What to Expect Along Your Spiritual Journey

Posted on August 25, 2022 by Diana Rankin

As we develop on our spiritual journey our lives change in unexpected ways. Following are 15 reactions to expect as you progress on your journey.

Before reading further, please note two highly important details:

  1. Never be in a hurry. Going too quickly can cause the loss of connection to reality. Remember we must function in the third-dimension world. Stay balanced.
  2. Never, never harm yourself or another in the name of spirit or allow another person or spirit into your life if they are harmful. Stay in a place of love.

Common reactions on a spiritual journey:

  • The feeling of walking on air. As we bring more of our spirit self into our human life, we experience more of our ethereal body. This can result in a feeling of not touching the ground.
  • Feeling overwhelmed or even irritated when around others. You are becoming more aware of energy. Everything is energy, so as you begin to feel the energy of all that is around you. This can cause stress until you learn to protect yourself and balance the energy.
  • Sleep changes occur. You may need more sleep or find you sleep less. Dreams often become more vivid. The dreamtime helps us release emotions that we’re unable to deal with while in the awake time.
  • Stress, sadness, even a feeling of death can occur. As we awaken, those issues our souls contracted to heal come up for healing. Our human selves may not want to give up an issue, which can cause inner conflict and stress. Feelings of death come from the human ego holding on while the human spirit begins to deepen.
  • Weight gain, especially in the abdominal area. Call this the Buddha belly. It’s a protective measure the body takes on.
  • Feeling taller is common. You may find yourself ducking as you walk under a doorway or people three feet away apologizing for bumping into you. Your energy is growing.
  • Wanting to be alone, away from people. You need more time for self to study, to just sit quietly, to walk in nature, to listen to the stillness, to meditate and pray. Look at the life of any spiritual master and you’ll understand their need to spend time in solitude.
  • Body pain is a sign of blocked energy. Heal and release the blockage and the pain disappears too.
  • Colors appear brighter. That which once seemed solid may look transparent. You are seeing with eyes of truth; you are seeing what truly is, not just what the human eyes are able to see. You are seeing auras; you are seeing energy.
  • People leave your life, work changes, your place of residence may even change. As you grow, you will attract into your life, that which best serves your life. That which no longer serves your life will fall away.
  • Feeling more emotional. Change in our lives, even welcomed change, is not always easy. You are now dealing with an influx of higher energy, which can bring forth emotions that at times may feel overwhelming. You may cry at a sunset because it’s so beautiful or feel a deep sadness at a news story.
  • Seeing shadows is a common phenomenon. You are seeing the energy and may even be seeing the energy of loved ones in spirit world.
  • You may also see dots of light swirling around. The dots are energy flying around that you’ve become aware of.
  • A light may shine down from above and into the top of your head. The light at the top of your head is your own light shining and filling up the body.
  • A sense of disorientation may occur. You no longer fit in where you were but don’t yet know where you do fit. It may take time to for your tribe and place of belonging to appear.

We like to think our spiritual journey is one of ease and fun. After all, isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing, progressing along our spiritual path while in human form? Yes, we are, but that doesn’t mean easy. Rewarding, oh my yes! But easy, no. After all, we’re human. When did we every think change was easy…even that change that we crave.

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Moments of Joy: Good People and a Prayer Answered

Posted on August 22, 2022 by Diana Rankin

Sunday afternoon, after running errands, I wandered toward home via backroads as I often do. A blue sky full of giant white clouds was overhead with bright sunlight flowing through the sunroof. It was a glorious day. Earlier storm clouds darkened the day, and they would again, but for the moment, the joy of the sunlight was with me.

Along the way, I stopped at one of the beaches along Indiana Lake, about 20 minutes north of my Ohio home. A breeze had kicked up, and the sun was giving way to moist clouds, so I stayed in the car with the windows and sunroof open and enjoyed the peace. Across the way, children played with parents and grandparents. Their laughter, muted with distance, flittered over to me and gave me pleasure.

I pulled out my journal and wrote for a while, then took a walk along the beach. The sun had faded and daylight wasn’t far behind. It was time to head home.

