Warm wishes for a wonderful 2015 coming your way!  May all your fondest clearest and most empowered dreams come true, and may they always be filled with love.

We are almost at the end of January (how quickly it goes) and already it’s been a whirlwind of a time in our world. I’m coming to you late in this as are my good wishes to you. New Year’s found me flat out with that flu/cold virus that has swept across North America and so it’s taken awhile to rise up from that bed and catch up with, well just about everything.

So here’s goes … a bit of news on the work and a few thoughts re what’s been going on.

TEMPLATES FROM THE GARDEN – the sacred geometry artwork I’ve been doing. There’s a new one available. It’s called – Awakening Creativity. It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s powerful. If you feel drawn to see it, to perhaps become a Keeper of its Focus or to buy it as artwork, send me a quick email c/o 22shangrila.com or leave a message here and I’ll get back to you with images and info.

IN THE REALM OF SKY – the small children’s book I wrote and posted here last year – has been available for you to read free-of-charge for awhile now. I want you to know that I’ll be taking it down from this site within the week. So if you want to read it before then, do so now. After that, the book will be available, hopefully late this year, but in print form. Hence you will need to buy it.  I’ll update you as that happens.

SESSION WORK – For buckets of time in the not-so-distant, I was available as a spiritual facilitator for private sessions, workshops, retreats, and speaking events. It was a potent time. I ended up taking time out, partly to go to Ireland and follow a yellow-brick road that took longer than one could possibly imagine (okay maybe you could), and partly to focus on writing and exploring our world. Recently I have started being available for session work again. This is often long distant work, so by phone or Skype. And it is always with a focus of coming home to your true essence and to the Garden of Love & Light. You are welcome to email me if you feel this work might be for you. At present I am only available to see a few clients at a time.

There are new projects beginning, new artwork, and hopefully a bit of poetry. I’ll update you on those as they happen. And thanks for taking the time to check it all out!!

THE WHIRLWIND … If the beginning of 2015 is any indication of how this year will be, at least in the world-at-large, then hang onto your hats and get centered because that’s what we’ll need to be to either ride out the storm or shift to a new paradigm. Shifting is definitely in the cards – we have been moving toward it for awhile – as is living in The Garden.

So balance, kindness, and compassion are key now, as is that ever constant – love – which ultimately allows us to prosper in the best of ways.

It has always been my sense that to truly live in The Garden of Love, one must surrender attachments; to old ways of being, old stories, perceptions and judgements. One is often called to forgive what was in order to love what can be. The term ‘wiping the slate clean’ comes to mind.

Non-judgement (& no one said this one was going to be easy) also requires a tolerance of being; to look beyond the histories and stories (ours or another’s) to the Spirit that lives within (whether you call it Spirit, the Divine, God, or the Eternal); remembering that the essence of all Spirit is the same – that when I look at you, I am indeed looking at Spirit. When I allow that, I am able to recognize that we are all truly one.

At the level of Spirit, freedom is a way of being. It is meant to be that way in our world as well, just as we are meant to be the conscious expression of Spirit in our world.

With that in mind, freedom becomes a right, not a privilege. So when we in this world attempt to inhibit freedom – whether that be freedom of speech, freedom of expression, or any of the other freedoms we should be holding dear, we are in fact inhibiting a path to the conscious manifestation of the essence of our own being here on earth.

So here’s the thing – It is easy to allow freedom when it’s all going according to your own take on things; when what you say or believe matches what I think. It is when you speak, write, or parody in a way that seems to counter what I have chosen to believe, that the challenge arises. Will I still recognize your right to freedom of expression or will I damn it?

Voltaire, a French philosopher, writer & historian has been quoted as saying, “I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” From time to time, I remind myself of this gem of wisdom, especially in moments like those in Paris recently.

I am as well a storyteller. Stories come in many forms, one of which happens to be satire. Satire has been around for longer than you and I can remember. It has always been a way to poke fun at or shine a light on that which is out of balance in the world.  Just as art in its myriad of forms has also been a way for us to rise above the mundane, to dare to dream, to live beyond the expected, to change, to laugh, to cry, and again, to shine a light on that which is or is not working.

It is through story that, consciously or not, we end up creating new worlds. How sad if the world we ended up with would be but a tiny crafted box only big enough for infinitesimally small experiences and even smaller expressions of being; a box with no freedom and very little light.

Which for some reason brings me to William Butler Yeats who wrote in a now famous poem – “I have spread my dreams under your feet.   Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

So in this year of 2015, let us dare to dream a world of harmony and love into being, beyond the hatred and fear. Let us reach beyond those boxes to the skies and dare to live with passion. And most importantly, let us dare to love.

Blessings and love to you all.