The Other Side of Things...

We have been conditioned to believe what others say is the truth of us...

"...Turn me on take me for a hard ride.Burn me out leave me on the otherside 
I yell and tell it that It's not my friend .I tear it down, I tear it down and then it's born again..."

(Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Otherside.")

I will scream it from the highest mountain tops in Southern California...you are who you are because of you and your life's purpose...you are not what other people tell you that you are.

If there is one thing that bothers me more than anything else it is the idea that anyone else has the very right to dictate through their judgment of us who we are. We are only who they say we are to them, but there is no rule, no law that says, anywhere, that who we are depends on what someone else - a few someone else's - says we are. There is nothing in the world that should be seen as being more precious to us than our identity. Yes, I say nothing more precious because who we are is who we allow the rest of the world to see us as, and who we are dictates how we operate in the world, and if who you are affects another person in their own lives and their own thinking in a negative manner, I promise you that is not your fault. 

That is their fault. What is your fault is believing their nonsense, because that is what it is. People hate on other people when they recognize greatness in them, and what is really strange is that when we are able to see this greatness in others and most of us know that whatever we see in others we also have within ourselves, and how on earth is it possible that we can see this greatness and call it anything but "also our own." While our own greatness is not measured in what others see in us and judge harshly, it is judged by us in a harsh manner because of what other people tell us.

Yes, I know it makes no sense, but if you thought about the idea that we mirror each other then you would also know that what we see and what we sense in others that bothers us means that we need to be checkin' ourselves before we further go about wreckin' ourselves. 

Our Human Propensity Toward Wreckin' Ourselves

We are told from the time that we are a little tiny baby, in the womb even, about who we are expected to be, and our western societal expectations have always set the entirety of us as being "against" each other in terms of doing what we do and more than that, Being who we each truly are. I could go on and on about how it was that I was raised "in the church," and I can sit here and blame all of my own failures on that upbringing and blame all of my pu'olo of things that irritate me on that upbringing, but that would be giving too much of my own power for evolving that upbringing and the credit that I deserve for having been able to glean my own clarity from it to someone else. 

We take on too much of other peoples' wrong thoughts about us, and we take on their intentions for us without our realizing that we are, and we do so because this madness begins when we are children. Children are the most Spiritually vulnerable and we take from them the right that they have upon conception to be Who and All they are, and we do it for the wrongest reason ever - so that we are not made to look like fools as parents. I will say this - if you feel like a fool and it is your kid who is making you feel like a fool, the onus is yours, not theirs, and it is so because you taught them to behave that way. Perhaps maybe not in the manner where you are actively teaching them to be foolish, but more in the way that you have shown them that they can be foolish because you are foolish. They hear what you say about them and then they go out into the world and tell others what they think of themselves, and the others in their lives will either tell them that they are correct in that inclination, or they will tell them that no, they are not what they have been told.

The way that you know a person is hanging on to the things that they have been told and the things that they are believing is to look at the things happening on the outside of them. In their world there will be things that seem to not bring about the healing that they so dearly need and want, and in their world the things that are making them "Soul sick" will be evidenced by the things that are drawn to them. If there is a plethora of things that can be seen as "other than good," you can bet your best pair of Steve Maddens that in their lives there is something amiss and that needs to be healed, and that the longer they either do nothing about it and prefer to stay stuck in that energy, or, the more they remain unaware of the things that need to be done to make their lives be what it is meant to be, it will reveal itself. 

Proof that you are not what people tell you that you are

You want proof? Proof is that you know within you that you are not what you are told. Proof is that it bothers you daily that people would say the things they do of you. Proof is that you want to no longer be what they are telling you that you are. And proof is also that you are willing to no longer not be yourself. To be something and someone who you are not is like telling Spirit that you were made wrong, and I am sorry but Spirit doesn't "do wrong." The only way that what other people say is the truth of you is if you are willing to believe their truth. 

You need to learn about you, and you need to learn about the fact that there is a lot of good within you, so much so, in fact, that you have questioned the idea that someone else has become so hurtful in their manifestation of who you are in their eyes, and it might be that they are a powerful person in your life, but this is not their power speaking. Instead it is their bully talking to you. Their bully doesn't want you to be all you are, because their bully doesn't only see what it sees that is "other than good," but more than that - their bully sees and knows the reality of you. Other people have been trained to see what is in you that can be seen as being the thing that will make them have to work harder, and those bullies also need to be told that they are practicing "Other than good" thinking for their own lives and in their own minds, and if they are willing only to allow you to see in you only that which will make you uncomfortable then it is time that you thought about some word association and thought about what the opposite of those words are that they are saying and believing and know, too, that what they are saying - well, the opposite is the truth.

I have been told a million times that I am weak when in fact I am the strongest person I know. I have been told a million times that I am not smart enough to carry my own self through this life, but I know the opposite is my Truth. I have been told a million and one things a million and one times, and there was once a time in my life where I allowed what other people thought of me to be my energy. WHY??? Those are not my thoughts and that is not my energy, which means that ultimately, what their opinion of me is is not my truth. It can be their truth as long as they are willing to carry it, but the truth of the matter is that I will continue to make their truth be ONLY their truth.

It doesn't matter that I can do nothing to change their opinion of me, and why would I care to? It is their truth and I have no right to try to make them see me as the me that I am rather than as the me they assume I am and assume I will always be. I am not obligated to hold on to their truth of me. I carry no responsibility for them or for their opinion. No matter how much their truth hurts my ego's feelings, my Soul knows, all the way down the very bones of itself, that my truth is strong and my truth is that of a Spirit Warrior and my Truth is that of the ancients and mine is a Divine Truth that no one else can touch unless I let them.

