Modern Parenting

Call me old fashion.  Actually, scratch that.  Call me old school since old fashion means my parent's generation and I want to be clear I am one generation cooler.  But what the hell happened to this generation of kids and more deeply, what the hell happened to the "cool" old school parents that are raising this generation of kids?

If you follow my blog, you'll know that three things consume my time.  My kids, the general population of idiots and spirituality.  I obsess about the insanity of these three elements and naturally it overflows into my writing which I find therapeutic in organizing all my thoughts.  Writing helps me from joining the League of Shadow Assassins and I believe, on some small level, helps those reading, from culling the human herd.  Yes misery loves company and insanity is safer in numbers. 

One of my quirks of being a parent is that I actually don't seek out other parents to hang out with.  When Tai was born, I used to walk a lot with him outdoors and I would always run into a fleet of "yummy mummies".  Dressed head to toe in Lululemon yoga gear, pushing babies in their thousand dollars strollers, these packs of women would meet on the boardwalk in Steveston and sweat off their last ten "baby pounds" in high impact cardio flair as the boot camp woman draws blood and yells for an extra minute of running on the spot.  Glistening in gorgeous sweat, they would all gather afterwards at Starbucks, drinking their skinny latte and discussing the newest Pinterest recipe for gluten free, organic, vegan cookie recipes using free range eggs because it's only like, two calories.  Don't get me wrong, all these mommies seem really sweet and well educated in all things mommies and I have been invited many times to join the club as they are a very inclusive group.  Personally, I would rather run naked through a mile of hell fire then obsess with parenting on this level of detail.  My survival skill was and has always been to avoid this group of hyper parenting.  Besides, who wants to feel like you're lower than a crack whore because you are THAT parent that dishes up sugary bowls of cereal chased by full-fat cake for dinner and do it all graciously guilt free?

As I add to my family and Tai eases into the school system I am yet again assaulted with the hyper parents of the world.  Luckily for us, Tai is a really easy going kid and plays well with everyone.  We work really hard to instill values such as compassion and kindness which Tai practices on an hourly basis with his crazy sister.  Tai is always requested for play dates and 90% of the time we make up some lame excuse to avoid the "play date."  Partially because I find the structure constricting and also because I really resent the modern parenting movement of scheduling every experience for my kid.  I am a nurturer but at my core, my approach to life is I nurture the child not my ideals of what I think my child should be.  Yes the responsibility of a parent is you always keep your child safe first and foremost.  Lessons such as swimming is a non-negotiable as it is a life skill.  But is it really necessary to schedule Junior from the minute he wakes up until the minute his head hits the pillow? 

So many parents are spending their entire life chauffeuring their children around from lesson, to activity, to tutors, to play dates and then back to the nanny.  I understand the motive is to position your child with the best life can offer so when they become adults, they can have everything.  It's only natural for a parent to give their children the very best chance at life as the instinct is ingrained to produce the best prodigal son. 

This is where my old schoolness kicks in.  I am from the belief system that the structure of family values such as respect, kindness, compassion, and unconditional love is absolutely a non negotiable for every child.  When I was growing up my parents worked very hard and materialistically, we had the basics.  They provided a roof over our head, we wore clean clothes and there was always plenty of food.  Back then everything was less complicated.  We played in the back alleys, or backyard, or in ditches, or in forests, or in the river and my parents trusted that we were smart enough to stay out of any real danger.  I used to ride my bike with my brother and friends from one side of Richmond to the other side of Richmond when I was 12 years old.  We played tag with the entire neighborhood until it was dark.  I may or may not have killed some tadpoles trying to raise an army of frogs.  We used to jump off swings at it's highest peak for a cheap thrill.  Some of my fondest memories involved me eating fruit uninvited from a random person's yard.  To my parents' dismay, Lairay always brought home countless orphaned animals to be nurtured back to health.  Sometimes our friends were good for us, sometimes they were assholes and yes sometimes we had to defend ourselves from other kids that had a need to be cruel.  Education was a priority but we never had any pressure to do this or do that.  As kids, I took swimming lessons, my sister dabbled in gymnastics and we were all forced to take Vietnamese lessons.  That's it.  Now here's the kicker.  How does someone like me, who had a very basic upbringing with very little parent intervention or guidance get so driven or competitive in her adult life? 

