Manifesting for Makers - Part III (continued) Connection - the service to others part of manifesting / our calling

print by Jon Van Gilder
See previous posts in this series HERE HERE HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

"Do what you love and the money will follow."

YES - but it is not always a connect the dots, straight line  kind of thing. Life will absolutely support us doing what we love but we are not here to make money doing what we love.

We are much bigger than that.

We are here to make a life doing what we love.

We are here to do what we love that serves others. We serve others by doing what we love - this sounds like a circle because it is - the point of power is with us.

This serving others thing isn't about martyrdom and self-sacrifice because we are totally over that.

(and if we're not - we need to be ... fast - life just doesn't support this way of being in the world anymore - the old paradigm of giving away our power and authority to others - of expecting someone or something to save us or us trying to save others is part of the old energy system)

Doing what we love that serves others too, agrees that we are all in this together - one of the principal teachings of a Course in Miracles is "there is only one of us here" - in this way everything we do effects everyone and everything else.

Does this mean that if we love to let's say, knit, that we will be able to make a living with our knitting?  Well, we will be able to make a life with our knitting (and the 100 other things we are passionate about most likely, it is not such an all or nothing journey).

If a girl's called to knit, then that girl should knit. Not knitting because it won't pay the electric bill is playing small and we are here to play big - knowing what we love and doing it expands everything. Life will send us a way to pay the electric bill. Life will support our following our passions to the extent we contribute to the world.

 (and yes, it may be a through our own Etsy shop selling scarves and a part-time job at the local bookstore during the day so we can knit at night while we watch American Idol because who knows how our work at the bookstore will touch our life and the lives of other people)

Many people I know are looking for ways to be of service these days - wanting to make a living doing something totally outward focused - helping other people, doing what they are called to do. The world is moving in this direction and it is moving in this direction because we are.

This direction, for now, still includes money. If we see the world as a corrupt place or money as a corrupting force in society (it isn't)  - we need to be looking at how this is so in our own life. How are we allowing ourselves to be corrupted by money? We change the world by changing ourselves.

(ie doing things we are not in alignment with to make money or save money - I am not liking the word 'save' these days, substituting the word 'invest' feels more in alignment with the new paradigm - we are investing in the future, not saving for a rainy day, for example, also the words making a living referring to making money has to go away, too)

Also I will add for anyone who is open to this way of thinking that I have seen many maker's  charts and often artists and healers come into this lifetime with a disconnect from money - from lives where they didn't need to deal with that energy and so have never learned to - lives where they were taken care of or unhealthy or lived in communal situations or have taken vows of poverty in previous lives - note - if this sounds like something you might resonate with it can never hurt to ask your higher self to seek release from this vow - a friend told me it felt like a rock rolled off her back after meditating on release.

When we raise our vibration; everything raises with us (the only one of us here thing). The tide isn't carrying us, we are the tide.

To recap this manifesting thing - 1. We practice compassion (nonjudgment with others and ourselves)

2. We don't have to know what you want (thinking we have to know this is what gets so many of us stuck) - we just have to know how we want to feel. We focus on the things we already have that make us feel this way. We set our intention.

Vision Board TIP - I used to be very big on vision boards and have had a lot of success with them- I always start my vision board with pictures of what I already have in my life - things I am grateful for and am already in vibration with, so for example if I want more recognition (still working on releasing this one) I would start the board with images of ways I have been recognized - cards from my daughter, thank you notes, awards, articles, blah-blah - I would get myself into the vibration of that and then add images of this in bigger ways to my board.

3. We don't have to make things happen, we just have to get out of our own way (this isn't about laziness or inaction - this is about getting to a place of compassion and alignment with the vibration we want and using the law of attraction to bring to us what we need; what we are here to manifest, what is truly ours).

4. We focus on the part of this that supports others.
5. We release our attachment to the outcome.
6. We take action on the things that come into our life.

(and recaps suck because this sounds like bull$hit and I really hope the posts said more than this)

Anyhoo, this series is a bit all over the place - I took too long to write it and with with no time to go back and read and edit, it feels a little wanting to me - I hope someone can get something useful out of it anyway - I  have to wrap it up until after the holidays because life is starting to get a little bit... well, bat $hit crazy actually (excuse my Jersey again). The hurricane seems to have blown away 3 weeks of my life along with the little town of Mantoloking and I am still playing catch up ...

