Last December, I decided to attend a retreat in Finland, of all places. A retreat in — say, Bermuda — might’ve been preferable that time of year, especially for a Minnesotan. But the Finnish retreat would be led by Dave Oshana, a spiritual teacher I admire and respect, so I put on my heated socks, zipped up my parka and got on a plane.

The retreat was held on a small island on the edge of the Baltic Sea, three hours southwest of Helsinki. Starlight reflected off snowy hills as we drove to our destination. That area of Finland is so sparsely populated I didn’t see so much as a streetlight for long stretches.

There were about 20 of us in all, and we stayed in a large farmhouse on the island. A sizable A-frame nearby was used for our group meetings. It was on the last night of my visit that something quite remarkable happened.

As I sat quietly in the vaulted structure waiting for our evening session to begin, I looked out the window at the evergreens laden with fresh snow, and felt like I was in a Christmas card — or perhaps some holiday movie from the ’40s with Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and Bing Crosby. I wouldn’t have been surprised if, at that moment, jolly St. Nick himself came sliding up with a team of Finnish reindeer.

I was also struck by the quiet and peace that descended upon us as we sat surrounded by flickering candles. Dave began our last night together by posing a simple question: “What do you think of God?”

The attorney next to me gave a thoughtful answer that reflected his fine intellect. I was up next…Hmmm, what to say? I certainly have read many books on the subject and so I shared what I thought was a clever point: “Thomas Aquinas, arguably the greatest Christian theologian ever, concluded at the end of his life that he only knew one thing for sure — that we can never know what God is, we can only know what God is not.” In other words, our finite pea brains will never be able comprehend the infinite. Yet, even with all our limitations, we can know that God is not ignorant, cruel, prejudice or unfair. As the next person responded, I was left feeling rather pleased with my answer.

When we got to the far corner of the room, a long-term student of Dave’s broke down in a deep sob and recounted how he had almost died in a plane crash in China. He concluded by saying that in that moment, he had experienced a grace that he could not express in words. The woman next to him then spoke through tears of a heart-wrenching loss and that she, too, had experienced a peace beyond understanding.

Afterward, Dave asked the class who we thought had dared to be the most open, honest and vulnerable? We were unanimous: the two in the corner. He then asked to whom would we like to go to and comfort? Unanimous again: the two in the corner.

Dave went on to say that in the end, when all that is artificial in us is stripped away, what is left is our true essence, and that essence is one with heaven. All you have to do is look into the eyes of a baby to understand what this essence is…purity, innocence, curiosity, joy and a sense of wonder.

The two students in the corner were willing to be open, honest and vulnerable and, as a result, we each felt compelled to comfort them. If we, burdened by selfishness and other human failings, instinctively wanted to comfort them, then how much more does heaven — i.e., God — want to comfort these people?

Dave concluded by saying that heaven is tuned into our hearts and simply can’t hear the clever arguments and righteous opinions of the mind. The compassion of heaven is limitless and eagerly awaits our call, but it is tuned into only one frequency: hearts that are open, honest and vulnerable. All else is static.

If, during this holiday season, we each take the risk to share our most open, honest and vulnerable selves, perhaps we can experience heaven on earth.

After the events this week in the Middle East, I have been feeling a deep sense of sorrow. I had many discussions both with people who were celebrating and with people, like me, who just felt sad at the state of the world. I keep thinking we all need to do better than this.

Today I realized that I was on the verge of tears for no apparent reason. It had been coming and going for quite some time, but today on the drive home I found them welling up in me. I had the radio on in the car and a Depeche Mode song came on. “People are people so why can it be, that you and I should get along so awfully” and “I can’t understand, how can a man, hate another man. Help me understand.” The dam broke. I was crying and driving and thinking that I just don’t understand people. I felt like an alien in this world, looking on in horror at what we do to each other.

I was on my way to walk around a lake and I drove there with a certain sense of desperation. I needed something to help me either understand or find peace with the world.

It was very windy and it was even more so next to the lake, which further agitated me. I was looking at the people passing me on my walk — hoping, I think, to see something to pull me out of the state I was in. It occurred to me that I really needed a hug. And as I passed the people around the lake I thought, “I bet they could use one, too.”

Then it came to me to picture myself giving each of them a hug. One by one, as they passed me, I imagined what it would be like to hug them. I looked at each person and tried to feel myself hugging them and what kind of hugger they might be or what kind of reaction they might have. I imagined some would be rather jolly about it and perhaps chuckle good naturedly. Some would maybe only give a shoulders-touching-tapping-on-the-back kind of hug, while others would give full body hugs. Some would be happy, some would be embarrassed and some would be standoffish.

I passed one young man standing on the shore, looking at the lake and I nearly burst into tears again, because he seemed so sad. Some people looked like they rarely got hugged and others looked like they were surrounded with people to hug. When I passed two people who were together, I imagined a group hug. In my mind I hugged the elderly, the children, the men, women, dogs, the runners, walkers and bikers. I even pictured giving the ducks a happy scratch under the feathers.

After a while I noticed that I felt better, lighter. Some of my sadness had dissipated. Then I not only pictured me hugging everyone, but I sent a burst of loving energy to them as I passed. That is when some people actually noticed me noticing them. A few brave souls met eyes with me and kind of smiled. Not full smiles, those tight-lipped-half-smiles we reserve for strangers or when we are putting on a brave face. But they smiled. The energy in me started to return and the sadness lifted.

I began to feel unity and kinship with my fellow humans again. I remembered that we are all, every one of us, capable of love, even the people with vastly different world views than my own. We all have the same basic needs — food, shelter and affection. And we all sometimes just need a hug.

I was surprised to receive a Facebook friend invitation from Eric Butterworth, a respected author and minister who introduced me to the New Thought movement many years ago. The astounding element of Dr. Butterworth’s invitation is that he is dead. He passed away eight years ago. How he found his way onto Facebook is a matter of great interest to me.

The Internet and Facebook bear huge metaphysical lessons. In truth, no one ever dies and we are capable of communicating interdimensionally. In the movie The Last Starfighter, a young Jedi-like disciple grows sad when he learns that one of his heroes has been killed. His mentor tells him, “He is not dead. He is just battling evil on another dimension.” On a more earthly plane, a friend of mine told me that his mother had just passed away. When I offered him my condolences, he explained, “She really just changed addresses.”

Just as the essence of a person never dies, neither do relationships. All real relationships are eternal. You might break up, get divorced, move away from each other, or one of you might pass on. None of these logistical shifts diminishes the relationship. Only the love is real. Everything else is just storyline. A Course in Miracles tells us, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.”

One of my favorite John Denver songs is “Annie’s Song.” When I attended one of John’s concerts, he mentioned that Annie’s Song is the most popular of all of his compositions.

“When I went to India,” he said, “people would stop me on the street and sing to me, ‘You fill up my senses….’” When I read John’s autobiography, Take Me Home, I learned that he wrote the song for his wife Annie, from whom he later got divorced. Initially, I felt sad that such an exhilarating romantic song yielded to divorce. Then I realized that the love John expressed when he wrote the song was genuine. What happened after that is less important than the passion that flowed through him at that moment. Though the marriage ended, the passion that inspired the song is eternal and available to anyone choosing love at any time. Forms of relationship may change, but the energy that joins people in their finest moments cannot be destroyed.

I met John Denver when I was walking along a remote road on Maui. Driving a rental car, he pulled over and asked me if I wanted a ride. I was enjoying my walk, and much as I would have liked to ride with him, I told him thanks but I would continue walking. I took John’s hand and told him how much his music had inspired me over many years. He smiled, told me, “Thank you,” and continued on his way. A few years later I learned that John had died in a small plane crash. Upon hearing that news, I was so grateful that I had that moment to touch him and say thank you. Like John’s music, that moment is mine forever.

If you have gone through a breakup or divorce; or parted ways with a friend; or experienced the death of a loved one, take heart. The precious elements of the relationship are yours always. People and circumstances come and go, but your connection in Spirit is inseparable.

That’s why and how dead people can friend you on Facebook. They don’t really go very far from you, just behind a curtain. You can’t touch them with your fingers, but you can touch them with your mind and heart. That’s why I’m establishing an alternative to Facebook. I’m calling it Faithbook. We’re making a movie about it called The Spiritual Network. On Faithbook you are connected to everyone everywhere all the time and you don’t need a computer to communicate. There are no annoying ads or silly games, and the organizers don’t keep changing the rules. You make friends only by the Law of Attraction, and messages that you would have to block on Facebook never get to you on Faithbook because they don’t match you. You can easily communicate with departed loved ones, because on Faithbook no one ever dies.

All relationships offer us the opportunity to discern between reality and illusion. We make up all kinds of stories in relationships that cause us pain and sorrow. The relationship journey evolves from the stories we made up to stories that are true. Contrary to what soap operas, romance novels and movies tell you about relationships, the only real purpose of relationships is to experience deeper love. That love does not depend on what our bodies are doing. It depends solely on what our heart and minds are doing.

When Facebook became popular, I resisted joining because I did not want to spend any more time on the computer. Now I like it. Where else can you get messages from dead people you love? In the old days you would have to go to a medium to get messages from the departed. Now you go to social media.

It’s kind of cool when you think about it: No one ever dies. They just move to Facebook.

This is the time of year when many of us turn our attention to feeding the hungry. When most people think about feeding the hungry, we consider giving canned goods to the poor or serving at a soup kitchen. And what a benevolent service that is! Yet, there is a hunger far more pervasive in our culture than the hunger for physical food, a malady from which hundreds of millions of people suffer every day. It is the hunger for presence and connection.

Recently I was sitting in a club lounge at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on a hectic day. Adverse weather conditions had delayed most flights, and the sitting areas were crowded with frustrated travelers. As I got settled, I noticed a woman across the aisle from me. She appeared to be an executive, talking on her cell phone loudly, giving orders to her subordinates. The lady seemed generally irritated and upset, demanding, and rather rude. She went on for quite a while in this manner over a number of calls to different people.

A few minutes later a cleaning lady came through the lounge. A Hispanic woman, roughly the same age as the executive, she bore a kind smile and offered a pleasant, “Hello, how are you?” to the folks she passed. As she picked up the trash and wiped down the counters, she seemed at peace with herself and her work, a sharp contrast to the executive and many of the other travelers.

I marveled at the irony of the scene. Here were lots of business travelers in a club lounge that cost a lot to enter; the patrons likely earned significant salaries, lived in upscale houses, and were successful professionals. By contrast, this humble cleaning lady wore a smock bearing the company name “Scrub,” probably earned minimum wage, and lived in a rented apartment. Yet, she seemed like the happiest person in the room. If ever there was a teaching that happiness comes from the inside out, here it was.

As we move into the holiday season we will exchange gifts, most of which you can touch with your fingers. Yet, as I learned from the cleaning woman, the gift of presence runs far deeper. If you are not present, you are absent, and if you are absent you have missed the most precious gift of all: this moment. A fellow in one of my seminars recounted that he had been feeling unfulfilled in his marriage for many years, and he was disappearing daily. One day his 11-year-old daughter told him, “You’re not here, daddy. You’re a ghost.”