One of my beloved girlfriends Sam has a very different story.  She was an only child to two parents that abused alcohol.  To support their addiction, her basic rights as a child was always compromised.  Luckily for her she was "adopted" by angel neighbors and extended aunts and uncles that made sure she didn't go hungry, was clothed and she was always invited over for special occasions such as Christmas which eased the loneliness of an absentee family.  Sam worked hard to not repeat her parent's legacy.  She went to school, excelled in post secondary, worked part-time jobs to pay her bills and now she is a RCMP constable and has a family of two.  Even though she didn't have my family foundation and even though she was totally neglected, she grew up by the strength of her own Spirit to become an outstanding pillar of the community.  How did Sam, who practically raised herself, manage to have this outcome instead of falling into the cliche of the victim role?

I call people in the 18-30 age bracket Generation Entitlement.  This generation of young adults have statistically proven that mental issues such as depression and anxiety is the number one cause of living an unhappy and unfulfilled life.  For some reason, instead of being grateful for all the amazing things happening in their life, they choose to focus on everything that is not going as they originally envisioned.  For some reason, this generation just expects successful things to happen to them regardless if they sowed the seeds for it or not.  When their high level of expectation is not met with the reality of it, their spirit is crushed and they go spiralling down into the dark pit of despair and they just give up.  The irony is the bulk of these kids are from middle class to well endowed families.  Some where in the world, a young boy that is half starved, missing a limb from accidentally stepping on a mine bomb, with rags for clothes has a giant smile on his face while he is kicking a soccer ball made out of our First World garbage.  Clearly, something went seriously wrong with the parenting of Generation Entitlement.  Maybe it was because their parents grilled into their heads that they can do anything and be everything just because they are "special"?  Maybe this nurture tactic backfired and created a generation of angry, sad, and thus stagnant communities that can't move forward.  Instead of contributing to a better world, we now have unemployed whiners sitting on their ass complaining to their parents that their life sucks because they didn't become that rock star their parents said they can.

Some days I fantasize of running away from my First World problems and disappearing into a smaller remote town where the pressure to schedule 30 hours of the day is non existent.  I prefer watching Kaiya and Tai discover the wonder of beach combing life to sitting in a cold arena with other parents so pissing mad that they're giving death threats to the poor coach who is volunteering his time.  I enjoy indulging Kaiya in the secret world of Fairies by hunting for mushrooms in the backyard to seeing my child crack because the pressure is too great when they didn't get first place in the Pig-Latin spelling bee.  The true nature of children is best to be nurtured in unstructured play.  In the quiet space without parent intervention, Junior will learn their boundaries, will discover their happiness, will have the opportunity to apply your value system and will have the chance to bloom when faced with the inevitable hardships that is Life.  Having you, a text away dictating to Junior that his professor is an idiot for not giving him an A on his assignment or calling Junior's boss to belittle her for not giving Junior the promotion is enabling the next wave of dysfunctional generations.

My greatest wish for humanity is we move into an era of Enlightenment.  To make this happen, nurturing comes from within and by teaching our children the core of our humanity lies in compassion, kindness and respect.  Instead of placing value on amassing materialistic wealth for the Self, we need to place higher value of being of service to Others which in turn will create real happiness.  If we side step these core values and inject parenting based on fear then be prepared to be the proud parent of Generation Self-Destruct.  All these kids who have been programmed to not think on their own won't be able to handle their adult life so would just rather end it. 

You know, our children doesn't have to end up like this.  Be the change you want to see in the world.

