Freedom From Want

Freedom From Want ©2017 Joan M. Newcomb,

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, the start of a month's worth of expectations. That family and friends should be gathering, that there should be an abundance of food and gifts. That everyone is supposed to be warm and loving to each other.

Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell

My family of origin lived up to those expectations for the first fifteen years of my life, until the patterns started to break down. And we had pretty high expectations. My great-uncle Jim McCabe is in the iconic Norman Rockwell painting.

My early memories are of grand holiday meals, although we lived overseas most of those years so sometimes we had goose instead of turkey.

The family started shattering when I was sixteen, and I maybe initiated, contributed or reflected that shattering... I was hospitalized for depression in an adolescent ward of a mental hospital during the holidays that year.

The next year, I just remembered, I had Thanksgiving with my great-uncle's family in Connecticut (after visiting him in Vermont). I was in college and my parents were in Sweden. My father left my mother shortly afterwards; I really don't remember any Thanksgivings with them after that.

As an adult I tried gamely to create holiday meals like the ones I'd had in my early childhood. But the family I created broke apart when my kids were little. Since their father was a gourmet chef and I had never cooked a turkey, I wrote it into the parenting plan that they spent every "big meal" day with him. I had no idea that it set me up to be alone for all those holidays.

At some point my kids learned from their cousins that they got two Thanksgivings. The cousins would see both sets of parents on the same day. Since my culinary skills couldn't match their father's, I had our Thanksgiving meal the Sunday before, which both spared it the competition and meant they'd eaten my leftovers before they went to their dad's for the remaining part of the week.

Every Thanksgiving for years, I was always scrambling to be "adopted" somewhere to eat with other people. It was always a painful and lonely time.

When I remarried, our first Thanksgiving together, my mother in law was insulted because I had my husband and her work on the turkey. After that, we'd go out for Chinese food instead.

When you look at Thanksgiving from the perspective of Consciousness, you see the tangles of expectations and dysfunctional patterns that actually create separation and lack.

You can be with family and a lot of food, and if it's filled with assumptions and craziness, you will feel far removed from any sense of connection and abundance.

Thanksgiving isn't about the big meal. It isn't about the gathering of family and friends. It isn't even necessarily about gratitude. As Consciousness, it's about appreciation.

Appreciation is the neutral form gratitude, because it's coming from the creator sense rather than the recipient. As we exist as Consciousness and in body, we can experience both, but it's important to note the difference. Gratitude implies thankfulness for or from something outside of yourself. Appreciation acknowledges and enjoys the creation. Which can even be the creation of chaos and discord.

When you shift your perspective from your body/personality self, to you as Consciousness, you know you already have all that you desire.

As Consciousness there is no separation. You are always connected, even with loved ones who have passed. As Consciousness there is no lack, because Consciousness is the Source of all creation. As Consciousness there is no discord, because Consciousness is essentially love.

This year, my husband and I are at that mid point, where our parents are passed, and our adult children don't yet have offspring of their own. One son is in Spain; we won't see him until Easter. Another is on Vashon, with his Dad. We'll do our meal on Sunday (I now cook salmon instead).

I'm appreciative that I have good relationships with both my kids and my husband. I get to create new patterns rather than passing on historical ones.

This holiday season, when you feel yourself entangled in the insanity, take a moment to shift your perspective (this might require stepping out of the room). View it all from Consciousness, appreciate this playground of a planet, and notice how your reality transforms!

Money Is Neutral

Money Is Neutral ©2017 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

This week I was a little surprised when I heard someone say that 'money is neutral'. I mean, I've had a lot of experience with money, from having a lot of it to not having any. It was great to have a lot, and problematic not having any. It's never seemed to me to be neutral.

I've also worked with the Deva of Money, who comes across to me as an ocean. The ocean may seem placid at times on the surface, but it is deep, and can change with the weather. It may be filled with life that nurtures you, but also can be deadly so you should never turn your back on it.

And then it struck me, that it's how we feel about money that is decidedly not neutral.

The energy of money is not only neutral but impartial. It doesn't automatically appear in your bank account because you're a good person. It's just energy.

There is no good nor bad about money. It's an avenue of exchange. It's an expression of appreciation. It's an energy form. It's a morphic field.

Our stories about money are dramatic. They're tied into our survival. We'll die without it, we think. People have killed themselves (and their families) over debt. And there are other stories, people doing good things for others with money.

