What Wings Are For...

"No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings." ~ William Blake

I was about a mile down the trail when a woman approached, wearing a "California State Parks" jacket.

"Did you see the bald eagle?" she asked, her binoculars in hand.

I never bring my binoculars on my walks anymore. I prefer my Nature the natural way - up close and personal. Why I took the binoculars this morning, I really couldn't say, but in my rush out the door, I just knew I had to grab them.

She was also in a rush. She said she had never been to Oregon, and she had to check out of her hotel soon. But she had heard there were eagles here, so she had made a special stop.

And sure enough, even without binoculars, there it was, quietly sitting on a branch. From the stark jaggedness of where it perched, one might think it was a vulture.

I have seen the eagles before, but not every day. When they fly above my head, it is always a miracle. My life is filled with miracles lately, and eagles seem to follow.

And then the woman had to run. I asked her if she had seen the forest. "No."
My sacred forest is a magical place, somewhat like the entrance into Narnia. It doesn't look like much at first until you wander in. It was not something to be missed, even for 5 minutes. And so she hastened off, eager to stop by the forest, leaving me alone.

This time I needed binoculars. Yes, there it was. The eagle. Still as could be. Always distinctive, always impressive, the white contrasting with the black, without a doubt an eagle. I could have stood there and enjoyed that view for hours. Nothing moved.

I shifted my view to the nest. I had seen it many times, far too distant to make out any real details. But I had my binoculars today. I had listened...

And to my surprise, there it was. The baby eagle appeared in the nest, staying safely inside, yet tentatively stretching out and testing its beautiful wings. It was a kind of an awakening, as if easing into knowing just what wings are for. My eyes filled with tears, understanding...

And then I saw her, on a branch below, yet another. "Are You My Mother?" came to mind, a favorite long ago. Was she guarding? Or showing the way? When would her baby fly?

The moment was sacred, as if frozen in time, until I thought to reach for my camera. By the time I had it ready, the baby was suddenly up on a branch. How did it get there? Did it walk? Did it climb? Did it jump? Or did it Fly? The mother knows...

Look closely....yes, there are 3...this is the best my little phone could do...yet perfect.

Photo Copyright Susan Larison Danz, 2014

Labyrinth

And there it was, a memory unfolding, my morning reminder to be Innocent and Free...

Authenticity Revisited

 Authenticity brings invisible people to life!

I had an experience at a local UFO Festival in Oregon a couple weeks ago that I really feel is worth reflecting upon.   Why was I at a UFO Festival?  Well, not necessarily because I choose to dwell on negative or frightening aspects of what has been reported.  I was there because I feel there is value in communicating Love-based, God-based, Higher Consciousness-based ways of looking at life among the stars.  And I had a wonderful opportunity to share my thoughts on the topic on a national radio program (old link: https://soundcloud. com/groundzeromedia/2014-05-16) broadcasting in front of a live audience at the Festival.  I was as real as real can be with regards to this topic, completely oblivious to any sort of judgment by listeners on the radio.

Susan Larison Danz and national talk show host Clyde Lewis.

It's what happened the next day which drove a point home.  You see, it's easier for me to talk about "fringe topics that really shouldn't be fringe" on the radio than to tell any number of people I know in my local town that I go on the radio at all.

I was sitting in the audience to see George Noory's event when I heard my name.  "Susan, Susan Danz, it IS you."  Apparently someone I know from occasional community meetings happened to hear a familiar voice on the street the night before, wondering "Is that Susan Danz talking about ETs?"  And sure enough, inside the open air broadcast tent, it WAS the person he thought it was.

So, caught in the act of authenticity, I had no choice but to be who I actually am.  "Yes, it really was me..."

We all circulate in various parts of our world in different ways.  There are many ways of being who we are.  But occasionally those worlds might intersect.  And when they do, are we self conscious or real?  Far too many times, I have defaulted to self conscious.  But this time, somehow, I found myself smiling into real... 

Death of a Wounded Soul in Westboro

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." ~ 1 John 4:8

"Love never fails." ~ 1 Corinthians 13:8

I read it in the newspaper today.  I still get a real newspaper, the kind you read at breakfast.  The headline says Fred Phelps, dead at 84, preached an angry God.  Perhaps you heard it yesterday.  Yes, he's the "fire-and-brimstone" preacher who led the Westboro Baptist Church.  According to this article I have here in The Oregonian, one that apparently originated with The Washington Post, he even "managed to offend the conscience of the Ku Klux Klan".   Now, that's quite an achievement!

