Category Archives: miscellaneous musings

Shaman’s Blog replaces Shamanic Connection’s Newsletter

downloadOne of Gary’s and my “resolutions” for 2015 is to streamline some of our activities to allow time for more new adventures, play and rest.

As promised in our Winter Newsletter,  we have just moved our newsletter mailing list over to the Shaman’s Blog mailing . Now, you will begin to receive an email when Shaman’s Blog has new posts. This email will come out on Friday. You will only receive this email IF a new blog is posted, and if by some strange reason, more than one blog goes out in a week, you will still only receive one email.

Moving to posting the blog only will same me some work, and you will actually hear from us more frequently. Here’s the low down from the Winter Newsletter (in case you missed it  😉 ). This tells you how to connect with us in other venues as well as how to “disconnect” should you choose. Continue reading

Our First Winter at Shaman’s Grove

Well, life is back functioning normally (what ever that might be) here at Shaman’s Grove. Our first winter has proving to be exciting so far. As you may have noticed, we haven’t made any new posts for a while. That because we have been “experiencing winter.” Now, we chose this area of Oregon because like we say in Grants Pass… “It’s the climate”. That’s what brings many people to this area. It’s generally mild – mild summers with a few hot days and mild winters. We get the occasional snow flurries, but the snow is usually gone by noon. We had a few days of waking up to a dusting of snow in The Grove and it was quite beautiful.

Yule Eve brought a major snow storm to the NW Coast. We had been in town when it started to snow. So we finished our lunch and business and headed back to The Grove. Our little car spun out in our long drive once, but Gary was able to maneuver through the thick slush and get us to the garage. And the snow continued to come down… thick, sloppy, heavy snow… about 6 inches worth! Now I know you folks in snow country are laughing at our whining, but we don’t own a snow shovel! We came here because we didn’t want to shovel the stuff! Continue reading

Life’s little emergencies…

It’s been a while since my last post and it has been quite a journey for the last month. Actually more like an E ticket ride at Disney Land. Or, do they have a G ticket ride???

As many of you know, Gary was on the East Coast and in Germany for most of the month of September. He arrived home on the 28th and within 24 hours proceeded to have a small heart attack. He is doing well now. They put a stent in an artery and kept him a few days at the hospital in CCU. What a surprise from the man who hasn’t been sick (other than flu) in the 36 years we’ve been married! This experience has been a definite wake up call, and a giant roller coaster ride for us. Continue reading

Winter Giveaway

It’s time to announce the winner of our Fall Harvest Giveaway and ring in the winter drawing.

So, let’s begin with our Winter Giveaway

The Winter Giveaway relates to the North quadrant of the Medicine Wheel (see the Medicine Wheel information in our quarterly newsletters).

One of the major elements of the North quadrant is widsom. So to help access the wisdom of the Ancestors and the North quadrant, we are giving away a copy of Joyce Sequichie Hifler’s book, A Cherokee Feast of Days: Daily Meditations.
Continue reading

Announcing the Fall Harvest Give Away

The Give Away

The Give Away ceremony is a Native American Tradition. In Native American cultures, the give away ceremony is the ultimate act of selfless giving. Rather than expect the community to shower a person with gifts on a special occasion, the reverse occurs: the honored individual presents everyone else with something special. Another underlying value of the give away held over from the nomadic days is keeping one’s belongings to a minimum and sharing abundance with all those around. Once something is given away, all strings to that gift are broken and the gift is given with no expectations. There is a high value placed on giving away and sharing what is ours. We all know the saying “It is better to give than receive”. This is the give away ceremony. Continue reading

Spirit Timing

Have you ever had one of those projects where you get going great guns and then boom, every step you take forward you take three back or come to a complete halt? When this happens to me, I call it “Spirit Timing”. There is something going on out of my sight that just isn’t ready for what I think I’m ready for. Usually it’s just a few days and all is in rhythm again.

Well, I told you a few blogs back about the DVD we were working on putting together called The Healing Ways of the Shaman – Shamanism and Soul Recovery. Well, now that it’s complete, I can look back and “smile and nod” as Gary would say, at the process, but at times it felt like we were mating llamas (it takes a lot of patience and they are what’s called “forced breeders” – they don’t just naturally “hook up”. But that’s another l-o-n-g story from our past).

The longer I walk the shamanic path, the more closely I find myself living in balance with the natural cycles of the seasons and the energy that it manifests. This is all part of my “Spirit Timing”. Continue reading

Life “Happens”

Wow, I’m so embarrassed that we have had to let this blog slip. But as the title states “Live Happens”. Actually, it’s more like a carnival. There’s the Merry-Go-Round that whirls too fast, the world’s largest and most treacherous roller coaster, bumper cars (as a friend reminded me yesterday) and the I think they call it “The Hammer” – that ride that takes you up way high and drops you from the top. And they best part is we all signed up to get into this crazy place!

My last communication was about death and dying. We have been experiencing this journey over a year of ups and downs with Gary’s mom as she traversed her death path toward re-birth. It was a long, hard journey for the whole family. There was such a mix of emotions as we could only bear witness to her journey. This long journey came to an end on February 28, 2008. Fortunately, with our shamanic experiences we have a very positive outlook on the death of the physical being, but that doesn’t change the fact that we will no longer have our Mom to talk to or hug. The whole family will now begin to relax and grieve after holding vigil for so long.

Besides holding constant vigil for the last eight months, we’ve had the usual mix of life – the “j-o-b” that tends to overtake the time allotted, kids with trauma/drama, tooth issues, and the routine holiday bouts of the flu (mine has lasted two months!). Then there is our shamanic work/play that for me personally gets pushed aside until life settles a little and I can devote my attention to assisting my clients. I like to give them my undivided attention.

If anyone thinks that being a “shaman” exempts one from all the crap life can throw our way – guess again! Continue reading