The Life You Are Living

Chapter 14: Forgiveness 

When you are on the so-called path of enlightenment, you want to do good for the universe as well as yourself. Then someone mentions forgiveness as though it was something you could do easily, or often. That one word has stopped more people in their tracks than many others, especially when you think this must be part of this new golden pathway to a better life, a better you.

You walk around wondering how you can find it inside yourself to forgive someone that has tormented you over maybe many years of your youth, or even adult life. Yet, this is something you must figure out in order to move ahead.

How can people pass this word about so easily?

Have they had such a simple life where no one has caused them undue amounts of emotional pain?

Do these people come from a place you have not known, where nothing touches them so deeply they think the pain suffered will never go away?

Or, is it that you come from a different planet where horrors happen all year ‘round and not just at Halloween?

In general terms, we all have extreme situations in our lives that help to form the person staring back at you when you look into an actual mirror. Even the supposed golden people have things happen that seem quite difficult to them. It may not seem so in your personal world, but in their life, it’s a tough situation.

Years back I had a bully. Inside, I knew that for me to move forward I had to forgive him. Night after night I pictured him surrounded by white light while telling my inward emotions that I was doing the right thing.

It doesn’t need to be difficult, forgiveness I mean. It’s like changing directions while driving your car. Yes, it can be that easy. You allow the person to be who they are, and you leave all the resentment behind. You can only be responsible for your-self, and your actions. Yelling, or screaming might be a good release when faced with these situations, but, you cannot expect another person to change. All these outside experiences allow us to become the person we are. Remember, I feel we are in school while here on Earth.

What you ultimately come to realize is, when you forgive others, you are forgiving yourself, and surrounding yourself with white light. Fully grasp this and the experience becomes liberating. It is calming and burden lifting all at once.

Even when the person you are forgiving is a nasty piece of work, it becomes about you and your need to move out of a negative frame of mind into a positive place.

By sending out white light, you create more positive energy not only for the person you are intending it for, but for yourself, and anyone else in its’ path. This kind of positivity is catching. While living in that white light you get to realize how maybe you attracted negativity into your energy field, but are now ready to release it back into the universe because you’ve outgrown it. Living in that white light energy feels good, cleansing, uplifting even.

Now, when you feel judgement rolling in your direction, see if you can’t let it go because it no longer suits the you, you have become.

It can be a simple moment that passes. Like when someone who is in authority tells you that you have just done something wrong, like parking in front of an entrance. Feeling a bit embarrassed, you look about and think you parked beyond the door, and if the check-out line had been attended by more than one person you would not have been there but a minute anyway.

When you come face-to-face with these kinds of simple moments, know they have chosen you as self-defining.

Maybe you get indignant. Perhaps you verbally strike back in defense. Or, maybe you choose to simply give way to that person and acknowledge what they said, apologize and walk away.

Back in your car you feel judgement from them, and send it back psychologically. Catching that moment, letting the energy go, and vowing to not let it affect you personally, you continue on your way in a much more positive energetic way.

Like a duck, you are letting the negative energy of the moment run down your back. You forgive the person, you forgive yourself, you forgive the moment and say it will NOT ruin your day.

This may seem like an over simplification of what forgiveness is, but it can be that easy if you break it down properly.

Black and white fascinator hat could be a wedding fascinator, has a great uplift of feathers for moments when something simple is just not enough! The dogwood florals have a holiday appeal without limiting you to that season. Any veil gives you an illusion of mystery. When you are living in white light energy, you are uplifted, alluring, and filled to overflow with holiday-like appeal.

<< Go to clsherman.com

Candace is also the author of the well-received The Crystal Caves and now, Stone Magic available here

The Life You Are Living

Chapter 13: Procrastination

PROCRASTINATION! It’s a big word for something that humans do either occasionally or all the time.

Do you admit who you are, or kid yourself that you never do such a thing?

Sorry to say this if you don’t know it, but you do procrastinate! It may be something simple like, taking the trash out, or washing your hair. Work or relationship issues are big areas where we let the element of time slip through our fingers.

Why do we do it is the big question?

It can be a form of laziness.

It can be fear of failure.

It could be some type of malfunction in our brain cells that tells us to do nothing when we ought to be doing something!

For me… I tend to procrastinate when I am feeling pressure to do something by others, or even when I feel I should be getting ahead in some project or other when I really need to take a break.

Peer pressure is a tough thing to get beyond, and work situations push us to be more, to do more, to get going immediately if not sooner. Yet, sometimes we need to take a break from the actual doing and sit with our thoughts first.

I’m not suggesting that procrastination is proper all the time because it’s not. But occasionally, we do need a moment for breathing space in order to examine what direction to take to get whatever done. In that free time, we go over the proposed action and project from different tacks of what’s possible in order to get to our end goal. It might be viewed as slacking when you procrastinate at work. Though I’ve read about companies that feel you would be more productive if you had some time to think, play a game, work out, or take a nap even.

When you are self-employed you answer to a tough task master. If you weren’t difficult about your own accomplishments, you wouldn’t be in business long.

So, what does this boil down to?

As individuals, we must each decide if our level of procrastination is correct, healthy, or a way to avoid something we just don’t want to do.

Spiritually speaking, I feel we need to face our stuff, be it some fear, something we know we ought not to have done and need to make amends for, and even procrastination.

Interestingly enough, when we come at procrastination from a spiritual level the universe has an incredible amount of patience. It’s not that you can get away with anything, that is if you believe in continuous life, because if you never accomplish anything you set out to do in this life it will come back at you in the next go ‘round.

