Part IV - the hot/cold cup or the secret of right timing

print by jan skacelik
Now, sometimes a cup of tea is too hot and sometimes a cup of tea is too cold and sometimes a cup of tea is just right and often we can't tell one cup of tea from the other cup of tea until we drink it.

Timing is important with tea.

Timing is about cycles.

Remember that great song from the Byrds (and Pete Seeger before them) - Turn, Turn Turn (you can thank me later for putting this song into your head - it's that freaking good) - which is actually taken word for word from the Bible.

We can feel the truth of these words in our hearts.

Life isn't static. Life doesn't support us getting stuck (and this is great news because when we feel stuck we know that we will eventually - depending on the speed of the cycle we are in and our own natural inclination toward stickiness - be unstuck). Change is what expansion is all about and contrast creates the impulse for change and so we get cycles.

Stuff changes.

We psychically detach from what we need to leave before we physically leave. We can't reattach - things have shifted and we don't fit anymore.

It's our inability to reattach that let's us know this is a real deal thing.

*One word (well 68 words actually) about this detachment and what has happened on our planet in the last couple years - lots of karma has fallen away as the planet has ascended - the dropping of this karma has created a lot of loss in people's lives as things we are no longer connected to fall away -

this is meant to feel like we have lain down some heavy baggage but sometimes we get scared and try to hold onto this stuff that is leaving - a person, a job, a way of life. But we can't stop a cycle we can only ride it out. Whatever we have lost we need to know that life loves us so much it has created this space for us. I have a friend who told me she even lost her attachment to her children for a while and it scared the hell out of her - what she really lost was the karmic connection from her stuff to their stuff. There is nothing to fear here - real stuff can never be lost and love is the real stuff.*

Sometimes with things like marriages and businesses we cycle within the relationship and come back together in a new way, but the cycle happens.

We can't fight the cycle

(it will leave us bruised and battered and calling 911 in the middle of the night if we try)

it will leave us empty.

This empty feeling just means there is no more for us in this place.

This is the feeling that has fueled every single thing that has ever happened since the beginning of time - this is the feeling that we ignore at our own peril - the very expansion of the universe is at stake!

But, because we have forgotten that we are here for expansion - because we have forgotten why we are here and who we really are - we say, "what do I do next? I don't know what to do!".

We don't really need to know what to do next before we move out of an empty place and what we really mean when we think this is that we want to know what is going to happen next. We want to see what's ahead. We want to know that we will have the fairy tale happy ending we were promised and we want it in writing and notarized.

We want to know what is going to happen before we make a move and that just isn't the way this game is played.

If we could sit down right now and watch a movie about the rest of our life; a movie where we could see every challenge, disaster and triumph ahead for us (all of these things are kind of the same to our soul which only requires expansion and doesn't care so much what kind of package this expansion comes wrapped in) - what do we think would happen?

Well, we are only human so we would probably try to avoid the challenges and we would certainly try to avoid the disasters and it would be this very avoiding that would not allow the contrast in our life to create the triumph - in short we'd fuck it all up.

And this is how we screw up our children by the way - when we do things for them and try to make things easy for them; when we take away their contrast we don't allow meaningful desires to be born within them - this has created an entire generation of people who have no idea what the hell they want to do. This isn't the way the game is played.

The truth is we know what we do next because what we do next is always the same thing ... what we do next is stop being in the world we are in. 

We make a move. And yes, this can be a small move - we are totally allowed to make baby steps as long as we keep on making them. And yes, this can be multiple moves in multiple directions because we make our own rules with this. 

The actual decision we make is never as important as the reasons we make the decision because it is the reasons we make the decision that create the outcome!

Our life is created from our decisions as surely as our bones and blood and muscles. The song about the broken, crying woman with "years of bad decisions running down her face" is ... well, freakin' scary. We don't want to be this woman and we truly, truly can't be this woman if we make our decisions for the right reasons - we don't have to make the right decisions, because there are no right decisions! There are only the decisions we make.

Many years ago hubs and I separated. I moved into an apartment with our daughter. We didn't know what we were going to do next we only knew that we had both reached the place of empty at the same time. This is a precarious place for a marriage to be. We were scared. We had another human being, the most important human being on the planet to us, depending on us to make the right decision and we had no idea what the hell we were doing.

After a few months of baby steps in different directions we went away for the weekend together.

We both knew our reasons for whatever decision we made were what would create the outcome we both wanted (which was everyone's happiness) - we both knew instinctively that either decision - to move together or to continue to move apart would eventually create everyone's happiness - so we focused on our reasons and could see that our reasons to move together (which included the happiness of that most important human being and the fact that we still loved each other) were much better reasons than our reasons for moving apart.

We started a new cycle together.

If we had divorced (and if the reasons had been there for that we would have) - then that would have been the right decision and we would have made that work. We would have all been OK. Things would be different for all of us now and we would be in different places, but we would still all be OK - there wouldn't be "years of bad decisions running down our faces", we wouldn't be second guessing ourselves, because we would know that our focus on the reasons would have created our best outcome.

This right timing cup is getting pretty wordy even for me and we haven't talked about the "striking while the iron (or teacup in this case) is hot" kind of timing that creates luck and we will in Part V.

xo

the secret of the cups part III - the leaky cup or how we make sure we never win

print by laura evans
See Part I and II.

It doesn't take long to figure out we are holding a leaky cup.

Our chin gets wet. Our shirt gets wet. Our desk gets wet. Wet happens.

(unless of course we are totally distracted by grumpy cat pictures - I am in love with grumpy cat - actually I mostly am grumpy Cat, so maybe it is the familial thing, I even have the droopy eyelids now. I can't get enough of her)

We probably wouldn't think :

"Dammit this cup leaks! I'm losing tea - I need to pour more tea into this cup!"

