This week I was inspired to choose an Oracle Card to point me in a direction of what to share with you and from the Enchanted Map deck, I picked the card Education.

So with this in mind, I asked myself what I might offer you as something to learn this week.

Since I just finished creating the new amazing Oracle Card 101 course this week, (Most awesome one I might add!) how to get the most out of working with Oracle Cards are foremost on my mind.

So I’m sure if you’re reading this you also watch the weekly Oracle Card Guidance and Lesson as well as pull cards from my website for free (and hopefully own your own decks!) and I bet that once in a while you might get a “WTF- HUH?” reading that freaks you out because it a) may seem to have nothing at all to do with your question, and/or b) the cards are all upside down, or you think they imply fear, disappointment, or you interpret you’re going to get a visit from a boogeyman who might sabotage your plans. EEK!

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.”
—Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955

Right now, take a breath and go inside. Is there something you are waiting for, to be happy? Are you putting off living until something magical happens? How often have you heard yourself say, “I’ll play, or create, or rest, or spend time with loved ones or take that vacation – when everything gets done.” Does everything ever get done?

Early one morning, as I was driving to the airport on my way to New York for an Intensive, a spectacular sunrise took my breath away. “How fortunate am I,” I thought, “that I get to drive to the airport basking in this incredible display of God’s art. How fortunate am I that I get to breathe in the fresh crisp air of fall.” It was one of those moments that filled my heart and soul with peace and joy and gratitude.

“I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure...You don't capitulate to it. You embrace it."  -Kobe Bryant

I've Been Thinking...

I was having lunch with my cousin this past Sunday when my daughter Katherine called to tell me the news about Kobe Bryant.

At first, I had trouble processing what she was saying because she was talking so fast and was so overwhelmed by the news she was sharing. You see, we are a Lakers family. That means Kobe Bryant was a king in our house. Both of my boys grew up with him and are Lakers fanatics. In fact, my son Christopher lived and breathed Kobe his entire life. His room is decorated in pictures of him, and he waited hours to get a ticket in the nosebleed section to his last game, during which he cried and cried and cried.

For Christopher’s 21st birthday, I got him a signed picture from Kobe – it’s his most valuable possession. I had met Kobe several times over the years and he was always incredibly kind, generous, and gracious to me. In fact, just a few months ago I asked him to contribute to The Sunday Paper and he said yes immediately. What I respected about Kobe wasn’t just that he was an extraordinary athlete, but that he was a man who admitted his flaws, embraced his struggles, and spoke openly about his faith and his desire to be a better man. I particularly admired his devotion to his family. The way he embraced fatherhood, husbandhood, and familyhood I believe will be a big part of his enduring legacy.

Do you accept the gift?

The Practice:
Receive generosity.

Why?

Life gives to each one of us in so many ways.

For starters, there’s the bounty of the senses – including chocolate chip cookies, jasmine, sunsets, wind singing through pine trees, and just getting your back scratched.

What does life give you?

Consider the kindness of friends and family, made more tangible during a holiday season, but of course continuing throughout the year.

Or the giving of the people whose hard work is bound up in a single cup of coffee. Or all those people in days past who figured out how to make a stone ax – or a fire, edible grain, loom, vaccine, or computer. Or wrote plays and novels, made art or music. Developed mathematics and science, paths of psychological growth, and profound spiritual practices. A few people whose names you know, and tens of thousands – millions, really – whom you will never know: each day their contributions feed, clothe, transport, entertain, inspire, and heal us.

Consider the giving of the natural world, the sound of rain, sweep of sky and stars, and majesty of mountains. How does nature feed you?

Far too often, people are stuck waiting for future happiness rather than staying in the present moment and enjoying the moment they find themselves in.

The problem is that life doesn’t last forever, and one day these people are going to look back and realize they spent their whole lives looking forward to the future rather than enjoying the moments they were given.

If you would like to make the most of the present and enjoy every minute you are given to its fullest, consider following these tips.

"We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon." -Franklin D. Roosevelt


I've Been Thinking...

I can’t believe that I have been around long enough to have now lived through two historic impeachment proceedings. I even covered one as a journalist! 

