Since 1991, we’ve been creating whimsical jewelry for wonderful people. Groom and I, studying energy healing, used to infuse our designs with intention and love. Without advertising this idea, it was fascinating to see how quickly the pieces we imbued with healing energy were snapped up. Later those same customers would report back how good they felt while wearing their selected items, and often wanted more. We started to view this practice as a living lab.

While selling our jewelry at Art Fairs, most conversations in the booth would begin by people declaring how much they wished they could create art for a living. From there, the exchanges inevitably revolved around me asking in return, “If you could do anything you wanted in the world, and money was not in the way, what would you do?” The answers were always fascinating and usually concluded with wanting to be artists or healers.

In retrospect, it is not surprising we attracted people whose secret desires were to be artists and healers considering we were infusing art with healing energy.

After 20 years of creating art, we felt a new calling on our lives. Not knowing what it was, we followed our intuition and guidance anyway. This led us to Portland, where we retired the jewelry (by giving it all away), and went through a period of transition and a testing of our faith.

Suddenly, and I do mean suddenly -- one day I did not know this stuff and the next day I did -- I received what I can only call a “download.” It was an unexpected gift of information about people’s energy fields, what I was shown to be the “Grid.” I am now able to perceive people’s energy Grids and pinpoint specific blockages and essential elements, especially around money. The purpose is to help remove the blockages and retrieve the missing pieces.

People started to show up out of the blue to have me work with them, and the results have been beyond my expectations, and theirs. Would it surprise you to learn that most of the people who come to us are, you guessed it, artists, healers and transformational authors, speakers and coaches?

In the meantime, we’ve taken lots of classes; I’ve been certified as a Passion Test Facilitator, Life Coach and Law of Attraction Practitioner (makes our Insurance Agent and Attorney happy), and we are both currently learning more about business and marketing. And, Groom built us a new website.

If you’re interested in learning more, follow this link to Heal Your Grid.com

From there you can download our free eBook (oh yeah, I also started writing again), peruse our list of services, follow the new blog and generally get caught up on our 1.5 year hiatus.    

          

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are sacred holidays for Groom and me. While we like to have fun and gather with friends to enjoy food and clink crystal like most of you do, we also set aside some time for reflecting on the past year and setting intentions for the new.

Intentions are not exactly goals or resolutions. Intentions are more an overall essence of something we’d like to experience. Instead of starting a new calendar continuing old business like “lose those extra pounds,” or “quit a bad habit,” we prefer to bring in something fresh such as “feel healthy and fit.”

Matter of semantics? Well perhaps, but by using goals and resolutions, Groom tried for years to lose weight. We’d resolve to join a gym, work out, blah blah blah. Yeah, it never happened. But when we were introduced to the idea of intentions, we activated that place in us that simply wanted to feel healthy and fit. Guess what? Groom lost 100 pounds. One hundred, not one-zero.

After releasing our intentions without worrying about the how, things begin to unfold in ways we did not see coming, yet the results are that we feel healthier and fitter now than when we were younger. After all those years of paying lip service to getting up and working out, we find ourselves at the gym four days a week now that Groom is one-third the man he was before.

This intentioning works in other areas of life as well. Sometimes we have a hankering to travel to some place specific like Paris or New York, yet when we release that desire and stay open to “traveling somewhere new,” it’s fascinating to see how events conspire to scoop us up and set us down in a charming place that hadn’t been on our list per se, but that we enjoyed immensely because it was a gift from the organic unfolding.

With a few days remaining in 2013, my thoughts turn toward New Year’s resolutions and setting intentions. Going to the gym was last year’s and I’m pleased to report that we’ve done pretty well in that regard. Groom and I have walked almost every day since 1998, but we stepped it up a notch by joining a health club and actually going four times a week this year. In fact, we’re on our way there shortly.

To be honest, I thought there would be a noticeable difference by now, but perhaps the difference would be visible to the naked eye only if I could compare alternate realities and see photos displayed side-by-side: One picture showing the results of going to the gym placed next to one if I hadn’t. But I can say that I feel better and perhaps a little stronger.

So feeling we’re headed in the right direction health and exercise wise, we also spend time nurturing our spiritual, mental and emotional well-being. With our transition from two decades of designing jewelry incomplete, we turn our attention on what will we be when we grow up?

Reinventing ourselves mid-life could be considered embarrassing, but it seems to be happening all over the world. Society is quite forgiving and understanding as many people are reconsidering their choices and options. Some out of necessity, some out of desire to do something else.

As I was falling asleep last night, the phrase obstacle illusion floated into my brain. I don’t recall ever hearing that one before, but as a play on optical illusion, it occurred to me that many people, including myself, suffer occasionally from obstacle illusions.

What is it that we desire to be, to do, to accomplish, and yet we don’t step out and achieve it for fear of what? Yeah, I don’t really have any answers in this moment, but it’s sure making me consider what might be in my way in a different light. What if it was just an obstacle illusion?

