Entries by Karen Porter

Clarity has eluded me. I would think I had it, then realize, maybe not. For those of you who know about conscious evolution, I have been in the midst of figuring out what I am here to do since my 'work' is something that Barbara Marx Hubbard refers to as a job with no job title (yet). Many of us are doing work that in the future will be routine but for now, makes us what some would call visionaries while others would call us wacky.

It took a trauma, a physical threat for me to realize that my essence, the core me, what some call soul and others call higher self, is untouchable. Nothing can hurt the eternal me. The divinity that I am, beyond human form, is powerful beyond measure.

I have known for years that I have a gift. It is not easy to talk about because we do not have the language to support a discussion around the dynamics and physics of vibratory energy management. We talk about energy conservation and management when the energy source is a physical thing, beyond ourselves- electricity, gas, wind and solar power. For our bodies, we talk about physical energy levels and what we can do to support and manage them. What we do not discuss is our subtle energy, our essential energy, the fact that we ARE energy and that we, like everything in the universe vibrate. We have direct control over our own energy.

For years, we have heard pieces of the information. You are what you think about. You create your reality. You attract what you are. We manifest exactly what we need. What does all this mean? Since we are pure energy, our surroundings are an out picturing of our current vibratory state. As our vibration changes, so do our lives. The great news is that energy is accelerating. We can hold more energy and understand much more than we could even several years ago. Kids are being born today with different brain circuitry than we had at birth. What it took weeks, months and years to do and understand, we can understand and integrate in minutes. We can change in an instant.

We are on the brink of massive planetary change. To support that process, we must change. We must take responsibility for our individual well-being by becoming Well Beings. Being in physical form will always provide limitations. Disease and distress is a gauge of misalignment. By consciously managing our vibratory levels we change our reality.

And it all starts with.....Breath. Keep breathing. Be aware of your breathing. Try this: Breathe very rapidly and shallowly for a slow count of ten. Stop. Now take three very slow, full, deep breaths, one leading into the next, really push out your belly as you take in more air each time. Stop. How did that feel? How was each different for you? Where was your attention and how did your body feel with the different breaths? Just in that short period of time, you experienced how you can change your state. You have the power. We all do. We also have the choice to be aware of our power and develop it or be unconscious and let life happen.

More, later.

And so it is.   Karen

I am back on blog after way too long. In the time away, a lot transpired and I will be writing about that in bits and pieces. What I would like to share with you today is a Top Ten List I submitted for a "Conscious Business" e-book. My top ten items, although they definitely pertain to the way I conduct myself in the arena of business, have more to do with how I want to live.

1. Know that everything is evolving- individual consciousness,
societal structures, how we live our daily lives and the ways we choose to conduct business. As we see old systems fail, know that we can replace them with new systems and forms that will serve more people much better than the old ways ever did. Birth is messy but rather than focus on the pain and the loss of what was, keep in mind that what we are birthing is greater than we can begin
to imagine.

2. Consciously shift from competitive structures to cooperative
norms. We never have to live in a win/lose world again. We can create every situation to be win/win. Remember that someone else’s success will never diminish you. Celebrate their triumphs for the more we each succeed, the more we all can succeed.

3. Always choose integrity. Being aligned with and acting in
accordance with your core beliefs and universal laws will provide inner and outer peace.

4. Whenever possible, be generous. Be generous with your time,
your attention and your wisdom. Small acts of kindness, done without attachment to results or the need for acknowledgement, change the course of lives.

5. Be grateful for everything. Everything we experience is a
gift. Find the gift, the perfection in everything in your life. You are who you are because of what you have been through. How could it not be perfect? It may not have been pleasant; you may wish it could have been otherwise, but it is the fact of your life. Nothing is all good or all bad. Honor what has been to gracefully allow what is to come.

6. Increase awareness. For any change you want to make, the
first step is awareness. Observe yourself as you are in old behavior, without judgment, knowing that just the awareness begins the change process. You may likely see that you stay in old behavior for less and less time until finally you are behaving differently. Stay awake, live consciously.

