Today’s story is from long ago, 1682 as a matter of fact. Much has been written about the first Thanksgiving and the debt and gratitude owed to the Native Americans who helped the struggling European settlers who were new to this land.

A little known story is of the Quaker William Penn who came from England in the 1600’s to escape severe religious persecution (he’d been thrown in prison twice already for his beliefs).  His dream was to form a unique community of religious tolerance and inclusion in the new world, the first of its kind in the history of humankind. 

The Lenape Native American tribe was already living on the land where Penn wanted to settle.

Before starting out on his journey across the sea, Penn wrote eloquently and respectfully to the Lenape, insisting that his words be meticulously translated into their language:

“I am very sensible of the unkindness and injustice that hath been too much exercised toward you by the people of these parts of the world, which I hear hath been a matter of trouble to you and caused great grudgings and animosities, sometimes to the shedding of blood … But I am not such a man …”

In his letter, Penn went further, and surprised the Lenape with words utterly unexpected: 

Instead of simply announcing his upcoming arrival, Penn respectfully requested the Lenape’s consent. He asked if they would consent for him come, to put down new roots and to bring others who would also make a new home in this land, to create a new city, Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love (Greek:  Phileo – “love” and Adelphos – “brotherly”):

“I desire to enjoy it with your love and consent, that we may always live together as neighbors and friends.”

As a result of his beautiful expression of purpose for unity, the Lenape welcomed Penn when he arrived. 

Penn attended their Councils, studied and learned their Lenape language in less than a year so he could communicate with them directly, without the cumbersome intervention of a translator.  He won their trust.  Penn paid the Lenape for their land and only took land that was agreeably paid for. 

Inspired by Penn, Tamanend, the Chief of the Lenape, studied and learned English and refused to participate in any campaign waged by the Iroquois to drive out the Europeans. 

It turns out the Quakers and the Lenape had much in common.  Just as the Lenape believed they had a kinship with all things, Quakers believed in universal brotherhood derived through the spark of the divine, or Inner Light, within all people.

As a sign of their mutual trust, Penn and Tamanend together signed a beautiful peace treaty in a remarkable ceremony by the banks of the Delaware River.  There, in the Lenape language, Penn said:

“We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love … We are the same as if one man’s body was to be divided into two parts; we are all one flesh and blood.”

Tamanend, the Chief of the Lenape replied:

“We and Christians of this river have always had a free roadway to one another. Though sometimes a tree has fallen across the road, yet we have still removed it again and kept the path clean and we design to continue the old friendship that has been between us.

“We will live in love with Onas (Penn’s Indian name) and his children as long as the creeks and rivers run and while the sun, moon, and stars endure.”

As a result, the Native Americans and the European settlers in this area enjoyed an unparalleled 70 years of unbroken peaceful relations, trade and co-existence. 

The only thing that really divides people is an inability to respectfully communicate. It’s not our beliefs, our differences, our desires, or our cultures, but our inability to respectfully and successfully exchange ideas about them.

When you are able to communicate, you can’t be divided.

A person with a real ability to communicate is empowered to cross over to different cultures, different convictions and faiths, and make real friends and allies, to create a world where you are helping others and they are helping you.  Where real exchange begins.

William Penn was such a man.  And so was Tamanend, Chief of the Lenape.

These men are living examples that with the ability to communicate comes a real exchange of ideas and, with that, we are able to create real understandings, with which we can create unity and union.  We are able to unite our existences, unite our efforts, unite our powers, unite our minds, unite our spirits, unite our hearts.  Unite our forces.

To me that’s what Thanksgiving is all about. Spending time with those with whom we enjoy the most fulfilling communication, the deepest emotional and spiritual unions, with those special people with whom we can communicate and who most nourish our hearts and our souls. Enjoying the blessings successful communication and human relations bring.

I wish you a very beautiful Thanksgiving. I personally am very grateful for you. Every time I reach out and communicate and know that my communication has been received, I feel a well of gratitude.  Thank you for being there.

Love,

Ingrid

In public they referred to each other as, “Mr. Madison” and “Mr. Jefferson”.  They began their many letters to each other with the grave formality of, “Dear Sir”. 

