The coming equinox and solar eclipse

18 03 2015

Emmanuel Dagher’s article came across my desk this morning. I rarely re-blog, but I feel it is important information to share with you! Thank you, Emmanuel ~ Rebekah

My Dear Friend,

We have so much to catch up on! How have you been feeling lately?

There was a palpable shift that occurred after the 19th of February that brought many of us an overall sense of peace, even though there were a few days in between that still had some residual effects of Mercury in retrograde.

For those mindful that their reality is a direct result of their projected ideas/thoughts about it, those few days provided clear feedback as to what things we can continue to polish up, as we enter a gentler year ahead.

The Equinox and the Total Solar Eclipse

Beginning in early March, the energies start to build toward the equinox (spring for the Northern Hemisphere, autumn for the Southern Hemisphere).

This occurs on Friday, March 20 at 6:45 PM EDT (10:45 PM GMT). To add to this already exciting time of transformation, we will also be experiencing a total solar eclipse on the same day as the equinox!

So what does this mean for us?

The equinox serves as a doorway between the spiritual and physical world, enabling a powerful renewal to occur. This renewal elevates our consciousness to be able to seed greater love and wisdom into the very real, present moment.

It’s Divine Alchemy in its full glory!

The equinox is also a time when the creative gifts we’ve been nurturing throughout the summer and winter months can fully be realized and expressed, to inspire the kind of world we’d like to experience more of.

An equinox is an ideal time to:

  • v Simplify our living space/environment, so that we are able to release many of the things we haven’t been using. The general principle I follow is, if I haven’t used it in the past year, it can now find a loving new home with someone who will truly benefit from receiving it.
  • v Try something new that feels to be out of our comfort zone.
  • v Switch up our routine every few days over the next few months, to keep ourselves open, fresh, and available to the opportunities presenting themselves to us.
  • v Begin a new class or spiritual practice, to reconnect ourselves to our true nature of love.
  • v Forgive any and all people, places, and experiences in our lives that still trigger us emotionally in any way.
  • v Create a balance between our Divine Feminine aspect (our creative, nurturing, playful side) and Divine Masculine aspect (our passionate, action-oriented, motivated side).
  • v Begin a new project or creative venture that feels more aligned with our heart’s desires.

If any of these suggestions feel expansive and joyous to you, know that it’s a confirmation that it may be time for you to integrate them into your life, so that you can make room for the fresh new blessings that are aligned with your heart’s desires.

In addition to the equinox, we will also be gifted with a total solar eclipse on March 20. This will magnify the equinox energies, which can feel quite intense for those who are quite sensitive or emotional.

To not be affected in a challenging way during this time, all that is required is that we be more mindful of our thoughts, words, and actions.

This will allow us to be open and available to the powerful energies of the eclipse and equinox, and work with them in a much more productive way. It will also help us to dissolve any lingering residue of resentment or discord we may still be experiencing.

During a total solar eclipse, meditating on the Sun strengthens our internal Sun (located in the solar plexus/stomach region), which represents our Divine power. This helps us to express ourselves more openly and freely, without holding back. It also helps us build confidence in ourselves, including our gifts, talents, and overall presence in this world.

So it’s safe to say that this month will be a time of great internal and external transformation that can be significantly pacified through mindfulness and spiritual practice.

Behind the Scenes

As we are all internally and externally shifting, there’s even more magic going on behind the scenes.

Have you had profound dreams lately? Are you remembering more and more of them?

Are you feeling waves of energy move through you that sometimes feel like electric currents running through your body?

Are you noticing more and more sparks (mini shooting stars) in your peripheral vision? Are you finding your appetite is fluctuating a bit more these days?

What about feeling a bit more sensitive to the people and experiences around you?

Our Spirit is now fully focused on lifting the veils within our minds right now, so that we will be able to understand, digest, and integrate our True Self into the reality of every present moment.

This is BIG! This is what IS anchoring a “heaven on Earth” type of collective reality.

For millennia, the conscious mind has conditioned itself to operate and function mostly in linear time. Now, with the help of our Spirit, the Universe, and all the Beings of Love whom we each resonate with, the mind is being taught how to thrive outside of linear time, so we can be at our most powerful.

What we are seeing in the world is the transition out of the “fear” that the mind created and got comfortable with, as a result of thinking it would lose its identity if it entered nonlinear time—that it would no longer exist.

However, our Spirit is showing our mind right at this very minute, that this belief could not be further from the truth of what’s really happening.

