Let's Do Something Wonderful Together...

Let Us Welcome the Season of Gratitude!

Haven't you loved seeing these beautiful Autumn days arrive? It's my favorite time of the year, as many others would agree.

I have been savoring every bit of its golden light, and the sweet whispers of the falling leaves. But now, suddenly, the holiday season is upon us. It seems to come earlier each year, doesn't it?

That's okay, because it gives me this opportunity to quote the magnificent Alice Walker:

"Thank you is the best prayer that anyone could say."

I quite agree. Which is why Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays ever dreamed up (as long as you make the superhuman effort to tune out the consumer greed that has polluted it of late).

And so I write this love letter to you, with my heart overflowing.

Thank you to my subscribers for the many hundreds of emails you sent, responding to my tough news announcement in my last WINGS newsletter.

Thank you for the countless kindnesses, prayers, the artwork, the cards, surprise gifts, and beautiful messages that so many of you sent. I also deeply appreciate the tender consideration with which my readers respected my wishes not to be deluged with advice, opinions, miracle cures, and comparison stories.

Your support and your creative talents are amazing -- but not that surprising, to be honest. It takes a very special kind of person to be in our little owl's nest of subscribers.

And the fact that you have joined us, dear one, is one of the things I am most grateful for.

As we enter this season of gratitude and blessings, I give thanks for your companionship and support.

With all my heart, thank you.

An Update on My Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment - Skip if this is TMI!

For new WINGS subscribers just now tuning in who might not know, in late July, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Please skip this section if this is too much information, or a trigger for you in any way. I certainly understand.

When I wrote last, I had not met yet for an in-depth assessment with my oncology health team at Duke University Cancer Center, or heard what the plan would be.

So the bad news is that I have Stage 3-B breast cancer, which means I have invasive ductal carcinoma (right), ductal carcinoma in situ (left), and I also have the rare and very serious inflammatory breast cancer (right).

The decision was made that I needed chemotherapy first, before having a bi-lateral mastectomy, which will be sometime early next year. Then, I will undergo radiation therapy. And at some point after that, I will want reconstruction surgery.

Happily, Duke Cancer Center is one of the top-rated clinics in the world, and my oncology team is incredible. If this terrible thing had to occur, at least I am truly blessed to live a 20-minute drive away from a facility that people come to from all over the United States. We have even heard many stories about people that re-locate here from foreign countries to undergo treatment.

Duke really is that good.

How This Affects My Work Schedule and Availability

Now in the midst of pretty awful chemotherapy, I am finding that my hopes for a quick return to normal have been dashed. So far, I have mostly been able keep up with my blog posts, like the Tarot Card of the Week, although it may sometimes be a day or two late (I try to post it on Mondays).

I also plan to continue staying in touch via my WINGS newsletter, although it will be intermittent. As I am working on it at this moment, I have to confess that it is a sweet pleasure to share a few moments here with you.

But one of the surprising and unpleasant side effects of all the medication I am on has been that my vision has become very blurry and sensitive to light. Because of this, I am unable to drive.

Therefore, I can't drive to Dancing Moon Books in Raleigh until, at the earliest, my radiation treatment starts. My dear friends there have promised me that when I'm able, there will be a spot for me, and I look forward to that day more than you can imagine! And trust me -- you will be the first to know!

In addition, it would be a disservice to you if tried to offer personal readings when I am not at my best, and it appears that will be the case for many months still to come. I am truly sorry.

So for now, I am out of commission, as I focus on this marathon process of recovery.

Thank you for your generous understanding and ongoing well-wishes. They mean more than you can ever know.

Okay, Enough About That!
Let's Do Something Wonderful Together!

It's Time!
It's Time!
Let's Gather Together!

Join Our Global Prayer Circle Wherever You Are ~
Starting Sunday, Nov. 27 and then every Sunday through Solstice and/or Christmas.

Our global Solstice Advent Sun Wheel celebration is heading into its 12th year, and still growing!

Every Sunday evening at sunset, wherever you live, whatever your time zone, starting on Nov. 27, hundreds (maybe thousands!) of us across the planet will be lighting candles on an Advent wreath. This is a practice that welcomes all faiths and philosophies with deepest respect.

Each year, the participants have told me that it has become a deeply meaningful ceremony for them. Some have also noted that it feels like we are doing “The Wave,” except we are offering joyful, globe-circling prayers.

It's never too late to start (until the countdown is over!), since each week, we re-light each candle from the beginning. It's super simple, and you can't get it wrong.

You are needed -- this year perhaps more than ever before in our lifetimes.

PLEASE make plans to join us and add your blessings and prayers.

Go here for last year's directions!
I will be updating the intention and other details for this year sometime next week.

Please share with everyone you know. There is great power in our numbers and the more, the merrier!

Final Thoughts for Now

I know I am not the only one reading this who is going through stressful times. From the bitterness of the U.S. elections, to life-threatening illness and even loss of loved ones; the unprecedented wildfires in the Appalachian Mountains, economic uncertainties, social and racial injustices, and mounting pressures all around us, there is no doubt that many of us are experiencing alternating waves of grief, fear, anger, shock, and helplessness.

But I believe that each of us is here at this pivotal, challenging time for a reason. This is the turning time that we have prepared for, for many lifetimes. All our skills, our focus, our love, and soul-gifts must now be brought to bear.

