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Friday, October 27, 2017

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, wine, 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

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Cutting Edge: The Calling



A few weeks ago my podiatrist shared a fascinating anecdote with me during a routine office visit.  We love to have our chats together and. on this particular day, I found myself immensely inspired by something he told me. 


It seems the doc was having a meal alone one evening in a restaurant when he was invited by an acquaintance to join him and four other friends at another table.  Now the interesting thing about this is that the five gentlemen who were sitting together were all very conservative in their beliefs and my podiatrist leans way in the other direction.  


The subjects discussed by the group during the lengthy conversation which took place  that evening were religion and politics...a red flag zone if ever I'd heard one
.  But the doc told me that just as the conversation opened, he announced that he does not argue religion or politics.  He just discusses them in order to understand others' points of view.  


 
I was intrigued as I heard his no arguing stipulation and wondered how the conversation had evolved after he made that statement.  With the most delighted demeanor,  the doc informed me that the conversation that ensued (with him on one side and the five gentlemen on the other) had been enlightening and stimulating and gentlemanly in tone.  And, as the doc departed the gathering one and a half hours later, he was informed by group members that he had presented thoughts and ideas they had never considered before.  




Wow...I thought.  And WOW again!


What a profound result had occurred that day from the very sincere declaration of the doc, "I don't argue religion or politics." 



I wondered...
What if no one "argued" religion or politics...or anything else for that matter?  What if we talked to each other to learn about what others believe and why and how their beliefs have affected their lives? What if we listened to what others said without feeling threatened or intimidated?  What if we had nothing to prove and, possibly, something to learn from hearing other points of view?



The world would surely be a very different place than the way it is right now.
  It would more closely resemble a gathering of curious scholars and philosophers than often being the hotbed it is of arguments and disputes that sometimes culminate in unrest, injury and violence.


Why do we have a need to compel or persuade others to "see things our way"?
 
Why is it so threatening to us that others reject our beliefs?  Why do we need to see OUR ideas prevail? And why are some of us sometimes willing to inflict mental, emotional or physical injury on those who do not share our views?  


Have we not come to this earthly dimension to learn, to experience, to discover for ourselves what there is to know?  And are we not gifted with the company and comradeship of other earth travelers who are also here to discover FOR THEMSELVES what there is to know?  Why argue with each other when everyone has been given this same calling?  Why not stay open to learning what has been noticed, accepted, embraced and assimilated by others and try to understand what they have learned that has felt so important and appealing to them?



"I do not argue.  I discuss so I can understand."  


 
Can you imagine the wealth of sharing and mutual support that would take place if every man clearly embraced his highest calling "to understand"...perhaps one of the most powerful and needed changes that could ever occur on our planet!



                                                                                Marie Helena





image from pinterest.com

Monday, October 16, 2017

More Than the Magic



Several years ago I found myself watching a PBS special presentation of Andre Rieu - Live in Dublin.  

For those of you who haven’t heard of
Andre Rieu – he is a violinist/conductor/showman of world renown who usually gives concerts only in Europe but on that day I realized he would be appearing in the states that spring in Detroit.  I was elated to learn this because I had seen several of his concerts on PBS and, in fact, owned several DVD’s of  the concerts and nearly all of his CD’s.


Andre Rieu's music and the enchanting way he presents it speak to my soul.  The camera work  on an Italian production I’ve seen, for example, was amazing - simultaneously capturing the soulful artist center stage, the sweep of an enraptured European audience amid the beauty of an Italian piazza in the moonlit night and a close-up of a grandfatherly gentleman listening to Andre with emotion-filled eyes and a tear sliding down his face.  The thought of being a part of all this was compelling.  Just as I made a mental note to call about tickets the next day, I heard the TV commentator remark that the concert had been sold out, but that a local university was holding a block of tickets for its contributors.


I noticed the number of available tickets was rapidly decreasing each time the concert was interrupted by the broadcasters to make a sales pitch for contributions.  Suddenly, someone was saying there were only ten tickets left and I realized that if I didn’t act now, I would lose this glorious opportunity.  I picked up the phone and suddenly found myself making the $250 contribution to the university, ensuring my attendance at the fabulous concert.

