KS&L 336 Ban New Year's Resolutions! by Tina Erwin

       All the talking heads of TV and radio are discussing their New Year’s resolutions. They jokingly discuss the ones they made last year and how and why they were all broken. Broken New Year’s resolutions represent broken promises to ourselves. Of course, the worst broken New Year’s resolutions are the ones that people actually wrote down. This means that they did not honor a written contract they made with themselves.  Some people do follow through with their resolutions: that is terrific, but for those who don’t, it may be wise to rethink this whole tradition.

        As students of metaphysics we grow more and more to understand the dynamic interaction between the subconscious and the conscious mind. The subconscious mind is that part of us that puts into action what the conscious mind decides to do. Clear messages sent to the subconscious result in clear action. Muddy messages result in complete confusion by the subconscious often reflected by illnesses and accidents.

        What has this to do with New Year’s Resolutions? It is just a game - right?  It doesn’t really matter - does it? Of course it really, really does matter, more than anyone ever realized. The subconscious does not know that a contract that you make with yourself is not real. To the subconscious, everything is real until you tell it otherwise.

       Standard New Year’s resolutions include dieting [really, a colossal waste of time], giving up alcohol and/or tobacco products, spending more time with family, and/or spending more time taking care of one’s self. Usually resolutions focus on something we do not like about ourselves, and vow - often in front of other people and in writing - to change that habit or pattern or abusive behavior. Resolutions are seldom if ever about positive things. So think about it. We start a new year off by finding fault with ourselves, vowing to change this fault and then discovering that we have no real clue how to actually accomplish this and then we polish off that first class ticket on the guilt train by feeling bad about what we didn’t accomplish for the rest of the year.

        We feel guilty about this because to the subconscious mind, that commitment was REAL! When the conscious decided that this resolution was be too hard to accomplish, it said to the subconscious, “oh well, let’s not do that, it is too tough”.  Now the subconscious feels that it has failed because the personal emotional contract was breached. Where did the energy of this process go? It was channeled directly into guilt.

        Guilt always seeks punishment in some way. Some ways are so subtle and almost invisible that you may not ever notice it.  Some are blatant.

       So here is a suggestion for a powerful new idea:  start each New Year absolutely guilt free. Just enjoy the year. Just enjoy the people in your life. Take “guilt,” “need to,”  “must do,” “should do” out of your vocabulary and out of your life. Be clear and truly honest in your messages to your self. Do not make any resolutions - you don’t need them.  Develop a positive rapport with your subconscious mind and discover what a really wonderful person you are!

        Happy New Year Everyone!

KS&L 88 Holiday Service Part 2

The Karmic Savings and Loan Chapter 88: Holiday Service Part II      

       In part I of Holiday Service we discussed the element of spiritual service in doing things for other people throughout the year.  How do we view the volume of effort required for Christmas and Hanukkah?

       December is a challenge because there seems to be so much for everyone to do:

·      Shop for gifts, wrap presents

·   Get the Tree              

·   Decorate the Tree

·   Keep the tree watered

·      Plan meals

·      Grocery shop

·      Decorate the house

·      Plan parties

·      Grocery shop

·      Do the holiday cards, buy the stamps, write the yearly letter, collate and mail.

·      Help out at school, church and/or office parties

·      Grocery shop

·      Make the list of food gifts to give

·      Grocery shop

·      Make all the food, do the baking, package the items

·      Mail things

       This modest, very incomplete list above usually falls to women who think they have to do it all.  Getting your family members to help will reduce some stress and let everyone have the opportunity of doing service. This can be as simple as making the list and letting them make the grocery runs and some of the dinners so that you can do the extras.

       The real service is in the patience of doing the mundane, day-to-day things of getting ready. People love a house filled with the smells of the holidays. If your holidays were horrific growing up, mitigate the past sadness by making the present something warmly memorable.

       It is so wonderful to come home to a house beautifully decorated with bright candles and wonderful food. The element of the house and the food are tremendous service to all family members. 

       What makes it difficult for the person doing the planning, cooking, shopping and decorating is that people take their efforts for granted.  It just looks so easy. Family members frequently don’t seem grateful for what has been done because you always do it. They are not callous or unkind; it is just that your excellent work is normal to them. Your service is transparent to them but transparent or not, it does not change the fact that it is service all the same. Even if family members do not overtly recognize it, it is appreciated on some level.

       You earn the karma for your efforts because you are creating the memories that they will treasure and emulate. You are teaching them what a warm holiday looks and feels like, and that lesson changes the future. That is the purpose of this work, the reason for this effort: creating a pattern of love, hard work and togetherness. This is part of the element of what makes the holidays an important example of spiritual service. In essence, it is the real reason for the season, displaying your love through your service.

KS&L 176 The Death of Innocence by Tina Erwin

        Dear Friends, I wrote the following blog several years ago. The information in this piece echos the same cruel and inspiring elements that we have watched in the events in Newtown, Connecticut last Friday. My own aching heart goes out to all of those families. The extreme cruelty of this latest example of modern violence does not diminish the staggering acts of courage displayed by all of those teachers, staff members and children. Let all of our prayers be sent to give the living courage to face the challenging days ahead, for death on this level continues to echo out in truly agonizing ways long after the initial event. These families have many difficult days ahead of them. Please send them your prayers long after these first initial days pass. Compassion is appreciated no matter how recent or long ago an event took place.

