My own photo of a hummingbird feather dropped on my patio table this week by one of my feathered friends who frequent my hummingbird feeder.  Native Americans have used hummingbird feathers in the making of love charms for centuries.

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For long, I have known about the spirit world's messengers. We receive constant lessons and messages from the spirit world from all directions, all around, if only we keep our eyes and ears open.  An animal, for example, is a "messenger from the Gods" if it behaves unusually or specifically to get our attention.  Once we gain insight into the message, that behavior stops, or the animal disappears again from our view, without returning.

My most recent messengers have been two hummingbirds, with one of them--almost viciously--defending his feeder and his nectar, constantly on the watch for the other and chasing him away in a flash and over distances...until the second one returns and tries again to get some food.  Then the game resumes.  For days now, they've been behaving like this, around my head, right before my face, on my sunny patio.  Even tiny feathers came drifting down at times during these confrontations!

In Native American lore, the hummingbird symbolizes gentleness, sweetness and JOY.  So, what happened with these two birds or, specifically, one of them?  For days now, I have recognized their behavior as unusual, indeed, and I prayed for insight:  "Are you trying to show me something about ME, by chance?"

And then, in the early morning, almost in dream-like state, I suddenly got it:  Over twenty years ago, I received the impetus and inspiration for writing a particular book, yet I have been dragging my feet.  On and off, through the years, I dug out my drafts, worked a bit, only to abandon the project again--and again.  I have wondered at times, "Just what is my problem with it?!"  And I did vaguely realize that my hesitation involved a certain, nameless fear... .

Am I preventing others from drinking from the sweet nectar of life and truth, as inspired by the invisible worlds, by not sharing my inspirations?  Indeed, the problem has something to do with SHARING:  I am afraid that others may trample all over and thus soil the sweetest of all inspirations, yes, wisdom I have found during my many consultations with spirit, which then poured itself out and through me, onto paper.  "That's IT," I thought, stunned!  Everything around me became incredibly still during the next ensuing moments, until I noticed that both hummingbirds were drinking from the feeder...TOGETHER!

I will work diligently now to complete this book which I, apparently, have been called to produce to, hopefully, feed and nourish others with the spirit whence it originates.  Sometimes, all we need is a little push and visible confirmation that we're on the right track and only need to take heart. 

Do you, too, have a project, close to your heart and soul, that you never finished?  If so, please ask the universes to help you through the reluctance and recognize the root of your fears.  There's no time like today... .


​

"Mother Nature"--As inspired by Alphonse Mucha

Healing draws on people's goodness.  For the sake of being a healing influence on our loved ones and our environment, we must first see ourselves and them as inherently good!  No doubt about our inner goodness, beauty and benevolence may enter the healer's mind while working.  However, healing work is seriously disrupted if the healer gets harmed by the very people s/he is trying to help.  Doubting and disrespecting the healer or even attributing negative motives to him/her is sufficient "harm" for the healing effect to stop or be drastically decreased.  Once personally harmed, a healer will no longer be able to help that same person, so long as the issue is unresolved and the potential for recurrence is great.  Healers must protect themselves, their hearts and ability to love by closing the door to people who spread ill-will.  Remember that Christ, too, stopped healing at some point when he noticed, "I cannot heal you...You are full of hate!" (Scorsese's motion picture, The Last Temptation of Christ).

Healing only works for people who believe they are basically beautiful and who have the desire to live up to this inherent, magnificent potential dwelling within everyone of us.  All others will continue to use conventional medicine for "maintenance" and "servicing," both of which is does real well.

Twelve-Step programs teach us that "loving people and things that don't love us back" makes us utterly ill.  This is important insight not only for addicts but for all of us, including for healers and caretakers in general.  Trying to pour our love down a clogged pipe will, inevitably, cause frustration and, ultimately, the burnout syndrome so many of us experience.  In subtle-energy terminology, we eventually become infected and retarded by the lower energy frequency--the very one we had come to elevate and thus heal.  When healing and love itself are not accepted, appreciated and valued, they simply go away.  We don't need to look very far to see that we have, in this fashion, diminished well-being, joy, gratitude and respect for each other, and hence sensitivity, kindness and compassion, to a large extent, in our society.  People tend to give up when their efforts aren't appreciated, or perhaps they are even ridiculed.  We become "comfortably numb" (Pink Floyd), or worse.  What remains is individualism, each for him/herself, and competition which is mistaken for the purpose or essence of life.  Without love, we come to believe that life is but one deadly battle.  Life becomes one driven by fear.  With love, however, all competition ends, save competing for fun, for joy's sake!  Only love can make us whole and healed and safe​and, with it, we can help each other to become whole again, making society a safe one to live in.

I applaud the healers and caretakers in our midst who, somehow, regain their hope, courage and strength, again and again, to bounce back to their work of compassion.  I also plead with all the world to kindly and respectfully regard and protect the remaining goodness, lest it be extinct. 

Love is the energy frequency which is life itself.  Without it, life becomes life-less, i.e., spiritually dead.  The test for spirit-wellness or decay requires no EKG, respirators, monitors or other gadgets. The answer lies in the response to the simple question:  Do we love LOVE, or are we devoted to people and things that don't love us back, that don't or can't love at all?

Healing has everything to do with love, as does disease with the absence of love, in some area of our lives, or in our beliefs.  We are as sick, individually and collectively, as persons, communities and societies, as we fail to embrace self and each other with compassion and forget how to welcome, bless, celebrate and appreciate life in its manifold manifestations.

​"Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible"