Welcome to The second issue of Cantadora Journal! Cantadora, as the subtitle suggests, means, keeper of the old stories.  Stories, and all of the ways that we tell them have been around for as long as there have been people to tell them. How we have told them, to whom, and for what reasons makes for a cozy round the fireplace that could well last into eternity . . .

Welcome everyone. This second issue has been a long time in coming. Many changes have taken place since writing the first issue.  Among them, marriage, graduations, the passing of our family wyse woman elder, Frannie, a move to a new state, and a new job. Those changes led to a delay in getting this second edition to you. I apologize for that and hope that you find it worth the wait and that it delights and stimulates your creative flow!

In keeping  with the intention that  I have for Cantadora to be a place where we can come together through the written word, share our stories,  and build community, knowing that we strengthen ourselves as we do so,  let us set sail across the lake with this issue.

 

 

This Months Book Review

 

The Western Guide to Feng Shui  ~ Room By Room,  by Terah Kathryn Collins, Copyright 1999, Hay House Incorporated. ISBN 1-56170-568-3  . Paperback - 13.95 USA

Partial ReviewFrom The Publisher ~

" The Western Guide to Feng Shui - Room by Room  is dedicated to bringing the pearls of Feng Shui wisdom into the Western household. Based on Terah Kathryn Collins work as a Feng Shui consultant with thousands of clients, this uniquely informative work explains how to incorporate the benefits of Feng Shui into every room in your home..."

" Terah Kathryn Collins has completly tramsformed the way I think about, and live in, my home. Let this book inspire you to create a personal paradise in which to grow and thrive."            ~ Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of Women's Bodies, Womens Wisdom.

 

I read this book over several days because I kept putting it down to make notes and apply her wonderful advice. I go back to it again and again whenever I am rearranging my interior or exterior space and I desire to maximize what I intend to create. The book is easy to understand and follow. She talks to you as though you are sitting next to her and leads you on tour of your home. Before doing so she shares with you the principles of Feng Shui and how to enhance your homes Chi or energy. I have used it time and again to make positive changes in my home and to offer suggestions to my clients for doing the same. The same principles that apply to your home also apply to your work space, so have fun creating in both spaces. I hope that you will enjoy it and find it as useful as I have.

This months Women to Women entry features these tools. Enjoy!

 

Women To Women

 

Hello and welcome back to your comfy spot. Pour yourself some yummy chai and have a seat by the fire.  This months entry, a rich and lengthy one, was inspired by an e-mail request I received about the desire to create abundance aka - CASH.  What one of my Master Teachers - Shirley Resler calls CHA-CHING!!!

There are many ways to create and manifest abundance and prosperity. In my experience, one thing that is important is that if you desire to  create cash, ask for CASH. Otherwise abundance can show up in any number of forms. While always a blessing, you may have desired something different so be specific.  Name it to claim it.

Here are some ideas to consider if bringing Feng Shui into your home or office space appeals to you.

 

Is your house organized and clutter free? Yes I know  you are busy and you give the majority of your day to your job and are not at home. Maybe there is more than one person sharing your space and so more than your stuff in your space.   This applies here too!

So here is the deal, when I say clutter free I mean that everything is put away - stuff is neat in drawers. No piles of stuff. If you have not used it in six months - consider getting rid of it. Give it away to the local resale shop. They raise money for their cause and you clear space and open your space for CASH (or whatever you desire to create) to enter.

Important point to keep in mind:  Stuff holds energy and can block the flow of the new energy (abundance) coming in. Be clear about the stuff that you have in your home. Does it support you an d raise the feeling of comfy and home or does it drag you down. If you once loved it and now you don't, pass it on.

 These suggestions go for your room mates and significant others as well., if you share space.  Gently share and ask them to support what you are doing. To keep their stuff neat. Add a please and thank you. It works wonders! 

 For the space  that is private in your shared home, that is her or his private space but the communal living space needs to be neat and clutter free. What benefits one of you will benefit all of you. I am willing to bet that will enlist support  because it will support them too!