       On one terrible day in October of 2006, death struck the Amish community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. On that tragic day, a man entered a one-room schoolhouse and shot ten Amish girls. Five of them have died. The person who took these lives is believed to have been severely mentally ill at the time of the event. He did not seem to show this illness previously so his actions came as a staggering shock to his friends and family.

       How do we as a people wrap our brains around the fact that this man did this terrible deed? How do we still our aching hearts at the sheer barbarism of his despicable act? How do we come to terms with the death of innocence? If we are parents, how do we still the fear that this engenders in so many of us. If this area of the world is not safe, then what is?

       Perhaps the way we come to terms with it is to look at the example that the Amish themselves have set. They have not lashed out. They have not blamed anyone and they have not cried out for vengeance. In the darkest of times is the finest time to live a spiritual truth. Perhaps that is what they are doing.

       Every single death has a purpose; if it did not, then why would we ever die? Why would there be so many methods of death - easy and hard, painless and painful, death at any and all ages? What could possibly be the purpose of the death of these little girls? What could we possibly learn from the sheer stark horror of the method this man used to create such harm?

       Perhaps, just perhaps it was an opportunity for every single participant and observer to learn some tremendous lessons. For the older Amish girls, they learned that they had a huge level of courage that lived within them as they offered themselves in sacrifice to save the younger girls. They must have been terrified yet they offered their own lives in the ultimate sacrifice. Would we be that courageous? 

       It is hard for us to face the fear that the smaller girls must have felt, but in the final moments, they learned how much the older children loved them. Perhaps it was their faith that got them through those chilling moments.  Perhaps they called upon their angels. We can only hope that they had the presence of mind to do this.

       And what of the mentally ill gunman? What was his lesson? He had a choice - he could listen to those unrelenting voices of hate and hurt or he could resist them.  He made a tragic choice.

       And what of his family? They were also his victims in a different way because they also lost someone they loved. The man they loved died that day. The man who committed those crimes was not the man that they knew.  Imagine their complete bewilderment. 

       Perhaps the most important lesson all of us can learn from these deaths is the nature of compassion as demonstrated by the Amish community.  There is no one to blame, no one to lash out at. There is no plausible explanation for the unexplainable.  So in the face of all of this, the Amish have chosen to offer themselves and those grieving with them, compassion. They say that they have forgiven the gunman.  What in truth is there to forgive? How do you forgive someone for murdering your children? Perhaps the answer to this is that they forgave themselves first. There is nothing in this entire world that they could have done to prevent this. They did not let guilt soil their compassionate hearts. They forgave the hate that this man displayed.  Somehow despite their pain, they came to understand that his pain was so great that only in this bizarre aspect of death could he work out his internal agony.

       The Amish are allowing themselves to grieve privately. They allow themselves the opportunity to let grief unfold in all those hauntingly private moments of what ifs and if onlys that every grieving person must endure on the journey to healing grief.

       Perhaps the other lesson the Amish are offering is that if they open their hearts and love more that their pain will be less. An open heart works both ways and lets in love as well as sends it out. Even a terribly wounded heart will heal faster if it can be allowed in those private moments of healing, to send out love. 

       Maybe the question is not did innocence die in that schoolhouse that day in October, but rather was the innocence of belief displayed in the compassion and love shown by the Amish to all the grieving parties. Hate hurts us longer. Love heals us faster. Perhaps the biggest lesson of that hard day is in every way, let us all love more. Let us all send the love of our own compassionate hearts to all of those who are grieving no matter where in the world they may be. Maybe in this way the innocence and purity that is the essence of love will become stronger in all of us.

KS&L 391 Christmas Grief by Tina Erwin

       (This KS&L was written before the Newtown sadness.)        

        This KS&L is dedicated to all families who are grieving or remembering someone who is no longer with them this Christmas.

         Last night I received a call from my long time friend Bonnie. She had come upon a terrible traffic accident on her way home. She was first on the scene, called 911, worked with authorities, and rendered what aid she could to the accident victims.

         She told me that she kept telling the on-scene police officers that she felt that there was a man by the side of the road who needed help. She had spoken with him and he said he was okay but that he had been the driver of the absolutely crushed car. She remembered marveling that he had ‘walked away’ from the accident since the car was not recognizable. The police officer kept looking at her, but he never once went over to talk to the man in the white shirt.

         Once she returned to her car, her small children told her that the man in the white shirt had come to the car and knocked on the window, but they didn’t put the window down. Bonnie was glad that her kids did as they were told. Then she drove her kids home.

         She called me later that night because she felt so much trauma after this experience that she needed help figuring out what was trauma and what was, well, something else. As it turned out, that something else was tragic.

         The man in the white shirt had died in that crushed car. When Bonnie and I made contact with him he told us that he really didn’t know what happened.  One minute he was driving home and the next minute he was in darkness. He was utterly baffled by his circumstances. Bonnie and I had to inform him that he had died. He was very quiet for a few moments. Then he began to allow himself to face the towering grief that his sudden death was generating. He immediately told us of his young wife, his children and that this wasn’t how he planned to end his day. He didn’t feel that he was supposed to die that day. This is Christmas! He’d ruined Christmas for his whole family!  As he told us this, the grief he felt at his own death began to overwhelm him. We gave him the spiritual aid that he needed. Souls that are killed this quickly go into a kind of soul shock. We offered him angels, healing and a path home to the Heaven World. Before his transition, he said he had seen the light he just wasn’t ready to go. We also asked him why he knocked on Bonnie’s car window. He responded that he ‘felt’ someone praying for him. In fact one of Bonnie’s daughters was praying for anyone who had been injured. The light of her prayer attracted him to her car.

