Energy boost

After the last chemo, I laid around for more days than I would like. My energy was low and I didn’t have much to write; each day looked like the one before it.

Despite my low ability to get around, we decided to go ahead with a planned trip to Naples, Florida. Last Tuesday, with quite a bit of help, I was able to travel with my family. Once we arrived, I spent the first two days in bed while they explored the beach and pool. For me, it was more of the same, just new surroundings, but the kids were having fun and it was nice to have some new scenery.

A friend of mine, a wonderful woman I met on one of my trips to see John of God in Abadiania, Brazil, lives in Naples. She had JUST returned to town (again from Abadiania, Brazil) and texted me on Wednesday morning that, that very night, there would be a crystal bowl meditation with a focus on the Divine Mother. Did I want to go?

Wow. Crystal bowls, meditation and Divine Mother. Any one of those would get me there. Yes.

With some effort, I got dressed, put on make-up and made my way downstairs, where my friend picked me up.

The meditation was being held in a salt cave. More coolness (even literally). We arrived early so that I could sit near the large crystal gifted to the owner from John of God and the entities. (That is a story in itself.)

Before the session began, the owner showed my friend and me some of the bowls she would be playing, and I suddenly felt Shira beside me, smiling and laughing. Of course. Shira was the first one to introduce me to crystal bowls and sound healing, and she owned a few that she played beautifully. They gave her much joy. And another connection: Shira traveled to Brazil with my friend even before I did! I loved feeling her there with both of us.

The meditation lasted about an hour and a half, and afterwards, I got to visit with my friend, staying up later than I had in weeks. These events shifted my energy for the rest of the trip. The next day, I could get out of bed early, leave the room, enjoy the resort, and even eat a couple of real meals of solid food! That may not sound like much, but it was a big shift for me.

I remain surprised and grateful for the things that arise to keep me going. Deep gratitude to my friend for initiating all this.

And I hope that, as you read this, you know that you are on your way to your next energy boost as well. You never know where it will come from, or whose energy you will boost by your thoughtful actions!

Love,
Marie

Returning the way I started, with some changes

I love it when the universe works in sync.

Two weeks ago, when I boarded the overnight flight to Brazil, my footrest wouldn’t retract fully. A minor complaint in the scheme of things, for sure, but I noticed it. The mechanics were not able to fix it and my choice was to either delay the flight for the repair or take the seat as is. You know me: I took the seat as is.

Last night, when I boarded the overnight flight returning from Brazil, I was assigned a different seat number and….my footrest wouldn’t retract fully. I looked around at the nearby seats and all those were fine, so I laughed out loud. What are the odds? Something bigger was going on, even if it was subtle.

Again the mechanics weren’t able to fix it, but this time, the flight attendants offered me another seat, which I took. My new seat was next to another woman returning from her trip to Abadiania (with a different guide), and we had a fun chat about spirituality and portals before we fell asleep.

I feel like I returned the same way that I came, with the same things that don’t work, EXCEPT that on my return, I was given special physical gifts in the form of a new seat and fun seat mate.

This also helped me to trust that I was also given special spiritual gifts that have yet to be revealed.

So psyched!

Love and blessings,
Marie

Last night in Brazil

After a pretty lazy morning, I did 4.5 hours of current this afternoon. Once “released,” we took lots of photos of each other, but I don’t feel like I can post them. Instead, I will post the view of tonight’s sunset from my little balcony.

Some orbs showed up.

We had our last group dinner followed by a little outing to Frutti’s. Tomorrow, we say goodbye in waves as we each leave at different times. It’s been an amazing trip.

Thanks for being here.

Love,
Marie

 

The unusual begins to look normal

After seeing John of God (in entity) yesterday and having a spiritual surgery, I had a pretty cool 24 hours in the “spiritual ICU.” I did stay in my room, but it was hard. My emotions ran the gamut, which can be crazy-making.

I’m still pretty wiped out, but saw that Alice in Wonderland piece (above) and it very much captures how I am feeling. Often, I think about something and an answer materializes. For example, I wondered if I should write my own obituary (not that I’m dying, but obviously I think about it from time to time), and then a friend sent me the obituary of a woman who wrote her own. Wild.

AND, I prayed in Current on Friday for a child who has been displaying a particular behavior and on Saturday the behavior abruptly stopped.

AND, I saw another aura.

