Category Archives: Guest Bloggers

I’m Still Here: Tara Darlene Smith’s Incredible Comeback from the Edge

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It is my intention with this website, to provide hope and encouragement to others, primarily through the power of music. Before I share the article Tara composed for us, there is no better introduction to this remarkable woman and the things she accomplished than this short video and song written and produced for her by Songwriting with Soldiers:

Sunflowers in Iraq

By Tara Darlene Smith

Sunflowers grew in Iraq, too.

In Ireland, my chosen home, I drive past a bright cluster, and remember. 

Sunflowers were the perkiest part of any convoy I drove on. Sometimes they were a blur of yellow, other times, I luxuriated in a longer glance. In Iraq, I could have gotten someone killed for tracking beauty instead of potential danger. Behind ballistic-grade sunglasses, I’d glimpse their sunshine petals and deep brown flesh. When their faces turned towards light and danced on the wind, my grin was tough to conceal. I did my best.

Smiling was frowned upon. As was joy. And those were the only two things I was ever any good at. 

I pretended to be proficient at soldiering. My fear was that no one, especially not me, bought my act. I came from a land of greens and blues, golden light and malls that sprawled. Desert air wasn’t so different from the feel of summer in the suburbs. And without all of those Targets and Starbucks in the way, in Iraq, I had a better view of the horizon. Pinks, oranges, and purples stirred parts of me I had to re-stifle daily. 

I hadn’t expected anything beyond desolation. How could the enemy live beneath such lush skies? Parched earth was the neutral backdrop of my musings. Or rather, a stage that showcased every violent contrast. I was told we were there to help. I was also trained to kill. Protectors or predators? At war, there was never time to reconcile such conflicts.

We remained coiled springs, tense and ready for release. But whenever mortar rounds were launched at our base, we did not fire back. We hunkered in bunkers, down, down, down, like ants. More like contained cockroaches, never free to scurry from the light of explosions. Why were we taught to fight if retaliation was unauthorized? And how could peace grow from such unstable soil? 

No answers came from questions I dared not ask. Instead, I fixated on micro-battles within. I supressed a lilt in my heart whenever desert rain washed over us. Or when those defiant sunflowers brightened the beige landscape. My smile bloomed through the cracks in my Kevlar. You could send the California girl to war, but you couldn’t (fully) remove the song in her soul. I held on to the rhythm that sunrises, sunsets, and starry nights provided. 

Cranes delivered more stacks of cement, placed around our sagging, mustard yellow tents. Unless their dusty roofs took a direct hit, we were “safe” because of those thick gray walls. Smooth on the sides and flat up top, we waited until the sky blackened, scaled them, then perched. The cool night air felt closer atop the barricades. A constant threat of death inspired the stars to twinkle with greater intensity. Or maybe, war had permanently altered my vision.

When I believed the enemy was everywhere, I was constantly rewarded with evidence. Blasts of bombs and color intermingled in my mind’s eye. A fiery sunrise as we started the day’s convoy foreshadowed the abandoned vehicle we drove past that afternoon. The scent of burning tire flesh clung to my clothes. How that green overturned truck came to be engulfed in flames was a mystery. Explanations were not handed down to low-level soldiers; confusion was part of the collateral damage. 

The underbelly of patriotism was ignorance. I was blinded by mine. But I started asking myself silently, secretly, What am I doing here? Question marks in my heart twisted and rotated, then morphed into anchors. 

And what about that roadside bomb, perfectly designed to harm from a distance? A few seconds delay in detonation meant that I was not converted into mist. Everything rattled as I drove through, but my HMMWV was only dusted with fine blue powder. Beyond the immediate gift of more time to exist, I craved clarity. Why did they want to kill me? Decades later, part of me still can’t help but take that IED personally. 

Sometimes, I have reimagined the attack. Like the blast happened near a golden expanse of fields. No sunflowers were about that day. But in my reclamation, seconds before impact, their petaled faces have appeared. In slow motion. The explosion. Then, catapulted leafy green bodies. They rose. They hovered above the tan armor of my truck. They fell. Left to wilt on hot pavement after I drove away. Forever released from joyful wind dances.

No matter how far my mind wanders, fresh Irish fields, and the air they sweeten, bring me back. On Ireland’s rugged soil, I am grounded. 

