Friday, November 8, 2024
Seattle Girl on Cape Cod: Winds of CHANGE
Friday, March 3, 2023
Seattle Girl on Cape Cod: Staring at the Blank Page
"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink clamoring to become visible."
--Vladimir Novokov
Hello fellow Earthlings,
How are you? Today, right now, I'm up on the second floor of my office, with sunlight shining through my window making my plants (and me) extra happy! I'm also staring at this blank page.
The cursor is there waiting. It's blinking. I have so much to say both on this blog and in my new book. I think part of my problem is that I want to get it all just right rather than just getting it out and on the page. It stops me from writing at all. I have this idea that things need to be a certain way before they can become anything. It's hard to explain.
Here we are in March and February was a blur. I got off Facebook on February 15th. I needed time and I was wasting too much time on social media. I temporarily deleted my account so that I could focus a bit more.
January and February were hard months for me. I went through some emotional and physical turmoil. As I mentioned in my last post, I opened Pandora's box when I decided to dive into my next book about transformation that was instigated by my first marriage ending. I had no idea that so much unresolved pain would resurface and manifest in both physical and mental pain. My eyes got infected, I got sick, I felt deep depression and the cold, gloomy weather didn't help. I went into self-care and self-healing mode and it felt right. I didn't produce much on the book front, but I did a lot of necessary healing.
Now I'm like the ground hog who pops his head up from under the earth to check if spring is here. It's time to spring forward, I feel. New energy is circling around me. I feel a shift. I had planned to finish three chapters of my book by the end of March, but I only finished one (I have a total of 100 pages written, but it all needs focus and some revising). I'm cutting myself some slack though.
I'm teaching two college classes online and it's been a lot of work. Winter quarter will end for me on the first day of spring. At least that's when I plan to get all the tests graded and all my administrative work turned in.
And then I'm going on an adventure...
It's been awhile. I'm on Trusted Housesitters (If you are reading this and want the link, I have a 25% off code for you, so let me know). I pet sit for animals all over the world. I love taking care of pets because I don't have any of my own and I like the idea of being able to travel and see new places. I've pet sat in Port Townsend, Seattle, Shoreline and Chimacum in Washington State, Hawaii and Rome and Lucca, Italy. My next cat sit is at a post and beam farm house on 50 acres in Connecticut where I will take care of one sweet cat. This sit happens to fall exactly on my spring break from college, so on March 23rd, I'll drive two hours to my destination. I will stay there for 10 nights and then drive back. Scott will come see me on one of the weekends. My goal on this sit it to WRITE, WRITE WRITE and tune into nature and nurture myself and take care of one adorable cat, of course! I may explore the little towns nearby too. I can't wait for this retreat. I am so looking forward to it!
Then, on April 3rd, I start a new college quarter and I'm teaching a DOUBLE LOAD of classes online. That will be challenging, but I am doubling up with the anticipation of possibly taking summer quarter off to travel, plan a wedding, etc.! We've rented out our Cape Cod condo for all of August and the first weekend in September. We plan to go to Europe to honeymoon before our wedding. (Eat your dessert first, you don't know what tomorrow will bring...lol). Then, on September 30th, we are getting married on Cape Cod!!! Whoa...crazy to say it and so much to do.
Today I had a counseling session. I talked with my counselor about intention and flow. I have been able to manifest quite a bit in my life by setting intentions and collaborating with my higher self (God, universe or whatever you want to call it). The small girl in me is often contracted and afraid. I've been working on remembering that my higher self is ever present and willing to communicate with that scared, small girl who has been affected by grief, trauma, pain, etc. Those are things that happened, but those things are not me. The conversation between that girl and my higher self has been an incredibly healing one. In that conversation, I've been able to let go of quite a lot. I want to keep that communication open and ever present. It makes a huge difference on how I navigate my life.
So this blank page wasn't so scary after all. Not sure if it has any focus, but sometimes words just want to come out in whatever way and later the focus can be found. Last night I saw the movie Emily at Cape Cinema with Scott. It's about Emily Bronte and her life. The screen writer took a lot of artistic license, but it was a powerful character sketch of a woman who went through so much. She was powerful, raw, real, unafraid (yet also shy and scared when forced into formal situations or pressed to follow societal norms). I felt a lot of myself in her. She felt she had failed in some way, but she was true to herself which gained her lots of accolades. Strangely, that was not really what she was after. She needed to express herself. The scene where she was upstairs in her bedroom with a single candle and a quill pen staring at the blank page was so relatable to me. She had to open her big bedroom windows and let in the bird calls, and fragrances of flowers and the wild wind. Only then could she write. She let it all in and let the writing come just as naturally as the sun rises and nature creates a new day.
