What the Hey, I’m in LA!

I’ve written a number of articles about how all we have to do is continue to follow Spirit’s guidance, and that if we are to understand the reason for being asked to do something, then we will be given that understanding in the proper timing.

In March of this year, it became apparent that I needed to make a trip to Hawaii to do some work in preparation for the event that will be held at Mount Shasta in September of this year. http://timelyguidance.com will take you to more information about that event.

I was also drawn to participate in a show I hadn’t been to in a number of years.  It was held in Oklahoma City, and that’s a bit of a drive for me.  I’d worn out one car running all over the countryside to do  Spirit work, and didn’t want to run another one into the ground before it was paid off too.  I met a fellow reader I hadn’t seen in a while, and we started to catch up on things.

She began to talk about a workshop she was going to attend to learn more about mediumship. I have had an increasing number of incidents of people who have crossed over showing up in my readings over the past few years, so when she mentioned this workshop, my antenna went up.

I had tried to bring in someone to teach a class in the town where I live, and actually had a number of students show an interest.  Within in a day or two of her arrival, that number dwindled to almost zero.  I was puzzled, but I do understand that if it’s not supposed to be done that way, things don’t work out.

So a couple of weeks after this happened, I am speaking with my friend, and when I asked her when the workshop was going to be held, she told me the end of April.  She added that this woman doesn’t do a lot of such training, at least not yet.

Was it a coincidence that the workshop was scheduled for the weekend right after I had already arranged to be flying back from the ‘assignment’ in Hawaii?  Maybe.  Did I interpret that coincidence as a sign I was to at least seriously consider this training for myself?  Certainly.

It was too convenient to just change the return flight, add the workshop, and stop in LA for a few days to learn about the mechanics of mediumship on my way back to my home base in Kansas City.

So I rearranged my travel schedule and applied for admission to the course.  I was accepted, and went through the four weeks of online lessons.  I am now in the Los Angeles area for the weekend intensive.  Would I be here if I hadn’t paid attention to what my guides would have me do? No.  Would I be here if I had arranged it all myself, using only my intellect?  Not likely.

If you just take a look at what needed to happen for all of this to come together in just this way, it becomes clear very quickly that this is totally spirit-led. Again.

The Hawaii project was in place and committed to before I even knew about the Mediumship Workshop.  And I hadn’t decided to do Oklahoma City until after those arrangements had been made, either.  What if I hadn’t taken the time (I had the nudge to go sit at her table) to go talk to Shelly?  Would I be here now?  No.

Could I have chosen to pass on the workshop?  Certainly.  But was that the highest choice for me to make on my path of Service?  That is the question that needed to be answered first.  The answer was:  go to the training.  The kicker was the timing of the training itself.

And so here I am.  Experiencing what my Spirit had planned for me.  People ask me all the time:  how do I know what is the right thing for me to do?  My reply always is:  by the results of the choices you make, you will be able to develop an ability to feel how it feels when it is Spirit guided and when it is your little mind playing with you.

So the bottom line is, you have to actually take action in this dimension in order to learn how it feels when you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. Is there any guaranteed way to know it beforehand?  Not one that I am aware of, but then again I only know about my experience, which is what I am sharing here.

And what the hey, I’m in LA honing a skill I have wanted to develop to help me do better work for my clients for a number of years.  And I am being taught by someone I greatly admire for how they do this work. Lisa Williams is the teacher.  I am very grateful to be here now.

I got here by following my guidance, without a clear idea of the larger picture.  And yes, sometimes it can take me out of my comfort zone, but that is how we learn and grow.

Where will your guidance take you?  Are you willing to follow it?  Only you can make that determination.  I like where I’ve ended up.

The path you take is made by walking it.

All original material posted to this site is copyright 2012, Julie Marie.

I Swam in the Ocean Today

What I Learned

I have only ever swum in the ocean twice. The first time was two days ago.  The second time was today.  It only took me 50+ years to finally give it a try.  Cross this item off my bucket list.

Is the ocean for me?  No, I don’t think so.  The first place I swam, the water was calmer, but under the surface was a lot of coral.   And guess what can happen if a wave catches you just right?  You can get a little cut up.  Yep, you can.

Today I was at another location, and the water looked so inviting.  It was a beautiful green-blue, with waves crashing against the rocks nearby.  How wonderful, I thought.  So I decided to try this swimming in the ocean thing again.

