Kate Loving Shenk

Dear Goddess, I recently started doing a body scan, as part of my mindfulness meditation practice.

Here are instructions for doing the Body Scan: Lie on your back with your legs uncrossed, your arms at your sides, palms up or down, and your eyes open or closed, as you wish. Focus on your breathing, how the air moves in and out of your body. After several deep breaths, as you begin to feel comfortable and relaxed, direct your attention to the toes of your left foot. Tune into any sensations in that part of your body while remaining aware of your breathing. It often helps to imagine each breath flowing to the spot where you’re directing your attention. Focus on your left toes for one to two minutes.

Then move your focus to the sole of your left foot and hold it there for a minute or two while continuing to pay attention to your breathing. Follow the same procedure as you move to your left ankle, calf, knees, thigh, hip and so on all around the body. Pay particular attention to any areas that cause pain or are the focus of any medical condition (for Asthma, the lungs; for Diabetes, the pancreas). Pay particular attention to the head: the jaw, chin, lips, tongue, roof of the mouth, nostrils, throat, cheeks, eyelids, eyes, eyebrows, forehead, temples and scalp.

Finally, focus on the very top of your hair, the uppermost part of your body. Then let go of the body altogether, and in your mind, hover above yourself as your breath reaches beyond you and touches the universe.

Through the process of doing the body scan, I realized how out of touch with my body I actually am.

For instance, I tend to ignore pain thus causing me to feel separate from all parts of my body.

Feeling pain instead of running away from it makes us stronger.

The same can be said for emotional pain. The more we ignore it, the more insensitive we become. Not only are we out of touch with ourselves, but also with everyone else we come in contact with.

Changing jobs caused me more emotional and physical pain than I ever was willing to acknowledge.  Yet being smack in the middle of the experience taught me to stop comparing, dwelling in the past, and making assumptions about people’s motives.

The result is radical honest surrounding the whole of what is.

Om Peace Amen

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Dear Goddess, Today’s heat allows us to slow down and hang out with Pearl in the air conditioning. She knows the word and loves nothing more than to stretch out in front of the cold air.

Pearlie misses me when I am away orienting at Paoli Hospital. In fact, my schedule interferes with her love of sleeping late in the mornings. All of this change requires great stamina from each of us.

Stamina. Fearless Stamina. That is my Prayer Prescription today.

Stay cool and drink plenty of water. You are loved.

Om Peace Amen

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Dear Goddess, A nursing colleague and I are orienting together at Main Line Health and our first day was great fun.

We were even served a gourmet lunch, picture here today!

We told  a few war stories from our previous staff nurse experience, and I was happy to hear her say that usually she is very anxious and nervous about change. But from the moment she applied to this new position to now, she feels calm and self- assured about her decision.

This is a great mile stone for her! She is well on the road to knowing who she is in this life time – and beyond.

I told her that I found a picture of the hospital and beamed my energy into it, and silently said, “I AM a three out of four nightshift weekend nurse at Paoli Hospital, with the greatest health insurance in the world!”

The I AM part of that statement is the most important– that, and I AM Love.

I took the two out of four weekend position without benefits. Then I started my visualization exercises and several weeks later, had exactly what I wanted.

I will put the same kind of visualization energy into publishing my Prayer Prescription books.

I believe.

On Peace Amen

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Dear Goddess, We had a wonderful farewell party at the job I just left.  It was a very busy night, but I managed to have quite the social event with several people who came to see me. Want to know the one  thing that  drove me crazy about my job? At least 10 times a night I would hear people say, “If I do this or if I do that, I will lose my job. I will get fired.”

Why on earth was everybody always worried about losing their job? People were constantly getting written up, reprimanded, and rarely if ever, was anybody ever given a compliment, a word of praise or a show of love. This attitude created an aura of fear, not to mention a hostile work environment.

So all the empowerment had to come from our fellow nurses with whom we worked. Certainly a little self-love goes a long way, as well.

On my way out of the hospital today, I saw a woman looking at a sign that said, “Attitude is everything.”

I said to the woman, “I believe that Gratitude is Everything.  That is what the sign should say.”

The woman said, “That is a great idea. Maybe I will suggest that to the woman who has the sign outside of her office.”

Then she said, “Oh no I can’t do that! I’ll  get fired.”

That seemed to be a fitting end to that particular  hospital experience.

