Tag Archives: psychic

Embracing Change

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I feel sooooo much better now that I have successfully found us an apartment in Victoria, BC.

My friends, this was a big change these last few months.  When we received an email from our landlady about their intention to list the house we are renting for sale, I immediately knew where this was heading.  Eviction.

We’re also in a different position than we were when we moved out here from Toronto in 2009.  We’re in our fourties now.  We are less comfortable flying by the seat of our pants, because we’ve lived through some tight and tough times, and we want to be able to save for a rainy day, and one day – retirement.  We just can’t make that step here in Tofino / Ucluelet, so we have to let it go.

And you know what?  I’m completely on board now!  In February – March, I could tear up quickly when I thought too much about the up coming move, part of it stress, part of it sadness.  I decided to make a list of all of the worries in my brain, so I could get a handle on them.

Here’s what the list looked like:

Things on my mind

I need a new job.

  • Call (guy who works in supply chain in another department)
  • Apply for (various job postings)
  • – redo resume, cover letter

We need someplace to live.

  • Don’t worry about that right now, we aren’t evicted yet and I need a job first.
  • We are going to have to sell a lot of our stuff.
  • – Sell stuff now?  No, focus on applying for jobs.

DEAL WITH THIS LATER.

This list kept branching out and needed re-writing as I applied for (so many) jobs and didn’t hear back, re-worked my resume, kept calling colleagues and friends I’d make in other departments, and the weeks, then months ticked by.

The MOST uncomfortable space for me is when I don’t know how things are going to turn out!

Then, at the end of April, after 9 weeks of active job hunting, it happened – I got a job offer!  Thank goodness!  Cross that off my to-do list, and suddenly, finding an apartment became URGENT because my new job started in THREE WEEKS.

Frankly, it was getting urgent anyway.  In the middle of April, when we became aware that there was an accepted offer in on the house, we knew we had less than 90 days to get out.  I was starting to think we might have to rent an apartment before either of us had a job, which is what I’ve had to do in previous relocations.  It’s not ideal, and the sort of landlords that accept unemployed tenants aren’t always the best people to rent from.

So job offer accepted, I went to Victoria this past Easter Weekend with one mission:  find us a *pet friendly* place to live!

Of the 20 + inquiries I’d sent out, I got only TWO viewings in pet-friendly buildings.  One in a corporate-owned building, and one is what I called “the haunted building”.  Behold, the text-message thread between Sweetie and I:

haunted 1

haunted 2

haunted 4

haunted 3

To put it frankly, I wasn’t a fan of the haunted place, and I was going to see it only because I didn’t want to put all of my hopes on this one corporate-owned building.

Well, when I went to see the haunted building, I was pleasantly surprised!  It wasn’t *bad haunted* it was simply 100 + years old and had a lot of character.  The super turned out to be the owner who had inherited the building and had been running it her whole life.  It was a purpose-built boarding house, and actually quite beautiful, in a slightly faded, Grande Dame sort of a way. I was surprised to like the building as much as I did.

It turns out that the couple who had lived in that unit before, were disliked by the other tenants because they had loud, screaming fights, regularly.  Everyone was happy to have them out.  That explained the “bad haunted” vibe I had been getting from the photos.  They had been out less than two weeks, and the unit itself, along with the building, felt open and kind.

The trouble turned out not to be the potential haunting.  It was that Sweetie and I are just in a phase of life where we need *amenities*.  There was only one washer and dryer for the *whole building* and it was down an extremely sketchy flight of wooden steps.  There was no parking.  At all.  And the nearest paid parking lot was $300 / month.  YIKES.  Really, this place would only work if we sold our car, which we had considered, but as my new job’s hours are 4pm – midnight, I really need my car to get back and forth from work.

There were quirks about the unit too.  The bedroom was just the size of a queen bed – meaning a queen bed would press against all four walls.  So it wasn’t really a bedroom.  We need a bedroom, because of my aforementioned work schedule.  We expect that Sweetie will get a 9-5 type job, so she’ll need to be able to sleep through my late homecomings, and I’ll need to be undisturbed in the mornings.  There was a communal porch just outside the unit windows, meaning any of the other tenants could sit right outside our window and smoke, and talk on the phone or whatever.  It was much more of a commune feeling than a typical city apartment building.

Honestly, I really wanted the straight-forward, 60-page lease of a corporate owned building.  I wanted parking, storage, and a decent-sized laundry room.  I wanted privacy and a degree of removal from my neighbours.  We need convenience, not additional challenges.  I didn’t need to commit every Saturday for the foreseeable future to a laundry mat, and circle the neighbourhood every weeknight looking for street parking, competing with every other person with a resident sticker.  Oh, the resident sticker was an issue too, as the building was allotted only 4 permits for the whole building, and there was a line just for street parking.  I really couldn’t see a solution to that problem.  Without a parking permit, you are only allowed to park for an hour at a time.

So the “haunted” building, as charming as it was, with it’s wainscoting, ceiling molding, brass hardware, stained glass, and busy colony of rufous-throated hummingbirds, just wasn’t going to work for us… so we took a leap of faith and let the unit go before we received confirmation that we were accepted by the corporate building.  Fortunately, the corporate unit came through for us.  500 square feet of James Bay, Victoria.

We will be moving in early May, so the next update will be from our new digs!

And the neighbourhood is full of houses like this:

cute house james bay

It reminds me so much of Cabbagetown, in Toronto, where I lived for 8 years.  I am really going to enjoy living in a neighbourhood where the gardens are constantly changing, where there is just so much to observe.

I stayed an additional day in Victoria after I viewed the haunted place, so review the 60 page corporate building lease and get that sent in, to be available in case any of the 18 other buildings called me with a viewing opportunity, and to walk our potential new neighbourhood.  I really needed that time to get my brain aligned with this change.  As much as I’ve worked to go with the flow, and focus on the practical thing I need to do next, I was not completely on board with the change until last weekend.  Cities have a lot to offer, but I had wanted to leave Toronto for years.  I didn’t like the crowds, the noise, the pollution, and the sense of competition for limited space.  I knew Victoria was our best option, but it was a brain decision, not a heart decision.  Moving out to Ucluelet / Tofino was a heart decision, and getting evicted felt like a breakup.  It felt like getting dumped.