But this is exactly what we do with our leaky cups -  the cups that no matter how much we put in there they are never filled - they are bottomless, but we don't seem to notice.

(thankfully not bottomless in a scary hairy ugly guy in a thong at the beach kind of way but not in an endless cup of Java way either and if you are sick of me talking in metaphors you are going to be sick of me for a while because I am feeling the need to talk in pictures these days)

One leaky, bottomless cup most of us we all have is the money cup - yup, I think maybe everybody, it's societal - now don't tell me you don't care about money or you have enough money - this isn't about how much you care about money or how much money you actually have, this is about how much money you feel you have and I probably won't believe you anyway.

We will never feel like we have enough money (obviously we can actually have enough money) - this cup will never be full no matter how much we pour into it.

This is why doing it for the money or making money our main goal is a great way to make sure we can never win.

Hubs and I saved enough money to pay off our mortgage. This was our big deal goal for a long time

(and no, we didn't do this the smart way with extra principal payments - we saved our money in a sock drawer, well a bank account that just smells like a sock drawer).

But once we had the money saved we said to ourselves - "what are we nuts, we can't take all our money and pay off our mortgage - what if an emergency comes up?!" ... so we saved more money.

One day we had 3 months of emergency funds saved plus enough to pay off our mortgage then we said to ourselves - "what are we nuts, 3 months emergency money in this economy is not enough, we need 6 months emergency money!"

So we saved 6 months of emergency money plus enough to pay off our mortgage and we still haven't paid off our mortgage - we will never feel like we have enough money.

(disclaimer - we have a very small, very old, very falling apart house that we have had for decades which makes this whole "saving to pay off our mortgage" quite a bit easier)

When I was in banking I had lots of senior clients who lived like they were destitute from their social security checks while they had hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank. One woman came to me crying that she had to cancel her cable television because the rate went up.

I showed her how we could move some funds into her liquid accounts to cover her shortage for the next 12 months - she didn't need to deprive herself of Sex and the City (hell, no). The same woman who had been crying seconds before, quickly dried her eyes and looked at me like I was nuts. "That money is my savings, Catherine!"

We will never feel like we have enough money.

For many people, especially women, one of these leaky cups is called ATTENTION - as in, I need more and more and more, although we will not admit this even to ourselves (Tony Robbins says that the number one thing women want from men is ATTENTION - why are so many men so freakin' oblivious to this? I think he said the number one thing men want from women is APPRECIATION or maybe he said sex - I kinda slept through the 'what men want' part).

CONTROL is another big old leaky cup. No matter how many things we get under control ... there is always something ... else.

With my south node in Capricorn (Astrological charts are a great help with this, but your own intuition and just an honest look at your life works just as well) I knew CONTROL was a leaky cup for me - in previous lives I needed to be in control, it had always worked for me and those I was responsible for, so I came into this life with that energy and magnetized myself to a childhood situation where life was totally out of control confirming for me that I needed to be in control. 

(and you don't have to believe in past lives to resonate with this - just think 'childhood' whenever you read 'past life', it's a lot of the same stuff)

Now in this lifetime this energy (my been there/done that comfort zone) is precisely what will not work for me. And honest to God every time I give up control I win - every time I try to control things I lose (note- this is not true for everyone) - I once had a wise person say to me "what people who want to control everything really want to control is what other people think of them" - she said it kind of off-handedly and at the time I thought she was wrong, but it stayed with me (which I guess means on some level I didn't really think she was wrong) - now, many years later, I see the truth in this, at least for me (blogging is great for letting go of this one).

The problem isn't the leaky cup itself - the problem is our inability to see the mess it's making when it leaks all over our life - when we make decisions and create intentions and set our focus based on things that are bottomless - we set ourselves up to be unhappy. We need to stop refilling the leaky cup and plug the damn hole!  

I have plugged a lot of holes in the last couple years - we can all do this (I recommend epoxy grout - it's waterproof), but it's a process and life is more of a spiral then a path so sometimes even when we have plugged a leak in the cup's bottom, another little drip might start near the handle and that is ok, more than ok actually because the leaky cups are part of life's polarity that causes growth- we have intended this lifetime as a lifetime of expansion, not perfection.

So, on the path to enlightenment (letting more light in) we let go of the leaky cups (they are always of the ego). We stop looking for something outside of ourselves to fill us.

TRUST is the answer to the leaky cup (and letting go).

Trust that money will be there when we need it - trust that there is enough for us - trust that other people know what's best for them - trust that things will get done without us - trust that we don't need to control things, etc, etc. Think about the areas in your own life that are insatiable and see if more trust (in Life/Universe/God/Higher Self - pick your comfort zone here) might stop the leak. Also it works to be fully invested in an effort (process) but not attached to a result - let go.

Next Up in Part IV (I think I write such long posts so I can write roman numerals, I love them) - the hot/cold cup or the secret of right timing

GIVEAWAY - Winged World Recycled Library Card ART - Emily Dickinson CLOSED

  
I fell in love at first site with Vickie Moore's magical shop where she gives new life to obsolete library cards by turning them into mini works of art!

Winged World, her Oregon shop, is amazing! Vickie rescues most of her cards from libraries with the help of kind-hearted librarians. She loves to look through her collection and imagine what kind of art would suit each one best. One of her favorite parts of the process is researching imagery that could go on a card. Then she gets busy drawing and painting, being careful not to cover over important words on a card ... she has dozens of different designs!



Since Emily Dickinson is a favorite of mine I know others will love her, too!


