Spiritual explorations and common sense
Here’s what you need:
Are you a Freecycler? Do you sometimes have trouble getting people to take the items you are offering? Freecycle is a worldwide network of local groups of people who are either asking for items for free, or are giving away items for free. The groups are local because people have to be able to pick up items; a long drive or shipping/mailing items is not part of the deal.
Over the years, I’ve used Freecyle to offer a lot of items that I could not otherwise donate, sell, or recycle. Some of the items I have freecycled include
How was I able to get someone to actually want these items? For the first two items, people actually posted a wish for them on Freecycle, and I just happened to have what they wanted. For the other items, I used my imagination when creating my Freecycle post. I’ve found that in most cases, if I just baldly post that I have something to offer, I get far fewer responses (sometimes none), than when I suggest a creative use for an item, or a way to make the item usable (as specifically as possible). It also helps to keep the post as short as possible, and put the most important information first (because of how the Freecycle posts are displayed online).
For example,
So when posting something you want to give away, keep these three tips in mind:
If you use Freecyle, I’d love to hear your stories about your successes, or any suggestions you have. Thanks!
When listening to my channelings of Metatron, Jesus, God, and other high spiritual beings, you receive a three-fold benefit:
I’ve now made it much easier to find and purchase the digital albums of my channelings. Check it out! And remember, I also offer audio files you can listen to for free.
Also, in case you didn’t catch the announcement before, I am now accepting new reading clients.
And for the summer only, I am offering my class on developing your psychic abilities for only $247, a $450 discount from the normal price of $697. You get a lot of value even at the full price, including $560 worth of readings. Sign up today!
You can use baking soda and apple cider vinegar to clean and rinse your hair. When I first heard this, I thought it might be a hoax, but I’ve been doing it for nearly a year now and am quite happy with it. It’s effective, non-toxic, and much better for the environment. My hair and scalp are much healthier, and I’ve saved a ton of money on shampoos and conditioners that were never quite what I wanted them to be.
The process:
I keep a small, blue, plastic container (with a lid) and a small plastic bottle of apple cider vinegar in the shower for this purpose. (For safety, use a non-breakable container–never glass.) I also keep a largish plastic container of baking soda next to the shower. Before I step into the shower, I put the baking soda into the blue container. Once I am in the shower, I use water from the shower head to dilute the baking soda and vinegar. (It gets cold pretty fast.)
Again, this method works, saves money, and is great for those trying to reduce the toxic load on their bodies.
Over the years, I have developed a set of simple techniques for forgiving people, events, or situations. What is more, I’ve developed an approach to life that means you don’t find yourself needing to forgive people. My approach to life just went through an acid test, and came out with flying colors. Last August, I started writing a book in which I spell out my methods and techniques. I’m calling it The Forgiveness Project. I plan to self-publish as an electronic book, and I also plan to have it completed and available within just a few months. Are you interested? Leave a comment and I’ll keep you updated.
When I spoke of silence and friendship before, my focus was on those things that you cannot speak about with a friend that ultimately break the friendship.
There is another kind of silence that is acceptable, though sometimes uncomfortable, to me, and that is the kind of silence where you hold your tongue.
Granted, there are times when we all need to hold our tongue; those are so universally recognized that I don’t need to discuss them. Other times, though, the decision to speak or not depends on our sensitivity to and awareness of the other person. If there is something I would like to say, but feel hesitant to, then I take the time required to think about it, and to ask myself why I am hesitating.
Sometimes I am hesitating because I want to say something but am not confident of my ability to say it with diplomacy and care; if I don’t think I can say it in a way that will make it possible for the other person to receive it, then there’s no point in saying it. After all, what’s the difference between a communication not shared and a communication not received? Not an awful lot, though sometimes I’ll say something knowing full well that the person can’t or won’t hear what I have to say, because I believe that one day it will make sense to them. I’ve been on the receiving end of such remarks, and though at the time I received them, I didn’t understand, when I later got it, I was grateful to the person who had said it, because I think they were in part instrumental in my getting the idea—however eventually that was.
With other people, though, my sense is that they are either dealing with so many other issues that they just cannot yet take on another, or that they are moving so slowly through their life lessons that whatever it is I am seeing, they are not going to get to in this lifetime. So I say nothing.
