Manifesting

Manifesting

Jack and I did a ceremony at our church on New Years. In the ceremony we let go of everything that was keeping us from connecting with our Christ center by performing a burning ceremony. We wrote down everything we wanted to let go of on flash paper and then symbolically burned it up. Once you create a hole, you need to fill it up or the negative will come back. We were each asked to fill the emptiness with a written description of what our dreams and desires looked like for the New Year. The pastor said she would mail the letters to us in July so that we could see the power of prayer and manifesting.

It was an easy letter to write. Jack and I wanted to see prosperity in the lives of all our family and friend’s lives, as well as our own. We defined that prosperity as an overflowing abundance in love, health, finances, knowledge and spirituality. I wanted a fulfilling job, Jack filled in with his own personal wishes. Both of us wrote on how we wanted to get a home on our land before he retired from Walgreens. (That is at least 2 ½ years away.) We also wrote that we wanted to keep our house payment as low as possible as we planned to live in this house for many years after we retired. We asked that God’s will to be done, for our highest good. You know where this is going…

Last night we headed out to visit our favorite rep, Darla, at Clayton Homes in Hot Springs. We wanted to let her know about the model home we were thinking about purchasing at Luv Homes and wanted to get a quote from her on what our dream home would cost if we ordered one from her. We also wanted to know if we could still use Bud for the bulldozing work if we didn’t buy from her. Bud is an independent contractor that does all the preliminary home site work for Clayton Homes – before the house is actually delivered. He quoted all the jobs we need done and we really liked his honesty and his price!

We are so happy we decided to come clean with Darla! It turns out Luv Homes is a sister company of Clayton Homes. The same parent company owns both! Darla told us if we chose to buy the model home, she could have it transferred to her lot and she would make the sale. That meant we could still use Bud for either home! More importantly, Darla would still be our rep no matter which home we decided to purchase.

All that was left for us to do was decide on which home we wanted. We could buy the model home now and get a break on the price or wait and order a home in November and get exactly what we wanted. The final decision came down to the fireplace and comparing the mortgage payment/total cost for each option. It seems we couldn’t add a fireplace to an existing prefab home as no insurance company would cover it! With the recent power outages because of ice storms, having a second heat source was important to us.

We asked Darla for a quote on the cost of ordering our dream home with all the changes we invisioned. In less than 24 hours she called us back with the news. The difference in the cost between buying the model home and ordering our dream home was only $3,500 – the same amount we would have to pay in additional rent if bought early! The decision was a no brainer - we decided to wait and order our dream home in several months. The house will be on our property, ready to live in, sometime in late September or October. I can’t believe it – in less than a year from moving here, we will be living in our dream home on our land (part time) – with an unbelievable low house payment – about a third of what we were paying in MN.

Now that’s manifesting!

The Next Big Decision

Several weeks ago I wrote about our decision to purchase a manufactured home. Last week, Jack and I stopped in at another manufactured home site and found our dream home on their lot. We were just looking as there are about a dozen of these places around here that sell pre-fab homes. It was so fun seeing our future home and walking through the kitchen and living spaces.

The model home on display didn’t have the fireplace in the living room, the sliding glass door off the dining room or French doors into the den like we wanted, but it was the exact layout of what we are planning to buy! You can imagine our excitement when we found out the model home was for sale – available for immediate delivery – at a $14,200 discount. And, the company would throw in the cost of building the foundation the house would sit on- as a bonus.

This has been a lesson on trusting our intuition and listening to the inner voice of God. We immediately went home and began meditating and praying. And we continue to ask God if we are to take the model home or if we are to wait as planned and order our dream home in October.

We have done lots of comparing. If we bought the model home, we would be “settling” on something less than what we wanted. But, we could make a lot of improvements with $14,000. We would also be putting this house up in April – about 6 months ahead of our plan. Although we plan on renting something in the Benton area for weekdays, we don’t really want to have the $1000 rental house bill and a house payment. We figure we would be overpaying rent by $3600 through November but would be able to homestead our house a year faster. If we “ordered” our home, we would be making more decisions about the interior of the home, like deciding on floor, carpet and wall colors. We would have the house built more to our liking - with the fireplace, sliding glass door and den. And of course we knew, some of the changes would involve additional charges.

Next we looked at our two sales reps. Darla is a sweetheart and we totally trust her. She gave us line item costs for everything that needed to take place to get the land ready for the home. She connected us with a contractor that would do most of the ground work if we went with her. We loved the contractor’s honesty and willingness to work with our plan. (Even though he can’t save all the trees.)

Both Jack and I had an uneasy feeling about the person we would be working with if we bought the model home. We didn’t feel like he would be dishonest, but he was already pushing a $15,000 beautification package for getting the home and grounds “installed”. We like the idea of itemized costs rather than a package deal that would contain things we don’t want or need. And he kept saying "bring in your land deed; bring in your land deed"… hmmmm

I am so thankful we don’t have to make the decision over night. As a matter of fact we get the sense that we are to take our time and really understand the benefits of one home over the other. I have to admit, I liked the idea of having our home delivered by April. But I am not going to let my excitement get in the way of what is best. I don’t believe the money is the greatest factor in our decision. So, for the next week or two we will continue to gather the facts and pray for Gods guidance as we make our next big decision.

Spring is in the Air

I warmed up the ole garden tiller yesterday! I love digging in the earth and planting. Yesterday afternoon was all about breaking up the soil, adding the compost and enriching the garden with mulch and fresh black dirt. Today, I plant.

