Are you where you want to be?

spirit

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Self Nurturing: Sedona Massage

I received my first massage many years ago.  I was living in the UK at the time.  I believe it was sometime in the sixties and I discovered a small massage and facial salon had opened above a shop near my parents home.  I very tentatively booked an appointment and remember how my heart sang and I knew that I was hooked from the very first touch.  There is nothing quite like a massage for relaxation, de-stressing, pleasure, and coming home to yourself.  Massage does for the body what a deep relationship with God does for the soul.

I probably received one or two more massages during the next few years because I really couldn’t afford more than that.  Then, about five years later, I moved to Sardinia, Italy with my first husband and our two boys.  In 1970, we helped to open a large holiday village called Forte Village in the southern part of the island not far from the capital, Cagliari. 

There were many holiday agency reps working in the village and the two girls from the Swedish company, Vingresor, were extremely grateful for the “extra mile” that I went in order to help smooth difficulties for their customers.  They came to me one day and said they would like to show their appreciation in some tangible way and asked me what I would most like.  I knew they had their own massage therapist on call in the village, so I requested a massage.  They were gracious enough to gift me with a series of four massages, and my love affair with receiving massage was rekindled. Since then I have received many massages and eventually, when I was fifty three years young, I trained to become a massage therapist myself.  I feel as much joy giving massage as I do in receiving them.

Fast forward to April 2011.  As I mentioned in my previous posting Traveling-  Las Vegas & Sedona Rich and I enjoyed a wonderful visit to Sedona, AZ.  I knew that I wanted to receive a massage in Sedona because it is a place of natural healing and there are many alternative therapy healers in the town.  As Rich and I were settling into our condo, he checked out a file of information about various activities and points of interest in the area, and called my attention to an advertisement. The wording in the ad from Sue really spoke to my heart and soul, and I knew that this was who I would book my massage with.

A few days later found me in Sue’s studio.  Little did I know that I was about to have a very significant and life-changing experience.  For the next two hours Sue worked intuitively with my body.  I have never received a massage quite like it.  She used many different modalities during the course of the massage and I knew that something very special was going on, especially when she started chanting as she worked my heart chakra.  I remember thinking, “I hope she is going to tell me what that was about”, as I felt a kind of a “whooshing out” feeling from my chest.  Then shortly afterwards, as Sue worked on my lower abdomen, I could feel “something” going on and a great deal of heat.

At the end of the massage, when Sue gave me some water to drink,  she asked me if I wanted to hear her perceptions.  My heart lifted and I said I wanted to hear everything.  She checked first of all if I believed in past lives and also asked me if I was familiar with any of the ancient civilizations such as the Mayans or the people of Atlantis.  When I assented, she shared that while she had been working on my heart chakra she was drawn into a vision where she saw me as a tall, regal person, dripping with golden jewelry, and knew that I was one of the ancient wise ones.  She felt that I was royalty of some sort and told me that whenever I walked into a room people were enveloped in a sense of tranquility and felt healed.  I told her that many people told me this today also. 

She then went on to tell me that it was no longer enough to just “walk into the room”, that I was “being called to more”.  She said that I needed to be ready for more work and not to be afraid.  I remembered Kevin’s words just a few weeks earlier at the Lenten Healing Mission.  Sue then explained that while she had worked on my lower abdomen she had felt “something birthing”, and she encouraged me to be ready, to prepare myself for some new work that I was going to be called to undertake.

As I left Sue’s studio, I felt very blessed.  I was filled with a sense of peace and yet was also aware of a very heightened sense of energy.  I felt like I could have run for ten miles.  I was very grateful for this because later that afternoon Rich and I went to experience the energy vortex at Bell Rock and I was able to climb about three quarters of the way up the rock formation without feeling tired. 

I will always remember my massage experience with Sue with much gratitude.  My main personal work since that time has been to quietly prepare myself for whatever work Spirit wants me to do.  Just two weeks after this experience, I attended a Qigong event in Orlando and a complete stranger there repeated the message: “Margo, you are being called to more.  Do not hold back.”  I will share more about this experience in another posting.   

