Shrill arguments rise about the rhetoric of violence, arguments trying to dodge taking responsibility for what has been said, deliberately blurring the crucial distinction between dissent and violence itself.

I suggest listening instead to K.D. Lang sing this song. The lyrics speak of bafflement, pain, anguish, and the broken heart. We as a nation feel all those things as we seek a different state of being than the one we experience today.

The voice of K.D. Lang takes us beyond the lyrics of the song and into the soaring of the human spirit. We always have the option of going through the pain to an awakening of our greater spirit. May we as a nation choose to find this soaring of the human spirit and bring it into direct action in our lives.

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Paintings can be complete surprises and this one certainly maxed out in that category. It started with a headache. Not an ordinary headache but a completely head-busting blinger of a headache that went on all night.

I got up in the morning and it eased slightly, but not a lot. A great white light was in the center of my head, surrounded by pain. I could see it was a major energy shift happening, but it was going far too slowly to suit me.

I wondered what would happen if I put my awareness in the white light in the center of my head instead of just watching it. When I did so, I saw this image and immediately wanted to paint it. I thought the process of painting it could move me through this latest shift more rapidly. My aching head liked that idea a lot!

I went into the studio and started hunting for a stretched canvas I could use, but none were the right height/width proportion for the image I had seen. I started sorting through a stack of panels leaned against the wall and found one that looked like the right shape. When I pulled it out and turned it around, it had one of my canvas giclees laminated on it. I had not yet gotten around to hand embellishing the print.

That poor print was doomed. I put it on the easel and painted it white with my acrylics. While it dried, I laid out tracing paper on the table and drew the outlines of the image I had seen. By the time I was done, the paint was still wet.

Annoyed, I got out the heat gun and played it across the paint. I am happy to say I did not set it on fire. The paint hastily dried and I took it to the table. A sheet of graphite paper let me trace the outline onto the canvas and I soon was painting.

My head still ached horribly, but somehow I was really enjoying painting. I kept at it like a woman possessed and the headache gradually eased. The last of it finally disappeared by 3 p.m. I finished the painting at 6 p.m. and was just cleaning my brushes when my artist husband came in the door.

I asked him to go down to the studio to see something. He assumed I was going to show him my progress on When A Flower Dreams, a painting I was in the midst of creating. When he saw this unexpected abstract on the easel his immediate response was, “Where in the hell did that come from?”

As he looked at it I explained how the painting came to be. He said I should have headaches more often and that he wished he had painted it. He likes most of my work but I have never heard him say that about any of my other paintings.

I had not told him the title was Metamorphosis. So I was delighted when he said, “If there was anywhere to put it, which there is not, but if there was and if it was me, I would paint a butterfly in it.” Abstract or not, it had clearly communicated to him.

That, along with the fact my headache was completely gone, was quite enough for me.

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Rick, I would say that you and I are both by nature mentally driven. Anyone who is having an existential crisis and pauses to list a host of creative ideas certainly fits that category. Not that there is anything wrong with a host of creative ideas, I find them a blast myself.

However, the clue is that you are trying to think your way out of a hole created by thinking in the first place. Notice it getting deeper?

The mind is a great tool, but that is just what it is, a great tool. Handing the steering wheel of one’s life to a great tool has some severe drawbacks, which you have been noticing. The steering wheel really belongs in the hands of one’s own heart centered awareness.

Does this mean being squishy emotional? No. The heart accesses a wider range of information in a different manner than the mind. As such, it is in better position to choose a path that is holistically satisfying.

This does not mean the heart ignores the mind. The heart is informed by the mind as the mind does what it does well. But the heart is informed in other ways as well. The mind is only one tool, not the be all end all.

By now your mind may be looking around wondering where the heck this heart centered awareness is, or if this wacky lady is just talking through her hat.

Our culture is heavily slanted towards developing a mentally driven approach. Those with sharp minds easily embrace it. An integrated mental/emotional awareness is lost in the process.

Different things can hinder opening a heart centered awareness. Massive amounts of stored pain certainly hinder it. If one looks at one’s heart and sees a thorny thicket of pain, the first inclination is to slam the door shut on that direction.

Diving into the thorns can lead to wallowing in pain and misery, an unattractive path indeed.

Sometimes we just need a large machete. Leap into the thorns and go straight through them to experience and clear the stored pain. A gritty process, but one that leads us past the pain. What lies beyond is a grace filled heart centered awareness, to state the obvious here.

In other cases, the heart does not appear to be a thorny thicket of pain, but maybe is simply elusive altogether. No skills have been developed to work with it and it is missing in conscious action as a result.