Boy, did I learn some things about myself and water today.  I am a lake swimmer, a pool swimmer.  I am not an ocean swimmer.  I like my water manageable, perhaps even a little timid.

What does that say about me?  I do surrender myself to Spirit with not even a blink, yet I struggled to surrender myself to the waves today.

I did eventually find a sweet spot where they didn’t pummel me so badly, but I had to be very aware of the rhythm of the waves as they ran in and out.  I could feel the  strength of the outward flow, and it unnerved me a bit, I will admit.

Today I left the water after about 20 minutes of struggle.  I had a much better outcome the other day.  I floated and paddled and only occasionally tasted the intense saltiness of the seawater as it washed over me.

I felt the feeling of exhilaration as I left the water that first time all the way down to my toes.  I had conquered more than just the water with that first swim. I had begun to heal some personal stuff that had been haunting me for some time.

I didn’t do that alone, either. I had the love and support of a distant friend on the other end of the phone telling me I could love myself enough to give myself the gift of the experience of swimming in the ocean.  And so I did.  Thank you, my friend.

That first swim taught me that I did have the  courage to do what I needed to for my own well-being and spiritual growth.  Conquering a fear, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem to another, is a very empowering thing.

Today I learned that if you lean in just right when a giant wave is coming at you, you will be able to stay on your feet. So the next time life sends a giant wave at me, I will know to lean into the experience, not try to outswim it.

In both cases, I had a bit of a time getting myself out of the situation I had gotten myself into.  So I learned I need to plan my exit before I get in the water.  And trial and error can teach you a lot about how to find your way out of unfamiliar territory.

I will surrender myself to the water again someday, and perhaps even the ocean.  But it would have to be a quiet bay where the waves are small and the undertow nonexistent.

For now, I choose to watch from the shade on the beach, SPF 85 and hat in place.  I will root for all of you ocean swimmers.  Go catch those big waves!  I’ll take the photographs.

The path you take is made by walking it.

All original material posted to this site is copyright 2012, Julie Marie. All rights reserved.

Inspired by Someone I Never Met

Her Name was Betty Winstedt

She started surfing at 40; she shows her form at Makaha in 1956.
Heldreich Winstedt family photo

Sometimes we can be inspired by how someone else lived their life.  I had the privilege of hearing about a wonderful woman named Betty.  Her daughter Victoria talked to me about her.

Although she has crossed to the other side, and even though I never met her, she inspires me to transcend the limitations I have begun to notice have come with the passing years.  How she lived her life has also reminded me that it really is never too late to start something new, and that there is value in learning new skills.

This woman had almost a century of life to work with, and she did not waste any of it.  There are many things about her constant reinvention of herself that we would all do well to take note of.  Her life was like anyone else’s.  What made the difference was how she approached the challenges she was given:  with a positive attitude, her inner strength, and courage.

Betty was born in 1913.  She and her family lived through the Great Depression, and when she was in High School, they lost their home.  After she graduated from High School, she relocated to Santa Monica, California where she spent weekends swimming and body surfing around the pier there.

She went to college, graduated and worked in an emerging profession: dental hygiene.  Betty was an athlete, however, and was on the swim team at the Los Angeles Athletic Club where she started training to compete in the Olympics that were going to be held in Germany.

She had her pilot’s license by the time she was 22, and flew single-engine aircraft. When she soloed a glider on a whim, she fractured her leg in several places and spent months in a cast.  This ended her Olympic dream, but did not stop her quest for excellence. 

When Betty got married in 1937, her husband was a diamond cutter and jeweler.  Betty had two daughters, and also learned to craft custom jewelry during this phase of her life.

She took her girls to visit her sister Jane in Hawaii in 1953, and fell in love with the islands.  She was 40 years old.  She learned to surf that year.  When she caught a wave all the way to shore, she fell in love with the sport.  She surfed every morning all summer.

Within months, the entire family had been relocated to Oahu.  This decade was the golden era of surfing, and Betty surfed with some of the greatest legends of the sport: Blue Makua, Fred van Dyke, Rabbit Hekai, and Fred Hemmings; Peter Cole, Jimmy Wong, Buzzy Trent, and George Downing. She got surfing tips from some of these legends as well.

Betty was known as a pioneer of women’s surfing.  She surfed longboards in the 50′s, and surfed until the 70′s.  Before she gave up this passion, she traveled the world competing in international surf competitions.

