Link: http://www.MediumReadings.com

The other day, as I sat at my desk feverishly working away at my website updates (as I've been doing for the last 2 weeks), 2 of my dog-kids began taking turns nudging my hands away from the keyboard and into ideal back-scratching position as a 3rd repeatedly dropped his ball on the "Enter" key.  It was clearly a well-coordinated effort.  "Okay, Okay," I said, "Gimme a minute - I'm almost done..."  And 45 minutes later, the process repeated itself.  Finally I begrudgingly set aside what I was working on, picked up the tennis ball and called the "pack" to play outside.  Of course they were all

ecstatic, which thrilled me to no end!  This scenario has repeated itself multiple times over the last 7 days - each time culminating in me standing outside in the sunshine or snow (we've had both this week!), surrounded by my beloved dog-children, breathing in the most amazingly sweet pine-laced air & vowing to spend less time with my face buried in the computer and more time playing ball and taking afternoon walks in the woods between readings.  As I just realized, it is, so far, yet to happen.  Normally almost every moment in between my readings is spent playing with & nuzzling the animal members of our family, cavorting outside with them in the snow or sunshine, standing on our deck & just taking in the sights & smells of nature.  Even when I lived in the city, I could barely stand to spend an entire day indoors without at least a few breaks spent outside feeling the sunshine on my face & drinking in the sight of whatever trees may be around.

Nature is so healing and life-affirming - particularly in the city, it offers a place for the eyes, the mind and the spirit to rest.  In urban settings, places literally covered in cement and billboards and smog, it's no wonder depression and anxiety run rampant!  It's especially important for city-dwellers to make spending time in a natural setting (even in your backyard) a priority to allow your mind to decompress.  Something as simple as a tree can make the mind relax and can actually be comforting to the spirit because of its stability, having been rooted firmly into the earth.

Follow up:

I've known these things for years and yet, this week, with so much busy-work to do, I easily forgot and let the real priorities in my life - the other lives depending on my connection to them - take a backseat.  Unfortunately, it's so easy to do.  I always tell my clients to BE PRESENT in their lives - to be aware of their choices, to be aware of their motivations, to not become robotic in their motions, so that they can experience the highest joy, passion and fulfillment from their experience here.  I tell them these things because these are the things that my guides have shared with me.  I tell them these things and yet I, too, forget.  It's an important lesson in how easily we can all slip right back into the waking sleep that steals from us our free will and our personal power.  And it's an important lesson in how easy it is to forget to experience the fullness of our connection with the people we love.  We know how much we love them and we tell them so...and usually we show them...but maybe not always.  It may not even be work or school or stress that causes us to let our connections go numb - often times it's anxiety or jealousy or fear.  Often times we become so consumed with those things that we don't actually allow ourselves to really enjoy the people in our life...So even when we have what we think we want, we don't really get it - because we're so wrapped up in the complications of our love that the love itself is superceded.  I see this every day with clients.  Another, even more common example, of this is the "body-in-one-place, mind-in-another" experience.  We may be spending time playing ball with our kids or giving our cat a back scratch, but where are we really?  More often than not our mind isn't on that game of ball or how soft kitty's fur is - it's on the phone calls we need to make or the bills that need to be paid or the issue we're having with a friend; so even the moments that are there to comfort and renew us are lost.  And we walk through life thinking, "Is there nothing good in this life?  I've got so much stress all the time!"  Our gifts of comfort and joy and connection with others are meant to be our peace...So the next time you find yourself on the couch with your mate, scratching Kitty's back or even reading a book alone, drink in every detail of that moment - allow yourself to be fully immersed in the experience of that moment - and appreciate it for what it is: it is one of the millions of moments that make up the minutes that slide into the hours that create the days of your life.

And now, as one of my dog-kids eyes me mischievously, I am putting away my keyboard and going out to enjoy the crisp morning on the deck with my furry blessings...and I won't even think about my next website updates!