I feel a lot of creative energy bubbling inside of me. The door between me and my higher self is open. The conversation is intimate. I'm letting the words come out and allowing them to land where they may. I'm feeling and sensing. I'm tuning in. I'm not afraid to fail. I'm going to let it all flow...
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Seattle Girl on Cape Cod: Writing Through The Pain
Hello fellow Earthlings,
I tend to hang out in the positive polarity of life, but no one is immune to PAIN. It's an EARTHLING condition. And there is physical, mental and spiritual pain and sometimes they are all tied together, even if we think they are separate.
A few weeks ago, I opened Pandora's box and unearthed my journals from when my marriage ended. If anything will jolt you back into a timeframe you just as soon have forgotten, reading past journals of that time will.
I am writing a new book called Venus on Fire about my transformation after my marriage ended. In December, I rented a private office up the street from me in Yarmouth, Cape Cod and set it all up with a sofa and chairs, a desk, a lamp, plants, books, and journals. I made it comfortable and inspirational and I thought I had set myself up for a smooth ride.
Nope.
Reading through those old journals did something to me. My body is confused. Am I living in this timeline or that timeline. Maybe I have a leg in both of them. And then, of course, I started to beat myself up that I didn't have a handle on things or that things weren't moving along faster in the book writing world.
As I dug further into my past, my body started to give out. My eyes got infected (both of them) and I couldn't wear my contacts. I felt a pain in my chest that I couldn't shake. I felt a lot of anger that may not have been expressed from my marriage and the ending of said marriage. I accidentally sat on my only ancient pair of glasses and broke them in two. My fiancé Scott glued them together with super glue, using tissue paper to hold the glue. So now I was going even further back to when I was a kid and got teased all the time for wearing glasses. More Pain. He tried to make it better my removing the tissue and coloring in the glob of glue with a pen (bless his heart, his intentions were pure). I put them on and felt like the biggest nerd known to mankind
Me with my nerdy glasses at Ritual on Cape Cod where I taught a Vision Board/Intuitive Writing Workshop |
.
I also felt lost and depressed. I didn't have a clear vision of my future or what I am trying to accomplish. I have so many things I want to do, but feel like I'm sinking in thick mud and to lift one boot up and put the other one down into this dense, thick stuff is easier said than done.
So I'm wading through the shit. We all have to do it at some point. Many people just as soon keep Pandora's box shut tight and buried....forever...
The thing is, this book is NOT a book about divorce. It's a book about what came out of a divorce. It's a book about empowerment, transformation and overcoming obstacles. It's book about seeing the truth of who I was, who I am and who I am becoming. We are always becoming. Each one of us is not the same person we were two seconds ago.
I realize that to talk about this transformation, I have to understand where I was and put myself back there. I now get that I also need to keep myself insulated a bit when I do that. It would behoove me to have some self-care in place. If I'm journeying back in time, it would be nice to have a heated seat, a good drink, driving gloves, a nice pair of shades, an air bag and my seat belt fastened.
So today I really fell apart, but my airbag protected me. I went to a yoga class in the morning, I reached out on Facebook for love and support (I know that's a weird place to do it, but it's where all my peeps are in one place), I had my home professionally cleaned (That's part of self care for me).
As I walked the steps up to my office to attend a college meeting, I began to feel my hands get clammy and my heart race. I called the eye doc and asked if I was having a reaction to the antibiotic drops I need to put in my eyes 4 times a day for the eye infection. She said that a racing heart was uncommon, but I should go to ER or Urgent Care.
I talked myself down from the cliff a bit. I decided things weren't so urgent. I slowed my breathing down and meditated. I asked myself what I needed.
The answer was REST.
So I cancelled all my classes and laid down on my 'therapy' sofa in my office with a scarf over my eyes and listened to 15 minutes of guided meditation. I really let myself release whatever wanted to be released.
Interestingly, I am surrounded by therapists. My office building is a therapy office with one real estate broker and one recluse author (me). Even though most of the therapists use sound machines to block the noise of their conversations, every once in a while I get bits and pieces. When I first moved in, I overheard, "Your relationship is RUPTURED. You have to accept the fact that it is RUPTURED." For some reason, the word ruptured rang in my head all day that day. So while white noise machines where whirling outside office doors today, my own therapist in Seattle had an opening in her schedule. What a relief.
