Julie A. Wallace

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Transitions

The last four weeks or so have been about transitions. Deep winter is gone, and now we’re in almost-but-not-quite-spring.

Even though the calendar says today is the spring equinox, living in central Michigan I know darned well there could be more snow. I hope not. I am so ready for daffodils and tulips.

Bye Bye Tea and Sugar

In February my doctor told me I needed to lower my cholesterol. In an effort to do so, I’ve let go of most tea and radically minimized my sugar intake. That’s a major accomplishment and transition. Yeah me!

I have had a total of three cups of green tea over that time. I used to drink at least two hearty mugs of black tea a day, and more on the weekend.

It did take some time to get used to the new, not bouncy me, but it’s better. I’m more mellow and considerate, less likely to do things on impulse.

I was already eating oatmeal every day, walking a bit here and there, but still eating cookies. Lots of cookies. So I decided to minimize my intake of sugar.

I ate the last of the double-stuff Oreos, then bought some chocolate bars from the local co-op. After a meal, I mindfully eat a little chocolate.

Mindful Eating

There’s an exercise I learned years ago while working at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. You take one raisin. You observe the raisin. You put the raisin in your mouth, and then slowly eat the raisin so you can really, truly taste that raisin.

That’s exactly what I’ve been doing with chocolate.

I snap off a couple small hunks of the chocolate bar. I take a tiny bite of chocolate and then I savor.

The chocolate melts in my mouth. It is so utterly satisfying, I rarely desire more sweetness.

I finish the small hunks and am a very happy woman.

It is some kind of miracle, really, and a lovely transition.

Go Away Clutter

Another thing I’m slowly working on is letting go of clutter. This will take a LONG time as I have so much stuff – here, there, everywhere.

The other day I took a car load of miscellaneous stuff to the local thrift store. I’ve also gifted several things via Buy Nothing. This is an app that connects you with others in your area. You “gift” things you no longer need to someone else. You can also “ask” for things you’re in need of. You can also post a “gratitude” to say thanks.

I’ve gifted two cat towers, leftover cat litter, a fridge calendar, and more. Highly recommended.

CSA Time

Along with highly recommending Buy Nothing, I’d also suggest getting signed up for a local community supported agriculture (CSA) to support a local, organic farmer.

For around $300, the farmer grows and delivers veggies. For example, I will get a stove-top full worth of fresh veggies from June to the end of October. Between the CSA in the summer and HelloFresh in winter, I minimize the amount I spend at the grocery store. It’s less waste and less work – winning!

Find a local CSA through Local Harvest. I subscribe to Monroe Organics out of Alma, MI; they have a pickup a couple of blocks from my house on Tuesday.

Farewell Ivan

The final transition to talk about is the passing of my last cat, Ivan. On Facebook I described him as magnificent and cranky.

The 18-year-old rarely met anyone besides me he liked. At the vet’s office, his paperwork said he was evil – and he really was for them.

But for me, he was a constant companion and friend. I will miss him sleeping on my chest or right next to me, miss him sitting on my lap at night while I read. I picture Ivan romping in the warm sun with his sister kitties Jasmine, Ravine, and Nebula. No doubt there will be hissing involved.

With Ivan’s passing, I have transitioned to be completely cat free. This last week has been oddly quiet. No little patter of feet, no sounds of Ivan jumping onto the bed.

It’s also been exciting. Ivan required wet food twice a day mixed with pumpkin and Miralax. I can’t remember when I went somewhere spontaneously and spent the night – it was well before Covid.

I moved the litter boxes to the garage, rearranged some things.

I could never have rugs in the house because Ivan (or one of the other cats) would urinate on those rugs. So this week I bought two new rugs and rolled out an old one I’d been saving just for the day when I was cat free.

Your Turn

Wow! That’s a lot of transitions for me. What kind of transitions is this change from winter to spring bringing in your life?

On Calm in the Face of Fear

So if you didn’t know, I’m a big Star Trek fan. And my favorite flavor is The Next Generation with Patrick Stewart in the role of Captain John Luc Picard which is why, of course, I’m loving the new Star Trek: Picard.

It’s a great story, both broadening the known Star Trek universe and endearing us to the story of Picard and his motley crew aboard yet another starship. This most recent episode was called “Broken Pieces” and it explored the ways in which most of the primary players have been ‘broken’ by their experiences throughout life.

Picard is talking with Rios, a broken former Star Trek officer, after a particularly revealing scene. Picard says, “We have powerful tools. Openness, optimism and the spirit of curiosity. All they have is secrecy and fear, and fear is the great destroyer.”

