Moments of Grace: 2017 in Review

Daily Sunset view from our rooftop this winter season! This blog post is a landmark post for me. It is the 100th time that I have written my thoughts and feelings on this blog site to share them with the infinite ethers of the universe. (I must also point out that I have recently lost the ability to use the Blogger App on any Apple product...and thus I am using the web version and it is just no fun and I cannot get rid of the white boxes behind most of the text. Sigh. If anyone can suggest a new blogging platform that has an iPhone App, and is able to swap it all over for me, that would be AMAZING...open to ideas!) There is a deep and expansive magic in not knowing whose eyes read these words each time that I share. I do not know who’s life may be affected by my sharing. All that I know for sure is that through these blogs, I have been able to observe myself shifting and expanding and reaching new levels of self-awareness and compassion for my own life and all of existence. I know that this journey is far from over and I want to thank you for being a part of it. No matter how large or small, every soul encounter matters to me. I know that we all merge and swirl in and out of one another’s lives for cosmic reasons that we may or may not understand. What a magical ride this is! So as some of you may know, for just over a year, Tanner and I and some friends and family have been studying and contemplating the Gene Keys system of self-transformation and unfoldment. It is the most powerful concept that I have ever worked with, alongside the yogic path, by which the Gene Keys are heavily influenced. Daily Sunset view from our rooftop this winter season! This blog post is a landmark post for me. It is the 100th time that I have written my thoughts and feelings on this blog site to share them with the infinite ethers of the universe. (I must also point out that I have recently lost the ability to use the Blogger App on any Apple product...and thus I am using the web version and it is just no fun and I cannot get rid of the white boxes behind most of the text. Sigh. If anyone can suggest a new blogging platform that has an iPhone App, and is able to swap it all over for me, that would be AMAZING...open to ideas!)

We are currently working through a section of the Golden Path study program called the Venus Sequence. It is all about how we show up in our relationships through this lifetime. It is so powerful that it is hard to describe.

In one of the steps, we dove deep into the concept of Divine Grace. I suddenly had a recapitulation of 2017 through a lens of Grace. I jotted down all of the moments in the last year where I was stopped in my tracks by something or so deeply moved that I felt a deep shift in my life. I will share these magical occurrences with you and I hope that you will take some time to recollect your own moments of Grace from 2017...as each of us can only experience what Grace means for us as a unique individual soul.

Here we go- in a roughly chronological order:

Obvious first stop Is the Gene Keys themselves. They launched me into 2017 from a space of self-awareness that I had never known before.

Song downloads: I have had several songs come to me this year and I am reminded of my deep lifelong passion for using my voice to transmit love and magic through song. It’s been a loooong time coming back so I look forward to sharing. I used to be in the school choir for 11 years and when my family became church-goers in my high school years, I made the most of it by joining the church choir. In my early 20’s my former partner and I recorded awesome upbeat cover albums for his mom each year for her birthday. My love of singing had gotten lost in the seriousness of life and is slowly returning to me.

Speaking of Music: Oliver Swain. Something about this guy and his musical channeling ability is simply magical. I will let you look his albums up yourself. Folky funky charming melodies. He has a brilliantly co-created Leonard Cohen tribute album also. Amazing. Sitting in a few live performances was completely hypnotic for me.

Annnnnd....

Nahko and Medicine for the People: This group of guys has a deep and beautiful connection with each other and such a smooth flow amongst them. We were blessed to be at two of their live performances in July and October in the USA. Four times in two years and I look forward to the next. Their album HOKA has been a soundtrack for my life over the last year and a half. Enjoy.