We’re all familiar with Ebenezer Scrooge’s “Christmas Carol” encounter with the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and to come. If we were to put a modern spin on the story, Scrooge might meet himself as the ghost of Christmas absent. Christmas and the holidays may come and go, but if you are not here, all the protocols and festivities are meaningless.

I have had my own lessons in the importance of being present and the tragedy of being absent. After I moved to Hawaii, I bought a lovely house in the country and I offered a married couple a rental unit on the property in exchange for caretaking. At that time I was very busy, traveling a great deal. During my times at home, I was constantly debriefing from the last trip or preparing for the next one. As soon as I felt present, it was time to go out again. I was on a treadmill.

One day the wife took me by the arm and invited me to stroll the grounds with her. As we walked, she made a statement that proved to be one of the greatest gifts of my life. She said, “Look at this magnificent property, Alan! Here are trees, birds, flowers and glorious sunrises. It is heaven on Earth. But how much do you enjoy it? You’re hardly here, and when you are here, you’re rushing to come and go. We’re your caretakers, and we enjoy your property more than you do. I wish you would experience the peace and joy that we do here.”

Now that got my attention. My caretakers were enjoying my home more than I was! That day I made a commitment to use my free time for soul satisfaction, not work, and now, after years of practice, I am finally enjoying my property as much as my caretakers did.

I’m not suggesting you need to move to Hawaii to be happy. To the contrary, the goal is to find connection wherever you are. Busy places are the most likely to distract us from connection, and the most powerful places to practice it. A supermarket checkout clerk counted that out of over 200 people she served on her shift, 57 were talking on their cell phones. Many of them, she reported, were discourteous, acting as if she was interrupting them from something more important, while she was simply trying to help them. It’s not what you get done that makes or breaks a life. It’s how you get it done.

Most people are hungry for human contact, many are starving for it, and some are dying for it. This holiday season let’s feed the hungry, starting with our own hunger for depth, meaning, and connection. Then maybe we can attain the extraordinary success of the cleaning lady.

Dimas Alapadi of Sao Paolo, Brazil, was always intrigued that he did not resemble his four sisters. “There was something different about me,” he explained. “I had blonde hair and blue eyes and my sisters had dark hair and eyes. I looked German while my parents were of Italian descent. Something did not add up.”

At age 24 Alapadi had a DNA test done, which confirmed that he was indeed not the child of his supposed parents. His parents were shocked. The family researched hospital records for the day of Dimas’ birth, and found that another boy had been born on the same day – of Germanic parents. The babies had accidentally been switched.

The Alapadi family contacted the family of Elton Plaster, the other child born on Dimas’ birthday. His wealthy parents owned a large farm. The Plasters were surprised, but not flustered. They invited the Alapadis to build a house on their land, so both families could live together.

“This is the way it should be,” Adelson Plaster noted. “We are all together and I now have two sons living and working here.” Dimas and Elton both feel blessed by their new circumstances. “It’s not everyone who can say he has two fathers and two mothers living together with him,” they noted.

Odd as this story may sound, in a way it is your story, too. Soon after your birth you began to believe that you were a child of the world, not your original spiritual source. Yet something inside you knew there had to be more to life than the one that you were living. So you began to search for something better. You tramped many avenues in search for meaning, and eventually discovered that you are made more of energy than stuff. With such insight you are entitled to build your home in the rich estate of love, not the hovel of fear. The switch was not permanent; the homecoming is.

If you have sensed that you do not quite fit into the world, you may have more company than you realize. You may be a part of a very large group described as Cultural Creatives, a term coined by sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson in their book The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World. Ray and Anderson give credibility to people who are disenchanted with traditional religion and societal roles, hold visionary values, and seek a lifestyle unlike the masses. So what you thought was wrong with you may be what’s right with you.

This puts a new spin on your life purpose. You may not need to force yourself into a suit that doesn’t fit you and adapt and adjust to relationships, careers and lifestyles that make you feel small and hungry for better. If you have felt guilty or weird for being spiritual, gay, uninterested in a corporate position, bored with television, happy with a humble car, or bashful about revealing your psychic experiences, you may be closer to home than you know. You may be living exactly the life you came to live, and you simply need confidence to claim it.

A touching parable tells of an old Chinese woman who went down to the river each morning, where she filled two pots with water and carried them up the hill to her house, the pots hanging on the ends of a large stick she carried on her shoulders. One pot, however, had a crack in it and by the time the woman reached her house, half the water in the pot had drained out of the crack.

Over the years the broken pot felt ashamed of its deficiency and finally it apologized to the woman. “I know that I have been defective over these many years,” it confessed, “and you have lost a lot of water on account of my deficit. Please forgive me.”

The old woman smiled and told the pot, “I knew you had the crack from the first day I used you. So I planted flower seeds on the side of the path over which you hung. Now there is a long, thick row of colorful flowers on your side of the path, and none on the side of the ‘perfect’ pot. So there was nothing wrong with you at all. Thank you for helping make my world more beautiful.”

This is good news for crackpots. Your journey of difference finally makes a difference. You were not born to be the same. You were born to be unique.

In the film The Lake House, one character feels lost and confused and does not know where to go. A friend advises her, “Go where you most feel like yourself.” If you find yourself in a relationship, family, job or lifestyle where you do not feel like yourself, the universe may be giving you a sign to seek your right place. I am not suggesting you run away from your relationship, family or job. I am suggesting you simple gravitate to where you feel most at home.

Ultimately the Alapadi and Plaster boys were reunited with their true parents, and they also got to live with the families who raised them. It’s a happy ending. All switches at birth are rectifiable. You just have to tell the truth about where you belong.

Every single day I marvel at the incredibly complexity of reality, the layers upon layers of dimension that make it possible for us to even be alive. It’s not just a collection of muscle cells that allows your heart to beat, nor just a collection of neurons that allows your mind to think. And how do you explain emotions and synchronicity and the transformation of a chrysalis into a butterfly?

On a very mundane level, I understand that what makes the internet work are the links that connect everything into a single web. These links are like the spaces that connect the words that make the sentence. Like the silence that connects the notes that make the song. Like the nails that connect the boards that hold the house together.

What I am beginning to realize is that there is not one thing out of place. The father’s anger teaches the son the value of peace. The fallen tree is now shelter for a family of squirrels. The shadow of a newly risen skyscraper darkens the corner office across the street, giving solace to a migraine sufferer who fought the sun every afternoon for twenty years.

Acknowledging the interconnected totality of all that is, we are led to Sir Isaac Newton, who told us that for every act, there is an equal and opposite reaction. From a holistic perspective, that means that every action affects the whole. The prime directive for time travelers is to not disrupt the space-time continuum – if you change the way things are, then the way things were will never be the same.

And then we come to the prime directive for the rest of us: the Law of Karma, which tells us that similar actions will lead to similar results, or what comes around, goes around.

All of this leads me to share with you a video that I had ordered via Netflix, one that sat near our television for several weeks, neglected I guess because it had the potential to be forgettable. Last night I said to my wife, “I guess we should watch that movie so we can send it back.”

The video, Home, a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is a history of Earth. It reveals how the metals in the Earth’s core are the stuff of stars, and how Homo sapiens (Latin: “wise man” or “knowing man”) is one of the newest species of life on the planet. And then it proceeds to show how this new species, in a relatively short amount of time, has proceeded to do what nothing in the history of Earth had ever done, destroyed the incredibly complex balance of nature.

Link by link, it has been broken.

While the facts about our environmental crisis are just as upsetting in this film as all the others, Home hits home by reminding us how much we are nature. It reveals the Earth’s incredible beauty, and reminds us that the imminent danger we face is an opportunity for us: It is not a time for pessimism.

I encourage you to watch this film, and allow yourself to be moved by it. I was, to my core.

Sixth of a seven-part series

In this installment of the seven-part series, I will offer suggestions about how to dismantle the matrix and live a life of self-sovereignty, spiritual freedom and glory, and in part seven I will offer my interpretive insights and impressions about the theories, prophecies and predictions associated with 12/21/2012.

In a previous installment, we explored how it might feel relatively easy to accept that the matrix fiercely and dutifully governs the design and framework of Earth’s political and social systems, economic, educational and cultural constructs, religious structures and most New Age spiritual systems. However, somewhat more challenging and confronting to acknowledge is that the matrix governs the larger context of existence.

If you have stayed with this series this far, you are without doubt willing not only to entertain these concepts, but take the steps necessary to dismantle the matrix at its core. As I also proposed in a previous installment, the Source – the creative wellspring at the center of all that is – needs us to examine the condition of our current Earth reality and accept that we are living in a matrix. The Source also desires us to confront, as author David Icke and others have bravely done, the degree to which the human race and reality is manipulated by those who control world events and how these factors affect the global awakening. I propose that it is an honor for us to join with these other brave renegades in rising from our knees so we might as, Mr. Icke proclaims, “take back the world from the sinister network of [global elite/secret government] families and non-human entities that covertly control us from cradle to grave.”

Spiritual adulthood
The current paradigm shift requires several things of us. At the heart of this paradigm shift is spiritual adulthood and freedom, and the completion of this shift is dependent upon our graduation from spiritual adolescence to spiritual adulthood. The most vitally productive way to participate in this paradigm shift is by becoming spiritual adults.

Indeed, becoming a spiritual adult is necessary to dismantle the matrix. The most essential step in this endeavor summons us to reclaim our essence by embracing and embodying our cosmic identity as divine emanations of the Source.

In light of this, let’s recap something we explored in previous installments. We enter the physical world in the third dimension having forgotten our true divine identity. Remember how we previously examined the fables passed down that speak of the time in our mother’s wombs when the veil doesn’t exist and during which we remember all the wisdom of the universe. But many of these tales end by narrating that at birth our Guardian Angel gives us a sharp blow that causes us to forget everything we’ve learned! Isn’t it interesting that we arrive in an incarnational experience programmed to forget the truth about our celestial origin and clueless about what we came here to do? After eons of forgetting, we believe it is our nature to forget. We forget to the extent that we forget that we’ve forgotten.

Nevertheless, although oppositional forces sew doubt, restrict our receptivity and confound our remembering, I believe that our soulfire burns brightly and is the conduit for our re-membering, that we are designed to remember that we are made of the same essence as the Source, and that this, and nothing less than this, is our honorable divine lineage. In her book, Change We Must, Nana Veary shares, “…in Divine Providence, salvation is unnecessary, but self-discovery is essential. We do not save that which is lost; we merely discover that which is always there – our divinity.”

Four passkeys
After reclaiming our essence, there are, in my experience, four passkeys to crossing the spiritual adulthood threshold that function as a foundation upon which we can extricate ourselves from any and all prisons. As part of this exploration, we’ll examine three of the four.