7. Know that change can be instantaneous. We do what we do
until we know better. We are divine beings with access to infinite possibility once we get out of our own way.

8. In every moment we have the choice to be happy. As Wayne
Dyer says, “You have a choice. You can be right or you can be happy.”
Ultimately, we all decide what is important. The only thing we can control is our reaction to any given situation or circumstance.

9. Perspective changes everything. The ability to reframe
situations expands not only the range of possible outcomes; it expands our understanding and compassion.

10. Laugh. Sing. Complement. Shake things up. It is all good.

And so it is!   Karen

 

 

I have been hiding. No blogs for six weeks, not calling friends, not posting on groups or boards. I could tell a story about being busy (which I have been, but not all the time). I could write about being overwhelmed, which I used to feel a lot but not so much anymore. I could go on about all the demands on my time, the various responsibilities in different areas of my life, which are fact and we all have them.

The down to the bone, honest to God truth is that I have been scared. Not scared to do but scared to be. It is getting to the point where I KNOW what I am here on the planet to do and I am scared to do it. It feels too big. It is easier to be small and hide than to fully step into the work I know is mine to do.

What is it that you are here to do? Why are YOU HERE NOW? What is it that only you can give the world? How many people do you know that live each day fully present to bringing their gift forward for the good of all? Can you take a moment to imagine what this world would look like if WE ALL lived our gifts, living as the unique expression of the divine we truly are?

What can you do today to step, if only for a moment, into your magnificence? How can you share your gift with the world today?

My step is telling the truth about my fear. I did not have to get rid of the fear before I wrote. I can coexist with the discomfort of not knowing what everything will look like. I am fine now; I will be fine in the next moment, and the moment after. 

Shine your light.

And so it is.   Karen

Here's a short video about toning names as a way to exchange energy.

And so it IIIIIZZZZZZZZ.     Karen

I asked that question when I found myself cursing at the computer screen. Not so abnormal, you think? Well I was hurling abusive language at automated chess moves.

I admit it. When I feel stressed, I play solitaire. Mind numbing, predictable, easy to cheat while playing solitaire. My sons pester me to play chess. I think they fear early onset Alzheimer's if I continue the solitaire playing. Chess, in their view is far superior, employing much more of the brain, logic and strategic thinking.

Don't they realize the point of escape is escape?? If I wanted to employ logic and strategic thinking, I would be problem solving about the issue I am trying to avoid. Sheese.

So, to prove his point, Anton showed me where the chess game was located and opened it for me, setting it to the easy setting. I tried. I think it was six moves in when I lost a knight. "Motherf***er!" Another move. "Motherf***er!" After a half dozen expletives, I closed the game.

"Not very spiritual, Mom." "Not very evolutionary, Mom." Yeah, yeah, whatever. As the Dali Lama once said, "Think you are enlightened? Just spend a week with your family."

We all have buttons and I refuse to push my own.

And so it is.   Karen

How Conscious Choices, An Evolutionary Woman's Guide to Life came to be (Part 1)

And so it is.   Karen

Here is the second video about vision journal making. Enjoy!

And so it is!      Karen

Here goes....video one of two on Creative Journal Making- Vision Journal

And so it is.   Karen

If this works, I will be posting my videos soon!  Karen

A couple of weeks ago, while visiting my dad, he asked me what chipmunk hair was.
Chipmunk hair? I can only imagine my facial expression. Even now, my brows knit, lines between them deepen, my right eye half closes and my eyes cross.
I had never heard of chipmunk hair, and said so. I suggested that perhaps someone’s hair was striped, suggestive of a chipmunk’s coat. Dad picked up the book he was reading, found the passage and began to read, “…she reached up for her hair, pulling it back and sweeping it up into a tidy c..h..i..g..n..”
“Oh, a chignon. It ‘s twisting hair into a bun.” I said. Then I felt the same facial distortion as I thought, “What in the name of all that is holy is my father reading anything with the word ‘chignon’ in it?”
The book was by a three named woman, Mary Darcy Something or Mary Patrick Something, a hand-me- down read from my sister.
God bless him, my dad is not enjoying a lot these days and reading is his one escape. It seems to engage him in a way TV does not. We got cable TV thinking that he would like the History Channel but he relies on “Channel 13”, the local ABC affiliate that is not even broadcast on channel 13, which annoys him no end. “Why can’t they leave things the way they are?”
Indeed, dad would be happy with the way things were- my mother, his wife of 54 years, would still be alive, he would not have had three hip replacement surgeries, would be able to get around without a wheel chair or walker, would be self sufficient and able to live alone and still drive. He would not have to depend on anyone to do what he needs or wants to do and his investments would be supporting his lifestyle.
So, I did not say anything about the book and I agree with him that things would be easier if they would not change.
And so it is.   Karen