My California roots flourish in this soft rain, and the longer I’m here, the brighter I bloom. What has faded between war and now is my desperation for certainty. I could fill a thousand pages with all that I don’t understand. As unanswered questions remain in the ether, what matters most is that here, I am safe to ask them.

Then the greens, blues, and gentle light remind me to focus on what I can feel. Like warmth in my core that spreads to my limbs when I rest near an open turf fire. Or a grin that lingers on my lips long after I drive past a vibrant garden. Because I am free to savor this simple truth—sunflowers grow in Ireland, too. 

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TARA DARLENE SMITH feeds her soul by writing and reading creative nonfiction. She hopes to move ever closer to her truth one word at a time. She has studied creative writing in California and Colorado, earning her B.A. and M.A. Tara believes that where she writes is as important as what she writes about, and most recently has moved to the captivating west coast of Ireland to work. Tara’s love of the sea, traditional Irish music, and building community through storytelling have collided in the most fantastic ways in County Clare. As she continues to craft her memoir, Tara is fueled by caffeine and fierce optimism. Please visit her website at www.taradarlenesmith.com

***If you, or anyone you know is contemplating suicide, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Prevention Lifeline provides free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones,  24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Simply call 988.

For more information on Songwriting with Soldiers: https://songwritingwithsoldiers.org

Sunflowers photo credit: Susanne Jutzeler, Schweiz from Pixabay

Interview with Tracy Farquhar, Part II

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Tracy Farquhar

Last week, Tracy talked about how she first realized she had extraordinary gifts and gave advice on how to get started if you, too, are in interested in cultivating your psychic abilities. Please enjoy the final segment of our interview.

Pat: How would you say that can we grow, as human beings, by listening to our intuition and trusting in otherworldly phenomena that we can’t see with our eyes or can’t always “prove”? In other words, how do experiences like these enhance our lives if we allow them to?

Tracy: Our brains are amazing processors of information. They can be compared to computers, which make sense of the information we receive through our physical senses so that we can function as humans. And like a computer, our brains require programming to determine the way we process those bits of information. The brain is programmed by our learned beliefs, our culture and our personal experiences, and as such, they are not always the best guidance system. Our higher senses are more connected to our higher wisdom, so we will often feel an “urge” or intuitive sense that we should follow a certain path or investigate a certain opportunity, even if it doesn’t make logical sense to our brain. If we ignore those signals, we may be missing out on some amazing life experiences and we may keep ourselves stuck in situations that aren’t in our highest good. We all tune in to those higher senses at various times without even realizing it, like when we can feel the energy in a room or when we sense the way something or someone feels beyond what our five senses tell us. Our intuition can also help us avoid dangerous and harmful experiences. A couple years ago, I was driving on a highway when I “got” a voice in my head that said, “Stay away from the trucks.” So I passed a line of tractor trailers ahead of me and continued on. A little while later, I heard it again and realized I was behind another huge truck so I eased off the gas to leave a lot of room between us when suddenly the tread completely unraveled from the gigantic back tire of the truck and came flying at my car. Because I had listened to that voice and backed off, the tread hit the road in front of my car instead of my windshield, and I was so grateful that I knew enough to pay attention to what I was receiving. I don’t know where that voice came from; it could have been my Higher Self, my guides, a loved one in spirit or even Source itself, but all I need to know is that it helped me avoid a potentially deadly outcome.

P: Yes. I’ve had similar experiences, for sure, but didn’t always know why I got the idea to take a different turn or something. I’m learning to trust these kinds of moments, though, because we don’t always know what could happen if we ignore the messages. Ok; on to my next question–without mentioning names, can you share one of your favorite psychic connection moments?

T: Once, fairly early in my career as a psychic medium, I was doing a spirit gallery, which is a group mediumship event, and I was connecting with a spirit (I don’t remember who it was) for a woman in the audience. I saw a white car, which felt important, but the woman said she didn’t have a white car. I then saw child safety seats in the car, but the woman said she didn’t have any children. I got a strong sense that the safety seats needed to be adjusted and tightened, but again the woman shrugged and didn’t seem to connect with the information. I urged her to take note of it, though, because it felt important. About a week later, the woman emailed me and said that the day after the reading, she went to her job at a daycare and realized that the van they used to transport the children was white, and that it had child safety seats in it, so she went into the van and tightened all the straps holding the seats down. A few days later, the van full of children was broadsided by a speeding car. She came out of it with cracked ribs, but all the children were safe. 