• Personal authenticity – Authenticity is the highest spiritual principle and the cornerstone of our humanity. When we are authentic, we are genuine, true, sincere, trustworthy and reliable. Also, being authentically who we are at any given moment restores us to wholeness and re-establishes our sovereignty.
• Self-examination – Self-examination is the main ingredient of enlightenment. Regardless of the many definitions of enlightenment floating around that contain instructions for attaining this state that include remaining present in the moment, striving for humility, radiating unconditional love and serenity and/or aligning only with experiences and expressions of “positive” emotions, enlightenment is the process of bringing the light of awareness to darkness and illumination to denial. Carl Jung describes this process quite superbly, “Enlightenment doesn’t occur from sitting around visualizing images of light, but from integrating the darker aspects of the self into the conscious personality.”
• Separating belief from truth – It is essential that we examine the truths that we’ve been holding to ascertain to what degree these truths are now holding us. In his book, Becoming Like God, Michael Berg fearlessly addresses the third passkey by declaring “our lives are a war zone, a ceaseless battle against a negative force that operates inside our skin, our brain, ourselves, and consigns us to a robotic existence and kills us as a reward.”

Dismantling the matrix’s influence over our lives involves awakening to the truth that the matrix swindles us into serving our egos and thrives not only on us succumbing to indecisive lemming-hood, but also on engendering doubt, confusion, annoyance and suspicion. Even now, it opposes our awakening and the reclamation of our self-sovereignty by taunting us to deny that which resonates as truth. It wants us to acquiesce to both our incredulousness and our numbing comfort so as to validate that uncovering shrouded truths is at best annoying.

Our comfort zones
This brings us to an essential step in dismantling the matrix’s influence that involves our comfort zones. As part of this step, we must be willing to confront the degree to which we define comfort as the absence of extreme pain.

The comfort zone of the oppositional energies – our individual ego and the world mind mental matrix – is formidable. We are told, as part of the illusion, that if we seek comfort we will have ease. However, it is only when we seek truth and freedom that deep and lasting ease can envelope us. When we move out of the comfort zone, the opponents become aware of their diminishing hold on us. The way to our power is through responsibility. If we negate new concepts because they collide with the acceptable structure of our current beliefs, we might be resigning not only ourselves but also others who will benefit from our courage to remain within the grip of the incomplete and inaccurate belief paradigms enforced by most religious dogma as well as assorted psycho-spiritual suppositions.

Consequently, it is essential that we utilize the first spiritual adulthood passkey of personal authenticity and, in so doing, recognize and own how and when we become anxious and rigid in the face of change and, therefore, tend to hold onto familiar beliefs. Familiar beliefs reinforce the repetition of patterns, and this paradigm shift assures us that we cannot afford to remain stuck in repetitious patterns. When we acknowledge the truth of our current emotional, psycho-spiritual state, then we can move forward into expansive receptivity.

Recognize truth
This brings us to a point of great magnitude: There is a profound connection between authenticity and our ability to recognize truth. To access and embrace the larger truths of life, we must be willing to acknowledge the truth about our everyday lives, including the state of our spiritual evolution.

In the same vein, it is also of great consequence that we take a courageous moment to employ the second spiritual adulthood passkey of self-examination, to the light of truth to the fact that most, if not all Earth inhabitants, experience bewilderment, fear, struggle, endurance, and suffering, decay and death as the main ingredients of their experience of 3-D. We all know individuals who function like intoxicated robots on a treadmill of illusion, convinced that they’re getting somewhere. We also know individuals who are devoted to complacency. Some of us feel relieved that we’re not one of them.

However, all Earth inhabitants struggle to maintain an awakened state. Many meditate regularly, read spiritual books, go on sacred pilgrimages, donate to charities, participate in spiritual programs and have profound, illuminating experiences that temporarily change their lives. But these experiences often dwindle or are diminished by subsequent feelings of uncertainty, superiority, fear, restlessness or envy, with only a few translating into actual transformation. We don’t have a lasting sense of having transformed because we don’t yet believe it is possible. We don’t believe it’s possible, because we have not yet owned the truths we recognize and remember.

Liberating ourselves
A further next step revolves around each of us liberating ourselves from all constraints associated with our identities inclusive of our name, gender, job title, our allegiance to our roles in relationships and groups, as well as from our addiction to approval. I recommend that we explore how in our daily thoughts and actions, the matrix holds us prisoner using the ego aspect of our minds to hypnotize us.

The ego aspect of our minds is where the matrix plugs into and operates from, because our egos function in survival mode from a place of fear. Therefore, to counter this, all aspects of our earthly/ego mind must serve the heart, because through the portal of the heart not only are we intimately connected to our intuitive knowing, but we also have access to the far-reaching wisdom of cosmic mind. I further propose that we observe how often we find ourselves thinking the thoughts we have been trained to think and accepting the pathways we have been trained to accept. Next, I champion us to open to discover new, perhaps even astonishing ways of thinking and acting, noticing when these discoveries are accompanied by thrilling, life-enhancing sensations.

Our current Earth reality is not only an illusionary dream world, it is a perversion of what we are entitled to experience as life, and that the matrix not only generates this dream world, but its primary purpose is to keep us oblivious to its existence and purpose. We have been conditioned to scoff at the notion that there might actually be another way of being.

Our cosmic heart
Nevertheless, each of us has a window in our cosmic heart through which we can catch a vision of what can be. Our cosmic heart is our most beloved and formidable ally. Therefore, another step must take us to this sacred center, deep in the core of our being, which I refer to as our Cosmic Heart Communion Chamber. This sacred center is a point of consciousness, which, with the assistance of our imaginations as architects, is easily envisioned as a familiar place with which we can deeply resonate.

Our Cosmic Heart Communion Chamber may remain inactive simply because we’ve been taught to concentrate on our third-eye area as the meditative focal point. In my experience, meditation, in which we still our minds, focus on our breathing and/or repeat a mantra, is useful for achieving levels of tranquility and equilibrium. However, if we’re seeking to kindle inner knowing, to receive insight and guidance and to achieve clarity that moves us forward on our journey, meditative journeys that are akin to vision quests may prove more effective.

We enter the chamber of our Cosmic Heart through the doorway of the heart, because not only is the heart the center point in the overall energy system, it is the guardian of our intuition. Intuition is our profound inner knowing, our instinctual inner acuity and is sometimes referred to as a “hunch” at the level of instinct. It is a permanent plug into truth, understanding, knowledge and wisdom that is hardwired from the heart through the soul to our Macrocosmic Self (referred to in other traditions as the Higher Self, Oversoul and/or Essence Self) and is commonly called ESP (extrasensory perception) or sixth sense. It is through intuition that our Macrocosmic Self speaks to us, with our soul functioning as a translator or interpretive bridge.

Furthermore, connecting with our intuition is the key to unlocking the truths encoded within us, and these encoded truths are our Holy Grail. This is why it is imperative that our earthly/ego mind must serve the heart. Our cosmic heart is the doorway to the far-reaching wisdom of cosmic mind, and consequently, when we’re in our hearts, our consciousness is expanded and our receptivity is enhanced. It is from this point of consciousness that we know that life is not as it should be, and that the Source’s original hope and intent has gone awry.

Multi-dimensional beings
A crucial and enormously self-affirming step involves accepting that there are multi-dimensional beings who designed and maintain both the matrix prevalent in 3-D Earth, as well the larger or more universal matrix and whose intent is to keep us ignorant, distracted and divided as a way of hindering both our individual and collective spiritual evolution. Remember, even though the Source has never been imprinted with any notions of separation or non-deservedness, because it is part of every atom of everything created from its essence, it experiences the reverberation of all that transpires from all those who issued forth from Its ocean.

One of the long-range effects of the misperception of “the fall” was that it disrupted the conscious flow of exchange between creator and creation, with some of the offspring trusting inner direction less and less and therefore seeking direction more and more from without. The disruption in the exchange didn’t just impact the offspring but the Source, as well. Therefore, the dissonance we experience in our current earth incarnation – either consistently or intermittently, and have likely experienced for eons – is a reflection of dissonance experienced by the Source. Whatever occurs in one realm is a reflection of what is occurring in all other realms. Any rifts existing between the Source and any of its offspring or between any of the waves of offspring or factions within those waves perpetuate the dissonance.

Consequently, for a long, long time we’ve all been impacted by labels, imprints, overlays, distortions and entanglements, and these have fueled many rifts. We can contribute to mending these rifts by activating our encoded knowledge of our cosmic origins, the nature of divinity and the origins of earth life so that all the threads in the tapestry of truth can be illuminated. Indeed it is time, after eons of forgetting and believing it is our nature to forget, to halt this pattern by remembering and in so doing reclaim our sovereignty. As we do this, we realize that there are no beings possessing an empirical right to evaluate our behavior that have authority to issue disapproving retribution or merciful grace. There are no deities who maintain hierarchical authority over us to whom we must submit for guidance, defer to for connection or into whose hands we must surrender our destiny.

Therefore, I propose that we wholeheartedly thank all beings on whom we have depended – Gods and Goddesses, Spirit Guides, Ascended Masters, Hosts of Heaven, Lords of Karma, Ancestors – for their service, discharge them from their stations and posts, require that the covenant with them be dissolved and proclaim that all (us and them) are free to revise perspectives, to release previously ensconced beliefs and to throw off the shackles of what has become a prison for all.

Activating and reclaiming
Let’s proclaim our commitment to the ongoing process of activating and reclaiming the truth about the nature of our divinity and cosmic origins so that all the threads in the tapestry of truth can be woven and illuminated. Let’s broadcast that we are taking a quantum leap into spiritual adulthood and that our dream of self-governing, co-creative spiritual freedom is becoming a living reality.

As we uncover and reclaim the empowering threads of truths and weave these illumined threads together, our perspectives are revised, we release previously ensconced beliefs, throw off the shackles of what has become a prison, discharge ourselves and others from stations and posts taken up eons ago and realign our trajectory in such a way that genuinely and powerfully transforms all that is. This is an important aspect of the threshold of spiritual adulthood, and the Source wants us to cross that threshold, to walk out of all prisons into the warm embrace of truth and reclaim our rightful heritage.

Now that we have discharged others and ourselves from stations and posts taken up eons ago, let’s discuss convening with I refer to as our Celestial Council. To convene with our Celestial Council it is recommended that we first journey into our Cosmic Heart Communion Chamber, for our sacred center of communion does not recognize wounds of unworthiness and is untouched by maladies of untruth.

Next, it is vital that we align with our Macrocosmic Self and, from that point of consciousness, send out an invitational telepathic beam that reverberates with the truth of our cosmic origins, that proclaims that we are a drop from the Great Wellspring embracing the principles of non-interference, unconditional regard and do-no-harm, and that affirms our Macrocosmic Self as the facilitator of this gathering.

Our Celestial Council is comprised of Beings from various dimensions within this and other frequency bands that resonate with co-creative equality, integration, and revelation of truth as well as the full reclamation of our essential self-sovereignty. Our Celestial Council will always gather in a Circle because the Circle does not recognize hierarchies. The Circle honors our uniqueness while highlighting our points of connection, affirming all participants as both teacher and student, with each upholding his/her areas of expertise and inherent wisdom. The wisdom flowing through our Celestial Council, with our Macro Selves as the facilitators is not merely information but a power unit, a direct transmission of empowering, clear, illuminating, revelatory energy.

