On the cusp of Spring, I thought I’d share these neat photos with you.

Look inside each raindrop. Aren’t these incredible?

Ah! The wonder and magic of nature.

Hope these beauties add some inspiration to your day.

Would you like to experience more joy and bliss in your life?

Our heart is an inner compass which is always pointing us to Love.

When we live our lives from our heart center, we experience peace, joy and the remembrance of our connection to the Universe which is abundant and infinite.

Won’t you join me for this enlightening and fun workshop… and experience the wisdom of your heart!

Gathering together in a small group, I will guide you through heart opening meditations. Teachings and fun exercises are also woven into the workshop to provide you with useful information and tools to incorporate in daily life.

Learn to:

– Connect with your heart center
– Expand your awareness of your internal compass
– Receive insights to live life more consciously
– Enjoy the bliss of communing with the Divine
– Experience what it is like to expand your consciousness in this way
– Cultivate and nurture a heart-centered connection as a way of living

This workshop is ideal for anyone who would like to explore the power of the Heart and create more love, joy and bliss in their lives.

Next workshop: Saturday, January 26, 2013 from 10am-4pm in the Asheville, NC area

Registration is $90. Online payment can be made via my website at http://rainhummingbird.com/ratesandpayment/. Space is limited so please contact me prior to registering for the workshop to ensure availability, (828) 337-4686 or rain@rainhummingbird.com. Thank you.
Directions and additional information will be provided after registration.

At this time of year when folks sometimes get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season —  the decorations, shopping, parties, the endless to-do list — I invite you to take a moment to breathe, connect with the true meaning of the holiday you celebrate, and reflect on what it is that you truly wish to gift to others.

A simple act of kindness can change a life forever.

Make kindness a habit. It’s the most important gift of all.

Wishing you joy this holiday and every day.

Happiness Revealed is a gorgeous video with a beautiful and inspiring message created by nature photographer Louis Schwartzberg. A brief introduction to the artist and his work is followed by the video itself.

This message is a wonderful reminder that every day is a good day to be grateful and that cultivating gratitude in our lives is a blessing for all.

Click here to be directed to the link.   Enjoy!

I am grateful for you in my life and I wish you many blessings! What are you grateful for today?

“In a full heart there is room for everything and in an empty heart there is room for nothing.” — Antonio Porchia, poet

This quote is a powerful reminder that anything is possible when we live in gratitude and love with our heart open to receiving the infinite gifts from the Universe. If we close ourselves off to these gifts, life can feel pretty empty and lonely. Fortunately, we get to choose. Full heart or empty heart. Which do you choose for yourself today?

Dylan (Photo by Diane Lewis, pet photographer)

This is the final post telling Dylan’s story, as told by my client Donna G. Enjoy! Please leave a comment and share what you think.

Chapter 3

“I don’t believe, I know.” Carl Jung

In September, six months after Dylan passed over, I was in Cleveland on a business trip. The afternoon I arrived in Cleveland was a beautiful fall day. I drove down to a park by Lake Erie and watched the sunset. I sat on a picnic table and took photos of the lighthouse off shore. The light was golden and lovely, and I enjoyed my time there.

The next morning I was getting ready for my business meeting, thinking about what I should say about this or that problem. As I was brushing my teeth, it was as if someone put a photograph in front of my eyes. In the photo I was sitting on the picnic table, looking out at the lighthouse. But it took my breath away when I realized there in the lush green grass of fall, looking peaceful and happy, was my sweet, sweet Dylan! He was looking at me with his wonderful kind eyes. It was one of those moments a person never forgets! There, in a hotel room in Cleveland, Dylan let me know that he was with me, ever with me.

I have to admit there was a part of me that thought maybe I should see a doctor! I know what grief can do to the human mind, and I had been in the throes of immeasurable grief for a long time. I decided to contact an animal communicator who had connected with Dylan when he was sick to ask how he was tolerating the chemotherapy treatments. I told her about the heart on the back door, the photo that flashed before my eyes, and that how sometimes I felt Dylan’s presence around me. I also told her I missed him so much that I wondered if I had imagined these things so I could bear the grief I was feeling. Her response was just what I needed:

Maggie - photo courtesy of Donna

This is the second of three posts telling the story of Dylan’s Hearts, as told by my client Donna G. Please leave a comment with your thoughts, feedback and sharings. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

“When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the soul laughs for what it has found.” Rumi

It would be easy to write pages and pages describing the heart wrenching grief I felt on the loss of Dylan. So many other stories on the web and in print do a wonderful and much needed job of documenting the grieving process and the indescribable pain that losing our animal companions can cause. If you are reading this, you already know this. I want to concentrate instead on what can happen when we look beyond the grief and find miracles at every turn!

Dylan passed over on March 18, 2011. By the end of May, at the urging of family and friends and in an effort to try to find some positive energy in our household, I rescued a 3-month old golden retriever whom I named Maggie. Maggie had been abandoned, along with the rest of her littermates, and had been in a foster home for about 2 months. Except for her love of putting everything possible in her mouth, Maggie has been a great puppy. She quickly fulfilled my goal of bringing some positive energy into the household! There were times I could have sworn that Dylan whispered in her ear and told her what kind of funny, crazy tricks she could do to make me laugh. Many of her antics were very much like Dylan’s, and she does make me smile.