P: Wow! That was right on! Glad everyone survived. And now, we are going through some difficult times in our world. Do you have any advice for us on how to cope?

T: First of all, know that your reactions and responses to this unique situation are personal to you, and it will be in your best interest to allow any fluctuating emotional responses to flow without trying to suppress them. If the tears come, allow them. If you feel frustrated or angry, sit with those emotions and consider healthy ways to work through them, like doing some physical activity or writing them down. If you’re feeling fear, ask what action that fear is motivating. Healthy actions include limiting public activity, washing your hands, wearing a mask, and doing everything you can to stay safe. Beyond that, fear is not helping you, so it’s time to turn your attention to what feels better. If you have more time on your hands, this is a perfect opportunity to get back in touch with your creative nature in any way you like. Try some creative expression or creative thinking that’s different from what you normally allow yourself to do or think. We are experiencing a tremendous global shift, the likes of which no one alive today has ever experienced, and you can participate by deciding what to do with it in your own life. Be aware of what’s going on, but understand that you don’t need to immerse yourself in it 24/7. Turn off the news. Make choices based on how you want to feel, and how you want to come out of the other side of this experience. How do you want this to affect your life? You get to decide whether this will inspire you toward something better, or crush you under the weight of fear and despair. Know that your choices and actions not only affect your own personal life, they affect the energetic trajectory of our planet, so make compassionate, kind and loving choices wherever possible. And most of all, be compassionate, kind and loving to yourself, since that’s where it all begins.

P: Has Frank any advice on dealing with our current world situation and feelings of anxiety and fear?

T: Frank, the collective I channel, has been encouraging us for several years as we move through this shift. Much of what they channeled in both of my books, Frank Talk and Channeled Messages from Deep Space, is very relevant to the world situation at this time. They continue to urge us to stay focused on the desired result in all aspects of our own life and the world at large. As I mentioned above, they suggest that we engage in creative acts and to embrace the possibilities for change and expansion. Creative thinking is needed now to come up with new systems that will better serve our world, as this has been a period of revealing the truths around the systems that no longer work. They would like us to continue to appreciate and care for our world and understand how precious it is, and how all of our actions are interconnected, which is something we can certainly see during this crisis. 

P: That’s great advice, for sure. In closing, is there a question you wish someone would ask you, but you’ve never been asked?

T: How does being a professional psychic medium affect your everyday life? In all aspects of my life apart from my career, I live a pretty quiet and low-key life, which is by choice. As an extreme introvert, I prefer being at home and I have a small circle of close friends. While my career puts me in the public eye, I’m not sure I’d want the degree of fame that some of the big-name psychic mediums have. The mainstream views on people in my profession can be pretty harsh and I’ve occasionally been the target of ridicule, fear and scathing criticism. Some of the reviews of my books have been hard to read, but I’m less and less affected by criticism as I get older. One of the things I learned from Frank as I was writing my books was that if anyone criticizes or ridicules my work, that just means it’s not for them, so I don’t have to be concerned with what they say. This has helped me a lot through the years, and now I’m not too concerned with the skeptics. I’m proud of the work I do and I know I’ve done some good in the world with my gifts, and I’m pleased that I’ve been able to support myself and my two kids with it. It certainly hasn’t been an easy road and I certainly haven’t become wealthy from it, but it’s been incredibly enlightening and fulfilling, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

P: A huge thank you, Tracy, for doing this interview with me. I’ll bet there are a lot of people who have questions for you now that they’ve been introduced to you. Are you offering any specials or discounts to people who may be reading this post?

T: I’m offering a special discount to anyone reading this interview! You can get 25% off any 30- or 60-minute psychic, mediumship or spirit guide reading by phone or online via Zoom. Just click this link to schedule and enter the coupon code HUMMINGBIRD (all caps) to get the discount: https://tracyfarquharpsychic.as.me/.

P: Is there anything you’d like to add?

T: Please take good care of yourselves through this difficult time. Treat yourself gently and amp up your self-care routine. And don’t be afraid to reach out when you need support. We all need to take care of each other. Wishing you good health and peace.

P: I second that. For more information on Tracy, and for details on the different types of readings she offers plus current classes and workshops, please visit: www.TracyFarquhar.com.

Interview with Psychic Medium, Channel, Teacher, & Hay House Author–the Incredible Tracy Farquhar

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Tracy Farquhar

I’ve known Tracy Farquhar for quite a few years now. Not only do I know from personal experience that she is an extraordinary human being, I also know that she is an extraordinary psychic medium, teacher and author. Tracy is the real deal–truly gifted–like nothing I have ever seen.

