Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
When the butterflies appeared ready to go home for the night I went inside. The Kindle, of course it was working fine. My cell phone? Working just fine too and the hundreds of pictures that disappeared from it last month are back. That was a bonus. I love when I get the chance to remember God is in Charge.
The Front Porch has changed. Still on the top of a sun filled hill except when it is fogged in or rainy (the Front Porch is extra nice to be at in the rain). The flowers are bursting with color and there is a new space on the porch, a Spiritual Life Coaching space.
www.frontporchcoaching.com See Front Porch Coaching for a Spiritual Life Coaching experience. 
From: today@dailyom.com (DailyOM)http://www.dailyom.com/
January 20, 2012
Releasing and Welcoming
Energetic Sweeping
Sweeping the front porch every morning is an important cleansing ritual that prepares the ground for new energy.
“In some of our lives, sweeping has become an activity performed without much thought. In many cases, sweeping is a lost art, replaced by the noisy, efficient vacuum cleaner. But in several cultures and religions, sweeping the front and back porch every morning is regarded as an important cleansing ritual that prepares the ground for new energy on every level—physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. It is often employed to sanctify a space and prepare it for a ceremony. This seemingly simple action has the power to clear away the old and make space for the new. It stirs up the energy in a place, clearing out the astral buildup that is the natural by-product of the presence of humans.
This kind of sweeping is not about cleaning the area of dust. In fact, the broom doesn’t have to actually touch the ground to be effective. You might want to consider having two different brooms, one you use for cleaning dust and dirt, and one you use for energy clearing. If you are so inspired, you could decorate your broom by carving its handle, painting it, decorating it with gemstones and ribbons, or any other creative adornment that appeals to you. You can also make your own broom out of tree branches and twigs, or choose a naturally appearing broom from nature, such as a pine bough.
Sweeping each morning prepares the ground for the new day at the same time as it deepens our awareness of the importance of letting go of the past to welcome the present. As we clear the energy of our space, we clear our own energy systems. In addition, we create a space that feels clean, clear, and open to all who enter. Be sure to think welcoming thoughts as you sweep, manifesting what you need for the day. Making sweeping part of our daily ritual tunes us into the continuing cycle of releasing the old and welcoming the new that is the hallmark of a healthy energy system.” The Daily Om
Sweeping the Front Porch is needed often in my home. This time of year it is to keep excess sand from tracking into the house. Then in late Winter, early Spring I will do an intensive sweeping when it seems the last of the sand trucks will be heard coming up the hill. Some years there is enough sand along the curb that can be scooped up for the next season of ice and snow (which around here could be the following week).
This Winter has been different. More often mild than not, far less snow than usual. Oddly less, frighteningly less snow. Frightening because we expect the worse, can’t imagine the luck will last and ultimately prove ourselves right. Of course there will be more snow, there is February, March, April and May still to come in New England. But this year it is clear that people are appreciating our good fortune. Everyone is grateful and that makes the cold days feel warmer.
Yesterday as I listened to a friend with an Energy Healing practice I could see she hesitated in speaking of her good news. It seems we believe that even speaking of good things in our lives can diminish them immediately, jinx them even. Count on it! Things won’t look the same, as good; it won’t all turn out as it seems possible today but underneath the dirt on the porch is still my Front Porch. Underneath her doubt and fear is still her healing practice that is growing and has a new home. Underneath the healing practice is a woman who can help others in big ways. Underneath the doubts and fears is seeing her hard work pay off. When she sees dirt in the form of change, doubt or fear on the floor of her healing practice she has a choice. Let it sit there and accumulate or sweep it away.
When we sweep, the front porch, the kitchen floor, the floor of our healing practice, we are not just cleaning up a mess. We are making room for more. The doubts and fears we have around all parts of our life are going to keep coming just like dirt under my kitchen table. Guaranteed. Don’t ignore, don’t wish it away. Just don’t let it accumulate until you can’t see what is underneath.
When the dirt of doubt and fear and change builds up get out whatever tool you need to sweep it away. Here are some ways to let sweeping away things happen for you.
Get out your sturdy broom and clean floors
Get an energy healing
Pray
Talk to a friend who will listen
Talk to a friend who will kick you in the butt if needed
Walk on the Earth and see how important dirt is for growing things
Sit on the porch and let the wind do it
Naming your energetic dirt is the best way to begin. Sometimes you have to do one of the above to get there but if you can call your dirt for what it is you will find you have the best possible broom in your hand to get the job done.
Named more than our ‘fears and doubts’ our energetic dirt will be very personal and have an energy of its own. These are the commandments that we personally have with our self.
