Picture this. Two greyhound type dogs lying peacefully, one white and one black. Though peaceful, their heads are up, alert and watchful. The white one is in front for us visually, looking left, and close beside, the black one looking right.

This image is from a Tarot Key from our school, and while I was meditating on this key, the image of the dogs spoke to me very strongly. I was trying to understand what it meant and why the dogs were in the key. The dogs seemed to say to me, “Be restful, be at peace.” It seemed to symbolize the polarized sides of my human nature. We can understand that we want the black dog, the shadow side of us, to cease and desist. But what about the white dog? Does it not then represent the higher values of the soul? But an animal cannot be used to symbolize the soul. Suddenly I understood, that the white dog represents our personality’s conception of the spiritual part of us, but that is not the real, not the part of us that is the alive spirit spark calling us within. In emotional turbulence, the real spiritual part of us is blocked – by ourselves! The personality then operates on its own conception of the spiritual – what we think it should be by our habits and learning and yearning.

If in the moment of our low (or high) emotional turbulence we try to amplify and activate our white dog, we are creating an inner see-saw, and further, we are activating our personal selves – the very part of us that continually veils our deepest essence.

In my case, it was the act of becoming peaceful and restful internally that opened the windows and doors to the real, and inspiration and guidance started to flow in. It seemed for me, the image of the restful dogs, spoke so clearly, “You can solve this self-criticism by stopping. Stop all the personality’s efforts. Embrace restfulness, peacefulness and the obstructions to the spiritual will fall away.”

My journey, from not “feeling like writing”!

Have a beautiful day!

As mentioned earlier, we may have noticed that forgiveness for others or for ourselves cannot be made to happen, even by our will or our mental decisions….otherwise, I say to myself, why am I still thinking about it, why am I mentioning it? If you have forgiven, it should already be swept away as so much detritus of life, swept away by the rivers of livingness.

I found I had been a bit hard on myself for neglecting my website and blog writing for so long, but the very state of being hard on myself – as in criticism or self-judgement – created low turbulence within me, within the personal house of my existence, the vehicle I reside in, that I try to look after as the temple of God. It is as if the doors of the house are locked and the blinds are drawn.

Even though it might be for a good reason one is hard on oneself, anything within us that is low turbulence or even more turbulence, nevertheless interferes with our accessibility to the divine forces, the transpersonal energies and consciousness that is always trying to actually get a hold of us and guide us on our way.

That see-saw between being hard on oneself for not doing what one “should”, and then actually doing it, is a bit of a catch – 22. So finally, that is the preamble to tomorrow’s blog, FORGIVENESS 3.2, what got me out of the slump.

Today’s post has been created, but is not ready for publication. It is longer than I wish, and convoluted – too much so? I need another day to mull and craft that piece. Have a beautiful day.

Forgiveness is not something we can just decide to do, with our human minds and will. It is a a very, very deep thing to let go of something that has become entwined within our perspective and understanding, so much so that it obscures our vision of the spiritual dimension. (The spiritual dimension is not separate, it is us!) Maybe this is not a good analogy, but the burden we carry with the lack of forgiveness is something like a tree being bent as it grows – the tree loses its ability to embody its archetypal pattern. (The analogy fails, because we are human, and even though we may be warped away from our archetypal pattern, the possibility of redemption is always offered to us.)

By now I think we know that forgiveness of others releases not just them, but also us. We are released. But more importantly for our own freedom of consciousness is to forgive ourselves. But that is truly of the same difficulty as described above. We cannot do it just with will and a mental decision.

To the heart of the matter tomorrow.

…. one of my baseline decisions was to write a short blog, not on and on.

What do these ramblings have to do with my books for children?

The book I have been working on is not for the younger set. Previous books were aimed at 3 to 7 year-olds mainly, although my 20 month-old-granddaughter loves The Star Children.

The new book is aimed to be a story that enfolds within it a navigation map for, say, 10 to 15 year-olds. This is an age when the spiritual consciousness arises in many children, and integrating and understanding that part of ourselves in this very materialistic, chaotic, and threatened world while their body and personal self are changing drastically would be a very new and challenging experience. Our normal consciousness as reflected in the mass media, entertainment and school curricula are devoid of any guidance from the spiritual perspective, although some effort is definitely made to address emotional turmoil and trauma. To children awakening to their spiritual dimension, emotional work is not enough since it does not address the deeper essence of ourselves, the very part that needs addressing. This state can leave any of us – young or old – confused, lonely, depressed, adrift and especially lacking clear language to grapple with those feelings.

