Angels All Around

I want to write a quick blog tonight to thank my devoted angels for protecting our baby girl and me yesterday. I was on my way to work like every morning, waiting at a stoplight when boom, I heard a loud noise and everything in my car lurched forward! Someone had just rear ended me. Because I was at a stoplight, thankfully it was at a low speed. But I immediately went into Mommy Mode and held my belly, praying our baby wasn't injured. I didn't feel any pain myself, only concern for my little miracle growing inside. After exchanging information with the guy who hit me, I called my husband and while on the phone felt the wonderful gentle kicks and pokes of our baby girl! Qué alivio! What a relief! She's moving! We still decided to call our midwife who recommended going to the ER to make sure the baby and her placenta were okay. 

We spent 3+ hours in the hospital and I signed the first paperwork as a parent, giving consent to monitor the baby's heartbeat and activity. The nurses were impressed that at only 24 weeks they could hear her heartbeat so clearly. She moved around a lot too which made me feel even more relieved. After monitoring for over an hour, they sent us home to rest. Only after getting home did I really start feeling sore but with a very grateful heart that our baby girl is healthy song wasn't affected by the accident. 

Our angels were truly watching over us and lessening the impact of the crash with their gentle wings. I know not everyone believes in angels but I have had them with me making sure I'm safe my whole life. I believe that my grandparents who I never had the opportunity to meet because they passed in a tragic car accident when my mom was only 16 are always with me. And in the past 5 years I have gained more angels. 4 close friends and my other grandma on my dad's side. I know in my heart that they are with me still, just in a different form. I consistently see hummingbirds, which are symbols from the after life, along with feathers and pennies appearing out of nowhere. I also notice when it's 11:11 and see these numbers frequently, which are said to be signs from the angels as well. 

So this post is dedicated to my angels and my baby's angels. We are forever grateful. Thank you for watching over us and softening the impact of the crash yesterday. And for all you do that we aren't even aware of yet. :)

I trust life because I know angels are real.

 

 

 

Letting Go and Starting Anew - A Year in Review

Each New Year’s Eve I like to look back at the past year and take some time to reflect and learn from all I experienced. Last Sunday I participated in one of my New Year's traditions. Five years ago, my dear friend, Julie took me to her family’s church for an end of the year burning bowl ceremony. It’s where you release what is no longer serving you and make room for the new. Ever since, I have looked forward to this ritual each December. 

This ritual reminds me of an Ecuadorian tradition to burn “anoviejos” at midnight on New Year’s. Anoviejos are paper mache figurines that represent the previous year and are burned to release the old year and start afresh. The anoviejos can be range from super heroes to even political figures. 

Although I probably won’t be burning an anoviejo this year, one of the best examples of letting go today may be with this blog post. I had just completed and hit “publish” on a beautiful post that I spent the morning working on just now and then lost it! Puff! Vanished into thin cyberspace air. Devastating to lose my creative work but then I began to shift my perspective and see what a lesson it is of the very subject I was writing about. We just have to keep going and start fresh again. Just like the new year. I’m sad to not be able to share my original post with all of you but I did save an earlier version of the content so I will do my best to start again. (Like in life, huh?) And tonight I will eat 12 grapes at midnight, another favorite Ecuadorian tradition of mine.

So here goes...

Almost a year ago, I officially started my journey to become a transformational life coach. (In reality, I had begun this journey years before as I researched ways to better manage stress and help people around as well.) I met some of the most amazing and caring people in my coaching class. I also gained the experience and confidence to offer more workshops and even facilitate a session at an in-service day for support staff where I work. Professionally, I also got a new job that’s closer to my home and is in a more supportive environment with a window that has a few of a protected green area where I’ve seen deer, coyote, and even an owl. 

We took several trips to fun places, both nearby and far away. Our travels took us to beautiful, tranquil Whidbey Island to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary, to Yakima and wine country to celebrate the last of summer, to Portland to visit close friends and their babies, to Grayland, WA for my dear cousin’s graduation party.

We also found a little piece of heaven on Earth in Canoa - Ecuador and up above the clouds of Quito - Ecuador as we visited many wonderful friends and family. 

Our friends and family took us to most amazing places in Ecuador, like a waterfall hike by the famous Otavalo marketplace, fresh fish in Salango for Thanksgiving after an adventure in driving down the Ruta del Sol on the Ecuadorian coast, standing at the Westernmost point of South America and watching the sea lions sunbathe, driving over the Andes Mountains in 3 hours through some of the most breathtaking countryside I've seen, getting a little lost in the valleys near Cuenca but in the end finding a delicious traditional lunch, playing with wonderful children. We are truly blessed to have had the chance to spend 3 weeks in our second home of Ecuador this year!

My husband, Geovanny and I went on beautiful nature hikes and drove late at night to stargaze and see supermoons, Venus and Jupiter, and even the Star of Bethelem! We enjoyed parties with friends and family in our still new apartment and spent time by my brother-in-law’s pool over the summer. I got to see and hear the amazing orca whales pass right below while staying in an incredible house on San Juan Island with dear friends from middle school. I went on my first business trip flying to Spokane for a conference and venturing to see my dad in beautiful Idaho one evening as well. 

I trained with my best bud, Emily to walk my first half-marathon in September. (We completed it in a little over 4 hours.) I decided to take out most gluten, corn, soy, caffeine, and sugar from my diet (that last one is still a journey though of course). And I no longer have to take allergy pills everyday as a result! 

I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity and Divine timing to say goodbye to one of my dearest friends, help her feel safe in her journey to Heaven, and hold her family in love and light. My faith increased as signs from my new angel friend graced the skies over and over again before and after her passing. I feel blessed to have captured so many in photos, as they serve as reminders to look up more often and trust in a higher power.