I’ve also lived through the time when a career in politics was once considered the most noblest of callings. I grew up in a family that thought holding public office was the greatest thing you could do to honor your family and your country.

It was right up there with becoming a priest or a nun. How the world has changed, as has our view of those careers. (OK, well maybe not becoming a nun. Being a nun is still right up there in a class by itself, in my mind. That’s in large part because I was educated by the nuns and am still in awe of the work they do in our cities and neighborhoods. But I digress...)

What happened this week in front of our very eyes will now be studied, taught, and debated for weeks, months, and years to come. I’m not sure it will make any real difference to those who support this president, nor to those who oppose him, other than to maybe make both sides dig their heels in even further.

My kids asked me Wednesday night, “If he’s not thrown out of office, then what was the point of all this?”

I know many people are asking the same thing.  

I told them the point is that our system worked and that the President was held accountable, regardless of what he thought.

I told them that when we make mistakes in life be it in our families, our jobs, or in our politics, we can each be held accountable in a myriad of ways. Sometimes we may get fired. Sometimes we may get a time out. Sometimes we apologize and all is forgiven. Every instance is unique, as is this national moment of reckoning.

This is the week I loved when I was little, then over time as life took its turns it became the one I dreaded most, and then changed again into something I was grateful for and looked forward to. (My husband, the holiday elf, is the direct cause of that.) The holidays, in my case Christmas, (you might celebrate one of the other 29 other holidays across the 7 major religions that take place in this season) took on new meaning, like the story in motion reflected in all life. The corridors of time echo for all of us as we are all meaning makers. We assign meaning to periods of time, events, and the stories that accompany them. In many ways this season, certainly for some of us, houses the influence of many ghosts. Maybe you feel this too, the presence of the past, overlapping the now and pointing to what could be in the future. It’s probably why the movie A Christmas Carol was and still is so popular. This is a universal experience. 

Each year I use an issue of the Just One Thing newsletter to offer Twelve Good Things that I think are really wonderful and worth your attention.

May you and those you love and in fact the whole wide world be truly well, truly happy, and truly at peace.

THANK YOU.

Perhaps two of the most potent words you could say.

As powerful as any mantra, prayer, poem, affirmation, or chant.

If all you did was say a heartfelt  “Thank you” each moment of your life to everyone you met, miracles would occur.

“Thank you” melts hearts. Let’s people feel loved and appreciated. End wars. Start new friendships. Create smiles.

The more you give thanks, the more you will have to give thanks about in your life. It’s been said that “What you think about expands”.  I like to say, “What you thank about expands.”

It is easy to say “Thank you” to those you like and are kind to you. But what about those that upset you and aren’t so nice. They give you the gift of the opportunity to practice your prayers and live your spirituality for real.

It is easy to say “Thank you” to those that give you what you want, when you want it. But what about those that don’t. They give you the opportunity to find out what you really need, what most serves your highest path and to be who you really are.

It is easy to say “Thank you” to those that love you. But what about those that have broken your heart and betrayed you. They give you the opportunity to forgive, keep your heart open, and practice unconditional loving.

The more you can thank those people and situations that challenge you, acknowledging that they served you in your growth of becoming more of who you really are, then you are free.

What you cannot thank has you, owns you, and controls you. What you cannot thank, you give power to.

When you can truly thank the person or situation, then you liberate yourself from bondage of the story, situation itself, and step into a new level of freedom. You step outside of the prison of the situation into the freedom of BEING.

Gandhi dared to live Thank you.

Jesus dared to live Thank you.

Mandela dared to live Thank you.

Martin Luther King Jr dared to live Thank you.

Although Thanksgiving Day has become a time for turkey and football, its true purpose lingers, often as a wistful hope that one could be truly thankful. You cannot conjure up thanks if you are focused on the world’s troubles and a constant stream of bad news. So how is true gratitude found? 

As writer and teacher Dana Arcuri has said, “The more you are grateful for what you have, the more you can live fully in the present.”. Psychologically, research has shown that practicing gratitude measurably improves your well-being and on the physical side, your heart health.

 Gratitude begins when we change our relationship with life from an attitude of rejecting and defending to one of acceptance and appreciation. We all need reminding about a truth expressed by the Greek philosopher Epicurus, “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”