Nature Guides

Out among the blue and silvery sky today I saw two hawks dancing in the air currents. They were in a sort of synchronization with one another, sometimes almost clipping wings and then swaying further apart. I heard their cries to each other as though calling out the next move. Later I watched a squirrel jump from limb to limb in my back yard trees. Perfect balance, no fear in sight, only obvious intention and unique perspective. Higher and higher further and further into the trees they went.

Nature shows us the perfect performance it keeps each day, only focusing on the one moment, the one flight, and the one branch at a time. How much I can learn from these lessons that are created outside my windows.

If I keep my perspective and vision focused on what I have to do in this moment, I keep my anxiety down, I keep my energies concentrated and I move further and deeper along my path. There is no need for the concern that is often brought along, there is no place for the worry of what if, and there is no room for the what is next at all. So I leave it behind.

With some aspects of my life it is easier said than done, but my intention is to get become stronger at this life trait. I continue to turn to nature for Her guidance and demonstration. I know it can be so, if I get out of my own way, if I open myself up to some trust, if I listen closely to my intuition and let Spirit be my guide.

What I have noticed is nature has a way of uncomplicating my life, making things look simple…I just need the patience and the practice to bring the ease and grace into alignment with it. That is what life is for.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

Enough Is Enough

This quote, author unknown, crossed my path yesterday and got me to thinking…"The feasting is over but the contentment lingers and it's a magnificent thing, isn't it, when enough has been enough?" It has been a delightful several days with many, many family and friends joining us at our home for laughter, feasting, celebration, memory making and laughter. My heart is full. My body has been treated with traditional favorites that delight the palate and the belly. My mind is excited with the stories shared, the possibilities entertained and the hope of tomorrow. And it has been so good.

And yet saying goodbye to the last child as she heads back to school, giving the last hug to the friend as they dash off to the airport, preparing the last of the leftovers and crumbling up the last roll into crumbs for the birds outside has been good too.

I really do think that in the abundance there lies that fine line of when too much of a good thing lends itself to disappointment. But such was not the case for me this year, thankfully. Alignment and gratitude fell in place side by side. But it does give me a thought about honoring the magnificence in enough being enough!

While it is often beyond my control, I certainly can appreciate this factor with the aspects that I have choices over. For example, not needing to eat the last delicious piece of pie…let it be someone else’s, not joining the shopper frenzy out of some odd American tradition that seems to encroach earlier and earlier into the Thanksgiving feasting each year, and not over-staying a welcome by family or friend when enough has been plenty and long enough is exactly that…knowing the next visit will be equally delightful and sweet. If I find the balance within myself, perhaps that will create a fairness in the occurrence of those who have yet to figure out the beauty of this perspective…perhaps! AND if not, there is always the next holiday to give it a go!

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

Love For The Holidays

Gathering around the table with family and friends is a wonderful tradition we share each year. I love it because it gives us pause, and allows us to focus our attention on all we have to be grateful for. For most of us, we are very blessed and have abundance of celebration and people to share it with at this time of year. But this is not the case for everyone. Recently my friend Robin Rice found within her momma’s heart a calling to share her abundance of love with a particular community. The LGBTQ community has many members who have a difficult time at the holiday season. They are often separated from family, some are homeless, many feel misunderstood and often they look to the holidays with heavy hearts. This year Robin created a spectacular opportunity to offer hearts of love to this particular community through a unique approach with a website, Your Holiday Mom (www.YourHolidayMom.com).

Everyday from November 22 through January 1st messages of love, appreciation, delight and care are posted for the children, teens and young adults of this community. No one should feel alone or unloved EVER, but especially during the holiday season. What better way to put a smile upon a face, to add cheer to someone’s heart or to ease someone’s pain than the love of a mother? Mother’s love heals, it bolsters, it radiates and it understands.

I strongly suggest you visit the website, your heart will respond much like The Grinch’s and grow three sizes in one day! If you like what you hear and see, please post it through your social media sources. If you know a member of the LGBTQ community, please share it with them as well. Our lives are far too short to not offer as much love as we can within our communities. We don’t need to know where it lands or how it impacts whomever it touches. We can trust, if it is of love, it will be right, it will be good and it will be beautiful.

I wish you the happiest of holidays and many blessings ~ Lisa

© COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

Survival Tactics

Maybe it is the rebel in me or perhaps it is just my way of surviving. I am not sure if it even matters, all I know is that it works for me. When this time of year rolls in and the world around me becomes chaotically busy and frenzied… I slow down. When peoples’ daily agenda pads fill up with more and more commitments and obligations, mine gets more and more white space. Living simply during this time of the year allows me to find my way. I know that over-stimulation is not good for me. I shut down. I am the one person in my family who avoids the Mall like the plague. I don not enjoy it, come home with a screaming headache and feel like I need to reprogram myself after a shopping trip spent there. Too much noise, too many people, too many distractions…ahhhhhh!

So the same is true for me with my days and nights during this time of the year. I have to create white space for me to be able to enjoy my holiday time and the things that really matter. I make a point of letting go of things that are not necessary. I delegate to my family responsibilities that I do not need to hold all by myself. This is not the time to play Super Woman!

When I make the effort to live simply, (how sad that it needs to be an effort), everyone benefits. I am a happier person, a better-organized person, I am able to have fun, live large, celebrate and relax. I also have the time then to honor my body and eat healthy and get out side for long hikes and walks. Simple living suits me well. I know I glow and ripple out positive energy when I embrace this. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember all this and I find myself stepping into that beckoning pool of frenzied holiday activity, only to quickly pull myself out, wrap up in a blanket of peace and comfort and move on.

How do you survive the holiday season?

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade