Friday, April 24, 2015

Oh weird spring week

So it's Friday already and I can't believe how quickly this week has flown by! What a weird cornucopia of weather. It's been interesting from and educational point of view in that Angeni got to participate in a public school concert and then also in the Kiwanis music festival. Both bands she participates in scored gold for the high school level competition. She is the percussionist and has only played the drums since the end of February, so this astonishes me.

I call this the "end" of the week, but it really isn't for Brian and me.  Our work week is intensively centred on weekends and usually Monday & Tuesday.  We take our so-called days off on Wednesday and Thursday... well, sometimes, maybe.  This week was different because I am recovering from a virus.  Not a cold, or anything like that - this was something I haven't really experienced personally.  It threw off my sleep and I ache from head to toe.  So I endeavoured to do more correspondence, lots of cooking and took a couple of naps during the week.  The bug is buggering off, steadily.  I am grateful that it forced me to slow down a wee bit.

As I prepare for psychospiritual development class on Saturday night, I'm impressed by the evolvement of the students.  Most are very gung-ho and eager to take in the knowledge.  I realize not all of them will hang a shingle and offer services, but most are interested in this for their own advancement, their deepening of their own spiritual connection to source. I admire this - and it keeps me on my toes.  Some aspects of development will never change - standing to work is pretty much set in stone.  Yet, the equipment is leading me on a journey of discovery that I hope keeps me fresh and current.  I have more quipment in a re-purposed camera bag than we ever did in an entire lab!  Learning the software is also something I need help wrapping my head around.  Sound analysis software is fairly comprehensive and easy to use, but the Kinex type of software is beyond me - for now.  I will grasp it with a bit more time.  I won't give up my days off though...  too precious.

The daffodils, hyacinth, snow drops and crocuses are all beginning to bloom.  I love this time of year...  The hyacinths are in a bed coveing the graves of my cats Nonny and Bob.   Zuna Piggles rests out at the edge of the property, and her grave gets covered in wiid flowers. Hopefully this late-April snow gives up soon and we get that real spring weather again.  We did get a taste of it once already.  Brian finds his workshop qite cold this time of year.  The propane is gone and the tank is being removed next week because we can't afford to heat the shop.  We only ever did heat it to 10 degrees, so that his paints and varnishes didn't freeze.  This is reality.  But, he is braving it out there this afternooon for a bit.  It's only 5 degrees today, but the workshop is quite well insulated.

The local community is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Samual Champlain with an epic, multi-day play. It's being performed in an outdoor arena.   There are hundreds of people involved - I don't know where they will get hundreds of people from this tiny village, but whatever... The rehearsals have gone on for days, and the bass thump of their sound system rolls through the village.  I won't be attending...

We're getting out the seeds and preparing them for planting.  My favourite are the calendula seeds - they look like shrunken brown bananas.  Brian is designing feather boxes and the raised bed planters for the deck.  I can't get down on my knees to plant, and walking is difficult with my back issues, so raised beds will be delightful.  This is the first spring in the last 4 that he's felt well enough (post-surgeries) to aggressively prepare for planting...  it's precious time doing something we love and I am grateful.  

Well, have a wonderful weekend.  Blessings, Kathryn







Sunday, April 12, 2015

I heard the frogs singing…

It's nearly noon on a very sunny warm Sunday. It appears that spring might have read my last blog post about being late, because she is sure making up for it today.  It's already 12° and Brian is outside lubricating the wheels and axles on the trailer.  The trailer has a new home next week...  Anyway in the silence of this Sunday morning I've had time to communicate with our shamanic group [confirming our next gathering], and this put me in a "looking ahead" mode.  I'm not one for planning too far ahead but certainly with teaching schedules one has to get the information out into the Big World so that students have time to make a choice and register. 

We've been really heartened and grateful for the response by students to the current psychospiritual development class.  I've really pushed a lot of information on these people because they seem capable of grabbing it and running with it. Every week Brian cautions me that maybe I'm overwhelming them, but I don't think so...

In my nearly 40 years teaching I cannot recall ever having a group where individually and collectively gratitude is shown toward the teachings on a weekly basis! This is a group of genuine, committed, spiritually progressive light workers.  The key, I believe, to their advancement is the state of grace they hold - in other words their gratitude.  I do not own their gratitude; I am only the vehicle through which this cumulative knowledge is shared.  It is not my knowledge per se, but the knowledge of the divine that I've been able to glean in my personal and professional life.

So during last night's class when everyone stood to work, everyone channeled [some for the 1st time] I was gob smacked at just how advanced this group really is, right now, today.  The collective consciousness has been advancing certainly for the past 50, years but never was it more demonstrated to me than watching these people grasp the teachings and go.  In recent years we've tried offering courses and never have they run! We would hand-deliver flyers to bookstores and esoteric stores everywhere from Midland/Orillia/Barrie/Wasaga Beach/Collingwood/Thornbury and all the little communities in between - anything within an hour of our place.  The lack of community response to very inexpensive courses made me question whether the universe was telling us that we are passé, and the offering of courses is out of step with current spiritual philosophy. However, in the winter, members of the community came to us and asked us to teach what we know - that was a surprise! So it started the ball rolling.  Now we have a crystals course, dowsing, introduction to shamanism, and another round of channeling set to go this summer.  Ultimately I'd like there to be enough trained channeling students that we can have a weekly sitting circle.

This brings me back to the frogs...  At the end of last night's class one of the students poked her head back in the door and called to me "You must come here the frogs they've started singing!"   After all the students were gone I did step outside with the dogs, and indeed the frogs were singing.  I went to bed with that sound in my head to be awakened by birds singing.  I am grateful and feel blessed that spring is indeed ushering in a new sense of connectedness and growth.

Blessings to you all and may you also feel joy in this developing spring time.

Thursday, April 09, 2015

Cooking, crafting and taxes - oh my!

Well, spring is certainly taking a very long time to manifest. I am heartened by the fact that all the snow is gone from the front of the house which allows the daffodils and hyacinth to begin poking through the soil in the lawn and the gardens.  Like all lawns along the street ours desperately needs a good raking and dethatching.  It's a little too rainy and a little bit too cold to be working outdoors right now. In fact with Brian's recent cardiac issues I'm a little reluctant to have him do the yard work to the extent that it needs doing...  Angeni will have to help.  She's a good kid but this will likely elicit some episodes of teen angst.  She certainly doesn't like the adventures in the dog poop filled, post-winter minefield that is our backyard.

Over the years I've been very concerned about Brian's post-cardiac surgery diet.  In addition to it being low-fat, low-carb, low sodium, reduced meat and low-fat, it still has to be tasty.  Angeni has not liked a lot of the East Indian and vegetarian meals that I've introduced.  More teen angst.  Brian loves East Indian food and I've needed to learn about some of the more exotic spices.  I've enjoyed learning about them because in my studies I've unearthed the healing properties that the spices contain - like Tumeric and cayenne.  We are all benefiting from the change of diet.  Tonight I plan a rollicking "red beans and rice" one-pot meal. It does have a little bit of meat in it but in the past it would have been the equivalent of a serving of meat for one person, in one meal.  Now this amount of meat is enough for an entire pot of red beans and rice that will be the equivalent of 3 meals for 3 people.  I credit the new cooking channel called "Gusto" with providing an incredible amount of education on food and spice.  It's certainly broadened my food knowledge and expanded our nightly meal repertoire.  Sometimes TV has merit...  Certainly Gusto is better than the wrestling shows I used to watch , but I can't give up my fave paranormal programs.

I mentioned crafting in the title...  Doggedly determined, I've been doing some jewellery commissions, repairs and knitting a couple of interesting shawls.  I've deviated from the series I was working on - it's devoted to bird dodems and is called "Sacred Flight". The last 2 shawls are more along the lines of the visual light spectrum and relate to chakra colours. I'm still using sacred geometry principles as they relate to the mathematics of Crystal vibration, but the shawls are not about birds and more about human spirit.  When something like this comes up automatically in my art I don't fight it or try to left brain analyze it to death; rather, I let the universe flow through my work.  I don't always know what the message is but I know there is a message…  The deviation from the bird series may in fact be due to the psychospiritual development course we are teaching at the moment. We've spent a lot of time discussing the chakras, vibrations, auras, dowsing, crystals and spirits. I think this certainly impacted the direction my art has veered off to this past month.

Well, enough for now...  have a glorious, nearly-spring, weekend!