Spiritual Growth: Being Called To More

On June 18th 2011, I posted Spiritual Growth: The Lenten Mission.  In that posting I explained that Fr. Jim reminded us that Jesus invited us to continue his work on earth (John 14:12-14).  During the Mission I had a personal experience that strengthened this invitation.

On the third evening of the Mission we were encouraged to approach the Prayer Ministers with any requests for special intentions or issues that we might have.  I felt strongly compelled to go to Kevin, one of the Prayer Ministers who had travelled down from Chicago with Fr. Jim.  There were two reasons for my choice.  Firstly, Kevin had played an important role in my husband’s personal experience the previous evening and I wanted to thank him for that, and secondly I was aware of an intense spiritual energy around Kevin and I wanted to experience that for myself.

As I began to express my gratitude to him and then started to speak my first special prayer request, Kevin held up his right hand and said, “Stop Margo.  Do you realize how much the Spirit is working in you, already using you to do his work?”  I was somewhat taken aback, and faltered in my reply as Kevin continued to say to me, “But why are you holding back Margo?  What are you afraid of?”  Again, I fumbled with my words even as a picture formed in my mind.

Seven years prior, shortly after arriving in Jacksonville, I had bought a bicycle with the intention of riding it in my wonderfully safe neighborhood.  The bicycle has sat in my garage – unused.  I have been scared to get on it because it’s been about 50 years since I’ve been on a bike. I have allowed my pride to get in the way thinking that I  might fall off and people might laugh at me.   By the same token there have been many times in the past when I have wanted to share something about my faith or do something to be an example of God working and I have held back, scared of what people might think.

I shared this with Kevin and he said, “No more Margo, Spirit is calling you to more.  You cannot be afraid anymore.  He needs you to do His work.”  At that point I spoke my other prayer requests which were for my children, and then Kevin prayed earnestly over me.  I became aware of intense heat surrounding me, I felt a quiver go through my body, and the next thing I remember I “woke up” lying on the floor in front of the altar of the church and I knew Spirit had been with me.

Little did I know at that time that this phrase, you are being called to more, was going to be repeated to me two more times in the next few weeks.  And this by two widely disparate people in totally different locations and circumstances, who were not in the least bit connected to Kevin or any form of Healing Prayer Ministry.  But that will be for two more separate postings.

Today, I share this posting from Brainerd, MN. We arrived here yesterday at about 4.30pm after another day of beautiful riding.

Shared Wisdom: More Words On The Path

 

Often times the words of wisdom that I share have come from many places in time along my path.  These few that I share today have come to me in more recent times.  They have nurtured me on my spiritual path.

 

“I turn to God not so much for forgiveness but for the power to accept humbly the reality about my imperfect self. I turn to Him for the grace to give myself the forgiveness which He gives freely.”                                                                                 from Happy Catholic

“Clear boundaries are important on the spiritual path because they tell you exactly where your responsibility begins and where it ends.”
                                                                                                                                Paul Ferrini

“Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them – every day begin the task anew.”                                                                                    St. Francis de Sales

“Moments of grace are transient – will we meet this moment and be ready to serve.” and “We are being called into the holiness of wholeness.” 
                                                                                                                               J. Phillip Newall

“Be one to know God. The extent to which I am divided from you, I am divided from God.”        Meister Eckhart

“May you always be overwhelmed by the grace of God rather than by the cares of life.”          Anonymous

“I speak to you continually. My nature is to communicate, though not always in words. I fling glorious sunsets across the sky, day after day. I speak in the faces and voices of loved ones. I caress you with a gentle breeze that refreshes and delight you. I speak softly in the depths of your spirit, where I have taken up residence.”                                                                                                            from “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young

“God comes to you disguised as your life.”                                                                       from Center for Action and Contemplation

“We are not simply made by God, we are made of God – as is everything.”                            Julian of Norwich

“Once you find the light, no matter how insignificant it seems, your life will never be the same again.
A light-bearer never questions the light s/he carries. And so s/he can offer it to others patiently and without fear.”
                                                                                                                              Paul Ferrini

I love finding these words and phrases that resonate so deeply within me, and I love being able to share them out with you.  Blessings!! 

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