Thursday, September 29, 2016

Connection

My conscious connection is with the divine in everyone.

That is how we meet.

That is how we know each other.

Through our divinity.

As we practice what we know to be the divine in us, we naturally connect with the divine in everyone else.

We all have it that divinity.

It suites us and keeps us.

It supplies us and inspires us.

It is how we know the divine Presence that lives within us and walks among us.

It is our own divinity.


© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.pebblesofpeace.blogspot.com

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

"Is That Right?"

This question or phrase is the punchline to a joke about a Southern belle going to charm school and learning to substitute it for a rude opinion.

The idea of using it was suggested to me in another circumstance, when I feel drawn back into the past.

I no longer have to live in it, so this phrase can alert me not to relive it.

I find myself laughing because of the context of the joke, which puts me into the complete opposite mode from any negative feelings.

Laughter, according to various studies, has a healing effect, lifting us into positive emotion.

I am certainly grateful for this trigger phrase, and for the light-hearted solution that it offers.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.pebblesofpeace.blogspot.com

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Learning New Weaving Skills

There is great joy in learning new skills.

The understanding and support at my weaving retreat exhibits this feeling.

Past the frustrations of fixing mistakes in warping the looms and in learning the new patterns for the first time, is a concentration and engagement that is so alive with joy and peace.

We are all making progress in a direction of our choosing.

There is newness and excitement as we accomplish new challenging patterns.

There is amazing joy seeing the desgins and colors come to life from the paper drafts.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.pebblesofpeace.blogspot.com

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Celebrate Sanity - Downsizing

In 2013, we retired and moved to a tiny house in the woods.

I had been downsizing and packing up the house for several years.

The process involved going through the house and packing up and releasing (giving away) whatever we were not using or no longer needed.

Six months later I did it again.

And another six months later, I repeated the process.

We ended up with several empty rooms in our 2800 square foot, four bedroom, two bath, two-car garage suburban house.

My husband measured the actual space we were living in at 650 square feet.  This included a large kitchen and very large master bathroom.

Our tiny house is a 12 x 20 camping cabin, 240 square feet minus the sixteen square feet of porch and plus the sixty-four square feet of loft/studio.

Even with the downsizing, we moved enough stuff to fill three 10 x 25 warehouses.

Then we got it down to one warehouse.

Then we bought a studio/shop space to use the materials which we will still storing.

This is ideal for us until we can get solar and wind energy and drill a well and build a studio/shop in the woods.

The downsizing has been very freeing.

We no longer have anything we don’t want to work with, only what we truly love.

As creatives, that is pretty much all we care about doing.

No TV, some radio, definitely computer.

Everything else is hands-on creativity.

My husband is building a woodshop for himself.

I am installed with weaving, spinning, knitting, quilting, and music reading readiness production.

We live in the woods and go to work in town where there is electricity and water.

It is really close to our ideal life.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.pebblesofpeace.blogspot.com

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Interruptions vs. Positive Influence

Anything which causes us to be disturbed or upset momentarily disrupts our calm state of thought.

When that happens, we are temporarily distracted from our inner Guidance.

When we reestablish our calm, we can once again feel and hear Guidance from within.

It is asking a lot not to react, but it is more important to stay attuned to our inner resources.

The more consistently we can do this, the more powerful and confident we are.

We are able to listen for the right steps to take regardless of what is going on around us.

Quietness and calm thinking are also part of the fabric of society, and provide clarity.

Despite the justification to be outraged, it is more effective to be consciously aware and to stay focused in order to to listen within.

Then, we will hear what is going on around us, but we will not contribute any more energy to disruption and disturbance.

Instead, we will overcome a portion of it, with the superior power of steadiness and our ability to hear the solutions.

Our steady attitude will catch the attention of those around us and inspire them to listen for their own steps within their own mind.

Calm, steadiness, and quiet are resilient qualities and spread their own positive contagion.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage