In life, you have to laugh. As someone who tries to follow a spiritual path, I’m always looking for the lessons that come from different life experiences. Having been faced with challenging circumstances lately, in terms of financial stability, I am constantly giving thanks for all that I have and looking for answers as to how to continue to spread blessings given limited resources. Although I am aware that it is possible to meditate anywhere, my friend and manager, Becky, and decided to seek out a place to retreat and meditate for the day. Therfore, we called the local Buddhist temple in Miami, and were referred to a location north of Miami. Traveling an hour and a half north of my home, Becky and I were in search of serenity. Expecting to find a location much like the Miami temple, complete with gardens and a beautiful golden temple, we instead found ourselves bewildered as we approached a single story home along a busy street, with a distinct red front door. Calling to verify the address, Becky hangs up and says, “Well, Melissa, we’re here.” Within moments, a monk in a golden Buddhist robe, came out and began dancing in the front yard pond, up to his knees in what looked to be questionable water, where we soon realized he seemed as though he was preparing for our awaited arrival. Upon leaving the mirky water, he quickly scurried over to the garage, pressing a button and stated with pride, “Welcome to the temple!” Inside, a silent and dumbfounded Becky and I saw about fifty golden Buddhas with candles lit around them, complete with a red carpet and square orange mats for seated comfort. Becky and I firmly believing that everything happens for a reason, happily continued into the garage. Upon reaching the front of an altar, the monk inquired, “Do you chant?” “Yes,” I replied. “Show me chanting,” he demanded. To which I said, “Give me a second, please, to take everything in,” and as though he didn’t hear me he once again demanded, “Chant!” This time, realizing I needed to oblige him, I began to chant a basic chant for love and peace. After I did this for a few minutes, he said, “Very nice, but not like my chanting. I do Tibetan chanting.” “Show me, please,” I asked. “You meditate?” he inquired further. “Yes, every day,” I replied. Then, he looked at Becky and said, “You meditate?” “Yes,” Becky informed him. At which point, Becky seated herself on the man-made seating area covered in golden mats, where the monk said, “Oh, no, no,no those mats are for the monks. This mat for you,” reaching out under the seating area, pulling out a cushion of a different color, throwing it on the ground next to me, telling Becky, “Sit here.” Becky then quickly removed herself from the golden mats and took her seat beside me on the mat provided by the monk. Then, he asked us to explain how we meditate. As we began explaining that we try to quiet our minds and raise our awareness free of the everyday concerns and worries, the monk looked at us as though we were speaking a foreign language that he was not familiar with, to which he responded, “I teach you to meditate.”  Becky looked at me and we both agreed to learn. The only problem was the traffic was so loud passing by, neither one of us could hear what he was saying and the smell of his feet far exceeded any vibrational level I was able to reach in the middle of this traffic-ridden garage temple. I was impressed with the beauty of his aura and the sincerity in his voice as he demonstrated his type of Tibetan chanting. I could feel his soul and his words resonated with me on a level that was not understood with the conscious mind. He also seemed pleased with my eagerness to learn and happily pulled out a chanting workbook, so that I could see what he was chanting about. I was becoming concerned over the different shades of pale  coming over Becky’s face, as the stench of his feet was unrelenting.  Finally, he informed us that he was going to give us a blessing and asked us to hold our hands in prayer position and have an open heart for the blessings he was going to pour upon us. Trying very hard to focus and feel appreciation, I did what I was told. Seconds after, I was soothed by his chants until large amounts of water began falling on top of me, which was not comforting as the wind began to blow with a vengeance, making the water ridiculously cold, and, just as I began to think, “I hope to God this water did not come from the murky pond that the monk with the smelly feet was dancing in as we approached the house,” my train of thought was broken by the sound of a large thud at which point my eyes opened immediately. Looking at Becky, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights, I inquired, “What was that?” When Becky announced, “He just hit me in the head with a stick!” However, the stick was already safely tucked away in a spot that was invisible and a large grin spread across the monk’s face, as he announced, “Now you received blessing. Can you give to the temple?” Quickly looking in my purse, to my dismay, I realized I had not a dollar to give and Becky had only a ten dollar bill, which we had intended to use for the next meal. Reluctantly, she placed the ten dollars in a red box next to one of the many Buddhas and I said, “No worries, Becky, what we give we will get back ten times over.” “I know, but I just paid ten dollars to get soaked and hit over the head with a weird stick. Can you tell me what the lesson is here?” “Not sure yet,” I informed her. Moments later, we both retreated back into my car, cold, wet and bewildered. Overall, the experience was a blessing, because it brought about many moments of laughter and confirmed our belief that in order to enjoy some quiet meditative time, the space needed is really to be found within. I am also thankful to have my health and beautiful friends to share laughs and stories with, that can only be experienced in this wonderful, mysterious, unusual and divine journey we call life.