The mind is being shown how much more of its unique self it will get to experience when it is no longer confined by linear time, where it uses fear, lack, doubt, worry, confusion, guilt, shame, or judgment to cope with life’s challenges.

Our Spirit and the Universe are now opening the doors to ultimate freedom, where we are fully able to recognize our eternal, whole, and True Self once more.

To speed this process along, all that’s asked of us is to be willing to love and have compassion for our mind. The mind’s only mission was to keep us safe the only way it knew how, and for that we are grateful.

It’s also important to make sure we are well hydrated, getting plenty of rest/sleep, continuing with the spiritual practices that help us live in the present moment, and putting nourishing, real foods into our body.

This will support our Spirit with the blessings it is creating for us now.

As always, I am so grateful to share this journey with you, and am holding the space that this month is a phenomenal one for you!

Till next time,

Miraculously yours,

Emmanuel

©2009-2015 Emmanuel Dagher All Rights Reserved www.emmanueldagher.com You are absolutely welcome to share and distribute these forecasts with others as you feel guided. Please make sure to keep the integrity of this article by including the author & source website link.


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Aging in public

8 03 2015

Hardly anyone talks about it, this thing called aging. I think it’s because when we’re younger, we don’t consider getting older. Others, yes, like our parents, but not us. Not me! And to listen to others talk about their aches and pains—oh, please.

Notice I said “older,” not “old.” I learned to say it that way from my cousin Elly, who was born six months before I.

Today I’m going public, and I’m talking about aging for those who might benefit.

As it happens in our Western health care system, our family is assigned a primary care physician. Like all doctors, he has many patients, and the system allows him to spend only 15 minutes with each, whether or not all your questions are answered.

Oh, I know it’s possible. DH had a good experience in Hong Kong, for example, when he had appendicitis on a trip, but in Hong Kong they were much more efficient. Here, it can be time-consuming in the long run (lots of 15 minutes) and frustrating to get care.

I decided to ask for another PCP through my gynecologist. She said she couldn’t be it because she was a specialist. So then, I thought, how about a gerontologist? Can I be ahead of the game and start seeing one now? I remembered the time I (tried) to get care for my aging father and how by luck, after being sent to department after department (including a “hospitalist” who I asked, because he was wearing a flower lei, if it was his birthday, and he replied, “No, it is my last day here!”), a gerontologist came to our aid. She was the most compassionate and informative of the lot.

My gynecologist was helpful. “Let’s see, how old are you, 66? You know, past 65 I think you can.” I’ll give the system credit for that. She referred me to a geriatrician, that’s what they’re called, I learned.

My issues were physical signs that to me appeared suddenly. Thinning skin, dull hair, brittle nails. (In the meantime I found a supplement containing biotin to address just that.) Soreness in my hands; arthritis or something else? When people spoke to me, responding too often with, “What?”, and having to turn up the TV volume. Some trouble with my balance. And taking longer to speak my words because my brain seemed slower to find them; memory loss? I’ve already had my right colon removed successfully for a large but benign tumor.

When the “new” department phoned to confirm the first appointment, they made sure I knew to bring someone with me, that I brought a health care directive, etc. This freaked out DH who said to me, “This is not the end game for you. Why?” I replied, “Of course, it isn’t, but I want to be proactive and cover all my bases. I want a baseline for the future.”

Checking in as a “youngster,” I explained my reasons for the visit with the receptionist, who informed me, and the doctor confirmed: a geriatrician is a specialist and cannot be my PCP. But wait.

While an assistant gave me a memory test (my memory in their terms is fine), the doctor invited DH in to start the conversation about why she likes to talk to families. In my case, she was concerned that we have our finances in place, meaning, if one of us becomes unable to function normally in the future, does the other have access to money if needed. Not when we die, but if we become ill.

When I walked into her office to join the conversation, she confirmed my hunch. “Did you practice at (another hospital) before? [She had.] You are the one who took care of my father, and the only one to give us satisfactory answers!” Yes, the same doctor, who at that time explained to me, “It’s not a perfect system, but it is a system.”

While she cannot officially be my primary care physician, in fact that is what she has become. I am so grateful. She ordered all the necessary tests for me. As a result, I found that I have lost some of my hearing, and I now wear a very smart and hi-tech hearing aid in both ears. It’s takes practice to learn how to wear it, and I trust the person who is fitting the device for my needs.

Next, tests found that I am deficient in Vitamin D. The doc said even in sunny Hawaii people become deficient in D.

