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With the snow and the unusually wet weather we have had this spring, one of the things that has come up over and over again at my work in Yosemite with the visitors has been looking at people’s adaptability to different weather conditions, and life in general. We are not in control of the weather, Nature is , but sometimes visitors here at the park have difficulty accepting this . They have planned their vacation with the thought that they will have perfect sunny days, and here they are in this paradise, and it’s snowing or raining on them . (Usually my counsel to them is to realize they will see and discover things that they would never see in good weather, if they only relax and allow it to unfold) This causes me to ponder the concept of taking any situation and making the most of it, looking for the silver lining, so to speak, in any given set of parameters of experience. As my friend Erik puts it, to take a situation and to not only survive in it, but to thrive in it. I feel like there is so much change and shifting going on in our society and on the Earth in general these days, that people’s security is being swept away from them, forcing them to adapt and change. So how can Nature show us how to walk with grace and beauty through all these changes and disruptions in our lives? Because it’s not the disruptions themselves that are the root of discomfort, but our reactions to them. Look at Nature, look at the trees and rocks and animals that dwell outside. When a rainstorm comes in, they remain constant, their energy does not change, they don’t react and yell, what’s with this weather? They persist, they survive, they thrive. the animals may seek shelter, but they wait out the storm and don’t make a big deal of it like us humans do. If we all spent just one month living outdoors, in all sorts of weather conditions, we would see that its a beautiful thing to feel and experience the weather changes, cold to hot, dry to wet,windy to calm, to see the stars and moon and the sun rise and set. We are so disconnected from our natural rhythms that we have forgotten how wonderful they really are . Change is good, it purges and sweeps away old stagnant energy, just as the wind sweeps through the canyons before a storm, cleansing and clearing in front of the rain and snow. The storm rages and purges, and then when it clears, all is made clean and new again. Fresh and wonderful . Challenges and changes in our lives take on a similar pattern. We can be cleansed, if we only allow it to happen, by the nature of our challenges, they force us to think and act differently. Human nature resists change. Our mind and egos, the fearful part of us, are scared of change . They run from it. If we can only watch Natures example and look outside, we can see how it gracefully goes through change and comes out bursting with new energy. Resistance is futile. Gracefully accepting and flowing with change is a valuable resource to help us through the shift in energy that is upon us. Remember, not only survive, but thrive in any situation. Look for the silver lining, it is always before you in any test. You may come out a changed person, but it is always for the best. Go from Spring into Summer thriving on the changes ahead.
Last week my friend Lissa asked me how could she develop her own way of shifting her energy so that she can journey to the other side. She recently had had a remarkable experience going
Contact Eve at evesheldon@gmail.com
to the other side while on a facilitated journey with a Shaman, and wanted to know how she could develop her personal way of going there on her own .
I feel that this brings up an interesting topic, do we need to be dependent on someone or something to achieve that shift: to journey to the other side, or can we learn to do it on our own? Must we use a drug, a Shaman, a method, or ceremony? These things are all tools, used to shift the mind, which is what you must do to go to the other side. They may get you there, but they can defeat the purpose of it all:attaining personal freedom and power, and keep you dependent on some THING to get there. What if your thing or method isn’t available? Cant get there. What if your Shaman leaves town ? Cant get there. What if the conditions are not just perfect? Cant get there. That’s all wrong. Be careful, the mind/ego wants to fixate on the mechanics of the process, trapping you in its details. Because by nature journeying to the other side is so abstract, the mind seeks to solidify it by focusing on the process.
It is our birthright to journey to other dimensions and realities, but unfortunately we have been raised in a society that denies the existence of anything we can’t see, feel taste or touch..The Third dimension that we live in, the place of the senses, is but a small portion of all the realities which are present in the Universe. Native peoples knew this and used all dimensions much more than does modern society , it was a part of daily life for them. Most of their lives were spent in a state of bliss and joy, because they did not allow the ego /mind to dominate them as we do. And journeying to the other side helped them live the bliss in this third dimensional world.