 Ditto for you for your desk at work.

Lots of goodies on your desk ? Try looking at not having so many that they block your creative and abundant flow. Make sure to have something there that represents money coming in. Maybe you looooveee to keep fun things on your desk.  Maybe you keep it bare to the wood.  Either way, consider setting it up so that there is space for cash - and that is what you want so ask for cash cha ching!!!.  If you want a cool desk  with decorative items on it, consider just change it out with all of the neat things that you have.  That will keep your desk interesting and give you a change from time to time and make room for the new.

 Altar  or sacred space!!!!!  Where is it - a mini version of it, that is, on your desk at work in the money corner - which is the left rear of the desk. Write out a mini intention sheet and make it into a little envelope. Put sage, pine, basil, dill, clove, or almonds in it.  Each of these herbs and or nuts is associated with good things. in this case specifically with the intent of creating CASH.

Write it on orange paper if you have it because orange is a color of prosperity. It's the color of the creation chakra (more on Chakra's in another Journal). Seal it with wax  (or tape) if you have it and put it in a little box. Now if you don't feel comfortable having your list of intentions on your desk at work, create them as above and place on your altar at home. Make sure to say for the best and highest good, harming zone and give thanks that it is done. Give thanks by burning some sage,  or placing a flower in a little mini vase next to one (or more) of your guardians - Mary, Quan Yin, Tara, Buddha,  or Jesus (or whomever you look to for your guidance) , and change it out every few days to keep it fresh.

Putting a small pine cone on your desk at work  or in your space at home (free for the harvest at any local forest that has cone bearing fir trees - remember to give thanks for the gift from the tree) can enhance your space as well. They often smell good as well. A note, Pine often has a sticky residue on it called pitch and it will get on to other things and can stain. If you choose to use one - or more - place them in a little bowl to keep surfaces clean. The energy of Pine  has been associated with money, protection, fertility (as in creation of what you desire), healing, and exorcism (i.e. releasing lack).

 

Ditto  the above suggestions for your altar at home.

 What is your altar at home looking like these days? Do you have a group one , if you have roommates, and a personal one?

 

Group ones - as in everybody in the house chips in to create a group desire - are great for manifesting and holding intentions because of the power of a group. More focused intention - more power for creation. Suggestions for group creations , whatever you as a group desire, maybe,  CASH  !!!!  CHA- CHING. Everyone in the house would welcome more of it - right!!!!  So if you do not have a group one consider it. Pick out one personal thing each that represents each one of you and place it on the altar. or sacred space. Then gather your intentions for the group thing that you desire to create and place them on the altar.   On the Bagua Map, the map shows you how to create positive change in your life  by applying it's ancient principles. .CASH or Wealth and Prosperity is in the left rear of the square shaped map (as used in Kathryn's book) so place your intentions for CASH there. If it is relationships - then you would place your intentions to the right rear. Helpful people (or travel) coming into your life,  front right.

To combine these - say you want to enhance your relationship by taking a trip and you need a helpful person to tell you about the best travel deal and CASH for the trip, you would place intention in all three areas. With a group altar - you could be creating this sort of thing because the whole group wants to nurture relationship and go on a trip.

 Another application of the group altar is that you each have a desire to create something and yourplace that intent on the altar and each person in the group holds the desire for each other to create it.  An important note here: Always know that where you focus intention and attention is what you will create so be very clear about giving your energy. Think twice (at least) before holding energy for  yourself or  for someone  else who desires to create something that would not be for the best and highest good and or against another’s free will. EVEN if that person thinks that what they desire to create is for the good of that person, idea etc…  KARMA comes around. Do unto others as you would have done for you.

 

An example of this: Person A.  wants a raise or a new job. The only way they see getting this is seeing someone else get fired. NOT the way to intend what you desire. A more appropriate way to go about this, that is in line with creation, and respect of all , is to intend a raise or a new job – envision it – collage it (more on that in another Journal) create an altar of intention for it, and ask that it be created for the best and highest good, harming none. Giving thanks - Always.

