Jul7

Kindness Rules!

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Several years ago I declared my religeon to be Kindness! Does that seem strange to you? Well here was my reasoning….

I was raised in a Methodist Church, so I called myself a Christian. My mother had told me that’s what we were. In my eyes being a Christian was the same as being Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, or any other religeon. I knew each had it’s own way of worshiping, and their differences, but it didn’t matter to me. We were all children of God. I learned that in sunday school, along with Jesus loves me, this I know. Growing up I really didn’t hear about Muslims, or even Mormons, nor even black people, so you might say my world was very limited by my parents choice. I’m not blaming them for not telling me about these differences, I know they did the best they knew how.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more focused of what’s going on in the world, the impact we all have on our enviroment, politics, and each other. I’ve always been sensitive, and an empath, but now after my children have grown, and are self sufficient I have time to pay attention to things that just weren’t that important to a young mother.

My animals seem to be intelligent, they respond to what I say, and I believe they are much more in tune than I ever gave them credit for. All of you know how much I love trees. They facinate me with their graceful branches swaying in the breeze, and the way they seem to breathe in and out on a day when the air is alive with energy. The birds talk back and forth leading me to believe their conversations have meaning, and if I only had the patience to study them, I could most definitely learn every word they were saying, or singing. Their actions are like little people with lives, families, and a social network that amazes me each time I sit and watch them.

People are the same. For the most part we all want the same thing. We want to be happy, have a family, friends, have a social life. We want to educate our children so they may be more successful than we are. We want to clothe, and put shoes on our children, raise them with manners. We don’t want them to wander off in the wrong direction, and get into trouble.

In this busy world, people are not paying attention to the things around them. They work all day, come home, eat dinner, watch a little TV, and head off to bed! That’s it! We all do the same thing. Most of us plod along each day, all year with the same schedule, barely having time or energy to take a vacation, or even play with our kids. Some of us are so busy climbing the ladder, that they still don’t have time for family, friends, or vacations.

Is this the kind of life we really want to lead?

It isn’t any wonder everyone is so preoccupied with their own routine that they don’t realize they are being unkind to others, or teaching their own children to be unkind. Kids learn by example, and their parents are the first people they learn from. They mimic us from a very young age, and it doesn’t take much for them to learn how to be the kind of person you don’t want them to be. We wonder where they get some of this stuff from? Well maybe it’s learned right at home without anyone realizing it. Knowone wants their kids to be rude or insensitive, but they manage to pick it up if not at home by another child who’s parents have no idea they’ve handed it over to their kids, or that they are acting in an undesirable way.

Kindness is my religeon. Budha says the same thing, and to be honest, that’s where I learned it! All it takes is a little mindfulness, and a desire to be a leader, not a follower. A leader will be kind when everyone else is oblivious to others, the follower continues to be oblivious without realizing they are being that way. Together let us be more kind to each other, and to be mindfull of those who really need a kind word or action.. It’s possible they are so down that they only need to know someone else cares. A little bit goes a long way!

Thank you for taking time to read my post. Be kind, and have a great week.

Karen

Jun16

Brighten Your Day

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Each day I sit down to write, I’m at a loss for words. I think that’s because we are all feeling a little anxiety. Sure we can put on our masks, & go grocery shopping, or in some places even go to a casino for a bit of fun. Anything to distract ourselves from what is really going on.

Many of us are depressed, angry, and feel like their lives are hanging by a thread. Money is scarce, and they are barely surviving. They feel they are failing their families. Some do not know who they are anymore, their identity has been lost!

I’m not here to tell you it will all be ok, that feels slightly empty. I’m here to make an effort to brighten your day, and maybe give you food for thought.
Also, I want all of you to know my intention is not to preach anything, just an attempt to lift you up even if’s in a small way. This will be the last time I bring the virus up. We all know what’s going on, and you don’t need me to remind you again.

I’m an intuitive writer, so what I post is from the heart, and full of love.

Karen

I copied this from Facebook.

This is a reminder to me that although everything is different, I still need to have gratitude!

Jun8

New Beginnings

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Todays post is a repost from a friend who owne’s Big Sky Lavender Farms with her husband, and brother-in-law in Montana.
When I read her news letter, it impressed me so much, I had to repost it. I hope it moves you the same way it moved me.



Each week I begin again. I sit down to write this newsletter with an idea or thought I’d like to share and where I end up is usually not where I think I’m going. (Basically, life:)
This week I’m writing about new beginnings. Partly because of what’s been happening in our world lately, but also because I believe we start everyday with a clean slate. A chance to begin again.
I didn’t know 2 years ago when my brother-in-law invited my husband to grow lavender as a business, I would end up moving back to Montana. This place I called home until I was 21, but hadn’t lived in for 30 years. 
I didn’t know after selling a business we owned for 27 years, I would take what I learned from having a traditional store front business and use it to create an online business, something we had never done before.
I’ve learned about the application process to get into farmer’s markets, craft shows and festivals to sell our products. Again, something totally new for me.
Everyone involved in starting the lavender farm is in their early to mid fifties. We all made a choice to begin again, starting a business none of us had ever done before.
(I will say, becoming a lavender farmer in your fifties is probably not the easiest career choice you can make, but there you go. Live & learn:)
Farming is hard work, but when you’re invested in the health and well-being of 2500 baby lavender plants, you learn quickly.
For instance, weeds love to grow under the weed mat you put down to prevent weeds. It turns out it’s a great place for them to get away from the sun. Who knew?