As I pushed the button to start GC (short for Golden Chariot, my Rav4), the only noise was a tiny little grrr. Trying it again and again didn’t change the situation. Pulled out the phone and AAA card, but first I needed to verify my location. The sign said, Fox Island, but was that just the name of the beach? Could AAA find me? Did I also need to know the name of the town? Was I in Russel’s Point or Lakeview or one of the other towns around the lake?

I walked over to the playground and asked the family where I was. One of the women asked what was wrong. When I told her, one of the men asked if I had jumper cables. I didn’t. They didn’t either. By this time, I was growing anxious. Tears were forming as I called AAA and listened to the voice telling me that they were understaffed, so I’d have to wait. Dinner time was approaching and people were leaving, including this family who was trying to help me. My mind went to the dark place of AAA won’t be here for hours and this old lady will be out here alone as night approaches.

I know, I know better, but that’s what happened. So…

I walked back over to GC while still on hold with AAA, and I said a prayer. “Please send help now.” As I finished my prayer,  I heard the gentleman give me a shout out. “Hold off. We may have a solution.” After he checked all three of their family vehicles, he then asked others in the park if anyone had jumper cables. As it turned out, the only other visitor to the park was a women with her children. And she did have the needed cables.

The man put the cables in place, while Mindy, the woman with the cables, comforted and instructed me. Pressed the start button. I did. But was only answered by that little grrr. Try again. Grrr. Try again. Grrr.

One of the women from the family came to add comfort, and to suggest I close the car door. She also noticed the overhead lights were on, which was probably what caused the battery to die to start with. I flipped the switch to the off position but nothing happened. Then my finger hit the light, and it went off. And GC started right up. Purr went the engine, the sound I’m used to hearing.

In all the years I’ve had GC (more than 200,000 miles since 2009) I never pushed against the lights to turn them off. They always went off automatically or when I would slid the switch to the off position. Well, I learned something new. A good experience, but what made this an especially meaningful experience was how hard these strangers worked to help me.

I offered a little money for their trouble, but no one would take the money. “There are still good people in the world,” the one women said as she looked directly at me with full love in her eyes and a smile on her face. I told her that it’s said that for every good deed you do 10 will come back to you. I sure hope that’s true for this family.

The family left as Mindy stowed the cables. She then walked back over to me and handed me her phone number. “If you ever need anything, give me a call. I don’t know everything and I may not have the answer, but if it will help, call.”

I waited for her and her children as we all left the park together. Mindy on her way home and me to do the same.

The roads were wet from the storms that had passed through while I was receiving the kindness of these new friends. Red Tailed Hawk flew across my windshield as I rounded a curve, then off to the east, where the storms had flown to, was the rainbow as big as the sky itself.

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3 Levels of Soul Pain and the Depth of Healing

Posted on August 15, 2022 by Diana Rankin

We are both human and spiritual beings. The spiritual part of who we are lives in joy; the human part of us experiences the joy . . . but to experience the joy, we also take on the experience of a whole set of human emotions, some of which we judge painful. We just down right hurt, and we don’t like it. Whether the suffering comes from grief, an illness, disappointments, or a myriad of painful experiences, we hurt and we hurt deeply and sometimes we can’t understand why the pain doesn’t seem to lift.

It is because we are healing on multiple levels, and as we heal, we are help to heal and evolve the world. This is big stuff. I mean BIG stuff.

Let’s start with the multiple levels. On the first level, we all have childhood issues, some of which are horrendous; some of which come from that which we understood as a child, but when revisited as an adult, we can see through different eyes; some of which hurt us as children because we were so innocent and unable to protect ourselves, but all of which we—as a soul agreed to take on, which brings us to the next level.

At this level, we visit the soul line. This is every life experience we have had so far and are yet to have, all of which can be healed and rewritten. In our travels through our multiple lives, we have had experiences where we have been harmed or have caused harm to others. Either way, we­­—as a soul—may have chosen in this life to heal the harm by experiencing it for the understanding of it, or because we were unable to heal it in other life experiences and are now taking it on again for healing.

The next level is the healing of ancestral wounds. We carry within us the genes of our parents and their parents and the parents of their parents, and so on. We are the collective DNA pattern of all our ancestors going back to the beginning of time . . . including the ancestral patterns of all our ancestors throughout all our lives experienced by our soul.

