The Sounds of Life

There are times when I seek silence. My soul needs quiet time. My heart wants to beat to a slower more gentle rhythm. My body seeks to be still. I find great strength in these moments and these types of days. I am able to within this stillness find a resource that is often buried in the noise and motion of the day. Sometimes the vibrancy of life adds so much to the layers of my expansion that I cannot always find the chord of connection. But then there are those times that the life I am living is big, large and vibrant! My life becomes full and alive with color, sounds and relationships. My body responds with a vigor and a force that reaches into the depths of my soul and pulls up, like the harvest of rich ripe root vegetables, gems and gifts to nourish me. A recent quote I have been introduced to has sent me reeling and whirling among the beautiful essence of life.

“Once, when you thought no one was looking, I saw you open your heart so wide that the earth fell in. Once, when you thought no one was listening, I heard you sigh so deep that the oceans roared with support. Once, when you thought no one was around, every atom in this universe rushed forward to embrace you. Again. Thank you for existing so intensely.” -Sera Beak

And so life is from time to time, like a chasm so large and deep that my soul grows to enormous proportions. Sometimes it is so full that I cannot hold it all in my cupped hands. Sometimes it is so loud that the beating of my heart cannot drown out the glorious musical crescendo it creates for me. Sometimes the Universe offers me gifts so brilliant that I cannot even begin to express how moved I am. And all I can do is live this life as intensely as I can until the next time I need to find myself in the silence.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2013 Lisa Meade

Senses of Life

How do you show up with your senses each day? These are tools for you to use to be fully present in each moment of the day? When we are fully awake with our senses, bringing them to all the delights that life showers upon us, bringing them to all the experiences we are meant to live through and hold, then we are fully alive and in union with all that is sacred. The following quote inspires this within me each time I read it. “May you be peaceful and joyful and recognize that your senses are sacred thresholds.

May you realize that holiness is mindful, gazing, feeling, hearing, and touching.

May your senses gather you and bring you home.

May your senses always enable you to celebrate the universe and the mystery and possibilities in your presence here…”

-“A Blessing For The Senses” by John O’Donohue, Excerpted from Anam Cara

We have access to so many valuable gifts and lessons, but we have to be open to receiving them. We have to be willing to be vulnerable, intention filled and willing. Being vulnerable means we do not worry about what others are thinking or saying about us. It means being soft enough to experience pain, pliable enough to change and exposed enough to allow all the life we are meant to experience greet us. Many times we close ourselves off from it, we run in fear of it, and we resist and we distance ourselves from exactly what we are meant to have in our day so we can become more fully our brilliant self!

We have to be aware of our intentions too. Blindly going in and out of our days, unable to differentiate one from the next means we are not in alignment with our intentions. It means we may have lost focus. When we set intentions for our life, we heed our calling and we seek connection to Source. We long to move onward and experience our life fully.

When we are willing, we tend to be present and in the moment. Living in the past or fretting about tomorrow keeps us from being in a place of willingness. Instead it keeps us stuck and so we miss the golden opportunities, the chance meetings, the abundance that is waiting for us. Take notice the next time you are having a particularly good day. I will bet you are in a place of openness … your heart and soul willing to experience the moments.

When we bring these parts of who we can be to the day our senses become alive with wonder. We find beauty in everything. We are able to feel and remain whole and intact. We evolve more and more into the amazing union of our physical and spiritual self.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

Successful?

I have had recent conversations with several clients that have circled their way around not being able to find success. We explored all the different definitions that we hold for success. You can imagine the topics ranged from income, to skill, to effectiveness, to education and so on. What always seems to stop everyone in their thought process is what is shared in the following quote: “The plain fact is that the planet does not need more “successful people”. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and human, and these qualities have little to do with success as our culture has defined it.” ~David Orr

What if you never meet the definition of what you think successful is? What if society never sees you as a success? And so we then begin to explore a new way of viewing what we would or could consider successful. First I challenge you to find a new word. Words that have presented themselves are thriving, fruitful, positive, fertile, abundant, rewarding, flourishing, booming, blooming, or blossoming! How fun are these options? How much different energies they hold? Think about it…thrive means to grow well! Flourishing….means to be healthy and whole! Rewarding…means satisfying! These simple words change EVERYTHING about what you originally believed about success. I would rather be any one of these words any day!

Suddenly you feel a shift in the possibilities and choices that you can make. Amazingly the things you were focusing on that felt like blocks or failures have lost some of their weight. Let’s think about our selves with different labels of what makes us unique and thriving. We often fail to recognize the value of the restorer, the peacemaker or the healer within our society. Yet without them our lives would be broken, chaotic, and unwell. Our society needs the courage of those of us who are ready to be everything we are meant to be; alive and vibrant, beautiful and giving, compassionate and healing, calming and wondrous and if it turns out that someone sees that as successful…well so be it! Celebrate the qualities that set you apart, honor the gifts that others cherish about you, utilize the strengths that empower others and love who you are fully.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2013 Lisa Meade

Connection to Truth

Finding ways to connect with our inner truth and soul is sometimes challenging especially if our time and focus is spent on the busy-ness of life, the requirements that eat up the day’s moments and absorb our energy. Today I want to share with you a quote that I often read to help me come back to that important place of focus for me. It keeps me in alignment with the path I am on and the call of spirit that resonates with my being. "The earth recognizes people in whom God flowers. There is a sensuousness, a centeredness, a grace to their movement. There is a relaxed gentility of power flowing quietly within and beneath their action. There is a humble assuredness about them, a reverence, a sense of humor and a sense of the sacred entwined. They are the magical people, for whom the earth has longed. " -Ken Carey

When I read these words and take them in I feel them flow through me like warm honey. Their sweetness soothes me. Their warmth calms me and then I find my truth again and I feel my soul’s embrace. I can be this being described above. I can especially when I look for the beauty in life and in others. I can especially when I stop and listen to what my heart is telling me. I can especially when I remove myself from the stories that try to wrap themselves around my ankles and trip me up. I focus on my truth and feel my soul’s embrace.

Too often we lose sight of this inner grace, this gentle unfolding of power, this humble sense of confidence, and this holding of honor and cherishing of the sacredness of life. We lose sight of who we truly are and become someone of the making of the roles assigned to us in life, the labels attached to our beings, and the expectations of others. We truly are not being authentic or clothing our self in the Divine essence offered us each and every day. Instead we pull together an assortment of costumes to wear; some too tight, some torn and frayed, and some discarded by others and tossed our way.

To learn how to not get caught up in the acts of inauthenticity and expectation and learn how to slowly step along the path of our own resonation, we find our happiness and we feel a completion within. Moments spent with others resonate with our soul, messages shared from Spirit fuel us on, and inspiration for our next step comes easily and without stress. This can be how our days are spent. There can be this much beauty within and around us and we can be of it always.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2013 Lisa Meade