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More Free Gifts! This Month’s Nature Immersion Challenge Just Got Sweeter
Lynne and Tania at Crystal Cove Beach during this last March’s Reiki Renewal Retreat
This just in!
A wonderful Reiki student of mine, dear friend, and banana co-conspirator (you can catch a glimpse of that story in her interview), Lynne Day, whom you remember from one of my interviews “Forging Your Own Dream Life” and who is now also an RMT, believes so much in what I am sharing with this month’s “Nature Immersion Challenge” that she has offered to also gift her services of a distant Reiki session, on top of the gifts I’m offering, to the three people chosen!
Woohoo!!
That means you could end up with a double whammy of Reiki support, plus who knows what else, just by loving yourself and Nature this month!
Lynne knows the importance and healing effects of our connection with, and quality time spent in, Nature, as an Adventure Guide herself who spends every day outdoors.
Thank you Lynne for your generosity!
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please check out my post today on October’s Nature Immersion Challenge and dive into Nature with us this month!
All details can be found at the link above.
And if you think it’s a challenge to find time for Nature for people who live in big cities, you can connect with Nature in a variety of meaningful ways that will positively impact your life.
Every little bit of time connecting with Nature is valuable.
I have an amazing woman who has joined this challenge that is in a nursing home and she said she would do her best on the days her husband doesn’t visit her and takes her outside, to tune in through her room’s window.
On top of that, I gave her suggestions of having her husband bring her a plant/plants and/or flowers she could spend time tuning in with, touching, digging her hands in the soil, receiving and giving love and healing to, along with finding a rock that speaks to her and holding it in her hand daily to tune in to Earth, playing music of Nature sounds daily in her meditative time….etc.
There are many ways! And it will all benefit you greatly!!
So I hope you will join us this month, especially if you’re a “newbie to Nature time”, as my sweet friend Kelly Vivace stated today. 🙂
October’s “Nature Immersion” Challenge
If you don’t receive my monthly newsletters, you may have missed this month’s special, which is another inspired challenge.
If you are interested in receiving my newsletters, which contain monthly reflections, opportunities, and updates, you can sign up for it under the “Announcements” section here where it says “Join the Mailing List”:
I loved how the “Dream Challenge” went in August, and this month will see another interactive month that I have received guidance to put out there to you.
It’s called, the Nature Immersion Challenge.
Since I’m all about wanting to see people thrive, as well as wanting to nurture a return to harmony with Mother Earth, this month I’ll be gifting people based on the following guidelines (PLEASE READ ALL OF THE GUIDELINES AND NOTES THROUGH TO THE END FOR DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO TAKE PART IN THIS, IF YOU SO CHOOSE):
1) You must spend AT LEAST (but not limited to) 15 minutes of quality time in Nature every day this month (starting today, the 3rd or the first day you receive this invitation). This can be anything that you do where you completely shut off all other aspects of life, including technology, and immerse yourself in some meaningful and purposeful way with Nature. This could be anything from a hike, a walk on the beach, meditating on the grass, taking a walk in your neighborhood, digging your feet in the dirt or sand, hugging trees, gardening, sitting in silence on your balcony taking in the sun and air and sending energy to the Earth and receiving her love, spending time with animals, volunteering some where to assist Nature…you get the idea…
2) You must document what you do each day during these 15 minutes (just a brief sentence will suffice), including the time of day you did it (as a short log of the month you’ll be sharing later)
3) I’d like you to please write a few sentences at the beginning, on the 3rd (or first day you begin), of how you’re feeling in your life currently and take one photo of yourself
4) I’d like you to please write a few sentences at the end of the month, on the 31st, of how you’re feeling in your life at that point and anything relevant you feel to share, plus take another photo of yourself
5) You’ll then send me your short daily log, including your brief summary of how you felt and your photo from day one, as well as your brief summary of how you feel and photo on the last day
From any entries I receive, I will then read through all of them and on the 1st of November (or thereabouts, depending on how long it takes to go through them all) gift 3 people surprise gifts, which could be one or more of anything from a free crystal, free Reiki session, free inscribed book, free signed print, major discount on an upcoming event, lunch with me, on me (if you’re local or passing through the area), and/or other free goodies.
PLUS! This just in….a wonderful Reiki student of mine and dear friend, Lynne Day, whom you remember from one of my interviews “Forging Your Own Dream Life” and who is now also an RMT, believes in what I am sharing here so much that she has offered to also gift her services of a distant Reiki session to the three people chosen! Woohoo!! Lynne knows the importance and healing effects of our connection with, and quality time spent in, Nature, as an Adventure Guide herself who spends every day outdoors. Thank you Lynne for your generosity!