When the sunshine came out on my third day in Victoria, and I spent several hours walking around, I felt my heart finally come into alignment with this change.  I needed the time to see what I was going to love about Victoria.  There’s theatre and comedy, grocery stores that stay open all night, and food delivery!  We haven’t ordered food to our home in 10 years.

The miles of charming Victorian buildings, beautifully landscaped parks, and public waterfront just a few steps from our building, I started to internalize what my new life would be like… it will be good.

Andrea & Kate on a new episode of The Joyful Telepathy Podcast!

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Hello friends!  Happy New Year!

I have a new episode of The Joyful Telepathy Podcast for you today!

We pick up our theme of discussing smudging and other ways we could potentially be *harming ourselves and others* through our spiritual practice – this is a *must-listen* for everyone who uses this popular energy clearing technique!  My good friend Andrea Sexton Dumas has come on the podcast to discuss it with us!  If you check out her website, you’ll see she also clears homes professionally!  Here’s her bio:

Andrea Sexton Dumas, MA, CCHT is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, highly sensitive person, entrepreneur and digital preservationist based in the Oakland-SF Bay Area of Northern California (traditional land of the Ohlone). 

You can connect with Andrea directly at www.movementbeyond.org.

***

Did you know that you can have every episode of my podcast download to your smartphone, immediately?  And you can have quick, unlimited access to past episodes?

It’s easy!  All you have to do is download a podcast app.  I like Overcast for iPhone – and if you have an Android you can use Stitcher.

Once that’s installed, just search for “Kate Sitka” or “Joyful Telepathy” and my podcast will come right up!  Be sure to Subscribe so that episodes will load to your phone as soon as they are released!

That’s it!  I listen to podcasts myself every day – it’s the new radio!  The best part is you can download it to your phone and listen to them anywhere, even if you don’t have wifi!

Happy New Year – and Happy Listening!

 

Spirit Birthdays and Butter Tarts

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Yesterday, while searching through my email for correspondence with another client, an email from 2013 popped up in front of me.  I did a bit of a double-take, because I recognized the name, though it had been five years since our session.

I wouldn’t normally reach out to a past client like this when we haven’t had contact for years, but I kept thinking about reaching out, getting these little nudges – which are usually invitations to experience something neat, on a spiritual level.

So I sent her a quick hello, in as respectful a way as possible, and suggested that perhaps, this was her dog’s way of saying hi after a few years.  Sometimes they like to take advantages of little connections like this.

Turns out, the pup’s birthday is next week.  While this beautiful dog had left her body, she still wanted to reach out to her human mom, and remind her.

It was very sweet, and pretty cool!  One of those tiny little miracles I enjoy so much as a part of this work.  You can’t *make* them happen, but sometimes if you listen to the little nudges, and reach out carefully and respectfully, neat things like this can happen.

Today, is also my mother’s birthday!  I have a little reminder set up in my calendar, because I don’t want to ever let a December 12th slip by without remembering it’s my mother’s birthday.  I like to just say aloud, Happy Birthday, before I do anything else with my day.

I would say my mom is having a good time in spirit.  I often feel her around when Sweetie and I are travelling or having a good time – I hear her laugh, layered with the laughing of others.  I feel her in the company of my grandmother, her mother, and my great-aunt.  I think they like to travel together, or tag along with us and I’m sure the other family members when we’re enjoying ourselves.

It’s neat, how happy I always perceive her to be, and she wants us to know she’s just fine.

It’s so interesting that birthdays seem to be a good time to connect with our loved ones in spirit.  I think it’s because we are thinking of them, and often the memories are lighter and happier on birthdays, than on other anniversary dates.  A lifetime of celebration creates a lightness around their birthdays – a dynamic energy that’s often full of love and cheerful memories.

I also think it’s easier for *them* to connect with *us*, when we create space for lightness and happy memories.  It takes a little discipline sometimes, and I will admit, my friends, I can get into a habit of being a tad morose on grief-related dates.  But I have some positive advice:

A friend of mine visits her grandfather’s grave on his birthday and eats a butter tart, which he loved.  I thought that was a great idea, so I’ve *also* had butter tarts on the anniversary of my mother’s death, as a way of doing something positive and creating happy habits on these important days.

I also happen to really enjoy butter tarts myself.  I spent a winter once, working on a recipe until I perfected it.  Perhaps I’ll post that later on!

I found I really needed to *do* something, because it does not do me, nor my mother, any good at all to allow myself to get depressed every year around dates of sad events, or dates which REMIND me of sad events.  It’s a lot to carry, and I’ve been working on letting it go.

As I mentioned before, sometimes we *need* to carry our grief with us for a time.  We don’t want to let it go too soon, because in a way, the deepness and length of time we grieve is a way of honoring what that person or animal friend truly meant to us.

But grief is also something you develop a relationship with.  You don’t have to fight it, or get rid of it, or get over it.  I personally welcome grief, especially in the beginning, because I know it’s helping me to get out all the feelings that demand witness.  Grief helps with that.

I also know my sneaky little brain can get into habits of thinking about the same things every day, or at certain times of the year, and I have learned that it can be a positive thing to engage these thoughts and negotiate with them, or re-purpose them, so they’re not something that’s simply happening to you, making you helpless and miserable, but instead something you can interact with, and actively engage, even incorporate into your life.

My mother died in April 2015, and today she would have been 67.  This morning, that thought made me sad.  Relatively speaking, she died young, certainly before anyone expected her to pass.  Of course, her birthday made me a bit sad this morning; that’s okay.  But do you think my mother, laughing and travelling in spirit, would want me to feel sad *all day* on her *birthday!?*  Every year???  OF COURSE NOT.

So for her sake, and my own, I have been incorporating these new little rituals in my life, on these significant dates, so that I can tell my body and my brain that while we can still feel sad, we can also celebrate, connect, and care for ourselves and those we have lost to spirit.

