All of life is just one big learning curve. The learning never stops, and if you think it has stopped, you better check your pulse.

People's attitudes about learning range far and wide. There are different stages of learning and people as individuals are usually more attracted to one of the stages than to the others. For example, I prefer the part of learning where I am beginning to get the hang of something more than the launching where 'I don't know nuthin' nohow.' Some people, by the time they get the hang of something, want to move on to something else. Other people, once they learn something, want to do things that way forever. We are all different (thank goodness).

Here's the thing. In learning anything, the focus in the beginning is on the learning itself. Once you have learned something, and even while you are in the middle of learning, and even in awareness of what motivated you to learn in the first place,  there is the questiion : WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THIS NEW SKILL/APTITUDE/KNOWLEDGE? How are you going to' land' your aircraft, your new knowledge?

Back to referring to when I was in flight school, I still remember how I loved taking off. I even loved what is called 'the run-up' in which you fully rev the engine of the aircraft while it is idling to make sure all systems are working. It felt when I did that I was on the back of a stallion quivering to take off.

Flying itself was wonderful, but then it is time to land. To me, that was the most challenging because I had to take into account the wind, the angle of the runway, altitude of the airport itself, etc. And it was where things could go wrong with the worst results.

In life, what you do with your skills and knowledge is truly make or break time having to do with your feeling you are a success story in your own mind and heart. It doesn't matter what others make of you. You are the one drawing your own assessments of how you used your life, and you are the one you must please by the landings that you have made.

I have watched seagulls land, and pelicans, and even the very very funny gooney birds of Easter Island. It always seems to me, when the landing goes well, the bird emanates an air of satisfaction. I would were I in their feathers.

When I went to flight school, there were two very different sets of learning both of which are needed in order to become good pilots. We had to learn to fly based on instruments plus outside visuals, and we had to learn to fly on instruments alone.

A strange thing can happen when you are flying and you cannot see outside due to clouds or fog. You cannot tell if you are going up or down. There is suspicion that that is what happened to John F. Kennedy, Jr. when his plane tragically went down. He could not see outside his plane, something happened to his instruments so he could not read them accurately, and he thought he was going up when he actually was headed straight for the water.

To me, learning to fly is the same as learning to live. When you are in a fog, and you can get no external referrents as to what to do, you rely on your own internal instrumentation, your intuition and your instincts, if you will. You must learn to do that, and you must practice it to get really good at it. There are decision points in life when much is hanging in the balance, and you feel that hesitance because you cannot strictly speaking read what is best to do based on outer signatures of logic and reasoning, much less listening to what others recommend. In the final analysis, we alone are responsible for carving our path. That may sound kind of desolate and lonely but in truth, it is what makes life such an achingly marvelous adventure.

If you are in a fog, may I recommend, if you have the luxury of some time, make an inner journey to get your bearings. Meditate, contemplate, space out, space in, day dream, do anything that keeps you from thinking. If you have to act quickly, you can actually bypass logic and dive directly into your inner knowing. Heroes who save people by acting instantaneously do this all the time. That is flying by instruments alone. It is very exhilarating.

If we have 'snow days', time outs due to snow, I think it makes perfect sense to also have 'fog days' as well. After obscurity comes clarity. It is a rule of life, so say I. Flying taught me this truth.

I don't know if you have noticed, but a lot is being asked of us during these transformational times. The load can get heavy, and confusing. We go through cycles of upliftment and great excitement about creating in whole new ways, and then, we can hit the wall, as we run into something else that needs releasing first.

'Steady as she goes" is a nautical term meaning, when you are in rough seas and accommodating your ship, you find the balance in the moment and use all your expertise to keep that balance. But everyone falters here and there, no matter how balanced and on top of things they were the day before the storm at sea kicked in.

Here's the thing. We are doing this amazing journey together. Even the most rugged of individualists are figuring out the truth of this fact. It is the ONLY way we can do it. Sometimes, some of the more independent minded of us (ahem) have to be brought to a very clear recognition of how important being together is. It is imperative.

An image I have is of a carousel. We are all on our own horses going round and round through the cycles of experience life on earth is. When your horse is up, the horse next to you is down. Hint hint. When you are up and strong, that is frequently when the one next to you could use your love and strength.. When you are down, they are up, so now you lean on their love and strength.. And so it goes. It is a perfect system. And when we are finished with enough of a particular learning cycle, we can all get off the carousel and go dance together in the town square, celebrating our true progress, until it is time to get on our horses and ride again.


Because of the requirements of the shift we are all going through on this planet, there is less down time now. But we can learn to get a lot from a little. I find when I get rescued from being too intense about what I am asking of myself, when something strikes me as being funny, it is not just kind of funny, it is hilarious, and I get this wave of relief at feeling how I wouldn't miss this trip of life for anything, for I would not have wanted to miss the amazing humor that shows up. Life saving stuff, humor.

