Tag: exploration

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Umpqua Hot Springs

The Umpqua National Forest is full of beauty, it’s much like a smaller Columbia River Gorge in my opinion.

While taking Highway 138, to or from Crater Lake, it runs along the spectacularly turquoise North Umpqua River.

There are plenty of natural wonders along this highway, but the Umpqua Hot Springs is one to be recognized above all else.

It is fairly simple to find, if your heading east on highway 138 from Roseburg, it’s just past mile marker 59, follow signs to Toketee Falls.

Toketee Falls

The hike to Toketee falls is about a two mile, fairly easy hike. There are plenty of viewpoints, but you do have to use a rope to get down to the bottom to get the best views.

There will be warning signs telling you not to go down the rope, so whether you do so or not is up to you.

To get to the hot springs, you will continue straight on this road for another two miles, it will break off at one point, stay to the right. You will continue down that road for another two miles and the parking lot for the trail head will be on the left. The trail can get fairly steep, there are rails to help you up the steepest points.

Hiking Bag

It is possible the road will be blocked off, it was when we went! If there is significant snow, you will have to park at the closed gate and hike the two miles to the trail head.

I personally think that the snow made the hot springs even more beautiful.

Even in the snow, these hot springs were still plenty hot, there is about a total of seven or eight pools, they get colder as you go down.

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Cape Kiwanda – Pacific City, Oregon

Cape Kiwanda is my favorite cape on the Oregon coast, and that says a lot because Oregon is full of beautiful coastal lines.

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The best thing about the Oregon coast is it’s Oregon Beach Bill, which allows you to wander anywhere your heart desires on the beaches, as the beaches belong to the people and are protected from being owned or industrialized. So many signs can say to not go beyond this point or something, but it’s more of a warning.

Cape Kiwanda is located in Pacific City, a small, simple and beautiful town that I love so much! The beach is a very public beach and not hard to find, it also has Pelican Brewing (which has great beer) right on the beach, which is a perfect place with outdoor seating to enjoy the view of haystack rock and the sunset.

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There’s also a good amount of waves to surf, which many people do here. If your entering the beach, you’ll see a huge sandhill to the right, climb this and you will be on top of Cape Kiwanda.

Once you get on top of this sand hill, there is so much to space to wander, and so many views to see, make sure not to miss a single one and to experience it as best you can, ignoring the warning signs!

Also, make sure to take the scenic view to get to Pacific City, which allows you to see two other capes before Cape Kiwanda, it’s called the three capes scenic drive. You’ll take a right about 20 miles before Pacific City to take this route, there will only be one sign, so much sure to keep a look out for it.

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Map location and directions here

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New Moon Ritual

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The next new moon will be in our sky this 18th and the time couldn’t be any more perfect the current situation in my life. Though I am so happy to be back home with my loving family, working and earning more money for a future of adventures, I still long for the open road.

Having so much time to travel had allowed me to explore myself so much and I had never been so happy. So I guess a life of 11 hour work days, six days a week has left me little time to continue exploring my spirit and I am in deep need to reconnect.

This next new moon is the perfect time for me, as well as anyone, to reset their paths in the right direction and remove negativity from that path, this is what I will be doing this next new moon.

First off, because of my lack of time outdoors lately, I would like to do my ritual outside (that is if it’s not raining, which it does a lot on the west coast). I feel this is the best way to perform any ritual, as it connects you best to Mother Earth and the universe above.

Before your ritual, write down on little pieces of paper, a word or two describing emotions, habits, actions or thoughts of any kind that you want to let go of. For me, a few are negativity and disconnect. Bring these with you for your ritual.

First, set your surroundings with lots of candles and burn sage and\or rosemary around your atmosphere, to cleanse your aura of negative energies, I like to leave the smudge stick burning in a bowl next to me.

Your choice of crystals are a good choice to keep around your for rituals as well, for mine I chose amethyst and moldavite to help with spiritual connection, vanadinite to promote accomplishment, black tourmaline to deflect negative energies, citrine, as it is my birthstone and gives energies for good luck, clear quartz and selenite.

Sit yourself down and meditate a few moments under the night sky, recognize it’s meaning for new beginnings and about the things your about to let go of and know that they may not come back into your life.

When you feel ready, open your eyes and burn each piece of paper you had written on earlier, one at a time. As the words burn, give yourself time to really understand the words you wrote down and that by burning them, you are ridding them from your life, as they are only harming your spirit.

After you are through burning the negative intentions of your past, meditate with your future intention in your mind. Close your eyes and envision your future with all the intentions you wish your future to withhold. Remember that there is no time frame for this, envision all that you can, as long as you want, as if it’s already in your present.