My heritage in this life is Celtic, Irish and Scot-Irish, and Delaware Indian. The ancestral healing is that of betrayal. I have seen this played out in my life. Looking at my life from my soul’s story, I understand why I chose my family. My father abandoned our family when I was two and my brother only a couple years older. Although I lived with my mother part time and full time when I was older, I lived much of my early childhood with my grandparents while my brother lived with our mother. My human self has struggled with abandonment issues while my spiritual self understands the healing that is taking place as I continue the healing on the human level.

As I heal these abandonment issues from my childhood and grow to understand they were chosen by me as a soul so that I might help to heal my ancestral patterns of betrayal, I am able to release any suffering that has come about because of feeling abandoned or betrayed. At the same time as I heal my pain that the little girl Diana suffered, that the young woman Diana suffered, that I suffered, I am also helping to heal all women and men who have felt abandoned and betrayed.

How can this be? We are all connected. Go back to the ancestral healing, all the way back. If we trace our DNA, which science is now able to do, we find amazing connections among people. As science advances, we may find that we all come from a common genetic ancestry. But that’s only one way we are all connected. We are also connected in the Divine Energy, that which all is made of. Whether we call ourselves light beings, God seeds, or spiritual beings, we are all part of the Divine Energy, which brings us to the importance of being aware of how we live our lives.

Think of your brain. Now think of a thought as being a streak of energy, like a lightening shooting across the sky. Every time you have a thought, this streak of energy shoots across your brain. After a while, your brain has grooves worn into it from the same type of thoughts, which have formed a thought pattern. Once a though pattern is set, it is harder to change because every time you are in a trigger situation, your thoughts automatically run toward those grooves. These thought pattern grooves are from experiences in this life and from your ancestral lineage. But is doesn’t stop here.

We also carry the DNA of our gender and of our nationality. Again, if we look at our lives from our human viewpoint, we feel the pain of gender issues and societal-regulated roles. Seeing these issues from a soul perspective, we are better able to understand our role in the healing. One of the greatest examples in our lives today is that of Malala Yousafza, the 14-year old girl in Pakistan who was shot by the Taliban when she was walking home from school because she had dared to speak out and act for the rights of girls to be educated. As a human, her suffering is unimaginable, as is that of her family. As a spiritual being, she may understand she is helping to heal and evolve the need for education for females in this part of our world.

We are all on this planet with a soul mission to heal and evolve our lives and in doing so we heal and evolve our world. We heal by changing our patterns, at times one breath and one step at a time. This is not easy work we do, but it is what we have come here to do. It is the work that takes us to joy.

The patterns of pain go deeper than our individual lives, but we experience the suffering in our human lives by our involvements and our direct relationship to the patterns. Because of the depth of the pain and the depth of the pattern, healing takes time and work. Indeed, it is the work of our lives, and although often challenging, it need not be unbearable. Certainly, some pain is more difficult to heal than others. We can heal fairly rapidly from the loss of a job, but not from the excruciatingly painful loss of a child. Yet even with this unthinkable grief weighing heavy on a parent’s shoulders, many have used the grief to reach out to help others.

This is the healing. As we heal, we can then reach out to help heal others. We cannot heal the other, but we can provide tools for the other to use, a shoulder to lean on and a hand to hold, and an understanding of the other’s suffering from one who has been there. We may not always understand our pain or the suffering of the world.

We may never do anything we think is helping to evolve the world, and yet every time—every time—we exchange a moment of pain for a moment of joy, we are changing the old patterns and healing the suffering by evolving our world one breath, one step, one thought at a time.

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3 Step to Manifest Your Dreams

Posted on August 11, 2022 by Diana Rankin

Intention is at the root of the Law of Attraction, but so many misunderstand both, intention and the Law of Attraction. To benefit from the Law of Attraction, you must stand in the center of the intention and let life manifest through you. This is life creating itself from its highest order – your God/Spirit-Self.

This is quite different from deciding from the intellect that you want something, and then setting about to obtain it. It is where we begin, but it is only a beginning. The true master of the Law of Attraction aligns one’s self with the God/Spirit-Self, and the vision that comes from this alignment. Once the vision is clear, the intention comes into focus and the vibration of the intention brings forth the manifestation.