Yes, we can bear what is being asked of us and, it is highly advised, when what you need is a bear hug, you ask for it.

Do you ever stop and think that you are walking around on top of this ball spinning in space? We are like baby possoms riding on Mom's back or hanging on to her underside, (depending on which side of the earth you call "up".)

When I walk on this expanse of beach, it looks like Gaia's belly to me, like she is stretched out taking a sun bath.  She lays next to the waters of life that is the oh- so- amniotic sea, the womb that always welcomes us back when we swim in her.

As I am writing in this manner, I am acutely aware of an increase of vulnerability I have been feeling in this "new earth" that has now arrived in earnest. The vulnerability feels like it is connected with the nascence of everything in this year of 2013 and thusly, the need for the child, that would be us humans, to be protected as we get our bearings. What is old and dying is still around us and feels more unbearable than ever as contrasted to what is so new and fresh and ready to be formed and shaped by wonderful visions of possibility.

It is a strange time, an unpredictible time, a requiring- much- of- us time. For all that we feel a pressing need to give of ourselves in service, the most important priority of all is deep caring for ourselves as we go through what has not been before.
 
Self love that is understood in its particulars to the individual is the foundation which allows us to sustain the huge waves of compassion sweeping the planet now. Without deep and true regard for lovingly discerning our own very particular needs, the waves can pull us under and render us unable to help even ourselves at that point. The Divine Mother is such a large presence on our planet now, but she can do nothing for us if we do not open to receive.
 
Of all participants in this play of life, it seems that Lightworkers are the ones that need to be the most nudged ro remember the importance of self care first. It is just like on the airplane when they recommend that the parent put on the oxygen mask before putting one on the child. I write about this to remind you and myself as well.

So, whatever makes me feel loved and worthy of being loved, that I will now commit to doing so that I may experience compassion without limit, and with no threat of overwhelm. Laying on the mother's beachy belly is my plan of action. I don't think it is possible to resist the Divine Mother from that place.

When you have been scrambling over a rocky path in your life, trying to get your bearings and suddenly, the rocks end and there is a road with a SIGN on it, it is a halleluia moment. Something about a sign that lets you know, you are not the first to come this way, and you are not lost, just in unfamiliar territory, what a relief.

Let's face it. Our most found moments in life, in which we know who we are, what we are doing and where we are going, always get followed by . . . you guessed it. More lost moments. More rocks and lack of any clear indication as to where to go. Sometimes those moments last for only seconds, but sometimes they are prolonged if there is an especially deep soul lesson being learned.

Always though, around some bend, sometimes when you are least expecting it, suddenly the road  appears with a sign on it to indicate where you are or where you are headed. Life is good to us in this regard.

I remember while trekking in the Himalayas one time, we had been going for 8 hours in very uphill and rocky terrain and I was beyond exhausted. The sherpas kept saying we were "almost there" but I soon found out, that meant "I don't want to tell you how far we really have to go for you would despair." At one point, I just had to take a time out to sob, and sob hard, from exhaustion and feeling I was at my limit, but then, post crying, I carried on, and sure enough, there came a time when there was a sign that we had reached our destination. My cup ranneth over at that point. That joy was provided to me because of what I had just endured.

And that is always the way. After the great effort comes even greater joy. If only we could hold to that Faith constantly, life would be so much easier, or, I should say when we do hold to that Faith, then life IS so much easier..

The co-existence of high tech with high consciousness with unity with Nature is something to behold, where we can witness it done well. Certain people seem to be here on the planet to assist with that very complicated process. Patrick is a man I met while sailing in Tahiti and I sensed in him a very unusual being who was here in service to what the planet is up to as she shifts and purifies herself and lightens her load.
 
I could tell you more about Patrick, and it would be a good telling, but I rather leave it with letting this picture speak for itself. You cannot even see his face so, consider him a stand in for many who are here in service to bring different worlds and orientationsi together in harmony, eventually.
 
Getting there, that is a whole other thing. Thank you Patrick, for your help, and for dancing with the fire in such brotherhood, fire being the purifier that it is.

This picture was taken from a night time experience in the open ocean with dolphins in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, of all places. It was very dark and moonless so my vision was  hampered, but along with that diminished sight came an intensification of my other senses, including those beyond the five!
 
Strangely, I felt much more able to connect with the dolphins with limited vision. It was like being on the other side of the looking glass. I could FEEL their consciousness, and it felt very mutual. I remember much body contact with the dolphins, and there was sort of an other worldly feel to the whole experience. My consciousness shifted dramatically without the usual visual cues I am used to having to reign me in.

Here on Tybee Island, when I have kayaked at night around dolphins, I have noticed the same phenomenon. Somehow, communication cross species is enhanced by less vision. I do not totally understand  how this is so but that is my experience.

