Morning Meditation - Learn To Adapt

 Morning Meditation. Learning the skill of being adaptable opens the world up to you in a whole new way. ✨

#HealingMorning #MorningMeditation #Change #Unknown #Adapt #Growth #TakeThatFirstStep

Morning Meditation - Valley by Heather Bates

 Morning Meditation. “Valley” by my cousin, Heather Bates. She speaks truth, wisdom, and beauty here. ✨

#HealingMorning #MorningMeditation #HeatherBatesPoetry #Valley #Growth #Persevere #TruthAndBeauty

Healing Morning Extra - Enjoy Every Second

 Be open to changing, to adapting, to compromising. All of these conscious choices refine us more than we realize, and the end result is remarkably beautiful! ✨

Morning Meditation - Cultivate Curiosity!

 Morning Meditation™️. Curiosity is one of the healthiest mindsets - it drives us to learn, to grow, and to experience the unknown in endless ways. ✨

#HealingMorning  #MorningMeditation #CultivateCuriosity #HealthyMindset #Growth #ExperienceTheUnknown

Morning Meditation - How Will You Respond?

 Morning meditation™️. How will you respond? I choose adventure! ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditationArchives™️  #Change  #Growth  #ChooseAdventure

Morning Meditation - Becoming

 Morning Meditation™️. As we live & learn…as we Become…we add continual layers of beauty. ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditationArchives™️  #Growth  #Expansion  #Healing  #Becoming  #InnerBeauty  #Peace

Morning Meditation - Speed Isn’t The Goal

 Morning Meditation™️. Change is challenging. Finding peace & clarity amidst the process helps ease the growing pains.✨

#MorningMeditation™️  #HealingMorning™️  #Change  #Adapt  #Growth  #Clarity  #GrowingPains

Morning Meditation - Sacred Awareness

 Morning Meditation™️. Sacred Awareness - it is a state that prayer and meditation open up.✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditationArchives™️  #SacredAwareness #Healing  #Awareness  #Growth  #Truth

Morning Meditation - Emerson Wisdom

 Morning Meditation™️. My heart sighs at the beauty of this Emerson quote! ✨

#MorningMeditation™️  #HealingMorning™️  #RalphWaldoEmerson  #Read  #Learn    #Enjoyment  #Knowledge  #Growth  #Education  #Empowerment

Morning Meditation - We Prevail

 Morning Meditation™️. We have a birthright based in enduring love. Through that love, we prevail. ✨ 🕊

#MorningMeditation™️  #HealingMorning™️  #Birthright  #FreedomOfSpirit  #Faith  #Challenges  #RefiningOfCharacter  #Growth  #Blessings  #WePrevail

Morning Meditation - George R. R. Martin

 Morning Meditation™️. Reading is everything to me. ✨

#MorningMeditation™️  #HealingMorning™️  #Read  #Knowledge  #Education  #Curiosity  #Growth  #Empowerment  #GeorgeRRMartin

Morning Meditation - Vulnerability

 Morning Meditation™️. Growth is so important, even in small stages. We grow when we act in vulnerability, & we grow when we receive  vulnerability kindly from someone else.✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditation™️  #Growth  #Vulnerability  #Sincerity  #Kindness  #Compassion

Morning Meditation - Reflection Practice

 Morning meditation™️. Reflection is a powerful tool and employing it grows self-awareness and discernment. ✨

#MorningMeditation™️  #HealingMorning™️  #Reflection  #WaterDropletMeditation  #Growth  #Discernment  #SelfAwareness  #Empowerment

Morning Meditation - Growth Demands Dramatic Change

 Morning meditation™️. You may feel scared, you may think it is impossible, but you are meant to grow in dramatic ways. You CAN do it. ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditation™️  #YouCanDoIt  #GrowthAndExpansion

Morning Meditation - We Must Grow

 Morning meditation™️. The wisdom of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditation™️  #MarkTwain  #SamuelClemensWisdom  #SouthernBard

Morning Meditation - Knowledge Is Empowering

Morning meditation. Education comes from everywhere and everything. I say it often, knowledge is empowering! ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditation™️  #KnowledgeIsEmpowering