         Finally, with our help, he reluctantly made his transition to the Heaven World. Then I helped Bonnie make some sense out of this event as she processed the trauma she had witnessed on several levels.

         Both of us pondered this soul’s sudden demise, especially now, especially 15 days before Christmas. Christmas, more than any other time reminds us of how much we love all the people in our lives. Thanksgiving does this, but there is something about Christmas that really makes our heart expand as we ponder what to get those who mean so much to us. Our gifts show how much we love and care.

         Christmas is also very much a children’s holiday. First time parents, long time parents and grandparents live for watching the bright faces of children as they become enamored of the lights on the tree, presents and the Santa Claus concept.

         Christmas time takes each of us back to our childhoods to remember a particularly magical Christmas morning or a special gift or event that happened.

         But for many people Christmas time is just tough. For this man’s family, Christmas will never feel the same. Instead of planning Christmas Eve, they will be planning a funeral.

         Perhaps it seems odd to discuss such profound sadness at this time of the year, but life events, especially poignant life events are part of Christmas, even when they are sad. This man’s wife and children will have to determine how to balance their grief while others around them are excited about the holidays. This almost bizarre juxtaposition of these two diametrically opposite emotions reminds us that Christmas is about love, the love of those who are no longer with us.

         Even if your friend or family member did not die at Christmas, their absence, even decades later, is still deeply felt at this time of year. It is often why so many people are sick at Christmas: colds/flu are the body’s way of grieving a past event.

          It is better to admit that you miss that person. Bring it to the surface and then take some time to remember the soul with your heart filled with love for this special person. If a parent is without one of their children, this is an especially painful heartache. If that parent is your friend or family member please do not wish they he or she could just ‘get over’ that deep personal loss. You don’t ‘get over’ a catastrophic life event: you learn to live a life that includes that life-changing event. And when you include that life-changing event it means that you cry about it sometimes.

         If any of you gentle readers find yourself either grieving the loss of someone special or helping a friend or family member to grieve this loss, welcome the tears that often come with heartfelt memories. Memories are alive and trigger emotion. We are not androids, emotionless bits of carbon. We are mortal, yet eternal souls having an exceptionally human experience. And human experiences demand that we acknowledge the love we have for someone who has left us today or fifty years ago.

         Perhaps that is the message of Christ: love never dies, life is eternal and life everlasting means that we will all meet each other again and again. Let this dynamic concept be the best gift we can give each other at Christmas time, the gift of love and compassion for everyone including the ones who are no longer with us.
       The Lightworker's Guide to Healing Grief and Ghost Stories from the Ghosts' Point of View are both great books to help anyone understand how to heal grief and how to help those souls who need assistance crossing over. Check out the prayer for assisting ghosts in the back of the ghost book. Both books are available on this blog.
 

KS&L 87 Holiday Service Part 1 by Tina Erwin

       The holidays are a great time - so we think.  The truth is, most people who do the lion’s share of getting ready for the holidays are frequently overwhelmed with the volume of work that is required to get it all done.  The regular schedule of day-to-day responsibilities is magnified with the endless list of extras. 

       We are also overwhelmed with the concept of the neediness of so many people. Someone's child is sick, someone's relative is dying or has died, it is the anniversary of a death for another person. The homeless shelter needs volunteers, your church is doing charity work and your office has adopted a family to give to at Christmas. Some people are irritable and angry in November and December and we dread living through this time with them. So with all that comes up in this window of time, we quietly ask ourselves: Is it really worth it? Is it really worth the volume of energy to get ready for Christmas or Hanukkah? 

       The answer is more complicated than we think. The answer may center on our concepts of service. What is service?  

       Service is frequently giving money, time or effort to someone in need. It is the giving of ourselves. This is easy to recognize.

       However, there are other types of service that we would be wise to honor, namely the service of getting any type of celebration together. It isn't just this time of year; it can be any time of the year.

       The neighbor who decorates for Halloween, the mom who never misses making the favorite birthday cake, the welcome home celebration for a service member, the delight of a Valentine's dinner or a 4th of July cookout. The Thanksgiving Dinner with a cast of thousands is a tremendous service as well. Few people appreciate the volume of planning that goes into feeding all those people, plus the decorations that accompany the food, the candles, the greens and the creative effort all create the atmosphere for any celebration. All these things are service - these creative efforts of love made visible are also spiritual service. This takes us to December. Part II will help us make some sense out of this challenging month.

KS&L 334 Holiday Cards by Tina Erwin

         It is hard to believe that the Christmas holidays are here again.  The Jewish Festival of Lights has also begun.  While there are lots of faiths not represented in this title, this is the month of special celebrations for these two faiths.

