Hitting Rock Bottom

What’s the saying about hitting rock bottom? The only way to go is up!

After hitting rock bottom in my life, the only way for me to go was in the direction of my dream ~ the dream of owning my own new age shop.

I had seen the “For Rent” sign outside of 66 W. Water Street one day while I was sitting in traffic. A few days later, I pulled into the parking lot, wrote down the number, and called. The man who answered told me that someone else was at the borough filling out paperwork for the space, but if that fell through, then I was next on the list. I accepted that if I was supposed to have it, then I would. If not, I’d look somewhere else.

On October 27, 2015, we buried my Mom’s ashes - on her birthday - and as I was leaving the cemetery, he called. “The deal with the other people fell through - it’s yours if you want it.” I wanted it. It was mine!

I had planned to open the store on December 1st, because I’d been given a month to get the empty space ready. Then it hit me - Black Friday was the biggest shopping day of the year, so the deadline was moved back by a week, which now gave me 3 weeks!

Conserve Your Internal Energy, Help The World

With Earth Day here, it’s helpful to think about how our daily actions affect the world around us. Our internal and external worlds are dynamically interconnected. Focusing on mental energy conservation leads us to conservation in the physical world. And that’s good for Mother Nature. 

Create a routine by setting up time blocks for work and personal time. During your personal time, a key to conserving mental energy is to limit the number of mental distractions. One of the best ways to do this is with a regular quiet ritual. There are many different ways that you can implement this sign in your home or office, but they all have the same goal: giving you time and space to clear your mind and conserve your internal power. Burn some Palo Santo incense and light a bayberry candle while you meditate. Use moon water to clean and energize your crystals. Or journal about what you’re manifesting in the next few days. 

Living simply is the best way to help the environment. It saves time and energy, and it reduces stress. Living simply could cut carbon emissions by up to 50% in the US. Use sunlight, moonlight, or candlelight when possible. Reuse your food jars for spell jars. Eat, shop, and travel with awareness and intention. 

Nature and lifestyle are linked. When we choose to make space for internal energy conservation, all of nature benefits. May you live every day like it’s Earth Day. 

Preparation Makes Its Own Luck

Although it’s a quote that has often been attributed to Oprah Winfrey, it was actually Roman philosopher Seneca who said that, “Luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation.”

How can we prepare to be lucky when those two ideas seem to contradict one another? Doesn’t luck just happen? And isn’t preparation planned?

We need to set our intention on what kind of luck it is we want to prepare ourselves to receive. Finance? Romance? A new home? A new car? A new pet? A new life? Any of these require some prep-work on our part while The Divine weaves our wishes together in the spiritual realm.

For example, a couple decides they want to have a baby.

First, the intention is set. “We want to have a baby.” Then begins trying to have the baby. Next, in Divine Timing, the pregnancy begins. During this time of the baby developing, the couple does preparations on the outside.

Getting the nursery ready. Reading parenting books. Having a baby shower. Going to pre-natal classes or birthing classes. Then finally, the baby is born. This is definitely a condensed version of this example, but the idea is that we need to prepare ourselves for that which we desire to manifest.

Some things that help me manifest my own good luck are using crystals, practicing meditation, journaling, self-care, and mindfulness.

Green aventurine and pyrite are great crystals for inviting luck and good fortune.

Regular meditation allows me to get in touch with Divine Will and to quiet the chatter in my head so Spirit can manifest its lucky love through me in the material. I love to burn Yuzu or Green Tea MorningStar incense. They’re short and last about 30 minutes. And as you’ve heard me say numerous times on the Sunday Live Sale, I love anything mini - like my mini celestial incense burner with stars and the moon.

Some wonderful journaling tools are the new Day and Night Reflection Journals we just received: Meditation; Mindfulness; Self-Care. These beautiful journals ask us to reflect on how we tap into these concepts to prepare to receive our own good “luck.”

As Thomas Jefferson said, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

Making a Vision Board on 111: Believing is Seeing

Every year for the past nearly 15 years, I’ve created a Vision Board for the next year. This practice began when I lived in the midwest and my friend Claudette had invited a group of us to her house, as she was often wont to do, to participate in a New Year’s Eve vision board making session.

I remember the fun — the good, clean fun that comes with having given up drugs and alcohol — that we were all able to have, especially the belly laughs but also the camaraderie we shared when one of us would find an image in a magazine that we thought another person would want to put on his or her board.

It became my annual ritual once I had moved back to the northeast and gave me something else to focus on rather than getting wasted and ringing in the new year with a raging hangover - it gave me a focus.

Yes, New Year, New You has gotten the proverbial and literal eyeroll from people these past few years since cliches elicit that kind of reaction on social media, but to me, there’s still something magical and meaningful from that first vision board gathering to the one I will do this year.

See this year, I haven’t done one yet and not because I didn’t want to - I just didn’t think I had to…yet. I wanted to let the New Year sink in a little bit, especially with ending last year on the heels of Betty White passing away on December 31st. Major bummer!