This also is the same, my Loves, of your own Truth about you. No one can ever take away your own Truth. Your own Truth is Divine and Beautiful in essence, because your own Truth is your own Essence and since it is that we are meant to stand by and with the Truth, it is about time that you started shedding those old beliefs about you that are according to someone else, because unless you do you will never discover the Truth that is You, that is Gorgeously Inclined toward making you see the You Who is very dearly wanting to be seen by the rest of us...

We're waitin'...so hurry the hell up already, okay? 

Yeesh !! 

You can never uncover the Beautiful Truth that is You if You are too willing to continue believing the Truth that is not You....think about...

I LOVE YOU ALL!
ROX

Reverend Roxanne Cottell is the Kumu Hula and Creator of the Spiritual Hula Program for Women and the Co-Founder of Na Hula O Ka Wahine 'Ui. She is a blogger, book author, choreographer and Spiritual Adviser. If you would like information about "ROCK your NUPTIALS" Weddings or simply just to contact Roxanne for information about the Spiritual Hula Program for Women or information regarding private hula or Spiritual Guidance sessions with her feel free to send her an email.
(c) 2012 Roxanne K. Cottell. All Rights Reserved

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...with a foot on each side...

...many are with a foot in both worlds...

I hear it everyday.

"I feel so, so...I don't know...sort of...disconnected, like I am between worlds..."  Well, cupcake, that is not a mistake, at all. And there are not a lot of people who are able to do this and who are also stable in their work with Spirit to be able to deal with the things that they see, that they hear, that they know, and no one tells any one of them that they are perfectly fine feeling this disconnect.

The issue with this is not that no one can deal with having a foot in both worlds but that there are more people who have not learned how to be this way and not make them feel like they are meant for the wacko basket. In fact, a lot of times the reason that people end up in the position that they think and believe themselves crazy is because they are standing in both the world of the physical as well as the world of Spirit and are not aware of it. If you are someone who has practiced the grounding exercises needed to ground yourself and truly know what is happening and know that you must balance your self - NOT both worlds - so that you can adapt to it then you are already ahead of the game.

If you are not?

The World of Spirit is very real

Think back to the time, many of you, when you were in church, and you heard the preacher tell the congregation that the Spirit world is real, is scary, is something that we have to not venture in wanting to know. And this is the energy that many of us have carried with us for a long time. The energy of fear is what makes it seem weird to people who are not thinking about the benefits of this Knowing is, and what happens is that they draw to themselves energies that are not the sort which heal, not the sort which are beneficial, not the sort that most people are aware of and are able to deal with the things that come with that energy, with that not being too sure of what they are sensing and feeling. This is when the "fun" starts.

You see, we are magnetic in nature, and no matter what it is that we think we are doing, always there is another part of the equation that we either do not know or are in denial of. Yes, the world of Spirit can be very intimidating, but at the same time is welcoming, and the worst part is that there are two sides of that world - a Light and a Shadow, and when we are willing to be in the company of people, entertain the thought of people who are not aware of their own Light, it is not untrue that the vibrations and energies and most of all, the darkness of others all comes pushing through. If we are not aware of these energies then we will not know why it is that we feel drained, why we feel sad, why it is that things seem not to be what we want them to be.

It is the darkness that we fear but is also the darkness that we invite into our Souls. Darkness is something that we need for our own balance, but when we are stuck in a mindset that things are meant to be one way and they turn out the opposite way, and we attach ourselves to the loss rather than the lesson, it is not too long after that when we start experiencing things that are not the greatest to deal with, and for the most part, the way that we deal with them is through the depravities that we think are making us feel better and get well when in reality it is the very things that we are embracing as our own that are killing our souls and worse than that...sometimes, we are inviting newer, uglier and nastier energies into our lives through those depravities.

An Oppressive Nature

There have been many conversations between myself and many teachers of Spirit and other students who are learning along with me, sages and old souls, and yes, have been studying the idea that there are people who thrive in the darkness, people who cannot bear to leave it be because they are unfamiliar with the Light which is there and has always been there. They cling to the darkness out of the belief that there should be some darkness to our Light. While this is the truth, the "darkness" is needed, but what they are referring to, at least in my thinking, is NOT the darkness but rather the Shadow. Where we are nice and lovely and wonderful to look at, the shadow side of us asks us if we would not be lovelier with that proper dress showing a little more cleavage and those sensible dress shoes being traded for a pair of hot 4" high heeled pumps that any 80's Veteran Chick can claim to still owning. THAT is the shadow side.

The darkness is an entity all of its own, and the darkness is where the things that we do not want to look at hide and it is not until other people come to our lives that we sense and see the darkness that is there that also resides in our own souls, and while we may try to shun it, it sneaks up on us, testing our resolve and making us think that we are something that we are not, and usually the thing that we are going back and forth about is something that we should already be clear on. We should be clear on the idea that we do not want to invite dark energy to our lives, and we should be crystal clear that we will not bother to use these very energies to harm others, because ultimately we will harm ourselves if we have that thought.

When we invite the darkness, we invite the oppression in our lives to be there and to remain there and to be its own manifestation of what is the opposite of the Divine within. The Divine within is what we need to shield ourselves from all that we know is the darkness, and no, it is not the darkness that can be called temptation, and it is not the darkness which can be called an actual "sin" because the darkness IS sin itself. It is big and looming and harsh, unlike our lessons from Spirit which we Know are looming, are harsh, make us hurt and cry but are not ongoing and have the feel to them that it is temporary. The thing that I am writing to you all about right now is not just an ongoing and constant energy, but is one that looms large, dark and ugly, makes us want to do things that we know we are not supposed to and will not be conducive to the growth of our soul and most of all, will feel like we are having the energy of us siphoned from us and we normally do not know what is causing it. We get physically tired from the Shift, but there is a bone deep, almost iron-like grip with the darkness.