Morning Meditation - Personal Truth

Healing Morning’s™️ Morning Meditation™️. Personal truth can change over the course of a lifetime. Be receptive. ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditation™️  #PersonalTruth  #ReceptiveToGrowth

Morning Meditation - Blessings in Disguise

Morning meditation™️. Feelings of discomfort, a sense of the unusual approaching - these may be the hallmarks of blessings in disguise. ✨

#HealingMorning™️  #MorningMeditation™️  #APivotToBlessYou

...of all that is...

photo:  www.wenelo.com

In this month of April 2016, I see 2015 as a curious year.  As I look back on it now, I feel a sense of distance that goes beyond the linear mark.  I don't know if that is true detachment, or if it is a shell of self-preservation.  Only time will tell with that.

I lost a large number of people extremely close to me in 2015. Death was not particular about those chosen, taking both family and dear, life long friends in high numbers.  Looking back on that aspect of 2015, I am stunned at the list of those who transitioned, and I am equally stunned that I weathered that many losses and managed to keep hold of equanimity, acceptance and sanity. 

Of course, loss of sanity always surrounds us in the immediacy of loss through physical death, and I am not ashamed to admit that I had many dark nights of the soul because of those losses.

On the other end of the spectrum, I had triumphs.  I experienced love.  I shared my heart with sincerity and honesty, offering my deepest, truest self.  For some moments, that part of me was met and embraced, and I can look back on those moments with clear eyes that see shining beauty.

I stumbled many times, with repercussions of a most recent set of stumbles still playing out.  I am unsure of the direction those unexpected, haphazard, shocking, sometimes ripping and hurtful experiences will take me.

The only thing that I know at this moment is that I am learning and growing as a result.  I am continuing to take the next breath. That is all any of us can do when we absorb the stunning impact of disappointment and betrayal - we take that next step, breathe that next breath, and repeat the process in a numbed state until we are able to tentatively begin settling back inside ourselves.  Back inside from where we flew off and established that state of protection and detachment.

Perhaps that is actually what is happening.  I am settling back inside myself, reacquainting, realigning, reassembling, building and stitching together the old with what I brought back from the outside, from the distance and the quiet.

I often think that what we view as coming undone is the real making of us, because it forces us to release all those pieces of detritus that had been slowing us down, had been holding us back, had been slowly dulling our brilliance.

What prompted this article when it has been such a long time since I have written here?  I was busy the other day, in the midst of networking and focusing on career issues, and a random thought crossed my mind.  A question jumped from those thoughts, and I picked up my cell phone to call a dear friend.  Because I was doing so many things at once, juggling so many proverbial balls, I got all the way through scrolling through my contacts and clicking through to dial that phone number before reality slapped me sideways.  I remembered in a crashing rush that that friend is gone.  He died in September of 2015.

The inevitable avalanche of emotions flowed.  I went through a miniature version of the grief process, shed some tears, rode the wave of colorful memories that had me laughing along with the tears, because this friend always, always made me laugh.  And I pondered this life I'm living.  I pondered the curious process we live here on this Earth School.

I came up with no bright, unique answers.  No startling discoveries have hit my personal horizon. I find that the older I get, the more liquid becomes the process of accepting death, and of accepting change.  When I was wee, life was very finite and defined.  Black and white.  With age comes new perspective and perception, and all those infinite shades of gray.

I have no idea what the year of 2016 will bring for me, even as I sit here well into the fourth month of this year.  What I do know is that 2015 underscored in a dramatic fashion what we all know, and that is that nothing is promised to each of us.  Tomorrow is not promised.  The next moment is not promised, nor is the next breath.

In the span of all that is, each life lived on this planet is akin to the blink of an eye.  

We are such a brief expression of love and energy in physical form, it is another curious moment for me to ponder why we waste so much time.  We get bogged down in so many fears and doubts.  I have allowed myself to become entangled in my own fears and doubts, and I have participated and engaged in fears and doubts of those closest to me.  From that engagement, I have stumbled.  As I am regaining my balance from those stumbles, the clarity gained is of a quiet tone.  In that quiet, I am studying and processing, and making decisions.

