I am, in my retirement, continuing to tutor two long-time students who are now in middle school, getting their instructions and assignments online. One of them, Mason, goes to a school with a rigorous academic curriculum, truly more rigorous than he is ready for. This has been a challenge for him and for me as well. He is being expected to use higher level thinking skills that he has not grown into. The subject material is at such an advanced level that he just doesn’t have the academic or experiential hooks to hang it on. I have had a couple of weeks of mild depression as I try to keep up with the pace the teachers are setting. I’ve been spending a couple of hours of prep time for every hour I work with Mason, trying to think of ways I can provide “scaffolding” for the material he is being given. In addition to the academic side of it, I have worked hard to keep Mason’s spirits up — not easy. I feel like doing all this is up to me and that, if I try hard enough, I will be able to fill in all the academic gaps and assure his success. It wasn’t until a couple of days ago that I connected my emotional slump about this situation with the feedback I was given after having a photo taken of my aura in Sedona last month.

I scoffed when I saw the sign: AURA PHOTOS. Talking on the phone from Sedona to my sister-in-law Karen, whose birthday was that day, I mentioned that it was advertised at a place across the street from where we were staying. She was intrigued, and said she would definitely do it. I decided that if it cost less than $50, I would go for it. It was $45.

I was seated facing the back of a computer monitor with a camera on it pointed towards me. My left hand was placed on a surface with metal bumps in the shape of a hand, and a leather strap with metal in contact with my skin was looped loosely around my right wrist. I was told to look straight into the camera, remaining still for about a minute. Below is the photo and a transcription of the audio I recorded of what the aura reader (hereafter referred to as AR) said in explanation. Comments in parentheses with quotation marks are words I actually said to him; words in brackets are what I was saying to myself.

What the AR explained about the photo

• What appeared first was blue, turquoise blue. Old soul blue, been on this planet before, incarnated now to help other people. “Blues” tend to be on an emotional/spiritual roller-coaster ride. People who have the blue, especially turquoise blue (the Mother Teresa energy), just give, give, give, give, then you’re tired and you stop for a while until you’re ready to go again.
• A little later, this gunky, swamp-green moved in over your head, indicating you’ve got some stuck energy right now.
• The blue [lower left or photo] is how you express yourself to the world. When people, strangers, first meet you, it’s a calm, peaceful energy.
• What’s coming into your life is right here (lower right of photo). This is energy coming in; it lasts three to six months, and it’s green-yellow. Yellow is the color of intellectual energy, so the springtime green indicates growth, change, transformation. You may have ideas or attitudes that change in the next few months. A slice of energy is coming into your life from the universe right now.
• At your throat chakra, there is green, expressing spirituality, powerful human abilities, trusting your intuition, guided by sixth sense rather than logic, articulate communicator. You probably have the natural ability to be a spiritual leader if you chose. [Um. . . I don’t think so?]
• Underneath that is your heart chakra, showing magenta. That’s where you connect to people. Anytime we see purple/violet/magenta, it’s what we refer to as “wizard energy,” [I guffaw] spiritual, magical, psychic, all those types of things. Spiritual/metaphysical things are more important to you in your heart chakra than other types of energy. Does that make sense? [No, not really.] So whenever people have that energy, I always talk about manifestation. Have you ever worked manifesting into your life? (“I know what you’re talking about.”) [I hope you’re not going to go off on The Secret.] It’s tapping into Source energy. It’s easier if you state it as something you already have that you’re grateful for. [OK, I get that] You can say to your God, your Creator, the Universe, “I’m grateful for my work… that my life is running smoothly and on track…” It’s best if you do it for yourself, not to other people.
• Referring to the pie chart on upper left: This is basically how you divide your energy up during the course of a day. Body is your five senses; soul is emotions, connecting to other people; spirit is the spirit realm, intuition. This is a typical division for someone who is “blue.”
• Lower left green circle: This shows whether you’re stressed or relaxed — you’re relaxed.
• Upper right bar graph: These are your chakras. There are hundreds, but we basically talk about seven: root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, crown. (He pointed to a vertical banner on the wall that showed the “normal” color for each. From the bottom up, it was ROY G BIV – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.) See the numbers to the left (0, 50, 100)? Some people see 100 and think, “That’s the best!”, but what we’re looking for is balance at around 50-70. Balanced chakras equal balanced life.