WHAT YOU GET:

Winged World's wonderful Emily Dickinson card art print!

HOW TO WIN:
It's easy-peasy just leave your contact info in the comments section below or do any of the following for bonus chances:

(5) Like Olive on Facebook (see top right column)
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Facebook/Twitter or Blog this post
Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone!

DRAWING:
Enter by midnight Sunday, February 1st - Good luck! AND THE WINNER IS:

True Random Number Generator 30
Kiddo! Congrats Kiddo and thank you to everyone who entered! (the numbers were 1-84)

 

Saturn Saturday - a step back

print by the geekerie
Instead of popping up another victim volunteer tonight

(because a store's deadline got pushed up and I need to spend this weekend making that plus I have decided after last week's post that it might be most useful if I progress the charts a bit to see what's ahead)

I am going to get all the charts done on Monday (yay for postal holidays) - and post them all next week while I continue the cup series and post the next giveaway.

THE WINNER OF THIS WEEK'S GIVEAWAY IS: ZOE! YAY!

True Random Number Generator
  
Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter - new giveaway on Monday so check back then!

the secrets of the cups - part II (the empty cup)

wall decals by wall to wall decals
The empty cup's secret is, and you may have guessed this already -

it's not really empty

There is no place of nothing that creation springs from - but there is a place of stillness.

From the place of stillness (which is the beginning place, the time of allowing, the time of winter) anything can happen.

Most times when we say we want to be happy and we aren't it's because we don't really value happiness - we really value something else - sometimes we value our reputation more than our happiness, sometimes what we really value is safety.

If we really valued happiness it would be easy to let go of that thing that doesn't make us happy. Children do it all the time. And anything we could do as a child we can do now, anything we knew then we still know now - we have just forgotten our knowing - we've lost touch. It hasn't gone anywhere.

If someone is really unhappy and wanting to break up with her boyfriend - her friends would probably never say to her "well, you need to meet someone new before you break up with him - don't make any move until you have lined up someone else" - in fact, most friends would give her the opposite advice "take your time, sit with yourself for a while, rebound relationships don't work, yada, yada".

But, we tell people who are unhappy with their jobs to wait until they have something else lined up all the time.

[ And, one thing about rebound relationships - 
they actually do work -
because it's not their job to make us safe or happy forever,
nothing outside of ourself gets that job,
it's their job to break our holding pattern -
to bring us to the place of the empty cup -
and they are really good at that ] 

Now, I get that mama needs to bring home the bacon, but mama needs to be mindful of where that bacon actually comes from (and I am not talking pigs here) - because that bacon and wait, let's switch to the word moula (pronounced moola - it's Jersey for money if you are unfamiliar) because I am starting to feel sorry for the pig -

the moula doesn't come from the job - it comes through the job, but it doesn't come from the job - the moula comes from the Universe (God/Higher Self - we should pick our most comfortable word here because we really need to get this and hold it in a place we vibrate with) - the money comes from Source.

I have a niece who is divorced. She needs to go back to court about child support with her ex and is worried that she will not get the amount of money she needs from him. My advice to her is always the same - to remember the money doesn't come from the ex - it may be coming through him, but it doesn't come from him. Her source is the Universe. This was her source when she was married, too - it just looked like her money was coming from her husband's paycheck when in fact Source sent her her husband! The way the money gets to her may change, but her connection to Source is eternal.

(so she sets her intention for what she needs to flow to her effortlessly for the highest good of everyone involved and releases the need for it to come from the ex - note - this doesn't mean that she doesn't go to court and seek a fair payment because action matters, it means she knows that she is ok no matter what happens - she knows her cup isn't really empty even when it looks like it is)

This isn't New Age gobbledy goop. It may be Old-Age goobledy goop (but I don't think so - ha!) - if you resonate with any of this, but not anything New Age check out Florence Scovel Shinn's work, a Jersey girl from the 1800's who knew a thing or two about a thing or two.

Now, I am not saying we should all run out and quit a job we are not loving. There are lots of lessons to be learned from jobs we are not loving (because any kind of learning leads to expansion and expansion is our real job here) - my favorite uncle used to say that you were not really a grown up until you "took a job you didn't want and lost a job you really did".

I am saying that when we get to the place of the empty cup - we often need to step away from the actionable life to gain perspective. 

So, I am not saying we should quit the job we hate, but I am not saying we shouldn't either. It may seem more logical to line up the next thing first, but I am just not sure that what is logical is necessarily true.

[ Rebound jobs and businesses work, too - Etsy is actually a great rebound business. The work of an Etsy shop takes us into the vibration of creativity and community no matter
how much money it channels to us. We expand.]

It is always possible to start a meditation practice and start a new life from a place of gratitude for what we already have

(without leaving that job since the money comes through it, but not from it)

gratitude for what we have is a great bridge from the stuff we don't want to the stuff we do, especially when we don't know what that stuff is yet. The vibration of "I am grateful for this" brings us to a place of more of "this" - we just line up with it, it can't not come to us.

So, we make a list of all the good things we get from the thing we are looking to leave, but think we can't - and we focus on this list. We set an intention for these good things which actually come from Source to find another way to reach us.

We are grateful for the paycheck but not the job. We are grateful for the sense of connection that comes from the people we work with but not the job.

We find we can go to work with a new passion and gratitude - we jump into a new vibration. From that new vibration all kinds of little (and big) synchronicities will start to be drawn into our life and most importantly the empty cup with allow us to notice them. We get to the place of allowing and then we take action from there.

Up Next Part III - the leaky cup

xo all

One of the central teachings of the Course in Miracles is "Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."

