The Little Girl and the Papaya

Shiloh was a little Hawaiin girl who kept herself busy while the women in her tribe cooked, cleaned and created beauty with God's gifts.  She often found herself talking to the plants and land... telling stories to them for hours and hours while listening to all that they had to share. 

One day, while the morning mist was burning off from the sun, Shiloh fell asleep next to Papaya.  She had dreams of journeys, friends, family and all things.  She stretched out long and felt the humid air on her sticky bangs.  When she awoke, her eyes held in amazement.  Everywhere she looked, she saw her dreams hung around her like laundry on a line. 

Papaya spoke first to the very surprised Hawaiian girl:

"You need not mask your sorrows and joys behind these dreams, little one.  They serve you not in the Land of the Now.  Where is your heart, dear one?"

At that, Shiloh looked down at her chest and did not see anything but the fabric of her clothing.  With a shift of her breath, she found her heart, inside of her, pulsating brightly with the deepest love that also made Papaya shine.

"Very good dear child.  That heart of yours is your guide.  It is what is most true for you. It knows the Truth that will be with you in the moments of the Now."

Shiloh bit her lip, released it, then took a big breath of tropical air.  She filled her belly to the brim and allowed her heart to fill her and shine like the full moon over the ocean. 

Papaya shook his leaf and shined his own heart energy her way.
Suddenly, she remembered those dreams that were hanging all around her and her eyes relinquished their soft gaze.  They darted back and forth collecting the stories, images and ideas.  At that her shining light dimmed.

Papaya gathered her softly.  "Dear one, where do you go?  You choose to live in the Land of the Dreams.  They are never ending and they turn off into infinite directions demanding much energy from a young sprite as you.  Where is your heart?"

Shiloh bashfully dropped her eyes from the images.

"Here", Shiloh spoke.

Papaya's own leaves glistened with Sparkles from Shiloh's heart light.  It grew so bright from her young confidence that the sun danced and said "Good Morning Shiloh, it is so nice to feel you."

The Joy that Shiloh felt only brightened her more and brought her to her dancing feet.

In tune with with her steps, "thump, thump", and moving arms, "whosh, whosh", Shiloh unconsciously asked Papaya, "where are my dreams?" ...  "Thump, thump"..  "whoosh, whoosh".

Papaya spoke with a twinkle in his leaves, "You are in the Land of the Now.  Your heart holds your tune and it is a tune unlike anything that a dream could ever be. Do you love your heart tune?"

Shiloh shined her heart into a bright, "yes" carrying her knowing across the whole island and beyond.  In tune with her steps, "thump, thump" and her moving arms, "whoosh, whoosh", her eyes were lightly closed and she was happy. 

At that same moment, did a young boy on a snowy mountain feel an overwhelming warmth of love pour into his own heart and beyond.

I share with you some of the written gratitude that I have received over the years for performing wedding ceremonies.  I feel so blessed that I have continued to sustain relationships and friendships with many of the couples that I have served. 

Debbie,

Josh and I can not put into our words our sincere gratitude for the service that you created for us.  Thank you just doesn't capture how we feel.  We ran out to get some quick pictures before the sun went down, thinking you would just be there when we got back.  We wanted to tell you in person how amazing everything that you put together was! Honestly, from the bottom of our hearts your integration of Josh's dad to the irish blessing, the wine capsule ceremony, and your overall energy and spirituality inspired us.  All night people complimented the ceremony.  Which to us is incredible! So often people focus on the party after and while that was fun and unforgetable... when you get compliments saying "your ceremony was the best I have ever been to," or (from our engaged friends) "do you mind if we borrow.... (this or that) from your ceremony" it is the best complement paid.

We dont know exactly how we were so fortunate, blessed, and lucky to find you but however we were led to you we know it was meant to be!!

Again THANK YOU!!! from the bottom of our hearts for making our day unforgetable! and solidifying our relationship!!!

We hope we can cross paths again in our near future.  We would want nothing more than to thank you in person!