(Whenever I’m talking to myself, I seem to always shift to the plural form, “we”, which usually means my spirit form, my brain consciousness, my body, my dynamic layers of life experience, and all the people I’m connected with – including you, my dear reader, because we are surely as connected to each other through this blog as two trees on opposite edges of a forest, connected through a mass of touching roots.

 

I just realized that I need a happy ritual for my mother’s birthday.  What should it be?

Today, December 12th, and although St. Nicholas Day is December 6th, I have pretty vivid memories of getting little presents in my polished dress shoes on the same day my mother received her birthday presents.  There were sometimes red and white carnations, or a poinsettia from my father, and often there would be chocolate chip bundt cake.

Maybe that’s what I’ll do.  I’ll make that bundt cake recipe.  I need to get a bundt pan.

And I should pick up some stocking stuffers for Sweetie and wrap them!

Tonight is especially lovely, because we have the “Sail Past” in Ucluelet.   It’s this charming community tradition where locals decorate their boats in Christmas lights and sail around the harbour, shooting off fireworks!  It’s quite delightful and part of the charm of living in this small little town.  We have lived here for NINE years now!

WOW!

Anyway.  I guess I’m writing this post to reach out to those of you who may be missing your loved ones in spirit, especially this time of year.  I know it’s hard.  It’s not easy for me to talk about how tough it has been at times.

I’m so grateful to my friends – so many of whom I made through this blog, who have literally shown me how to have positive, happy feelings on days when I might otherwise be inclined to be sad.

I’m so thankful, and I love you all!

Happy Birthday Mom, and Happy Holidays, my friends!

 

 

 

I’ll take my miracles in Orcas

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My dear friends.  I have been working on quite a lot for you all in the past few months, and I’m afraid this background production has resulted in a few less blog posts than I would like!

But do I ever have a good one for you today!

I am nearing the end of a three week break from my hospital job.  It’s been a wonderful – and busy – summer, and like all busy times I needed a vacation.  Moreover, Sweetie and I needed a honeymoon!

We decided to take a “mini-moon” to Victoria this past week, just to spend some time away together, visit friends and play tourist.  We each had some “must-do” wishes for this trip – for Sweetie, it was a day at the spa, and for me it was a day on the ocean.  We each enjoyed both!

When I first proposed a whale-watching trip on our honeymoon, Sweetie rightly pointed out, “We can see whales here!”  And that’s true.  But I swiftly and correctly rebutted, “But in Victoria there are DIFFERENT whales!”

Specifically, if we took a boat from Victoria, we stood a good chance of seeing the Southern Resident Orcas, the pod which made headlines recently after a grieving orca mother in the J pod carried her newborn baby for 17 days after the poor baby died, in what became known worldwide as her “tour of grief”.

Many believe this mother was holding her baby up for the world to see, imploring humans to behold her dead child, demanding we bear witness to the consequences of our industrial presence in her ancestral home.

I did not want to attempt to communicate with this pod through distance, I wanted to wait until some time had passed, and until I could visit them in person, rather than work off of a photo that millions had already seen and to which they had attached their emotions and ideas.

If I was very lucky, I was hoping I would lay eyes on this particular pod, but if I could be in their territory, I knew I’d be able to get a unique connection, and maybe bring something new to the conversation still echoing around the world.

So I started my calling.

A calling, for me, is more of an ask.  I have no physical need to call prey as our ancestral hunters once did.  I am calling from a genuine admiration, with deep-seated respect for their autonomy.  I did not want to divert them from their own necessary activities, instead, I asked if they had energy, I would love to see them in person, and speak to them.

My big question for them was this:  why do they not try to eat something else?

I’ll back up.

Orcas, killer whales, as a species, are prolific.  They exist and thrive in nearly all the world’s oceans as the dominant apex predator.  There are many sub-species, divided into the general concept of whether the orcas stay in one place, year round, or whether they migrate, nomad-like, the whole ocean their home.

The transients, the nomads, are larger, and fierce.  Their lifestyle requires them to be one of the fastest adapting predators in our world.  Transient orcas can prey upon pretty much anything, but particular families, pods, have their own hunting traditions, and tend to prefer a particular type of prey – gray whales, seals, sea lions – there is even a specialized pod of orcas in Monterey Bay, California, who have learned to hunt great white sharks!

So why, when their transient brethren are so adaptable, and the Pacific Ocean so prolific with life, do the Southern Resident Orcas not reach back through their ancestry and, driven by starvation, attempt to hunt other things?

See, the Southern Residents are endangered, and their population has been declining since the 1970s, all because the humans have done a very poor job managing the salmon population.

We have three delicious species of salmon out here.  In my humble opinion, the Chinook salmon make the Atlantic Sockeye look like cat food.  The king salmon are massive, sweet, oily and, at one point, they were everywhere, sustaining hundreds of thousands of humans and wildlife alike.

But industrial development have caused a salmon collapse, and the orcas are starving.  They struggle to even come into cycle, and when they do have babies, the Southern Residents struggle to feed them.

Starvation is a powerful motivator.  The salmon has been declining for decades.  Why has hunger not motivated the orcas to try to get a seal, or a sea lion?  Our mammal brains are quite similar, and starvation makes almost anything look edible.  Why do the Southern Residents refuse to adapt?

This was my big question.  I know that marine biologists have been following these whales all their lives, and they have their own ideas about why the southern residents are not adapting, but I wanted to ask, from an animal communication perspective, meaning from the orca’s perspective, why were they starving, rather than trying any other food source?

I had my little agenda, and I know well through experience, that animals, and spirits, do not necessarily conform to our personal timeline, so I released attachment without releasing hope.

I went on two whale watching trips this month, and I REALLY hoped I would see orcas on one of these trips.  I had a feeling it would likely be in Victoria, but I went on a trip out of Tofino to cover my bases.

If any of you comes up to Tofino to visit, please drop me a line.  I do love to show off this beautiful corner of the world, and if possible, I like to go with people out to the Hot Springs or to Mears Island.

As I sat on the small covered boat on our way out to Hot Springs Cove, earlier this month, I let my consciousness reach out, and called to the orca again.  I reached out to ALL orca, not just the southern residents, because I dearly love the orca as a species, and even if I didn’t get to see the southern residents, I would absolutely love to see any orcas at all.  I haven’t seen orcas since my amazing encounter five years ago.