Freedom
We often do not experience freedom and/or transform because we believe we cannot. We must leave this prison, and doing so requires taking an unremitting stand for truth, coupled with a relentless refusal to settle for anything less than total freedom. Entertaining ideas and information will not suffice, and good intentions can only take us so far because they leave an opening through which the insidious force of doubt and fear can permeate.

Furthermore, wanting to believe is not the same as being certain. Being certain requires a deep, core commitment. We must embrace this commitment with every fiber of our being and the force of our innermost destiny.

In Becoming Like God, Michael Berg tells a story about a famous Kabbalist who experienced great pain and despair seeing people who had begun their journey but failed to complete it. It caused this individual even greater despair than his awareness of all those millions who never embarked on the journey in the first place. Mr. Berg further submits that “This journey will not fit into our schedules…will not be convenient…and that is important, if not crucial, to realize that our souls hang in the balance.” Allowing ourselves to be distracted is akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic or, as Mr. Berg states “watching television while our house burns down.” In addition, Mr. Berg illustrates that “we can tap gently on the board for 100 years and not break it. But if we focus all of our force in a single, wholehearted blow, the board will shatter.” Neale Donald Walsch, in his book, Tomorrow’s God, urges us to consider that it’s “not a question of whether you have what it takes, but whether you take what you have and use it.”

A trailblazer, by nature, yearns to explore uncommon knowledge. Therefore, I implore each of us to have faith in ourselves as spiritual trailblazers and independent thinking renegades. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “renegade,” from the Spanish renegado, means to deny or disagree with, and along with that there is a reference to the word apostate. And, “apostate” from the Latin aspostata and the Greek apostasia means to stand off or away from; to depart from, leave or discard one’s beliefs. Because “apostate” felt very much like apostle to me, I investigated further. And, indeed, according to the same source, “apostle” from the Latin apostolus and the Greek apostolos means messenger; a person sent forth to deliver an epistle; the chief advocate of a new principle or system. We have the right and privilege to be renegade, spiritual trailblazing messengers that advocate a new way of being.

We have a choice
We are encoded to graduate spiritually and this encoding pre-dates all personal, social, cultural, and religious grids. Moreover, we are not now nor have we ever been condemned to wander in a bewildering maze of mystery and domination. We have a choice. We have always had a choice, but now we are vividly aware that we have a choice, and it is a profound choice.

Having activated our cosmic heart communion chamber, encountered and embraced our authentic selves, reclaimed our essence identity, undergone self-examination and separated restrictive beliefs from the living truth, we are ready to continue taking steps that contribute to us radiating our spiritual significance. I entreat all of us to accept that any resistance to radiating our spiritual significance is not because we are seeking to steer clear of our fear-driven ego agenda, but rather because we are feeling challenged by the awesome prospect of our co-creative power and responsibility.

I cannot stress vehemently enough the importance of our conscious participation, and therefore ardently encourage each of us to allow any chains that have bound us to dissolve so that our dreams of self-governing spiritual freedom will dominate our every waking moment.

In closing part six, I leave us with a Message From the Hopi Elders:

“There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel that they are being torn apart
and they will suffer greatly.
Know that the river has a destination.
The Elders say we must let go of the shore,
push off into the middle of the river
and keep our eyes open and our heads above water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate!

The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
Banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done
in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

I have a favorite park near my home. It is very large with many beautiful trails that flow through prairie land, wooded areas, beautiful pines, and a natural apple orchid.

As I was walking alone one day through the park, I became aware of the trees – their beauty, their strength, and what seemed to me to be their wisdom. I stood there breathing in, seeming to breathe in their strength and vitality. It was as if I was able to feel their essence.

I felt so alive, invigorated, with a renewed sense of connection to the universe. Feeling grateful for the experience, I gave thanks and continued on my path.

Over the last couple of years I have been blessed with a cascade of experiences of connection, filling me with love, appreciation and gratitude for the moment. It has become a daily blessing and I give thanks for my connection.

As the earth continues to shift and our vortexes spin faster, I know that I am not the only one experiencing this deep sense of connection. Being of one body, one mind, one soul unites us all within the universe.

Life here on earth is full of so many wonderful opportunities…connecting with each being you come across, whether it is your fellow neighbor, mail person or cashier at the local grocery store, or stopping on your walk to connect with the trees, the sun, or looking into the eyes of your pet and feeling your connection with them.

Stop. Take time to connect with the moment you’re in. Feel your connection, and breathe it in. Appreciate your surroundings and those you share it with. You will feel full of love and life and have a deep sense of connection. For we are all one within the universe.

We have come to call who we are a holistic community. We are people who see the bigger picture, collectively and individually. We inherently know there is an interrelated web that connects everything, and we acknowledge it in the life choices we make. We are healers and therapists, teachers and spiritual guides, artists and shamans, and men and women who lead otherwise normal lives while instinctively recognizing that we are all part of the whole. We always were and will always be.

Sometimes it is quite easy to feel the connection to everything. The morning walk before the sun rises, just as the birds begin their song. A heart-touching seminar that changes our life.

We know how good that feels. We may find ourselves wanting to share how we feel with others in our lives, our friends and family – wanting to inspire them so they are right there with us, sensing that same connection with all of life, deep down in the core of who we are.

But we learn, sometimes through painful experiences in relationship with others, that we cannot make that leap for someone else. All we can do is invite them to the experience.

The Zen proverb says: “Before enlightenment – chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment – chop wood, carry water.” It also applies to all of us in the holistic community who may feel like we have the secret, that we see more and know more than others about the nature of reality.

As we now take in more of the picture and see things in a new way, our way forward is clear: We must remain humble.

Sometimes in our quest to be spiritual, in our steadfast knowing that we understand the Truth, we view ourselves as better than, or wiser than, other people. We sometimes judge others as less than. Sometimes we judge ourselves, as members of the holistic community, as hypocrites when we don’t live up to the high standards we have set for ourselves. It’s not easy to walk the walk when we anoint ourselves as saints.

The truth of the matter is that each of us – every person on the planet – is a spiritual being having a human experience, even if we don’t sense the extraordinary. In reality, no one is any more special than anyone else.

You, with your unique gifts, and me with mine, are just two pieces of the larger puzzle, interlocked among many others. The puzzle would not be complete without us. And, our two pieces, sitting alone, mean nothing without all of the others.

It is when we separate ourselves from each other – seeking the specialness that seems to exist in our select groups (yes, even the holistic one) – that we lose touch with our humanity.

In the final act, all of us on the world’s stage will come together in a group. The first thing we do is remove the labels we have placed on ourselves. Then we take a hand, and take one more, creating a giant circle. And then we look around, marveling at the light in our eyes and the shared love in all of our hearts. And we say to ourselves, “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is, infinite.” – William Blake

We are all connected. Mainstream coffee-shop talk suggests as much. So do advertising campaigns for wireless networks and social networking sites. But just how connected are we? It depends upon how deeply you look.

Begin at the surface of what we see, with our bodies. We seem very connected. We are all the same species of mammal. Every human being shares the same form. And 99.9% of our bodies are the same, leaving .1% uniqueness in the form of codes for proteins that express our differences. The pigment of our skin. The only excuse some people use to separate themselves from others.

What we share is a body that is 99% hydrogen, oxygen and carbon.

In the surprisingly moving Symphony of Science video, “We are All Connected,” Hayden Planetarium Director Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson tells us,

“We are all connected; to each other, biologically; to the earth, chemically; to the rest of the universe, atomically.

“…I know that the molecules in my body are traceable to phenomena in the cosmos. That makes me want to grab people in the street and say, ‘Have you heard this?’ ”

We have more molecules in our body than there are stars in the universe. “Science is now confident,” reports the European Space Agency, “that most of the atoms in our bodies and, indeed, in everything around us, were once in the heart of stars.” I looked online to learn how many atoms exist in the human body. The answer is: 7, followed by 27 zeroes.

The late Dr. Carl Sagan suddenly emerges on the Symphony of Science video, saying, as only he could: “The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.

“…The cosmos is also within us, we’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

One of my favorite films is Bernt Amadeus Capra’s Mindwalk, based on the book, The Turning Point, by the director’s brother, theoretical physicist Dr. Fritjof Capra. In the film, actress Liv Ullmann portrays Norwegian scientist Sonia Hoffman. Speaking to two Americans she just met, she reveals that in reality, matter does not exist at the subatomic level, that what we view as matter are actually just probabilities of interconnections.

“A particle at the subatomic level,” Sonia says, “dissolves into a series of interconnections, like chords of music.”

Sitting in a church, with her hand on a wooden pew, Sonia says this about the connections between people and everything else: “At the subatomic level, there is a continual exchange of matter and energy between my hand and this wood, between the wood and the air, and even between you and me. I mean, a real exchange of photons and electrons. Ultimately, whether we like it or not, we’re all part of one inseparable wave of relationships.”

Our focus in this three-dimensional world of denser matter is based upon what we see, hear, touch, smell and taste. We see separate bodies moving in separate directions, people thinking separate things and living apparently separate lives.

But go deeper. As beings in these bodies of energy, we are actually doing nothing except interconnecting on the subatomic level. Nothing more. Nothing less.

And this interconnection between us is our intuition. It is coincidence. It is collective consciousness. It is love. And it is the miracle of life.

It is life.

It is.

Be grateful. Acknowledge your starriness. Awaken to this incredible journey of life in a world that can appear so bleak, and yet, simultaneously bloom into incredible beauty in a blink of an eye.

I have moved myself through the things that they speak of
The mind and refined it to the point of uselessness
The body; I have found its use as a space ship to traverse this
The spirit to the attention of the inner workings of nature to hear it
And the soul if I be so bold….that which to let go
They ask me “How can you live without a soul?”
And I say “Like so………..”
If I am alive and abide by these things what then am I; a human being?
As I watch it all crumbling
Realizing that I am doing the holding
I let go….like smoke from a fire that I did light once….and stoke
You may ask “Where then am I?”
I am….Not;
The mere reverberation of an echo from so long ago of a source forgotten
An assembly of words often heard in life’s temporal soliloquy
Rearranged for this player in the game
Of life and death
And yet a still whisper
Like an old worn out picture
In an attic’s baseboard photo album when uncovered they say “I faintly remember that one”
I am this one….of none
Some may think this dismal or bleak
But you see I no longer seek
The exposé of self
After then….not even freedom
If I could close my ears as I do my eyes
The silence would rise like the night
And as the prevalence of that whisper would arise
And pristine presence of absence sublime
It is there you would find me
If I were at all
Then greater than this the even lesser than call
Beyond the abysmal inevitable fall
My truest inclination is this
To rest in peace as Nothing at all
The quintessential kiss has always been Nothingness.

Gary won’t talk to Mark. Kim submits to Gary. Doug no longer speaks to Mark. Paul just recently ended his friendship with Mark. Mark’s wife left him a few months ago after 30 years of marriage. No explanation. Mark, a soft gentle Piscean type, is bereft and confused by the emptiness in his life. Reaching, yet lost.