Our Destiny: To journey to the other side and bring back that big old bucket of bliss.
When you do this, you add incredibly to the bliss factor on the Earth. You are changing the world in a hugely beneficially way,making your personal contribution much more than you can by changing the system .
All you need is yourself , and your phenomenal heart that you always carry with you. You can be naked, you can be anywhere :you can be with people, you can be alone.you can be inside, you can be outdoors. Its like a muscle, you develop it and use it until it comes easily. A little spontaneous practice and you will be there. No special formula needed, just your own self. Just leave your ego/mind behind. As humans, we can get sidetracked and absorbed by the method itself, allowing it to become the focal point. The ego wants to cling to the method and focus on the ritual, the sweatlodge, the ceremony that was intended to be an inspiration, not a trap. These rituals have their place, but they should not be the focal point of your journey. They help you to learn how to journey so that you know what its like to go there, but then its up to you to discover and use your own personal method to get there. You shouldn’t have to wait for an event in time.
Tom Brown calls it finding your hair, your own way of accessing the other side. Carlos Castaneda called it shifting the assemblage point .
There are endless ways to make the shift in awareness.. Focus on the breath is onw way. For many people, water will help them.This could be using the energy of a lake ,stream, waterfall or even a shower. Anything in Nature that you choose to cultivate a relationship with can be used as a springboard to the other side, simply by honoring its essence. The rocks, trees, flowers , mountains , animals, every bit of nature has a spirit, an energy that you can tap into . Our relationship with them by design is set up to help humans explore other realms. You can also use your dreams and the state of awareness that is present between waking and sleep to begin a journey. You can begin with one “hair”, becoming familiar with it, then expanding your abilities to use more and more ways to access the other side. All you realy need to do is to state your intent to discover your own way and then allow it to come to you.
My answer to Lissa was to request that her guides or helpers (whoever she feels assists her ) show her the way to finding and developing her own “hair” or access to the other side.
Enjoy the adventure of finding your way to your own knowledge of the other dimensions, and ride the energy now. Surf’s Up!
We came to this Earth to be creators of Love, it is in everything around us, every being, tree and rock . It is our life force. Yet we get so involved in our earthly desires and matters that we forget why we came here, which is to spread Love throughout the Planet. We need to make a mental effort to create more love in our lives, spreading it throughout our world. The first step is to look for the Love in every thing you do. Its easy, just observe yourself. 
For one day, ask this question about every thing you think , do or say; does this originate from a place of Love , or fear? Because, every thing comes out of one or the other. So, be aware of how these thoughts and actions originate for you . The next day, with each thought or action, ask yourself, how can I create more Love through this? This will really help you to see just where your mind is at most of the time. A great way to create more Love is to make a Love Journal. Record things that have happened to you in your day, every day, and how they bring Love to you, we have many opportunities to create more Love each day, if we choose to use them in this manner. Be sure to look over your journal periodically to recognize all the times when Love was present for you . Remember, what we dwell on is what we create more of in our lives. And , through recognizing and honoring our true Love nature , we will bring more Love to ourselves and our world around us, creating more Love for all on this Earth.
Phew! One more move under my belt. Finding housing and moving around Yosemite this year has been a big project: now I have rented an apartment to stay in until summer, and I am thrilled to settle in one place for a while. My friends have all pitched in to help me make my moves, they have been so very gracious to help me. I recruited a young friend and coworker at Arch Rock ( the entrance station that I work at in Yosemite) to help me in this last one, and I promised to make him dinner as a payback. Two of my girlfriends came over for the dinner as well, and we had fun chatting about our world here in Yosemite. One of the topics that came up was dating. 
