Each of us is standing in our own ripples,
Not different but unique,
Finding our own way to stay steady in shared space.
In this familiar but sometime unpredictable environment,
Looking for patterns that help us feel secure,
Relying on patterns that helped us adapt,
We find ourselves courageous enough to learn new patterns that allow us to thrive even more fully
Amongst the ripples.
Softening into the knowing, she returns again and again to the stillness for answers.
There is no less hurt, confusion, and loss in the world out there.
It’s just that in the stillness she can allow the pain and suffering to pulse through her, filtering and channeling it in ways that free her.
Her nature is to swirl and flow in love.
Her job is to know and feel all that is there and embody love above it all.
She rests in the inner knowing that her heart is meant to bloom.
Artwork Credits: This beautiful sand sculpture was hand crafted by Isabelle Gasse at the 2022 Siesta Key International Sand Sculpting Festival. Isabelle is a well known ice and snow carver from Quebec, Canada, who is enjoying the fact that she can do this carving in shorts. Her carvings are as exceptional as her spirit.
Even in the presence of the greatest fear or anger, I can exercise refined goodwill, fluid kindness…grace. Tactfully navigating life’s challenges is one of the greatest opportunities we have to embody love. Not just in the big confrontations but in the small everyday exchanges.
What is regular? Normal? The way things are “supposed to be?”
It seems our nature is to crave stability and consistency, to look around us for the expected.
Can the expected really be a constant pattern of change, redefined based on circumstances?
In the fall every tree chooses a slightly different timing and color and pattern of change based on its relationship with the earth, the air, and its surroundings.
Even the evergreen loses some leaves, changes shape, and becomes something different year after year.
This shifting is considered beautiful, an often awe-inspiring evolution.
No tree taking the exact same steps, no one looking the same, yet all normal, regular, naturally changing.
This change allows the tree to thrive.
I must remember there is no right or wrong in change, simply an opportunity to be unafraid, vulnerable, and resilient.
Think about the possibility.
The harder I rattle the cage, The tighter the confines become.
The more I strive for spaciousness, the more suffocating and unfruitful my actions.
Moved by desire, lofty outcomes in place, I remain caught up in my belief that freedom, success, and wholeness are not attainable…there is always one more sticker to put on the chart before I can experience that reward.
When I put aside the roadblocks of desire and achievement and allow true being to flow, there is still plenty of room for me to thrive and the world to know my magnificence, right here, right now, just the way I am.
Sitting here amongst the relics of old memories and life experiences, the edges now crumbled, some barely recognizable in their origin, purpose or story.
Just formed yesterday or residue of my ancestors’ journeys, the structure erodes.
There is sadness and longing in the erosion.
As the structure of what was folds back into the landscape, the experiences of yesterday become the soft touch of wind on my skin, the journey of tomorrow the warm light in the sky before me,
I need nothing more than the light and wind to remind me of where I have been and where I might next go.
The memories eroding in my mind become the bedrock of my being.
I am not broken.
I am not fragile.
But I am deserving of your kindness.
I do not have to have something wrong with me for you to hold me in your grace, comfort me, love me.
Let me be strong, smart, brave, and wrapped in your love…
and I will do the same for you.
Then, maybe our hurts won’t need to be so big, so often.
Let’s just meet on a little branch somewhere,
nestled in between the flowers,
shaded by a tall leafy tree.
We can find a little nourishment,
share a little love,
not limited by the constructs of time
or burdened by emotions or heavy thoughts.
Let’s meet on a little branch somewhere
and consider doing this more often.
Connection is at the core of communication. How I feel about you and what you say is directly tied to my beliefs about myself. My stories and patterns of reaction determine the fruits of our interactions. So, in order to communicate effectively, I must leave you to your own beliefs and stories and simply tune my vibration to what feels good. When I leave all that other stuff out of it, I find authentic and harmonious connection in every communication.
Rolling in, rolling out.
The waves may be big. The waves may be small.
There may be great space between or a quickness that causes me uneasiness.
For a moment I feel unsteady, unable to trust. Is it the waves or is it me I doubt?
I soften and focus my awareness.
I find a rhythmic ebb and flow within.
Doubt disappears as my internal rhythms take over. I settle into the flow.
I create the ease that I crave. I am not the waves.
I am not the fear.
I am the power behind it all.
Monday Mindfulness 