I don’t deserve this.
I never get what I want so why bother to ask.
I have no will power.
True love is not possible.
I cannot say how great I am doing.
I will never forget what (he, she, they) did to me.
I cannot trust anyone.
Those are examples of energetic dirt. Once we see what kind we have they can be changed with new commandments.
I am grateful for everything.
My life is sacred too.
I have what I need to get where I want to be.
Love is great, period.
By saying out loud how great I am doing I am also helping others to see their greatness.
I let go of the stories that fill my head and only get in my way.
I trust my self and I am always protected.
Trust that what you want to call yours is real and trust there is a different commandment waiting for you in your Soul to change it. Then watch the magic happen in your shiny clean dirt free life… until more dirt blows in on the breeze and gifts you with more to discover and grow with.
Remember to not judge your dirt. It isn’t like a cake making contest, everyone’s energetic dirt is ultimately the same. Contact Front Porch Healing to get started sweeping yours.
Once upon a time I decided to get a tattoo. I knew where it would be and I knew what it would look like. A fairy angel with a magic wand. 
She would flitter above where my left breast use to be and out of her wand would be dashes of golden angel dust. The sparkling bits would be full of blessings and they would be singing thanks to that most treasured part of me that sacrificed so much so I would live.
I am talking about breast cancer, loss of a body part but this is not a sad story. Fact is I can have fun at any time of most any day, two boobs or not. Like the time shortly after surgery when I walked into my kitchen during a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Eve.
Two brother-in-laws looked at me with sad, serious and quizzical faces. They were not registering that I had a prosthesis, only that a month earlier I had surgery and one was removed. As I walked out of the kitchen I turned back towards them and I said, “Didn’t you know they grow back?” I left them to clean up the mess when they spit out their beer in laughter. It seemed a good sign that I could be funny and casual over this. It wasn’t so funny when I went in for my tattoo.
Another fact is I have never gotten use to having just one breast when I dress in the morning. I have never said that out loud before; nor have I even admitted it to myself. Eighteen years later the pain lingers. Not in the scar but in what else is not there, my badge of honor. I wanted so much to have it.
If I couldn’t have two breasts I could at least fancy it up with a tattoo.
When I walked into the tattoo shop that day I thought it would be an easy deal. I was nervous but I knew what it would feel like because a doctor had placed tattoos on me so the radiologist could nuke me from a distance. I thought I was carefree about my physical change and I had a sense of humor about it. But I was ignorant too. I didn’t expect the reaction; I was not prepared for the tattoo artist to flinch at the idea of no breast on my chest. With heart broken and my self-esteem shaken I left without the angel and I left with a new scar called shame.
The name of that tattoo has sat on my chest all these years.
Now and seriously, can we ever stop being surprised at how the universe works? Another blessed long weekend in Maine, sitting at the ocean, health, happiness and fun in the sound of the waves. 
Suddenly, like it came right out of the blue water, it is all those years ago again. I was sitting in an Adirondack chair in Maine but I was really back at the tattoo shop of the past and I did not like it. I say very little and instead sit quietly with my thoughts… Same old story but I can live with it. I will. That is what I do.
It is going to be different this time. I don’t believe that yet but the ‘hope’ thing starts to grow.
Turns out there are two real live angels with me! One surprises me first with her decision then her determination and excitement to get a tattoo and the other surprises me with her telling my story. We have so many angels in our lives. Thanks to two of them in my life I have my badge of honor, I have my tattoo and she is of course an angel!
Wait; there is more to this personal story. Getting this tattoo done still was not easy. Not for me. I so wanted this tattoo and as we had our day of shopping in Freeport, laughing and sharing the tattoo began its life. No one would ever see it unless I showed them. No one would even know unless I told them. Yet it has only been a few days and I keep forgetting it is there. That is because it was never about the tattoo.
It was about asking for what I want and how angels come to us in so many ways.
Sitting at the beach with the beautiful Atlantic, the birds and nice weather I was once again dying on the inside. I could see the battle being waged in my head while my heart stood back waiting to see how much this would hurt. Seriously, don’t laugh here. The battle was over should I say yes, I want that tattoo, let’s go or let it go. Don’t dare take the risk! I was not afraid of getting the tattoo. I was terrified of being turned away again.
If I say yes, if I ask these two angels to come with me, let’s do it and for any reason it does not happen, again I will be hurt. Devastated and pissed. That scar on my chest healed quickly so many years ago but just like we all do I was making a new wound that would need to heal, AGAIN!
