My dear blogging friends and family, are you getting tired of winter yet?
I sure am!
To me this time of year always feels like my 8th month of pregnancy, when I just wanted to meet my baby and have my body back. Although a part of me wanted to enjoy the last days of my precious pregnancy, I was getting tired of getting up several times a night to use the bathroom and of course, overall I felt uncomfortable.
People don’t like being in a state of uncomfortable.
Just like pregnancy, winter is starting to feel too long. I’m tired of bundling myself and our little people up every time we go outside and dealing with slush and mud is getting unbearable.
Yuck!
I just want winter to be over and to get on with life; start my garden, hang out with our chickens, plant some flowers, grow some food and feel the warmth of the sun on my face. But these transition times are really important in our lives and I GUESS that is why I am thankful that I live in a part of the world where there are distinct seasons.
Four seasons in a year, teach us a lot. Each season is an opportunity to look at our life and how we are walking our path. How we feel about life when it’s uncomfortable.
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” ~Albert Camus~
It’s in those uncomfortable moments and in between season, when we come into our own, build the energy we need so that when the next season starts or stage of our life begins, we are transformed and ready to fly.
While I’m waiting for the last of the snow to melt, I remind myself that, “this too shall pass,” and I start moving energy because…..
This is the season for space clearing!
If you have wondered why I haven’t posted much lately, it’s because I have been upending drawers and emptying closets to rid myself of what is no longer useful or appreciated in our home. After I have cleared out a room of clutter and cleaned it really well, my body literally vibrates with a higher energy.
And that propels me forward to the next space.
And you know, it’s in that place, when we are humming with joy that we are able to create ANYTHING we desire. I think that when Jesus said, “the kingdom of God is within you,” he was referring to our potential to be ultimate creators. We just need to be believe the power to do so is inside of ourselves.
And so with that I wanted to share a story I wrote about my own experience a few years ago. No matter what you are desiring to create in your life, a new job, tickets to travel, a love partner, or a baby, like I was dreaming of a few years ago, it can be yours. I hope you find the following story inspiring.
And join me in moving the clutter, clearing your space and creating the life you always dreamed of.
Here’s my story…..
Stepping on My Own Feet
Each spring I do the same dance, although the tune is always different. This year, as I sweep through the house, going room by room, clearing out the insidious accumulation of stuff which stealthy, creeps into our home, I’m singing the tune, “less stuff, more life.”
This is a dance I know well and a song I have sung before. As a daughter of a depression era mother, I was raised, suffocated by stuff. Oh, sure it was organized chaos, but each drawer and closet was brimming full with things we may need someday. I wasn’t choked so much by our possessions but by the fear that someday,
THERE MAY BE A LACK.
As an adult, I threw down the gauntlet in the face of such fear and challenged life, dancing surefooted and believing whatever I desired would appear. Somewhere along life’s path, perhaps when my husband and I were trying to have our last child, I faltered. It was also during this time, that I allowed material possessions to move surreptitiously into our home.
It was an easy thing with a household full of children. First there were the discarded baby items, and then once school started, our children arrived home, proudly carrying precious pieces of art stuffed in their backpacks. Rock collections were discovered in jean pockets and buckets of stinky shells, and drift wood returned home with us after our summer holidays at the sea.
Oh and one can’t forget the countless boxes of pricey Gap and Gymboree clothing our children had grown out of, or the mountains of toys, too numerous for our little ones to play with each day. Over the years, everything was relegated to our Hobbit’s hallow crawl space or spread innocently, stuffed into closets and drawers.
One day, while surfing the web for fertility inspiration, I stumbled across an article on Feng Shui. Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art that teaches how to balance energies in any given space to increase good fortune and improve the flow of desired manifestation. Did I ever need to read this! Somewhere along my path I had become my mother’s daughter. I was drowning in a sea of household crap and it felt like I was moving through mud to reach my dreams.
Suddenly, my latest obsession shifted from trying to conceive, to studying the art of Feng shui. The first step was clearing clutter. Starting with our bottom heavy crawl space and moving upward, each day I chose a new room to methodically clear and clean.
That spring, 9 years ago we had the mother of all garage sales and who knew it would feel so good to let others happily take what was clogging up my life. After that, I systematically went room by room, balancing the elements of wood, fire, water and metal.
Finally, one blue skyed Saturday afternoon my husband took the kids to the park and I did a space clearing ceremony. I know it sounds new agey and thinking back I’m glad no one came to the door that day as I was dressed all in white and wearing flowers in my hair. What would they have thought! With a Balinese bell in one hand and a stick of smoldering sage and a large feather in the other hand, I swayed around our house in a circular fashion, while softly chanting, “May our home be filled with peace, love, joy and abundant blessings flow with ease.”
When the kids came home with flushed cheeks from playing at the park they asked, “what smells so funny?” As I write this, don’t think the irony is lost on me but since this is the pivotal part of my story, I must continue.
I didn’t wait long to share my latest foray into moving energy with my Tradition Chinese Doctor. Dr. B had been treating me weekly with acupuncture sessions in the pursuit of building my chi energy and boosting my fertility. At the end of our session, Dr. B. looked intently at me with her calm, deep brown eyes and gently said, “Lee, you have to let go.” As tears filled my eyes, the spoken truth of her words hit my gut with a thud and reverberated around my brain until it felt swollen with emotional punches. I wanted to yell, ”not yet,” but I knew, if I didn’t surrender the dream of another baby that I had been holding tightly since my last miscarriage two years earlier, I would drown in dark quick sand, taking my family with me.