Kaiya, My Perfect Teacher

Last night I finally had some down time and since I was out of lives on Candy Crush I thought it would be good to dust off some old books and expand my mind.  I picked up a book called "Hiding In Plain Sight.  The Secret Of The Truth Of You" by Burt Harding.  It was given to me a year ago by a client of mine who thought I would be able to peel back the pages and unveil some wisdom to my own life.  Initially I was excited as it was such an unusual gift that I started reading it as soon as I got home.  I barely made it through the first chapter and I fell asleep.  Fast forward a year later, same couch, same scenario and same outcome.  Not a chapter into it and I was bored to tears.  Like a trooper I thought I would rally up my enthusiasm and push the envelope to down another chapter.  This time I was truly in tears.  Like, pissing myself laughing and crying because it was that funny!  Some how, my very curious 3 year old daughter got a hold of the book and left her creative artistic flair which I sometimes appreciate but most times not.  Her last adventures in creative expression resulted in Chris using his "big boy" voice and the free-lance artist revisiting her favorite quiet corner of the house.  After hours of searching on Google forums on how to remove a black permanent marker from his precious 50" TV, Chris was able to salvage his beloved shrine with a Magic Eraser and Miss Kaiya was granted another day to live. 

A funny thing happens when you are gifted with the responsibility of parenting.  All those years that invested acquiring knwoledge to prep for "life" and BOOM... your little wee one comes along to prove that you actually know NOTHING.  Not only do you know NOTHING, you also realize you actually don't control ANYTHING.  When Tai was born, I blogged during my mat leave on the dismal dismantling of all my intellectual property.  You can relive my very high and very low moments here: http://crung.livejournal.com/.  My year long experimentation on Tai proved inconclusively that parenting the human variety measuring under 4 feet was not my finest moment and truly everything I learned was useless.  The square root of pie or finding the missing variable in a static bell curve was not saving my ass here.  Chris metamorphosed during this new phase of ours and I fell in love with him again as he took the bull by the proverbial horns and steered us into a new direction.  It was like a "Breaking Bad" moment for Chris and I.  Like Walter White, Chris busted all bad ass out of his normal shell of fear and I took on Jesse Pinkman's character as the sidekick that wanted to smoke crack all the time to numb the pain.  It's dysfunctional at it's finest but hey, it works for us.

When Kaiya was born she removed the delusion that I was in control of any situation.  If I wanted her to go in a certain direction not only would she go the exact opposite path but along the way, burn 1,000 bridges, fight a couple dragons, cut her own hair, trip over her own feet and oh ya... for hilarious measure draw a very large inappropriate phallic shape in a "sacred" book of preaching oneness with the all mighty.

 

 

When I flipped the page to this little treasure left behind by my in-house Wrecking Ball, I stared in horror.  Symbolically, it was like someone flipped the bird to God!  I gasped, waited to see if the Almighty unleashed a lighting bolt to smite our house and then the urge to erupt in glorious laughter took over.  The irony of everything was just too poetic.  I struggled with this book because yes it was terribly boring and also it's one of those books filled with rhetoric circular arguments that the "spiritualists" uses to, I swear, confuse us already confused normal folk.  I label this type of vernacular application the "Yoda effect."  Stringing words together in a non-linear fashion that when read left to right leaves you wondering what the eff did you just read.  Here's an example from Burt Harding's book:

 

Being is nothingness known also as spirit and it appears as everything.  Being is the absolute appearing as the relative.  Being is the emptiness we misinterpret which in truth is fullness.  Being is the uncaused and timeless essence yet appearing as the caused and humans.  Being is the Oneness appearing as separation. 

 

I'm brutally paraphrasing, but my take away from the first couple of chapters is that Burt's shitty life fell apart so he sat under a tree and most likely smoked a joint (I'm interpreting here).  In his moment of "awakening," (I believe the pot heads term this a "high") he determined that his life was so effed and not worth fixing so he should just surrender.  In that moment of true helplessness, he realized that he doesn't have to answer to any one's expectations anymore because he officially waved the white flag.  At that exact moment of total despair, he realized that he freed himself from all the conditions and expectations of society.  He no longer cares if his neighbors judged him on leaving the front grass unmowed.  That jackass of a boss that lives to make his life hell can go off himself.  His mom that constantly nags him to set goals... doesn't matter!  In this small moment, Burt has found his peace and with it a new love for the freedom dispensed from marijuana therapy.  That day, Burt became alive and stopped existing and started living.  I believe the famous author Eckort Tolle sat under the same tree that Burt did and discovered the secret is in the Moment.  Perhaps the actual secret was that these two men are both from Vancouver and they had access to our famous BC Bud.  Or perhaps it was the exact same magical tree.  Damn, every tree I sat under I discovered that I would rather sit on a feather wrapped, hand tied 9 pocket coil, beautiful wing back chair in a damask pattern because it's way more comfortable.