It wasn’t a surgeon with a knife this time, just me. I was terrified of not getting what I asked for because I wanted it so much. I sat there with this story bouncing back and forth like my head was a tennis court. Then I did it. I let the words come out like the line judge who gets to call the shots. First I quietly said “you don’t know what it is like to not have two breasts, it is not easy.” An angel nodded. She didn’t know but she did feel for me. And she loved me.
I had to make a decision. That I knew. Then I realized if I didn’t take this risk at this moment that this wound, the new scar across my chest that went straight into my heart would remain open and unhealed. If I chose to take the risk and it went badly it would eventually heal. This is me; at least I knew I wasn’t going to allow myself to have an open wound forever. Then there was the possibility that it was going to really happen. I don’t gamble but I am all about possibilities!
With that all of me jumped up and said let’s do it. My two angels jumped out of the sand as quickly as I did and in no time we are there and it is finally happening. 
But wait there is more. Just like in those infomercials.
While the artist was doing his work I noticed the photo on the wall. It was a woman and she was important to this story, she had to be; her picture was otherwise out of place on the walls filled with tattoo parlor art. I watched her while the tattooing began.
Then I asked the artist while he worked on me about how was it that he not only had no problem doing this but also has done so many. The day before my sister-angel told him my story and in a quiet way he told her he does tattoos on women with breast cancer all the time. Without changing his breathe he told me about the woman who worked there and had died of breast cancer. He motioned towards the picture on the wall. An angel. He didn’t say much more just “three years ago.”
This man drawing the angel on my chest is quiet. He has a story but all I am going to get is that he has beautiful teeth, lots of hair and a slight accent that might be Canadian. And maybe he is an angel. I looked back and forth from his face to hers. I wondered if she was his mother.
Now I am wondering what this is really all about. It comes after wondering how to end this. Maybe that is the point of this Personal One. It doesn’t end. We don’t end. We are all angels. Fancy Plain or otherwise, do you know what your Angel work is?
At the top of my list of people who have taught, inspired and opened doors for me is Caroline Myss. Caroline began as writer (continues) and publisher and then discovered her ability as a medical intuitive. Now Caroline primarily teaches. Caroline is a mystic. http://www.myss.com
This is not a tribute to Caroline Myss though I am looking forward so much to seeing her again. She will be in Boston this November and my ticket is on the white board in front of me. There will be gazzilions of people and auditorium seating only but her energy is huge and mine is open to hers so much that I can sit farthest away and feel it. Okay, reminder, this is not about Caroline Myss.
It is about Truth. And funny that word has been jumping around in me all week as I ponder the actions of someone else and my re-actions and if they come from fear and ego won’t have Truth either.
Then Caroline came forward with an email on Truth. Of course. When you step in to who you are and you ask the universe to open your eyes and provide guidance it does not just come in the form of heavenly angels whispering in your ear at night.
It can come electronically in an email from someone you already admire or someone you never heard of before. You just have to have your eyes and ears open. The universe is no fool and computers, websites and emails are rudimentary tools in their eyes.
Caroline has provided me with what I need to look at around this issue that has got my ego in a twist this week. I don’t know how it will effect my actions yet but I do know that if I pray the outcome will be better than if I do not.
Here’s Caroline Myss.
Here is her message.
TRUTH AS THE PULSE OF GOD
Stand in the power of this prayer . . .
“How will you come to me, Lord? How will I know you? How will I recognize you? I know you will come for me. You will slip into my being, perhaps in the middle of the night while I sleep. Maybe You will come for me when I am not looking for You, when I am distracted, staring into an oncoming storm, fearing my immortality.
Or maybe You will come to me in the midst of a lie that pours out of my mouth effortlessly. You will let me know You are listening as I listen to myself say something that is not true as easily as if I were giving the time of day. I tell myself that my lies are insignificant, that they don’t matter. How do I know what matters, what is significant? What if I am being tested? Observed? Did you know I put my conscience to sleep years ago? Maybe that’s how You will come to me – You will awaken my conscience like a sleeping dragon, one day, when I am weakened by disease, or fear, or loneliness, and I will be forced to face the truth that I fear You. I fear Truth. You are Truth itself, and I feel that power rumble like an earthquake through my being each time my eyes look into the eyes of another human being.
One word of Truth exchanged through the eyes of another is enough to bond two human beings for eternity, the power of a sacred union. No wonder we fear Truth. No wonder we fear You. How will you come to me, Lord? You will come through Truth. You will make me need You and I will come searching. You will make me shed my skin, my illusions, my weaknesses, like boils ready to burst on my burning flesh. And then, when I am broken, too weak to deceive even myself, there You will be, already resurrecting my soul. Somehow, Lord, I found this Truth already lodged in my heart. You’ve already come for me.”
