Time for Renewal

Every year, between Christmas and New Years Eve, I find myself becoming reclusive and retreating into my cave for some much-needed respite.  It's nice to have quiet time to slip in a little extra journaling, prayer and meditation.

As 2011 draws to a close, it's easy to see and feel the shifting energy in the atmosphere and on the planet.  The crazy-making frenzy of holiday shopping has passed.  The looming "new years resolutions" are ahead of us.  But this delicious in-between time is a wonderful opportunity to pause and just be.  Hot tea or cocoa, a few emotional Lifetime Network movies, yummy (and high fat) snacks and a little house-cleaning purging all round off my week of getting back on track.

The kids in the neighborhood are savoring their month of running free from teachers, homework and sports practice.  Meals are impromptu and unstructured.  The weather is cold enough to put on a few logs in the fireplace in the evening.  It's a fabulous time of decadent rest, relaxation and reconnection with family and the home hearth.  It's also a good to let go of what "was" in 2011, in order to prepare for the lovely what "will be" in 2012.  Many of my family and friends have put aside past squabbles in favor of coming back together in anticipation of the potential love fests coming in the new year.  Even Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth have reunited for a new tour in 2012!  If they can do it, we can too!  God bless and enjoy this middle place.

MiChelle Jeneen
Spiritual Teacher & Writer

Appreciation

"I have not stopped thanking God for you.  I pray for you constantly."  Ephesians 1:16

It's easy to walk in gratitude when life is sunny and peachy.  But how do we stay appreciative when life has truly got us down?  I wish I had an easy answer, but there isn't one.  Holiday stress is once again upon us, and I can see the anxiety coming out in those around me.

I meditate and pray...ALOT.  I have an ongoing conversation with the Holy Trinity, as I have cultivated a deep personal relation with Jesus since I was a small child.  We talk about all kinds of things, and He is a close friend and generous provider.  He always comes through for me, though not always in the time and way that I think He should or will. 

I'm praying for us all to find the Divine in our own personal, private way.  Whatever words, signs, gestures you can find to stay in the race, please let's pull one another along.  Reach your hand out the someone ahead of you, then reach your other hand behind you so that we can continue to grow and heal together.  I'm just an email, phone call or Facebook away...luv you!

MiChelle Jeneen
Spiritual Teacher, Healer and Author

Spiritual Gifts, Discernment, Prophecy & Service

Waking up with the feeling that I want to be of greater service to God urgently on my mind is a daily occurrence.  And immediately comes the notion that it also means being of greater service the world in some way, whatever that means.  I'm often irritated with myself that this obsession, this vocation, is so persistently in my daily awareness, even though the specific details are so elusive to me.  Every day, I ask God for more specific information and a laid out plan, but it evades me. 

So I decided to go back to the basics, prayer, reading the bible and meditation.  Today's readings came through loud and clear.  We all have gifts, and most of us are either clueless what the are, resentful to a point of resistance or doubtful that we have any gifts at all...can anyone relate?  In Joyce Meyer's book "Hearing from God Each Morning: 365 Daily Devotions," she discusses the Gift of Prophecy.  1 Corinthians 14:1 says "Follow the way of Love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy." Verse 3 continues "Everyone who prophecies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort." 

And 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 says, "To each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.  To one person, there is given, through the (Holy) Spirit, the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in tongues.  All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one, just as He determines."

Whew, that's alot of gifting!  Randomly, every week, I text my teenage sons a simple message:  "YOU are a gift.  You are valuable.  You matter.  I love you."  And surprisingly, random people have mirrored the same message back to me at times when I least expect it.  Please know that you are gifted and A GIFT, you matter, you are valuable and are loved.  How can you go out and be a blessing to the world this week...using a gift that you have been given?  Please feel free to comment and let us know!

MiChelle Jeneen
Teacher, Energy Reader, Author

The Greatest Love

After a long absence, I was called to visit a local church this last Sunday for mass.  My buddies and I had already planned to go hiking a local mountain, as they do every Sunday morning before dawn. 

Unusually, being outdoors in nature and then some at-home meditation are my regular spiritual practice.  But for the last few month, I've been hearing God whisper (with the occasional tap on the shoulder) that some of the answers I seek regarding my life path and parenting my young teens might be found in fellowship with other Believers. 