In any event, get out the machete and deal with the thorny thicket if necessary. Then discover how the heart works and how to access the wisdom it can provide when retrieved from the thorns or the closet into which it has been stuffed.

Honor your mind but learn to keep it within its appropriate tasks. Honor your heart and learn to listen to it.

Only in your own healed and fully functioning heart will you find a sustaining motivation and direction for your life. Rick, I wish you well in the adventure of changing an unsatisfying pattern in your life. May you access your own deeper wisdom and joy in the process!

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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Her blog was insightful, truth seeking, and had a lovely emphasis on art. She participated energetically in commenting on other blogs and was an exceedingly good neighbor in the blogosphere. I was deeply saddened when circumstances in her life led to the decision to take her blog down and withdraw from the online community.

However, she did leave the door open to possibly resuming her blogging at some unknown time in the future. In that hope, I leave these words here, where perhaps she might find them at some random moment when she googles her own name.

Kara Leah, it would be wonderful to have the chance to welcome you back if you come to a time when that is again a practical choice for you!

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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The mom cow was acting a little anxious and came to me, wanting something from me. I scratched her forehead and we went into the barn.

The heat lamp was out and the barn was silent, dark, and empty. I could see that the calf was gone. The owners were away so I could not ask them what had happened.

I did some reiki with the mom cow who was showing more distress. Then I drove away, feeling a great sadness for the small calf with the sweet spirit.

To my surprise, the next day I heard that they had simply taken Lucy to the vet. He said the bone at the top of the femur on the injured leg was dying and they planned a surgery to remove it. Since she is so young he said there was a chance the muscles would develop to hold the leg in place, since bone would no longer be doing so.

We all were delighted to hear Lucy might have a chance at walking again. The vet said she would always have to be artificially inseminated but dairy cows do not have to walk a lot, so it could work.

The surgery was two days ago. Lucy’s heart immediately stopped beating when she received anesthesia and never started again.

I am sad she did not get to see the green pastures and sunshine that are still far away in this climate. At the same time, I realize she may have been gifted an easy way to end the situation if the operation was not going to succeed.

We all would have hated to see her have even more pain and more struggles without any reward. Lucy’s life force was weak from the beginning with the premature birth. She responded as best she could to everyone’s efforts to help her, but she just could not stay the course.

We like happy endings to our healing stories, but life is what it is, and dying is indeed part of life. Sometimes we have to just stand and accept what is.

In the short time I worked with her, Lucy brought me a great gift. For the first time I received the opportunity to directly feel that incredible energy inherent in the spirit of cows.  I certainly will not forget this experience.

I do not really know how to describe the steady, powerful, abundant flowing energy that is the essence of the cow. I do hope that as I move through life I can bring the beauty of that energy into greater expression around me, a beauty I first found in a small sweet calf that spent such a brief time here.

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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I muscle tested and it was ok to go, so I opened the gate and went in the corral. Instead of walking directly at the bull, I nonchalantly walked along the fence and then made a long loop around the bull. He kept watching me, but never made any belligerent moves. Neither did I!

I got through the gate on the other side without incident and went to see the little calf. She does not look so forlorn and her pneumonia is better. Liz has been massaging and handling her a lot, which clearly showed. She was briefly skittish as I approached her, but I took hold of her neck and rump and she immediately stood still.

The second time with Reiki on an animal, or a human for that matter, is often easier and more effective because their body has some idea what can be done with the energy. This little calf quickly showed her enthusiasm by leaning her neck into my hand. It was the first time she had shown any interest at all.

I stood there and ran Reiki with one hand on her neck and one on her rump for awhile. She decided to lie down and flopped over on her side awkwardly. She was under the infrared lamp they had hung in the barn for her and the straw was fresh and clean.

I sat down beside her back and did more Reiki, moving my hands as I felt the need. Once both were on the hip and top part of the non-functional rear leg, my hands really got hot and felt suction cupped in place for a very long time.

As I sat there, I had the strong impression that the mom had stepped on the calf’s ribs, picked up her foot, and started to set it down on the troubled hip, but pulled back before putting her full weight on it. I have no way of checking this, but that is the strong impression I had with my hands on her.

It was good to have energy running in her rump since it had been difficult to get anything happening there last week. Eventually I moved one hand down to her hock. Some energy was moving there as well. However, the foot was still feeling dormant under my hand.

Her leg does not straighten, so I put one hand on her hip and one on her hock and ran Reiki with gentle traction. Her leg was lying slightly straighter when I quit, but it is a long way from usable at this point.

The odds are stacked so heavily against this little calf it was good to see some improvement, particularly with the horrendous wind and cold we have had lately. In addition to the heat lamp, during one of the worst nights the young man had put gloves on her ears and duct taped them in place.

