You can read that previous post here….

I’ve been back and forth to the center numerous times since, of course, and always look for Firenze among the group.  Until recently, the llamas had limited freedom, as illnesses and problems were being treated.  Most of them are doing well, though, and recently they’ve been allowed into the larger front pasture.  They’re ecstatic about all the room, the browse and grazing, and the ability to really stretch out and soak up the sun.

I’ve had the chance to stop by a few times in the past week, as I’ve been helping Wes to hunt down mealworms to feed several recently rescued bats.  On Tuesday, when I dropped off the first batch of mealworms, I said hello to the llamas, who were enjoying the sunshine.  As my son and I left the center and came around the farm road, we passed a group of llamas lying in the sun, among whom was Firenze.

Stopping the car, I called his name through the open passenger side window.  Of all the llamas in the group, only he responded.  His head came up, his ears went up, and he stared right at me.  I greeted him, and he watched the entire time as my son and I sat there, and as we drove away.

Today, more mealworms in hand, I stopped back in.  After putting the buggies in the ‘fridge, I walked around the kennel building to see Firenze, with deliberation, coming from the rear of the pasture toward me.  He came right up to the fence, the only llama of the large group to even acknowledge my presence, and stood watching me with interest all the while I was saying hello.  After several minutes, another llama became curious about the attention I was giving Firenze, and wandered over.  Firenze flattened his ears and walked away, heading down the hill away from me.

I assumed he’d just had enough chat, or that he didn’t want the other llama encroaching upon his space.

I got in my car, pulled out, and drove down the road.  As I came to the bottom corner of the lower pasture, however, I was greeted by the sight in the picture (which was snapped with my cellphone, so I apologize for the awful quality, or lack thereof).

Firenze, completely alone, no other llamas in sight, was standing at the bottom corner of the pasture.  His head was up, neck stretched high, ears pricked up in obvious attentive concentration.

He looked for all the world as if he was waiting for me.

Nearly a hundred llamas, and I’ve spoken at length to only one, was gifted by only one with the permission to give him a name.  And that llama, out of the entire group, appears to have decided I’m worthy of his personal notice.

Coincidence?  I know what I think about that…how about you?

And yes, I am extremely honored.

Related posts:

1. Communication With A Llama: Firenze
2. The Montana “New York 100″ Llamas Arrive at NELR
3. Llama Sanctuary Crisis

Here atop the hill, surrounded by snow, the birds outside argue over the good stuff in the feeders, and the birds inside over the good stuff in their dishes.  The hound is asleep on the sofa, the kitty asleep in her favorite human’s bed.  Life has changed, but Season to Season it still remains the same.  The sun returns faithfully, the tree gleams with color and light, and our family wishes you and yours

A Joyous Holiday Season

And, to Santa Paws … whoever you may be, a heart-felt thank you from me and my leg!

–Gayle Nastasi–

Related posts:

1. Happy Thanksgiving
2. Back Home Again
3. August Newsletter Will Be Late

I’m going to step out on a bit of a narrow limb here and take the risk that readers might think I’ve rather lost it.

You see, this “thing” happens to me.  It occurs during “twilight consciousness”, such as when I’m just waking up (as this morning) or falling asleep, or when I go into deep meditation.  I, well, to use a popular movie phrase, see dead people.  Actually, I don’t know that they’re always dead people … or even that they’re always people, as at times they come through as what I can only describe as alien life forms.  In this case, however, it was most definitely a dead people, and in fact a people whose face I knew quite well.

These faces (usually) will appear suddenly, out of nowhere.  Sometimes they’ll only be there for a flash of a second.  Other times (like today) they actually hang around long enough to interact.  While I was going through psychic development training, I just assumed that this “thing I do” (or that is done to me) was a common occurrence in the field.  That is, I thought so till one day we were sitting around in a development circle, and there were at least four very experienced and highly trained psychics in the room with me, and I brought it up.  “You know when you’re just about to fall asleep and you see faces in front of you that are so real you can almost touch them?”

