Category Archives: Jan’s Blog

Welcome!

Currently, I put most of my energy into the weekly channeled messages, the daily Soulbytes, and the completion of The Recapitulation Diaries. An occasional blog does still get written when the creative urge strikes. Archived here are the blogs I wrote for many years about inner life and outer life, inner nature and outer nature. Perhaps my writings on life, as I see it and experience it, may offer you some small insight or different perspective as you take your own journey.

With gratitude for all that life teaches me, I share my experiences.

Jan Ketchel

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Searching For Meaning

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Our little visitor... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Our little visitor…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Last Sunday, a female pheasant flew into our yard and began eating the seeds on the ground, fallen there from the bird feeders we have hanging in a tree. We noticed her limping and detected an injured foot, though her wings were intact and she flew just fine. She has since stayed.

We see her every morning, as she comes out from wherever she spends the cold nights to eat her fill. There is plenty of seed on the ground, a thick carpet, tossed there by the smaller birds as they perch and peck at the feeders. The larger birds take advantage of this arrangement. Everyone is happy.

Carlos Castaneda once moved a small snail from a sidewalk and put it into the bushes on the opposite side, fearing that the snail would be crushed by someone inadvertently stepping on it, but he learned something new from his teacher that day. Here is what he wrote about the incident in The Second Ring of Power:

“Don Juan pointed out that my assumption was a careless one, because I had not taken into consideration two important possibilities. One was that the snail might have been escaping a sure death by poison under the leaves of the vine, and the other possibility was that the snail had enough personal power to cross the sidewalk. By interfering I had not saved the snail but only made it lose whatever it had so painfully gained.”

And so, taking such insight into consideration, we have chosen not to interfere with the pheasant. We have learned that it is better to let nature take its course unimpeded by human intervention. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but we have also learned that no matter what we do to help someone or something, in the end we really have little impact. We know that everyone will do what they want and what they are ready for, no matter how ardent, concerned, and loving our help or suggestions might be. We have experienced this often enough both personally and professionally. When people are ready, they will take the journey that is right for them to take.

So we watch the little pheasant with fascination, for her intrepid spirit, marveling that she found her way to our yard, and of course, wondering what it might mean for us personally. How could we not?

She offers us pause to consider other times when we have been put in similar positions, when the unexpected arrives on our doorstep, unbidden. Life is full of surprises. We get news of something, we get asked to do something, we get offered something. We must make conscious decisions.

Everybody's happy with the arrangement... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Everybody’s happy with the arrangement…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Sometimes decisions come spontaneously, and whether they are right or wrong we act instinctively. At other times a decision does not come so quickly and we must ponder why. We must ask: What is the right decision to make and why is it right? Who will benefit or not, and to what end?

We are loving and compassionate people, but we also know that everyone has a journey to take, and that each person’s journey is unique and special. We know that each person must learn to make choices and decisions for themselves, that they will learn about life in both their successes and failures. Sometimes it is right to help; sometimes it is best to step out of the way. The decision to help and the decision to step out of the way are each difficult to make. Based on each circumstance, what we elect to do for another may propel them forward or keep them stuck. We want everyone to access the limitless resources within themselves and often the best way to do that is to step out of the way.

And so we watch our little pheasant with sheer pleasure. How resourceful she is! The cats that roam the neighborhood are no match for her. She is alert and quick. She flies up into the trees when danger approaches, fully capable of taking care of herself. She takes advantage of the sunny spots during the day. We see her sitting up against the warm brick front of the house, safely tucked behind the wall of snow that has formed over the past week by the gusty winds. She is, after all, a creature of nature and is instinctively drawn to the healing power of the sun.

She must be getting enough food. And although we give her nothing more than we give to the other birds we do send her our energetic intent. We send her our full energetic support as she takes her own journey. The outcome is up to her. We do not judge her choices; after all, she landed on our doorstep, and so we thank her for coming into our life, offering us the opportunity to observe her and to search for meaning in her visitation.

Synchronistically, and so not surprisingly, we find that we have been offered many opportunities over the past week to make some meaningful decisions. Is it time to help, or time to step out of the way?

Sometimes helping another living being means standing back and letting them take the next leg of their journey on their own. This might be the hardest choice we ever make. But we can send them off with loving energetic encouragement and good wishes that they make mature and reasonable decisions that will lead them beyond mere survival to new stages of evolution.