• Root (security, stability, safety, basic needs) is usually red, which yours is, and is at a good level. Sacral is usually orange (sexuality, creativity) and solar plexus (energy, self-esteem, willpower), is usually yellow — yours are both light springtime green, [OMG!] which means that both of those chakras are going through a healing process right now. [Oh, all right. That’s good. Healing’s good.] That’s probably why we’re having this stuck energy (swamp-green above head) up here. You’re healing emotionally and spiritually. The next two, heart and throat, are showing a color that is completely off the banner — that light, turquoise-blue, the color of Mother Teresa energy. Heart has to do with compassion, forgiveness, empathy, and when we see the Mother Teresa energy there, that means you’re putting others’ feelings ahead of your own. Throat is communication — you’re also putting other people’s communications over your own. (“What [the hell] does that mean?”) So, somebody tries to tell you something, and you have something to say, you might hold back because you’re putting them first. [Not bloody likely — I rarely hold back, except maybe with students. But proceed. . .] Third eye is a good level, but it’s usually a lavender color and yours is more of a pink color, which is a crown chakra influence. If you have psychic gifts [I don’t], that is coming through your crown. Third eye has to do with imagination, inspiration, intellect and intuition. [That’s a heavy lift for one chakra.] The crown chakra is related to the spirit realm – God, Creator, spiritual. Although it’s the right color, it’s a little low. It’s the only one I’d be concerned about. (“So, the way you described manifestation, gratitude, if I made an effort to do that, would it raise that level?”) Yes, if you worked the word Creator, God, Source, whatever aligns with your belief into that manifestation, and you do it on a daily basis over time, I would say yes. These can fluctuate over time, but only diligent, daily attention to something like this will have an influence.
• Last thought from AR: People who have the Mother Teresa energy really have to nurture themselves. It’s not bad to give, it’s important for blues to give to others because you’re a healer, but you have to give to yourself first so you can keep doing it. When you get to this gunky point (swamp-green area), you really kind of shut down and are no longer available to give. Having a nurturing process keep you more on an even keel so you can keep giving on a sustainable, long-term basis. Work those things into your life every day, an hour a day.

So. . . back to Mason

Remember when I said “[Mason] is being expected to use…skills that he has not grown into?” Well, the expectations I’ve been laying on myself are much more absurd than that. “Mother Teresa energy” sounds like a swell thing to have, eh? There is no doubt that I have great love for Mason, but there is some real hubris in my apparent belief that (I hate that I’m about to write these words) “I alone can fix it.” I don’t think that Mother Teresa, when alive, thought it was in her power to solve all of India’s problems, she just humbly did what she could each day for the people around her. She also, unlike me, had a strong spiritual practice going, which I do think is largely missing in my life. I’ve tried meditation a couple of times for a month or two at a time, and liked it, but who has time to meditate when there are students to see, podcasts to listen to and jigsaws to complete — to say nothing of showering, sleeping and eating? I am being facetious, but this is the challenge I’m puzzling over. Ideas are welcome.

In conclusion, would I recommend that you get an aura photo? Well, I was impressed with this one, but who knows what a different AR would have said, or whether this one just happened to catch something that I learned from at this point in time? The aura photos I’ve seen online just look like heads surrounded with possibly noxious gases, whereas mine seems more detailed and appears more scientific (to this non-scientist). I’m glad I did it, and might do it again someday.

BTW, the place I had the photo done was Crystal Gratitude. Credit where credit is due!

from the mouths (and pencils) of kids

Thursday was my son Sam’s 34th birthday. I was just re-reading the journals I kept when Sam and Katie were little. In June, 1990, when Sam was (proudly) “3 and three-quarters”* and Katie was 2-1/2, we were in the car planning to swim when we got home. I asked which bathing suits they wanted to wear.
Katie: I’ll wear one of Sam’s, and Sam, you can wear one of mine!
Sam: But yours are too little for me and mine are too big for you. I don’t know, but I still think 2-1/2 is a little bit short!”

*It’s never too soon to start teaching fractions.