As Thanksgiving approaches, remember to give thanks every day and stay thankful, no matter how bumpy the road becomes, that you were given yet another day to live and learn. Many blessings, and Happy Thanksgiving!

For the last couple of weeks, I have been praying, manifesting, wishing, hoping, envisioning going to ICDI, in Tampa, in order to get a spiritual uplift and in my last blog, I expressed my disappointment over thinking that it wasn’t going to happen. Even though I firmly believe in spirit and know how miraculously God and the universe can make things happen at the last moment, I had resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to attend. To my surprise, when I arrived home, only one hour after finishing my blog, I discovered that the angels had arranged for the financial freedom to attend the conference. I was beside myself with excitement. Having to complete various commitments on Thursday that I had made thinking that I would not be leaving town, caused me to get a late start on the road to make the 4.5 hour drive from South Florida to Tampa. One of my reasons for wanting to arrive on Thursday was to get the chance to watch Lisa Williams, who is, in my opinion, one of the best mediums of our time, but also a dear friend of mine, on stage during the Pre-conference on Thursday evening. I was aware that two other psychic/mediums would be performing, but I had no idea what the order would be and kept praying that I would not miss Lisa’s segment.The angels carried my car on their wings because I arrived at the conference at 8:50, ten minutes before Lisa came out on stage. Immediately entering the theater area, I felt a warm, inviting energy come  up to me from behind. This beautiful energy was Holly Riddle. Holly is a jewelry designer who has partnered up with Lisa to create spiritually charged jewelry and inspire others to shoot for the stars and surround themselves in love. Holly and I had the pleasure of meeting at the ICDI Conference in San Diego last May. Immediately upon meeting this ray of light, I was impressed by her quiet sophistication, humility, unspoken wisdom and approachability. Within moments, we were joking with each other and sharing our spiritual journeys thus far. I knew we would continue to be friends and even after we parted ways, I continued to have contact with Holly via Facebook and support her in all of her spiritual endeavors, sending her white light and love to support her along the way. She did the same for me and we became even closer friends and tried to uplift each other during the bumpy road in life, which made me extremely excited to see her again as well. When we greeted each other Thursday night, it was as though time had stood still and I immediately felt like it was worth the road trip. After Lisa’s show, we got a little bit of time to catch up, and I immediately noticed how great Lisa was looking, energetically. She looked inspired, happy and grounded. Needing to keep to their busy schedule, we parted ways until the following evening, when we made arrangements to have dinner the following night. It was great to hear about all the wonderful things that the universe was bringing into the lives of these wonderful lightworkers. Hay House is known as an empire of inspiration and spiritual principles and I will always be grateful for everything I have learned from the participants in Hay House events, however there comes a time when you sometimes feel as though it is time for a fresh start and, perhaps, you’ve outgrown the teachers who allowed you to spread your wings. I feel so grateful to have such a wonderful friendship with Lisa and Holly and I am grateful to Hay House for allowing our paths to cross.

