Thank God and All the Saints for social media and e-publishing! It is winter, the time of year that I tend to withdraw into my not so carefully organized she-cave and hibernate.  This winter is different for me.  How about you?  Are you in your cold, old rut? Traditionally winter has been an intensely creative period I dedicate to what is to come.  I like my creative process uninterrupted. In 2002, I was living in the snow belt of western New York State.  I discovered how valuable winter could be when I began producing intuitive self-help products; Inner Voices chakra cards and Speak Stones casting set.  The public responded with sales and praise during the summer months and I considered what I might be able to add to the offerings. Winter arrived right on schedule and Natural Elements, a line of natural skincare products emerged from my mind and my neighbor’s kitchen. Connie had quite a talent for combining ingredients and trouble-shooting challenges.  Our goal was to produce skincare items that were so safe and natural you could eat them without fear of toxicity.  It took both of us to bring Natural Elements to buyers and they loved the items we offered. I was holed up last winter recovering from a broken hip in sunny North Carolina when I was encouraged to write my first nonfiction book, There’s DNA to Prove It:  Message from Beyond.  Three women from the De Jac family of Buffalo, New York began visiting me on a frequent basis. They were visiting me from Spirit.  I recognized Carol and Crystallynn’s energy from past meetings at a psychic house party in Buffalo. They were coming to me in my new southern location after Lynn joined them in Spirit.  She crossed over a few months earlier from cancer.  The three of them insisted that I write their story, they wanted it known. I had not written a book or even a short story and didn’t feel up to their task.  I suggested that they get a “real writer.” Their story was well worth telling, shocking even, educational for certain.  Justice, fairness, rape, murder, serial killers, and false imprisonment; so much that needed to be told.  Those were some of the facts I’d agree to tell.  The public deserves to know this information.  Our Justice System is in need of a major overhaul. Our mental telepathy conversation continued over the next two months. I finally agreed to include them in a chapter of my “ok I can write something auto-biography.”  I committed to tell the facts of their situation and how my mediumship was essential to their story. Oops, I was immediately terrified by the facts.  I learned that I had only known a small piece of their whole story.  Nightmares soon commenced, screaming out in my sleep nightmares.  Oh my God, how can these things be true?  The result, There’s DNA to Prove It:  Message from Beyond is available in e-book and paperback. No autobiography yet. This winter I am changing things up and getting out to new places and making it a point to meet new people.  The nightmares have ended. You are probably asking, why change a pattern that has worked well in years past?  Do I really want to surrender my creative winter time?  Modify it for now, yes. I don’t fear aging or dying but I cringe at the thought of becoming stale before I leave this physical form.  My social skills could use some refining.  Our lives become stale when we forget that there is so much more to offer than our current comfort zones provide. We are constantly offered opportunities to learn from each other when we show up for them. Just as actors on the stage practice their roles, we roleplay and practice improving outcomes through our engagements with others. Here are the pitfalls to avoid:  discouragement, blaming ourselves and/or others, rejecting an idea too soon, hiding from and condemning opportunities when fatigue, frustration or discomfort arise and let’s not forget laziness. Remember everyone is practicing! Eleanor Roosevelt may be infinitely more challenging a role than a fairy tale character, but you will learn and grow from the opportunity each character offers.  You may never become Celine Dion, but you will improve your singing voice by joining a voice class. Learning the steps and changing partners can teach dancers to appreciate balanced patterns of change.  If you can’t identify with acting or singing roles perhaps thinking of your life as a dance with multiple partners will be easier. Change is the stuff life offers us constantly.  You have choices to make, sometimes making no choice is the choice.  Default outcomes result from choosing to do nothing, like it or not. None of us are on the earth to avoid making decisions.  The school of life will bring us opportunities over and over until we select something.  The secret to remember is this, do-overs are endlessly available. Choose thoughtfully and never fear being wrong to the extent that you do nothing.  We are all learning and teaching constantly.  Failure is a teaching method too.  Live with courage, it will take you further!  Enjoy an engaging life, be a role model. Views:]]>