What Awareness Can Do For You

In a previous blog post, I wrote about my personal experience with pain. After I published it, I asked myself, now why did I do that?

My original intention for this blog was to be something l fun, light-hearted and inspiring. But writing that post, I went down a rabbit hole that I didn’t expect.

Given what is happening currently worldwide, I think a lot of people feel that they also went down an unexpected rabbit hole also.

I said that there are no accidents. only lack of awareness of what is happening. In questioning my action, I began to see more clearly.

The pain I felt within my body had slowed me down to the point to see the gift, which was to see the beauty of my own pain.

I realized what is truly important, just being in the moment. When you don’t rush yourself, you realize that you are exactly where you need to be.

You begin to see that your life is unfolding perfectly and always has been.

You begin to see the purpose behind everything that has happened in your life, the truth of who you are.

The veil of forgetfulness that is placed upon you when you are born begins to lift.

You begin to fully awake.

Always,
Alice Always

The 1111 Gateway of 2017 and What It Means for Us

Today is 11/11/17 and as it is the same number repeated twice, it is amplifying the vibration of the numbers 1 and 11.

Do you see 11:11 all the time? It is a sign that the Universe is telling you to be present with your thoughts.

Author Doreen Virtue says of multiples of the number one:
“If you continually see the numbers 11, 111, or 1111, there’s a reason. The most common way that angels communicate with humans is through the universal languages of numbers and music.

The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras was the first to establish that numbers hold vibrational properties. He taught that the entire universe is mathematically precise.

When you see repetitive number sequences, this is a message from your angels, or if you prefer, spirit guides, the Universe, God, your Higher Self, the Big Kahuna, Bob, or whatever. It doesn’t matter how you define where a message comes from because when you truly understand, you will see that everything is One.

For the sake of this post, I am calling the messengers angels, as I originally found the information from Doreen Virtue who called them angel numbers because of her personal interactions with the illuminated beings.

The word Angel comes from the Greek word Angelos meaning messenger. Calling them angel numbers makes sense as they are messages.

You can ask your angels what they are trying to tell you, and if you listen in stillness, you will hear their answers clearly. Sometimes, though, if you are stressed or in a hurry, it is not as easy to hear your angels and you may miss a message that was sent to you.

You may even disregard the idea that numbers hold meaning and vibration because it sounds ridiculous to you and doesn’t go along with the belief system that you were raised in. When you close yourself off to things that you never thought of before, you close yourself off to insights that might have otherwise been gleaned.

Numbers are a shorthand code. In the case of multiple number ones, they represent an energy gateway. The more number ones you see, the stronger the energy is contained.

In practical terms, this means that your thoughts are going through a cycle where they are manifesting instantly into form. You think it, and boom! It happens. When these cycles occur, it’s extra important to keep your thoughts focused on your desires, and to stay positive. Otherwise, your fears may manifest instantly. You can ask Heaven to uplift you so that your thoughts are focused on the highest possibilities.

1, 11, 111, and 1111 in Angel Numbers all mean: “Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts are manifesting instantly into form. Focus only upon your desires and not upon your fears.”

Double digit days are gateway days when we are able to receive energy of increased magnitude.

At 11:11 am today, I was visiting the cemetery where my parents are buried. I had not planned this, but that is how it worked out. At 1:11 pm, I was meditating and had a vision. Two rows of columns like the number one spread out and I walked between them, remembering a poem that I wrote in 1991. I’ll write more about my poetry another time.

The vision I had was of the cosmic gateway of 1111, which was at its strongest at 11:11 on 11/11/11. At 11:11 am that morning, I wrote a poem as the energies were inspiring me to do so. Over the years I kept telling myself that I would publish it as a book because it is rather lengthy. I never got around to it but I am feeling that it is something I need to do now as we are in a very unusual time.

This particular year is a one year because the numbers add up to one. 2017 breaks down to 2+0+1+7=10. Then break the number ten down 1+0=1. One is about new beginnings. In the breakdown of the year numbers, the energy of one is amplified yet again.

You can go deeper into each number for each has its unique vibration. Every moment has a particular energy because of the influences of the planets, moon and stars and their positions to each other and us.