With love and great admiration,

Josh and Tara McGeachey    :)

Debbie

Heather and I are so happy that we have somebody to perform our ceremony that we know and trust.  We are so excited about the big day.  We can't express how thankful we are that you are doing it for us.  Thanks so much,  Brian and Heather Reifler

Debbie

I would like to thank you for performing such a beautiful ceremony.  Everyone enjoyed themselves and I have had several comments on how lovely you were.  It was a pleasure working with you.  Thanks again for your kind words and well wishes.

Lori-Ann and Leigh Almeida

Debbie

Thank you for your calm support and sincere enthusiasm.  It was truly a blessing for me to meet you.  Knowing you were officating, made all the other details manageable.  I hope you enjoy our celebration too!

Fondly Ann Johnson

Dear Debbie

Anthony and I want to thank you for all of the love and caring you put into our wedding.  We are so grateful and delighted that such a spirited lady could be the person to officate at our wedding ceremony.  God bless you in your glorious work.

Love Anthony and Barb Postizzi

Dear Debbie

We wanted to thank you so much for being a part of our wedding day.  The ceremony was everything I had imagined.  It was so nice to meet and work with you.  I hope to see you in the future, maybe at upcoming weddings!  Love Kyla and Sean Schmeegle

Reverend Debbie

Thank you so much for all the beautiful work you did in officiating our ceremony!  It was absolutley beautiful and perfect!  Also, thank you for the wonderful blessing you gave at the reception, we were so glad you were able to stay for a while and celebrate our love and the joy of our special day with us! Love Staci and Paul Morin

Debbie

Thank you very much for officating our ceremony.  It's been a pleasure getting to know you and we hope to remain in contact in the future.  Steve and I both feel very comfortable with you and we feel so fortunate to have found you!  All the best to you and your family.

Kelli and Steve Sherreffs. 

Deborah

Thank you so much for sharing in our wedding day and making our ceremony perfect.  Thank you for letting us create a ceremony that was special and meaningful to us.  Thank you again, Mike and Kara Dogali.

Deborah, darling and beautiful person that you are!!!
I am so happy to hear from you as I have been wanting to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the special care and love you showered on all of us at the marriage of our lovely daughter,Sabrina and her handsome sweet husband John Apczynski. We can't think of that day without thinking about you and how special you made it for all of us. We are so glad that God has put us in each other's paths for you are a true blessing and we absolutely think the world of you. Please know that our hearts and home is always open to you and your family and we hope that you are all happy and handling all this snow and icy roads well. Stay warm and safe!!! .........and of course do stay in touch.........and keep smiling that winning smile. xoxoxHugs to all of you. Leda and Tom Proulx

Since I was a young girl, I have heard the term "Soul Mate".  I remember one evening riding in our caravan while my mom drove us home from somewhere, when I delved into another one of my thought places.  See I have always quieted myself to contemplate situations, relationships and people... even myself.  I was considered "shy" and perhaps it was because I much preferred withdrawing into silent thought than to chat up with people in order to come to a conclusion.  While perhaps my "one-way" conversation with myself insulated conclusions, I now believe that I was talking to God.  In my whole life, I have been striving to discover my inner voice.  My God self that is all wise, patient, loving and connected.  It seems I was already talking to her since my beginning. 

In that caravan, I imagined my wedding, wondering if I would find a husband let alone a prom date 8 years from that time.  I could vaguely picture in my self who he would be and how I would know if he was the one.  I thought back then that my Soul Mate was somewhere out there waiting for me.  I believed that there was only one and I better keep my eyes peeled so that I didn't miss him.  Well that put me into hyper drive, from that point forward, I was looking... yes at 8 years old.

Now, 31 years from that moment, I believe that we have many Soul Mates.  They come in the forms of best friends, family, co-workers, and children... and it is not too hard for us to find them.  Soul Mates connect with us in ways that feel differently from other people in our lives.  It is a personal response and usually it holds an instant attraction, strong emotion and excitement.  It moves us from head to toe.  Soul Mates deserve a lot of our love because many times, they choose to incarnate with us so that we can learn our life lessons.  And we all have lived a long life filled with many ups and downs, seeing someone through that is such an act of love.  As well as the flip side... challenging someone throughout their life is an equal commitment, no matter how hard it feels. 

