“Twas a chilly night at the North Pole, Santa snoozed by the fire in a warm woolen stole.
A bang of the door ruined his sleep. Mrs. Claus stormed in with soggy, wet feet.“
So begins the tale of ALOHA SANTA. Mrs. Claus leaves the North Pole in search of warmer weather and discovers a Hawaiian paradise. Will Santa embrace the Spirit of Aloha? Written with whimsy and rhyme, ALOHA SANTA makes a charming gift to begin a new holiday family tradition.
The Healer vs. the Lawyer. Energy healer, Persephone Jones, has a new neighbor in Peeler, Oklahoma—hot shot lawyer, Jason Brooks. They meet in June and turn a small Oklahoma town upside down; it would take a miracle to bring these two together by Christmas. 💖 AIN’T LOVE GRAND? was my first novel, inspired by my life in Oklahoma.
Order AIN’T LOVE GRAND? at Amazon
🎄Christmas Meditations🎄
As a follower of Christ, this season is very dear to my heart. Here are two meditations to put you in the Christmas frame of mind. The first takes you to a celebration of favorite holiday memories and an encounter with the Highest of the High.😇
In the following meditation join Mary Magdelene as she gathers the Heavenly Hosts to bring 🌎PEACE ON EARTH🌏.
I hope your holidays are filled with joy, laughter, and love. Bright Blessings to all– Dana Taylor
She dreamt of a roller coaster and received a message from God.
When she was eight years old, my daughter, Cary, told me, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a missionary.”
Taylor girls, Dana (mom), Sara and Cary (sisters) circa 1987
I wasn’t surprised considering our faith-conscious household. My Oklahoma-born husband was a man of strong, sincere Christian belief and I openly pursued healing energy prayer and Christ-centered spirituality.
🌏After high school graduation in 2000, Cary flew off to Hawaii to experience the basic Discipleship Training School (DTS) at Youth With A Mission (YWAM), Honolulu base. Growing from “the Jesus movement” in Southern California in the 1960’s YWAM is a global movement of Christians from many cultures, age groups and Christian traditions throughout the world. YWAM is an all-volunteer organization that follows principles of caring for the needs of the world through Christ’s love in practical ways. With over three hundred YWAM bases around the world, they feed the hungry, care for the homeless, orphans and elderly. For young adults, YWAM offers an alternative lifestyle for youth bombarded by a modern selfish, materialist, culture. Cary’s six-month DTS program included three months of Biblical study at the Honolulu base, followed by three months ministry work in India.
🌴Afterwards Cary explored other avenues but ultimately returned to YWAM Honolulu in her early twenties, where she met her husband, Chris Solima. They married and traveled the globe doing mission work. By the time their first child arrived in 2014, they were the base leaders at YWAM Honolulu. By then, Cary’s mystical side often led their way through dreams.
Cary, Chris and Baby Noah Solima
One tropical Hawaiian morning, she awakened and told her husband, “God just told me I need to go to Asbury University in Kentucky to get my master’s degree.” And so they went. Needless to say, the two Kentucky winters were quite a shock from Hawaiian tropical warmth, but she earned her degree.
Asbury University, Wilmore KY
By 2019, Cary and Chris had three children, two boys and a girl, and headed to Chris’ hometown of San Jose, California, waiting for further Divine direction. When covid shut down the world in 2020, I joined them in San Jose. Through God’s grace, housing and financial needs were met, even as a fourth baby (another boy) was born.
Then came another dream. At the height the pandemic Cary dreamt of the roller coaster on the Santa Cruz boardwalk, and she understood the next mission. God’s next direction was clear: take Youth With a Mission to Santa Cruz. She sensed the roller coaster was a metaphor for the ups and downs of beginning a whole new ministry.
🏄♂️Santa Cruz lies on the California coast, a place of windswept beauty, where monarch butterflies migrate every fall. The protected waters include a kelp forest visited by whales, dolphins, sea lions and thousands of birds feast along the shore. A few miles inland begin the stands of beloved redwood trees. The human population is a mix of wealthy tech workers from the Silicon Valley, long term descendants of characters captured in tales by John Steinbeck, off-the-grid free thinkers, artists of all types, druggies, surfers, and lost souls.