When it is that we have invited darkness, it is because we have allowed it to become the thing that we think we are. We all have had thoughts about ourselves that tend to not be the greatest thoughts to have, and most of the time while those thoughts loom and are heavy, they are also the ones that we have the ability to not think about if we are right in the mind and our thinking is also as right. The thing that I am talking about is born into our Souls when we have allowed certain ugly ways of our being to become an actual part of us. This is when there comes a division between the Light and the Dark. Of course, the Light always "wins" out, but sometimes it takes the Light a little more push and when the Light needs to call in back up, we know that something totally else is happening and that we need to actually call in that back up in order for us to see it ourselves.

The easiest way to avoid this sort of thing is NOT to deny it, because that makes it all show up faster. The way to avoid this sort of thing is to remain in the Light in every possible way that any one of us can think to.

I Love You All !!
ROX

Reverend Roxanne Cottell is the Kumu Hula and Creator of the Spiritual Hula Program for Women and the Co-Founder of Na Hula O Ka Wahine 'Ui. She is a blogger, book author, choreographer and Spiritual Adviser. If you would like information about "ROCK your NUPTIALS" Weddings or simply just to contact Roxanne for information about the Spiritual Hula Program for Women or information regarding private hula or Spiritual Guidance sessions with her feel free to send her an email.
(c) 2012 Roxanne K. Cottell. All Rights Reserved

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An angry, scary God...the things I learned in church

I Know that I am not the only one who grew up scared to death of God...

There are things that we are taught as children that we are not, when we are children, allowed to question for fear of reprimand, and the reprimand in this case is that of eternal damnation.

My childhood is marred with the memory of those words, etched forever there in my mind where I can hear it still, but now that I hear it, it sounds ridiculously archaic...and not even medieval archaic...just really, really stupidly archaic and ridiculous. I lost a lot of sleep over the things that I was told on a daily basis, and all to keep me in check with their rules. I love them, but now that I am a lot older and now that I know things and have been around for almost 43 years, I also know that it was their way, not only of passing on their beliefs, but doing so in the ugliest possible way they could have, and they did not know better or really any other way because that is also the way that they were taught about the things that they were told to believe.

I think I always questioned what it was that I was told was the truth, because sometimes I really thought my parents believed what they read and took it as being factual, and from time to time I will hear one of them say "this is in the word," meaning that the thing that they are watching on television - typically the news and politics - is somehow "Biblically" correct. While I respect that they believe what they believe, I frankly, have chosen a different Path. I have chosen a Path which is closest to my Soul and does not insult my intelligence. I do not 'belong' to any religion. I only follow Spirit and when Spirit Guides, I follow...I listen.

I am moved to say something about this, because there is an entire generation of people on this planet who were really confused as to why it was that we were taught what we were, and more, why would you want us to be afraid of anything? Why would you expect us to want to stick with a belief that told us that for every little thing we do there is a price to pay, that we are judged by a jealous God who strikes down his own children when he is angry with us? Why would you opt to scare us? I was told that the way that I believe in Spirit is wrong, and when I asked how it could be wrong when what I was doing was the same thing that I recall them doing, and no one questioned them. But don't let me relieve my mind and seek my own truth...just because it is not what you believe.

Call me a heretic, a heathen, sinner...it won't phase me, and I won't care, and it won't matter, because I know the truth. I know that I am a child of God and that I am Loved by an Altruistic Creator who is Unconditionally Loving, Who also Loves my gay and lesbian friends, my drug addicted friends, my friends who like to worship trees and animals and my friends who like to drink a lot of beer...every single person on the planet is Loved by Our Creator. I am Loved by a Creator Who is merciful and gracious and Who is always on my side. I know that there is nothing in this Life that is not without Love, and no matter what anyone has told me in the past I know that there is no vengeful God, that there is only Spirit who is all around us, and who is always Loving us, never punishing us and always making us know that we are meant to be here and meant to Love one another and to Be here with One Another and to share in this Lifetime.

I don't know about any of you reading this, but I know that I sit here writing this, a mix of emotions because I know that there are probably legions of kids out there in the world who are sneaking around to be normal. I did it, and I did it because I had to. If I didn't do my fair share of sneaking around I would not be the me who I am today. No matter what anyone else thinks, I was as normal as I could be back then, given the idea that I did not realize the reason then that I know now why it is that I was kind of a peculiar kid. I grew up to be Wholly Loving and immensely eccentric in many ways, but I have always Known, deep down in the Bones of my Soul, that God was Good. I always knew that one day I would be able to tell at least one person that God is not a scary large guy who lives up above the clouds and throws lightning bolts when he's mad and when he is kicking back he is bowling with his buddies, having beers and pickin' up bowling alley bar flies.

Parents, please do not forget that your children have big fat imaginations, and everything that you tell them, that any significant adult in their lives tells them, those little kids believe it. I know this. I was one of those little kids. My parents, God bless 'em, used to scare the hell out of me with all of their threats of my being left behind in the rapture. They didn't know better. They were scared into believing this, too. If it were not for my questioning everything I wanted to know about, and without the guidance and the Love that I was shown by adults in my life who explained to me that there were other ways to believe, that it was always my choice to believe what felt the best and closest to my own Soul and that no one had the right to force me to believe anything. While my body would be in the church, my mind and soul wandered a lot. I have written a lot of poetry sitting in church...drifted off to sleep in the middle of sermon at church...been dragged to church sick as a dog because ...because it was church, that's why, and God was there, that's why, and when God tells your mom to tell you that Sunday is HIS day, well, you better GET there and do it NOW!

Wow! Really?
Yeesh !!

