The Heroine's Journey

I'm reading "The Heroine's Journey" by Maureen Murdock and I just finished reading "Goddesses in Older Women" by Jean Shinoda Bolen M.D.

It's interesting how woman are sometimes made to believe and think in the male way. Homeschooling for me is the feminine way. I'm following my feminine self, my intuitive heart, and my soul along my path. Not a path someone else has constructed based on "the male way" of competitiveness, ego, etc...

I love men, don't take this the wrong way. I'm just amazed at how much the feminine is oppressed in our culture and these books confirm and validate this for me.

I'm trying to learn to walk a feminine path balanced with the masculine. I'm new at this so stay tuned. I also want to raise my children in a way that honors and respects the feminine and the masculine in them in a balanced, loving, and affirming way.

This is the journey of my soul today.

The Lady of Guadalupe (shown above), who is the mother of Jesus, epitomizes the feminine balanced with the masculine for me. Although, I'm not Catholic I can borrow her image and reflect on what it means to be feminine balanced with the masculine.

Austin Girls Choir Christmas Concert

Brooke is such a beautiful young woman with a gorgeous voice. She works so hard and it showed in the Austin Girls Choir's Christmas Concert. The girls all sang so beautifully and they were dressed in these adorable Victorian outfits.

Bravo to all the girls, and to Ms. Sarah the Director of the choir, who all worked really hard to bring this all together.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

My kids got some modeling wax for Christmas and we read "Brown Bear" by Bill Martin and Eric Carle and made a yellow duck, a blue horse, a red bird and a brown bear.

The little animals are so cute and along with the book make a great center piece for our dining room table.

A single rose and a bouquet of roses....

A Rose and a Star......

A single red rose means "I love you" while a bouquet of red roses means love, beauty, courage and respect.

Do we know the meaning of the simple things in our lives? This is a time for me to take notice and see the meaning in something as simple as a rose.

The other night I woke up in the middle of the night and felt something was trying to reveal itself to me. I felt a sense to look out my bedroom window and into the dark night.

I saw a bright star. Then I saw some other stars that were less bright.

What was the meaning of this to me? I stopped and pondered this symbol. To me it was a symbolic representation of the Spirit of the Universe, who set the world in motion, that is still very present and looking after me. It meant I do not need to worry or fret over anything.

The symbol of the star has been in my life the past few days. I've been emailed an angel giving stars away, songs on the radio about stars, and a children's book about the Star of Bethleham that I read to my children.

So today I think about a rose and the stars in the sky, and I set aside my worries, because I know that no matter what happens I am being taken care of.

The simple things in life continue to communicate this to me if I pay attention.

Blessings,
Tracey Huguley

What a year this has been....

This last year has been amazing. We are continuing to home school our kids and loving it for now. I am enrolled at Texas State University and loving it. Godfrey, my husband, started a new job and is doing well. He is also planning on going back to school to improve his career path. Wow...the miracles that have happened in our lives. Going from being told Godfrey had terminal cancer to not having cancer at all. Then making a decision to move to Austin, Texas for a lot of reasons. Ie...Godfrey's health, my commute to work, being closer to nature, less stress, a more family friendly place to raise our kids, etc...

We are so blessed. Godfrey's health has actually improved. He has some strange lung disorder. After we had been in Austin for 6 months...the Dr's here said his breathing had actually improved. Yeah!!!

I've grown so much this past few years....wow....what a few years can do.

I'm looking forward to learning how to write at Tx State.

I love homeschooling my children. It's sometimes a challenge but always something I love.....

We just spent a week with some family and had a blast. We were able to visit the Austin Children's Museum, the park, some downtown lofts and condos, Whole Foods (my favorite), Santa Claus, the mall, etc...

We had a blast and I'm exhausted. Will post some pictures and more writings soon.

Holidays.....

We are going to be doing some fun things this holiday season. Stay tuned for some yummy photos and post. I just finished my first semester at Texas State University. I ended up with two A's...yeah for me. I am moving on to my first Creative Writing class....yummmy.......

I hope we all have a wonderful holiday season and that we all make one new tradition this year.

Our annual holiday tradition is to wake up very early on Christmas Eve and go to the nearest mall and take a family photo with Santa Claus. Afterwards, we all go out to eat pancakes. We have a blast and we are laughing the whole day.

What is your family tradition? If you do not have one, it is never to late to make one.

Love and blessings,
Tracey

Lantern Making

Saint Martin

We have been studying Saint Martin this week. I love hearing stories about people who give so much of themselves. He was the saint of beggers, drunkards and the poor. We made lanterns and that was a blast. See the photos. We are going to do a lantern walk with our local Waldorf community.

