First Fruits from the Work (!)

Momentous day today on the Work front - that is, the Spiritual career, the reason I have only a part time (muggle) job right now and intend to keep it that way, tyvm! ;-)

In April I began work with a woman who was facing spinal surgery and was very concerned about it, in specific, and about her life, in general. Her actual surgery will be this Tuesday. I've gently been inviting her to think outside the box about her life and her surgery. Today I did the procedure before the procedure, in a sense...doing some "psychic surgery" on her spine to remove those parts that were ailing. When the physical equivalent is done two days hence, the recovery should go well, all things being equal.

After the ritual I stayed and answered some questions, for her and for her partner. Said partner has also expressed an interest in working with me on her issues; we set an initial date for this next Friday. :-)

This comes a few days after I answered a call for help (advise-wise) that was put out in one of my Internet groups. This woman liked my emailed response, so we arranged to talk on the phone. I will be meeting her in person next Sunday, if all goes according to plan.

My cultivating begins to pay off. Two new clients in three days!
In deepest gratitude, I say unto the Universe, "YES! I Accept!"

The Dance of Time

I'm really into the groove now. The structure has set and is solid and firm.

It is funny how fluid time has become...
When I am not at work, I am in kairos time, the simple time, the easy time.
When I am at work, time shifts on me, speeding up. I shift smoothly with it into chronos time and find myself moving almost as fast as inspiration traveling through my neurons. The neurons still outpace me though, at times; just listen and laugh when I try to say the tag-line for a company and trip over my tongue because it momentarily disconnected from my brain! ;-)
Yet the moment I get into my car, start him up, and drive out of the parking lot, I am back into kairos time. It slows down to its previous pace, even when I'm zipping down the freeway at 70 mph.

On the one hand, I'm glad I didn't lose the ability to move at the speed of life during my fallow period. I'm glad I can speed myself up and slow myself down with grace and ease.
On the other hand, though, an old bad habit of mine is dropping by and trying to wiggle its way back into my life: impatience. When I'm moving at the speed of life, I'm expecting everyone else to keep up, and allowing myself to get frustrated now and again when they don't keep up. The Universe has observed this, and has sent my way some very powerful lessons to help me remember to slow down, even in the hyperactive times, and pay attention to who I am and what I'm doing. Two of these lessons have occurred within the last few days, on the freeway, where the temptation to be in Hyperactive mode is sorely tempting. Both times I've had to exert some major Power to keep myself in the reality where I don't wreck the car! So I am very thankful that my car is still in one piece - and I learn the lessons, taking a deep breath more often to slow down, recenter, and remember to exercise the Patience I acquired during the spring!
(You see, I am an adrenaline junkie. A part of me gets a rush from being on the razor's edge of time. I must remember that I don't need to be on that edge all the time, and step back from the edge when necessary.)

As within, so without...the larger dance of time is unfolding as well. Spring has moved into Summer, which is reaching is midpoint and kicking into high gear. Tank-top and shorts weather at last! - outside of work, at least. ;-)
And, outside of work, I am invited again to exercise patience. A good friend of mine is shifting herself in huge ways right now. Once she has finished her shifting, she is re-opening her spiritual center and re-extending the invitation to walk the path of spirit with her. I call her a friend; she has also been a mentor to me as I have explored within myself and accessed my psychic gifts. I am advised by my guides to wait for her, before I take any radical steps forward.
So in this "empty" space, I find myself shifting as well. I find myself clearing out toxic wounds I have been carrying in my DNA for centuries. I find myself drawn to Reiki, and beginning to practice it after receiving a spontaneous attunement while receiving a massage. I find myself reorganizing my images and placing them into a new accordion file, which will go into the bottom drawer on the left hand side of my former writing desk, soon to be my new Creation Center.
I also find myself writing again, both at work (in a little blue notepad) and at this very computer. Original material flows out of my hand at work; revision of one of the first stories I wrote trickles out of my fingers at home. Both stories are connected by a handful of key characters and an interesting speculation that sent me off on a wonderful tangent...