Fear Is The Great Destroyer

Earlier today I took a friend to the hospital for an outpatient procedure. We were there maybe two hours. She was nervous and her blood pressure was up. At first I reassured her; I’d had the very same procedure a couple of years ago and knew it wasn’t a big deal.

But then I sunk in deeper to myself and remembered my meditation training. I remembered how to literally be that quiet calm in the center of a raging hurricane.

I invited my friend to remember things she loves like the purr of cats and the unconditional love of dogs. She loves the warmth of sunshine and the sound of rustling leaves on a long walk in a nearby park. She loves a hug from beloved family members. I also had her shrug her shoulders as hard as she could and then release with a big sigh. I encouraged her to breathe in deeply, hold it, then release.

These happy memories helped my friend relax and let go of the fear of this minor procedure. I also encouraged her to limit exposure to the news – so much is bad and scary and designed to make us be more fearful. These very simple things allowed my friend to relax into the unknown of the procedure.

Fear Is The Mind Killer

Picard’s words also reminded me of the Litany Against Fear from Frank Herbert’s Dune series of books:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Got it? Fear is the mind-killer. Fear gets in there and keeps going. Fear is as much a virus as anything – once you’ve got it, it’s hard to get rid of it, and there’s no anti-biotic you can take, no recommended regimen to prevent fear.

Fear is buying all the toilet paper so that there is none for others. Fear is having enough stocked to survive a zombie apocalypse. Fear is listening to the news 24/7 so you don’t miss any important updates. Anybody who’s been following Q or who has tried alternative health methods knows that mainstream media is feeding us lies every day. Those lies breed fear.

Caution is different than fear. Being cautious – buying more than what you normally would buy, but enough to stock your pantry – that makes sense. Being cautious and proactive, fine.

But the crazy panic buying we’re seeing now is part of that fight or flight instinct that (in meditation) we work against. Or rather, you work to recognize when you are running from panic, to pause and reflect very quickly whether this particular thing is a true threat.

To rid yourself of fear, you must work at it, every day and throughout the day. This is not fifteen minutes in the morning and done thing. And one of your best weapons against fear is meditation.

WWG1WGA and Weitko

Bernhard Guenther wrote a long post about fear and shared an excerpt from that post on his Facebook page recently. He and his wife visited the grocery store for their normal weekly shopping.

The energy was eerie. The fear frequency and animalistic survival instinct palpable, the energy of greed and pure selfishness of people hoarding as much as they could into their carts was intense.

With empathic abilities, I feel energy and definitely feel the ‘fear frequency and animal instinct.’ For example, the ‘gauntlet’ of holidays from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year’s Eve always feels heavy and oppressive to me. I’m delighted when it’s all over.

(I’m not happy it’s January and freezing cold, mind you. More specifically, January always feels lighter and brighter to me. January is a breath of fresh air, a relief after the obligatory merrymaking the four holidays cause.)

But this energy of fear that Guenther wrote about is something altogether different. He uses a Native American term “Weitko” – the virus of selfishness. It’s heavy and oppressive like the feeling of my holiday gauntlet, but there’s more to it. It’s constricting. It’s squeezing. It makes everyone suspicious of everyone else. It’s the opposite of the WWG1WGA philosophy that Q espouses.

WWG1WGA stands for “Where we go one, we go all,” ie, we’re in this together and have to work together and serve each other. Buying all the things doesn’t help your fellow humans, it only helps you.

After I took my friend to the hospital, I went to Target. Later in the day, I went to my local big-box grocery store, Meijer. Both stores felt off-kilter.

Walking into Meijer around 7 pm I heard an employee reassure a man that no, the store had no plans to close; the man had heard rumors that everything was going to shut down, including Meijer.

There was no toilet paper. The TP shelves had signs “Due to the high demand for this product, please limit yourself to five packages.” Canned foods and frozen foods were quite empty; I couldn’t find any frozen kale, so I got fresh and will freeze. I did get a few cans of cannelloni beans because a) I like them and b) there were no chickpeas left.

I bought what I would normally buy if I was filling up my pantry, and a little bit extra. I think I might step up my plans to permaculture the yard, maybe plant more perennial vegetables that can be eaten instead of more pretty flowers that cannot.

But I’m not panicking and neither should you.

Be The Calm

During World War II the British propaganda machine produced a poster intended to help people stay calm. There were millions printed, but it wasn’t widely displayed at the time and faded into obscurity. Then in 2000 a bookstore ‘rediscovered’ the poster and now it’s famous.