My impulsive decision amazed me.  I had often wondered if  I could be so moved that I would spend the kind of money concert tickets usually cost.  And, here I was, making a $250 contribution to get me to that moment.  God bless the magic that moves us out of our every day lives!


The Andre Rieu concert in Detroit I so anxiously awaited that spring was held at the stately Fox Theater When I arrived that evening,I fond it teeming with people streaming into the lobby.  As I found my seat I was mesmerized by the ornate and delicate beauty of the theater’s ceiling.  I was thrilled to be sitting up so high.  Meanwhile, I had been muttering periodically to myself about not having remembered to bring binoculars, but I put that concern aside when Andre and the Johann Strauss Orchestra took the stage, individually marching up the center steps with great ceremony to the strains of “Entry of the Gladiators”. 

Dressed in ebony tuxes and elegant, iridescent gowns, the members of his orchestra looked ready to play for the Queen.  The audience members at the Fox Theater that night numbered five thousand and you could feel the anticipation and excitement in the full house as the maestro raised his violin.  Behind him sat his talented orchestra, heavily favoring violins and cellos, but the evening would prove they were very capably balanced by the brass and drum sections.

As usual,  the maestro immediately struck a warm and convivial note with the members of his audience, including them in his commentary and especially in his musical pranks which were sprinkled throughout the evening.  He and his orchestra and performers were treated to several standing ovations.  Three female soloists (two from Brazil and one from Holland) were flawless in their presentations.  I could not believe the fabulous acoustics in a theatre of this size. As they performed, the obvious delight of the maestro, the orchestra and soloists hung rapturously in the air.  At one point, Maestro Andre passionately proclaimed the Strauss family responsible for the best waltzes ever written, as he proudly introduced “The Blue Danube”.

Sitting next to me during the performance was another university supporter who had an injured back from a car accident.  I lent her my lumbar cushion which I had brought with me but didn’t need at this point and she generously lent me the use of the binoculars circulating within her party.

The magic continued until the last waltz played was hailed with a burst of colorful balloons from what seemed like the miles high ceiling.  I do not know what was more touching…the music or the joy of the people performing and listening to it.  I was so thankful for the intuitive leap which had prompted me to make the contribution and secure the accompanying concert ticket.


After the performance I hurried outside, hoping to get one of the first cabs I expected would be lining up in front of the theater.  As I looked around, I saw no cabs but instead what looked like a blockade of buses.  (The performance was being presented exclusively for patrons of PBS and it seemed many members of the audience had traveled to Detroit in their respective group transportation.)  Furthermore, there was apparently some sort of minor fracas going on between a policeman who refused to let the cabs double park because of the danger to patrons who might be running out in between buses and the doorman in red tails and black top hat who was trying to find cabs for the patrons.  

A few moments later the handsomely attired doorman confided to us affectionately that the policeman was causing him a great deal of trouble but he promised to help and smilingly continued to search for one of the cabs which he promised were even now circling the block.  Eventually, the two uniforms struck a compromise and the policeman promised to keep all of the buses away from the theaer entrance at the next performance.

Finally, a cab was found and I climbed into a back seat that was VERY tightly wedged behind a barrier separating me from the cab driver.  As the cab pulled away, I tried to engage the driver in some casual conversation about the traffic and endless construction and he told me in a voice heavy with contempt that Detroit was the worst place in the world in which to live.  He then announced that no one there was human.  When I asked him why he felt this way, he could only repeat his comment two or three more times and shake his head.  Feeling his pain, and because I make it a practice to be especially considerate to anyone whose pain is transforming his life force into cynicism, negativity or depression, I gave him a $7 tip for the five minute cab ride, but he seemed not to notice…or to care.