I kept telling myself I would give up sugar. Every day I said I would do it, and could do it, but then didn’t. When you do not accomplish things like this it works against your core emotional level and wears you down to the point where you think you cannot do whatever you want.

When you do face up to whatever is holding you back you find it wasn’t as difficult as you thought it would be. You wonder why you didn’t let it go much earlier?

Simply put, you were not ready on some plane to do whatever. Maybe next time you have a serious attack of procrastination you could ponder having to face this very thing in your next life. This one thought usually gets me up and back in the race rather quickly. The life I am living has had many terrific things, and, many equally challenging things to get through, beyond or over. I do not want to face these difficulties ever again in this or any other life! But, there are times when procrastination is healthy because it allows you to rest and come back at your problem with renewed energy. That energy can be exactly what you need to get over the hump you’ve been dreading. When dread turns into joy of accomplishment, that is a wow moment!

Am I saying procrastination is a good thing?

Sometimes, yes. All the time, no.

Only as an individual can you decide how much procrastination works for you to get the job, whatever that might be, done.

We have all seen flower buds develop and just when they are about to burst open into all the glory they can be, they wither, rot, and drop off into nothingness. Procrastination can bring that same kind of energy if you allow it to hang on too long. Discover the full floral fascinator you can be by spending a bit of time procrastinating, and then opening up to what life has to offer you! See what getting beyond procrastination can bring in… My latest book took a lot of work, cross referencing, testing, and yes, procrastination. I’m pleased as punch that it is now available. Stone Magic gives healing properties of stones I have channeled in an alphabetic format. You can click on the link below for either my web site, or my Amazon page to be connected and buy if interested. Thanks!

< Go to clsherman.com

Candace is also the author of the well-received The Crystal Caves, and now, Stone Magic available HERE

The Life You Are Living

Chapter 12.5; Color continued

Let’s get into color on a very personal level as in the colors you choose for clothing. Green is great to begin with. Do you find that you choose different tones of green when you shop for clothing? There are so many shades possible. Your green du jour could be a brown tone green, and if so is a very grounding color. In most instances brown is the color of the earth. Red clay is even a brown tone. When people come to me for particular healing energy and they are in a green color with brown overtones, think of what we call kaki, I know their emotions are ragged and they would do well to connect with the earth. Tying into brown colors is a way to feel the magnetic pull of the earth plane. Green as a color has a natural healing vibration. Mix that with the grounding energy in brown tones and you have something that can and does help your stomach from doing flips due to nerves.

Perhaps the green tone you most connect with has a form of yellow in it. Maybe you need to pay attention to your gut reaction of what life is dishing in your direction. This usually also involves your liver which is to say, eating some sour foods might help as well as the color choice you are wearing.

Maybe the green you feel most drawn to has a tone of blue to it. Blue-green helps bring in more intuitive energy to your healing. Perhaps you do not trust your intuition. If so, then by wearing green that has blue tones, you are subconsciously giving permission to your intuitive self to connect with the healing you are craving on some natural inner plane of acceptance.

When you mix red with green you get brown, so there isn’t a form of red-green.

By the same reasoning there isn’t a form of purple-green tone out there either.

White and black are colors that you can mix with green. Some call black a non-color. There are many that feel the same way about white. When you are a painter these are colors that get mixed with every other color. Metaphysically speaking, white usually connects with a higher spiritual level. If you are just beginning, or are well into spiritual studies and you find the green tone you are being drawn to has a white base it means that you are connecting with the spiritual healing energy you need to get to the next level of development. Whereas, if you are being drawn to a black based tone of green you are looking to have protective healing energy save you from all the unpleasantness there can be in the universe. Opening yourself up to new thoughts and energies you never thought were possible can be a scary new experience.

Do you continue?

Do you retreat?

Trust you’ll know when it is okay to move in one direction or another.

Are you on a path of enlightenment?

Is it a fear-based path into the unknown?

There will be times your color choice is gray. If that’s what you’re being drawn to then you are combining black and white together. This means you are looking for spiritual understanding while being protected from the unknown.

Often I turn to the eastern philosophies of color vibrations associated with certain energetic regions of the body, as in chakras. Purple is the top of the head as in your spiritual chakra. Deep blue works with your third eye region. Lighter blue connects with the throat. Green is the heart area. Yellow is around the bottom of the rib cage, and orange is the stomach. Red works with the base of the spinal column known as the kundalini where some feel is the core of all energy flow.

I look at red as also working with the heart region. To differentiate, I feel that deep red tones are for the base of the spine, while bright reds connect to the heart as well as green. You see the heart region is where passion generates from. True passion is both love and hate. So, I feel that love connects with the green, while the red is the hate element. Maybe hate is too strong a word. Let’s go with this, if you have a very strong negative reaction to something, perhaps then it is a bright red tone. When you feel love towards something, then the green tone shines true. Love and hate are flip sides of the same emotion. Where would we be without passion? Would anyone want to live without passion? Seriously!

Think about the colors mentioned when you get dressed tomorrow. How are you feeling? Do you think any color choice can connect with your emotions? If so, then color is healing you on some level. Even that flip side bright red tone gives you an impetus to move away from something. Try it, you might like it!

               

You can see a yellow-green tone for my bedroom accents. The “Dancing Starfish” painting can be hung horizontally or vertically. The fascinator hat is also in a yellow-green tone. These shades of green can give you a gut reaction to your dream messages. Both items are available for purchase on my web site.