But in private, they were Jimmy and Tom.

They met in 1776 and became the best of friends instantly.  They enjoyed an unshakable 50-year intellectually and emotionally satisfying friendship that had tremendous significance not only for their own generation, and not only across several continents, but for, as they called them, “the millions yet unborn” who would live and discuss their words, their philosophy and their decisions for hundreds of years after they were written.

The three volumes in the photo above are called The Republic of Letters.  They contain the 1,250 letters Jefferson and Madison wrote to each other.  For the most part, these are long, long letters going on for pages and pages.  The letter Madison wrote to Jefferson about the Constitutional Convention in 1787 was 17 pages.

I am deeply immersed in these letters.  They read like a fabulous novel.

Most people read books ABOUT people.  I’m not crazy about that.  I like to read what’s called “primary sources” – words directly communicated by the person themselves.

Let me put it this way.  I would much prefer to spend three hours talking TO you than spend three hours with someone else talking ABOUT you (that would drive me nuts).  I don’t like talking about people.  I like talking to people.

They would have agreed with me on this.  Madison wrote, “It has been remarked that the biography of an author must be a history of his writings.  So must that of one whose whole life has in a manner been a public life, be gathered from his manuscript papers on public subjects, including to as well as from him.”

Jefferson agreed wholeheartedly: “The letters of a person, especially of one whose business has been transacted by letters, form the only full and genuine journal of his life.”

These Republic of Letters are extraordinary.  I find a level of intelligence here that I am constantly seeking.  Reading them I directly get the spirit of the men, of the friendship, of their state of mind, of their ideas, of the time in which they lived.  I feel their personalities.  I feel them.  They make me laugh.  They make me think.  They make me look.  They make me take sides.  They teach me.  They develop my acumen, my ability to reason, to think critically, to make good judgments.

Their letters contain everything you would expect from best friends.  They shared their life experiences, their emotions, their sympathies, their likes and dislikes, their views, their passions.  They had lively arguments, they gave each other advice, they sent each other gadgets and plants.  The letters are vibrant with lives lived during one of the most critical and exciting periods of history.  They treasured each other’s thoughts.

When Jefferson sent Madison one of the first copies of his highly acclaimed book Notes on the State of Virginia, he wrote him, “I beg you to peruse it carefully because I ask your advice on it and ask nobody’s else’s.”

They collaborated and worked together.

Jefferson had written a Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom. 

In the preamble he argued that:

“Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness … that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry … and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.”

These ideas were very controversial and, encountering much opposition, Jefferson was unsuccessful in getting the necessary votes for adoption.

While Jefferson was in France in 1785, Madison successfully fought for passage of the Bill in the Virginia Assembly.  He gleefully wrote to Jefferson of his victory, “The enacting clauses passed without a single alteration, and I flatter myself that I have in this country extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.”

Jefferson celebrated his friend’s achievement: “The Virginia act for religious freedom has been received with infinite approbation [approval] in Europe and propagated with enthusiasm.  In fact, it is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages during which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests and nobles; and it is honorable for us to have produced the first legislature who has had the courage to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions.”

Like many friends, their spectrum of topics was far-ranging.  After writing about very serious political issues, Jefferson could end one of his letters with something like, “PS  Could you procure and send me a hundred or two nuts of the Pecan?  The seeds of the sugar maple too would be a great present.”

If you ever ate pecans from the South, you would certainly understand this request! J

Madison was deliriously happy when Jefferson sent him phosphorescent matches.

In short, they wrote about everything.  Their letters ended with the elegant manner of the time, “I am with very sincere esteem, Dear Sir, Your friend and servant …”

Reading their letters takes me through a long lifetime of hopes, dreams, aspirations, despairs, victories, loves, losses and deep reflections.  It takes me through a period of history as an eye witness to the events of the day.  I’m seeing what they see.  I’m feeling what they feel.  I’m understanding as if I were there.

In this beautiful 50-year friendship there were many, many disagreements.  They each sought the other’s views and their friendship was big enough to accommodate their disagreements. 