The gift and/or gifts will be intuited, based on the person and what I feel would be most supportive and aligned with you.
If only a few people take part, then the more chances of receiving gifts. However, this shouldn’t be something you do because of the gifts, but because you want to create positive change in your life that will benefit yourself, everyone around you, and the Earth at large.
The more time you spend in Nature, the more you start to see and feel from a different perspective, understand the connection between all things, and live with more compassion, grace, inspiration, energy, greater health, and a softer vibrational footprint. I’m supporting you with gifts because I care and I know what a difference this can make in your life. So any level of motivation that can assist you in making the changes you’ve been wanting to have in your life, I’ll do my best to support.
However, I’m hoping that more people will take on this challenge, especially people who don’t normally spend time in Nature, and are ready to make a dramatic impact in the quality of their life that has far-reaching effects.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!
It’s really easy and only takes 15 minutes a day!
If you say you don’t have 15 very easy and nurturing minutes then something’s gotta give at some point. Hopefully it won’t take a not so nice something in order to embrace 15 minutes and make the time for yourself and Earth. You both deserve it!
If you think it’s a challenge to find time for Nature for people who live in big cities, you can connect with Nature in a variety of meaningful ways that will positively impact your life.
Every little bit of time connecting with Nature is valuable.
If you need ideas on how to incorporate the 15 minutes, let me know! I have a beautiful woman in a nursing home who’s participating and I provided her some additional suggestions on how to deepen her connection to Nature even from the comfort of her room and bed when she’s not able to get outside with her husband on his visits. So yes, anyone can do this!
I hope you’ll join us and hopefully you’ll continue forward with this long after this month.
There are many ways! And it will all benefit you greatly!!
All entries must be sent to me at tania@taniamarie.com.
If you are interested in taking part in this, please email me ONLY ONCE AT THE START of your journey and let me know that you are going to be partnering with Earth in this process.
After that, YOU DON’T NEED TO SEND ME ANYTHING UNTIL THE LAST DAY – the 31st – when you’ll be sending me your full log and photos as described above.
Enjoy your time in Nature!!
Exquisite Earth ~ Exquisite Life
Photo by me: Heaven on Earth, Sunrise in Seward, Alaska
I love the amazing array of nature’s beauty, and as all things are a reflection of us, it causes pause to recognize the miracle and beauty within us each.
How blessed are we to be able to experience the unique gifts Mother Earth has to offer?
Photo by me: Sunset Portal at Crystal Cove Beach, CA
And how lucky are we to experience the sensuality of life through this integrated experience that is equally tangible and exquisitely visceral and ethereal all at once.
Every moment is opportunity to experience something unique, as each moment is freshly creating itself and all experiences are relative to the uniqueness we each embody.
Photo by me: Enchanted Forest, Tahoe Meadows, Lake Tahoe
I’m grateful to have the ability to experience and feel in depths of layers and to enjoy the cyclical changes our Earth and seasons provide us, in mirror to our own transformations.
The enchantment is ever-giving on this beautiful Earth we share and co-create on.
Earthing for Earthlings
Your relationship with Earth affects everything. Return to natural harmony. Nature heals.
Love this post and so happy about this upcoming movie and the important message I hope many will embrace. It’s not a mystery that getting back to nature and honoring Terra reflects on your own temple body and the collective quality of life. But if you doubted it, now there’s more evidence to help you understand and perhaps make different life-changing choices.
Thanks to Ann Kreilkamp for sharing this.
What is Your Relationship with Mother Earth?
Every day is a beautiful opportunity to immerse yourself in Nature and hear her song, as she whispers melodious messages to your heart.
For me, the enjoyment is not only in receiving Terra’s gifts, but giving back to her.
So today (like any day) while I’m out in Nature cherishing every miracle small and large, I’ll be singing MY song to her.
How do you give back to our great Mother Earth and share your appreciation for her?
The Value of Life
Life is life’s greatest gift.
Guard the life of another creature as you would your own because it is your own.
On life’s scale of values, the smallest is no less precious to the creature who owns it than the largest.
~Lloyd Biggle Jr.
Celebrating Six Years With Gaia
Gaia checking out my painting, “Air”, as I paint it in my Lake Tahoe solarium
I may not physically be with Gaia right now (my amazing Russian Tortoise friend), but am with her nonetheless in heart and celebrating “with” her regardless.