They all just stared at me like I had two heads.  Apparently, no, they didn’t “know when”.

Oh well.

Anyway, this happens to me a lot.  Sometimes it scares me.  Today, I’ve been humming “All Things Must Pass” since I woke up.

This morning’s face belonged to George Harrison.  He looked very much like his White Album days.  In fact, my first words to him were, “Looking good, George!”  Then, he went on to tell me that he wanted the songs released.  He said that music was for the people, it was to be heard, and he wanted the bickering to stop (or something along those lines) and he just wanted the songs to be released.

Then he was gone.  And I was really confused.

I have no idea what songs George was talking about, or, I guess, even whether it was George at all or simply a product of my own addled brain.  I did a Google search on “previously unreleased George Harrison songs”, or some-such, but got so many hits that looked like they were probably just rumor and gossip sites that I don’t know if I can trust it.

Does anyone reading this know if there are current “custody” or “copyright” battles going on regarding songs George Harrison may have written and/or recorded before his death, but which were never released?

I know I’ll be watching the music business.  I wish I could find out now, though, as I sort of feel like I have a message to deliver, but don’t know who to deliver it to.

Or maybe I do just have one foot off the deep end….

[*Note: Even though I grew up in the seventies, I didn't mean that literally.  I actually never, believe it or not, "imbibed in the culture of the day".  Having epilepsy, college dorms in 1976 taught me first ... or more literally second ... hand that pot + seizure disorder would = whole new realms of stupid.   Anyway, I just like the song, and the line, so saw a chance to use it.]

Related posts:

1. Pay me a visit over at Life, Laughs and Lemmings

I’ll be with you in apple blossom time
I’ll be with you to change your name to mine

May 8th.  My parents would have been married 66 years on this day.  From my earliest memories, they always cherished the song “Apple Blossom Time” as “their song”.  I can’t hear it, or think of it, without my heart going warm and tender, filled with both joy and sorrow.

Some day in May
I’ll come and say
Happy’s the bride
The sun shines on today

Mom passed away on November 1st, 2006.  She was my Dad’s heart and soul.  She had been failing slowly for a while, and he cared for her, tended her needs, totally dedicated to her for the last few years.  When she passed away, a huge piece of his heart went with her.

On the 26th of February, 2010, Pop joined Mom.  Or at least, with all my heart, and with all my many tears, I have prayed that my beliefs are truth, and that they are together again.  Some days, the only thing that keeps me moving forward, is my hope that they are once again happy, together, and as in love as they were for the sixty two years they were together in life.  And yet, through all my hope, I still have fear.  I’ve doubted, and I’ve been afraid to doubt, scrubbing the “what ifs” out of my mind every time they tried to creep in.  I have asked, over and over, for a sign: something unmistakable that would let me know they truly are together and happy.

What a wonderful wedding there will be
What a wonderful day for you and me

Twenty years ago, we purchased two tiny saplings, both flowering crab trees.  We planted them apart, but within sight of each other, between our two houses.  Mom and Pop’s tree died that winter, but ours has carried on.  It’s sickly, spindly, some years only has grown a few leaves, and never once has it bloomed.

And then yesterday, I stood out on the deck, our deck, Mom and Dad’s deck, and looked down toward the house we just moved out of, where my daughter is now living.  There, on the branches of that poor little flowering crab-apple tree … were blossoms.  Not just one, not just a few, but all the inner branches of the tree were graced in pastel flowers.

Church bells will chime
You will be mine
In Apple Blossom Time.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad.  I love you and miss you with all my heart.  And thank you for my flowers; thank you for my sign.

Related posts:

1. For Judy

It’s a quiet day, somewhat melancholy, the silence of Christmas fills my home.  Things change, they evolve, they grow, they die, and they always remain the same.  Christmas time brings that to light in the most joyful … and sorrowful … way.

All is calm, all is bright….

