April 2, 2019:  As I took my daily walk today I began to cry thinking of my nine stories that I wrote 30 years ago. A Storybook for Adults and Other Children were written as I sat at my computer and allowed the words to simply flow through me. I got out of my own way in allowing these stories to come forth. The Swan was the first story about two swans who meet in Puddle Pond, fall in love and learn how to live life fully through themselves as individuals, through the Universe (aka God) and in partnership. I teared up thinking about that terrible time in my life with the heartbreaking experience I was going through then.   It was an abusive, terribly unconscious time and although I finally made the right decision to leave the marriage I was in, at the time I did not separate in a healthy, conscious way and for how I separated is something I regret. Separation is the hardest lesson in life. How do you handle your separation challenges in your life? My lesson was to learn to separate with grace and dignity and I have learned and practiced that lesson well.  

 

As I walked my memories touched on my friends David, Sharon, Mark, Pat and Jennie who helped me start this project and pointed me in the right direction and my deep gratitude for them.  My thoughts also carried me to how I had just confirmed the members of A Storybook for Adults and Other Children team who will be providing the voice overs (female and male) and the online/video producer and the book designer and how together we are making this long ago memory in to a beautiful reality today. My heart was warmed with all these lovely people who are helping create A Storybook for Adults and Other Children in to a video/book for mental health professionals, teachers and families.  The themes of the stories address life/social challenges such as diversity, competition, connection-separation, self-esteem, purpose, being in the moment (mindfulness), fear, friendship, and achieve ability to believe. I feel Blessed.

 

As my walk was coming to an end I was walking past the little water inlet aka pond and my eye caught two beautiful swans swimming in Puddle Pond. Swans are so rare in the State Park and seeing them after my thoughts of today and then realizing my smiles were replacing the tears quickly. As I sat on the bench, I took their picture and silently whispered a prayer of gratitude for the Universe's gift today. I looked down at my feet and saw I was exactly where I belonged and also realized how the gifts from the Universe keep coming our way if we open our eyes, hold higher consciousness and feel the pulse of life surrounding and within us.

 

July 12, 2019 What is your Mission Statement?  When you were growing up you may have heard a descriptive phrase about you from an authority figure such as a parent, an older sibling, a teacher, a primary care taker?  An example might have been:  She is such a shy child, he is difficult to manage, she is always late for everything, he is a fast learner, she gets along with everyone and so on.  Whether it is a positive or negative reinforcing message, becoming conscious of your mission statement is critical to becoming fully integrated as a mature, spiritual human being.  The Mission Statement does not have to be true but if you remain unconscious of it, your internal struggles around that description will continue.  If you do not become aware of this unconscious description, you will struggle with it and it becomes the paradoxical barrier in reaching higher consciousness.  If you become aware of it, learn from that lesson, your internal struggle will subside, and you will not have to keep repeating that lesson throughout your life.   Becoming conscious of the lesson frees your Soul in moving to higher levels of awareness and spiritual growth.

 

April 16, 2021:  What are you learning in this new worldly experience?  Every experience is an opportunity to learn and we can go kicking and screaming or we can take a deep breath, feel our center and be an observer in the experience.  The CVD-19 pandemic we experienced (2019-2022) was a horrific challenge  for so many and it was also an opportunity.  Are we better humans now than we were before?  Have we embraced and do we reflect in our daily choices the essence of compassion?

 

For several years we have placed a great deal of energy on walls, separations, division, resistance, struggles, and chaos.  Perhaps so much energy has been spent on these issues, the Universe has finally decided we need to pay attention to where we have placed our energies and efforts and suggest all of that is misguided and not serving our higher consciousness and divine destiny.  

 

The Universe has thrown many severe lessons our way.  A failing economy, loss of millions of jobs, long food lines, so many dying from the virus and so many too sick to function while our health care providers and hospitals were stretched beyond all limits.  Remember: the lessons worth learning and remembering Free Will aka Choice is a gift that can never be taken away.

 

June 2022:  So what do we want to learn individually and collectively?  Perhaps the first is to release the temptation to demonize others.  As a Cognitive-Behavioral as well as a systems therapist, I see systems in reacting to one another with no blame on anyone.  Some are more conscious while others are at basic level awareness; that is neither good or bad but simply is what it is.  Education would provide some solutions and that will take time and a sense of motivation for many.

 

For me the lesson is: I choose to recognize there is no such thing as separation and all life is equal (even if we are currently forced to isolate and stay separate through 'social distancing').  Do you see separation from others by seeing differences in religion, culture, ethnicity, age, gender, race, economic status, class, or political persuasion?  Can your consciousness grow or will your fears continue to drive your thoughts and reflect  your behaviors?  Remember Madam Curie:  "We fear because we do not understand.  Let us understand more, so we will fear less."   Fear less so you may love more and together we can watch our world begin to heal. 

May 19, 2023:  Mystical, magical film/books to be shared with those who wish to embrace higher consciousness and evolve in to the destiny designed for each of us.  As I travel to Cannes, Frances (2023) and walk the red carpet in recognition of the mystical, magical film/book A Storybook for Adults and Other Children, it feels like full circle from my childhood when I loved telling stories at the family  dinner table to now in my current beautiful life and spending time in Greece after the France Awards event and knowing I have come full circle.  I am content and feel complete peace.   I do know the nicest compliment I would ever receive was "she is an enlightening and insightful storyteller.".  We are here to learn and love.  Stay Open....