Anyway, the long way back to my thought for the week:
If you don’t have a job to go back to, start thinking about new possibilities. That’s my favorite thing! Possibilities open the world up wide for you and show you things you never knew existed.
And don’t you dare tell me you’re too old or too (fill in the blank). I don’t believe it!
If you’re like me, you don’t give yourself enough credit for everything you know and have learned in your lifetime. Write down what life has taught you along with your work experience. It all has value.
Be creative with how you might use it at a new job. Or create your own business! There is so much opportunity in you.
And opportunities come from realizing possibilities that were there all along. We just don’t notice until we need them.

I took a lavender picture  last week. The babies are 2 years old and it’s hard to believe in 6 weeks or so they’ll be in full bloom and bigger than the plants on the right.
They already know their full potential, they just haven’t reached it yet. But everyday, they grow and expand into their full, beautiful selves.
Everyday you have the potential to grow into your full, beautiful self. The self that lives life everyday, to the best of your ability, virus or not.
Everyday, look for the new possibilities and opportunities that already exist inside you. Even if you don’t know what you want, you’ll figure it out. I can see it happening already.
Well, my words wandered in ways I could never foresee. But never mind. They end exactly as they’re meant to.
 And I’m just as surprised as anyone else.

We met a customer this past weekend who told us how much our Magnesium Cream has helped her daughter’s growing pains.
She rubs it on her daughter’s legs before she goes to bed and the magnesium helps relieve all her aches and pains. The lavender in the cream also helps her get a better night’s sleep.
If you have sore muscles or leg cramps, feel anxious, have trouble sleeping, or all of the above, our Magnesium Cream is the key to you feeling better.
Rub it on your arms or legs before you go to sleep and the magnesium does it’s job while your body rests.

Big Sky Lavender Farms is located in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley, just south of Missoula, Montana. We make all natural, healthy products to help you live your best life today. 
Share the love and share the lavender. 
Jun5

The Invisible Fence

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‘The memory is a living thing – it too is in transit. But during the moment, all that is remembered joins and lives – the old and the young, the past…

The Invisible Fence

Lisa it’s been so long since I have red one of your amazing stories. I’ve missed them. I posted for the first time in over two years this last Monday. If you get a chance to read it you’ll understand. Many blessings to you. Karen

Jun5

Peace and Love

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Magic Trees

I have been thinking about how I could write a post about the healing that is so desperately needed in our world today. After sitting quietly and meditating, it came to me much more simply than I had imagined.

Josef Siegle is a mentor, and I consider him a friend. I respect him immensely, have taken many of his classes, and always come away better than I started.

Face Book is a go to for me because I can check on my friends and family easily. Sometimes I get information my daughter hasn’t thought to tell me. Or a friend mentions they aren’t feeling well, so I can call them to check on them. It has it’s place! In the process of all this, I have noticed the nasty, hateful comments people post, and I can’t help thinking how much better off our world if we toned it down. When I say toned it down, what I really mean is this…

We all come from different places, we have different colors of skin, different thoughts, ideas, political preferences, and ways we’ve been raised. We come from different places, and different religious beliefs. Because of these differences it is sometimes difficult to understand someone else’s perspective, or point of view. Why do some people talk differently, or louder, or their English seems a little scrambled? Why do some of us wear clothes that show how conservative they are, while some clothes seem louder, or gaudier, blinger, or more colorful? How can we understand one another’s point of view if they are a different religion, or come from an entirely different part of the world?

One thing I’ve learned from traveling, and reading is that people/parents all want the same thing for their families, and children. Most people are peaceful, and loving. We are all working, and struggling to pay for our homes, cars, credit card bills, and anything else that is a necessity at the time.

So what’s the answer?

Well I haven’t answers for the immediate problems, however I will tell you that what came to me during a meditation is this…

If we toned it down, stopped posting, or talking so hateful about the other person, and made an effort to hear their point of view regardless of how different they are than us, shouldn’t that be a starting point to bringing peace and healing to our planet. I don’t think it’s as important to change our views as it is to listen. People want to be recognized, heard and this isn’t happening at the moment.

We are spending so much time pointing out the differences each of us has, and not even giving thought to the similarities we share.

Everyone that knows me knows that I am a liberal. In my eyes, I’m viewed as a left wing democrat that wants to spend money that our country doesn’t have, helping people that don’t deserve it. My view is that the other side, the Republicans don’t want to help the sick, poor, or anyone else they consider doesn’t work for it. Are these perceptions true? Does it matter if they are true or not? Certainly they can’t all be true, but if we just sat down and took time to learn why the other has the ideas, and ideals they have, we would have a much better understanding of one another. I would respect someone for sanely discussing our differences. I’m not trying to change yours, I want to understand your point of view!