Sunset Cacao Ceremony in our beautiful palapa

Cacao ceremonies: Sooooo many moments of Grace have occurred at these beautiful gatherings of human hearts and souls. One group of moments that stands out was in April this year. It was our final ceremony in our home community on Vancouver Island. I was so caught up in the planning of where we were heading out on road trip of undetermined length...that I was really touched deeply when our friends shed tears that we would soon be leaving the tribe and the uncertainty of when we might return left a void that night. I knew that all I could do was feel it and know that there was nothing I could say or do to change that deep tethering of human hearts and auras. I still feel all of those beautiful people with us on this journey. You know who you are!!!

Yoga teacher training at the Himalayan Institute in Pennsylvania: I returned to my roots and my original yoga home and family after 14 years of being away. It was so powerful to return to my hometown and dive into the depths of my truth and beliefs about life itself. I went through such a powerful shift at those 22 days of yogic metamorphosis. I will be eternally grateful for witnessing the change in myself and the other 16 students who shared that priceless time with me. Including Tanner. Wow. What a gift to have shared such a powerful and graceful experience.

A single conversation with a soul mate: That day was so pivotal for me. I don’t even think he knows how profound it was. I didn’t make it about me though. I knew there was a message that he needed to receive directly from me to unravel our karmic past and free us both up to move forward on our separate paths. This person and myself have had a powerful soul connection for 16 years and we will remain connected into infinity. However, the day this summer when I told him that he was one of the most incredible humans I have ever known and that he was doing the world a disservice by not sharing his whole heart by avoiding deep, beautiful relationships, was so profound for me. We have had a beautiful sharing and clearing over the last few years and Tanner has been such a big part of allowing this karmic settlement to unfold. We are soul family from the same tree and it feels as though it is our role to support and encourage one another to fulfill our individual destinies in this lifetime. With or without each other. What a blessing the people in my life have been. It continues to amaze me. 

Being offered management of a retreat center on the beach in Mexico for the winter months: Didn’t see this one coming. I could write 10 blogs about it so far after four months of planning, and the retreats still don’t start for two more weeks. It’s been one of the more intense schools of life so far (probably in my top 5) planning and preparing for holding these powerful retreats for supporting human transformation. The universe is making sure that we are fully rooted and prepared for this!

Connecting with my uncle after 23 years: My dad asked us to swing by my aunt and uncle’s place in Dallas on our way to Mexico to deliver some priceless vintage family photos that we had just sorted and labeled with great care. I was highly reluctant but I knew it was part of my dharma to make new impressions on a wounded family tree. We only visited for one evening but it was a super powerful evening. I asked him many questions about his life and about my dad (they are brothers) and about their childhoods. He told me how grateful he was to discuss his ex-wife and his children who are now grown and how these things are not normally discussed by his family. He just turned 80 years old and he is one of millions in that generation who have had little or no opportunity to work through and come to terms with the core wounding that has been passed on through countless generations. He said to me something like: For someone who never went to university for a degree, you seem to have an incredible view on life and your experiences are so wonderful to hear about. Keep doing what you are doing. He has a PhD in something. I don’t even know what. They wanted us to stay for more time but Mexico was calling and a short and potent visit is often the most profound.

A 3 month old Mexican baby with huge blue eyes: His whole family operates a coconut tent on the side of an extremely hot and sweaty stretch of highway between Puerto Escondido and San Cristobal de las Casas. We met them twice. Once on each end of a two week trip to Chiapas in November. I don’t know exactly what it was about this baby. But his 11-year-old cousin handed him to me while I waited for a cold fresh coconut water. We stared into each other’s eyes and his smile was so huge that it lit me up on the inside. I told him he was welcome to visit us in Canada someday when he was old enough. We paid for the coconuts and I jokingly asked how much they wanted for the baby. I don’t think they thought it was funny. Cultural humor gap. Also a moment of slight awkwardness. Mostly Grace though, mostly Grace.

A magical waterfall that we visited in rural Oaxaca: The power of falling water and the rhythm of the waves at the impact point, combined with the constant roar and the misty rainbows at the pool below created a deeply moving experience for me. Twice. We will return again before long.

On Christmas Day, we trekked up into the wild hills to spend our day there.