I believe it was a cosmic joke.

What do you think?

Om Peace Amen

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Dear Goddess, An unexpected thunderstorm just came up at 4 am today. Lovely streaks of lightening are illuminating  the predawn sky. The negative ions are a wake up call. They wash the spirit clean.

Let us cleanse ourselves today, take good care of ourselves and bless experiences and people in such a way that nothing that happens is a disturbance.

All things pass.

God never changes.

Om Peace Amen

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Dear Goddess, Today I bought a beautiful battery charger/sleek case for my iPhone. The battery charger and phone case act as One. It is called a Mophie Juice Pack!

I just got a newsletter from the Ethics Guy, Bruce Weinstein, and he wrote that those hard working, upbeat and enthusiastic sales people at Apple don’t earn any commissions on the sales that take place in their store.

What? That store is constantly busy. Expensive items are moving out all the time. I saw a man buy the most expensive computer on the market, and I made sure I congratulated him on his purchase.

Apple doesn’t pay out sales commissions to their employees. Pass it on.

Om Peace Amen

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Dear Goddess, Today, we took Pearl to the Grotto Of Lourdes for the very first time! Bill Tronolone, the Director of the Grotto, was not there to meet her. He is a lover of dogs, and loved Ulysses.

I felt Ulysses at his old haunt and I think Pearl did, too. I remember thinking of the evening we had ahead of us, and felt great comfort knowing I’d be spending the evening with Pearl.

That’s how I felt everyday when I thought of Ulysses when he was alive: Great Comfort.

As we were driving through Emmittsburg on the way to the Grotto, I saw a sign that said, “The Rebecca Pearl Gallery.”

I said to Pearl, “How do you like the name, Rebecca Pearl?”

As you can see by her picture, she likes it very much.

So that is one of her new names, including Pearlie, Girlie, Sugar, and Beautiful.

We never know how much time we will have with these Creatures Of Joy. Naturally, I yearn for a very long life with Rebecca Pearl. Yet every moment spent with her and Ulysses before her and Mukunda, too, was a lesson in contentment, calm and Love.

Dogs are the closest species to Human Beings. Rebecca Pearl is wild in her way because of her time of wild dog freedom in Rural Tennessee. She wants us to do what she is doing. Most dogs like to do what we are doing. Pearl likes to be outside all the time. The most fun in the world for her is hunting all day, walking the parameter of the property line, taking swims in the river, all of this all by herself. She eats bugs all day long, as well.

I can only imagine the fun she will have when the crickets are at their height!

Om Peace Amen

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Dear Goddess, Saying goodbye is a moment of sadness, but also of great possibility.

When my Uncle Jack was dying, Tomaso and I went to visit him. We knew we were saying goodbye to him, for now. It never felt like a final good bye.

Uncle Jack said he didn’t know how he would say goodbye to his wife, my aunt, and his son, my cousin. It was an agonizing crossroads for him, and he knew he had no other choice.

Death had come knocking at his door. He passed the very next day.

Leaving my friends at the hospital where I have worked for the past nine years is like a death, a small death, a preparation for the moment of departure from the physical body.

Last week, Sam Small was on my radio show, and the topic was what really will happen when we die? Do we really reunite with our loved ones who have passed before us? Do we work for the good of our loved ones and humanity as well as the intergalactic universe, as part of the work we must do when we pass on?

Will we work with the Angelic Realm to bring peace on earth?

Will we join with the good to balance out the bad?

Will we work for the enlightenment of human life?

The truth is, no one knows. The spiritual gurus tell us that we will survive physical death, and I believe them. But beyond that, I am open to LOVE and the spirit of life that emanates from that beautiful vibration.

Yes I am saying goodbye to my friends, but we will make sure that we cross paths as often as is humanly possible!

Om Peace Amen

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Dear Goddess, As I come to the end of my nine years at Women And Babies Hospital, I am sad and also feel a sense of freedom.

My new Position at Paoli Hospital will allow me to work less, sleep more and create more kindle and print books, and create a business around these creations.

I’ve made so many friends where I work, but since I am neither dying or leaving town, there is no reason why these relationships can’t continue.

Not to say that relationships stop with death, because as we learn from those who have passed on, we are still very much connected to them.

We must open our minds and hearts to those connections.

Om Peace Amen

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