It teaches that if you can lose it - it isn't real. This is something it can take a while to wrap our heads around (but an instant to feel its truth in our heart) and some people may never vibrate with this (and that is totally ok - we are all here to learn different stuff), but if we do, it's a life changer.

the secrets of the cups - part 1 (these are not Victoria's Secret Cups but I feel the need to work those words into my title to attract more readers)

print by hair brained schemes
I've been thinking about cups.

Uh, yes, I said cups.

Empty cups and full cups and chipped cups and

that perfect cup of tea (or coffee) that smells just so and tastes just so and sits in our hand just so that when we walk into a room with that cup in our hands -

(even when that room has a sink that is filled to the brim with dirty cups, that everyone else in the house believes are cleaned by fairies - I mean they must believe this because if they weren't being cleaned by some kind of magical process, I'm sure someone would pick up a cup and wash it ... themselves ... sigh)

all is right with our world.

The cup seems a perfect metaphor for everything to me these days.

Let's start with the empty cup - you may or may resonate with this cup - it depends on which cup in the universal kitchen cupboard you are vibrating with right now - there are no rights or wrongs, goods or bads here - I only hope for your sake you are not resonating with that old Disney mug with the picture of Goofy in a racecar and the faded letters that read ... NAScaR daD.

(and it helps if you picture little Oliver Twist with his bent brim metal cup and soulful eyes imploring for more)

The empty cup is what gets our ass moving - it requires some kind of action -

now the cup doesn't need to be totally empty, of course - although for some people, and I think I may be one of them, it takes a swig of nothing from a totally empty cup

(how the hell did I not notice that this stuff in my cup - this stuff that had been sustaining me, at least in a "she's still breathing" kind of way - is ... well, gone)

to wake us up.

(yes, even when we are talking coffee here - it is the empty cup and not the full cup that wakes us up - stay with me)

When my Polarity Quit Your Day Job interview came out on the Etsy blog I got a lot of email from makers (and everyone owns this title because we wouldn't be on the planet earth if we weren't the most courageous and amazing makers in the universe, truly) - many were very drawn to the words

I made space for something new to find me.

This is the secret of the empty cup - the step away from actionable life

(and depending on your vibration the idea of stepping away from anything, even something we know in our heart is not working, can be either very alarming or very seductive - there is probably no middle ground in this for those of us who find ourselves holding an empty cup in the first place)

Now, how this cup gets emptied is a very individual thing:

defining ourselves by how much we do, putting other people first, not speaking up, being somewhere that we do not want to be, doing things we do not want to do -

the cup gets emptied by what we allow.

By the time we realize we are just sucking down air this has probably been happening for years, maybe even decades then we either create some change or more likely life creates this for us, usually in the form of some kind of loss - empty within leads to empty with-out. It has to.

(allow (inner work) + create (outer work) = well, everything actually)

My mother married her first husband when she was 21 years old. The guy she married told her when he asked her to marry him that if she said no, he was going to ask her best friend (women's friendships could be a little too competitive - they still can).

My mother thought about it.

She decided that it would be more painful to watch this guy marry her best friend than it would be for her to actually marry him herself, so she married him.

(note I said first husband)

Even when we don't know what we do want or what we do want to be doing, we still have to take action to get rid of what isn't working - this action precedes the state of allowing that is the empty cup's secret.

We can't slip into those kick-ass boots we just bought before slipping our feet out of our slippers and in between this slipping in and slipping out our feet have got to get naked - there's just no other way - well, unless we have some kind of kick-ass galoshes that fit over top of our slippers - there are never any absolutes with anything, life is tricky, folks.

But mostly this naked feet place is the empty cup place (please keep in mind the image of little Oliver Twist and not naked feet inside empty cups which will get this all mucked up for you)

In Part II we will get to the secret of the empty cup - because every cup has a secret - I think Victoria knew this first ...

(well, except maybe the red solo cup - which is probably the worst song ever written and so doesn't get one)

Next Up - Part II - the secret of the empty cup

GIVEAWAY - Tattly Temporary Tattoo Assortment - Like a Real Tattoo But FAKE!! CLOSED

I have been obsessed with Tattlys since discovering them last year. I bought the I'm Late watches and keep a supply in my house to give to any "guests" who don't show up on time - I've only had one late guest (actually I've only had one guest) since this brain-storm, but you have to believe me when I say these tattoos are awesome - they go on easily, the colors are vibrant and they last a long time (but not forever) - they are perfect!

Tina Roth Eisenberg has turned her collaborative artistic venture into a global tattoo empire! Tired of putting poorly designed temporary tattoos on her daughter’s arm, she took matters into her own hands

and in July 2011 she launched Tattly Temporary Tattoos. Starting with just a handful of different designs, Tattly has received thousands of orders from around the world - after just one year they have 250 designs and are sold in over 90 countries!


WHAT YOU GET:

This awesome 8 set collection (1 of each design) made with soy-based ink. Packaged in card stock sleeve. Includes the following designs: Diamonds by Kate Bingaman-Burt, Peacock by Stina Persson, What to Focus On by Marc Johns, Red Bike by Katie Evans, Enamorado by Blanca Gómez, Popsicles by Julia Rothman, and Oh, Hello and Ship by Mike Lowery.

HOW TO WIN:

It's easy-peasy just leave your contact info in the comments section below or do any of the following for bonus chances:

(5) Like Olive on Facebook (see top right column)
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Facebook/Twitter or Blog this post

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone.

DRAWING:
Enter by midnight Friday 1/18/13!  Good luck! CLOSED

Winner is # 4 - ZOE!

saturn saturday - our first volunteer - we will call her Faith (since she has some crazy faith I know what I am talking about here - I will give her a chart of her planets so she can check out what real astrologers have to say about it, too - since I can only guarantee my accuracy in corks and dog biscuits)

available at gritty city goods
Life is a series of checks and balances (to use my old banker jargon).

