The Spirit Guide

MORNING Every day, I ask for an intention, and today, I got "stillness."  That's a hard word for someone with ants in her pants.  It's pouring here, so it's not like I was going to run around, but, ugh, stillness???  What does that even mean?! The dictionary definition of stillness is "the absence of movement or sound."  I didn't know the sound part, but I definitely remember the "sit still" part from years of being told to do that...usually in places like Church or Grandma Ritter's apartment. But, I am going to try it.  I have a presentation for work today and some meetings, but other than that, I am not going to listen to music, and I am not going to run any marathons.  I am pretty sure I wasn't going to do THAT anyway.   Stillness, in the way I am interpreting it, is more than just physical movement, I think.   I think it's more a stillness of mind.  My mind goes a million miles an hour, and I think the challenge is to focus

There is a concept called "raising vibration."  Basically, it takes Einstein's idea that "everything in life is vibration" and applies it to humanity.  The higher your vibration is, the more content, satisfied, and at peace you will be in your physical life. When I first heard about this, I am not gonna lie.  I thought it was baloney.  It seemed to be yet another fad catch phrase meant to make us pay more money for crystals or tea leaves or yoga mats.  But then I started reading about it, researching it, and, ya know?  It really isn't baloney, and we all secretly know these principles to be true. Negativity, worry, fear, anger, and angst all lower our vibration levels.  They literally pull us down.  So, we have to work diligently to raise our vibrations to overcome those negativity draws. How do we do that? There are some really great articles by Scientific American  and Chopra  if you want to learn more, and here is my personal list of 5.   Let it Go  Fortu

I truly believe that all things that bring us closer to God and help us be vessels of Divine Love are good.  This is something that is often in opposition to organized religion who have, for centuries, categorized these tools as "Occult" or "Witchcraft" or "Paganism."   I don't use words this way.  On their own, these tools are just tools and they mean nothing without intention.  You can have a mean heart and still pray the Rosary.  You can have a pure heart and read Tarot. Intention is 100% at play. I embrace Celtic spirituality, and my non-religious divination tools stem from that culture.  I celebrate the eightfold wheel which honors the changing of seasons (equinox/solstices) with traditions aligned with Scottish Druidry.  While there are religious Druids I am not one.  It's a philosophy I embrace, but I don't belong to any of the big Druid organizations, and I don't belong to a Grove.  I hold no judgment to those who do, but it's n

What is the difference between religion and spirituality?  We often use these terms interchangeably, but I've met a lot of religious people who aren't spiritual, and there are many spiritual people who aren't religious.  I was a religious person at one time.  I no longer identify that way even though religion is, indeed, part of my path.  I consider myself spiritual.   As I mentioned in the welcome video, I am not a denomination basher.  I believe I can walk into any Christian church and find a good message and community.  This isn't about my satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a particular church I attended in the past.  There was never any kind of falling out.  One day I simply looked around and said, hmmm, this isn't me.  This isn't what I think Jesus wants from us.  There are a lot of rules and I don't know where they come from, and why do we spend more on gold chalices than we do on poor children?   One of my hobbies is hiking.  Specifically, I am a se

 Some folks asked if I would create a video to go along with the blog.  This is my attempt.  This channel is not monetized (nor is this blog), and I don't have professional equipment.  Let me know what you think in the comments below!  You may have to hit "click more" at the bottom of the post to then be able to click play.  Seems silly, I know ;p

What is Divine Love?   You'd think that in a million years of humans wandering around Earth that we could figure out the concept of love.  It feels like it shouldn't be so hard to know what true love is...and yet, each year, thousands of podcasts, books, songs, poems, stories, works of art explain love, defend love, ridicule love, abandon love.  There are songs like "What is Love?" and "Love Stinks."  There are countless sites helping us find our true love.  There are even more divorce lawyers helping us to officially and legally end love. As a I mentioned before, I am not a scholar of love.  I am not a theologian, philosopher, psychologist or expert of any kind on the matters of love.  I am a middle-aged woman living in the mountains of Eastern PA. So, how can I even write a post about Divine Love? The beautiful and fortunate thing is that no one needs to be an expert in Divine Love because it's free to everyone.  God's pure white light of protectio

Here is my truth.  I suck at meditation.  I am really good at research.  I am good about reading stuff...I am good at watching YT videos about stuff.  I am not great about actually sitting still and processing what I read.  Part of this blog is to help me actually do that in real time.  I am a writer.  Writing is like meditation.   When I try to meditate, 99% of the time I just fall asleep.  The deep breathing is relaxing, and the music lifts me away.  I am terrible at conventional meditation.  I don't say "ohm."  Perhaps one of these days, that process and practice will come to me, but, as of right this minute, it's not my tradition. So, then we doubt ourselves, don't we?  We say, well, I don't do yoga or meditation or use crystals like X so we must not be "doing it" right.  It's your path.  In the hiking world, we say, "Hike Your Own Hike."  This is the same principle.  Do what brings you spiritual value.  There isn't a recipe.  T

  God loves us.  Plain and simple.  There isn't any magic involved.  There are no fancy things you have to do or say.  God loves us.  All of us.  God gives us tools to help us find love and be love in the world.   There are scholars that study the three types of love.  I am not one of them.  I just know there are three kinds because I learned that in Sunday school.  There is family love, intimate love, and Godly love.   There is love all around us, but we need to pause to see it, and we need to take opportunities to spread it.  We don't need money or influence to spread love; we simply need to be a creature of love wherever we stand.  That's not always easy on a bad day, but on those days, if we connect to love, we will shelter the storm. God protects us with His white light.  It helps to ask Him for that protection as a reminder to us that He is always protecting us.  Bad things happen all the time but that isn't because God isn't protecting us; there is some lesso