Hot Pink Gloves and the Boomeranging Bands

Last Monday I sat waiting in my podiatrist’s office for his nurse to take an impression of my feet for a new set of inserts for my shoes.  I have cuboid bones that randomly like to “relocate”, launching parties of misalignment, inviting my knees and sacrum to go rogue and join in the fun.  Needless to say, my visits to the podiatrist (though wonderfully philosophical) are serious and necessary.  So, on this day, I was expecting a rather scientific procedure coming my way when in walked the doc’s nurse waving hot pink rubber gloves in the air which matched none of her attire and, therefore, seemed incongruous and rather hilarious.

It wasn’t long before I could see how perfectly they suited her persona because she immediately launched into a vaudeville routine as she began the work of preparing me for the impression.  As she delightfully performed for her audience of one, she made a point of warning me that the black elastic bands she was about to use to secure my plaster booties have been known on occasion to boomerang off the walls.  As if to highlight their adventurous nature, the black cords sported a blue bauble on them and I was struck by how prettily they accented the hot pink gloves even while I could hardly keep from laughing as every comment she made seemed to outdo the humor of the previous retort. 

Now, mind you, I was supposed to be sitting still and relaxing during this procedure and this was no easy task since the doc’s nurse was so funny and entertaining.  After she finished her work on my feet, she ceremoniously took an elegant Shakespearean bow at the doorway and invited the doc back into the room, announcing him as the next act with an excellent vaudeville-worthy introduction.

OMG, I thought...what great fun this was!  The energy...the delight...the unexpectedness of it all.  I found myself wishing I could program my entire day in this exhilarating vibration and then wondered...why not?  Of course I could do this.  The routine performance of our daily tasks usually feels like punching a notch on our to-do belt.  You know...that heavy belt that grows more cumbersome as the day progresses.

Where are our hot pink rubber gloves?  Our boomeranging black elastic bands? Our Shakespearean bows?  The FLOURISH of our imagination?

Tomorrow I awake with a new Shakespearean mantra:

The game’s afoot.  Let us have pomp and circumstance!

                                            Marie Helena

image from moziru.com

The Soul's Odyssey

“In the springtime go out and observe the blossoms on the fruit tree.  The blossoms vanish of themselves as the fruit grows.”

                                 Swami Vivekananda

Dr. Wayne Dyer, inspirational author and lecturer, recently presented the quotation above to his audience  in a  PBS presentation entitled Wishes Fulfilled.  The image evoked  in this quotation so carefully selected by Dr. Dyer  presents us with the lesson of the beauty and grace of transformation...and  it is nature who serves as our teacher..the lovely fruit blossom unpretentiously and naturally ascending into a higher version of itself.

As Dr. Dyer points out, within this metaphor we can find the inspiration for our own transcendence.   Our lower self vanishes as the Divine grows within us.

It is natural for us to evolve in this way.  

It is admittedly a challenging road we travel through life filled with experiences that try and tire us...for as long as we feel alone and separate from each other.

But when we recognize our place in the tree of life and understand our interconnectedness with every other blossom...each with its own "blossoming" story... we happily embrace this GIFT and experience a  spiritual surrendering to  the magnificent journey  designed to help us recognize the Divine within and ascend into our Higher Self, the fruit of the tree.

                                              Marie Helena 

image from hennydonovanmotif.co.uk

The Second Guitar

“One of the coolest ways to demonstrate resonance is to use two guitars. Pluck a string on one of the guitars.  Now lightly touch the same string on the second guitar.  It will be vibrating because it has the same frequency as the string you plucked.”

                              Paradigm Shift

Resonance is a principle of life.  We all  resonate based on matching vibrations.  And this fact can be observed very readily in interpersonal relationships.  We can be very susceptible to the vibrations expressed around us. Been around a happy person and found yourself smiling? Ever been around someone mired in gloom and found yourself dropping into that vibration?  And what about someone who’s making judgmental statements and attacking you?  How easy it is to play back the “sound of the string” you just heard!

If, however, you can take a deep breath and hold your center, cut through the outward expression you are hearing and realize that any negativity being manifested is coming from fear or pain, perhaps you can reach into the beautiful and gentle pool of compassion and ask someone if he is experiencing some difficulty.  Ask, perhaps, if you can be of some help…and listen with a kind and loving heart to what the person needs to express…even if it comes out in emotional, raw language…even if it is difficult to hear.  