I reached out and heard in my mind, and felt the excitement in my body, of a happy orca family, chattering and squeaking to each other.  As I reached out with the feeling “I love you! Come see me!”  They responded “We love you!  HAVE FUN!  We are too far away to see you today!  We are busy hunting!”

I responded, “There are SO MANY SEALS here!  Will you hunt seals here?  I love you!  Come show me how amazing you are!”

More chattering, more excitement.  “Maybe!  We will try!”  Squeaking, joyful energy, and then a feeling of distance.

I know how quickly orcas can travel, and in 2013, I had seen them hunting off of Tree Island, with their NEWBORN BABY just outside of the inlet to Tofino, on our way back from Hot Spring Cove.  This time though, I didn’t see them on my Hot Springs trip, so I held out hope for Victoria.  I thought, perhaps, if we’re very lucky, I’ll see the Southern Residents!

You don’t want to be picky with callings.  You want to be open, admiring, and genuinely excited to see whatever and whoever is able to show up for you.  If I didn’t see orcas at all this year, I was really hoping to see humpbacks – a larger species than our gray whales which we commonly see here in Tofino, and a species I have never gotten a close look at… So I sent out a gentle calling for humpbacks too.

This brings us to our Victoria Mini-Moon!

We had a fabulous time, and I’ll write about our visit to the “haunted” Butchart Gardens in another post.  For this entry, I’ll skip ahead to the whale watch!

We did see orcas – but NOT the southern residents!

On the way back, I reached out to the Southern Residents.  The guides were surprised we didn’t get to see them (we did see some humpbacks too, I’ll do another post on them later.)  I sat inside the boat and reached out to the water, and asked my question of the southern residents.

“I know you’re so hungry.  I know the salmon are disappearing.  I saw your cousins eat a seal.  Why won’t you eat seal?”

The answer came back, immediately, from one of the younger females who was available to communicate.

We hunt as a family.  Hunts are organized by the Mother (matriarch.)  She tells us what and when to hunt.  If we move to hunt seal, we cannot succeed alone.  She tells us to stop, when we chase seal.  She doesn’t know how to catch them, she doesn’t know how to help us.  If we catch a sick one, or a dead one, she tells us not to eat it.  We can’t eat it.  It doesn’t taste good.  (Taste of rancid, sickly meat.  Starving is better.) 

We cannot change our hunting ways until our Mother dies, and another one comes.  Another one must tell us what to eat, and what to do.  If that happens, our family may break up.  Some may go off on their own to die alone.  Some of us may die before we learn a new way to hunt.  We may not understand, we may make too many mistakes.  It is better to stay here. To stay together.  Those (travellers, the orcas we saw hunting) are large, experienced.  They will take kills from us.  They will out-hunt us.  They can out-swim us.  We have lived here (on the inside, near land, near salmon.)  We will live here until we die. 

Maybe one day, a new male will arrive, and show us a new way to hunt.  Maybe young females will go with him and learn to hunt seal, and forget the taste of fish.  This has been the way.  Out Mother will not change, and we love her.  We will stay with her to the end.

…

And that was it from the Southern Residents.  They love each other, their diet is more than what they eat, it’s who they are.  It’s their entire tradition.  Their food has created their culture, their unique ways which differentiate them from other orcas in the area.  Their behaviour, their language, their day-to-day pattern of life has been formed around their ways of hunting fish.  Their family members have been captured for aquariums and taken to far-away aquariums on land.  Their salmon has been depleted.  Their home is getting more crowded with industrial shipping, and with noise.

There are ongoing efforts to rehabilitate the salmon waterways, and to support the Southern Residents.  It is not likely these unique orcas will cross-breed with the transients and learn how to hunt seals – the two ecotypes of orcas generally avoid each other – the transients moving in for a hunt while the residents are away.  Once, a pod of transients were even seen being attacked by a pod of residents near Gabriola Island.  Inter-breeding doesn’t seem likely, so we can only hope the humans get their act together to rescue the crashing salmon population before the resident orcas diminish further.

…

Back to our whale trip!

We quickly found a small male humpback called “Gerkin” who has been feeding near the Victoria harbour for quite some time.  As we were watching him I heard the radio crackle and heard “Black and white” come through over the static.

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And I knew what that meant!

BAM!

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Orcas!  YAY!  ORCAS!  (In the background is a lighthouse on “Racer Rock”, so named for the powerful currents that race between the fingers of the underground mountains.  This current forces nutrients up into the top layers of the water, and the rocks, combined with the fish attracted to the nutrients, make an idea hangout for seals and sea lions… and make ideal hunting grounds for the orcas!

I was overjoyed!  Orcas!  But wait!  The orcas were up to something.

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That tail up, the flurry of activity – it reminded me of the activity of the orca pod I had seen off of Tree Island years ago!  Could it happen again???  Could we have been lucky enough to witness orcas HUNTING!?  AGAIN!?

Seeing orcas hunt in the wild is an great privlege and a rare event for the tourist whale watcher!  It’s something so special I didn’t dare to hope for it, nor did I ever expect to see something so incredible again in my lifetime!

But here it was!  Quickly, the gulls started to swoop and our guides confirmed, the orcas had a kill!

This is how we immediately knew these girls were not our expected southern residents, but one of the far-ranging transients!  Excited and celebrating their kill, I called out to them with my joy and admiration!

The matriarch rose with a large portion of their kill in her jaws.  See what a powerful hunter I am!  See how magnificent we are!  See my family, see my joy, witness our triumph!

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The matriarch of these transient groups organizes the hunt, teaches the pod members, usually her children, what hunting strategy to use, and when successful, it is the matriarch who divides the kill up and ensures each family member eats before she takes her share.

This pod used a not-uncommon strategy to charge at seals who are safe on the rocks, and cause them to panic and instinctively dive into the water for safety!  Seals have a hardwired survival mechanism when their adrenaline kicks in, they immediately want to get into the water – they’re more mobile in the water, and they’re trapped and practically immobile on land!  Do you remember how you feel when you’ve had a scare?  Most of us at least get up and walk around for a minute, our own flight instincts are so strong.

