The human experience is quite the ride, especially now, is it not? The absurdities, the divisiveness, the negative biased news, the constant searching for the next shock or laugh that has folks reaching for their devises, is amplified right now like no other time. We may want to hold our hands over our ears and scream STOP!

How much are you letting what is happening in the outer world effect your inner world? They are actually related. As within, so without. So the saying goes. It is like the researcher bias or searching the internet. You get what you are looking for. Your thoughts, intention and attention (focus) influence your experience. Don’t believe me? Think about when you confidently “knew” how something was going to go, often badly as our minds are biased toward danger and warnings to keep us “safe”, that went exactly like predicted.  And when you were a little less convinced of an outcome and went in with good intentions or an open mind and heart, and things went better than you dared to hope? 

Our energy effects the world around us. The world acts as a mirror to us. If we are having a good day, often nice people and good things seem to pop up. When we have decided it is a bad day, we get that reinforcement as everything that goes wrong “proves” it is a bad day. 

As an experiment, for one week set an intention as you start your day. It can be specific if you want, but I find it is best to focus on the big picture and overall feeling of the day rather than specific details happening or not happening. And you should always set your intention in the positive present tense. So rather than, “I want nothing to go wrong today” Or “I don’t want my boss to get angry with me over this late project”  You would state “I wish to see the beauty and good in each moment today” or “I intend a pleasurable connection with my boss and co-workers today.” 

You can write it down or say it out loud. I often add it to my todo list to see throughout the day. I don’t get out of bed for the day until I have written in my gratitude journal - either an appreciation (maybe for a good rest or bright morning) or setting an intention for the day. At the end of the week, reflect on each day to see if you can see where your intention came to be. 

This is because like attracts like. A musical note of B can’t resonate with any other note besides another B. If you vibrate with negativity and pessimism you will resonate with that in others and get more of that in your life. This is not to negate all lower energies we experience, as they are all beneficial. We just don’t want to linger too long in the lower ones. We want to feel them enough so they continue moving through and out and we find a more enjoyable feeling or vibration.

You can ask “how would it feel in my body if I kept my focus on the bigger picture, with love, of all that is occurring in my day/the world”. Allow your mind to notice and take in what it feels like to have that be true. Then return to that same feeling in your body (rather than just the thinking mind) throughout the day. 

Can you think of examples of when you got exactly what you were expecting and felt justified but disappointed at the same time? Sometime I think we want people to behave poorly because we want to reinforce our “rightness” about someone or something. Like Dr. Phil used to say, do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?  Choose happy more of the time and see what happens!

I wondered about the application of these - what is it like to rub directly onto my head? And will they be messy to handle or while they sit in my shower? Will I be disappointed with how they treat my hair? I can confidently say, after using them for over two weeks, no to any downside. So far anyway! While I wouldn’t recommend these sit in a shower in a location where they continue to get wet, and luckily my shower shelves are out of stream range, they dry quickly and are great to handle. I found that you really don’t need to rub much or for long, as the shampoo lathers quite nicely (I have short hair, so might be different for long hair) and the conditioner spreads nicely to easily. 

I love that they come in paper, there is no plastic to dispose of, no glass to worry about, and you have some options for types, depending on your hair needs.  

I don’t know how long they will last but I can leave a comment below once I have used them up. I do wash my hair daily, and I use a dandruff shampoo twice a week, but I know many people do not wash their hair as often as I do, so these may last even longer for some folks. 

Related to this, a while back I tried a dish soap bar at my kitchen sink. I did like it! However, the container you place it in is important. You want it to dry out, be easy to collect onto your scrub brush without it slip sliding around, and the one I got was a large square shape so finding the right soap dish that fit the bill was not easy. While I have not seen this option in shops recently (I first bought it while on vacation in Canada) a quick google search turned up several promising looking options!