Your job now is to Keep Calm and Carry On. Be the calm in the middle of this – and any – hurricane. Hold fast. Do not give in to these fearful thoughts.

Meditation helps, although at first, your brain is a runaway train. Err, most of the time it’s a runaway train. Eventually, it calms down…and then it runs again.

Don’t want to bother learning meditation? Focus on your favorite activities. It’s pretty easy to socially distance if you’re hiking in the woods, far away from this crazy world. Do art. Read. Go out and work in your yard, in your garage. Work on a project you’ve wanted to but never got around to.

Messy Nessy Chic has a creative list of things you can “do to not bang your head against the wall’ while stuck at home indefinitely. If only I had more magazines and so on to collage my bathroom wall…

Listen to some binaural beats. The creator of the video below explains that binaural beats are at 528 Hz which is also known as the miracle tone, or the love tone. It allows for positive transformation, as well as DNA Healing and repair.”

I just think they feel good.

And definitely turn off the news. Perhaps listen to the news twice a day. Turn off the 24/7 feed and treat the news like it’s poison.

P.S.

For me, not posting on a regular basis is more because I’m not moved to post something. I really tried hard to post once a week, but my heart’s not in it. Now when my heart is in it, a post like this rolls out of me with little or no editing.

P.S.S.

I finally faced every fear I’ve had about self-publishing and am working towards publishing a collection of poetry. These are things I’ve written over the years, and they’ll be all together in one volume. Looks like it will be ready for the whole world sometime in April. One of these days I’ll change the website around so it’s a little more writer and a little less life coach.

And if you’re hungry for a little poetry now, check out this or this.

Writing & Mindfulness

Not long ago I told someone that I was interested in the intersection of writing and mindfulness. The phrase just rolled off my tongue and – to be honest – I wasn’t quite sure what I meant.

A female hand holding a pen and writing. The words "writing and mindfulness."

Full disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a link and buy something (even if it’s not the particular book,) I receive a little compensation.

At first glance, mindfulness and writing have zero commonality. But a closer look reveals the “intersection” – that place where the two meet.

The easiest way to experience this intersection is by writing by hand. There comes a very obvious transition from complaining and list making to what feels like taking notes from god – spirit – source – whatever. And it’s clearly not you thinking, because words flow freely and are deftly organized.

For me, this “space” of not thinking is where my best writing comes from.

This transition between everyday consciousness to something else is nothing new for writers. Natalie Goldberg’s beloved Writing Down The Bones touches this space, as do Julia Cameron’s “Morning Pages” exercise. Both help you move from everyday and into this other type of writing. Here’s how to recognize that space:

Everyday Writing

  • Complains
  • Makes to do lists
  • Acts like “The Editor” and criticizes
  • Intellect talking to itself
  • Feels like you’re working at writing
  • Your handwriting is practiced and perfect

ExtraOrdinary Writing

  • I’m not writing, I’m taking notes from god.
  • Flow and lack of effort
  • The words move through me
  • It writes itself
  • Handwriting is loose and playful

When you enter into the stillness of not thinking, your writing changes. For me, if I do nothing for long periods of time, this “ExtraOrdinary” writing comes naturally. It becomes -if you will – the new every day. The question is how to get these extraordinary states to come into your life more often.

I daydream. I stay quiet and let cats sit on my lap for a long time. I don’t run off and get busy with a to-do list. This doing nothing keeps the connection between rigid consensual reality and source/spirit/no time firm. And the more you move back and forth between these two ways of being, the easier it becomes to adapt to the timelessness of not thinking.

The “lack” of structured time is a terrifying thought for anyone caught in 9-5, appointments, and to do lists. By daydreaming and not doing on a regular basis, you acclimatize yourself to this sinuous approach to life. I believe it is the natural way to be in the body.

Abandon Thought

We love thinking and linear thought. But there are other ways of being in the world that are utterly devoid of thought and that are profoundly natural and transformative.

On page 12 of Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond, Ajahn Brahm gets straight to the heart of the matter of this problem of thinking and commenting on everything. He calls it “inner speech.”

…inner speech does not know the world at all. It is the inner speech that spins the delusions that cause suffering. Inner speech causes us to be angry with our enemies and to form dangerous attachments to our loved ones. Inner speech causes all of life’s problems. It constructs fear and guilt, anxiety, and depression. It builds these illusions as deftly as the skilled actor manipulates the audience to create terrors or fears. So if you seek truth, you should value silent awareness and, when meditating, consider it more important than any thought.