I love to imagine my soul before I decided I would be Deborah Catherine Faith Mortimer Gleadow.  I love to imagine and feel God in all of its forms, my soul and birth ancestors, my soul connections from all other lifetimes and me.  I imagine with such great love all of the decisions we all made to best impact and guide each other through being Human.  I imagine the extreme love when I and another Soul Mate determine that we will wrong each other in this lifetime for the great lessons of strength, healing and empowerment that we might potentially gain.  We agreed to challenge everything... our believe in self, God, and all other.  I feel I had a knowing that it could be possible and that in that place before birth, I agreed "Yes" that this life is the One for me.  Only I could choose that agreement and I quietly and soundly did.  And since that time, I agree over and over to be in this life and live.  I am grateful for the amazing souls that I chose to incarnate with who bless me over and over again through pain and celebration and my family lines that offer me an inheritance that goes back thousands of years while my soul life is infinite.  I really hit the jackpot on this life. 

It is no surprise that at 8 years old I began looking for "him" when who I was really looking for was all of my Soul Mates, somehow anxious to connect and see what we could teach each other.  The Truth is, there is no need to look for each other, as we all come into each others' lives at the perfect time.  Divine Timing.  That in all lessons, we can feel the Joy in the potential, Joy in the reconnection with a Soul Mate and Joy in the Original Plan made to share all that we could humanly and spiritually together. 

To all of my many Soul Mates, I love you, I forgive you, I apologize and I thank you.  May your own journey be one of Love.

Order and Chaos.

All around and within there are natural processes that follow an order.  The Seasons, the cycles of death & rebirth, digestion, and circulation have a rhythm and are held in place by some kind of energy.  You may call it Divine while others may call on its Scientific properties as explanations to its flow.  We come to depend on this order in such a way that we often forget that it exists.  One's circulation is a miracle in of its self yet when does one remember to applaud it for pushing ones blood and health throughout ones body?  Look into and outside of your own life and notice the order that flows.  Some kinds of order are self imposed.  Habits, patterns, schedules can serve our life; however, when do we notice that these do not serve us anymore?  

When something uproots from order, chaos is noticeable.  Chaos is always in existence.  Our molecules and atoms are in chaos.  We forget that great chaos lives within order and processes.  Yet when we are free of the order, then our molecules and chaos shines. We are then reminded that we have actually been a chaotic being all along, and then we rush to find some kind of order to fit our chaos in. There is some loving humor in this place.  

What would happen if one uproots from order, and allows the chaos to remain out of the bag, without a process?  All is exposed... fears, strengths, hidden gifts, personality and potential. Here, like a Wizard, one can call to oneself the chaos that serves.  A little bit of love and a bit of joy can be wonderful attributes to the creation that is taking place.  While pulling in anger, resentment and bitterness could amplify an issue that one can heal.  Like a Wizard, one can choose with determined focus, what ingredients can be best used to Create.   

Stand in room, center yourself while grounding your feet and opening your awareness to the Universal light.  Imagine you are a powerful Wizard standing in swirling, chaotic potential.  From your Knowing place, determine what you need and want to create.  Allow the pieces and parts of this creation to come to you.  Lift your arms and receive what you need accepting that you may be receiving something for the first time, something that cannot yet be defined or fit into an understanding.  Allow the chaotic energy to join you and become whatever is meant to match what you know.  

Now Know that you have participated in Change.

(Since writing this, I fully believe that there are no Secrets.  The answers lie within each of us and there is nothing that prevents our remembering but energy.  The mysteries of the Universe are within each of you.  There is Nothing Wrong with sharing this Mystery.  It is free and abundant and available to all.  Co-Creation at its best is when we unite to share.  Imagine the limitlessness.  Imagine the Freedom)

(January 29, 2011)

I have decided to share a little magic with you.

While watching a popular religious program for 5 minutes, I was given the gift and understanding of Tithing.