          There are many concepts of loving and sharing that symbolize this time, maybe the best symbol is just love.  While pondering the concept of love, perhaps we should consider why people send out holiday cards.  Why do some people send a card with a printed address and signature?  Is it just routine, another chore to send cards or to give a gift or gift card?  Perhaps it is not.  To be on a card or holiday gift list is to be thought of with a special feeling.  Maybe we do not send cards to people we see each day which is OK. We send cards to people in our lives that we do not see, because something about the connection is special and we do not want to break it.  Maybe the karma is not yet exhausted and we keep it going with our cards and often e-mails.

          Creating a card for someone, perpetuates a connection, letting him or her them know that they are still in our thoughts.  Why is this important? It is important because there is a part of us that wants to stay connected to so many wonderful people. This is why from a Feng Shui view, saving those cards, saving all of those tremendous wishes is saving, honoring the intentions of all the people who spent the cost, the time, the effort and the intention of sending something to us, of thinking of us. Perhaps we have wondered why we bother with cards each year. Maybe, we need that connection, maybe we need to now what things are happening in other people’s lives, that there is a lot of life going on all over the place.

          Holiday newsletters seem irritating to some people, but again, someone reflected on their year. They shared their lives with us. Some newsletters are just perfect. Some reflect the challenges that this year posed including the death of a family member and the impact of fires or floods or tornados. Most people reflect on the milestones of their year, their travels - how they explored life this year - and how they interacted with family and friends. When we read these letters, we see life happening all around us, from the ordinary and the mundane to the electric moments that challenge us.

         So perhaps as we reflect on all the festivities and organization required of the holiday time, we can come to understand that creating a holiday atmosphere free from strife, comfortable, beautiful with cards, food and gifts is a great service, not a chore. Love comes in many forms and all the effort we put into giving of our time and effort really does matter in the most subtle and humble ways. Often the effort alone is a gift - the gift of love we give each other. Happy Holidays everyone!

KS&L 89 Wellness in December by Tina Erwin

       If we listen to the press, print, radio and TV, we will surely feel that the whole world is unwell.  It may seem like an inevitability that a person won’t be healthy at this time of year.  We who study metaphysics know inherently that this is simply a lie. No one ever has to be unwell.

       Imagine if the press for just one week reported how healthy the country is, how this December people were the healthiest they have ever been!  Imagine if the press reported smiling faces and empty medical waiting rooms. Imagine if people did not need to be ill. Imagine if people were proud of their wellness - safe and secure in the knowledge that they crave wellness and happiness because they care for their bodies so much and value their health. Imagine if the group mind believed that they could be well all the time. So, why can’t we think like this? Why does it seem people continue to be unwell, especially now?

       Many people seem to need the attention that illness brings. 

       Many people seem to need the excuse to rest that illness brings.

       Many people cannot manage their time so that they are not stressed, so illness is their only way to get out of things.

       Many people heard their parents say that they were always sick at the holidays. Many people remembered childhoods full of sickness in December, it became their norm.

       Many people only received love from their parents when they were sick.

       Many people suffered a death or terrible grief in Nov/Dec and that memory subconsciously brings on a cold or other illness in place of straight forwardly addressing grief.

       Many people are lonely this time of year and an illness gets people’s attention or love, if only for a little while.

       There will come a day in the very near future when illness will simply be a thing of the past, something we no longer need. If we sense “something coming on” then we have the tools to look within ourselves and figure out why our subconscious thought we needed to be ill. We can then address that emotional need and heal the physical body. When emotional needs are met, the body stays in a state of physical balance.  When emotional needs are chronically unmet, the body remains in a chronic out of balance state and becomes vulnerable to illness. No pill, potent, powder or shot will change this. It is just how it is.

       The only way to be perennially healthy is to heal that underlying emotional issue that triggers any type of illness. This applies to every single affliction that affects the human body: all of them.  While this may sound challenging, it is truly the basis of pristine health. It is learning that people die and that we can heal from a death. It is opening our hearts to others and learning to recognize the many facets of love. It is love itself. . . And isn’t this really the message of December?  Love after all is what this is all about. Love the body enough to give it loving rest and release from stress. We are inherently wise when we can love with all of our heart.

KS&L 86 Thanksgiving by Tina Erwin

This is the time of year we turn to considering all the things we are thankful for. But often we are made to feel that the world is in dire straights, is hopeless and that the sky is falling.

       So perhaps it would be good to take a minute and look at globally what we can feel good about. Often, the press reminds us so continually of what is wrong with the world that we frequently forget to remember what is right with the world. So, here are some thoughts on what is right with the world at this snapshot in time. Please keep in mind that at any given moment, someone is demonstrating about something or someone or some government is doing something harmful, but if you look at the aggregate there are signs of hope out there.

       The election is over and whether you are happy or unhappy about it, the government will still go on. We are an example to the world that you can have people disagree and still move forward and accept results.

       All of North America, Central and South America are at peace.

       India and Pakistan are at peace.

       All of Northern Europe, Europe and Southern Europe are at peace.

       All of Northern Africa and most of Africa is also at peace.

       All of Asia is at peace. That, in itself is staggering. North Korea is being monitored by the Chinese -  a first in history. Viet Nam is a trading partner.

       While parts of the Middle East are not at peace, we can still be hopeful for this part of the world.

       All of the former Soviet states are at peace.

       There is unrest in many countries, but for the most part, this is not a planet at war with itself. Most modern countries are working very hard to prevent any hint of nuclear war. We are more aware of environmental concerns than we have ever been at any time in history.