Yes, Gaia is still M.I.A. – and literally she IS “missing in action”, as she is off on another mission from which she intends to, and will only, return once she’s completed it.
I’ve shared before how determined and committed this mighty little one is – a constant guide and teacher for me in this and many regards – and so my sense is that if her mission takes all of her to complete, then she will transcend doing and being her wholeness.
How can I not love her more for that and honor and respect her immensely?
She’s been gone now, deep within Mother Earth (Gaia is within Gaia 🙂 ) for about two and a half months. She went away before to do very intensive energetic work with and in support of the Earth, but returned once that mission was complete. And now has departed again and I await her happy news of another mission accomplished, however that results.
I love her unconditionally and it’s no surprise that the souls in animal companion suits that I (and they) chose to partner up with, are all very committed souls on a mission. Sounds familiar. 😉 And their deep, focused, and unrelenting truth of heart investment into who they are, is the best example and constant reminder for me.
I’ve never known anyone like them in this way.
Anyway, I hadn’t had a dream about Gaia in a while, which is where my animal companions communicate with me, but she did show up the night before last.
I do not remember the dream anymore, like I usually do, except for the fact that it was different from the others energetically and I saw Gaia in her vibrant joy. I have two specific images of her from the dream that keep replaying in my mind from when she and I first came together and lived at Lake Tahoe. They are the images you see here.
Gaia looking out at Lake Tahoe from our home solarium, which was my office/art studio
So I know that wherever she is, she is wanting me to know that she is really happy and in her joyous truth, perhaps mission accomplished?, as well as wants to thank me and remind me of our beautiful friendship, since the images I see in my mind’s eye are from one of our favorite times ever together.
She likely is also remembering our anniversary, as where she is time is different than here and there are gaps in the sending of messages.
I believe she is reminding me of my own truth as well and the things she loves about me.
July 8th, 2008 is when she first came home with me and on the way home from picking her up, I received her name. So this is six years today that this amazing soul has graced this life I am living.
Six brings to mind the symbolism of this number and its spiritual meaning, which I’ve shared on before in my post Hexagons and Healings, since the number six is aligned with the Hexagon.
This includes six representing harmony, balance, soulful integration, perfect union, communication, sincerity, love, truth, enlightenment, naturally revealing solutions for us in a calm, unfolding manner, delicate diplomacy in sensitive matters, reliability, lighting our path in areas we require spiritual and mental balance, and encourages compassion and forgiveness.
These are perfect energies to feel into right now and so divinely reflect the relationship between Gaia and I, as well as focuses that would do the collective well to tune into and embody more.
I’m grateful for this reflection, as I celebrate the mutual love, respect, and honor shared between us. Thank you Gaia for being such a guiding light and powerful force, as well as for being so committed to supporting the Earth collective. I love you!
World Turtle Day – May 23rd, 2014
Many of you may not know that today is the observance of World Turtle Day and I have to say that even I had not been aware of it until recently.
Like any calendar-marked day, these are just extra awareness reminders that each day of our lives, and the lives of all creatures great and small, would experience greater well-being and conscious presence if we were always being mindful of the things these days bring to mind.
World Turtle Day has been sponsored yearly since 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue to encourage you to discover the world of Turtles and Tortoises with greater consciousness. It helps brings attention and respect to these amazing ancient Earth dwellers so that we can learn how to support them to keep thriving and bring knowledge to encourage ways of protecting their survival, as well as their disappearing habitats around the world.
Turtles and Tortoises are the world’s oldest creatures and they are also some of the most endangered animals on this Earth.
Many may not give much thought about the less than fuzzy, graceful, and more commonly embraced animals. But reptiles, amphibians, insects, crustaceans, etc. are magnificent creatures and some of the oldest to ever set foot on this Earth. Turtles and Tortoises must be doing something right, as they have been on Earth for over 200 million years – long before the dinosaurs.
The Mystic by Tania Marie
The oldest known fossil of a Turtle is 220 million years old, known as Odontochelys. It has a plastron (lower shell) but no carapace (upper shell), as well as teeth.
The next oldest known fossil Turtle, had beaks but no teeth and lived in water – likely salt water. Tortoises are land Turtles that evolved from an advanced Emydid fresh water Turtle (a relative of the Red-Eared Turtle).
All-Creatures.org shares some great information about World Turtle Day and how you can help save Turtles and Tortoises for the next generation at their link I just included.
