To Calgary and Back

  Last week at this time I was talking to my family from Calgary, in Canada, via Andrew and my iPods.  I was a bit homesick, to be honest, but also wonderfully excited to be able to take Module 9 of the BodyTalk system.  Indeed, I was in very good hands as you will soon see.  I'll do my best to capture the delights of the trip and, seeing as it was ALL delightful, I am hoping that this post will delight you as well.

 I got up at 5:00 on Friday the 9th of December.  Actually I had slept very well with my BETAR sleep unit not yet packed.  As soon as the sleep was out of my eyes, I packed it in my suitcase as I knew better than try to sleep without it.  Being Robert went out and started the car for me, it was easy to grab an energy bar; my suitcase; check my purse for my passport and boarding passes, and head out into the frigid morning air.

I arrived at the airport around 7:30 to an empty terminal.  Just as I arrived, this awesome couple came who were such a blessing to me later on.  We went through security together which was easier than I had anticipated.  I wasn't sure when I would go through customs, so I had been nervous about that, but it didn't happen until I arrived in Calgary hours later.

We visited about our destinations and then I got something for breakfast.  I have learned that my digestive system takes being on airplanes better when there is something in it.  It was nice to relax for a bit and then I got the itch to take a walk.  Wouldn't you know it that when I was on the far side of the gate from where the Minneapolis jet would leave, I heard announced, "Would Dawn Bornemann please come to the Minneapolis desk." 

  That was a bit disconcerting but they only had to scan my passport because I hadn't been able to get the scanner to do it downstairs.  The couple who had adopted me said that sometimes it hadn't scanned theirs too.  Slowly the airport filled up and I was shocked to see one young man with SHORTS on as the temperature was 13 degrees BELOW zero when I had left home. 

  I also bought a small gift for my host and hostess from the airport shop in appreciation for letting me stay with them.  It was a refrigerator note pad with this guy sticking his tongue to a sign.  There was a thermometer with the state's "Motto" on the bottom.  It reads, 40 below, IT KEEPS OUT THE RIFF RAFF!  I'll tell you more about this later.  Maybe you can see BISMARCK and FARGO on the post.

The small jet was CRAMMED full of people and I sat with a young man named Tom who was a Captain in the National Guard.  Tom was telling me about flying into Iraq and how nothing can even compare to the "Excitement" of being in a plane that is dodging bullets and then suddenly drops out of the sky--BOOM.  Another interesting story he shared is what the Missouri looked like from the air this Spring when it was flooding and also about helping in Minot with that flooding situation.

That hour was quickly over and we found ourselves in the Minneapolis airport.  Here's a picture out the window of our jet.

I was so thankful for the awesome couple that I'd met, Neil and Beth, as we had to wait 20 minutes for them to bring a loading gate to our plane.  This left me about 45 minutes to find my plane for Calgary and I don't know my way around that monstrous building.  Their flight for Florida wasn't leaving until 3:00 so they took me over to my gate.  It had to be at least half a mile that we walked but it was fun to walk on the floor escalators (or whatever they're called) and it felt good to stretch my legs.

I was none to soon as, by the time I got to my gate, they were starting to board the first class passengers which I was not amongst.  I just had time to dig out my boarding pass when we could board and soon I was on my way to Calgary. 

This was a HUGE jet with only about 50 people so I had the whole row to myself.  I had fun looking out and watching the pilot control the ailerons.  It was super cool when he used the flaps to land.  This was a pleasant trip and I listened part of the time to my Chinese Energetics course that Andrew put on my iPod for me and slept the rest of the way.  I was surprised that I could relax enough to sleep but I told myself, "I sleep all the time in the car, when someone else is driving, so what's the difference?"

The landings usually make me the most nervous but I had great pilots the whole trip.  Everything was so smooth that it made me wonder why I have worried about this all of my life.  HMMMMMMMMM

Now, customs is certainly something I have never heard anyone even talk about, except Elizabeth.  One of her experiences was a little nerve racking, so that made me a bit nervous.  However the stewardess handed out the form on the plane that we needed to fill out to go through customs so I felt a bit prepared.

When we got off the plane, there were large arrows pointing towards customs which I followed along with the rest of the folks on that flight.  After going down and around and around and around and through and around, we came to a very large room. 



"My" customs officer was a man of Asian descent and was friendly enough when he asked me why I was in Canada.  I handed him the letter from Vilnis (the instructor's husband) and said, "I'm here to take a class."

I told him that I came from a farm but was not going to a farm.  There was a question on the form about coming from a farm and going to a farm. He asked in a concerned voice, "You have come from a farm?"  I told him again that, although I had come from my own farm, I was NOT going to a farm.  He smiled then and said something that I couldn't understand.  I smiled and said, "Pardon."  He spoke more slowly then and said, "NO WORRIES," and gestured for me to move on towards the baggage area.  That was when I realized that I had just been admitted into Canada and I thanked him.

A few moments later, I found myself warmly welcomed to Canada by an elderly gentleman who reminded me of someone from back home.  Vilnis had asked me to wait for him at the International gate, so I asked the gentleman if I was now at the International Gate.  He said, "Yes, maam, and you may find your ride over by those comfortable chairs." 

After I thanked him I headed in the direction that he had pointed.  I didn't see anyone who looked like the picture that Vilnis had sent to me so I went to exploring and found this.........  It was a remarkable statue of a group of about 10 horses and it was just stunning.  I tried to find someone to take my picture in front of it, but everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere.



Then I found the comfortable chairs right in front of a row of Christmas trees.  Although we don't keep Christmas anymore, it sure does make the world bright and cheerful.  I decided to take my own picture in front of these lovely specimens.

I went back to studying CHINESE ENERGETICS for about an hour.  Then I called the number that Vilnis had given me and got Sylvia instead.  She said, "Are you by the horses?"  I said, "Yes" and then she added, "Just sit tight, Vilnis was a little bit late heading for the airport but he'll be there soon."

About 20 minutes later, Vilnis himself stood in front of me and welcomed me to Canada.  He had picked up John at a different gate and we were waiting for Joyce.  John I recognized at once as we had both taken, "BodyTalk for Animals" in Missoula this past Summer.

Soon Joyce's plane emptied out and I met her too.  We all headed for the grocery store.  I was so thankful to be able to buy the things that I needed to stay on the GAPS diet and soon I found myself in Sylvia's kitchen.  Here she is.

Vilnis and I had both bought a roasted chicken, which was tantalizing to us hungry travelers, so we cut them up.  We put our veggies together into a tasty salad and hungrily ate our first meal together.  Here is Vilnis in the red shirt; John by his laptop; and Joyce.  John and Joyce were fellow students of Sylvia's and Vilnis, as her manager, was an absolutely wonderful host. 

