Adieu for now

Photo courtesy of Babs Young Photography

Dear Blogging Friends,

After much consideration I am going to be closing this blog indefinitely. As many of you know I publish a newsletter in 3-5 parts monthy. I have a color meditation radio show and a talk show on radio. Not to mention my wonderful clients and other work related activities.

So, it is with some regret that I bid you all adieu at least from this venue. I am putting more focus onto these other activities so as not to spread myself too thin, (although being thin would be so great! However, only if it extends to the physical body which it doesn’t: it just stresses me out!)

Here are some ways to stay in touch if you are interested:

Sign up to receive my newsletter. There are 3 parts that arrive sporadically throughout the month: feng shui, color, and spirit.

Listen to or download my radio talk shows.

Listen to or download my color meditations:

Email me. Most of you have my email already.

Stay in touch through facebook.

Find tons of information, including archived newsletters, on my website

I want to thank all of you who have become my blogging friends. You have been wonderful to “talk” with and share thoughts with. I will not forget you.

Many blessings to you as you journey through life. It is a challenging journey, but one that brings so many rewards.

"You are always a valuable, worthwhile human being, not because anybody says so, not because you're successful, not because you make a lot of money, but because you decide to believe it and for no other reason."

Wayne Dyer

With love always,

Diantha

Memorial Day 2010

For my readers in the USA, please take the time to thank anyone you know who is serving or has served our country in the military. Without their dedication and sacrifices, we would not be blogging, writing, or speaking our truth. A big thank you from me, to all veterans and current military service people. God bless you all.

Time for another Hiatus

Dear friends in the blogosphere,

It is time to again travel to stay with our son and daughter-in-law as our 6 year old grandson has another surgery. I'm so sorry I have been so out of touch for the last few months but family has had to come first. I will be out of touch for several weeks but while I am gone, I will be thinking of you all fondly, and remembering how supportive and kind you all are.

If you feel so inclined, please send prayers for his highest good to be served. This little guy is a trooper and has been through so much. Prayers are welcome for his brother, Mom and Dad too. I'll be back in touch soon.

Until then, God speed.

Blessings,
Diantha

Food, Inc.

My husband and I just watched this film. It is quite enlightening, disgusting, and powerful. Try to see it if you can.

Signs of Spring

photos by Babs Young

I have a wonderful neighbor and friend who is an amazing photographer. Just wanted to share some signs of spring from her work. I'll post some of mine too later this week....Enjoy!

Getting Into Alignment

The emotion you feel is always about the vibrational variance between where you want to be and where you are. If you're out of balance, there are only two ways to bring yourself into alignment: Either raise your expectation to match your desire—or lower your desire to match your expectation.

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in San Francisco, CA on Saturday, July 24th, 2004 #398

My Wish For You

If One Person Can Do This, What Can We Do Together?

Gone Fishin'

My Dad was a fisherman. I married one. I gave birth to three of them. So this analogy, Gone Fishin', of taking a break is a natural one for me! Yes, I am going to take a break for a bit. If you are a regular follower you will know our grandson has been quite ill and it's not over yet. While this is going on, I will be on call so for now, I'd like to simplify my life and take one more thing off the "to do" list.

I will try to visit your blogs as I can as I don't want to loose touch. But like my blogging friend Peggy has said, sometimes we just have to step back. This is one of them.

In the meantime, I do publish a free online newsletter that you can sign up for, or it is also archived on my website: lifepotentials.net. AND I have two radio shows on blogtalk radio, the second and fourth Thursdays of the month at 7pm EST. They are always downloadable after airing.

Like MacArthur, I WILL return! Meanwhile enjoy life, laugh, give of your talents, and gather wisdom.

Blessings to all.......

Tea for Two

Here is another photo to inspire your writing creativity. What short story would you write to go along with this photo? Have fun!

Drinks for everyone

Just for fun....a drink for us, and one for the doggies. Life is good.

The Story of G

“Faith means living with uncertainty - feeling your way through life, letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark”

Dan Millman

We never know what is ahead in life no matter how meticulous our plans are. And there are so many variables we can’t control. We can’t even control our own future, rather just have a goal and do our best to achieve it.

This was underlined, underscored and highlighted again and again as we moved through this latest health crisis with our grandson, G. Three weeks ago he became ill with flu like symptoms. Before two days passed he was in the emergency room. Within a few hours he had been transferred by ambulance to Comer Children’s Hospital at the U of Chicago hospital system. A few hours after that he had emergency surgery.

Whew….we all breathed a sigh of relief, crisis handled and over.