Jefferson was passionately disappointed the US Constitution was ratified in 1788 without a Bill of Rights, a shortcoming he felt was severely destructive of liberty.  Madison in vain justified and tried to convince him to understand its absence.  Their debate is respectfully conducted and enlightening to read.

In all of 50 years, there was never a conflict, never an unpleasant argument.  Not a one.  They understood each other, accepted each other, valued each other, respected each other, loved each other, and needed each other.

After Jefferson died, 10 years before Madison, Madison wrote, “We are more than consoled for the loss … by the assurance that he lives and will live in the memory and gratitude of the wise and good, as a luminary of Science, as a votary of liberty, as a model of patriotism, and as a benefactor of human kind.  In these characters, I have known him, and not less in the virtues and charms of social life, for a period of fifty years, during which there has not been an interruption or diminution of mutual confidence and cordial friendship, for a single moment in a single instance.”

Several months earlier Jefferson had written to Madison, “The friendship which has subsisted between us, now half a century, and the harmony of our political principles and pursuits, have been sources of constant happiness to me through that long period.  To myself you have been a pillar of support through life … be assured that I shall leave with you my last affections.”

Sitting in the Sunday sunshine on my patio with cats scampering about, bees enjoying the lavender, butterflies dropping in for a visit and hummingbirds stopping by for lunch, I am grateful to be invited in by Tom and Jimmy’s letters to enjoy the luxury of such a friendship. 

It greatly expands my vision.  I clearly see what happens when two great beings, two great intellects, form a life-long friendship that strengthens and enhances each of them.  A friendship that fulfills a greater purpose than most friendships entertain, a purpose to make a better world and the belief that we, as individuals, can make a difference far beyond our immediate lives. 

I have never seen a friendship like this and I am grateful that these letters open a window for me to see so deeply and so intimately something so rare.

Wishing you the joys of deep friendships and great intellectual and emotional satisfaction.

Love,

Ingrid

I’ve been posting on Facebook the things that Flowers have been saying to me.  Not surprisingly, I’ve had people ask if Flowers really speak to me.  Well, actually, now that you ask … yes, they do.

All living things talk to me. Of course, just like people, some are more interested in conversation than others. Some just have one thing to say and they’re done. Others have a LOT to say and they like what I want to talk about.  So a conversation ensues.

For example, the above photo is a wild Fuchsia (pronounced fyoo – shuh) bush growing in my yard. I invited it to grow there, but that’s another story, like a fairytale most would never believe.

When it was a little teeny tiny, small thing, it was so proud.  It was singular amongst the green, so very proud of finding its way there, of creating new growth, standing tall and, above all, standing out as itself.

It was so proud too of being a Fuchsia, of presenting to the world such a vibrant face of dazzling purples and pinks, a flower like no other.

We greeted each other like new friends, quite happy to meet. I was beside myself with delight to have such a beautiful being want to be with me. And she was elated to be recognized for who she is.

In Spanish, Fuchsia is called Pendientes de Reina, the Queen’s Earrings.  When I told her this, my Fuchsia laughed and said, she actually feels like the Queen herself.

Despite being in an environment that “technically” lacks the nutritious soil that Fuchsias need, my Fuchsia found instead tremendous spiritual nourishment because everyone, all the living beings in my garden and in my yard, were enchanted that the dazzling Fuchsia should join us. The powerful 75-food Pine Tree guarding over her especially enjoys her beautiful company, and she his many years and tall protection.

I’ve been marveling to see the Fuchsia growing stronger and bigger every year, truly spreading her wings.

We now have the beautiful friendship that only gets built over time and quantities of quality conversations. She cheerily greets me in the mornings as I go for my early runs, and warmly welcomes me back at the end of the day when I come home from work.  

My Fuchsia actually smiles.  She blooms whenever she wants to and often.

What my Fuchsia knows, that many don’t, is that when you really take a good look at it for yourself, you realize that you don’t have to live by “the rules”, you can make your own. Ones that make you happy. Pretty much all the living beings in my gardens and around my house think that way too.  It makes for a pretty happy household.

And don’t even get me started on the magnificent, brilliant trees, the bees, the butterflies and the deer.

