Everyone has their own experience of the holidays. Just like we have our own experiences of EVERYTHING. We even have our own definitions of what the holidays include! 

It seems the more people I speak with, though, there is a theme for many of them....stress and anxiety mixed in with the other more enjoyable flavors.

I've been writing a holiday blog series for Leigh Danial Family Law's website - hoping to help folks who are going through some major life changes and challenges to find more peace this holiday season. I'm sharing the first two blogs in the series here with you now...check back again for the next one!

Are Expectations Making You Dread the Holidays?

Are you dreading the holidays this year?

You’re not alone. According to Charity Clinic,

“Many people actually dread the holiday season and would prefer to avoid it altogether. According to a survey, 45% of those people living in the United States would choose to skip out on the holidays, rather than deal with...

Nature's Wisdom

 Has life been a bit more challenging for you recently? When the world seems hard, chaotic, and even dangerous, and I feel it must clearly be falling apart around me, I turn to nature to remind me of big truths. For example, I love how nature shows us that some things fall apart EVERY YEAR …and then usually grow back again, sometimes bigger or stronger (or maybe more fruitful) than the year before.

Another example: the moon grows for half a month and shrinks for half a month. Every single month it looks like it’s becoming something whole and complete; then, the very next day after it shows us its full and powerful beauty, it immediately starts shrinking! If you only lived for two weeks, you would have a very different understanding of the moon. Your limited perspective would only see part of the truth of the moon’s monthly transformation. Would you be able to trust that it will become whole if all you’ve ever known is it shrinking?

...

 Trigger Warning About the F Word

This blog is going to be heavy with the F word. So if that bothers you or feels like violence to you...please stop reading here and return to your day with my blessing. If you're cool with the F word, rock on!

The Dream of RV Living and Campground Adventures

I was thinking about the possibility of going on a long RV adventure after I sell my house. I wanted to be able to keep teaching and playing with folks at the different campgrounds, so I was thinking of what to offer that would be fun and helpful. I started by remembering all the fun interactive songs and skits we used to teach at LA County Outdoor Science School campfire nights with the fifth and sixth grade students who came up from the city for a week of science in the mountains. 

I was thinking of making a program and offering it to campgrounds...where I either teach their staff how to lead the songs or I would lead them when I was camped at their location. That felt really fun and...

A new Akashic reading adventure

I was walking by the lake a while back when the idea came to me to do Akashic readings of different beings in nature and some manmade things. I almost immediately did a reading for Seneca Lake. But I didn't write down any of my notes at the time so I don't remember what I learned specifically. I do remember I felt loved. Like, Deeply Loved. So, maybe that's the most important thing to remember, anyway. 

I forget, then remember

I fully intended to do lots of readings. But I completely forgot the idea. For months. And then maybe a few more months. Maybe even a year? I can't remember for sure, actually. But eventually, I did remember again. I had about 30 minutes of free time between things on my agenda last week. I sat on the couch with my journal and my Akashic Tarot cards. I think I was going to do a reading for myself...then I looked out the back window and saw the Great Oak Tree. Ki* had been through a lot - we trimmed ki's branches about...

I Dream A Lot

I think I've mentioned before that dreams are a way of life for me. I dream every night and remember many of them - as many as five or six dreams in one night. I don't write them all down anymore. It would take me half the day to keep a full dream journal. So now I just note the ones that seem important and remember those. Some of them are just for me - to reassure me or guide me. And some are  meant for me to share with the world. This is one of those dreams....

A Powerful Dream

I was watching my father - it was some evil version of him - as he began a ritual sacrifice of a kind and loving priest. I was sad and scared. He was at the center of something shaped l ike either an octopus or a sun with squiggly lines - it felt like it was underground or just windowless. And from the center where he was, many "arms" or "rays" radiated outward. They were lined with a dirty yellow tile,  kind of like a subway in NYC. But the arms were narrow - only one person could...

Do people all sound like Charlie Brown's teacher to you? Do you usually rely on reading lips to understand folks? Has the pandemic been incredibly challenging for you because of inability to communicate with folks when out of your house?

I had the same challenge and after almost a year of frustration, it suddenly occured to me that I could use the Otter app and read what folks are saying as they are saying it and actually be able to respond to them instead of guessing what they are saying or just nodding and smiling! [Don't get me wrong...sometimes I still nod and smile, just for different reasons!]

In this video I explain how to use it to make life make a little more sense when you're hearing impaired.

Note: I always ask folks if they are okay with me using it for transcription because it's also a recording app so everything they say will be in an audio file and in a written file. I have never had anyone say "No" to my using the app.

I find it especially helpful in health care...

Did you know that any Zoom meeting can have free automatic live transcription? 

This video gives you the steps to take to activate the free closed captioning of your live Zoom call. It's a very simple process, but sometimes it's nice to have a human show you instead of just reading the FAQs about it on the Zoom help page. So...here you go! 

Note: If you want the written transcription to follow along with the video, please reach out to me at [email protected] and I will send you the document. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Also - here's the link to the official instructions from Zoom! This info also has more details about different types of users that might be helpful to you. https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/207279736-Closed-captioning-and-live-transcription

Listen to the Full Story of the Abduction Here

When I was in college, I chose the adventure of doing a semester abroad in Liberia, West Africa in the Fall of 1989. I went there on a gut feeling knowing that it was the right thing for me. It was, but not in the way I expected when I chose to go.

In my first month in Liberia, I was in Monrovia (the capital city, a few hours away from the college) to buy supplies and wanted to go out for an evening at the club that my Liberian roommate had made sound so exciting. Before I left the hotel to look for the club, I had a feeling that something was going to go wrong that night so I hid my money in my hotel room – in four or five different places in the room. Did I listen to that gut feeling and stay in? No, of course not. I went out with the friend that had come to Monrovia with me.

We made a bad choice of streets to search first for the cool club…Gurley Street. We did not find the club. Instead we were found by a rogue soldier...