She said, "Maybe you should write about how it feels to write this book. Maybe you should say what you are going through."
So here I am, on my blog, letting you know that it aint no picnic.
But I'm going to keep on keeping on despite all the pain.
And maybe I'll even get some cute glasses...
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Seattle Girl on Cape Cod: A Room of One's Own and other BIG NEWS...
Gorgeous sunset tonight from my Writer's Room |
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Seattle Girl on Cape Cod: Dropping Down Deep
Dear fellow Earthlings,
Has it really been six months since I've written on this blog? What happened? I can't even really summarize it all.
All I can say is that I was on a long journey and that journey was very extroverted on some levels, but there was some inner work that did take place.
I stopped writing here in April. By June, summer was in full swing and I was getting ready to leave my Cape place for six weeks and rent it out. Scott and I traveled by car from the Cape to Washington State and back. That was not a short journey. We went to meet friends and family and to clear out our storage units there, but there were definite adventures along the way in both directions. Looking back, they seemed like initiations to get me to where I am now.
After we returned from our long trip, several friends from Seattle and Florida came to visit us. My best friend from elementary school just left on Halloween. It was such a joy to have a life-long friend here in my new stomping grounds. I love this place so much and I wanted her to experience what I have experienced. I can honestly say that we both had a really good time.
But now it's November 1st. Time to drop down inwards. Time to see what wants to come out.
On Halloween, after being inside all day working on my college class and catching up on other work I avoided while enjoying with my friend, I decided to head to Mayflower Beach and walk along the shore to Chapin Beach. It was around 5:30pm and the sky across the bay was jet black with only a sliver of white against the emerald green water.
It looked like the sky might fall at any minute. It had an eerie quality that was appropriate for the holiday. There was not a soul on the beach, save for one man dressed in a lion suit sitting melancholically on the beach next to the shore. He looked unflinchingly into the distance, hands wrapped around his knees. He had an air of disappointment about him. Upon seeing me, he gathered his lion's tail in his hands and wandered down the shore in the opposite direction.
Now there was no one.
There was also no wind.
I listened to the waves lap against the shore and watched as the clouds got darker and darker. They were so dark now that they seemed they might burst.
I closed my eyes and felt the moment. The sultriness of summer was still in the air, but the darkness of the skies and the dead leaves on the ground indicated the change coming that was inevitable.
I wandered as far as Bay Beach. Just before I entered the beach a fox crossed my path. I hadn't seen one since 2020 when I lived in Eastham. I didn't have any friends there and spent most of my time talking to animals. I was tuned in then in a way I am not now, but just for those few moments, staring at the fox across from me as he sat looking at me intently in the sand dunes, I realized that I hadn't lost all connection to the natural world. I was tuning in again. I felt deep gratitude for this creature's appearance on Halloween. Foxes, to me, exist between both the physical and spiritual worlds and at a time when the veil between the physical and spiritual is so thin, it felt very auspicious to see him there.
But just as he appeared, he disappeared, almost as if he were never there to begin with.
I carried on down the beach and came upon dozens of sand pipers screeching loudly under the moon. I had no where to walk without running into them, so they flew in formation over the sand and landed in a perfect line along the shore giving me a path to walk.
I know this new month marks the start of a very different time. I can feel I will be writing quite a bit. I can feel I will be uncovering more than I know. I will start teaching a new intuitive writing class on Friday at Ritual in Yarmouth. This time it will be in person. The class is called Conscious Creation. I may also offer it online. I have been working at a deeper and deeper level with the idea that we completely create our reality. I have tested new tools that give clear evidence for this. I'm excited to explore more deeply with conscious creation and see where it leads.
For now, I am grateful for the opportunity to get back in to a rhythm and routine. As the days grow shorter, I'm ready to drop down deep....
Friday, April 29, 2022
Seattle Girl on Cape Cod: The fog will lift and you WILL get your mojo back...
Dear fellow EARTHLINGS,
Are any of you feeling the INERTIA? Are you feeling the fog? Are you on airplane mode? Is your vehicle on auto-pilot? Are you in your comfort ZONE, but feeling like you need a sense of purpose, direction or perhaps a little FIRE under your pants to get you going? (By the way, I enlarged the text on this post because it wants to be LARGE for obvious reasons today).
Well, I am feeling these things!