My friend Marla brought up the topic of the lack of eligible males for females to date here. Salvador, being the big-hearted Latin fella that he is, agreed with her. There’s just not ANY single men around here, and Marla said, but I can come up with 20 great single women in my head immediately! Where’s all the men? There’s NO men around here! Well, being the newest of the group to Yosemite and all that , I felt compelled to play Devil’s Advocate and to encourage exploration of another perspective on the topic.. Wait a minute….what do you mean? Are there just not any men around? Do the women really outnumber the men by so much? What do you think the ratio of men to women really is here? After several minutes of reflection, Marla said she felt it wasn’t a ratio of women to men issue, but she just couldn’t think of any single men in this area. So I challenged the group in the room to make a list of 20 single men in Yosemite. And we did. Only it took us awhile , because we had to discuss each one’s merits or (demerits as it were ) as we made the list. At first, they wanted to disqualify some of them, but I reminded them the task was to make a list of single men, period, and not just a list of men we liked .After we came up with number 16, we agreed to stop, as the point was clear, there were 20 single men here, just not maybe 20 single men we would consider desirable. I have to confess that there was one guy mentioned that I said I would definitely NOT turn away should he show up at my door! Which leads us to another point of our discussion, how is it that women are always lamenting the lack of good men, when men do not say there’s not enough good women? And, are women kidding themselves when they say that they are available and ready for a serious relationship, yet don’t find an available man or a good man? Are the men just being more honest when they say they don’t want a serious relationship? My point I brought up in all this was that I feel like, if a person desires a relationship and is not in one, it usually is because some part of them does not want to be in one, …….not because of a lack of single datable (hot?) men (or women) . I feel that there is a deeper part of them (their higher self ) that is ultimately in control and that part keeps them out of relationships, for the sake of its own agenda. And the conscious or personality part of themselves that wants the relation can voice its desires, but ultimately it is not in charge of their destiny. Some people could use other names for these parts of us, I have a friend who does hypnotherapy and she calls the parts “the committee” and urges her clients to realize the presence of all their parts and to learn to get them to work together towards a desired goal. I just feel that we have an agenda created by us and for us by Spirit (our higher selves) and that agenda isn’t always a known one. It may be of great need for someone to not be in a relationship even though the personality craves one and all that comes with it. So, once again the topic of personal responsibility rears its ugly head. It’s not numbers of available partners that dictates a persons chances of entering into a relationship, but the agenda of that persons higher self that keeps them either in or out of romantic relationships. Just how can a person know what their higher self’s agenda is? Well, that would be a topic for the next dinner party. Stay tuned. Oh and by the way, the answer to the question “When will I find my love object standing at my door wearing nothing but a big red ribbon?” is, when Spirit ( higher self ) feels it’s the right time for such a gift to arrive! Should I look out for the Fed Ex truck?
Merced River Canyon
Spring is the time of renewal for the planet earth, and renewal is flowing mightily here in Yosemite.
Its lunchtime, and my friend Sally and I are in the Ahwahnee eating a delicious burger. We have just driven into the valley through the fabulous Merced River canyon and are amazed at the display of wildflowers there. Our waiter tells us that he has never in his 34 year career working at the Ahwahnee, seen the wildflowers as spectacular as this year. Picture the bright green new grass of spring and all the mosses growing on the steep canyon walls above the mightily flowing Merced river, and these slopes are covered with bright orange poppies, literally blanketing the undulating hillsides. The color is psychedelic, hot orange everywhere!
Hills of Poppies
What has caused this once in 34 years display? Some of it came about due to the fire that raged through the canyon last summer, but even the slopes that escaped the flames are blooming like never before. Its as if Nature went wild and said Let it Rage with color! Could it be that the Nature Spirits are showing us what is to come for us as humans, that after the cleansing of the flames we are currently in, the Spiritual Renewal process will set us ablaze with color never seen before, as we bloom Spiritually? Top to Bottom , Beginning to End of this canyon is full of flowers, the most expressive show seen in a lifetime for some. Could it be that after our intense changing we are to bloom the brightest ever?