Years ago, she helped me find a friend I’d lost contact with for years. Unfortunately this dear friend had passed away several years before I enlisted Tracy’s help, but because of her help, I was able to “connect” with this old friend and find some much-needed peace and closure.

Tracy has authored two books. The first is titled, Frank Talk: A Book of Channeled Wisdom. According to her website, www.tracyfarquhar.com:

“Frank is a spirit collective from another world channeled by Tracy. They have been sharing inspirational and uplifting messages since 2009.”

Also from www.tracyfarquhar.com: 

“Tracy’s second book is titled, From Deep Space with Love: A Conversation about Consciousness, the Universe and Building a Better World, co-authored with NY Times Best-Selling Author, star of The Secret and celebrated speaker Mike Dooley, was released by Hay House on May 9, 2017, and the paperback version, Channeled Messages from Deep Space: Wisdom for a Changing World, was released on September 18, 2018.”

Tracy also teaches psychic development training classes and workshops and provides personal mediumship services, spirit galleries, and coaching for clients. And she does all of this in her kind, caring, and warm manner. I am truly honored to know this remarkable and gifted woman.

Following is my interview with her:

Pat: Thanks so very much for doing this interview with me, Tracy. To begin, will you please tell us about when you first realized that you had spiritual abilities? How old were you?

Tracy: I’ve always been extremely sensitive and was easily overwhelmed by crowds, noise and high-energy situations. I was a loner as a child and never had a lot of friends, so in sixth grade I was sent to the school psychologist for some tests to see what was “wrong” with me. I spent most of my life believing these sensitivities were a fault until my 40s when I started taking a continuing education course in psychic development at a local community college. I had always been interested in metaphysical and paranormal topics but never thought that I had any talents in this area until I started doing some practice readings in those classes which showed me that not only was I pretty good at it, I also had a real passion for this work. My life changed in so many ways when I discovered that my lifelong sensitivities were actually gifts, rather than faults, and I took this course over and over again to continue practicing and experimenting with my abilities.

P: Did your parents or grandparents have these gifts? Your siblings?

T: I have one sister who has psychic abilities, and I have a recently-discovered half-brother who seems to be sensitive and spiritually-inclined.

P: Tell us how you began to develop your gifts in the beginning.

T: I was working as a secretary at an arts college while I was taking the psychic development classes, and the art students loved getting free readings, so that’s how I practiced in the beginning. Fortunately, the faculty were very understanding and supportive, and even incorporated my readings into some of the students’ assignments. After a while, when I felt ready, I started offering group and individual sessions as a side business, and when my psychic development teacher had a heart attack and couldn’t teach anymore, I started a weekly group that met in my home for about two years for further practice and sharing.

P: What were some of the hardest lessons you learned along the way?

T: I learned early on that I had to avoid trying to interpret everything I was receiving and instead, just convey it. The first time I did a reading outside of the classroom for a student in the college, I picked up on a spirit who showed himself to me with dark hair and a slim build, wearing a white apron and holding a knife. I thought the knife seemed creepy so I left that out of the description I gave the girl I was reading, but it turned out that it was her grandfather who was a butcher! The knife wasn’t creepy at all; it was a way for him to identify himself, so I had to learn that it was my job to describe what I was receiving rather than interpret it though my own filters. I also used to feel bad if someone cried in a reading, but I learned that tears can be healing and can express more than just sadness. And as my confidence in my abilities grew, I learned that just because someone isn’t relating to something I’m telling them in the context of a reading, it doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily wrong. I’ve had many clients who didn’t understand something during the reading but who contacted me later to tell me they thought about it later, or asked other family members about it and found it the information was actually accurate. So I don’t doubt myself as much as I used to.

P: That’s a lesson I think most of us need to learn to apply to other aspects of our lives as well–not to doubt ourselves so much and to have more confidence in who we are. I also believe that we all have psychic abilities to some degree, don’t you?