🙏How could she and Chris possibly begin such an undertaking? No one receives a salary in YWAM. Full-time YWAM staff need to raise funds from monthly donors and earn money in traditional ways. Cary and Chris had little money and four children to support. But, as the scripture goes,With God All Things Are Possible.
With the generosity of spirit-led donors and churches, YWAM Santa Cruz was founded. In 2021, we all moved to the Santa Cruz mountains. Recently completed duplexes nestled on the banks of the San Lorenzo River in Ben Lomond became the first YWAM Santa Cruz base, surely a miracle in a tight real estate market. One by one, staff to teach and lead outreach trips signed on. By the middle of 2022, the need for more housing and teaching space became clear. How would God provide?
Through local church leaders, Cary and Chris met a man connected to the Asbury University. That man was a board member of the Redwood Christian Park (RCP) in Boulder Creek, three miles up the mountain from Ben Lomond.
The RCP had been founded in the 1950’s by families affiliated with Asbury University. The master’s degree Cary earned at Asbury gave her credibility and connection with the RCP board during a time of difficult transition for the Redwood Christian Park. Between the lightning strike-caused CZU complex fire of 2019 and the pandemic shutdown, three seasons of lost church camp summer revenue had reduced the RCP to a skeleton staff waiting for better times. The RCP board of directors invited Cary and Chris and other YWAM families to move into vacant houses at the RCP in December of 2022. It has been a blessed and mutually beneficial relationship between the two organizations now thriving on the sprawling property.
We still marvel at the divine plan revealed through Cary’s dream to attend Asbury in 2017 that opened a vital door five years later in 2022 for the future of the YWAM Santa Cruz ministry. In the summer of 2023, a cottage on the RCP was provided to me. Currently, I live in the Asbury House.😊 My role in supporting YWAM Santa Cruz is primarily providing childcare and carpooling, for two more sons were born. Cary and Chris now have six children, five boys and one girl. There’s also Leroy the cat, Ollie the golden retriever, a snake named Paris, plus chickens and even quail!🤩
🎉In November of 2026, YWAM Santa Cruz celebrates its 5th anniversary. Through a ministry begun with a prophetic dream, students now take a deep dive into Biblical literacy and discover the joy of fellowship under the redwood trees. They participate in local ministry to the Santa Cruz community through youth programs and engage with the unhoused. They travel to foreign lands, teaching in places like Cambodia and Nepal. And this is just the beginning.
What’s on your bucket list? Two items on mine are having a QHHT (Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique) past-life regression, and exploring Mt. Shasta. So, when a book popped up on the Spiritual Awakenings International Facebook Group page by author Volha Zhamoitsina about QHHT and her adventures on Mt. Shasta, I couldn’t resist buying it.
Zhamoitsina has actually combined two books and made them available for purchase together. BECAUSE I CAN REMEMBER explores her personal past-life regressions in the QHHT modality. Zhamoitsina is a QHHT practitioner herself, currently located in Los Angeles, though she was born in Belarus and has lived in several international cities. BECAUSE I CAN REMEMBER allows us to meet Volha Zhamoitsina, the woman, seeking self-awareness by exploring the past lives and relationships revealed through long sessions of the Dolores Cannon method popular around the world. Visiting past lives is often cryptic, with small glimpses into other eras offering snapshots that might explain various talents, phobias, preferences, and complicated relationships. Volha’s memories as Madame Pompadour, mistress to King Louis XV in the late 1700’s, were interesting in the extreme. She also discovered soul family members living out various roles throughout multiple eras. The writing of BECAUSE I CAN REMEMBER is straightforward, largely offering text between Volha being the client under the guidance of another QHHT practitioner. The book offers a picture of how past-life regression can be useful in solving personal mysteries and aiding in spiritual growth.
The second book included is FROM MT. SHASTA, WITH LOVE. The writing of this book was richer in detail and descriptions as Volha takes us on two trips when she was “called” to the mystical mountain. Mt. Shasta is a mecca for spiritual seekers, especially in the years since the lost continent of Lemuria legend has emerged in global consciousness. Survivors of Lemuria supposedly founded a 5th dimensional city under Mt. Shasta named Telos. Stories of meeting tall beings, extraterrestrials, Saint Germain, and more abound. Volha and her beloved dog, Kiki, take us to many magical, high-energy sites on Mt. Shasta. They drink the healing waters, make new friends, explore the trails, lakes, and grottos. When Volha returns to LA, her spirit is renewed as she continues her life journey.