The article quotes Pastor Phelps as saying "You're not going to get nowhere with that slop that 'God loves you'....That's a diabolical lie from hell without biblical warrant.'"

Yes, yes, yes, apparently his version of the Bible was somehow missing the verses that I quoted above, that much is obvious.  And I'm sure many are musing about what kind of a "demonstration" they might plan at his funeral (and apparently there isn't going to be a funeral, probably for that reason).

I can see by just a quick glance at the buzz online, many are celebrating this man's death.

I'll tell you what I'm celebrating.  I'm celebrating that a precious, deeply wounded soul is now consciously in the embrace of the God he was carefully taught not to know.

But now he knows.  

Some day, we all will know.  That's the cause for celebration. 

Love never fails.  Ever.

Reincarnation expert & licensed psychologist Dr. Linda Backman in Portland this weekend

"If I could live my life again

 in the next one I would try to make more mistakes..."

~ J.L. Borges

Have you lived before? Does your soul evolve from life to life? What is the true purpose of our journeys as souls? World-recognized past life regression therapist and licensed psychologist Dr. Linda Backman will be teaching two workshops in Portland this Friday and Saturday at New Renaissance Bookshop...

Read more on OregonLive.com ...

On OregonLive.com: Pizza at the Oscars: The Joy of Real Connection

"Clap along if you feel like Happiness is the Truth" 

~ "Happy", Pharrell Williams

Why did the appearance of pizza at the Oscars bring smiles to so many faces? Why did 2.8 million of us rush to retweet a celebrity "selfie", crashing Twitter no less in the process?

Read more on OregonLive.com...

The Frontier Beyond Fear: Freedom from Chronic Pain with Dr. David Hanscom

Monday's live broadcast of The Frontier Beyond Fear on Blog Talk Radio at 12 PM Pacific / 3 PM Eastern will feature Dr. David Hanscom, an inspiring, brilliant orthopedic spine surgeon in Seattle with an innovative, enlightened approach to freeing patients from chronic pain.  Recently featured on the Dr. Oz program and the author of the new book Back in Control: A Spine Surgeon's Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain, it is a true delight and an honor to talk with Dr. Hanscom on The Frontier Beyond Fear.  The broadcast will be available as a podcast at the same link where you can listen live.

The medical world often overlooks the powerful mind-body influence of our thoughts on the functioning of our nervous system. Through many wonderful success stories, Dr. Hanscom has demonstrated that pain can be mastered through greater mastery of our minds, awakening and recharging our lives in a world filled with hope. By clearing our minds of anxiety, dealing with anger, moving out of reactive mode, exploring our creative potential and taking back our lives, pain can become a distant memory.

David Hanscom, M.D., is a board certified orthopedic surgeon in Seattle specializing in complex spine problems. He is the creator of the DOCC project ("Defined, Organized, Comprehensive, Care"), a structured rehabilitation protocol for chronic pain. He also founded the Puget Sound Spine Interest non-profit and co-founded the "Awake at the Wound" process, which brings athletic performance principles into the operating room.

I know I will bring some of my own experience into the discussion, and I'm sure many of us can recall times when we encountered situations with pain enduring far too long.  I know many of the listeners are in pain right now, and it is my every hope this broadcast will help a great many people find an empowered way out of what so often can be one of the most challenging situations in life.

In my own case, I was in a serious automobile accident in my 20's.  A truck in which I was a passenger was completely totalled when an elderly couple turned in front of us deep in the Colorado mountains.  In the 80's, there were no cell phones, so we had to wait for help.  But it was quite amazing how other drivers and passengers who quickly came along immediately took control of the situation, bringing quite a bit of amazing experience to the scene while someone went to get help.  Though thankfully I did not experience any sort of life threatening injury at the scene, I ended up with a more subtle kind of injury to the nerves under the seatbelt, as well as severe whiplash.

I was in physical therapy for a year after this incident and along the way learned the pitfalls of pain medications and muscle relaxants, especially if you rely on them to get to sleep at night.  There was a point when I wondered if I would ever feel the same again.  Thankfully I did heal, but it took a very long time, and no doubt the kind of enlightened wisdom Dr. Hanscom has to offer would have been of great value at the time.