Monday, April 27, 2009

What are your life props?

Angelic Blessings to everyone.

About a week ago, Chuck and I went to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. We went there for the Galileo exhibit which features one of his telescopes along with about 100 other scientific instruments. Galileo didn't invent the telescope. He improved the magnification abilities of the telescope from 3x to 20x. That's a quantum leap of the visual kind. It was amazing to be standing next to his telescope on display in a case, and being able to see his handwriting on the side of the instrument. I was pretty overwhelmed with emotion.

I recommend this exhibit to everyone. 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy and it is the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope. This is the first time the telescope has ventured out of Italy. As I have shared in classes I teach, I encourage people to pay attention when art is on the move - especially objects that have never been outside of their native land before. When that happens, something big is going on energy-wise. Galileo's telescope and other crafted instruments not only have great scientific significance; additionally, they are beautiful works of art. So we have the energy of science and art on the move together. Just imagine, prior to the exhibit's arrival in Philadelphia, the Paul Revere angels excitedly announcing, "Galileo's telescope is coming! Galileo's telescope is coming!" We are blessed to have this magnficient instrument (and the entire exhibit) here on loan to the Franklin Institute from a museum in Florence, Italy.

While at the Franklin Institute, Chuck and I were treated to a delightful surprise. We were also able to see an exhibit of the movie props of the movies made from C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; and also Prince Caspian.

We went into a room where we waited our turn to enter the exhibit. While in the room I discovered that part of the exhibit was C. S. Lewis' writing desk. Some of my favorite life moments have been when I have had the opportunity to tour the homes of favorite authors and see their writing desks. A writing desk (or now a computer desk) is for me where heaven and earth come together. It exemplifies sacred space that honors the gift of imagination and inspiration. The writer receives divinely inspired ideas and thoughts and captures them with pen or computer. It was a pure joy moment for me to receive the surprise blessing of seeing C. S. Lewis' desk. I stood there and kept saying, "Thank you, God, for this sweet surprise."

And then quite magically, the doors of the wardrobe opened up and we were ushered into another world. Just as the children in C. S. Lewis' story had done, we walked through the mink coats contained in the closet. We stepped out of the wardrobe into the land of Narnia and just as in the movie - the snow fell softly upon us. We were in Narnia.

It was a magical experience. We got to see the ice queen's sled; the costumes worn in the movies (Prince Caspian/The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe)and swords and shields. We got to go inside one of the little houses of the animals where I think I overdosed on cuteness. For those of you who live in the Maryland area, you may remember Enchanted Forest. Well, being in the little animal house took me right back to my childhood days of visiting Enchanted Forest.

Reflecting upon movies, I thought about how important props are to a movie's message. Props create the atmosphere and the environment. Props support the experience that the movie director wants us to have. When you are watching a movie, aren't you sometimes enthralled by the detail of the props in the background?

And so here's my question. What are your life props? If, as the director of your life, you want to support and convey the message of love in your life script, what props are you filling your life with that create an atmosphere of the importance of love? If love is your message, then live with love. Look around your home, and see the props. Is your home filled with flowers your love, music your love, art you love, etc?

My life message is to be an earth angel of inspiration. One of my messages of inspiration, is to take time to play and be joyous. We're here at Camp Earth, where our divine parents sent us for a lifetime of play.

We have a stairway that goes up the center of our house. I go up and down the stairway what seems like a zillion times a day. At Christmas time, I delight in first choosing a special bear for each step of the stairway and then in seeing daily all the different bears as I go up and down the steps. At Easter time, the stairway is a Bunny Trail. I just packed away the bunnies and now every step shares play space with a gnome. There are those who run with the bulls. There's a book entitled, "Women Who Run With the Wolves." Well, I run with the gnomes. The banister is wrapped with garlands of flowers - purples and pinks - and adorned with dragonfly lights. The lights I purchased at Five Below; the garlands at Walmart. Many of my gnomes were purchased at Weis Groceries. Chuck loves unpacking the groceries: milk, bread, gnomes.

It's all about what we nourish ourselves with. Good food for the body. Good food for the soul. And good food for our eyes to feast upon, too. Giving our souls' eyes the bountiful feast of seeing spiritual props in our homes and in our lives; props that remind us our spiritual ideals and message for our lives.

Sending you lots of love from the sacred space of my computer desk here in our Gnome, Sweet Gnome.

Love, Jayne

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Who's Dreaming You

In March of this year, Chuck and I went to Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC to see the play The Heavens Are Hung in Black. The title of the play is a statement made by Abraham Lincoln after seeing the casualty reports for the deaths at Gettysburg.

Throughout the play the audience shares with Lincoln the emotional turmoil he experienced over the casualities of war. As a result of the weight that was upon his shoulders as Commander In Chief, he wasn't able to sleep; and when he did sleep, he would have intense dreams. In many of his dreams he would be visited by those who had died in the Civil War battles.

Near the end of the play Lincoln experiences a dream where he finds himself sitting in a boat with Uncle Tom, a character from Harriet Beecher's Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Just as a side note, in my own reading about Lincoln's psychic interests, I learned that Stowe shared with Lincoln that it was actually spirit that dictated to her every word of the book. In her biography, written by Edward Wagenknecht, she shares that the inspiration she received was "blown through her mind as with the rushing of a mighty wind." She said the book was written through her.