Paul no longer speaks to Don. Sherri has Don in her cellphone as “Sicko” and no longer takes his calls. Sherri’s boyfriend Charlie puts up with Don’s intrusive, assumptive calls. Charlie beat Sherrie. Sherrie went to the women’s shelter where they took pictures.

Bruce beat Peggy. One hundred stitches on her face, bruised ribs and elsewhere. Bruce will be doing time in jail. Peggy will finally let go of Bruce. While I don’t condone one person beating another, I don’t condone the choice to stay. Peggy’s previous husband beat her, as well. I have observed ongoing choices on her part to condone abuse towards animals, to disregard the red flags of abuse, to choose to stay in a destructive situation rather than to choose self-respect. Peggy has a space around her now where there once was destructive behavior. What will she fill it with? Sherrie went back to Charlie, bruises, body aches, pains and all.

Barb and Harlow are no longer speaking to their friends Bob and Myrtle. Another old-timer neighbor successfully drove a wedge in between the longtime friends. An element of darkness held sway there. Barb commented that Myrtle was two-faced anyway. The couples used to meet daily for coffee in the afternoon. I’d see one couple driving over to the other’s house when I was out for walks. There is a space now in all of their lives.

The mailman still speaks to everyone. Except when his girlfriend, who has a dark bent, intervenes between him and those he can trust.

This area where I live, a poor-man’s up-north ’70s development, called Enchanted Lakes, just as easily rings to Disenchanted Lakes. This state of impasse among many of the relations is a remarkable space to be in. A light-hearted comedy in a sense, which apparently will shift at some point as an evolution of the energies occurs. Here is what the Divine Beings apparently guiding my life have to contribute:

“We want those who seek Higher Light to recognize that the Self is stable in all situations. Whether in a state of connections to others or disconnections from others, the Self is whole and intact. It is by the pulling apart that one learns who one is, even if it is painful, unfamiliar in the process. The Self is meant to grow. Impasse with one person can lead to impasse with another. It is a state of disease, socially. On the other hand, ‘passe’ with one person can lead to ‘passe’ with another. Change and heal the connections in your lives, and by doing so you will be contributing the influence of growth and healing to others. This particular region that Felisha speaks of will eventually grow and change. Gary and Kim have already gone through a healing process, that while not public, has permitted more growth in their marriage, which was at the point of falling apart.

“Continue to grow, and contribute your growth as a gift to the planet, to the community of friends you share. What you have to contribute among others is your light of growth. Share equally and joyously. Make fun of the growth process, of its difficulties and pain. Humor is the ease that gets you through. Open up to the higher realms. We are waiting for intervention opportunities, real moments when we can download light and transformation and change. Sometimes this healing light only comes through a healing process, such as a crisis; but it can be opened up via light vials, accessed on a regular basis, sparing you the difficulty in transition that many of you share in common. Open up to the this light on a regular basis, call it in, share it with others, and move through your growth patterns in a joyful, voluntary way. This is one way to enjoy growth, by embracing life and the change that it has to bring.

“Thank you for this opportunity to share. We look forward to connecting with those seeking Higher Light.”

Are you ready to move through any impasses around you? What will you fill the space with? The time is now to put down new roots and plant for a preferred future, the time is now to live in a preferred moment. What does your preferred moment look like? Allow yourself to receive it, to open to the gift of a new vibration in your being. It is available, waiting for you.

My cat Shelby had the best purr ever; when she really got going, you could hear her across the room. At night, she would lie in bed and purr, her warm body snuggled against me. She even purred in her sleep; her sweet dreams revving the contented little motor of her soul.

Shelby turned 14 years old in February, the same month her vet found a tumor in her abdomen. Because of her advanced age, the doctor was hesitant to operate. There wasn’t much I could do except try to keep her comfortable. For the next few weeks, I spent extra time with Shelby and tried to give her all the care and love she needed. She had to stay well medicated, but I was grateful to be able to have her with me a little longer.

In late April, Shelby’s health took a turn for the worse. She kept to herself more and more, the way animals often do when they are ill. She stopped sleeping in the bed with me at night, preferring instead to curl up in a corner of my room. My heart ached when I realized that I hadn’t heard her purr in weeks.

In May, Shelby stopped eating and could no longer walk to her litter box. I made the painful decision to put her to sleep. Before I brought her to the clinic on her last day, I took her outside with me and let her enjoy the beautiful spring weather. Shelby had been an indoor cat all her life, and she relished the soft green grass beneath her paws as she basked in the beautiful spring sun. She looked up at me and, for the first time in weeks, rubbed her face against my legs and purred. I was happy to be able to give her this sweet experience before she had to go.

A few nights after Shelby’s passing, I was lying in bed asleep when I felt her little body curled up next to me, and she was purring as loud as she ever had. I sleepily thought to myself, “Oh good, Shelby’s purring again. She must be feeling better.”

I woke the next morning and smiled as I recalled feeling Shelby next to me. I think it was her way of thanking me for giving her a loving home and for helping her to pass on when it was her time to go. Her body is gone but her soul is still here, looking on with love and purring her approval.

Four months after we lost our beloved yellow Labrador retriever, Taylor, to cancer in June 2006, we found a black cocker spaniel at the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, Minnesota. The card attached to his kennel at the animal shelter had only one word typed on it in the section labeled history: “Abandoned.”

From the moment my wife, Linda, and I met this little guy, we couldn’t get him out of our minds. We needed time to maturely reflect on such an important decision, so we asked the shelter to hold the dog for 24 hours. Then we drove home to have a “discussion” with the two cats and cockateil who would be affected by a new family member in our home.

They didn’t say much about whether or not a dog would disrupt their lives. Later, they expressed many strong opinions, mostly negative at first. Not having the heart to make the wiggly dog stay at the shelter one more night, we drove back to pick up the little fellow shortly before adoption hours ended.

At the checkout counter, where we submitted our paperwork requesting an adoption, a young attendant told us that this purebred cocker spaniel was physically in very good shape. He had been dumped at a different branch of this shelter outside the Twin Cities about a week earlier with another dog.

The couple that left him hadn’t provided any background, since they dropped him off after hours. They had left a note saying the dog’s name was Harley. The shelter’s veterinarian estimated Harley’s age to be around a year old.

Perhaps another name?

We brought Harley to our car and began to drive this nervous, uprooted little dog to the park before introducing him to his new home. When we stopped at a red light, a Harley Davidson motorcycle roared up next to us. Harley’s ears flailed back. He bared his teeth and glared at the biker, growling menacingly. Linda and I looked at each other and said, “This fellow does not want to be named Harley!”

So, what name did he want to be called?

As soon as we started to walk with the dog around Lake Harriet on this crisp autumn day, we discovered that he loves leaves. He chased, rolled and played with abandon in piles of leaves. As he trotted along the pathway, he watched, fascinated, when auburn, yellow, and pumpkin-colored leaves tumbled from the trees.

We named him Leaf.

Almost immediately after taking Leaf home, we realized that his past experiences had scarred him and indicated that he’d been abused. He unexpectedly bolted away upon meeting certain types of people.

One animal communicator thought that Leaf had been in a dreadful puppy mill. Many purebred dogs were sold from these awful places to pet stores, where people bought them without realizing that the pups had been treated inhumanely and might soon have behavior problems. Animal shelters are the sad recipients of many puppy-mill-pet store dogs.

Another animal communicator said that, with great shame and embarrassment, Leaf had admitted his darkest secret to her with the words, “I got left.”

It was obvious Leaf wasn’t accustomed to being inside a house, because he had no concept of indoors and outdoors. He certainly hadn’t met any cats. He tried to play with and sniff them like dogs. At first, Leaf didn’t seem to think that letting the cats have their space and quiet time was of high importance, but their claws and hisses taught him better.

The pain he felt from being abandoned ran deep. He constantly needed to be with either Linda or me. He would fall asleep and wake up disoriented with anxiety that escalated into full-blown panic attacks. His eyes would glaze over with fear, and he’d shriek with massive, wolf-like howls. We spoke calm, reassuring words of love to him. Slowly he’d return to us from whatever terror and neglect he’d relived.

Leaf begins to heal
Over the winter months and into spring Leaf became more secure in his new home, and the panic attacks lessened in frequency and severity. I identified with Leaf’s insecurities. Growing up as the child in a military family, I had moved from place to place a lot and knew what it felt like to have an uncertain future.

Without judgment and feeling mutual empathy, Leaf and I accepted the baggage we each carried into our relationship. Also, I was starting to heal from the pain I’d felt over the loss of our beloved Taylor, as Leaf and I became pals, buddies and playmates.

When I took Leaf to a dog park near our home, I watched him play fearlessly with other dogs. Linda began calling him Alpha Dog of the World. No matter what size the dogs were, Leaf always seemed to position himself as leader of the pack.

Despite whatever shattering experiences he’d had before coming to live with us, his confidence grew. His big ears flopped while he retrieved the balls I threw for him, and I felt great pleasure watching him become more carefree and curious. Life in our home seemed to be giving him the assurance he needed.

As the weeks passed, the love bond between Leaf and me strengthened. Initially, getting him accustomed to a new home with cats, a bird and house rules was a lot of work. Middle-of-the-night bathroom walks outside in below-zero temperatures became commonplace.

In the past we had always had female dogs. Now we were living with this teenage boy, who displayed a high degree of intelligence and had an agenda of his own. But through all the adjustments, he began to believe that we loved him. Unlike the frantic, terrified dog he had been only months earlier, by April 2007, he was showing his affection with kisses and play.

Feeling stressed? Lacking confidence? Aren’t getting enough rest? Put down that latest self-help book and behold the stealthy swami that is the cat. These sleek sages know how to expertly embrace a peaceful, present, and playful existence. When I observe my three fuzzy felines and the manner in which they “are,” I cannot help but pick up a few tips.

Ask for what you want. Load your life (or nine) with all of your desires and meow for more! The world is your toy basket – fill it full of your very own equivalent of catnip mice and feathers-on-a-stick.

Watching birds is an entertaining and relaxing way to spend a slice of time. Talking to the birds creates an even kickier encounter!

Stretch out in a spot of sunlight. Cats are the ultimate yoga masters, mastering such poses as Downward Licking Leg, Restful Reclining Reach, and Bending Bum-Bathe. I recommend the first two.

Bask in your own personal style – cats don’t worry if a tuft of fur is out of place or if an ear is turned inside out for several hours. Flaunt your fantastic flair!

Raucous play can be excellent exercise. Go ahead, burn a few calories by enthusiastically batting an aluminum foil ball around on the kitchen floor…you know you want to!

Be sure to eat lots of greens and protein, but indulge in a tempting treat now and again.

Create time for naps – curling up with someone else for a serene snooze is even better.

If someone flicks his tail in your face, don’t take it personally – find that spot of sun and stretch again. And then nap.

Detachment is key to happiness. If your food bowl is moved, adjust and find something positive about the new location.

Always trust your intuition. If a situation causes you to pause, for purr’s sake, jump in with all paws!

Practice presence. Offer the gift of your full attention to the friend who’s extended her paw in play and when you’ve moved on to patio-door-bird watching, enjoy every morsel of those moments. Look – a sparrow!