T: I absolutely believe that we all have higher senses in addition to our five physical senses that help us process reality, but our culture doesn’t support those senses so we tend to consciously block them. Many children exhibit tendencies to interact with spirit, or sense energy in a way that seems natural to them, but because it’s not encouraged and, in fact, it’s often ridiculed or feared in our culture, they will learn to block those abilities. But we all receive intuitive and psychic information on a subconscious level; we just think it’s coming from our own thoughts and ideas. Learning to bring that awareness into our conscious daily lives can greatly enhance our life experience by making us more confident in our ability to make decisions, helping us to feel more connected to each other and the natural world, and raising our awareness about the spirit world and the guidance we regularly receive. That’s why I teach intuitive and psychic development, because I know how life-changing it can be to accept these innate and powerful forms of awareness.

P: Some people might say that connecting with spirits and/or using Tarot cards is dark and evil and that if we choose to go there, we might be entering a world from which there is no turning back, so we shouldn’t mess with these things…

T: Your experience is going to be guided by your intention in all areas of your life. So if your intention in doing this work is to connect with the dark or evil side, then your experience will reflect that intention (even if it is not what is actually happening, your brain will interpret it that way). If you believe, either by learning from religious training or just from our fearful culture that these things are dark and evil, then that means that these experiences are not for you and you should probably steer clear of them. But also understand that it’s a learned belief, and not the truth. My intention in all the work I do is to uplift, inspire, guide and motivate my clients to live their best life, and as such, there is never anything remotely dark, evil or threatening about any of the connections I make or the tools that I use. I have helped thousands of people to get a higher perspective on their life’s path, learn to trust themselves more, know that their loved ones in spirit are in a peaceful and happy place, and understand their challenges as opportunities for growth and higher wisdom. What could possibly be evil about that?

P: Indeed. To expound on this a bit more, I’ve heard people say that they’re concerned about evil entities attaching to them or attacking them or those around them–especially when they are just attempting to learn mediumship. Is that something a beginner might need to be careful of?

T: Mediumship is the ability to connect with the non-physical world, and for most people, this evokes a lot of fear. That’s because it seems to be the great unknown, and because we have such a fear of death. The media always depicts spirit entities as evil or negative, and the paranormal programs on TV always seem to focus on demonic energy, so it’s not surprising that there would be so much fear around connecting with spirit. It’s unfortunate, because that fear acts as the lens through which we interpret any kind of spirit communication. If you have an unusual experience, which may be a loved one simply letting you know that they’re still with you, your fear may cause you to interpret it as a negative experience. Consider what it’s like to walk down a dark street in an unfamiliar place; you’re on high alert because you’re nervous and fearful. If a cat suddenly darted in front of you, you’d probably jump and maybe scream, because your mind is interpreting the experience through fear. So the first thing to do is to deal with your fear. If you are nervous about evil entities attaching to you, you should probably not be practicing mediumship. Set clear intentions that you’re only connecting with higher beings and the spirits of loved ones. Your intentions are the guiding force of your experience, so always make sure you have clear intentions for what you want out of your connections. In all the years I’ve been practicing, I’ve never connected with anything remotely negative. Set your intentions, call in protection from your guides, angels and Higher Self, and proceed with confidence. If you’re working with a teacher, make sure their teaching resonates with you and isn’t creating unnecessary fear, and realize that if there were so many evil entities wanting to attach to you, there would be a whole lot of mediums (and other people) being hurt and “possessed” by them.

P: Sounds like good advice to me. Whenever I’ve witnessed you doing readings for myself or others, you always exude gentleness, respect, warmth and kindness and because of this, I think your whole presence is comforting to people. And it also brings goosebumps. And sometimes tears because of the profound connections that you make when you do readings. So when you do connect with those on the “other side,” how do you perceive them? Do you see them? Hear them? Or just simply sense that they’re there?

T: The two ways that I receive the most information from spirit are clairvoyance and clairsentience. Clairvoyance is “clear seeing” so this is where I receive images in my inner vision. Spirit will often show themselves to me in a physical way so that I can describe them, and I’ll sometimes see scenes from their life or images of things that are important to them. Clairsentience is “clear feeling” and that’s when I receive feelings and emotions that I then have to translate into language. This will happen when spirit wants to describe how they felt about certain things and when they want to convey emotion to their loved ones. Clairaudience is “clear hearing,” and this is more of an internal hearing of words rather than hearing something externally with the ears, which also sometimes happens for me, as well as clairallience, which is “clear smelling” and clairgustance, or “clear tasting” since smell and taste are such strong memory triggers. 