Most people who know me know that I like to un-church...mostly because of the politics and dogma involved in most systems of man-made worship.  So God and I have agreed that I will "visit" a different place of worship each week, and wait for further instructions come January of 2012.  I'm meditating on the scriptural teaching this week:  Mathew 22:34-40 "...love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  the second is Love your neighbor as yourself."  I'm learning that what if we also need to love ourselves as we do our neighbor?  Couldn't we bless ourselves and those around us, but showing ourselves the same courtesies and compassion as we do do strangers?

We've all heard this spoken as a sound bite, the Golden Rule, in so many occasions.  But I have really been working with the Holy Trinity, particularly, the Holy Spirit (the electrical juice), to take me into the hologram picture of what God is showing us about the shift that is occurring on this planet right now.  I have received much insight, but for now will share that our previous preoccupation with outward appearances is being curbed with the necessity to come back to the basics of living simply, caring for our aging and rearing kind, loving progressing and faith-filled children.  In learning self-love, we are in fact able to share more of our authentic selves with the world at large.  What little things are you doing in your daily life to nurture self-love?

Women as Victors in the News this Week



Picasso courtesy of www.abcgallery.com

Art imitates life...we've heard it a zillion times.  In the news today, the major trending activity was around some incredible women. 

What do Maria Shriver,  Jaycee Dugard, Elizabeth Smart, and Kate Middleton Duchess of Cambridge and Terri and Linda Jamison (the Psychic Twins) have in common today?  They are each strong, intelligent women who have made the choice to live in the now and to show us how to move ahead powerfully and with purpose into whatever the future may hold.

Most powerful quotes and headlines of the day:  In one week, Maria Shriver has "filed for divorce and purchased a $10 mansion for herself and her kids (with her own money), "Jaycee Dugard says she cherishes all the freedoms of her new life," Elizabeth Smart accepted a position as ABC Correspondent focusing on child abduction and missing person cases.  She said she is, "looking at all the different options and trying to decide where I can make the biggest difference, where I can have the biggest effect for good," and on the royal North America tour, "in a touching moment, Duchess Kate Middleton granted the wish of a little girl with cancer to meet a real princess" and the Psychic Twins braved showcasing their passion and gift of clairvoyance on ABC's The View talk show.

What an amazing week of thought-provoking words and actions of some incredibly brave and open-hearted women.  It's encouraging, and empowering to watch others forge forward, as we all want to do, to claim a better life for themselves and those around them.

MiChelle Jeneen, Energy Skills Educator
http://www.spiritrefreshed.blogspot.com/

Dreaming Up Life

Why do we dream?  Have you been having a more active dream life lately?  Recently, I have been having the most intense, information-laden and detail-rich dreams than ever before.   Maybe I'm not the only one.

Oh sure, who hasn't fretted all night while dreams of running/being chased, falling and finding oneself naked in public over the years?  

Freud and other  dream interpreters tell us to pay attention to what's happening in our lives at the time, as dreams are an outlet for our conscious mind to finish working things out that we couldn't accomplish while awake. 

As a person who meditates and spends time allowing my subconscious come out for regular play dates, I have always found dreams seemed so much more prophetic.  Lately, my dreams focus on looking for items that are lost while an eminent fire looms nearby.  It is often quite terrifying, but in a way that I never feel alone and know that they will be found safe and intact...all in the nick of time to escape the smoke and flames. 

In the past, my children and I were separated, so I was always seeking to reunite with them so we could leave the burning structure (never our home) together.  Last night, I was in my workplace and everyone hurriedly evacuated.  I would not leave because I wanted to set my workstation organized first and I had to have my spiritual materials (books, Cd's, candles, incense, etc.).  It seemed important that I have my healing and teaching items, because I knew that they would be vital to the work I would need to get on to once the fire was extinguished.

Apparently, fire symbolizes "destruction, passion, desire, illumination, purification, transformation, enlightenment, or anger. It may suggest that something old is passing and something new is entering into your life. Your thoughts and views are changing. In particular, if the fire is under control or contained in one area, then it is a metaphor of your own internal fire and inner transformation." 

Well, alrighty then....nuff said!  My next adventure is to look into learning more about lucid dreaming.  I'm off to continue to use my dreams to help me work through the real world work that is so important in transformation in life.

Michelle Jeneen, Energy Skills Educator
www.spiritrefreshed.blogspot.com