speeding toward what is next, and next and next. Do you rush home so you can do it all again tomorrow?

Do you feel your breath as it flows though you like ocean waves?  Have you rested your body and soul on the loving earth today? Have you gazed upward through golden leaves at a slate blue sky while crows sail high above? Have you taken just a moment to breathe and slow down, to allow the thoughts in your mind to drain away, so that you may be in tune with your true nature? – the silence and infinite depth at your center.

Disappointment

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Maple leaf

Maple leaf

GCW speaks of disappointment

Will you allow disappointment, failure or a big mistake to shipwreck your life?

Rooted things do not make mistakes. All we must do is grow toward the sun and send our roots down. We simply exist with no judgment, no standards of beauty, no measure of success, no report card.

But for you magnificent humans, who can move, speak, decide, think, feel, and make choices, you who must answer to others, you must find a way to love yourselves when life doesn’t unfold in the way you’ve so carefully planned. Love and forgive yourself, feel the grief, the feelings of disappointment, but never let your spark go out! Then get back up on that pony & ride like the wind! As long as you are focused in a body, you have another chance and another and another.

Let the memories of your disappointments be like autumn leaves. At first they stand out with blazing brightness, then they let go, drop to the earth, and crumble to dust under foot to feed next year’s growth.

Illness

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GCW speaks of illness

New life from old

New life from old

Do not blame outside forces for your illness. How is it affecting you? Are you tied, achy, is it hard to breathe? Go inward to the mirror that knows all things. Ask what you are tired of. Ask what is making you ache with emotion. What is preventing you from taking in life fully and allowing it to express through you? Where do you feel these things in your body? Pay attention. Befriend your body.

Your body is not separate from your emotions, feelings, thoughts, spirit. Take care of all of you. That includes your spirit. Acknowledge and befriend your infinite spirit, the essence of you. Pay attention to your feelings and emotions for they are your true guidance in all things.

If you persist in doing something that feels wrong, or too much, or unpleasant, something in you will send up an alarm. Pay attention! Address it before it mirrors itself in your magnificent body. Then you will be forced to pay attention!

Do those things that feel good and make your heart glad! If that means resting, sleeping extra, curling up with a book, closing your eyes while the sun shines, find a way to do it! Do not be contrary! I know you will try to argue and say you do not have time! Grandmother Cottonwood wishes the best for all living things, that this community, this mother earth may continue to bless all who dwell here. When you make time to do what is right and healthy for you, it strengthens the exquisite web in which all things are one.