I am aware of what I will no longer entertain.  I am aware of what I will no longer indulge.  I am cognizant in a manner that I have not experienced in a great while.  I am aware of promises that I made to myself ages ago, promises which have patiently waited for me to pick them up and breathe life into them....breathe life into ME.

This all sounds so ponderous and dramatic, yes?  In some ways, perhaps it is, but another curious note is that these shifts and realizations haven't hit with thundering impact.  They have slipped in gently, with very little fanfare.  Layers of myself have surrendered to being pared away, lifted up to the winds that swirl around only me, separating me from the old, and brushing, whispering change across my face....across my soul.  I have turned, eyes closed, a slowly spinning dance of release.

In that span of all that is, that which we label Infinity, here I am....expressing all that I am.  Doing my humble, human best to radiate Love outward.  Brushing fingertips with those of you who visit here, our eyes locking for a glance, our hearts marching to an identical rhythm for an instant.  And as the quote above offers....

....and in that moment, I swear....

WE WERE INFINITE....

For now, this knowing, this acceptance of NOT knowing....it is enough. 

Space Between

photo:  www.berlinembroidery.com

I've been silent here for several months.  I began blogging in 2009 and am approaching my five year anniversary in a couple of months.  In the last eighteen months or so, my writing here has slowed significantly.  I was never into the posting 3-5 times a week concept with my blog, but it was rare for me to go several weeks without writing something.  Now it has become the norm for me to go several months between posting here.  I haven't stressed overly about that, as I accept that everything has an ebb and flow to it.

I don't foresee ever completely abandoning this space, or the Healing Morning concept.  I expect that it will morph and grow with me throughout my life.  For the nonce, I am in a quiet phase with Healing Morning.  It isn't that I have nothing to say here.  Some of my thoughts find their way into a manuscript that I am focused upon with the intent of being published.  Other thoughts are valid and worthwhile to be published here, but my heart is simply not into doing it on a frequent basis right now.

Cycles.  Life is a constant series of cycles, of starting over, of learning, of achieving and of moving on.  My current quiet cycle is one that happens to me every couple of years.  I go inward, sorting through my thoughts, surveying where I currently dwell, the people around me, the work I do, and how all of those factors impact me.  What is my emotional health as a result?  How is my heart feeling on a deep, visceral level?  Am I fulfilled?  Am I wishing for more in any area of my life?  And can I fulfill those wishes on my own, or are they better realized with my hand held by another?  The answers to these questions take time, and a strong dose of honesty.  I'm working my way through the questions and the answers.

This is where I am.  Reflecting.  Realizing that endings are imminent.  Good-byes are necessary.  Some have actually already occurred, and one very recently resonated right out of my immediate sphere on its own.  The relief with that one was pretty profound; although there is sincere love for that person still, I recognize that the energy between us was just not meshing in a productive manner any longer.  The other person felt it, also, and an ending occurred.  It was healthy for both of us, and it was time for it to occur.  Other potential endings are still being ruminated in my heart and my conscious mind. 

It's a curious thing, how the state of pause can be full of a large degree of energetic activity.  I am in a holding pattern, yet there is a great deal going on around me.  Those cosmic threads are out there in the universe, attracting other energies and weaving new fabric together.  My part in this is to sweep out a lot of cobwebs and let go of old, threadbare clothing that no longer fits, no longer serves, and be ready to clothe myself in this newly woven fabric as it returns to me with all the bright new threads.  Each color a new possibility, a new experience, new relationships, new emotions, new strengths....all to mesh with the Me that stands in all that I have lived to this point.  I don't have a clue where it all will lead.  

So, I remain quiet.  Words are a constant, but they might not always make it here into a published post.  All those colored threads within the words are still forming a reality that is on the brink of manifesting.  I am in that space between breaths, between heartbeats, between blinks of the eye, between thoughts.  In my mind's eye, I exist as a brightly colored wisp of misty vapor, drifting along the currents of my own emotions.  The day-to-day reality keeps me tethered to this Earth School so that I do not drift away completely, and so that I have a path to retrace and come back to self.  Back to the here and now.  Back to that space between.  Back to that moment before the next beating of my heart, where possibilities are hovering, waiting to engage and be realized.