But no, wait. Fate had more in store. G. made some valiant efforts at getting better. They had removed all the tubes and he was beginning to eat again. But he had no appetite, and his color was not improving. In fact he was turning a horrid shade of gray.

A long, scary weekend passed as we waited for the surgeon to return from a conference. Oh there were docs looking in on him but no one seemed in charge and assured us that this was normal, that this kind of bowel surgery required time to heal.

However, once the surgeon returned he took one look at G. and rushed him back into surgery. This second surgery resulted in an ileostomy which will ultimately require a third surgery to reverse it and “put all the pieces together again”. This tiny body, 6 years old, now reduced to bones with flesh over them.

Oh I know, kids are so resilient and they heal so much faster than we adults do. But this little one is still struggling. He is, 3 weeks later, still hospitalized, fighting off yet another infection, this one from his pic line. We hope anyway. That would be the best scenario.

So back to best laid plans. After the first surgery my daughter in law was calling babysitters so she could attend some yoga classes that next week. We grandmothers were planning our return flights. G’s father was planning his workweek. G’s brother was planning an outing with his brother and some friends.

And then came the initial turn around. And the canceling of all those plans. G. is teaching us that plans can be made but they must be flexible. We don’t always get what we want and plan for. It is an emotional roller coaster to ride but it is life. It happens in smaller ways every day: we plan a route to work only to find the road is torn up and we must take a detour. We plan to have friends over for dinner and it snows too hard for them to come. We plan to run a marathon and then we get injured during training and it doesn’t happen. It is all just life.

The challenge is, then, how do we handle these challenges? What stuff are we made of? How flexible can we be in the face of what life throws at us?

I am older than most of you and have had my share of challenges. What each of them have taught me is a new tool, a new way of learning how to negotiate these detours in life. I feel fortunate to have the tools I do have. I used color extensively in the form of color breathing, my color sprays, and visualization. I used flower essences and healing creams. I used faith and prayer. I used love and encouragement. I used acceptance and patience. I used all the tools I could think of to get through this myself so that I could be totally present for this family. Most of all, I used my network of wonderful friends to help us through with their prayer and support. Thank you, all of you, for those prayers. They have made all the difference and I could feel your loving hearts reaching out to me in the darkest moments. Thank you so much for being there. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

We do not know the end of this story yet. G. remains in the hospital still, and will be there about a month, best scenario. This is a challenge to the whole family in more ways than one. But one thing I know for sure: prayer helps. You help. And I know that however this unfolds, it is for the highest and best good of all.

Happy Valentine's Day

Ti Amo Sempre: I love you forever

“The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.” Rumi

Happy Valentines Day!

Prayers Requested

To all of my blogging friends,
You know, you never know what life has in store, and as luck would have it, this is the week I have a ticket to fly to Chicago to babysit for our grandsons while our daughter in law takes our son to Utah to ski for his 40th birthday. Unfortunately, fate had another plan.

Yesterday our youngest grandson went in for emergency surgery at the U. of Chicago Childrens' Hospital. He is doing ok so far but I am still going to fly up there to help out. Our son and wife are totally spent, emotionally and physically as his illness has gone on for enough days that they have had no sleep and are totally sleep deprived. Her mom arrived last night and is taking the first shift, I will come in and take the second one.

All in all I wanted to inform you as I will be absent from the scene here for at least a week and will no doubt not be commenting on your blogs as well. As soon as life returns to normal (is there such a thing?), I hope to be better at commenting and visiting.

Meanwhile, if you feel so inclined, please say a little prayer for our grandson, his parents and brother and the entire medical team who has done a superb job of healing this little body.

Blessings and thanks to all......

Sunday's Tidbit: Relationships

You don't have to worry about what their vibration is if your vibration is one of connection. Because if your vibration is one of connection -- you're going to dominate the vibration. This is the way you learn your relationships. The thing that most people do not understand, is that you get to control the way you feel, because you get to choose the thoughts you think. Most people think that they only have the option of responding to the circumstances that surround them. And that's what makes them attempt the impossible, which is to control the circumstances around them, which only feeds their feeling of frustration and vulnerability, because it doesn't take very much life experience to discover you can't control all of those circumstances. But you can control your vibration. And when you control your vibration, you've controlled everything that has anything to do with you.

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in El Paso, TX on Thursday, March 28th, 2002 #266

Totally Useless Information

photo courtesy of: www.freshwap.net/forums/ e-books-tutorials/311...