It's funny. Not having money is bad, having money is good, and yet we demonize rich people. They're not spiritual, they're unconscious, they're disconnected.

People are people. There are wealthy people who are spiritual, conscious, and connected. Just like there are poor people who aren't. It can't really be dichotomized like that. I find usually people are a mix of everything, because they're human.

As I started writing this blog, a little voice said, 'yeah, tell 'em how to get more'.  Because that's what we all want, right? We never have enough.

Abraham Hicks says “The world is awash in money! Do you hear what that means? It is awash in money. It is flowing for everyone. It is like Niagara Falls. And most of you are showing up with your teaspoons.”

The more I think about it, the more like the ocean 'money' is. It is vast and present and available for you to utilize. It is completely neutral.

And, as an energy, it is infinite. It's our ability to have or receive it that shrinks or expands. We can propel it away, or attract it.

Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer both have told a story of waiting for the Maharishi, who was finishing a meeting about a project. Someone asked him, "but Maharishi, where is the money going to come from?" And the Maharishi smiled and waved his hand, "from wherever it is at the moment."

At one level, money is an energy that flows. At a higher level, it just materializes. As we expand energetically to embody more of our 5D self into this 3D form, as we are greater Consciousness within this physical realm, it becomes more easy and effortless to manifest whatever we want.

Which transcends money, because whatever we want isn't the actual numbers or currency, but the freedom it represents.

And here's the funny thing about that. As Consciousness we already have whatever we want. As Consciousness, we already *are* freedom.

How would your life be different if you knew that?

You Are Loved, Lovable and Worthy of Love

You Are Loved, Lovable and Worthy of Love ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

I am sitting in a downtown Starbucks. It is not designed to hang out in. It has hard metal seats and tiny row tables. It's across from a city park, where city denizens live.

A woman comes in with a huge stroller and a tiny toddler.  Her daughter has a grey T-shirt with a big strawberry on it. She is a bright spark of light amongst beings who have accumulated many shades of gray.

I see a lot of diversity, but not a lot of happiness.  There's a lot of pain on the streets outside of Starbucks.

Street child in Kolkata with a mango!

Another woman with a stroller comes in.  She has an infant in a front pack, a two year old, wearing an identical gray T-shirt with strawberry and a four year old in a blue cotton dress. The two year old dances around the other toddler, delighted to be T-shirt twins.  The other toddler, clearly an only child, sidles up to her mom and raises her arms to be carried.

The little girls are bright sparks of light.  That is, their light is easily visible.  Yet every single person in Starbucks and on the street were bright, shining, infants and toddlers once. They were all loved, lovable and worthy of love.

Mother Theresa once said that she saw Jesus in every poor person's eyes.

There was a form of torture POWs were put in cages where they couldn't sit down but they couldn't stand up. They had to stay crouched for impossibly long periods of time.  When they were released, it was painful to stand.

This is a great analogy for staying in pain or poverty or other dysfunctional patterns.  After spending many years in darkness, moving to a healthy stance, being visible and in the light, is painful.

More and more light is coming into the world.  More and more darkness is being exposed.  It is coming to the surface to be cleared.

If you are going through dark times, if you are experience extreme discomfort, know that it is the greater part of You emerging.  The bright spark of light that you were, You still are.  Yet is is no longer a spark but a shining star, the brilliance equalling our own Sun.

Breathe and allow your Light to shine. Breathe and allow your heart to open. You are unique. You are special. You are loved, lovable, and worthy of love.

Everyone is.

Death and Taxes

Death and Taxes ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."  Benjamin Franklin

This may be a little premature (for both topics), but I was having a conversation with Janet, my radio show co-host about recording a show in April. She thought it could be about money, as it is tax time in the U.S. 'People are feeling taxed' she said. 'What is taxing you, how are you feeling taxed?'

And I immediately thought, 'in paying taxes I am expressing appreciation for all that the taxes are going to support!'  I like roads, and school, and healthcare, and retirement. And I may not like supporting warfare, I don't mind supporting the troups. Military spending includes supporting military families.

Two Tax Collectors, Marinus van Reymerswaele

We think of taxes as something bigger than ourselves (the Government) taking something away from us. Or we count on tax returns to give something to us. We're little, they're big.