Further up the canyon as you enter Yosemite valley itself, after experiencing the color show, you are impressed by the water which flows off the steep granite walls and cascades down into the valley floor. There is foaming water everywhere you look, and you are surrounded by the sounds of cascading water, rushing , and cleansing in its essence over the granite.
The Sacred waters run, foaming over sacred rock.
To Tu Ya, the Paiute Ancestor, is everywhere. She was named this for Sacred water that runs over Rock in Yosemite. Her energy surrounds you in the valley now, cascading and cleansing everywhere you turn, symbolic of the cleansing of ourselves through the breakdown of our social systems . This cleansing of our society and systems and therefore ourselves is as beautiful in scope as the lovely waters of Yosemite. It runs through us and over us , purging pockets of old beliefs and mind resistance that no longer serve us in our newly emerging fully spiritual Earth. Our Earth is in bloom with our new Spiritual energy.
This is not an easy process, the mind/ego resists losing control of the old patterns through this cleansing.
It is our souls path.
Our higher selves know how to guide us through these changes.
We are moving from a material based planet to a spirit based earth.
Allow and feel the sacred waters to cleanse you.
Allow To Tu Ya and the sacred waters to take you wherever you need to be on your own spiritual journey. They will cleanse you and bring you to a grand Spiritual Renewal- as the water flows from Yosemite valley into the Merced River Canyon -to the spectacular Wildflowers of a true Spiritual Reawakening-as our souls bloom again , more magnificently than ever before.
Use your feet! MAINTAIN AND RECOVER SANITY BY STAYING EARTHED. Your feet play a huge role in your connection to the earth and are your grounding connection…..we don’t usually honor this connection enough. Honor them and your connection to Mother Earth by giving your feet more attention physically and by using your intent to run more energy through them. Respect your feet and the Earth ; they are your primary connection to her. When you have your feet firmly on the ground and are consciously running energy through them, you can have your head in the clouds and still be a fully realized human being, because you will be balanced by your own earth connection. We are designed to pull the energy of Spirit through the top of our heads down into our bodies and then to draw the energy of the Earth up through our feet into our bodies, mixing the two energies in our heart and expressing them fully out through our hearts in our daily lives. People who lose awareness of our fundamental connection to the earth, tend to draw energy from others rather than source (Earth), losing proper sense of themselves as whole and holy and see themselves as much less than they are. Its kind of like a misplaced direction of energy. No bueno, man!
So, how to use your feet better. Physically, go barefoot or in socks as much as possible. Focus on your footsteps when you walk and bring the Earth energy consciously up through the soles of your feet. Set this intention a few times and it will begin to be enhanced naturally and easily. Walk in the dirt or sand and allow your feet to FEEL the earth, to feel the muck oozing up through your toes while in the mud. Your feet are much more powerful than you realize. Stroke your feet and massage them at the end of the day….you can use essential oils on the soles of your feet to receive their benefits in the rest of your body. Paint your toenails so they can greet you when you look at your feet-reminding you to keep them firmly on the ground. Foot baths using salt to draw off any unwanted energy will help keep your tootsies cleanly running as channels as your primary connection to the Earth.
A strong connection to the earth will help you greatly now to maintain and recover sanity by staying earthed. By paying attention to your feet your are respecting them and the earth. They are your primary connection to her! Use this mantra: I WALK THE EARTH WITH GRACE AND BEAUTY! YEAH!
My friend Pete and I were having a discussion yesterday about the importance of living your life in each moment fully, and just how to achieve it. My comment was that its of paramount importance to realize that, with every new thought or action which comes to you, you have a choice whether to allow your mind free rein or to change that pattern and consciously choose your thought forms. If no choice is made, the mind takes over, as a sort of default program, and leads you on with its agenda, which is usually comprised of a fear based future reality or some past problem. My feeling on this is that the mind was not designed to take on such a huge responsibility, and it freaks out, running its agendas , almost without our permission. To even have the realization that we have a choice is a big step towards cultivating inner peace and harmony in our thought forms. We can choose to allow our higher self, or spirit to guide us just by gently redirecting our thought patterns and forms . Make the choice now…….. I am interested in your thoughts on this one.