A beautiful song came to me and so I wrote it down. When I work up the courage to record it, I will share it with the world. The title of the song is “This is Life”.

Russet-Crested Motmot (fun name right?!) 

Lastly, on New Year’s Eve morning, I was preparing to hand-wash some laundry and hang it to dry when I stopped in my tracks. There was an incredible rainbow bird the size of a crow sitting on the clothesline on top of a purple towel that was hung out to dry. I watched him intently as I slowly stepped closer. His head was a reddish and the tip of his long tail was blue. He was the most magical wild bird I have ever seen. The rainbow gradient of colors along his body just dazzled me.

I knew this moment of Grace was a very good omen on the last day of an incredibly powerful and transformative year. 2018 is sure to be full of Grace beyond measure. I look forward to telling you all about it...one year from now.

Please share these blogs with anyone that you feel may be inspired by my stories. 2018 is going to be amazing. A vast ocean of possibilities lies ahead of all of us and we must simply clean up our boats and surrender to the waves of life. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Can you open up to a more magical life?

El Camino del Corazón

This blog used to be called “Along the Heart Trail” when I started writing it in 2013. At the time, it was how I felt I was living my life- following my heart. A couple of years ago I decided to align it with our then-new business, so we changed the name to the one it has now. I was recently moved deeply to hear this phrase in Spanish at a beautiful cacao ceremony. “El camino del corazón”; the Road/way/path/trail of the Heart. It was the first time we sat in a ceremony that was completely in another language. It was so touching. The setting was a beautiful home here in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. When we finally found the location (sometimes Mexican addresses are so tricky!) we were welcomed warmly by the hosts and a small crackling fire warmed the ceremonial space. Gorgeous local flowers covered the floor in vases and various forms of cacao decorated the room. We brought a fresh cacao pod from the mountains of Oaxaca as an offering for the altar.

The facilitator of this ceremony was our friend, Izaias, who is a Guatemalan medicine man and a lover of cacao. We hadn’t seen him in over two years so it was very special to meet again. He also came bearing a suitcase full of cacao medicine from Guatemala, which was a beautiful thing for us to receive. We haven’t had access to our favorite Guatemalan cacao for nearly a year. The Guatemalan postal system basically dissolved in September of 2016 and so going there to get it was the only option. When we asked for a special favor of him, to bring the cacao to us in southern Mexico, he said he had been thinking of hosting some ceremonies here anyway. So it all worked out beautifully.

I have been avoiding writing this blog post for several weeks. And the longer I have waited, the crazier it feels to sit down and write because each day that has passed has seemed like a whole blog post in itself!

San Miguel de Allende at sun up

So I will try to compress a month and a half of amazing experiences into a reasonably concise post here...

It took us about a week to get from my hometown in Pennsylvania through the Midwest and down south to Texas where we crossed into Mexico. On Halloween night, we swung through St. Louis, Missouri to catch a Nahko and Medicine for the People performance of their new album. It was incredible. Go see/hear them when you can. They keep getting better and better. 

While crossing the USA, heading west and south, we visited my brother and then we met my brother’s half-brother for the first time as adults. We then carried on south to Dallas, Texas to deliver some antique family photos to my dad’s brother, who I hadn’t seen since my grandmother’s funeral in 1994. We had a profound visit. 

Ancestral connections have been slowly lost since humans have been able to traverse the earth so easily. Just the other night we were discussing having mixed European ancestry back several generations and having no knowledge of the sacred ceremonial traditions of our own ancestors. We intend a tour of Europe in the next few years to go dig deep and learn from the elders there. Until then, we are traveling North America’s terrain and gathering all of the wisdom that we can find, especially in the realm of ceremonial practices for healing and inspiration. 