I often try in this blog to give you interesting, usable information but decided today to bring in some fresh breezes and light air! Probably because I woke up in the middle of the night laughing. Oh yes, I do that. Drives my husband crazy.

Anyway, I have two tidbits of useless information that I thought were fun. I found these little known facts in a great magazine called The Week. I love that magazine because it is short, it provides several views of the same opinion piece, it gives an overview of world news, US news, art and book news, QUOTES (for you quote lovers out there!) etc. etc. etc. I love it.

So here are the two facts I found in it this last week that I thought you might enjoy:
1. Feng Shui related: Our ancient ancestors, Homoheidelbergensis lived 800,000 years ago in Israel. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that they, like us, divided up their living space into functional areas. Instead of houses, they lived in caves, but they had separate areas for cooking, sleeping, tool making, hearth and community. Being able to organize life this well tells scientists that our "primitive hominid ancestors" lived at a level of sophistication once thought to be exclusive to Homo Sapiens species of 40,000 years ago. Pretty cool, eh!

2. Color fact: At New Year's in Mexico it is traditional for the women to buy colored panties to symbolize what they want to bring in for themselves for the year. The traditional choice has been red which is said to assist the wearer in finding love for the New Year. THIS year, the choice was yellow, which represents a new desire for the women: yellow is for gold/money, and tells researchers (underwear research? Hmmmm.) that the economy is now their prime concern. And Mexico's economy is the hardest hit of all Latin America. Now we'll see it this novel approach works. I've always said "never underestimate the power of color"! Can't hurt can it!

So go out and wow all your friends with this wealth of TUI (Totally Useless Info). And have fun!

Sunday's Tidbit

photo courtesy www.carlosweb.net

"What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds."

Wayne Dyer

Have a great day!

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

Everything that I think that I need to do is all only in order to propel me to some place that when I get there, I think I will be happier. So, everything that I am doing, no matter what it is, all of my lists of rights and wrongs... are all about me getting to a manifestation that I believe I will then be happier... So, why don't I take a short cut and just go get happy?

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Washington, DC on Saturday, May 1st, 2004 #325 (Esther and Jerry Hicks)

I love these excerpts from Abraham. They are all so simple and direct and to me are like those moments in the V-8 commercials, those "duh" moments I call them. As another Abraham (Abraham Lincoln) said,
"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

Of course, this doesn't help much when one is in the depths of depression. Enter suZen's wonderful video post for this week. This video is a great description for what ails us when we are depressed over our own situation, whatever it may be. Please do yourself a favor and watch this video.

And then, if you still have questions over how to overcome depression and unhappiness, take a look at some of these quotes for inspiration. You know how I love quotes!:

What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner. ~Colette



There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. ~Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts, 1931




Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy. ~Robert Anthony






The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. ~Mark Twain




If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time. ~Edith Wharton


Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne




Forgiveness....again!

image courtesy www.wikihow.com

“Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.” Oscar Wilde

“When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive” Alan Paton

This morning I had a wonderful phone conversation with a friend I have

known since we were 14. That is nearly 50 years. In a few months it will be. That’s a long time to have a friend. She and I both went to a school for girls for high school where we met. She and I both were goody two shoes in our previous schools, honor role students, (she is truly smart, I just worked hard), and she was also a good athlete, while I was, again, a hard worker, but without many results in this field!

She and I both also came out of this experience very damaged. It took us both a long time to realize that those 4 years were not meant to destroy us but to release us into our true selves. And today we talked about how we are both-FINALLY-ready to release our hatred for the headmistress, the teachers, the people who made our lives so miserable for those long 4 years.

The details are not relevant. Suffice it to say we both turned away from our goody two shoes personalities and became “bad girls” from the standpoint that we took to smoking and drinking to prove they couldn’t destroy us. Little did we realize at the time that we were only hurting ourselves. Ditto carrying a grudge for all these long years. Most of those “wicked people” are long gone and who is hurt by carrying grudges other than the carrier of those grudges? They become a heavy burden that slows down our progress and since both she and I are soul seekers, having that burden shadowing our every move has been yet another challenge.

Coincidentally, just before Christmas I received a plea for money from the school. That has happened at least once a year since the day we graduated, 46 years ago this June. It just so happens, though, that this year instead of throwing the appeal into the recycling bin unopened, I chose to open it, read it, and respond by writing a check. This sounds like a small thing, and indeed in some sense it was. The check was for a small amount, but it has been a HUGE step in my development. It wasn’t until I talked to my friend this morning that I realized what this step meant.