 

This is some serious stuff.  Simple words carrying big repercussions usually translates into a really big pair of shoes one needs to walk in to feel "fulfilled" in this version.  One of the reasons these shoes are are giant is the stereotype that you always have to be positive and love everyone and everything that happens to you because otherwise you're not spiritual, you're just... human.  Shit, I'm pretty sure we signed up for Earth Experiment so we can be human because we were bored of being spiritual.  Back at Home, there is no duality.  Everyday is just a perfect day of perfect clouds and perfect curls.  Sounds perfectly humdrum.  Here on Earth, we have the gift of emotions so we can choose drama if we so please.  When all the negative experiences feels too burdened, you just need to know that you can just shift your perspective and experience something else if you would like.  The experience will happen to you whether you enjoy it or not but whether you continue to suffer is of your own preference.  Do you have to go through every experience graciously and with love?  Or can an awakened person still yell at the Angels for forgetting to having your back, freak on your family for being assholes, and sleep peacefully after wishing the worst imaginable death for the scums of the Earth like pedophiles? 

 

Intellectually, I can eventually wrap my head around it but it's still pretty heavy duty shit finding that inner peace and fulfillment that everyone is seeking.  In Burt's situation he had to have everything fall apart to feel free.  Then he wrote a book about nothingness and shared his teachings to people that have everything yet feel nothing.  Am I the only one that sees the irony in this?  It's maddening.  I think I'm going to re-write the Book of Nothingness to a more user friendly version for all the people out there that are more like me... you know... people who like dropping the f-bomb like its going out of style. 

 

My teachers will be people like:

 

1.  Audrey, my beloved and missed friend who passed away from ovarian cancer a year ago.  Today is her birthday so I had to post a blog to honor our friendship which blossomed from laughing at our own snarky remarks.  Her lesson is: Life is too short, live each day passionately.  Let everyone know how much you appreciate them.  Laugh often.

 

2.  The recent typhoon that devastated the Philippines.  The lesson will be: The light of humanity shines brightest at the darkest moments.  You can choose to suffer or you can choose to grow. 

 

3.  That asshat douche bag currently wrecking your otherwise beautiful day. Every person has both love and fear.  It's part of being human so which one wins the constant fight for control?  The answer is the side you decide to feed.  Feed the side of love if you want to end your suffering.  Let go of grudges, forgive injustices and move on.  Forgiveness is choosing happiness over hurt.

 

4.  The European culture.  They don't live to work.  They work to live.  Don't spend your entire life consumed with working hard and regretting you forgot along the way to enjoy your efforts.  Happiness is based on the small moments and relationships not how much income tax you paid.  Measure your wealth in people and moments... and good wine. 

 

5.  That eccentric yogi, Joy Amaada who radiates light where ever she goes because she had the courage to live her authentic life.  She dismissed society's judgements and freely discusses her passion like little green men visiting her home and how she was an Atlantean mermaid in her previous lives (Read previous blog for reference).   Honor the one reason you are here.  Honor yourself and walk that path unapologetically.