After we cleared away the remains of our supper, Sylvia took us downstairs to their incredible TV room.  WOW--you're talking fancy!  She offered us our choice of movies and then left to go to finish things up for class.  It was so warm and comfortable and I was very much at home with my fellow BodyTalkers. 

Early the next morning, we had our individual breakfasts and headed over to the hotel where our class would be held.  Isn't Sylvia beautiful?  It was a spacious room with the massage tables around the outside of the room and the class tables in the middle.  My only regret at that point was that I had forgotten to take along a box of my favorite tea but there were lots of others to choose from. 

There were 22 of us in the class--21 students and one fantastic instructor.  We had come from all over Canada; 2 from Colorado; myself from North Dakota; and one special woman from Texas.  It didn't take long for Gabi to worm her way into my heart as Robert would say. 

  Joyce, who had taken Module 9 before, sat in the second row to leave room up front for us newbies.  I sat beside John right up front center and I recorded the whole class.  The energies in the room were fantastic as many healers joined together to learn more to better help our clients. 

This is the lobby of the hotel.  I thought that the wood was so lovely.

On Saturday for lunch, many of us walked to a restaurant which was called Y2K.  The food was wonderful but it cost me $13 so the second day I packed a lunch of my leftover veggies and chicken which was great.  Many of my classmates had also packed lunches and some had picked up food nearby.  At any rate, we all found ourselves gathered together around these tables which is just below our classroom which you can see the doors too up above.  The group had pushed together about 6 tables and we were all of one accord as we shared ideas of how to better help others to regain their health.

This lovely fireplace was glowing warmly all throughout the class time,

and these cute snowmen greeted us as we came and went from the hotel.

John, Joyce, and I helped Vilnis and Sylvia to pack up their many massage tables, Sylvia's teaching materials; and the snack supplies.  It was less than an hour until we were down in the lobby with everything and loading it into their vehicles.  My Grandma Elizabeth used to say, "Many hands make light work," and she was right.

When we got back to the house that night after class was over, the bushes outside were covered with snow.  It had snowed all day and I was trying not to get nervous about our flights the next morning.  We had a wonderful supper together, though, and I relaxed.  Vilnis then helped me to print my boarding passes which really calmed me down so, after talking to my family, I watched a movie with everyone.  It ended at 1:00 AM and by that time, I was too tired to be nervous about customs, flights..

We all slept as long as possible and had our last meal together.  I asked Sylvia for a picture with her for the local newspaper and she complied.  Here we are in their lovely home in front of the steps I used to get to their "Sparest of spare rooms".  :)  It really was a lovely room filled with books but I was either too tired; in too much of a hurry; or talking to my family to get a picture of it.  Silly me.

After hugging Sylvia for about the 3rd time, we left with Vilnis who was once again our chauffeur.  I was so thankful for Joyce as she led me through the steps of going through customs the other way around.  There is a big table where everyone fills out the form for passing through borders and I just had to ask John if he was over the $10,000 limit.  He said, and I chuckle as I recall it, "UM, I'll have to check."

This room was very similar to the customs room entering Canada.  Vilnis had said that there are 3 cities large enough in Canada to have American customs agents right at the airport and one of them is Calgary.  Did I mention that 1.2 MILLION people live in Calgary which is MORE THAN THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA! 

These customs agents were also in bullet-proof cubicles which amazed me.  Who would want to shoot at them?  There were only a few questions here that I answered to their satisfaction and then the officer smiled at me and said, "Welcome home."  Those words were so wonderful although I knew that I still was 1,600 miles from home.  Still, it was so nice to be able to put customs behind me.

Joyce and I found our gates, with just a little help from an airport official.  Joyce seemed surprised that he was willing to help me find mine but I seem to have a way of looking pathetic at just the right moment.  Perhaps it's because I really AM terrified at those moments?

After that, I realized that my breakfast had been very skimpy and that I wouldn't get anything to eat until 4:00 if I didn't grab some lunch there.  Joyce sat with me until her flight was ready to board.  She was such a wonderful "Mother" figure for me and I rejoiced that the Lord had provided her for me.

After I saw her off, I headed over to my gate and saw the most enormous Christmas tree that I have ever seen.  I mean it's diameter had to have been at least 15 feet and it towered up at least 20 feet.  I headed over to my gate to let them know that I was there and commented about the tree to the gate attendant.  He said that there are 2 of them that size in the Calgary airport and that it takes 4 days to put them up.  I then quickly went back to take a picture of it and returned to my gate just as boarding had begun.

The takeoff was great and soon I saw this out of my window.  This flight was just glorious as the Rockies towered along the edges of Calgary and the sun shone warmly on my face.  "My goodness, your world is a lovely place," I contentedly prayed.

This photo can't begin to capture that glorious moment, but those are the clouds.  AAAAH

I arrived safely in the Minneapolis airport and asked for directions.  The woman said in broken English, "You go down that hallway; take a left; take a right at .......... then take the tram to............  then ..........  then make a left at.................  My head was spinning.

OR you can catch a ride most of the way in that golf cart over there.  "How much does that cost?" I asked. 

"Nothing," she replied, and I was off.  I would have to spend a LOT of time there before I would ever know my way around.  However, my driver knew and he got me within about 2 city blocks of my gate and the rest was no problem.  PRAISE THE LORD.

I was early this time so I called home and got the grocery list from Cora.  I called Robert to tell him that I was doing fine and I called Elizabeth but learned that she had just made a "Quick trip to Canada." 

I was relaxing a bit when this lady came and sat beside me.  Now who do you think she reminded me of?  Yes, she talked and moved her head just like you, Kimberly!  I learned that the man in her life is named, "Robert" and then we talked like old friends. 

I was so happy when we got off the plane at Bismarck, that her Robert had come with his parents to pick her up as she had told me that she had a 4 hour drive home yet that night.  I really came to quickly enjoy this lady named Faith.

When I got back to my car, I needed to add a little air to my tire and then it was out the toll booth.  After picking up those groceries, I was on my way home.  The trip was over in a blink as I relived all of the wonderful times together up in Calgary with other BodyTalkers who are at my level. 

  Cora was at work but the guys greeted me warmly and helped me carry all of my trip things and the groceries into the house.  As I ate my supper, I told the guys all about my trip and I kept getting sleepier and sleepier.  Soon I could hardly keep my eyes open anymore, which I'm sorry to say, was a bit of a disappointment to Cora when she returned just as I was heading to bed.

