In my children's fantasy adventure novel, Kiva & the Stone Nation, Kiva learns how to become a shape-shifting shaman from Scout, the girl-shaped stone tasked as her guide. As Kiva's lessons continue she is taught that the best way to shift is to connect with the object or person she wants to become. But after she shifts successfully for the first time she is warned, “You just learned lesson number six the hard way,” said Scout. “When
you use a real object as a guide in shifting, you connect to every cell of that
object—its thoughts, its feeling, its senses … and, as you just found out, its
memories.”
What Scout is teaching Kiva is the same lesson found in one of my favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. In chapter 3 of the novel Atticus Finch says to his daughter Scout, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
What both the stone, Scout, and Atticus Finch are trying to convey to their pupils is the concept of empathy. We humans have a propensity to judge quickly. Numerous research articles have been written on how first impressions often become the basis for how well relationships fair. So if there is a bad first impression, even though the person may be a nice person having a bad day, we often forget how complex humans are and instead remember only that bad first impression. "Climbing into someone else's skin" gives us the opportunity to step back from the first impression and remember that we all have many stories inside of us. Our families, our past, our upbringing, good and catastrophic events we have experienced, all shape who we are. I'm also a believer that deep inside every person, even the one's we consider untrustworthy, there is a spark of the Divine. Climbing into someone else's skin allows us to find the Divine in all people. And as Kiva & the Stone Nation reminds us, even the creatures of the forest and the stones have stories to tell.
Take a moment today to think about a person, creature or object that may have given you a bad first impression. Then "climb into his (their) skin and walk around in it." I'd love to hear from you what you learned.
Happy Reading!
Excerpts & teachings from a middle grade fantasy adventure novel about a young girl who must choose whether to become a legendary shape-shifting shaman or find her way home after becoming lost in a forbidden canyon behind her grandparents' cabin in the mountains of southern Colorado.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
LIFE IS AN ILLUSION
According to Scout, the girl-shaped stone in my novel, Kiva & the Stone Nation, “Only a few creatures in this forest walk beyond the veil of time and space, even though, if they wanted to, they could learn. But as you have begun to understand, walking beyond the veil of time and space isn’t easy. That’s why most animals and humans prefer to stay ignorant, oblivious to all the other realms.”
This is Lesson #5 to becoming a YaYa Hiké. What Scout was trying to teach Kiva in this lesson is that life is an illusion. If we never look beyond the solid form of anything then we are living a lie. For everything in the Universe is made up of energy,such as quarks and particles, that come together to form the solid. Yet in a blink of an eye everything can change form and become something else.
Think of a tree in the forest. As you walk past this majestic symbol of nature you see rough or smooth bark, long or short branches and leaves or needles as they sway in the breeze. But as the seasons go by you also see that a tree is a living being, filled with resin and chlorophyll along with sap and heartwood to bring the tree alive as it breathes in carbon dioxide and breathes out oxygen. Now cut the tree down and it becomes a piece of wood that can be shaped into houses and furniture, or burned for heat until all that is left are ashes. Yet how often do you stop and look at the tree and see where it came from, where it is going and see its potential future.
Even once that tree becomes a piece of furniture it is still just an illusion, because at a molecular level it is quarks and particles and energy bouncing in and out to create the solid form. And with everything, it is constantly changing and shifting and will one day return to its particles and quarks' stage like everything else.
So everything in the world is energy and energy never stays the same, always shifting and changing to become something else. There in lies the truth of the illusion. So take time everyday not just to smell the roses, but to pay attention to them at the minutest level, to see where they have come from, what form they take at this moment and what their future potential can be.
Below are a few interesting quotes I thought you might like on illusion.
Happy Reading!
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Albert Einstein
There is as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream. Ralph Waldo Emerson
If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion. Herman Hesse.
Monday, August 26, 2013
ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
As Scout, the girl-shaped boulder in Kiva & the Stone Nation guided Kiva along her journey to becoming a YaYa Hiké she taught her 12 lessons. Today I am writing about Lesson #4: “When you receive a gift from the Everything Maker you must give thanks.”
And what Scout doesn't say but is implied in the book is that everything in the Universe is a gift from the Everything Maker. Therefore, her lesson to all of us is to give thanks for everything that comes within the realm of our consciousness and then some.
Another word for "give thanks" is gratitude...a very powerful word. And if you don't believe gratitude is important just type the word into your internet search engine. From mainstream religions, to new age philosophies, to university researchers, every article I found on the internet stated pretty much the same thing: an attitude of gratitude makes a person's life more positive.
Just ask Oprah, the queen of talk show hosts and one of the richest women in the word. In a post she wrote in November 2011 she states, "Appreciating what shows up in your life changes your personal vibration. Gratitude elevates your life to a higher frequency. You will radiate and generate more goodness when you bring your attention to what you have, and stop focusing on what you don't, because what you focus on expands."