Also at the link above, Susan Tellem a founder of ATR, American Tortoise Rescue, shares:
“…These gentle animals have been around for about 200 million years, yet they are rapidly disappearing as a result of the exotic food industry, habitat destruction, global warming and the cruel pet trade. We are seeing smaller turtles coming into the rescue meaning that older adults are disappearing from the wild thanks to the pet trade, and the breeding stock is drastically reduced. It is a very sad time for turtles and tortoises of the world.”
Tellem and her Co-Founder, Marshall Thompson, also bring to attention experts’ predictions of complete disappearance of Turtles and Tortoises within the next 50 years. Some of the things that they recommend adults and children can do to help are:
- Never buy a turtle or tortoise from a pet shop as it increases demand from the wild.
- Never remove turtles or tortoises from the wild unless they are sick or injured.
- If a tortoise is crossing a busy street, pick it up and send it in the same direction it was going – if you try to make it go back, it will turn right around again.
- Write letters to legislators asking them to keep sensitive habitat preserved or closed to off road vehicles, and to prevent off shore drilling that can lead to more endangered sea turtle deaths.
- Report cruelty or illegal sales of turtles and tortoises to your local animal control shelter.
- Report the sale of any turtle or tortoise of any kind less than four inches. This is illegal throughout the U.S.
Since 1990, ATR has placed about 3,000 Tortoises and Turtles in caring homes. They also assist law enforcement when undersize or endangered Turtles are confiscated and provide helpful information and referrals to people with sick, neglected or abandoned turtles.
Many of you know that I have a beautiful, gentle, and most magickal Russian Tortoise named Gaia. People may not be aware that my family used to have a Desert Tortoise, named Tee-Ta, and a Box Turtle, named Herman, for years when we were growing up. The two of them were fully outdoor Turtles/Tortoises. The Box Turtle not very social, but the Desert Tortoise Tee-Ta was amazingly social. She would come knock her shell on the sliding glass door to tell us she was hungry every day. She loved me feeding her by hand and was gentle not to nip my fingers. She listened and loved being caressed on her head and neck. When we moved Herman went to a friend who had many other Turtle friends for him to play with and Tee-Ta came with us to Sedona, where she still is.
Then Gaia came into my life in 2008 and I discovered yet another side to these amazing creatures.
From the moment Gaia came home she loved being on my lap when I worked and would snuggle into my clothes. She loved coming by my feet, helping with my painting, looking out the window at Lake Tahoe, spending time curled up with electrical cords and by my computers, as she worked with Binary codes and enjoyed the vibrations that were like her way of communicating, loved all crystals and would climb inside my giant Amethyst, and constantly listened to me when I talked, stopping and cocking her head with her soulful eyes. She came into my dreams before I got her, and she has come into my dreams with messages many times after. She has also traveled to many places with me and been part of a lot of energetic work. She was an indoor Tortoise for almost all the time I’ve had her, until recently.
And if you’ve been following along, she had a magickal hibernation for the first time this year, but is also M.I.A. again now for the last month.
What I came to learn by having a Tortoise companion is how endearing, intelligent, and tender they are in ways people likely don’t think. Most people go for the cuddly companions and yet there are many homeless, abandoned, abused, and neglected creatures that would make wonderful friends, if you chose to take the time and presence to honor, listen to, and get to know them.
Something we could likely receive benefit from doing to everyone and all creatures we meet that are different than us or our pre-conceived ideas.
Today and all days I celebrate these ancient wonders of the Earth.
If you’d like to read more about the symbolism and wisdom of these magickal beings please visit my blog:
Gaia – Earth Mother and Turtle? Ancient Wisdom for Conscious Living
Turtle D
Reverence for the Divine Feminine – Union Creates Impetus for the New
Goddess of Light – lightworkers.org
Everyday is a day to celebrate all of life and all aspects of creation and experience – the love, the reverence, the gratitude, the empowerment…Today is just a marker of timeless days to remember and honor the Divine Feminine and Mother Energy that is vital and part of of us all.
I have shared this information before, but will share it again, as we remind ourselves today of the importance to embrace and integrate the Divine Feminine.
There are many ways to be a mother and there are many meanings for what a mother is to each of us. Regardless of how that looks and comes to be for each, the one we feel to call “mother” in our lives is one who provides us creative life energy, teaching, nurturing, unconditional love, as well as tough love, encapsulated in a timeless beauty seen by the heart.
This Divine Mother Energy can cross all imaginary boundaries of cultures, religions, races, species, life forms and beyond.