**End of Part I**

Intrigued? Check back here next week, for Part II of my interview with Tracy–and a special offer from Tracy just for YOU! In the meantime, for more information on Tracy and for details on the different types of readings she offers plus current classes and workshops, please visit: www.TracyFarquhar.com.

Bursts of Brilliance

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By Teresa R. Funke

For most of my life, I fell into the trap of letting my mind lead my body, and my body lead my spirit. As someone who has been a deep and incessant thinker since a very young age, it’s always been easy to let my mind be the boss. I thought it was important to be smart. I thought it was important to able to think your way through a problem. I thought the more I learned, the better off I’d be. I never believed for a minute I could learn to meditate, because everyone told me meditation required you to turn off your thoughts, and I believed that would be impossible for me. 

Five and a half years ago, I started writing a blog called, Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life. I did so because I had three kids in college or going off to college, so I was working nights and days and weekends to save up money. There was no longer time to write my novels (I’d written and published six at that point, each based on true stories from World War II) so the blog became my weekly creative outlet. Because I was so busy, I gave myself permission to write about whatever I felt like writing, not what I thought I should write. Not what I thought people wanted to read. Not what I thought might be trendy. Just what I felt like writing. And because time was lacking, and I considered the blog my escape, I never rewrote or questioned any of the posts I put out there (although I did edit them, of course). 

Teresa’s previous books

Then something interesting happened. People started reading the blog, and not just artists, who were my intended audience, but teachers and health care professionals and businesspeople. It seemed that everyone could relate to my musings on finding time to create, battling my inner critic, wondering if my work mattered, and learning to trust my intuition. People started sending me e-mails to tell me how much they liked a particular post and how much it touched them. Why? Because it tapped into their feelings too. So, I kept writing one new post every week, with no self-censorship. In putting my feelings on the page, I also came to some stunning realizations about myself, about the importance of art, about how this blog was helping me tap into my Higher Self. 

The blog gave me permission to just feel my journey, rather than trying to explain it. The words came effortlessly once I stopped trying to “think” about how to say things just right. And when I decided to edit the blog into a book, I knew that through the expression of my own doubts, insecurities, and fears, but also passions, revelations, and triumphs, I would find like-hearted souls who could relate. 

My new book, also called Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life, is an edited compilation of the best blog posts from the first five years. My biggest lesson in creating this book has been that when we let our hearts lead, when we lean into our passion and trust the guidance of our Higher Selves, we will make real connections. We will raise the vibration of this worried and wonderful world. We will see ourselves in others and see new parts of ourselves. 

If you haven’t given yourself permission to create lately, please do. We need your creative energy to lift us all up. Try a new recipe, plant something different in your garden, assemble the perfect outfit, or pick up your pencil, paintbrush, or instrument again. Tell your mind to take a break. Tell it that for the time it takes to make your creation, your soul is now the boss!

PS–I finally did learn to meditate, once I accepted that you can’t shut off your thoughts, but you can choose not to focus on them.

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Bio: Teresa Funke believes there’s an artist in everyone. Her newest book, Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life, helps readers ignite their creative spirit and rediscover their passion, their purpose, and their power. Today’s chaotic world requires an army of innovative thinkers—and you are one of them!

Teresa is the embodiment of the modern artist/entrepreneur. She’s the owner of Teresa Funke & Company and Bursts of Brilliance™ and has authored seven award-winning novels for adults and children set in World War II, including Dancing in Combat Boots and War on a Sunday Morning. She is a sought-after instructional and motivational speaker, a writing consultant, and a community catalyst. She created the Self-Publishing Blueprint, the only tool you’ll need to self-publish successfully.

Visit www.teresafunke.com to access writing resources or learn more about Teresa’s books or visit www.burstsofbrilliance.com to find evolving ways to boost your artistic energy and increase your fun factor!

Teresa’s grace, intelligence, writing, coaching, and publishing expertise, along with her soft spoken-manner and fiery spirit is sure to inspire you as much as is it has me and many others. I highly recommend checking out her blog and her books for yourself. You won’t regret it. –Baja Rock Pat

Guest Bloggers Coming Soon!

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As you may be aware, I haven’t posted much over the past few years. It is due to a lot of personal issues. However, I’m working on getting up and running again. I just published my first post recently, and, as I mentioned in my post, there is something magical about Land’s End in Cabo San Lucas. Once more, I am inspired to pick up where I left off, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I have several guest bloggers who will be adding their words to this website very soon, so stay tuned! You’re gonna love them!

Thanks for your support.