Feeling loosey-goosey after a massage. Laura is a gentle soul with thumbs like chisels- in a good way.

I have no idea why I hold more tension in the right side of my body than in the left side. The same pressure that feels like a knife on the right feels like nothing on the left. Go figure.

I am in the mood for release! Releasing tension from my body, stuff from the house. I started listening to "Shed" Julie Morgenstern's latest ("Organizing From the Inside Out"). She suggests to name a theme for your life. Theme your past. Theme your future. She writes that it is typical to feel the need to reinvent one's self after transitions.

My big transition this past year was empty nest (or mostly empty) and commitment to self. Younger son, Sasha, will be moving home this Saturday to live after transferring to a local college. HMMMM. Just when I was getting used to the new routine...

Mothering in a different way. Not that I was a June Cleaver before Sasha left for Wash Col. He has bemoaned the fact that he hasn't had a TV mom for years. Sasha loves giving me grief for not being his personal chef. In fact, one of his favorite activities is giving me a hard time about ANYTHING. He loves it!

It will be interesting to see if I hold even more tension in my very lower back after Sasha comes home.

I love him and I know he loves me.

And so it is.  Karen

Today's Huffington Post had an article about the four hour concert for Pete Seeger's 90th birthday/fundraiser for the Clearwater Foundation.

Being a rabble-rouser, I hold Pete Seeger in the highest regard as a major, kick-ass, grand-daddy rabble-rouser. Talk about stirring things up. Unionizing, civil rights, cleaning up the Hudson River- he spoke out and sang out long before any of the causes were popular. Pete sang when doing so could have killed him. It did get him blacklisted and nearly killed his career.

I invite you to read more about Pete in this updated blog

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/one-more-honor-for-pete-s_b_195594.html

Then, if so moved, sign the petition to nominate Pete Seeger for a Nobel Prize.

http://www.nobelprize4pete.org/

I, for one, want to reward troublemaking-for-good.

And so it is.    Karen

We had a signing at Spiral Dance Bookstore this afternoon for Conscious Choices, an Evolutionary Woman's Guide to Life.

Our #1 fan was there (Teresa Hall). I can't write "#1 fan" without flashing to Kathy Bates in "Misery". Yikes. (Teresa- do not watch that movie!)

The story of how CC came to be is one of inspiration and support. The call for a book, the call for stories and the support of the writers throughout the process of claiming what each wanted to write, facing fears of not having anything of worth to offer and not having the writing skills to write for a book, fear of speaking our truth and judgment. We supported each other then and still. We created a community around the book.

Spiral Dance Bookstore exists because of inspiration and support. Laurie Kendall and Bobbie DeVoll had a vision for a Womyn's Center and found a building in East Baltimore in a neighborhood filled with abandoned, boarded up properties. They had a vision and Spiral Dance is the first step, an anchor for a reborn neighborhood where women can afford to buy buildings, rehab them, open businesses and live. Now, Spiral Dance offers space for art, music, GED classes, yoga, reiki, writing groups.

With the abandoned properties tax sale approaching, let's keep our fingers crossed and hold the vision with Laurie and Bobbie of many of the properties finding new women owners who will begin work immediately on the properties, birthing food co-ops, childcare centers and other businesses. You can also check out their work at  http://www.thespiraldancebookstore.com/

And so it is!    Karen