We create, we review, we keep what works, we tear down what doesn't or what is finished and we move on to create again. This never stops.

When I was in banking I would often sneak a peek at clients' charts before looking at large investments or commitments to see whether they were more motivated by safety or growth, any significant financial or work related pitfalls ahead, etc - but I haven't looked at charts in a decade plus.

Last week I put out a call for some guinea pigs volunteers to help me get my feet wet again and was grateful to find a few takers. I am going to look at each chart's Saturn, 10th house and North and South Nodes first and then see where my favorite female goddesses rear their heads (next month) - all of this geared to our maker businesses.

During times of transition it can be a clearing exercise to check out what Saturn is doing in our charts. Saturn moves every couple years bringing changes to whatever part of our chart he is hitting and every seven years he creates some hard aspects to shake things up.

The incredibly rich narrative of Saturn in Roman and Greek (Cronus) mythology is too important for me to do it justice here in a paragraph - astrologer Liz Greene has a wonderful book on Saturn and of course the web has lots of info if you are drawn to finding out more.

In astrology Saturn is an aspect of the father/authority figure - it's the 2nd largest planet, it's the planet of contraction (Jupiter, the largest planet, is the planet of expansion so we expand a little more than we contract) - it's about boundaries, responsibilities, karma, commitments, self-control - the stuff that defines (meaning = outlines) us.

Some of Saturn's harder tests are our first Saturn return

(Saturn takes 28 -29 years to come full circle back to the place he occupied at our birth)

in our late 20's and our second Saturn return in our late 50's.

(there are also other aspects like the Neptune Square Neptune at about the age of 41 and the Uranus/Uranus opposition at about the age of 43 - one or both of which throws pretty much every one of us into a mid-life crisis, Chiron return 48-50, Pluto trines Pluto at 58, Uranus Squares Uranus at 63 - both new beginnings)

First up is Faith (names changed to protect the innocent).

When Faith was born Saturn was in Libra and since Saturn was again in Libra from late 2009 until just a couple months ago, I knew at a glance that Faith has just been through her 2nd Saturn return.

This is like our own little (often not so little) personal earthquake- allowing us to shake off anything that is not really us (note- this shaking off may feel kind of like being water-boarded at times and in a partnership house like Libra might lead us through some loneliness and depression).

It can create dramatic change!

new moon day - set those intentions!

print by sonya kanelstrand
Today's full moon in Capricorn makes this a great day to set some intentions for the New Year.

This is not a time to be limiting the universe so it's best to work in terms of essence and not details here.

Life can dream bigger dreams for us than we have for ourselves truly!

(yes, I'm channeling Oprah today)

Don't overthink this. If we are sitting from the place of the question "what do I do now"  or "what do I want" the answer isn't just going to pop into our head because the question (place we are sitting) doesn't vibrate at the same level as the answer (place we are going) - and these aren't really places but maybe this is an easier way to look at it.

These very questions are what keep us stuck!

(this is science - every particle of matter within the universe contains at all times two aspects - the presence of the thing and the absence of the thing)

We are literally activating the vibration of "not knowing" with these questions - the one place in the universe the "knowing" is prevented from being!

We don't have to figure anything out today. The new moon isn't the time for that anyway and that just puts us back in our heads when we need to be working from our hearts right now.

Let's just put our hand over our heart and set our intention for joy!

(imagine it is the end of 2013 and we are thinking that we just had the most joyful year of our lives, just imagine how that would feel and sit in that)

Proof Positive that Positive Thinking ALONE Won't Get Us $5000 A Week For Life

A friend emailed me recently and while we were catching up she asked, "why all the positive thinking stuff on your blog lately?"

I didn't think of this as my recent subject matter, but we all know how scattered multi-faceted this blog is, so it did get me thinking.

I am more about "focusing on what we want" (in particular how we want to feel) these days than positive thinking -

although if we are more naturally inclined to doom and gloom, the sky is falling, Wednesdays are for whining kind of thinking and can evolve just that - well, things will certainly be shaken up for us in big ways.

(I still miss Wednesdays ... sniffle)

I don't think, as Marianne Williamson says "pouring pink paint over our problems and pretending that they don't exist" works either. The stuff we push down always bobs to the surface sooner or later -

although maybe this stuff that is bobbing to the surface is like an inner tube in a fast moving river and actually there to save us and the only reason we think we are drowning is that we are clinging to a slippery rock afraid to let go and reach out for it.

Besides I learned long ago that positive thinking alone is not a sure thing to getting what we want.

When I was a kid I was afraid to go into the bathroom because I always thought something scary was lurking behind the closed shower curtain.

(I admit I still peek behind one now and then ... or maybe every time I go in there)

My mother, being a highly creative and highly frazzled mother of 3 children under the age of 5 would ask, "why does it have to a monster in there Cathy? why can't it be something good? does everything we can't see have to be something bad?"

She started asking us what good stuff could be hiding in the shower. "An ice cream truck!", "A fairy!", "A treasure chest!", "A library!" we shouted, my little brother stopped us in our tracks with "Bozo" (we were old enough to know that clowns could be scary, too) - finally my mother clapped a halt to our shouting with a decision.

"No", she pronounced solemnly, "the best thing would be ... the Publisher's Clearing House guy with the balloons and the check". We all cheered.

From that day forward we pretended the Publisher's Clearing House crew was hiding in our shower ready to spring a $10,000,000 check on us.