It meant that I was finally able to put this all behind me. It meant that I finally realized that this adversity was only a way to teach me lessons, ones I learned layers of over and over and over through my life. (I am after all a very slow learner!!!! Remedial life lessons I call it!) It meant I finally forgave the “offenders” who were really OK people after all is said and done. It was my attitude that demonized them. It meant that I could, after too many years, move on.

I truly believe in the power of educating women worldwide. Looking at the school which is so different from the one I attended, I made a conscious decision in December to support that belief by donating a few dollars to their mission of educating women. They are truly doing some amazing work with women. So why not support it?

It’s a small step in the whole scheme of things. But a big one for me. To forgive is sometimes the best hardest thing to do. To let go of those horrid memories and release them to the balm of forgiveness has done more for my soul than I can say.

I hope you can move ahead much more quickly than I did. To be honest, I have put so much focus on healing other issues this was kind of on the back burner for many years…..but believe me it never stopping simmering there!

What is on your soul’s mind that needs releasing? What is your plan to do so?

“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.”

Catherine Ponder

Here are a few more quotes I found on forgiveness that I thought you might enjoy:

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

Lewis Smedes

“You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.” Lewis Smedes

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” Mark Twain

“To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.”

Robert Muller

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Colors of Winter

photo from dsh archives

Each season of the year is associated with different colors either through systems like feng shui or through our personal associations. Feng shui winter colors are blue or black. For me personally I associate winter with white, red, black, gray and muted greens.

My own winter color palette has white as the main color. You can tell I live in the far north where it starts to snow November 1 and stops about May 1. Between these two dates the ground is generally covered in a blanket of white snow that sparkles in the sun, blows up into your face, and softens all sounds. White is associated with purity, with a clean slate, and new beginnings. It is light, airy, untouched, virginal. Looking out on a new snowfall you see possibilities and so it is with the color white.

Black is probably the color I next associate with winter. The crisp black outline of trees is so clearly visible when placed against this white backdrop. There is a play of light and dark, of light and shadow, of illumination and secrecy, of yang and yin. White is revealing while black can hide. Black is that yummy darkness in which seeds rest and absorb nourishment for new growth in the spring. Like white, it can represent new possibilities: those things that are hidden and getting ready to be revealed!

One sees little pieces of red in the form of cardinals and fruits like crab apples that remain on the trees for much of the winter, or at least until the birds have picked them all off. The red with the white and black is striking. It is new energy, hope, and just that counter point that we need in the winter to bring us a feeling of warmth and wellbeing.

Gray, too often the color of our skies up here, is another color that hides or keeps things behind a fog so that we cannot clearly see. So much of winter is like that. We know intellectually that seeds are in the ground and they will sprout in the spring with vigor and force but we can’t see them. We know that the snow will eventually melt and give way to spring but we can’t see that happening. We know that the hibernating animals will come out again in the spring, that the grass will become green again, that the ice will melt….these are all the promises of spring that are hidden from us in the winter.

The muted greens we have are the colors from our evergreens: yews, pines, firs, cedars, holly….but the vibrancy of the green which comes with spring is toned down in the winter, as if even it is taking a break, a rest if you will, waiting for that surge of growth to come in the spring.

And the blue that is found in feng shui for the winter is more of an icy blue, the color our lake becomes when it freezes over, its turquoise waters turned solid with white cracks and a dusting of snow on top. It always reminds me of those icy blue drinks sold at convenience stores!

All the winter colors are so beautiful and quiet. The riot of color that comes in the spring and summer is loud and noisy and like a fiesta. But this, these winter colors, is all about resting, pulling back in to re-gather our strength and ideas. It is about trusting in the future and the promise of spring. It is about going within in order to emerge with a burst in the spring with new ideas, new energy, new ways of being.

Let the colors of each season help you with the rhythm of the nature, the going in and the coming out, the resting and the doing. And enjoy the winter spectrum!

Achieving Goals

Complaining about anything, holds you in the place of refusing to receive the things you've been asking for. Justifying about anything holds you in the place of refusing to let in the very things that you've been asking for. Blaming someone, holds you in the place of refusing to let in the things that you've been asking for. Feeling guilty, feeling angry, it doesn't matter what you call it, it is a refusal, not a conscious one. You're asking; you can't help but ask. The Universe is yielding; it must yield. It's a big question, folks: why aren't you letting it in?

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Los Angeles, CA on Saturday, March 10th, 2001 #306

The preceding quote from Abraham states clearly how we hold ourselves back from achieving those things that we seek. My wish for all of us is that we each find our way through whatever blocks us from moving forward. Happy New Year to all. May love prevail…..