Yeehaw! The elections are now over and its on to the task of reorganizing our world, moving from a consumer driven economy to a heart based economy. Just how will we take on this task? I feel this is all about our movement as a people energetically from the Divine Masculine to the Divine Feminine. Don’t get me wrong, here, guys, I see Masculine energy as a good thing, only we , as a society, have taken it to its extreme, and in doing so have created a good bit of dysfunction in our world. But, we had to take the Masculine to its extreme for us to have the full experience. So now we are swinging the pendulum back to heal ourselves and our Mother Earth by consciously retooling how we operate into exploring more of the Feminine aspect of ourselves.
Let’s look at defining these two energies. Divine Masculine in its balanced state reflects the active principle, that of doing and moving forward; paraphrased popularly as ” get ‘er done” in our society. This energy can also be protective in nature, sometimes aggressively so, exhibiting its power overtly to the world. At this point in our evolution, we have taken it to its extreme in the form of wars and violence, and oppression against women, due to it not having been properly balanced with the expression of the Divine Feminine. In our thinking, it is also the logical, rational “age of reason”, state of mind, and when allowed to run unchecked it becomes mind-dominated and ego driven. This Masculine thinking energy gone wild is the mind which tries to run us continually, and its expression is the confusion and mess of our outside world. Divine Feminine in its balanced state reflects the receptive principle, that of being and allowing, working with the energy fields to draw energy and form into itself, allowing what has been set into motion by the Masculine to be birthed. It manifests by magnetic pull rather than action. It is the gentle, intuitive side of the human experience, nurturing what has been created. In the past, the Feminine also dominated our societies and went out to its unhealthy extreme, and then the pendulum swung back to allow the Masculine to take precedence in our lives in order to balance us out, But now its time for us to explore more of the the Feminine again, to begin using both the Feminine and Masculine to create the perfect balance of being and doing in our lives.
We must focus on our own inner work to bring ourselves back into a truly balanced state with our Masculine and Feminine sides, so that we can begin to reform our outer world. Creating a daily life focused on a state of being more than doing and living a heart-centered philosophy will begin our transition into a more connected life, bringing our world into a balanced state using both the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine energies. Any ideas on this?
Hey can you believe it? Another lesson from my cute little Siamese cat, Kilmer. Not again! This cat came to me with a huge issue about control and fear of being trapped by a human. We have built a lot of trust together and now he loves human contact, but always on his own terms.
Lately, he has been coming into the house from his hunting missions around dusk, and stays indoors all night. (Its safer that way, we have lots of predators here). Well, this week, he altered his schedule. The first night, he didn’t show up until ten or so. The second night, he was out until 4 am . Ouch. I was worried, and embarrassed myself by going outside and calling out KILLLLLLLLLMer KItty KItty , I’m sure the neighbors just loved it. Night three, 9 pm and still no cat . So, I thought, just when I felt we had a pattern this fall about him coming in, he up and changed it on me. Hmmmmmm. Human not in control of little kitty. Interesting. Little seven pound kitty has human’s knickers all in a twist over his safety. And I started to realize my feelings were hurt, too. Did KIlmer not want to come inside and be with me anymore? Had my cat abandoned me ? Ouch. So I finally just let go of him. I told him, if you want to risk being eaten outside at night, then so be it. That’s your decision. Oh Well.
Not even ten minutes had gone by, and through the cat door came KIlmer. Ha! He totally felt me release my vibe with him and he now felt comfortable to come back in the house with me. What a lesson in energy and vibe for me. Kilmer had to go out there and look for his balls, and when I gave them back to him (let him be totally in charge ) he came in to me. I cut the cosmic leash I had made for him, and he was back in his comfort zone. Thanks for the lesson, KIlmer.
