Is Santa Real?

Is Santa real? I’ve been getting that question a lot lately. I always answer with a simple “Yes,” but I also think about what Santa Claus really means to me - and I do believe that he's real.


He is the gifts donated to those less fortunate and the person who gives what little extra money they have in their bank account to someone who needs it more than they do.

He is the one who helps someone who’s having a hard time (without telling anyone about their good deed) and expects absolutely nothing in return.

Santa is the people volunteering at soup kitchens and shelters, donating to food pantries and bringing cookies and other holiday treats to their neighbors. He is the person who gives food or clothing to the homeless man sitting on the corner of a city street. He is the one who works his butt off to provide more for his kids than he ever had.

He is the look of wonder on children’s faces, the wink from a stranger when your kids are singing Christmas carols in the mall parking lot on the way back to your car, the sparkling lights on people’s homes and the joy you feel from giving someone a gift.

Santa Claus is made of everything good that’s within each and every one of us. Thankfully, we have Christmas every year to remind us to let it shine.  

Journey to my Trifecta

In 2013, I was supposed to get my Spartan Race Trifecta (completing a Sprint, Super and Beast in one calendar year,) but I broke my ankle at the Spartan Super in NJ that September. My Beast was scheduled for December in Dallas, and although my ankle was better, I knew it wasn't ready to run a 12+ mile Beast in December. So, I skipped that trip and vowed to get my Trifecta another time.

I could only fit one Spartan Race into my schedule in 2014, but in 2015, I looked at the race calendar and saw that it was possible to get my Trifecta, with my schedule. I planned my Trifecta - The Beast in NJ in April, the Sprint in PA in July and the Super in VA in August - all in driving distance and all on weekends when my kids were with their dad. Done deal.

This past weekend was supposed to be the completion of my Trifecta. I contacted some Spartans who I raced with in the past and even paid an extra $40+ the Thursday before the race to change my time so that I could race with my friends. I was all set to go, but that Friday morning, (the day I was supposed to leave for my trip,) I started getting really strong feelings about NOT going to VA.

My brain told me I was crazy. This had been a goal of mine for over 2 years. I was going to achieve it with friends who I'd raced with before and there was no logical reason NOT to go to VA. But, everything within every fiber of my being told me that I shouldn't leave for VA that day.

It's the Sunday after the race, and all I see on social media are pictures of fellow Spartans with their medals, and some people with pictures celebrating the completion of their Trifecta. Yet, I sit here in my house wondering why it wasn't meant to be for me.

I'm a very intuitive person, and somehow I know things that logic doesn't explain. I don't read people's minds and I'm not a psychic. But, I often just "know" things without any explanation. This was the strongest feeling I've ever experienced, and somehow, I just knew I shouldn't go.

I will probably never figure out why I wasn't supposed to go on this trip. Maybe I avoided a car accident on the way to/from VA - or maybe I avoided a serious injury at the race. I wish my brain could figure out why I wasn't supposed to go, but I know in my heart that I needed to stay away from VA.

So, as I sit here on a Sunday night, wondering what to do next, and feeling bummed that I didn't achieve my goal of getting that Trifecta, I did what any normal Spartan would do...I looked at the Spartan Race map and found a Super in Alabama that was taking place on a weekend when my kids are with their dad - and I registered!

All that's left is for me to book my flight to Mobile, Alabama in October, and I'll be on my way to achieving my goal. I've been here before - I've wanted something that didn't happen, and somehow I figured out a different way to make my dream come true.

This is just part of everyday life. When something doesn't go your way, you just need to start working on plan B, then plan C, then plan D. But, most importantly, I've learned not to give up. As Thomas Edison once said: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Keep trying and eventually you'll achieve your goal. It just might not be the way you planned to achieve it.

21 traits that describe me almost to a tee...

The article below is copied from Expanded Consciousness. So many of the feelings I have (which are sometimes difficult to explain to others) are perfectly described here. I wanted to save it and be able to find it again, so I’m reposting it here.

21 Traits of an Awakening Soul

By: WakingTimes

You can say it’s because of a global shift in consciousness, a destiny we have arrived at due to spiritual evolution, or the outcome of strange times, but, many people all across the globe are going through intense personal changes and sensing an expansion of consciousness. Personal changes of this magnitude can be difficult to recognize and to understand, but here are 21 traits of an awakening soul, a ‘sensitive’, or an ‘empath.’

1.    Being in public places is sometimes overwhelming. Since our walls between self and other are dissolving, we haven’t really learned to distinguish between someone else’s energy and our own. If the general mood of the crowd is herd-like or negative, we can feel this acutely, and may feel like retreating into our own private space. When we have recharged our batteries with meditation, spending time in nature, far away from other people, or just sitting in quiet contemplation, we are ready to be with the masses again. In personal relationships, we often will feel someone else’s emotions as our own. It is important to have this higher sense of empathy, but we must learn to allow another person’s emotions while observing them and keeping our empathy, but, realizing that not all emotions belong to us. Social influence can dampen our own innate wisdom.