All living beings communicate.  Communication is what living beings do.  Communication is life, and being alive means you can talk to the world around you and hear what all the other living beings have to say.  I do believe that this plus love is what makes the world go round.

May you be surrounded by beautiful life, flowers that talk to you, and rules of your own making.

Love,

Ingrid

The cats and I had a Sun Bath Friday afternoon.  It was too beautiful to work.  Warm, blue sky, sunny, flowers blooming in the backyard, soft fragrant breezes, waving lovely colors gently.

The outdoor breezes called to me and I lay down on the patio. The cats seem to think that was a good idea and they all came to lie down on the patio with me. And then the sun washed us.

Sun Bath.

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, tell me if you have, but if you let it, sunshine cleans out old cobwebs in your soul.  It gets into all the nooks and crannies deep inside, warms them with sunshine and scrubs out the old dust and grime.

The cats do this rolling around thing that only cats can do, perhaps you’ve seen it, rolling from one side to the other, stretching out their arms, lifting one arm in the air, lying spread-eagled for a moment, then rolling to the other side, lifting the other arm. Must be cobwebs under there.  That photo above is Munchkin luxuriating in the sun, getting his cleaned out.

I didn’t roll around so much, just lay there feeling the sun clean out the winter. Ten minutes and I was washed clean and smelling of sunshine.

A big stretch and I was done. Smiling, smelling good, all clean.

The cats winked at me as I went back inside. 

Wishing you a big dose of sunshine in your own life!  And a very happy Spring!

Love,

Ingrid

2021 was an amazing year. We discovered abilities we never knew we had.

Abilities born out of hardship, having much of life taken away from us, backing us into a corner, robbed of our plans.

We had to look around and see what we do have, what we can do.

The last two years have been about how to survive.  

And that’s what you did. You survived.  And you survived them well.  

Well done.

It took strength, grit, determination, intelligence, and a clever utilization of all the resources you could muster. You rose up and accomplished something you never dreamed you would have to accomplish.

It was painful, a years-long endurance contest, and yet you created goodness and found many reasons to smile.  You created them all. 

And now it is behind you.

Now we’re going to look ahead to 2022. The first week of January is when you’ll pick up your brush and paint the first brush stroke on your blank canvas.

How do you manifest a beautiful painting?

This week right now is for dreaming your 2022 into being.

2021 was all about What do I need to do to survive? 

2022 does not have to be more of 2021.  2022 can go way beyond a survival endurance contest.

2022 can be about dreams that come true. Don’t look to the world for permission. There is no “Dream-Come-True Licensing Entity” that’s ever been any good.

You are your own licensing entity. You are the one who gives yourself a license to dream and to paint those dreams into reality, to make them come true. 

Don’t limit your dreams by what other people dream.  Don’t limit your dreams by what you think is “possible”. Don’t limit your dreams by any concept that you have to “face reality”. You are the creator of reality. Always remember that and never let anyone take that away from you.

Right before the holidays, I helped someone negotiate a difficult $4 million deal.  I helped  another two give presentations that turned a difficult prospect around completely to close a $500 million deal. Now there was a celebration!  I also helped an executive inspire his team of 1,500 who were demoralized by too many reorganizations. Finally, I helped a mother repair her relationship with her daughter.  Beautiful tears of love and reunion.

I help people win.  

Far too many have losing as their default. They say things like, “Well, what can you do?  It always happens. Now I’m more reasonable in my expectations. Let’s see what 2022 brings…”

Losing is their default.  They lose before they even begin.

I work with people to make winning their default.

Winning has everything to do with what you believe. The second you believe you can, winning begins.  It’s the spark that ignites.

This week you are free to dream.  To believe. This is a beautiful week for reflection.

Create an abundance of dreams this week. The more dreams you have, the more inspired you will be.

Inspiration doesn’t come from other people, it comes from your own dreams.

Sit back, gaze out into the distance that no one but you can see, and dream.

What would make you deliriously happy for 2022? What would be absolutely “impossible” but totally fantastic? What about every area of your life, not just work? Let your dreams fly.

Forget “reality”. Imagine life as you want it, not as it is.  Lose yourself in day dreaming. Dream the impossible as long as it makes you supremely happy.