Tomorrow is a lunar eclipse and a full moon and I'm hoping to do a post about that - heads up though!

The Hopi Prophecy
To my fellow swimmers:

here is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift,
that there are those who will be afraid,
who will try to hold on to the shore,
they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know that the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore,
push off into the middle of the river,
and keep our heads above water.
And I say see who is there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history we are to take nothing personally,
least of all ourselves, for the moment we do,
our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves.
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

For we are the ones we have been waiting for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today's note from the universe:

Two of the most powerful words in the English language for bringing about change, Cat, are "thank you."

Especially when offered before the change even occurs and everything still looks pretty much like it did yesterday.

You'll have to think of something to say afterwards on your own.

Hubba, hubba -
The Universe


print by Yaya Berg

Manifesting for Makers - Part III Connection - the service to others part of manifesting / our calling

vinyl lettering by village vine press
A lot of the information out there about the law of attraction will tell us to figure out what we want and focus our intention on that.

A few years ago I wanted a hybrid car and the Prius seemed too small for my business and my life (I have lately been rethinking this).

I started researching the Ford Escape (the word escape even kept appearing in my life and by research I mean one afternoon on the internet looking at reviews - I am not much of a researcher). I decided I wanted one.

I wanted a light blue Ford Escape - I wasn't so much thinking about GPS and stereos and cup holders and safety things - I was just thinking light blue. I called all the dealers within 100 miles and none had an Escape that wasn't black or white. They all told me it would take months to get one in my choice of color. And of course, I had procrastinated the whole process to the point that I needed a car right away.

I decided to go test drive a white one and see if I could live with it - I had already owned a white car (we only get so many cars in our life, so why repeat colors is my way of thinking with this) and I really didn't want another white car. Anyhoo, I was on my way out the door to go to the closest Ford dealer when hubs called reminding me about going to a friend's house for dinner and that we needed to bring dessert.

So, I skipped the nearby dealer and drove to a dealer a couple towns further so I could stop at our fave bakery. I was test-driving a white Escape and was on a back road a mile or so from the dealer, and suddenly I spied a light blue Escape sitting in a parking lot; a parking lot filled with new cars; a parking lot that happened to be an overflow lot for the dealer. It was brand new - fully loaded - more than I wanted to pay, of course ... but light blue.

I drove back to the dealer and asked them about the car in the back lot - they looked at me like I was crazy -  they didn't have a light blue Escape in their back lot. I drove the sales guy back there and  he was surprised to find that I wasn't crazy (this was a first for me, too - finding out I'm not crazy I mean), checked their records and discovered that the Escape had never been entered in their computer.

Hubs and I realized later that we had the wrong week for the dinner and celebrated my new car by polishing off the entire boston creme pie ourselves.

Now, it isn't like this car saved my life or turned out to be the buy of the century (I'm sure I totally overpaid) but do I believe that a whole bundle of little things had to fall into place for me to have that car - YES.

Do I believe that the universe/my higher self/God wanted me to have this car? No. Do I believe that the universe/my higher self/God wanted me to see that I could manifest this car without pushing, without me making things happen myself, that little things could fall into place for me in magical ways when I got clear on what I wanted? Yes.

The problem is that I am not usually so clear on what I want. I am the girl who has sat in indecision growing cobwebs and rust and depression while birds roost in my hair and summer turns to fall

Luckily, we don't have to know what we want for this magic to work for us - we just have to know who we are.

We don't have to know what we want to do in order for the law of attraction to work for us in positive ways (this is attraction after all - we are not a searchlight - we are a beacon).

We just have to know how we want to feel. And we know that - we were born knowing that.

I will finish this up tomorrow. I have to make some stuffing for tomorrow's dinner and this means cutting onions which I hate - since I just got over the 'eyes like coin slot' face I wore all last week.

let's just be thankful because ...

photo by rosemary jordan
I sat down to finish up my Manifesting for Makers series because I know everyone is desperate to start manifesting ... , well something, something hopefully
worth the 15 minutes it takes to read that series,

(although you are best to never assume I know what the hell I am talking about and read everything I offer up at your own risk)

but so many things are in such flux right now and with a holiday week before us I think I will just offer up a little bit of thankfulness and disappear into my studio for a few long days to catch up with my own manifesting.