I love to try these types of things that come with and require less material to throw away or even recycle. Recycling is great, but not the answer. It is still energy consuming, imperfect and relies on local services which often vary greatly by location. 

Give these hair ones a try! I have seen them at many an earth conscious mercantile and REI or other outdoor stores. Maybe you have tried them? If so, what did you think? If you want to try them, please share below where you bought them and then give your assessment after a length of use. Let’s take a chance and try these kinds of things so more companies are willing to risk bringing them to market! It may be a little different than we are used to, but change is not only inevitable, it is good for us!                                Here’s to a good hair day!

I love things to look nice. And clean windows, mirrors and shiny surfaces stand out as light reflects off them into a room and our eyes are often drawn to that. And the opposite can be true; streaky windows or mirrors often stand out to us because they don’t reflect cleanly the light and the surroundings. 

My Mom’s neighbor told me about a cloth she used on her windows that always left a streak free clean without glass cleaner. It was like magic! So when I got home and googled glass cleaning cloth, the E-cloth came up on the list. Instead of ordering it online, I remembered I saw the E-cloth line on display at my local Ace Hardware store so the next time I was in that area I went to Ace and bought one. 

It took a little looking to find the one for windows amongst many different E-cloths for various surfaces and/or uses. It is a two cloth system. One is a waffle cloth that you wet, ring out and wipe the glass with and the 2nd, a buffer cloth that feels similar to your phone or computer (or eyeglass) cleaning cloths. I tried it on my bathroom mirrors, full length mirror, then my oven door and even my shower doors. Wow! With little effort, they look like new! My main motivation was on the inside of my car windshield as I keep trying to clean it, but when the sun hits it just right I could see a film. And sometimes it even makes it hard to see when the sun is coming at just the right (or wrong) angle. So I cleaned the windshield, just on the inside, and so far it seems great, although I am not sure if I have encountered yet that tricky angle of the sunlight that makes it hard to see.

I have tried a variety of glass cleaners, cloths, paper towels, even vinegar and newspaper (what a mess your hands get with the newsprint!). Nothing has worked as well as this! They guarantee 300 washings of the cloth before you would need to replace it. That is a long life! I have suggested it to my manager at the gift and jewelry store I work part time at since we often have a hard time getting the front doors streak free as the sun shines through them for much of the day.

I am excited to try the other cloths and uses. I have really enjoyed my stainless steel cloth (not and E-Cloth brand) that needs only water, no chemicals, for several years now. Especially with the prevalence of stainless appliances. Especially refrigerators - finger prints are prolific! I am happy to have less cleaners and less plastic bottles under my sink. More environmentally friendly and a better outcome - win win! 
​
Have you used any of the E-cloths? What has your experience been? How many different kinds do you use or which one is your favorite?

During my morning meditation this morning this spontaneous thought arose: “I wouldn’t want to be anybody else but me! I love me!” Wow! Where did that come from I wondered?  It seemed to come from deep within me.

But really, even though there are things about other people or their lives that I think are super cool, is there really anyone else that I would switch places with - after all I would have to take it all on - their past, their present, their future, I couldn’t just pick the good things about another’s life.  And the truthful answer was no, there is not! 

I admire others. I might love what they have, or what they are doing. I might like their style, their looks, their talents, wisdom or connections (social media makes that even more pronounced) but would I take their entire life? Their kids or the fact that they don’t have kids, their stresses and challenges along with what I really like in their life? No, I decided. I really like my life. My kiddos, my house, my place in the world. Even if currently I am in hot and humid Iowa, helping my Mom recover from surgery after a fall. Here for the entire month of July. This was not how I thought my summer would go, especially after being on vacation for half of June!  But what a blessing to be able to help my Mom! To be with her, to be in her neat house, and spend so much one on one time with her, not going going going, like our usual pace, but taking things one day at a time. Perhaps the Universe conspired with my higher self, to get me here, since I had said in early spring, that I was determined go and visit my Mom this summer or fall! as It had been two years since I had seen her for her 80th birthday. Plus the following happened in early June; I smelled my Mom’s house one day while at my own house. You know how people’s houses often have a certain smell? Her’s is nice and I was caught by surprise when twice, just before her fall, I had the sense of her home and thought I caught a whiff of how her house smells. That has never happened before. Curious!