Planetarily, we have been going through a time of chaos and this is all part a shift in consciousness as old systems are beginning to fall away.

Divisions have been sown to keep us divided and stuck in fear-based mindsets. This is being played out in the USA in the political spectrum. There is so much talk of “fake news” right now that it can be difficult to see what is real and what is not.

We are all conditioned based on our beliefs and we will side with whatever side supports our personal belief system.

Read the comments below any political news article on Facebook and you will see people attacking each other. That is what needs to stop. We all need to look beyond our differences and stand together united or we will lose what we worked so hard to attain.

The best you can do is to live from your heart. Keep focused on love and only love.

Always,
Alice Always

The Present of Being Present: Awareness

I started writing this post exactly 4 months ago today. At that time, I was working at a job that was wreaking havoc on my health. It’s rather curious that I would return to this post on the exact same day (on the 23rd of all days – more about that another time). It’s also rather curious that my mind would be concerned with being present. My present (yes, pun intended) circumstances lend a lot to what is happening.

I will say this now and probably will say it again and again:

There are no accidents,
only lack of awareness of what is happening.

Here is what I wrote on June 23, 2017:

The word for today is present. Every single day, not just this one, that is, if we are truly present.

I’m in a very difficult situation. I work at a back-breaking job and I’m reaching my personal breaking point as Humpty Dumpty in regards to my joints.

I have arthritis in my fingers, wrists, neck, back, hips and now possibly in the knee. Pain is par for the course.

I just came back from the doctor. I wanted relief. He said I’ll just have to live with it.

I refuse to accept pain as a way of life.

Today, October 23, 2017, I am experiencing severe pain in my joints throughout my body. There is a low-pressure front and it is causing swelling.  On days like today, the stiffness makes me move extremely slow like an Ent.

I’m not complaining about this. I am trying to illustrate what it feels like to have widespread arthritis with a bit of humor. I’ve been doing a mental exercise to alleviate the pain by just observing it. In time I hope to be in a pain-free life, but that is not today.

This morning when I woke up an old poem I wrote years ago came to my head:

After we see
the beauty
of our own pain
then we begin

The image of a painting I did that was based on that poem also flashed through my mind. Here it is:

“Beauty of Pain” by Ginny Gaura

I created this mixed-media piece about 15 years ago when the arthritis was localized to my lower back. I didn’t create this painting because of physical pain. I was experiencing emotional pain back then.

But pain is pain whether it is emotional or physical. It is not pleasant.

Back in the early 2000s my fingers were just beginning to develop osteophytes, bone spurs that disfigure my joints. Back then, I didn’t have pain in my hands, I just had a few swollen joints. Now the hand pain is sometimes so severe that daily activities such as typing can cause pain. Also, my fingers are crooked on my right, which is the dominant hand.

I am only 55. My mom developed bone spurs in her hands later in life. When she passed at 77, her joints were not as disfigured as mine are now.

I have had back issues since I was a teenager and was diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the spine with bone spurs in my thirties, so the illness has had a long time to progress.

Someone in the public eye claimed that his bone spurs got better. At least from my experience, bone spurs only get worse with time.

Sometimes there is a gift within the pain if we allow ourselves to see it. For me, it is awareness. I am aware of what is hurting but I am not letting it overpower my life. I am listening to my body, moving it slowly and treating it with care. What is happening is allowing me to open more fully in awareness, to see things in a more intense light, to be more present in the moment.

What new awareness have you had recently?

Always,
Alice Always

 

Coming Full Circle on the New Moon Fall Equinox (Or the Spring Equinox if You are Down Under)

I published my first Alice Always blog post exactly one year ago today on the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Here’s a link in case you are new, which I’m sure a lot of you are as I did nothing to promote it.

I was wrestling with the insecurities that I’ve always felt within me. I kept the blog hidden, talking about it to only a few people. I didn’t promote it at all, not even on my Facebook page. I had created a special Twitter account, @AliceIsAlways, but I didn’t always link my posts to it. Even though I knew it was important to me to work on it, I went through the year putting this blog on the perpetual back burner. I hardly posted at all.

I didn’t make a priority even though I knew it would be something completely different.

Why not?

Because I was scared that it would be successful, and then I would finally be seen.