When I got home, I went to sit on our front step in one of the brown wicker chairs. Spring was turning to summer. An earthly, scent of freshly mown grass was in the air and my newly planted flower pots at the front of our house were starting to bloom in brilliant pinks, deep purples and bright yellows. We would be eating luscious sweet strawberries from the garden soon and best of all, my delightful children would be all mine for 2 glorious months. With a sigh, I stood and reached up, allowing my hands to flow through the wind chimes at our front door. A heavenly sound of tinkling angel laughter filled the air.
Today, I’m in the midst of unearthing our kitchen desk drawer and I’m thinking about that time in my life when I got off track and was focusing on the lack in my life and not the abundance. I’m always surrounded by enough. In fact, right now I’m sitting on our wood floor covered by pens, papers, orphaned keys and multiple staplers. Our vacu-flo hose is lying nearby, like a snake, ready to suck up the dust and debris lying heavily at the bottom of the drawer.
This is a dance I do each spring but this year the tune is different. This year I move to the rhythm of MLS listings. I’m looking for acreage in the county. A place our family can grow more vegetables, build our chicken flock, maybe even get a rooster and certainly a big dog. I’m dreaming of my white farmhouse kitchen with a big butcher block island when the garage door suddenly opens and my blonde, curly haired, 7 year old son William pops his head in the door and pleads, “MOOOOM, are you coming out to play?”
I look at the stuff strewn around me and know it’s not going anywhere. Hey, and maybe Will and his 5 year old twin sisters will help me organize the drawer when we come in. For some reason, my younger kids love to help me de-clutter.
The End
Although it’s not the end…after I got off my own feet, look what manifested in my life….
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| When I got off my own feet, these beautiful babies danced into my life |
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| Victoria Hope on the left and Kathryn Mira is on the right..early days while still in the hospital |
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| Our little girls LOVE to read, Kathryn is on the left, Victoria is on the right |
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| Here is Princess Kate |
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| Our beautiful Victoria (Tori) |
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| It was a long first year with twins but it’s all smiles in the end |
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| Out to explore and have an adventure…isn’t that what life is all about? |
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| From left to right, Victoria, William and Kathryn |
There was a time when having these last three was a dream outside my reach…the power is within each of us to create the life of our dreams. |
That’s a story I wrote recently for my writing group. The theme was a time in our life when we were stuck. Now looking back, I was never stuck. Only my perception was stuck. I was abundantly wealthy with children at the time and our next children, although waiting patiently on the other side, were within my reach all along. So ironic. All I had to do was let go, trust, breathe, and be JOY filled.
This reminds me of Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ, when she clicked the heels of her ruby red slippers and said, “there’s no place like home.” We have the ability to create whatever we want and we are ALWAYS, always home!
But when you want something so bad, it’s just not a human experience to relax, to trust, to enjoy. We click our ruby red slippers so hard that the glitter wears off. Oh for most of us, we need to push and worry, and live in a state of angst and unrest, (speaking personally here and in general) until we give up saying, “it probably wasn’t meant to be anyway! And the secret all along is to put our dreams down and let the Universe bring them to us. You may be surprised to see how fast they show up when you are vibrating in a state of appreciation and joy. AND TRUST…that’s the biggie.
Years ago, I thought I had started my blog to stay in touch with our daughter who had moved to London for 2 years. Now she is back in Canada, but still away and now teaching in Victoria but lately I have been thinking, yes, I like her to hear what’s going on in my head and at home but ya know, it’s more for me. If you are a writer, or an artist, or a cook, or a parent, you know this about creating something….the keys to living our best life are constantly flowing through our creative medium of choice and when we stop typing, or put down the paintbrush, this aha, realization floods through us.
As I write this post, yes I realize that I’m doing the whole dance again but this time looking for acreages on MLS, are dance steps I know well. All I have to do is get off my own feet and allow the music to take me…and the Universe will do all the rest.
Isn’t life endlessly fascinating and magical?
Hey…but space clearing is valuable; you get rid of things that you are no longer needing and sharing them with others, well that’s HUGE. They may even be thinking of the very thing that you are letting go this very moment! WOW! When you are conscious of the river flowing that is when you see the wonder of it all.
Now before I close, if you are new to this whole space clearing idea, I’m not going to just share my story and then not give you some road maps to follow…we love manuals and road maps in life don’t we? So here are the books that inspired me, but remember, just like what the good witch Glinda who told Dorothy, “you had the power all along my dear.”
The books that inspired me to move my energy are:
Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston, was the first book I read that inspired me to rid our house of useless crap….and create a space where harmony flowed.
And the other book by Karen Kingston that took everything to another level and gave me ideas for the space clearing ceremony where I was wearing white, and had flowers in my hair…it is;
Creating Sacred Space with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston
So if you are stuck, or even thinking you are okay but wanting a bit more energy and want the things you desire to flow to you with ease, think about clearing the clutter and creating a beautiful space where you can manifest your best life.
The power is inside of you!
Well, I’m off to do some more de-cluttering and also have a cup of green tea with ginger. I find that when I space clear and things start to flow, it also inspires me to cleanse my body as well. I hope to write more about that in the next little while and also share some pics of some of my projects.
Until we connect again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope (aka Lee)
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