For the pain in my dominant right hand, I was sent back to my assigned PCP, who said it is tendonitis in two places, but one unrelated to the other. What do you do, he asked? “I paint.” Then stop painting, he said. What?!! Personally I think, if it is indeed tendonitis, it is from too much computer, that is the unfortunate side effect of today’s technology.

Or, an emotional cause. For that, my geriatrician was compassionate and suggested psychotherapy. I have been there and done that. For now I prefer talking to my cherished friends and family first. Perhaps Reiki or lomilomi or acupuncture.

This week I go in for hand therapy, referred by my PCP, and next week sports medicine. Sports medicine because of some numbness in my arm.

I asked DH, why is it that you are older than I, but you don’t show as many signs of aging. He reminded me that he just had new “eyes” installed, a result of cataract surgery in both eyes. 😉 You see, I am not alone, and neither are you!

Copyright 2015 Rebekah Luke

 

 

 


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Resume play

7 01 2015

It’s time to hit the Resume Play button of my life. The elves have left to help someone else.

Indeed, it feels like a brand new life. The 12-month year for me starts on my birthday this Friday. Then I’ll turn 66. With much gratitude I say good-bye to 66 years (especially the year 2014) and say hello to today.

Since DH’s birthday on Dec. 20—we had a little party here on the 21st—so much has occurred, I really don’t remember exactly what, nor am I able to put the events in chronological order. No matter. That was yesterday.

Since the fire and for the last nine days, New Year’s Day and Sunday excepting, a professional after-fire cleaning crew has been at the studio, removing soot and odor from everything inside the structure. Four to nine people at a time, depending on the tasks. Such hard workers. I called them elves.

What a blessing. This morning, when I awoke, the din of the four air scrubber machines was gone. I could hear the birds and the surf again. The air smelled sweet. I had slept soundly through the night. I could look forward to a day with no visitors (perhaps?).

I can’t find any-Thing, but I know it is here somewhere and that it is clean!

“Sorry, we rearranged your things,” one of the elves said smiling. The cool thing is, I like the rearrangement. When I go through my things systematically in one direction to find something and come across something I don’t need any more, I toss it into the trash or set it aside to re-bless someone else. And, truthfully, I don’t need much.

In a new setting, I can keep only what I need or what brings me joy!

Some of the things are in cardboard boxes because the elves did a partial “pack out.” It was obvious to them the next step was a kitchen renovation. The result is “out of sight, out of mind.”

The clichés have meaning: “Every dark cloud has a silver lining.” “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” “Fire purifies.” “Out with the old, in with the new.” “Let it go.”

To keep my feet on the ground and because I like to honor commitments, I’ll resume teaching and writing in a few days, but that’s it. I can say Aloha to the past, start over, reset, choose to (re)act in a new way to events in my life and create a different and joyful experience.

Thank you, dear friends. I’ll certainly keep you.

Copyright 2015 Rebekah Luke

 

 


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Six degrees of separation among cousins in the Islands

8 06 2014

I got a Facebook message late last week from Boyd, who wrote, “Hey cousin, my wife and I will be on island for a wedding this weekend, and probably cruising your coastline Sat. AMish . . .” 

Yes, yes, I’ll be home, please stop by, here’s how to get here, etc., etc. Boyd and I have called each other “cousin” since we met at Iole in North Kohala for my family reunion (mom’s side) in 2012. Boyd is a folk historian and a wonderfully engaging storyteller. I’d asked him to tell our group about what life might have been like in the old days, and what he knew of the Chinese immigrants; and he wanted to hear our stories to add to his repertoire. We gathered at Kalahikiola Church near the old homestead where my mother and her 14 siblings grew up before the clan moved to Oahu.

After becoming acquainted we declared ourselves calabash cousins because his ancestors employed my ancestors, living on adjoining land divisions—Iole and Ainakea on Hawaii island. My aunties told me the children played together between the properties on both sides of a gulch.

Yesterday Boyd came to my island to visit me, and I felt like “Mom” was coming, so DH and I tidied up to make the studio presentable. I wasn’t sure exactly what time he and his wife Becky would arrive, so I planned lunch for four. I thought of the old days before the Information Age when families would call on each other, traveling distances to meet, to talk story (as we say in Hawaii) and catch up on all the happenings. These visits have evolved into Sunday night family dinner for many of us.

Yesterday’s Saturday lunch was a lot of fun. They did arrive just in time for lunch. We ate lupulu—a Samoan treat baked with taro leaves, corned beef, onions, tomato and coconut milk. We had poi, sweet potato, alae salt, Cathy’s inamona (Hawaiian kukui nut relish), and Joe’s chili pepper water.