It kept us from being afraid of the closed curtain (sort of) but if having 3 kids thinking about that an average of 3 times a day each for, I don't know, let's say 5 years, which would create (grabs my calculator) over 16,000 positive thoughts of a Publisher's Clearing House check didn't draw that guy to our front door

I am pretty certain positive thinking alone is not totally a sure thing.

(of course I am not totally sure my mother ever actually mailed in an entry form)

new moon, new year - 2013 here SHE comes!

calendar by anna newell jones
On Friday we have the first New Moon of 2013 and it's a goodie! Now this new moon is in the sign of Capricorn and Capricorn is the sign that is all about hard work.

Oh no, you are thinking - "not more hard work, Cat, I can't work any harder".

Don't worry- this is the kind of work that pays off, not the kind of work that gets you clean dishes for about 32 seconds until someone lays a coffee spoon in your clean sink.

This is the work that matters.

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn who is kind of the daddy of the universe (well, the sun is kind of the daddy actually, but Saturn is that stern daddy energy). When daddy (ego) is in balance with mommy (the moon/soul) all is right with the world.

When daddy has too much power (like the patriarchal society we had been living in) our drive for power, wealth and control overwhelms the emotional needs of the Moon (soul). It can create a society of greed where too few have too much and stuff gets clogged up - the energy just doesn't flow well - which is part of what we have been dealing with on this planet.

But Saturn is also the awesome and amazing daddy who shows us that hard work pays off, who gives us something to push against and teaches patience and commitment -

his is the gift that keeps us on our path.

Saturn doesn't promise success of course, our journey on planet Earth doesn't come with any guarantees, but he does promise self-esteem.

He's how we earn the stuff that we really get to keep.

(and if you are in your mid-late 20's or mid- late 50's you might find it helpful to study Saturn because he is about to kick your ass)

Anyhoo, a new moon in Capricorn usually just kind of reinforces this power, wealth, control mindset back to us, but it is a brave new world and this new moon is different. The feminine energy will not be held back any longer.

2013 is also a 6 Universal year bringing balance, peace and harmony - this is all about the heart chakra and balancing heaven and earth - bringing our ideals and practical matters together

(for many people this will be  the year when the doing what we love and the money will follow will fall together).

We need the balance of the inner and outer work to create this - the inner work to allow and the outer work to create.

This is a rebuilding year - 6 always brings more responsibility (especially when it comes to family and health) - it brings relationships, community building, love and romance - all good stuff for the planet. Balance and love will be the planet's vibration this year.

(this doesn't mean everything will be all roses and chocolate because vibrations bring up anything that is not of that vibration so we can look at it and deal with it)

The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Pluto, Juno and Venus are all in Capricorn at this New Moon so it is really empowering us to take charge of our lives. It's a time to breathe deeply, ground and center ourselves - move from our hearts - we are setting the foundation for the next 12 months. 

Jan Spiller has the New Moon Wishes Reminder HERE that you might find helpful. Voicing and putting our intentions on paper at any New Moon is powerful.

To everyone who left a comment or emailed me about our upcoming 10th house exploration (we are also going to look at north and south nodes) - we will do this anonymously - I will contact you or you can contact me with your birth date info if I don't already have it - if you know the time (and time zone) of your birth that works best!

xo all

My Beads and Beyond Interview is in their GO GREEN Issue

I am so happy Beads and Beyond is promoting upcycled and recycled jewelry in this month's issue - I love that they write I make jewelry from "bits 'n bobs" - what better - ack!

people let you be who you show them that you are


photography print by carolyn cochrane
I used to hate winter. I disliked the cold weather, driving in the snow,

(this probably had most to do with the condition of my tires ... our cars are always like the shoemaker's kid's feet - hubs, after looking at other people's vehicles all day long, doesn't look at mine unless my check engine light is on and it is up for inspection and we are going on a road trip)

the short days - almost everything about winter depressed me.

I am not a winter sports kind of girl either. I can't ice skate. I have skied exactly once - I still think my skis were either sabotaged (I blame some kind of jealous mean-girl stuff to embarrass the Jersey girl as if my leather jacket wasn't embarrassing enough) or defective because everyone else in my beginner's class learned the "stopping part" (opening the back of the skies or moving both skies sideways) right away .. except me

my "stopping" always involved a crowd of people that I would bounce off like a human bumper car or face-planting myself in the snow while people circled me whispering "is that girl still alive?".

It was when I started a maker business that involved a labor-intensive retail holiday season (and returned to my astrology-lovin' roots) that I began to truly appreciate this time of year.

Winter is the first season - the time when the stuff that is happening is still hidden. The sap is in the roots and everything is still.

Personally I am never in sync with the January/February wholesale show schedules. I get that this is the perfect time of year for buyers to be thinking about and purchasing new inventory and planning for the new year for their shops but for makers this is the time when new work is more naturally cocooned. Stuff is happening; it just hasn't taken form yet.

There is a wonderful Capricorn New Moon on Friday - usually a Capricorn New Moon because Capricorn is ruled by Saturn is kind of heavy and not exactly uplifting stuff, but this one is really setting the stage for a dynamic year for all of us.

(and again since we are living in a time of great transition, the ability to let go and embrace change is going to allow the year to be very positive)

This is the best new moon for setting intentions for the year (not necessarily goals), evolving away from bad habits and leaning into new, better ones especially those having to do with 10th house stuff which Capricorn rules.  Most people think of the 10th house as career and it's also known as the house of the 'shaping' parent, but it's really the kind of creative endeavors that gives us our social status. The connection between your shaping parent and your professional status was once easy to understand - today it is often more of a family legacy that must be faced.