Tithing has been around for years and is often associated with church collections, household budgets, and supporting things like this religious program.  Tithing is where a certain portion of one's earnings are offered out to others regularly.  10% is a common portion. It freaked me out initially I admit.  10% seems a lot especially when I am conscious of meeting needs.  I sat with it for a while and began to put aside 10% of each amount that I earned.  I put this money in an envelope.  Then I got a phone call from a charity and I was able to say "Yes", I have money put aside!  It was $10 and in to the charity envelope it went.  A few days later, I was at Marshall's and fell in love with a sweater for a 2 year old girl.  Then guidance reminded me of my tithing stash and I bought it and will donate it this Christmas.  I have since had money for neighbor fund raisers, and whatever else comes up.

So here is the magic part:

I am very excited by sharing money from my tithing stash.

Happiness and Joy expands and radiates.

I want this happiness to occur more in my life.

If this 10% continues to be more and expand....

Then my 90% has to expand more and more!

So rather than focusing on my needs that I want to be fulfilled financially, I can shift perspective and allow my tithing stash to grow, grow, grow and my abundance multiplies infinitely outgrowing the needs and being filled with the energy of happiness and joy!

Who am I? What do I like, how do I feel, what do I want?  

These answers have become clear.  I had been a culmination of other people's interests, likes, beliefs and feelings.  I held my parents' fears, anger and worries; I held my grandparents' pain, and their parents' connection to the divine and to the earth. While searching for my own beauty, I discovered that much of my beauty lived under others' energy.  I am Empathic and this lifetime I am learning to use Empathy as a tool.  As a child, this Empathy turned into an open door. I had not known how to use it to serve me.  I simply accepted that I felt people's stuff and I chose to take it in sort of like a pile of crap. What they did not want, I took and neatly, quietly and nicely I put it away for later.  The later has come and I now know what to do with it!  I released some, I gave back some, transmuted the rest.  I affirmed that I do not want to create a new pile of others' energy.  I want a healthy, bountiful cup of energy that I can happily share with my Self others in exciting forms like charity, healing work, surprise visits and fun!  And I now know my own feelings!!!!!  I know my anger, my joy, as I am discovering my self and all of her layers.

Many children that walk this Earth are empathic.  Each one responds differently to their tools of Empathy.  Shifting Empathy to Compassion is a first step to living an empowered life.  Children can still feel, yet they can shift their feeling experience to a space where the others' energy can not stay and live.  Children deserve to discover their own beliefs, passions and to have a relationship with their own creativity.  Help them to keep their energy clear and to listen to them as they guide you to keep yours clear.  Be sensitive to their sensitivities and then be sensitive to yours.  What messages in both of your lives provide opportunities for infinite possibilities? 

I am excited for you to discover who you are, what you like, how you feel and what you want!!

Martha's Vineyard called and I responded by spending the day.  My soul sister Anne and I met at the boat and as we hugged we felt the lifetimes and experiences bubbling out ready to be heard.  Grandmother Tree was waiting to meet me!  We sat under her huge branches and shared lunch, speaking the words unheard for so long.  We drummed, we sang, we welcomed and released. I have been visiting Grandmother Tree for a while now, but this day was the first in this lifetime in physical form.  It is easy to talk to her and now that I picture her and see where she lives, it is easy to bring her into all of my life's activities.  Grandmother Tree holds so much space for all of us as do infinite other trees, mountains, bodies of water, land, vegetation and majestic jewels of Mother Earth. These places are real and they support us even when we are miles away.  Grandmother Tree has inspired me to travel more and to open my self to learning the energies of all that lives on Mother Earth.  Each has a new lesson, each with a new gift and tool to use.  Grandmother Tree loves me so much and with Gratitude do I acknowledge her presence and all that she has been for all time.

This picture was taken by artist, Anne Colangeli.

It is essential that we learn how to harness and manage our own personal energy.  It is time to pull back from all distractions.  Politics, education systems, world events, gossip, drama, and sensationalism.  These are Caverns of Crap.  When we choose to put our attention, conversations, entertainment, and especially family moments into these areas, we are losing the self.  Completely.