HOWEVER, the following morning I was able to see her "Project" that she told me that she was working on when I was sitting in the Minneapolis airport.  If you follow her blog, you already know how the wonderful girl painted my wretchedly ugly hydrotherapy room.  Here are some pictures of the remarkable transformation. 

She even washed the curtains,

and bought a new rug,

and painted the trim around the window.  What a remarkable daughter I have!!!

Here she is!

On closer inspection, I saw that she had hung these lovely little stars all around the house.  There's 2 by the stove,



 3 by my herbs, and 3 on the mantel.  It's amazing how something so little can brighten the spirits.

 This marvelous idea is so simple that it's embarrassing that I didn't think of it sooner.  Instead of the table sitting there with everything scattered all over the world, she set it up providing another layer for our grains and veggies.  Pretty cool, Cora!

Well, was it worth it?  ABSOLUTELY!  As I recall, every session that I did last week had at least one matrix issue involved in it.  I just did a session for Cora that had 2 and it is so exciting to see how the shifts are much larger when group dynamics are taken into account.

As mentioned, I have a new friend named Gabi, since class.  We worked on each other a week ago and WOW--the results have been awesome.  Her marriage is better already and she formed an energetic bond from my father to me and one to me from my father.  I have never felt this before in my entire life and I am eager to see what will come of it!

It seemed like the whole class was geared to encouraging me to consider having a relationship with my father should he ever decide that he wants one.  The session that John did on me was geared at helping me with men too, so I am excited about the healing that came my way during class!  God is so incredible to bring people together who can help each other in ways that nobody else can at JUST THE RIGHT TIME!

Speaking of time, I need to go do another session, but I thank each one of you who read through this entire narrative.  I pray that you were blessed in some way to seek your healing in the areas that God leads you to--even BodyTalk if that holds the answers that you are seeking at this time.

Have a great week everybody!

Love always,

Dawn 

Feeling silly

I found myself feeling silly recently.  You see, on the morning we worked the cattle, I had asked Elizabeth to send some Reiki.  Three years ago, I had gotten knocked down by a large calf that day and I was sore for weeks afterwards.  Since then I have always felt better when folks are praying, and/or sending positive energy, to us on cattle working day.

When Elizabeth wrote back asking what, "Cattle working day" means, I felt silly.  Of course, people who have never done something cannot grasp the magnitude of tasks involved in it.  All I can say to you, Eli, is that it's like our free clinic day with hundreds of things to attend to, only a lot more dangerous in that the "Clients" all weigh between 500 to 1,200 pounds. 

I decided to do a detailed post on the subject for all of my readers who have never had the "Joy" of cattle working day.  Perhaps people avoid sharing the details of this day because some parts are rather gory, but these are the facts of life for ranchers.

The first thing to do is to tie up the dogs.  Some people have taken countless hours training their dogs to work well with cattle, but nobody here has had that much time.  Past experience with these 2 has taught us that they are MOST useful when they are tied up and not running around chasing cattle in all kinds of directions.  Of course, every time that I went to the house for something, these 2 would beg mercilessly to be let off, but I knew better.

 Well, in our main herd there were 161 large animals.  Some of these were bulls or slaughter animals but most of them were mamas.  We had 120 calves out of these, revealing our high death loss this Spring in all of the mud and slop. 

We ran all of the animals (except the ones in with Sally which we did at the end) into the corralling.  This means that about 300 animals were in an area the size of a large restaurant.  This means that they are in close and anxious as they do NOT like being cooped up. 

Jerome, the children, and I started sorting off the cows while Robert fed them out in the pasture.  The trick was to keep the calves in the corral while letting everyone else out.  Have I mentioned that these animals are large with the bulls (male breeding animals) being VERY large.  Which brings me to an important point for those who seriously know NOTHING about ranching.

Bulls are the daddies of the group and I believe that we have 7 of them.  These animals are bought from breeders who specialize in breeding up the animals to their maximum potential.   Bulls can cost anywhere for $1,000 to $30,000+. Cows are the breeding mothers.  Calves are the babies that were born this Spring to the cows.  Now, bulls that have been castrated (having had their testicles removed) are called Steers and they are kept for butchering whenever we get enough orders. 

So, being we were going to work the calves, everyone else had to be sorted off.  Usually the older animals know that they are to leave and, seeing as they were hungry, they headed for the open gate.  However, being the calves are used to walking beside mama all their life, they headed there too.  Our job was to encourage all of the older animals to leave while convincing the calves that they were to stay whether they liked it or not.  Did I mention that the calves are the most jumpy of them all--ready to kick at any provocation. 

I don't have any picture of the corral when all of the animals were inside of it because I was too busy staying alive just then to take pictures.  One has to have eyes on the back of your head, or loving family members, to keep body and soul together.  Once, Cora almost got it so I yelled at her to turn around and she saved herself from an unpleasant encounter with a small group of swirling hooves. 

In this picture, we finally had all of the cows, bulls, and steers removed from the pen and were ready to begin.  It was 10:30 AM and not very warm outside. 

 Cora is our bookkeeper so she got ready to take the records.  We need to know the ear tag number of each calf; it's sex; it's color; if it has horns; and anything unusual about it that needs to be remembered for the future when the calves will either be mamas or steers for the freezer.

 Robert's cousin, Jerome, loves to work cattle so he's become a permanent part of our crew.  He gave 2 shots on his side of the shoot while I gave 1 and a goodly dose of Eucalyptus oil down the spine of each calf.  These are shots that are approved under organic standards and are NOT implants or hormones.  We eat this beef and raise it under the very highest standards.

Now, I can hear someone asking, "But how do you give a shot?"  Well, there are 2 main types of shots--subcutaneous (which means under the skin usually in the neck) or in the muscle which is usually done in the rump.



  This is a look down the alley way through the shoot as we wait for another calf.

Here Robert went back to fetch the next, "Victim."  As you can see, we have a small corral within the big corral.  We put about 20 calves in there at a time so that we don't have to go running so far all the time.

Andrew's job is to catch the calf at just the right moment.  The calf comes running, or is being pushed by Robert, into the chute with a high degree of agitation.  Andrew slams the chute shut on the calf's neck and the action begins.

As soon as Andrew has the calf caught, he puts his hand over the calf's eyes.  This calms the calf down almost instantly.  Then Jerome gave one injection from his side; I gave my one injection; Jerome had picked up his other syringe while I was giving mine and he gave his second injection; and then I dropped between 10 to 30 drops of eucalyptus oil on the calf's spine depending on how chipper he was looking.  If they came in dragging a bit, they got more, and one even got some in his nose which really gets the healing energy flowing to the bloodstream fast.