Meditate with these intentions for the remainder of your ritual and when you open your eyes, know that you have become closer to your higher being, closer to a more positive, spiritual you.

Namaste

Want a custom ritual? Click here.

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Fort Stevens – Warrenton, OR

The Oregon coast contains so much beauty, all the way from north to south. The interesting thing about the beach of Fort Stevens in Warrenton, OR is that it contains history that stands strong in it’s place.

Fort Stevens is in the small city of Warrenton, between the lovely Seaside and Astoria, OR near the state of Washington. The main attraction of this area is it’s beach, where the iron skeleton of Peter Iredale ship still remains. This outline of history is so close to the beach that you can climb upon it when the waves go back into the ocean that gives you a beautiful site of the Pacific Ocean in a whole new way.

Though this is the main attraction, there are many batteries to be seen in Fort Stevens as well, this place is really full of gorgeous history.

 

Find the location here.

 

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Let Us Celebrate The Lives Of The Dead

This October has been such a beautiful one, I’m realizing that it’s one of my favorite months. It carries on the sunshine from the end of summer and still, the color of autumn within the trees.

Halloween continues to be one of my favorite holidays, maybe it’s because during a period of time as a child I was unable to celebrate it because it was “the devil’s holiday.”

I always found the traditions fun, but these traditions go a lot further back than modern day. The day/night of Halloween is known to be the day that releases the barrier between the dead and our world as the world begins to be darker, colder and bounty begins to die, only to begin again.

Originally, people dressed up to convince the dead that they were dead as well, so that they would not be bothered. People also decorated their houses as so and baked sweet goods as a peace offering to the dead to draw them away from their homes.

It is so interesting that this tradition remains nearly the same without the knowledge of it’s meaning.

None of this is necessarily the scary holiday it has turned to be. Halloween is known as a day of celebration to the people who have passed on and the lives that they had; many celebrate it as Samhain, as it was celebrated back in the Celtic age. This wiccan holiday is celebrated on the same day, but as a way to honor the dead in a beautiful way and also to recognize the original day marked as the end of summer and begin the darker days to restart nature’s cycle once more.

Many Pagans and Wiccan’s participate in rituals to honor the dead, if you’d like to participate in any, here are some examples.

The recognition of death is a very important stage within nature and our lives. I believe the more we recognize it, the less grief we would have for people who pass, but instead celebrate the lives that they had. That is what I see within Halloween… but it’s still fun to hand out candy and dress up as something, other than ourselves, under the moonlight.

I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

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Do You Believe In Magic?

I think the power within us goes far overlooked in modern days. We can light up a lightbulb, shock someone with just our fingers and yet we deny we have a massive energy within us! Energy able to heal ourselves. I’ve always thought about that when I see people come back to life on TV with nothing but a powerful electric shock to the chest.

It is like our supernatural power we have lost touch with, lost the control and meaning behind it all.

If you look up some definitions of energy, you’ll see that no matter the distance between energies, it remains connected. Therefore, we are one with all energy.

Do we even understand what that means?!

I am one with the person sitting next to me and the person in India, the dog on the street and the tree at the park. One with this entire universe, this big ball of energy that spreads further than the eye can see. I am a spiritual person, but this isn’t just some spiritual rubbish, this is science!

People that are in tune with this energy can heal people with a few simple touches and tell someone’s past, present and future. Don’t just think it’s only these individuals that are considered lucky to have such talents, they are just connected with it!

When I say this, I don’t mean they are connected with this mysterious secret, I more mean that they are connected with themselves, with their spirit; what lies beyond the day to day tasks and thoughts.

We’ve seem to have grown too used to experiencing magic around us and forgetting that we are magic ourselves. We’ve forgotten that child birth is a miracle, a seed that grows into a giant tree is miraculous. We live in a gorgeous world of bounty with glowing, endless colors around us, a moon that controls our tides and behaviors, spinning around a giant ball of fire and we don’t believe in magic?

Today, we are told to be “realistic”, asking us to lose touch with what is truly real, closing the third eye of wisdom and intuition and replacing it with “realism”.

But you are magic! You are the butterfly, the flower, the moon and the stars. You are the universe! This is why yogi’s, who know their spirits so well, have no attachments with their physical bodies and do not fear death, because they know their spirit wanders on. Now tell me that’s not magic.

