Thanks Carolyn for your comment. I was beginning to feel alone out here in the blog world. Anyone else out there who may be reading, jump in and leave some comments and let’s get the conversation started. As much as I love writing my hope was to draw you all into a discussion of your own lives with Mother.

I will officially be starting my guest blogger posts tomorrow. I will try to post it on the first day of the month. Only a few of my writing friends had the time to participate so I’ll do it once a month and see if it grows. Let me know by your comments what you think of them. I’m starting off with best selling author Robin Mastro. Enjoy!

Today I want to hook you up with some great links. For the last two years Mother has been gently leading my husband and I into an awareness of Mother Earth that we were lacking. It seems I’ve spent so many years focused on myself and others that I forgot about the bigger picture. I am coming to believe, especially after the State of The Planet 09 and Living seasonally webinars Mother did that I want to be part of the solution in choosing to be conscious of the choices we as a human collective are being offered. It started, as it did for so many, with An Inconvenient Truth. So much of what was in that film I had read and heard, but didn’t want to take it in because like most spiritual truths, once I do I have to change.

Mother Mary’s brand of change is gentle and natural. After seeing that movie, I began asking Her for the willingness to be a part of the solution as best I could. I forget so often that Mother’s way is effortless in how the outcome happens. I didn’t realize that my happiness flowed into leaving a smaller footprint. For most of my life I was a hard core consumer. I wanted it all and I wanted it now. I had so many emotional gaps to fill along with a raging sense of entitlement that conservation was only something to act superior about, but not participate in. Accepting and loving myself has allowed me to forgive the person I was because I love who I am. That love gives me the freedom to do things differently today, not because someone is making me feel guilty but because it feels right for me to do so.

I’ve said before that moving to Ashland has been a dream come true for me, what I couldn’t have anticipated was the plethora of ways easily available to conserve. We are surrounded by organic farms. Here the effort is to buy something from somewhere other than Oregon, Washington, or California. My husband planted a garden he is loving and it is loving him back. We have more zucchini and cucumbers than we know what to do with. Our neighbors have their own gardens. Because everything is so close I use my car less than half compared to Atlanta. My husband and son ride to school on his bike with a tag along bike attached for my son to ride. The list goes on. I don’t feel I’m making any effort, it’s happening and it feels natural. I love Mother’s Grace!

Here are a few links I really like.

ideal bite   is a great daily magazine that gives you tips and products that are eco-friendly.

The Story of Stuff is an eye opening video done by Annie Leonard in a way that is easy to understand and simple in it’s delivery. I get all her updates.

Flow the movie is a fantastic documentary out on DVD about water and who is controlling it and why. This is not a conspiracy theory doc. it is simply a deeper understanding of something we take for granted will always be there when we turn on the tap. My husband has been led to focus his business on rainwater catchment systems for homes and commercial buildings. It is so easy to save water it will make you wonder why we haven’t always built homes this way.

Food Inc. the movie is out in theatre’s now. Try to see it. If you eat food, you need to know what you are eating and why. It is fascinating.

Mother’s teachings never feel shaming to me. At times She delivers them with a sense of urgency, but that galvinizes and empowers me. The beauty is, I don’t miss the excess. It’s a relief not to consume so much so often.

I am so glad to be back! Sorry for such a long absence. My two week vacation became a month due to sickness. I haven’t been that sick for that long since childhood. It is good to be well again.

I wanted to write about an email I received yesterday. This is the first of it’s kind since creating this website. 

i opened your website and got a horrible feeling. i intuitively realized that you are trying to take  money from people selling trinkets and spiritual messages is wrong it is wrong for you to do that in the name of Mary…please stop trying to destroy the integrity of the metaphysical realm. it is wrong to make money off of things of a spiritual nature…it will cost you …not bring you wealth if it is of God…if it is from Mary…than you should be giving your gift FREELY…not for $$$$$. $$$$is the mark of the beast.

One word frees us from the weight and the pain of life…and that word is Love.
                          Sophocles

My first reaction was hurt that this person would send such an email. The second was anger. Then I wanted to respond by explaining why I charge money for what I do and how spiritual I am, to convince this person that I am a good girl in hopes that they will love me. After two minutes of that, I went inside and asked Mother for help. Her gentle reply was to let it go and write about it for closure. I have spent my life trying to explain and justify my actions to people because I had no confidence in who I was. I doubted everything I did, and felt I had to defend it in order to make myself matter. I’m grateful today that I am able to pause and pray for guidance. Rushing in was often my undoing. Today I can let this person have their beliefs and not feel it is my job to change it for any reason. But more healing than that, I can have mine. This persons belief captures the essence of a struggle being fought by many in the metaphysical community. So many people who are gifted healers, channels, and psychics can’t pay their basic living expenses because they give so much away and are unable to receive much in return. I have witnessed hundreds of people in this struggle, myself included, over the years. The stress that comes with living on the edge financially is debilitating. It often leads to sickness and eventually the inability to serve Spirit with the gifts they were given. I wonder how this person serves God and how they pay for what they use and have.

What this email did was create an inner dialouge about how I’m feeling about money today. The fact that I felt defensive tells me that my old beliefs are still rattling around inside. It’s been my experience that if I am at peace about something it doesn’t bother me at all. When I first started channeling I felt exactly as this person did.  I was earning money as a massage therapist and asking only for donations for my channeling. Almost everyone who came to experience Mother Mary through me left feeling better than when they came. Some came regularly but few people gave any money. On occasion someone gave more than the suggested amount, but it wasn’t enough to pay any of my living expenses. Mother suggested I look at my difficulty with receiving support. I had deep seeded beliefs about money back then. I wanted it desperately because how much I had defined my value as an adult person in this society. I was a failure because I had so little. And I despised myself for wanting it so badly. I thought it highlighted my lack of true spirituality.

Over the years Mother’s teachings about money have slowly changed my beliefs and have allowed more love of self and peace around it to settle in my life. Mother teaches that money is a neutral energy, neither good or bad. It’s value is agreed upon by the collective consciousness. Depending on the time and place, it has consisted of anything from seashells to gold bullion. Mother points out all the positive things that people do with their money by giving it to the arts, people struggling to find food, shelter, and clothing, people who are sick or displaced by war and natural disaster. And She points out the destructive things people do with money, pollute, finance war, take advantage of people to facilitate sickness and famine, influence governments solely to generate more money at the expense of the community. Charity and greed, both utilize money, but in the end have nothing to do with money itself. They are what wars within each of us. The issue isn’t having it or not having it, it’s what we do with it that matters.

With Mother’s grace I am surrendering my beliefs around money. In all that I do I take direction from Her. She supports me in all things. I don’t have more than I need nor do I have less. Basing my life on needs rather than wants has finally brought serenity to my scared, greedy little girl who was terrified she wouldn’t get enough. Mother has helped me to know deeply that She will always take care of what I need. I have never made much money doing what I do, and if I ever did, I know Mother will show me what to do with it and I will feel grateful to follow Her guidance as I have for fifteen years. Money has become a tool for me to help me live my life. It holds a more balanced place inside than ever before.Today I am enough and I have enough. Thank you Mother.