I thoroughly enjoyed these easy-reading books. Having a QHHT session and visiting Mt. Shasta remain high on my bucket list. Who knows, maybe someday soon I can combine them and get to Shasta and book a past-life regression while I’m there!
Are you part of the Great Awakening? Through my association with Spiritual Awakenings International, I meet people who have experienced Near-Death Experiences, After-Life Communication, Out-of-Body Exploration, Past-Life Regression, the list goes on and on. We are living in a time of expanded consciousness, where the past weaves into the present and angels come a’callin.
Personally, my spiritual awakening is an ever-evolving process. 2024 took me on a spiritual adventure in early November to a retreat in Arkansas. I’m finally able to share and articulate what happened to me during that retreat, led by Dayna Dunbar, a spiritual counselor and author I’d met during my years in Oklahoma.
When I saw Dayna’s autumn retreat announcement at a small, refurbished center in Arkansas, spirit nudged me “go.” I was the first to sign up and sent Dayna my deposit. As the deadline for signing up approached in September, Dayna called me on a Sunday and gave me the bad news that she was going to have to cancel, due to lack of response. She returned my money.
😩On Monday I felt strangely bereft. Incredibly sad all morning, like I could break down and weep. My rational mind was incredulous at my emotional state. It was only a retreat, for goodness’ sake. Something else would come along. But I couldn’t kick the deep sense of grief at not going to Arkansas.
📱Around noon, my phone rang. It was Dayna.
Dayna: “Send me back the deposit. It’s a strange miracle. The whole retreat filled up this morning and came together. I think it’s all for you.”
Me: 😍My spirit soared. “I think it is too. I’ll see you in November!”
🍁Autumn colors were on full display as I drove through the winding Ozark hills to the Arkansas retreat in a town near Eureka Springs. The car rumbled over a bridge rising above a sparkling river. The quaint retreat center sat across the road from the shore. My first “mystical moment” was discovering the water was part of Beaver Lake. Some thirty years earlier, I’d driven through the area and later had experienced an unforgettable dream of Beaver Lake and an intelligent, huge full moon hanging over the water. The dream sparked the opening scene to my second novel Devil Moon: A Mystic Romance. As it turned out, our retreat coincided with the rising of the great Beaver Moon. Each night we sat in silver moonlight around a fire pit at the adjacent campground, creating ceremony and community.
As the week unfolded, we enjoyed morning yoga and meditation, followed by interesting outings organized by Dayna. The meditations included deep breathwork that triggered altered states of consciousness. It was during the meditations I experienced the visions and energy activations that unfold in my latest meditation, VISIONS UNDER THE BEAVER MOON.
The visions revealed a past-life in a Native American society and an association with a female shaman in the White Buffalo Calf Woman tradition. For details of the visions, please listen to the meditation. Evidently, I had some sort of “spiritual appointment” at Beaver Lake. Something not in the meditation is verification of one detail. In the first vision, I was led across the water to a small cave. The roof of the cave was common stone, but there were also pockets of geode crystals embedded in the stone. They sparkled and glinted. On the last day of the retreat two young participants kayaked across the water and found a small cave with the crystals in the roof!🤷♀️
In the months that have passed, I’ve developed a deeper kinship with Native American traditions, such as flute music and ceremony. I was also led by spirit to read Return of the Bird Tribes, a popular 1980’s book channeled by Ken Carey. An entire section covers the legend of White Buffalo Calf Woman. A shaman and storyteller, Yellow Hand Spirit Woman, has recorded it on YouTube for all interested in the tale and prophecy, White Buffalo Calf Woman by Ken Carey.
My ability to connect with spirit feels quicker and more spontaneous than before. My body jolts with energy and my connection to nature feels stronger. I often pray about weather, fires, and the earth’s cycles.
I invite you to join me on my spiritual journey through that week recreated in VISIONS UNDER THE BEAVER MOON. I encourage you to follow your spiritual nudges to discover personal revelations as we all explore this Great Awakening.
Since 2023 Spiritual Awakenings International has brought an array of fascinating people into my life, but Dr. Yvonne Kason definitely sits at the top of my personal Amazing Persons list. Fun facts about Yvonne:
She’s a retired medical doctor.