Well seals can’t even walk around – they HAVE TO swim when they are frightened.  So the orcas make it their mission to TERRIFY the seals into flight – into the ocean – and into their jaws!

The behaviour of these orcas was reminding me so much of the pod I saw off of Tofino, they were so joyful and full of themselves after their successful hunt, they started mugging for their audience on the boats!  They started spy-hopping to check us out, and as I called out in my mind, “Come here, gorgeous, come show me how beautiful you are,” two females approached our boat, coming within 20 feet!

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This is the closest I have seen an orca in the wild.  Once as a child, I saw orcas in captivity in Marine Land, but seeing captive animals who have no choice but to show themselves is far from the same experience.

These orcas were wild.  They were doing what they were born to do – hunt, travel thousands of miles, perpetuate their family, their hunting style, and their unique pod language (orca pods can be identified by their unique dialect, as well as their physical markings.)

It was a privilege, a rare and amazing thing to even SEE these animals in the wild, let alone witness them hunt!  TWICE!

As the approaching large female turned to flank our drifting boat, a much smaller dorsal fin surfaced beside her.

See my baby!  See how fast and strong he is!  

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Again, I was reminded of the orcas we saw in 2013.  They were also a pod of only females, with a small male and a newborn (at the time) male.  No mature male with his six foot tall dorsal fin towering over the females, just the maternal family pod, feasting, thriving.

As though in response to our gasps and thrilled exclamations, the big female took one more spyhop, getting a good look at us admiring her family.

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Just like that, they were finished.  The matriarch gathered her family, and they left.  The whole incredible event took less than 15 minutes!

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On our return to the Victoria Harbour, the guides made a positive ID of the pod we had just witnessed hunting.  They were the T109’s – a family centered around the so-named matriarch, born around 1975, and documented here:

T109

She could be positively identified by the guides by the unique pattern of scratches across her back, the notches taken out of her dorsal fin (both inflicted by prey animals fighting for their lives) and her unique white saddle patch.

A bell rang in my mind.  T109.  That was familiar.

I asked the guide, “Could these orcas have been up in Tofino?”

“Yes!  They have been sighted up there!  Did you see them?”

The bell turned into a triumphant gong!  “I saw a pod right after they made a kill on the day they had their baby!  Does this pod have a baby known as “Baby Tree”?  He was born outside of Tree Island in Tofino, and was named for the island there!  I saw him right after he was born!”

The guide checked with the more experienced guide who was driving the boat – and soon the answer came back – “Yes!  Yes that’s THEM!  The same male is still with them!”

“YOU’RE KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!”  I was jumping up and down in my seat, smacking my hands into the table in front of me!  “YOU ARE KIDDING ME!  THOSE ARE THE SAME ONES!!!????”

“Yes!  You saw them a while ago, right?”

I confirmed, it was five or six years ago since I had seen the baby, and the young one they’d seen that day would be the right size – and they guessed this was Baby Tree!

A MIRACLE!

The guide also informed me that the T109s while they are an active group, they are not seen very frequently – just sighting them was rare enough, and they would be reporting the sighting to the researchers who keep tabs on all the transient orcas to monitor their health.  The T109s hasn’t been seen in quite a while, and it was amazing for the GUIDES to see them – they were incredibly excited to have witnessed a hunt!

“What are the chances we would see the VERY SAME FAMILY we saw years ago in Tofino!?”

The guide shrugged and said, “They’re your spirit pod!  It happens!  Some of us guides see some groups more frequently and don’t get to see other groups at all!  They’re just your pod!”

They’re my pod.
And then I knew for sure, they were.  I was certain when I saw the T109s back in 2013 that my grandmother had helped to orchestrate such a spectacular and rare sighting – to see orcas hunt with a newborn baby – even professional researchers may not get to see such a thing during their entire career!

To see the same group TWICE, years and hundreds of miles apart – hunting AGAIN!  This wasn’t a random event.

This was a miracle.  I’ll take my miracles in orcas, thank you.

…

Many thanks to Orca Spirit Adventures for an incredible trip, and these fabulous photos!

 

John: Art and a Good End for the New Year!

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2017-01-01

My Wonderful Blog Friends – Here’s to a good end for 2016, and to hope, energy, and unity in 2017!

 

Hi John!

 

Happy new year, darling!  We appreciate that some years deserve the bum!

 

(“deserve the bum” has a few dirty meanings)

 

I know it’s been a rough year for so many.  What would you like to say about it?

 

You must never give up hope.  We’re going through the cycle again – (shows me the current culture is reviving a lot of the sentiment and ideals from mid 1950s, which was a time most people considered modern and progressive.)  Yet it’s so backwards, people see what they want to see.  They don’t see others or themselves for how they are, they see what they idealize.  That’s wonderful, in many ways.  Dreaming is important. 

 

Action is just as important. 

 

Not more important than dreaming?

 

Without dreams, how can you imagine all possible action?  Art is important.  Thought is important.  This is why we thought LSD was such a revolution at the time – it created thoughts and “expanded the mind” in ways that would never have been possible.  We didn’t have the internet, you’ll remember.  (He’s teasing.)  We (back in the 70s) believed in the magic of imagination.  If you could dream it, you could create it – if your thoughts were limited by everything you’d been taught and seen in your lifetime, your dreams would be limited.  It was sad, at times; alarming as well. 

 

We believed – foolishly – that if everyone could just experience the psychological and imaginative power of LSD, it would free the mind, free the imagination, to never-before-dreamed-of possibilities!  It’s was part of the revolution.

 

Of course, it didn’t work like that!

 

Yeah, I can appreciate the line of thinking through.  We still see that.  Imagine, visualize the life you want, the world you want, and you can create it.

 

Well, you’re one step closer to creating it.  (Shows me shoveling dirt from a trench.) 

 

What do you mean?

 

It’s like excavating new channels for the mind.  Creating new shapes for the thoughts to flow!  Canals for the imagination!  (Big grin.)

 

Digging holes in the brain?  Are we talking about LSD again?