The heifer calves (the females) were finished at this point unless they had horns.  Very few of our calves have horns but about 5 of them did.  Are you ready now?  You're not eating are you?

Well, there is a handy little device that you put over the horn of the calf to de-horn the animal.  It takes a lot of muscles, so this is Robert's job.  When the man squeezes down on the horn, while squeezing the de-horner together, it cuts into the calf's head and cuts the horn off.  Of course, there is blood so you need to put the worst smelling blood stop powder on the spot where the blood vessel was attached to the horn.  This is AWFUL smelling stuff and I did it once just to quit being such a coward.  After that, either Jerome or Andrew took the bottle from me when I went over there while Robert washed the hair and blood off of the de-horner. 

Now, for what I did behind the shoot.  When the calf is a bull calf, it must be banded to keep it from breeding.  We have always banded our bull calves in the Fall of the year so that they grow to their greatest potential as full males.  However, the day of reckoning comes when the banding must be done.

Well, Robert puts his hand through the bander and reaches down around the scrotum.  He slips the large band over the scrotum making certain that both of the testicles are down in the scrotum at the time.  Jacob held the tail up tight so that there is no pain while Robert checked that there were no hairs inside the band--OUCH. 

When Robert tightened the bander, it squeezed the band tightly around the scrotum.  There was usually a little flinch then but there is not much pain involved.  You can use this same tool to band fully grown bulls, so it's not as hard on an animal to be cut with a knife and have the testicles dug out with blood everywhere like we did when I was a girl.  We all prefer this much better.

Next Jacob handed Robert the tool to cut the band off with and that was done.  I went behind Robert at the back of the shoot to make sure that none of the animals in the holding pen were coming up behind him.  I caught them at it every so often so Robert was thankful to have someone watching his backside.

Some of the calves that were born up in the pasture also needed to have ear tags put into their ears so that we can match them to their mothers and determine who is the owner before we sell them.  This was either Cora or Jacob's job.

Lastly, Andrew opened the shoot and out jumped the calf.  This was one of Jacob's with the orange tag.  He moved too fast so that I couldn't get the Orange tag but I still thought that this was a cool picture.  As you can see, all 4 feet are off the ground as he exited the chute, so it is a bit of a rodeo.  YEEHAW!



Three calves were pretty little so we knew that we'd have to do something different.  The first one we took out of the chute but he proved to be more of a handful than we had thought.  The other 2 babies, we held in the chute and did their shots quickly and then pushed them out the front--no leaping with them.

Jerome, Andrew, and Jacob have worked together so many years that they just know what to do and the feeling of camaraderie is the only grand part of the day.

Some of the bigger bull calves, feel it quite a bit as that band begins cutting off the blood supply to the scrotum.  For as long as I can remember, one of my jobs was to walk amongst the herd and see that nobody was reacting to any of the meds in combination with the banding.  Of course, now that I'm a BodyTalker, I gave everyone cortices while they were in the shoot.  Some of these more miserable steers also got short BodyTalk sessions too.  Our animals really have got it good.  :)

Well, after we finished working on the main herd, we turned all of the calves out with their mothers.  Next, we brought in the group of about 30 animals who are in with our milk cow in the small pasture here by the farm.  These are young breeding stock for next year and several cows who had too young babies to make it up to the pasture this Spring.  This was the only time that I was really nervous.

I have no idea what got into them but they were snorting and bellering and even our calm, sweet Sally started pawing the dirt.  I decided to crawl into the trough and I started doing some relaxing breathing for them all.  I started the calming Reiki too and stayed real still hoping that nobody would notice me there. 

Finally they calmed down; we sorted them off; worked the few calves in the bunch; and turned everyone out of the corral.  It was a long day and I was very stiff and sore but we had only 2 minor accidents between us 6.

Just as things quieted down, I gazed up into the Heavens to praise my God who gave us such a lovely day at the end of November in North Dakota to work our calves.  I decided to take this picture as a tribute to Him who preserved one lovely day for us.  The very next day it started snowing and it's been MUCH colder since then, but we are rejoicing that the calves are all worked for the year.



Now, we've begun insulating the shop so the guys can work out there when it's colder still.  I'm needed out there at this very moment, but I wanted to take this time to pay tribute to God who has made us organic farmer/ranchers and to the incredible people that I live with.  Oh, what a wonderful life we have!!!

Here's to you, oh God, maker of Heaven and earth!

Dawn

"A day to honor freedom" giveaway

I know that many people are spending time honoring our veterans today.  This is such an important thing to do seeing as these folks have placed their lives in danger so that we can continue enjoying our freedoms, and way of life, here in this great country.  May God bless each service person who is doing so today and may He bring them safely back to their families ASAP! 

I am also thankful today for another type of freedom.  For now anyway, we are still free to express ourselves through our blogs.  I know that there are people tucked away in secret who are reading and listening to all that we do and say.  GOOD!  That means that every time they come to a believer's blog, they can hear the truth that God loves them and sent His son to die on the cross for them.  Even government spies are loved by God, although it seems hard to imagine at times.

This is a special day for me as it is my third blogiversary.  It hardly seems possible that 3 years ago, as I made supper for my family, Andrew set up this blog for me so that I could "Speak my mind" when I could no longer hold in my thoughts.  I can recall him saying, "You need to start a blog, Mom.  When you have something to say, you need to say it so that everyone can hear it."  So I did and, yes, I know that this is NOT a complete sentence, but sometimes fragments can say a lot. 

Yesterday I worked with a new client who is a fellow BodyTalker.  As she paid for her session, I handed her one of my cards and said, "I have a blog where I write about my life and this is the address."

She got a big smile on her face and said, "I know, I've been to your blog." 

That's all that she said but it gave me a warm feeling to know that there truly are people out there who are reading what I write and getting some measure of blessing out of it.  It was the smile that I tucked into my heart to pull out when gloom sets in.

Now, those of you who have been with me since the beginning of A RAY OF HOPE, may recall that I said, "I will give this thing a whirl and, if there seems to be someone actually reading this, then I will continue."  So I will.

In honor of 3 years of sharing here, then, I will again give away one free BodyTalk session.  If you are interested in winning this session, just leave a comment here sometime in the next week.  I'll pick the winner on the 19th and let you know who it is then.  Keep in mind, that I've had the training to do remote sessions so you do not need to be able to come to my office for the session.

Well, tomorrow we are having the boy's birthday party here.  Jacob turned 16 last Sabbath and

Andrew is turning 21 tomorrow.  The party will be much smaller than in years past but we will celebrate with as much gusto as usual--perhaps more. 