One of the most extraordinary women I have ever worked with, energy alchemist, writer, teacher, and mentor to visionary leaders, Hiro Boga, wrote this piece some time ago, but I find it especially inspiring for the current moment.

Thank you, beautiful Hiro, for giving me permission to share it with my WINGS readers. May it be a blessing to all.

There are powerful planetary energies at play right now that exacerbate polarization, division, fear, and friction.

At the same time, there are available energies of wholeness, radiance, and peace.

Each of us is both an individual being — our singular self — and in relationship with all other forces on this earth. The energies of entropy affect us because they are in the atmosphere around us — we swim in them like fish in the sea.

But they also exert pressure through our connection with others in our lives who may be susceptible to them, and through our energetic connection to the earth.

So…here are some ways to stay strong, present and calm in the midst of fear and chaos:

1. Ground yourself. Make an energetic connection between your body, and the purest, clearest energy source on earth — the soul or Deva of the Earth. Connect also to the Deva of the Cosmos and the Deva of Humanity. These forces work tirelessly to harmonize life on earth.

2. Bring yourself back to your own center, and radiate your presence from there all the way out to the periphery of your energy field.

3. Invite your soul’s presence into your body, through the back of your heart. Fill yourself with your soul’s radiance. Embody more of your soul’s power and presence.

4. Clear and release energies and emotions that are not yours, out of your body and energy field. Create a state of harmonic resonance in your own energy field. This is your inner world. Fill it with the qualities you want to experience, and work skillfully with the energies that disrupt it. Practice sovereignty.

5. Feel your own feelings; let them flow. Call a circle of your inner selves into your heart. Open your heart to every part of you — the strong and the timid, the fearful and the powerful. Practice compassion. Be the face of love within your own heart.

6. Stay in present time. When you find yourself feeling powerless, trapped in catastrophic stories — characterized by phrases like “always” and “never” among others — breathe, ground, bring yourself back to center, and into the present moment. Your senses help anchor you in the present moment, so open up to the tenderness of your breath, to the beauty of the world within and around you.

When fear surrounds you, it’s easy to get swept off into the future — into what-if-land. Since your body can’t follow you there, tipping out of yourself, into the future, will leave you feeling fearful.

Your body is always in touch with what’s real right now. Dance. Play. Inhabit joy. Feel the solid ground of earth beneath your feet.

7. Confusion is almost always a sign that you’re dealing with energies — or emotions, thought-forms, beliefs and stories — that aren’t yours. Release anything that doesn’t belong to you, and then see how you feel.

8. Ask for help: from your soul, from your beloveds, your community, and from allies and helpers in all dimensions.

You are not the small, scared, isolated self you may feel yourself to be. You are a vast, multidimensional being, and you have capacities and resources you can barely begin to imagine. They are real. They are powerful. And they are actively invested in the success of your incarnation — they always respond when you ask.

When you’re ready, offer help in whatever ways you can.

9. Give yourself the gift of spaciousness. Turn off the news, stay off social media — separate from the high levels of fear that are haunting the world right now.

10. Get outdoors. Breathe in the ever-present beauty and generosity of Nature. Tune into your body, the body of the earth. Commune with what’s real. Attune to spirit, which moves in dimensions of timelessness. Attune to the essence of the qualities you need to help you — strength; patience; fortitude; safety; humour; stability; wisdom; power; inspiration.

11. Make clear energetic separations from everything and everyone else, and return to the simplicity of your own being, as it is right now. Your senses bring you into the present moment, so tune into your breath, your body, what you taste, smell, touch, hear and see.

12. When fear comes knocking, with its stories of impending doom, ask yourself: right here, right now, am I safe? Am I dying? Or deathly ill? Or about to be eaten by a dinosaur? Is what I’m afraid of actually happening right now?

13. Manage your energy. Bring a pink-gold vibration into your reptilian brain (at your brain stem), a clear gold light into your mid-brain. Close down your first chakra until it’s only as open as you can handle comfortably. Close down the energy channels at the back of your head and neck, and across your shoulders, and fill them with clear gold light.

14. Make an action plan and follow through with it. Do at least one thing each day, to better the situation. Work with your friends and neighbors to help and strengthen your own community.

Be creative about ways in which you and your business can contribute to positive action in the world around you. Look for organizations who are doing the work on the ground, whose efforts you can support and participate in. Or start one of your own.

These practices will help. Reality is always Whole, and always on your side. Even though fragmentation can be LOUD, its power is limited to volume.

Each time you recognize and name the fear and trauma around you, bring yourself back into resonance with your own soul, and into harmony with Wholeness, you contribute to the healing of the world. You bring calm, strength and peace to your own body, your life, and your community.

Times of uncertainty and change call us to the task of making meaning and wholeness within ourselves. You can choose to be a source of healing and blessing. Your Presence is needed in our world.

Bring a clearer, stronger vibration of peace and harmony into any situation dominated by violence, terror or trauma. In any situation, the clearest, strongest energy always prevails. Each of us can do our part. Together, we can make a difference.

Thank you once again for your loyalty and support in being a subscriber to my newsletter.

I especially bow and give thanks to the light and majesty that I know dwell within you. Together, no matter the setbacks, we are an invincible, inevitable force for good.

May this season of gratitude shower you and your beloveds with peace, joy, and soulful abundance. Happy Thanksgiving