Then there is the opinion of Dr. Martin Seligman, the Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the researchers who coined the phrase, "learned helplessness" back in the 1960's. He believes gratitude is so important that he created a Gratitude Questionnaire to find out just how grateful his clients are in order to gauge how positive they are and how much help they will need to turn their lives from helplessness to happiness.
Then of course there is the bible which states in Colossians 3:16: "Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts."
For me gratitude is a daily practice. Each morning as I write in my journal I spend the first few minutes writing down 5 items, people, actions, etc. that I am grateful for. This morning I was grateful for my friends, for the money I need to buy items for my townhouse, for my new computer, for the beautiful weather in Colorado and for my awesome family. Each day my list can be different or it can be the same but whatever the list entails that day I know that being grateful helps me stay focused on what is important in my life and like Oprah explained, changes my personal vibration.
So today I will end this blog post with an Attitude of Gratitude by sharing with you the closing I write at the end of every journal entry I make. "Thank you Source for everything you provide me. I am Yours how may I serve?!!!"
Happy Reading!
And what Scout doesn't say but is implied in the book is that everything in the Universe is a gift from the Everything Maker. Therefore, her lesson to all of us is to give thanks for everything that comes within the realm of our consciousness and then some.
Another word for "give thanks" is gratitude...a very powerful word. And if you don't believe gratitude is important just type the word into your internet search engine. From mainstream religions, to new age philosophies, to university researchers, every article I found on the internet stated pretty much the same thing: an attitude of gratitude makes a person's life more positive.
Just ask Oprah, the queen of talk show hosts and one of the richest women in the word. In a post she wrote in November 2011 she states, "Appreciating what shows up in your life changes your personal vibration. Gratitude elevates your life to a higher frequency. You will radiate and generate more goodness when you bring your attention to what you have, and stop focusing on what you don't, because what you focus on expands."
Then there is the opinion of Dr. Martin Seligman, the Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the researchers who coined the phrase, "learned helplessness" back in the 1960's. He believes gratitude is so important that he created a Gratitude Questionnaire to find out just how grateful his clients are in order to gauge how positive they are and how much help they will need to turn their lives from helplessness to happiness.
Then of course there is the bible which states in Colossians 3:16: "Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts."
For me gratitude is a daily practice. Each morning as I write in my journal I spend the first few minutes writing down 5 items, people, actions, etc. that I am grateful for. This morning I was grateful for my friends, for the money I need to buy items for my townhouse, for my new computer, for the beautiful weather in Colorado and for my awesome family. Each day my list can be different or it can be the same but whatever the list entails that day I know that being grateful helps me stay focused on what is important in my life and like Oprah explained, changes my personal vibration.
So today I will end this blog post with an Attitude of Gratitude by sharing with you the closing I write at the end of every journal entry I make. "Thank you Source for everything you provide me. I am Yours how may I serve?!!!"
Happy Reading!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Lesson #3 on becoming a YaYa Hiké: Trust the Everything Maker
According to Scout, the girl-shaped boulder in the book Kiva & the Stone Nation, “We must trust that the Everything Maker will provide for us in ways we don’t always expect; sometimes from Mother Earth, sometimes from others.”
Trust...such a tiny word and such a big concept. Trusting the Everything Maker means first that we need to believe there is a power greater than us that made the Universe, and then we have to believe that this Source of All is a benevolent power wanting what is best for us.
For Kiva that meant that she needed to trust what her grandmother, Hota told her about her heritage and her abilities. For me it means that I trust my Source of All Things to know what is best for me. I remember hearing a speaker at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting I was visiting say that if he had not let go and let God he would have short changed himself. For him, God saw the big picture in a way that he could not. Those words made a profound impression on me and as the years have passed I too have worked hard to Trust my Creator.
Writing this book is a perfect example of my need to trust. I believe I was meant to publish this book. But after it was finished I had no idea of what came next. Yet over the years I've learned to suit up and show up everyday to find out what my next right step should be. Today it is to promote the book and continue to write more books and I have learned to leave the outcome to the Everything Maker.
My trust goes much further than this book and my writing. Everyday I must wake up and trust that I will be taken care of no matter what is going on around me. And whenever I find myself worried I am reminded of Matthew 6:25-34 where Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."
How about you? I would love to hear about some of the areas of your life where you must Trust the Everything Maker. Sharing your favorite sayings and thoughts on the subject will help me on those days when I'm less trusting.
Thanks for visiting with me today & Happy Reading!
Trust...such a tiny word and such a big concept. Trusting the Everything Maker means first that we need to believe there is a power greater than us that made the Universe, and then we have to believe that this Source of All is a benevolent power wanting what is best for us.
