Monday, January 31, 2011

Embracing Joyful Simplicities...and My Heart's Desire

"Year by year the complexities of this spinning world grow more bewildering and so each year we need all the more to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities." Woman's Home Companion, December 1935.

"As we become curators of our own contentment on the Simple Abundance path, one of the great payoffs is that we start to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities. Little things begin to mean a lot to us. Joyful simplicities nourish body and soul by engaging our senses. They teach us how to live in the present moment. Life comes together when we seek out the Sublime ordinary moment." Sara BanBreathnach, Simple Abundance.

Today I am thinking not only about simplicity but my Heart's Desires...which are really very simple and I do embrace them! My heart, so long ignored, so long unkown, as duty and deeds progressed. I often let he minuatiae of life rob me of such pleasures, such joy, the momentI hav often lost those things and sometimes I have lost myself.

Now in the Autumn of my life I have truly become acquainted with that Heart. Ahhh, it is wise and it knows if only I listen it's desire is minifest...I draw to me things that are my lifeblood, things of peace, beauty and love. As it is promised by the wind, as it is tendered in the Heart...as it is written across the sky. The things my Heart is calling for are simple things that nurture not only my heart but my very soul.
The whisper of a gentle wind, which if I listen, carries the voices of the ancestors. Spirit moving! The caress of my love that finds my depth. Melodies of birds and other Masters...but always music.
The warmth of love, giving and receiving; sweet ambling through time and nature.
Rock, sage, color and serenity - meditation, solitude, music of the Gods; Cottonwoods rustle, creeks babble and the sun blesses me.
The rising and setting of the sun with the myriad colors of the pallet. Each of my senses are delighted. Meter and rhythm, cadence and heartbeat, mine with natures. Day cools, night falls I'm lost in the sweetness of my loves embrace and enraptured by the wonder of the night sky.


We must seize the essence of life...what our authentic self, our Heart desires. We must embrace those things that nurture us and bring us joy. "People need joy quite as much as clothing. Some of them need it far more." Margaret Collier Graham wrote in 1906. I am making the discovery of those joyful simplicities daily...those things that bring me personal comfort and a sense of well being. It is one of my highest priorities to stay in touch with those things and live in joy and real authenticity with them.

Friday, January 28, 2011

The Redwings Return!



I first noticed the chorus yesterday; I was transported to another place! I sat, eyes closed in the sun, listening. Their song went straight to my heart and gave my soul wings. It always does. I soared. What is it about that little "cluck, cluck, cluck, trill, trill trill" that finds my core so quickly? It has been so for years. I love the little chickadee chirp but it is the Redwing that puts me in trance, in ecstasy! The music has begun and my soul appreciates.


I read a piece from Cathedrals of the Spirit by T.C. McLuhan the other day that came to mind this morning. It is by Stephanie Kaza.

"Breathing in, breathing out. Slow deep inhale, slow deep exhale. Quieting the body, quieting the mind. I woke up this morning under the graceful, arching branches of bay laurels and Douglas firs. All night the trees have been conversing under the full moon, weaving me into their stories, capturing my dreams with their leaning limbs and generous trunks. Breathing together as I slept, as they rested, we danced quietly in the summer night. Their great confidence framed a circle for my waking; their study presence offered an invitation to be still."

The song of the Redwing this morning, under the full, warm morning sun evoked the same feeling in me as Stephanie's words did the other day at the full of the moon. Bliss. I feel so alive and grateful this morning.


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Today I decide...


That I matter. One of the wonderful women in Artella posted Eric Maisel's 9 Steps to Fulfillment. It is really great grist for the mill as I put together a life porpose statement to guide me for the next steps in my creative life path and fulfillment. Today, I focus on #1, I matter. One can only truly matter when she believes it. Today, I will make myself proud! I MATTER!! My life of creative meaning and joy is unfolding.
From my regular daily companion, Sara BanBreathnatch, today's Simple Abundance reading includes a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke:
"If your everyday life seems poor, don't
blame it; blame yourself; admit to
yourself that you are not enought of a poet
to call forth its riches; becaues for the
creator there is no poverty and no poort
indifferent place."
Today, I know I matter; I am the creator of my own destiny and it can be as rich and joyful as I want to make it. I no longer need wait; today I believe. Today I create my life purpose statement which is my inner template by which I will measure life!
Grateful for so many rich opportunites and people to support me!

