Life Design
The Spiritual Necessity Of A Bucket List
Have you ever felt like there’s more to life than the daily grind? Creating and pursuing a bucket list is one way to bring purpose and meaning to your existence.
When I do readings, Spirit often encourages my clients to set new life goals and advises that it is never too early or too late to start a bucket list. In fact, Spirit often says that keeping a bucket list is a spiritual necessity, essential to our soul purpose.
Even young children need goals for the present and the future, Spirit says. Life is for learning and experiencing all that we can. Spirit wants all of us to live our best lives!
A bucket list is a list of accomplishments and experiences we would like to have before we leave this earth plane and return to our spiritual home. The term comes from the phrase “to kick the bucket” (meaning “to die”) and was popularized by the 2007 movie The Bucket List.
The increasing upheaval and chaos in the world in recent years has forced many of us to think about the things we would like to do before we “kick the bucket.”
Having a bucket list leads you to prioritize experiences and dreams that resonate with your innermost desires. It’s a tangible reminder to live life to the fullest and pursue the things that are truly important to you. By identifying and working toward these aspirations, you’re actively nurturing your soul growth and personal fulfillment.
The Enigma Of Your Soul Contract
Before we come into this lifetime, we design a soul contract. We choose a family that we want to be born to and we plan specific things that we want to accomplish, such as career, relationships, children, and so on. The contract is about our spiritual self and therefore also includes those things that we need to overcome and learn from.
Some of the more important things in your contract may come as a surprise, because often they are those things you do not want to do! This is usually a sure way of knowing that something is contractual. The things we prefer to do, or have done, we’ve already mastered, but the challenges and obstacles offer us opportunity to overcome our fears and anxieties, to step forward and learn more, to grow spiritually.
Some contracts are also much longer than others. Some of us remain here for a long time, while others do not. I doubt anyone knows for sure, but for the time that we are here, we must make every effort to learn and grow from every life experience.
This is also why some of us attract the wrong people, and constantly get into the wrong relationships? In these cases it is often your soul contract trying to teach you to speak up for yourself and claim your self-worth.
When old souls come in, usually nothing bothers them. They tend to take things with a grain of salt. However, when new souls come in, they are often very excited about so many things and can’t seem to get enough done.
There are also the creative souls, who are very talented, but also have a lot of emotional stress. Part of their contract is to learn to manage their stress better, so that they can be more open to their creative gifts. Continue reading
The Scorching Year Of The Yang Fire Horse
Today is the first day of the 2026 Chinese Lunar New Year, and with it the Fire Horse year begins, setting a faster and more intense pace for the months ahead.
The Year of the Fire Horse brings a powerful mix of independence, urgency, and honesty. The Horse is known for its need for freedom, movement, and self direction. When combined with the Fire element, those qualities become stronger and harder to ignore.
This year will push us to stop waiting, or hesitating, or pretending that situations are fine when they are not.
Unlike the cautious Metal Horse or the steady Earth Horse, the Fire Horse is not about careful delay. It favors action. It rewards people who are willing to make decisions and take responsibility for the direction of their lives.
This makes 2026 a year that supports bold changes, clear boundaries, and personal independence.
In many cultures, the Horse symbolizes travel, progress, and the drive to move forward. It is associated with vitality and the desire to explore new territory, both physically and emotionally.
This year invites you to look honestly at where you feel restricted and where you have outgrown your current circumstances. It encourages you to take steps toward a life that feels more honest and more self-directed.
Small Gestures Of Kindness In A Time Of Cruelty
Many people are feeling anxious or uncertain in recent years with everything that has been happening in the world.
Some are fearful and others stressed or unsure how to act appropriately in these restless times. Some even act out in destructive or dramatic ways, taking their frustration out on others.
It is common knowledge that the digital age and social media has spawned a generation of computer warriors and online bullies who express their insecurities and fears, in often extremely mean and cruel ways, from the comfort of their living rooms and basements.
This savage lack of empathy and decorum has seemingly now spilt over into our streets and neighborhoods too.
It is easier for many to be critical and judgmental, to complain and argue, instead of facing facts, dealing with the truth and seeking lasting solutions.
Often not knowing the entire story, many people choose to see only see one side of things, while telling others off for disagreeing with their limited point of view. The computer has unfortunately given some people a platform to spread strife and hatred, instead of love, hope and kindness.
I pray that more people will strive to seek the truth and learn to look for the good and kind in others. Showing tolerance, patience and kindness is always the better, more open approach. And always remember that if someone attacks you directly, then it often means they are somehow struggling or hurting. It usually serves no real purpose to attack them back. Continue reading
Why Love Feels Different Around Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is a romantic time of flowers and gifts, candlelit dinners, and declarations of love for many people.
But beyond the red hearts and love language gestures, many also feel a curious shift in their emotional state during this time. For many people love feels more intense, more revealing, or even more confusing this time of the year.
Why does this happen?
From a spiritual and astrological perspective, February carries unique energetic patterns that directly influence our emotional awareness and relationships. While Valentine’s Day shines a spotlight on romantic love, the entire month operates like a cosmic mirror, quietly revealing the truths beneath our connections.
It’s not just about Cupid’s arrow, it’s about clarity, emotional timing, and spiritual alignment.
Valentine’s Day did not begin as a holiday celebrating modern romance. Historically, February 14th was observed as a Christian feast day honoring Saint Valentine, who was associated with devotion and commitment in early traditions.
Over time, the day became associated with romantic love in medieval European culture. Writers helped solidify the notion of Valentine’s Day as a day for expressing affection and making heartfelt promises to a loved one.
Are You Erasing Your Blessings?
The unselfish gifts of our time, money, and resources as well as our labors of love bring us many blessings in this lifetime and the next.
When we are kind and generous to others, we are also showered with good fortune in return. We know this from the ‘golden rule’ of ‘do unto others’ found in many religions and spiritual traditions.
Buy I have read for many clients over the years who are kindhearted and loving people, but complain about their life being very difficult and deprived. They never have enough money, or they cannot find love, or health and well-being seem to evade them. “I am always helping others, but I get nothing in return,” they might say.
Why is this the case? Why are these generous, caring people not being blessed more often for their good deeds?
Well, my guides have made the spiritual cause of this very clear to me. It is my understanding that we do not only add items of charity and compassion to the list of entries on our ‘chalkboard,’ but we also delete or erase them!
You see, when we do a good deed, it gets added to our list of potential ‘return blessings.’ But, if we go around bragging about it, boasting, showing off, telling people how generous or kind we have been, those good deeds become nullified, neutralized, erased. It loses its metaphysical power and spiritual meaning. It can no longer bless us in return.
In The Grace Of Divine Time
I usually see them poised in stillness upon the bare branches of the winter trees. But today, most of my sightings were of them circling in flight overhead, crossing back and forth over the road.
Sometimes they appeared to be pursuing their prey, other times leading their young, or simply enjoying the freedom of gliding through the sky beneath the beautiful morning sun. This occurred in several places along my journey, spanning a range of miles beyond the one roost and eagle family I’ve been witnessing.
Before, during, and after my way was bedazzled with this abundance of bald eagle beauty, my thoughts had been steeped in the topic of time. I sensed the eagles crossed my path to affirm and guide me in my contemplation of eternal time.
I also sensed they came as signs of a shift in my life. They were reminding me that what has been waiting in my life – energy that has been paused, stuck or still, resting, gathering, or incubating – is beginning to move on the horizon of visibility, and gradually gaining momentum.
When I arrived home, waiting in my mailbox was a pamphlet with the printed words: The Times Are Racing. Well, message received loud and clear! It’s time to express my appreciation of time.