The first few things that pop into my hurricane scattered brain are:

1. I did not drive a Buick Roadster
(this may get my vote for most boring car ever and I have photographic proof that hubs used to drive one) - but I did drive an AMC Hornet (I bet this is not even googleable) and a Mercury Capri (although that was my first car - brown with a black vinyl top and totally awesome - I would probably still have it if my sister hadn't ran it out of gas and abandoned it somewhere near the beach where last we saw it a guy named Larry had moved in, rigged a cable line from a neighboring house for his tellie and started receiving mail and company)

and now that I google these cars they look like muscle cars and I don't remember driving muscle cars, but it kind of makes sense for me since I have very nice calf muscles or used to have very nice calf muscles or once fell down the stairs at the beach checking out hub's (before he was hubs) very nice calf muscles, so much for subtlety, but I did get a good look when I rolled past them as he clung to the railing in horror- I think this is how I won his heart - take notes girls.

2. My eyes (and hair) have returned to (sort of) normal after being swollen and irritated for several days after using an eye mask someone had given me to help me sleep (I think it was scented with lavender and pollen) which made my eyes the size of the "insert coin" slots at the laundromat causing me to mistake hair conditioner for shampoo 2 days in a row.

3. I no longer have to be jealous of my friends beautiful floors (because they are all underwater now) and the fact that they live in homes where 'refinishing the floor' doesn't mean 'buying a Dora the Explorer blankie to throw over that place in the carpet the cat clawed up 10 years ago'. Seeing all the beautiful homes turned into homes like mine and the people determined to rebuild them did make me realize I live at the equivalent of Baltic Avenue though  - I am going to have to work on this ...

4. We all survived the hurricane and will survive the aftermath - everything lost can be replaced, rebuilt or released - I vote for released with most things.

Wishing everyone a very thankful holiday. I will be back later in the week for finish up that series and offer up my shop's holiday announcements! xo to everyone

I LOVE LUCY - Upcycled Holiday Gift Countdown - Week # 6 - Best Friend Name Tag Necklaces


When I stumbled on this collection of vintage name tags last summer at Tess Home in Point Pleasant Beach I had to grab them up!

I was going to use them as name tags for a party - since they include the best names evah, (Bertha, Olga, Alice, Francis!)

but when I saw I had the names Lucille and Ethel I knew these 2 would make an amazing pair of best friend necklaces!

Now you may not stumble across tags like these, but this may get you thinking of a new way to make a special necklace set for you and your BFF this season.


There is no one way to do this and it will depend on what kind of attachments and doodads you have on hand. I measured and marked my center holes for drilling the tags - riveted on some industrial grommets (you could definitely just add your jump rings to the holes), added some jump rings,

used some fabric strips for cording (you can tie on additional strips to make chains longer, knots just add to the character of these pieces) and added some industrial hardware to some fabric beads for the final voila!

(now I just need a BFF - not sure I can convince hubs to wear an Ethel necklace - but I'm not parting with Lucy)

Manifesting for Makers - Part II - your message matters

fabric on wood, original artwork by shellie artist
I am going to go off-topic for a minute here for all my ascension 2012 focused peeps who are emailing me about Hurricane Sandy and the end of the world

(or the end of the world as we know it).

To alot of us here this is bringing up memories of September 11th and probably even more distant memories of loss (soul and/or body) are being activated.

The truth of the 2012 energy - which isn't actually about just this one year, but the vibrational intensity of so many people thinking these changes are specifically connecting to this one year can definitely manifest bigger things this year

(in the same way our emergency call 911 energy definitely added to the energy of 9/11)

the truth of this that we have all been sensing - some of us for many years, some of us more recently - is the feeling that something big is happening here or about to happen, that time has speeded up, that the things and people we used to turn to are not there for us anymore, that much has drifted away from us - the truth is that all our karmas are being played out all at once.

Dramas are unfolding so quickly that it sometimes seems like it is the end of everything. We are birthing something new and labor pains are ... well, painful, but no woman even remembers them once she has that baby in her arms (for more than ... oh, a year or two anyway or at least it goes away for awhile and then comes back when they are teenagers).

We are the mother and the baby now.

