Today we are enjoying thunderstorms here in Denton, Texas.  I say "enjoy" because the temperatures have gone down and we are no longer having dry weather.

My mother when she was alive would not like days like today as for her they were dark, depressing and overcast.   She would always remark "today is so depressing".  I later learned that there are others like her who are affected by the weather which has a name (seasonal affective disorder or SAD for short). 

The importance of meditating everyday is that you can get in the habit of feeling peace regardless of weather, finances, relationships, jobs, etc.  What an important benefit!

It is so easy to become fearful and insecure during this temporary time of change with the covid 19 and the upcoming elections.  We may be in a job situation that is uncertain or worried about our children or grandchildren who have financial difficulties.  We may be worried about contracting the virus.  We may wonder what is going to happen to our country after the election.

What are the results of worry:

• Lack of sleep
• Tense body leading to health challenges
  
• No enjoyment of life
  
• Depression
  
• Mental abilities slow down
  

There is an alternative and that is to connect to God each day.  Allow your life to be guided by the Higher Power and trust that all is well.  You will be healthier and guided through life.  You will enjoy each moment no matter  how great the challenge.

In going through my old blog I found this blog written 2 years ago.  Goals are powerful.

I am excited about 2 things I had in my goals
I always love traveling and the best traveling that I can think of is to see my 2 daughters and their families.  One daughter lives in Tampa and one lives in Belleville, Illinois close to St. Louis where she works.  Now my grandchildren are growing up. 

My oldest grandchild, Marshall, graduated from Missouri State University with a degree in history.  He loves politics but also wants to experience the world right now before settling down.  Right now he is in Bar Harbor, Maine working at a restaurant as a waiter.  He pays $100 rent for a place to live provided by the restaurant who also employ people from around the world.  He wants to travel the world and is saving his money to do this.

My youngest grandson is a junior at the University of Colorado in Boulder working toward graduating with a major in engineering.  My oldest granddaughter lives in Tampa and is working towards an RN degree with a goal of becoming a Nurse Practitioner like my daughter.  My youngest granddaughter is a senior in high school in Belleville, Ill. 

Since I live in Texas I rarely get to see my extended family so I  set an intention of being able to see my family in my Law of Attraction journal.  I am traveling with my youngest daughter to see my grandson in Maine in August.  My oldest daughter told me she is flying me to see her and her family as a birthday gift.  I am ecstatic.

Intentions are powerful.

I find it amazing how people choose to stress over situations that they feel that they have to solve all alone.  Actually through meditation and prayer you open up to wisdom and help.  Synchronicity kicks in and all is well.

I have done this at church so many times.  One time a congregant had purchased a very expensive electronic organ and donated it to our church.  We were downsizing and also wanted to purchase a smaller more versatile keyboard.  I found the ad that our church put out for the organ the other day while going through old files.


This Lowrey Festival Electronic organ was bought by a congregant for our church in 2000.  We are moving and would like to sell this organ.  The retail value was $22,000 in 2002 per the person who purchased it.
I will list what it has:
Lower:  Brass, vocal, strings, piano, Flute 8, organ, pipe organ
Upper   Vocal, reed, string 1 & 2, 4 flute buttons, jazz organ, pipe organ
Orchestral solo  piano, banjo, guitar, accordion, horn, vibes, electric piano, harpsichord, hawaiian, orch strings, trombone, marimba
Orchestral solo control  Lower, upper, chorus, dynamic keying, portamento, solo upper
                Bells, country guitar, trumpet, jazz flute, chimes, violin, sax, clarinet
Rhythm plus orchestration  Big band, country, broadway, march, soft and easy, rock n' Roll, Bossa nova, waltz, fox trot, gospel, hawaiian, swing march, ballad, contempo, salsa, polka

For a while there was no response.  Then a miracle happened.  A church in Springfield, Missouri was looking for an organ just like ours.  It so happened that I was going to Springfield the next week to be with my children for Thanksgiving.  I had a large jeep and the organ fit perfectly.  I brought it to Springfield, received the sale money and delivered the organ.  The universe had provided.

I have found that if we give life a chance and try not to panic and think the world is coming to an end that things work out.

I have a cow dish that holds candy that moos when your hand touches it.  Suffice to say that I don't eat much candy out of this cow dish as I don't want to hear that sound. (Photo of cow dish is at end of blog).
 
I was thinking this morning that it would be great if we had a "moo" sound inside when we are about to make a bad decision.  We do have an intuition about things but most of the time we do not trust it or follow it.
 
If we elevate our mind to a higher consciousness we will be led to right decisions at the right time.  Regular prayer and meditation with gratitude can transform your life.  Affirming affirmations keeps your mind alerted and receptive to good.
 

My late husband, Dean, always had a cell phone from the time they first came out.  The first ones were only available for the car and were "tied" into the car cigarette lighter.  They could not be taken around and looked at.  It stilled seemed miraculous that you could talk to someone in a car at the time.
 
Now everyone has a cell phone that is carried around everywhere.  Most people have cut the ties to their "home phone" that plugged into a wall. 
 
The upside is that help is always at hand literally with a cell phone.  You can use its GPS features and automatically call people or find information by speaking instructions to "Siri".  You can play games when you are waiting for car repairs or doctor's appointments.  You can check Facebook and use a variety of apps.
 
