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Dear Friends,

Where to begin?  It has been about two years since I have sent out a regular newsletter.  To make a very long story short, when I moved west and got a new computer, I lost my email lists.  In the intensity of the transition, I did not feel up to the task of attempting to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.  Months turned into years and, here and there, I reassembled most of the disassembled addresses. And alas, I am resurrecting our correspondence and am glad to be reconnecting with you all, old and new....that is, recently acquainted or long time compadres. Those of you that are new to this list may want to just skip this part of the newsletter.  Part 2 will have information about my services and Part 3 a recent blog.

Sometimes grace takes our train off of the track so that we can be given a new route, a new mode of “trance-port-ation”, and a new destination.  The person that left the Hudson Valley is not the one that is typing this note.  It has been an amazing journey, one I will not even attempt to recapitulate at this point, but I will say like the song way back in the sixties that says “so glad you made it”  expresses how I feel. Yes, I am so glad to be here.

As much as I loved my Woodstock / Hudson Valley community, I always felt like a sunflower in the middle of a shaded forest.  Since, landing in Santa Cruz I wake up with gratitude every morning and even the occasional fog doesn’t chill me as the Catskill cold did. I grew up near the Jersey shore and now live five minutes from the magnificent Monterrey Bay so I am a happy camper, in the environs I love.

My soul never got used to having a continent between me and my son, for about eighteen years, and the joy of knowing we live about ten minutes away from each other is real each day.  Even better, we get to have meals together and I even have the thrill of seeing him unexpectedly on the road or at an event.

The icing on the cake is that I’ve discovered a spiritual oasis called Inner Light Ministries, with Rev. Deborah Johnson, that is situated less about a half mile from my son’s home!  As many of you know, I am an inter/OMni/ faith minister, and it is a joy to have so many of my paths honored under one roof.  Their declared mission statement, in a nutshell, is to live in Oneness and celebrate/ honor diversity, is so similar to my “Earth Is My Cathedral” ministry without walls mission of “celebrating the paradox of Oneness and diversity.”

I love this community of all ages, ethnicities, gender preferences, and backgrounds.  It is diversity to the max and the love is a tangible, ecstatic presence.  There is celebration and the invitation to step up to our edges and be leaders in love, justice, and transformation. (www.innerlightministries.com  livestreams of the services on line)

Many of my other spiritual loves have hitching posts here:  The Land of The Medicine Buddha and The Center for World Networking featuring channeling from Sri Yukteswar, Sri Yogananda’s guru, through Teresa Stolaroff.  Some of my poems have been featured in their magazine which is available on line in the archives. (www.centerforworldnetworking.org newsletter on line) I love the active Sufi community and Rumi readings as well as “dance church” and a love being a part of a small, women’s, spiritual group that meets once a month.

It has been my delight to become a member of the staff of the business of a dynamic, young, wise woman whose name is Sage Lavine.  She is a master teacher and has a huge internet following all over the planet.  She created “Women On Purpose: Turning Women with BIG dreams into Goddess-preneurs.” Her workshops are filled with love, joy and an innovative, creative, effective curriculum to show women how to succeed and thrive in their professional calling.  I love Sage and feel blessed to be able to nurture and be a part of this awakening to a new way of navigating business that includes passion, care and  compassion.

Equally exciting is the opportunity to contribute as a mentor to programs with the 8 Shields Foundation, created by Nicole and Jon Young.  My dreams of intergenerational and nature-based education are being fulfilled by the opportunity to contribute to their programs. Check out

I’ve been continuing to nurture my singing development with classes with Valerie Joi Fiddmont, director of the Innerlight Choir and master teacher Kath Robinson. Recently I was given the opportunity to share songs from my CD “Mother Earth Calls,” accompanied by the talented and beautiful Kinsha on drums, at the children’s stage of the Santa Cruz Rejuvenation Festival in the beautiful park at the center of Santa Cruz.  We had a great time and it feels so good for to me to share these songs.

A new endeavor is coming up in August the 24th and 25th at the annual Santa Cruz Storytelling Festival, where I will be sharing my original story “Granny Green: We Are The Spirit Within It All.”  It is exciting to transport the story off the written page into and through my body, voice and energy, into a live experience, interacting with actual people in person!  There is an edge to it that is challenging yet very alive and satisfying.

The primary challenge has been that my husband Michael hasn’t been able to join me yet, but I feel confident that this too has been a blessing, in that it is healthy to be able to dive deeply within one’s own Self periodically, especially if it is a time of transformation with the shedding of old skin and it is a time of rebirth and resurrection!

I never dreamt I’d have a business taking care of pets, yet due to the kindness of two of my beloved friends here, Marty and Mira, I became an active petsitter.  This week I am Auntie Essie to Foxy and Sophie, two Papillons that are pure love and absolutely adorable.

Astrology is alive and well in my life, although my counseling has also gone to a new level.  I am still available for astrology sessions but realize it is but one dimension of the spiritual counseling I offer, as I’ve come to recognize my roles as guide and mentor.  When I complete this letter I will also send out another with some June astrological commentary and some updates about my offerings as a counselor.

My services are also available through the Between the Worlds website, featuring the amazing medium Adam Bernstein. If you’d like to partake of my services, I’d appreciate it if you just contacted me directly. However if you would like to contact a loved one on the other side, I recommend Adam from my own experience with him.  He described my Dad so accurately there would be no way he could be making it up and the messages always ring true!

Time is going by so quickly these days that I don’t know that I will attempt a monthly newsletter again.  I am committed to at least a quarterly, and now that I started in again, maybe I’ll surprise myself and communicate more frequently.  

I will also be posting on Facebook, probably from my Eco-Astrology page.  If I get it together I’d love if you’d like my page.

On the heels of this note, I hope to post Part 2 with more info on my services and offerings.

I welcome hearing from you and send you my blessings for a beautiful, blessed summer with much joy and laughter in the sun or the shade!

Love & Blessings,

Esther

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