Inner speech gets in the way of good writing. Learn to abandon inner speech, so your writing moves into that ‘other’ extraordinary space.

Writing morning pages – aka stream of consciousness or writing whatever comes into your head – helps you make the leap between here and there.

Meditation takes you the rest of the way.

But that’s another story.

Writing the Sly Silence Within

Working on a mindfulness certification, the one practice that pulls me forward is following the word.

That is, following the words that appear in my head as I’m meditating. I follow, realize I’m following, and return to breathing. I do the same thing when writing.

This practice developed by reading Julia Cameron and Natalie Goldberg years ago. Cameron talks about morning pages – three pages off the top of your head written by hand first thing in the morning, no interruption, no stopping to correct errors. Goldberg combined Zen meditation training with “stream of consciousness” writing and often wrote through a small notebook each month.

Both techniques help me find that sly silence within.

Being a Star Trek fan, I think that sly silence is the most interesting place ever. And you don’t have to get on a starship or airplane or cruise ship or any vehicle other than your own to get there. You just have to be quiet, really quiet, like this poem about writing a poem.

How to you reach that sly silence within?

Reading Soothes My Soul (September 2018)

I swear my last reading update was years ago, yet it was really only in July. How is it that it was only two months ago?

And I thought I hadn’t read much until I started to pile up the books…they’re more than fourteen inches tall!

And yes, that is an old-fashioned ruler, the kind that construction workers used back in the day.

Mindfulness by Joseph Goldstein. This is a series of lectures by Goldstein, one of the people who brought vipassana (aka mindfulness) meditation to America. Along with Sharon Salzburg and Jack Kornfield, Goldstein founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. When there is a retreat being held at the center, there is always a dharma talk, or lecture, in the evening; this book is a collection of those lectures by Goldstein specifically covering the Satipatthana Sutta, the foundational discourse of Buddha on mindfulness. I find I can only read a one lecture a day because each brings so much to ponder. It’s worth it, though, as there are plenty of jewels like this:

An ironic and useless patter that I’ve noticed in my own retreats is that my mind comments on someone not being mindful — or at least not appearing to be in my eyes — all the while being oblivious to the fact that in that very moment I’m doing exactly what it is I have a judgement about: namely, not being mindful! It usually doesn’t take me long to see the absurdity of this patter and then just to smile at these habits of mind. It’s always helpful to have a sense of humor about one’s own mental foibles.

I’ve definitely never been guilty of this, have you?

The Little Old Lady Who Broke All The Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg. This was a fun little read that I picked up on a late summer adventure to Grand Rapids. I went over for the day and hit Nordstrom Rack, thrift stores on 29th street, Trader Joes, and (how could I not) Schuler Books. I ate lunch and gathered a few books including this one purely for the title.

The back-of-book blurb attracted my attention too: “Martha Andersson may be seventy-nine years old and live in a retirement home, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to stop enjoying life. So when the new management starts cutting corners to save money, Martha and her four closest friends won’t stand for it.” This league of pensioners gets up to all sorts of hilarious hijinks and you’ll love it. Thank goodness there’s at least one more in the series: The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again!

On that same trip, I bought Bibliomysteries edited by Otto Penzler. This is a collection of short stories about bookshops, libraries, book collectors, and booksellers. Authors include Mickey Spiillane, Nelson DeMille, Anne Perry, and Laura Lippman. The subtitle of the book says it all: stories of crime in the world of books and bookstores.

Mindful Aging by Andrea Brandt. I really tried to like this book, but alas, I can’t do it. The subtitle of the book is “embracing your life after 50 to find fulfillment, purpose, and joy.” It comes off a little too simplistic for me, and probably for you, too.

The Greywalker series by Kat Richardson: Poltergeist , Labryinth, Vanished, and Seawitch, and others. This urban fantasty series features private investigator Harper Blaine who just happens to be able to see between the worlds. Start with #1 in the series, Greywalker, which explains how Blaine got these talents, among other things.

The Edge of Dreams by Rhys Bowen. Bowen writes the Molly Murphy mysteries series, set in the early part of the 1900s in the New York City area.  Molly’s biggest challenge seems to be balancing what a proper woman should do (stay at home and take care of her young child) versus her natural instincts to solve mysteries as well as any man – including her police captain husband.  Charming, if a little predictable.

The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen. Bowen is a prolific author, and this book is definitely not a Molly Murphy mystery. It does seamlessly blend the stories of a World War II British bomber pilot and his daughter in with a quaint rural Italian town. Bonus points for delicious food, but like The Edge of Dreams, this is a charming if a little predictable read.

