Life Design
Stay In The Light
During these challenging times, it is essential to stay in the light. It protects your emotional, spiritual, mental and physical health. How do you ‘stay in the light?’ You achieve it by maintaining a raised energy vibration in a time of extreme darkness. It means you don’t get sucked into other people’s drama, darkness, fear and toxicity. You don’t allow yourself to get weighed down by the negativity in the world around you.
Staying in the light doesn’t mean you don’t have an opinion or strong personal views, or that you are not aware, supportive and caring, or that you don’t get involved in the world around you when it truly matters. It simply means you always take care of yourself, while you are doing whatever it is that you need to do every day. Staying in the light is about making self-care a priority.
Staying in the light is about psychic shielding and setting boundaries where and when necessary. For example, avoiding toxic people and environments is one of the best things you can do to stay in the light. You have no obligation to tolerate and accommodate toxic people and energy thieves!
If you work with toxic people, don’t listen to the office gossip and don’t get sucked into their negative world. Also, don’t show them that they may be upsetting, or hurting you. Take a deep breath, call on your inner strength, and simply smile. Own your personal power – you are much stronger than you may realize.
Stay away from social media, if you are easily overwhelmed by negativity. For the first time in human history, we now have the technology to instantly access the opinions, fears, false beliefs and negative experiences of every human being who has access to a keyboard or smart phone. We are confronted daily with the pain, hysterics and drama of thousands of people, all at once!
Are We There Yet?
Are we there yet? It’s okay to ask. The answer, however, should always be no. If we become preoccupied with destination, we lose sight of the joy and purpose of the journey in the first place. When we honor the journey, we are able to keep on the path of forward motion.
Life itself is the journey. We learn the hard lessons, and finally understand that it’s a never-ending process. Often things occur in the guise of mistakes, failures, misunderstandings, hurts. But in truth, not learning from these events is the only failure. And if you don’t learn it the first time, it is highly likely the lesson will repeat itself, over and over again, until you actually do learn it.
When our behavior and actions change, we convert what we have learned into wisdom. For some people the process is a lifelong quest, while others utilize what they have learned and it moves them along quickly. Some people need to go deeper within themselves to make progress.
It is always good to ask if we are there yet. Especially at the beginning of every journey, or when the learned lessons tell us there is more work to be done – inner work to get to the very core of our being. For some people inner work can be very frightening, as many of us deeply suppress the things that we don’t want to deal with. But to complete the journey we must peel away the layers, like peeling an onion.
My Great Grandmother’s Mysterious ‘Sugar Cookies’
My great grandmother made incredible cookies. She called them “sugar cookies,” but perhaps a more appropriate name for them might have been mysterious mystical magic cookies! Everyone loved them – youngsters like myself, as well as our family’s elders, and every age in-between.
Those cookies still bring back so many wonderful memories. They had a special aroma of freshly-baked delight that wafted all the way outside her kitchen window and down the lane beside her charming little home, where she lived with my great grandfather. As a child I couldn’t wait to get to their house, so that I could partake of those delectable sweet treats.
They were round, but not perfectly round. They had that authentic homemade look, which made them even more exquisite to my childlike enthusiasm. And, there was a rather unique spiciness among the ingredients; it was a spice that I had never tasted before in anything else. Oh, my! I especially loved the barely charred edges they usually had, as a result of leaving them in the oven a bit longer than necessary. Those crisp little edges made them all the tastier to me.
I remember sitting at her kitchen table, watching her scoop up the ingredients, one by one, and adding them to her mixing bowl. I didn’t know how much of each ingredient she was using, because she never used a measuring cup. She just knew how much to add of everything. I believe this style of instinctively cooking from scratch is practically becoming a lost art, with all the digital recipes and modern utensils we use nowadays to cook even the simplest of things. And perhaps some of the true character and originality has also been lost in many of our ancestors’ recipes.
Small Gestures Of Kindness In A Time Of Cruelty
People are feeling anxious and uncertain with what has been happening in the world in recent months. Many are fearful and stressed, and unsure how to act appropriately in these strange times. Some 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, in the midst of a global pandemic.
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.
August 2020 Weekly Astrology Forecasts
August 3 – 9
The week opens with an Aquarius Full Moon (also known as a Sturgeon Moon), which could make for a tricky Monday! We’ll need to practice flexibility and patience, as this Full Moon could change our direction at a moment’s notice.
The following day, Mercury will enter dramatic Leo, which could fill our heads with grandiose ideas. Entertain them, but get more information before you act! A Pisces Moon rules the heavens on Wednesday and Thursday, providing a more spiritually based and quiet few days.
Venus will move into Cancer on Friday, where it will ride the soothing and intuitive wave of this sign for the next month. Love of home, family, and self will take precedence during this cycle. The weekend unfolds under an Aries Moon, filling us with energetic and creative energies. So, let’s get out there and have some fun!
August 10 – 16
Except for Uranus going retrograde on Saturday, this should be a quiet and productive week. Uranus will travel backward until January of 2021, with subtle shifts and changes that probably won’t be obvious until the beginning of next year. People born under the sign of Aquarius (which Uranus rules) may notice it more, as they’re asked to go back and review changes they’ve made this year, and whether those alterations are working for them.
Leaving Your Spiritual Footprint
A footprint is an impression left behind by a human foot or shoe on the ground or some other surface. If you have ever been at the beach, you have probably noticed that this is the one place where a footprint is so easily and readily left behind. It I also not too difficult to determine if the impression was left by a an adult, or a small child. But have you gone any further than merely noticing those footprints? Have you ever wondered where does the person live who left that footprint? What is their education and career? What is their current relationship status? What is the life and legacy embedded in each of those imprints?
Human souls also leave behind their ‘metaphysical footprint’ by fulfilling their spiritual calling and soul purpose in their lifetime. The more exceptional or extraordinary ones are written about in our history books. They are great teachers, prophets and spiritual leaders that have left a discernible legacy behind when they departed from this world. When any person takes on a cause, with sometimes the most forceful opposition, to create an new and improved world for the common good, it is always an indicator that a spiritual footprint is being made.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta, simply known as Mother Theresa, for example, is certainly a spiritual icon that has left a well-established footprint of compassion, kindness and charity that continues to be recognized all over the world. We do not expect her to have been a perfect person, but the sincerity and love that she professed for some of the most spurned and downtrodden cannot be denied by anyone. It is to me abundantly clear that she indeed left a footprint of love, compassion and acceptance which equates at the end of the day to her being totally connected to and aligned with spirit.
How To Manifest Abundance And Prosperity
Conscious, deliberate creation is key to bringing what you want into your reality. People have a myriad of ways they manifest things in their life without realizing it. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. We create and attract things without even being aware that we are creating them.
The first step to creating more of what you do want, is to identify what it is you truly want. If you are going to be ‘wishy washy’ about it, then the Universe will deliver ‘wishy was’ results in response, including zero results. How do you get clear on what you truly want? One way is to allow yourself to ‘space out,’ or just daydream a bit about what you want in life.
Say, for instance, you wish to manifest more financial prosperity in your life. You know you want to make more money, but you do not know how to do it. The first step is to clearly decide, and yes, this is key, that you absolutely are going to make more money.
Several years ago, I rented an office in a building next door to a very successful accountant. She owned three large accounting firms in three different locations. One day, in the office hallway, we struck up a conversation about our businesses. I asked her if she’d mind sharing her secret to building such a successful business. “I just decided one day that I was tired of not having enough money, and that from now on I will live an abundant life,” she said. When she said this to me, I had chills going up and down my spine! I felt some sort of transmission happen where she passed along the abundance vibe to me.