I just realized how cold I am. It is about 5-10 degrees celcius at night in the highlands of Chiapas this time of the year. The buildings are mostly concrete blocks and there is no heating in many homes (including the hostel we are staying at for these two weeks). So I am under a fleece blanket and a Coleman sleeping bag and I’m wearing a wool hat, hand warmers, a sweater, hoodie and down vest with wool socks. And I’m still cold. In a few short days we will head back to the west coast in Oaxaca where it is sweaty and tropical. A huge contrast.

"Free On the Road" with a Quetzal, which is a very rare bird

- one of many excellent VW's we have seen

So I want to talk about the retreat project we are in the midst of.
Where to begin...well, to be perfectly up front and blunt- it appears that most of western society is in the midst of utter chaos and desperation for freedom, unity, connection and health of body, mind and spirit. I really can’t say what the status of the other side of the planet is, but because we are one continuous network of hearts and minds, I sense that it’s at least somewhat similar elsewhere.

What can we do about this epidemic? Ultimately, we need to each help ourselves first and foremost. Begin by healing any and all emotional traumas to the very best of your ability (yes, this is an ongoing lifetime project because new things will arise, but it gets easier and easier). Say YES to whatever you need to (even if it seems really far out and kinda crazy) to heal the parts of you that are wounded, fearful, judgemental, ashamed, guilty or angry. None, I repeat NONE of these things will help you or anyone else to create a better world. So drop them off, bundled in forgiveness, and choose carry on lighter. If you are not willing to face your own dark side, and become BFF’s with it, then do not pass GO or collect any other workshops or courses etc. Seriously. You can NOT avoid these issues and detour around them forever, and think that you can truly help our society to become a more loving place. If we do not love and respect ourselves, we cannot truly know what it is to love or respect others and to feel true connection and unity. You can change careers, move to a new place, have a new partner, etc, and YOUR personal core wounds, patterns and challenges will still be inside of you when you lay your head on your bed each night....until you meet them and greet them and dissect them and make them your allies. I would like to hear an argument against this that can prove otherwise. I have never heard one that stands up to this assessment that can prove that there is any other way to truly thrive and LOVE LIFE DEEPLY. It is amazing how people want to make excuses and tell stories about why they are an exception to this concept. So here is another tip: There are NO exceptions. Admitting that it ALL starts with ourselves is the hardest step to take...try it. That is a dare.

Angel of TRUTH

Two of our friends are offering a two week Sacred Medicine Journey that will be one of the most life-changing experiences one could intentionally sign up for. It is happening from February 4-18. These ladies (with the support of myself and Tanner) are offering two things that go hand-in-hand: week 1 with Dr. Ariel Jones, ND is a week of deep detoxing of the body through juicing, a couple of days of water fasting, and then some simple, clean meals to help your physical body to flush itself out and to prepare to stage two: a week of shamanic plant medicine journeys and integration time with the magical and fun medicine woman, Christina Sol. She has over 15 years of experience with these sacred medicines. 

Having participated in all of these pieces, I can confidently say that these experiences have catapulted my healing (on all levels) and overall state of existence to a place that I couldn’t imagine was even available. Wow! If I could personally pay for everyone I know to attend these two weeks, I would do it in a heartbeat. I can’t do that at this moment, so I will leave that part up to the magic of the universe. I can’t wait to see which 7 people are the ones to undertake take this two week journey with us. 

In addition, from January 14-21, we have a week of diving into the Gene Keys book and it’s philosophy of self-exploration. It has been an integral part of our lives over the last year and has deeply inspired us to stay our own unique course in life. To each our own and in our own way we will blossom and grow toward true awakening and bliss.

We are offering 3 separate weeks of cacao intensives that we are calling Spirit of Cacao. We will share multiple ceremonies, workshops and daily yoga classes to open up and grow both individually and together as a community. January 21-28, February 25-March 4,  April 1-8

The Wisdom of the Chiapaneco OWL

Tanner’s mama, Cori Ellingson, just released her second book called Choosing a Vibrant Life. She shares a lifetime of her trials and tribulations with SO many great tips for living a vibrant and joyful life. Most importantly, she is reminding us that we all have choices and that we each must claim our individual power to create the lives we want to live. Her retreat from January 28-February 4 will be amazing!