Raspberry Danish Murder by Joanna Fluke. New Hannah!!! I read this super-cozy mystery in one night, and am delighted by the end. I wrote about the recipes on my other blog. Though I’ve been annoyed by plot developments in previous books, this one is sweet and complete, just like the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

The Last Girls by Lee Smith. If you got together with college roommates, you’d have a lot of fun, right? I would! But these roommates and friends seem more bent on destroying each other, or at least hurling insults and mean glances. There is fun, to be sure, as the women recreate their trip down the Mississippi, but I wouldn’t want to be along for the trip.

Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon by David McGowan. If you don’t know it already, I love me a good so-called conspiracy theory. I even wrote a little bit about the whole QAnon stuff going on this past year. QAnon and David Wilcock both posit that something much bigger is going on covertly, and that we’ll all know about it soon enough. So it’s the perfect time to read this little collection of stories from McGowan who wrote about a lot of very interesting things. This book explores the Laurel Canyon scene in the 60s and 70s that spawned a whole hoot of musicians: the Byrds, the doors, Buffalo Springfield, the Monkees, the Beach Boys, the Turtles, the Eagles, and more.  And it especially delves into the underbelly of that scene (think Charles Manson connections) and a lot of military connections.

Don’t forget, I’m bringing PGS Intuition to the Mount Pleasant Celebration Cinema on October 1st. Hope to see you there!

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Despair and the Bright Shining Light of Just Maybe

We like to think that one person can’t change the world. I don’t believe that’s true.

As one person, you have significant impact on your world. The energy produced by your feelings resounds everywhere. Your energy touches all of the people and buildings and cars and plants and animals that you meet every day.

Your energy can be enough to change the world. Or, at least your little part of the world.

But here’s the thing.

That little ripple of your energy goes out into the world and bumps into other ripples. And on and on it goes, a whole universe of ripples, with you at the center, causing motion to begin.

What kind of ripples do you set in motion?

Watch Your Ripples

With fast-paced chaotic lifestyles, it’s hard to be hell bent on peace, love, and understanding.

(Nick Lowe version here because there’s a sincerity here that is undeniable. He really means it. He also wrote the song, FYI.)

Maintaining a positive outlook and hope for the future of the world is a challenge.

In fact, it’s much easier to be negative. Complaining is easy.

No doubt at some point in your life, you’ve been the one talking up the latest tragedy, bitching about work, or bemoaning your latest aches and pains. Once you start complaining, it cycles on and on..

But caught on the wheel of negativity, despair meets you on the way down. Despair leads you to think that there is no reason to bother to hope that things might change because they never have and never, ever will.

Despair-Be-Gone

Therefore, do your best to make the signals you send to the world be filled with joy and happiness, peace and love.

It’s easy to write that.

But boy, is it hard to put into practice. I fail miserably.

I fail every time I get angry at work, and every time I’m angry at that slow driver in front of me. I fail every time I cuss out my cat for bothering me, and every time I complain.

But I do not despair.  I keep reminding myself of joy and love and happiness.

Frankly, even in the depths of depression, I didn’t despair. I didn’t give up hope that somehow, someday, things would change.

What I didn’t understand then, was that I had to change.

What I really didn’t understand was, that as I changed, my whole world changed.

It’s as if I turned on a little light bulb inside myself and started to shine, just a little bit.

Shine On

So for today, do what you can to shine.

Your little light may be the only ray of hope for someone today.

And that sense of hope ripples around the world. Even if your world is just right here, right now.

Shine on, shine as bright as you can.

 

Illusion, the Q Phenomenon, and We the Good People of Earth

The “Q” phenomenon is sweeping the internet. And if you’re haven’t heard about it, I’m going to do my best to explain it.

In doing so, I hope to keep it fairly simple, and offer plenty of bright shining rays of light. Because where there is light, there is hope.

This is a long post, it’s complicated, and this is deep territory. You may need to take a break, or go for a walk outside for a bit. Then come back and read some more. Just breathe.

Elephants In The Room

When thinking about the whole Q phenomenon, I’m reminded of the parable about the blind men and the elephant.

This group of blind me come upon and elephant and try to form a concept of what an elephant is. Each in turn describes a different part of an elephant.

“An elephant is big and firm,” says the man feeling a leg of the elephant.

“No, no,” says the man feeling the trunk of the elephant, “it is like a thick snake, bending too and fro.”

You get the idea, right? That no one person has the whole picture of the elephant. And that, my friends, is an apt analogy for understanding Q, conspiracy theories, and consensual reality.