The Solstice has passed us and we now grow brighter.  The days will slowly become longer, and that darkest of nights is behind us.  Yet the solemn peace of that longest night travels with us into the future.  It brings quiet into our chaos, and ancient stirrings to the fast-paced modern life we lead.

Round yon virgin mother and child….

Whatever your history, your ancestry; whatever deeply ingrained, even genetic, celebration calls you at this time of year, the magic of the season cannot but stir your spirit.  It is this time of year which touches us most deeply, and no one, not even Ebenezer Scrooge, can escape it.  Whether your ancient memories follow the young Sun King as he enters the world and grows, bringing longer days and the promise of spring, or the Christ Child as he brought his own very special Light into the world, or the Festival of Lights commemorating the rebirth of God’s most Holy Temple, it matters not.  Whatever your heritage, whatever ancient stirrings touch your soul, these dark days are days of wonder.

Holy infant so tender and mild….

It has long been said that Christmas is for Children.  In my eyes, what this time of year does for us all, is rekindle the Child within.  There is nothing like a child’s sense of wonder as he peers into the darkness of these magical nights.  The anticipation, the excitement, the discovery, the mystery … it renews our youth in ways that are irresistible.  “Kids from One to Ninety Two”, whether they admit it or not, all feel the magic of the season.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace….

My wish for you this holiday season, is that you embrace that magic.  Let the holiness of this season touch your heart, like the soft snow touches the deep green boughs of the evergreen.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace….

Happy Holidays to All.

Related posts:

1. Vibration
2. Infinite Maybes (Reflections On Human Nature)
3. KnitWit: Sockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

I was chatting in email with a friend this morning, and the topic of “vibration” came up.  It’s had me thinking since, and as a pebble tossed into a pond spreads ripples toward the shore, those thoughts have led to this post.

Vibration.  Everything, whether it is something we think of as living, or something we think of as inanimate, has vibration.  Even the most stationary of objects is actually in continual motion.  That motion may be at a level that only the most powerful electron microscope can detect … but it’s still there.  If you examine any object, and continue to crank down your point of view until you are viewing its most base elements, you will see those little electrons whirring away, like tiny moons around a planetary body, a minute universe of their own.

Everything that moves … moves everything around it.  The energy of that motion sends out waves of contacting energies, setting its outer space rippling in response.  I’m made to think of the butterfly effect, and how a small change, or movement, can initiate waves of energy that spread outward, like those ripples on the pond, and effect untold numbers of possible events half a world away.

What initiated the ponderings that have led to this post, though, is not so much how small vibrations can effect distant events … but how each object resonates with those around it.  Vibrations occur at various frequencies, and the norm is that adjacent objects, or spirits, or souls, or energies, have a tendency to vibrate on similar frequencies.  When an object  is not vibrating in harmony with the space around it, it is considered to be in discord.  Think of playing a chord on a guitar or piano, and pressing a wrong fret, or hitting a wrong  note:  discord.  It makes one’s teeth ache.  It’s rather like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, vibrationally speaking.

We have all, at some point in our lives (sometimes over and over again), felt like we weren’t quite “fitting in”.  Whether we are talking about the child who doesn’t seem to jive with any school-population cliques, or simply that over-all feeling of unrest, or dis-ease, that we can’t quite put a finger on, we are all familiar with the feeling.

Today, I’ve found myself wondering about this, and how that sense of dis-ease may relate to vibration.  Everything around us is vibrating at a certain frequency.  That frequency is affected by adjacent vibrations, which are affected by those a level out, all resonating in relative harmony as one tuning fork sets the next humming.  Then, here we are, sitting in the middle of it all, and we are drumming out a hard rock beat while everything else is humming along with Beethoven.  We are, vibrationally, in the wrong place at the wrong time.  We are trying to fit our square peg selves into the round hole of the space around us.

It makes our teeth ache.