AND, during my time alone today, I was obsessing over someone here who was making me crazy (and sad). I heard a voice saying that I shouldn’t worry about her, that they are taking care of her. I later found out that she had some pretty intense work going on today.

But wait, there’s more….One day this week, I took off my jewelry before I went to bed, the same way I do every single night. The next morning, I found my Alex and Ani hummingbird bracelet under my pillow. I thought, there is a slight chance that I left it on my bed, but under my pillow? The next day, I learned that someone else in our group found her iPad under her pillow. Tooth fairy entity? ha ha

I took these photos in my bathroom. The sparkles you see are like the sparkles that I occasionally see in my room (no kidding), though I will admit that some of these dots could be toothpaste on the mirror. 🙂 Still, notice the orb and the blue light. In this one, it is by the left side of my head.

In this one, it is by my right elbow.

There are other experiences that I am too tired to write out fully, so will end on a more everyday note…the meals at Frutti’s are HUGE, fresh, delicious and a good value. This is a salad that runs about $5.

Love and blessings,
Marie

Symphony at sunrise in Abadiania

The music begins slowly (beginning not depicted in the video below), gets louder and then energized as the sun rises, finally silencing when the sun is fully risen.

If you are into orbs, you can catch some in here, too.

Typical Tuesday at the Casa

We started the day cutting vegetables for this week’s soup.

Here is a bucket of shu shu, a new vegetable for me. The inside is light green and has the consistency of zucchini, maybe a little more firm. It has one seed in the center. 

Anything with ridges is harder to peel, and shu shu also needs to be cut and the seed removed. I got there early (notice, very few people!)….

…so I was able to find a sharp knife and a peeler (truly rare commodities) and laid claim to a bucket of carrots (easy to peel). That is my blue water bottle, above, and my bucket of carrots, below.

Friends soon arrived to peel with me.

Sam does some creative carving as well!

Once peeled, the carrots are cubed using this tool. A trained professional places the carrot on the grid, then lowers the handle. The carrot cubes drop into a bucket below.

As folks slowly arrive, peeling becomes the morning social gathering.

After peeling veggies, I sat in the garden, went to the waterfall (3rd time – I love it there!), and joined a group doing some truly uplifting spiritual singing (led by three guitar players). So fun!

Tonight, alot of us met up at Frutti’s for dinner and dessert.

Tomorrow, we see John of God again.

Love and blessings,
Marie

Luscious chaos

I took this photo during sunrise one of the first few days of the trip. My eyes were focused on the sun rising over the hills in the background. I felt a little silly when I realized that I didn’t even notice the “junk” in the foreground until I looked at the photo later.

I’ve thought about this photo often in the days since. As you can tell, I seem to find time here, not just to watch the sun rise and set, but to think.

One of my little peeves is how we often, as a culture, isolate beauty. We create areas of beauty separate from areas of work or areas where we live. Consider healing gardens in a hospital (rather than making every room a healing atmosphere for patients), green space in an industrial park or even protected national parks.

We do this with people as well. We inadvertently isolate ourselves from those who are  difficult to deal with or who remind us that there are less attractive aspects of life. We create separate spaces for people with learning differences, physical challenges, or any other unpleasant situation through special classes, homes and hospitals.

In my two weeks here, I feel like the beauty and the ugly are all intertwined. Sitting in the beautiful healing garden, you can hear the activity in the men’s restroom. Looking at the hills, you can see the construction materials. People with illness mingle with people who are more than well.

Coming from the culture I do, I realize that I wonder, why did they build the restroom next to the gardens? I suppose I could turn that around and ask, “Why not?”

Back to the area in the photo. Some of us would focus on only the beautiful background, some would focus on the foreground, some would see it all and get annoyed that the foreground is ruining the background for them, some would even arrange the photos so that you didn’t see the foreground.

Tonight, one of my fellow travelers showed me a photo of his property. I saw a blue tarp in the woods and asked what that was for. “That covers my construction materials,” he said. He admitted that he saw the materials in that same area (pictured above) and was tempted to cover them!

I don’t feel like any approach is better than the other, just different. I don’t even know which I prefer.

And then I got this quote today:

“I’m beginning to think peace is something we made up to keep us from being satisfied with all this luscious chaos.”
-StoryPeople by Brian Andreas

Maybe I just need to sit and be happy in the chaos of it all.