Let’s use the law of attraction as another example, a method I have brought into my life for that past year, which is like truly using your incredible mind for all it was meant to be used for. I can best describe it similar to karma, when the universe gives us back what we’ve already given. But this law of attraction goes even deeper; everything you think, whether it be conscious or subconsciously, comes back to us. If we choose to react to a situation with negativity, we will be given negativity. If we choose to react to it positively and choose to be grateful for all the things you have in your life instead of dwelling on what you don’t have, positivity and more good things will come your way.

Everything you do, everything you think, ripples upon the universe and you create what you wish to create! Is that not magic!? The people that have used this method in their lives, have literally created the life of their dreams.

I’ve heard of many stories of people who have serious illnesses, simply telling themselves that they have no disease, they are perfectly healthy and continue to live their lives as so. Many of these people will be healed, because they healed themselves. This may not happen to all, but it has happened enough to realize that it is effective. Simply meditating can heal depression, anxiety and stress.

When I first started using the law of attraction to heal my mind, body and spirit of negative energies, I started with meditation. I’ve meditated before, but I never knew the outcome I was really looking for, which made it useless to me.

Something I started doing every single morning for anywhere from five to forty-five minutes was sitting down in a quiet space for a moment, closing my eyes and being content in my current state. Doing and thinking of absolutely nothing but my breath and being bliss while just being present. Noticing that my breath and my heartbeat was a miracle in itself.

After I meditate for a good amount of time I would name all the things I was grateful for that day, no matter how simple. I’m grateful for this coffee I have this morning, the water, the food, that I have a home and people that love me.

I’ve noticed that physically saying the smallest things I’m grateful for, made me realize that I had no reasoning at all to be dissatisfied. I realized that it was selfish really, and I was so fortunate to have things that I thought were day-to-day necessities that some people do not have.

The next thing I would do is imagine myself connected to Mother Earth, from my root chakra (at the base of the spine) to the core of the Earth and my crown chakra (the top of the head) to the universe and imagine my body to radiate the Earth’s energy and light, in and all around me.

Visualizing things like this is a very powerful tool and has really helped my spiritual energy. Once I feel full of energy, I like to meditate with it for a while, soak in the powerful aura and send it out to whomever I want to send my light out to today.

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One of the most important things of the end of my meditation will include affirmations that I feel need be for the day. Telling myself that I am confident, strong, present and grateful. I would name things until I couldn’t think of anything else, anything I felt I needed in my life.

Practicing these steps really started my journey as a spiritual woman and got me out of a depressed time of being dissatisfied with my life. My progress has made me realize that energy and bliss is within me and it has been a beautiful journey.

The key is believing, it’s time we start believing in our amazing selves!

Previously published @ https://www.energyhealingmagazine.com/

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A Letter To My Fellow Travelers

Dear Fellow Travelers,

The house is nearly empty, we’re selling things one by one, packing a box a day. The pile of things we are ridding from our lives is nearly gone and with each thing that sells, I feel fuller.

I remember thinking that I couldn’t wait, that leaving was too far away and that it would take forever. But once I stopped thinking about it so much, I stopped and realized that this month is our last month of rent. Our month notice needed to be in, we needed to sell more, put in our two weeks very soon, we needed to get R. V insurance, invest in carpet cleaning, buy a tow bar and start putting our things into no more than five boxes each.

It seems as if we’ve been planning this trip for a year with nothing but pure wanderlust and impatience at this point. We have planned every last detail, studied every map and yet I know that when we are settled in, when we start counting the miles south, we’re going to think, “what the hell are we doing?”

A question full of nervous excitement, a question that will make our heads explode and leave us screaming with either scare or excitement or both, I haven’t decided yet.

Remember to let this nervousness fuel us. Remember to let it fill us with ambition and remember to never let it lead to second guessing.

For what would we ever go back for? But think of all the reasons to go forward.

Remember to challenge ourselves, remember to constantly impress ourselves with our creativity and courage. May we remember that there is always a solution and remember to keep bringing positive energy our way.

May we always remember the last trail and the next waterfall when we feel trapped. Remember to take advantage of time. Time to write, to be creative, to find ourselves, fill our passions, to meditate and never stop learning.

And if we ever find ourselves scared, remember why we did this…

To be different, to challenge ourselves, to adventure every single day, to find creative solutions, to remember to be content with what we have, to grow, to live fully, to learn about ourselves and learn the things we never had time for, to sleep under the stars, to connect with mother earth, to escape the boundaries, to escape the gossip, the schedules, the “idealistic” life.

Remember we did this to prove that we could, to finally start the endless exploration of our lives and remember that it has just begun.

Because this is what makes us happiest, if only we let go of all negative energy that cannot live in our lives no longer.