For Kiva that meant that she needed to trust what her grandmother, Hota told her about her heritage and her abilities. For me it means that I trust my Source of All Things to know what is best for me. I remember hearing a speaker at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting I was visiting say that if he had not let go and let God he would have short changed himself. For him, God saw the big picture in a way that he could not. Those words made a profound impression on me and as the years have passed I too have worked hard to Trust my Creator.
Writing this book is a perfect example of my need to trust. I believe I was meant to publish this book. But after it was finished I had no idea of what came next. Yet over the years I've learned to suit up and show up everyday to find out what my next right step should be. Today it is to promote the book and continue to write more books and I have learned to leave the outcome to the Everything Maker.
My trust goes much further than this book and my writing. Everyday I must wake up and trust that I will be taken care of no matter what is going on around me. And whenever I find myself worried I am reminded of Matthew 6:25-34 where Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."
How about you? I would love to hear about some of the areas of your life where you must Trust the Everything Maker. Sharing your favorite sayings and thoughts on the subject will help me on those days when I'm less trusting.
Thanks for visiting with me today & Happy Reading!
REPOST: Lesson #1 on becoming a YaYa Hiké
August 4, 2013
WHAT IS A LEY LINE?
Happy Sunday to all:
It's official! My new children's fantasy adventure novel, Kiva & the Stone Nation is live on Kindle. If you'd like to read a sample, borrow the book on Amazon Prime or buy the book for any Kindle app, please click the book cover below.
Since Kiva is a young girl who discovers she has inherited her grandmother Hota's abilities as a YaYa Hiké (a shape shifting shaman), I have decided that over the next twelve weeks I will teach you the 12 lessons to becoming a YaYa Hiké.
Lesson #1
As quoted in the book by Scout, Kiva's guide and an important member of the Stone Nation, Lesson # 1 is, "Shape shifters shift energy. Like just now, when I moved my energy along the ley line.”
So what exactly is a Ley Line? According to Scout, "They're energy grids that link sacred sites all around the world."
According to Wikipedia, "Ley lines /lei lains/ are supposed alignments of a number of places of geographical and historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths, natural ridge-tops and water-fords. The phrase was coined in 1921 by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins, in his books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track. He sought to identify ancient trackways in the British landscape. Watkins later developed theories that these alignments were created for ease of overland trekking by line-of-sight navigation during neolithic times, and had persisted in the landscape over millennia."
Since the time when the phrase ley lines was created many spiritual followers have adopted the term to describe straight lines between not only these geographic and historic sites as mentioned in Mr. Watkins' book but also most spiritual sites as well. Some of the sites these ley lines connect include: Chaco Canyon, NM; Sedona, AZ; Mutiny Bay, WA; Stonehenge in England; Mt. Everest in Asia; Ayers Rock in Australia, Nazca in Peru, The Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt, Notre Dame in Paris, the Parthenon in Greece and numerous other churches, mosques, temples and sacred sites around the world.
According to Scout, "All shape shifters can travel them." So if you want to become a shape shifter and travel along ley lines stay tuned for more lessons on becoming a YaYa Hiké.
Until the next time...happy reading!
SE Doyle
The Traveling Mermaid
WHAT IS A LEY LINE?
Happy Sunday to all:
It's official! My new children's fantasy adventure novel, Kiva & the Stone Nation is live on Kindle. If you'd like to read a sample, borrow the book on Amazon Prime or buy the book for any Kindle app, please click the book cover below.
Since Kiva is a young girl who discovers she has inherited her grandmother Hota's abilities as a YaYa Hiké (a shape shifting shaman), I have decided that over the next twelve weeks I will teach you the 12 lessons to becoming a YaYa Hiké.
Lesson #1
As quoted in the book by Scout, Kiva's guide and an important member of the Stone Nation, Lesson # 1 is, "Shape shifters shift energy. Like just now, when I moved my energy along the ley line.”
So what exactly is a Ley Line? According to Scout, "They're energy grids that link sacred sites all around the world."
According to Wikipedia, "Ley lines /lei lains/ are supposed alignments of a number of places of geographical and historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths, natural ridge-tops and water-fords. The phrase was coined in 1921 by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins, in his books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track. He sought to identify ancient trackways in the British landscape. Watkins later developed theories that these alignments were created for ease of overland trekking by line-of-sight navigation during neolithic times, and had persisted in the landscape over millennia."
Since the time when the phrase ley lines was created many spiritual followers have adopted the term to describe straight lines between not only these geographic and historic sites as mentioned in Mr. Watkins' book but also most spiritual sites as well. Some of the sites these ley lines connect include: Chaco Canyon, NM; Sedona, AZ; Mutiny Bay, WA; Stonehenge in England; Mt. Everest in Asia; Ayers Rock in Australia, Nazca in Peru, The Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt, Notre Dame in Paris, the Parthenon in Greece and numerous other churches, mosques, temples and sacred sites around the world.