I believe this has all gone smoother because of the attitude I have chosen. Gratitude. Even if better circumstances would be preferable, I am here and able to support her and keep her from needing to recover in a nursing home which might have depressed her so much she never came out. She has always stated how she never wants to be in one, and I can’t say I blame her. Now I know there are some really nice ones out there, but those can be pricey and not likely a financial reality for her. I see this all as a blessing and not a burden. It is the push she likely needed to get serious about selling her house and moving closer to me. 

A client recently went to help her mom out of state when her mom was diagnosed with cancer. I thought, wow, how neat of her to drop everything and go to her mom. Especially after I found out how long she was there for! I thought, how did she do it? Here I am doing it, and I am feeling blessed. I did not expect that. But I feel calm about it all and appreciating all I can about the situation. I just don't allow myself to go to the guilt of stranding my retail manager or abandoning a regular client I see two times a week. Because everyone knows, these things happen. 

I am grateful for my ability to stay in a higher vibration during this time, and not get caught up in the unfortunateness of it. It is a choice. How we choose to look at something, is a choice. Doesn’t always feel like we have much choice, some situations seem so obviously “bad” but truly, it is a choice. After all, we can all recall examples of a “bad” thing that turned out to be a really “good” thing after all! 

Feng Shui has always fascinated me. I think because I could feel things as “right” or balanced or fitting into a space and when something was “off”. I really don’t know many details or rules in the practice of feng shui but I totally relate to the energy flow and how things are arranged or placed in a room impacts our experience of the space. 

Some make sense when you think about it, such as having your back to the door in an office. It is not a posture of welcoming nor a good position for seeing what is coming. If you think about how energy flows through a room, it also makes sense to me that you would not want the front door of your home to be directly across from the back door - energy doesn’t linger in your home, but rather flows in and immediately back out again. These kinds of things are interesting to me, and I love to learn about them. Yet I hesitate to get too caught up in the fine details of the what to do and what not to do according the feng shui principals, since some things are beyond our control. Like some rooms only have one wall where the bed or sofa could be. And certainly how the home is oriented on the property can’t be changed. Also, what works energetically for one of us, could be slightly different for another. I am curious how hard it is to get the ideal feng shui when you have a large family living in one house!

When I first started my business around organizing and clearing, I understood that clutter was stressful and that our lives were more of a struggle when we have too much stuff and/or when things are in disorder and there is little to no clear or tidy space that allows for calm and focus. While I was creating my business plan and turning it into what I enjoyed doing and helping others with, simultaneously I was exploring and learning more about energy work as it pertains to our body and our own energetic field and how that impacts others and the role it plays in how we perceive the world. And as I wished to share what I was learning with others, I thought I was creating two separate businesses. But it soon became clear to me that they are really one in the same. Or at least intertwined in such a way that they go together, enhancing or inhibiting one another. 

In a recent Dr. Sue Morter podcast she interviews the feng shui expert Marie Diamond and they touch on this connection. It is further confirmation to me that our inner and outer worlds are reflecting one another and that we need to connect them in our efforts to help energy flow freely throughout our inner and outer experiences of life. 

Just like how the Fab Five in the show “Queer Eye” as seen on Netflix, help transform a person’s life through a variety of ways: how they dress, eat, their living space and their mental and emotional experience of themselves. It is all important and not one area operates in a vacuum. It can be a lot to transform all at once, but knowing that ultimately one area will not click into place for good until the other areas are also tended to, can help to motivate us to look at all areas of our lives and do what we can to wake up to the connection and information that reality is providing us - giving us clues as to where we could use some help or focus.

