Willa White's Blog

About one month I ago, I dashed into a store for a few things.  As I approached the cash registers, I noticed only one register was open with a line of five people in front of me.  I groaned internally because I was due to pick up my son and husband in five minutes.  The store had plenty of associates (six people) stocking the shelves nearby and only one register open!  As three more customers joined the line behind me, I saw one associate, and then another, go into the register area without urgency and then leave again without urgency.  They couldn't have missed the extremely long line of customers waiting to be checked out.  And they didn't seem in any hurry to correct the situation. I felt impatience welling up in me.  I wondered: should put the items back on the shelves and leave without them? Or should I stay? A voice within me said: STAY. This went against my rational mind's nagging fearfulness.  "You'll be late, you'll be late," it was chant

The issue of non-permanence is something I find fascinating (and sometimes frustrating) in many areas of Life.  After all, nothing stays the same.  One of my favorite examples of non-permanence is the Sand Mandala.  Groups of Tibetan Buddhist Monks have been visiting Lily Dale over the years.  And one of the things they do while they are here is construct a mandala design out of different colors of sand.  Each intricate design is painstakingly created from hours of patient work by the Monks - extremely time-intensive and exacting.  It is a working meditation, a blessing, and a work of art.  I had the opportunity to get a taste of the level of difficulty the construction of the Sand Mandala presents.  Six years ago, they had a small mandala off to the side where we regular Joes & Jills could give it a try.  It was in tribute to the 125th Anniversary year of Lily Dale symbolized by a beautiful swan.  Using long narrow metal ridged cones filled with colored sand, the idea was to

A client just called me to share something.  She enthusiastically told me that her nephew had almost died about a month ago.  He is almost fully recovered now, but during the event he had a near-death experience (NDE). During the time the nephew was toe-dipping on the other side, he spoke with her dead husband.  The husband explained that it was not the nephew's time to pass and that he would be returning until the time he was officially called by God.  Also, the husband said that he is happy and doing well on the Other Side, even giving identifiers and information that my client understood as confirmation of his continued existence. Needless to say, my client was thrilled to have this confirmation from her husband via her nephew.  She said that, while she could have done without the scare of her nephew's situation, she was overjoyed to have this special message of Love from her beloved husband. Then, she explained that she called me because I am the one person she knows

My husband called my phone and left a message for me.  I could hear the excitement in his voice, "There are 100 loons on Cassadaga Lake right now.  When you drive past today take a look at them."  Loons? Was my husband talking about some people doing strange things on the lake? Sure enough, when I ventured out later that day, there were about 100 loons swimming in the lake.  Only to my pleasant surprise, the "loons" my husband referred to were bird loons.  Beautiful black and white patterned birds.  [And because I've finally figured out how to import a picture to my Blog, here you go!] I've heard the call of the loon when visiting the Adirondacks. The bird call of the loon is a haunting trill that echoes across the still water to the tall pines. I look forward to hearing it whenever I visit there. And now they are practically in my back yard.  I LOVE that they are visiting my part of New York state!  I accept their presence as a blessing and remain

Have you heard about what rabbits did in Australia? In 1859 [that's over 151 years ago], a man named Thomas Austin moved to Australia and made the astounding discovery that the Land Down Under didn't have a native rabbit population.  This was especially distressing to him because when he lived in Englad he was an avid hunter, regularly dedicating his weekends to rabbit hunting.  So Austin asked his nephew in England to send him 12 grey rabbits and five hares so that he could continue his hobby in Australia by creating a local population of the species. At the time he had stated, "The introduction of a few rabbits could do little harm and might provide a touch of home, in addition to a spot of hunting."  However, when the nephew could not source enough grey rabbits to meet his uncle's order, he topped it off by buying domestic rabbits. One theory as to why the Barwon park rabbits adapted so well to Australia is that the hybrid rabbits that resulted from the i