For the past few weeks I have been outside cleaning up the vacant lots on either side of our house. It saddens me that the builders of this community had to leave such a mess on every vacant lot - old lumber, broken trees, remnants of plumbing and pipes, clumps of cement, piles of debris; bits and pieces of other peoples homes left behind to pollute the land of future home builders. Add to that years of weeds and neglect and it makes a very unsightly mess. We have these messes on both sides of our rental home.

Little by little, Jack and I have been picking up the pieces and throwing them out with our weekly trash. We have cleared away weeds and made room for a vegetable garden. The dumped boards will find a home in garden projects on our land. The re-bar became markers for identifying where our house will go in and tomato stakes in the future. We recycle what we can and throw out what should have been disposed of year's ago. We are loving the transformation - even the energy around our home feels uplifted.

A while back a friend explained to me why she sensed gardening is so important to me. I am a "feeler" - in the psychic realm I am known as an empath. I pick up on what other people are feeling and take it on. Whether I am driving down the road or walking through a mall, I attract what is going on around me and feel the emotion as if it is my own. There was a time when I didn't understand what was happening. I would be feeling great (myself) one moment and then walk into work and suddenly I would shift to some other emotion. I would feel tension or anger, apathy or fear; whatever was being sent out by those around me. I have learned now to block it or - when I take it in, to find a way to release it. When I garden, I release that energy back into the earth to be transmutated. I love the feeling of being grounded and get great satisfaction from planting and cultivating beautiful gardens. The process is also very peaceful for me and I feel it is where I experience my greatest God connection.

Saturday morning I finally connected with the Master Gardener program here in Saline County. For whatever reason, I was not able to connect until now and missed the training for this area. I will be allowed to volunteer with the other Master Gardeners but will have to take the training next January before I am officially a Master Gardener in Arkansas. One of the gardeners adopted me for the afternoon and took me around to view the various projects managed by the Master Gardeners. It seems that Benton wants to be the capitol of Crepe Myrtles. They are everywhere from small shrub to tree size! I guess I will be planting a few of these on my land as they are very beautiful in both the spring and the fall. And yes, I am already making plans for the pond we will have on our new land!

It actually feels good volunteering before I take the training. I will have a year to learn and explore the area. I have a multitude of wonderful teachers to teach me about the difference of gardening in zone "8" (This area was recently upgraded from zone 7 - another symptom of global warming.) Did you know that tulips are considered an annual here? Yup, there is not a cool enough period of time after the tulips bloom to allow the bulbs to rebuild. We get too hot to fast! I am behind the season as I should have already planted my broccoli and cabbage - that can go in mid February! Oh, we have two growing seasons in Arkansas. The first is now through the end of June and the second starts the end of August. Guess the plants don't like the heat and humidity of July and August. I wonder if Jack and I will...

Our forecast for the next 10 days is mid to upper 50's moving into the 60's. It appears we will not drop below freezing for the next 10 days. Hmmmm, Spring is in the air - I am so tempted to plant a tomato bush!

California, Facebook and the Soul

I spent this past week in California and all I have to show for it is my new facebook account. Ok, so I got a little bit of a suntan, managed to read a few books and visited the ocean. It was a good week.

Jack had to go to LA California for a week of training on the AGFA machine for Walgreens. This is the big machine hanging out in the photo department that prints beautiful pictures - when it's not broken down. We have one such machine in Little Rock and Jack will now be responsible for it's care. There was actually a repair ticket on the machine waiting for him when we got home last night at midnight.

While Jack studied and learned about this fabulous machine, I hung out at the pool, read and played with our computer in our hotel room. On the two evenings when Jack was let out of class before dark, we headed to the ocean and enjoyed the water and the sunsets. I felt no draw to visit the sites in the area alone. Even Disneyland held no attraction for me - which is good, because we had no time.

I spent my days at the hotel - walking, dining alone, hanging out at the pool and in our room. And that is when it happened! A friend sent me a link to join facebook and I decided - why not - I have time to learn. I followed the link and was transported into a new cyber land of faces, details and photos of family and friends from my way distant past! I am now connected with a group of really dear people in my life, three of which are old friends from my Jr High years in Raton New Mexico! How cool is that!

California was also good for me in that I had lots of time to do some soul searching. I am struggling to understand where I am supposed to head next in the job market. My skills are in the corporate world, but my heart is somewhere else all together. The head says get a job; make money, work, work, work. The heart says I have been given this opportunity to follow my dreams - look around - explore. It was really important for me to look inside and find where the messages were coming from and what was motivating my actions.

It all came together last night at the Dallas - Fort Worth Airport- gate 4. We were waiting for our plane and chatting about the week and all that we both had learned. Larry King and guests were blaring overhead - talking about shooting wolves in Alaska and how to find a job in this wonderful job market. The guest said something that really resonated with me. I don't remember his words exactly, but what I heard was - chuck the old, do something fun, make a change! Follow the heart! He gave several examples of what others had done and then gave a list of the industries that were still hiring in this tough market. Jack and I were chatting about jobs and dreams and expectations at the same time... I shared my thoughts and fears and self imposed expectations. I was able to get really clear about what Jack was seeing, what I wanted and the boundaries I was creating for myself around working and contributing to our partnership of marriage. As we talked, I felt this weight being lifted off my shoulders and I could see that there was room and opportunity for me to branch out without fear of letting Jack or myself down. Our sharing opened me up to a place where I could give myself permission to explore without worry of the income or the skill requirements or limiting expectations - mine or Jack's.

Right now, I don't know what my future work life looks like. But, I am excited to start exploring and see where my intuition leads me. You can bet, first on my list will be several local garden centers! And I know my next job will definitely be green!