Our friend Kelly-Ann La Sirena is a pharmacist by trade and a mermaid-yogini when the sun is shining and the waves are just right. Her passion for movement and ocean medicine combined with her humor and upbeat vibe will surely wrap these retreats in a bubble of fun! She teaches yoga, surfing and stand up paddle boarding. We will be there creating beautiful plant-based meals and making sure that everyone is enjoying their time with us. Her two retreats called Mermaids in Mexico are March 11-18 and March 18-25.

Last but not least, we have 4 weeks of rest and rejuvenation time that we call Back to Basics Retreats. One in late February (right after the Sacred Medicine Retreat) , one at the start of March, one late March (following the two weeks of Mermaid retreats) and mid-April, which will conclude our 13 weeks of retreats. These are the perfect thing if you want a little yoga, nourishing clean meals and a lot of downtime. Ahhhh.

ALL retreats are listed in more detail here: www.oneworldwellness.info 

So, I just want to wrap up this mega-blog by saying that, although it may appear that the two of us are just kicking back and having nothing but jolly good fun, this is not entirely true. We have been working our butts and our fingers, eyes and ears off for 4 months (and we have nearly 5 more months until we have seen this project to completion) organizing and detail-tweaking this experience for...YOU. With excitement and passion for positive change. Sure, we are super stoked to be able to offer all of these amazing retreats, and we are doing it for not just ourselves, but for humanity. 

For healing. For community. For connection. One World. One race. One Love. One heart divided into 7 billion tiny pieces. Together we walk the path of the heart.

The coat of arms on the Mexican flag is derived from an Aztec legend that their gods told them to build a city where they spot an eagle on a nopal cactus eating a serpent, which is now Mexico City. 

Watch for the signs....

Trumped...but Still Beautiful

It's been an adventurous month crossing the USA. I have a few minutes while I await a dental exam (another one) to begin putting my thoughts into words here. To my dismay, a cavity that I had filled two months ago is very sore and so I wait for a seat in my least favorite type of chair....

On a lighter note, it's been a beautiful trek across America, and just so our Canadian and global friends know: America is the same place it has been for a very long time. It's not suddenly evil. The people are generally kind and friendly - just like in Canada. The land is gorgeous and the wildlife is abundant - just like in Canada. Everyone is doing the best they can. Occasionally, we have spotted red, white and blue billboards, signs and bumper stickers saying "TRUMP: Making America Great Again". In my humble opinion, America IS great, but it has nothing to do with the politics. It's simply another incredible place on this earth, and the abundance of amazing human beings is what makes it greatest. 

When we approached the border between southern Alberta and Montana, the guard looked at my American passport and said "welcome home". I smiled and said thank you, but also felt a bit funny because I haven't considered the USA to be my home in over a decade. 

We made our way south to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The geysers were so beautiful and bizarre. It was tricky to capture the true essence of their steamy mystery in photos. 

Herds of bison grazed the foothills and elk and moose could be seen in the fields and forests. 

Heading into eastern Wyoming, we took a detour when we saw a sign that said "wild horse scenic tour". We drove for nearly two hours through the dry badlands on a high plateau overlooking prehistoric canyons with layers of colored rock shelves exposed from centuries of erosion. The roadside markers described what was believed to be a prehistoric ocean millions of years ago. Also we never saw a single wild horse...so that was a bummer. We had fun anyway!