 

6.  Kaiya, the karma balancing entity who I consciously brought forth from my loins when I thought I knew everything, and incorrectly assumed it would be just peachy adorable to have a mini-me version running around.  Her lesson is: Don't take life so seriously.  When you don't immediately get it, draw a big penis instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joy's Channelling

Sometimes I just drag my feet.  Don't get me wrong, I love writing and exposing my opinions to everyone but I have been in a blogging funk lately.  Not because I don't have anything interesting to share.  On the contrary, my life has been a whirlwind this summer into early fall and shitloads of whacky things have happened but for some reason I just can't carve the time out to put my mad one finger pecking skills to a keyboard.  It could be that life is actually really busy.  Or perhaps my new found love for Candy Crush may consume more time than I really would care to admit and intervention is quite inevitably a sad reality.  Or the fact that my plump ass fits so nicely in the nook of my sofa and my cold feet warms up so conveniently against Chris and yes as a matter of fact I really do need to watch like... ummm... twenty episodes of Sons Of Anarchy in a row chased with three seasons of Breaking Bad.  Or maybe because I'm not sure if my online ramblings actually reaches anyone.  Secretly my ego is hoping at the very minimum that somewhere out there, someone in their pyjamas and fuzzy bunny slippers is at least meeking out a pathetic LOL in the dark.  Anywho, rain and storm warnings have been issued this weekend and I have run out of excuses to procrastinate... heck, even my toilets are cleaned.  

I was just recently in Kelowna for a week taking one for the team.  My brother in law, Jeff was competing in two triathalons in Europe and my inlaws wanted to be there to cheer him on.  The problem was the two little guys (I use that term loosely because they are actually almost 6 feet tall teens) needed to stay home for school and the rest of their sports commitments.  So here I was, exposed to teen hormones and even worst, teen mentality and tasked with driving them everywhere while my husband holds down the fort at home with Tai, Kaiya and his usual barrage of germy daycare kids.  Meanwhile, my inlaws are living the life, reviewing the fine wines and taking in the rich culture.  Whenever my blood pressure rose, like when the two teens argue about the art of discreetly masterbating, I comment out loud why I decided to take one for the team.  I could have been in the comfort of my own home, yelling at my own kids to keep their hands to themselves.  Instead, I'm yelling at the older teen to stop yelling at the tweenie because apparently the volume level that the tweenie explores his body is too loud hence interrupting the beauty sleep of the older teen.  Clearly the walls are too thin and the spacious 3,000 square feet is not enough to contain the raging hormonal explosion.

My inlaws had me on a tight schedule.  Every 3 hours I was on the road, sitting in traffic and feeling my voluptuous ass grow even more robust.  Everytime I was on the road, my mind wanders and the need to change how people live their unwaken lives grows stronger.  Clearly there is more to life then flipping the middle finger to idiot Kelowna drivers who don't understand that a STOP sign does not mean, "When I Feel Like It."  Three days of driving and after logging almost 400 kilometers, it occurred to me that a customer of mine has her yoga retreat just outside of Kelowna.

Joy Amaada has been a very supportive customer of ours since the doors opened in 2008.  I loved her when I first met her.  In fact, everyone in our store loved her when they first met her.  She is a petite woman that just exuded sunshine.  Without an exchange of words, you just knew she was an amazing person.  Of course the strong natural attraction led to conversations and I learned that she was a yoga instructor based in Steveston and was in the midst of opening a yoga retreat in Kelowna.  She needed furniture and accessories for the new endeavour so we saw her often in the store.  During my lunch break from chauffeuring, I looked her up on my handy new iPhone.  According to her website she was only 45 minutes away from my inlaws and she offered a ray of services. What captured my attention was that she was an intuitive as well as a yoga instructor!  She was well versed in spiritual teachings, offered alternative healing modalities such as reikki and she was also a channeler.  Wow, who knew all these years that Little Miss Sunshine was also a medium for other entities!  I felt like I just hit the jackpot.  In this field, I am very cautious of who I receive my experiences from.  I'm hyper critical of the information available and deep down, I have a fear that a dark force could manipulate me.  To avoid that possibility I only expose myself to new experiences only if I felt safe.  I knew without a doubt that Joy would keep me safe.