 

You can create as many altars as there are intentions and I would suggest for best results that you give your intent and focus to a couple of areas at a time. Consider keeping personal goals and desire for creation for your personal altar.

 What about your personal altar? What’s it look like? Does it reflect you? Who you are? The power of you? What you desire to create? Is it neat? Visible to you daily? Do you give time, focus, and intention each day, even if for 2 minutes? Abraham-Hicks  ( http://www.abraham-hicks.com/ ) suggests that even seventeen seconds of focused intention will begin to create.

" When I see something I want and I look at it and I spend as short a time as 17 seconds observing it, feeling it, being a part of it, talking about it, giving my attention to it...and I say "Yes" to this thing I want, I am including this thing I want in my vibration. It literally becomes a part of my signal, which means, by Law of Attraction, now I have more access to that."  http://www.abraham-hicks.com/Knowledge/Abraham/Newsletters/QJ05/influence.html

Can you spare 17 seconds to create your dreams?  Will you?

 

Give  your space  organization, love, compassion, and the intent for what you desire to create and as you create, change it out when you feel it is time for the next creation.

 Give it flowers, and  special things, pretty things – you are likewise giving these things to you when you do so because this sacred space is a part of you. Keep a bowl of change on it and give a little to it each day. Give thanks. Follow the principles of Feng Shui in creating it.

 Keep a gratitude journal. Even if that simply means writing on your calendar each day one thing that you are grateful for. Some days it may feel like it is just the sun coming up and other days you could write a book. Just write it down. The universe then knows that Yup , – she or he is grateful and in particular – what they (you) said they were grateful for will be given more of. Like (and the acknowledgement and thanks of) begets like.

 Be wise about who you share your desires to create with. Energy and the holding of it goes both ways. Choosing someone who will agree to hold energy with you for what you desire in a positive and joyful way is important. They rise up to support you and with the combined energy you create more. Choose someone who says they will support you but they have doubts, or fears about what you desire to create – even if they believe that they feel this way out of love, or that they are protecting you, will deplete and bring down the energy of what you desire to create.  If the depleting energy is strong enough, it can slow down or stop the creation process, or create something other than what you intended. Muddy intentions equal muddy water that you can not see through to create clearly.

If it feels appropriate,  you can consider inviting that person to become your ally, supporting you in what you desire to create. Explain how important what you desire to create it and how it will benefit them too because you will experience joy in realizing your creation, and doing it together can make it more so. You might want to start off in a creation partnership with something that  is not high on your have to create scale while you experiment with what the two of you can create together. Go for a set off concert tickets or getting an item on e-bay. Build from there if you create well together.

 Set an intention that you create energy partners – people who will hold high energy for you and you them in the same was as I have mentioned above.

 Finally, what does your front and back door look like? How is it positioned? Highlighted? What color is it? How is it decorated? How is it used? What sits on the ground or steps or porch around it?  Is there chipped, or cracked paint or bricks or a nice coat of paint and well pointed bricks. Are there inviting flowers (real, silk, or dried for those that may not have a green thumb or feel they have time to maintain a garden) or are there weeds that are overgrown?  What do these things say about you. Is it easy to get in and out of the house or is it blocked? How is the outside space used? How is the inside space - entry way, foyer , or stairs used?

 Look at these things and think about how these entries into your space reflect what you desire to create. Do they? Do they support you or deplete you?

 Do you have multiple doors into your space with many angles, or two doors?

Here is an example from someone  who requested info on creating CASH and how I replied to them . . .

 

"I know that your rear yard and the energy that sweeps to the front of your home faces a cemetery. A wonderful resting place for souls who have passed on. How does that effect the energy coming into the entrance of your home that you have been using most?

 What comes to mind for you?

Is it lively, energizing, creating, or at rest, passed on, still? And what energy do you desire?