I was struck by the significance of the glorious festivities ending in this way and felt there was most definitely a lesson here.  That evening I had encountered so many faces of humanity:  the artistic genius of Andre Rieu, the joy and talent of his orchestra and performers, the elation of the audience in hearing the concert, the generosity of the woman in the next seat who lent her binoculars for my enjoyment, the jolly red-tail coated doorman, the policeman who eventually came to a compromise with the doorman regarding the “lost” cabs and, finally, the cab driver whose aura (had I been able to see it ) must have reflected the darkness of the night and of his psyche.  In the midst of the artistry, joy and exuberance of those attending and performing at the concert, here was this lonely, lost cab driver who seemed as if he had no drop of hope in the world to sustain him.

I pondered the amazing parade I had witnessed that evening and considered what part we had all played in this drama.


We are all responsible for the gifts and pain of the world.  Just that past week I had heard Carl Franklin, an international speaker with over thirty-five years of spiritual/metaphysical research, teaching, lecturing, and counseling, remark that reality as we experience it is shaped by mass human consciousness via the quantum field.  There is no speed limit here, he said.  The speed of thought is instantaneous.


In reflecting on this I asked myself what kind of thoughts and emotions have we all been projecting into the cosmos?  What caring and concern?  When have we ignored the suffering of humanity?  When have we answered its call? 
We (every one of us) helped bring the joy of the glorious and amazing music to its manifestation at the concert and, equally, we helped shape the tragic sadness of the cab driver I encountered in the night.


We have all contributed to the collective energy which produced in the same evening the higher vibrations of exquisite artistry and, simultaneously, the lower cadences of hopelessness and despair.  The concert, I feel, represents the awesome joy that is possible and the cab driver the pain that must not be left unattended.


I received more than the gift of music the evening I attended the concert of Andre Rieu, more than just the magic.  I was also given a reminder of our common brotherhood and the responsibility of adding joy and love and, most especially, compassion to life.  As always, my intuition has been my great teacher and friend…and, in this moment, a conscience for humanity.


                  
                                                                                           Marie Helena




orchestra image from galleryhip.com

cab image from chachadiaries.blogspot.com

Friday, October 13, 2017

Helping Ourselves (and Others) Heal




There is a very deep and special place inside each of us waiting and wanting to be filled...it's the nature of our earth school journey.  

As we travel our path we all experiment in an attempt to find what will actually meet that longing in our hearts.


Power, money, possessions, fame, control, admiration all seem like possibilities...and we embark on our adventures trying these things on to see how they feel.  

All of the above have one important thing in common...they all exist outside of ourselves...which means, among other things, that we can't predict how they will roll out in our lives.  We can make gargantuan efforts to attain them...or, they may seem to drop into our laps...but they can meteorically rise and fall.  Even more importantly, they only provide us with what appears to be external "rewards"...and, in the long run, do not satisfy our soul.


And so we are left with this longing to give substance and meaning to our lives.


In the last few days I have felt inspired to direct my energy towards the concept of healing
...practicing healing efforts for myself and for everyone I encounter. 


We usually have a good idea of what we want to strengthen in our lives and, if we pay attention and observe the actions of others, we will probably have an idea of how we can encourage, acknowledge and affirm them on their journeys.


Here's what I found when I turned my attention to this point of focus. 


ANY effort I made to help heal myself or another gave me a profound satisfaction and sense of joy and I knew it was filling the space I felt of longing for the something more. 

In addition, it helped me to accept what I found coming my way (What Is) because as I embraced whatever was coming in, I had a sense of what to do with it....use it to help me become more than I have been...use it to help others to become more than they have been.

That forward motion, that reaching onward, that beautiful evolution, it seems to me, is what fills the space I have been describing which, then, makes me believe that we are here to become grander, more expansive, more loving and caring of ourselves and of everyone around us

 

This amazing evolutionary motion is what brings us PEACE and, in reaching for this beautiful aspiration, we gift ourselves and everyone we encounter 
with the grace of kindness...supporting and empowering all of us to fill the space that is waiting in our hearts.


We truly are in this together.



                                                                                   Marie Helena



image from thecreativemearchive.com 

Monday, October 9, 2017

Going Viral!







 

The Internet has presented us with the perfect instrument for spreading a message throughout the world.  