If the person senses your caring and concern, he may, indeed, speak his truth and, thereby, release some of the pain he is holding onto.  Perhaps your kindness can help unmask its unsettling disguise and, like an alchemist, transform the erratic energy of the moment into the soft sound of love being given and received.

When you find yourself face to face with an uncomfortable or awkward or upsetting situation, ask yourself:  What would Love 💗 do?  

 If love is your guiding principle there is no place you can go where you will not make beautiful music.  Let your “Second Guitar” play its own melody…the melody of your caring heart!

                                              Marie Helena

The Magnificent Licorice Jellybean

Sunday dinner at my daughter’s home is always a wonderful event. Sunshine streams through her home, evidenced in so many ways.  One way is through the awesome messages that appear in some form of art on her walls…

Have an amazing day. 

Listen with your whole heart.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Love well.

My daughter and her family are also a source of Sunshine as they always greet visitors with open arms and warm, affectionate hugs, expressing their delight to have someone enter into the flow of their day.

Another way that Light shines through in this loving oasis is in the beautiful way she decorates for each season and holiday, celebrating all events of the changing calendar In order of their appearance on Mother earth.

And, on this particular Sunday, Easter, of course, was in full bloom in all of its glory.  All of the family’s favorite dishes had been prepared and  a very special signature Easter delight could be found in the center of the table:  a brilliantly colored assortment of jellybeans had casually arranged themselves as they were lovingly poured into a glass dish to bask in their Easter springtime glory.

And, as I fondly remember the lovely occasion, I ask:  Who has not experienced and delighted in the robust yet petite extravaganza of taste that is the jellybean!

After finishing our dinner, I eyed the brightly colored, tempting gems in their dish still reigning with such pomp and pageantry in the center of all of the festivities. 

It is time, I thought.  Definitely time for me to indulge in  this Easter delight   Perusing all of the available flavors, I selected what would be THE jellybean of my day.  To the chagrin of a few individuals still nearby, I selected the licorice jellybean.  Apparently, this was not a flavor of jellybean favored by them but, as a connoisseur of licorice, I could not have been happier.  

Now here is what I find to be most significant about my spectacular Easter jellybean:   

I only needed one.

ONE solitary jellybean, unadorned by a parade of cousin jellies, burst happily into its robust flavor as I took my first bite.  ONE jellybean satisfied my search for the perfect sweet ending to the lovely meal.  ONE delicious licorice jellybean evoked my culinary adoration.

There was no need to eat a second… in fact, it seemed as if a second would somehow dim the glory of the initial experience.

To me, it feels like my licorice jellybean “moment” that day was a microcosm of all of our life experiences.  It is a fact that I had been filled with lovely anticipation of the Easter celebration and also bathed in sunshine vibrations at my daughter’s home, but it is also true that the first...and only...bite was GLORIOUS and so wonderfully and engagingly SATISFYING.

What if we could reside in that incredible state of awe where EVERY FIRST MOMENT we encountered held something magical and entertained or delighted us or

 taught us something we did not already know.  What if our first taste, our first encounter could springboard us into new wonder or knowledge or appreciation!

It so easy to move quickly past the initial moment of our experiences, missing the majesty of each and every first encounter.

 Can you imagine the  magnificent “licorice jellybeans” just waiting to burst into our lives!

                                            Marie Helena 

                                                                                    

image frjom unixtitan.net

Everyman: Best Actor in a Dramatic Role

Everyman:  Best Actor in a Dramatic Role

As simple as a summer breeze,as easy as a nibble on a frosted cookie, as delightful as gentle raindrops landing on your shoulders on a hot summer day.  THAT is the fun and adventure we are meant to have in this cosmic playground we call earth.  THAT is what we signed up for.  But we often don’t see the immense simplicity of what we have undertaken.  The fine print in our cosmic contract (which we ourselves have insisted on) includes a passing reference to the requirement of “forgetfulness” and that one word has landed us in all kinds of trouble.

Somehow we manage to continually forget that we are here on a splashy, extravagant, magical experiment to TRY THINGS ON, see what they feel like and then decide what to do about them.  And if we decide to make a change, then we see how Plan B feels...and so on.  It’s all about the role we choose to play and we are so brilliant at this imaginative exercise that we do not even have to audition for the part.  Because we are such Divine spiritual creatures unlimited possibilities are open to us and, with our own unique preferences, we select the characterizations we wish to embrace.  And we do it for the FUN, for the sheer JOY of seeing what it feels like.  Of course, we FORGET what we are doing and it makes the adventure so much more real.  We like to be consumed by the details:  the setting, the circumstances, the other players, complicating issues…the DRAMA!!!