This used to be mostly the ego's domain, the house of "will I succeed, will I make money" - the stuff we focus so much attention on for 60, or 70, or 80 years and then realize we should have been paying more attention to the 4th house.

But the new paradigm is creating a shift with this social status house. If you know what planet was in the 10th house when you were born that will really help you work with this energy. The planet in a house is a cosmic computer. It draws down that energy from the cosmos, and through us it sends it out again. Like a tossed stone falling slowly through the water, a planet in a house drops through all the years of our experience there.

I am going to add a business astrology column this year working with this house. I may need some guinea pigs volunteers. I don't want the column to be all mumbo-jumbo like the last 3 paragraphs - ack! but real, understandable and useful information to help build our businesses.

For example a friend recently told me that her family does not take her business seriously. She has a maker shop on Etsy. She calls it a business. Her family calls it her hobby. Now, I know that if she really thought her maker shop was a business everyone else would, too. The problem isn't her family's, the problem is hers and the answer may lie in her 10th house.

Anyhoo, I am going to explore some stuff like this over the winter if I can get a few makers to give up their birth dates (we are all family here after all and 2013 is the year of community) plus I have a few cool giveaways (yes, they're back!) and tutorials to post and a series called "It's Not How We Can Get More, It's How We Can Be More" that is starting to percolate.

xo everyone - stay warm (I still kind of hate the cold).


keeping the channel open ....

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open  . . ."
- Martha Graham

(wonderful quote to kick off 2013 don't you think ... thank you Marina)

Getting this Puppy and YOUR Creative Biz on a Schedule for 2013

a life through the lens calendar 2013
To be honest I usually kind of wing most things and have ceased visioning and affirming anything specific for my business and life right now -

I trust that all the amazing stuff that is meant to find me will - I just need to expend the energy

(and I have found that expending the energy is more important than the precise thing I expend the energy on, in other words it doesn't matter so much what we do in the beginning, so much as we do something)

set the intention for JOY

(yes, JOY - not lower-casing this baby anymore - I'm ready for the real thing and if you are, too - remember grandma's advice "be careful what you wish for" because sometimes a whole lot of things have to move over and sometimes right on out of your life to make room for JOY and once you set these wheels in motion there is no wheeling this elephant out of your living room - JOY ain't goin' nowhere)

and get out of my own way.

This get out of our own way thing is crucial for us over-thinkers. Getting on a more clearly defined marketing schedule - and making some things more automatic will help. This doesn't mean that we aren't able to change things when we need to - what's the point of being a small and thus nimble business if we can't pivot on a dime after all - but having a plan is a plan in itself and even us "fly by the seat of our pants, trust the amazing stuff will find us" girls need one for some things.

Step 1. Get yourself a calendar - there are a gazillion amazing ones HERE and some you can even download and get started today

(this will also allow us to make multiple copies which we are going to need anyway)

Step 2. Add the big deal dates - you may think of some I have missed, my brain is still on 2012 time

(for most one-day holidays mark all dates from 1-2 months back, for Christmas go 3 months back, for seasonal events mark all dates throughout the season and remember Etsy's never ending wedding focus last year - I'm sure it made them some big bucks, handmade weddings are not going anywhere and are something people will always spend money on - they are somewhat recession proof - and most makers could use something geared to this)

• New Years
• Valentine's Day
• Easter
• Mother's Day
• Graduations
• Weddings
• Father's Day
• Back to School
• Halloween
• Hanukkah
• Christmas

Step 3. Take a look at last year's Chase special months (you can buy the real-deal 2013 one somewhere - this is the abridged list) - what's the stuff on here that is calling your name - what can fill in some gaps in your calendar - this stuff can provide some excellent publicity ideas when you approach blogs, etc

Start thinking about an annual charity event your biz can do - what are you passionate about? This isn't something to do when your business is making more money - this is something to do now.

Step 4. Add your show schedule

Step 5. Make a list of some print magazines that could feature your work and check their media kits to see what they will be writing about over the next year - scope the blogosphere for some blogs that should be talking about you

Now you don't have to do everything right away - this isn't one more overwhelming thing after an exhausting holiday season - this is something to make our making easier and this is just the basics anyway.

This will be fun I promise and we will feel infinitely better just seeing these little color coded events on our calendars - yes, I said color code - we must color-code and I do not take the word "must" lightly folks - we need markers!

And let's pretend all this stuff is being done by our assistant named ... Lucy or Harriet or Clementine

(yes, I am looking at those little oranges right now - how'd you guess)

and actually while we are doing this stuff we should get dressed in our officey best (Lucy would after all).

One day last year (actually I was working after going to a wake, so it may not be the best example) I got so much done when working "dressed up" that it made me think it would be a good idea to get dressed everyday ... I didn't actually do this, but I did think it ...

Next time I'll tie this stuff all together, for now just have fun with it.

more stuff I learned in 2012 ... the list goes on and on ....

poster from totally old school
2012 kicked my butt.

My mood right now is "BRING IT ON 2013!" - but this changes hourly - 60 minutes ago it was more like - BRING ... me a hot chocolate and my snugli ... (mommy? sniffle)

I really want to finish this countdown before Dick Clark does his ... is Dick Clark still doing that?!

And yes, I think I have lost lessons 8 and 9 somehow - we will just pretend they were highly personal and emotional lessons that I just can't bring myself to write about - instead of admitting that I just can't count.

#6 - Mental illness sucks. It is not something we deal with well in this country (maybe this is true everywhere).

David lived with us off and on (mostly on) for 8 months in 2012 - we were never able to get him on medication although he was having major psychotic symptoms and episodes.