So, instead, guys, can you do the future adults a favor and not scare the hell into them like it was scared into me? I believed in so many things that were so fantastical and hard to believe and for a long, long time I doubted what I knew was the Truth of me, because it is also still and now the very truth of me.I grew up to be the opposite of what I was taught was the truth of me, and you know what? It fits...perfectly.

Do the world a favor and stop scaring your kids into believing in your God, because the thing that usually happens after a while that they start believing in their own God.

I Know.
I did it.

Stop bullying your kids into believing what insults their very Souls!

I LOVE YOU ALL !
ROX

Reverend Roxanne Cottell is the Kumu Hula and Creator of the Spiritual Hula Program for Women and the Co-Founder of Na Hula O Ka Wahine 'Ui. She is a blogger, book author, choreographer and Spiritual Adviser. If you would like information about "ROCK your NUPTIALS" Weddings or simply just to contact Roxanne for information about the Spiritual Hula Program for Women or information regarding private hula or Spiritual Guidance sessions with her feel free to send her an email.
(c) 2012 Roxanne K. Cottell. All Rights Reserved

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Hurricanes and Volcanoes and Earthquakes, oh my !!

...you're supposed to feel this way...

I get LOTS of inquiries everyday about the things in the lives of people that turn life itself onto its head. I get lots of questions about how to avoid these things, but lately I have been getting inquiries as to why these things have happened, and more - how they have happened.

I don't want anyone to get disheartened about things at the moment. I promise you all that right now you are not the only one going through a lot of weirdness, and I also promise that the weirdness is meant. Some people have no idea of why they feel the way they do about certain things happening in their lives, why they are confused about the way they feel...I am telling you all right now that the message I have received over the last few days and weeks is that this is all normal, that we are right where we all need to be and in accordance to the Path we each have chosen.

Some of us are weird about the way that we cannot see the end of things happening in the manner that we have set out for them to (and it never ends up the way that we thought we wanted it to, ever...it ends up better than we could imagine...seriously...). and some of us are remiss to know that whatever it is that we are looking at, that that - whatever or whoever it is - is who we are, too. Some of us are weird in a way that they think they can see what is happening, but they know that what they are seeing is symbolic more than it is anything else. No matter what it is that is happening, know now that it is meant to be this way.

It is meant to make you crazy with fear, and meant to drive you up a wall with rage. It is meant to make you feel every single little bit of every single bit of every single emotion that you have encountered for a little while now. Things which are logically not even the closest thing to being something that would cause us to have a "duh moment," confuse the hell out of us. We cannot figure out why it is that we are feeling this myriad of emotions and there are a whole, whole lot of us who are bristling from it all. I have been told that I told people that this Shift was going to be great, but that is not the truth. I said that the Shift would bring great clarity, and that all those things that we still hang onto as our personal truth will be questioned, not by the world, but by our very selves. We will begin to literally be able to see, and most of us have already, the things that are blatantly there, the things that we cannot, even if we had access to a genie in a bottle, look at and see it - no matter what it is - for what it is.

While some things might appear to be what our human thinking wants us to believe it is, most of the time it is just a step in the ladder which leads us to the next level of consciousness. We physically see other people, and we notice what we do, but rarely are we also of the thought that what we are seeing at that moment is the truth of the moment, but not the truth of the energy of the entirety of it all. There is a theme to the lessons that we are each learning on our own, and the collective theme at the moment is "GET A CLUE, PEOPLE!"

Get a Clue, People

Get a clue, folks...if what you are experiencing at this time can be likened to anything weather related, then already you have a little bit of a clue about how to go about things. And when I liken it all to the weather, I mean that there are people who relate their moods and their emotions to things like a hurricane, a volcano, an earthquake, a tsunami, or a windstorm. When we can see ourselves and our own situations being compared to the weather, that tells you right there that you are able to see things in a symbolic manner, and in that symbolic manner you should also be able to address your own concerns. When it is that you are "hit" with the storms in your life, especially now when things are crazy from all of the things brought to us by this Shift in consciousness, rarely will anyone look at the storm as it being Spirit's way of symbolically asking us how we would get ourselves through a storm or by something brought about to our lives that was not in any of our control but paradoxically was something that our Soul needed to learn.

In my case and in anyone's who lives in Sunny Southern California...hell, anywhere in Sunny California...we are very skilled in the art of preparing for disasters. We know already that we live in the land of seismic activity, that we are bordered on one side of us by the Pacific Ocean and that all it will take is a gigantic temblor to create a perfectly monumentally huge tsunami. We also are accustomed to heavy rains causing mudslides in our inhabited canyons and valleys, as well as wildfires in the fall. We are very well adapted to the "what if" here in the Golden State, and because of these things - because of the normalcy of this sort of environmental uncertainty, we know we have to be prepared for anything to happen at all, namely and absolutely for sure an earthquake.

In that same light, when we are faced with the changes that seem like they just do not fit our lives at this present time, we must prepare ourselves for the changes that we cannot see ourselves or have not yet happened. We have to be ready to tackle the newness, and newness is always a strange place to be, especially when it comes to things that we asked for, that we end up having in our lives, and that we have, at that time, no idea of why it is there and more than that, no clue as to what we are meant to do with it. We shed the old for the new, are made vulnerable by our own newness, and then one day...

...then one day...

Then one day, it is not newness. It is normal, and we are better off at that point, cannot go backwards at that point, and the truth of that much is that unlike the past when you would return to the old instead of trying out the new, you move forward ready to face, not the new truth, but the truth that has always been there and that our ego self would not allow us to see or to grow into. It is not that it has never been there to see, but that we were refusing to see it for what it was at the time, and I am betting that what it was at the time is far removed from what it is at this moment.