 

< Go to clsherman.com

Candace is also the author of the well-received The Crystal Caves available here

The Life You Are Living

Chapter 12; Color 

Color vibrational healing has many different nuances depending upon the shade and tone of color we might discuss as well as placement on your body in your house or even where you work. There are colors used for painting both artistically as well as for your walls, and the latter is where I would like to head today.

Decorating is personal, and something people pay professionals to do for them. Being an artist who sees color all the time as I have explained even in my dreams, I cannot imagine color not being around me always. Twice in my life I spent money on something close to decorating as we might normally understand it. However, of course for me, it went into a metaphysical slant. Gee, what a surprise!

During a conference, I met a woman who told me she got paid to come into your home and feng shui it. Deciding that was something I could use, I inquired on pricing. There were different levels of expense. She could come, make observations and leave. Another price was to actually assist in moving things, or supplying objects like water fountains. Asking for advice was the least expensive and my choice at that time.

She arrived without any fanfare. Ready with paper and pen in hand, I walked with her about the house taking notes as she said thing like… “This is your position of fame. You can have spiky objects in it to bring your eye up. This here, is your partnership angle and should have pairs of things displayed.” All this information was new to me. I had heard of feng shui before, the ancient art of placement, but hadn’t read up on it yet. Hearing the different angles described this way was eye opening, especially when she came upon the giant cactus I had in my dining room. That location had southern exposure. I felt it was the perfect placement. Turns out, that was my angle of partnership and could explain why some of my clients had been prickly towards me and my creations. Needless to say, that cactus was given away to a client who loved it. Her one visit was worth what I paid to learn something new. It took some time to move things into the correct position according to this ancient art. Purchasing a book helped me understand more about these theories over time.

One thing she and I did not discuss that day was color.

The next person I spent money for had gotten into the art of placement using your furnishings. She asked and received permission to move items from other spaces. Touring my house, she then went home and thought about everything, and came back the following day to move things around in one specific room. At day’s end, you walked into a space that felt as though a highly paid decorator had been there. It was delightful! Things ended up in that one room I had never thought about putting there. She told me we often collect items of the same style or color that connect, and these items ought to be located in the same room. I learned a lot from that experience that carried me over into the explosion of wall color that came next.

Though I had purchased my home years earlier I had left the interior all white just as when I had moved in. One day I surprised my friends by telling them I was going to paint the dining room a very bright fuchsia pink. Having one recessed wall in a fairly open floorplan, the suggestion was to paint that wall alone. If I didn’t like it, or felt it was too much, it could be played down if necessary. Though I did not agree with my friends, I appreciated their concern for my sudden bold choice and opted to follow their recommendation.

While painting that wall I found myself so very happy! It was exhilarating! I had to do the whole room, and did. That was the beginning of the interior of the house changing from all white, to all color. Room by room I painted unsure of what color would exist in my next space. The downstairs hall came after the dining room, and that became a bright orange. Sounds nuts, but I was thrilled with how well the fuchsia and bright orange were working together until a client came for a meeting. He told me that he had always suspected I was a child of the seventies, and now was certain. He then asked if I had some really good marijuana about? Needless to say, I second guessed those color choices for some time to come.

Exerting much time and effort already, I continued on with my space-to-space shift in color. Tying everything together from room-to-room with white trim, you could easily move about and see how color now defined space, and actually made each room seem larger. It was something I learned through all this, that when you have everything white, or whatever color as a monotone, you cannot see the boarders and therefore feel the room is smaller than it actually is. With my color explosion, I now felt each room was larger and happier!

Once each space was finished with paint, and fully dry, I went about placing furnishings in new places as well as wall art. Choices of items that worked well together along with partnership angles became part of my placements. It was as though I had just moved into a new house. Windows got looked at in new ways as well. I took the white pull-down shades and painted them to go with the new room décor.

Friends and family came in to see what was happening. Looks on their faces could not be hidden. Shock was the first reaction and then slowly, they relaxed with it to see how it suited me and my life.

Color makes us feel things.

Most people go from a white interior in their homes to some pastel shades.

Here’s my recommendation…

Look at your furnishings, paintings, pillows, rugs, and even your clothing colors. What colors make you the happiest in all these things? You can even choose a color in a painting and put that color on a wall. See how you feel when you look at that painting on that wall now. If it’s wonderful, then you need more of that in your life.

People come to my home and often sit in my fuchsia dining room. After about five minutes I see their tight shoulders relax, and their mood shifts. It is my partnership angle and is now a happy space.

There is an old television ad that springs to mind where two children are unsure about a food choice when one suddenly suggests they give a sample to the toddler in a highchair. “Give it to Mikey, he doesn’t like anything.” When the youngest of the group does eat it, the response is; “He likes it!”

Maybe you’ll be bold in your next decorating color choice and like it! Maybe you’ll even find it healing.

                    

You can see one of my paintings with two whales and two gold fish called “Eskimo Whales” in the partnership angle. Some of my fascinator hats are in the angle of fame on a spiky wall divider. As this is also my space for painting, my easel is in the corner and has nothing to do with that angle.. it just fits there. Some things you simply have to flow with.