I have also spoken a great deal lately about needing to feel spiritually replenished, and spending time with like-minded lightworkers, gave me the uplift I was looking for. I pray that my career will continue to flourish and that I will get the honor to work with Lisa and Holly in the future, as partners on future creative spiritual endeavors, but first and foremost, to continue to nurture and support each other as friends. My wish for my readers is that you find individuals in your life who you are spiritually connected to, so that your friendship can be boundless, regardless of the distance between you or the time between visits. Love, light and blessings, Melissa

I recently have suffered a great disappointment over the fact that I can not attend the I Can Do It Conference in Tampa, and due to events out of my control, life has been challenging over the last couple of weeks. I continue to pray regularly, manifest, do my miracle mantras and practice energy rituals to align my chakras, so that I am doing work for the highest good. Sometimes we question why certain things happen the way that they do but I know, with every fiber of my being, that things change and happen the way that they are supposed to. In meditation, I keep receiving the message to be patient, but patience is an art form hard to master when things are transpiring at an urgent rate. However, I will continue to work on patience, doing everything in my power to foster and nurture my dreams as a psychic/medium. It is very true that as one door closes, God opens another door, and, speaking of other doors , I got to do a mediumship gallery last night, at Java Boys Coffee Shop, which was a success and very healing for all involved. So, once again, my spirit guide and God, proved to be amazing. Even though I deeply miss those who I thought I would see at the conference, I know that when we see each other again, it will be worth the wait. And, my heart will be overjoyed! For those of you who will be attending the conference, savor every moment and take the teachings to heart, because all the presenters have your highest good in mind. With every bit of confidence, I know that this time next year, we all will be experiencing many blessings, as 2011 is an angel year. May the blessings pour down like a torrential rain to wet the economic drought that is leaving us all with great thirst. It warms my heart to be able to use my gifts to help others recognize their own as I also got to do an hour and a half of teaching about psychic/mediumship topics after the gallery was finished. This segment refilled my emptying cup. The questions were thought-provoking, considerate and provided opportunities for healing. With this in mind, I hope that my readers read this blog understanding that it is okay to recognize our disappointment for a short period of time, as long as we continually seek the light and allow angels to light our way upon a rocky road. Love, light and blessing, Melissa

Lately I have been learning the lesson of the importance of letting go, and trusting that the universe and God always has your best interest at heart and things will happen just as they are supposed to. This has always been a very difficult lesson for me to learn because I, on some level, viewed letting go as indifference, or laziness. Boy, was I wrong about that! Sometimes the harder we work to manifest something, the more futile our efforts become, because we need to learn to trust in the miracles that are taking place that are invisible  momentarily. I have been working really hard to promote my new book and build my overall platform as a psychic/medium. In making these efforts, I found myself wanting to control every aspect of how that process took form. I don’t typically consider myself to be a controlling person; it’s just in terms of my success, putting large amounts of effort forth has always paid off. Most of my successes up to this point have centered around academia and therapeutic endeavors, two areas in life where the effort put in is recognized in the payoff. However, on this new journey, our efforts do not always seem equal to the end results. A good friend of mine recently described building my career as a psychic/medium like building a house of toothpicks; each effort serves as one toothpick that contributes to the overall house, but individually, one toothpick looks mighty small regardless of the amount of effort that was needed to have that toothpick in your grasp. I am a firm believer in manifesting and prayer, and I have been doing prayer and manifestation practices for a long time, so lately when I wasn’t seeing the results I was looking for, I began assuming that my manifestation practice was somehow insufficient. In the last 24 hours, I have spent time reflecting on those feelings and, in doing so, have realized that just because my desired outcome is not within view at the moment, that does not mean that powerful forces outside of myself are not at work. In fact, yesterday I had to conduct an impromptu reading for an individual key to advancing my career and I felt so blessed when that reading was accurate and well-received. Therefore, my eyes were open to how amazing my spiritual support system is and that their plan for me far exceeds my immediate desires. Very often, as we walk among spiritual people, we will hear the term “divine timing.” Divine timing is a vital component in life, but can be so difficult to accept, especially in a society where we are taught that immediate gratification is best, although the adage “all good things come to those who wait,” proves time and time again, to be miraculously true. With this in mind, I pray that my readers consider letting go in order to move forward, knowing that the universal flow of how events take place works out far more beautifully if we do not constrict it with our intellectual blueprint of how life should happen. I wish you peace and tranquility as you learn to let go with grace. Love, light and blessings.