 

(laughs, takes a deep drag on a cigarette he suddenly has, and I smell the sharp smoke.  Now John has solidified in my mind, he’s lazing back on a chaise lounge, it’s white, with a battered, worn feeling, but perfectly clean.  It’s in a loft apartment with wide industrial windows nearly to the ceiling.  It’s a large room but feels intimate.  There’s a plush red patterned carpet under the chase longue, and I worried for a moment about the ash burning it as John ashes into a ridiculously massive crystal ash tray on the floor.  The room is somehow opulent and sparse; stark and cozy at the same time.)

 

No, love, we aren’t talking of LSD at the moment.  I thought we were talking of imagination!  Imagining things is hard work – don’t underestimate it.  There is heavy lifting in the excavation of the mind!  Just ask any artist!

 

(Thinking of Sweetie) I know.  What do you think the role of artists is right now?  In the year 2017, in the context of the future’s history?  Can you see that?

 

(Laughs and takes another drag.)  That’s quite a creative question!  (He gives me a rhyme / limerick that I don’t quite get – something like “… all the fun, an artist’s work is never done!”)  Art will always serve the same purpose – art never dies, it never disappears, though it may have to go underground.  You can’t stop it, can’t eliminate it – which is why art is so useful in protesting the established regimen!  (significant look.)  Remember I was alive during Nixon. 

 

Apparently I need to do more research about Nixon.  I don’t know too much about him, I haven’t been that interested.

 

Well let’s put it this way, darling.  It would behoove all of you to become VERY interested in former President Nixon.  He’s playing all the tricks from the same hat.  (President Trump’s leadership will mirror Nixon’s in many ways.)

 

(John stands up on a podium, as though speaking over the heads of a large crowd, points his finger directly up in the air and projects his words:) An educated mind is not easily led!

 

Oh!  And art can be used to educate others, obviously.

 

It’s just communication, another form of speaking to your fellow human.  Art is a way of whispering to people who don’t wish to listen.  Who would rather deny.  If you can’t get them through the ears, get them through the eyes, or the heart!  Most people have a heart.  Most people! 

 

Is art – (before I even finish typing the question he breaks in with a very forceful statement-)

 

YES art is the ESSENTIAL form of resistance.  It’s the IDEAL form of resistance!  What are concerts without songs?  What are marches without signs?  What is a movement without art?  Just a bunch of people, milling about like cattle!  (He laughs kindly.)  The best / most exciting thing about art is that *everyone* can participate.  Must participate.  SHOULD participate!  With love, remember.  With Hope.

 

And Happy New Year, darling Kate.  (He’s giving me a flirty little eye twinkle.)

 

Thank you for popping in John.  Happy New Year to you.  And Happy New Year to all my beautiful blog friends!

 

 

 

 

 

New Episode PLUS! Other new stuff!

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I’ve been a bit tardy in cross-posting this past week’s new podcast episode, Spiritual Food for the Soul.  It *did* go up on time, thanks to my lovely audio assistant, Jenn Edds, but I just didn’t tell YOU, lovely blog readers!

That’s because I’ve been distracted by some amazingly cool stuff that’s been happening behind the scenes, and last week I was completely thrilled to have Jessica Kupferman rave on her podcast, about her session with me.  I clipped that audio and posted it in my testimonials section.  Have a listen and please celebrate with me!!!

testimonial

If you’re enjoying the podcast, you may want to subscribe to it through itunes!  That way, you’ll never miss an episode, and it’ll automatically download on to your ipod / iphone / apple device.

I think what I’ll do for you folks that prefer to listen to it on the website joyfultelepathy.com, is I’ll create an email list that automatically sends you an email when a new episode is posted.  I’ll get that organized in the coming months.

Now, the update:

Folks, I’ve been busy actually implementing some of the things which Jess and Elsie of She Podcasts have suggested I do, to help grow the blog and the podcast.  You see, I haven’t paid much attention to how I’m “supposed” to do this blogging thing, because we’ve done really well so far, haven’t we?  It’s been FIVE YEARS since I started this blog, and look at all the amazing people I’ve connected with!  There are more of you than are commenting publicly who have intense spiritual experiences with your personal guides and / or celebrity ghosts, and as rational people, you felt you were letting your imagination run away a bit.  And then you found this blog, and learned *maybe* you’re not crazy.  Maybe you’re just psychic, or intuitive, or have *something real* going on, and not just imagination.  So this wonderful blog has brought us all together.

And how do I begin to sum up the Channeling Erik connection?  I can’t sum it up.  Elisa and all you wonderful people who’ve come over from the Channeling Erik blog are a delight and an honour to know.  Thank you.  If the Vancouver Channeling Erik event happens at the end of September, I will probably be there.

So yeah, I think we’re doing pretty well, here in blogland.  But I want to do better.  Do you know why?  Because every once in a while I get emails from people wondering how in the hell they haven’t heard of me before now, wishing they’d found my blog or podcast sooner.  I know why my blog isn’t as visible as it could be – because I don’t post every day.  I *can’t* post every day, I just don’t have the time or the sheer energy to post with the frequency and consistency necessary to make a blog highly visible, like Elisa Medhus has done.

But do you know what I am working on?  The podcast.  That’s my little creativity and business project this year, and I think I’m doing really well.  On Monday the 4th I have recorded yet ANOTHER ghost stories podcast episode, with another hospital friend of mine, and she has some really amazing experiences to share.  I’m really looking forward to posting that one soon.

I’m also learning how to actually *use* twitter a bit better.  I have nearly 5,000 followers – holy crow!  Some of you readers FOUND ME on twitter!  How cool is that?  I need to make the twitter thing work a bit better for me, so that I can reach more people, so while I’m working on that stuff, I’m *not* blogging.  While I’m working on the podcast, I’m *not* blogging!  So it might look a little quiet around here, even though it’s busier than ever!

If you ARE wondering what I’m up to, you can scroll down on this page and look at the left hand column (if you’re on your iphone you will have to scroll to the end of the page).  You’ll see a live stream of my tweets and facebook updates.  When I’m feeling like I need a bit of recreation, I tend to hop on to facebook, twitter and instagram, so when the blog is quiet, as happens every once in a while, you can always scroll down or hop over to your favourite social media platform and see what’s going on there.  You can always send me a joke involving puns, I can never get enough of those!