And from the perspective of Consciousness, it's all a creation.  As the greater aspect of ourSelf, we create the reality of taxes.

If we feel like it's something happening to us, we're reacting as our body/personality.  We feel powerless, less capable, something bigger than us has control.

Stepping up to the awareness as Consciousness, we feel amused, we are in total agreement with whatever is occurring, we see the interconnectedness of it all.

As Consciousness we feel ownership, and authority.  Nothing is more powerful (and nothing is less).  There's no good nor bad as Consciousness, there's no ethics, so it's all good.  There is ultimate acceptance of what is.

"The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse everytime Congress meets."  Will Rogers

As Consciousness we've created this wonderful world of opposites and oppositions.  It's not accurate to say this is all an illusion, because it invalidates the very real, feeling experience we're having.  It's too easy to try to detach by being in denial and trying not to feel.  But then we miss the point of being here.

Taxes aren't certain, you can live without taxes.  Death may be an inevitability for the body but it's timing isn't certain.  Perhaps the biggest illusion is death.

We react to death, we feel the absence of the deceased's physical presence, but it's our grief that keeps us from sensing the aspect of them that's still alive.

If we miss someone, we may actually be experiencing what Bryon Katie calls a visitation.  They come to mind because they're there.  It triggers our body, because it feels the absence.  Bodies don't like death because they're not going to make it out of this lifetime alive.  But we will.

Consciousness doesn't die.  And that is certain.

Light in the Darkness

Light in the Darkness ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

The holiday season holds many memories for folks, not all of them warm and cheery.  This time last year I was visiting DC, recording my father's life stories in his final month on hospice.  The year before I was midwifing my mother on her way out of the body.  Ten years ago a loved one was hit by a car, which propelled me through intense grief, as well as intense learning about the reality of life beyond death.

My own storyline has had bleak chapters for this time of year.  Times, as a single parent so poverty stricken that my kids only gifts came from the food bank.  Or when a loved one suffering from an illness went missing for 3 days the week before Christmas.

As we (in the Northern Hemisphere) are heading towards the shortest day of the year, it's helpful to remember that there is always light in the darkness.  Even in the darkest night, the sun is still shining somewhere.

Things seem dark and painful when we view them as our body-personalities.  As a body-personality, I lost both parents last year (and a dog, and a house).  As a body-personality, I had stories of being poor, frightened, or abandoned.  When I step back and see things as Consciousness, it's an entirely different experience.

I midwifed both parents out of body last year.  I held space for the two beings, who played the roles of my parents, to transition back to Spirit.  I also held space for my dog to do so (as I have for many pets in the past).  I released my house on Vashon to step into new opportunities in a new city.  As Consciousness, joyous and unlimited, I've created experiences of contraction and expansion.

I can assure my body that we've lived through these things, that we know how to get through anything that may come up.  I can comfort my body by appreciating how great things are now and realizing that 'it does get better'.  Our house in Tacoma is twice as big (and half as expensive) as the one on Vashon.  My parents are still here, I feel them rather than see them, they're easier to access than when they were in body.  All our pets still exist, too, young and energetic and happy with no litter boxes to clean or poop to scoop!

It's my purpose as a Being of Light, as a natural Lightbringer, to shine light in the darkness.  It illuminates the shadows so we can them.  Light is always accessible, whether we can feel it or not.  

So if you're feeling bogged down, breathe deep and feel Consciousness within you and around you.  Mentally step up and out of the morphic field of doom and gloom.  Imagine stepping through the door where things are lighter and brighter.  Anything and everything you need is available to you.  Allow the energy of it, love, prosperity, warm, plenty, to surround you and infuse you.

Do this continually for the next 7 days and it will transform your life!

Appreciation, Gratitude, Illness and Growth

Appreciation, Gratitude, Illness and Growth ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

We're in the holiday season, amidst the hustle and bustle of shopping and eating and family and friends!

If we hit the holidays head on, we operate solely from our "to do" list.  We operate unconsciously.  Things get done because this is the way they've always been done.  Things have to be done perfectly. We get stressed out.  We get sick.

Step back and see the bigger picture.  It's a time of Thanksgiving, but what does that mean?  Grateful to have your Christmas decorations up already?  Grateful for Black Friday so you can finally get that coveted item on sale?