God has been faithful to help us raise our sons for Him.  At times like this, I think of our many children who are living with God now.  I wonder how old they'd be and what their names are and if they ever think of their mother who misses them still.  It is good to know that they are happy living with the King over there! 

Oh my, how I ramble sometimes.  Drop me a note if you want to qualify for the free session in honor of  my 3 years of blogging.  That's the gist of it.  Cora and Jacob both said this morning, "I'm sure that Kimberly will try to win it, Mom!"  I wonder who else will have me put their name in the hat............

Happy Sabbath to everyone.  If you're in our part of the world tomorrow, feel free to drop in for a piece of birthday cake.

A happy mother,

Dawn

Focus on which?

In the past 2 days I've had a perfectly wonderful experience and a perfectly terrible experience.  I decided to start with the terrible one (although it happened after the wonderful one) because I want to leave you with the wonderful experience running through your brain after you leave my little spot in cyberspace.  I'm hoping that you'll focus on the wonderful one but the terrible one has it's lessons to learn from too.

I'm sure that by now you are aware that I am pondering switching to the GAPS diet.  I haven't read all the information that I have here yet, but I am convinced that this diet WILL heal not only my gut but everything else that remains to be healed.  Here is a video from the founder of the GAPS diet.  Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride used this diet to heal her son of autism solely through the process of healing his gut.  Please take a moment to listen to her thoughts on how the gut gets sick in the first place.



Now, I will say that I have been pretty convinced that this is the way that I want to go with my eating for the next 2 or 3 years until my gut heals.  I already have been avoiding grains/starches for the past month that I was preparing for and then implementing the Master Cleanse.  However, the other night I got home from Bismarck around 10:00 and I didn't have time to fix anything grain-less just then.  The guys just got home from the field and they were HUNGRY too!

 I put a pizza in the oven and thoroughly enjoyed the first wheat I'd had in over a month.  I had exactly one piece of pizza plus a forth of my second piece that I cut up and shared with the guys.  I know that most of you couldn't care less what I eat, but there are those out there who are pondering going on GAPS too so I share this experience for their sake. 

  In less than 8 hours I was so miserable that I could hardly get out of bed yesterday morning.  I ached as badly as the worst day of tractor driving will produce.  Worse still, was the depression that hung over me.  I couldn't care less that it was Preparation day with much to be done to prepare for Sabbath.  Poor Cora had to drag me out of bed at 9:30 and harp at me all day to keep me realizing that there was work to be done!

Now, in retrospect, here is the most interesting phenomenon which I observed while in the state of wheat intoxication.  When I looked in the mirror yesterday morning, my heart just sank.  I looked to myself as if I weighed in at 500 pounds.  When I weighed myself I had indeed gained 3 pounds over night.  However, my perception of my body was as though it had quadrupled from the ingestion of 1 and 1/2 slices of pizza.  This was after a couple of weeks of feeling quite pleased with the way my body was slimming down on the Master Cleanse.

There is no doubt in my mind, after this experience, that Dr. McBride IS right.  Having an unhealthy gut can deeply affect us not only physically but emotionally as well.  In fact here is a list of symptoms that can be caused by an unhealthy gut. 

These are the main physical symptoms of gut dysbiosis:Chrohns, colitis, diverticulitis, celiac disease, cystic fibrosis, chronic diarrhea, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, non-anaphalactic allergies, asthma, gas, bloating, psoriasis, diarrhea, constipation, colic, reflux, vomiting, heartburn, dyspraxia, urinary and fecal incontinence, malnutrition, tummy pains, stool abnormalities, and symptoms of autism. 

Emotionally the body responds to grains negatively when having this condition in these ways: depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder; schizophrenia, attention deficit (with or without hyperactivity) disorder; anxiety, night wakings, behavioral problems, learning disabilities, feeding difficulties (including picky eating), and hyperactivity.

The main point to get here is that an imbalance of gut flora can cause any or all of the above.  The good news is that, by following the GAPS diet, countless people have had ALL of their symptoms disappear.

Once I could think a little again, I wondered something that you may also be wondering.  Now, I have eaten TONS of wheat all my life.  We Germans have wheat at LEAST 3 times a day.  In addition, most Germans that I know also have potatoes or rice with their meal which also can throw people off as starches may all be contributors to this unhealthy gut condition which affects so many of us.  Now, being I have eaten wheat all of my life, how could one and 1/4 pieces of pizza throw me into such agony, both physically and emotionally, as I suffered from all day yesterday?

I found the answer to that question in the GAPS GUIDE on page 57.  The question asked was, "Why after starting GAPS, do I react to foods that I didn't react to pre-GAPS? 

The answer was: "More than likely, you were reacting to them previously and just didn't notice.  While consuming our trigger foods regularly, our bodies typically display low-grade issues (headache, joint pain, sadness, fatigue...).  When we give the body a sufficient break from trigger foods, then reintroduce them, we often experience an INTENSE, obvious, acute reaction (migraine, rashes, depression...).  One has actually been reacting all along, but with chronic ingestion, the body is so pummeled it can't even get up the gumption to scream at you anymore."

The good news, then, about how rotten I was feeling yesterday is that I can see that my body IS now strong enough to scream at me, "Don't eat any more wheat/grains/starches until your gut is healed."  Believe me, I DID GET THE MESSAGE YESTERDAY!!!!!!!

My prayer, in sharing this with you, is to inspire you to check out the GAPS diet if you hear your story echoing in mine.  That's why I decided to share the series of videos that Dr. McBride has on You Tube for you to listen to.  If you don't want to wait that long to listen to them all, feel free to search them out for yourself.  GO FOR IT AND MORE POWER TO YOU!

Now for the wonderful story that I promised to leave you with.  I smile every time I think of how God brought me a new client this past Thursday.  I wasn't sure what to do when Denise didn't show up at 5:00; 5:15; or 5:30.  Being I had my nose in the GAPS GUIDE, I kept reading and waited another 15 minutes telling myself that I'd leave if she hadn't come by 6:00.

About a quarter to 6:00, a lovely middle aged woman came to the door and I let her in.  She apologized for being late stating that her new boss called a meeting that she could not get out of.  She had forgotten to write down my cell number and I had forgotten to write down hers, so we were even.

I liked Denise right away.  Getting into the session a little further, I realized that Denise is a lot like me in many ways.  I wasn't surprised, then, when she shared that she had a childhood very similar to mine. 

I was doing Reiki on her shoulder injury when it came out and I said, "I seem to draw women like you to me as it's not something that is intimidating to me to talk about."