       The Internet and cell phones have linked the world. We will never see ourselves as alone on this planet because we know that we are part of the global community. More people are traveling to other countries to know for themselves that we, and they are the same, want the same things for our families, food, shelter, safety, love and economic stability.

       The movement to spirituality is perhaps the largest planet wide, than it has ever been. We are aware of more people praying, believing in Angels and higher spiritual beings than ever before.

       So, yes, as we consider that there are places of extreme strife, we must also honor and be grateful for the fact that the vast majority of this planet IS at peace and with continued prayer, hope and love, let us hope that in our lifetimes, all of the planet will be at peace at the same time.  Happy Thanksgiving.

KS&L 390: Veterans Day by Tina Erwin

       Today is Veterans Day.

       Today is the day we honor those who have served our country in foreign wars.

       Today is the time to ponder what our lives would be like if we did not have, if we had not had, if we had never experienced what it’s like to have someone stand up for us.

       In a certain sense, this is exactly what a military person does: he or she stands up against what is negative, what is wrong or oppressive. The goal of the United States Military is not conquest, it’s simply to protect and defend the American people and the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. That’s it. That’s the basic oath that we all take.  .  . and we take it very, very seriously.

       Sometimes determining what is a threat to this country and to the Constitution is a challenging situation.

       Most Americans take Constitutional guarantees for granted but nothing is ever guaranteed. Every single American needs to be vigilant to make sure that elected officials honor the tenants of the US Constitution. Veterans Day not only honors the soldiers of two World Wars, Korea, Viet Nam, and all the endless Middle East conflicts, it honors another critically special group.

        This day also honors those farmers, bakers, blacksmiths, silver and tinsmiths, the country doctors and importers who took up arms to create a country. They had to make a decision. Stay with the British or get to the business of nation building. This meant that these mostly quiet men, these souls who only wanted to live in peace had to fight for that right to live in peace. Had they not done that several centuries ago, we, dear friends, would not be having this conversation.

       But they were not the only ones to serve the mission of making a new nation. There is a wonderful statement about all of those families who stayed behind to try to run the farm, manage crops, raise animals and build families: They also serve who only sit and wait.  But these women weren’t sitting and they weren’t idly waiting! Think of all of those women who worked tirelessly to manage their farms through brutal winters and humid summers to create properties that would produce an income without their husbands. They didn’t just give up. They got to work! Think about their fear as British soldiers came and took all that they had, ‘commandering’ it for the King. Perhaps this outright theft put extra steel in their slender backbones. Maybe these women and children realized that if they all didn’t take a stand against tyranny, then they would still be part of the oppressive remnants of the feudal system that had plagued Europe for centuries.

       Perhaps these women and children weren’t physically standing beside Washington on that bitter cold, wintery day of December 25^th 1776 when General Washington crossed the Delaware River to attack the British and the Hessian troops. No, they may not have been there, but these women were supporting their husbands who were with Washington. This particular battle was a turning point in the war. Thousands of men had already died, morale was low, families were weary of war and still they did not give up. Let us honor them all on this day.

       Freedom is never easy. Honor, integrity, clarity of mission and the desire to open doors for the oppressed are the real mission of any veteran. However, the defense of the Constitution is so critical that let us not forget that this document is the foundation for democracy itself. Men and women live and die, but ideals, the ideals of freedom from all kinds of oppression, these are the immortal standards that all veterans hold dear and protect and defend.

       I offer my profound gratitude to all veterans and their long serving families, who have come before me to offer their lives, their sacrifice and their contribution to making this country safe. Because of all of these amazing veterans, I am able to share my humble thoughts with all of you today.

       Sincerely,

       Tina D. Erwin, Commander, US Navy Retired

KS&L 388: Why Did My Cell Phone Shatter? Part 2 by Tina Erwin

       Within about three days, Rosalind and the other sales rep Courtney emailed us that things in the store had escalated and now there were far more ghosts in the store than before. Laura and I realized that we had to do something to help these women and all of those ghosts.

         We asked them if they had left a book card in the back of the store. Why yes, they said, we did. Perhaps the card, combined with the willingness these women had shown to help lost souls, had been a winning combination for ghosts. This meant that I had to rethink the situation for these willing lightworkers. As the situation at the gorgeous handbag store escalated I decided that I needed to add something to our second Ghost Stories book to facilitate the transition of any ghost, anywhere, and at anytime. I needed to give not just these kind and compassionate women a useful tool, but anyone anywhere who feels haunted by a ghost, the most powerful tool possible to facilitate the crossover of those souls.

         So I created a prayer. But this isn’t just any prayer this is a prayer that can help a soul to find the light. This empowers any living person to help any ghost anywhere, any time. So the ladies at the handbag store received the first and only version of this prayer. Their ‘mission’ was to use it to clear the store and then to get back to us.

         And they did. They cleared that store of ghosts using this prayer! They didn’t need Laura and I to come in, or remote view to clear it. Now, they had the power and they used it.

         So we experimented on using this prayer with other close friends and family members. And they keep it with them all the time. Some printed it out, some put it on their iPhone. It worked every time.

         Apparently the book card and the eBooks (and eventually the physical book) can, in some situations, create something called a Light Bridge, which ghosts can see. The energy of this Light Bridge facilitates their crossing over into the light. Some won’t need the facilitation of the prayer and some will.

