Posts to Help You Be Who You Are Now and Become Who You Want to Be

Hi, this is Jennifer and I am here at Seneca Lake. I wanted to give you just a little thought that I came up with tonight and it's actually building on something that I've taught before.
 

I taught a class a while back about creating ripples by standing still. Basically, I was watching the rocks and the rock wall. And the rock wall was not moving. It was standing solid being what it is.... being its rocky solid self. And the lake was lapping up against it and ripples were going out from it.

You Are Enough

And it made me think that, even when we don't do anything, who we are, being who we are, is really important and we create ripples just by being who we are.

So, then, I was here the other night and we were having a really big wind storm and some rain, but mostly wind. And they were huge waves on the lake (huge for Seneca Lake... maybe a foot tall and maybe two at most).

But anyway, the point is that those huge waves were hitting the rock wall and it was creating...

Rescued by our adopted dog

I cannot deny that this new dog has been really good for us so far. He adds so much love, so much joy to our days. A lot of work too and less sleep, but the love makes those things less important.

He's also helping me get outside to my own yard more. Like, a lot more. I've already done two long loop walks around my property this morning - probably a quarter mile each. We do our really long walks off property on wider trails that have fewer ticks (we hope?). But even with that, we still probably go for a backyard stroll at least 10 times a day...we're still housetraining him so we want to make sure we take him out often enough that he doesn't feel like he needs to do anything inside.

Stop, listen, connect 

Today, walking through my backyard, he stopped to listen to something. So I did, too. I listened to the forest and I realized I have been walking and talking to the dog, but not connecting to All That Is. I have such a great opportunity to do all...

Doyou believe in magic? How about life-changing coincidences? What about intuition?

Recently, I was invited to go help the local shelter with a grant. They just had a few questions, no big deal.

[Backstory - I have been avoiding the shelter because I want a dog, but I don't feel "ready" for a dog. It's been almost five years since my last sweet pooch crossed the rainbow bridge, two years since I finished paying his vet bills (he was really sick at the end), and one year since my mom passed (I was her primary caretaker so adding a dog to my life would have been impossible during her final year). So I've had no real excuse for about a year. Except that we plan to move in the spring and I wanted to have flexibility in choosing a new place - not having to find someplace that allows dogs.]

So, my friend asked for my help just before Thanksgiving. I said I couldn't do it until the Wednesday after the holiday because I had too much on my plate before that. She checked with the director and...

For the past 14 years of living in my rural New York home, I've hated my basement.

It's dark, has mud floors (it's always damp so the dirt is usually mud), contains thousands of living spiders and easily as many white spider body shells (I'm told the spiders molted out of them...so it's not a dead spider, it's a spider body...that means the new spider is BIGGER than the white shell that's left behind...that means I have a whole basement of BIGGER spiders!).

The stairs down into it are broken - the ones from inside the house and the ones from the bulkhead doors in the back yard. 

The only thing we do in the basement is carry 40 pound bags of salt from the car to the salt system. Those bags are heavy and awkward...and the stairs are broken so it's hard to get them down into the basement easily.

For most of the first decade in that house, I had the chore of buying the bags, carrying them across the lawn and into the basement, slitting them open with the old rusty knife we leave...

A long drive to peace and joy

When I go into the woods, my worries turn to learning experiences (with solutions!), my fears are erased, and my joy is magnified. I leave refreshed, inspired, and downright joyful.

I have been driving 45 to 90 minutes from my home to find the deep woods, nature connection that makes my heart sing. 

That long drive makes it impossible for me to do it daily. And, for me, daily connection and inspiration is necessary so that I can stay in my center, my strength, instead of falling into fear or anger about all the challenges in this world.

Good advice from my spirit guide

When I was at a retreat led by Tracy Farquhar (https://tracyfarquhar.com/), she introduced me to one of my guides whose name is Raven. I asked Raven for advice on how to have that daily connection that I know my soul craves.  Raven's answer was obvious and brilliant.

Look in my own backyard. No need to drive so far. Find that connection at home. 

Over the years, I have lost...