Denise said, "I KNOW that I was drawn to you.  That door just wouldn't leave me alone."  With just a little prodding, Denise told me this story of God's leading in her life.

Being Denise works directly across the street from my office, when she leaves her parking lot she is looking right at my building.  I can't recall now how many days she said that her eyes were drawn to the door to my office building.  "Finally," she said, "I just knew that I HAD to go in there to check it out."

Denise told me how, one day after work, she excitedly entered the door that had been calling her (of course it was the Lord who had been telling her to go through that door).  Denise said, "I paused by the massage therapists door but did not feel that this was where the Lord was leading me."

I got excited as Denise described how she went up the steps to the upper level and was drawn to my door.  She said that her heart was beating with excitement knowing that she would get the help that she needed in that room.  Denise immediately wrote down my name and number; called me; and had her first session with me on Thursday.

I praised God then (and have every time that I think about it) for leading Denise to me that day?  Oh yes, and what were the results of our hour and a half spent together?  Denise summarized for me after the session was finished, "Well, my head feels more clear; my back hardly hurts at all; my shoulder hurts about a forth of what it's been hurting me for decades; and the lump in my throat seems to be about half the size it was when I came in here."  WOW!

BodyTalk + radionics sessions work miracles and I praise God for bringing them to me.  How I long for the whole world to experience this healing for themselves.  Now I know, though, that I don't have to do a thing and God Himself will bring folks to me at just the right time for them.  Say, do you think that makes Him my secretary? or perhaps my PR man?  One thing is sure, I'm glad that He has a sense of humor.  ;)

Happy Sabbath everyone.  I'm off to read more of the GAPS Guide and then on to the REAL manuscript on the topic: Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.  On the front cover there's a sign post with arrows pointing to dyspraxia, autism, A.D.D, dyslexia, A.D.H.D.,
depression, and schizophrenia.   To think that all of those very serious issues can be caused by what we're eating....

Here's to health at whatever the cost--even no more wheat!

Dawn

Encapsulated

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!! Just in time for Sabbath I have good news for all of you who have been praying for me the past few months to lick this beastly cancer in my foot. 
 Being I can do BodyTalk, I check several times a day to see if the cancer is encapsulated.  By the way, everyone has cancer in their bodies but what matters is if it is encapsulated in it's casing or if it's active and growing in the body.
Well, I woke up this morning at 2:30 and my foot felt different.  I was pretty sleepy but on my way to the bathroom I asked, "Is the cancer encapsulated?" and got a YES through muscle testing.  YIPEE!!!!!!!!

Now, here's another miracle.  The reason this time has been especially difficult is because it's in my foot and I kind of need my foot a LOT.  Not only that, it's felt different from the other times.  It has often felt as though it was shingles and I have asked my innate wisdom (that God uses to keep me alive) if it is shingles but always got a NO.
So now, in the middle of the night, I finally understood what was going on.  The tumor was pushing on a nerve cutting off the nerve supply to my toes.  Last night, with the tumor encapsulated, there was some relief from that pinching pain.  Then, with my sleepy brain, I suddenly understood why God had me buy some L-Lysine last week when I was in Terry's Health Food store.
You see, when I had the nerve damage in my neck and head from the shingles on my brain, I started taking a LOT of L-Lysine.  It takes down the inflammation in the nerve endings and it really helps stop the insane tingling/burning/throbbing sensation of nerve damage.  However, I haven't taken any in a couple of years.
To make a long story short, as I still need to clean the bathroom before the Sabbath (now that my foot is feeling better).  I checked to see if the L-Lysine was a priority to get into my body and learned that I needed to take 3 L-Lysine at 2:00 in the morning.  When I woke up, I took 5 more before heading out the door with Andrew for Bismarck. 
All day that dreaded tingling has been on the decrease and I KNOW that the worst is over.  I must add here that Elizabeth has done a couple of sessions for me too in the past 24 hours so it's hard to say how much that played a role.  I don't really care which helped which percent, I am just so happy that my foot is feeling the best tonight that it has felt in 2 months--JUST IN TIME FOR SABBATH!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, all of you, who have been praying for my recovery--AGAIN!  Oh yes, I must mention that I rested all day yesterday, PLUS I've been listening to Dr. Coldwell's STRESS RELIEF FOR CHRISTIANS every time that the world presses me into despair.  Somehow I WILL get back on my feet again and I praise God for seeing me through cancer one more time.  WHAT IN THE WORLD WOULD I DO WITHOUT HIM??????????????/
God bless you for caring enough to pray for me!
Dawn

The Power of Prayer

Please see the short preceding post if you haven't already done so.  It says that, by many people uniting together, the North Dakota legislature has been persuaded to continue our current level of freedoms in home schooling.  We did not gain any of the further freedoms that we had hoped to gain, but we did NOT loose any of the ones that we gained in 2009.  This is a big answer to prayer which I received last night.
Now this morning I received this email from one of the Core Synchronization people who has been very active in trying to get the North Dakota Board of Massage out of our hair.  As I read it I wondered, "Can anyone hold even more joy?"  I'm sure that I'll learn how very quickly.  This is what it read.

HB 1304 passed the Senate ( 42-3) and was returned to the House unchanged
so the bill will now go to the Governor for signature.

Senators Burghard (Dist 5), Miller (Dist 16), and Warner (Dist 4) voted
against it. 

This means the NDBOM has nothing to say about what we do.  However, since energy work has come into the legislative discussion, I still feel it would be good for us to work on a simple registry for the modalities where people can not only check on training, but can also find practitioners in their areas.

Thank you all again for all that you did.  If anyone gets a chance, please email sjmeyer@nd.gov and say “Thank you” for HB 1304.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

This was NOT a case of many people working together as there are very, very few people who do energy work in the state.  However, it is a case of many people praying together and THAT works too!!!!!!! 

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS PRAYED FOR US ENERGY WORKERS TO BE ABLE TO CONTINUE SERVING THE NEEDS OF NORTH DAKOTANS NO MATTER HOW MUCH THE NORTH DAKOTA BOARD OF MASSAGE TRIED TO SHUT US DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is this a Sabbath to be remembered or what? 

YES,IT IS AND I SAY, "PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!"

Safely Snubbed

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!

We've been living in a blizzard for the past 3 days and it's certainly been a Winter Wonderland--you wonder where the land is! Last night I couldn't see the house from the goat barn, so I was VERY thankful for our yard light and Jacob's good eyes beside me.

Now it looks as though it has blown itself out, which is wonderful! We've got plans to spend the day with our friends, the Keister family who live an hour's drive away from us. I was positive last night, when I headed for bed, that we'd have to postpone our plans but now I have hope that we may go yet. Robert is out pushing snow with the tractor so that we can get the van out the driveway, but it does make me wonder what the roads are like in between us and Keisters.

