Pyramid of Gaylor Lakes

The following book excerpt is the first chapter.  It is Nature’s message to us from this beautiful space I call the Pyramid of Gaylor Lakes and my related story of beginning to follow my own heart-path.

Pyramid of Gaylor Lakes

I am the Deva of this space called Gaylor Lakes, but I am much more than the pristine lake you see.  I am the power of the Pyramid and the freedom of the hawks that soar on my wind.  Many people come here – to fish, to hike, to picnic, to sightsee.  I have an important role to protect and impress and empower those who take the time and trouble to visit my sacred temple.

I wish all could see my Beauty and feel as empowered as you have by my presence.  This is why I am at the beginning of this book, of your journey – so that many will turn the first page to see and be inspired by my essence, even if they never visit me in physical body.

I am here for a reason – not just a remnant of an ice age, but as an inspiration.  I am here to help you and others to catalyze your passions, to respectfully follow your True Nature to whatever life’s adventure unfolds before you.  I and the other Nature Spirits who talk with you from Yosemite are here to help guide, nurture, protect and ignite your life path, your mission, your journey.

This is not coincidence that you have happened upon me – it is part of your own True Path towards greatness and service.  I speak to all who read these words:  it is with grateful harmony that we welcome you to your role, your place, your Home.

Let your journey begin.

I am a recent visitor to Yosemite National Park, and immediately a loyal fan of all the rocks, trees, animals, meadows and Nature Spirits that conspire to make Yosemite a rejuvenating and inspiring place.  It does not surprise me that Ansel Adams, John Muir and many others found inspiration and a home in Yosemite.  No matter where you look there is natural beauty for the eye and energetic peacefulness for the soul.

Like many visitors, I was content to hike the trails of the Sierra Mountains, camp in the provided campgrounds and admire the beautiful surroundings.  I took photographs to remind me of the powerful beauty of the places I had experienced when I returned home to my daily work routines.

This photograph of the pyramidal peak above the main Gaylor Lake was particularly inspiring to me as I had felt the energy of this peak calling to me during the whole day I was hiking around its meadows.  When I returned home from my camping trip and reviewed the photos I had taken, the peak was again calling to me, continuing to inspire and motivate me to follow my dreams.

I have worked before with Nature Spirits, sometimes referred to as Devas by those familiar with the Findhorn Institute where partnering with Nature was pioneered.  Based on what I had read about this communication I experimented and practiced on my own – with my backyard, with my cat, with my career, with work teams I participated in.  Always I found remarkable results when I remembered to tune in to the Overlighting Devas of whatever I was working with.

My favorite experience was while I was a management consultant at Deloitte & Touche.  I was working remotely on a marketing strategy for an Internet startup company and due to visit the client to present our first phase of deliverables.  Others on my team had met with client representatives before and found the interactions to be strained and even sometimes hostile.  Needless to say, everyone who was presenting the next day was a bit nervous about how our work would be received.

Though we were all working late into the night to perfect our presentations, I took some extra time in my hotel room before going to bed to try an alternative approach to the next day’s meeting.  I sat in the hotel armchair, closed my eyes and asked to connect to the Overlighting Devas of the land, the building, and the room where we were going to meet.  I asked the Overlighting Devas of the client’s team, of the Deloitte team and of the combined team to join the connection.  Then I called to the Higher Selves of all the individuals who would be at the meeting.  Even though I did not have specific information as to the location or the attendees’ names, I trusted that all were connected based on my intent.  I asked this group of Nature Spirits and Higher Selves to support a positive outcome for all involved.  I didn’t know what outcome would be best, so I left it up to them to figure that out.

The next day, everyone on both teams appeared tense as we walked into the conference room where we would be presenting and discussing the project deliverables.  It was a too-small room for the number of people who were attending the meeting and it felt a bit like being on an airplane where your personal space is minimized and you can almost smell the stress and fear from the other bodies next to you.

I was the second person to present to the group and as I maneuvered to sit at the front of the room the power went out.  We were in California and they had been experiencing brownouts and blackouts for several weeks, so it was not too much of a surprise for our hosts that this should happen.  We could hear some bustle outside the conference room as employees were checking to make sure their servers were operating on backup power.  Inside the conference room, it was as if a wave of tension passed out of every body and we all laughed at the situation.  In the dim light from the laptop screen we could see each other’s faces as if reflected from a campfire.

I turned the laptop around so it was facing the rest of the group and everyone leaned in so that they could see the words on the screen.  Reading upside down and from the side, I pointed to the messages on the screen that I wanted to convey and the discussion amongst both teams became enlivened, impassioned and even friendly.