Appreciation is a lighter energy, and a broader perspective. It's also associated with prosperity and abundance. Whenever you pay for something, you're expressing your appreciation for it.  Whenever someone pays you, they're expressing appreciation for your service!

New Years brings the end of the holiday, the end of 2014, and the beginning of a whole new cycle of growth.  Whenever we go through expansion, our bodies have to adjust.  Our vibrational frequency raises, and the denser aspects within us rise to the surface to be cleared.

We can experience this as needing to sleep more or eat more, but we can also experience it as illness.  Our bodies want to be nurtured through growth experiences!

Hot baths, chocolate, movies, books, naps, all are great ways to coax your body through a growth experience.

Express appreciation to your body by giving it a little extra self-care this holiday season.  You might avoid getting sick!

Appreciation

©2008 Joan M. Newcomb

This article was going to be about Appreciation vs. Gratitude, as the Canadians just had Thanksgiving and we'll be celebrating it next month in the US, but today I've been overwhelmed with information from John Edward, and he says "Communicate Appreciate Validate".

Which is a slightly different meaning, but I'll try to weave it all together.

First off, gratitude means to express thanks, and appreciate is more about acknowledgement, being aware of, holding in high regard. When you're expressing gratitude, you're thanking someone or something, but the energy implies that something outside your reality created it or gave it to you.

Appreciation, in the way I meant to write about it, was to notice things in a more expansive way. As the creator of your reality, you can appreciate what is going on in your life. You can appreciate the world around you as this marvelous creation, with the sense that You, the Creator, designed it down to the smallest detail for your own enjoyment. Appreciating yourself, the creation of your body and personality, as this amazing vehicle for navigating this reality. It's no fun being in physical reality without a physical body to feel it fully!

As you appreciate yourself, and your hologram (the setting and the storyline), you draw to yourself more to appreciate. It's what people miss when applying the Law of Attraction (okay, that's next week's topic: Being in Receptive Mode).

So the point I wanted to make was to encourage people to shift their focus from power outside to power inside. Appreciating yourself as the powerful creator and appreciating everything in your life as your own creation. You begin to love *everything* that happens and *everyone* who comes into your awareness, because you come into alignment with your Expanded Self, and You are the one who created everything.

Okay, now I can address 'Communicate Validate Appreciate'. John Edward's focus is on people who've passed (something I've already talked about in a recent post). Communicate - it's okay to talk to dead people, they like to be acknowledged. They respond, not necessarily in words, but in images, impressions, insights and symbols showing up in your life. It *validates* their existence. You may want to write down what you feel they're saying to you, because it validates it as real for you - there it is, down on paper, you didn't make it up. And appreciation in this case is holding in high esteem, valuing, which is much easier to do with those who've passed. There's no longer the (sometimes irritating) personality, just their bright, shiny essence.

As I like to say, they're easier to talk to and harder to hear. My sense is also that the longer it's been since they've passed, the more diffuse their energy, but that's only my experience. I still see silver PT Cruisers (yesterday yielded a bumper crop) but my dead friend Ian feels wispier, more on a thought level than a feeling level (although he's showing up big time as I'm typing this).

Byron Katie says that when ever she things of loved ones that passed, the tears she sheds are one of joy, not loss. She experiences them as delightful 'visitations'.

Which, apparently, is the point I'm supposed to make in this article. No one is ever gone, they've only passed beyond the physical. You can't see their form, but you can sense their essence. The more you communicate, validate, and appreciate, the more real these connections become.

Someone wrote me after the last article on this topic and said 'what about the one's you *don't* want to communicate with?' I think she was nervous that she'd have to talk to her least favorite dead relatives! Just don't focus on them, and they don't show up. However, you may be delightfully surprised that former unpleasant personalities are much nicer on the non-physical. My grandmother was bossy and controlling in life, but her energy is much gentler now. When she was in body, she'd had decades of painful experiences that caused her to be harsh. Once she passed, all the darkness dropped away, leaving only her brightness.

Okay, the pressure is gone from my head, so I must have said what I was supposed to say.

One last tidbit from me is, tying back to the earlier topic, when you're aligned with your Expanded Self, which is your own light essence, then you can see how everyone in your hologram is you, a reflection of you, because they're all sparks of light, too. We're all one Consciousness, that created this reality for the fun of experiencing dichotomies and opposites. And I'm going to stop there, because *that's* another topic, as well!