About the Author
Moments That Blink Back is Augusta’s first book. However, she is a contributing writer to Contemporary Literary Horizons, a multicultural magazine of contemporary culture and spirituality published in several languages. She belongs to the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia and also maintains a bi-weekly blog of her writings for the past five years titled, Life, Meaning and Joyful Purpose.
She has several decades of experience in adult education, national conference planning, workshop leadership, hospice training and personal counseling. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Education and a Master’s degree in Theological Studies. Augusta enjoys her adventures as a writer, artist, hiker, traveler -- is also a black belt and a “wanna-be” rag-time piano player. Her interests touch on : metaphysics, literature, histories, Buddhist, Christian and Hindu philosophies, as well as, an interest in the multi-dimensional aspects of reality being discovered in quantum physics. Eight months of the year she lives on a lake in Nova Scotia embraced by family, friends, loons and ducklings. In the winter, she lives on her own in Tucson, Arizona with visitors, yellow finches and cactus. Her life is also constantly illumined by four children, two grandchildren and sage friends, present and past. My Favorite Blog Posts JOY STICKS ""I needed to take time for my meditations ... I wanted to have joy from within me and not [depend on the] outside of me... I worked for months to change myself... That's when I began to feel joyful for no reason... I became happier and happier..." ~Joe Dispenza Joy sticks. Isn't it wonderful we can build them. We are not born with them, at least not the ones we have to build. These new habits, new aspects of ourselves are not necessarily automatic or instant. Yet I want energy bodies to interrupt my head trip in favor of my soul trip. Then I can see the iridescence redness of fall leaves in this early morning sunlight and hear the loon's haunting echo from across the lake. I want the good stuff feelings, to feel who beats my heart and be thankful I even have legs. I want to build energy bodies/fields that have me walk a little slower, breath a little deeper and as the old hymn says, "glow with the fire divine.." -- in my cells, in my breathing and in my living. Then, once built this joy can be waved around like magic wands that will delight the soul. The first time I recognized that an energy field/body could be built was years ago when the children were small. After dinner four children had four chores to do. I had space. Knowing there must be something to meditation, I decide to see what. To the background noise of pots, pans, dishes and children's chatter, I went upstairs to the bedroom and sat. After a long winter I didn't feel much different. Where was the light, love, joy one was supposed to feel? This could hardly be called meditation. Yet, I had the idea that with focus and intention eventually something would have to come to life in there. In the summers my husband and I were after-supper sailors. The first sail of the summer that year, I ran up stairs to grab an extra sweater but was stopped at the top of the stairs by a need to go back into the bedroom to explain to something that during the sailing season I would not be able to meet at this time. Buddhist masters in some traditions, after a student has sat for periods of time, strike him or her on the back which shifts the students awareness into a deeper level of meditation. My urge to stop, go back and explain why I couldn't meet, woke me into an intimacy, a joyous hush, I cared. All that unfeeling and mindless sitting through the winter must have counted. The rest of the summer, when I passed my "sitting-spot" to get an extra sweater I found myself bowing. And, it was always waiting. In another house, in a later period of my life that I couldn't describe as happy, I needed more light, new eyes, heart and a larger, loving self. I also knew from experience that it waited for me to wear the path, build the body of energy that would break through my own density. Yet where would I start for such magic? In this house, the back stairs down to the kitchen, became my "lode stone", my reminder to practice gratitude, go slower, breath differently and feel out that larger Presence, mine and other. Now years later, that energy body still resonates, often, when I come to stairs. Of course, I didn't know anything about energy fields then, as much of today's leading-edge science was not main-streamed. There was no web. Now research witnesses to our ability to "rewire our own mental and emotional circuitry." Such knowledge is literally at our finger tips. As researcher, Lynne McTaggart points out, "Human thoughts and intentions are an actual physical 'something' with astonishing power to change our world. Every thought we have is tangible energy with the power to transform." Be it joy or sorrow, anger or fear, each of these emotions release their own peptides -- chemicals. Thus, when people consciously practice gratitude, they become what they practice, a grateful and joyous human. A light switch goes on in a darker room. Then it happens. Again, I am different. Another joy stick has been built. Its paths lead to love and meaning and power: the personal kind, the loving kind. the insightful kind. the heart-intelligent kind. Photo source: folotia.com Joe Dispenza is the best-selling author of Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind and Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. He combines the fields of quantum physic and neuroscience to show how transformation is physically possible. Lynne McTaggart is a researcher and an award winning author of The Field and The Intention Experiment. Her work, as does Dispenza's creates, "a bridge between science and spirituality." |
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