Unconditional love is what it’s all about. Cats love us when we feel great and adore us just as equally when we wear our cranky pants.

Cats are quite wise beyond their whiskers. Gratefully welcome the profundity of their purrs and their flair for frisky frolicking. Share a sunny spot with a cat for a few minutes and see if you don’t feel a little more centered. Looking to learn the secret to leading a happy and fulfilling life? The cat’s out of the bag – look no further than your four-legged feline.

Klondike came into my life when times were tough. Divorced and unemployed, I spent my days searching for work and fighting despair. To cheer myself up, I volunteered at an animal shelter twice a week. There I met a golden-red kitten who looked like a ray of sunlight.

” ‘Klondike’ is a name he’ll have to grow into,” the woman at the shelter said when I told her the kitten’s new name. That’s exactly what he did. Within a few months, he was a massive cat with gigantic paws and a jolly round face: a sweet and gentle giant.

Klondike and I were soon inseparable. He sat on my lap as I searched the classifieds and typed cover letters. His antics made me smile even when things seemed hopeless. When I finally found a low-paying job with long hours, I got through the day by picturing his face at the window when I got home. The evenings weren’t lonely with him next to me as I read. When I found him curled at the foot of my bed in the morning, the day didn’t look quite so bleak.

It was eight years before my life turned around. When I found an exciting job with a decent salary, I could hardly breathe. I didn’t realize then that the job would bring me not only a better lifestyle and new friends, but a wonderful man I would one day marry. My entire life was changing for the better.

Except for one thing. Three days after my job interview, Klondike fell horribly ill. Heartsick, I rushed him to a veterinary hospital, vowing to do everything to make him well. But the unthinkable happened. My ray of sunshine was diagnosed with feline heartworm. It was untreatable. The day before I started my new job, he died in my arms.

I wonder: Are humans the only ones born for a purpose? Or do all beings come into the world with a mission? Klondike appeared when my life was at its lowest. He gave me friendship when I needed it most and laughter when it was in short supply. He kept me going through the darkest nights – right up until my life began to change. I can’t help believing that he had a reason for coming to me: to help me through those hard years, until I was whole again. If that was his life’s mission, he accomplished it perfectly. Then, his purpose on Earth fulfilled, it was time for him to go home.

If there’s one lesson that we’re learning in 2009, it’s that we are all interconnected. And we are finding that we benefit by strengthening our sense of community and embracing a more open communications style with each other. Interestingly, more and more people are also finding comfort, solace and connection by including their best and most loyal companions – their pets – in their day-to-day communications.

What is animal communication? In a nutshell, it’s the process of sending and receiving thoughts, images, impressions and feelings using two-way thought transference.

How exactly do you go about communicating with an animal? If you’re of a certain age, you may remember the TV show “Mr. Ed” in which a wisecracking horse moved his lips as he conversed with his owner. Real animal communication is done at a deeper telepathic level. Just like a child absorbing his parents’ unspoken beliefs and attitudes, an animal can listen to your thoughts and be aware of how you feel. You’ve probably already experienced this…when your cat snuggles nearby to offer comfort when you have the flu; when your dog eagerly anticipates your arrival home after a long trip; when your parrot calls out your name to greet you in the early morning. They know better than us the illusion of separateness.

A point of commonality that animals have with humans is that their ability and willingness to communicate depends a lot on their individual personalities. While all animals are very telepathic, some are more cautious than others to let you into their world. Many are noble, calm and patient while others are hyper, anxious or timid. That’s one reason to initially try to choose a pet that matches up well with your own personality type.

The following are a few basic steps to follow when learning how to communicate with your pet:

• Don’t look directly at the animal. Many people think that they will pick up on a message better if you stare into their eyes. Quite the contrary! You’ll do better by closing your eyes and focusing on sending them your energy and love. In fact, they don’t have to be physically with you to hear you.
• Hold a vision in your mind’s eye of what behavior you want to reinforce in your pet. For example, visualize your dog promptly coming in from the yard when you call him. This will reinforce whatever words you are using to communicate your message.
• Respect the element of free will in every animal. If you’re a parent, you know that telling a child not to do what they want often strengthens their resolve to do it anyway. Listen to your pet and get them to work with you rather than, “Just obey because I said so.” Offer an explanation of why you are looking for a certain behavior.
• People tend to have different communication senses… they hear words or see visual images or feel emotions. Work with your strength when communicating with your pets and trust that you can receive answers in any of these forms as well.
• Oftentimes people pick up a response from their pets in a dream. A sick bird, for example, may appear to be happily perching again with its mate or lovingly acknowledging you by fluttering its wings in front of your heart. Don’t dismiss such messages as inconsequential.

A major benefit of animal communication is that it can give you valuable clues into the best course of care for your pets. Imagine being able to directly ask your pet these questions: “How do you feel? Is this the food that you like? Where are you hurt? Are you OK with having another cat in the house? Do you like the fit of this saddle?”

Animal communication is a complementary approach to proper veterinary care; of course, it is never a substitute. But communicating with your animals helps you understand their particular physical and emotional needs, as well as get a glimpse into their unique life purpose.

It can be said that animals are like us in wanting safety, a sense of belonging and an experience of love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and through it you can talk and listen to anyone or anything. As we accelerate in our understanding of interconnectedness and our world becomes ever more interdependent, communication with all forms of life is becoming accessible to anyone willing to keep an open mind and practice the art of two-way heartfelt communication.

Lori Swanson: sister, artist, pet lover

We didn’t even know my sister Lori was sick, much less that she would die suddenly. She was only 45, and although her lifestyle increased her chances of illness (smoker, drinker, sedentary job) it was by no means any indicator of the transition to come. She died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism, sitting in her living room chair, twenty-four days after 9/11.

My family is extremely close and we were planning a fall color train excursion in Wisconsin to celebrate my birthday, which had taken place four days earlier. In lieu of gifts, I had requested the train trip, with cake, ice cream and the happy birthday song afterward at my house. It was during the final planning stages the night before that she didn’t answer her phone. A neighbor reported that her house was dark. We sent the police over, and I got a call twenty minutes later that she had passed away. Just like that. No train trip, no birthday cake, no happy birthday song, no sister. Just like that.

She had no human children, but two Siamese cats more than filled those shoes. Beau and Cara were not litter mates, but they were born at the same time, from the same breeder. Their beautiful blue and seal point markings made them an extremely handsome couple and they had been cuddlemates since kittenhood. The coroner estimated that my sister had been dead approximately five hours before the police found her. Five hours. I often wondered what had gone on with her cats during that time.

Even though I am a professional animal communicator by trade, I had never talked to them specifically about what happened that evening and what they did during those five hours.

Since a stunning photo of Beau taken by my sister adorns the cover of this issue and it’s been almost eight years since her death, I thought it might be time to find out. Here’s what they said.

Photograph of Beau, by Lori Swanson

“Mom was just sitting down in the living room to watch TV and she was calling us to come sit in her lap. I (Beau) was doing the aloof cat thing but Cara went right to her. She always did. Just then there was some coughing and clearing of the throat and it was over. I remember there was one last gasp where it sounded like no air could go through, and that was it.

“Cara had had a premonition of what was to come and had been sticking real close to mom. I didn’t know if Cara was right and didn’t want to believe it, so I just went about my business with no special attention. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary before that night.

“It was a strange time. We sat on her lap a long time together, but then it was too weird because she was still there, but just not in her body. She didn’t know she had passed on and was looking for the TV remote. We were on her lap, and at the same time watching her rummage around the living room. She looked like a beautiful ray of sunshine, but more like a see-through thing than a person. We waited and then left, because it started to be too much for us. I went under mom’s bed and Cara went under the couch. She didn’t want to leave mom.

“After a while Cara came to me and we waited under the bed. Soon there was no more rummaging and we realized mom had left. The emptiness in the house was sudden and profound. We knew the exact moment she left. We hid deeper under and waited. By then we knew the family was coming.

“The police and another man came first, had a big talk, and took mom away. He put some food out for us and left. We stayed hidden and cuddled tighter than ever. We knew mom would be close by but couldn’t take care of us. It was a time of great worry.”

My family got there after the coroner had removed her body. The police officer wouldn’t let us go in to check on the cats, because it was an unwitnessed death. He told us he had put more food and fresh water out for them. He seemed like a very nice man and I remember thinking, “What an awful part of the job this was for him.”

I hadn’t really gotten to know Beau and Cara very well, because every time I visited my sister I brought my Golden Retrievers and the cats hid. They ended up in foster care, due to my utter shock and overwhelm, not to mention the fact that I already had five cats of my own. I finally came to my senses a few weeks later and ended up adopting them myself.

Beau was born with a sickly body and ended up succumbing to massive seizures a few years ago. When I took him to be euthanized, it was as if I were handing him directly to my sister.

Cara is still with me as vibrant and elegant as ever. We marked an interesting anniversary this last year as I have now had her longer than my sister did. But there is only ever one original mom.

The photo of Beau taken by my sister had been in my bedroom for years and I knew it belonged on the cover of this annual pet issue. I knew it was time to publicly honor my sister and her incredible artistic talent. I knew it was time to acknowledge the brilliant light that always surrounded Beau.

I knew it was finally time to ask what had happened that night. And I knew another chapter in the story of my sister’s death could be written.

It’s something of a paradox that I’m saying hello to the readers of The Edge for the first time, and writing about goodbyes. But when a topic is presented, I follow guidance and go with it. Such is the case this month.

In life, there are many different levels of healing we may choose to experience throughout its course (or not). Likewise, with death, there are more finite observations to be made, if we have the perseverance and the courage to look for them. I am not immune, as a healer, to such challenges myself.

During the course of an average year, many people contact me requesting long-distance healings on their sick animals, and that’s not unusual. I provide this as a service, and a long list of miracles attest to why I absolutely love what I do! I’m also a retired race horse trainer, and still ride two of my own.

Animals will mirror issues we have on an emotional level that will manifest in a physical or behavioral problem. Not only do they take these issues on for us, and help us process them, they do so by agreement. As humans, we have begun to re-define who they are in relationship to us, more cognizant of their incredibly important connection. One cannot fail to see that there is so much more they have to teach us.

Some of these animals I work on are not meant to stay on the earth plane very long. Transitioning from one reality to another is the normal course for all beings on this planet at this point in time. But that does not mean that acceptance is easy for those of us remaining.

One such animal was a 26-year-old TB mare that was visibly failing. Her owner contacted me and asked me to see what Tara wanted her to do. The response from the mare was not totally unexpected, but the degree of emotion that hit me was. I could hardly speak as I endeavored to tell her owner that the mare “longed for greener pastures.” This was not conveyed in linear dialogue – much as it was a visual picture accompanied by the most incredible love and gratitude for her life with her owner. I could not help but wonder if there was a mirror I was looking at for myself. I didn’t have to wait long to find out.

This type of experience is a constant with all animals I connect with. The love they convey is staggering! But, that is not usually all there is going on when this inevitable time comes for them. I know, from doing this spiritual work for nearly 15 years now, that sorrow can be very illuminating. The quantum view, or what is often called the picture under the picture, lends insight to so much more than meets the eye.