The tips of her ears still froze. He said they will wrinkle up and fall off, so her ears will be a bit shorter, but at least she still has ears. He also told me that since she was premature she was too weak to stand when first born and spent the first night in the house as they tried to get her going.

They have not found a chiropractor for her yet, but I found out my own chiropractor works on animals so I gave them that referral.

At least the little calf is hanging in there at the moment. She has much more energy running through her and I did not feel that deep discouragement in her that was so pronounced last week.

We will see what happens.

The previous article about this calf is called Encounter with Cow Energy. The next article is Lucy the Calf and Reiki.

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2007. All Rights Reserved.

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Life is full of surprises. I had never done energy work on a cow, but I was willing to have a go. The vet had already said there wasn’t anything he could do about the leg.

I drove down the road to a long, winding, and very slippery driveway. The directions were good and I arrived at the right farm. The young couple took me to see the calf.

She was standing in the barn with the sore leg held up off the ground, and as my friend had described, the other rear leg showing a pronounced bow.

She was a little skittish about a stranger so they laid her down for me to do some hands on Reiki and other energy work. I could feel strong energy on her spine up around her shoulders but it dropped off dramatically towards her rump.

Her breathing was quite ragged and labored. They said she had pneumonia as well.

As I worked I started feeling the essence of cow energy. Every kind of animal has a distinctly different feel, a different set of qualities.

Cow is most interesting, I could feel why it became a sacred animal in India. Cow energy has a strong, abundant steady feel to it.

And this poor little calf with the gentle spirit could not get that strong cow energy flowing to her hindquarters.

She also felt really discouraged. I had the strong sense this baby had come into the world expecting a cow dream of green grass and sunshine. Instead, she was flung into a harsh Montana winter with below zero temperatures and an inexperienced mom. Everything went wrong for her.

As I worked with her I was trying to describe hands on energy work to the young couple without overdoing the explanation. Eventually one of my hands on her hindquarters began to hurt.

That, in my personal set of signals, is a good sign. It meant some of the trauma was releasing and the feeling in my hand was the indicator signal.

After working some more I got the intuitive feeling this session was done and I stopped working. The couple is greatly concerned about their calf and offered me milk and beef to take with me, but I declined.

I felt it best to just see what happens with the small creature. I have no philosophical objection to being paid for my services, but this was a first time event with a cow.

After I left I kept feeling the little calf’s energy and information floated into my mind. I had the recurring thought the calf would benefit from a couple of massages each day if someone could show the couple how to do it. And that she probably could use some good animal chiropractic.

The next morning I spoke with my friend who sent me to the couple and told her. She knows someone who does equine chiropractic and thought it was a good idea to try it with the calf. She also had a professional massage therapist on the farm right then so that was an easy option too.

I don’t know how things will go with this sweet natured calf, but I will be seeing her again for more work in a few days.

I kept reassuring her energetically she can still have that green grass and sunshine, she just has to hang in there and let that wonderful strong cow energy work through her body like it is supposed to do. Now I have to let go and allow things to work out as they will.

See the story of the next Reiki session with her at The Little Calf and Reiki Update.

I am happy to say this article has been included in the delightful Carnival of Reiki and the informative Qigong and Energy Arts Forum.

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2007. All Rights Reserved.

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The Love Activated Phi is a highly creative symbol which represents the flow of light, energy, information. I work with this symbol extensively and wanted to share some thoughts about it. I find many people look at it with instant recognition, so I invite your responses in the comments section.

As shown in the image, a funnel shape leads down to the center from the top, and an equivalent funnel leads up to the center from the bottom. These are the vertical energies and can bring information from the galactic center above or from the core of the earth below.

In the drawing, the horizontal plane is shown as being flat, but when I work with the symbol, that flat plane is actually a torus, a doughnut shape. This brings the vertical energies into the horizontal realm, our day to day interactions in physical life. I often see this occurring first in the heart and then spreading outward.

I originally drew this symbol as a logo for Crystalline Consciousness Technique™, but it did not want to be a logo, so that phase quickly passed. The symbol has life and movement of its own, the funnels and torus are dynamic and active when in use.

When I want to gather information, I often meditate on the symbol in a CCT session. Huge amounts of information then move into my awareness rapidly. This also is a highly energized process and I do not feel tired or drained afterwards.

The Love Activated Phi also is a potent tool to improve clarity of communications when I do a CCT session for myself and other people. Since CCT itself removes distortion from our energies, the combination with this symbol is highly effective.

If you have instant recognition of this symbol I would be interested in hearing about it. I also would like to hear any responses to the symbol or experiences with it from any of you who are willing to share here.