 

< Go to clsherman.com

Candace is also the author of the well-received The Crystal Caves available here

 

The Life You Are Living

Chapter 11; Gifts

 

Every day we can find gifts if we look for them. Are you someone who sees pennies on the ground and picks them up? Are you someone who gardens and finds marbles churned up from the earth that came from another person who lived where you are now? Or are you someone who thinks that a gift is only what they have asked for specifically? It could be a new car, a boat, a coat, a piece of jewelry or even a new hat. Maybe you’re thinking of being psychic as a gift, and it is.

No matter how you view gifts, and we all have them by the way, inside and out, gifts are something that are good things to pay attention to. It’s always nice to receive a gift especially when it is unexpected. This could be the new car, or a new tie. Addressing the idea of gifts is something I wanted to discuss in the way of universal gift giving.

A long time back someone told me a story about a man who was quite wealthy. When he was walking along a street he stopped, picked up a penny, closed his eyes momentarily and smiled. With a nod of his head, he began to walk again. The woman who was witness to this action couldn’t contain herself and asked why he, someone of great financial wealth would stoop to pick up a lowly penny in such a way? His response was that when he came upon a penny, he felt it was a terrific gift. He would stop and remind himself what he had just been thinking about. That is why he closed his eyes. Once he knew what he had been thinking, he then felt he had an answer, or confirmation to his thought. He thanked the powers that placed that penny in front of him just then and continued on with his day.

Interestingly enough, I find pennies all the time when out walking. When I was a kid, I was told it was bad luck to find a penny that was tails up, and good luck to find one that was heads up. Perhaps you could take the above story and add in the heads and tails concept to feel you were receiving confirmation to your thought when the penny you found had a heads-up. And to think that the tails-up penny was telling you your thought was wrong.

It’s not up to me to tell you which thought might be right or wrong. I am simply taking something I heard over time, combining it with something else I have heard together to get perhaps a new form of thought.

What I would like to suggest is that when you find a penny, heads-up or not, it is a gift. Maybe not the gift you were hoping for, but a gift none-the-less, and something that does count. We do still use pennies as legal tender, and pennies do add up. You can collect them, pave floors with them, stack them as you would building-blocks, or turn them in for paper money. They are gifts!

Finding marbles for me is also a gift when I am working in my garden. One recent day I was out digging up roots to a batch of weeds that had gotten out of control. Suddenly, I thought… I haven’t found a marble in a very long time. Maybe all the marbles lost by some long gone children had been found by me already.

No sooner had these thoughts come into my head than I found a marble. Amazingly enough it was a blue-lace agate, or aggie. I stopped, and marveled at this small token from my yard. It was as though it was saying thank you for all the hard work I was putting in of late. And, for all the work I had put in over the years as I readied for my next move.

Gifts come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They can be spiritual. They can be physical. They can come from you, a cherished friend, a relative and even the universe. Do you throw it away if it is not the gift you were hoping or praying for? That is something that defines who you are and is something that bears looking into most assuredly.

For me, being given a penny from the street, or a marble from the garden is something that I find exciting. Just as much so as when I look at the clock on the microwave in my kitchen where I often see 11:11, something that numerologists claim is an angel connection. That is also a gift.

What’s all this blabber getting to? Look inside to see where what you consider gifts. Are you so caught up in the physical that you forget to connect with the spiritual? Do you find joy in simple things every day? Do you only see that pie in the sky? Friends are mirrors for us. Use these mirror gifts to see where yours are each and every day.

Spiritual gifts can be as small as being reminded of someone who has crossed over. I smell certain flowers out of season, and taste certain foods when none are around when specific loved ones are near. The universe gives us daily reminders, much as the wealthy man with the penny idea. Where you find gifts, a penny on the street, a marble in the garden, a specific number appearing on the clock, the scent of someone dear who is no longer living, or the unexpected smile of a friend or lover can and ought to carry you through a day. It’s all good.

Some of my garden gifts! The latest aggie is set off top left.

< Go to clsherman.com

Candace is also the author of the well-received The Crystal Caves available here

The Life You Are Living

Chapter 10.2; Hot Spots

 

Not long after I moved to Newport, I met an astrologer. She was a very different woman from anyone I had ever met before. Marching to her own drummer, I wanted to get to know her more, and did, at least a bit. She told me almost straight away that Newport was one of the hot-spots in the universe. Not understanding what that meant exactly, I asked.

You come to certain places in the universe to learn certain things. Energetically, these hot-spots will assist you in discovering whatever more quickly. Each person has to discover what a hot-spot might mean to them if they are interested in doing the work.

Of course, you can live in such a place and never do the so-called work, and maybe never discover whatever that location had in store for you. Sound vague? Well, in a way all this business is ethereal. Just to remind you… metaphysics is the study of the unknown. That covers a lot of territory. I don’t know about anyone else but, what I don’t know is quite vast! Discovering what a hot-spot means to you comes under this heading of the unknown. Just when you think you have learned why you moved into such a place, you might think you are on a new path of self-discovery.

Did you raise cane in your youth when you moved to a certain town? Did you move away shortly thereafter?

Did you join the work force and find your true vocation?

Did you raise a family right after you moved into a town?

Did you discover a talent you never knew you had once you lived somewhere?

Did you feel that in this town you were meeting other people interested in some of the same things you found fascinating? That’s how I felt about living in Newport. I met what I might call normal people all over the place along with fellow travelers interested in the study of metaphysics. It was a first for me, meeting people I could pose questions to who didn’t find my queries weird. Or, if they did think I was strange it was also a mirror of their own search. So, it became a fun adventure.