If it is lively, how can you invite lively energy into your space? Energy in motion? Creation?

 How can you offer a balance to the at rest energy of those who have passed on. To the energy of passing on?  Maybe a whirligig or two in the yard. Maybe a wind chime hanging from the ceiling near your door. Something that stimulates movement and invites creative energy, to balance the energy of those at rest who have moved on that resides outside of your back door and rear porch..

 The rear door enters from the side and one of the first things you see/feel coming up the steps (which make several turns  and flights to get to your door ) is that the steps end in an outside wall. The energy boings at the wall. It must turn to get into your home.

 Second – what is often present on the porch floor is a full ashtray. It seems to be a neighborhood ashtray as I recall neighbors using it too. Consider getting a pretty metal tin with a lid with a little handle for ease of getting it on and off, which will respect the smokers in your home, and fill it with some sand and use that for an ashtray. A dime a dozen at the resale shop!  As an aside it can make a great outdoor incense holder. It is always helpful to burn a little incense (while you are home and it is attended) to invite welcome energy. This will make the door more inviting.

 Minimize the colors of the tin so that they are pretty but blend into and match the porch floor and or wall.  You want your attention to be drawn to the door not the floor. Change the sand in the container once a month or as needed and empty the ashes etc. weekly or as needed.

 Can you paint that door or highlight it in some way with CASH colors? Orange or Red? Maybe a decorative door piece in those colors?

 Next as you enter your side door the energy naturally heads straight for your bedroom because of the flow and direction. or your enclosed porch and the fact that you have a door to it from your bedroom. Is this where you want visitors and or energy to be drawn?  Where do you want it to go? How does it impact you to have that rush of energy coming in to your room? How can you direct it so that it turns the corner and into your kitchen? Perhaps hanging a crystal above the kitchen door to draw the energy to that door. Or placing a decorative screen in front of your bedroom door entrance to conceal the door.

Also of note, whatever you see, whatever room that you  come into to enter  your home tends to set the tone for the whole house. It puts the focus on the activities that take place in that room. See Below.

 Next, once the energy does come into your home, the main entry that you are using  enters into the kitchen. Having the kitchen be the first place that energy comes into can make for food issues. People  (including yourselves) come in and often find that they eat, whether they intend it or not, and it seems to make food and the eating of it more of a challenge in the home. It is the first place that you come. It just happens because that is the flow of the energy. Nothing wrong with eating, but if that is not the main intent of your living space – i.e. you are a chef or market Tupperware ® or Pampered Chef ® – then seek ways to keep the flow going into the main part of your home – i.e. the relaxation space , creativity space and or living room, or wherever you desire the center of your space to be. It will be better for your guests and better for you too!

 Do something that draws the energy past the kitchen, past the bathroom, past other  spaces that you desire to minimize to the living room. Work with crystals, or color or sound or scent to draw people to your power spot in your home.

Next – your front door. From my understanding you do not use it. That may be all well and good, That is your personal choice. However, here are a few things to consider. A  front door is typically how energy, and guests come into a home. It is what faces the street. It is where the energy comes when it is moving down the street. Most back doors are at the rear or side of a home. The energy  then enters the front and flows to the back. In your case there are many trees in the front of the house and they shade the front entry and energy. Pines are great, however, how can you enhance the flow so that energy comes up those stairs? It is a rental so you may have to work within those requirements and create the flow you desire accordingly.

 How about putting a pretty silk plant out on the front stoop? Does not have to be big. Just in the colors that support abundance. You have a great neighbor downstairs. I am sure  they would not mind you putting something complimentary and small out there that will not block the walkway. Wind chimes are inviting. Perhaps you could hang a small set of those. Resale shops have these all the time for a great price. Invite your neighbor to play in this creation with you too if you feel they would be game. Explain to them that you are using Feng Shui and what will benefit you will benefit them.