I had a dream earlier in the month where I was driving my car but had no idea where I was going. The fog outside kept getting thicker and thicker. Eventually I had to pull the car over. I started getting sleepy and realized I was being 'gassed'. I couldn't even bring myself to check my phone or send a message out, I was THAT tired. I was able to lean my car seat back and then I guess I surrendered. It wasn't a fearful dream. I wasn't in FIGHT or FLIGHT.
I just let go....
A few days after that I went down to Mayflower Beach and the entire beach was in a thick fog. It was like I was living out my dream in reality (or vice versa). I walked directly into the fog and couldn't see Cape Cod Bay or people or life of any kind. I could only see less than a foot in front of me, so I walked in the direction of the sound of the waves. I got to the water and dead European Starlings were strewn across the shore. I have an app that identified the birds.
Why were they dead? What killed them? Bird flu? Virus?
I had this eerie feeling and a sense of being the only one left on Earth. I kept walking through the fog with wet sand beneath my feet. There were patches of seaweed and kelp here and there in the sand. I decided to identify some of these: Dead Man's Fingers, Gut Weed...
So now I'm walking through fog over Dead Man's Fingers and Gut Weed to a stark shoreline where once-full-of-song-and-life starlings are lying half-mutilated on the dark, cold sand. If this is not a metaphor for what has been going on in our world for the last...say... 2 to 3 years, I don't know what is.
I stood still for a moment as the fog turned my hair into a wet mess which was now sticking to my face and thought:
For the love of God, can we please have a little light in this world?
Just then the fog lifted. I kid you not. I saw the entire beach stretched out before me. I saw light and people in the distance walking their dogs. I saw kids playing frisbee. Strange seagulls with black heads came out of nowhere. One hovered along side me and I swear he looked me right in the eye. What were these creatures? Before I could have another thought about it, this bird took off on another thermal down the beach. Later, I identified the birds to be a black-headed gulls (makes sense), which is a rare visitor to North America, being that they are European. Maybe they, like the starlings, had a message?
I got my own message that day. It was pretty loud and clear. Surrender and eventually the fog will lift. AMEN TO THAT!
I'm ready for this inertia to go away. I'm ready to feel clear-headed and get my fire back. I'm ready to WRITE and get my next book out there, teach classes, retreats, get my mojo back and GET ON WITH IT.
I'M READY!
I know the world is heavy right now. I know there is a lot going on. I know self care is needed, but that that doesn't mean you can't spread your wings and fly. You are still ALIVE. What do you want to do with this one precious life? We need your light.... so pick something (or pick a few things, but not much more than that) and stick with it until the end.
I am speaking primarily to myself, but perhaps you feel this too? And here's the thing:
Just because the GRINCH stole the ROAST BEAST doesn't mean he gets to steal Christmas, right? All the Whos down in Whoville are not going to let that happen. They are going to join hands, love, sing, create and carry on....
And that's what I plan to do.
How about you?
Saturday, March 12, 2022
Seattle Girl on Cape Cod: Nothing to Fear
Dear fellow Earthlings,
The Earth and the beings living upon the Earth are going through a massive transformation. The way we do things is changing. The old systems are crumbling and as this happens, my guides have let me know that SELF CARE is of UTMOST importance right now. Being very aware of how I spend my time and how I spend my energy is going to be important in the coming months.
At night, I know I am doing work. I can't explain exactly. When I wake up, I usually can't remember much, but I know I am working on the astral plane for the good of others.
Sometimes this work is heavy and it leaves me feeling tired or overwhelmed and even lethargic on the physical plane. I get irritated easy and find there is no time for things anymore. It feels like there is so much to do in the material world, but I can't get a grasp on all of it.
This tells me that my mind is occupied with more things than I know. Perhaps my storage is full and I need to delete some files.
I channel and get messages. I am an intuit and I do psychic readings for people. I have done this work for a long time. The veil between this world and the non-physical world is very thin and if you are tuned in, you are aware of how close it is.
Humans fear death, but life and death are really the same thing: one is physical and one is non-physical. The reason it is frightening is because we give so much value to the material world. If humans gave more value to the non-physical world, or the spirit/spiritual world, they would realize that there really is NOTHING to fear.
Nature is the bridge between the physical and non-physical worlds. Nature has its own language that is not made of words. It speaks all the time and gives messages and signs and answers in every single moment that you tune yourself to her.
When you go out in nature, slow down.
Walk slow and witness each thing you see, hear, taste, touch and smell. Really sink in!
On Saturday, I woke up rather early. Scott wanted to sleep in because he had just returned from a ski trip to Vermont with the company he works for and was tired.