Back then there were not a lot of books available on the study of metaphysics. When someone came across one the title got shared around as though it was the latest best-seller. I read about anything and everything. Astrology, herbal healing, near-death experiences along with interesting stories about the Amazon, American Indian tribes, gardening and countless theories of anything that went bump in the night. It was fun to get together with other people over a glass of wine and have a discussion on almost anything.

That exuberance carried over into my day world. I wanted to share this new-found information with my clients as well as all my friends. Unfortunately, some people did not share my enthusiasm and asked me not to talk about such things in their presence.

Maybe that was when I first began to feel really alone. Inwardly I cried out to share. Then most everyone I had a connection to metaphysically had moved away, or had lived in another state when we met. Reading and being alone became a mainstay. I wondered if I would feel this alone forever?

Lucky me, I didn’t remain alone. Yes, I became my own best friend within the study of metaphysics, but clients became curious about energies in stones, so my circle widened again. Speaking up about such topics got easier while traveling and doing shows with my jewelry. I placed tiny typed descriptions of how amethyst connects the crown chakra (energy center found at the top of your head) with intuitive protective forces. It was a non-threatening way to allow others to ask questions.

Opening a window allows people to feel your breeze. Sharing is just that, even when you feel nervous of the outcome.

One thing that is suggested at these art fairs is to share your story. For the longest time, I had wondered just what my story was? By having these little notes on energies found in whatever stone, I had created my story. Over all those years of personal study, I had not only done meditation, but deep meditation as well as channeling. While in deep meditation, you allow other energy to step in to give information. While doing this, I wrote stone healing properties down and incorporated it into a notebook. Testing all information out on myself first, I eventually asked clients if they wanted to read up on what stone they were choosing today? Time and again I discovered what I had written was true, and people were naturally being drawn to the stone energy they needed for whatever reason.

It was the first time I felt my move to this hot-spot had a purpose.

Maybe, if you moved and then moved away again rather quickly, you couldn’t jive with the energy found in that town. Perhaps you resonated with energy found in another place better? Maybe you discovered what you were supposed to learn in that place quickly, so didn’t have to remain long. Maybe you moved because you were uncomfortable learning what that hot-spot had in store for you.

Why we live in certain places is only something we can discover inside ourselves. Newport for me, is a constant learning ground. It’s a garden of energy I still find exciting. Maybe your hot-spot provides that for you too.

Amethyst is a wonderful stone to wear when you are first discovering how to be insightful. By connecting the crown chakra (the intuitive energy center found at the top of your head) with protective forces inherent in amethyst, you can reach out and feel safe in uncharted territory all at the same time! This ring is in 22 and 18Ky gold. Read more on the web page!

< Go to clsherman.com

Candace is also the author of the well-received The Crystal Caves available here

The Life You Are Living

Chapter 9; Gardening…

 

Gardening can be a terrific analogy for metaphysics.

While digging out my gardens after years of neglect I felt dismay. After each two or three-hour session, I would survey my progress. It never looked like the amount of effort I had put in showed. Weeds had grown over a lot of my brickwork so, I had to get through those weeds to get to the gardens themselves. Many bricks had to be lifted from their home to get at whatever weed, and then re-placed.

One garden was plagued with ferns as well as weeds. Even though some ferns were holding up top-heavy plants, they had to go. While pulling, and digging I thought of how there are moments when it’s good to yank off the top of something that is no longer working in your emotional life. There are also times when it’s better to get at the root of what’s plaguing you to get it out. Many gardeners pull the tops off of weeds and call it a day. Me, I dig down to get at as much of the root structure as I possibly can. It’s all in how you personally look at gardening, and at life.

When I was younger I went for professional counseling. Each week I would unload my personal issues certain the person who sat on the other side of the desk was bored and then, just before our time was up, something would come out of that person’s mouth that landed on me like a ton of bricks. Driving around town for an hour afterwards I would digest what those words meant to me deep down inside. Amazingly, those seemingly indifferent eyes provided a portal for me to work through personal issues in new ways. Those tools gave me the impetus to dig deep inside at my personal weeds, find the roots, and pull them out.

Friends and family can give you the same kinds of tools if you let them. Perhaps they say something repeatedly that may be the right thing for you to do, and yet, you do not hear these suggestions, or maybe you hear them but are not ready to have whatever is said register. One day for no apparent reason you find that what is suggested you are sooooo ready to hear. It’s wonderful when a fresh look at an issue can provide a new path to bring forth an alternate resolution than what you thought possible.

Why?

Why did it take so long to hear that suggestion?

Why did it click this time when countless other times people said the same thing, and you dismissed them?

It’s because you were yanking at the surface of your emotional weed. When you were ready to dig down to get the root out you heard what was being suggested. These are yahoo moments! The kind of inner dot-connecting that you were craving and had maybe even given up thinking would come your way.

Life presents us with multiple solution oriented moments throughout our existence. Maybe today you tug away at the surface of something. When you are ready you dig down to where it all began to find a new way of pulling that root out so you don’t have to deal with it in the future, or so you think.

If you honestly believe you have resolved some core issue in a new and terrific way, the universe will test your resolve. I call these moments “are you done”?

Something has bothered you for a long time. In your mind, it has just been taken care of, so why would the universe feel it is necessary to test you in one way or another?

It’s because old habits die hard.

Don’t believe me? Watch out, because something is about to bite you in the butt that you thought you were done with.