~Baja Rock Pat

Guest Post by Author Dean K Miller: Whose Voice Do We Hear?

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What is “automatic writing”? Can this technique be of any benefit to you?

Please welcome my friend and fellow author Dean K Miller. I will allow him to explain. (Following his post, Dean has a free, but limited-time offer you’ll want to be sure to take advantage of.)

Whose Voice Do We Hear?
by Dean K Miller

The ways authors find inspiration are as different as the individual authors themselves. Add to this mix the countless places writers find their words and stories and you can see why writing is such an individual (but not necessarily lonely) pursuit. But what if you heard a story being told to you, even if it didn’t seem to be in your own voice? Would you trust those words?

A couple years ago I was working with a technique called “automatic writing.” There are several definitions of automatic writing, but in general the practice allows one to channel your Higher Self or Spirit Guides through claircognizance and then transcribe that onto paper. (Here is one resource for automatic writing from Anna Sayce: http://annasayce.com/how-to-do-automatic-writing) After completing several sessions (always asking for protection before starting each one,) I found myself compelled to bring those words out to the real world. But how? The automatic writing was fragmented, seldom containing complete sentences or even entire thoughts. As one writes with this technique (without judgment or correction) the results appear as babbling, random words.

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Example of automatic writing session from Dean’s personal journal.

These unconscious ideas continually nagged my conscious brain to bring them to life. As I began to assemble my first book of essays, creative nonfiction, and poetry, I kept those writings in mind. Somewhere in the process I found the inspiration to work my automatic writing samples into a fictional tale. This allowed me to present the material in a manner that kept the most personal aspects and words private, but still permitted the collective positive vibes to be published. The Odyssey of a Monk was born.

The short story is about a young orphaned monk who leaves the Buddhist temple he was raised in, to venture out on his own. It was an exciting challenge to weave my automatic writing pieces into a fictional tale and its characters. First I needed to make coherent thoughts out of the bits and pieces I had written down. Weeding through each session’s pages, I found common themes and intertwined them. Next I created various elders (monks, a shaman and others) to present these words of wisdom to the young monk as he travels the countryside. As the young monk encounters the wise elders, each one offers advice and answers the monk’s questions via the passages from my writing sessions. The storyline flowed naturally from this process as each encountered gives the young monk the advice he needs at different points in his life.

Odyssey of a Monk Cover_Final

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Thanks Patricia for hosting me today and I hope your readers enjoy the free download of The Odyssey of a Monk, which is available for Kindle readers from Oct. 10 – 12. Here is the link for the Ebook: http://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Monk-Dean-K-Miller-ebook/dp/B00O2A097I/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412613430&sr=1-1&keywords=the+odyssey+of+a+monk

PAIDDean K Miller is an author and free lance writer who resides in Loveland, CO. His first book, And Then I Smiled: Reflections on a Life Not Yet Complete was released in February 2014 via Hot Chocolate Press. The short story The Odyssey of a Monk opened to Kindle readers on September 29, 2014. His first poetry collection, titled Echoes: Reflections Through Poetry and Verse is scheduled for release November 1, 2014, also via Hot Chocolate Press.

Dean works for the Federal Aviation Administration, logging more than 26 years as an air traffic controller. He listens to the voices, both at work and in the world around him, because one might tell him something worth writing down. Learn more at www.deankmiller.com

 

Today’s Guest Blogger: Mystery Writer Patricia Stoltey

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Patricia Stoltey

 

 

It is my pleasure to feature Patricia Stoltey as our guest blogger today. I hope you will post your comments or questions, as she is on hand and ready to reply to your comments. And thank you, Pat, for taking the time to interact with my readers today. Your professionalism and talent are an inspiration to many.

Paying Attention Might Change Your Life by Patricia Stoltey

Pat, thanks so much for inviting me to visit Voice of the Spirit. I’m especially honored to be here as I’m a big fan of your inspirational memoir Dance of the Electric Hummingbird and admire the commitment and the hard work it took to get your story published. Everything that happened for you indicates you’re someone who pays attention.

For me, paying attention means observe, notice, listen, and interpret. Instead of charging through my day as if I were in complete control, I need to feel the underlying message, test my interpretation, and then act with confidence.

A few years ago I stayed with my mom in Illinois after her knee replacement surgery. Over the years, I’d tried hard to convince her to move to Colorado to be closer to me, but she couldn’t decide. My brother and his wife lived nearby, and because of their health issues, it would have been harder for them to travel to Colorado than for me to visit Illinois.