2.    We know things without having to intellectually figure them out. Often called intuitive awareness, we have ‘a-ha’ moments and insights that can explain some of the most complex theories or phenomenon in the world. Some of the most brilliant minds of our time just ‘know.’ Adepts and sages often were given downloads of information from higher states of consciousness after meditating or being in the presence of a more conscious individual; this is happening for more people with more frequency. As we trust our intuition more often, it grows stronger.  This is a time of ‘thinking’ with our hearts more than our heads. Our guts will no longer be ignored. Our dreams are becoming precognitive and eventually our conscious thoughts will be as well.

3.    Watching television or most of main stream media, including newspapers and many Hollywood movies is very distasteful to us. The mindset that creates much, but not all, of the programming on television and in cinema is abhorrent. It commodifies people and promotes violence. It reduces our intelligence and numbs our natural empathetic response to someone in pain.

4.    Lying to us is nearly impossible. We may not know exactly what truth you are withholding, but we can also tell (with our developing intuition and ESP skills) that something isn’t right. We also know when you have other emotions, pain, love, etc. that you aren’t expressing. You’re an open book to us. We aren’t trained in counter-intelligence, we are just observant and knowing. While we may pick up on physical cues, we can look into your eyes and know what you are feeling.

5.    We may pick up symptoms of your cold, just like men who get morning sickness when their wives are pregnant. Sympathy pains, whether emotional or physical, are something we experience often. We tend to absorb emotion through the solar plexus, considered the place we ‘stomach emotion’ so as we learn to strengthen this chakra center, we may sometimes develop digestive issues. Grounding to the earth can help to re-establish our emotional center. Walking barefoot is a great way to re-ground.

6.    We tend to root for the underdog, those without voices, those who have been beaten down by the matrix, etc. We are very compassionate people, and these marginalized individuals often need more love. People can sense our loving hearts, so complete strangers will often tell us their life stories or approach us with their problems. While we don’t want to be a dumping ground for everyone’s issues, we are also a good ear for those working through their stuff.

7.    If we don’t learn how to set proper boundaries, we can get tired easily from taking on other people’s emotions. Energy Vampires are drawn to us like flies to paper, so we need to be extra vigilant in protecting ourselves at times.

8.    Unfortunately, sensitives or empaths often turn to drug abuse or alcohol to block some of their emotions and to ‘protect’ themselves from feeling the pain of others.

9.    We are all becoming healers. We naturally gravitate toward healing fields, acupuncture, reiki, Qi-Gong, yoga, massage, midwivery, etc. are fields we often find ourselves in. We know that the collective needs to be healed, and so we try our best to offer healing in whatever form we are most drawn to. We also turn away from the ‘traditional’ forms of healing ourselves. Preferring natural foods, herbs, and holistic medicine as ways to cure every ailment.

10. We see the possibilities before others do. Just like when the church told Copernicus he was wrong, and he stood by his heliocentric theory, we know what the masses refuse to believe. Our minds are light-years ahead.

11. We are creative. We sing, dance, paint, invent, or write. We have amazing imaginations.

12. We require more solitude than the average person.

13. We might get bored easily, but we are really good at entertaining ourselves.

14. We have a difficult time doing things we don’t want to do or don’t really enjoy. We really do believe life was meant to be an expression of joy. Why waste it doing something you hate? We aren’t lazy, we are discerning.

15. We are obsessed with bringing the truth to light. Like little children who say, “that’s not fair” we want to right the wrongs of the world, and we believe it often just takes education. We endeavor to explain the unexplainable and find answers to the deep questions of life. We are seekers, in the Campbellian paradigm. ‘The Hero With a Thousand Faces.”

16. We can’t keep track of time. Our imaginations often get away with us and a day can feel like a minute, a week, a day.

17. We abhor routine.

18. We often disagree with authority (for obvious reasons).

19. We will often be kind, but if you are egotistical or rude, we won’t spend much time with you or find an excuse to not hang out with people who are obsessed with themselves. We don’t ‘get’ people who are insensitive to other people’s feelings or points of view.

20. We may be vegan or vegetarian because we can sense a certain energy of the food we eat, like if an animal was slaughtered inhumanely. We don’t want to consume negative energy.

21. We wear our own emotions on our sleeves and have a hard time ‘pretending’ to be happy if we aren’t. We avoid confrontation, But will quietly go about changing the world in ways you can’t even see.

Read more at http://expandedconsciousness.com/2014/03/10/21-traits-of-an-awakening-soul/#yim4C25XXd8jgST6.99