We had to do a last minute route change, due to an avalanche closure of a Rocky Mountain pass through northern Colorado. Instead, we went a bit south through Denver. As soon as we drove into the downtown area, marijuana was in the air. We parked and found a hip Thai bistro and has a great chat with the young man, perhaps 25 years old, who was the waiter.  He had spent a year in Thailand and was feeling obligated to remain in the USA because he felt that he would be throwing away his winning birth lottery of being born American. We smiled and suggested that he just do what made him happiest. He said the legality of marijuana in Colorado was causing a crunch in housing availability. Everyone wants to be a part of the cannbis revolution. He mentioned that he was observing the current generation's new American Dream: have a career that allows you to be your own boss and live anywhere you want to. We said that is precisely what we are aiming for...

We downloaded an excellent audiobook called "Stop Saying You're Fine" by Mel Robbins. It's SO good. She is a no-bullshit kinda gal and is a former lawyer, who now has an inspirational radio show. It is full of great stories and tips to inspire even the most stuck person into just doing anything, rather than nothing to make a change in their lives. We took notes as we listened day after day while traversing the corn and wheat belt of the American Midwest. We found this gem of a park to camp in, right in the middle of Kansas. We saw the name on our atlas (yep, we have a vintage paper atlas) and just knew we wanted to camp there. It was beautiful. 

We had a lovely weekend with my older brother, who is an air traffic controller. He wanted to take us into his center and show us the behind the scenes of his job, but they said no Canadians allowed in there. So much for that. America's air security is seriously serious.

So we made it to the east coast. We are currently visiting my dad in rural northeastern Pennsylvania. It's so beautiful here. We have been getting up and going for a long morning stroll around the neighborhood where I grew up exploring forests and streams. We saw a family of red foxes and found this turtle in the yard today. A pair of robins built a nest on top of a Christmas wreath that I hung for my dad over a year and a half ago next to his front door.  

We harvested a ganoderma tsugae mushroom, a type of reishi that grows on hemlock trees here. We dried a big one for tea and Tanner sautéed a chunk to enjoy fresh also. He said it was delish. 

We made a visit to the Himalayan Institute last night for supper and a kirtan, Indian devotional chanting. It was a wonderful visit and in one week we will begin the 200-hour training to become certified yoga instructors. We are very excited.

Front entrance at the Himalayan Institute in Bethany, Pennsylvania

The Adjustment Bureau

I am relaxing on a balcony overlooking the ocean from West Vancouver as the sun sets over my right shoulder. Cruise ships and cargo barges are floating back and forth across the bay. I thought I would have been crossing back over to Vancouver Island to go home to my own bed, but the universe said otherwise. Just as we were literally moments from boarding the ferry this afternoon, there was a "POP!", followed by a cloud of steam billowing from underneath the hood and a greenish stream of coolant flowing down the loading ramp. Yikes. I shut the car off immediately and turned to my passenger, which was my friend/mother in law. "Adjustment Bureau", I said. And we had a laugh. If you haven't seen that movie, it's one of only a few mainstream movies that I highly recommend watching. There is a higher power and master planner at work in every single moment. At least that's what my experience has been. We just never know what the next minute or the next second will present us with. Gotta be ready to respond. Like a light, flexible, fluid ninja.

We sat in the cool shade in a stairwell nearby our disabled car. While we sat, many folks strolled up and down the steps. At one point a very small girl with her parents came by and I noticed her little pink tee shirt just simply said "DETOUR". Funny. And odd...

Jim, with BCAA (like AAA for non-Canadians) picked us up and towed our little Jetta to a repair shop. He said he really enjoyed our bumper stickers and especially the one that says "THIS IS A GOOD SIGN". So I happened to have a stack of cardboard GOOD SIGNS, of which I passed him a couple. He was pretty excited! I also gave one to the auto insurance agent last week when we renewed our insurance, as I discovered them hiding in the insurance envelope after half a year. She appreciated it also.