So without further ado, here is last week’s podcast episode:

42 spiritual food

Did you know that everything has a resonance?  Everything.  From the boxed chicken fingers I was living off of last year, to the fresh lettuce grown in my back yard!

So how does all this affect our bodies, and how can you experiment with the energy resonance of food to help tune your own psychic radio?  That’s what this episode is all about!

There is even a Bonus track! Elsie Escobar & Jessica Kupferman get effusive about MY PODCAST!  Clip is at the end of this episode!  Hear the original She Podcasts Episode 88  (You can also hear Elsie’s clip on the Testimonials page of my website, look to the right column under Podcast Praise.)

 

Biggie: Serious Shit

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Notorious-BIG-Biggie

It’s been an interesting week.  Today, it’s my mother’s birthday.  I was talking to my Dad, and he said he had been with her for 47 of her birthdays, that is, this is the first time in 47 years he’s not with her on this day.  I think it’s hit everyone hard, like dates tend to do.

I’ve taken a lot of lessons from my friends and clients on grief.  The big one is, when you hit a date like this, DO SOMETHING.  Do something other than mope around and feel sad.  Start a new tradition, or do something in honour of the person you’re missing.

Today, I baked cookies.  I tend to bake or buy houseplants when I feel my mother or the grief especially strongly.

During the whole allergic reaction to the laxative episode, I forgot to mention:  Biggie showed up.

He said, You should listen to your mother.

In that moment, I heard my mother’s voice, when I was seven years old, telling me I needed to eat whatever it was on my plate because I needed the “roughage”.  That’s what they called fiber in the 80s, I guess.  Roughage.  I didn’t actually know what “roughage” was, but according to my mother, I needed some.  Iron was another thing she was talking about, all the time.  This is why I had raisins in everything.  They were supposed to be full of iron AND roughage.  (As an adult now, I don’t think that was true!)

Biggie went on to pass his hand over the top of his stomach and tell me a bit of his story:

I used to get stomach problems too.  (Constipation, retention.)   I was always a heavy weight, you know, even as a kid.  They called me all kinds of names, I said “I don’t care, you just call me Biggie.”  They did, that became my name, and I liked it, you know.  I was taking the power away from them, I was owning my body, I liked it.

I never really looked at *why* I was holding on to the weight (while I was alive.)  I look at it now.  I was carrying the weight of my mother’s worries.  She worked so hard, and she was always worried about money.  But we really didn’t go hungry – that was important to my mother, that we always had something to eat.  Maybe it wasn’t the healthiest stuff, but you didn’t think like that where I grew up – you had food, or you were hungry.  No one was talking about healthy this and that – none of that bullshit.  If it was food, it was good.

I always ate everything and anything that was around me, and that was the first thing I could do for myself, as a kid, was feed myself.  I’d get my own money, and I’d go buy my own burger.  That was important to me, providing for myself.  I wanted to provide for my mother, so she didn’t have to work so hard, and I always provided for my family. 

I ate, and a lot of people who are carryin’ the weight of their family or their history, we eat to make our bodies match our burden, the burden of life we carry.  To make the struggle… visible.  So we get seen. 

I refused to be ignored.  I would talk shit (yells) YOU SEE ME STANDING HERE, DON’T ACT LIKE YOU DON’T SEE ME.  (arms out, chin up, powerful.)

I had these stomach problems just like you, because we eat for the same reasons.  Growin’ up, there was so much shit around me that I could not control.  I couldn’t control being black. I couldn’t control the neighbourhood, the chaos around us all the time.  All of us (his family) we want to be safe.  We could never relax.  That was a need.  So instead, I would try and fulfill a different need, you know, if I ate, that was the fulfillment of a need I could control.  I couldn’t change the world around me, but when I had a juicy cheeseburger and fries, I was alright.  I was eating, and taking care of myself.  I was proving to myself that I was okay. 

I would get the stomach pains and the heartburn, you would never go to the doctor.  I didn’t ever ask to go to a doctor until that (record company exec? Lawyer?  Someone who knew Biggie after he was famous and had a vested interest in Biggie continuing to live-) said “Hey, man, you want me to call a doctor up here?” 

I had to do a show, and I couldn’t really stand up straight, so I said I’d see a doctor.  I got some pills but they didn’t help much, until that mother-fcking doctor figured it out, I had constipation all up through my belly, here (top part of the large intestine) and all through here, down the side.  SHIT!!!  HA!!!  (belly laughs.) 

I felt a lot better when we took care of that, I thought I might even be one of these guys going to the gym, but shiiiiiit, no.  I ain’t never going to be no gym-goin’ mother-fcker.  (chuckle.)  I got a weight bench, and some free weights.  I liked doing my arms and stuff, but I never lost any weight.  I didn’t really want to.  When I had my kids, my little girl, you know, I thought about it. 

I just always put my focus on taking care of my family, my people.  I knew how to eat, and that felt like takin’ care of myself.  That’s what I did for myself, I wasn’t really into drugs (white stuff – then shows me weed, he liked that.  But he wasn’t really interested in heroin, cocaine etc.  Shows me money, that was okay.  He didn’t really like using, just weed, just food, just alcohol and some cigarettes / cigars.)

Of all these skinny mother-fckers you talk to, (pretty much all the other musicians) none of them know what we know, how to carry the *weight*.  People like us, big people, heavy-set, the heavy-weights, big people know how to get shit done.  They got some SERIOUS shit going on.  That’s because we always carry other people’s shit, and it builds up all around us.  Some random (asshole) hands you his shit, and you go, “okay, I’ll carry this too.” 

Whenever you see a big person, you know they’re carrying around a lot of shit that don’t belong to them, that was (shoved at, forced / foisted on) THEIR shoulders.  You see a big person walking around, you know sure as shit, that person’s strong.  That’s a survivor.  Look at all that weight they’re carrying. 

They’re holding on to so much.  They’re keeping it together.

That’s what I did.  That’s what you’re doin’, girl.  You need some ROUGHAGE!  (laughs!)  You listen to your Mama!