Here is the podcast link to hear more. 
And if you have never watched an episode of Queer Eye, it is a must! Wonderful humans doing amazing things for sweet but struggling people. It is all about love in the end. My desire is for more people to learn to love themselves enough to allow for vulnerability, seeking support, and opening to their inherent worthiness as co-creators of this world.
​When you do good, we all do good! 

We are all creative beings Even those of us, like myself, that originally didn't consider ourselves particularly creative. There are many ways to be creative. Even how we shop or which route we choose to drive to our destination can be creative!

I hope you will join me in person to practice some powerful techniques that help us tune into our inherent creative wisdom for a more joyous life experience! Whether your creativity lies in music, art, literature or like me, how you set a table or put a meal together, decorate your house or pull together a family gathering, expanding our abilities to celebrate our unique creativity brings more joy in our every day lives. And this impacts those around us as well!

​ I hope to see you in early April!

Deep longings or desires will try their darnedest to manifest! 

I wanted a playhouse quite badly as a child. I was always making forts and “homes” - under tables, in the woods, in the yard.  My stepdad made an effort to build one for my sister and I. He bought an old rustic wooden truck canopy off somebody. His idea was to build some walls to set it onto to create a playhouse. However, in an attempt to lift it up to the right height, it fell over and broke. He never got around to doing more with it. My sister and I would crawl under it in the grass, but it was too low to even sit up in so needless to say, it didn’t fulfill the desire. But I continued to create little homes in the woods around us, at the neighbors house, on the beach etc. I loved making “home”!

In my adulthood I had visions of creating a little private camping compound, each small cabin with its own theme, shared space in the center, where people could come for a little get away or an entire group for a retreat or reunion.

When empty nesting happened, and the house we lived in seemed dark and lonely, I had a very strong desire to build or buy, a smaller home where I could see more sky. But why would we leave our nice family home? And my husband worked way too much to even think about tackling a construction project. There was around 20 acres for sale not far from where we lived that I had visions of building a variety of small and hopefully affordable houses on. While I did look into it, I also did a lot of “who am I to think I have the knowledge or tools to do this!?” and so I didn’t pursue it and the acreage sold. 

I also really enjoyed the idea of building an adult tree house on our property. At the time the price tag for such a “frivolous” thing was not something that I could consider discussing with my partner for more than a minute. I also feared it might be my way of wanting to escape or hide from the troubles in our relationship. 

Fast forward several years, instigated by an impending divorce and coupled with a housing crisis and inability to get a mortgage, I bought undeveloped land and purchased a tiny house and moved into that as a stepping stone along the path to building a new home with cashed out investment funds. I really loved living tiny and even at the time considered it the playhouse I never got as a kid! In my 30’s I had been collecting magazine articles and images of pre-fabricated homes I liked, as that type of building process seemed really neat to me. But then kind of forgot about it. Add to this the strong desire and knowing that I needed some more light (not living quite so deep in the woods) and here I currently sit in my new pre-fab built house, with a ton of windows and expansive vistas of sky! My desire was stronger than my hesitancy and fear and it found a way to arrive. It was not easy, nor always pleasant. But I am here. It seems it was going to happen one way or another. 

Another fun fact, when exploring builders, it was suggested I contact a pre-fab builder in OR, which turned out to have been the founder of Method Homes - the builder of several of the homes that I had saved the articles about all those years ago!

The journey is part of the learning and we are here to experience things. I am not suggesting that taking the shortest route to everything we desire is always best. However, I wonder how it would have transpired differently had I felt more empowered to explore those desires and knowings earlier? I will never know, but I can remember that my desires are important and deserve attention. Perhaps my marriage would have been less of a struggle not more, like I feared, if I had been more adamant about those desires. After all that, we are together again, with our love stronger than ever. Could that painful chapter been less so?
I didn’t really consider myself creative, yet looking back, I was creative in my home making. I am a Cancer, and family and home are of ultimate importance for Cancers’. I underestimated the gift I had to offer to my family and myself. Creating a safe, loving, comfortable and beautiful home is not trivial! Funny how I discounted it all those years. 