Thursday, January 20, 2011


If you want to move toward your dream, it is necessary that you let go of your fears. Yes. I hear that...yet I have clung to fear and it, of course, has blocked fulfillment and action. Recently I have begun - thanks to a few mentors and more focus - to let go of fear and amazingly enough, the universe had granted me motion! It is about taking control of my dream. "If you can sense and feel a deeper kind of soul desire, a desire to express your creativity, to share your love, to contribute your best to the world... you are on your way."(from Your Heart's Desire by Sonia Chouquette)YES! I am joyfully on my way.
An amazing woman, Marney at Artella, has guided me for a while and recently accepted me into a new program (MAIN a community based program) aimed at mentoring and supporting creative entrepreneurs. Marney is an amazing, creative, fun, loving, intelligent woman who inspires many. I am so grateful to know her and be working with her and a group of others that seem quite fantastic themselves; 42 women from around the world and me. Upon reflection, I was not even sure I could spell entrepreneurs...now I am becoming one. YES!

I have not felt this deeply committed to my growth, my dream and my life...maybe ever. Thank you Marney and Artella. More to come on this venture. So, to Marney and the other remarkable member of the exciting MAIN Program...let's have tea and oranges!



The other mentor who simply dropped into my life is the beautiful and vivacious Dr.Melaney Sreenan. I met her in August and it was instant chemistry. She has written a beautiful book "Spirit Dances" and gave me a copy. I have since bought many for friends. I am working through the book for the second time - this time in a group she is leading. It is so fascinating to me the synergy that occurs when a group (in this case women) comes together. Melaney is a gift that literally kind of fell into our lives - all nine of us! Thank you Melaney. A wonderful quote to end with on the night after the full moon, and a gathering of women. "When a woman begins to be aware of the divine spark within, she will soon be faced with a decision whether to honor and trust it...She is so accustomed to looking outside herself for authority that the realization of God within is radical and shattering. It changes everything." Wendlyn Alter, The Yang Heart of Yin.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Divine Play


Sunday and I was in my usual, Church of the Backyard with the critters. I feel so centered, balanced and authentic when I am there. The barnyard critters fed, watered and quite content, the dogs and I played. How they love the snow! Roo tunnels and digs then crunches a little. I swear she laughs.
In my quest for enlightenment...this morning's reading included a piece by John Moorehead, and essay, The Paradox of Our Age. He begins:

We have taller buildings but shorter tempers; wider freeways but narrower viewpoints; we spend more but have less; we buy more but enjoy it less; we have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, yet less time; we have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgement; more experts, yet more problems; we have more gadgets but less satisfaction; more medicine, yet less wellness; we take more vitamins but see fewer results. We drink too much; smoke too much; spend too recklessley; laugh too little; drive too fast; get too angry too quickly; stay up too late; get up too tired; read too seldom; watch TV too much and pray too seldom."
Food for thought as I continue this beautiful gift of a Sunday!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

The New Year!




I can't believe it has been over a month since I have posted. The holidays were magical, but I just could not write. I was often totally awash with and overcome by emotion. There was so much love and caring from family, friends, (many I haven't spoken with in a long time) and the music (enjoyed without limit this year for the first time in many) was amazing. I found tears of joy frequent. While I missed the kids enormously, we talked well and often. I love you guys!

This morning my meditation with Sara (BanBreathnach) was amazingly poignent, as usual. It was about embracing simplicity. Not doing without, but a concsious life, making choices that illuminate our lives from within. So timely and so important is this message for me. I have found in the past year so much freedom, pure unadulterated joy and amazing wonder and I have found much of this through simplifying. Clarity abounds when I can do that. I am clear on so many things that had me mired at the bottom of a muddy, murkey, mucky pond! I was drowning, but now I am soaring. I am also most grateful for my many, many gifts and blessings. Truly every day presents us with simple gifts if we are willing to to be open to them and then grateful for them.


From a ninetheenth century Shaker Hymn...my boys learned this in preschool and we have alwasy loved it.
'Tis a gift to be simple,
'Ttis a gift to be free,
'Tis a gift to come down
Where we ought to be
And when we find ourselves
In the place that's right
'Twill be in the valley
Of love and delight.