In Caroline’s email she asks, actually Caroline tells us to turn off the distractions we are using at the moment and contemplate these questions.
1. What is Truth for you? Do you think about “truth” as something that is just the “opposite of lying,” or does Truth for you also have cosmic, mystical proportions?
2. Do you struggle with speaking the truth? Do you allow yourself to lie? A little? A lot? Daily? And let me make this easy for you: A lie means you are not telling the TRUTH. There’s no qualifier here.
3. Do you assume people lie? We live in a society in which lying is more acceptable than speaking the truth. For example, we assume that our politicians are liars, that financial and corporate cartels are liars – and guess what? We don’t care! We have grown so accustomed to a culture of lies that we have grown numb to it. So the question is, “Why have YOU personally chosen to become numb to this culture of lies?” And the more significant question, “How much influence has this dark culture of lies had upon the breakdown of your personal integrity?” Mind you, it may not have had any influence or it may have inspired you to become a Whistleblower, a person sick to death of all the lies in this society. Or you may have just caved in and drunk the kool-aid, deciding that if everyone else is doing it, saying things that aren’t true and getting away with it, what the hell.
4. When people call me for help because their health or their life is in crisis, they never, ever bring up Truth as their core point of crisis. But it always is. What Truths are you personally wrestling with? Asked differently, “What secrets have become too painful or heavy to carry?”
I am interrupted now by the sound of mail dropping into my mail box and I go to retrieve it. It is quite nice out this morning with the promise of changing weather and the hope that it will not get as hot as reported.
Truth is I have been listening to the mail truck coming up the hill, making the couple of stops and then turning at the top and coming my way. I thought it passed my house without stopping. As I cut and pasted Caroline’s words and contemplated my own; the Truth was in the mail delivery that I was listening to in the background.
I was thinking about if the item I was waiting for arrived what would my reaction be? If it was not how would I handle that. Truth is if it arrived or not should have no bearing on my Truth. Or so we are taught. It goes back to what the Truth is.
Truth is more than making a decision and not wavering. Truth is more than answering a question or stating a point that is completely factual. It is more than not telling tales, making up stories about others, hiding facts or creating drama where it does not exist.
Truth is looking at why. Truth is seeing, not just knowing that if that piece of paper was not in my mailbox that it would in my opinion allow me to act with words and certainly thoughts in a certain way. Really! Whose truth is that? Mine. Well not so fast. If we, alone on our own define what the truth is we are in big trouble. But it is exactly what we do.
We decide what is true and we live and die by it. We decide what is true and measure every step we take and we condone and condemn others and ourselves by what we decide.
Truth is nothing like that. We think It is based on how we define it but you know how that goes when we (humans) decide what is we are always far off the mark because of our ….. well I could make a huge list of what prompts our decisions, rules and definitions but I can only really come up with one. Truth is all about Fear.
Truth is not getting that piece of paper when I should have brought up fear around being labeled as something I wouldn’t agree with or much like. It meant someone, in my human opinion, was using and abusing power. And certainly was not being truthful with words. Truth is what happened on the other end of this piece of paper is not only not my business it has nothing to do with my Truth. But in protecting my self (from my own fears) I could let my ego take charge. It is a powerful force this ego of mine and I could stand behind it justified and honor bound and go to the mat for it. I could call that my Truth.
What happens when I open the mailbox and see what is there is what my Truth is; it is not on a mat. Truth is knowing that if I am touched either way by what is or is not there I own it. Truth is not about having no reaction, it is not about having no feeling in my gut or in my heart. It is about owning it. When I reach in and find it is not there and then feel angst coming up or feel nothing that I call “don’t care” the truth is owning both. If I carry the “what the heck is going on here” thoughts with me all day, truth is owning that. Truth is not saying it is caused by or belongs to someone else but owning that I think that.
Truth is an amazing tool. Without it Fear would do us in. Truth is we should not fear Truth. We should use Truth more often and know that the universe will let us know when we get it right. We will feel and it will feel great.
The piece of paper was not in the mailbox. Truth is that will not change or impact my day but if it did, well the day has not happened yet so if it does, I own it. I will endeavor to not judge my self whichever way it goes. And if (when) I do judge my self I will endeavor to be kind. Knowing that Truth alone answers every question that may come up makes it all right with the world on my end of the mail route. If my ego slips in with a delivery of fears I will pray for them to be rerouted quickly.
Knowing that Truth and God go hand in hand and are waiting for me on the Front Porch to enjoy the day makes it all so very good.
Thank you Caroline Myss for sending true words and wonder filled prayers to use in my conversations with God, the universe, on the Front Porch today.