Foundationally, we are SPIRITUAL beings who reside in unconditional bliss.  This is our home base   But we have a powerful desire to experience and, therefore, appreciate what it is like to be subject to conditions and limitations.  And so we choose to incarnate.  And we do this because it is an exciting, vibrant, passionate voyage.  We adore the tumultuous ups and downs of navigating these conditions and  limitations.  We love trying on various ways of dealing with these limitations and seeing what responses they evoke in us.

Our end game is to find the choice of action that returns us to peace.  And it’s a long and winding road and sometimes a difficult and challenging one. 

Most of the time, we take it MEGAseriously, forgetting that we have placed ourselves in a magical playground where we can experiment with our course of action to see what truly brings us back to JOY.

When we are experiencing some difficulty, if the first thing we try doing to help ourselves does not work, it is not a tragedy. It is an opportunity to see what that choice feels like and how it plays out in our life.  Now, we can use our creativity and imagination to conceive of the next best plan to try and then discern how that option is working.  We are literally trying on moments of experience and seeing what they feel like. We are on a metaphysical shopping trip, trying to find what brings us to delight, satisfaction and joy.

That is what Earth school is about...having the  glorious, engaging, sometimes exasperating experiences.  Underneath all of the disguises we sometimes assume as persons in pain, as victims of circumstance, we are always perfect, spiritual beings engaged in the fascinating role of living in an imperfect world and doing our best to find our way back to perfection. 

It’s all an exquisite, ethereal exercise.  Perhaps occasionally remembering this might gift us with a  perspective that will help us reside more comfortably in this earth reality and remember that we are in this world but not of it. 


                                              Marie Helena


image from www.alamy.com

81st Stock Photos & 81st Stock

The Divine “Nudge”

Sometimes we find ourselves in a holding pattern in our life poised in a place where the stress we encounter is consuming so much of our energy.  

And we are aware of the price to our well-being but for many reasons we stay there because there are multiple factors involved in making a change.

And then...

The Divine Universe who has been watching us with beautiful, loving attention gives us a "nudge"...one that we cannot ignore and this nudge presents us with the  opportunity for some very important work...challenges that test us to our core.  And we have to summon up our courage and strength to "deal" with these surprises. 

But these surprise-gifts are well-planned and beautifully chosen and ultimately they jettison us onto a new path of growth and discovery, clearing out what is in the present picture of our lives and creating space for a new and a-ma-zing transformation.

 

We ARE well-loved and cared for.  The gifts of the future only await our discovery and they will happen in the perfect time for us.

Know deeply in your heart that the perfect moment will come and watch for and listen to all of the promptings to action that will show themselves and move you in that direction.

There are no coincidences.  Only LOVE watching ever so gently over us.

                               Marie Helena

image from watton.org

Leave the Playing Field: The Beauty of Surrender

Oh, the energy we consume when we set our minds to solving a problem.

Yep...we are the TOUGH GUYS...the ones who can figure things out.

And we are determined to make it work somehow.

It's so exhausting to set out to prove something to ourselves. It's exhausting because we may be able to tough our way through to an answer but you can bet it's not the ULTIMATE answer.  

It's the one we can access from our limited, earthbound point of view.  It's the one that takes into account all the parameters we can see...but it DOES NOT have access to the UNIVERSAL consciousness...the view which clearly shows  what is the perfect way to achieve our goal and which is the best  way to touch the lives of others.  

This is why it is so important to SURRENDER our problems...to stop trying to figure them out.  

We don't need to. 

We are confused about our job description.

We merely need to have a CLEAR AND CONSCIOUS INTENTION regarding what we want help with and then we need to LEAVE THE PLAYING FIELD and do something that brings us joy.

We are designed to discover the wonder and beauty of life. 

We are designed to re-member the ever present and ever powerful Divine force  that is supporting and loving us and just waiting to be accessed and embraced.  The force through which all wisdom flows...the force which always has our back and knows the grandest way to gift us with what we desire.

Lola Jones tells us to "Let the Divine do the Heavy Lifting."

We do indeed need to exit the playing field...to LAY DOWN OUR BURDENS with the certainty that we will receive exactly what we need at the perfect moment in time.

We are all truly meant to RELAX in faith and ENJOY the power of Divine grace unfolding.

 

                                                   Marie Helena

image from DragoArt.com