Listening to the Sounds of Autumn (Fall)

One of the great joys of this season is the visual appeal of bright colors - red, yellow, orange - as the leaves change colors and then fall.  The English word "Fall" for this season refer to the falling leaves.  And what a beautiful, joyous vision it is!

So why do I talk about the "sounds" of fall?  Well, in my house, more is falling than just leaves.  Did I mention that I live surrounded by 19 oak trees.  Oaks produce acorns!  Every time we have a wind storm, that wind detaches a lot of acorns, which are thrown against my roof with force, producing quite a clatter and barrage of "bang, bang, bang, bang."

I laugh about the clamor with my neighbors. And I admit that raking and sweeping all the acorns from the driveway every morning isn't the most fun form of exercise I can imagine.  Yet when I allow myself to stop being annoyed about the acorns, I see so much beauty in the "music" of those acorns falling on my roof all day and all night.

And the best part of it all?  When I go out to sweep and rake every morning, right after I meditate and practice Reiki for 40-60 minutes, I enjoy the cool air, the diffuse light of right-after-dawn, and the quiet stillness in which deer come to feed on the acorns.  They remind me of the joys that that fall music brings me.... and I remember to pile up the acorns where the does and fawns can find them, instead of removing all of them.

What sounds of fall do you hear where you live?  Do you take early-morning walks and watch the earth change its colors and sing new songs to you?

It's Coffee Day in the USA

I earned 9 punches on my Dutch Brothers coffee card today. And I can laugh at myself very heartily. Where else but in the Pacific Northwest [Washington and Oregon, Seattle, Portland and Ashland], where I live, would we enshrine coffee so deeply in our hearts that we would have a holiday around it?

We here in the Pacific Northwest have many excellent reason for deifying the coffee bean. After all, it tastes great, especially with pumpkin or eggnog flavoring. It is also a completely legal stimulant, and how many of those do we have, really? Here in Oregon and Washington, when we have a normal year, the dark skies keep us in a state of "winter depression" for at least 7 months. I have a whole book of cures [Journey Out of SAD; see Amazon or your local bookseller], and one of them is - drink coffee. Other things that help are adequate minerals like calcium, Vitamin B-12 and magnesium; a 10,000 lumens specialty light; doing creative things. But coffee is part of it.

The coffee shop also used to have the same function as the local pub, as a gathering place for the exchange of news and ideas. It has truly been said that the American revolution began in coffeehouses.

If you have any tendencies toward winter depression, including fatigue and sluggishness, now is the time to NOT believe in laziness or negative thinking as the cause. SAD is a biochemical problem caused by your DNA, when you are living in an area where there isn't enough sunlight. It's not your fault. Please don't choose anti-depressants for a problem caused by lack of light. In other posts, I talk about the spiritual and health benefits of creative projects like painting, using colored pencils and other forms of art. Music, especially if you create it, is also wonderful. Any activity in which you become really engrossed has a very positive effect on your physical health and your emotions, as well as your spiritual growth. Please make time to be creative.

Come to my free webinar n October 8th, and afterward on my YouTube channel, and learn how - in addition to getting your daily caffeine - you can prevent SAD.

http://app.webinarjam.net/register/2075/1d455eb1ab

The Value of Playfulness

The Value of Playfulness

This is a book of knitting patterns and I don't knit. So why am I so thrilled by it? Well, I intend to be inspired to create some crocheted fun things like a deer hat.

Are you thinking that a whimsical hat with deer antlers is an odd thing for an adult to wear? After all, "silly" things are for kids. And that is something I encourage you to explore. I just presented a class yesterday, for a group of people who were willing to explore their creativity. They explored art chalk, colored pencils, oil pastels and paint - and without evaluation, critique or worries about "wasting time." When you spend time creating, your blood pressure drops, your cortisol levels drop, your serotonin levels rise. In non-technical terms, you feel relaxed and happy. Your stress dissolves. You come away from your creative break with a mind that is open to new ideas, new concepts, new formulations. You can do your job better. You parent better. You are better. Does it still seem like foolishness? Or childish? Adults need play even more than adults do. It releases our souls and refreshes out spirit! Get some art supplies and some inexpensive paper and just swirl the colors around. Start with a meditation to clear your mind of self-criticism and then - don't think. Don't plan. Just grab the color that grabs you. Grab a cheap brush. Dip one in the other - and move your hand where your spirit moves you.

The Ashland healing center is situated in a beautiful, mountainous area on the border between Oregon and California.  We have visits from wild deer every day, and can enjoy the peace and energy of the happy wild animals.  There are farms very close, with cattle, goats, llamas and alpacas.

Can you see the deer?

These deer are eating the acorns that our oak trees shed at this time of year!

Looking to the southeast, you can see the hills where the wild cougars live.

At the back of the healing center, the oak trees.

The local cows like to come closer when I offer them Reiki.  Because this healing can be done at any distance, they can detect it and want to have more!  So they come closer to the fence when I walk by!

The value of creating

We all know that creation begins in the mind.  And some of our creations remain in our minds, as imagined worlds, imagined characters, imagined lives.  I should know - I wrote a fiction story that was published in 2014, titled Salle and the Alien Invasion.  It's a wonderful story about the enduring bonds of love that create a family - specifically a child adopted by a father of another race - and how two nations come together to save the world from ecological disaster.  So, yes, I know and value the creations that come into being only in our minds.

There is a special type of spiritual growth and healing that comes from creating real-world tangible objects though.

When you create something tangible, you are bringing something into existence that has never existed before.  You are in a real sense creating something from nothing, in the same way that all the world's religions explain the creation of the world - a god who makes worlds by speaking them into existence.  Pure creation.

I didn't always understand this.  Before I began my own spiritual journey thirty years ago, I didn't think in these terms.  I didn't know why physical creation was so satisfying, I just knew that it was.  There is a stage of child development in which we have to be given raw materials, because we have a deep and furious need to create.  In the US, kids get LEGOs, and building blocks and erector sets.  What we forget is that even when our brains mature and we CAN create entirely in our minds, our need for tangible creation never goes away.

When we create something from nothing, time ceases to exist.  The developer of the Flow concept, Dr, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains this as our brains de-activating brain areas that control the demarcation between ourselves and the outer world.

In a very real sense, we cease to exist as separate entities in time and space.  Time stops.  I have worked on books or I have been building furniture and only "woke up" because I was so hungry, the hunger broke through the alternative reality that I was in.

So I create things, some of which are shown here.  I crochet healing shawls that have Reiki healing energy in them; when you put them on, the Reiki activates and you feel wonderful.  I create plush toys for adults and children, with Reiki as well.  I crochet placemats for the dinner table that use buttons to show accurate constellations - such fun!  I used to build furniture.  I paint.  I used colored pencils to work in adult coloring books of great complexity.  Tangible things.  Beautiful things.

You are invited to purchase any of the shawls, astronomy place mats and plush toys.  You are also invited to make time for tangible creation, at least every week if not every day.  Your soul and spirit will soar like a dragon!

His adorable face and tongue

A loop at the tail so the snake can be hung up for easy storage!

The red, white and blue snake for a client's son in France - with the national colors!

  The snake's tail starts!

The completed blue snake

A placemat with Orion against the black night sky.