Basking in some rays... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Basking in some rays…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

At some point we all have to choose a path, and so we fully support everyone’s search for meaning and for their own path of heart. Sometimes it’s enough to say: “Go ahead, you can do it! You’re on your own now! Good luck! Life is waiting to receive you!”

Letting nature takes its course without interference, but with compassionate detachment,
Jan

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: In The Tension Of Nature

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What turn will nature take for me today? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
What turn will nature take for me today?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The recent weather situation in the Northeast, as we awaited the track that the “snowstorm of the century” would take, reminded me of how we expect the experts, in this case the meteorologists, to get it right and how quick we are to judge them for getting it wrong. I, for one, am always grateful for those experts. I know how rare it is to be able to predict nature with any certainty.

I spent almost a decade living in Louisiana where the specter of hurricanes is real and is taken very seriously. Many a time we packed up our belongings and hoped for the best. Each hurricane’s approach offered a lesson in detachment. What had meaning? In the end, we discovered that very little had value; only our lives and our children’s lives had meaning. In those moments, I understood the challenge that death brought, having to leave everything behind. Hurricane preparation itself presented us with the real truths of nature; death could come at anytime and you are not allowed to take anything with you.

One time we went to the campus of the university where my husband taught. We spent the last critical 24 hours before the hurricane was predicted to strike in the company of others, keeping our children occupied while the parents, most of them other faculty and staff, worriedly watched the news and wondered if we should all move up to the second floor for the night, just in case. We were 30 miles inland, but we knew that meant nothing.

It was a hot August day. Occasionally we’d all step outside, trying to gauge the situation, giving ourselves and our children the experience of what it felt like to be in the path of approaching annihilation. The wind, swirling from the north in a counterclockwise direction, was eerily balmy. The sky darkened, as the dry soil of Southwest Louisiana flew into hair, eyes, nose and mouth. None of us took it lightly.

We’d all heard of the devastation that the Louisiana coastal area had been through in the past, how most of the towns south of us had been totally wiped out in Hurricane Camille in 1969, causing catastrophic damage and major loss of life. Bodies of the dead had been found 50 miles away from where they’d lived, washed inland by the surging seas.

In Louisiana they don’t take hurricanes lightly. Every family, it seems, has a hurricane story. My daughter has been living in New Orleans for the past 3 years, and she says that each year as hurricane season approaches a certain tension arises. If a hurricane has not hit in a while people get suspicious, expect the “big one,” as happened in 2005. First Katrina hit New Orleans and then Rita hit Southwest Louisiana, our old hometown.

My daughter experienced Hurricane Isaac a few months after her move to New Orleans in 2012. She and her roommates hunkered down for three days while the winds howled, windows shattered, part of the roof blew off the house they were renting and the shed in the backyard blew away. She has stayed on, but her two friends couldn’t handle the tension that exists in a land so vulnerable; within 6 months they were back in New York.

Little bird hunkering down... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Little bird hunkering down…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

We, in the Hudson Valley, fared well the other day. And just as that day in Louisiana when we waited in the tension of the impending storm, which struck 50 miles to the east of us, so too this winter storm, Juno, struck to the east of us as well. In both cases, other people did not fare so well. In both cases, lives were lost and people suffered. Compassion is naturally stirred, as naturally as fear of impending disaster is stirred.

Nature does as nature does. There is really no predicting it exactly. Many a hurricane has gone out to sea only to turn back inland and strike again. Living in Louisiana, I heard many such stories, how people were caught off guard, thinking they were safe. Nature is truly unpredictable. And so I respect nature and those who seek to warn us of its changing nature. Even if I am safe, if my loved ones are safe, there are others who are suffering. Lessons in compassion are easy to experience in the everyday events of being human on this planet we all share.

And so I shovel my snow, grateful that it is only about 8 inches deep. I send love and good thoughts to my brother, on the coast north of Boston, shoveling the 30 inches he got, and to another brother on Cape Cod, likewise digging out from the snowstorm of the century.