Say you have been addicted to sugar for what feels like a lifetime. That’s a big issue for me. With great effort, you put that wild bear in a cage and are proud of finally having such resolve. Family or friends invite you to a birthday celebration and hand you a cupcake, a piece of cake, or some jellybeans. It doesn’t matter what it might be you know you can walk away, right? If you have really given sugar up for good you can turn your back on these sweets. It doesn’t mean you are through craving them forever, but if you don’t resist that moment of temptation, then you have to begin your path all over again. Look at any of these instances as if you were in alcoholics anonymous. Fall off the wagon and you begin at day one again.

That’s what I mean about are you done? It happens to me all the time. I feel certain I am finished with something and then I get a test to see if I am really done. Soon, another test comes my way and I feel it’s the universe asking me if I am really, really done? And, so it goes for some time until you stop thinking about it every hour of every day. Then, bang, it’s smack back front and center asking you if you are done? Are you really, really, really done?

It’s never easy, at least for me to experience these testing moments, but I recognize them as they come about more easily now, thankfully. And… there is no right or wrong way to deal with any kind of inner emotional issue in life. What works for you might not work for me and visa, versa.

Growth happens when we least expect it. Maybe today you are really, really, really done. Maybe that weed has a bit of a root surviving in your garden. Maybe you think that fern of a thought is helping support some other part of your emotions. Recognition can open a doorway to new possibilities. These moments can be trying, joyful, painful and anywhere in between. The trick is always to trust these are your decisions to make in your own garden. Yank off the top, dig at the root, ignore your growth completely for the season, or sit and ponder what it all means. Look into that mirror of authenticity to embrace what brought you to this very place in this moment. You created your own garden, and the garden of life is all good!

This prehnite pendant has dancing starfish, conch and periwinkle shells in 18Ky, 14Kw/y gold with white fresh water pearls. Prehnite is the stone to wear when you are moving from a solid into a liquid state. Take a break when you need it, and then go with the flow more easily. When you remain hardened by life and all the things you are facing on any given day, you create a hard, outer shell. Why not begin to dance to your own tune like a starfish, and move into a new way of thinking? Try it, you might like it!

 

< Go to clsherman.com

Candace is also the author of the well-received The Crystal Caves available here

 

The Life You Are Living

Chapter Eight continued; Dreams– 3

 

If you recall from last week, I spoke of how I went to bed after giving up on all my beliefs. When I woke, I thought I would be up for the day. I then fell back to sleep and had an experience like no other before. My adopted mom who passed away some time back visited with me. She told me how she and many on the other side were enjoying my weekly writings, especially the one entitled The Life You Are Living. This part of the experience took place in a dressing room.

After leaving the dressing room I entered a diner restaurant where I wrote on yellow lined paper.

At that moment, I fully woke for the day. Leaping out of bed I thanked God, the Universe, my adopted mom, spirit guides and angels for whatever it was that had just happened. To me it was a miracle.

Being so committed to getting my house ready to go on the market I had not been writing, painting, making fascinator hats, or creating much jewelry. Actually, I hadn’t even been recording my dream messages which is something unusual for me. But, for the first time in over a year, I honestly felt happy! The cloud hanging over my head might not have lifted in the way I had hoped, but spiritually it had left the building and I had a direction to pursue.

At that very moment I grabbed my computer and began my weekly blog.

Dreams are a funny thing. I’ve mentioned that there are moments where you have messages about the coming day, or a soon to be happening life experience. Messages can be pretty clear as in precognitive. My latest experience was beyond a mere dream and was other-worldly. This moment in time gave me a direction I knew deep inside was true guidance. Since that day I have shared this dream experience with a few people and each has told me they got chills. These are people who had not read my blog about how chills are a sign confirming something is true!

If you want to break this experience down as if it were simply a dream, let’s look at all the parts. I was in a dressing room without any clothes to try on…

What do you do in a dressing room? You change! This dreamlike experience became a moment of true change for me. I began writing again with a new sense of purpose.

The fact my friend was not inside the room and could not see or hear what was happening until I shared my description…

To me, this meant I ought to share my writings with others. Blogs and books are a proven method of sharing. Spending a lifetime of studying metaphysics gives me an understanding beyond what many have recently begun to research. I am not coming down from the mount as I have already stated, merely interested in sharing knowledge, studies, even trials as well as successes with whomever wants to read along.

Colors, well…

In the past I’ve taught classes on natural healing. Colors play a big part in healing and I will get more into it as a topic in a later chapter. For this dream, though… My adopted mom was glowing from the inside out in colors so vibrant words would only pale the vision. It was as if Della Reese was presenting herself as an angel from the television program Touched by an Angel. In an effort of association for today I will say that green is an overall healing color. The fact that my adopted mom and I hugged takes that color to a new level. Hugging is a heart connection. Combine that color with the action and you have a healing heart moment! Red can be a few different things. It can be power, anger, love, passion. Since the color was undefinable in normal life, I might suggest it was all of the fore mentioned. If so, then this radiant color of red brought in a great power that I was seeking. My frustration over not having answers shifted in that moment to love and passion.

When I left the dressing room I entered a diner restaurant where good sustaining food can be purchased by everyone, rich or poor. Yellow lined paper that was almost all full of words…

To me, yellow lined paper has always been composition paper. All the papers being full of words in the diner can mean that by writing I am filling a need for people of many different backgrounds. Writing this blog may or may not work into a book format (time will tell). I hope it will give many the opportunity to receive a crash course in understanding things that go bump in the night whether you are rich or poor, have studied metaphysics or not ever even heard the word.

