Signs, Synchronicity, and Waking Dreams

In Health & Healing, HU: An Ancient Mantra, Inner Guidance, Love & Relationships, Messages from Memories, Past Lives & Karma, Spiritual Exercises, Spirituality

Reading Time: 5 minutes

By Michael Avery

I had the great pleasure and also the great misfortune of growing up at a quicksilver mine my father operated. With fifty-plus acres of hills, meadows, streams, ponds, wild strawberries, and ample wildlife, it was an idyllic place for a boy to live.

However, quicksilver, also known as mercury, is extremely toxic. The liquid metal that I often held in my hands turned out to be something other than a fun toy, as health issues later in life would prove. But this article is about a different memory from the “Bonanza Mine”—one that involves an old mining train and how it engendered a useful spiritual exercise.

A Timely “Mis-Delivery”

By Michael Avery

On May 17, 2024

In Guest Posts, Inner Guidance, Spirituality, Synchronicity, Waking Dreams

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Guest Post by Riley Carson

This morning while walking across the living room, I caught my toe on the edge of the coffee table, and fell forward. Fortunately I landed face down on the couch. I didn’t even suffer discomfort, let alone an injury. But I was quite startled. I thought to myself, “That was a lucky fall.”

About thirty minutes later, a UPS driver left a delivery at our door. We were not expecting any deliveries today. It was a large heavy box from some company named “FallTech”. Their motto is “Fall protection equipment is all we do.” But we hadn’t ordered it.

Why Not Be a Rainbow?

By Michael Avery

On May 14, 2024

In Conscious Living, Guest Posts, Poetry, Spirituality

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Guest Post by Gloria Lionz

I’m one of “those” fair-weather people; less than ideally suited to the overcast grays that reside in the PNW as a “routine.” Weather suited me “perfectly” during the three decades I called Santa Cruz’ “banana belt” home. Only four easy blocks to the beach, I was lulled to sleep by the waves every night.

Around 8-9 pm, the ocean would “pull” clouds in to the microclimate of “West side Santa Cruz,” treating residents, even those of us who did NOT own property directly on the cliffs, with excellent sound baffling. Result? Everyone, no matter where their home sat, was treated to the sound and uplifting energy of recycling waves.

So during that era, clouds at night by the sea made me smile. Not so here, near the Columbia River where far too many days (for my psyche) are chilly, damp, and down-right gray. What to do?

At 61, I Am Coming to Terms with the Possibility that I Will Remain Single

By Michael Avery

On May 10, 2024

In Guest Posts, Health & Healing, Love & Relationships, Personal Growth, Self-love, Spirituality

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Guest Post by Edie Weinstein

When I walked down the aisle on May 2, 1987, to share the words “I do” with the man I had met seven months earlier, I anticipated that we would be spending a long lifetime together.

We had met when I was 28 and he was 36, introduced by a mutual friend during the intermission of a lecture by spiritual leader Ram Dass. Our marriage would be what I call “paradoxical,” with its share of love and its own major dysfunctions that I shudder to think I allowed for the time we were together.

The Other Half of the Rainbow

By Michael Avery

On May 7, 2024

In Divine Love, Love & Relationships, Poetry, Spirituality, Stories from the Heart

Reading Time: 2 minutes

By Michael Avery

One of the many things I experienced while living in Hawaii when I was in my late twenties happened on the Island of Kauai. I saw the most beautiful rainbow I had ever seen. Rather than eliciting a feeling of joy, I felt an indescribable longing stir deep within my heart. I was longing for a love that I could not identify.

As I gazed up at the magnificent rainbow arching across the sky, I wondered: Where is the other half, the part that would make it complete. Shortly thereafter, I wrote the following poem.

To Sing and Dance

By Michael Avery

On May 3, 2024

In Guest Posts, Love & Relationships, Poetry, Spirituality

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Guest Post by Alea Kent

A few years ago I had a dream, and in this dream I was at a dance pavilion on the sandy shores of a lake. I was dancing with my Spiritual Guide. Soon we were dancing on the sand, and our dance steps uncovered golden coins. I looked at the coins and then up at my Guide, and the look on his face told me they were a gift for me from him.

A “Relentless” Inner Nudge

By Michael Avery

On April 30, 2024

In Guest Posts, HU: An Ancient Mantra, Inner Guidance, Spirituality, Stories from the Heart

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Guest Post by Dennis Ernst

If you want to be good at anything in life, you must become a good learner. This includes learning to listen when the lessons come, learning to trust what you know and what you’ve learned, then demonstrate your learning by taking action. Enter the snowstorm and the “relentless” inner nudge…

HU Saves a Climber from Sudden Death

By Michael Avery

On April 26, 2024

In Guest Posts, HU: An Ancient Mantra, Inner Guidance, Spirituality, Stories from the Heart

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Guest Post by RJ McBride

Driving through the Great Rocky Mountains of Colorado, I came upon a challenge that beset my fingertips to tingling. Standing before me was a massive 800-foot, free standing, solid rock wall. Because I was no stranger to the practice of free-climbing, I carefully scanned the best route for my intended climb and began my ascent, which by my calculations should, if all went well, take no more than a couple of hours.

Fine Tune Your Inner Compass & A Meeting with Shams

By Michael Avery

On April 23, 2024

In Conscious Living, Guest Posts, Spiritual Exercises, Spirituality

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Guest Post by Nigel Bell

Last year, I was asked to talk about fine tuning your inner compass. I have always been taught by my Master, that Spirit is the Source of Inner guidance and if you practice spiritual techniques daily this inner guidance becomes ever clearer. In contemplation one day, I also received five keys to fine tuning our inner compass from Shams-i-Tabriz.

Trees, Stars, Us

By Michael Avery

On April 19, 2024

In Conscious Living, Guest Posts, Love & Relationships, Poetry, Spirituality

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Guest Post by Gloria Lionz

Seasons hold places in ones’ being; as do the markers we humans call ‘time.’ Though we’re eternal beings, as one who loves life and does all she can to serve it with tenderness and compassion, writing poetry is one of the most visceral ways my heart has learned to express those feelings.