Be safe in nature; be compassionate in your own nature,
Jan

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: The Power Within

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Who else are we that we have unlimited power within? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Who else are we that we have unlimited power within?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

I have a pain in my shoulder. I notice that when I’m distracted or busy I don’t feel the pain; it simply doesn’t exist until I put my attention back onto my shoulder and remember, “Oh yes, I have that pain in my shoulder.” Immediately, I feel pain again. Why is it that the pain sometimes exists and sometimes doesn’t? Is it real to begin with?

I think about other scenarios where I think something and it manifests. One day, Chuck and I were gathering wood for the wood stove at our wood pile. Chuck was reaching high up on the stack while I was reaching down to some small logs on the ground below him. I suddenly heard a voice warning me to get out of the way, that a log could fall on top of me. As soon as I heard the message to get out of the way, I started to pull back. At the same time, as Chuck said, “a log leaped off the pile” and landed on my finger. OUCH!

I wondered if my thinking that a log could fall, actually caused the log to fall. Did my thought create the outcome? Do thoughts have that much power? Sometimes, I might think a thought and then tell myself to dismiss it, that it’s not something I wish to invite into my life, and in such cases the thought does not manifest. Can we really control our lives by our thoughts? Do WE have that much power? These questions have interested me for a long time.

We limit, inhibit, and control ourselves in the way we speak to and about ourselves. We tend to label ourselves, saying that “I am this” or “I am that.” We compare ourselves to others, give ourselves commands and definitions, make statements about ourselves that have impact, not necessarily positive, even if we might intend them as encouragement, such as, “I have to change, I must lose weight, I have to exercise, get into shape, eat better, etc.” We say, “I have to do this or that,” or “I should.” It’s also common to complain about what we think we can’t change. “I can’t… I shouldn’t… I’m not… Why aren’t I…? How come I can’t…?”

I do the same. I tend to say things like: “I have to get into balance. I have to get calm. I look tired today.” These things may have positive underlying intentions, but they in themselves are not helpful. When I notice myself saying these things I apply a little self-hypnosis and turn those phrases into affirmative, self-empowering thoughts. “I AM in balance. I AM calm. I look GREAT today!” When I do this, I notice that I feel differently. The more I say it, the more it becomes true.

Dare to dream a different dream... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Dare to dream a different dream…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Self-hypnosis is really just about offering suggestions to the self. We do it all the time, without even thinking about it, telling ourselves a myriad of things every day, plenty of negative self-talk, most likely, because we have been trained to notice only our imperfections. It might be time to try out some positive self-hypnosis for a change, to discover that real and lasting change comes from within, and that positive suggestions have positive impact.

If we actually listen to what we say to ourselves on a daily basis, how often we say negative or demeaning things to ourselves—I’m lonely, I’m bored, I’m a loser—the more lonely, bored, and the more of a loser we become. Our thoughts are that powerful!

So, watch what you say to yourself. You might be able to prevent a lot of unnecessary pain. If I had dismissed the thought of that log falling on me, might I have prevented my finger from getting crushed? I don’t know, but I’m sure going to try to avoid unnecessary pain in the future!

How can we do that? How can we avoid pain? How can we change our thoughts? We might begin by asking ourselves some questions, depending on our circumstances: Did I bring this pain on myself with my thoughts? Did I invite this challenge into my life? What thoughts do I tell myself that have created my life? Are my thoughts generally negative or are my thoughts generally positive?

Once we discover our own personal method of self-talk, we take the next step of using new language to empower ourselves. Self-hypnosis is an agent of change, but using it is our choice. Are you ready to take responsibility for the self and wake up this power within?

We enter new territory as we give positive, supportive suggestions to the self. “I am healthy. I am happy. I am fit. I am losing weight every day. I am beautiful. I exercise and I am in good shape. I eat right and I am healthy.” As we say these things to ourselves we become them. Yes, we have the power to change ourselves!

About a decade ago, when I was in the middle of my recapitulation, I discovered that I was always expecting everything in my life to be difficult. I expected bad things to happen to me because that was my experience. I expected my car to keep breaking down, people to disappoint me, to be lonely and sad, to always be depressed. One day, I got so fed up with things going wrong and with being depressed that I declared I would no longer be accepting bad things. From that moment on I would only accept good! That very day things began to change for the better. It was in that moment that I discovered just how much power my own thoughts had.

