Crystal Magic. Thanks 2015!

The autumn of 2015 was very busy and full of unexpected events for us. I have been finishing up the 90-day herbal treatment that was recommended after my live blood analysis in October. I have about 3 weeks left. It has been difficult to get through. The blood retest at 5 weeks into the treatment showed big improvements, which was encouraging. It has left me feeling overall tired and my body has been working overtime to cleanse and rebuild itself, cell by cell. I have been faced with forced resting a LOT, and not participating in many normal activities that I usually do without even thinking twice. So tired. It's been a big challenge to just REST and not DO, DO, DO.

The autumn all over the USA and Canada was unusually mild (as most of you may have noticed), which is pretty bizarre. It also meant a longer growing season and more fresh veggies at the farmers markets in Pennsylvania (and everywhere). We were so excited to find such beautiful, nourishing fall foods. We enjoyed meeting the farmers who grew the food and even went apple picking in the neighborhood at an abandoned orchard. There was such a bumper crop of apples that no one knew what to do with them all this year. Yum!

We ended up spending about 9 weeks with my dad in Pennsylvania. We reconnected with many of my friends and family members. It was a time for healing and cleansing on all levels. I learned a lot about my dad and his side of our family tree. I enjoyed the stories that answered some questions for me.  My dad passed on many gemstones and crystals to us that he had inherited from his parents. They were rock hounds and my grandfather was a lapidary and jeweler. He passed away the month before I was born, so I never met him. However, with all of the stones and stories I have inherited, I am grateful to continue working with earth's treasures like my ancestors did. I just know it's a part of what I'm here to share!

We also shared our knowledge of crystals and stones with my nephew. He and uncle Tanner built an Angelic Gateway with crystals while we were in Pennsylvania. He was so excited about this idea. As they tucked each stone into little holes in the earth, he gave them a leaf blanket and pillow and said goodnight as he patted down the soil on top. 

Shortly before the chaos and terrorism erupted in Europe and beyond, I received a very clear message during a meditation that I am to create headbands using copper and crystals to enhance the communication between humans and the higher realms. I wasted no time gathering materials and starting to create these unique beauties. You can see my work available on the etsy page (custom orders welcome!):

www.etsy.com 

shop name: OpenAriseCreations

Or on Facebook at Open Arise Creations

Since I'm on the topic of crystals...we recently acquired two amazing quartz crystal singing bowls. We were in Montana on our last night in the USA and we discovered a gorgeous shop that sends its proceeds to a project in which the shop owner works on healing rescued elephants with singing bowl sound therapy. Here is their site:

www.darirasa.com

We have been waiting for the right bowls to present themselves for quite some time- and they did. We are so excited to add the healing vibrations of these bowls to our cacao ceremonies and other events. We have really enjoyed getting to know them so far!

We have returned to Home Sweet Canada for the foreseeable future. After a journey of 30,000 kilometers of both calm and wild rides in 2015, we will be settling on lovely Vancouver Island...at least for a little while, anyway. 2016, we are excited for the wonderful experiences you will bring! In 2016, we commit to continuing to plant the seeds of LOVE around our world. It's what we do best. 

Truth Warriors are Us

I'm finally taking a sweaty moment here to start this new blog post while we are pulled over in the baking mid-day sun at a state border stop between Nayarit and Sinaloa. The guards informed us that we can't take any fruits into this state. We have been existing on a 80% fresh fruits diet for quite a few months, so to us this was very unwelcome news. So when they tried to open up our car and take it all to the trash can, we sat here instead, for at least a half hour eating mangos and bananas. We also splurged and purchased our first jumbo jackfruit this morning. I didn't even get to take a photo of it. We dug out a knife and cut it open just to try a taste before handing it over to the fruit police. They explained that there are too many pests and fungus that can be spread to all of the fruits in Sinaloa. Fair enough. I think that most people conform and hand over everything and just drive away. Not these two vegan fruit fiends! In the last week alone we have tried three new fruits: Starfruit, jackfruit, and guanabana (which I have seen all of in Asian markets in Canada but never tried). Not to mention fresh cacao fruit and seeds. Yum. The sheer acreage of plantations and the heaps of fruit on the Pacific coast has been completely mind blowing.

Thousands of forests of coconut palms. Miles of mango trees. Fields of piñas, papayas and lime trees. They are trying to feed a very hungry planet here!