But this year, I wanted to ease off of the pressure of doing it THAT night, of letting a few days marinate so I could meditate on what it is I truly wish to affirm, intention, and manifest this year. What exactly do I want to take aim at on my Vision Board?

I’ve gathered my materials together: my posterboard, glue sticks, scissors, and magazines along with some markers, glitter sticks, and stickers. I’m even going to let my little one join in on the fun this year and hopefully pass the tradition onto her, though I’m sure she’ll enjoy some traditional New Year’s Eve festivities along the way.

So this Wednesday, on 1/11, an angel number having to do with manifestation, I am going to put on some background music, open up those magazines, and start the manifestation process for 2022. Hope you will all join along with me this Wednesday from your own sacred spaces.

How to Remember Using Your Sense of Smell 🍪

When I used to teach freshman English classes, one of the biggest and best things I could teach my students was good study habits. It is easy to cram and over study at the last minute only to panic and zone out on the exam the next day. Cramming information into the mind is like waking up late to get to the airport and you haven’t packed yet. It’s a rush job, useless things are packed, and necessary items are left ignored on the floor.

One technique that helps us remember is our sense of smell. Smell, or chemodetection, our oldest sense helps us stay safe in our environments. This is directly connected to our memories so we can remember which areas, foods, or people are safe and which are harmful.

So how does this remotely connect to studying? When we are trying to remember new or difficult information, using smell can help connect new information to old information. For example, lighting a lavender scented candle while studying and then wearing an aromatherapy necklace or bracelet to class with lavender oil in it during the test will trigger the memory which is connected to the lavender aroma. To say that it is truly that easy is an understatement!

We can use smells to change our mood to uplifting (lemongrass), keep us focused (peppermint), or calm us down (lavender). Just thinking of the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven evokes memories – our brains can’t help but take us back to the smell connected to the associated memory.

Practice including your favorite smell during your daily or weekly meditation practice to help you feel calm and centered throughout your day or week. You can also create combination scents that serve dual purposes, like orange and clove for a calming warm feeling or lemon and lime for a peppy get up & go citrus smell. 

No matter what you want to recall, using our olfactory-installed sense of smell is an easy way to combine our physiology to help enhance our spirituality.

✨ Blessings ✨ Blessed Be ✨ Namaste ✨

Red Cardinals on Memorial Day 🇺🇸

❤️ Sitting out back, enjoying the sun. ❤️

❤️ Cardinals fly by, one by one. ❤️

❤️ Bright red cardinals, reminders so dear. ❤️

❤️ Of departed loves. Remind me “I’m here.” ❤️

💙 Happy Memorial Day, My Kindred Spirits! 💙

💙 To all of the servicemen and servicewomen who have served our country 💙 

💙 Thank You ~ One and All 💙

✨ Blessings ✨ Blessed Be ✨ Namaste ✨

🌸 Spring Cleaning 🌸

What a lovely spring we've been having these past few days. The warm sun. Puffy, white clouds. Opening the windows. Letting air in. Clearing old stagnant air out. And cleaning things out of the house that we no longer need or use.

This Spring, it's not only a great time to clean out the house, but also to clear out the clutter from our minds, spirits, and energy fields. What a great feeling to have clarity in our homes and in our minds.

What are some things that you need to clear out of your home, your mind, or your spirit?

One Year Anniversary

A whole year! Let's avoid any cliches about time, flight, and fun, but it is safe to say that time has been relative over this past year. 

We opened on Black Friday of 2015, and celebrated our one-year anniversary on Black Friday of 2016. The store received what I like to call "The Big Re-Arrange," as new products were placed on the shelves, additional lighting was added throughout the store, and a fresh coat of purple paint was added to the front door and shutters (which finally made their way back up on the side of the building).

It would take much too long to enumerate all of the things that have happened in the last year, so I'll sum up...

1. Community ~ The store was never about one person; it has always been about giving back to those who support our labor of love.

2. Connection ~ Meeting so many kindred spirits over the past year has got to be the highlight of being a small business owner. Learning about people's challenges and triumphs, their goals and dreams, and lightening the load of their burdens and losses.

3. Caring ~ Every day since we opened, I have been witness to the most caring group of customers ever to grace our space. From pay-it-forwards, to hugs, to laughs, and some tears, the customers who enter Kindred Spirits have brought in their individual and collective caring spirits. They have added love, laughter, and lightness to the shop.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't give credit to those who have stood by me throughout the past 365 days. To label these days would be unfair to the individual moments of hard work, tireless effort, collaboration, ingenuity, passion, love, kindness, patience, playfulness, and dedication. To my Kindred Crew, you have my eternal thanks and love for all you have each done to make Kindred Spirits Books & Gifts a gem in Hellertown.

So if you have driven by the shop, and have always meant to stop in, we invite you to slow down, turn around, and spend a little time with us to Treat Your Spirit :)

~Blessings~ * ~Blessed Be~ * ~Namaste~