Other dreams I have had include a family or friends compound - where we share gardens, support and even meals at times, but have our own space as well. This is not a new concept or anything, I just love the idea. It would be wise of me to not ignore this desire if it persists. If I don’t act on it, I now see that life will transpire to get that created, in some form or another. And I would rather it not be unpleasant circumstances that get me to finally do it! Maybe it wont be a family compound, maybe it will be little rental cabins, or even treehouses! 

What are some of your reoccurring desires, longings, ideas, wishes? Those that continue, maybe with a variety of options, to come up in your mind. Pay attention to them. What about those are the most appealing? What might they be calling you toward? What does that desire feel like in your body? Can you narrow down the desire more? It is less about the physical manifestation and more about the feeling in your heart that it creates. What childhood desires can you see manifested in your adult life? Share yours with me or a friend! Write in your journal or open yourself to deeper understanding inside a meditation.

Don’t let your fear slow those strong desires down. They want to come to fruition and the more you can open to possibilities and the less you ignore them, the smoother the path toward the inevitable. After all you are here to create a life you wanted when you decided to come into this physical body. Diminish the minds resistance of the creative flow that you already are in order to facilitate a smoother more enjoyable life for yourself, your family and all the lives you will touch. I thank you in advance! 

I can't recommend enough, Dr. Sue's book "The Energy Codes". I have read it several times and of course have much time and training from and with Dr. Sue, and yet, I embody more of the wisdom each time I revisit it. I invite you to explore the book in community to really help it land so the benefits are magnified!
​Join me and others in a book study starting soon! More details can be found here... Book Study

As we glance at 2024 in the rear view mirror, while curiously peering forward to see what the 2025 road opens to, I suggest a pause in which we are fully in the moment and in our bodies rather than our busy minds. By focusing the mind on to the body and the moment, we relax. We can begin to train the mind to do this more easily and once it gets used to how wonderful it feels to do so, it can happen more quickly. Just taking a deep belly breath and releasing it with an audible sigh relaxes the autonomic nervous system. It sends the message - all is well, I am safe. Because in this moment, aren’t you? If not, please run for your life or call 911 or what ever you need to do! Or are you actually safe in this moment? I bet in this right now moment, you are. No bear, no fire, no avalanche - right? 

Perhaps you are not, right in this moment, in a state of distress. But even small levels of stress, when constant, can take a toll on our health and make our lives much harder and less pleasant than they could be. 

When I am feeling some level of concern, I can now more easily (not always yet!) notice it for what it is - created by thoughts regarding something that triggered in me, a certain vibration or recognizable feeling that I have labeled anxiety, fear, worry, stress etc.  

But if everything is working in my favor, and not only do I believe this, but I am coming to experience and understand this on a deeper level as I remember to zoom out and look at the big picture, then I can trust what is and not allow my mind to always go into action to look for danger or try to solve it. Nor to push the feeling away.

NOTE - One should not completely shut down uncomfortable feelings. There are no good or bad feelings, they just all are. So give any feeling it’s moment to be acknowledged. Breathe into the belly and exhale. Do this, while still noticing the feeling, until the intensity lessens. You will make better decisions from this new state. Notice that the mind had more to do with how you were feeling in the body then the moment or situation  itself did. It was the thoughts about something rather than the physical happening of that something. When you breathe deeper and slower, the flight or fight instinct is not present and you can use more of your body - like your heart - to engage with the situation or the world.

Since everything is in my favor, I can relax more and remain open to opportunities and possibilities and keep my stress level low. If I let my mind get the better of me, stress tends to rise and I feel worse. If I relax into the truth of a loving Universe, more options flow my way with ease. 