I got a strong feeling to get outside and head to Wing Island in Brewster, Cape Cod. It's a small, sandy island behind the Natural History Museum that is accessible by a boardwalk. I was the only car in the parking lot when I got there at 9am.
Nature responded to me immediately. Just near the parking lot was another trail I had not ventured down yet. I decided to explore it a little. As I walked through the morning sun, hundreds of birds with various calls sang their songs. It was so enchanting. Each one an integral part of Nature's choir. There were chickadees, red cardinals, blue jays, morning doves and birds I could not identify.
I stood there letting the sun soak through me from head to toe and listened to this music.
I must have stood there for a good 10 minutes. I wanted to venture further, but snow and ice covered the trail further down and I had slightly re-sprained my ankle and was recovering again and didn't want to chance it. I walked back to the parking lot and headed to Wing Island.
I walked over a two-plank boardwalk through the marsh. Tall common reeds flanked my path. I felt a kind of ecstasy as I walked across the open marsh. Eventually the path opened to Cape Cod Bay at low tide. I walked far out on the sand flats. I stopped often and basked in the sun and let it fill me up, like drinking from a tall glass of clean water. It was a reminder to return to Nature for sustenance whenever I felt overwhelmed.
Fast forward 6 days and it's now March 12th. I started this post on March 6th. So much has happened in that short span of time. I got SUCKED into the physical plane and all the drama there. The condo where I live is in a battle with board members (seems appropriate since the rest of the world is in a battle too. It's like the macro and micro have lined up). Anyway, a certain board member insists on bulldozing over anyone who steps up or speaks up. I have had trouble with bullies in my life. I don't often stand up to them and over the past 6 days or so, I've decided to stand up. This has caused one of our condo members to become aggressive. There are several unit owners who have recognized and experienced that this is NOT good energy, so we've stood up together. I had a confrontation with that board member on Thursday that sucked all the energy right out of me. She was relentless.
I'm kinda done with narcissists and bullies. We are in a world where I feel they are all rearing their heads and insisting on their ways, but the world is changing at an intense speed and there is no room for that kind of energy anymore. Anyway, I got a strong sign to get out of my condo for awhile and go on a STAY CATION. It's the end of my college quarter and I needed a quiet place to tune in, finish my work and just rest.
I asked myself where I was meant to be and I got Eastham, on the lower Cape. This is my old stomping grounds. It's where I lived with Scott for 8 months when we first came to Cape Cod. I didn't have any friends here then nor a car. Although I desperately wanted a friend, I was able to tune in very deeply to nature and now I view that time as a sort of 'awakening' for myself on a deep level. The lower Cape is WILD. I'd often walk to First Encounter Beach and foxes would walk along side me. Once a coyote stood in the middle of the road. Hawks and osprey fly overhead and the birds are in abundance.
I rented a small cottage on Minister Pond.
When I arrived to this oasis, there was a goodie bag on the table that read "Welcome back to Eastham Katherine!" It was like a warm hug. My entire body began to RELAX. I had stopped by the store and gotten food for the weekend. I had planned to stay here alone to get all my college work done, but Scott will come on Sunday to enjoy,
Right now the wind is HOWLING outside. It's Nature's way of clearing the air. When I drove out here on Friday at around 4, the sun was high in the sky and Tom Petty was playing on the radio singing "I'm FREE....FREE FALLING!" And I remembered that feeling again. I remembered that girl who likes to MOVE and flow and listen. The one who talks to red cardinals and every cat she sees and looks for crocuses and signs of spring.
Yes, when I go inside, when I step back into Nature and pull myself away from the drama on the physical plane, I realize that it is all just WIND. Right now that wind is shaking the door in its frame. It sounds like someone is trying to open the door, but it is all just a bunch of AIR. If I can think of things in this way, I feel okay.
I realize that while the wind seems fierce and relentless, there is always a calm after the storm and maybe that storm is necessary to shake things out of their stagnation. Maybe we all need a little shaking up! Maybe this storm is calling me to not run and hide, but to face what's in front of me, be it wind at my door or a menacing woman at my door. Maybe they are both the same and have just taken on a different forms?
Anyway, I've taken a break from my college grading to finish this post. I have to believe that it will all work out. That all things eventually do work out as they are supposed to.
For now, I crave that quiet, introspective time alone. Here I am during a HUGE STORM out in the woods of Cape Cod alone and there's absolutely nothing to fear.
.