Conspiracy Theories

Let’s start with trying to understand what conspiracy theories actually are.  Merriam-Webster makes conspiracy easy to understand; it’s the act of conspiring together.  And the act of conspiring is, “To join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement. To act in harmony toward a common end.”

So think about a group of people getting together to make (most likely) unsavory things happen.

A theory is, “a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained.” In other words, a theory is a possibility or alternative.

Think about this in terms of love. Yes, love. Could you put love through rigorous scientific tests and prove that love exists? Of course not. Love is something you “just know” exists. It’s something you experience, something you live. I think love is kind of like a theory, an alternative to hate.

Both love and energy have distinct energy. As I wrote in Remember the Loosh and Love, “How something FEELS – matters more than what it’s called... Energy is a hunch. It’s a tickle. It’s feeling and beyond feeling. It’s material instinct, gut instinct, just knowing. Click To Tweet… Energy is that which informs you to trust or not trust the person you just met, to know if a situation is safe or not.”

You know the difference between love and hate because you’ve experienced both. Keep that in mind as you read through this post. Experience and feelings matter.

But conspiracy theory Julie? Yes. Conspiracy theories offer alternatives, possibilities that disagree with consensual reality – with what ‘everyone’ believes is true.

Sometimes conspiracy theories are wrong, and sometimes they’re right. There is debate on when the term ‘conspiracy theory’ started to infer crazy people with tin foil hats waiting for aliens to come and save or destroy the earth.

Illusion and Misdirection

Switching gears now, do you like magic shows? I enjoy them, and even dated a magician years ago. Magicians make you believe in magic by using illusion and misdirection.

The greatest magicians are absolute masters of intentionally direction your attention to something they want you to see. This causes you to not see what is really going on.

There’s a famous magic trick called the Metamorphosis. In this trick, the magician’s assistant is put into a bag, then locked into a box.

A curtain is pulled up over the box, raised and lowered a couple of times. Sometimes the magician stands on top of the box holding the curtain.

Regardless. the final time the curtain drops, the magician has ‘disappeared,’ and the assistant stands in front of you. The assistant opens the box to reveal the magician restrained just like the assistant had been previously.

The truth of this trick is that it’s done with illusion and misdirection. You are deliberately deceived. The box has a false top, a false back, and the bag has a secret opening.

Watch this video and learn. You’ll never be able to see this trick again and not know the secret. Or, at least part of the secret; every magician adds their own special twist to the trick.

Conspiracy theorists posit that aspects of our world are a deliberate ruse – as well planned and elaborately executed as this magic trick. And if that’s the case – if conspiracy theorists are correct even in the slightest bit – then this kind of ‘magic trick’ manipulation has potentially existed for a very, very long time.

The Internet Connection

I imagine you’d agree that the internet changed the world. Perhaps most importantly, the internet connected people. That connection is local, global, and instantaneous.

The connectivity makes it easy to see and detect patterns and symbols like The Mandela Effect, and various so-called Illuminati symbols like upside down pentagrams, all seeing eyes, owls, obelisks, and eternal flames.

The internet connectivity makes detecting ‘fake’ news easy. Comparing notes and reading multiple websites, people quickly noticed that mainstream media (MSM) behaves like a mockingbird. It copies and repeats, changing the song just a little bit, yet the message remains the same: trust the illusion, believe in the magic.

To push the analogy a little further, the connectivity of the internet enabled people to see through the mockingbird illusions at who or what is “behind the curtain.” Basically, the internet is Toto in the Wizard of Oz, pulling the curtain away for all to see what’s really going on.

And Then Came Trump

Say what you will about Trump, but hear me out.

The build-up to the 2016 presidential election was relentless. No matter where you turned, someone was talking about politics. There was no joy in anyone’s eyes; we just wanted it over with already.

Trump won, Hillary lost, and the nation was in shock. One side appalled, one side elated, and most everyone thinking, “what just happened?”

I don’t know about you, but I had a gut feeling that Trump’s victory had a deeper meaning that I just couldn’t see – or wasn’t allowed to see. If our world is designed as an illusion, the election may have just been smoke and mirrors anyway. And the ‘wrong’ guy won…the guy who no one in the mainstream media thought could win did win.

But since the election, a curious thing has happened online. People who might never talk in real life started to talk online.

They started to come together and discuss everything – all the ‘weirdo’ conspiracy theories like how the deep state runs everything, how 9-11 was an inside job, how there was more than one JFK shooter, how the PizzaGate scam was actually real but deliberately covered up, and whole lot more.