When this access point is engaged to communicate a message of great import and significance and the consciousness of the world is ready to receive it...we have a global stirring which is described in the vernacular as GOING  VIRAL.


As the world evolves it is ready for new messages and, gloriously,  we seem to be moving into the beginnings of a beautiful, uplifting spiritual evolution where LOVE is being revealed to be the center of All That Is.


Wouldn't it be wonderful to embark on the cutting edge of this new dimension and make a personal contribution to its expansion?

This can be done in so many truly creative ways.


In a recent issue of O (Oprah Winfrey's magazine) a contributor described her new project of writing a thank-you letter to someone each day of the year.  The author of this message said this decision is changing her life.  


Wow! 
What a beautiful mindset we would be in to be able to identify each and every day someone who has touched our life in a special way and express that sentiment in a thank you.  Now that's gratitude and Don Miguel Ruiz says,
"Gratitude is one of the greatest expressions of LOVE."


I just bought myself a beautiful package of THANK YOU NOTES with a lovely bluebird resting on an assortment of lavender and blue flowers.  I picked this package because it filled me with JOY and I am sending that vibration of joy out each time I send out a note.  I am already finding it a favorite moment of the day.


Here's another way  to do some cutting edge work on this concept.

In a recent blog post (The Divine Matrix) I explained that I check the listing of the ten most popular posts in my blog each day because I now believe that the blog posts on that list are pointing me to some thoughts I need to be conscious of in that moment. The list is changing all the time so I make a point of looking on a daily basis to see the messages being selected for my attention.

On a recent day I noticed my post cntitled "Hug Alerts and Compliment Showers" was listed in the most popular blog posts.   

I pondered the question...Does someone I know need a compliment shower?  

None of the key players in my life came to mind so I decided to send out compliment showers via the Divine Universe to whomever I thought of.  It was great fun to reflect on the beautiful gifts of persons I knew and name their special qualities and I made a point of including some individuals who had presented me with some challenges in my life.


Do you remember the story of THE HUNDREDTH MONKEY? 

It goes like this...

When a certain tribe of monkeys began to develop a new skill and the number of monkeys able to perform that skill reached one hundred...monkeys all around the world  began to demonstrate the skill.
 

Can you imagine the huge contribution you can make by entering  a gesture of Love into  the universal consciousness and helping the number reach critical mass?  And wouldn't it be fun to think of some cutting-edge, far out way to do it?
 

Let's all be a part of Love, the Defining and Signature Principle of the Divine Universe,  Going Viral!

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

The Flower in My Hair







Ever since a rather serious encounter with a rogue candle resting on the kitchen counter, I have been a dedicated convert to the battery operated version of this venue of light.  I have several colored lights arranged on a wall bookshelf, all beaming in a luminous, verdant, brilliant shade of green.  To me, that beautiful color represents the luxury of stability and safety. 


Recently, I realized that there was something else I wanted to bring into my life as a subtle yet constant reminder that I aspire to keep transforming into a more glorious version of myself.  And so, one of those magical green glowing tapers has now been transmuted unto a rotating color bearer gently flashing rose, ivory, lavender, blue...reminding me that I aspire to embrace the ever changing face of life:  the surprises, the perplexity, the compression and the expansion, the pleasures AND the pain.


And, in that willing embrace, I aspire to allow myself to fully feel the power and impact of each moment and let my body entrust to me, as I am ready to receive it, the message and accompanying inspiration of the moment.


For this same reason, I have begun wearing a flower in my hair each day.  Whenever I pass by a mirror and glance into it, I see a lovely offering of nature tucked into the wisps of hair surrounding my face, bringing a freshness into my consciousness and the lovely scent/ reminder of the beauty of an open heart.


Simple gestures...the gentle arrangement of candles and flowers.  Simple but also profound for they signal a tender aspiration to connect more deeply with the challenge and joy of returning to the love-filled creature Who (underneath our earthly disguises) We Truly Are.


I believe the impulse to RETURN to this place of pure radiance is present in every human heart.  What is your very special way of inspiring and directing your cosmic journey?


                                                                                          Marie Helena


image from pinterest