 

 

**

I was talking to Sweetie about this bit of information from Biggie, and she observed that food is a lot like currency.   We need it, we consume it, it is energy that flows through us, or gets stuck.  It’s something that needs to be balanced and nurtured.  You need to take care of your paper, and your roughage.

Thank you, Biggie.  Serious shit, there.

Pet Reading Discount for Blog Members!

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Woo Hoo!  It’s time for another DISCOUNT FOR PET READINGS!

Pet Reading Discount!

Pet readings are one of my favourite things to do – that’s why I like to discount them once in a while, just so I get to talk to your loveable and loving, observant and opinionated, funny and enthusiastic animal friends!

If you like to check in with your animal friends on how they’re feeling, why they do that strange thing, whether they have any wishes or wants, what their history is, or even what they think of other people in your life, now is the time!

If you’re a Blog Member, you have already been emailed your discount code to get $25 off a Pet Session with me!

CLICK HERE TO REDEEM YOUR COUPON!  

(Click on “Redeem Coupon and enter your code!)

If you’re not already a member, you can sign up in the right hand menu, at the top.  My friendly scheduling robot will send you your Pet Session Discount coupon to your email (along with two more members-only coupons!)

This coupon will be valid for a limited time, book your spot now!

Thank you everyone!  We’ll talk soon!

Human Oversoul… Alien Oversouls???

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2015-06 oversoul

Picking up where we left off yesterday, we were talking to the human oversoul, aka The Mother.

 

Bruce:

Do aliens have oversouls …… each variety with its own? Does the human oversoul naturally engage well or poorly with different ones?

 

Mother:

Yes! There are many beautiful planets with living, incarnated children. You are asking about the three known species (shows me tall whites, short pinks, short greys.) They are all loving, beauful beings, although each species has it’s own challenges. The nature of their incarnations are different, particularly the (short pinks) who inhabit their bodies like you communicate with animals. They are less bound by incarnation, and more studying sensuous existence.

Yes, the planets and the oversouls of off-earth species communicate with the oversouls of earthly species. There are species-sharing, species that are inter-related across planets. Earth is not an isolated anomaly! If humans are my children, other intellectual species with similar capacities for logical thought and communication would be your cousins.

There are many species that are similar across planetary ecosystems. Start with macro-life. Amoeba have oversouls. This is the very source of intelligent design! Evolution is not random, for heaven’s sake! Not at all! How would anything be accomplished if left to chaos and chance? Chaos will always fall to order, to system and ultimately, to evolution, even in the “vacuum” of space.

Kate: I swear you guys, she just made a joke about mothers needing vacuums. “Every Mother needs a vacuum! Ha ha!” I had to do a double-take. Did that just happen, or was that me? The thing is, *I* wouldn’t make a joke like that. Did the Mother just make a joke and my knee-jerk reaction was “Hey! That’s sexist!” My reaction is part of why it’s funny!

I wish there was a way to write about what just happened without butchering the joke by explaining it! There were so many layers to that one, and the Mother is asking me to have a sense of humour about myself, too! I appreciate the reminder.

 

Bruce:

Are oversouls planet-linked? Does the range of a given oversoul ever extend to other planetary systems?

Mother:

Yes, it is useful to think of the relation as ancestral. If I am the mother of humanity as it exists today, and I relate to you in near-human form, the next “level” is my OWN parents. Imagine again, the light and the crystal refraction. If the colours red, blue and purple are formed by a crystal, the crystal is their mother. But who is the parent of the light before it refracted?

At some point, you return to the source of the light, which is useful to think of as “Source” or “God” or “Universe” or even nothingness, mere potential, the silence before the BANG!

There are ancestors all along the line of evolution. Every branch has a Mother, an oversoul. This is why a diverse species like dogs require many oversouls! A great-grand parent for all dog-like creatures, whose children created wolves, jacklys, foxes and dogs. The dog branch bloomed out BEAUTIFULLY! So many different flowers! How do you fit so many flowers on to one plant? It continues to branch out. The oversoul forms based on the need of the species, or the sub-species, and the oversoul you perceive / connect with depends on how you address your questions and to whom.

The answers you receive depend upon who you ask, and the context of your questions.

Some species share oversouls across planets. Plants are highly specialized, and their oversouls (so-named Devas in my brain because I’ve read the Findhorn books) are specialized. There are oversouls of small ecosystems, oversouls of particular plants and oversouls of the very earth and compost.

Compost! The wonderful collection of micro-organizms which transform life, which yield new life and support ALL life on earth! You have not even THOUGHT to ask about the most vital oversoul of all – the Mother of SMALL LIFE!

The Mother of microscopic life is essentially the earth herself. These microorganisms control the world, control the fate of the planet, begin and end all life.

 

Bruce:

There seems to be some kind of hierarchy …. or structure, at least, in spirit. How do oversouls fit into that structure? What lies “above,” “below,” or “beside” the oversoul classification? (I realize that there may well not be a “higher or lower,” but there are “proximities” and inter-relationships of some sort.)

 

Mother:

I believe we have addressed your question with the refracting light and the branching flowers – life is the expansion, the growth. Hierarchies can be seen to exist – such as the food chain. Microscopic life is consumed by ever-larger species until you reach the apex predator. Yet the predator is dependent upon every block in the pyramid, or it would cease to exist in that form. The lion is decended from, and dependant upon the infinetly small microscopic processes that support his existence on earth.

Kate: So, wait. Could the bacteria in the gut of the lion be perceived as the lion’s spiritual grandparents?

 

Mother: It doesn’t appear that’s a useful image for you, and for others. Let’s look at it like a forest. The lion is not the most important creature in the forest, though he might be the loudest. The lion’s very existence depends upon the existence of the forest, and so the oversouls and devas of all the species in the ecosystem are connected to each other.

Sometimes, these oversouls have been perceived as fighting each other. This is why humanity creates stories about gods who fight, the sun is chasing the moon! You can see the “battles” as the mere pruning of the branches, creating room for new growth, new evolution, new lessons, further generations of children!

 

**** There’s more to come! Keep your eye out next week!

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