 

Eeek! Where did this mess come from?

‘Tis the day after Christmas and all through the house, a whisper of wrapping, of ribbon, of - Spouse? Hmmm, not much rhymes with house other than blouse, mouse and louse.

Anyhoo, those pesky cousins, Clutter and Chaos, are not my best friends, so today I invite them to shoo, though they’ll grouse. I’ll roll up the sleeves of my blouse, clean house with my spouse, to remove remnants and evidence of Santa Klauss, and then the lights we shall douse…

Happy Day after Christmas, and to all a good night.

One of the downsides of working retail, even creating and selling our own arty jewelry, is having worked every Christmas Eve, for gulp, 31 years. Except for last night! And one other year, which allowed us to finally accept a Christmas Eve dinner party invitation, and people are still talking about the miraculous alpine sunset of that evening in 2005.

So, with only our second Christmas Eve off since 1980, Groom and I attended our first ever candlelight church service. With a packed house, standing room only, the music was fantastic, ranging from a string trio, a choir, and a live mash up with an opera singer and her bluegrass accompaniment. It was surprising, refreshing and a lively Happy Birthday Jesus party.

There was one moment that was humorous for the audience, but I imagine not for either the teenage boy selected to light the larger candles or for the opera singer. From one large candle, representing One Spirit, all the other candles were supposed to be lit.

At the moment the young man tried to light the candle representing faith, the formally dressed opera singer belted out her first notes. She couldn’t see the flame of faith go out. The congregation did a collective gasp as it didn’t portend well at first. But the teenage boy would not be deterred. Finally giving up on his long matchstick, he picked up the column candle representing faith and turned it upside down over the big candle, hoping to catch the wick on fire.

His attempts were charming and the crowd could not help but laugh as we truly wanted that flame of faith to catch. Meanwhile, the timing of the laughter coincided with the elegant singer’s first notes, and I felt so bad that from the moment she started singing, the audience began to laugh. She kept a good game face on, and continued in spite of the distraction. And phew, the flame finally caught.

It was absolutely stunning to witness a dark room come alive with each person lighting someone else’s taper, the chapel emblazoned with hundreds of individual lights.

After the service, we went straight to a restaurant where a friend of ours was hosting a Christmas Eve dinner. She gathered a wonderful group of people together, with whom we broke bread, made toasts, and laughed until it was almost Christmas Day.

Her daughter, a charming three-year old, decided it was time to don her gay apparel and put on some butterfly wings. By this time, most of the other diners had left and the children had room to play. The restaurant staff was so kind and playful with us as well.

The little girl decided that she was a hummingbird and wanted to present us with nectar. She came over to where I was sitting and went through the colors of her wings, asking me which flavor I wanted. My goodness, I had all kinds of choices. I could have lemon nectar, greenbean nectar, watermelon nectar, and so on.

By the time she got to the dark eyespots, the circular, high contrast markings on her wings, she offered me “black pizza nectar,” and for the silver glittery outline, “sparkle nectar.” That may be my very favorite gift so far.

So with the same grace with which my candle was lit, and with the same sincerity I was given black pizza nectar, I offer you a Christmas Day filled with sparkle nectar.

In the hustle and bustle or the meditative silence, whether you believe in a roly-poly man sneaking into your house to leave presents while you sleep, the Virgin birth, neither or something other, Christmas Eve is a time to…

A time to what? Finish up the year’s business? Cry, drink oneself to sleep, wrap last minute gifts, gather with friends and/or family? A time to go to church, avoid church, argue, make amends, cook, bake, go to the movies alone? A time to nurture, abstain, visit the sick, volunteer, decorate, clean the house, wait in long airport check-in lines? A time to take a break, work overtime, or eat your feelings?

Whatever is happening in your world, whatever Christmas Eve means to you, may you do it with gusto. I heard a dear acquaintance, a musician, say once, “If you make a mistake, don’t hide it. Paint it red and sing it loud.” – Sydney Steen

Groom and I are quite fond of our 91-year old neighbor, a lady with a sharp sense of humor and a quick tongue. We stop in regularly to visit and check in on her and she said something yesterday that struck a little arrow in my heart.

She mentioned that at her age, she’s noticing that she feels things even more deeply; perhaps the layers of insulation and protection are unraveling. She described that everything takes on more import during the Holidays and what was already painful is even sharper.

I know what she means.

For everyone out there who is missing a loved one, concerned about health issues, worried about bills, or suffering in any way, the Holidays can exacerbate things, as our lives, perhaps, don’t match the joyous tableaux playing out in the magazines, television shows, or social media announcements. It may appear as though everyone else is having a magical time.

I sincerely hope that most people are having a magical time, that life is good and getting better, but for anyone whose heart is breaking, or feels their edges fraying, may comfort and joy find their way to you immediately.