Lincoln's maid, Marian Vance, shared that after Lincoln read the book he was so worked up from the story and felt a calling to take a crack at ending slavery. Lincoln said, "And when I do, I will make it count, if I can't bust it completely up."

Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. It is credited with helping fuel the cause to end slavery. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States alone. The book's impact was so great that when Lincoln first met Stowe at the start of the Civil War, Lincoln is quoted as having declared, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."

In the play "The Heavens Are Hung in Black," when Lincoln finds himself in a boat with Uncle Tom, Lincoln comments on his dreaming of Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom responds that it wasn't Lincoln who did the dreaming, but rather Uncle Tom dreamt of Lincoln and because of this Lincoln found himself in a dream with Uncle Tom.

I am certain you, too, have had powerful moments when your thinking takes a shift into a new direction. This was one of those moments for me. We think we are doing the dreaming and then one of the dream characters tell us the reality: someone's dreaming you. There's a consciousness shift taking place. We experience something greater dreaming us.

The character of Uncle Tom represents the divine ideal of all humans deserving equality and freedom. All of us are God's children. The divine assigned Uncle Tom the assignment of being a fictional messenger (through Stowe's words). The divine was giving Lincoln a glimpse into the divine's dream of Lincoln being "in the same boat" with scribes of freedom. Lincoln would go on to scribe the Emancipation Proclamation. I believe that Lincoln, too, experienced the mighty wind blowing through his mind. The divine wind of change was blowing through the mind of Lincoln.

Lincoln once said, "I have had so many evidences of His direction, so many instances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own will that I cannot doubt that this power comes from above."

As you may know, I have authored three angel books. My first book is entitled Commune With the Angels. Years ago, when I was giving a seminar based on the book, the person who hosted me prepared a flyer to promote my appearance and transposed the letters so that my seminar became known as: Commune With the Angles. I loved the error because the angels do inspire us to look at life from many different angles.

When I heard Uncle Tom tell Lincoln that Lincoln was being dreamt of, it inspired me to think this thought: Who is dreaming me? Just as the angels are our cosmic cheerleaders and are inspiring us to stay on our spiritual course and path with decisions and choices that enhance our spiritual growth, could there also be a divine "dreaming" connection with those who have come before us that we share a divine ideal resonance with. Could we be experiencing ourselves being dreamed into reality by the divine in support of the divine's plan? Who is dreaming you? Who is dreaming me?

Harriet Beecher Stowe was a divine scribe. Lincoln, too was a divine scribe, and was finding himself being dreamt of by an inspirational fictional character that originated from the infinite mind/infinite intelligence.

Often times our ego will have us sharing with others the dream we had last night, i.e."Let me tell you about the dream I had last night." We immediately take ownership of the dream, ie. it's my dream. Because it shows up in our mind, we make claim to it: it's mine.

What if the dream did not originate with us. Just imagine somewhere in the universe, the angels conversing about a dream in which you are being dreamt into action and into service. The angels are watching the Dream Cinema channel on God Direct TV. The angels could be saying, "Did you see where God dreamt Jayne into being in last night's episode of Close Encounters of the Angelic Kind?" You are experiencing yourself as part of a divine dream and a bigger picture. We could easily be entertaining the angels - in fact, entertaining the universe.

In the future, when you have a dream that intrigues or interests you, pause and ask yourself, "Who could be dreaming me?...and if I am being "dreamt of" for a divine reason, what divine ideal or divine plan is the dream about?"

As I was writing this blog, I remembered a recent dream that I thought I had dreamt. I was witnessing myself being on a highway where a major accident was taking place with a lot of vehicles involved in continuous crashing. As I watched, I saw a huge tractor trailer - an 18 wheeler - coming towards me. The vehicle was totally out of control and when it got next to me, it flipped over. And I remember thinking to myself just before the flipover, "Well, this is how I am going to leave earth." It was a pretty matter-of-fact remark. The short version: I'm out of here now. Instead, the tractor trailer fell on top of me but I wasn't where the tractor trailer landed. I somehow had merged through the tractor trailer and was on the other side of the tractor trailer. I was now where the trailer had been when it started to flip. I remember in the dream wanting to look at the material the truck was made of because I thought it was the truck that had changed.

In writing this blog, I am being inspired to think that the divine is dreaming of humans realizing that we are made of energy that can move through solids. I am part of the dream episode entitled: Humans Morph Into Light. Somewhere there was a dream director who had a script that calls for humans to experience morphing into light. This casting director says, "Ok, let's have this happen in Jayne's mind." The mighty wind of morph-ability just blew through my mind.

In closing this blog, I want to share one more Lincoln quote which I think is absolutely a hoot. Lincoln had been challenged to a duel by James Shield. Shields had taken insult to words Lincoln had written about him. If this has happened in 2009, we could give Shields a copy of The Four Agreements where one of the agreements with ourselves is not to take anything personally. A duel between Shields and Lincoln could have resulted in a very non-abundant outcome. We all should say a prayer of thanks and gratefulness to God that this was a duel that never took place.

