December is the month of magical lights and miracles. I just learned recently that the Hanukkah candles symbolize the miracle of a lamp that ought to have burned for one day, glowing instead for eight days. The Christian nativity story is filled with one miraculous sign after another; dreams, premonitions and – my favorite –…
Author: Lucie Young
In Praise of Imperfection
‘Forget your perfect offering. There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.’ – Leonard Cohen
Learning to Walk in the Dark
One of my most treasured books, Learning To Walk In The Dark is a series of essays by Barbara Brown Taylor about the revelations that come from confronting fear, loss, pain and suffering. Take the story of Jacques Lusseyran, a young Frenchman who at age seven became permanently blind. A little over a week later he discovered…
Blue Orbs
Something weird happens in fourteen photos I took on my Sedona trip. I only realized when I got home. Little blue orbs float through some images. Orbs of different sizes appear in different places on the images. Take a look for yourself. My favorite is the orb that seems to have a white halo around…
The Golden Hour
‘At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.’ Laurence Binyon – (extract from For The Fallen)
Sedona, Snakes & Saviors
‘It’s rattlesnake season,’ the woman rescuing us said, as she and her golden retriever led the way back over the red rocks, through the juniper trees, sweetly scented sage bushes and tangled yews to the Sedona trail head where we had parked our car a couple of hours earlier. We weren’t exactly lost. We were concerned….
Comfort Clothes
My dad wore one of my mum’s sweaters out to dinner last week. He’s not alone. We’ve all been delving into mum’s wardrobe since she passed. An old pair of mum’s black leather gloves is one of my most cherished possessions. ‘They’re falling apart,’ Dad said quizzically when I said I wanted to take them….
Grief & Loss
Grief involves finding yourself again. It is not just the beloved who is lost when someone dies. For a long while, it is yourself too. These are the wretched days of feeling lost and of learning once again to walk in the dark and find my way forward. In a very profound way, losing…
Abundance of Spirit
I love dragonflies. I love the shimmer of their iridescent wings and how they can zoom in any direction (including sideways and backwards) helicopter-style. But last weekend, I had 11 land on me (I’ve never had one land on me before). It all happened in less than 15 minutes, as I sat on my friend…
Premonitions
There are things we know without knowing how or why we know them. Call them soul messages or premonitions. I’ve had a few in recent years. The latest happened before my lovely mum passed in May. Eight days before she died, I had a premonition that this was the beginning of the end. Mum’s final…
Being There
‘Being there is everything in love, in life and in dying,’ – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (founder of the US hospice movement)
Disembodied Grief
When mum died, I didn’t see her spirit leave her body as I did with Laura. But I was there by her side in her final hours. And ever since I have a weird disembodied feeling, as if I am not quite here. At first I thought it was a protective numbness. But now I…
Signs and Talking To The Departed
My beautiful mum, who enfolded us all in love all her life, is still here – still spreading her golden love around us. Or so it feels. My sister Andrea and I have been experiencing a golden presence enveloping us. We can also hear her speak to us (offering advice and words of comfort). And…
Janette Young, 19 November 1931 to 22 May 2018
My dear mum, who surrounded me and my family with unconditional love all her life, has gone. She was the kindest person I’ve ever met and like Laura had a beautiful open smile. Her cousin Isabella recalled: ‘She brought the sunshine into the room with her.’ I was blessed to be with her at the…
In Praise of Desire
Instead of feeling anxious about your desires, relax in the certainty that your deepest desires are leading you to the very best expression of yourself. Your inner voice is speaking to you and that my friends is where true happiness lies – Oprah Winfrey
Soul Love Forever 