When we realize that the crispiness that we are feeling at the moment is loaning credence to the crispiness that we will be able to navigate ourselves out of is also the moment that everything - all the crap and all the heartache and all the stuff that would make us feel like we are meant to be as crispy as a stiff winter wind - we will, at that very moment, see also that what we went through that felt like it dragged on and on was meant to help us shed that which no longer held purpose for us. I do not have a time estimate for you or anyone as to how long our lessons and our learning takes, but I can tell you that when you have evolved, you will know it, and at that moment everything will just make perfect sense.

Yes, there is a time when it all makes perfectly silly sense...and I say silly because that is the way it feels when one realizes that what they were doing through the tears and the pain and the confusion was all meant to bring a person to the point they needed to be at that time so as to further their walking the Path that they have chosen.

...and the Path that we all take...it all leads up to the starting point of the madness brought about by the storms and the heartaches and the tears...it all leads us back to the place where we knew that a change needed to take place. It leads us back there so that we can see with our eyes where we have been, and more, where we never need to revisit again....

Brace yourself for the storm, but do embrace the storm....because sometimes the storm is all you really have...


As Always....
I LOVE YOU ALL !!
ROX

Reverend Roxanne Cottell is the Kumu Hula and Creator of the Spiritual Hula Program for Women and the Co-Founder of Na Hula O Ka Wahine 'Ui. She is a blogger, book author, choreographer and Spiritual Adviser. If you would like information about "ROCK your NUPTIALS" Weddings or simply just to contact Roxanne for information about the Spiritual Hula Program for Women or information regarding private hula or Spiritual Guidance sessions with her feel free to send her an email.
(c) 2012 Roxanne K. Cottell. All Rights Reserved

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Fly to the Angels...Nice Words about a Woman known and Loved as "Chrissy"

Lest we forget...

It is not often that we lose those we have fond memories with, and this person, the one who I am writing about right now is someone of whom I have fond memories. While it is that there are many people who do not know this person about whom I write at this time, there are those of us who remember her with a grand fondness.

Remembered, with a grand fondness

Her name was Christina, but we all knew her simply as "Chrissy." There were a few people who felt that she could have been a little more tactful with her words, but that would have taken away from her Spirit and the truth of who she was and who she will always be to me. I always adored her. She was cool and didn't care what people thought of her. She was rock and roll and she was, underneath the rocker chick exterior, one of the people I recall as being very kind to me.

Chrissy always was kind to me, stood up to this very large ...girl...whose name shall remain anonymous because...well, because this is not a writing where I care to get into the idea that I need to remember one part of my youth that was hurtful and that made me cry. No...this part...Chrissy...she was cool. She was cool on every level she needed to be cool, and for all of her coolness, all of her snarky-bad-girl-on-a-mission exterior, there are those of us with whom she carried on like kids are meant to, and I am lucky enough to have been just one such kid.

I did not realize it now but the girl with eyes like a cat was someone who dearly affected my life in a positive way. Chrissy taught me at a young age something that I really needed to know at this time in my life, and at this time in my life I would have been absolutely thrilled to actually hear her say to relax, that maybe we could say something that would raise the eyebrows of people, or do something that would raise both eyebrows...this was just the way that I knew her to be, because this was the way that she was with me. For all of her mouthiness, within her beat a heart of gold, and one which is missed in grand fashion.

We never realize who made an impact in our lives until they are no longer with us, and while it is that the pain is there and the shock is still there, what else is still there are Chrissy's three daughters, and everyone knows that a daughter needs her mother. Well, these three daughters have mothers...their aunts and their aunts friends, and of course, they have a grandmother...but they need our help in many ways. The one way that we can all help them is to click on the links - they all go to the same place for the same reason.

If at all you can help the Longress family in any way at all, any amount...5...10...15 dollars...any amount will help them. 

And to whomever it matters, it is because Chrissy was Chrissy that we are all here, even though we are not collectively in the same place at the same time, we are all here, in this thought that we cannot believe that someone who we all knew well and who we grew up with has been taken home to God...because it apparently was time for her to fly home to the angels....we Love You, Sweetie...we Love you...!

"Fly to the angels...Heaven awaits your heart, and Flowers Bloom in Your Name..."

Rest in Perfect Peace, my beautiful Friend, Christina Longress...aloha 'oe, Chrissy !!

I Love You !!
ROX

The Storm brought by the Shift

Rather than hide from the Tide...swim in it...

There are a lot of us who chose that we would live our lives from the middle of our Souls, and the thing that makes it so that we - the ones to whom I refer to as being "the weirdos in life"- seem to breeze right on through the throes of the Shift in consciousness is not that we have some sort of magic spell that makes us seem to get through it all with ease, but more that we knew and have anticipated that things would be a little bit ...ugh....of a pain in the okole, namely for those of us who had no clue that this thing that we weirdos of the world have referred to as simply and lovingly being "The Shift."

The Shift

I am a great big fan of this phenomena called "The Shift," and am so because for a long, long time now it has been that people, through religious fanaticism, humanity has been somewhat...icky. And we have been this way because someone else told us about their truth a long, long time ago and legions of people were bullied and continue to be bullied by other human beings who are unseemly enough to tell any one of us that what is happening is not real, is not gonna make a difference, but those people are here and meant to bring the storms to us. The storms can come in the form of a situation with other people that we cannot see ourselves out of, in which case and at that point it is simply a matter of acceptance, of letting a thing be whatever it is at this point and knowing for sure that the highest best good is what is meant. We have to accept that whatever is going on in any of our lives is meant as the thing that is teaching us what we need to learn so as to move up to the next level in our thinking and eventually, the next level of our Being as well.