I wish you beauty along with anything that might feel unattractive, ease along with anything that feels hard, and satisfaction and smiles along with any chaos. And always, much pure love.

Marie

Sunrise this morning

I left the hotel at 5:45 a.m. to see the sunrise. Obviously, I wasn’t up late partying the night before.

Before the sunlight even hits the horizon, you can hear the roosters and birds. And there are orbs all around.

As the sky got brighter, monkeys joined the chorus and the orbs seemed to rise with the music and the sun.

The sun finally popped up, sending out warm rays of fiery light.

As the sun rose, it appeared to be rolling out the orbs as well.

And then, daylight, with the orbs dancing on the dirt by our feet.

I wish for you the beginning of another beautiful, magical day.

Love,
Marie

Shifting my focus

Week one passed so quickly.

During the prayer service this morning, a woman brought her guitar upfront to play and sing. None of us was familiar with the songs so we couldn’t sing along.

Last year, I LOVED the prayer service and was uplifted by the chance to belt out fun songs in a big group with guitar music. It bothered me that I couldn’t sing along. Her “performance” was cutting into my joyful song.

Throughout this trip, I have been trying not to compare it to my trip last year. I was thoughtful about making sure that I connected with others on this trip and that I participated in everything. I thought I had it covered.

But I suddenly realized that, because I was here before, I now had EXPECTATIONS and I wanted them to be met. Last year, I threw myself into each day and in fact, into each event. But now I had an idea of how things “should” be, and I liked them that way. I liked doing my own joyful singing during the prayer service last year. I wasn’t ready for someone else to take the stage and share her joyful singing.

As I considered this, I also noticed that I was spending time looking forward to events, which was fun but distracting me from fully immersing myself in the event happening right now. For example, when the prayer service was not making me happy, my mind wandered to think about our upcoming trip to the waterfall, which I loved last year and looked forward to again. Further, because I wasn’t really experiencing the present moment, the time was passing without my noticing. Hence, the quickly passing week.

So, I shifted my attention to be more present. This service didn’t have as much singing, but it was still lovely. And when another woman rose to sing, I decided to try and pay attention and not escape into some fun fantasy.

She launched into Ave Maria and I felt transported by her beautiful voice. I looked at her standing in the front of the room. She appeared to be very plain and almost timid so the voice was a surprise. As I continued to look at her, I saw a white shadow around her head.

I blinked to refocus my eyes, and it slowly formed again. It was close around her head but not symmetrical. As she sang and I watched, the white shadow pulsed and grew around her head and expanded to include her right shoulder. Soon, a small rainbow of colors appeared close to her head, but the white was still the largest and had the strongest pulsating life.

If I had escaped into my little fantasyland, I would have completely missed that.

I hope you are fully enjoying whatever moment you are in, and then as it passes, fully enjoying the next one.

Love and light,
Marie

Midday

On Tuesday morning, we peel vegetables that get made into a blessed soup, which we are served during the late morning on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Yesterday was Saturday so no blessed soup, but the window to the kitchen was open and I snapped a few photos so you could where and what they serve from.

This enormous soup pot sits on its own burner. They serve the soup directly from there. I am so impressed by this pot. There is a relatively small stove in the background.

This is the view through the window where they serve the soup. You can see the soup pot on the left. To the right is the sink where they wash the dishes.

Back at the pousada, here is the layout for our lunch. First, there are 7-8 salads.

For dressing, they offer fresh lime, plus balsamic vinegar and olive oil (not shown). Hot foods include chicken, a soymeat dish, steamed vegetables (or otherwise cooked), white and brown rice, and beans. For dinner, we see a similar  spread but with one or two extra casserole dishes (eggplant with tomatoes, broccoli soufflé, that kind of thing).

And then dessert. For lunch today, dessert was papaya and watermelon along with fresh juice. Dinnertime dessert would also include fruit as well as something that is prepared with sugar.

The food is really simple but it is fresh, organic and delicious, as well as right up my alley.

On my way into the Casa today, I saw a horse and buggy transporting a family. Here they are, parking their carriage in the shade just inside the Casa gates.

I sat to read and this little yellow bird hung out near me.

The weather has been fabulous: Cool in the morning but warm (80’s) by 11:30 or so, and dry with a breeze so really comfortable.

That’s it for midday here. More later. Lots of love and my best wishes for a beautiful day.
Marie