Feng Shui

Posted by Kathleen Wilton Klein

Next week my daughter and I will be at my mom’s helping her after she has shoulder surgery. While we’re there, I will have a chance to take a close look at her cozy home and see how she inadvertently uses feng shui in her life.

I say inadvertently because, though we have talked about feng shui, and she has considered it, she doesn’t feel that it has a place in her life. Be that as it may, my mom is one of the most peaceful people on this planet, and she has been a major influence to me my whole life, specifically when it comes to letting harmony rule her emotions.

She would rather see the best in everyone than to ever believe a negative thought. She seldom allows any destructive energy to enter her bubble. She keeps her cool riding hundreds of miles on a Greyhound bus with eight prisoners handcuffed together as they (the prisoners, not my mom) are transported from one prison to another.

My mom has always loved the ocean. Even after years away, she always returns. She lives a quiet life, a short walk from the beach, surrounding herself with pictures, artwork, and memories of her family and loved ones.

Through the years, my family has proven to be about as dysfunctional as the next. But in her Pollyannaish way, my mom has been there for all of us, helping us each to put one foot in front of the other, as is necessary in this journey we call life. I still have a lot to learn from her. Uppermost on my list is to figure out how she uses feng shui to her benefit, whether she realizes she’s doing it or not.

Posted by Kathleen Wilton Klein

I was talking to my brother about how quickly things in my life are happening. He told me, “That’s how it happens. When it’s time, it does happen quick.” We make plans and joke that God is laughing hysterically at us. All of a sudden, after being in a rut of one kind or another for so long, the wheels start to turn and life takes off.

Up until a few days ago, I knew I would be moving within the next few months but the details still were not clear. One big issue was finding a job. I am not sure how the feng shui and subsequent chi of my helping people area has changed, but in the last week I was offered a job in a field that I like and in which I’m comfortable and do well. This opportunity will allow me to live anywhere in the country.

I’m a huge believer that things will happen in our lives when the time is right. The time seems to be right for me to make this move, and, thankfully, the right job for me has come along just when I needed it. I'll take a close look at other things related to this move that call out for my attention and hope that with the proper feng shui, and much guidance, I will learn the lessons I need to learn, teach the lessons I need to teach, and make many positive impressions on others when our paths cross.

Posted by Kathleen Wilton Klein

I’ve been researching the beach community where I will be living soon. Money-wise, it’s basically the same as where I live now. The cost of living is exorbitant, rents are high, jobs are few and far between. What do I expect to find when I get there, that will make my life so different, so better, than it is now?

As far as what I expect to find, I look forward to seeing how the different chi will affect my relationships with my family. My mother and daughter will be involved in my life, and vice versa, more than anyone else, at least proximally. My son, though not making the move, will never be far from my heart or mind.

I will be happy to live closer to my brother, who lives in another small beach community farther up the coast. In spite of his living near the same ocean, the distance of hundreds of miles makes for different energy in many ways.

I hope the soothing tendencies of the water lend themselves to mending a rift that I have with my sister, who lives a few hundred miles down the coast. Again, different energy all the way around. I don’t know the exact beginning of our psychic separation, but I pray that this move will be good for us. For all of us.

Posted by Kathleen Wilton Klein

In the very near future, I will be moving from a town where I’ve lived for 18 years, longer than I’ve ever lived anywhere. I look forward to a new start but it’s scary. With my life shift in mind, I have been mulling over where to best place my feng shui energy to enhance the chi around my move and allow harmony for my physical being as well as my psyche. With a new me on the horizon, I will experiment with my own cures in regard to attracting the people and opportunities that I need in my life.



I’ve decide to focus on the helping people area of my bagua. I hope to attract people who will help me find fulfilling work in my new town, a comfortable, affordable home, and friends. I hope to be guided, via feng shui, to volunteer situations, where I can help, too, since we all benefit the more we help each other.



I live in the mountains now, but will soon live near the ocean. I spent much of my youth at the water’s edge, and felt a great sense of freedom, standing on the sand, opening my arms to the wide openness in front of me. That’s how I see my life now. At least I want to see it that way, as soon as I stop worrying so much about the details.



Change, however frightening, is, after all, only change. I am such a small piece of the pattern of my own life. This particular part of my life will involve my mother, who is my reason for moving, and my daughter, who will be making the move with me. Three generations of us, making a new chapter in each of our lives.