In other words, align yourself with the highest form of creation and your dreams will begin to materialize.

Utilize and remember these three steps to turn your dream into reality—

  1. Set the intention and step into it as explained. Use visualization to help you see your dream in action. Put yourself into the picture. Feel it taking place. The more you can live the dream in your mind the closer you come to manifesting it.
  2. Do the work necessary to bring your dream alive. The dishes won’t get washed if you just dream they are clean. A book won’t get written if you just dream about being a famous author. Or a cake won’t get baked if you just dream about it. What do you need to do? What ingredients do you need to gather? If you plan on baking a cake, make sure you gather eggs and flour, but not stones and leaves. Gather the right information and do the needed work.
  3. Surrender and let the energy do the work. This is the hardest and scariest part. This is where you have to face your fears about the dream. This is where you might learn you think you’re not good enough for the dream or that it’s too hard or that you can’t do it. This is the time to work through all those issues.

Surrender is not easy, but imagine you are baking that cake. At some point, you have to put it into the oven and let the energy of the oven take over. Then you have to listen for the timer to go off. Do not keep opening the oven door or the cake will fall. Do not forget to take the cake out when the timer goes off.

This is the time to listen carefully and use your intuition as to know when to act.

Bringing any dream alive takes dedication and desire. There’s no promise of easy but what is promised is that you can manifest that which your heart desires if you set your intention, do the work, and surrender to the process.

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When Soul Mates Meet, Fall in Love, and Crash 

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Diana Rankin

Your eyes meet across the room. Everything else fades away. All you can see is the other person, and you know you want to meet, have to meet. It is as though it is preordained, as though the gods are working their magic through the two of you.

You meet. You talk. . . . and talk and talk. Words between you come easily. Laughter comes even easier. And then you kiss and the world explodes. Nothing will ever be the same again. You feel like a teenager again. Life shimmers. You can’t get enough of each other. You are falling in love.

That euphoria, that love you feel for the other, makes everything in your life seem better. Everything is brighter, sweeter, even those few pounds you wanted to lose seem to melt away. This is as good as it gets, and you want it to last forever. The other one feels this same way, or so you thought.

 And then what seems like all of a sudden something happens, and before you know what’s what, you crash and burn. Your mundane lives, your human selves, with all your fears and insecurities and issues, push in and pull you out of the euphoria of new love. Your heart closes faster than it opened only a short while ago. You feel lost and alone and scared and hurt, and you don’t know which way to turn. 

This is where love—real love—begins. Not every couple is going to make it through, or past, this barrier, because this is where we get to deal with our own issues, stripping away our insecurities, soothing our fears, and becoming more of who we truly are. This is where we stop trying to make the other into who we want them to be, but instead learn who we are in this relationship. In doing so, we also must learn about kindness, compassion, understanding, and communicating.

This is where we embody love for ourselves as well as loving the other. This is where we learn if that deep soul connection translates into our workable relationship in our everyday life. It doesn’t always.

When it does, we must learn to nurture the third soul of love we are creating between us, as well as continuing to embody love for ourselves and for the other. We must continue to look at ourselves, getting to know our needs so we can with kindness and love communicate these needs to the other and hear the needs of the other. We must never blame the other for any disappointment of our own expectations, while also keeping within the healthy boundaries we have established for ourselves individually and as a couple. We must always continue to communicate, asking, answering, and most importantly laughing.  

 And if we succeed, we will come together in a lasting love that heals not only our lives individually and as a couple, but the lives of everyone who feels our love. That’s worth working for. 

But what if it doesn’t work between the two of you. What if you came together for the purpose of opening one another’s hearts to love, not just love from another, but love from yourself to yourself and all others?

Love will heal every wound, so  . . . what if we woke every morning and said, I love you? And what if we kept saying I love you to ourselves and to those around us and to the world all day long? What if these were the last words we said before we fell asleep at night? And what if we really, really meant these words? What if we meant I love you, not I own you, or I want you to do what I want, or I want to control you, or I want to put demands on you, but I love you and because I love you I value and respect you and I want to act in a way that shows I value and respect you? What if we were able to hear each other say I love you and not be afraid, but instead embrace and be grateful for that love, especially if that love comes to yourself from yourself?