About a month after Maggie came into our family, the first tangible and documented message from Dylan arrived.  

Photo courtesy of Donna

This is the story of Dylan’s Hearts, as told by my client, Donna G. This is the first of three posts. Please feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts and feedback. Enjoy!

Introduction

The Sufis believe when your heart is broken or your soul is wounded, your soul sends a light out into the universe. Somewhere, another soul sees the light and comes to help you. The wound is the place where the light enters.

And so it was with Dylan and me. He answered the call and immediately the fog of my life lifted. It had been there so long that I thought it belonged there, was meant to be there. I was almost comfortable with the sadness that was always close by.

By the time I was 27 years old, both of my parents and all grandparents had passed away. I have a brother who is married with children of his own. I have numerous cousins that I am close to and who have meant the world to me through the years. As the years passed, their lives grew fuller with their own children, and they moved further and further away from the reality of my life. I turned my attention to my work and became successful in my career. I was into my fifties when Dylan came into my life, wondering if I was ever going to be “Number One” to anyone. Dylan changed all of that the moment we met.

My love for Dylan is immense, just as my grief was when he passed away after just six short years here on this earth. With Rain’s help, I have come to know not only what a great gift he was while he walked beside me, but what a much greater gift he is as he helps me with my “whole hearted healing” that he is directing from the spiritual world.

This document is not for looking back, but for sharing facts that I know to be true to help everyone who knows the pain of losing a beloved animal companion, or anyone on their own journey trying to understand the things that cannot be proven.

This is a beautiful prayer that reminds us to humbly honor all life as sacred. When we are open to receiving the messages from animals and nature, there is much we can learn. We need only to be quiet and listen. Enjoy!

Teach Us And Show Us The Way
by Chinook (Anonymous)

We call upon the earth, our planet home, with its beautiful depths and soaring heights,
its vitality and abundance of life, and together we ask that it

Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon the mountains, the high green valleys and meadows filled with wild flowers,
the snows that never melt, the summits of intense silence, and we ask that they

Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon the waters that rim the earth, horizon to horizon, that flow in our rivers and streams,
that fall upon our gardens and fields and we ask that they

Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon the land which grows our food, the nurturing soil, the fertile fields,
the abundant gardens and orchards, and we ask that they

Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon the forests, the great trees reaching strongly to the sky with earth in their roots
and the heavens in their branches, the fir and the pine and the cedar, and we ask them to

Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon the creatures of the fields and forests and the seas, our brothers and sisters the wolves and deer,
the eagle and dove, the great whales and the dolphin, who share our home, and we ask them to

Teach us, and show us the Way.

We call upon all those who have lived on this earth, our ancestors and our friends, who dreamed the best for future generations, and upon whose lives our lives are built, and with thanksgiving, we call upon them to

Teach us, and show us the Way.

And lastly, we call upon all that we hold most sacred, the presence and power of the Great Spirit of love and truth which flows through all the Universe, to be with us to

Teach us, and show us the Way.

At this time of year which is full of renewal and new beginnings, I wanted to share this touching and inspiring story from one of my clients. Please enjoy Lyna and Gizi’s story.

Heartfelt Lessons From My Cat

About 10 months after I moved into my cottage across from the Blue Ridge Parkway; I was walking from my back door to my workshop, when this young Tortoiseshell cat came out of nowhere, jumped into my arms and started licking me all over.

Wow- how unusual! My own 4 spoiled fur kids don’t even do that.

Needless to say, Gizi became my outdoor cat. I built a mudroom off my back door so she’d have shelter, yet could come and go as she pleased.

Well almost.

You see, all my cats through the years have stayed inside so I would always know they were safe. So when Gizi came in for her evening meal, I would lock her cat door so she’d be in for the night where the raccoons, foxes and other night wanderers couldn’t harm her.

But Gizi had other plans. She stopped coming home in the evenings and I was forced to go to bed and ”trust” that she knew what she was doing.

About a week later, I was surprised to see her back in her room, asking for her evening meal.

“Gotcha tonight” I exclaimed as I bent down to lock the cat door.

Incredible—the lock was broken—had Gizi found a way to do this?

I began to realize that this little cat had come to me to teach me, not only to trust, but to let go of control.

It’s been 8 years since Gizi became a part of my life and the bond we have is amazing. She sends me pictures of where she is when she is accidentally locked up or stuck somewhere, and has even come to me in the dreamtime, when she was missing for 4 days. Gizi has been a warrior that protects her property from other animals and has left me gifts of rodents she’s killed.

Seven months ago Gizi was shot and had to have her leg amputated.

I can’t imagine living without a leg- how will she handle this?

To my surprise, she found her balance pretty quickly and as she got stronger, she not only ran around the house, but I saw her throw her toy up in the air and jump on her 3 legs to catch it!

Very entertaining!

This amazing, beautiful creature has taught me to get balance in my life and to learn to adapt to whatever life throws my way. Although no longer a warrior, Gizi is doing just that as she is enjoying her new role as Princess of the house.