She coined the phrase Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs) in 1994 and was a pioneer health care professional recognizing STEs as actual life-changing events and not mental health delusions.
She’s a five-time Near-Death Experiencer, including a helicopter crash into a freezing lake (!) and years later, a fall on black ice which caused a disabling traumatic brain injury (TBI).
After twelve years of struggle from her TBI, her brain was miraculously healed at a meditation retreat.
It’s my honor and privilege to serve as Dr. Kason’s executive administrative assistant at SAI. She blends an astonishing level of visionary mysticism and organized professionalism. Her latest release is an exciting addition to her publications helping readers understand their spiritual development.
Dr. Yvonne Kason shares a beautiful roadmap, “Purifying the Heart,” to guide us through the fascinating stages of our spiritual awakening journey: from a Spiritual Seeker to Spiritual Server, Spiritual Warrior, to Devotee, and then to an Adept. Using her own STEs as examples, she shares the key focuses and spiritual learning tasks at each stage, and how to speed up your progress. Based on her own awakening journey and 40 years of STE research, Dr. Kason concludes that the ultimate goal for us all is self-realization—God-Communion—with continuous expanded mystical consciousness.
Roadmap to the Great Awakening brought clarity to my personal spiritual journey. I mentally traced the milestones on the spirit “map” and saw how far I have come and a realization of how far there still is to go. Yvonne weaves her personal experiences into the spiritual levels of growth for a fascinating narrative blended with valuable information. This is a wonderful addition to the spiritually-minded reader’s library.
Listen to the top-notch keynote presentation she delivered at our Spiritual Awakenings International Conference 2026 and then purchase your own copy of Roadmap to the Great Awakening to underline and write personal notes in the margins.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted personal information on my life journey. So, to catch you up, I’m living a very busy, sweet life in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. Six grandchildren, ages 12 – 1, live nearby, (5 boys, 1 girl!). Their menagerie includes a ball python, a terrific mouser cat named Leroy Brown, chickens, quail, and Oliver, my darling golden retriever grand puppy. Need I say, never a dull moment?
Local friendships have formed with bright women making the world a better place through things like yoga, sound healing, and herbalism. The vibe here is very back-to-nature.
My on-line volunteer work for Spiritual Awakenings International brings a global community into my living room through the magic of modern technology. My current position as Executive Assistant to the President keeps me engaged in producing events featuring fascinating people sharing their amazing Spiritual Transformative Experiences.
As always, I love reading spiritually aware authors. Here are two gems to share:
“It’s been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.“
The story begins when Monk sets out on a journey of self-discovery with his hospitality cart through the villages and wilderness of Panga. Much to his amazement, he meets the centuries old Robot who cannot return to his kind until he answers the question: What do people need? And so, this unlikely duo commences a journey of adventure and philosophy.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built is both an engrossing story and a meditation. Chambers garnished a Hugo Award for her beautiful book that ponders the meaning of life. She is also the author of the popular Hugo Award winning space opera Wayfarer series.
Though she’s been publishing at least a decade, Womack was new to me. Amazon featured her as a Prime First Reads with The Last Labyrinth,
“a thrilling and romantic science fiction adventure about a musician who travels back to the 1800s on the currents of sound and falls for an earl as the two must decode the secrets of time and music to save both of their futures.”
This has been my summer of Gwen Womack. I love how she uses a multidimensional modality as the supernatural thread through her stories. She also includes historical eras or actual figures as she weaves the tale. The Time Collector features psychometry; The Fortune Teller has powerful female seers. My personal favorite, TheMemory Painter, employs reincarnation to propel the characters through past lives and solve the mystery of the present life.
For inspiration and entertainment this summer, check out the tales of Becky Chambers and Gwendolyn Womack.
Jaguar Jack Campbell, Aussie reality TV star, travels the globe filming risky escapades in the wild. His charismatic charm conceals an unwanted psychic gift. He’d rather make love than war, especially spiritual war. Major Maggie Savannah, aka Maggie-the-Mouth, is brash, brave and beautiful. She lives to beat the bad guys via covert military operations. The last thing she wants is a reckless civilian TV personality as a partner.
But when an American missionary is kidnapped by terrorists on a mysterious island, Jack and Maggie join forces to secure her rescue. Together, they must discover their true identities and defeat an enemy of Biblical proportions.