Boyd and my DH, who you recall is a volunteer docent at the Bishop Museum, traded information on Hawaiian history while we women dutifully listened to stories we’d heard before. I heard Becky mention she was more comfortable with bodies and energy, that she left the storytelling to Boyd,  so when there was a break in the conversation I asked Becky, “Are you a healer?”

Boyd answered, “Yes, she is!” So with my experience as a Reiki Master and hers as a massage therapist and Healing Touch practitioner, we hit it off, and I was able to hear about the wonderful healing environment going on in Kohala.

Continuing to talk about people and places we knew throughout the afternoon, we revisited the family reunion Welcome Dinner two years ago held at Kahua Ranch and hosted by the owner Monty and his new bride Elly. They had invited our family over. “How do you know Elly?” Boyd asked.

“She’s my first cousin,” I said. “Her father and my mother were siblings.”

“Well, then,” Boyd gleamed with a twinkle in his eye, “we really are cousins — through marriage!” Indeed. It turns out that both he and Monty descend from common ancestors.

Copyright 2014 Rebekah Luke

 

 


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I thought it was finished…

27 04 2014

… until I looked at it again in a different light. Even my teacher said it was “pau” (finished) when she saw the first photo of it on Facebook.

When I brought the collage to the next studio session for a group critique, we stared at it from a distance and under a skylight. The consensus was to strengthen the value of two areas on the bottom.

So I did, and to me the change made a more successful and more attractive piece.

Isn’t that true of life? Sometimes we ponder and struggle to make things just so, willing to put others’ opinions above our own, but the something isn’t quite right. Something about it bothers us.

Then, by letting it rest and revisiting it from a different angle in a new light, we notice just a small tweak here and there brings the subject into focus.

 

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The “before” — a collage from my hand-dyed paper

 

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“After” I added darker pink tints of paper at the bottom. It’s a subtle change that shifts the viewer’s focus.

Copyright 2014 Rebekah Luke

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Ask

18 01 2014

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. – Matthew 7:7

One’s birthday, the actual date, is when I think most people want something special to celebrate it. Even when you get to my age. It’s true, isn’t it? Admit it. Okay, I thought so!

As my birthday is soon after Christmas and New Year’s, it doesn’t bother me too much that people remember it belatedly. For years now I celebrate all month long. January is my birthday month. 😉

So when the earliest appointment I could get with a cardiologist to learn about some test results was on the 9th, my birthday, I took it.

The cardio tests were done to clear me for surgery the day before New Year’s Eve–the removal of a (thankfully!) benign mass from my colon.

I was “cleared” for the operation that was the priority, but I still wanted to ask what the tests showed because I was given a complete cardio work up and because I had “heart scares” in the past. What did my cardiovascular system look like now?

Bless his heart, the physician spent 60 minutes drawing diagrams and explaining everything. He was passionate about teaching patients about how wonderful the human body is. The bottom line: my heart is A-okay! Don’t worry, just keep active, he said. Oh, boy, that and the fact that my colon was cancer-free was the best birthday present I could have!

After that my Reiki sister and friend Lori took DH and me out for lunch: dim sum at a fancy restaurant. These are the images from her camera.

20140118-212312.jpgIf that wasn’t enough, on the way home DH said we would stop for some new plants for the garden.

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It was my idea to renovate the raised vegetable beds at the Studio. I sent out an evite to my friends to join Rebekah’s Birthday Green Team that weekend, explaining that I needed help.

Recovery from surgery takes about 4 to 6 weeks, and my surgeon said I was allowed to ask other people to do things for me. Really?

It was short notice, but several of my buddies adjusted their schedules and showed up. Wow, what a big help they were! What a garden transformation! Below is the “after” photo.

All I had to do was ask. Thank you!

(Pictured below, from left: Pat, Karen, me, and Piʻikea. Tomato, basil, arugula, cilantro, romaine, eggplant, rosemary, garlic chives, mint, turmeric, oregano, pineapple, parsley, Hawaiian chili pepper. – Pete Krape, photographer)

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On waves and wind

15 12 2013

A honu (green sea turtle) swam into my life this morning and waved at me. Just when I needed an answer to my question, the creature floated in close to shore, only a wave’s length away. So I started a conversation. It graciously joined in, head and flippers bobbing out of the water for as long as I needed. When the visit ended I turned ma uka (toward the mountains) for the studio, only to see the familiar kolea (golden plover), another confidant who meets me on my walks no matter what time of day, fly across my path, emphasizing the affirmative. I laughed. My question: Should I tell you how much you are loved?


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