Lesson #2 on becoming a YaYa Hiké: Stay in the Moment

Today is the eve of my birthday and I am blessed to be celebrating with a 10 day vacation in the great state of New York. I spent a Fabulous weekend playing in NYC and now I'm heading upstate on the Amtrak Empire service to visit Niagara Falls for the first time. What a great way to spend a day writing!

As promised, this week's blog is on the second lesson on becoming a YaYa Hiké from my new children‘s fantasy adventure novel, Kiva & the Stone Nation. According to Scout, the girl-shaped boulder sent to guide Kiva in her initiation, the 2nd lesson is “You must stay in the moment, paying close attention to what is going on around you. Otherwise, you’ll miss what is right in front of your eyes.”

Of course, being in the moment is much easier said than done. Even though the great gurus & spiritual leaders of all religions & beliefs have been urging humanity from the beginning of time to live in the moment, for it is the only certainty in life, still we continue to either race around trying to reach the next best thing that will supposedly make us happy, or we mope around harboring hurts & resentments that cause us to cling to our past.

When we're out in nature it seems to be much easier to be in the now, unless you're like Kiva & worried about finding your way home. But in my daily life & routine I find it difficult to stay present and instead end up skipping ahead to what's going to happen around the corner.

One trick I employ , that you might like to try, is an app on my smartphone (I use the Mindfullness Bell) that rings randomly throughout the day reminding me to come into the present so I can feel, see, smell, touch & taste the moment.  Sticky notes in strategic spots around the house & office work too. Or maybe setting the timer on your microwave or stove to ring at various times throughout the day.

However you go about remembering to be in the present moment, I know you, like me, will begin to experience a richness to life you never knew existed.

As an added tool, below are some wonderful quotes I found that hopefully will help remind you how important being in the moment can be.

Happy Reading everyone!!

James 4:14, NLT Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.
James 4:14, KJV Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

“Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.”
― Walt Whitman

“Forever is composed of nows.”
― Emily Dickinson

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
― John Lennon

“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.”
― Maya Angelou

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
― Henry David Thoreau

Life is available only in the present moment.
― Thich Nhat Hanh

“Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.”
― Albert Einstein

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.”
― Benjamin Franklin

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
― Abraham Lincoln

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
― Buddha

WHAT IS A LEY LINE?

Happy Sunday to all:

It's official! My new children's fantasy adventure novel, Kiva & the Stone Nation is live on Kindle. If you'd like to read a sample, borrow the book on Amazon Prime or buy the book for any Kindle app, please click the book cover below.

 

Since Kiva is a young girl who discovers she has inherited her grandmother Hota's abilities as a YaYa Hiké (a shape shifting shaman), I have decided that over the next twelve weeks I will teach you the 12 lessons to becoming a YaYa Hiké.

Lesson #1

As quoted in the book by Scout, Kiva's guide and an important member of the Stone Nation, Lesson # 1 is, "Shape shifters shift energy. Like just now, when I moved my energy along the ley line.”

So what exactly is a Ley Line?  According to Scout, "They're energy grids that link sacred sites all around the world."

According to Wikipedia, "Ley lines /lei lains/ are supposed alignments of a number of places of geographical and historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths, natural ridge-tops and water-fords. The phrase was coined in 1921 by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins, in his books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track. He sought to identify ancient trackways in the British landscape. Watkins later developed theories that these alignments were created for ease of overland trekking by line-of-sight navigation during neolithic times, and had persisted in the landscape over millennia."

Since the time when the phrase ley lines was created many spiritual followers have adopted the term to describe straight lines between not only these geographic and historic sites as mentioned in Mr. Watkins' book but also most spiritual sites as well. Some of the sites these ley lines connect include: Chaco Canyon, NM; Sedona, AZ; Mutiny Bay, WA; Stonehenge in England; Mt. Everest in Asia; Ayers Rock in Australia, Nazca in Peru, The Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt, Notre Dame in Paris,  the Parthenon in Greece and numerous other churches, mosques, temples and sacred sites around the world.

According to Scout, "All shape shifters can travel them." So if you want to become a shape shifter and travel along ley lines stay tuned for more lessons on becoming a YaYa Hiké.

Until the next time...happy reading!

SE Doyle
The Traveling Mermaid

T-MINUS 2 DAYS AND COUNTING

Hello blog followers. I know it has been many months since I wrote anything on my blog. Why you ask? Because I have been working diligently to polish and publish my first children's novel. And today I am happy to announce that Kiva & the Stone Nation: the Forbidden Canyon, the first book in my Kiva & the Stone Nation series is 2 days away from being published on kindle. So stay tuned...I'll have much more to say as I head into this new adventure.

In the meantime, check out my website athttp://www.sedoyle.com/kiva--the-stone-nation.html for more information.

Happy writing!

Sarah



The Forbidden Canyon is the first book in the series, Kiva and the Stone Nation and tells the story of a young girl who struggles with twin makátaes, or spirit bears, living inside her, one gentle and one angry. Kiva’s grandmother, Hota, has warned her to be careful, for whichever makátae she feeds will be the one to control her. But Kiva believes her grandmother is crazy and ignores not only her advice but her prediction that one day Kiva will inherit her grandmother’s ability as a YaYa Hiké, a powerful shape shifting shaman.

As Kiva’s twelfth birthday approaches, strange creatures begin to appear, both at home and at her middle school. Since no one else seems to see them, Kiva fears that she has inherited her grandmother’s crazy genes. When a coyote wanders into the end-of-the-school-year dance, Kiva is accused of causing the animal’s strange behavior. Trying to put the embarrassing event behind her, Kiva reluctantly goes with her parents to her grandparents’ ranch in southern Colorado for the weekend. When she receives a text from her best friend stating that she is being forced by the most popular girl in school to end their friendship, Kiva begs her parents to take her home so she can talk to her friend face-to-face. But her parents refuse and in defiance, Kiva disappears into the forbidden canyon behind her grandparents’ cabin.

Lost in the vast mystical forest of the canyon, Kiva stumbles across various creatures sent to lead her to Scout—a girl-shaped member of the Stone Nation called upon by the Everything Maker to guide Kiva through her initiation. As Scout teaches Kiva the twelve lessons to becoming a YaYa Hiké, the opposing makátaes continue to play tug of war inside her, thus forcing her to throw away the logic her father has taught her all her life and to accept that she is the legendary YaYa Hiké of Hota’s stories. In the end she must decide whether to use her new abilities to save the Elders—magnificent stones about to be destroyed by the greedy oil company—or to find her way home before she loses the only friend she has ever known.