Just before her surgery, however, my brother had to move to a town closer to health care providers and Mom was unable to make the move on her own. Now just out of the hospital and still on pain medicine, totally dependent on me, she was at her most vulnerable. I wanted to swoop in, take charge, and move her to Colorado.

It didn’t quite work out the way I wanted. As I watched and listened to what my mother and brother were not saying, which was far more revealing than what they were saying, I realized there had to be a better solution. I had ten days left in my two-week stay, and only seven of those days were weekdays. In that time, I rented the only available apartment in the same complex where my brother now lived, and it just happened to be a ground floor apartment which was critical because of Mom’s arthritis. I found a local mover who could transfer her furniture and possessions immediately. We got the house listed for sale, everything packed, the move completed, and a caregiver to visit each morning to finish Mom’s therapy from the surgery.

I believe nothing happens that fast, without a single hitch, unless I’m 100% doing the right thing. That conviction eased my disappointment and helped banish any regret I might have experienced later, especially during those inconvenient layovers in Chicago’s O’Hare airport.

And guess what. The force is still with me. As I got older and a little more creaky, Frontier suddenly added a direct flight to an airport only 45 minutes from where Mom (now age 93) lives, and there’s a convenient shuttle between the cities. No more all-day travel events with four hours to kill in O’Hare.

Serendipity is often seen as a mere surprise or accident, synchronicity as coincidence. I don’t believe that for a minute. I’ve experienced way too many surprises and coincidences in my lifetime. I think it’s because I look for them, I expect them, and I express my gratitude for every signal and every sign.

Here’s another little story for you. Not long ago, I received an e-mail through my website from a gentleman named Gary Sand who wrote a novel called In Dreams. Out of the blue, he contacted me and asked if he could send me a copy. He had figured out from photos, my website, and my blog that he’d written about my generation and that I now lived in the state where most of the novel is set. He had a feeling I might enjoy the read. Gary doesn’t aspire to be a writer of dozens of books, and he had no expectations for a review or publicity. Being the book lover I am, I of course said, Sure.”

I put the book on the bottom of the To Be Read stack on my coffee table (a stack that seems to grow taller every week), but that particular book kept drawing my attention—I couldn’t help but wonder, “Why me? Why did Gary send it to me?” Finally I pulled In Dreams out of the stack and read it almost straight through. I ended up in tears…twice.

Gary’s novel told of events in my own life experience, events Gary would have no way of knowing. The parallels are stunning. His story was almost like a rap on my head, a reminder that we are all connected and we should pay attention to our instincts as Gary did by asking to send me a book. And I paid attention to the signals that said, “Read Gary’s book now, because you need a reminder to count your blessings.”

There are a couple of books you might want to read if you’re interested in these topics. Rhonda Byrne’s The Magic focuses on gratitude. Alex Marcoux just released Lifesigns: Tapping the Power of Synchronicity, Serendipity and Miracles.

Now how about you? Do you pay attention?

Links:

In Dreams (http://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Gary-Sand/dp/B005CHKIAI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351028939&sr=1-1&keywords=In+Dreams+Gary+Sand)

Lifesigns (http://www.amazon.com/Lifesigns-Tapping-Synchronicity-Serendipity-Miracles/dp/0615627978/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351028775&sr=1-2&keywords=lifesigns)

The Magic  (http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Secret-Rhonda-Byrne/dp/1451673442/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351028863&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Magic)

 

Bio:

Patricia Stoltey lives in Northern Colorado with her husband and two-year old Katie Kitty. She is the author of two amateur sleuth mysteries in the Sylvia and Willie series published by Five Star and Harlequin Wordwide, and she has three standalone suspense manuscripts in the works. The Prairie Grass Murders and The Desert Hedge Murders are now available as e-books for Kindle and Nook.

You can find more about Patricia and her books at her website (http://patriciastoltey.com/) and blog (http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com/). She can also be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/patricia.stoltey) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/PStoltey).

Links:

Prairie Grass Murders: (http://www.amazon.com/Prairie-Murders-Sylvia-Mystery-ebook/dp/B004FGMT0Y/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1351031661&sr=1-1)

Desert Hedge Murders: ( http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Murders-Willie-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00960SI9K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1351031721&sr=1-1&keywords=the+desert+hedge+murders)