The same goes for our racial differences, religious differences and any other difference we have with each other. How can we be so different and so much alike at the same time. We are all created the same, our differences make us interesting, and I for one want to know more.

I’ve never been into religion, more into culture, and languages. I love hearing the music of different cultures, or the way others talk. The cadence in the way others speak, I love it, and I love the way people from another culture dresses, the fabric the use, the way others design, it’s all inspiring to me.

I have posted, along with my words, the meditation for healing the world, bring peace to each of us and those around us. The meditation is 33 minutes long, so I’d suggest you listen to it when your household quiets down. I found it soothing, and it made me feel better about life, and the craziness we are experiencing when I was finished. I hope you feel the same.

Thank you for stopping by and reading Stone Soup. Please listen to the meditation, I know you’ll find it relaxing, and it fills you with love!

Jun2

Good Morning Everyone

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Since it’s been a very long time since I’ve blogged, I thought It would be a good time for an update.

Much has been happening since I’ve last posted.  I’ve fallen in and out of love with art…several times. I still love art, but so much has gone on, and my studio looks like a storage unit, I’ve lost inspiration.  I know, me loosing inspiration!   YES..ME.

Generally during the last three months of the year my art takes a seat on the sidelines.  I’m usually focusing on the holidays, and what to buy for each of my kids, and grandkids.  It takes a lot of thought, and planning, sometimes even going in on a larger gift for one or the other grandchild.  It is so much easier when the grandkids are smaller.  It was easier when my own kids were smaller.  As many of you know all too well, the older they get, the more broke we get!  I’m not complaining, just stating a fact.

After the holidays it takes me a few months to recuperate, and get back to normal.  (I’m using the term Normal very lightly). Art slowly works it’s way into my life again, and I’m up and running.  2019 that didn’t happen.  Just about the first of March, my oldest son got sick.  We thought he had the flu, so I got him 7up, and soup, and foods that you usually can get down when fighting the flu.  After three or four days I went over to his home, and found him very sick, very weak, and not getting any better.  My husband and I threw him in the car and I took him to emergency.

After they looked at him, he was admitted to Intensive Care, and that’s where a very nasty journey started.  He had what’s commonly known as flesh eating bacteria.  He spent two months in the hospital fighting for his life,  and a year later he is still rehabilitating.  Needless to say, my art took as back seat.  Ok with me,  my son lived when the doctors said it would be a miracle..

Miracles do happen!

To regress only a few years.   Since I was about four years old I’ve seen spirits.  The funny thing is, I was never frightened, nor did I think it was unusual.   I actually thought everyone saw spirits or ghosts as I called them at the time.  I’m a strong empath, again I thought everyone was the same.  But I would get extremely annoyed when people would act clueless, or had no idea what I was thinking, or talking about. Now I realize, we don’t all have the same skills, nor do we all want them.

Over the years my experiences have been numerous, and again I thought everyone had the same kind of experiences.  Boy was I wrong.  My poor husbands!  Yes husbands!  I’m now married to my third husband, and bless his heart, he’s so understanding and loving. He has never thought anything about my interesting life.  We fell in love, and ten months later…we married.  He bought me a new home shortly before we married, and twenty nine years later here we are, still married, and still happy!

Over the last year and a half I’ve been focusing on my gift, and working at sharpening my mediumship skills.  If you can’t beat it, join it!  Since I haven’t been inspired to paint, I am inspired to speak with spirits.  I am finding it so rewarding bringing messages to people that are depressed or in pain due to their loss.  Messages from spirits can ease that pain, and allow them to process their grief.

For many years I’ve looked for someone to mentor me, and help me understand what I now call a gift.  More recently I was invited to have lunch with a friend. She was meeting a few of her friends, and she thought I might enjoy having lunch with them. It was in that bunch of her friends that I met a “real live medium.”    I have looked for someone like her for many years, and never was able to find someone to mentor me.  Here she was sitting right in front of me.  Best yet, she was so personable, and I immediately loved her. We hit it off, and she agreed to see me later that week.  This was the beginning of a relationship that is strong, and loving to this day.

Since then, I have found a couple other mentors, and I work with all three for different parts of mediumship.  They each give their gift with love and compassion, and I have grown as a medium, and am still learning.

My purpose in telling my story is in part to explain why I haven’t been painting, and in part letting you know I will never stop doing art in some way.  Now I’m going to focus on publishing uplifting affirmations along with a little art.

My focus in this difficult time is to always be a beacon of light to anyone needing uplifting.  We are all feeling caged in during the lock down of 2020.  Our world most likely won’t be the same, and all of us will need to do a little reinventing.  Some are more depressed than others, some don’t feel so caged.  I’m doin fine, but the rest of my family feel very disconnected with life.  We still need to wear masks, and social distance, we still need to stay at home.  Things are opening up, good or bad, this is reality!

I don’t know if I’ll change the name of my blog,  I have considered it.  To what, I haven’t any idea at the moment, but I do know,  I need to do this for me, and for others.

It will be interesting to see what Stone Soup morph’s into, and I really hope you’ll stick with me.  This is my story, thank you so much for allowing me into your home, and taking time to read my blog, bless you all!   Karen