         OK, I thought, so this must be why my iphone broke, to create this prayer.

         But it wasn’t just this either.

         Rosalind and Courtney continued to keep in contact with us. Courtney also decided to share the information with her medical doctor husband. Apparently her husband was bringing all kinds of ghosts home from the hospital. Courtney used the prayer to clear her home and noticed how much better things felt. She uses it every day now. Then she brought him to a lecture I was giving about ghosts. Her very skeptical husband was beginning to rethink things.

         Obviously, that was the reason my phone broke, so that Courtney could clear her home and awaken her husband to a new paradigm of thought.

         But it wasn’t just that either.

         I held a meeting in my home to discuss a metaphysical topic and Rosalind and Courtney attended. They shared with the group how we all met. Later each shared how understanding the situation with ghosts had helped them. Then they began to ask more questions about exceptionally sensitive family members and how they could help them.

         Okay this has to be the reason but it became even more amazing when Rosalind told us that she never works in that particular store. Actually she is a manager and had only ever been sent to that Fashion Valley store one time, before or since we met. She and Courtney had never met before that day. Now they are fast friends, sharing such an amazing experience.

         I give up. Obviously my cell phone was supposed to break otherwise I would never have gone into that store with my friend Laura to kill a little time before getting my iphone replaced. Yep! Everything happens for a reason, or maybe two, or more. The chain of events set into motion by the shattering of that iphone screen still amaze me. I do look for the reason for things, but this one was, wow, amazing!

        

KS&L 387 Why Did My Cell Phone Shatter Part 1 by Tina Erwin

         My kids think I’m really hard on phones.  They think electrically, I burn up the energy in phones. Who knows? Apparently, I’m hard on cell phones too. So when I went to upgrade my iPhone to the iPhone 4, I made sure I bought an Otter Box to encase it. I dropped my last phone and shattered the screen. It was so weird, one minute it was in my hand and the next it lay shattered on the ground. It still worked, but it was quite shattered. I still don’t understand how or why that happened. With my new phone, I was now smugly confident: I had an Otter box!

         Well, I hadn’t had my new iphone 4 even six months when I was standing in my office holding it when somehow it was no longer in my hand and was now on the tile floor of my office profoundly shattered. The last phone was only cracked, this one was so broken it looked like the glass was pulverized – but it still worked.

         I’m a somewhat spiritual person, but I was so angry! How could this happen to me twice? I allowed those moments of incredulity: that it happened twice and the second time the darn phone was in an Otter Box, the Cadillac of phone protectors – which didn’t work. So after I cooled down, had shaken my head, blown off steam to my sister and my friends, I began to wonder why did this happen to me? Why now?

         Finally, I made an appointment with the Apple Store in Fashion Valley here in San Diego to have the screen repaired. I met my friend Laura there for lunch because she had broken something on her iphone and needed her appointment at the Apple store too. We got to the crowded Apple store early, so we decided to wander through a high-end handbag/clothing store somewhat across from the Apple Store to kill some time.

         The ladies in the store were really kind, helpful and pleasant. As we were about to leave the store I decided to share one of the book cards for one of my newest books: Ghost Stories from the Ghosts’ Point of View, Book One. It’s a gorgeous book card. When I handed the card to the tall blond woman who had so kindly helped us, she looked at me and seemed incredulous. She called her fellow employee over and showed her the card, so I got out another one. This woman’s eyes got big and she looked at Laura and I and told us that her store is haunted! Really? This upscale handbag store is haunted?  Laura and I looked at each other silently thinking… can our lives get any stranger?

         Then other employees seemed to gather around us, each with their own stories of how haunted this particular store is.

         One sales rep said that she felt creepy in the back of the store.

         Another said that it looks and sounds like there are women going through the new clothes because you can see the clothes on the rack move like someone is going though it, but no one is there.

         They asked us if we could see and remove the ghosts right then. Laura and looked at each other and said sure!

         We each ‘looked’ in the environs of the store. I immediately saw a very creepy ghostly guy in the stock room; he liked to watch the pretty young women. He did not have good intentions. He wasn’t harming them in the strictest sense but his energy was very alarming. I immediately removed him. I had the impression that he had been homeless and exactly how he died was never clear. He did not have a long conversation with me. I simply had him removed and then I cleaned the energy of the back room.

         I also saw two ghostly women sifting through racks and examining the clothes. It seemed to me that both of these women had died in some type of traffic accident and had ended up returning to a place that had brought each of them pleasure. They really loved shopping. I had them escorted to the Heaven World.

         Laura saw the same things and together we cleaned the energy of the store and we could do all of this because the pretty blonde woman, Rosalind, who helped us was a manager and we had her permission.

         The ladies asked us to sign the book cards. We told them to keep in touch in the event any more ghosts found their store. They all told us how unnerved that these ghosts had made them. None of them ever wanted to open or close the store. They had all heard the noises. We felt that this was amazing. When Laura and I compared notes, we realized that we both saw the same things. It’s really great when two psychics can validate what each other saw and then get the people being haunted to also confirm that what we saw was what they were all feeling.

         Then Laura and I went to our appointment at the Apple Store, which we almost missed because we were so intent on helping the ghosts in the store across the way that we almost forgot why we went to Fashion Valley in the first place!

