I awoke to a winter wonderland and the sound of snowplows in action. I had to push hard to move the snow piled up against my door and make my way outside. Usually, my son has cleared my door and walkway before I get out. Today, I was the first one making tracks in the snow. I had on my knee high -30 degree boots which are wonderful until you step in two feet of snow. The drifts were high and snow filled my boots. I hadn’t put on my snowpants which have a gusset to keep snow out. I shoveled for a time, clearing around my car. Then came in for a bit of rest and to take off the wet socks and pants and dress properly. I then joined my son, who was snowblowing the driveway. A light fluffy snow made the top layers easy to shovel. The ice layer beneath was more challenging.

Life is that way, we can float along until some emotion or circumstance takes us to that frozen layer inside. We have been conditioned to close off our hearts, turning off the heat of love, resulting in frozen areas. It takes intention and attention to heat these areas and allow the flame of love to flow freely. I was listening to an energy report for this month of February by Lee Harris. His mantra for the month was,

“I allow my heart to be lovingly reawakened this month.” I appreciated the word, lovingly, as it is a reminder that we can be so gentle with ourselves. Harshness and rules and conditions are no longer useful in this new energy. By loving ourselves, allowing the fires of our hearts to be fanned into flames slowly, we come alive more and more each moment. We begin to learn how to keep the fire steady, to keep the temperatures above that freezing mark. We determine that we will not close our heart passages. Just as we do not wish for blocked arteries in our physical heart, we can chose to not live with blocked passages in our feeling heart.

Here in the land of ice and snow, you have to keep your home above a certain temperature to avoid the dreaded frozen or burst pipes. If you do not tend to the insulation, the wood stove, the heat tape wrap for pipes in basements, and any other means of retaining heat, nature will create a big mess to clean up and repair.

Yesterday’s sunrise blazing.

We are learning to keep our heart flames alive in all manner of situations. Our old world is collapsing around us and it behooves us to have a flame to sit and nurture ourselves by. As the noise of the outer world increases, as fears are running rampant, we have need of that quiet inner space that offers solace. There we can sit and peel off some of our protective clothing and allow ourselves to bask in our own inner light. We can amplify our heart flame with our breath and attention. We can drink from it, be nourished by it. We can see its golden fiery hue flowing and filling our body. We can source it from our own I AM presence, sending it where we desire. It will flow as we intend, whether deep into our earth or to all the hearts living upon her. We can connect with other heart flames. We can transmit a wave of love for anyone, to be utilized for their highest good.

As more of the hidden agenda of this matrix becomes known, I am practicing moving beyond that first flush of anger and outrage. I feel that come up like a flash, especially around harm to children. My mother love comes out in all of its fierceness. I am learning to follow that flash with a breath. it may take two or three breaths to come back to a state of calmness. I then use further breaths to stoke my heart flame higher so that I can send a wave of love to the perpetrators of these crimes. It is amazing to feel their frozen hearts and the fear that holds them. I allow my heart flames to be with them, knowing they may not choose to open to that warmth in this lifetime. Yet, love given remains in the wings, ready to flow in whenever we open our hearts to its healing warmth.

Always, nature has lessons to impart. I will go out for a snowshoe hike in the woods today and use the flame of my heart, to bless this weary world. We are here to walk the Creator’s love into the world. Step by step, heartbeat by heartbeat, we reclaim our birthright of love.

Stopping at the library to pick up my curated bag of books, and I discovered these lovely ice sculptures outside. What joy! The sun was at the perfect angle to showcase them and the temperatures allowed my phone camera to work without freezing. Hurrah! The children must have made these as part of their outdoor story time. I love the creativity of finding activities to keep little ones engaged outside in the winter. My grandson is attending a forest school one day a week. He was thrilled that they made charcoal last week. They cut willow branches and stripped the bark with a knife (he got to use his special knife!) carved them and then added them to the outdoor fire. The community grows hardy children here!

My granddaughter at one years old, goes cross country skiing on her mom’s back. When they go zooming down the hills, she is saying, “Whee” even though her eyes are streaming water from the wind and cold. I love that spirit. I have to stay fit to keep up with them. I was on snowshoes while the others were on skiis. I was lagging behind after one of their downhills, though I could catch up on the uphill as I sprinted. My grandson slowed down to be next to me, telling me that he wanted to be with me. Sweet angel.

More of the children’s creations. My grandson and I will make our own now.

My night was full of dreams, then awake and drifting. One was heart pounding, I awoke and had to seek out a favorite book to calm my mind. I thought back to the rose moment of my day. My daughter does the rose practice with my grandson each night. She asks what was your thorn…..any difficult moment. What was your bud…..something you are intending or hoping for. What was your rose….the best moment of the day. My rose was sitting at my elder son’s house and hearing him play the first eight notes of the Pachabel Canon on the cello. He used to play it as a child on his violin. He is now teaching himself to play the cello. We both had tears in our eyes as the music lifted our hearts.

As I was driving to my son’s, my oil light indicator started flashing. I thought it was most likely due to my car not being driven for the past week or so when we had the negative double digit temperatures. Yet…..it might not be. I decided to take two minutes to turn around and go to the village garage. The owner came out, checked my oil then took it for a short drive to observe if the light came on. He said it was as I suspected and my oil was fine. He did check the sticker and see I was a bit overdue for an oil change. He suggested I drop my car in tomorrow to get it done. This is one of the joys of living in a small town. He knows me and will drop what he is doing to help me out. When he took my car for a drive, I ran the two houses away to mine to get some lemon bars that my grandson and I had made, to gift him. This morning when I dropped my car, I asked his wife how she liked the lemon bars….she asked, “What lemon bars?”. The young mechanic overheard and said that he and the owner had eaten them all! Next time, I will make sure she gets some.

Balloons filled with colored water and left outside to freeze. Beautiful globes.

Life is good. This morning I opened the curtains to a glorious sunrise. My grandson arrived for his school day with me. We went down to say hello to his cousin and uncle and ended up eating our breakfast together. My former hubby showed up with loaves of bread to bake as his oven stopped working. It was a spontaneous gathering which is one of the joys of living close together. I feel so blessed.