 

 

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Work You Can Travel With

The most common question I get when I speak about our upcoming travels to our surrounding six states is how I will afford it. Though this question has formed to seem little to me, I am prepared to answer every question thrown at me.

Many people think travel is incredibly expensive and they may never be able to see all the beautiful locations that they wish to see. But the reality of this is, if it truly means enough to you, you will always find a way.

It is law, it is the power of attraction. If you want something enough, it is on your mind always, you are truly dedicated to it, therefore it is drawn to you. New ideas and solutions will come your way every day if you believe that one day you will see this place.

This is how I have felt lately, the only thing I focus most of my attention is to this coming May, when we can start driving our R.V and count the miles. I trust in the universe to allow this to happen, it is set in the stars, in my palm; it is not a simple thought that comes and goes. It is called a passion, a passion to travel, to explore, and when you have a passion, you find a way.

The reason we haven’t already left is because we are waiting for our income tax, which will be our half down on a 37ft R. V that a friend of ours is selling to us for very inexpensive. Once we have this R. V, we have a home, a home on wheels that we own and the possibilities are endless.

Nothing about this trip has to do with the fact that I have a lot of money. If I am being quite honest with you all, I am living off pay check to pay check while saving little bits on the side, but I do not believe this to be a bad thing like most people may. I live my life day to day, I do not worry about my financials outside of making sure I can afford to live with the simple necessities and the current bills that I pay. I do not stress trying to make sure I have an access in money.

As I had written in another post, I do side work to make extra money, sell things I find that I don’t need often and have an app called Qapital to round up my dollars I spend into an account dedicated towards our travels.

There are many sites for paid online surveys, such as Surveys on the Go and Inbox Dollars. There are also sites for freelancers to work on small company projects online, such as freelancer.com and upwork.com. Another tool we hope to take advantage of is workamping, which is working at campsites that either supply free camping, pay or both for short spans of time.

I partake in travel photography with Getty Images as well as miscellaneous photography work for extra money. I have also become affiliated with other brands to promote their products through my photography on social media platforms, some of which pay commission for any sales I bring their way.

Other than this, I have not a worry in the world about travelling wherever I feel need be. There are plenty of ways to make money outside of a scheduled career, there is so much time in the day to come up with creative ways to make money, focus on your dreams and to challenge yourself to think outside the box. The only thing is, it is not what most modern society to trained to do. We are told to stay in one designated city and work and travel when we have the time off. I do not see it this way, I believe my home is anywhere on this Earth; Mother Earth is my home.

“But how can I leave my home? My home is everywhere,” – Yogananda.

Each city we plan to stay in is approximately three hours away from one another. From one location to the next, our agenda is to see the many natural wonders I had mentioned in my last adventure post and to find local jobs using Craiglist under the gigs tab. We currently use this in Spokane for side work, so we know how this works.

We will stay in each city until we gather up enough gas money to get to the next city. Our only concerns will be food and gas and occasionally R. V Parks, as there are free campgrounds and boondocking (free campgrounds without hookups) all over the place. Anyone who believes that road tripping is expensive, has not done their research.

So what if we don’t have a dime in our pocket, we can’t find work and we have no gas? You see, I believe that if I am grateful for the small things I do have and think positively, that this negative energy wont direct my way, but if by chance it does (of course, there are always credit cards) but there are also many places that pay you a decent chunk of money to donate your blood or plasma. On average, they pay about $15 per donation, sometimes more, this will supply us with at least $30 within two hours. Yes, this is for the very desperate.

Many people do not realize exactly how many options there really is.

We do not wish to stay in five star resorts, go out to dinner and have drinks on the weekends or to buy from local shops wherever we go, we are only trying to experience nature and challenge our creativity to focus on our true passions.

We have discussed starting an Etsy shop here real soon with homemade teas and incents that we may be able to make a profit while travelling as well, this plan is still in process and we can’t wait to see what is to come from it, I will make sure to keep you updated as this progresses. We are also in the process of a Youtube channel that we will start within the upcoming month and continue throughout our travels. Though this may not make us money at first, in the long run the possibilities are infinite.

We will use free Wi-Fi at coffee shops to job search when needed and to provide all my lovely followers with new blog posts and photos of our travels.

There is so much stuff we live with that we believe we need, but we really don’t. To us, it has become overbearing and we wish to clear our minds and our spirits within nature. We wish to be in touch with the real world of Mother Earth and simplicity, instead of what we know the real world to be, as buildings and roadways, schedules and deadlines.

 

<3 staywildmoonchild