Look at your dream messages closely, they do tell you things. Sometimes they are reflecting what has already happened that perhaps you could have chosen a different path for and had a different outcome. Some tell you to slow down. Some suggest you might miss the boat if you do not act now. Still others are giving guidance on what your next path might be.

My next path was given in a very realistic flash. Please don’t tell me this moment was not authentic, I won’t believe you. It felt and looked as real as my cat does sitting on my lap as I write. It’s still free will of whether or not you follow up on these messages or signs given. Even if you do not follow my beliefs, you get messages thrown at you in many different formats. Perhaps my writings will provide an opportunity to not miss them when they do come your way. How terrific it is when you know something happens that is real and you welcome it with open arms. Follow up on that lead given and it can prove out to be the wonder you had been craving!

 

18Ky, 14Krose gold ring has yellow sapphires and a diamond in it. Most people see a butterfly in the filigree work. Yellow sapphires help you to stop moping and begin hoping! Diamonds, when smaller than other stones work to emphasize the healing properties of whatever colored stone. Butterflies begin as a ground based caterpillar that morphs into a beautiful, magical winged creature. Why not begin hoping to be more than you are right now? Dreams can and do help us to see possibilities!

This fun floor cloth has one fish and air bubbles painted into it. It measures 26.5” x 32.5”. Colors are periwinkle, yellow and gold. When you watch fish swim about, they are mesmerizing and dreamlike, especially their air bubbles.

< Go to clsherman.com

Candace is also the author of the well-received The Crystal Caves available here

 

The Life You Are Living

Chapter Eight continued; Dreams – 2

 

Last week I mentioned I screamed at God, and I have on more than one occasion. Being a human involved with metaphysics does not make me some sort of saintly character. Frustration hits me just the same as anyone else. What might be different in my personal life is that I believe strongly that there are many things beyond what our human world sees, feels, understands and accepts. Belief in all these extrasensory things leaves me open to think I receive answers from dream messages about my day-to-day life choices.

I’m not Charlton Heston coming down from the mount folks! Merely one person trying to live the life given on this plane to do the best I can with all my beliefs intact.

If any lead is given to me by day or night in the way of psychic leads, I follow up on them often to no avail. Most people would have abandoned this unproven method of making life decisions, holding fast to my beliefs, I chose to continue on. Feeling mere fragments were coming through of what I ought to do, frustration lead to disappointment.

Begging for years for answers or leads as to what was next in my life I felt deserted constantly by my normal input.

As humans, we each have times in our lives where our story seems overwhelming emotionally, physically, spiritually. Placing one foot in front of another during these moments is the best you can do and hope for. But I was let down. My particular story of why I was searching so hard is not the important part here. What is vital to discuss is that I didn’t know what to do any longer. Despondent, I was certain I had wasted my life believing in what most people cannot see or hear. To say it’s a challenge to live outside the norm is a gross understatement! But, it was something I was willing to continue to do if only I could get some form of answers that actually lead me in a true path.

Speaking out loud as I got ready to climb into bed one night I told whatever powers around me that I was done. I was walking away feeling abandoned. At that moment, I gave up on all my gifts, my art as well as my ability to receive dream messages. I told God and the universe that they had given up on me, so I was doing the same. No longer would I pay attention to my dream messages or silent pokes in certain directions that lead nowhere in the end. I was finished asking for their help and guidance. Simply, I was going to desert every belief I had held dear for most of my life.

Perhaps at that moment I let go and let God as they say.

What happened next was something very surprising, at least to me.

Many full-on color dreams come to me every night. Total and or partial recall of these dreams is also usual. This one night was no different. However, what happened in the morning was different. I got up for a bathroom run at 4am certain I would be awake for the day but climbed back into bed for a moment and amazingly fell right back to sleep. It felt like a normal dream at first, and then…

I was with my best friend in a clothing store dressing room. Funny thing, neither of us had any clothing to try on. She stood in the doorway and I was inside the room. Turning slightly to my right I saw her dear departed mother in full color and body form. In life, she had different shades of red hair depending upon her mood and the dye of the moment. Normally, when I see spirits they are a bit cloud-like and transparent. They have color, but are see-through. This woman, at this moment, looked and felt very human and was utterly radiant! Standing in front of me now she had a beautiful, full head of glowing red hair, the likes of which I have never seen before. Her dress was a vibrant green color. She had on jewelry, but somehow it wasn’t important. Excitement rushed over me as I leapt forward to hug her. Sincerely, I have never hugged a spirit until that moment. It was delightful! She hugged me back. She didn’t feel like a spirit, she felt human. As we hugged, it was a true heart connection. Something you feel, that goes through you and fills you up at the same time. We exchanged words as my friend stood by wondering just who or what I was conversing with. Surprised she couldn’t see her mother I shot a look to my adopted mom and received an immediate answer as if I had spoken the words out loud. I was told no, my friend could not see her own mother, nor could she hear our conversation. This moment was for me alone and that her time would come later. I shared what I could as it was happening with my friend along with my sheer delight in seeing this beloved woman in full body once again.

Basking in this unusual experience, you could have knocked me over with a feather if I had not already been laying on my bed when I was suddenly given some of the direction I had been begging for for so long. My adopted mother told me that she and many others on the other side were enjoying my weekly writings, especially the one entitled “The Life You Are Living”.

Even in this dream phase I felt what she said was true, and yet I also knew I had not begun to write these essays yet.