I've been saving a story to share with you. It happened this past week, but I thought it would be a great way to start a new year for all of you. I've decided to call it, "Safely snubbed."

Some of you know that most of my friends rejected my in 2007 when God chose to heal me through BodyTalk. I understand that BodyTalk is new, and that people are suspicious of new things. However I comfort myself with the words of my naturopathic doctor, "Don't they know that, with your character, you'd never do something bad?"

Anyway, to make a long story short, this issue resurfaced again here lately. When I was in TL's office having a BodyTalk session last week, she blessed me so much. When the last half of my session focused on this issue of my friends rejecting me for becoming a BodyTalk practitioner, she was led to ask me some questions.

"Do you think that that there is ever a time when God does not feel safe?" asked TL.

After very little thought I answered, "No."

"Do you think that there is ever a time when God has abandoned you?"

"NO!"

"So do you think that there has ever been a time when YOU were not truly safe--no matter what anybody did to your body, your spirit, OR your mind?" She asked this knowing full well my life's history of the abuses that others have inflicted upon me.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Wisely, TL let that seep into my being as she finished the session. Slowly, in the days that followed, I came to see that she was right!

After all, I AM still alive! After all, I AM still a Christian! After all, I AM still able to enjoy my country; my farm; my work; and most of all--my family! WOW--God REALLY HAS KEPT ME SAFE THROUGH IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then came the test--had it REALLY sunk into my being? I got a phone call which, I must admit, is the most strange phone call I have ever received in my entire life. Afterwards I did see it as a test, though, and I am happy to say that I PASSED THE TEST!!!!!!!

You see, there is this family whom we have tried to get close to for decades. Always we were made to understand that we were second class citizens for a variety of unknown reasons. I'm sure that everyone has experienced that feeling. They see you coming and their noses go straight up in the air; they turn away from you; and change the subject if you are so dense as to not realize that you were not welcome to join any group where THEY were present.

Recently I had another unpleasant experience with this family but I did NOT accept the self-hatred that usually would follow an incident of this type. It was a great breakthrough, as children of abuse usually carry the shame of the entire family (world) in their little bodies. This time, however, I came out of the other side of a potentially hurtful experience with my self-esteem intact. Wow--I was truly proud of myself--and still am no matter what others may say or think!

So, as you begin your new year dear friends, I urge you to ponder this concept, "Safely snubbed!"

When you are in fellowship with God, and are doing His work every moment of your life, does it REALLY matter what other people think of you?

Does it really matter that other people, who aren't walking in your shoes, judge you for things which they couldn't even begin to understand?

Does it REALLY matter if fellow Christians have a lower standard of compassion for the world than you, who suffered much at the hands of the world, do?

Does it REALLY matter if they are jealous of you, and what you have accomplished with your life, through constant obedience to the King?

Does it REALLY matter when mere mortals (even your "Friends") snub you when you commune with GOD daily?

NO--IT DOES NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My prayer for each one of my readers in 2011, then, is to be so in fellowship with God that the opinions of other fellow travelers is of little consequence. If one offers you praise, may you lift your hands towards Heaven and say, "Praise God who has done this great thing through my weak being." If one offers you insults, may you lift your hands towards Heaven and say, "Praise God who loves me even though earthly beings despise me." Either way, praising God is the way to true happiness PLUS this opens the door to closer fellowship and knowing Him even better.

WHAT COULD BE A FINER GOAL FOR 20011 THAN THAT?

May each one of you be SAFELY snubbed, if snubbing MUST come into your life, as you carry out the work that the King has for you to do in the year of our Lord, 2011!!!

Here's to the King of peace!

Dawn

Third most incredible day ever!!!

What a way to start a blog post of such significance. Cora said, "You're not REALLY going to post that picture, are you Mom?"

"Of course not," I laughed. However, on second thought, I wondered if it wouldn't be a good mystery picture. I decided to let you wonder about this a little bit but will tell you all about it by and by. Any guesses what these are for?

Here is a clue for you.

Now I think it is time to get on with the story. I am not stretching the truth here folks--yesterday was the third most incredible day of my life! First was when I became a Christian on June 24, 1969; second was when I became Mrs. Robert Bornemann on October 10, 1980; and the third was yesterday when I became set free from the old pattern of self-hatred which has kept me from being totally happy all of my life.

I have already shared in my previous post about how my day started, so I won't dwell on that subject. However, I'd like to share how the Lord totally went on to bless my day in ways that will make the day unforgettable for my entire family.

Shortly after I had posted, we received a phone call from our friend Randy, at North Country Trucks, stating that after 4 weeks of waiting our truck was finally repaired. YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, when Robert first asked if I'd like to take him up to get the truck, I had declined. "I have too much to do here," I said.

However, while he continued his search for a driver, it began to register in my mind that I could do a little shopping for office things for my new office if I were to be the one to volunteer to take him up to Bismarck which, for us, is a one hour drive on good roads. After getting Jacob to agree to go with me, I told Robert that I had changed my mind and we got ready to go.

The trip itself was pleasant as the roads were much better than the last time I was on them and I busied myself doing a session for Cora who is still fighting a cold. When we reached Bismarck, I dropped Robert off at North Country and Jacob and I began our day of adventures.

We went in search of a nice chair for my waiting room; a hall tree for my client's coats; frames for all of my certificates which I STILL have not hung up in my office; and anything else that we could find which would make my office complete. I have more than twice the room that I had before so I need to fill it with just the right things to make it as lovely and "Health conscious" as my other one had been.

We made our way to Kathyrn's thrift shop which has come VERY highly recommended to me from numerous sources. Jacob and I had a ball there and we came out of it, over an hour later,with a very large, elegant brass hall tree; a brand new dress which cost me $1.25; and some new videos and dvds for school and family viewing.

The ARC brought me a "New" badly needed pair of black shoes, but nothing else for the office. When we came out of the ARC, I noticed that snow was starting to fall lightly so I decided to head for Sam's Club and then head for home. Robert had cautioned me not to hang around up there if the snow started, as a storm was predicted for late afternoon.

At Sams we took 2 carts. One was for the household stuff and the other for my business stuff. I knew that I needed a new binder for my (as Elizabeth calls hers) "Big book of everything." All of my resource information has been in one large binder which gets used a LOT. Being it's starting to loose it's cover, I decided it was time to fork over for a new one.

