Changes Starting to Happen

     It is very interesting that I woke up to a wonderful text by someone I care about suggesting that I discuss changes, and as I ended my day today, one of my dearest friends texted me and said, "Something wonderful is happening to you; quickly your are changing." 
     Everything changes around us and new events happen to us at every moment of the day, yet we grow tense, fearful, and we resist.  I certainly know a lot about this.  As I said earlier in my posts, this is not a vacation, this is a path that chose me. Do I think we have no choices?  Of course we have choices.  But to find a deep and loving path that really works with our authentic selves, we need to spend time with ourselves and listen to our hearts, meditate, pray, and be OK to listen to the silence so that our higher selves can weigh in on our decisions. 
     Sedona has been magical in regard to this.  If you have never been here, the whole area has vortexes of energy, the landscape and rock formations are exquisite, and the people are real.  I am talking about the whole area.  I am not in Sedona, the town, but down in Cottonwood at The Dead Horse Ranch Campground.  I love it here...the whole area.  I have had amazing talks with an NYC opera singer I met at the dog park, a French man and his family with whom I ended up hiking for awhile who lived in Mansfield, TX, my birthplace. He gave me tips on meditating at a deeper level.  I met three wonderful ladies from Southern California at the end of the West Fork Trail. Two of them had PhD's in psychology and we talked about living in a multi- dimensional universe.  I met up with wolf advocates and got to spend personal time with rescued wolf dogs.  And I made friends with an artist and her mother (who I met on top of the vortex) who specializes in animal portraits.  I ended up buying a wonderful wolf drawing from her.
     My first day was spent getting the lay of the land and campground, and then I drove up to the Sedona Airport View.  Once parked, you can hike a little way to the top of one of the Vortexes.  As soon as I started hiking on the trail and getting nearer, I felt vibrations all through my body.  I am not kidding.  The energy was very strong, and it was real.  Teddy and I stayed up at the top for a good hour and a half with a number of other viewers to watch the sunset.  As soon as the sun started going down, Teddy sat stock still and watched with the rest of us.

Views From the Vortex

     The wolf conference was a true serendipity. I was so excited to spend a day listening to how Apex, a Wolf Protection and Advocacy program in Southern California, rescue abandoned and mistreated wolf dogs, I heard a panel discussion between wolf protectors and ranchers in Minnesota, watched a film called "Medicine Wolf", and I had the opportunity to get down on the grass with three beautiful wolf dogs.  The photo below shows two of the wolf dogs I had the joy of meeting.

The next day, I took the most beautiful hike I have ever taken before, and I have hiked a lot.  It is called the West Fork Trail and it is 11 miles north of Sedona.  The photos you see in the Arizona Calendars come from this trail.  I hiked for 5 hours that day, and it was glorious.  This happened to be Earth Day, so the parking line to get in was a bit of a wait, and there were a lot of people there.  But...it didn't matter to anyone, and the people I met all day long had smiles on their faces and a peace about them.  It felt like a true Earth Day. Nature really does heal, folks.
       Today was a day of relaxation from my long hike, some artwork, and a beautiful drive to Jerome, a nearby old mining town turned art town.  I leave the area tomorrow.

End of the Trail

So...going back to the idea of change...What is happening in my life in terms of change?
Well, mostly I am excited about not knowing what the next minute will bring.  That is absolutely brilliant! We don't have to know because we really never do anyway!!!!! That is all an illusion.  Change is going to happen, and it can either be a fantastic journey if we follow these changes with our hearts, or it can be a tug and a rip due to resistence.  I have done them both now, and I'll take the latter, thank you!  My only goal in life now, and this is huge for me so listen, is to keep on this path that the Universe has put me on and be the best that I can be.  That's it!  So, my job now is to simply "listen" and keep on following.  I get in my head sometimes and start planning, but that really is a joke, isn't it?  I'll keep you posted on where I end up next.