Thankful for my Dog and you!

I wish you all could smell the banana bread baking in my oven. It's my special recipe. Baking is one of the creative endeavors I have really played with this year. I like tweaking recipes, not following them.  I've baked so much, for so many people, I have acquired a reputation. They hint for more as a show of support....yeah right.  Luckily I can give away most of the results because I find it relaxing to prepare baked goods and a delightful challenge to try out new ideas through food. Waiting for the goodie to bake is tough, so I read a good book and whiff in the smells.  I bake allot this time of year, as I'm sure many of you do too.


Tonight my husband and I along with many special friends are having a Gathering of Giving Thanks and Gratitude at the spiritual center we attend. Afterward, we meet for a dessert pot luck and my bread has a place reserved for it there.

This summer we held a Pet Blessing Ceremony in the same room where I am seen holding my dog, Faith, who is hard to see because she is all black except for her gray eyebrows and snout. It was quite a scene with about 45 dogs and cats (in their carriers) coming together to be individually blessed and honored. Aren't pet people the best people- or is that quilt people? Often they are one in the same, aren't they.

Faith nearly transitioned a year ago this month. She was very sick for many months. Using Reiki, prayer, crystals, change of food, lots of sleep and supplements, I and friends were able to pull her back from the edge. Today she is a young 12 going on 3. I kid you not! She is better than before. In retrospect, and a blood test, we think she had Lyme Disease. I wouldn't take her to a veterinarian when she was sick because I believed based on the experience with my dear cat Sage, that they would have strongly suggested I put her down; saying with authority that her chances of pulling through were slim. I didn't want this in my consciousness. And they would have done a bunch of tests had I said let's try, and I didn't want to see my dog go through that.

Faith told me with her eyes, as she couldn't move or walk hardly at all, to stay with her and give her my energy and love. So I did, night and day for a long while.  I sent her energy through my hands and my mind in meditation. Friends joined me in both forms of treatment. She was all I paid attention to throughout the holidays and into 2010.  In time I got her to walk, if only a partial block. My husband lifted her everywhere else. We have lots of stairs in our home. We built ramps for her where we could and put her food up higher when she could finally stand up to eat. I fed her from my hands for months.

In late March I met a family practice veterinarian, at a training conference on non-violent communication. She was wearing a sweater that looked like a giraffe's skin. A giraffe is a character in the training, but neither she nor I knew about that when we signed up. The point in telling you this, is that it was the pattern kitted into her sweater that drew me to speak to her out of many people there. She was an answer to my prayers for medical expertise. She is now a close friend and my dog is completely healthy.

She practices a new vein of veterinary medicine, referred to as Family Practice Veterinary Services. Dr. KaLee Pasek is now teaching this approach to Vet. med students at University of  California at Davis. It's wholistic and includes the family and environment. It reminds me of my work as a psychologist, in using a systems approach to diagnosis and treatment planning.

If you haven't read the comments posted to "Do you own your first sewing machine?" click here to warm your heart or post your own experience. I loved the responses that were shared. Thank you all- your love for your first machine came through your creative heart and mind. It's amazing to me how close we hold the memory. I do of my first machine too. It was the one I bought on time payments when I was in college. It was a Viking, made in Germany. Heavy metal and all that, but it was in a case and portable. And yes, I still have it.

It is wonderful to be sharing with you through the blog and emails. Thanksgiving is the time of year to say thank you, but I am grateful every day for all the blessings in my life. Those blessings I hold closest are the relationships I have will all beings on the planet. Yep- all beings around the globe. We are all one. Namaste and Happy Thanksgiving to each of you and yours.

Love,
Kim


Please post your comments by clicking here http://www.quiltersspirit.blogspot.com/
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Another Closet Poet Quilter

Delaine sent her poem "Into My Journal" in response to my post yesterday. She writes- "Kim, writing has opened my heart to myself, I did not start writing until I was very ill with Chronic Fatigue, I attended a writing for healing group and the doors opened and I feel it was the beginning of my returning to a normal life."

                           Into My Journal

As I open my journal, I step into a secluded windowless cabin.

I shut the door and the world falls away

Light from the outside shines through tiny cracks
This room can be very shadowy, sometimes it’s cold and damp

This is my inner place I have to light the fire

I carry the wood and bank the flames.