 Consider sweeping your front walk and porch steps off at least once a week to keep the energy flowing into your home. Likewise sweep the stairs that lead up to your front door landing inside the entry hall. Put a plant or other item or two by your door as well that is welcoming, and says CASH - Cha Ching! It also says, Joy, Peace, Right Livelihood, Creativity, Goddesses present.

How often do you open your front door? Consider doing so at least daily to create a clear intention for good things to flow through it and into your home. If your door has items in front of it inside (or outside), consider moving them for a trial period so that you can open and close that door to make way for the flow to come in. Use that door, even if it is to check the mail once a day, or walk out of it to go for a walk.

 Going to the bank? Use the front door to come and go. It invites that CASH to come right on back with you. Going to the doctor? Use that front door and invite wellness and feeling good right in that front door with you."

 Get the idea?

 Try these suggestion and intend for great things to happen!  Share with me what you create! I would love to hear about it and maybe we can share your story and what you created in a future Journal.

Make room for great things to happen and be open to receiving all that you desire and dream and remember to dream big!!!

 I can’t wait to hear what you created!!!

 

Blessings,

Nellie

 

 

 

 

 

Musings . . .

I have added this section as a place to share what is going on in my life. Because I know that none of us is separate from another maybe you will find inspiration in my musings . . . I welcome yours as well . . . and if you desire to share some of them with others, let me know and maybe  you will see them posted here in future . . .

Musings over the many months . . . lots of amazing changes . . . some very joyful, many that, as well as deeply heart touching, poignant to the depths of who I am. . .  I remarried last year and it  was a wonderful adventure and continues to be so. Right after we had completed that wondrous and blessed   event in our lives with our family and dear friends, we said goodbye to our Siamese kitten, Seth who had a congenital heart defect and passed.

Next, our son graduated from high school and went off to college. I could barley believe that the little one that I had nursed at my breast at what seemed like yesterday was now walking across that stage in his maroon gown and shaking the hand of the principle. Next thing I know we are dropping him off at college in another state, only to be heard from when funds were low, or a bill came due, or when I would instant message him, or send him a goodie package filled with some of his favorite foods. Ummm hmmm, an adult creating a life of his own, and me as momma adjusting to that.  I also experienced a version of this with my oldest daughter a few years back but somehow it is different with sons . . . A year has now passed and he is off for the summer visiting friends .  .  . I keep a stock of Starbucks cold mocha's in the fridge for when he visits and plan to turn over the washer as well . . . now wear is the laundry detergent???

Later in the year I went to Texas and completed my training to become a DISR (see http://www.wysewomen.com/disr.htm for more info). instructor. What a blessing and a gift. I was able to meet the current linage holder Starr Fuentes and be gifted with learning time in her energy. Thanks to you Starr for coming to our class.

One of my deeper challenges in the past year came when I returned from from the above training. You know how things can change in what seems an instant? Well that  time was one of those moments. My dear mother -in-law Frannie came to live with us at 95 years young as she was no longer able to live on her own and we did not want her to experience her last days in a nursing home. While many are wonderful, we wanted her with us. I became her primary caregiver for her last two years. I did things that I never thought I would do for a loved one. Things that I was blessed to be able to do.

Our children learned a great deal about what it means to grow older and they learned about how to care for another person as well. My oldest daughter joked that she was getting practice to care for me and put my depends on when she would offer respite care for me.

There were moments in the beginning and at the end when I doubted I could and my husband and friends cheered me on. You can learn a great deal about unconditional love and true service by caring for a loved one. You can also learn a great deal about the importance of a support t circle and how to ask for help. I learned both in those two years. I thought I knew what service and unconditional love was before that time. I thought I was a patient person. I took all of that to a whole new level. She taught me in ways no other had, what it means to serve when there is not chance of improvement. She gifted me with patience, with how to laugh, with how to slow down.

We did not smoke, she did. We installed smoke eaters so she could smoke. Supervised or she would burn a hole in something - which brings a smile to my face as I think of how many times I led her away from the bed with lit cigarette all the while she said  "I'm not smoking in bed".