What can we do about it?  It certainly will be extremely stressful to try to force our way through the current like this.  The air around us will grate against our spirits, like trying to navigate the torrents in a blender.  We could examine the vibrations around us, I suppose, and try to make ourselves conform.  But if we are in a space where our unique vibration is necessary to us, despite the fact that its not resonating with the universe around us … would changing our vibration be a cop-out?

We might also try to change the vibrations in our own space so that we feel more comfortable.  Although it’s impossible, I believe, to do this without at least minimally sending that change outward and affecting others, if it’s done gently and with good intent, that affect might be steered toward a beneficial one.   Changing the aura of our surroundings can be as simple as playing music that feels good to us at the moment, or as complicated as moving to a totally new location.  The key is to listen to our inner critic, find the thing that feels right, that soothes us, that makes us feel like we are a better fit, and take action on it.  Changing decor, collecting images that feel peaceful, or simply spending time in meditation upon things that bring us joy, are all things we can do to change the vibrations around us.

Or, the third option, is of course to meet the first two in the middle.  Compromise.  If we use our emotions as guides, we can make some minor tweaks in our own vibrational energies at the same time that we change the energies around us, to find a space that feels more comfortable.

I look around me at the situation our world is currently in, with both waves of great hope, and ripples of terrible fear.  I observe the vast numbers of people who are suffering from depression, from mental instability, from deep worries.  Our world is going through some intense changes … some good, many not so good at all.  Any change is movement, and any movement generates vibration.  Is our human response to that vibrational change part of what is causing these various ills?

By changing our own vibrations, or by reaching out to our own personal space with intentions of peace, joy, love, and harmony, can we create a ripple?  Can we become the butterflies that will eventually cause a global response that will counter-act all of the negative we are seeing in the media around the world?

I don’t know, but it certainly can’t hurt to try.  At the very least, it may affect our own small place in space so that we feel better about the tune we are humming.  We may not fit in on a global scale, those of us who dance to a different melody … but at least we will feel more like we fit in our own skins, with the potential of lightening the energies which immediately surround us.

Related posts:

1. Little Victories, Big Gratitudes
2. The Heart’s A Muscle, Too
3. Of Kriyas and Crias

"Here, Kitty Kitty. Mwwaaaa haaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaa....."

Halloween: what we in the west know as a fun holiday, where kids get dressed up and beg for candy from their neighbors, actually began approximately 2,000 years ago in the Celtic cultures of northern Europe and the British Isles.  The Celts believed that on this day, which they referred to as Samhain (pronounced sow’ in), the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead thinned, and those on the other side could easily cross through to this one (and vice versa).  In order to honor, and sometimes appease, the dead, people would dress in costume and perform various rituals.  These included setting a plate for passed loved ones at the table, wandering through the village with lanterns that cast protective light, and practicing the divination arts.  The dead would be asked for help with such issues as successful crops and hunting in the following year, protection from disease, and healthy births.

Many people today continue to believe in this parting of the veils, and easy connection with spirits, on this day.  In fact, All Soul’s Day, practiced by certain Christian denominations, is November 1st … which many believe to be an extension of the Pagan celebration of Samhain.

Despite what some might consider dark origins, however, Halloween in our western societies has become a holiday for fun.  Many people cite it as their favorite, some even choosing Halloween over Christmas.  It is a time of warm childhood memories, social gatherings, harmless (hopefully) mischief and the ability to take imagination to a new level and, quite literally, parade it up and down the street.  It is a time when we normally reserved humans let go and allow fear to be fun.  If one examines the popularity of haunted house events, the increase in horror movie rentals, and the over all rise in the fascination with the macabre at this time of year, there is no doubt that people enjoy the adrenaline rush of being scared.  Halloween is the day many people take that thrill to the heights of scary celebration.

Occasionally we will find the hoodlums who use the excuse to celebrate fear as one of harmful mischief.  Parents today don’t let their kids eat Halloween candy until it’s been thoroughly inspected.  However, even these necessary precautions don’t spoil the fun of the event for most of us.