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3 Ways to Enrich Your Life

Posted on July 21, 2022 by Diana Rankin

We all want rich, meaningful lives, and in these times of powerful and often conflicting energies swirling around us, living the lives we desire to have is not always easy to do. The following practices will help you instantly change the energy within you, which will change the energy around you. Over time, the practices will change the old patterns and help you move into living a happier, more fulfilling life.

  • Move into gratitude. When life overwhelms you and you don’t know how—or if—you can take the next step, move to gratitude. Start writing, or speaking aloud, those things for which you can find even the smallest feeling of thankfulness. Maybe it’s the sunshine on your face. Maybe it’s because you have a friend who cares about you. Maybe it’s because you have a memory that makes you smile. Maybe it’s . . .
  • Read a note to yourself. Write down a goal you want to reach and include why reaching that goal is important to you. Post the goal and its importance where you can read it often. When the going gets tough, read aloud that goal to remind you of where you are going and why it’s important to get there. Then take one step toward that goal—now.
  • Bless the other or the situation. When another person or a situation starts getting to you and the tape in your head is on repeat, stop the tape of ugly negativity by simply saying, “I bless (name of the person or situation)” and then bless yourself. You may have to bless the other person through gritted teeth when you begin. Do it anyway. Eventually you will feel forgiveness and even generously toward the other.

When we add peace and joy to our own lives, that energy goes out into the world. When others are in need of peace and joy all they need to do is to tap into the energy that is swirling around, that energy of love that you contributed to.

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When Did Your Spiritual Journey Begin?

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Diana Rankin

Can you point to a time when your spiritual journey began? It’s a question that came to me when an old high school friend and I reconnected on social media.

My friend wrote that one of my articles prompted him to ask the question. The article suggested to him my spiritual journey has taken place over many years. “Did it begin in high school?” he asked. Then jokingly he added, “Not in high school, I hope, where I was only concerned with hormones and sports.”

I haven’t yet answered because I don’t know when my spiritual journey began. Did it begin in high school? Has it been life-long? There are watershed moments, times of purposeful dedication and purposely accepting The Call. There have been times of knowingly jumping off the cliff into the abyss and times of quiet dedication and devotion. Have I led my life in quiet contemplation and meditation? At times, yes, but not always.  

I believe the spiritual journey asks of us more than we think we have to give and give us more than we think we deserve. Often I have banged and barged my way through life often paying a terrible price for my foolishness while at other times experiencing such grace I felt I could not endure the blessing for it burned away all that was unlike itself and there is an agony in that to the human being who, by our very nature tends to cling to the familiar while our souls cry out for the adventure and the growth within it even in the moments of fear.

When I most want to curl up, I am pried open and forced to lie awake, my very being, stretched wide to the limits until the terrible storm that whips across my heart is stilled and I am at peace once more. Why then, you may ask, would any human being take such a journey, and I answer, “Because we are human, and it is the human experience to remember the truth of who we are—the spiritual being having the gamut of the human adventure in all its glory and gore.

And in the end, in the end, some say, we shall all return to enfold ourselves back into the God Head, once again become part of Prime Spirit, evolving forever, washing us all clean of pain until there is only a love so profound and perfect, we only glimpse for the slightest of seconds its depth while here on Earth. Is that then what we strive for? To reach our original home and never leave. Perhaps.

But then again, perhaps we only reach there to leave again. After all, who can avoid the pull of the adventure whether it be the thrill of the open road or the unknown destination of life around the next corner—or galaxy—or dimension? Perhaps then, when we return to this adventure we call life, we begin where we left off, already on our spiritual journey.

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Chasing Rainbows

Posted on July 7, 2022 by Diana Rankin

I didn’t know I was chasing rainbows when I set off. I went to the post office to pick up the mail and wasn’t quite ready to head home. While at the post office, I walked over to the grocery and picked up a Snicker’s Ice Cream Bar and wanted to savor it before heading back home to the evening’s chores. A storm had moved through, and I could still see the darkness in the east as I stood amidst rain puddles shimmering with the sun’s sparkles.