Too many people expected that The Shift would be a joyous thing, and in the thoughts and the minds of many an enlightened folk...yes, weirdos like me who knew what to expect, even though many of us were not in tune with the severity...we knew that we would have a LOT to endure and that there was going to be a whole lot that we did not want to look at, that we still do not want to look at, and the longer that the many of us no longer look at the things which have presented themselves, the longer we will be in the throes of that particular thing we need to learn and that thing that is being held onto tightly by our Ego self and NOT by our Soul.

Ego Self

The thing that is happening at this time is simple - we are being called upon to release the whims of the Ego Selves within us to make way for the very whims of the Soul and its purpose. Our Egos have been in control all these years, and we helped in the idea that who we are depended a whole lot on people who are not us, who are not living our lives and who do not really know the real us. On some level all of mankind was told to believe that what other people thought of us was the very truth of us, and the truth of the matter is that who we are is NOT only comprised of our Ego Self.

When we are kids we are TOLD who we are, what we like, what we do not like, who is safe, who is not and on and on and on, and NEVER are we told, at least not at the very youngest age that all of this begins for us, that there is a different way to be, that there is a different way for us to believe, and a different truth of each of us, period. No one ever told me that I am the way that I am - I had to learn about me, and with the help of other people, I did just that. I learned well that which does not serve my grander purpose, and I learned, also, that I do not, just like no one does, have the right to impose what is the truth of me onto others and expect that it also be their Truth, too.

The Ego within us all is evolving, and the things that once were normal to us are no longer normal to us and in many cases insults the very soul within us all, both singly and collectively. If what used to thrill you now leaves you wanting for more, this is not a mistake and there is nothing wrong with you.

You are Shifting.

The Soul Within

The Soul within is not something that is particular to only a few of us - every single one of us has a soul, no matter who it is...even Charles Manson has a soul. It is a dark soul for the most part, but none the less, it is still a soul. It is the soul within us all that makes us want for better, makes us able to see past what the Ego presents, which is the outer part of ourselves, essentially - our game face. It is the soul that makes the persona on the outside come alive.

Without our soul involved we cannot be who we are, and who we are is changing all the time and right now who we are singly is going through a major change and on many levels. Where at one time the things that used to draw you like bees to honey now have begun to repel you like magnets negatively opposing each other. The things that used to make you think that you were not good enough are now the very things that you no longer care about because those things were not conducive to the growth that you needed to go through in order to become who you are right at this moment.

And this part of you, of all of us, is ever changing. The things that you might have been okay with in the past somehow do not make sense to you, and the things that you would not ever dare let anyone know are the truths of you, you are now proverbially shouting it out to whomever will listen. Thing is, just because we are evolving at the rate that we each are, it does not mean that everyone else in our lives is, and this is when and where the Ego self comes in and starts going through all the confusion and all the ickiness that we are currently going through the motions to either evolve from, or are evolving to fit our lives.

It is the Soul's whims that we are meant to aspire to, and not the machinations and inclinations of the Ego's. When we accept the fact that we are Souls in Bodies and not only finite bodies, this is when the magic starts, and it is the only magic that is real...the magic that is the evolving self.

You will make it through the Storm, I Promise

While I would LOVE to sit here and write that you can avoid the Shift, you can't. There are a lot of us who are actively trying hard to not have to look at what serves us and it is a harder thing to do to look at who we were and to let go of that person. To want to be back in that incarnation of our selves is to not care to grow, to not care to listen to the Spirit within, and more, is an insult to your very soul. It is an insult to anyone's soul to return back to the thing that we used to be for the purposes of being comfortable because of the familiarity which comes with the things we already know.

This is not to say that we have to forget about anything that we have been through, and the thing that most of us forget is that those things that we went through are in the past and that the only way we can go through those things again is to be willing to. SO, the next time it presents itself, and it is something that we have seen already, and that something makes us feel like we have gone back into the past for the simple feeling of familiarity, the best thing that any one of us can do is to become familiar with what is new to us.

What is new to us scares us, because the Ego self wants us to believe that what we want is wrong because it does not serve it or its purposes. When we can balance the whims of both the Ego Self and the Soul we will know then what it means to be truly enlightened, or at least on the way and back on the Path to that state of being. We can no longer bother to not see our own signs, cannot think that if we tweak it here and there that we can still serve our lower self by sacrificing what our higher selves needs us to learn. No matter what it is that we need to learn about a thing, a person, a situation, we are guaranteed to be served that lesson, again, no matter what, and each time that the same lesson is presented will be harder and uglier and will be that way  for no other reason than that we are refusing to learn what the Soul needs to grow and have chosen to pander to the whims of our overblown ego.

You will make it through this storm, I promise. You don't realize it at this time, and it is as uncomfortable as anything can be, but somehow, within us all, we know that this is meant to be this way. We know that this is not going to be easy - change never is. I liken this time to that of birthing a child, and in a weird sort of way, we are - we are giving birth to the new reality of who we are, and rather than avoid it, we each need to embrace it. Not because someone else told us to, but because we are smart enough to not have to return to the things that we used to be, smart enough to see what it is that we have in ourselves and in our singular sphere of awareness that is new, is the likeness of who we are on the inside and which is permanent.

The Shift carries with it the permanence of Spirit, of that which is right and that which is good and healthy for the growth of our own Souls, both on a singular level as well as collectively. Embrace the Storms you are going through, because just as the storms which bring the possibility of destruction to the land, so, too, are the storms which come to our lives. We can avoid them and find shelter, but eventually we all get tired of being indoors, in the pretend safety that is the Ego self...our Ego self wants us to cry and be afraid. Of course we will cry - growth hurts and makes us look at who we really are right now and allows us to see what it is that we want to acknowledge and change, or more, that we think is still okay and the truth of us.