Just as the morning light of each new day is intentional, so will peace come if we intend it... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Just as the morning light of each new day is intentional, so will peace come if we intend it…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Gaining control over how we speak to ourselves, is a fine practice to accompany our work on becoming kind, loving, and compassionate beings. As we practice putting our attention on our thoughts—the patter that runs through our minds, day and night, about what we should or should not do or be—we will turn those thoughts on their ears. We will take back our power, turning negative energy into positive energy.

As we study how our own negative self-talk affects us, as we change the messages we constantly give to ourselves, we gain understanding in the difficulties that others face. We learn compassion when we realize that we are no different from anyone else.

We really do hold the power to change, the power to create a new reality, simply by how we talk to ourselves.

Here is a positive, self-affirming hypnotic suggestion to say to yourself: I am calm, I am in balance, and I have the power to change,
Jan

NOTE: During the writing of this post my shoulder did not hurt one bit! Hmmm…

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Patient Waiting

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From inside the tunnel of self... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
From inside the tunnel of self…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Shortly after I finished college and went to live in Sweden, long suppressed memories began to stir. They came in short bursts, most often as dissociative states. I would suddenly retreat from the world, tunneling down into myself, where I’d view the world as if from inside a telescope.

Such moments could last for a few minutes to a few hours. I had no idea why they happened, but there was something incredibly familiar about them, though fuller memories of my childhood sexual abuse were not to surface for decades. I had never heard of recapitulation nor was I seeing a therapist at the time, but there was a deeper part of me that knew that one day both of those things would become central to my existence.

It was also about that time that I had the clear insight that one day I would have to retreat into a cabin of my own, as I thought of it, and do the deeper inner work that I sensed would one day be necessary.

To combat those disturbing moments of dissociation, I began keeping a list of all the things I would take with me into my cabin. I planned to go for a long time, a year or more. I made lists of foods, water, personal supplies, how much of each I’d need. I made lists of art supplies and writing implements, clothing, bedding, batteries, pots and pans, etc. My cabin was heated by a wood stove, so I stacked wood outside the walls, lining it several feet deep, both for lighting fires as well as insulation during the coldest months. I expected that I would be buried under several feet of snow for months on end, it was Sweden after all.

The lists were long. I’d check them over and over again, adding new things, deleting others that seemed unnecessary. I tried to think of every item I would need and every circumstance I would encounter. I wanted to be sure that I had not forgotten one thing that I would need in my isolated cabin. Whether my imaginings were practical or not didn’t matter; it was a deeper part of me that was making the plans.

Here is the cabin on the mountaintop that I envisioned for myself and drew and painted over and over again... - Detail from painting by Jan Ketchel, 1979
Here is the cabin on the mountaintop that I envisioned for myself and drew and painted over and over again…
– Detail from painting by Jan Ketchel, 1979

My cabin planning became an art piece. I worked on it for months, drawing floor plans, exterior views, picking the perfect mountaintop spot with beautiful views, incorporating it into all my other art works for years to come, getting it just right. Putting the final touches on it, I put it away, for I knew it was not going to become an actuality, at least not then. I would have to wait for the right time, because I was certain that someday I would be going into a cabin of my own, that I would be there for a long time. Once there, I knew I would be ready to finally face my demons, all that tortured and plagued me.

Little did I know that, in a sense, my mental planning would one day prove useful, though the entry into my cabin took a far different route from my early imaginings. In the planning stage, I was establishing a real cabin, but in the reality of my recapitulation, many decades later, I entered a metaphorical cabin, as I personally became the cabin. My own body housed me, protected me, nourished and supported me throughout the three years of my inner journey. It contained everything I needed to do my recapitulation. And just as I had imagined, I did finally face all that had stirred back when I was just a young woman starting out in life. Though I had been granted a taste of what was to come, little did I realize just what it would mean or where it would take me.

I am struck now by the patience of my young self. I seemed to know that when things are ready, they will come. It was a valuable lesson, one that I relearned many times as my recapitulation unfolded. Often I would want to push the process, get it over with as quickly as possible. I remember one day saying to Chuck, “Why don’t we just spend a whole day doing the recapitulation and get it over with once and for all.” Ha! Little did I know that it doesn’t work that way.