Once back in the car, I headed east toward the storm. I hadn’t particularly planned to. I just kept on going straight instead of turning to go home when the time came.

This is rural country where the barns are bigger than most houses and the fences are built to keep the livestock in and strangers out. It’s where kids belong to 4-H Clubs and their chores begin before school starts and end after the sun goes down. It’s where you may not see much of your neighbors except to wave as they plant the fields or in times of trouble when there’s always a helping hand.

It’s a good place to live where loneliness isn’t a word you have time for, and depression is left to people who can’t watch the corn grow. I’ve lived here long enough that it’s pretty near impossible to get lost, but there are still a few surprises waiting for me as I wander these back roads, some of which are so narrow you can’t get a pick-up truck past a tractor without wheels going off the side of the road.

Not all the roads are that narrow. There are plenty of well-paved two-lane state highways. I live off one, but this night I was more interested in the narrow passages between rows of tall summer-fed corn, broken only by the occasional graveled lane that always piques my interest even though I know that at the end of each one is a house much like my own, which is in the woods at the end of a long lane that probably piques the interest of many a passer-by.

Mist skittered up from the road in front of me. Sunlight bounced against the mist, refracting rainbows of color while rain dropped against the windshield. Ahead of me was the actual rainbow with all her promises. I wanted to follow her arch to the end, but home was calling me back. Behind me was the west with blinding bright sun, and I couldn’t drive east forever, so reluctantly I said good-by to the rainbow and at the next road turned south, and then west.

As roads out here are wont to do, it twisted and turned back on itself until I was traveling with the sun shadowing my back and the rainbow coming up on my side. Soon the road came to a stop, dead ending into the state route I live on, although miles from my home. I turned west again, toward home. The sun had moved nearer its night setting. It was still big and bright, but more orange now, with its rays starting to color the clouds off to the south.

Once home, I stopped at the end of my land before heading into the woods that held my house. The sun was bumping into the horizon spreading with orange and pink, red and yellow, blue and purple. The western horizon filling and spilling across the sky with all the colors of the rainbow and filling my life content with those colors too.

The next afternoon I set off down the lane to pick up the mail from the mailbox on the other side of the lane. Droplets of rain dripped off overhanging branches, reminding me of the rain that had fed Mother Earth. As I looked ahead, a rainbow grew across the Eastern sky, its pastel colors sparkling in a sky of pale blue and clouds not yet sure if they wanted to be white or gray.

As I neared the end of the lane, I could see that the rainbow spanned the southeastern sky almost as far as I could see. And…and on the other side, the northeastern side, the end of the rainbow was right in front of me. It sparkled on the leaves of the trees and branches of the bushes and spread itself over the field. In splendor, I watched its dance of glittering pink-yellow-blue-white-golden sparkles as they swirled together in nature’s secret. Indeed, I had found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

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The Balance of Giving and Receiving, a Story

Posted on June 30, 2022 by Diana Rankin

Giving and receiving is one cycle just as the in breath and the out breath are one.  Breathing in we receive, breathing out we give, one breath inseparable until the final breath that separates us from our body. When we live with a generous heart, we live in the balance of giving and receiving as one, neither only being the giver nor shutting down our ability to be the receiver.

Without giving and receiving as one, there is no balance. There is only the breath in without the breath out or the breath out without the breath in.

When we give without receiving, we feel safe. As long as I am giving to you, you are beholden to me; you must love me, because look how much I give to you; you can never leave me, because I give you so much, etc.

When we shut down our receiving, we also feel safe. I don’t owe anyone anything; no one ever wants to help me, but I don’t need their help; people always expect something in return; I don’t like feeling beholden to anyone, etc. When we treat giving and receiving as separate, we are not free to have healthy, balanced relationships. We are not living with a generous heart.

Recently, I was entering the checkout line at the grocery store when a lady pushed her cart in front of me. I veered and moved over to the next aisle. She then pulled back and also veered to the same aisle so quickly that I had to jump back. For some reason, she needed to be in front of me at the checkout lane, and I could either accept that and live with a generous heart or spend the waiting time in frustration. In that moment of time, I chose the former and stayed in the peace and harmony of a generous heart.