The Soul wants us to glorify in the tears and know that they are meant to show us that we are growing, that that which once was good and right to us now insults the very soul within us. The soul wants us to grow into our selves and not be scared to be the very highest best that we can be so that we can get out from under the umbrella of the things that we thought kept us safe and know for real that always in the arms of Spirit we are as safe as we are going to be. The Soul wants us to praise the rains as they fall relentlessly and wants us to take off our shoes and splash around in the puddles like the children we have always been.

Eventually we see that the rain is there to serve us, to help us water and till the soil that we are, and eventually the storm that was there gives way to the clarity that is the truth and even when the storms inevitably return to our lives, we know that we are safe and we know that we can get through it all. The Shift has caused us all to take a look at what serves who we have become thus far through it all, and it is a beautiful thing indeed.

Eventually the storms get easier to deal with and eventually we no longer fear the changes....we see the good in the pain and eventually....

...eventually, we take our selves and our Soul outdoors to dance in the rain...unafraid of the lightning and not deterred by the winds.

So get  yourselves out there, right in the thickness of the storm, and dance like you never have before !! I Promise that the only thing that will happen is that you have passed the time in the most gorgeous way you can!

Yes...I Promise...

I Love You All !!

ROX

Reverend Roxanne Cottell is the Kumu Hula and Creator of the Spiritual Hula Program for Women and the Co-Founder of Na Hula O Ka Wahine 'Ui. She is a blogger, book author, choreographer and Spiritual Adviser. If you would like information about "ROCK your NUPTIALS" Weddings or simply just to contact Roxanne for information about the Spiritual Hula Program for Women or information regarding private hula or Spiritual Guidance sessions with her feel free to send her an email.
(c) 2012 Roxanne K. Cottell. All Rights Reserved

    

TEN HUT !!! ON YOUR FEET, WARRIORS !!

Well, well, well...

It is hard to believe, to fathom that there are people who we share air and space with who learned NOTHING in terms of Spiritual growth, and nothing in the way of quelling the flames and arrows that the Ego constantly throws our way. 2012 brought to us the very best of the worst of us all, and most of us got it in terms of life and spirit lessons (which led to your growth)...but there are those who just would not bother to learn a thing and THAT is who this post is for specifically. 

You can continue to ignore what it is that is inside of you, and you can keep on thinking that what you are seeing and feeling and knowing that is outside of you is the very truth of you (and to an extent it canbe called your truth because you manifested it into being), or you can, like the rest of the class, pay attention and know NOW that you failed to pay attention the first time these lessons came to your awareness, and that was a long, LONG time ago...no- not months, perhaps years, yes...but the ugly reality is that it has been DECADES that you have CHOSEN to stay stuck in your own miry ickiness...don't you think that you are STILL in the mindset that you were a few months ago is FOR A REASON????

Probably not, because you are not willing to see your signs and know that you are being given a make-up test and if you want to stay stuck in high school then that is up to you, but the rest of us have already chosen to continue to get our learn on and we are not waiting for anyone to catch up - that is what the process of this thing called "The Shift" has been all about, has brought to us all, and unfortunately, just as there are many who DID NOT FAIL but learned all the harsh lessons they were meant to, there are still many, many who are floundering in their own miry ickiness. Lucky for those of you who shunned your lessons, there are people on the planet who are meant to help you get back on the Path so that you can become all you are meant to become.

Yes. I am chewing your okole out right now !! How can you choose to stay blind?

Even though there are a WHOLE LOT of people who have learned what they did, there are a lot who have refused to learn, thinking that they are giving up something that they love - which, they do Love whatever it is - but which is not serving their higher purpose. The thing that I learned the best and the most is that I cannot have my way all the time, and that is a hard thing to happen for someone like me who is totally accustomed to getting her way, all the time. I learned that I cannot have a big fat 43 year old sized tantrum because I am so much more effective when I THINK first before I bother to say a word, write a word, and in some cases, even think a word. The other thing that I learned is that I am in no way NOT all that I have known me to be for a very, very long time, and well, it is nice being me...hard, sometimes, but quite Lovely and Awesome in the way that not a whole lot else, at least to me and how I feel anymore, is.

There are a whole lot of things that can render a person ...I don't know...my girl, Vel-Danielle Gambrell, otherwise known as "The Gypsy Reverend," and I went through a whole lot in a short time, and we lived through it all, learned what he needed to, and now here we each are, sorta brand new and shiny like the diamonds birthed from the coal they came from. It is not that hard to actually change. What is hard is the learning, is the lessons, because it is in the learning and the lessons that we actually go through the kind of hands-on training that all those who desire marked change in their lives end up going through. What no one realizes is that they never have to go through those things again because they learned so well from the last hard lesson they learned. Dani and I were no longer willing to be Spiritually Constipated, and while we joke a whole lot about the things that we do for our pay, the truth of it all is that based solely on what we have seen from a Facebook perspective, our work is SO not done.

In fact, it has only just begun.

Spiritual Constipation

There are a lot of people who will not ever admit to being physically constipated, but there is an inordinate number of people who rather like being in the energy of feeling like something is 'stuck,' and they are not just 'on it' in terms of their being stuck in some measure, but they are so on it that it is a wonder to me that they do not just accept the way that things are at present time. That is the beauty of growing up in a Spiritual sort of way - you get to that point where it seems there is nothing that you can look forward to, namely when what it is that you think you are getting yourself into is something that might look like something from the past, but it isn't. In fact, it SO is not, and a whole lot of people have not even bothered to try to figure this much out.