There was no point in pushing. Pushing, I learned, only created unnecessary tension and anxiety. Far better to wait. The recapitulations, the memories, came on their own. I didn’t actually have to do anything to trigger them. I had to learn to be available, recognize that I was being prompted, and take the journey that was offered, because that’s what I was being taken on, a journey. My job, if I was to truly get through the memories as quickly as possible, was to consciously let them go through me, in whatever form they came, and learn what I needed to learn from them, both what they offered me in childhood and what they came to teach me again as an adult.

I even envisioned a future happy self! - Detail from a painting by Jan Ketchel, 1979
I even envisioned a future happy self!
– Detail from a painting by Jan Ketchel, 1979

The recapitulation process was invaluable. Painful as it was, I would not trade it for anything. It was the journey my spirit was setting up for me so long ago, letting me know that one day I would indeed be going into a cabin of my own. I just had to wait for the right time, the time when I was ready.

The lesson of patient waiting can be applied to other areas of life as well. If we want something and push for it, it might backfire on us. It might not be the right time or be the right thing for us. But if we wait, if it’s right, it will come and we will be ready for it. This I know.

From my cabin,
Jan

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: We Are In The Changing Times

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Messages that it's time to change... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Messages that it’s time to change…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

I look at what is happening in the world today and part of me is horrified, but there is another part that knows that all new beginnings emerge out of chaos and destruction. This knowledge does not take away the need to be fully aware and concerned, but it points to a far greater reality: the times of change are now, and we are all in it together whether we want to be or not. The other reality that I embrace is that all of us are being simultaneously challenged to go through our own changes so that we can be fully present in a new world. In other words, if we all do something to change ourselves at the deepest of levels, we participate in changing the world at increasingly deeper levels too.

Death is around us all the time; we are aware of it. But it is only when it becomes personal, when it visits our own lives in some way that we must deal with it more directly. Some choose not to deal with it even then, unable to reconcile with endings or grasp at the notion of continued life. If we staunchly adhere to the idea that consciousness ends when the physical body dies, does that also mean that there is no hope for this world in chaos? I don’t think that way at all.

The Tarot card The Tower points to the kind of destruction that we are experiencing now. Society is collapsing all around us. Human life is of little consequence in the eyes of militant and ideological might, the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris the most recent example. But what about the desecration of sacred lands and symbols of spiritual unity, the rapes of women in India, the shootings in America and other parts of the world? What are we being confronted with? What should we believe? How can our fellow human beings be so cruel and can they be trusted? Are we all hidden terrorists underneath the facades we present to the world? I could go on and on, but what seems most apparent to me is that we have to face that the world is not as black and white, as rational, as we may have wanted to believe. Things happen for reasons that reason is incapable of explaining.

Angeles Arrien writes in The Tarot Handbook that “The Tower is the symbol of the universal principle of healing, renovation, and restoration.” The card looks violent, a good symbol for the world today in fact. But she warns not to get caught up in the horrors of it but to look at it as a symbol of the necessary change and awakening, as all that is false or artificial within our natures must be dismantled before new life can happen. It points to the need to get back to the basics within and without, to reconnect with that which is innate, with spirit and nature inside us and outside of us.

We are all being asked now to do the deeper work that will enable us to start down a new path. We must return to balance, align with nature, with what it shows us about change. We must face the truth that what we have all become is being exposed and reflected in the violence in the world around us. We are all on a path of self-destruction and it will get worse, it has to if we are to change.

There is more to those ashes than you might think... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
There is more to those ashes than you might think…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Sages have been predicting such changing times as these for a long time. Yogananda warned of it as he brought yoga to America. The Tibetans have been expecting it, in fact I see their diaspora as a necessary part of this process, bringing yet another form of ancient spirituality to the rest of the world. It’s clear to me that the hunger in the west for spiritual connection and the search for a spiritual identity has brought these ancient traditions to our shores, the power of intent in action.

Edgar Cayce, America’s most well-known psychic, warned of these changing times. Our own American Indians have been anticipating it. Even in more recent times, since the 1960s, the so-called “new age” gurus and the protectors of the earth have been predicting the decline of civilization as we know it, largely due to human folly. Many of them, however, have failed to speak of the rebirth of a new era. They have left us mired in the collapse with little hope for anything good to come out of it.