This isn't something that is happening to us, if we are on this planet right now, we chose to be here for these amazing times and it is a gift.

******

So, last post we talked about releasing our attachment to an outcome by getting to the vibration of what it is we are really seeking, finding our way into that vibration through a back door and sitting in that.

(doing this during a time of tension really moves our energy into another space - nothing magical has ever been created from the space of fear and tension; expanding from this space only brings us to more fear and tension - that place where we get what we want and then don't want it anymore - which is ok, of course because it's part of this deal called life sometimes and this helps us to define what we do want, but if we are doing this over and over again we probably want to break this pattern)

When we attach ourselves to an outcome it is much, much harder to stay in integrity. The word integrity is related to the roots of words like “integrate”  and “entire”.

Integrity is the state of being complete, undivided, intact and unbroken.

This place of wholeness is an important place to be hanging out if we want to manifest anything real - this is the place where the message of our makings has some really fertile soil. The makings that come from this place are the ones that can change the world - and yes, I totally believe those makings can be sweaters and paintings and earrings and turkey platters.

The world is moved by honesty. The world is shifted by people doing what they love.

It can't not move. 

When we release our attachment to the outcome and trust that what is truly ours will come to us

 - there is no need for jealousy when someone else achieves some kind of success because we know they get what is already theirs - if it was ours we would have it -

we begin to work from a space of wholeness (holiness) - the place in all of us that is connected.

This is why the story and message of our maker business is so important, the reason we do what we do and most especially the part of the reason that is not about ourselves.

Next Up - Manifesting for Makers Part III - Connection or the other part of this involving other people

revive. recover. rebuild - or what's a jersey girl do with dirty hair anyway


I can't really write about this yet. It is too raw and unsettled

(and cold and dark here)

but just wanted to post that we are OK.

The pictures on the television do not really do it justice - if you remember the book/movie The Road - that is kind of what does it justice

(except of course happening here in NJ, we all have much cooler hair ... even when it is dirty and tied back with things that resemble bungie cords - yes, we can even rock those).

I grew up at the Jersey Shore and have lived in New Jersey my entire life

(except folks that live here don't call it that - we just call it the beach)

and so has hubs. We were flooded out and evacuated more times than we can remember as kids. George lost an uncle and two cousins when their fishing boat capsized during a storm; his aunt bought cold cuts, swept sand from her floors and had a funeral on her front porch.

She cried later.

Maybe just being in the proximity of an ocean so strong and so powerful can't help but rub off on the people here

(maybe it is our proximity to New York, people there are pretty tough, too)

although I suspect people are people wherever you find them.

We aren't nice. We talk fast. We walk fast. We drive like maniacs. We will beep at you in 1.5 seconds if the light turns green and your car is not moving through the intersection. We have roads called circles where the only rule is there is no rule and whoever doesn't stop has the right of way.

We curse. If you bring your kids to a Jersey diner for breakfast they will most likely learn some words you will not want them repeating at the dinner table (from our kids probably).

But we are kind. We work together. We will give you the shirt off our back and yes, our backs often have tattoos and tan lines (and muscles ... we work hard).

We do what we have to do.

We are mostly all from here or from New York because who the hell would want to move here, so we have roots; the kind of roots that go back generations - roots that can withstand 80 MPH winds actually.

We've heard all the jokes about how classless we are, how funny we talk, about turnpike exits and polluted air and we laugh right along with everyone because the less anyone knows about how freakin' beautiful it really is here, the more likely we are to have this place all to ourselves. 

That's all I have to say today - I am making myself ferklemped and here in Jersey we cry later. If you are from these parts you know what this is. If you don't, you might if you watch Chris's video:



(the freestanding house in this video used to be a block in from the beach on a road that doesn't exist anymore - the houses on the beach side are ... gone)

NOTE - Maybe one (of many) good things that can come from this is that we can finally get over any need we have to glamorize and dramatize turbulence, the end of the world, death and destruction - ala vampires and zombies and survivalists - let's not focus on this crap anymore - it sucks.

xo everyone - a big thank you to Vinnie and Maribeth for the lentil soup, Harry Potter, offer of a hot shower and internet use to keep Olive biting, Chris for this video, lanterns and the generator and Kella for the barbecue turkey chili and Halloween candy.