Finally after a particularly bad episode that ended with him in jail for a long period he was accepted into a program to help keep people from returning to jail. They were able to get him on an anti-psychotic monthly shot (which costs $800 per month - he has 2 left before his samples run out) and into a new program and temporary housing (4 months before his money runs out).

Unfortunately the shot that helps with the voices also makes him aggressive and even more difficult at times. He continues to drink. Schizophrenia is a nightmare; so is alcoholism.

David was our first 2012 hurricane - he blew in and out of our lives and changed us forever and we are totally grateful.

#5 - We are totally unprepared to live without electricity. Hubs and I have been kidding ourselves for years about being somewhat self-sufficient - we're not.

On the other hand I have no interest in being a survivalist - if the world winds down to a handful of people wandering the planet, fending off hoards of hungry animals and killing each other for acorns - I would be totally happy not being one of them.

#4 - I need more downtime; more time to do things unconnected with business. I am going to make this happen. When we had regular jobs we had weekends and even though our weekends now may not always fall on Saturday and Sunday - we still need week ends (a time when our week ends).

#3 - I need to figure out this diet, hormone, environment, eczema, sleep, dry eye, nerve, memory thing - enuf said.

#2 - Now is the time  - I truly believe the old world is ending. Our planet has moved on. Maybe this is what it felt like as the dark ages moved into the renaissance - like things were falling apart or things were coming together and it all depended on how we looked at things - except it's even bigger this time because the stakes are so much higher.

We are the luckiest beings in the universe to get to experience this.

There won't be a guru or messiah coming to get us out of this mess (this is why Obama often disappoints us - he's a catalyst not a savior - he is just mirroring ourselves back to us) - the Hopi were right - we are the ones we have been waiting for.

We have to do the work ourselves - this can only happen by walking the path of conscious choice - discernment, non-judgement, non-attachment to outcomes and detaching from our stories. First step - a meditation practice if we don't have one. Deborah King's is one of my favorites.

# 1 - I am awake now.

And yes, some days I wish I was still snoozing, but we can't unknow what we know and yes, once we know better we do better and yes, to whom much has been given much is expected and yes, nothing about this is easy. It is simple though. Hard but simple. We can do this. Artists and creators (which is everyone actually) have to.


banner by remembered times

Bye Bye 2012 - the countdown continues ...

print by tammy olsen
# 7 Lesson Learned in 2012 - Releasing Attachment to An Outcome (or time to toss the vision boards)

Now I admit that just because I learned a lesson doesn't mean this isn't a process - nothing is so black and white these days for any of us.

This isn't 3rd grade where our times tables were burned into our brains

(except 7X8 - why do I always have to think about that one and by "think" I mean add 7 to 49 ... with my fingers)

things are much more fluid now.

Maybe lesson #7 next year will scream - BRING BACK THE VISION BOARD! Maybe not.

I am trusting now that life has bigger plans for us, bigger dreams than we can wrap our arms around right now - stuff we can't see yet because maybe there are still a few twists and turns in the road ahead.

This isn't about not setting any goals (well maybe it is in some ways) but about making the goals more about how I want to feel than where I want to be or what I want to happen (which has always felt a little like spiritual manipulation ala the secret) -

I will trust that if I just choose joy in the moment I will bring more joy into my life. If I choose more abundance in the moment (yes, I'm buying the damn blueberries even when they are $3.49 a pint!) I will bring more abundance into my life - I don't need to dictate how that abundance will be delivered.

I will take a lesson from my 3 year old niece Elise - who when bike riding on a windy day and told she needed a hat said, "I don't need a hat. I need a pin wheel."

I will make myself a pinwheel. Hell, I'll make myself a whole basket-full of them.

The 2012 Bye-Bye Countdown Continues ...

fancy that design house print
I am glad to shut the door on 2012.

(don't let it hit ya' on the way out 2012!)

I admit I secretly hoped we would all wake up on 12/22 totally enlightened and fifth dimensional and living on a conscious, peaceful planet and we did to some extent,
but I wanted more -

I wanted a lot more.

In my own life the crazy stressful holiday work time (I make about 35% of my annual income in about 6 weeks) was bookended by the two Sandy tragedies - the first a hurricane that swept away so much and left us holding on to what we came to realize was most important; the second a much greater tragedy that brought what really matters into even crisper focus and all of us to our knees.

(in 2013 we have 3 mercury retrogrades in water signs so the theme of wet weather will continue as well as the water themes of children and childhood  - of feelings - do you like how you feel, are you being well-used - and compassion - there will be a grand trine in July that could see a huge surge in compassion on our planet next summer and yes, compassion often comes out of loss and need - so there may be challenges ahead)

Anyhoo, I have been thinking a lot lately about what to do with this blog. It is going in a lot of different directions and I would really like to give it a stronger focus.

In the meantime I'll continue counting down some 2012 lessons and see what this brings up.

Lesson # 9 - Having less to work with requires us to be more creative

When I opened my shop Uncorked on Etsy 5 years ago I had one product - a test tube cork necklace. I picked the name Uncorked because ... well, mostly because it had the word cork in it, I guess.

(plus I didn't have Olive for a couple months and my studio name was still Dream Scenes from my old work and that didn't fit anymore and I was tired of it)

There are lots of reasons why Uncorked is a terrible shop name but luckily none of them occurred to me at the time because having that name forced me to work with just that one material to grow the shop.

Restricting the material I worked with allowed all the amazing work to flow through me - it forced me to be more creative.

This is just one example of how having less to work with enables more creativity - we knew this as kids and parents instinctively know that when we give our kids too much their creativity is hampered.

This restriction definitely doesn't have to be about the materials we work with, but if we find our creativity stifled or ourselves overwhelmed with all the possibilities - some self-imposed restrictions can be a real benefit.