Example. Currently, my client load is quite low, thus I am not generating much income. I know I have a lot to offer, and that what I do offer is valuable to people in their lives. My clients have all loved working with me and have been well served. I know this is my heart and in my mind. Yet, here I sit with little financial growth. I have spoken with a number of people recently who expressed interest in using my help, even if in less traditional ways from what I advertise on my website, and each time I am buoyed up that I could get some more hours and help someone in this way! And yet they have not actually taken the next step to contact me with details. I have resisted getting to much in my head about why this seems to be the case right now.

Also, as I finally moved into my new house this Fall, my tiny house has not sold as quickly as I imagined. The first time I sold it, it happened in two days. But that one ultimately fell through after two months. Ok, because my new house was delayed further than I thought, so I still needed to live there. Worked out for the best.

About the same time, I responded to an ad for part-time work at a local retail store and was immediately hired. I have no retail experience but knew I would be good at customer service. Other benefits include getting to dress up a bit, have a source of reliable income and be more in person with folks, even offering my services if the topic came up! All those things have come to pass and I really love engaging in person with people on a regular basis again.

Options for my assessment of the situation are nearly unlimited, but it is safe to say that one could imagine a few disempowering ones; such as “I just can’t make this business work, or maybe my clients don’t really benefit from the help I give, or maybe I am not meant to do this work, or… fill in your own ideas here. 

If everything is in my favor, and it is, and if everything can be seen as an opportunity, and it can, then let’s look at the possible benefits from lack of clients and the tiny house not selling quickly.

Part-time retail job - seeing lots of friendly faces, chatting with other community members, visitors etc. An opportunity to more routinely enjoy the extravert in me. Dressing nice, with jewelry!

Tiny House not selling fast - Many more people are looking at my tiny house and the video than if it had sold quickly - in this way, I am touching many lives! We all can radiate love and bring forward healing in unforeseen ways. I have received many comments about how the video touched folks!

Recent job potentials - maybe they are not quite what is needed for me (and them) right now, but it is a way to prepare me to think of other ways I can be of service. Perhaps I would not actually enjoy doing what they need done. Or maybe simply, right now is not the ideal time for either of us, but maybe later in 2025 will be.

Not to say I have all these “benefits” accurately figured out and maybe even more or different benefits will be known later, but the point is, I can choose to focus on what is happening as a “problem” or choose to see everything as an opportunity and in my favor. 

A powerful tool in my tool belt thanks to Dr. Sue, her teachings and her book “The Energy Codes” is doing the MPower step with B.E.S.T. (bioenergetic synchronization technique). You can learn more about it on youtube, in her book, or I am happy to teach you, but basically it uses a contralateral exercise to connect the conscious and the subconscious while focusing with love on a desired truth using a positive present tense statement.

I do think, or maybe it is better to say I feel, that part of my “job” here in this lifetime is to be a person to connect with, to engage with, as I hold the space for others to be themselves, or help to hold a container of support on a group zoom call or live event, to be the example of a strong woman, brave explorer, trusting person, loving and kind human, or any number of things that people may be inspired by through me. Ways I am not even aware of, and certainly not “trying” for, but by simply being me, I can inspire! I love to help people. Especially if they actually want the help! Sometimes just the step of asking for help is what brings forth the energy needed to get to a better place. Maybe that is another way I am in service! So many possibilities! None of them, I believe, are bad. Unless I decide they are. 