Dream it rich.  Dream it bold.  Dream it in color.

Dream and dream and dream. Imagine, imagine, and imagine.

Dream until you can’t stop smiling. 

Next week, you will pick up the brush and paint the first brushstroke on your canvas. All these dreams will create a magnificent palette with an enormous range of colors, richness for you to start painting a beautiful 2022, a year like no other, a year of being truly happy because you have dreams and you are painting them into reality on a canvas that’s as wide as you like.

Next year, I will get practical.

This week, I dream.

May 2022 be an amazing journey for you. Happy New Year.

With love,

Ingrid

This has been a year where many have felt hopelessly divided.

A relentless focus on differences divides us.  It puts common ground out of our reach.

Discovering similarities unites us. 

Unite does not mean uniform. Uniform means exactly the same as. 

Unite means come together.

From my work in 53 countries, I feel powerfully united with all of humankind.

That doesn’t mean I’m the “same as…” for there is no one the same as me.

We are each completely unique. There is not, there never has been, and never will be anyone exactly like you. 

You bring something to the party no one else can and no one else ever will.

As Dr. Seuss once said, “There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

Yet, the powerful similarities that unite our unique selves as humankind are tremendous, they are strong and endure beyond lost empires and civilizations.

• We all like it when someone makes us laugh
• Smiles make us smile
• We love
• We like friends
• We like a good meal
• We love being understood
• We want people in our life we can trust
• We don’t like being lonely
• We don’t like losing people we love
• We bleed when we’re cut
• We are all trying

And so many more beautiful things that bring us to common ground.

We celebrate many things in this time. Spiritual, emotional, deep.

This week was our winter solstice, the darkest day of the year. Now we celebrate the return of the sun, the lengthening of the days.

And so it is with our spirits.

Darkness outside does not reflect the light in our hearts which burns ever brighter this time of year.

As our year comes in for a landing, we retreat to the open arms of those who love us, to recharge and regenerate ourselves. 

We emotionally and spiritually refresh and renew ourselves to create the rocket fuel for the hopes and dreams of the new year.

This is a magical time, the time to turn off the mind. To open heart and soul. To fill them with those invisible, even spiritual, qualities, like love and affection, that nourish our life force and enable us to create the future.

This is a time when communication becomes communion, when heart touches heart with the intimacy of deep welcome, affection and understanding.

These very beautiful life-giving forces are vital to our being causative.  They lift us up off muddy ground and put the wind beneath our wings so we can take to the air.

I wish you a most magical of seasons. May your body, mind and spirit, may all that is inside you, be deeply nourished and satisfied. Full. 

May you experience great joy from the many simple things that only happen in the magic of this time.

May your optimism blaze refreshed and radiant.

May love surround you as we welcome back the sun.

May you have a brilliant year ending – shining bright.

The world is waiting to see the light you will bring in the new year…

Love,

Ingrid

Today is World Dictionary Day and I am celebrating this day, which is also Noah Webster’s birthday!

Noah is one of my heroes.  He wrote the  1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, the very first American dictionary.  One of my favorites!!!  I use it ALL the time.

It was a HUGE undertaking.  I don’t know of anyone personally who has ever done anything this monumental.

A burning purpose impelled Noah.  That burning purpose was to preserve the religious and political freedoms of this very new country and its experimental form of never-been-done government, a Constitutional Republic (not a Democracy as so many people mistake). 

Noah believed that words are powerful because they’re our direct expression of ideas.  America was expressing very new ideas, ideas which defied tyranny and placed power in the hands of the people.  For the first time in history the governed became the governors.

Words were important.  They would be used to express “the American mind.”  They created reality.  They created the future.

Noah wanted us to understand every word in our Founding Documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  Every word in The Federalist Papers, the series of essays that brilliantly explain our Constitution.  Every word spoken by our politicians and written in the newspapers. Then and now.

If you re-define words to mean less than they are…  If you manipulate terminology…  If you reduce literacy… You reduce intelligence.  You reduce the power of understanding.  You reduce collaboration.  You increase stupidity. 

You reduce freedom.

America was freedom.

America is freedom.