I truly believe that those “changing times” are here now, but I do not believe that all hope is lost, that it is too late, as many say. Not a defeatist by any means, I am instead a staunch and pragmatic optimist. The tower may be burning, but we have the power to build a new and better one.

Jeanne, the being I have channeled for the past 12 or so years, in her messages to humanity, as she calls them, has consistently asked us to make ourselves ready for the changing times. Along with many other current day messengers, from many realms and realities, she has not only called for a wake up, but has offered the means by which to prepare for not only the destruction but the renovation to follow. This involves a deep personal commitment to changing the self and how we live in the world, making decisions that are universally thoughtful and protective of our natural resources. We are being asked to let go of our personal greed, selfishness, and overconsumption in favor of less, in favor of a return to local community and commerce, to sustainable activities that not only embrace a new paradigm but enact it now.

In all that Chuck and I do, clinically and in the channeled messages and personal posts we write each week, our message has been consistent: We are all being asked to change, and here are some options and ideas for how to do that: Choose what feels right, but don’t hold back. Your spirit and the world you live in are asking you to break through all that holds you bound to old ideas, emotions, behaviors, to go through the changing times and prepare yourself so that you are ready for the rebuilding times. How can we rebuild, renovate, renew, if we have not first destroyed that which is obviously not working? This means both within and without, of course! Those are our messages.

Each day we wake up and the world is different and a new path appears... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Each day we wake up and the world is different and a new path appears…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

We have offered recapitulation as a means of changing the self, a process of deep inner work, but there are many processes and we know that recapitulation is perhaps not right for everyone. To choose a path is a very personal decision, but from my own experience I can tell you that the right path is not an easy path. Easy paths do not necessarily offer the disruptions and the challenges that signal a new direction, or that something is not right, or perhaps they do in that they become boring, unfulfilling, too comfortable. And so, a good sign that the spirit is urging new movement is when the comfortable becomes uncomfortable. To challenge the self to seek a new path is to step outside of your comfort zones and try something new. It might take a lot of searching to find the right path, but even the search can yield inspiration and insight.

The only real way to change is to take action. Life is full of experiences waiting to happen, but if we do not move ourselves into action we will not have any experiences. Our lives will stagnate and we might even start to imagine that there is no real meaning in life, that we are destined to be stuck forever, that nothing good will happen to us. But this is never true. It’s only true if you decide it’s true. Often at times such as these we are being prodded to wake up, to stop our negative thoughts and do something to change what we are unhappy with. Sometimes our wakeup call is just that subtle a catalyst. If you jolt yourself into action you will discover that life will meet you. Suddenly, life becomes full of new experiences and new opportunities!

So, where am I going with all of this? As we begin another new year, I implore you all to take this time of change very seriously. Seek to reconcile your own life. Seek to find the connection to that which is inside you, both your spirit and your core issues that keep you disconnected and uncomfortable. Confront your weaknesses and turn them into your strengths, into the catalysts that will change you.

Yes, these are the changing times and that means we must all be brutally honest with ourselves in every thought, action, and deed. As we look around at the destruction of the world, at the terrible things people are doing to each other, we have to look inside ourselves and question our own motives for how we think and act, for the messages we give ourselves, and the things that come out of our mouths. Do we really believe the things we say? What will it take for us to challenge ourselves to change so that we too may rise out of the fires of destruction like the phoenix, the firebird, transformed into new life.

Ready to transform? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Ready to transform?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

And so, just as Chuck wrote in his first blog of this New Year with a dire message of the necessity for change, I begin my own year of blogging with a similar message, a message that I not only write but act upon in my own life. Every day, I confront myself, for I am intent upon more fully embracing and becoming all that has been revealed, my greatest challenge now to not hold back. I just have to keep daring myself.

I know that I will die one day and I am intent upon not dying unfulfilled, and so, I dare. And I wish the same for all of you. So please be daring. Take the path of heart and change that is right for you. If you do not seek you will not find, but if you begin the search the path will appear and you will recognize it. It will be tough, but the rewards are more than you can ever imagine.

I send you love and gratitude for daring to take such a journey, as you are part of the greater whole of this changing energy. Know that with each breath you take and each step you take you are transforming.

Not holding back,
Jan