parenting
My Mother’s Prayers Still Carry Me
I still cry when I hear that beautiful song Mamma by Claudio Villa.
Growing up on a small island in Central Italy, I remember my mother’s daily prayers and all her sacrifices. Those examples have always followed me. They are still my daily support and strength.
I cried today in church as well, while singing the Ave Maria. My lovely mother Margherita passed in the early 90s and although she is not with me physically, she is here in my heart, supporting and guiding me from above. She has been my spiritual guide since my first girl was born and I named her Margherita too.
I always loved my mother’s name, which in Italian is the name of a flower known as “Daisy” in English.
It was during that very difficult pregnancy that my mom came to me for the first time. She spoke to me and I knew her when she walked into my room. I smelled her perfume. She loved the Vele Al Vento fragrance and I that way I knew she was there for me.
Being almost 40 years of age, going into a first pregnancy was scary. I had many medical problems. It was a difficult time and I needed her so much, and she was there for me and always reassured me I was having a beautiful baby girl.
Yes, I did not need the ultrasound to confirm this, she had already told me! When I held my bundle of joy, my first words were: “Grazie Mamma per la mia piccola Margherita,” meaning “Thank you Mom for this lovely flower.”
Love Is Not Just A Battery, It’s Also A Boomerang!
Love is like a battery. Love is also like a boomerang.
When your energy is low, you may feel depleted and think you don’t have any more love to give. The opposite is also true. Complimenting a stranger or showing love to an animal or person re-energizes your battery.
Love is infinite, not finite. The love and joy you give to others comes back to you.
In fact, I often tell my yoga students and psychic clients who are struggling with depression or sadness to compliment at least ten people each day.
It can be something as simple as saying, “I love that shirt!” or “Your writing is so neat!” The smile on that person’s face raises your vibration, healing you as well as them. Most people are struggling with some kind of challenge, and that one compliment can change their day.
Studies have shown that smiling releases hormones that make you happy, while frowning releases hormones that make you sad. Laughing and crying intensifies these hormones. So, smiling at someone or laughing can actually raise your joy level and vibration.
We live in a hate and frustration driven world lately where people are increasingly divided and constantly judging and attacking each other. I belong to several social media groups where people constantly being unkind and intolerant to others. Continue reading
My Grandfather’s Selfless Gift Of Love
Cherubic looking, my grandfather had a round face that was quick to reveal his kindness and empathy. He was just as fast to tell a joke, which he frequently did.
His tummy always shook when he laughed out loud… like Santa Claus. He was a little, round Irish man that doted on me when I was deeply in need of this level of parental love and nurturing.
It’s not too bad a story, as stories go. I was simply born to a couple of kids. My mother and father were naive country folk, and very young. Much too young to be responsible parents.
I think that children back then, especially at those tender ages, were even younger than their years, as compared to today’s worldly young people on TikTok. The world was a little more naive then, compared to today.
Anyway, when I was a baby, my parents left me with my grandfather, for him to raise me. From what I know this arrangement was not forced on him, he volunteered.
He passed away when I was 23 years old, and he was only 62.famil
Granddaddy didn’t want to go, and I had experienced so little loss in life at that age that, even as I watched him slowly slip away, I wasn’t quite understanding the process. I realize now that I simply couldn’t imagine my life without him. My grandfather and I were togetherness personified. I was his hero and he was mine.
The Hidden Blessing Of Dysfunctional Parents
For those of us who grew up with dysfunctional or abusive parents, the journey of healing is not a straight path. It twists and turns through shadows of anger, grief, and longing.
But, within this curse always lies a paradoxical hidden blessing or two. Even the most wounded parents can be our teachers and a source of inspiration, not because of what they gave us, but because of what they could not.
Yes, dysfunctional and abusive parents can be an inspiration. Not in the sentimental sense of gratitude for their suffering, but in the clear-eyed recognition that their brokenness became the rich soil in which your awareness grew.
A damaged parent can inspire you to live more consciously, to love with intention, and to stop the cycle of ancestral pain that shaped them and you.
They can inspire you to use their example as a guide for what not to do, what not to say, and who not to become.