"This little light of mine. I'm going to let it shine." (unknown author)

Let your lights shine. There is always darkness in the world but our lights are what keep the hope alive for a better and brighter day....

Hugs,
Tracey

Flowers and Turtles....

I love nature and I find solace being around flowers and wildlife. The turtle is the writers symbol and continues to remind me to write. If you have a story to write....remember the turtle.

It is a slow process, sometimes you have to stick your neck out and sometimes you have to retreat into your shell.

Namaste,
Tracey Huguley

Things I love....

Zoo pictures....

Zoo visit

We visited the zoo to get out and to see some animals we've been studying. The kids had a blast and you won't believe what happened to mom....a lion peed on me. Yes...I said a lion peed on me. In my face....my kids loved that.

Man and Animal Block

Pictures of kids art.....

Beautiful art.....

An artist makes art out of what they have in their environment. It could be words, scraps of material, their imagination, clay, music, etc...

My children and I were busy making art out of what we had in our minds and the materials we had in our home....

I told the story of St. Michael and the battle of good over evil. Afterwards we all painted what we saw in our minds....

This was one of the days that reminded me I'm doing the right thing by homeschooling. All my days are not this "perfect" but this one was.

I really enjoyed watching them paint and painting with them.

Tackling our excuses for not pursuing our dreams....

We all have excuses, fears, etc...

I listened to a live web broadcast of Wayne Dyer over the weekend. He talked about what was blocking us from realizing our full potential. I like to ask what is blocking me from finding my souls true desires.



One of mine is "I don't have time" or "this is too difficult". He said, " Ask yourself if this thought is true? Where does this thought come from? How long have I had this thought? What would my life look like without this thought? What's an alternative thought? Am I activating the universal cooperation?"



If I face these excuses and/or fears and ask the above questions. I will realize they are all thoughts.



My experience with this is that I had to see my wounds at a deep level and face them before I could begin to ask these questions. Once I was able to go to my wounded places and see them, really see them, then I could begin to ask the questions and move towards my souls true desires.



What is your soul trying to tell you? Have you been stuck in an area of your life? Keep asking what your soul is trying to tell you and follow that thread. Keep following .

I needed a mentor to help guide me. If you need someone to help, please email or call me. This is my passion to help others find their souls true desires.

Final days of summer....

Whew....I finally got my pictures uploaded.....

After 3 days of ??? I finally asked my husband to help.....lol.

Kids back to school and so is Mom....smile...

I've been trying to post some new pictures..without much luck. Oh well...maybe over the weekend when I have more time.



We've all started back to school. We had a harvest celebration to mark the beginning of our school year for the kids. We talked about farmers, their harvest and made foods from a farm. We made corn, potatoes, chicken, bread and peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. We forgot our peach cobbler recipe so we bought a frozen Marie Callendar's peach cobbler.



We decided to celebrate all we have and all we are grateful for.



It really went over well and it helped us all to "start" our new school year.

First full week back in school.

This was my first full week of being back to school. I enrolled at Texas State University in the English department. I'm pursuing a B.A. in creative writing.



I'm so excited to be back in school. This week went well but not without a few disasters. First you have to visualize me at 45 going to school with all these beautiful 20 year olds.



I don't look so bad but....wow....was I ever 20? There I was sitting waiting for the bus with all these beautiful college kids and my bra strap came undone. I said to myself, "Ok don't embarass yourself. Just don't move. Keep your arms close to your sides to hold the sides of your bra straps in place." When I finally arrived at the school I ran to a bathroom and snapped it closed.



If bra was to slide off my chest it would not be such a pretty sight. The other disaster was that I was late to two of my first classes. Ok picture me....getting off the bus for my day class and coming out of the parking lot for my night class running at 45 years old, with a bad knee and a backpack.



Did I look the part of a student. NO!!! But did I care. NO!!!



I'm there to fulfill a dream and nothing is going to stop me. Not bra straps, embarrasment, bad knees, age, etc....



I just had to laugh at myself.



I'll post some pictures next week of the bus, the campus and of me and my backpack. I feel like a school kid on the first day of school. Filled with excitement and anticipation.



Blessings,

Tracey

What treasures do you have hidden in your heart?

We always call our youngest Little Dot because she reminds us of my husband's mother Dorothy.