I recently learned that one of my own mares has cancer. But, beyond my personal grief has emerged something far more illuminating. I now have an expanded view beyond the obviously precious gift she’d been, ever since the frosty April morning she was foaled some 18 years ago. It’s clear that she is part of a cycle that’s coming to completion in my personal life. Her birth was a concession for a time when I was losing a way of life, a husband, and other things that were no less precious. Now, as some of those things are coming full circle, it’s clear that in nearing the end of her time here, she has triggered the release of residual emotion over those events that I had not been able to fully release. Processing the impending loss has done what time could not.

What this tells us is that no transition is haphazard. And without fail, there is always a reason they come, they live, they love, and they return to the Light when they do. I hope this helps soften your own experiences.

It was time. Kelly knew there was something wrong in her body. It was confirmed there was a growth near her heart. Acceptance of this fact seeped slowly into my consciousness. A hollow feeling invaded my belly, the feeling that takes hold of your stomach when it confronts loss.

My thoughts raced – to memories – through fears – to possibilities.

Kelly had been my constant companion for more than thirteen years. She greeted me in the morning with her wagging tail and followed me around the house, as if my every step were an adventure. If I even thought of leaving the house without her, she looked at me with those heartfelt eyes in such a way that I would inevitably grab her leash and we would be on our way.

Yes, Kelly was definitely one of a kind.

Trying to imagine my life without her in it was challenging. The only thing that saved me was a technique called EFT. Each time the fears and tears emerged I would start to tap.

EFT is a self-administered form of acupressure developed by Gary Craig. Instead of needles – tapping is used to stimulate the meridian end points, thus neutralizing any thought or feeling that accompanies the gesture. I wanted to neutralize any feeling that would prohibit me from spending my last days with Kelly in complete coherence. I wanted to stay open so that when the vet came to assist Kelly’s spirit in releasing her body, I could remain present. I wanted to treat her transition as a graduation, sustaining joy as I helped escort her into the light.

It worked!

This picture, taken 15 minutes before the vet arrived at our home, never fails to remind me that I succeeded. I did move beyond compassion. I was able to attain a state of grace and acceptance never before experienced. Since that time, I have not responded to my world in the same way. My heart changed. Its actual vibration was altered, as I gave every inner child time to express the feelings of grief and used EFT to neutralize her fears.

And because of this, I was able to gracefully let go of Kelly. Six days later when my next canine companion found his way into my heart, I was open to receive.

In my line of work as a medium and intuitive, I have found that pets are just like humans when it comes to being psychic. They all possess different abilities just like we do, and some don’t use it, just as some of us don’t. I am not an expert pet psychic, but if I need to I can tap into them just like tapping into another person.

But just like humans, they have boundaries, too. So ask them before you tap into them.

Most of my pets have had different abilities. I had a Doberman Pincher that was a healer. She was one of the best healers I know, above humans. When I was a child, if I was ever sick with a cold or had a headache, she would lay down next to me and put her head on my head. Within 15 minutes, my headache was completely gone – or if I was sick, it was only for a day.

Now I have a Pomeranian, and she has the ability to see spirits like I do. We make a great team. I first learned about this after an uncle of mine passed away. I knew he was in our house, in spirit, to check up on us. But what surprised me is that for the next couple days leading up to his funeral, my dog acted odd. She barked in the kitchen at what others saw as nothing, and she sat and stared at what others thought was just an empty spot.

A year later, I did my first ghostbusting. After I came home, my dog was acting the same way, but this time she acted very timidly. As we were getting ready for bed, she started growling at my door and then ran and hid under the pillows. I knew the visiting spirit wasn’t friendly, if it scared her. She was used to spirits and ghosts, and it took a lot to make her growl. So she tried to hide behind me, and I firmly said to the spirit, “You need to leave.” After that, my dog calmed down and went to sleep.

I have many conversations with her to this day. They can talk to us if we are just open to them. Here are some ways to open up communication with your pets:

• Let your heart open to them. Treat them as an equal and not just another pet. They can sense this, and it will draw them closer.
• Play with them or just take time to sit with them and tell them how your day went. Then, let your mind just be open to them. Odds are you will get some kind of response with them, either a physical one or maybe just a simple picture in your head. This might be their advice to you in some way.
• Tell them your secrets, hopes and desires. They are there for you, if you let them. Remember the old saying about a man and his best friend. Our pets want to be friends with us if we let them. They hold so much information that can help us. They are sensitive beings that feel the problems we go through; to them, they are going through things with us.
• Ask them for advice and become friends with them. Eventually you will be able to better understand their needs and wants – and your needs and wants.

Pets are truly a blessing in disguise. Live and learn alongside them, as we do with each other.

The other day I was talking to my dog, Java – telling her that I love her, thanking her for bringing immense joy and laughter into my life, and wondering what it will be like when she’s not on this planet anymore.

Java and I have spent almost every day together for the past 8-1/2 years. When I think of it that way, it’s no wonder we have a tight bond. She knows secrets nobody else knows, and we’ve shared experiences unique to just the two of us.

Magic happens when we connect with our pets on a spiritual level. It’s intimate and individual, and yet there’s a commonality. Think back on an event in your life and remember which pet was there to hold your hand, how they responded, and how you felt just knowing they were there.

Pets help mark milestones. When I look back, I had my childhood pets, my engagement dog, my marriage dogs, the dogs who helped me through my divorce, my single woman dog, and the dog who taught me the most.

Java is one of those once-in-a-lifetime dogs. When her time comes to move forward, what I’ll remember most is her never-ending joy and zest for life. She and I have a soul connection like no other pet I’ve had. When I feel upset, Java comes running to check in. When I’m in my joy, she jumps in full force to share.

We’ve created a dance together. Sometimes it’s still a little clumsy, yet it’s mostly filled with grace and wisdom. The more I engage with Java – something as simple as talking to her daily – the stronger our relationship becomes. I’m curious how deep we can go with our pets, and how deep they can go with us. I believe that when we open our minds and hearts to possibility, the animals follow.

As Java walks towards me, I notice her brown velvet muzzle sporting a dusting of grey. She peers at me with her stunning, chestnut eyes, and her soul meets mine. We can see through each other. As she moves in closer, I smile at how much the grey has taken over the brown, and I grin as I tell her, “I bet if I didn’t color my hair, we’d win a look-alike contest.”

I invite you to thank your pets for all they are, and all they’ve helped you to become.

I know animals are spiritual beings. Dogs have been some of my best friends since the day I was born (and probably before). They are always happy to see you. They will play with you when no one else will. They are the warmest, softest, kindest, most entertaining and cuddly things in my world.

I love watching animals interact with each other. I feel that making sure your dog has other dog friends is a very important thing. Before we got my dog Fancy’s new boy friend, Mr. T, we used to have regular sleepovers at my house with our dog friends Annie and Nellie. Every animal being is truly unique and individual, just like human beings. Their relationships with each other are individual, too.

I believe Fancy is the same soul as my dog Ricki, who died around 10 years ago. The coloring, markings and temperament are very similar. I’ve always wanted to learn to talk to the dogs. In my early twenties, I really started to search the psychic stuff.

Next, I tried to communicate with my dog through animal communicators. My dog Cleo was a very psychic shih-tzu. One time she amazed the communicator by showing the lady the view through her eyes. She showed herself walking around her building outside. I think she was trying to communicate about the poison in the yard. She also told me she wanted more room on the bed and that my boyfriends didn’t matter to her. She was there for me, and it was me she loved.

Through many dark times my dogs have been a bright light for me.

Cleo trained Fancy in before she left. She made sure Fancy knew exactly what was expected of dogs at the Eva household. Fancy learned well and added her own twists, too. She even licks my tears if I cry, which always makes me laugh or at least smile, totally changing my mood for the better. Alchemy.

Two years after Cleo died, I started thinking about getting Fancy a dog friend of her own again. I had an animal reading, and during our conversation I asked Fancy if she wanted another dog. She said, “Yes,” and showed the lady a whitish dog that looked a lot like herself. The lady said she just saw two white blurs running after each other in a long room. At the time I didn’t know anything about how I would get a dog. Having NO money had a lot to do with it.

I ended up fostering (free to me) two dogs (both from one home), adopting the sister out to an excellently nice home, through Midwest Animal Shelter, and keeping the other one. It was a great experience. Having Mr. T (Teddy) around has totally brightened our world. Fancy is more energetic and playful. Tug Toy is a 24/7 game at my house! Every night I sleep in a wonderfully warm dog pile. My favorite thing is to wake up to perfect little dog paws air running in their dreams!

My dogs are chemical free, eat organic food, and are treated with acupuncture, chiropractic and natural remedies as much as possible. Thank you to every animal for sharing the Earth with us!

Nowhere is God’s love closer to us than in the company of our pets. That is a bold statement. Since there is no record on file anywhere with such a quote from God, a lot of people have the mistaken idea that only they have the honor and privilege of being Souls. But pet lovers know better.

It is a spiritual principle that Soul comes to earth in many different states of consciousness – and even in many different body forms. And God loves us all.

Soul exists because God loves It.

While no one can offer indisputable evidence of that love by pulling a quote from some holy text, the proof is in the pudding. God’s love is all-encompassing. There is plenty to go around to all creatures.

The stories that follow only include cats and dogs to demonstrate that divine love. But don’t fret. God’s love also includes birds, fish, reptiles, wild animals, and even insects and smaller creatures still.

One night a sales representative named Niki had a dream. It was about two collies. Her recollection of the dream was a bit garbled the next morning, but she wrote down as much of it as she could remember.

At the dinner table the next day, Niki was surprised when two collies came to the kitchen door. She recognized them immediately.

They were the collies in her dream.

Niki opened the door. Both dogs greeted her like an old friend, and they seemed to be talking to her – trying to tell her something. They nudged her and made moaning sounds. But each refused all treats, food and water. She got a phone number off one collie’s dog tag and left a message for the owner to call her.

In the meantime, Niki grabbed a coat and boots and went outside to be with the collies. They jumped and danced around her, showing complete love and trust.

So she took them for a walk.

Walking up and down the street, she hoped to run into the owner, who might be looking for the lost pets. She tried some commands on them.

“Heel!” They obediently fell into step with her.

“Stay!” They stayed.

“Come!” Of course, they came running up.

Well-trained dogs, she thought.

Finally, the owner got her message and called back to arrange to pick up his dogs. When the owner arrived, he explained that home was three or four miles away. He was confounded when she told him how they had obeyed her commands. They’d never had training, he said.
The lost collies came to Niki’s door because they remembered her love from the dream world, where they had already met.

Can animals love? Highly evolved people accept it as a fact. They know it because of their better understanding of how God’s love actually works – due to their longer enrollment here in the University of Hard Knocks.

Yes, animals can love. There are too many such examples of animal behavior to doubt it. Love goes beyond instinct.

Although they are capable of showing love, animals – like many humans – can also show a strong dislike. That can change, however.