Posted by Kathleen Wilton Klein

Life has a way of teaching us what we need to know whether we feel ready for it or not. Feng shui be damned. If it’s in the cards for us to go down a path we haven’t chosen, something will happen to steer us to the path we need to take.

In I Ching, an intimate relative of feng shui, the hexagram 51 tells us just that. Look out, things are about to change whether you think you’re ready or not. And on top of that, it doesn’t matter which direction you’re heading down Life’s road, it can change in a split second, depending on the lessons you need to learn.

Not long ago, I had my feelings hurt very deeply. Perhaps it wasn’t on purpose. I’m not quite sure. But feng shui wasn’t quite doing its thing the way I wanted it to in my life in a number of areas and I couldn’t help but wonder why. I felt a clap of proverbial thunder and the feeling that a giant “51” was following me around. I knew that, as traumatic as the situation seemed, it would build my faith and would make me stronger - if I could just get through it.

I came away from the situation with the most astounding feeling of calm after one of the most horrible storms of my life. For the first time, I understood the concept of detachment. It doesn’t have anything to do with not loving. What it has to do with is letting the other person go down his or her own path while you go down yours.

Things are not always what they appear. Feng shui might look like a new way to arrange your bedroom or using new accoutrements in your garden. But feng shui can be pivotal in your life by shocking you onto a path not seen before. On the other hand, even with feng shui, if you are meant experience something that you’re avoiding or going in the opposite direction of, watch out. The low rumble of thunder has been known to come from a clear blue sky.

Posted by Kathleen Wilton Klein

I love new beginnings. Fresh starts can come with the beginning of a new year or the first day of the week. A new beginning can be a new outlook on life. Feng shui is great for new starts. There are so many ways in which to apply touches of feng shui throughout our lives that the choices are endless. It’s all about what you like.

This year I would like to have a larger income (common to the point of being boring, I know). I also want to eat healthier. I went grocery shopping yesterday and bought a lot of fruit, which I put in a big bowl. Guess what? A full fruit bowl is one feng shui method that can bring increased wealth to you.

I noticed one thing about the bowl though. It’s wooden, and from washing it over the years, it has a crack in the bottom. I almost made myself sick over this. I started to worry that all my hard earned money would slip away through the crack. We have so many ways that we can make ourselves believe the worst.

So I turned it around. The crack will allow me to treat myself to something frivolous every once in a while. I can go to the movies without feeling guilty. I might get my hair cut on a whim. The possibilities are endless. If I allow wealth to come to me, I can have fun with some of the runoff and the bills will still get paid.

I’m excited about the coming year. Feng shui will hold an important place in many of the decisions I make in my life. After reading Feng Shui Beauty I might rethink some of my wardrobe choices (something long overdue!). I’ve decided that my bedroom and my office need to have separate areas in my home (when the right man comes along, I want to be able to separate work and play). And I’m ready to get a car that I can depend on for long drives (the better to explore myself, as well as the world around me).

Let me know what goals you have for the coming year. If you have any tips for making a fresh start in your life, let me know. I’d like to post some of your ideas.

Posted by Kathleen Wilton Klein

I used to have a friend who was brutally honest. When I asked her opinion, or when she offered it unasked, she would say, “Do you want me to lie to you and make you feel good or tell you the truth and make you feel like….?” You get it.

I haven’t written my feng shui blog for a few weeks. And I will be honest with you at the risk of making myself seem like a fake knower of all things feng shui. Shoemakers’ kids run around barefooted. Dairy farmers send their offspring down to the local 7-11s to grab cartons of milk. This writer of feng shui info hit a bit of a glitch in the universe that had me spinning.

But I have returned to write, feeling more empowered. My belief in feng shui, together with my faith in a higher power I call God, has helped me to find my way back to my path. What started with a two dollar expenditure on some light bulbs yesterday, and continued this morning with the most, most wonderful church service called “Miracle in the Mess,” ended with my faith being renewed.

Even more than renewed, my faith has grown and I feel that I have begun a new journey in my life. In the world of feng shui, I credit the eight light bulbs that I placed in empty sockets. In the last 24 hours, I have been spoken to. Fresh ways of looking at my life have appeared. My perspective has been altered and I see what was right in front of me with new eyes. Knowing eyes. Eyes that will expect the unexpected. Eyes, and a full heart, that believe in miracles.