I put the pack of 2 (I'll use the other one for my Reiki information) new BLACK binders (which Jacob insists is more professional than white), into my buisness cart along with 3 new BLACK chairs for my office. Along with that went one pink something which shall remian nameless until further down in this post.

After writing out 2 checks, we headed over to the Member's Service counter to pick up the certain something which went along with the cardboard. All of you who have bought one of these at Sam's must certainly know what it is by now, but please don't tell anybody. ;)

Well, we headed for my office where we hung my new FIVE ELEMNTS poster; put the new/used hall tree in just the perfect spot; and took the plastic and singage off of the new chairs. After a little debate we settled on spots for the chairs and headed for home.

It was a journey I'll always cherish in my memory as Jacob talked ALL THE WAY HOME! I have a hard time getting him to talk usually but, you see, he was pumped up about my mystery purchase. I am so ignorant about technology that it will probably take a dozen such trips before I can get the hang of using my new addition to my business. It was so wonderful, though, to have this common link with my son and the hour passed quickly with only a few snowflakes falling as we pulled into our driveway.

Well, I came into the house excitedly as I knew that Andrew was especially eager to see my new purchase. I walked around the kitchen a few times and it seemed as though Robert, Cora, and Andrew were a bit nervous. We all talked gaily, for the approaching Sabbath always produces this affect on us. In addition, my heart was so light and happy from the night before when I began to understand how to help myself become truly happy AND healthy.

I showed them my new/used shoes which they all agreed were just "Perfect." I showed them my new mystery purchase which we all agreed would have to wait until the supper was ready and the kettles all washed and put away. I kept walking around excitedly and Andrew especially is in my memory as one who has swallowed the cat.

I can't recall now what it was that took me into the laundry room but when I did, my heart lept into my throat. Andrew burst into laughter and, as I looked around the small group which is my family, I saw them all smiling at my shock. There, leaning up against the back refrigerator, were two HUGE boxes which I knew could only be my tanning units that I had ordered from Dr. Mercola.

Suddenly I just broke into laugher of immesarable proportions and ran to sit down at the table. I was trembling with excitement and my feet stomped happily on the floor. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME," I asked?

Robert laughing said, "Because we wanted you to find them for yourself." This is the box of the one that we didn't open but will transport up to my Bismarck office in it's packing.

After we lugged the humungous box into the dining room and took the straps off, they let me open the box.

It arrived in perfect condition with awesome packaging.

I'm so glad that my guys aren't afraid of assembling things.

"Please put the coasters on now, Andrew and Jacob."

After some pondering on the perfect location, we put it in this little nook right outside our bedroom. In case you're like me and have never seen the special glasses that one needs to wear to protect your eyes when using a tanning system like this, that is what I was wearing in the picture up above. Cora was laughing uncontrolably as we each put them on and she took our pictures. Of course, when it was her turn to try them on, she held on tight to her camera and I was too excited to go for mine.

Just in case any of you are wondering, YES, I did use it this morning for the very first time and yes, I did wear those silly looking glasses. I am so excited to have the Sun Splash in my life now!!! For anyone who wants more information about this health product, please look at my former post on the subject.

And now, for the rest of the story. Yes, there is actually more to make yesterday so phenominal for me. You see, Andrew has been doing a great sales pitch and Jacob has been pitching in for awhile now too.

You see, they watch me doing my distance sessions then typing them out in an email to send to the clients thereby doing them over again. You see, last week one night Andrew said to me, "Tonight, Mom, you WILL record your session on my IPOD and I'll show you how to send it to your client tomorrow." You see, I absolutely LOVED not having to type the session all over again the next day!

So, yesterday afternoon while Jacob and I were in Sam's Club, he said to me, "Well, Mom, are you ready to buy your very own IPOD?"

GULP!

To make a long story short, I called Andrew and asked his opinion. "For recording my session reports, and everything else that you know that I need for my business, do you think that I need a laptop or an IPOD?"

After a lenghty discussion, Andrew and Jacob both convinced me that buying a Gen 4 34 GB IPOD TOUCH was just the thing for me.

SO I DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What in the world does that all mean? I have no idea right now, but I do know that I was getting pretty excited with all that Jacob told me about it on our way home together. You see, I have always been pretty suspicious about technology pulling our family apart or worse--pulling me away from God. Now, though, I have come to see that God can use this new tool to give me more time to be with my family or helping more people through sessions, or even reading my Bible on it when I do have a few moments alone with my King.

I amazed to think that this little technological wonder, which can do so many things to simply my life and my business, is so small that it can even fit in my purse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jacob was so cute when, after I had slipped it into my purse, he said, "You keep your eyes on that, Mom! Lots of people would love to come along and help themselves to THAT!" And so I entered the world of IPOD owners.

So then last night, after the lasagna was in the oven and the Sun Splash was in it's new home on our wall; I called the boys to watch me open the small package that will change my life in so many ways that I can't even imagine yet. I do know, though, that I do not have to purchase a date book for 2011, as I was planning to do, because I can record all of my session times in my IPOD. Can you tell that my son's have been trying to help me to come to grips with the near $300 price tag?

"Will you hurry up and open that thing, Mom?"

Here I am holding my very own IPOD. Actually, as I write this, it is now playing the Raleigh Ringers handbell choir's CAROL OF THE WISE MEN which Andrew put on it for me. Indeed, he just told me that he put his entire musical collection on it for me in "Around 10 minutes." Thank you, Andrw and Jacob, for pushing me over the edge into this new world--I THINK!

Well, it is the Sabbath and everyone is playing Foosball downstairs. I'm tired and in need of my usual Sabbath afternoon rest, but I just wanted to finish this post. I just HAD to share with you this thought which entered my mind as I drifted off to sleep last night.

As I bade my loving Heavenly Father goodnight, I felt Him again very close to me. Then I sensed Him asking me this question, "Dear Dawn, do you really think that you'd have bought the iPod if you hadn't had the experience last night of understanding your self-destructive ways?"

"What do you mean, Lord?" I asked in the darkness.

I almost heard Him chuckle as He said, "Well, you know, if you STILL believed that you were stupid, would you have ever thought that you could master an iPod?"

Tears flowed then--tears of joy--as I saw how God Himself has step by step brought me out of the land of darkness, fears, doubts, and self-hatred that I was born into.

As I drifted off then, I heard myself and perhaps another voice comforting me with my most recited Bible verse found in 2 Timothy 1:4: FOR GOD HATH NOT GIVEN ME THE SPIRIT OF FEAR--BUT OF POWER, AND OF LOVE, AND OF A SOUND MIND!!!

Isn't He absolutely wonderful?

Sabbath blessings to all,

Dawn--new iPod owner