I also had a little problem of falling asleep and forgetting who I am.

On top of that, there was this strange dance with I’ve been doing with time. It kept running out.

Tonight, I will start promoting it. Tonight, I will publish a post with my Twitter accounts and on Facebook, even if I have to stay up past my bedtime and no one sees it until tomorrow.

Then, tomorrow, on September 23, 2017, I will step into my power, proclaim my Queenship as a silly Goo and yet again be the child who dances like no one is watching.

Tomorrow, I will embrace my inner Elsa and let go of the limiting beliefs that have kept me in a prison of my own mind.

Doomsday Gloomers (yes, I just made a new word and phrase) and also some Biblical Book of Revelations Buffs (oh, the joy of alliteration!) are saying that tomorrow will be the End of the World. Some say a rogue planet called Nibiru will play bumper cars with Earth.

Some say its the beginning of The Tribulation, the seven years leading up to Armageddon, the battle at the End of the World.

I began my tribulation 7 years ago when my mom died, so I’m done with that. If tomorrow is my personal Armageddon, then the old me will die and a new me will rise like a Pheonix from the ashes and I will claim my birthright to be the most curiouser and curiouser person that I can be!

I AM ALICE!

Always,
Alice Always

 

 

 

Self-Love: The Most Important Gift that We Give to Ourselves

In my last post, I talked about gifts that we give can share with others, the things that make us unique. Today I’m talking about something that many of us have difficulty with: self-love.

There is a saying that you cannot love another person without loving yourself first. But I am capable of loving others, I know that. I have wonderful loving relationships with relatives and friends. And I genuinely feel a deep love for my boyfriend.

When it comes to loving myself, that is another story. Right now, I am constantly criticizing myself for what I consider my faults: indecisiveness, procrastination, making choices and later regretting them, and battling bouts of severe depression and anxiety which prevent me from doing so many things.

My thinking patterns have been chaotic of late and trying to move ahead with this blog has been rough. I have fears of rejection and fears of success created by issues of low self-esteem from childhood that I am still working through. As a result, I have been writing posts but not sharing them. Well, more like not finishing them because I get distracted so often.

I have had things happen in the last year that has set me back further than I ever expected. I thought by now I would be making progress but I feel like a turtle in a world of rapidly moving digitally-oriented people who thrive on the constant changes of the age.

I grew up in an age prior to the World Wide Web, though I have been using Macs as a graphic designer since the early days of Apple and Photoshop. Back then, when I made a change in Photoshop, I would have to wait a while for it to finish processing on the screen. I could go get a coffee and when I came back, the spinning ball of death had stopped.  Or at least I hoped. Boredom drove me crazy back them.

Now everything is instantaneous. There is no time for boredom. It’s nice but it reminds me of how fast time goes by and how much I still have to do.

Our lives are to teach us how to love. We create stories and judgments in our heads of how we think life should be and that does not serve us at all.

I am doing my best to let go of my self-criticisms and it is an ongoing process.

We can be so hard on ourselves, yet we can be more accepting when we see the same behaviors in others.

I have to comfort my little inner child many times a day that everything is alright. I often put my hands on my heart and tell that little one inside who is scared and frightened that she is safe and loved.

If you are going through a rough patch now and dealing with issues of self-love, you are not alone.

Place your hands over your heart and feel it beating. Breathe deeply and picture a golden light within your heart. Continue breathing deeply and feel the light expand outward. Feel its warmth.

That feeling is the love that is you.

Always,
Alice Always

Our Gifts Are Meant To Be Shared

We all have gifts that set us apart from others. Sometimes a gift is obvious, like someone who can fly through the air and slam-dunk a basketball. A certain Chicago Bulls player whose jersey was number 23 comes to mind.

Some people are masters of taking food ingredients and preparing meals that make our taste buds happy.

Some people are compassionate healers, nurturing others back to health.

Some people are great listeners who can help us through situations and find solutions we never thought of.

Some people are dexterous with their hands and able to take materials to make furniture and buildings.

Some people uplift others by playing musical instruments or singing.

Some people excel at cleaning, organizing, assembling, spelling or solving complex mathematical equations.

Some people think of preposterous ideas that change how we think.

Some people invent new technology to make everyone’s life easier.