It’s the smallest things that can mean the most. One light bulb can literally be the difference between light and dark. Not only can you see better with your eyes when the bulb is switched on, but when spiritual light is shown to a sad heart, a life can be reborn.

Posted by Kathleen Wilton Klein

In case you need a reason to believe that there is some powerful energy in feng shui, here’s a quick update on the small mirror I relocated to right inside my front door about a week ago. In addition to my daughter being approached about two jobs within 24 hours of the mirror being moved, I’ve had two calls for job interviews and three job offers, one that involves use of a company car. All of this has occurred in the last week.

Right around the time I moved the mirror, I was out walking, praying, asking for guidance. I asked for a way to make a living that would satisfy me not only financially but spiritually as well. I prefer to work from home but recognize that sometimes getting out in the world can better serve my needs (again, financially and spiritually). I like to believe that the combination of my prayers and my use of feng shui in my home brought the new job developments to my life.

Do you ever feel in a rut? I do. Sometimes I like it. I like routine. But other times I need change. Excitement. A new lease on my life. When I feel the urge to get out of my rut, to shake it up a bit, I need to remind myself that all it takes is a little movement. A little feng shui can go a long way.

(As far as the jobs I was offered – I took the one with the car. And I will interview for two others that I believe would fit very well with the rest of my life.)

Posted by Kathleen Wilton Klein

I watched Joyce Meyer the other morning and then went out for (what I’m trying to make into a habit) my daily walk. There’s an urban trail near where I live that is just the right place for me to let my mind wander while I try to figure out my place in the universe.



What Joyce talked about was “rearranging and changing.” Funny how it works, but I find that when I need to hear something, it comes at me from all angles. She likened the rearranging and changing to a tree that has all of its limbs pruned. There is a feeling of bareness at first, but then comes new growth. The new branches and leaves and flowers are even more alive than what was cut.



I don’t know Joyce’s views on feng shui, but what she said made all the sense in the world to me. I’d been feeling a bit out of sorts, my daughter and I had been bickering at each other, and moving something around seemed to be the answer. The first thing I moved was our trunk of family photos.



Within minutes of moving one of the most cumbersome pieces of furniture we have (families can put a tremendous amount of strain on us) I felt tears come that I couldn’t stop for quite a while. Later we talked about some very heavy family matters. That evening we sat by a fire and all the stress of the previous few days was gone. All it took was a little moving stuff around.



And here’s more. I have a small round mirror that I have had hanging right inside my bedroom door for years. Time for a change, I thought. I relocated it to right inside our front door, prosperity being the goal. Within three hours, my daughter got a call for a job. Not only that, within 24 more hours, she got a call for another job. (She chose the first.)



Joyce calls one of life’s necessities “rearranging and changing.” Others may call it feng shui. What matters is how you use positive energy, or “chi,” to change your life for the better. See what little changes you can make in your environment and how they affect your life. Let me know what happens.

Posted by Kathleen Wilton Klein

I feel like this is the first day of school. I’m nervous, excited. Will I make some new friends? Even one? Will they like me? This is the first blog I’ve ever done. One of my favorite sayings is: “It’s not about leaping from point A to point B. It’s about leaping from point A.” So as I begin writing about feng shui for Suite101, I’m leaping. It’s scary but I have faith that all will fall together as it is supposed to.



When I got the good news that I would be the new feng shui writer for Suite101 I realized that I better get my own house in order, literally, if I am going to be spouting advice, acting as a guide, if not mentor or role model to others about the possibilities that feng shui offers.



I have some, maybe a lot of the answers. But I certainly don’t have all of them. I’m just like you, walking through this life one foot in front of the other. I will try to be as open as I can about how feng shui affects my life. I hope you will feel comfortable enough to start up a discussion or to email me if you have a question or subject of concern. I hope we can learn together and share knowledge about feng shui, a topic that interests both of us.



Please bear with me while I get used to blogging. In a way it seems like the “stranger-on-a-plane” scenario. In theory I can tell you things that I might not tell someone I know because there’s a good chance I won’t see you again. But I hope we do keep in touch. As I step out of my comfort zone, I will be here if you want to step out of yours, too, as we talk about some of the many ways feng shui can improve our lives.