In Oklahoma we visited an old ranch that had a lot of antiques. Things that once belonged to someone. I'm working on a project right now that is about Dorothy...so the pictures remind me of a time gone by where Dorothy lived. I'm always curious when I come across old things. Who did this stuff belong to? Who we're they? So to look at the carriage, baby doll, brush, comb, mirror and piano remind me to remember our past and our heritage. Each of us has one. There are great stories there.

What stories do you have to tell? In what ways could you tell them? Pictures? Writing? Collage?

Creativity opens our hearts and souls and reveals the hidden treasures that are buried there.

Time to put the pen to paper and write. Seeing these things sparks my imagination. More to come about the Dorothy story. It will be a children's book...so maybe some of you can purchase it. Smile.

Beautiful nieces....

These are my two beautiful nieces...they didn't make it on the Enchanted Rock trip so....I made sure I uploaded them today. Hey girls....we really enjoyed having you visit us this summer....

Love Auntie Tracey and family.....

Oklahoma trip.....

This was the turtle exhibit at the Oklahoma Aquarium. http://www.okaquarium.org/

The turtle is a writer's symbol. The writer's process is very slow, sometimes you have to stick your neck out and sometimes you have to retreat into your shell for awhile.

As a writer seeing the turtles symbolized that I'm on the right track. I am currently attending Texas State University. I'm majoring in Creative Writing. I won't get to take any creative writing classes until next year but.......I have time.

Off to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Off on another adventure. We're going to Okie.....

My husbands family reunion is in Oklahoma city this weekend. I'm hoping to get a sidetrip in to learn about the Natives that we're relocated to Oklahoma city after the "Trail of Tears".

I'm part Cherokee Native. To learn more about the "Trail of Tears" will be a treat for me and for my kids.

In the early 1,800's the United States Government began removing the Native Peoples from Georgia and other states and moving them to Oklahoma. These removals we're brutal and over 4,000 Cherokee alone died on the "Trail of Tears".

Gold was found in Georgia so.....the Cherokee Nation was removed and sent to Oklahoma. You can find out more about this on http://ngeorgia.com/history

Might be a nice block lesson for homeschoolers!!!

One things I found very touching was the Legend of the Cherokee Rose. The mothers on the trails we're so distraught. In order to lift their spirits so that they would take care of their children the Chiefs prayed for a sign. Read below.....

The Legend of the Cherokee Rose.
No better symbol exists of the pain and suffering of the Trail Where They Cried than the Cherokee Rose(pictured at top of page). The mothers of the Cherokee grieved so much that the chiefs prayed for a sign to lift the mother's spirits and give them strength to care for their children. From that day forward, a beautiful new flower, a rose, grew wherever a mother's tear fell to the ground. The rose is white, for the mother's tears. It has a gold center, for the gold taken from the Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem that represent the seven Cherokee clans that made the journey. To this day, the Cherokee Rose prospers along the route of the "Trail of Tears". The Cherokee Rose is now the official flower of the State of Georgia.

(The above is from the ngeorgia.com website)

More to come from Okie.....smile......

Namaste,

Tracey Huguley

Welcome to my new blog......As I stand on solid ground and begin my new adventure.....

Standing on Holy Solid Ground

We had a wonderful time at Enchanted Rock. We found a creek bed with running water in it....

A lot of minnows, frogs, spiders, etc....

We climbed trees, swam in the creek, looked at rocks and minerals, and talked about the Native Peoples who used to live here.

This excursion brought to mind a poem by David Whyte:

The Opening of Eyes

That day I saw beneath dark clouds
The passing light over the water
And I heard the voice of the world speak out
I knew then as I have before
Life is no passing memory of what has been
Nor the remaining pages of a great book
Waiting to be read

It is the opening of eyes long closed
It is the vision of far off things
Seen for the silence they hold
It is the heart after years of secret conversing
Speaking out loud in the clear air

It is Moses in the desert fallen to his knees
Before the lit bush
It is the man throwing away his shoes
As if to enter heaven and finding himself astonished
Opened at last
Fallen in love
With Solid Ground

By David Whyte

Enchanted Rock reminded me that we are all standing on "holy solid ground".

Blessing to you as you adventure out onto your holy ground today.....

Namaste,
Tracey Huguley

***See the pictures in the next post.

Enchanted Rock Pictures

Enchanted Rock

My children and I are off to see a phenomenon (that's what I hear) outside of Austin, Texas. A giant Rock that has come up out of the ground. I hear that the Native Americans thought this rock was sacred.

Ever feel like your life didn't amount to much. Well just wait....a big rock might just be lurking under the surface. Photo's to follow our trip...

Namaste,
Tracey Huguley
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