The Divine Mother Energy is also what we know as the Divine Feminine Energy – that all-encompassing, unconditional love that is expressed towards others, ourselves, and to all of life. She understands “tough love” and unconditionally challenges her children, as she helps to foster their empowerment. All that the Divine Mother wants is for us to have love present in our hearts and to extend that reach within to our inner child, as well as to all children (our brothers and sisters of the Earth and Universe at large).
When love is present – the spiritual energy force that goes beyond the boundaries of relativity and materialism – we are connected to this Divine Energy.
And a perfect way to practice the Divine Feminine Energy is to reconnect to our hearts and let go of the past, release ourselves from old resentments, anger, and hurts. When we do so, we allow the light of this energy to move freely and deeply in our hearts and we are able to give more from this fullness. When we engage and think about others and all beings, this energy enables us to see to the heart of every living being as the brothers and sisters they are regardless of the form they embody – this is the true Divine Mother energy in all of her glory.
And from this heart center we are able to foster, cultivate, and nurture love through expressions of everything we do and we come to reawaken the intimate oneness connection that we were birthed into, and always were. We can connect to our hearts through the stillness of silence, relaxing, releasing, and receiving even in the midst of our very active life. This is the Divine Feminine in action and brings us to the conscious awareness of who we truly are – our unique selves as an expression of Divinity itself.
We then, ourselves, come to embody the Divine Mother Energy and recognize and honor it in all others, the Earth herself, and as the Universal source of creation and love that it is. And when we merge this Divine Feminine energy in integrative partnership with the Divine Male, we create the impetus for a New Earth experience.
“In each age there is a fundamental shift in the way the divine reveals itself. This shift has already taken place… What is being born within the soul of the world is a quality of consciousness that comes from a union of masculine and feminine. We need to reclaim the feminine so that it can unite with the masculine in a new way, through which a new consciousness can be born, a new way of relating to life, enabling us to have a fuller understanding of our true nature and purpose. Then the deeper meaning of the feminine can become visible, the hidden purpose of the masculine enacted.” ~Signs of God
The bottom line is that honoring mothers, be they flesh and blood, adopted, symbolic, embodied as the Earth Mother herself, or the Divine Feminine Energy consciousness within and without, it is a Universal theme that everyone can relate to and is vital to life and enlightenment.
Much love and gratitude to all “mothers,” especially Mother Earth who provides us abundantly in every way imaginable. And much respect and honor to the Divine Feminine within us all that nurtures the very sacredness of spiritual potential and life substance.
Happy Divine Mother’s Day
“The Goddess can be seen as the symbol, the normative image of immanence. She represents the divine embodied in nature, in human beings, in the flesh. The Goddess is not one image but many – a constellation of forms and associations – earth, air, fire, water, moon and star, sun, flower and seed, willow and apple, black, red, white, Maiden, Mother, and Crone. She includes the male in her aspects: He becomes child and Consort, stag and bull, grain and reaper, light and dark. Yet the femaleness of the Goddess is primary not to denigrate the male, but because it represents bringing life into the world, valuing the world. The Goddess, the Mother, as symbol of that value, tells us that the world itself is the content of the world, its true value, its heart, and its soul…..”~Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark
“This is why the wisdom of the feminine is so important, because the feminine understands the dynamics of relationship, how to listen and be receptive. Feminine consciousness is more attuned to the life of the body, and so knows the rhythms that belong to the cycles of life, rather than the systems imposed by will that are presently strangling our world. The feminine is more instinctively and naturally attuned to life, its patterns and powers. And feminine consciousness is less dominated by reason, more open to the mystery of the symbolic inner world. The feminine is vital in this work of awakening.” ~Alchemy of Light: Working with the Primal Energies of Life
“We need to reclaim the wisdom of the feminine but we cannot return to the time of the priestess. The masculine and feminine have to work together; our actions in the outer world must be guided by our receptivity to the inner. And there is no hierarchy to this work. Part of the blueprint of the future is the ability of each individual to participate directly with the work of the whole.” ~Spiritual Power
Gaia – Earth Mother and Turtle? Ancient Wisdom For Conscious Living
In honor of my tortoise, Gaia, and our Earth Mother she is named after, I felt guided to repost this, which is an article I wrote for a Reno/Tahoe based publication while living there that was called “The Willow”. It was inspired by Gaia coming into my life and the dots I was connecting then. Given her recent journey and work in the depths of “Gaia” herself, this felt significant and a powerful exploration, as we journey through today’s potent Full Moon and explore the origins of our authenticity in balance with the natural rhythms. As we share expressions of our love today with ourselves and others, let us not forget our Mother Earth who gifts us in abundance every day of our lives. Love and reverence to ALL of life!