Some people play characters that we can identify with.

Some people create art that speaks to our soul.

Some people are wonderful at making others feel better with just a smile.

We all have at least one special talent that is unique to us.

No one gift is more important than another because when all gifts are shared, they create a wonderful world.

Because each of us is a different shape and size than the next person, so too our gifts come in different shapes and sizes.

So many of us go through our work days in drudgery just to pay the bills.

Some of us don’t appreciate what we have or use our gifts at all. Some of us don’t even realize that we have them by never taking the time to try something new.

Imagine wrapping a present and never giving it to anyone. That’s what it is like to not appreciate your gift. It stays in the box, unopened.

When I was a kid, we called our unique talents God-given gifts. They are gifts of the spirit and our souls want us to use them.

What if we all shared our gift with at least one other person each day? It would make us happier and that in turn could create a happier world.

Think of it this way:

Our gifts are the presents we get to share.

Always,
Alice Always

Thank You, J.K. Rowling, For Reminding All of Us that We are Magical Beings

On the 20th Anniversary of Harry Potter, I would like to honor J.K. Rowling and her creative contribution our collective imagination by introducing us all to Harry Potter. An entire generation has grown up with Harry and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

Thank you, J.K. Rowling. Thank you for shining your light and sharing your gift with the world.

I remember seeing the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in the late 90s. I was at my brother’s house and the book was on an end table in the family room. My niece was reading it and I asked her about it. She told me it was about a boy wizard who went to a school called Hogwarts. The next few months I kept hearing about it, committing to read it someday.

Unless you have kids of your own, other things take precedence over reading children’s books and I never got around to reading it until right before the first movie came out in 2001.

I enjoyed both the book and movie so much that I went on to read more of the novels, though regretfully, I never finished the series. I hope to someday.

The thing that struck me most was that J.K. Rowling had brought forth a magical world that has become entwined in our consciousness in a purely imaginative way. It allowed us to see the world differently from how we experienced it up until that point.

You see profiles of people on Facebook who say they are Hogwarts graduates and professors. Some adults are using their imagination to change how they view their childhoods. Instead of reliving unpleasant memories, we can reframe our past and see it in a whole new light. We can create happy thoughts.

When young children play, they can go deep into their fantasy and really feel that they are the characters that they imagine. Why do adults forget to play like that? Why do we call it pretending? Is it because we are afraid of what other adults will think?

What if we allowed ourselves to be whatever awesome playful character we choose to be at any moment? Our playfulness might spread to others and everyone could lighten up, smile and laugh. Wow! Life would take on a whole new level of magic!

We are all magical beings with abilities to create worlds of wonder. J.K. Rowling showed us where her imagination took her. Where does your imagination take you?

Always,
Alice Always

My Curiouser and Curiouser Fascination with Words, Words, Words

In Act II of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is found in the library by Polonius where they engage in a conversation. At one point Polonius asks Hamlet what he is reading and his response is: “Words, words, words.”

It is one of my favorite lines from Willie the Bard, nothing is more succinct and to the point. Yes, Prince Hamlet could have replied with a simple one syllable “Words”, but as another late great Prince so aptly sang it in his song, “Joy in Repetition“:

There’s joy in repetition
There’s joy in repetition
There’s joy in repetition
There’s joy in repetition

If you read Alice in Wonderland (or saw any of the movies), you would know that the author Lewis Carroll used words that were unusual, to say the least. A word like curiouser appears to be poor grammar because it does not follow the standard rules of the English language. The -er ending is almost never used with words of more than two syllables.

According to the Old English Dictionary, the word curiouser was first used by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland in 1865, as the phrase “curiouser and curiouser”. The OED cites this phrase only, and does not treat curiouser as a word by itself; the phrase has the meaning “increasingly strange”.

I think that by repeating the word twice, you are reinforcing it and expounding of the notion of curiouser, making what is already strange, stranger even still.

I like to look at “curiouser and curiouser” and see it as something that attracts your attention, something that you never saw before, like almost everything in the Alice books. Every new experience makes Alice think and that is what words do for me.

I enjoy researching the etymology of words, or word origins if you prefer. It can be fascinating to find out where words come from, how they evolve and their impact on our consciousness.

