Mum's the Word

 
It’s almost Halloween and I am a holiday junkie.  

The front porch is filled with scarecrows, corn stalks, bales of hay, a black cat and some very big (and I mean big) pots of chrysanthemums in purple, yellow and white. 

 And though I love the color and texture of everything on the porch, the really big deal for me is putting my face right into the flowers and taking in their essence… the touch and smell and coolness…in other words, their vibration!  


I take breaks during the day to go out and do this. It connects me with nature’s bountiful gifts and beauty. It lifts me out of my everyday tasks and says, “We’re right here…just waiting for you to enjoy us.”  Yep, those flowers are smiling. I know it. They love to have someone get right in their faces.  

Which reminds me…I am also addicted to hugging trees. I have a particular tree in the neighborhood that lets me feel its roots straight down into the earth. I used to look around before I approached the tree, but, naw…I don’t look around anymore. I just see that beauty and go for it.  I hug bushes, too. And have been for many years.  

Although I am no gardener, I think that this is exactly the kind of  high  that gardeners feel when they do their thing.  Now here’s a really interesting fact I learned recently about plants and gardeners. If you are raising plants that you will eat, when you tend them with personal, loving care they produce for you whatever your DNA requires.
 

Now that’s mind blowing. And it sure tells you that the universe is alive and wanting to spread its goodness everywhere. 

 So have at ‘em…pumpkins, flowers, trees…the whole works.  They’re just waiting for your perceptive eyes and glowing attention. 

                            

                                                                                             Marie Helena

Who Writes the Story?

Don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements, tells us thatRESPECT is one of the greatest expressions of LOVE...and that, if we love someone, we respect that this person is a good artist and can write his own story. 

Ruiz further says that  this person was, in fact, BORN to write his own story and if we respect him, we do not try to write his story for him.

What is even more important is that imposing ourselves in someone else's story is a blatant example of our lack of faith that the other person is capable of learning for himself what there is to be learned and applying those lessons to his life.  The consideration of how and when and if he does this is not In our job description.

 

I do believe that we can communicate to others in a gentle, positive, loving manner any suggestions that we may have about the turmoil they may be experiencing BUT that is it...just SUGGEST...not expect and not punish if someone does not wish to embrace what we are envisioning as an answer to a dilemma.

We are NEVER in the place of knowing all of the factors involved in how someone's life is playing out and  to act as if we are and to envision what we think is the perfect answer is to exalt ourselves and fail to honor the other. 

It represents the giving of affection with CONDITIONS, falling short of a truly loving response and indicating a lack of respect.

Truly understanding our place in the world and the place others occupy is a challenging task for us.  It requires clear boundaries for ourselves and others  but it frees everyone involved to make life choices in an atmosphere of support and caring.

Expressing our faith in everyone else's right and ability 

to listen to the guidance of his own heart...

to  decide issues for himself...

to experience the consequences of his choices and to learn his own lessons when and if he chooses..

is a most beautiful and pure expression of love and caring.  

It also frees us to use our energies for the selection, welcoming and experiencing of our own adventures.

                              Marie Helena 

image from tootsiegrace.blogspot.com

A New Dimension

“I don’t do anything unless I’m inspired.”

                                 

                                           Fenna Diephuis

Visions of sugarplums, dainty silver bells and silvery fairy dust danced through my bewildered mind one wintry afternoon not long ago when my friend Fenna made this comment to me.  What a wonderful world it would be to live like this, I breathlessly imagined. 

Then, after my initial reaction of Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, I tried to seriously visualize myself living in this radically magical way Fenna had described.  My first and very logical reaction was No Way.

Too many things to take care of.  Too big of a To Do list.  And the inevitable sense of disappointment in myself if I didn’t finish my self appointed tasks of everyday life. Lots of real work needs to be taken care of whether I am in the mood or not.

But, despite my left brain, lawyer- like rationalization, I found myself clearly enchanted with the dreamy possibility of living life in this glorious fashion.  If everything I chose to do felt like I was living out a spontaneous wish, I would, of course, truly enjoy doing it, I reasoned.  What a wonderful way to experience my life.  But how to access this intriguing state of Inspiration and to take up residence there...those were the questions I pondered.

I asked myself what beautiful ambiance, what mystical setting gives birth to inspiration?  Or, to put it in more colloquial terms, what actually goes on in this mysterious and magical “hood”?

Seems like there has to be some dancing...real (for dancing always raises our vibration) or metaphorical (a dancing spirit).  

And, borrowing from the name of a critically acclaimed movie, the Incredible Lightness of Being must be present.  There has to be a connection with the Universe, a trusting that we are cared for and guided.  That we need only let go of “trying” and let ourselves receive.  That we choose to move through life openly and gracefully in this state of anticipation and appreciation before these gifts are even delivered to us.

And, most certainly, there must be curiosity about this incredible quantum world in which we find ourselves.  And a sense of wonderment about what we have still to learn.  How all of life’s creations interact with each other.  And how we are all a part of this continuing network and dialogue of caring and cooperation.

With this dancing spirit, curiosity and wonderment and an incredible lightness of being, how could we not be inspired to enjoy and appreciate and to want to learn more about this magical playground of our lives?  And, as we move in the spirit of love, we draw more love to ourselves.  The wondrous law of vibrational attraction, yet another fascinating gift of the Universe in which we live.

Is that fairy dust falling ever so gracefully in my heart as I contemplate the Joy of inhabiting this new dimension of possibility?

                                             Marie Helena

image from Pinterest Watercolor Fantasy and Fairy art by Sarah Pauline