Shortly after my part of the presentation was finished, the lights came back on and we continued with the presentation material projected onto the wall, but the whole attitude of the group had changed to one of mutual support.  Though none of the team members were aware of my work behind the scenes with the Nature Spirits, I was convinced that the Devas had conspired to bring our two teams closer together resulting in a newly cohesive group that crossed the boundaries of the Deloitte and the client teams.

With memorable experiences like this under my belt, I was eager to find more ways to connect with Nature Spirits in my work and in my play.  Sometimes the road to the trailhead is long though, and it was several years before I finally left the “normal” corporate world to follow my true heart’s desire, to find the next course on my life’s path.

I tried to fulfill my entrepreneurial spirit by starting a boutique consulting firm with two other partners, but after a year things started to fall apart.  In the despair and frustration of this failure I realized that I really wasn’t that excited by the work we were doing, but I was enlivened by the process.  I loved figuring out the details needed to get the business running and planning the actions needed to support our vision.  I just wasn’t passionate about the vision.

That’s when I met Maleah and my cat started to talk to me.  In one of those serendipitous chain of events you hear about, I experienced a life change and a door opening.  A friend told me about a local website that listed available jobs.  I was feeling desperate as I expected my consulting partnership to die, so I decided to browse the listings as a way of feeling like I had some options.

I saw an ad requesting event management for an animal communicator.  Though I had a lot more experience than what the job required, I liked the look and feel of the communicator’s website, so I did something I never did before:  I responded immediately.  I sent a picture of my cat and asked to learn more about the position.  Maleah Jacobs also did something she had not imagined she would do:  she replied back immediately.

In one meeting we realized it was a perfect fit.  Maleah needed a lot more help than what she had advertised in the job description and I felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted from my shoulders and my heart in one fell swoop.  Here was someone who had also left the corporate world to pursue her dreams, someone who could see and cherish the value of my open heart.  I felt I no longer needed to hide my true self, my passionate interest in Nature and Spirit partnerships, my beliefs in unseen forces.

Here was someone who understood my experiences and had her own exciting adventures with telepathic communication.  Here was a live, in-person support for the path I wanted to pursue and an opportunity to start walking on that path.  Like sister-friends we encouraged and motivated each other as we explored our unique, but somewhat similar paths.  We discovered what purposes we shared in common, what passions we both enjoyed, what current events we could help each other learn from.

And then my cat started to bring in dead birds.  I like birds and I collect the feathers I find on my nature walks, but dead birds in my house with feathers strewn across the floor are another matter entirely.  I’d had discussions with Merla, my cat, months before when she used to bring in live birds.  I explained to her that though I like birds and feathers I don’t like her bringing them into the house.  Not wanting to risk that my message was lost in translation, I added another bell to her collar.

Nevertheless, after several months of household tranquility, Merla was now depositing dead birds in the kitchen and on her food bowl.  Naturally I thought this meant that she wanted a different kind of food.  Cats can be very finicky about their diet, but Merla was not showing any other signs of dissatisfaction – she inhaled her food like she was on rations.  It was time to call Maleah and ask for a professional conversation with my cat.

Boy, did we get an earful!  Merla has an attitude like no other cat Maleah had ever met before.  This is saying a lot as many cats have prima donna personalities.  Merla was forthright and would not let Maleah soften her words in translation.  Merla even told Maleah to “shut up” at one point in the conversation when Maleah was trying to offer her own opinion on what Merla had said.  Merla cut straight to the point about changing my daily routines, making sure I was walking in Nature, and the importance of writing this book.

With the looming threat of having more dead birds in my house, I decided to get serious about the project.  I assembled the photos of Yosemite that spoke to me most and seemed to ask to be included.  Every day I set aside time to tune in and hand write the messages that came through me as I asked the Nature Spirits what they wanted to say to us.  I feel honored to offer these powerful Nature Spirits the opportunity to share their wisdom, their perspectives and their advice.  I trust that the filters of my life experiences will only enhance and not inhibit the messages that Nature is conveying to you.

Tuolumne Meadow Sun Spots

The following book excerpt is Nature’s message to us from the Tuolumne Meadows of Yosemite National Park followed by part of my related story of applying this message in my own life.

Tuolumne Meadow Sun Spots

We are the devas and fairies of this part of the meadow.  We enchant and delight in the river and flora and fauna that are under our surveillance here.  You sometimes catch a glimpse of us in the sparkling sunshine, or in the erratic behavior of a dragonfly.  But even without these visual clues, you can feel our presence through the bodily and emotional sensations you have when you enter our domain.

We leave no stone unturned and that includes all of you who pass through our space – even if you are only passing through mentally.  That’s right, you don’t have to be here physically in order to meet us, greet us, play with us, admire us or otherwise interact.  We never leave this space, but all life’s Beings are always accessible through the net of Love and Sincerity.