I find myself in a cultivating phase. Many things are growing right now, the branches becoming heavy with fruit. The harvest this year promises to be glorious... :-)

eyes on the prize

Every week I work with a couple of card decks - Sonya Choquette's Ask Your Guides and Doreen Virtue's Goddess Guidance decks - to "give" readings to myself. Both of them brought up keeping focused on my goals. I recently acquired Monte Ferber's Karma Cards and added them to the mix...and they echoed the readings I'd already drawn for myself.

Keep your eyes on the prize, the Universe is telling me. And I know where it's coming from:
There is the temptation to let work take over my life again, to put all of my energy into the J.O.B. and not leave time for anything else to get done. My goal is to have the work be my foundation, my equilibrium point that gives me the opportunity to pursue the Important Work and not have to worry about the bills. I write this in part to help me remember this... ;-)

So I managed to tweak my schedule a little bit to my advantage. I work 27 hours a week now. Much better for me!! :-D Now I can contemplate my next step(s)...

Consolidating my Creativity

I've referred to the main room of my home as my ersatz art studio. I collage as a serious hobby, and I like to collect images from magazines and catalogs and calendars, various odds and ends of ribbon, paper scraps, assorted stickers, and the occasional Found Object. Little by little, the prima facie of my creative impulses spreads out in the main room, taking up more & more space... :-O

Peter Walsh, one of the current de-cluttering gurus, was on Oprah the other day. Among other folks, he helped a woman tame her collection of scrapbooking supplies into something infinitely more manageable. One neuron struck another in my mind, and I looked over to the writing-desk against the western wall. I could very easily make it the center of my creative operations, I thought to myself.

So I emptied it out, one drawer at a time. A grocery bag now stands beside it, filled with decks of playing cards, not-terribly-used, entirely-unused and never-to-be-used Post-It notes and memo pads, and untouched stationary sets. All will be relocated to good homes. ;-)

I've integrated the snail-mail materials that I've used into the collection of snailing materials we already possess, categorized everything, and placed them in their own labelled bags. I reserve the right to take unused cards and incorporate them into my own collage/artwork.

All I need now is one, possibly two, accordion files to hold my images. Once I've secured those, my creative work will fall into harmonic organization. A trip to Staples or Office Depot is on my event horizon... :-)

Remembering Fluidity

Tomorrow will be two weeks since I returned to the answering service.
During these two weeks, it occurred to me: I did ask the Universe, at the start of the year, how best I could Be Of Service. And the Universe responded by guiding me back here, to a place where I can, literally, serve.
So I have a schedule, and am allowing things to fall into place around it.
I acknowledge that I need the structure in my life. I need a frame to work off of, to create my life around it.

In total, I will be working 31 hours a week. Yes, that's only an hour less than where I was at the synagogue. BUT - here's the big difference - I don't have to be "on point" all the time. I don't have to keep artificially busy, lest the rabbi walks by and complain that I'm not working enough! :-p When there are quiet times, and there are, I can read...or even better, write.
That was the one thing I liked about working at the service in the past: I had time to write. A lot. It will be nice to get back into that flow.

And the list anxiety is beginning to crop up again, as in, ohmigod, I want to do a-b-c-d-and e today, but I'll be lucky if I get to b. Shit damn balls...I'm falling behind again.
Falling behind in whose opinion, love?

Let me take the grace*full ease in living that I cultivated during my fallow time and apply it here, now, as the speed of life begins to pick up again. Let me reassure myself that all will happen in the fullness of time, at the perfect time, and in a timely fashion. I am moving exactly at the pace I am supposed to.

Besides, barring the Four Horsemen riding through the service, I've accomplished my top goal:
my Fridays are completely free, and my Saturday evenings are free as well. I also have Sunday off...and since I don't have to work until the afternoon, I can open up Sundays to play too. :-)

I exercise patience, and allow the Mystery to unfold at my feet, one day at a time.