The Magnificent Licorice Jellybean

Easter 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

Pushing ALL the Buttons

When you are working with technology and find yourself faced with a MEGA-variety of technical options (you have probably already noticed my overreaction to this hot-button-for-me subject), do you ever do what I do...find yourself pushing ALL of the buttons? 

Not all at once...but, if the first button does not produce the desired result, I start tapping every button nearby, naïvely expecting one of them to read my mind and give me what I want.  It makes me laugh just to think about this silly solution.  But that’s what I do when I’m stressed. It’s hard to think clearly and logically and frustrating to discover that I am unable to identify with the mindset of the web designers.  (I have been instructed by a few people that if you can relax and try to think like the web designers do, you can probably figure things out.)

Not so.  At least not for me.  When faced with this dilemma, I make an immediate call to my university professor daughter who is well schooled in technology.  Directly after she expresses her compassion about my “crisis” and identifies with my frustration, she usually asks me the same question:  “Have you tried to Google this?”  My answer is usually…… “Hmmmmm, not yet.”  Whereupon, I dutifully go back and execute a search for the answer to my dilemma and I am always astounded to find that someone has nearly always already asked my question and that the answer is waiting for me.

Which brings me to the point of my story.  The someones of whom I speak who have already asked the question and evoked the answer they are looking for seem to me to be a metaphor for what is known as Infinite Intelligence...which is miraculously and magically available to ALL of us.

Owen Waters, international spiritual teacher, explains in his essay on fields of consciousness that “the largest part of your complete consciousness is your superconscious mind.   Also called the higher self or the soul, this is the source of intuitive information.  Your superconscious mind is connected to Infinite Being, which is the spiritual source of all things, and also to the entire universe.”

Waters goes on to say “there is ten times more to the brain than the one-tenth that people are aware of each day.  That means that people have at least ten times the potential that they thought they had and, thanks to the inner being's connection to Infinite Being, that potential can go all the way up to infinity.  You just have to decide how much of your field of consciousness you intend to use.”

How is this done you might ask.  Owen  Waters says you can “choose to pay attention to the still, small voice within”.   You can “choose to ask it for information to encourage the flow of inner wisdom into your outer awareness.”  You can also “choose to follow your inner joy as it leads you towards greater fulfillment in your voyage through life.”

I hear you, Owen, and I am ALL IN.

Instead of pushing ALL of the buttons as I do in my misguided techno-adventures trying frantically to find “the” answer to my problem, I can...

take a slow, deep, refreshing breath and remember I am surrounded by the depth and breadth of Infinite Intelligence just waiting to share the complete and immeasurable universe of available knowledge and information with my eager heart.  YES!!!



                                                                                               Marie Helena


image from Freepik

The Bird with the Loudest (and Softest) Song

I listened to the BIRD with the loudest song as dawn was breaking today.  It was telling all the other birds to wake up. 

 It did not call out as it thought it was the boss; it called out from  the feeling that all should be rejoicing with the beginning of a new day. 

Its sole purpose was to wake all the other birds as it had a message to share.  Because the message was shared from a feeling...it touched the hearts of all the other birds and not a single bird ignored the call.

                    Lexie Henderson

Can you imagine a world in which every message we hear (like the song of the bird) is shared from a deep feeling of the heart...a world in which every message represents a profound and awesome truth about how someone has been affected by life, what someone has discovered, perhaps, or how they have become elated, bliss-ful and filled with joy?

Wouldn't those messages be ones we would not want to miss...because they are so powerful and authentic and real...so truth-telling and so instructive?

Undoubtedly, there would be something in the sound or sense of the message that would compel our attention, our engagement, our happiness-sharing, our joy.

These messages would help us understand our world and the persons who inhabit it.  They would help us understand ourselves and how we connect with others through the Divine Matrix.

The "birds" with the loudest songs sing the most powerfully because they have worked through something important in their lives.  They have had an epiphany and they are joyfully trumpeting their message.

But what about the "birds"  (please read people) who have not finished their processing?  

 Most of us fall into that category at some time in our lives.   

These birds are a work-in-progress.  Their "songs" are not the loudest, nor the most powerful. Rather they are a reaching out to others for understanding, for support, for affirmation, for compassion...and, most importantly, for connection.

But we cannot connect if we do not hear their songs.

Perhaps our role in life is to celebrate the "loudest" bird songs which reveal the joyful moments of someone's connection

and

to  listen ever more closely to the softest, tenderest, weakest songs being trilled by birds whose wings need our support, attention and love.

      

                                                                            Marie Helena

 

image from dianaevans.blogspot.com. 

It's Raining Violets

Though April showers may come your way,
They bring the flowers that bloom in May.
So, if it's raining, have no regrets
Because it isn't raining rain, you know, 
     it's raining VIOLETS.

April Showers*




The lyrics from the enchanting song April Showers are a beautiful commentary about a profound truth of life as expressed by don Miguel Ruiz:
Everything will change. 

In this case, of course, we see condensation evolving into rain.  But these lovely lyrics promise so much more than the principle of evolution.  They promise the joy of transformation and higher expression, positing that growth and change always equal a blossoming, a new gift, an endowment...a promise of something extraordinary to come.

Change...growth...evolution:
the mantra for existence in this cutting-edge global venue we all share.

But it’s not always easy to embrace change.  Sometimes we find ourselves tethered to the past...profoundly sad about its loss.  And what happens if we do not yield to the energy of the universe?

We are meant to evolve.  We are meant to experience challenging, adventurous circumstances.  We are meant to use our creativity and tenacity and resilience to find our true north.  To embrace the unfolding of circumstances surrounding us...circumstances meant to catapult us forward in growth and evolution.  We are meant to become even greater versions of ourselves.


Resistance to this primary principle of operation produces pain and suffering.  Joyful acceptance ensures transformation.  Though change may feel bewildering and unsettling, it is how life proceeds.  Surrendering to What Is makes EXPANSION possible.

This is the Great Experiment we have all agreed to and intrinsic to it is the promise that we are all creatures of love and are constantly moving in that direction.  As we find our way to a loving response to life, we more clearly see Who We Truly Are.

There Is Love and there is that which is on its way to Love.  We can all be found somewhere in the midst of this journey.


                                                                                                    Marie Helena




And where you see clouds upon the hills,
You soon will see crowds of daffodils.
So keep on looking for a blue bird
And list'ning for his song...
Whenever April showers come along.




*Songwriters: Louis Silvers / B.G. Desylva
  April Showers lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group



image: Violets original watercolor painting
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