And slowly, our doors of perception started to be cleansed. The curtain started to move aside as that pesky little dog, Toto, sunk his teeth in.

The All-Knowing All-Seeing Omnipotent Q

In October 2017 a mysterious voice began posting anonymously on boards. The voice identified itself only as “Q.”

We’re not talking about Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation, although they seem to share some similar characteristics:

There are many theories about who Q really is, but for this story, you don’t have to know the answer to that question. You DO have to understand that Q started to drop clues – also known as breadcrumbs.

Or in Q-speak, “think Hansel and Gretel.”

Hansel and Gretel is a simple story of two children who follow a path of bread crumbs to a candy cottage. They are captured by a cannibalistic witch who keeps Hansel in a cage and makes Gretel her slave. The children escape by outwitting the witch. The Q phenomenon alludes to the idea that, with the internet, we the people are now capable of outwitting the witch AND sinking our teeth into the curtain to reveal the truth.

Regardless, “Anons” – regular folks like you and me – rapidly followed the initial breadcrumbs and began to use their collective knowledge to piece together the parts of an intriguing picture…and one that fit with many conspiracy theories.

The theories seemed to tie everything together: government, entertainment, commerce, military, medical, science. And they tie into things  that you and I (the relatively good and normal people of the world) really wish weren’t true like pedophilia, human trafficking, cannibalism, human sacrifice, and more.

Here’s a simple example. Do you find it kind of odd that ten companies own so many brands?

 

On the other hand, when you start looking at the various breadcrumbs dropped by this Q, that simple image transforms into something more like this:

Dylan Louis Monroe
The map is by Dylan Louis Monroe. Read more about it here.

Crazy, right? And it ain’t just corporations: It’s everything.

For more information on the Q phenomenon, you’ve got to follow Q (aka Follow The White Rabbit, a Matrix reference,) and search and read. Here are some people I like; they have a good way of interpreting the Q posts:

I think the coming of Trump didn’t portend a civil war. Instead it brought a secret, silent war that is (apparently) focused on ending decades of rule by a small percentage of people.

It’s a war you can glimpse at if you follow Q’s breadcrumbs. It’s a war played out behind the curtain, with Q allowing you glimpses along the way.

Start A (Personal) Revolution

For a completely different perspective, astrologers have noticed that stars are aligned at the same positions as they were in The American and French Revolutions. If you have been waiting for changes, they are coming. And you, me, and everyone else will design the results of these changes.

Dana Mrkich’s 2018 report, which I’ve written about before, covers the various star transitions in detail. Regarding the American Revolutionary War, she asks:

What was that war about? What did the Founding Fathers fight for and intend? What did they do right? What did they do wrong? Where can we do better? Where are we aspiring for freedom and independence on one hand, but causing repression, hurt, or injustice on the other?

The first event she talks about is 1773 Pluto in Capricorn at 21 degrees: that’s the Boston Tea Party, the ‘culmination of a resistance movement” against the taxation of tea.

That exact degree isn’t repeated until 2019, yet we are starting to feel the effects already as tensions are building. Frankly, if you’re not already feeling tense just reading this post, I’d be surprised.

Mrkich further suggests that the Boston Tea Party (and any other event that happens in this long Pluto Transit) was then and will be going forward about power: “getting rid of old power structures or dynamics that no longer serve, so that a more authentic power can emerge.”

Further, she writes that there is, “…destruction, demolition, and dissolution, before the new can be born.” She writes, “Pluto also reveals things that have been hidden and going on behind closed doors…”

That’s what the Q phenomenon is about: revealing hidden stuff. Lots of it. And starting a conversation about what to put in place once the hidden stuff is out in the open.

The Pluto in Capricorn transit continues through to 2036-2037. Frankly, the transformation of our world is only just getting started, and WE get to make it happen.

Good People of the World Unite and Shine Your Lights

These things I’ve talked about are all tiny cracks in consensual reality. They shine a light on a collective Pandora’s Box that holds some might ugly things.

Don’t look away. Don’t stick your head in the sand and say, “oh no not me.” We are all in this together. And by and large, we are good people.

We love our families, neighbors, communities, children, and have dreams about the future. We love our pets, your pets, and all of nature. We have many differences, yet we strive to listen and respect those differences. We care deeply.

As the years move forward, remember these things. Remember love and free will, and kindness and caring. Act on forgiveness. Reach out.

Q often uses the phrase, “Where we go one, we go all.”  We are all together in this.

“All for one, and one for all.” We are the musketeers. We are the ones we have been waiting for to transform our world.  You, mean, and everyone else will design this new world together.