I am the keeper of the fire; I must illuminate the space.

If the room is to be warm I must do the work.

I kindle the warm glow of memories to light my way.

The hard emotional times are found deep within

I keep those memories concealed in the dark corners.

I  enjoy the silence and feel sheltered in my cabin.

In my journal I find the freedom to explore my inner fears.

I can take the candle to the dark corners only if I choose.

Yes there are times I will do just that.

With pen in hand I start a fire that draws me in

I seek understanding as my memories warm the room

My journal is a private place where I go to warm my soul.

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I love your use of  fire as an analogy for insight journaling. Bringing light to the darkness, within and without is so important. Thank you for sharing your poetry Delaine.

Delaine Gately also designed the cover of  Changing times: Women's Stories  and her winning story Mattie's Quilt was included inside along with another story she wrote titled The Little Box.

If you haven't tried to write poetry- the secret is to not try, but just free-flow write on a theme that you feel inspired by such as something said, felt or seen. Keep the sentences short, chunk them into stanzas afterward, and there is no need to rhythm.  If it's possible, write when the inspiration hits, as fast and quickly as you can. Your creative neurochemicals' spark is on your side for a short time, so grab it while it's hot. You can go back over it later. Inspiration is everywhere. I'm often grabbed by what someone says or buy a celebration, happy or sad, big or private.

And, of course, keep your poems coming, or post them yourself. I have others I will share if you would like that. Let me know dear readers.

Here is a little reminder about how to post a comment so that others can be a part of a discussion. There doesn't seem to be a way to comment directly from the Feedburner post sent to subscribers. It seems you must be on the Blogger page itself.  So if you click on the colored title of the emailed post you will be taken to the Blogger page it is on  and you will find the comment section at the end of the post.

If someone knows how I can make it possible to comment from the subscriber post, please get in touch with me.


Piece,
Kim

kwulfert@earthlink.net

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The Women's Conference, in Long Beach CA

Hello Dear Quilters!

It's been a long while since I posted to this blog. Only wonderful things have happened. I set an intention not quite 2 years ago to bring my right brain into power and creative action. What I wanted and envisioned was for my right abstract non-language, non-rational side to mingle balanced with the left or dominate at times over my left brain. I love my left brain but I wanted my right brain to contribute in an expanded way, all the time, always a part of my experience and my expression whatever that may be.

I stretched myself, climbed over boundaries and self-imposed hurdles. I  studied and pondered creative processing from a neurochemical POV, a spiritual perspective and reason for being important,  and I practiced dreaming  bigger. Most important I believe, is that I  mediated., regularly and will for the rest of my life. In a group, alone, in silence, in guided meditations, sitting, walking, writing, in service to humanity or for my personal growth.

My intention has become a daily truth and experience for me. I love it! It's natural now to use the right side of my brain, seeing creatively, acting creatively, flowing with it, and expressing it in a myriad of ways. Life is a creative expression when not resisted or twisted.

One of many unexpected creative expressions that has come forth from me  is poetry. It just started flowing out during journaling sessions following silent meditation. The poem  elow came forth, essentially as is,  after attending the Women's Conference, which is put on annually by the wife of the current governor of California. Maria Shriver has produced and designed the conference for the last 7 years, and this was her last. We have term limits here so Arnold's term  will be done in December.

Maria  and her female team put on the most inspirational, loving, informative, joyful and exhilarating conference this year as her final good-bye. Lucky for everyone, it's available free in video on their website. http://www.womensconference.org/. I urge you to watch Eve's (from the Vagina Monologues) and Maria's if you only have time for two. Both are on the Main Event Day on the website. Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, Oprah Winfrey, and Minerva Award Winners are excellent inspiring presentations as well as educative.All of them presented during the Main Event and Minerva Awards ceremony.