When we choose the generous heart, Spirit works through us in miraculous ways that are beneficial to us and to others. As it turned out, the lady did not have enough money to pay for her purchases. She was 66 cents short. I’m sure you know what happened next. I was able to give her $1, something most of us would do, but there’s more to this story.

Only moments before, I had been in a place of lack, feeling frustrated because of the need to watch what I spent because of a low cash flow. When the lady cut in front of me, my frustration intensified. When she cut in front of me a second time, I made the conscious decision to change my experience by moving into a generous heart. When we move into a generous heart, life becomes lighter and brighter, and our awareness heightens. (How many times has someone in front of us needed help, but our awareness was not lit by a generous heart, so we were unaware of the other’s need?) When I moved into a generous heart, I became aware of the lady’s need, and I was able to help.

“Thank you,” she said. Without looking at me, she asked for my name and address to repay me.

“Pass it forward,” I said.

She then turned and looked at me, and I saw her, saw the woman I hadn’t seen when I was caught in my frustration. Now I saw her truth, a woman beaten down by life. One side of her mouth drooped by Bell’s Palsy or a stroke. Her tee shirt was misshapen and hung loose around her neck and shoulders, which were hunched over in weariness. Our eyes met, locked, and love entered. I felt her gratitude in my heart, and my heart was lifted and filled with gratitude, gladdened that I had been at the right place at the right time to give $1 to someone who gave so much more to me in our Divine Dance.

Giving: out breath; in breath: receiving. Giving always comes back to us ten-fold. In the mail that afternoon, there was a generous check from someone who wanted to say thanks for helping him along his spiritual path. That evening a friend bought me dinner to say thanks for helping her through her dog’s illness. The next day, another friend paid my way into a festival, just because.

I didn’t say you shouldn’t have. No, I said thank you. I received graciously, which is as important as giving graciously.

It always comes around, this giving and receiving. Always.  Whatever we need, whenever we need it, is ours to receive and we are always in the right place at the right time to pass along that which we are to give. Always. As long as we live with a generous heart receiving and giving graciously.

Breathing in and breathing out; giving and receiving. One.

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 Creating a Home Altar 

Posted on June 20, 2022 by Diana Rankin

An altar is a focal point for your daily meditation and prayer. It is for the placing of sacred objects that have meaning to you and will aid with your devotion by holding the energy of your intent. Your altar does not have to be large, but it should be in a space that will be respected by all family members and where you can sit quietly and undistributed.

What should you place on the altar?

I have three altars, one in my home, one in the Eagles’ Nest where we hold workshops and gatherings, and a traveling altar for Sacred Circle and other away programs. My home altar is a small table on which I honor the two sides of my heritage-Celtic (Irish and Scottish) and Native American (Delaware). In the center I have a candle that represents fire, flanked by representatives of the wind (a feather), water (a small decanter of water from the sacred well of Glastonbury), stones from Ireland and the sacred land where I live, and a deer to represent those who live on this land and all animals. Placed around these objects, there are various items that hold special meaning.

For your altar, you will want to find those objects that are sacred to you. For example, if you are a Christian, you might place a photo of Jesus or a statue of Mother Mary on your altar. If you are a devotee of a guru, you would have a photo of that person; a Buddhist might have a statue of the Buddha. You could leave mala beads, a rosary, or other prayer beads on your altar. You might add a medicine bag, tobacco, and sage if you follow Native American tradition or a sword, Celtic cross, or Bridget’s cross to honor the Celtic tradition. You could add stones that came from sacred land, crystals, and seeds. A shaman’s altar includes replicates of the power animal(s). If angles guide and protect you, place statues or photos of angels on your altar. Whatever items you place on your altar should be used only for this spiritual purpose.

You may choose to cover your altar with a cloth of natural fiber. I use a piece of leather for two of my altars and leave one without cover and use the natural wood of the table. Burning incense or sage cleanses and adds a focal aroma to your meditation.

Once you have your altar set up, you may wish to spread tobacco over it, burn incense or sage and ask the Divine Spirit to bless your altar. As you sit at your altar in meditation and prayers allow your heart to heal any sorrows you hold in your heart, whether private sorrow or that of the world.

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