She came in second at the Makaha International Surf Meet, and brought home a first place trophy in the women’s division at an international competition in Lima, Peru.  She surfed with her daughter Vicky and the two were invited to Peru as a mother-daughter team when Vicky took a first place in the Makaha International.

After a divorce from her first husband, Betty built a home in Makaha on a beach lot she’d purchased years before.  She met and married Charlie Winstedt in 1969, and it was around this time that she quit surfing.  She spent 20 years with Charlie.

Towards the end of her life, macular degeneration took her sight and rendered her legally blind, but this did not break her Spirit.  She became a potter, and took classes for more than a decade.  Her bowls were treasured by many.  She could not see, but she could feel how the clay was forming under her hands.

She also started writing haiku, a form of Japanese poetry with a specific meter.  When her eyesight began to fail, others helped her continue to express herself, and a doctor she met in the ER became a friend who encouraged Betty to publish her poetry.

Betty is on YouTube.  You can search for Betty Winstedt, and you will find clips of her haiku, and you can see the incredible vibrant life energy this woman carried up until the very end of her days on this planet.

At 90, she survived open heart surgery, and within weeks was swimming in her pool again. She loved life, had a lot of fun and some grand adventures, and never gave up.

Betty was a poet, an artist, a mother, an Olympic level athlete, a pioneer of women’s surfing, a jeweler, a pilot, and a shining example of what the potential is for a single human lifetime.

Her life reminds me that it is never too late to learn, or to do something new.  I also learned that adversity  is just an opportunity to open yourself up to something else, it is not a tragedy that has the power to destroy your life unless you allow it to.

Betty Winstedt, I never met you, but you have truly inspired me to continue to learn and grow until it is my time to go.

I wrote this haiku to honor Betty:

Her life fully lived.

Overcame all challenges.

Surfing Heaven’s waves.

The path you take is made by walking it.

All original  material posted to this site is copyright 2012, Julie Marie.

A Stab at Interactivity…

 

I Invite you to Submit Requests

Invitation (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This one is really stepping out there for me, but I am feeling the push to ask about what you would like to read more about here.  I am not promising that I can answer all  the requests, but I am looking for what would interest you.

I have spent the last months since this project started writing about what I wanted to talk about.  I feel it is time to engage you in my process, hence this invitation.  Please keep in mind the purpose of this blog, for any topic submitted would have to be in alignment with the overall intention and purpose.

I look forward to receiving your input.

Nothing happens unless first we dream. ~ Carl Sandburg

All original material posted to this site is copyright 2012, Julie Marie.

On Gratitude

To Be Grateful For

New Orleans: Thank you message in the grotto of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church; added by those for whom prayer or miracles were granted (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is important to remember to express our gratitude when we feel it.  The expression of thankfulness will raise your vibration and expand your heart center, especially if you express the gratitude sincerely from that place.

On March 2, I posted a thank you to those who have read and then returned to read again the words I have carefully crafted and put out into the world.    I am moved again to express my gratitude to all who come here, for the Fibonacci spiral of growth on this blog is explosive, at least to me. When I came to write this morning, I saw that you had come here over 5,000 times.  I bow in grateful acknowledgement to you.

I am humbled that you would take your precious time to visit here.  There is such a diverse smorgasbord of information for you to choose from, a veritable banquet table over-laden with mountains of words, sentences, paragraphs and poems.

I know that you would only choose the nourishing, healthful food for your soul.  It inspires me to continue to strive to enrich your life, and to perhaps from time to time make you reflect on things greater than the mundane world of which we are, at least for now, of necessity a part.  As you continue to raise your vibration by ingesting messages that uplift you, you will raise the vibration of the mass consciousness as well.

Thank you for being a part of my efforts to contribute to the ‘good vibrations’ so needed at this time.  Without your active participation, I would not be inspired to continue to write here.

The beauty of empowering others is that your own power is not diminished in the process. ~ Barbara Colorose

All original material posted to this site is copyright 2012, Julie Marie.

How It’s Really Designed to Work

Everybody Wins

I started out writing about something else today, but couldn’t fight the urge to just tell you a story.  So here’s the one that wants  to be told now.

View looking towards the Black Elk Wilderness in the Black Hills, South Dakota, USA. Horsethief Lake can be seen in the foreground. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota, I learned a very profound lesson that reinforced my intention to just keep following guidance to the best of my ability whether I understood it or not.