Always,
Alice Always

Playing with Imagination and Where It Can Take Us (To Infinity and Beyond)

Let’s play Rorschach Test. You know, that fun psychological evaluation exercise where you are shown an inkblot picture and you get to decipher what you see in it? Before you read any further, look at the above picture and think about what it says to you.

This is an experiment because I don’t have any idea what people will see.

So go ahead. I’ll wait.

You can post in the comments what you thought if you’d like. I’d love to see what everyone has to say.

If you said that it looks like an air hockey game, that would be correct. But if you never had any knowledge of air hockey, you might not say that.

I was going to title this post “The Goal of this Blog” but that seemed so generic and I’m not a very generic kind of girl. When I think about the word “goal” the first image that comes to my mind is an old air hockey game from the 1970s. You might picture a goal chart, a mountain, your own personal goal, a star or something that is significant to you. I see air hockey, a game from my childhood.

As I said in my last post, I have this outrageous idea that through using our imagination, we can create a peaceful and loving world. It is outrageous to me because I am still working on personal issues such as self-love and self-worth. Maybe you are also.

Most of us have something in us that we need to overcome. Sometimes it is a limiting belief that has been handed down from our parents, who had it handed down from their parents. Maybe someone said something negative to us as a young child and we took it to heart. Our hearts need to be healed. Our inner children need to be healed.

I look at this blog as a social experiment to help myself and others restore our innocence through imagination and play, and to see where it takes us. Hopefully, it will go far, like Buzz Lightyear always says: To Infinity and Beyond!

It’s my sincere hope that I continue on on this path of healing and that you join me.

Always,
Alice Always

Please comment below if you see something different than an air hockey game. I’d love to hear about any different perceptions of this picture.

I’m On My Way, I Don’t Know Where I’m Going

I wake up and it’s a new month: May! What happened to April? It raced by like a road runner! Where is that adorable cartoon coyote when you need him? I had so much to do last month but I slept through most of it. This blog was originally planned last year for March 20, the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring. You know, that’s a good time to start something new. Everything is so pretty with all the pastel Easter egg colors. Also, marshmallow Peeps are available in a store near you. Now, if you happen to be reading this in Australia, things are a bit different from here in the good ol’ USA. You know, because you have koala bears and kangaroos and we do not. Not to mention it’s Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

But I digress. Get use to that phrase as digressing is to me what digesting is to a finished meal – it’s part of an endless cycle or as I like to say, a loop da loop, or with my lousy French accent: loop ze loop. (You may need to imagine an old Pink Panther movie with Inspector Clouseau, if you get my drift.) But I digress. Yet again! I have to tell you. I take digressing to a whole new level! If speaking was a spectator sport, I would win the Olympic Gold Medal of Digression. I could even teach a college course on it. Yes, I digress that much.

I also have a tendency to use words in ways that other people do and sometimes in ways that no one does. In another world, I played the role of a nonconformist English major. I rebelled against the Establishment and used “me and…” instead of “… and I” on a term paper. In my defense, I insisted that if Paul Simon could say “Me and Julio down by the schoolyard”, then I could too. Well, my English professor was not convinced and gave me an extremely low grade. I wonder if e.e. cummings got an F- for not using capital letters.

They have such silly rules in the English language, I don’t know how a non-native English speaker trying to learn the language could possibly master it. I mean, the language itself is constantly evolving. When I was a kid, yeah, back when “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” was a song played in rotation on radio stations across America, people wore thongs, not flip-flops, on their feet. Now, people wear flip-flops on their feet and thongs as underwears. Yep, I said underwears with a ‘s’ at the end. Get used to it. I like to play with words.

Maybe I should get around to telling you why I’m writing a blog. Well, I have this outrageous idea that through using our imagination, we can create a peaceful and loving world. I intend to explore various topics such as creativity and reality in a playful manner that expresses my personality. Hopefully, I’ll make some sense or a great deal of nonsense. I want to inspire people and show them how to use their imagination to transform themselves and in doing so, help to transform the world into a joyful place.

As Alice, I bring the sense wonder that is Wonderland to this reality. I may ask you to participate on projects or make up your own. Together we can make a difference while having a lot of fun.

Always,
Alice Always