According to Scout, "All shape shifters can travel them." So if you want to become a shape shifter and travel along ley lines stay tuned for more lessons on becoming a YaYa Hiké.
Until the next time...happy reading!
SE Doyle
The Traveling Mermaid
REPOST: Lesson #2 on becoming a YaYa Hiké
August 12, 2013
Today is the eve of my birthday and I am blessed to be celebrating with a 10 day vacation in the great state of New York. I spent a Fabulous weekend playing in NYC and now I'm heading upstate on the Amtrak Empire service to visit Niagara Falls for the first time. What a great way to spend a day writing!
As promised, this week's blog is on the second lesson on becoming a YaYa Hiké from my new children‘s fantasy adventure novel, Kiva & the Stone Nation. According to Scout, the girl-shaped boulder sent to guide Kiva in her initiation, the 2nd lesson is “You must stay in the moment, paying close attention to what is going on around you. Otherwise, you’ll miss what is right in front of your eyes.”
Of course, being in the moment is much easier said than done. Even though the great gurus & spiritual leaders of all religions & beliefs have been urging humanity from the beginning of time to live in the moment, for it is the only certainty in life, still we continue to either race around trying to reach the next best thing that will supposedly make us happy, or we mope around harboring hurts & resentments that cause us to cling to our past.
When we're out in nature it seems to be much easier to be in the now, unless you're like Kiva & worried about finding your way home. But in my daily life & routine I find it difficult to stay present and instead end up skipping ahead to what's going to happen around the corner.
One trick I employ , that you might like to try, is an app on my smartphone (I use the Mindfullness Bell) that rings randomly throughout the day reminding me to come into the present so I can feel, see, smell, touch & taste the moment. Sticky notes in strategic spots around the house & office work too. Or maybe setting the timer on your microwave or stove to ring at various times throughout the day.
However you go about remembering to be in the present moment, I know you, like me, will begin to experience a richness to life you never knew existed.
As an added tool, below are some wonderful quotes I found that hopefully will help remind you how important being in the moment can be.
Happy Reading everyone!!
James 4:14, NLT Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.
James 4:14, KJV Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
“Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.”
― Walt Whitman
“Forever is composed of nows.”
― Emily Dickinson
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
― John Lennon
“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.”
― Maya Angelou
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
― Henry David Thoreau
Life is available only in the present moment.
― Thich Nhat Hanh
“Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.”
― Albert Einstein
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.”
― Benjamin Franklin
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
― Abraham Lincoln
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
― Buddha
Today is the eve of my birthday and I am blessed to be celebrating with a 10 day vacation in the great state of New York. I spent a Fabulous weekend playing in NYC and now I'm heading upstate on the Amtrak Empire service to visit Niagara Falls for the first time. What a great way to spend a day writing!
As promised, this week's blog is on the second lesson on becoming a YaYa Hiké from my new children‘s fantasy adventure novel, Kiva & the Stone Nation. According to Scout, the girl-shaped boulder sent to guide Kiva in her initiation, the 2nd lesson is “You must stay in the moment, paying close attention to what is going on around you. Otherwise, you’ll miss what is right in front of your eyes.”
Of course, being in the moment is much easier said than done. Even though the great gurus & spiritual leaders of all religions & beliefs have been urging humanity from the beginning of time to live in the moment, for it is the only certainty in life, still we continue to either race around trying to reach the next best thing that will supposedly make us happy, or we mope around harboring hurts & resentments that cause us to cling to our past.
When we're out in nature it seems to be much easier to be in the now, unless you're like Kiva & worried about finding your way home. But in my daily life & routine I find it difficult to stay present and instead end up skipping ahead to what's going to happen around the corner.
One trick I employ , that you might like to try, is an app on my smartphone (I use the Mindfullness Bell) that rings randomly throughout the day reminding me to come into the present so I can feel, see, smell, touch & taste the moment. Sticky notes in strategic spots around the house & office work too. Or maybe setting the timer on your microwave or stove to ring at various times throughout the day.
However you go about remembering to be in the present moment, I know you, like me, will begin to experience a richness to life you never knew existed.
As an added tool, below are some wonderful quotes I found that hopefully will help remind you how important being in the moment can be.
Happy Reading everyone!!
James 4:14, NLT Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.
James 4:14, KJV Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
“Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.”
― Walt Whitman
“Forever is composed of nows.”
― Emily Dickinson
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
― John Lennon
“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.”
― Maya Angelou
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
― Henry David Thoreau
Life is available only in the present moment.
― Thich Nhat Hanh
“Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.”
― Albert Einstein
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.”
― Benjamin Franklin
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
― Abraham Lincoln
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
― Buddha
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