But could we define it?

Could future generations define it?

Could evil forces re-define it in ways to enable them to re-create tyranny?

Not on Noah’s watch.

He was meticulous with his definitions.  His definitions are powerful and glorious.  Complete.  Rich. They embody full concepts.

The great French philosopher Voltaire said, “If you wish to converse with me, define your terms.”  This is one of the most useful things ever said, and I have turned many an “argument”  into a creative and deeply satisfying dialogue by doing just that.

I have studied every definition in these words, and so many others.  These words have gone from being superficial ideas I heard carelessly bandied about in social gatherings, to robust concepts that are now powerfully ingrained in my spiritual DNA.  I am grateful to Noah for them.  Possibly you find a word or two here of interest.  Warning:  there may be words within the definitions you’ll have to look up too.

Freedom

Liberty

Republic

Democracy

Constitution

Government

Spirit

Soul

Respect

Dignity

Honor

Did you know that Noah learned 26 languages in the process of writing this dictionary?  His purpose was to ensure that his derivations were as pure and true as they could be.

Noah meticulously wrote definitions for 70,000 words. It’s a big, fat dictionary.  Still in print, thank God.  You can get a hard copy of this dictionary on Amazon:  1828 Dictionary.  I find it particularly satisfying to feel its weight and turn its pages and greatly prefer it to the online version.

Keep in mind Noah had no keyboard, this labor of love was all by hand.  No electricity either.  Candlelight and quill pen.

This was a man who could truly get something done.

And what he did is a service to all humankind.

Little did he know that there would be a woman up in the hills above the San Francisco Bay almost 200 years later whose soul would blossom and whose spirit would soar, whose intelligence would become magnificent, as a result of his long evening’s work.  He may not have imagined me, but somehow he knew I would be there and gave this gift to me, as he gave it to you and all our future generations.

May we use it to preserve our religious and political freedoms, and for so much more.

Thank you, Noah, for this most magnificent gift.  And Very Happy Birthday!!!

Love,

Ingrid

It’s funny when you meet another soul on a journey of spiritual experience.  Quite a moment that is.

I spend a lot of time with people and I love it. On average I meet 40 or more new people a week and I enjoy the interchange with all of them.   By the same token, I enjoy solitude.

I like to run when it’s completely dark and experience the magnificence of night’s transformation into dawn, sunrise and then a glorious day.

No one is up when I am.  As I run, I float up into a spiritual serenity, bliss.  Reaching even exhilaration and rapture.  It’s ecstasy to see the beauty of this world uninterrupted. It’s a universe unto itself.  I don’t know if anyone else ever feels this way because no one ever talks about it. 

This morning was really special.  I came upon this cat.  I was running, the sound of quiet rhythmic thuds as my feet softly landed in the dark.  Owning the whole world.

This cat was sitting in the middle of the street and, in the solitude of pre-dawn night, he was owning it too.

I slowed down and approached, sensing whether or not he wanted me to come close, whether or not he wanted me to reach out and pet, and possibly massage behind his ear.

He examined me as I came closer. Found I was on the same wavelength. Invited me to come.

I gently pet while he walked back-and-forth, lightly rubbing against my legs.  He looked up from time to time, looking into my eyes searching for what was in my heart, my soul. What he found there was serenity and love, just as I found serene love in his eyes. He leaned into me.

It was quite a silent spiritual communion.

Alas, eventually I had to keep moving for when sunrise arrived, an agenda kicked in.

I gently said, “Goodbye” while rubbing the top of his head with one last pet. He looked up and slowly blinked both eyes, a cat’s special acknowledgement, a cat’s way of saying, “I see you.”  I gave a slow blink back and said, “I see you too. Have a good morning and hope to see you soon again.”  I took my leave.

As I ran along, filled with spiritual connection, I turned around and took this picture. There he sat, still looking at me.  Holding on to our connection.  Me too. We had a bond.  A profound moment.  Two souls who truly met.  A moment in time only he and I would ever share, would ever know.  And yet, we were both so much better for it.

I ran into his owner later and said, “I saw Winston this morning while I was running. We had a very nice time.”