So now that I wrote that all down, let me back up and recap some really beautiful and intense experiences. Some of the more intense days of this entire 5 month road trip, actually. 

Our next stop on the South Pacific coast of Mexico was Puerto Escondido. We had some cacao ceremonies booked at a healing and wellness retreat center there. We were also asked by the owner to see how his new team of volunteers was doing running the place. The long and short of it was that the team was having a tough start. This place requires a lot of time and dedication. It also requires, like everything that we do everyday, clear communication with others. 

There was a second round of intense waves slamming the whole pacific shoreline those first few days that we arrived in Puerto. It felt a bit reflective of the energy in the wellness center. People getting tossed to and fro in the waves of miscommunication.

We recognized that possibly a cacao ceremony for the team and the three guests might be a useful tool to create more openness and unity. So the eight of us convened on the beautiful rooftop palapa one afternoon and for several hours we created a sacred space of connection and communication. It was like magic. People arrived all flustered and exhausted. They left uplifted and full of gratitude. Mid-ceremony, a funny little seed blew onto the floor in front of me. It was like a disc of clear rice paper with a small heart-shaped seed in the center. It was a tiny confirmation for me from the universe that these cacao ceremonies are planting seeds of love across the planet. We are all planting seeds each moment. With every interaction. More love seeds, please. 

We really enjoyed the team at the healing center. They were from Mexico and Canada. Such awesome young people full of passion and hope. We enjoyed sunrise meditations and early morning yoga each day that week. We shared buckets of mangos from the street outside the house. We shared vegan recipes and then ate more mangos. At the Saturday market we were able to purchase our first fresh whole cacao pods! So pretty, and tasty too.

I really appreciated the conscious manner that team meetings were held at this wellness center. One person spoke at a time without interruptions. We all encouraged each other to speak the truth and to express our truest feelings. It was very tough for some of the group to share openly and to receive what others had to say. There was some major intensity but also major growth for all involved. Including us. So after a week of these morning meetings, we were dubbed the Truth Warriors by the staff. I accept that title, as one of many, and plan to continue assisting others to bring out the truth for the betterment of all of humanity. 

After a week in Puerto, we drove to Acapulco. It was a pretty neat place with lots of VW beetles and a huge mercado in the early morning as we departed after our quick one night stay. They had so many flowers at this particular mercado. Beautiful. 

We then headed to Zihuatenajo. It's a beautiful city. We googled a vegan cafe where we planned to stop and rest while we got an oil change for our Truth Mobile. It was not a cafe at all but an amazing woman in her lovely home who was a raw foods warrior. Patti invited us in and made us raw vegan pizzas made with local and organic fruits and veggies. So amazing. We got that oil change and so much more. We were invited to stay at Patti's home after we saw the sprouted cacao beans on her counter. The cacao chat began and the rest was history. She took us to see our very first cacao tree just down the block from her casa.  We held a cacao ceremony at her home and shared many special moments there. We departed early the second morning and Patti was up making us vegan raw burritos to go for our road lunch. Wow were they amazing!!! I thought mine were amazing but hers were out of this world. It continues to amaze me at how dazzling we all become when we are living our true calling! When life calls you, answer! Don't take a message or screen your calls. Don't say you'll call back when it's more convenient. Just take the call and enjoy it!

We were stopped at checkpoints several times in Michoacan.  This is the state with some of the highest level of unrest because of drug cartels. We decided to trek through despite all of the negativity that we found online. We have heard so many negative opinions of Mexico and Central America since we began announcing that we were taking this journey last fall. We have not encountered a single situation that I would call dangerous or scary for over 5 months. Michoacan was heavily militarized and there were many checkpoints where we had to get out of the car for inspection and questioning. Which usually resulted in laughter.

The best part of these stops was that the soldiers would dig through our car asking what things were and we got to give them some free healthy living lessons! It was awesome. This state was also one of the most wild, uninhabited and beautiful that we have seen. High cliffs overlooking a blue wild ocean. Thick lush jungles covering winding roads for hours shaded us from the sun. We saw dozens of giant white butterflies flapping huge floppy, white wings and giving us the feeling that they were our tiny guardian angels. Two more days to go in magical Mexico. Magical.

"The destiny of the world is in your hands."