All you need to do to connect is intend with your heart-mind that you be connected with the Being of interest.  You will feel a link initiate in your body and the communication will flow – though it can come in many forms!  It could be verbal, visual, feelings, thoughts, aromas, and other physical, mental and emotional sensations.  Just be open to whatever senses arrive.  To judge or analyze or question these senses is like talking in-person with someone seated across from you and constantly shouting “NO!” at them for every word they try to say.  Who would want to continue that conversation?  Surely not us!

So stay open to feeling something or nothing or “I don’t know what”.  The longer you can relax without sending out messages, the more likely you can receive the messages that are lovingly being sent.

And practice in those “real-life” physical-world situations too!  When you are seated across from your conversation partner, see what happens when you listen openly without judging, analyzing or otherwise thinking about what they are saying.  You can always think about it and respond to it later!

Remember when you were a child and you used to play by yourself with imaginary characters?  How did you listen to those characters?  What did they say to you?  Talking with us requires some of those same skills:  you must get quiet and actively listen to us, you must stop what you’re doing and pay attention, you must visualize us in some way – where we are, what our voice sounds like, what our energy feels like.  And then you must somehow recognize what we say – repeat it out loud, write it down, talk back to us in context or otherwise take some action from the conversation.

You choose how overt to be in your conversations and responses.  God knows we don’t go talking out loud all day!  But you humans have your own standards and rituals and expectations for conversations and for handling whatever feels best to you to honor the connection you have with Spirit and all spirits and to honor your role in these connections.

And then Play!  That is part of the reason we respond to you – we also love to play and explore and learn and experience with Joy and Laughter!  The more playmates to interact with, the more interesting the games.  Let it begin!

Growing up as an only child, and as one of only a few girls in a neighborhood of mostly boys, I developed a strong imagination and became quite proficient at playing by myself.  For a while I had a fascination with the story of The Black Stallion which naturally fed my stereotypical girlish adoration of horses.  I remember skipping, or rather, galloping down our street, slapping my thigh as I was whipping my black steed to ride faster in the wind.  I called to him simply, “C’mon Black,” as I encouraged him to ride faster around the mailboxes and back home again.

To the neighbors I probably looked like an average little girl running and playing on our street.  Though a part of me was aware that I was the one whose feet were hitting the ground and feeling the slap of my hand on my own thigh, the majority of my focus was very seriously on riding my horse down the street and into whatever adventures my mind would create next.  Whatever tools I needed to help create the imaginary scene I used without second thought to how it looked to others or whether it was real.

These imagination play times are the memories I recall when I think of the glowing, carefree childhood days most people want to return to.  There was no judgment of self; there was only a sincere focus on the creation and completion of a story.  This same childlike state of creative imagination is a key to open communication with nature spirits.

As an adult it is very easy to become reliant on the traditional five senses to inform our reality and to ignore anything we can’t see in a black and white way.  And yet, the experience of riding that black stallion down the street is still as real to me today as the chair I am sitting in now – and perhaps even more so.  There was a physical, emotional, even spiritual sense to the play story I was creating that made the experience become truly alive.  …

(read the rest of the story when you buy the book)

Spirit Rock

The following book excerpt is Nature’s message to us from the Spirit Rock in Tuolumne Meadows of Yosemite National Park.

Spirit Rock

I am the Spirit Rock surrounded by pines.  My energy is old and full of power from this space.  I am outside of time.  I am only here and now.

Those who come to visit me are awed by my energy.  Some see me as nestled among trees; some see that the trees have purposefully chosen to grow tall from my roots.

Regardless of your perspective of me, my message is the same.  Be still.  Be quiet.  Find your own Sacred Center of Power and let your roots and solidness grow from that space.

I am not a heavy energy of solidness, but alive and buzzing within and just outside my rock shape.

Just as you might feel an aura-like energy while holding your hands over a human, you may feel the buzz of my energy without even touching me.

This is because I am strong in my knowing of who I am NOW.  Even as I change over time, I am always True to my Essence, my core, my Spirit.

I have no desire to leave this space as it is always changing around me and the events I need for my growth will come to me as I need them.

The same is True for you:  do not be overly concerned about where you are.  Instead, focus on the gifts that are brought to you in your environment and learn how to apply those gifts to your own growth.

Humans are more physically mobile than Rocks and even Trees.  That motion can sometimes mask the inner motion that is often more essential to your spiritual development.

So sit, be still.  Hold a rock and feel its energy.  Then feel your own Spirit energy vibrate inside you and emanate to make your environment a sacred space in all times.