The downside is that I believe we have a national cell phone addiction.  No one speaks as much to people anymore.  People at restaurants are checking their cell phones instead of communicating to the person they are eating with.  People are looking at phones while walking or in their cars.  We talk to others through the cell phone and not face to face.
 
I personally realized how lost I felt and out of touch with the world when I lost my cell phone.    That is when I realized how dependent I had come to my cell phone.
 
What can we do?  I think it is important to put our cell phones away as much as possible and really concentrate on the people in our lives.  Pay attention to what people are saying.  Put away your cell phones in classrooms, churches, or any meeting.  When you are eating with people really talk to people and do not check messages on your cell.  I have heard of people who live together who text each other rather than talking.  Real communication is being lost through short texts.  People are having a more difficult time focusing or concentrating because they are in the habit of checking into messages on cells.
 
It takes time to break our cell phone habits but being able to be fully present with others in our lives is worth it.
 

In clearing out old files I came across the invoice for a computer with a printer that I bought on April 28th, 1996 for the sale price of $2118.44.  I remember that the feeling was akin to buying a new car.  It took me a long time to really buy it but I knew I needed it for so many things that I was doing.  At the time I lived in Ft. Smith, Arkansas and was the spiritual leader of Unity of Ft. Smith. 


The specifics of the computer were so minuscule compared to the powerful computers of today.  The disks were huge and floppy and the system ran on DOS.


               Hard drive:  1085.9 MB
               RAM:  16 MB
               Video Memory:  1 MB
               Speed:  100 MHZ




That purchase was made 22 years ago and the changes in our technology have been mind boggling.  It was that year when I paid monthly to be on the internet which was using a telephone line for very slow connection.  I would stay up late connecting to people and staying current with events.


I remember being thrilled with the purchase as it was up to date for its time.  At that time I would have been amazed if I could have seen in the future at the small compact computers and laptops that we have now.I wonder now what the changes will be like in the next 20 years.


Exploring the inner space of spirit is the next big frontier.  I think we are at the forefront of revolution of thought about our spirituality and the phenomenal inner potential that we all possess.

I went to Walmart yesterday after church to shop for a birthday gift and groceries.  As I was leaving the store I decided to check my phone for messages and I could not find it.  I went through my purse.  It was not there.  I had frozen food but I decided to do a quick run of the store and there was no phone.   It dawned on me that I do not know the phone numbers of anyone I know because those numbers are stored in my phone.  I also thought about all the personal information stored on the phone that someone who might find and keep my phone would have.
On my way home I took a deep breath and prayed that my phone would be returned to me. I visualized having the phone in my hand and being so happy.   Lowell was at my house working in the yard.  I asked him to call my number and miraculously a woman answered who said the phone started ringing in her shopping cart.  I met up with her at Walmart waiting with 3 children and I was able to get my phone back.  It is another lesson for me in learning not to panic but to pray, visualize and have faith. 

Here in Denton, Texas where I live the temps are reaching into the high 90's and low 100's.  It is sweltering and the chances of rain are slim to none.  It looks like a long hot summer is on the horizon.
 
When I think about the chances of rain, I think about a book entitled Rolling Thunder by Douglas Boyd.  Rolling Thunder was particularly known for his ability to manifest rain and was the subject of a study done at the Menninger Institute.  He would find a beetle, poke at it with a stick and immediately thunder would roll and the rain would come thereafter.  In looking up details for this blog I discovered that there is a more recent book put out by other well known authors who witnessed first hand all of his incredible gifts and abilities.
 
When I went to the Hopi mesas in 1985 with a group of 9 people, we were led by a shaman who unbeknownst to us were watching us to see how we interacted with the land and the weather.  On the first day we were let loose on top of a huge mesa top and given instructions to look for rabbit droppings.  We were all silent and reverent as we looked for the droppings and rain began to fall.  The shaman said we had passed our first test because the rain appeared.  The Hopis are known for producing rain to water their arid lands and they have magnificent corn.
 
I also think of the movie Emerald Forest which is a true story where the Amazonian Indians did not want to have a dam built so they called on the frogs to help them destroy the dam.  Amazingly the dam was crippled and abandoned.
 
These stories demonstrate to me the innate abilities we all have to heal and yes....even bring rain when it is needed. 
 

My family consisting of my children and grandchildren communicate by a private group text on the cell phone.  Today I posted a text about my sister coming to see me today and I noticed that my younger daughter who normally immediately responds to any text did not respond.  I called her about something else and I mentioned that my sister had bought a new car.  She was surprised.  I said I had posted it in the family text.  She looked on her phone and she said she had not received that text.  We discovered that unbeknownst to all the family members that there were 2 family texts circulating and one of them had not included her.  She said that was probably because she had changed phones so she has not been been receiving texts for a full year from that one family text
I had been wondering throughout the year why she had not responded to some of the texts and I am sure that other family members had wondered the same thing.  It is easy for people to get hurt feelings from something as simple as this
It is so easy to “assume” that someone has something against us but in reality that is not the case.  Communication can break down over these assumptions.
Assumptions are oftentimes erroneous.  I have built up entire stories around people which have turned out to be false.  It is important to go to the source and see if people have received word from us.
During this time period when we are still somewhat self isolating and communication is through texts, emails, Facebook Twitter, etc. it is so easy to misinterpret intent.
I always take a moment to connect to Spirit before going to a hurt feeling and when I do this then I find out what is happening.  There is a space within you that provides the answers and so it is