How many months it took to persuade her that it was time to wear protective underwear because she wet when she coughed (which had been going on for years before she came to live with us). And more smiles - how many times she would sneak them off overnight when everyone was asleep and I would again change the entire bed linens and bathe her all the while she saying, I just had a bathe in her sweet New England accent, all the while making a bit of a face at m e hoping I would bend under her loving disdain of the tub.

How she would shuffle out to the snack basket that we kept on the snack bar area  and root around in it looking for her favorite junk food - which I kept stocked. We could have had stock in the snack food companies.

How we would play family games like Pictionary and we would attempt to explain the rules and she would just grin this silly and endearing toothless grin and play her way anyway.

How she would bat her eyes at the handsome waiter in the restaurant.  One of Frannie's favorite sayings was there may not be fire in the fireplace but there is still smoke in the chimney.

When I came home last October  from my trip (I was gone two weeks) I knew something was wrong. She had lost more weight and her feet were swollen. We were at the doctors office within three days and checked into the hospital that same day. Initial diagnosis, thrombosis - i.e clot in her left leg. Later that day and over the next couple of days they determined she had metastatic colon cancer, that was in her lungs, adrenals , and possibly brain. They gave her thee to six months maybe a little more with surgery, but said she might not wake up at her age and with her smoking history (most of her life). We told her as best as she was able to understand in a lucid moment and she said, whatever will be, will be and opted not to have surgery.

We took her home  to die with the help of Hospice and she died the day before Thanksgiving, in a raging snowstorm that we know she joyfully created to herald her out. Thank God/dess for Hospice. I know that they made it possible for me to be at her side, to medicate her, to ease her pain, and care for her after she died.  They helped me dress her in her favorite pink fluffy robe and slippers and place  one of her favorite pastimes on her lap for her final plane trip, her Chippendales calendar. A yearly Christmas favorite of hers that would give her a grin from ear to ear as she turned the pages looking at each months man of the month.

They talked with my youngest daughter to help her understand the process of dying, what it was like to have a loved one die at home, and how to process it. They supported my husband in helping him to make funeral arrangements and to transport her body as she had wanted to donate her body to a medical school in New England. They also supported him by supporting me. Offering me respite care so that I could leave for a few minutes to care for myself.

Thank you Hospice! Each of you made it possible to send dear Frannie off in grand and loving style. Just the way that she lived.

 

This is Frannie with Santa, Christmas, 2oo3

 

 

Later that year, not even a full month, my best friend called to tell me that her husband had been diagnosed with lung cancer. I staggered with her, hardly believing that this was happening. Her husband at peace with it. He passed near to the end of February of this year (2005) and I was blessed, along with my husband to be able to go to the airport and drive my friend and her husband back to their hometown so that he could die near his children. He passed less than two weeks later. My friend summed  up her experience, and mine, well  . . .

She said" I just did not know how I was going to do it all. Pack up my home, care for my husband and get us almost two thousand miles across the country so that he could die at home. I did not know if I could do it . . . I prayed to God and asked for angels to watch over me, and us. Little did I know that God provided angels in the form of human beings. There was one there at every step of the way.  My children, my sister, my niece, her best friend, my friends. From helping to pack my home, to making sure I ate, to getting me across the country and getting my husband to his final resting place.  I am soooo grateful!!!

Ditto, my firend, Ditto . . .

 

When you are next given the chance, remember to say I love you to the ones that mean the most to you, and give a little care to everyone you meet. You never know whom you may have helped or how they may in turn one day help you. . .

 

My/our most recent adventure has been moving to Wisconsin as you will see from the new mailing address on the home page. My husband was transferred, a good thing, and I am now beginning anew to define how WyseWomen, and I through her ,can serve. New beginnings, not unlike Frannies passing.  Starting another chapter, new to our area. . . reaching out to others of like mind to make those joyful connections . . .

I'll keep you posted how it all goes . . .

 

Blessings,

Nellie