Communication is extremely important. Not just the willingness and ability TO communicate but the HOW you communicate. It isn’t just about whether you are heard. It is in the tone with which you speak. Tone, even indirectly, speaks to an intent and it is the intent that people ‘hear’. People 'hear' the dismissive or minimizing tones. During this Mercury Retrograde cycle, be mindful of your tone. It can be a trigger to those on the receiving end. While tempers tend to flare there IS a gift in all of this. It offers the receiver an opportunity to REview, REvisit and REconsider old wounds–and an opportunity to heal them. There is always a positive if one can move through their knee-jerk reactions.

This cycle (June 29th - July 23rd) , while we are still very early into it, has been fun! There have been a few odd events that weren’t all that wonderful but easily handled. Often it is the little things that go sideways that can have a big impact. So far so good! The fun part has been REconnecting with people from the past that ‘suddenly’ appeared. Opportunities arose that I became aware of and so I reached out to people I hadn’t talked to in a very long time. In conversation it became quite apparent that so much growth had occurred which I found really exciting! Then there have been people from my past who reached out to me and it has been fun REconnecting with them as well. Always wonderful to REminisce! While Mercury REtrograde can offer some trying times, there are always positive things one can appreciate. The time to REview, REconsider, REvisit, etc. Take advantage of it and be grateful. Often these pauses bring the most surprising gifts. How has it been going for you?

Everything I need to understand... is revealed through the way I meet this moment. ~Ara Parisien

Knowledge is not the beginning of experience. Experience is the beginning of knowledge.

The Shift In my latest retreat into myself, so many epiphanies have arisen that there is no adequate way to share them all. There is one, however, that absolutely stands out for me. It is the nature of "shifting." When we speak or think of shifting, we may believe it to be likef shifting gears and stepping up the pace or shifting our frequency. Both are true, I suppose. However, shifting now holds a very special meaning for me. As I continue to evolve, I have no doubt that understanding will evolve as well, and that feels perfect. Right now, though, this understanding fits me beautifully. For me, shifting is a realization rather than an action dependent upon doing something to ensure a shift occurs. A shift feels like a deeper experience. For quite some time, I felt as though I had been staring into a gaping abyss. An abyss that seemed to hold nothing except the certainty that, if I fell, I would most definitely hit bottom. Not in a dramatic sense, but in the sense of facing unknown variables. I seemed to lose my desire to anticipate, solve, or plan. All I could do was brace for impact. Then something occurred to me. If the abyss held unknown variables, then perhaps it wasn't vacant after all. It held something. So I asked myself how I could possibly make those unknown variables known. Surely that would help me feel more at ease. Then it hit me. What if the abyss was actually a spaciousness I had simply not yet recognized? Spaciousness would allow all that I was ready to meet—and all that was ready to meet me—to gently rise into my awareness. The unknown variables would become known in their own time. In that moment I began to see that a shift, for me, was nothing more than a perception pause and reassignment. Everything simply is until I assign it meaning. Once I began noticing spaciousness, more variables arrived to be known. That became unexpectedly joyful. As I noticed what was unfolding both within me and around me, I realized my energy naturally felt lighter. I wasn't trying to force my frequency to higher levels that couldn't be maintained. I was simply noticing.