I didn't blog as much as I had set out to do, but I did participate in another Fun-A-Day challenge last January. (My first Fun-A-Day challenge in 2014 inspired me to post a little blog nearly everyday of the year that year!) In May I posted nature pictures everyday for about a month as a way to dedicate time just for me. I also added 18 mini-collages to my collage book.

So what's in store for next year? Stay tuned! It's sure to be a bright and promising 2016!

Honoring Our Angels By Sprinkling More Life into our Days

On Day of the Dead or All Saint's Day, I have my loved ones in mind who are now angels. It's comforting in a way to imagine all my angels watching out for me. But I do miss their earthly presence. Their legacies of living life to the fullest live on though and their memory reminds me to have more fun. A few weeks ago, I wrote a letter to myself about this exact subject. It keeps coming up. I think as adults we sometimes get very "adulty" and forget that having fun is equally--if not more important than getting all the "adulty" things done in our lives. Here's my letter:

Dear Self,

Your job now is to focus on relaxation and sprinkling more fun into everyday. Life is much too precious to go day by day only working and not relaxing or having fun while doing so. Life is about adjusting the lens we use to look at what’s going on and responding differently as our awareness grows and we see the sheer beauty that is available to us if only we look for it. There are little things that we can do everyday to relax more and sprinkle more fun atop our day-to-day duties and activities and routines.

• Create a calendar of all the fun things you do

• Track your gratitude daily for the simple joys in life

• Schedule time every week just for you and dedicate some time to what delights you

• Slow down and breathe, savor the moment when you can, especially when you become aware that you’ve been holding your breath or running around not really living this beautiful life

• Step back to enjoy the view better and see the bigger picture for perspective
• Pace yourself, especially when busy

In sprinkling these seemingly simple yet fun activities into our lives on a daily or even bi-weekly basis, we honor our loved ones' lives by living our lives more fully and having fun while doing so.

(This is my fun costume from Halloween this year. I was a travel bug. :-) It was really hard not to have fun while wearing this!)

Seeing the Signs and Always Looking Up

I'm seeing signs everyday lately. Signs in the sky, signs in nature, signs in birds and rabbits not being scared when I admire their beauty, signs of a feather, signs from the angels.

I believe that our loved ones who have transitioned from this Earth in the physical form are always with us in the spiritual form. And one of the ways they can communicate with us is through signs. I have felt a deep connection with nature since I was a little girl, but I think the first sign I can remember after a loved one passed was a beautiful rainbow I saw shortly after my grandma's husband transitioned. Then I saw a precious little hummingbird outside my apartment in the middle of November right before a snowfall after my dear friend, Jill passed. A day before my grandma transitioned, Geovanny and I saw the most amazing night sky from our apartment. It was brighter and clearer than we had ever seen it from the city. We even discovered miniature constellations we hadn't ever seen before. In the middle of the night after my grandma passed, we discovered the only light in our apartment was coming from the angel atop our Christmas tree. And as I mentioned in my previous post from yesterday, two weeks ago, several days before my wonderful friend, Autumn became an angel, I saw a giant angel wing in the sky.



Then the day after she passed I saw a complete angel with two wings lit up with pink and purple from the setting sun.

And since then, the floodgates have been opened. I've seen hearts in the sky, more angel clouds, dragonflies fluttering by me as I walk, an orange butterfly flying right past my car window, a mini rainbow with what looked like a dolphin cloud (and some saw a heart as well), a beautiful feather cloud, angel wings in the form of rays from the sun, a chorus of angel clouds as I sat on my friend, Jill's commemorative bench overlooking the water, a hummingbird cloud from the same site, rays of light shooting up from the setting sun as if we were in Heaven. 

And then this afternoon after a pretty busy and stressful day at work, as I walked by some beautiful gardens on my way to my car, I heard the beloved and familiar clicking sound made from beautiful little hummingbirds, so as I always do since Jill's passing four and a half years ago, I stopped and tried to spot the divine creature. To my surprise, there were two hummingbirds frolicking together by some gorgeous red flowers and they seemed unafraid of my presence. So unafraid that they flew right by me in one of their frolics. Needless to say I was mesmerized. Then one of them perched on a branch and proceeded to rest and commune with me for over 20 minutes. At times, she would fly nearby to snack on some of the yummy pollen nearby but mainly she stayed on the branch communing with me. I even got out my camera phone, which didn't phase the birdie one bit, and tried to capture some of the magic of this wonderful gift, this blessing, this moment with Spirit.



But that's not all. I am training to walk a half marathon in a few months with my coaching buddies from Seattle Life Coach Training, and I decided to walk 5 miles this evening. I walked almost a mile and saw some pretty red flowers, different from earlier, but my intuition told me that hummingbirds would like this kind too, and sure enough, there was another little hummingbird, this one littler and fuzzier who just sat on a branch near me and didn't fly away. I was able to get out my camera phone as well and capture this sweet spirit. 

This was only a 5 or so minute encounter, but it really reaffirmed to me that the hummingbird is indeed a gift from Spirit. And that at the very least three of my special angels, Jill, my grandma and Autumn were with me today. Three distinct hummingbirds, all unafraid of me and willing to commune with me for a bit. The hummingbird is said to be the messenger of joy. To lift our spirits. I feel very blessed to be witness to these many signs that my friends and family who have passed on are doing beautifully in a different realm, in the spiritual world, in Heaven. And I'm blessed to have them in my life and to have my spirits lifted by their amazing signs.