Turning to my friend I began to tell her what was just spoken. Glancing again to our mom, I found she was no longer there. Feeling no sadness over her sudden departure my friend and I walked out of the dressing room to find ourselves in a diner type of restaurant. (Gotta love dreams!) Quickly I approached a waitress to ask for a piece of paper to write on. Interestingly enough she had a clipboard filled with yellow lined papers untidily stacked up and all were full of words. Searching, I did find a small clear space at some point and wrote down the words The Life You Are Living.

I woke.

Next week tune in to get the breakdown of this experience!

                           

Dragonflies represent many things to many people. To me, they show us how something can miraculously walk on water. I don’t wish to do so myself, but I find their iridescent wings magical and a forerunner of good things to come. This 2” across dragonfly pendant is made in 14Kw/y gold with a glorious black fresh water pearl drop. Black pearls bring a wealth of understanding. Decipher what is important for today, and your world expands. This pendant can provide a wealth of knowledge with hope.

Falling asleep and waking to this bright painting of magical dragonflies and lady bugs at least helps to place me in a hopeful mindset before I have to face the day. It measures two feet by four feet, something you can easily see before sleep as well as upon waking.

black fresh water pearl< Go to clsherman.com

Candace is also the author of the well-received The Crystal Caves available here

The Life You Are Living

Chapter Eight; Dreams 1     Feeling dreams are extremely important, this chapter will be continued for a few weeks in my blog.

 

Dreams and dream messages have been mentioned a few times already, and something I feel is an integral part of my daily life and decision making. It’s time to break it down for you before intimidation sets in.

I have been interested in dreams since early childhood, along with finding stones in the back yard, creating jewelry, painting, and of course GHOSTS! But my dreams have taken on a gargantuan proportion in my every-day world for over fifty years.

There was a time when I recalled part of a dream in the morning and found it interesting. In a college English class I began to take my study of dreams to a new level. There I was taught how to record dreams to begin to have more recall than mere fragments. Have paper and pen next to your bed every night. When you wake for whatever reason (usually for me it’s to pee), before you leave the bed write down a word or two of what you were dreaming. In the morning look at those words and normally fragments will turn into something more. In time, you will have more and more recall of what happened during your sleep-time.

Utilize dream book definitions and you can have many years of somewhat confusing dream messages. I speak from experience. Other people’s dream symbol interpretations are just that… other peoples. The best thing to do is to ask yourself this; what do the symbols portrayed in your dreams mean to you? After all, you are the one getting the dream, so it must be trying to give you a message. Understanding this took years for me. To this day, I still receive messages that utilize some of the symbols out of a dream book I referred to for over thirty years. I can usually interpret friends dreams very quickly. As a matter of fact, I get calls to do just that and am happy to do so when possible. But seeing my own interpretations is often such a challenge.

We stand in our own way!

Dreams are one way of communicating with God, angels, spirit guides, and especially our higher self. Okay, a new term for many. Your higher self, according to the metaphysical world, is a spiritual being who is your twin self that never sleeps. The connection is psychic. It’s your soul consciousness helping you be a better you. They, along with God, spirit guides and angels try to guide us. By steering us in certain directions the right job opportunity, or the new best friend, or perhaps even the right life mate might come forth.

Many years back while searching for answers, I kept psychically asking for guidance. While sitting in a chiropractors’ waiting room I began to read a magazine on the table. Flipping, I found an article that felt like it had been written just for me! Turning back to the cover, I wanted to make sure that once I left the office I could purchase the magazine to have that article all for myself only to find the magazine was three years old. Who put that magazine in my path that day? Why was I in the waiting room for that long when normally I was admitted immediately? I believe it was my higher self, placing the answer in front of me to what I had been begging for. Dreams do that as well.

Our minds do not shut down on us, we shut down on them. Our subconscious works all night to give us answers to things we have been asking for. These are our messages from the great beyond! Some dreams are specific, as in pre-cognitive where you are told certain things as a direct order if-you-will of what will happen today. Some dreams are suggesting you did something right, or wrong. Still other dreams can be mere wisps of clouds that give you a possibility.

We always have free will.

Pay attention or not, it’s always up to you.

People often tell me they do not dream. Inwardly I disagree but usually say okay outwardly.

Other people tell me they have deja` vus happen and don’t understand where those experiences come from. To those people I usually chuckle and tell them it’s their own way of getting direction instead of by night dreams.

Maybe someone comes up to you out of the blue and makes a statement that rings familiar inwardly. Call it a happy coincidence, and though that is not a night dream it certainly gave insight that seemingly came from the great beyond!

Even day dreams are a form of letting the outside in. Relax the mind in any way, meditate even and secret guidance can and does often come forth. Relish!

Back in that place of the unknown, over the past few years I have begged for answers and guidance. Certain the universe was not listening I fell into an old habit of screaming at God. Yes, I had dream messages…  (to be continued)

   

This wonderful “Leaf and Vine” style half circle pin is created in 14Ky/gr/w/r gold with blue sapphire and diamonds. Leaf and vine is a design I came up with years back to represent how we are always growing, dying back a bit, only to spring up once again to learn about life. Diamonds, when smaller than another colored stone, magnify the energy of that other stone, in this case blue sapphire. Blue sapphires give the intuitive part of your brain permission to open. Something necessary for good dream messages to come through!

Connection with the wonderful color of blue sapphire, add in a touch of green and have this terrific fascinator hat that can be worn in both winter and summer. I ask you, who doesn’t love a bit of plumage on their heads?

< Go to clsherman.com

Candace is also the author of the well-received The Crystal Caves available here