It is because of the old adage way of thinking that it is easier to remain with the devil you know versus the one that you don't. In this case, it is not the devil but the demons from the past which keep on knock-knock-knockin' on your own version of Heaven's Door (couldn't help it...gotta be me!). Do not forget that you are who created the reality that you are either glad to be in or, on the other side of that gladness, decidedly feeling like you are stuck in. You have chosen it this way, and this is the reason why it is that you seem to think that you are inextricably stuck in the miry goo called "your life."

Humans are funny. We want change, but we do not want to be the one to do the changing. I saw this in full effect over the last three weeks, during the time that we were all collectively in the middle of this big fat ugly harsh shift that we all went through. Most folks thought it was just the holiday blues, but the truth is that this past holiday season was way more 'bluesy" than have been many in the past. It was far harder to deal with, not only because of the idea that we have all been thinking for the entirety of our lives (that Christmas time is meant to be about families and not about black Friday sales...duh...) but more because of the fact that we all were in the middle of the Shift. We were all sort of downloaded, and some of us are way more intuitive than we were just two weeks ago, more if us are way, way more psychic than we were just one week ago, and ALL OF US are starting to be more aware of the people in our lives and just exactly who they are to us and why they are part of our greater, and in some cases, permanent, awareness. The Shift brought with it a better, more clearer understanding of who we are on our own and more, who we are in the company of, others who were too stubborn to believe that what that long-haired party-chick who lives down the street told them would happen...and happen, it did!!

"I don't wanna go off on a rant here..." (Thank you Dennis Miller!)

No, really, I don't, but I think I may end up doing just that - ranting like a lunatic who is just beside herself with the way that people - many, many people - think that they are just perfectly fine as they are. I promise you that no, you are not. You are not fine as you are if you want things in your life to be different. This is not my rule, neither my way, and all of us know well what I am going to whisper next. (...that it is the law of the Universe....ssshhhh...)

You are not fine as you are, even though that is what you want to believe, and you are not fine as you are because you could be a whole lot finer, in more ways than one, and yes, even physically (trust me...). You are not okay in the manner that you are at the moment, but that is not for me, a healer and Spiritual Practitioner, to drill into your head even though that is exactly what I am doing at this moment - it might not be cool of me and might not be exactly the total right thing to do and to say to a whole lot of ailing Souls, but like any good teacher will do, when it comes to their charges, and those charges do not learn, teacher becomes upset.

The teacher in me is upset at the students who sought the help of people like myself and thought that what we taught you all was going to sink in. What you wanted was a quick fix - not what you needed, which was to learn your Spiritual lessons and evolve, through the pain, through acceptance and letting go, and on the nicer and lots more fun side of things, the things and people who you welcomed into your life. The idea that what I taught you - what anyone taught you - was a waste of your time was not a waste of your time, was never a waste of our time, because folks like me see the world and the life which is in the world as our great big laboratory where we are given the chance to stretch ourselves through other people. Other people mirror who we are, yes, even the ugly things that we are that we do not want to face up to, and when it was that I showed up, or you showed up into my life, it was at that point where you automatically should have realized that if you felt trepidation, or perhaps it was joy...I don't know - THAT was when your Soul's lessons in evolution began.

We mere humans cannot call when we are ready to learn - Spirit only knows that much, and you were not willing to learn even as you were ready. You are still ready, but you are so blinded by your own ego that your Soul can barely breathe. I am a healer, not an ER doctor, and the sort of healing that I do is not the kind that remedies laziness, at least not through my hand. There is no magic spell (that will last, that is) which can fix your ailing soul, because even as I and others like me are here to help illuminate the darkness through the measures of healing that we bring to the lives of those who call on us, there are some who seek our help who do so with the intention that this "voodoo lady" ("witch doctor is another one that is SO not the truth and is VERY offensive to folks like myself)  is going to come to your life and POOF!! your issues are solved!

Nope! That is SO not how this works. When you seek the help and the advice of a healer who did not go through the best medical training money can buy, you are calling on the Angelic Realms, and while we are all able to contact the Angelic Realm, there are some of us who are able to speak to them, to access that part of Life, and who are ready and willing to help you as much as we can...the rest is yours and up to you! You have got to want to heal and healing only comes through the getting rid of things and people who no longer are useful to your learning. You can't depend on anything outside your self to do that, because it is you who is keeping your Spirit and Soul heavy with the weight of your own other-than-right thinking. With that kind of thinking it is no wonder that you cannot see or feel the difference, because there is no difference other than your start date for basic training, if you will...

...so...without further ado...

Welcome to Boot Camp !! It won't be easy, and yes, I will be right here to listen, to advise, and in some cases, even do things for those who are in need of some clarity...but what I cannot do, you must do for you and on your own...otherwise...well...ten hut !! Let's go !!

If you don't learn this time, then there is a lot more than meets the eyes...all of them...including the Soul's...and what it might take at that point is someone to literally come and exorcise your demons, or maybe you need to hit up my friend, the clinical "physichiatrist"...so that he can help you exorcise those pesky little demons in your mind that you seem to believe love you more than the Angelic Realm does...just sayin'.

There is never a time in our lives that we are not able to aid in our own healing. Stop being a lazy Soul already and get up and get your okoles in gear...basic training has begun...(yeesh!)...again!!

Wow Lau Lau !!

None the less!!
I LOVE YOU ALL...
ROX

Reverend Roxanne Cottell is the Kumu Hula and Creator of the Spiritual Hula Program for Women and the Co-Founder of Na Hula O Ka Wahine 'Ui. She is a blogger, book author, choreographer and Spiritual Adviser. If you would like information about "ROCK your NUPTIALS" Weddings or simply just to contact Roxanne for information about the Spiritual Hula Program for Women or information regarding private hula or Spiritual Guidance sessions with her feel free to send her an email.
(c) 2012 Roxanne K. Cottell. All Rights Reserved