Here is the poem  I wrote:  Minerva's:Architects of Change

BE the change you want to see
I listen as this phrase calls out to me
Again and again I hear the words
As I've not yet risen above the herds

Purpose, passion, fearless ambition,
Discipline, leadership, inspired vision
Invoking these qualities for me and others
All of humanity; my sisters and brothers

Hear their desires, their cries and whispers
See their need, sense their hopes and inner stirs
Dream as big as the moon, the stars and sun
For changes I make will affect everyone

Notice the dark hidden places
See the pain in their faces
Hear the silence and feel the spaciousness
Rise to my own uniqueness

It's time, Maria Shriver is saying
For women who are full-out playing
As architects of change
In communities across the range

The challenge is to find
Minerva within your mind
Then pass it on
Through many lives in time
Many faces and designs
Women pass it on in kind
Through their bodies, hands, hearts and minds,
As the architects of change

Written by Kimberly Wulfert, October 26, 2010 at the close of The Women's Conference held in Long Beach, CA
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Are you a closet poet too? If want to share one of your poems in the comment box- please do. Tell us how you write poetry? What inspires you? Share your thoughts with me on anything I've said. We are all one afterall.

Piece, and blessings,
Kim
http://quiltersspirit.blogspot.com/  Spread the word

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Creativity Breeds Creativity

I'd like to share my pictures set to music montage with you!  It starts to play as the window opens so scroll down quickly to see it! The cover picture is one I find compelling to look at, so take a moment now to look at it here. It fits the song.

There are two small quilts I made in the montage, my cat, and a Rose Parade float detail (bet you can't tell which one it is!)but most of it is photos I've taken of the nature surrounding my home here in Ojai. The song is by a young man who has written a meaningful and soothing song called "Life is Wonderful" and I credit him in the montage itself.

I liked the song  so much when I heard it, it led me to build the montage, as I listened to it over and over again. The song inspired me. Creativity flows from one sense to another, from one expression to another, if you let it.

I've not made a montage before and this service  gave us very limited choices, such as how long a picture stayed in view or shifted out was not my decision. This meant that where the photos landed in the song also wasn't my choice, just the order of their appearance was my decision.

This process reminded me to making a quilt in the stack and slash style - you don't know what you get until you're done. I could harp on how I wish it were different, but I am focusing instead on how many times a slide fit the music and how fun the whole thing was to make.

I also like the fact that it IS done. Finally a finished project in a few hours. Now that's creativity at it's finest!
________________________________

Next I am going to post some more quilts from the exhibit at the Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Center on Women On Quilts blog http://womenonquilts.blogspot.com
______________________________

Open to your Creativity in my new Online Class- free Intro call this Thursday

I welcome you to join the Circle of Evolving Women to learn 4 WAYS TO ACCESS GUIDANCE WITHIN YOURSELF AND THE BIGGER VISION FOR YOUR LIFE.

Circle One- this Thursday, Dec.. 10, 5 PM Pacific, free introduction to the workshop series beginning in Jan. 2010. I'll explain the workshop, answer your questions, and I will give you a brief overview of my story of the last few years that led to the realization of these methods being the best way to find my life's meaning and living it each day totally alive in it, creatively, focused and joyful. You will be able to tell if this may be what you've been (perhaps unknowingly) wanting to have.

Circle Two: Mindfulness -
Define it and why you want it,
How leaders, teachers and other's experiences of it mean to their life,
How mindfulness accesses synchronicity and creativity to deepen your daily life
Experience it
Get tips on how to practice mindfulness during the week

Circle Three:  Meditation -
What is meditation
Effect on you physically/medical, psychologically/relaxation and spiritually/ connection to inner guidance/Source
Some ancient but still used methods described briefly
The simple steps to starting your own meditation practice, I.e. frequency, position, length of time
Experience a short guided meditation from my favorite teacher and share time.

Circle Four:  Journaling -
Defining it as I use it here for connection to inner guidance and moving forward
Describe several methods to use in various situations
How to set up your journaling practice
Experience the journaling process and share time

Circle Five:  Using Your Dreams -
Why bother to record and pay attention to your dreams
Learn an easy and grounded way to interpret them for yourself every time
Demonstrations of interpretation with this method using your recent dreams
How to set up your dream practice

Circle Six:  Intuition Flourishes
From there to here, looking at you from this new perspective,
Wrapping up your thoughts and remaining questions
Your next steps for moving on from here & facilitating the flourishing of your intuition

Optional Individual Circle -
To help you individually with your Evolving Women's Circle process, one private hour with me is available to you during the 5 weeks up to 2 weeks after it ends.

Please join me. For details and to get call-in information, http://tinyurl.com/yznl6tw  Start the new year off with an inner knowing that takes you where you can go. It's bigger and better than you are thinking it is now.