So for me as well, I have no model for this kind of a book. I also am grappling, growing and changing.

More tomorrow – expansion of thoughts on the relevance of forgiveness.

This is me!

A couple of days ago I read this quote: “If I wait to write until I feel like it I will never write anything.” I resolved to jump over that hurdle, but since I didn’t jump over it right away, I don’t even remember who said it! We’ll see what I can say tomorrow!

Meditating this morning, it seems clear to me that there is much love being focussed on the planet and also within humanity. Can you sense that? We are also part of this higher sphere, a sphere that exists very far in vibration from our physical plane life. Seems like actually we are such a very big planet with so many billions of people (this from our own point of view), but if also love is coming to us from the Universe, from that point of view we are such a small and suffering entity in the galaxy.

And so what(?) you might say. So there is a little piece of love amid so much wrongdoing, greed and despair, what can it do? Well, perhaps sustain us as we walk together step-by-step toward a new world (and I don’t mean the New World Order of Klaus Schwab and the billionaire technocrats and AI.) I mean a new world wherein the heart of humanity slowly wakes up to the truth of our being, and the truth of the being of the Universe, and together create a social order that reflects our values and inner light.

This is where some virtues come in: developing the understanding of the necessity of perseverance, positivity, and dedication – to keep on relentlessly against all odds. To keep on with LOVE and goodness.

On a personal note, since I posted “Sometimes the path that will bring you the most joy will need some clearing” I have found that in fact the clearing never seems to be over. I have thought, well, maybe it is because new knowledge and understandings are developing, and as the world changes, and I and we change with it, it obviously can never stop.

I am working on a book for young people – maybe 11 to 14 – (that changes too!) and I do find it a challenge. Actually the first draft is already written but with little blue markers here and there, like ‘find out more about this aspect’. I often read other books for this age group, often very popular ones, and though people say to me, “Why don’t you write a book like this?” my feeling is that the world is already swimming in books like that. That is why my guidepost is Inspired Books for Children. I want to give something to the young ones who are in a treacherous transition. Not that the transition is of itself so very treacherous, but the world they are living in is treacherous for the transition of leaving childhood and trying to find your solid self in a world bereft of obvious goodness and deeper values. What they are constantly exposed to at school, from peers, from social media and the entertainment industry does not speak to what needs to develop and be connected to internally.

My thoughts for this Day of Love (though Valentine’s Day is commercially hijacked), there is deep value and purpose in reflecting on LOVE.

Anyone who wishes to add their thoughts are very welcome.

I’m sending a big thank you to all of you who availed yourself of the Christmas Sale! It was very rewarding, and I hope you enjoyed the books.

And now, wishing us all of us on this planet an inspired and light-filled year, where we can all be increasingly guided by the light and love of our hearts.

The website is offering a sale of 25% off marked prices from today through to Dec. 24.

As my technician has not caught up with me, I suggest you bypass the PayPal buttons and follow the pricing below on this blog. For the time of this sale payment will be by e-transfer to lila.strand@icloud.com

Please specify book(s) ordered, your address (or child’s address) or pickup to be arranged.

Please ask for a signed copy, gift wrapping (only tissue possible) – with gift card if desired. Any questions, please ask.

PRICING in CAD Keynote words added to give you a gist of the meaning of the book

THE STAR CHILDREN (hard cover): Sale Price: $18

• nature play and connectedness, friendship, the Mother-of-Us-All, inner life…ages 3 to 5

LITTLE STAR – A HIDDEN SEED (soft cover) Sale Price $10.50

• friendship, emotional intelligence, healing forest, inner strength, inner light…4 to 6

LITTLE STAR and ELIORE (soft cover): Sale Price $10.50

• nature play, loving connectedness, heart, gratitude, stillness, inner plan, perseverance, and trying again…5 to 7

I have wanted to do this every year, but could never get past the PayPal buttons, so you could say, this announcement is the ‘flying by the seat of my pants’ variety.