Online Gratitude Journal March 2010 Edition #38

I skipped my monthly Gratitude Journal last month. I actually had the draft ready to go, but the format just didn’t feel right any more after I renovated this blog to Real Life Spirituality. So this month, I am trying on a new format. (Photo credit)

Gratitude for my earthly life

Living in this physical world is fun in many ways. Some people see life as school, and that is true, but I also think it’s like a big amusement park. You can be scared and sick with some rides in the park, or you can have lots of fun by choosing the rides. And sometimes getting sick on the crazy ride is exactly what you want. It’s all up to you.

Spring means gardening. However, I am not into the kind of serious, heavy gardening that involves tiling, pushing the wheelbarrow, and weeding. I’m just not built for that kind of manual labor, plus I only have a deck right now, no garden. So I like growing herbs and some vegetables in containers.

This month, I started my first batch of microgreens. Microgreens are bigger than sprouts, so they need soil and sun, but they are harvested early before they grow to full size, so they need only a tiny bit of soil and time investment.

Look what I am getting! These are cold-tolerant plants. The light greens on the left are winter salad mix (lettuce, arugula, corn salad, radicchio, endive, parsley, and chervil). The smaller dark greens are kale that I planted a week later.

Okay, so I need to practice putting the seeds more evenly, but you get the idea. If you have some sunny spot, you can do this — truly FRESH live greens for your salad! Full sun is ideal, but another good thing about growing microgreens is you can do it even with less sun. It will take longer to grow, but because you are not after fruits or tubers, your plants don’t need tons of sun for photosynthesis.

I’m so happy and grateful for the sun, the water, the earth, and all things green.

I highly recommend this. It’s so much fun to watch the cute little greens come out of soil. If you have small children, they would love it, too — a sure way to get them eat their salad

Gratitude for my friends

Evita Ochel made a great fun bucket list of meeting blogger buddies. I agree, we bloggers spend so much time communicating with other bloggers and commenters that they feel just as close to, or sometimes even closer than, our offline, in-person friends. How wonderful it would be to meet up with them!

So here is my version of blogger meet up dream plan. Perhaps when I write 500 posts and become really famous, I get to do this Less than 300 posts to go — it’s good to have something to look forward to:

First let’s pay respectful visit to Barbara Swafford, who inspired Evita to write her bucket list and who lives in the same state of Oregon — hey, it’s only a few hours drive! Let’s see if she wants to join this world tour.

Then down to California to see Lisa, the Mommy Mystic to do chakra meditation together.

Next I fly to Ohio to see earthmother. I hope she can take me to a hike and show how to forage edible wild plants. I will also drive to Columbus, where I lived for 10 years, to see my old colleagues. I consider Ohio to be my American home town.

Then I will hop to Wisconsin to see Lance. If I remember right, the sweet Kim & Jason are in the same area, too. We will goof off and surprise even the four year olds

From there, I will fly to the East Coast. Let’s see, I can’t miss my long-time friend Hunter Nuttall in D.C. Perhaps he can teach me how to utilize my left hand more and therefore balance my brain. Or we can discuss personality types and starseed groups.

I love reading food blogs. Choosing Raw is one of my favorites. Gena is smart and compassionate. I’d love to have lunch with her at Pure in NYC.

After the bustling of the Big Apple, I head north. Before crossing the border, I will meet Jenny Mannion in upstate New York to see her new healing center. (By the time I get to do this tour, I’m sure it is up and running.)

In Canada, Evita will be waiting for me. We will discuss the science of healthy eating and living.

Hmm, as I check my Google Reader, I notice some of my blogger buddies haven’t been posting for a while. Is Cath Lawson still in England or will she be in Canada?

In Australia, I need to visit Melbourne to see Albert, the revered Urban Monk, and Robin.

Maybe I missed a few of my friends here — forgive me. This is just a starting place of a fun project.

Okay, this is it for today. Many thanks to all the readers, commenters, and blogger friends. I hope you are enjoying the spring. And don’t forget the April Fools Day — one of my favorite day Plan something fun and silly.

Starseeds: Spicans

Spica is the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo. Spicans as starseed souls are very rare, probably not exceeding a few thousand souls on Earth. (Photo credit)

On their home planet, Spicans lived as lightbodies. The living environment there was far less dense than that of the Earth and also populated sparsely. The dense, crowded, and busy environment is very hard for Spicans, and many Spicans intuitively prefer to live in a quiet area outside of town. They are also very sensitive to electromagnetic energy. I advise Spicans to keep at least their bedroom to be gadget- free. It’s difficult to live without computers, cell phones, handhelds, TVs, and so on, but when you sleep, you want to be in a clean environment without these gadgets.

To be with a Spican brings you the sense of serenity that is so rare in today’s world. Not that Spicans are quiet — they have the serene energy that reflects back the energetic quality of those who come in contact with them. It is like stepping into a lake in the forest. All the ripples you make, you see as your ripples. Because we are so used to be in the crowded swimming pool, where there are so many ripples bouncing back and forth around us, this serenity around Spicans may startle you, or even make you uncomfortable.

Spicans’ ideal

Spicans come to Earth to help the enlightenment process and to live in peace. Spicans know enlightenment is not about discipline. It is about realizing our true nature. It’s about revelation, not reaching up to somewhere.

Some Spicans are quite expressive in pursuing this ideal while other Spicans simply live their life. What seems to be common among all Spicans is their steadiness in their own approach. Spicans don’t get persuaded easily to change their way.