         I just made it. But it cost me an additional $160 to completely replace that shattered phone since the screen couldn’t be replaced.  AARGH!! But then I thought, okay, this must be why this happened, so I could help these women in this store. I thought that was the end of it.

         But it wasn’t.  

         More in Part 2!

KS&L 382 It's Just God's Will by Tina Erwin

         Recently someone mentioned to me that life is pretty much what happens when you are making other plans. But then those ‘other plans’ are just God’s will after all and that ultimately there is nothing that we can do about it.

         Really? What happened to free will?

         So, here’s the question:

         Are the things that happen God’s Will or the Free Will of the individual?

         Yes, things happen and we have free will in how we handle them, how we adjust. It's the point of free will. If we are left thinking that it is God’s will that horrible things happen then what’s the point of ever trying to improve things or make a difference?

          Lets look at an example.

         What if someone we love dies as a result of that person being in a car with a drunk driver. Our loved one made a conscious choice to get in that car. Perhaps he or she didn’t make a decision to die that night but they did choose to accept the risk of death that getting in the car would engender. This isn’t God’s will it is free will.

         Our family can go to pieces at the death of this person or our family can work diligently to heal. Which is God’s Will: healing or hurting?  But then ‘will’ implies a directed outcome, so why would God insist we hurt? Isn’t God helping us heal? Yes and no. We have a choice in how we heal any catastrophic event in our lives. We can rise to the karmic opportunity presented, and embrace our grief, pain, and suffering, or we can retreat from life and martyr ourselves for the rest of our lives. We make that choice, God doesn’t. However, if we choose to heal, God will help us find a teacher who can help guide our way to insight and understanding when we ask Him for help.

         But if it is true, that God wants us to heal, why does it hurt so much when we lose someone? It hurts because we have massive connecting ties to people we love and when those ties are broken, they come recoiling back to us and it is endlessly painful. But it doesn’t have to be painful forever. In this example we each have a choice in how we respond to any event. We can choose to heal it or to allow pain to direct our lives.

         So many people mistakenly think that an event is 'God's Will' and God has nothing to do with it. A person uses the gift of God: free will and makes a decision. That decision creates karma and that karma has to be satisfied. Everything happens in perfect order because Karma balances that order. God's will, if someone can call it that is really karma. What we do comes back to us. Every move we make creates a decision tree and how the karma is returned is always a function of which fork in the road we take, which branch of that tree we use.

         And karma never wastes energy so even a tragic event is pregnant with its potential positive consequence. This means that we always need to analyze what we learned from any event.

          Yes, life happens while we were making other plans because the karma that we create can come back to us at profoundly unexpected and usually inconvenient moments. But when each of us incorporates the lesson of a life-changing event and learns from it, then we acquire wisdom. Ultimately, that must be God's hope: that we will all become wise.

KS&L 381 Marriage Grease by Tina Erwin

      Courtesy is the day-to-day grease that makes life worth living. We make a request from someone with a sense of gratitude when we say ‘would you please’ do this or that. We honor that person’s service to us with an additional bestowal of gratitude when we say ‘thank you for doing that, or helping me, or answering my question, or returning my call.’

         ‘Please’ and ‘thank’ you are the spiritual/emotional elements that humbly remind us that we need other people to help us in so many ways, so many times a day. When a request is made of us without those magic words, it feels like we are being ‘ordered’ to do something, as if our freewill has been removed and we are now ‘required’ to do what this person demands. Dictators never say please and thank you.

         Family dictators can be relatives, grandparents, parents, spouses, siblings, and children. Children only learn about the ‘magic words’ of please and thank you from their use by their parents. However, the real magic comes when couples use the magic words between each other. And magic would be the key when it comes to these words.

         But there are some spouses who simply cannot say please or thank you to their husband or wife. When you ask why this is so hard to say, you get a variety of answers:

         • ‘Oh, please and thank you are implied. I don’t need to say it.’ Does your spouse know this? Is it implied for you too?

         • ‘I don’t have time for pleasantries, do you know how much I have to do with all of these kids? My husband needs to jump when I tell him to do something so I can keep my sanity!’  . . . .  Right. Bet he feels belittled all the time.

         • ‘Look, my wife knows that I love her and she doesn’t feel that need for me to say please and thank you every time.’  . . . Really, does she know that?

         • ‘I’m always in such a hurry that I don’t have time to do that, besides wives/husbands and kids don’t need please and thank yous. When you’re part of a family you don’t need that fake stuff.’ Fake stuff? When is common courtesy fake?

         • ‘Look, just do what I want. Got it? What’s your problem?’ My problem?

         The humbling concept of saying please and thank you force the ‘requestor’ to honor the effort of the ‘requestee’. Appreciation is always essential for any situation to work. Even the military never orders something to be done unless a situation is dire and someone’s life is at stake. Otherwise, it is considered military courtesy for officer and enlisted service member alike to say please and thank you. Gratitude eases all situation.

         In a marriage, this element is paramount. Couples with successful marriages never forget to be grateful for the efforts of their spouse. This –again – humble element helps to maintain balance between each spouse. Using these little words are the grease that gets things done on the often grinding day-to-day level of grocery shopping, putting gas in a car, putting kids to bed, making meals, cleaning house, and doing yard work. No, we don’t run around and gushingly say thank you for every single little thing, but the routine use of please and thank you make a huge difference.