Look at this realistically: what can you possibly do, as one person, to be so extended in all ways on CNN, etc. knowing every angle of every situation?  Even if you convince your friends, co-workers, and family members of your perspective, then what can you all possibly do?

What energy do these conversations create?  For me I have become frustrated and negative over my limitations... knowing that what I see or believe can not change our society.  Angry, Frustrated, Limited... that is NOT the energy that any of us can bear to hold.  What is happening is that this collective negativity is bottling up creative flow and possibilities in our country and our world.  

We are missing the solutions that are floating by.  We think that the old ways of change will bring about revolution.  We are not in need of revolution right now we are in need of transformation.  The ONLY way this can happen as a person, family, municipality, country and world is to pull back within.  

We have SO many modes of perception.  Hearing, seeing, knowing, understanding, smelling, feeling, and intuition are some.  Those are powerful ways that you can access creativity and clear guidance.  So you want to know the best politician to vote for?  Pull back within and use those powers of yours to fully determine what seems right to you then allow every one else to do the same.  It is not our right to convince people of our views.  Coming from a centered place, you can be unwavered in your approach and then your can be a guide, teacher, a motivator without even sometimes saying a word.  You can create change silently and actively.

Your energy needs to be focused on your self.  I perceive the ripples of water that extend out from a rock.  You are the rock.  Next is the family that you have chosen to have or that has chosen to have you.  Then it extends out to friends and family and community.  A ripple never starts from outside of the rock... ever.  Our energy cannot do that either but we extend it so and that is where much of our suffering lies.   

There are people in this world with names that we may recognize that have chosen roles in which they push our buttons.  Pull back within, close the curtain on their show and thrive.  Master your own happiness, revitalize from the flow of energy that you can keep for yourself. Notice how you are more present with your kids, spouse, and loved ones.  Start sleeping better.  The more individuals who can find this power and balance, then the collective energy of true power and balance grows, then creativity expands to offer us new ways to live, educate, and care for each other.  Then check your face in the mirror and chances are you will see a smile.  

If we know that we live forever, even those with the utmost spiritual faith, then why is it so hard to accept when someone close to us dies?  Is that the reason why we often choose to not have faith in the Divine who asks us to live and to breathe love, peace, forgiveness and faith?  Is it hard to swallow scripture, messages and words of encouragement when pain grips relentlessly from within?  Yes it is.  It is very hard.

It is a courageous and brave way to allow our self to trust that Spirit connects us in all ways and that we live eternally and completely before, during, and after death.  It is faith, an intangible personal experience that defies the mind and rationality.  While the mind searches for proof and credibility, faith from the heart only asks to be transformed through its openness.

Ghandi, Budhists, and Carl Jung are some of many that believe that each person is made up of all others.  Aspects called the shadows, archetypes and masks of the human, are beneath each of our exteriors no matter how pure the package may seem.  Psychologists have argued for years about what cocktail of nature and nurture comprise the person's experiences, inner self and potential.  Twins reared separately who are given different life situations sometimes may follow a similar path and share uncanny interests while siblings living in the same home dynamics for years may choose very different "ways out" into the world.  Our perspectives make up our personal truth.  A grand TRUTH does exist with which we can only see through our own lens.

A teacher recently explained to me that a meeting was held with a small group of people.  In this group was a doctor, a fireman, a comedian, a teacher, and a lawyer.  A person shared their experience and each person in the group had a varied perspective of the story.  The doctor commented on the person's health and lack there of that may have contributed to the outcome; the fireman, being very protective, was concerned for the prolonged safety for this person and family; the comedian laughed and made light of the experience to ease everyone's feelings; the teacher talked about how the experience is a wonderful learning experience; and the lawyer focused on the cause, effect and fault that could have allowed the situation to occur in the first place.  This person left the group with many different perspectives that were quite polarized by the personal experiences of each member.  Each member; therefore, sharing a personal truth.  Each personal truth being a Perspective of the TRUTH.