When I was living in the cabin writing the February 29th page of Every Day Spirit, I was imagining this very Leap Day and feeling a prayer of gratitude in my heart for the precious extra 24 hours we've been given today. The precious extra 24 hours to live. The precious extra 24 hours to love. In honor of this gift of time, I share with you today's page in the daybook, marking the blessings of Leap Year 2020 in my heart - with you. May your day be especially blessed. LEAP YEAR
Hello my friends. Is it just me or does it sometimes feel like we're living in the middle of a big stress bomb? I know, you rely on me to be sunny, so what kind of way is that to start a blog post? Stay with me. The clouds part with a rainbow at the end... Back to the stress bomb. I do a lot of meditating, I don't dwell a lot on social media and I don't own a TV. In general, I'm pretty chill. But as I was scanning the news headlines on my phone this morning, I got a wave of s
Happy Valentine's Day my friends. I didn't plan to post today but a message came through me with such simplicity and clarity - and I felt it was meant to lift us up. Things have been pretty dark and twisty out there these days and our spirits could use some sweet lifting, right? From all outward appearances, our world is not steeped in love. The images we see and the voices we hear the loudest are often those of division and fear. But when we look again, through spiritual ey
It was a beautiful, sunny Florida day when she received the life-changing diagnosis that she was dreading. And she knew exactly what it meant. She had witnessed the slow, isolating journey as her mother, her only brother and her uncle became legally blind. Now, with the same condition, she knew all too well what lay ahead: no driving, no bird watching, no walking on the beach alone at sunrise. And the precious activity that was unthinkable to let go of - no reading her books.
All of humanity’s problems stem from one’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. -Pascal As most of you know, I like to fly under the radar. YOU are the hero of my pages and my books. YOU are the focus of my work, my prayers and my blessings. I don't talk a lot about myself. I don’t do interviews, podcasts and accept very few talks. I like my peace. But as we enter the season of even more busyness (aka stress), it’s more important than ever that we move our spiritual pra
Welcome to a sweet soft moment of peace. I just had one of my own - and I'm here to tell you - it saved the day. If you, my friend, are also dipping down near the bottom of the well where there is less of you to give, or if stress has robbed you of your composure and perspective, or if you are waiting on a shipment of your new book and have no idea when it will arrive (hey - that's me!), remember that a calm connection is just a moment away. Really it is. We have an amazing b
I had an extraordinary experience with intuition a few weeks ago that I wanted to share with you. I believe it’s something that can happen to any of us and is a power that we can all develop. THE STORY The story starts on a busy Monday. Since I treasure my time home alone, I often stack my errands all on one day. On this day I made 9 stops in all: I sat with a hospice patient, picked up a prescription, stopped at Mom’s for tea, shopped for groceries, etc. After a quick grocer
"It is not happiness that makes us grateful; it’s gratefulness that makes us happy.” - David Steindl-Rast All of us would love to live happier lives. It is a common desire that binds us together - the search for more joyful living. Often this search is what brings us to a spiritual path, committing to our daily spiritual practices and investing in a life of more peace, more joy, more love, more kindness, more connection to our highest self and to the Divine. And when we feel
Lessons come to us when we most need to learn them, often in surprising ways. I learned a few things recently from one of my favorite teachers - Mother Nature. Let’s rewind a few weeks, and you’ll find me praying for angelic help and a little extra time to meet my deadline and put the finishing touches on the forthcoming Every Day Spirit Gratitude Journal. (Which I can't wait to tell you about soon!) Meanwhile, Hurricane Dorian was an enormous, swirling mass of destruction ta
I have been quiet this summer. I searched for the words to share my experience with you, but they got stuck in my head, stilling my hands on the keys. There were no words that seemed worthy, only an ocean of feelings, with me floating, a tiny speck on the surface, at the mercy of the current. But every morning the invisible words appear again, dressed up as feelings, and they beat at my door. They pound my heart open. They ask me to write it. In June, my younger brother died.
Each one of us holds a light in the center of our being that is connected to all other hearts. It has the power to lift and to transform. I think that's why this simple thought resonated with so many of you this month:"When someone crosses your mind, bless them." Because we recognize our oneness on a spiritual level and we resonate with the thought that our love can lift another. And hey, it's quiet. It's easy. It's gentle. Yet it changes things. Blessings are a powerful, tra
The voice of the heart can be heard through a gentle feeling or as a sense of which way to go. It reveals itself as a vivid dream, as synchronicity or in just plain words. It can be as subtle as a soft nudge. There's a voice that doesn't use words. Listen. -Rumi Our inner voice or Divine guidance provides direction and assistance from the source of all universal wisdom. It is always positive and light-filled. It will never lead us to do anything that is negative or destructiv
One of the most important ways to elevate your spiritual path is to remember, over and over again, that you have support beyond your wildest dreams in everything you will do today. Remember this. Every. Single. Day. Yes, I know. It sounds elementary but we're hard-wired to forget. It happens to all of us. We get lost in the drama and the details of the day, forgetting that we are spiritual beings first. So the more we practice remembering that we have assistance on our journe
Some of life's most beautiful moments happen when we are at our most vulnerable. As a hospice volunteer, I have the honor of being with people during some of those most tender times. A few weeks ago, I found myself sitting with a man who I had never met, and who had no family in the area. He was in his last hours of life, and there was a group of us, trained in keeping vigil, who were taking turns in his quiet company so he did not have to die alone. I sat in amazement, knowi
If something is weighing on your heart, you're not alone. Lots of us are feeling a little "off," overwhelmed, anxious. It seems we are all registering somewhere on the Getting Used to Being Stressed scale. So, let's tip the scales today. This we know: What we dwell on, we create; what we imagine, we attract; what we ponder, we empower. So it's important to balance our anxious thoughts with the beautiful calm ones, right? A gentle re-connection with our whole selves, Mind, Bod
Most of us feel the effects of stress, sometimes first thing in the morning. So it's more important than ever to harness the tools of calm and make them part of our daily lives. My mother, who we call Tiny Guru for her small stature and great spirit, has a saying I love: "Don't let the noise of the world cover the soft voice of the heart." If we are going to coexist with stress and a loud world, it only makes sense to step up our spiritual practice, fostering some powerful to
This week, in the book and on social media, we've been talking a lot about staying in the present moment to feel better and to live better. I am reminded of the "Wasp Story" from my time in the cabin while I was writing the book. If you haven't gotten there yet, or forgot the gist, it's a good reminder of how we get sidetracked by our worries and miss the gifts. And we could all use a few sweet gifts today. Hint: All of the best stuff is in the moment we are in. So here's for
Today is a perfect day to bring on some inner peace with a positive vision -- a little note-to-self to set the day right and lift the cloud of overwhelm. Yes, please! Affirmations have a way of connecting us with our higher selves and reminding our minds what the spirit already knows: We have a wise, calm center even in the storms of life. When we sink into each powerful line of an affirmation, we find that we can transform almost any worry thought into a more peaceful though
No matter what you’ve done or left undone, no matter who you’ve hurt or who hurt you, no matter how it might seem like an exercise in pride and hubris—gently set down the self-judgment and remember that you are infinitely loved and magnificently beautiful just as you are. No excuses, no caveats, just love yourself in this very moment. Love lives right here. And this love within you will naturally radiate to everyone on your path. How beautiful is that? Yes, sweet friends, lov