This image is available as a laminated poster for $25. Please email me if you wish to purchase the poster. Thanks!

This article appears in the following three carnivals:
Made To Be Great Personal Development Carnival
The Personal Development Carnival
Live the Power Unlimited Blog Carnival
I reccommend you go read the rest of the articles as they offer wonderful reading!

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2007. All Rights Reserved.

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Humanity is at an evolutionary choice point. We are free to make our choices and take whatever the consequences of those choices may be. This is both an enormous opportunity and a hazard.

One of the results of this information gathering session was the following list of intentions, which I am using with CCT. If any of these intentions resonate for you, I invite you to work with them in whatever way you use for intentions.

For an explanation of some of the terms in these intentions you can refer to my post, Fire the Grid, Sincere But Misguided. Your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

• Let the truth be revealed so right action follows.
• Clear, heal, and release the geometrical traumas of humanity on earth as appropriate at this time.
• Clear, heal, and release the accumulated geometrical traumas of humanity on earth as appropriate at this time.
• Clear, heal, and release the geometrical traumas of humanity brought to earth from other places and times as appropriate at this time.
• Clear, heal, and release the accumulated geometrical traumas of humanity brought to earth from other places and times as appropriate at this time.
• Ask to increase the light quotient of the crystalline system of humanity to bring it into harmony with the light quotient of the earth.
• Let all drama/trauma stimulus energies increase the harmonic configuration of humanity.
• Ask to align the harmonic configuration of humanity with the earth,supporting the earth in her transformation with humility and grace.
• Ask for easy, gentle integration of these healings.

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2007. All Rights Reserved.

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People purchase jewelry for a myriad of reasons. Many of the custom jewelry requests I received over the years were simply expressions of ego, the most blatant example being the Omigod Ring.

Sometimes people buy jewelry as expressions of love. Perhaps jewelry is bought to alleviate guilt. Lust can also be quite the motivation for a jewelry purchase.

A sheer love of gemstones and precious metal design can inspire the buyer. In most cases though, a blend of reasons generates the desire for jewelry.

However, the most moving custom jewelry pieces I have made were for people trying to heal their grief. From time to time individuals come to me to have a special ring or pendant made to replace the wedding ring from a deceased spouse.

Jewelry for the Grieving

These are delicately sensitive projects which touch my heart. Usually the person has worked through some of their grief and is ready to attempt moving into a new cycle after the loss of their partner.

We talk about the design of the piece, incorporating whatever symbols or stones are important to the individual. I am good at listening to someone, asking questions, and working with them until I know what will please them, even if they still do not know.

Some of these creations are quite unusual, such as the skull and crossbones ring I made for a man whose wife had died a year earlier. After thirty years I have encountered about everything possible in jewelry, but that one even startled me.

He was a Harley biker, which explained a lot. He also saw the beauty in the planes and forms of skull bones, which I also happen to appreciate from a sculptural standpoint. When completed the ring was quite handsome in its sculptured form.

Energy Healing in Jewelry

Jewelry can readily be energized by the intentions of the person creating it. After learning Reiki this also began to happen spontaneously. After all, I create jewelry with my hands and the hands naturally radiate Reiki, a form of life force energy which is quite clean.

So this was not really too surprising a development. I began to work with it more consciously as I watched it happening when I was at the bench.

A lovely woman who had lost her husband was quite responsive to this idea and even would visit the gallery from time to time to have me do more Reiki on her ring. Most jewelers offer free cleaning to their clients, but I don’t know any others who offer free Reiki for the jewelry!

Dragonflies and Healing Through Jewelry

Today I spoke with a mother who lost her grown son in an unexpected accident. Her pain is immense and for her the symbol of the dragonfly brings hope. She wants to have a ring made with a dragonfly she can wear for the rest of her life.

We have not discussed energy healing and it may never come up in our conversations. But I know when people come to me for such work, they are really looking for a healing in the form of jewelry. On some level they are drawn to me because they know I will energize that healing in their special jewelry project.

I was so touched by this woman’s heartfelt story I know the energy will be strong in this dragonfly ring when I create it. This energy will not be my personal energy, but a greater energy that comes from divine source which I invite to move through me into the ring.

The ring cannot remove the immensity of her loss, but I am honored to be of service in bringing healing energy into her special ring. This dragonfly will express the beauty and strength of the heart, which is both nothing and everything when measured against the loss of a son.

The Doing It Differently Blog Carnival included this article in an eclectic collection of articles which are interesting to read.

The article also appears in the Carnival of Positive Thinking in their fine collection of articles.

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2007. All Rights Reserved.

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