Their absence of nurturing can ignite within you the sacred resolve to be present and compassionate. Their harshness can awaken your gentleness. Their coldness can teach you warmth. The rejection you endured can remind you daily to make every person you love feel safe, seen, and cherished!
Even if your parents were never healed, you can be. Even if they never awakened, you can awaken. Their story does not have to become your destiny. You can use their limitations as fuel to create something better, purer, and truer.
Reclaiming The Voice Of Your Inner Child
I always sing with my yoga students at the end of class. I used to work in the entertainment industry as a singer, dancer, and actress. Because of that, I feel confident singing in front of people.
Growing up, I was always full of joy despite my dysfunctional and rather glum family. Of course, they didn’t appreciate my natural exuberance. They certainly didn’t like that I sang all the time because it represented a lightness of being they had long since given up on.
Like many dysfunctional families, they put me down all the time. They told me that I couldn’t sing and that I sounded awful. But, as with all the other negative, hurtful things they tried to convince me of, I did not believe them.
I kept singing anyway, which irked them. I continued to sing and dance, and I even wrote, produced, directed, and starred in my own musical when I was eleven.
Now I’m not saying I had a good voice as a kid. I really don’t know if I did. But, loving to sing, some voice lessons and lots of joy certainly helped me become a relatively good singer.
One day, after my yoga class, a student came up to me and told me I had a beautiful voice. I thanked her. I often have people compliment my singing voice after class.
The student then told me her family told her she had a bad singing voice when she was a child so she stopped singing. She then mentioned other abuses she received by her cruel family.
The Miracle Gift Of Spiritual Healing
I discovered that I had the spiritual gift of healing many years ago when I went to visit my father in the hospital. He was in great pain and something told me to gently touch the knee he had just had surgery on. It was not my intention to accomplish anything, just to comfort him. But then I saw his expression change from agonizing pain to instant relief. That to me was a miracle!
The next great healing miracle happened when one of my twin daughters was ice skating when she was about 8 years old. I was watching the children enjoy the beautiful winter day when my daughter suddenly slipped and fell. I will never forget her painful scream. I knew immediately that this was really bad! By the time I got to her, others were helping her, but she would not stop screaming. Hearing her in such pain shot through my heart like a bullet.
When I got to her, I immediately saw the bone protruding through her skin. I put my hands over the fracture on her forearm and said, “It’s okay, it’s okay. Immediately she stopped crying and said, “Mommy, it doesn’t hurt anymore. I was stunned and so was everyone else.
I held her arm all the way to the hospital, and when we got there, they made me remove my hands. Again I had to listen to my daughter scream in pain and I felt helpless.
After they immobilized her arm, they let me see her. I touched the cast on her arm and immediately felt that it was not properly applied. Of course, they refused to listen to me at first, but I kept insisting that something was wrong. Finally, they agreed to take a second x-ray, which showed that my daughter’s arm was indeed not in the correct position. So she had to have it done again. One of the nurses asked me how I knew. I never answered.
Your Future Child May Be Closer Than You Think
One of the most meaningful connections I have been able to make as a psychic since I was very young is that between a mother and the soul of her future child.
For example, I remember seeing a three year old child (for some reason I almost always envision them around that age) playing next to a sixteen year old classmate when I was still in high school.
Six months later, that classmate left school because she was pregnant. I remember chalking it up to mere coincidence. At that time, I was still coming to terms with my psychic abilities and often doubted them.
Over the years, however, it has happened so often that I no longer question it. I now know that I see unborn souls connecting and acclimating to the energy of their future mothers.
Interestingly, I have never seen this connection with fathers. Perhaps it is because the soul needs to align with the body and energy of the mother as the two will soon merge?
One experience that stands out is with one of my friends. Her husband had been married before and had a son from his first marriage, as well as a son with her. She desperately wanted another child, but he was adamant that they couldn’t afford it. He also believed he could only have boys and wasn’t interested in trying for another.
One night we went to a local play together. My friend is blonde, fair-skinned, and blue-eyed, while her husband has black hair, brown eyes, and dark skin. During the play, I suddenly saw a little girl playing on the carpet next to her. As soon as we had a chance to talk, I told her what I had seen.