Richmond, VA

Merry meet Friends,
Michelle here, sending lots of love and light!

"As often happens on the spiritual journey, we have arrived at the heart of a paradox: each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up.  All we need to do is stop pounding on the door that has just closed, turn around - which puts the door behind us - and welcome the largeness of life that now lies open to our souls.  The door that closed kept us from entering a room, but what now lies before us is the rest of reality."  ~ Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak

"If you're brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello." ~ Paula Coehlo

"When God gives you a new beginning, it starts with an ending.  Be thankful for closed doors, they often guide us to the right one!" ~ A Woman of Faith

"When one door closes, another opens but we often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." ~ Alexander Graham Bell

Well no surprise here, as one can see, I'm pondering endings and beginnings.  Life is a series of them....but as the quotes above state..we miss the openings sometimes.  I'm transitioning into something else; someone else, or maybe not someone else but the "me" I've always been but am now beginning to manifest.  Outer changes are happening because of inner changes.  It is definitely a paradox because sometimes I don't recognize me yet I know this me.  For sixteen years I've had a nose piercing.  I always wore a stud.  Three weeks ago, I had a second nose piercing done beside the first one.  I took out the original stud and put in a nose hoop.  It felt right, absolutely right.  It felt and looked like a "me" I had forgotten.  The winds of change are blowing and calling my name.

Last Sunday morning after writing the blog, I went to the bathroom to shower.  I was meeting a friend for brunch.  As I reached for my sponge, I slipped.  I shower everyday so what caused me to slip?  I fell down and then hit my head on the tile, pulling the shower curtain down along with me.  I didn't black out because I remember asking myself if I were going to black out.  LOL  Anyway, my head hurt and although there was no knot, there was a red patch in the back of my head.  I was very shaken up by the entire incident.  I read the symptoms of a concussion and didn't feel as if I had one. On Tuesday, I felt woozy and went to the ER.  The doctor checked my ears and discovered that I had fluid buildup behind my left ear. I mentioned to the doctor that I thought it was sinus and a fluid buildup; it usually happens to me once a year.  I was given a CT scan and it was negative.  Thank God/Goddess/All That Is!  I believe the "craziness" that I felt that early Sunday Morning a few weeks ago, was because of the fluid...still I'm not drinking though.

After being off for nine days, I went back to work on Thursday for eight hours, Friday and Saturday for twelve hours and today for eight.  It was rough.  It's good to be off for awhile but hard to get back into the groove sometimes.  I was supposed to have the same type of schedule this week but am working for a woman on Friday, then was asked by the director to work on the 17th.  I have my daughter Tiffany's sewing machine and have decided to start sewing again.  The Yoruba reading I had, said that I needed to engage my creativity which would eliminate the depression/oppression I had been feeling.  I am also entering into a partnership with Mishi McCoy of Mishi's Gathering of the Wild and Mystical.  I'm very excited to work with her and Beverly Loving.  It's a time of newness; a time of endings and beginnings.  

I like my job and the flexibility of the hours.  I don't know if things will change when the new company takes over but for now it's fine. However the winds of change are calling this gypsi mama.  I don't know why I am always so restless!  I had to have been a gypsy in a previous life, I had to have been!  I am always wanting change of some kind; always wanting to see another place, be exposed to other cultures.  I'm not sure what's going to happen in my life, who does know?, but I do know that change is coming, things are ending and things are beginning.  I will not stand and look at the closed door, I will turn around and "welcome the largeness of life that now lies open to my soul".

Until next Sunday,
Merry part and merry meet again, 
Blessed be,
Gypsi Mama Michelle