A mother took her two daughters to a pet store and returned home with a grey tabby kitten, Socks. All went well for several weeks. Then her son, who had moved to a new apartment where pets were not allowed, brought over his cat, Spook.

Spook took an instant dislike to the kitten. At every opportunity, Spook hissed and swatted at Socks, which soon produced a bloody nose.

In time, though, the two cats became inseparable friends. They did everything together.
Then Spook had a litter of kittens. Socks became a second mother to them: licking them, keeping vigil with Spook over them, even babysitting when Spook left for a drink, food, or just time off. Day after day, Socks stood in during Spook’s break times.

The family later came across an article in the newspaper about whether animals can love. With such a pure example of it in their own home, this family has its own answer. Could there be any doubt?

God’s love is sufficient for all.

I could feel the cat gently walking around my head on the pillow, pulling my hair ever-so-slightly. Deep in that last morning dream before waking, I realized I was lucid. I looked around and could see she was an orange and white, long-haired tabby. I just knew it was a she. I could hear her insistent meows. I blinked awake, smiled and thought, “Hmmm…this will be an interesting day!”

I stopped by the Corner Store on the Universal Studios lot where I worked to check on my cousin who had recently gotten a job there. He looked stressed. When I asked why, he immediately asked if I wanted a cat. His girlfriend had brought home three from the shelter the night before. So I asked if it was a female, orange and white, long-haired tabby. With a shocked look, he replied that it was. I told him excitedly, “She’s mine!”

Cheesepuff had been scheduled to be euthanized and was very ill when she was rescued, due to her Hollywood good looks, charm and innate sweetness. She hid for three days when I brought her home, but soon we became best friends. True to my dream, she liked to walk on my hair and meow to wake me up promptly at 6 a.m. every day.

Cheesepuff became my energy healing partner whenever she was allowed, respectfully lying under the healing table in the spot associated with the client’s chakra that needed the most attention. She did the same for me by sleeping next to or on top of whatever chakra was most depleted in me.

When I do distant healing work on people or animals, I often use a teddy bear as a surrogate, and Ms. Cheese (a.k.a. Ms. Chi Puff), was always drawn to the work, adding her energy in that sweet, gentle and sometimes fierce fur-person way, with louder purrs than you would think possible by a 6-pound cat. Sometimes she would enter my dream or wake me, letting me know I needed to send healing to the person we were dreaming of. Working while you sleep, too! Now that’s what I call full time!

Recently, my dear healing partner began showing signs that her transition time was near. We spent one fitful night with her mostly on my heart chakra. I awoke to hear her last purr. She made her transition on June 3, my Dad’s passing day. I look forward to seeing her again, in my dreams.

I have always shared my life with cats, yet nothing could have prepared me for the stray cat who found his way into my life, heart and soul. He showed up from nowhere, sitting squarely on my front steps, like a Romanesque statue.

Upon closer examination, he was a disheveled orange tabby cat with a severe case of ear mites, frost bite on his feet bottoms and a left eye cataract, which appeared to emit laser beams. Although he looked rough on the outside, he had an inner radiance and we had an undeniable soul connection.

In time, I named him Teddy – the name meaning “gift from god” – yet, to anyone looking in from the outside, he was anything but a gift. He covered everything in the house with a coarse coat of orange hair and was violent towards my other animals, making it necessary to keep him in a special part of the house. He figured out how to open doors by standing on his hind feet, holding his front paws together over the door knobs, then wriggling them back and forth. I had never seen a cat so adept at breaking rules, but his antics taught me patience and perseverance in ways I never imagined.

Teddy was extremely food motivated, too. One day, as I leaned over the kitchen counter eating my last bite of cheeseburger, it suddenly disappeared. I looked on the counter and floor below me, but it was nowhere to be found. I looked to my left and sitting on the kitchen counter was Teddy with his cheeks bulging out.

In a single moment, Teddy had jumped onto the counter, used one of his long slender paws to swipe my last bite of cheeseburger and scooped it directly into his mouth.

Over time, Teddy’s transformation has inspired my own personal growth and plans to create a holistic animal sanctuary. Once established, it will be the result of a typical barn cat, who in reality is one of my greatest teachers. Some people say those who love animals do not have enough love in their life, but often it is the opposite.

They are the ones who love and are loved the most.

Did you see that? That woman has a cat in the baby buggy! Yes, that would be me. After almost fifty years, once again I am pushing a baby buggy with a cat.

It all started on a cold winter day late February 1956, and my Mom was pregnant with her first child: me. Being almost eight months pregnant and needing a nap, Mom lay down in her bed where she was immediately joined by Limit, a black-and-white short-hair cat, also pregnant and in need of a nap. As Limit fluffed the bed making herself comfy and cozy next to my Mom’s big belly, my Mom was serenaded to sleep by loud voluminous purring and constant kneading from under the covers.

As Mom awoke from her slumber, to her surprise, Limit had given birth to a healthy litter of kittens! Oh how exciting the house must have been, full of new life and a human baby on the way too!

Shortly after I arrived home in mid-April, all the ruckus and crying noise confused Limit. Naturally curious, Limit had to check it out and found a little baby girl in the lacy bassinet. Obviously not a danger, Limit proceeded to carry each of her seven kittens to the bassinet and place them carefully inside, so all the babies were together. When the kittens were several months old, Mom and Dad made sure good homes were found for all of the kittens except one – a darling all-black kitten with a healthy set of lungs.

I had that little black cat my entire childhood. He was a very gentle soul, allowing me to dress him in my clothes; I remember I would get mad when Mom or Dad would take the clothes off my cat. But what I remember most was going for a walk with my Mom, over to grandma’s house, pushing the stroller with my black cat in it.

What a gift it was to be raised in a family that truly loved and respected animals. I’ve been blessed to live with at least one cat my entire life. My heart and soul would just not be complete without a cat. Grandma would always tell me that history repeats. Yes, it certainly does. Today, almost fifty years later, I am that woman walking around the lake with a black cat in the buggy!

Bilig, the Lipizzan

Shortly after 9/11, I had returned home to Minneapolis from Arizona. I had worked with a Tibetan lama who instructed me to work with the animals – particularly the horses. As a healer, I understood the message and set out to offer my healing services to local horse rescue farms. Since I was a child, I had always wanted to own a horse – however, life intervened, finding my house full of members of the canine world.

The world of horses is full of fun and exciting stories and adventure. I found a strong spiritual connection to these beautiful creatures, and I often sit in awe and admire their greatness of strength and character.

As time passed, I continued to receive strong nudges to look for my horse, yet I always found excuses to delay. The nudges continued. I would drive down the road and my head would spin to view any horse in a pasture. It truly began to feel as if I was looking for a horse – but which one?

Little did I know that Bilig was looking for me, too.

Her name is Bilig (Ba-Leek’), the Mongolian word for female energy; principle of wisdom and cunning. She was born Rona, a purebred Lipizzan mare. The Lipizzans are a rare breed originating in the 1500s from Austria royalty and made world famous by the Spanish Riding School and General Patton. Today there are only 4,000 Lipizzans in the world.

Bilig was born in 1991, and she has traveled to many parts of the U.S. in her role as a broodmare, producing four Lipizzan foals during the course of her years.

Divine Intervention interceded in 2004. Monty Roberts, known as the Horse Whisperer, was at the Horse Expo. I attended his seminar and won the door prize of his complete training kit! I had Monty sign his book and stated, “Now, all I need is the horse.” Well, to my surprise a month later I became the proud owner of a Lipizzan, also known as the mystical Unicorn/Pegasus. Remembering how in my childhood dreams a winged white horse would come and take me to magical places. I had found her and she had found me.

We have encountered five past lives together as old souls journeying through the eons of time.

It’s been five years in this life with this magical teacher! Now she has asked me to open a school offering healing/training services with horses, and my web site [www.7heavenmanege.com] is the beginning of our school as the journey continues….

It started innocently enough. The sign at Petco for adoption day…telling my husband, “I just want to look.” I meant it when I said it. I love animals. I love going to places where there are animals and spending time with them.

Then I saw her. She seemed to be calling to me. This beautiful 9-month old Siamese Cross with eyes of blue. I couldn’t get to her fast enough. I picked her up and she hugged me. She rubbed against my face and I knew she was coming home with me.

My husband took a little convincing but agreed, and it was a done deal – a deal I couldn’t complete fast enough. I just needed to know she was officially mine. I named her Shanti, which means peace. This is what she brings me. This is who she is.

That was about five years ago. Every day with her is a joy. My love for her runs deep – deeper than any other pet I’ve had and I’ve had my share. When I talk about her, I am so connected I can’t help but get teary-eyed. She stays close to me when I’m home, often following me around. She stands on her back legs and reaches up to me so I’ll pick her up. She showers with me (yes, a cat that loves the water) and sleeps by my head.

I’d never heard of a soul connection with an animal until I met Jodi Menke, a wonderful animal communicator and friend. She shared with me the different types of relationships people have with animals, including the soul connection, and said that is what I have with Shanti. Shanti has taught me a lot about intimacy because of our connection, something that doesn’t come easy to me.

Intimacy is something that I want desperately with others, but have also been afraid of for years. Through her, I’ve created deeper connections with myself and with others. Feeling that relationship with her has made it safer and more comfortable to connect with everyone on a deeper level. For that, I will forever be grateful.

My desire is to make her life wonderful every day. To meet her needs as she meets mine. To bring her joy as she brings me joy. To fill her days with love as she has filled mine. Isn’t that what life is all about, after all?

I learned a couple summers ago, while visiting my Uncle Ron at his home in northern Montana, that a not-so-distant relative of ours was a full-blood Lakota woman. I didn’t know what to make of this information, having just driven by the memorial at Custer’s Last Stand, the Little Bighorn Battlefield, days before.

Already an genetic combination of Scottish, Irish, English, German, maybe French and possibly other nationalities thrown in for good measure, I guess it didn’t hurt to throw in some Native American roots. What I find, however, is that Anglo mutts like myself – and there are millions of us out there – lack any true history upon which we can rest our hat and honestly say, “This is who I am” – at least on the most superficial level.

I tend to think about things like this, however, on a more cosmic level.

I know the truth about who I am. I am particles of energy held together by a frequency that resonates with love. I am just as much from the Pleiades as I am from the Celts. I am here now, in this third dimension, but a part of who I truly am continues to connect with a part of my soul beyond the veil.

I sat transfixed the other day in front of the television watching a film that I had Tivo’d from the Sundance Channel – Heima, by the Icelandic group Sigur Rós. I saw the beauty of the land, of the people, interpreted through true artists who open themselves up to receive and translate their gifts into sounds I can only call “organic.” After viewing the film, I could not get Iceland out of my head. It was as if by watching the film that ancient memories were downloaded into my being.

All of us have these ancient codes within our core. Some will remain locked away, dormant, for millennia, while others are being tapped with eager resolve to glean wisdom and create possibility for this moment now.

Let us resolve to look deeper, beyond the surface, for the roots that bind us all as beings, human. For once we discover our shared connection, we will awaken from the mist of amnesia and recognize no further need to hate one another, to kill one another. Until then, we are fooling ourselves if we think we are an evolved species.