And for some, though they may be in the minority, Halloween is a time of  respectful contemplation, and still, after two millennia, a day for honoring the dead.  It seems the older we get, the more dead we have to honor on this day, and the quieter our Halloweens become.

However you celebrate your Halloween, I wish you joyful memories, I wish you safe travels, and I wish you fun.

Sites of Interest:

• Halloween, Ancient Origins
• All Soul’s Day
• Happy, Happy, Happy Halloween at Positively Present
• Some Delightful Halloween Images from Ricka

Related Posts

• Challenge Game #3, Here Kitty Kitty

About the photo: This is not a scraggly, scary black cat.  It’s my Dad’s beautiful kitty, Missy.  I just happened to catch her in a head-shake.  Never thought I’d get the chance to use this photo, till today….

Related posts:

1. Mother’s Day and Moving Day
2. The Valentine’s Day Mystery
3. A visit from Beatle George?

It turned out (it usually does, doesn’t it?) that I was letting myself grow anxious for nothing.  Oh, I suppose, when my leg and health are considered, the concerns were somewhat valid, but the leg held up, I never did have to return to the wheelchair (other than that I parked it at my reading table to sit in), and my hubby even bought me a good four-footed cane to help me keep my balance.  Today, I’m sore, but not terribly so, and still walking.

Check-mark in the “success” column!

We had a really nice day at the Community Spiritualist Chapel and Spirit-Path Center.  We didn’t have the huge crowds we thought we might, but people came through in spurts, enough to keep the readers busy a good portion of the day.  I did a nice sized handful of animal communication readings, and got to know some new animal friends and their humans.  I also had a couple of long time clients come to visit, so was able to renew old connections as well.

In addition to the five psychic readers who participated in the fair, we also had two skilled spiritual healers.  Reverend Shirley is one of our regulars, and a wonderful healer.  It was such a pleasure to be able to “sit in her chair” again.  I also received a healing session from Allegre, a new acquaintance and friend, who does a very interesting healing modality using crystals and a hologram structure.  I found it fascinating … not to mention so relaxing I thought for a moment that I might fall asleep!  Very nice, and I’m sure that healing energy is all still working its wonder on my physical and spiritual self.

I found it very interesting that, at this event, I did more sessions with crossed-over pets than living.  I wonder if it was “the nature of the crowd”.  Many people who come in to CSC have been to their séances, etc, after all … perhaps people go to psychic fairs hoping to hear from their departed loved ones, and therefore have the same expectations for their non-human friends and family as well.

This was actually a good thing.  This might sound odd, but I think, of all the ways I’m able to help animals and their humans, connecting with the departed is the most fulfilling thing I do.  There is something very special about seeing the relief, the easing of grief, and the gratitude in the eyes of a person who is deeply missing their departed pet.  I find that the ability to ease someone’s pain, if even just a little bit, in such an immediate manner, is a true blessing to my life, and an affirmation of what I do.

After the Psychic Fair proper, we had a séance in the evening.  There was quite a crowd there; we had to bring extra chairs into the séance room, and the circle pressed right up to the circumference limits of the room.  It was a very nice event,  and everyone there received a message.  I hope everybody went home having heard from someone who touched their hearts, and brought them a smile to carry forth into the upcoming week.

It’s been such a long time since I sat in on a circle like that, but I guess it’s kind of like riding a bike.  Even though I only received two messages, they seemed to bring happiness, and wisdom, through from the other side for the intended.  Helping … that is what it’s all about, isn’t it?

I guess some people may not look at the work of a psychic as being a helping, and even a healing, service.  It is, though … and it was a privilege to have helped quite a few people, and their animal friends, yesterday.

All told, a really nice day, and I survived it quite well!

Visit Spirit-Path Center and the Community Spirtualist Chapel at http://www.spirit-path.com.

Related posts:

1. New Challenge Game Coming, and Psychic Fair
2. A visit from Beatle George?