Breathe

Now, with all of that information. Breathe. Remember love? That thing you can’t quite describe, but know it when you feel it? Feel it now. Remember beauty.

In Praise Of the Multi-Faceted Self and a Life Well Lived

Conventional wisdom suggests that to be successful in life, you find a career that you really like, and that you work at that career until you retire. After many years of self sacrifice -and focusing on your family and career- you get to “retire.”

And then finally, in retirement, you get to do some of those things you’ve always wanted to do.

I say that wisdom is poppycock. It’s nonsense. And it’s frankly boring.

I like doing different things, love having different interests, and would be bored if I waited to retire to do things I love. Besides, I don’t think I’ll ever retire.

What Would Your Ancestors Do?

I love researching my ancestors, and I think about the variety of things they had to know how to do – just to survive, let alone have a good life:

  • tend a garden
  • care for livestock
  • stoke a wood stove
  • cook on a wood stove
  • collect the harvest
  • store the harvest
  • make clothing
  • make their own house
  • help build a neighbor’s barn

They certainly weren’t just sitting around and watching Jelle’s Marble Runs on YouTube!

(maybe that’s just me?)

From research, I know my ancestors were actively engaged in their community – and that’s in addition to the work they did to maintain a home and family. In an average week they might:

  • Go to church on Sunday
  • Go to a political meeting
  • Attend a board meeting for the county poor house
  • Go to town to get supplies
  • Visit friends, neighbors, relatives
  • Host a church picnic

And this was before electricity and phones were in every house, and before everybody had a car: they were doing this with horse, buggy, pencil and paper.

And frankly, it wasn’t that long ago – maybe a hundred years at the most.

Could You Live Like Your Ancestors?

Have you watched those shows where modern day folks try to live as ancestors used to?

There was Frontier House that challenged three families to live in the Montana wilderness as homesteaders.

Or perhaps you’d prefer 1900? Try The 1900 House:

My ancestors worked really, really hard, most every day. And, if I was to swap places with any of them, I’d be totally clueless.

I will guarantee that I wouldn’t make it in either the Frontier House nor The 1900 House.

If I were to ever participate in something like this (and I have no idea why I’d ever agree to it) I’ll bet I’d be the one who pouts and complains all the time – lol.

When faced with the idea of doing things that don’t bring me joy (looking right at you housekeeping) I am more likely to go read a book.

What Would They Think My Life?

And I don’t know what my ancestors would make of my life.

I’m single, in my mid-50s with no children. I live alone, in a house I own. I work at a day job that doesn’t use a typewriter or a mimeograph machine. At my job, I rarely print anything on paper or take notes on paper. I mostly sit or stand at a desk and look at two screens; sometimes I talk on the phone.

And outside of my 9-5 job? I’m a life coach – a job description that still baffles people. I’m a recipe-collecting, book-reading, fashion-savvy modern woman.

And more importantly, I embrace all of the facets of myself – not just one little thing over there in the corner that will make me big bucks so I can retire and live “happily ever after.”

I’m more interested in living the happily ever now.

What Did You Love To Do As A Kid?

When I answer this question, one of my great loves was long stretches of uninterrupted time. That’s freedom to me – time to do whatever I want, even if it’s just sitting around doing nothing.

I love doing nothing.

I loved reading books and twirling my baton. I loved cute clothes and baking cookies. I still do all of those things – including twirling my baton every so often.

As I got older, I learned that I love listening to people tell their stories. It was even better if I listened carefully, and was able to make one or two suggestions that helped them see things in a new light.

That’s what life coaching is all about: taking those many things you love, and arranging your life in a such a way that it’s possible to do the things you love on a regular basis.

As in now, not someday in the future when you retire.

Besides, the retirement where you have a pension to provide for you is a relatively modern invention.

Never Retire

I doubt I’ll ever retire. There is no pension waiting for me. There might be social security – if we’re lucky and that support survives another 20 years.

Besides, my ancestors were pretty hardy and active. For example, my great-great grandfather Wallace passed away at nearly 90 – but only because he tumbled off of a ladder.

Meaning, if it hadn’t have been for that fall, he would have kept going indefinitely. And probably enjoying his life.

That’s my life goal these days: enjoying life, having fun, and doing a little something I love every single day.

Some days, that’s working on genealogy. I love the research part, and really like the detective work involved in piecing together the mysteries of the past.

And as a life coach, I here to help you figure out what enjoying life means to you.

We focus on now, not on “someday.”

Besides, I’d rather be an interesting find for some future genealogist, wouldn’t you?