When Lincoln was approached by one of Shields' representatives and was told that because Lincoln was being challenged by Shields, Lincoln had the choice of weapons to be used in the duel. Lincoln replied, "How about cow dung at five paces."

Angelic Blessings of Morph-ability.


Love, Jayne

Monday, April 6, 2009

Dogs Are Angels with Fur

As you may know, the movie Marley and Me was released on DVD last week. I had been waiting for this to happen. Even though I really wanted to see this movie as I am goofy over dogs, I knew that I would have to do it in the privacy of our home with access to an endless supply of kleenex. I was right in making that decision. I am still recovering from watching the DVD.

Thinking of Marley, I was inspired to share with you my story about our Jack Russell Terrier, Jackie. In 2003, my husband and I had two Jack Russells - Benny and Riot. Benny is now 18 years old. Riot is now 12 years old. I really wanted a third dog. Chuck wasn't abundant with the idea. I did get him to agree that we could be Jack Russell foster parents for a third dog. We would be guardian to the dog until someone adopted the dog. At least that was supposed to be the plan. There was a greater God plan in the works.

Jackie was our first (and last) foster dog assignment. When we picked up Jackie from Jack Russell Rescue she was 12 years old. She had had only one owner in her life and that owner had recently died. Because of her owner's death she was taken to the humane society and from there was rescued by Jack Russell Rescue. Jackie looked and acted like a very old dog. Jackie could hardly walk. She couldn't climb steps. She had cataracts. She didn't have much of an appetite. She had visible tumors. I remember my husband looking at Jackie and then looking at me and asking, "Who exactly is going to be adopting this dog?" It turned out that we were the ones. That was God's plan.

Additionally, when we picked up Jackie and placed her in the back seat of our jeep, I got close to her. I got right up to her face, and reassured her that she had a permanent home with us and she had no more worries of not being cared for and loved. It wasn't smart on my part to invade her space especially during a time when sweet Jackie didn't know what was going on. Jackie proceeded to bite my nose.

As the days turned into weeks, we fell in love with Jackie and she fell in love with our family. She especially adored being with Benny and Riot. You could see in her eyes the happiness of having buddies. In the morning, when the 3 JRT's ran down the steps to go outside, Jackie was thrilled to be part of the charge of the light brigade. She adored romping with them in the backyard. Because of her being with our JRT's, Jackie got a bounce in her step. She bounded up and down the steps with ease and fully regained a hearty appetite. She got a new lease on life.

I told Jackie that prior to us I knew she had had one owner her entire life and probably missed this man terribly. The man had to have been very special because he loved JRT's like us. This man had gotten Jackie as a puppy. He kept excellent care of Jackie and I had been given a thorough file of all her regular vet visits. So I knew he loved her dearly and that they were super close to each other. He had died suddenly. It was my hope that in heaven he was comforted in knowing that in fulfilling God's plan, the angels had brought Jackie into our home to be loved and that we were striving to be as wonderful a guardian to Jackie as he had been. I told her that this man was welcomed in our house if ever he wanted to come visit and be with her spiritually.

Jackie blessed our family for four years. Just before Christmas, Jackie became seriously ill and my dear vet attempted to prepare me for the worst. I identified with the scene in Marley and Me, where John responds to his vet's telling him the worst scenerio. Instead of the worst, I was given a miracle. I considered it my Christmas present. With the help of meds, tlc, and my personally feeding her deli roast beef, Jackie fully recovered.

She would be her happy, zany Jackie self for another six months. I never stopped thanking God for the extra time I had been given with Jackie. In some way, I knew Jackie was on borrowed time. And then in June cancer caused major complications. Jackie did not to want to eat any more. we, of course, took her to the vet to see what could be done to heal our precious Jackie.

I remember having a knowingness that there would be no miracle this time and feeling the deep pain in my heart in having to accept this reality. Her sweet little body was becoming weaker. I felt like less and less of Jackie was here with us, and more of her was already heavenbound .

We knew she was looking to us to be loving guardians and do what was right in order for her not to suffer. Just like John and Marley, we held our precious Jackie in our arms as she closed her eyes to earth and opened them in heaven. I know the angels were there with all of us as Jackie was lovingly taken into heaven to be rejoined with her previous owner.

I was an emotional mess after Jackie's death. I repeatedly said to Jackie in heaven, "I know you are with your longtime owner, but if you ever want to float down from heaven and have a romp around the house, please know that I would love it. I miss you terribly."

I lead meditation groups in my home and one particular evening as I was concluding a meditation and the group members were still in a peaceful energy space, I opened my eyes to the room and there in the middle of the room was Jackie. She was so real that I reached to hug her. And then I realized that she was there in spirit. My heart leaped with joy. Glorious healing joy radiated through my entire being.

I am someone who truly believes that the God loves us in merciful and miraculous ways. I am so thankful to God for giving me that vision of Jackie. How did it happen? It was just God being God.

There's so much to thank God for in our lives. I am especially thankful for dogs who are truly angels with fur.