Walking my pups today, a Great Blue Heron inspired me. I watched as she flew out to sea, majestic and silent. She was the only thing in the dove gray sky. My heart filled with her healing touch, love washed over me in a swift embrace. What is this love, this embrace?

I find love everywhere. It’s flowing all around me. As I move through personal transformation, I see the love in all the nooks and crannies. Careful patience and openness has been gifting me with the beginnings of my new life here on the island. My work is opening, the flow is happening. Patience is the key.

How do you embrace the love? I find myself appreciating the sweet little things each day. I found a shell on our walk today, a large snail shell. The way the dim light struck it, the spiral pattern looked like a rainbow. Picking it up, only white and gray were revealed. I tucked it in my pocket because rainbows don’t happen every day. My gratitude opens to love. My client yesterday offered her favorite cookie as a thank you for my service. What a sweet and delicious symbol for my heart-centered presence. Such a simple gesture — when I am present with my healing gifts, allowing and listening, offering without questioning, life aligns with my being.

There is a magical flow here on the island. It’s as if the ancestors are embracing me; baskets are filled, abundance is gifted. My days slip by with tailings of love, each person I meet, each client I touch, each stroke of my paint brush. I am blessed. Perhaps that is the simplest way to understand love, by feeling the healing presence of each and every blessing in our lives.

And so it is on this Happy Valentine’s Day that I feel the gratitude, feel the blessings, am awed at my Valentine wedded parents celebrating their 62nd year together. Commitment, patience, embracing abundance, I embrace the Love.

As I woke in the depth of the night, I realized there was an angel eating potato chips in my closet. You may think that is a bit crazy, and frankly so did I. But there was that munching sound, bag crackling, sharp tangy scent and my inner voice making me aware. Amused, I fell back asleep but as I woke in the morning, the memory was crystal clear. Was I dreaming?

I walked into my closet feeling the sensation of potato chip fragments sticking to the bottoms of my feet, a bit of a crunch, a bit sticky. I stood there wondering, what happens in my mind as I assume my feet will crush across smooth carpet and instead meet angel crumbs? What is the message from my subconscious mind?

Smooth carpet or crumbs, what do I expect as I move forward? I realized that lately I had been struggling to feel balanced and harmonious moving forward in my life. I could see my end goal with clarity, love and passion and my mind expected a level of control, a relatively smooth transition, full of plans, organization and progression. Yet like stepping on a sharp broken chip, sometimes I got stuck, so to speak, in my expectations. All at once I understood — by allowing transition to happen naturally, I would expand my experience and open to the possibility of miracles. One step at a time filled with change, filled with ambiguity yet filled with awe.

Perhaps there is something sweet and wondrous about picking potato chip crumbs from my soles; something miraculous about meeting an angel in my closet, offering me a chip, bringing the awareness that ease comes with acceptance, ease comes with joy, ease comes by putting one foot in front of the other, allowing my dream to unfold. With surprise and gratitude I welcome the blessings the Divine has to offer crumbs from my closet angel who understands that BBQ is my favorite.