         How big a difference? Consider that every single time one spouse ‘orders’ another spouse to do something and never shows any appreciation a drop of irritation is added to that person’s emotional reservoir. Day after day, drip, drip, drip of irritation is added to one spouse or the other’s emotional reservoir, slowly, deliberately, inexorably, poisoning that person’s emotions.

         How does this manifest emotionally? Irritation eventually turns to varying levels of despair, questions of whether or not that spouse is really loved begin to surface. If you love someone, you love him or her enough to honor their efforts – don’t you? Irritation can become irritability, which becomes impatience, which becomes short-tempered responses, which becomes hostility. Low self-esteem is another result and the feeling of worthlessness begins to creep into that person’s psyche. It’s cruel really, when you think about it, that one spouses selfishness robs the other spouse of his or her feelings of worth.

         How does this manifest physically? The body often mirrors emotional issues and needs. Skin anomalies may begin, other body problems begin to manifest and the person never fully feels ‘good’ about themselves, their marriage, or their choice of a spouse. There is a grinding feeling inside a person because the grease that makes a marriage work is totally absent. Without oil/grease in an engine, the engine will eventually seize. And so this little, tiny, seemingly petty detail of please and thank you will eventually cause a marriage to seize as well. Makes you wonder how many divorces could have been avoided if the simplest courtesies could have been implemented.

         Perhaps the greatest gift that spouses can give each other is the day to day, year after year courtesy that keeps a marriage happy. The greatest gift that parents can give their children is a good example of a happy marriage. And perhaps that gift can begin with ‘pleases’ and ‘thank ‘yous’, every single day

KS&L 383 YOLO or YLF? by Tina Erwin

       I was in aerobics class the other day and I heard someone talk about YOLO. Her clueless companion had no idea what that was, so the lady explained that YOLO means that You Only Live Once. The lady was very proud of her knowledge of this new acronym. Obviously, YOLO is now becoming part of the fabric of conversation  - as if it were true.

       But it isn’t true. You don’t only live once.

       You live forever.

       This is precisely what Christ meant when he talked about ‘life’ ever after – and that ‘life’ isn’t simply in the Heaven World.

       Just for fun, imagine that you do actually live forever. Now you are going to approach every situation with an entirely different view. You know for sure that the energy of whatever you do in this life is going to be returned to you not only in this life, but also in the succeeding lives.

       This concept causes you to view of life very differently because you will understand how karma works:

       * what you do comes back to you, and

       * you will have an experience until you learn the lesson and you no longer need the experience anymore – no matter how long or how many lives it takes.

       So, now armed with this revelation, think how you might live your life differently.

       • If you know you have to return again to this life, you will know that you have to work out that terrible relationship with your mother-in-law.

       • Living again with an abusive husband or wife, may make you want to rethink just enduring it ‘for now’ or ‘for the children’s sake’.

       •  Your life of crime may cause you to wonder how that karma will be returned to you in the next life.

       • Taking advantage of someone will mean that someone in some future life is absolutely going to take advantage of you.

       • The thoughtless way you treated that animal will be returned to you by how some animal attacks you in a future life.

       • Cruelty to your children may be returned to you as you become your child’s child in some future incarnation.

       • The love and care you give to the earth will be returned to you with greater knowledge and insight.

       • The energy of studying, of education and the knowledge that you are learning and sharing will open you up to far greater wealth of mental and spiritual insight in coming lives.

       • Charity, giving and sharing will have to be returned to you in some future opportunity. Do you really think lottery winners just ‘got lucky?’  No, these people have the past life karma to win that money in this life and perhaps in lives to come.

       • Self-sacrifice will make a huge difference in dire situations. The energy of success will be returned to you because you cared so much about others.

       • Caring for a greatly disadvantaged child? Think of how hard you are working to care for him or her. The energy of this love and care, this experience will be returned to you in some way in a different life. Perhaps you are enabling that soul to have a more complete future life as a mentally whole person.

       • Psychic ability used with a sincere heart, in accordance with spiritual law will enable you to have greater spiritual ability in coming lives.

       • Psychic ability used to tell fortunes, read cards and manipulate people will draw to the soul a very challenging future life or perhaps multiple lives.

       • Greedy dictators, drug lords, and corporate heads who abuse people, resources of the earth and power will find an exceptionally challenging future ahead of them.

       Every single life is an opportunity to do a better job at your job of learning as a soul on a path to enlightenment. Do not forget the prime objective: enlightenment. That’s hard in the day to day of bills, crazy bosses and co-workers, stressed spouses and kids and governments that have lost their way. Yet the mission requirement to work toward spiritual growth, never fades, never becomes less.

        Denying the reality of future lives, of karma created in past lives is like denying or questioning whether the sun will rise tomorrow. As we each lay down to sleep, we know that the sun will rise and we will get up. We live a new life every single day. Even if we die in the night, we will wake up in a new dimension, ready to face the next step in our spiritual evolution especially if we have the presence of mind to ask for an angel to help us with the transition to the Heaven World.

       Microcosm/Macrocosm: every yesterday is the microcosm and every past life is the macrocosm. The opportunity of every single new day is the microcosm and the opportunity of every single future life is the macrocosm of how the cosmic plan and karma work. YLF:  You Live Forever!