She said, “You’ve got to be kidding! He doesn’t let anyone near him! He bites and hisses!  Don’t tell me he let you pet him!”

I said, “Oh yes!  For quite a while. It was quite nice.”

She looked at me like I was nuts.

I believe there’s a beautiful soul in each of us. We don’t always find or reach it in each other. Sometimes it takes a moment in the dark of spiritual serenity to find that wavelength that transcends all, reaches beyond all, and finds the soul in the other person.

It’s always there, but it’s not always visible to the eye. 

There’s a wavelength of the soul that sees.  That reaches.

We all have it.

May many find the beauty of your soul.

Love,

Ingrid

This is Ollie.  Ollie and I have passed each other many times in the neighborhood while I’m out walking and he is too.  Ollie trembles in fear and growls at you if you come close.

A number of years ago his lovely owner told me she was sad about it, but Ollie had always been this way.

This week, as I was walking, and Ollie and I were about to pass yet again, I realized that I had accepted all this as inescapable reality.  

She had said it with so much conviction, and Ollie had growled so convincingly, that I had, without even thinking about it, accepted our distance as a way of life, the way things always had been and always would be with Ollie.

But, somehow, this week, this moment in time was different.

I was unexpectedly struck by something.  I looked at Ollie and his cuteness and suddenly I could feel what he was feeling.  In all its terrible force.

I thought, “Oh, God, Ollie!  I know what it feels like to be this afraid and it feels terrible.”  I was all at once filled with a powerful love for Ollie.

That impelled an immediate and dramatic reversal in my decision about “reality”.

I looked into Ollie‘s beautiful brown eyes and sent him a telepathic message:  I think you are so very cute.  You absolutely do not need to be afraid of me.  I am your friend. Only pure friendship here.  I would love to pet you.  It will feel really good.  Come on over and I will.

Ollie came right over to me. I reached down and started to pet the top of his head and behind his ears.  The fur on the top of his head is unbelievably soft.

Ollie loved it, especially being scratched behind his ears.  I sensed with my fingers all the places he like to be petted and we had several minutes of joyful communion.  We were both absolutely delighted.  

When I stopped to take his photo you can see the eagerness in his eyes to get back to it.

What you can’t see in this photo is how energetically and vigorously Ollie was wagging his little tail back and forth.  Once we started, neither one of us could get enough!   I was laughing and I swear Ollie was smiling.

I looked up and his owner was beaming at me. She was radiant.  She said, “In all of his 12 years, that has never happened.”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happier woman.

It made me think about how important it is for me to maintain an independent frame of mind. People are always telling me about “reality”. Sometimes I accept it without inspection. I did for years with Ollie.

This beautiful encounter with Ollie made me realize, yet again, that if reality isn’t the way I like it or the way I want it, I can do something about it.  Create a new reality.  Ollie created this new reality with me.

I also believe that people, animals, all living things, that we’re all capable of levels of communication that we haven’t even begun to explore.

People are so caught up in the traps and tangles of spoken communication, just trying to get themselves understood with words, that there’s very little exploration of the elegance of all the layers and carrier waves involved in carrying our thoughts to each other and from others to us.

It’s a fascinating field for exploration, much to be done.

I believe intention is telepathically transmitted. I can pick up someone’s intention in an email, a Facebook post, a look, the length of time it takes them to respond … There are so many signs and clues.  Thoughts and messages are carried in many ways.

I don’t think I’m special. I think I just pay attention and don’t invalidate my own perceptions.

I’m not alone.  If you haven’t seen this video of Anna Breytenbach, it’s worth a look:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvwHHMEDdT0&t=119s

I think we broadcast our intentions loud and clear.  And I think Ollie could hear me.  I made myself heard through his fear so he could clearly see a friend in me.   Ollie “heard” me.

It’s another kind of communicating.  It’s another kind of listening.  It creates a new kind of understanding.

I love understanding.

And I am ridiculously happy to have this new friendship with Ollie.  Isn’t it the most marvelous thing to make a new friend?

Wishing you great understandings, however they are created, and great friends, however they arrive into your life.

Love,

Ingrid

Our dreams. Your dreams.

Love,

Ingrid