Swirling, Swirling

My squirrel-y Virgo mind has been trying to measure the sacred in my life.  Starting with this altar I built for winter and to work through Jane Cunningham's Choosing True over Nice class.

And the smaller altar built as a reminder for my work with Grandmother Bear in SouLodge this month.  Each piece holds strong meaning, symbolism for what is  going on deep inside me ~ transitions, shifting of my DNA, a kind of goulashing of lessons presented and internalized.  I can not grasp any of it firmly and yet it is all "there", at a level of connection that defies words.

This week brought much gratitude into my orbit.  Libations from a grateful neighbour for helping to move her car over a snow drift

beautiful hand crafted envelopes, all the way from Amsterdam

another hand made card from California

a previously quoted $700 refrigerator repair bill reduced to a much more manageable $160 bill which allowed me to work with Anna Wingfield for a bottle of Bespoke (oh yes, it did and I do and it is).

More gratitude came from Sherry with this card

in response to my last post about supportive parenting.  In that post I questioned whether I give too much or not enough support to my nine-year old son.  My discussions with him over creating and selling his own ideas was such a mirroring experience for me.  It brought how I/we value our personal work, how to market it and how charity/gratitude also plays a role.  I hadn't meant to solicit funds here or to actually sell the newsletter that he had put together.  On Sunday morning, at Riley's insistence, we walked the streets, looking for buyers, so confident he was in what he had created.  And we met every kind of person - the rude, the kind, the I-would-love-to-but... (fill in the blank).  A whole geography of consumers.  He floored me with his courage in approaching strangers, in his belief that he had a product that people would want.  All the while I could hear the lesson coming to me about my own work and how I value it (or don't) and how I put it out there (or don't).   It is this example of synchronicity that is coming at me from all sides now.  Parenting 101, the student is the teacher.

Limited Edition

For Sale.  Limited Edition of five.  50 ¢ each with all money going to Unicef.  The Daily Flight, all the breaking news about dragons.

My son, he slays me.  He inspires me and makes me so proud.  I wonder if sometimes I go too far nurturing his creativity.  But how far is too far?  As a parent I am so often sitting at the crossroads of not enough and too far.

Now, where was I going with this...

I started this post a few days ago, right after I finished (in two sittings - both in the bathtub) Anne Lamott's, "Help Thanks Wow; The Three Essential Prayers".

It is no secret that I hang on her every word and my only complaint is that the book is too short.  I always want her words to go on and on.  I particularly resonated with her Fourth Essential Prayer, which I won't give away here because you really should read the book.  Another one of my favourite parts is where she talks about staying safe and comfortable (page 86) - I shook my head, laughed and thought, yeah, that's me and then she makes me want to go out and buy a big box of blackberries because she knows that I am hungry for peace of mind.  See?  You really have to read this book now.

The two weeks we had off was really magical.  We skied four times (!) - what else are you going to do with so much snow? And last night a feather was left anonymously on my keyboard.  As magic does, it appeared out of nowhere.

And don't ya love this little Buddha finger puppet?  

He sits on the top of my Self Love Perfume Stick created and gifted to me by one of my Soul SiStars, the beautiful and talented Anna Wingfield.   She also makes personalized perfumes and gifting myself with a bottle of her magic is on my list of things to do in 2013.

And speaking of magic, I received this Chakra candle set.   Don't you love how it mirrors the gem altar I had set up?

There is plenty of magic in the air here, rich energy that came in with the shifts of 2012.  Like the common thread running through my life illuminated by both my dear friend, Sherry and by squirrel:  "learn by doing, rather than studying".  Thank you Sherry and squirrel, message received.  And Sherry, I would appreciate it if you would stay close; squirrel, I give you permission to, uhm, back off a little.