Have you been able to relax into something unpleasant that when you did, actually brought about a solution with little effort? Have you pushed something to happen, through much pain and effort, that you didn’t enjoy the outcome nearly as much as you expected to? If you look at those with the lens “everything is in my favor” - how does it look to you today?
I hope you will try breathing deeper and noticing sooner, when the mind has run away with things, and then watch what happens. I’d love to hear your examples in the comments below! Or perhaps you wish to make a more formal intention of looking how everything is in your favor, by commenting below on what that looks like for you. 
Blessings of light, love and abundance to you my fellow traveler of life

Although I still remember when my elementary school classmates and I walked through the traveling King Tut exhibit in the 1970’s, a trip to Egypt was never been on my bucket list. Nor have I been fascinated with the stories of the gods and goddesses, kings and queens of ancient Egypt. History was actually my least favorite subject in school. Yet I felt a call to say yes to a tour to Egypt’s great temples and pyramids offered by Dr. Sue Morter. So I signed up.
It was totally out of my comfort zone to do this. Some of my family and friends were like - you are going where and why? I didn’t have an answer other than I got a strong “knowing” to say yes to this particular tour. And that it was with Dr. Sue and so I trusted that. And boy am I glad I did! It was an amazing experience. I learned a lot about ancient Egypt but mostly I learned about myself. Through opening to something totally unlike me, and having very few expectations for the trip, I trusted fully and just let it flow. And it unfolded beautifully. Maybe it was easier because I had not been dreaming of such a trip for most of my life or anything significant other than I listened to the yes and responded to it. I knew I was in good hands, so it wasn’t extremely hard to trust that the trip would be good. I was going to be with Dr. Sue after all!

Every detail was attended to, beginning with being met at the airport in Cairo. Things went smoothly and all the guides and coordinators handled things brilliantly. Choices of locations, lodging, transportation was top notch.
Visiting the temples, pyramids and sacred sites was both amazing and at times overwhelming. So much history, facts, stories, reasons for this and that, conquering nations changing them etc. and then there was the sites themselves. Both inside and out, the architecture, the giant statues and columns, the carvings, the hieroglyphs, and the stories the pictures told. At times I could only take in a small amount. But I did what I could and didn’t let myself feel bad when I had to say enough and tune some of it out.
Then there were the felt sensations. I felt different energies at various sites. Some I didn’t feel much or even anything at all. Some were significant. At Karnak Temple in Luxor, it felt like my body was deep into the earth, maybe up to my knees or so even as I walked. I felt condensed, but not in a heavy, negative or uncomfortable way. It was the most tangible feeling of being grounded and connected to the earth I have ever experienced. At another I felt a tingling vibration all over my body while I was there. And at a Coptic church in Cairo I felt a different kind of condensed, but again not in a scary or heavy way. I felt a little woozy but more my mind interpreted it that way than I was actually unsteady on my feet. It was pretty neat to experience something so tangible in my body and very site specific.
Dr. Sue offered her take on things, based on her experiences and the energies she had and was experiencing, which usually dug a little deeper rather than the surface level explanations for things. I enjoyed that part the most, as I have never been a history buff. But bigger picture and human relating, and the heart are all things I am able to focus on.

I brought back with me a deeper interpretation of the history or the origin of these great places. There is much more there than what was taught in history class. We tend to regurgitate what we were first taught without questioning. Now I am questioning. I also returned with the memory of the proud people who were always kind, engaging and open with our group. They met our gaze and were genuinely interested in us. The young kids especially. Unexpectedly, they would wave like mad at our tour buses and even asked for selfies with us at a park we walked through. What beautiful people who love their home. 

I am grateful for the experiences that I had. And I believe that it all went so smoothly because I kept expectations, needs and desires to a minimum, listened to a yes, ignored the critic and fear monger in my head, and went for it.

While I may not know all the reasons I was meant to go, nor fully appreciate yet all the benefits that are likely to unfold, it feels amazing to have trusted and relaxed into the flow of it all. I return feeling lighter, younger, and less fearful of the unknown. I intend to continue to bring these feelings with me into the future and step with grace and ease when ever something comes up that I am not sure how to navigate yet I get a strong pull towards. Pausing and tuning into my heart, my inner knowing, even if the mind is confused, turned out wonderfully.

How have you, will you or are you, listening to the inner yes? Big or small, please share with me! I would love to hear it.