I excitedly made the call.  Her warm and friendly voice immediately lifted my weary spirits and even though she had a packed schedule, she was able to squeeze me in to tour her home and conduct a channeling.  I was on cloud nine and all the crap that happened this week just dispersed.  The interior designer side of me was thrilled to finally see the finished product.  The spiritual seeking junkie side was grasping for more.  When I drove up the gravel country road and took my first look at the acreage a huge breath escaped from deep within.  Even with my vast vocabulary, all I can say about this piece of land is that it was magical.  Situated on Highway 33, just 20 minutes outside Kelowna past Black Mountain this idyllic country home exudes Mother Nature at her best.  I was greeted by two gentle giants at the gate.  Jackson and Joe are two pure white Burmese dogs that stand almost four feet tall.  They approached the gate like noble creatures and gracefully escorted my car to the driveway.  It was weird, I have owned dogs for a good chunk of my life but these dogs I swear had the energy of a unicorn.  There was no fear, anxiousness or ounce of agitation from these massive dogs.  I was 15 minutes early so when I rang the doorbell I was greeted by Joy who just stepped out of the shower so her hair was all crazed like a mad woman.

She warmly welcomed me in and we immediately started the tour of her sprawling, unbelievably cute, 6 bedroom home.  I immediately recognized all the purchases she made from the store and it felt like I was visiting old friends again as she bought some of my favorite sweet country pieces.  We started sharing our stories of who we are and where we have come from.  Her journey, like many, started as a need to know more.  Although she had a blessed life of three children and a husband she was seeking more from life.  A deeper yearning to have more depth to the often shallow human experience.  Surely life can't be a cycle of bill payments and schedules?  She took the brave step and started attending different courses and although it made her heart sing with each piece of knowledge acquired, she never felt safe to share this with her husband.  I felt a pang of sadness for her.  The road of seeking more than yourself is already fraught with mine pits of uncertainly that I can't even imagine how that is like to do it secretively and all alone.

Unlike Joy, I announced to pretty much every poor sucker that gave me their two seconds of attention that I was going to find out MORE... not sure what that exactly was but there just had to be... MORE.  My best friends, family and most importantly Chris knew everything I was doing and although they don't necessarily always understand it, they are here for me when they can.  Luckily for me, my close circle of supporters are predisposition as abnormal anyways.  My Vietnamese background means when I explain to my parents that Kaiya could possibly be conversing with spirits, they non-chalantly advise me to keep Penny nearby because dogs are repellents for the angrier spirit variety.  My native girlfriends don't blink an eye when I tell them I'm burning sage to cleanse a dark space because I think another friend of mine brought over her demon "friend".  Or when I explain to Laura that I can see my environment sometimes when my eyes are closed.  She smiles, nods in agreement and tells me she sometimes talks to dead people in her car when she's driving.  I know people that do extraordinary things and in my world it's totally ordinary.

That being said, Miss Joy Amaada is on a whole different level of ordinary.  For two hours she shared stories of Atlantis, explained that on her property there were two energy vortexes that attract a lot of UFO activities so sightings of friendly green little men were as normal as seeing chickadees and helped me fill in the blanks of some of my questions.  Finally, we both gasped at the clock and realized that although we could talk for another eon we really needed to get started on this channelling business.

Joy excitedly leads me to the yoga room which even in it's spaciousness is still comfortable and calming.  Anchored in one corner is a 6' carving of a spiritual Tibetan deity from what looks acacia or teak wood.  The feminine sculpture casts a formidable force and I can see that if I was high on something (for the record I wasn't) her presence could be misconstrued as overwhelming.  I look out on the neat rows of yoga mats and let out a deep sigh.  Did I just agree to witness basically a spiritual possession exercise?  Visions of the possessed girl on the classic horror movie the Exorcism stabbing herself in the vajajay with a crucifix vividly occupies my imagination.  Right on cue, Joy senses my last minute panic and lets me know that she is a very "clean" channeller and nothing inappropriate will happen.  Joy calmly explains that she is guided by a council of 12 higher beings (or angels whatever you are comfortable with) and amongst this council are also the arch angels.  She never knows who actually pops in and sometimes multiple Spirits "pops" in.  Her spirit is out of her body and observing yet always cognisant of the events unfolding.  After she cleanses the space to ensure that only spirits of light (aka no demons) can enter her body, I can start asking any question I would like or most often, information will just flow out.  My eyes dilate and I can feel my pulse quicken.  Often when I expose myself to a new experience I quietly ask for my own body of protection just in case something doesn't go as planned.  I push the proverbial red button which means all hands on deck with my own upstairs team.