Spicans’ gifts

Even though some souls fear the serenity they feel around Spicans, that serenity and clarity is still the best gift they bring to this world. We cannot improve anything we do not acknowledge to exist.

Spicans’ challenges in loving relationships

While Spicans are very loving, compassionate souls, their love life may not be an easy one. Many people are conditioned to take attachment or even manipulation as love, and for them, Spicans’ serenity may feel like aloofness. And even though Spicans are non-judgmental, people may feel their own judgments reflecting back when they are with Spicans. Spicans’ need to have quiet alone time to stay energetically sound can also confuse some people.

The best way for Spicans to find an energetically-matching mate is to go intuitively. Dating as number game doesn’t make sense at all for them because they just meet many people who are conditioned to believe in fake love. Spicans are very content and devoted to their relationship when they do find a good mate.

Spicans’ challenges in career and finance

Among my Spican clients (there have only been handful), their career paths and the levels of their financial success vary big time. Some are deeply invested in spiritual development, but their approaches seem to be quite different to one another. My guess is Spicans are experimenting and exploring the Earth plane to find the best way to help us. So my best advice to Spicans is to go forward with the exploration — even the “failures” are great in the long run.

Spicans’ role on Earth

Although we know Spicans are here to help us to enlightenment, their exact role in Ascension is yet to be known. My guess is they are here to serve as a somewhat hands-off role models and mentors. Again, they know enlightenment is not about years of studying and practicing, so they only hint the direction while they keep their energy clean and sound.

This is the second last post of the Starseeds series. In the next post, I will do a quick review of parallels and Earth souls. Also happy to answer questions you may have about starseeds (but no the kind of question “What is my starseed group?” I don’t know that until I read your Akashic Records), so throw me your Qs in the comments. Thank you.

How to Resolve Any Problem Quickly And Easily

I have a good news. Whether your problem is about relationship, money, health, whether it’s job loss or addiction or loss of a loved one, whatever the problem is, one simple approach can relieve you from your suffering. (Photo credit)

How we usually deal with problems

Before we discuss this new way of dealing with problems, let’s review how we are taught to handle problems. There are two ways:

1. Ignore the problem as best as you can and hope it will go away or resolve on its own. This is hardly a problem solving technique, but I guess we take this approach fairly often. There are just so many problems in our lives, many of them seemingly too big to resolve with our own power.

2. Work on the problem to fix it. There are many problem solving techniques we can learn and apply. Typically, these problem solving techniques require analysis of the current situation, setting up goals, and making plan to achieve these goals.  If it’s a relationship problem, for example, you may want to discuss the issue with your partner, take relationship counseling, learn new relationship skills.

The trouble of the second approach is, proactive as it is, it is still a way to deal with the problem on the same level of awareness that created the problem in the first place. So even when we “resolve” the problem at hand, we often find ourselves having the same kind of problem soon enough.

For instance, you may resolve the current relationship problems only to find new ones as your life progress. Or you may have dumped the relationship partner that presented so many problems only to find your new mate presents their own personality quarks that disturb you.

So what do you do? Use the same problem solving technique again, discussing the issue with your partner, taking relationship counseling, and learning new relationship skills, etc.?

I am not against the idea of this approach. Surely there is a place for honest discussion, coupled with self-reflection. Surely it’s great to learn relationship skills, and if your parents weren’t the great role models, seeking professional help may promote your growth big time.

But there is something amiss. If this approach of problem solving is truly good, why do we keep having the same kind of problems over and over?

And of course, relationship is just one example. How many people do you know who loses a job, get another one (sometimes after taking educational courses for new job skills), only to find them lose that job again, or worse yet, hating that new job so much that job loss may look like a blessing in disguise?

Even with health problems. Some people seek out all kinds of healing and healthcare, make a big lifestyle change, and manage to resolve the problem or at least get the condition under control. Many of them, however, develop new dis-eases soon that put them back to the frantic mode of healing.

Why the problem solving techniques fail

Because you are working against the problem. You hate the problem, be it relationship problem, unemployment, debts, or diseases. You hate it and you work to fix and get rid of it.

This way of thinking feeds the mechanism of the problem energetically. As a result, the solution is usually only short-term.

Love your problem

So I am suggesting to love your problem. This is the first and most essential step BEFORE you take any other actions such as seeking professional help or learning new skills. I am not against the idea of the various “practical” approaches you can take — as I wrote just a few paragraphs earlier, there are places for such actions. But the first step is to love your problem.

There is a meaning why you are having the problem. On the soul level, you chose to experience that problem. You are finally getting to the challenging part of your life movie — exciting!

Bless your problem. Not because you think you should do so, but because you appreciate the whole experience the “problem” has presented in your life.

When you love your problem, it completes the learning cycle energetically. Watch the problem evaporate in front of your eyes. This may look like a magical dissolution of the problem or you may feel so differently that you may choose to live with what you previously perceived as a problem.

Isn’t it difficult to love a problem?

Yes and no. It takes no time to love — you just decide to love. But because we are so conditioned to seek out a certain “problem-free” condition, it may take some trial and error to free yourself from it and to really love your problem.

If you are having any kind of problem and feeling down, my hugs go to you. I’ve had my share, perhaps too many to write right here. I also encourage you to see this as an opportunity. God never send you more problems than you can handle, even thought at times it may feel like too much.

In this physical world, we cannot go back to the past and change what has happened. But we can appreciate the learning process. And when you do, there is something quite miraculous about it. You become truly free from “problems” that are waiting for resolutions. You find yourself living in unconditional bliss.

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