In the middle of the open ocean, on a dark moonless night, in the midst of about five dolphins who were as curious about me as I was about them, I felt absolutely zero fear. I think this is what dolphins do for humans. They shift us away from the fear levels we are used to dwelling within to one degree or another, and we get to discover what life is like without that vibration. That is a major teaching/training, and they are in service to help us get the lesson, I am convinced.

On this particular occasion, not only was I happy and comfortable with the dolphins in the big ocean in the dark with no land in sight, I also strongly felt something about to happen, if I stayed with them, like they were taking me to a certain destination. But alas, I was far from the boat, and others on the boat were alarmed and calling me back, so I turned to swim back, with the dolphins accompanying me all the way back to the vessel bobbing in the middle of nowhere. It was with regret that I climbed back on the boat, but I felt it was the right thing to do. 

I will wonder, for the rest of my life, what would have happened if I had just swum away with those dolphins.

Night is when we 're-ravel' what became unraveled in the day, or that is what is supposed to happen, but every so often, rest is not to be had. When you dutifully get up anyhow, in spite of a rough night, and stumble to the bathroom and look in the mirror and scare yourself, you know you are having one of those days.

The causes for the restless nights are multiple and some are just flat out unavoidable. We humans are being re-calibrated to match up with the new vibrations and it is not always an easy transition. Necessary, but not easy. So what's a body to do?
 
Here's what I recommend. Fall on the floor laughing at the image in the mirror. Spoiler alert. You are not doomed to look this way for the rest of your life. As a matter of face, the newly re-calibrated you will become rejuvenated and will start looking and feeling much more in keeping with your ascending journey of consciousness.

Rome was not built in a day. Take really good care of yourself physically in as many ways as you can come up with during these fast shifting times, and in the meantime, find the disconbobulated you to be very very funny.

By the way, the dog in the picture was one of the sweetest beings ever. She ended up being adopted to a very loving household full of children who thought this dog was a gift from heaven. She was and hopefully still is.

Reporters, newsmen and women, city officials, first responders, high government representatives, priests, rabbis  . . . no-one can speak without emotion stopping the words in their tracks. 9/11 was filled with shock and awe and a disbelief followed by immense sorrow, but this is different. This sorrow invades in another kind of way. It is so deep that it surpasses outrage.

Other than just the beauty of caring humanity, the best thing I have seen coming out of this horror story was a comment a Congressional minister made. He was present in the firehouse when the parents were told the fate of their children. The wave of immediate  bereftment was a tsunami. The minister said he (clearly as affected as everyone else) had during that surreal time the awareness "this is holy ground." He didn't talk a lot to the reporter about what he meant by that statement, but I get it. The magnitude of feeling and temptation to be drowned by despair was so great that the only alternative was to believe that despite all appearances, Love is in charge. At a time like this, that takes the hardest leaning on Faith imaginable. Not all are capable of that, but it was clear to me, this minister was. Many who cannot have that Faith themselves can lean on him as he holds the space for them. It is not about words, or concepts or even beliefs. It is about the ability to trust that our feeling deeply about Life is worth it. By the way, having Faith, strong Faith, is very hard work.

It is too soon to talk of the good that can come from this event. Way too soon. But it is not too soon to talk about the power of people loving each other as they try to figure out how to walk out of hell. I am so grateful that reporters and media people were so affected they could hardly do their job. 

What this nation (and the world, for that fact) currently share is a form of union no one wants, but it is union and I don't think will be soon forgotten. Those children are going into our hearts where we have no defences and they will live there instead of in their own developing bodies . Our hearts will not let us fall back asleep, I predict.

 Sudden and Done

   by Muriel Lindsay

 20 children dead..

Very much alive a minute ago, pulling out their pencil boxes.

 One by one they were felled, like small saplings. A whirring madness pushed open a door of no return leaving, post cacophony, just red running stickiness and air swollen and pregnant with sorrow-to-come.

Now a blanket of enduring the unendurable wraps around the shoulders of a whole town. First responders do their job and become the ones to break the perimeter and be the first to enter into the place where safety was ripped from its mother’s arms. It’s an abominable job. 

Somewhere, parents are still living in a crystalline bubble that is soon going to shatter into a million pieces. They will be removing shards forever.

The consolers will emerge and do their best, but they too will be looking through mud.

The earth will spin and push time further away from this thing, so sudden and done before anyone had a chance to say “not here” “not now” “not to us.” If only earth would reverse spin, to before the chubby hands had reached for the pencil boxes. That would give us just enough time to wrap love’s sash around and around that school building. We could have done that, if we had had just a little more time.

                                                                .               .               .

(written on day of the shooting of the children at Sandy Hook Elementary School)