We sit quietly for about four minutes as Joy cleanses the space.  She has arranged herself cross legged on the floor in the classic yoga pose and looks like a peaceful angel with her eyes closed and a small smile on her face.  I rudely stare at her in disbelief.  While she's cleansing, I'm scanning the space and noticed her paint color had a funny orange undertone.  I glance back to Joy to check cleansing progress and instead of probably closing my own eyes, I keep them fixated on her expecting her to levitate or something.  I fiddle nervously with my iPhone to ensure the voice recorder is actually working.  Then my mind does what it does best.. it wanders.  I imagine the whole space rumbling when the big guns arrive on site.  I muse at the thought of maybe a chipmunk voice  coming out of Joy once she starts. 

Joy starts and I'm jolted out of my own mind musings.  Her voice has deepened and is really, eerily loud in comparison to her usual soft voice.  In addition to the voice change, I suddenly noticed that the energy has shifted.  It's like nothing I have ever felt before.  You know that sensation when you're at the top of the roller coaster and you are just about to drop?  The excitement, the palpable nervousness, the high adrenaline, that intoxication feeling?  Ya that one... think of that millisecond of raw emotions and keep that suspended for the rest of the hour and that's the energy level I was marinated in. 

Her eyes fly open and still in her crossed legged form, she starts rocking her body back and forth in a bizarre yet almost cathartic rhythm.  Damn, I knew I should have video taped this session instead of just voice recording it.  Then it happened.  For the next hour just pure information from almost every facet of my life is poured out like the flood gates.  Unlike a natural conversation, Joy just continuously outputs information without stopping and it flowed freely without her barely catching her human breath.  I was so shocked... and awed... and enchanted by the whole experience that I actually forgot to ask any questions.  Me, the woman on the hunt for all these bazillions of answers whirling in my giant head and all I asked were a couple of lame questions.  It's like meeting God finally and you're so dumbfounded and star struck that the only thing you ask was: Ummm... dude, what's your favorite color?

Joy mentions that my soul's overlay, the predominant hard wiring of your purpose, is a duel role of teacher and healer.  In my previous lives I had to defend my role so occasionally I did don on an extra layer of fierce warrior and in positions of leaderships to achieve my message.  I am here on this lifetime, like millions of other people, to hold the space until Earth ascends to the 5th dimension which is what Atlantis was at.  My creative gift of "animated" communication is my signature for teaching and there was an emphasized message to keep writing.  She mentions that if I pursue opening a school, it would be very successful and I would be given very specific directions from her council through the channelling on how to achieve this.  She tells me the crow sightings are a sign that my upstairs team is always around me because in my previous lives I felt foresakened and abandoned.  I am drawn to the ocean for its healing properties and love the mountains for its wisdom.  In my previous lives I lived as a mermaid and have been strongly connected to dolphins ands whales for this reason.  I have also lived many lives as an Atlantean.  This would explain my peculiar obsession with the red headed Ariel, magic, whales and Atlantis.  Tai is an analyzer of information so when he grows up a role like a scientist or engineer will hold his interest.   Contrary to popular belief (ie. mine) Kaiya is not here to test my parenting abilities.  She is a change agent and will lead a community or organization to force systems that are no longer working to cease operations.  I feel bad for the future assholes that are in her war path.

Consciously she educates that all passed karmic debt is released and if you're carrying past debts from previous lives you know longer need to keep this burden.  This will be a time of many changes as Mother Earth will do microcosms of purging negative energy throughout Earth to restore the positive flow.  The really dark energy beings roaming the Earth has officially been ask to leave thus creating less fear and more love.  Everyone is now lighter and in motion to freely move forward and create your true future.

It has been a month since Joy's channeling and even as I write this post I'm still in shock.  I'm still digesting all the information put forward and would love to return very soon to explore the energy vortexes that she describes exists on her property.  If you're interested in Joy's work, or just interested in restoring some peace in your life, check out her website and let her know I sent you:
http://www.thejoyoflivingcentre.ca/