So after an entertaining drive to the auto shop with a super tow truck driver, we were rescued by a lovely family member who happens to reside in close proximity to the Horseshoe Bay Ferry. And here I sit. I believe I partially manifested this exact scenario, as earlier today while we were weaving south along the edge of the Pacific Ocean from an amazing weekend festival, I had the thought "I have a blog to write. When will I find the time?"  Hahaha!!! Whamo. Like magic. I have been forced to take the time. A gift. Time, to write it all down. 

Photo of cacao circle by Tammra Broughton at The Conscious Goddess Festival 2016!

The festival was called The Conscious Goddess Festival and it was so beautiful. It's a newer festival, only in its second year. So it was small with about 150 people or so. Mostly women. A few loving men were invited to be supporters of their goddesses. One man was the sacred fire keeper all weekend. What a sacred fire it was!

I had come across an ad on Facebook back in February for this festival. As soon as I saw the name, I knew I was going to apply to offer a cacao workshop and also offer my Open Arise Creations headbands as a vendor. I was warmly welcomed to do both. It was a lot to juggle, but well worth every minute. I was so happy to see most of my headbands find loving homes and shining goddesses to adorn. The cacao workshop was wonderful also. Part way through the cacao session, a yellow swallowtail butterfly flew into our tent and around our circle of chairs and swooped by my face to remind me that I'm on the perfect path. The festival was truly magical and encouraged deep healing and transformations in so many participants.  

Cori and I on the last day of the festival at the Open Arise Creations booth.  

I could write the entire blog about the festival but I have more to share. Where are we living now? Where's home? For the summer months we have agreed to return to a parcel of fruity paradise on Vancouver Island. The property owner asked for our assistance with the place while he trials 90 days at a nearby ecovillage to see if it's a fit for him. So we have returned to this small retreat in the cedars and maples for a few months, which we had called home for most of 2014. 

We really love this spot and are so grateful to have another opportunity to enjoy the forest and gardens on this slice of earth. September will bring a change of location for us once again...

For now, Tanner has been offered a part time position as a taxi driver/spiritual guide. Haha! He truly enjoys it and for 3 days each week he drives to inspire his passengers. It's quite a different career path for him, but a welcome change of pace for a little while. I have been keeping my hands very busy creating the gemstone headbands. I have recently been asked to wholesale them to a vegan cafe in Miami Beach, Florida, and have had numerous other requests too- some yes's, some no's. I need more hands soon. Octopus spirit animal, answer my call! It's going really well and that's what matters. 

Meditation and sound bath time at one of our cacao ceremonies. 

We have also hosted cacao ceremonies for nearly 200 people in the first half of 2016. We have hosted them at many locations across the southern part of Vancouver Island. A new friend who's family hosted us in May at the full moon, created this amazing smudging fan for us. 

Wildwood Earth Art on Facebook 

We have been blessed to co-facilitate with several gifted sound healers. Our crystal singing bowls have mingled their vibrations with didjeridoos, drums, chimes, rattles, lots of other crystal and Tibetan bowls and most importantly, open hearts and the voices of many. The voice of ONE. 

Our new friend and crystal bowl whisperer, Tara. 

Moving into July we have decided to take a hiatus from the ceremonies. Time to rest and regroup and take care of ourselves is of utmost importance. The second half of this year is likely to be just as event-full!

Hiking trip. This was at the start. You should have seen us 6 hours later. 

Visions of fall travel are brewing in both our waking and dreaming hours. The where part isn't quite clear yet. Or the how. Trusting that it will all be shown in perfect and divine time is what we continue to practice.

PS. Oh. And the other prominent components that keep presenting themselves in 2016 have been the need for conscious communication and firm boundary setting. It's not glamorous work, but it sure feels good to speak my truth and ask for what I need. Try it for yourself. Say what you need to feel your best. Stand in your own power. Love thy neighbour, but love thyself first.

Humanity needs this now. 

PPS. I made a drum. Finally! It was a very special experience. The flesh of deer and maple that melded together to express the rhythms of life are held in deep gratitude within my heart and soul. Healing of many hearts is her mission. I named her Luna.