Other times I hesitate because I have the sense that, were I to say something, that person would be so offended that they would drop the friendship, and the friendship means more to me than perhaps uselessly speaking up. I did lose a friend for a year that way. She was on the phone with me, complaining, as she had so many times before, about a life situation as though she were a victim of circumstances. My heart went out to her, but I didn’t like being taken through the emotional wringer time and again about the same issue when I knew full well she had deliberately and consciously made the choice to be in that situation. So I told her that she had chosen her circumstances (rather bluntly, I’m sorry to say), and she stopped speaking with me. A year later, she forgave me, admitted the truth of what I had said, and had come to a better way of thinking about it herself so that she found purpose in her choices rather than victimhood, and we have remained friends since.
Even so, it is sometimes difficult to know when to speak and when not to. I trust my inner guidance; if my heart is warning me not to say something, I stay quiet. If it is just my head telling me not to say anything, and my heart is guiding me to speak up, then I do my best to say it as quietly and gently as I can.
I play MMOs—massive, multi-player online games. Often in an MMO, you adventure together with other people who are also playing. And an essential part of adventuring is getting loot—items, clothing, accessories, weapons, and so on. In most games, everyone in your adventure party gets to say whether they need the item that drops, or whether they would just like it (this is called greed). You put in your decision and the game decides who wins it.
Your finances can be managed in this way. When purchasing something, distinguish between what you need and what you want. You may want a mansion and caviar and $600 jeans, but what you need is shelter and food and clothing.
For shelter, depending on your budget, you may want to own your own home, but it isn’t affordable right now. You may only be able to afford to rent an apartment or maybe even just a room somewhere. (Though you can still save toward the goal of owning your own home; these “ways to save money” tips might be helpful for that.)
For food, are you dining out a lot or buying prepackaged foods? To save money, you can make your own meals most of the time. An added benefit of making your own meals is that you get more food for the dollar (if you shop wisely), and you can eat more healthful foods. If you can’t cook, well, that’s another matter, but you could start learning. Just take it one step at a time; try something easy; add a new recipe or two to your repertoire each week. Maybe try a few that make a large quantity of food, which you can then take to work as lunches or freeze some of for later. Very quickly you will have a core set of recipes that you enjoy making and eating.
Along those lines, set yourself a lunch budget and stick to it. Mine is $25 a week ($5 a day), which means if I spend $10 one day dining out, I need to bring something from home the next day. I like to see if I can get through an entire week without buying lunch. (Have an overall food budget as well.)
What about those $600 jeans? Does you really need them? Does anyone really need them? Of course not. You can most likely find something just as comfortable and perhaps of better quality somewhere else. You can even go shopping at thrift stores for clothing. If you haven’t checked out a thrift store recently, you might be surprised at the quality of clothing there. Think about it—the clothing at those thrift stores comes from donations, and quite often people donate good-quality, even never-used clothing. I’ve seen brand-name suits, like Pierre Cardin; silk blouses; and one time a dozen brand-new wool women’s coats donated by a local merchant. Another time, I found a gorgeous hand-tailored ivory silk woman’s suit, which fit my daughter perfectly. While you’re there, you might be able to pick up some other household items that you need at a fraction of their retail value. If it hurts your pride to shop at a thrift store, you don’t have to tell people where you got that great designer suit; just say “thank you” when you get compliments.
Although it takes a very perceptive person to notice, I am very shy, so when people look in my direction, my first impulse is to hide, which is most easily accomplished by looking away.
But I know that if I shyly look away when someone looks in my direction, it can be misinterpreted as a kind of rejection. Maybe most people might think nothing of it, but I am acutely aware of those nuances. So I look back and smile. Looking back takes a bit of effort—after all, rejection can flow in two ways, and perhaps that person will frown at me—but the smile doesn’t take any effort at all.
As part of looking back, I find that I notice something nice about just about everyone I look at. Sure, there are those few people who raise my internal alarms, but most people radiate a kind of wholesomeness, a likability, that feels good to see. I would miss that if I allowed myself to look away.
I also believe that even when no words are exchanged, whatever my thoughts and reactions are to others—really, whatever any one of us is thinking and feeling about another—is communicated on an internal level. (This is why I have never once in her entire life lied to my daughter. But that’s another topic.) Whether we are all fully aware of that communication doesn’t matter; we receive it and respond to it. So when I look at someone and smile with genuine acceptance, they get it.
It’s a kind of spiritual practice, a reminder that we are all in this together, that we are all spiritual beings working through a sometimes very difficult life, and that whatever we can do to remind each other of that fact can help each of us find our path a little easier to walk.