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The journey into healing starts with your own ancestors and valuing the diversity of earth's environment and peoples.   

The wonders of autosomal dna testing can lead us to greater recognition and confirmation of ancestral connections previously known only through oral tradition. Two of my chromosomes above show a mostly African genetic profile combined with a considerable amount of Asian and European ancestry or genetic contribution. The East Asian and Siberian genes are probably a proxy stand-in for my Native American ancestry also seen here. While the south Asian reflects my known and relatively recent Punjab or east Indian ancestry. Most of my ancestors began intermixing in colonial times and derive from four continents - and I pay attention to all of them - or at least, they pay attention to me. ; )

Ancestry.com is a wonderful tool to get to know your relatives and ancestors, although it can become somewhat addictive. The woman above farthest left in the striped dress is a great aunt on my mom's father's side born in the early 1800s in Georgia of the U.S.A. What's truly strange about this photograph is that the man farthest left who is not biologically related to us came to my mom in a dream a few years ago with a message for me. She had no idea who he was, but asked me if I knew a Mr. Roop because he kept saying to her to tell me my article was ready for publishing. I told her the only Mr. Roop I knew was the husband of her 2nd great aunt Eliza whose photo I had found on the ancestry.com site. Turns out I found out someone had decided to publish something of mine around the time of my mom's dream, which happened to be his birthday as well.

Your ancestors are connected to you - whoever they are - and often act as spiritual guides and influences for good and otherwise. Believe it!   

Many years ago I called a psychic medium on a radio show on behalf of my mom's mother Elma who had recently died. The psychic said she was picking up a name that started with a "k" or hard "c "sound. She said it was a woman that had come through with a "Charlie" and was telling me say "hi to the kids for me". I told the medium that I did have a grandmother whose name was Cora, but I didn' t know of any "Charlie". I was disappointed, and thinking the reader had been very vague and perhaps just guessing things.

Later that evening I told my parents what had occurred and asked my father if he knew of any Charlie in the family. He said his mother Cora had a brother named Charles. I did think it was a little strange, but Charles wasn't Charlie. However, within a year I was looking through copies of old photos my aunt had left and saw one with my grandmother Cora and one of her siblings. As I turned over the picture I froze in amazement as the words I saw were scrawle and faded, but clear as day said "Cora and Charlie".

I did tell her children, the uncles and aunt that have stopped by that their mother says "hi". Loved one's never leave us, even after the illusory thing we call death.

Believe it! .   

Henna Arts

Henna Arts

Before my father's aunt died she told us our Reynolds lineages actually went back to tobacco people of Virginia and North Carolina, Winston-Salem. She said they were actually bred from the Reynolds from the time they came over to America from Britain. That would probably make us more Reynolds paternally than most other Reynolds people in the world.

The woman above is a close relative of my Reynolds gggrandparents of which I have several. And it's amazing how they all have the same square Reynolds face and look.

I know my g-grandfather Walter, and his father Stewart both worked for a time on the tobacco plantation for the Reynolds company in Winston-Salem. Stewart's father was a slave who was at the same time the son of the Reynolds owner.

Sometimes I wonder what kind of karmic legacy comes from being Reynolds- born and bred, and what karma must have led to it. Although we come from many lineages we are born into certain lineages to reap or be rewarded from what has been sown previously or rather to compensate for what has gone on before. Good and not so good.

There is no escape from this law on earth, so we must make our choices wisely instead of giving in to temptation, and then having to face the consequences later. Group and individual conflict, inequality or unconscious dislike is related to the law of karmic and ancestral compensation in reality. Most of the time it has to do with someone or one groups ancestors that have not been appeased, which is why we are told to "do unto others as we would have people do unto us". Or else, as as a very wise man once said "the sins of your forefathers will be visited upon you" - quite literally. Believe in this, if nothing else. ; ) 

I was introduced to henna tatoo decorations through my marriage to an North African Berber. Traditional henna artistry is temporary, but has symbolic, ritual and spiritual significance. It is practiced throughout Africa and Asia.

In the 1990s I spent a couple of years in research for a book on world culture written by a friend and mentor. We considered ourselves kindred spirits and felt like there was a purpose to our meeting. The book, entitled The Way of the Earth, was nominated for a Pulitzer, though it didn't win the Prize. Her father was responsible for coining the phrase " global village", something that many modern people are attempting to run away from. But, apparently this is where the higher level enlightened forces around the world are leading us in this age. Like it - or not.

She wrote a wonderful book I think everyone should have on their coffee tables, its called "Touch the Earth".   

I personally think the cover of Touch the Earth speaks for itself. Makes for a perfect coffee table book.  

A local priest and I at a nearby temple, after a Lakshmi fire ceremony or puja. Lakshmi is the goddess associated with abundance and the beautiful things in life. She is an aspect of our own being. ; )

Found one of my mom's books on the shelf with a note signed by the President of the Theosophical Society. Brings back childhood memories. : ) The note says, "To my friend Max Wardall, a co-worker in past and future lives. April, 1927. Annie Besant." 

Garden on the porch is great to wake up and come home to. Mom still has a green thumb in her ' 80s.

When I met my uncle Donald's son Sheldon for the second time after probably 35 plus years, his energy was so familiar that it was like meeting a long lost brother. I had gotten in touch with him to let him know his father had died. He'd been busy with his career as a lead singer and guitarist for the singing groups Earth, Wind and Fire and the Commodores and hadn't been in touch with his family for a while. He has the greatest singing voice. His mother was also a song-writer for the group. : )

He was also to my surprise then taking care of the Jimi Hendrix Estate with his then wife, Janie Hendrix, who was Jimmie's adopted sister. I thought, wow, some people in my family have all the luck.lol! But, after playing at Jimi's father's funeral within the space of decade he went through some pretty severe ups and downs, and a lot of drama. Got involved in a messy divorce from Janie, discovered some children he never knew he had, and then even fell ill with Parkinson's disease which interrupted his career. It was the same thing his mentor Maurice White, founder of Earth Wind and Fire, suffered with for years.

I personally thought he might not make it because he looked so destroyed and could barely talk, stand up and walk the last time I saw him, but, like so many in our family Sheldon is possessed of a strong metaphysical faith in the creator. He, himself, is in fact a strong borderline fundamentalist Christian and incessant prayers enabled him to find a natural pharmaceutical company from Indonesia that delivered him from the throes of his suffering. The natural herbal medicines from this company have miraculously enabled him to get his life back around to the point where he is back at work and singing round the world. Signs of the disease have virtually disappeared.

Now Sheldon raises funds for the company - Golden Sunrise Pharmaceuticals.

See it in our directory!  

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