As a Guidance Counsellor who loved being with the students not so much the administrative tasks, as you may deduce from the sign above I posted on my office door, my awesome team mate ‘supervisor’ Jean, smiled at me trustingly and obligingly said: ‘Great, you work with the students and develop the Grade 9 program for the school.’

That left me speechless since both she and I knew I was great at process work in the moment; not great at writing down the ‘how’ of anything I did. Jean however was and is a very loving and wise woman: she asked another counsellor, my friend to sit at the back of the room and write down what she observed as I interacted with the students. Then together as a staff we co-created a wonderful program for the grade 9’s in that school.

This particular day, we were discussing self esteem, ‘full steam ahead’ ability. 

Listening to my intuition, I said to the class: “Let’s try something new.  I need 3 volunteers and I am going to say something positive, negative or neutral to you. The only thing is that you will not know which one it will be. I need you to respond to me in role play.”

A young girl put up her hand. In a loud condescending tone I scolded: “You haven’t cleaned up your room or done your home work! No you are not going out!”Immediately the student began to berate me, call me names and fall predictably into the angry teenager role.   I then stopped, thanked her and asked the class if they had ever seen this happen. All heads nodded in unison.

I asked for the next volunteer.  Another young girl put up her hand and I spoke: “Its great weather we have today.”  She agreed.

As I asked for the third volunteer, of course the whole class already knew what scenario was left.  A young boy bravely stood up.  I looked at him and in a warm caring voice said, “Do you ever have a nice smile”. 

Silence.  Profound nothingness. You could have heard a pin drop. Thirty two students ~ not a sound.

I looked around the room and said to the class, “What’s happening?”

After what seemed like a long time, someone said: “He doesn’t know what to say.  We don’t hear nice things like that.”

Three more times, 3 more classes, grade 9 through grade eleven; same results consistently. It was then, with a lump in my throat, that my soul knew the depth of this teaching and the dire need to offer this tool to others. I am saddened once again, just remembering the heart felt depth of this moment and the deep trust those students had in me to be able to ‘stay with me in this process….

From my journalling I wrote back then:
this is the work of my soul and I know it so is so simple but so vital to wellness…help me god to bring this to the world in your way…show me, guide me…..thank you for bringing into my life the support for me in this work, my dear friends, my soul friend co-workers and family members who support me in this manner……

As always, I am hearing Truth is so simple. Linda, go back to the simple.

In that moment I saw laid bare, the pain of the unacknowledged soul.  The tender hearts of our pain filled children: the same pain that had drowned my soul as a very young child and most likely the souls of my own children at times, before I became aware.  It is one of those moments when the precious gift of being a ‘teacher’ touched me to the core.

On the surface, how simple a compliment seems. Just an ordinary phrase.  No big deal.

Not so~ A compliment is an open hearted act of kindness. Seemingly small, a compliment has the love force of touching another and reverberating to the essence of who we are. Validating, healing, energizing…
 
So what was my lesson, the nugget of gold from this profound awareness?   I began to see clearly how easily many are conditioned to respond quickly in defensive anger, negativity, meanness and also how many are unable to receive the positive or the ‘good’. 

 
How long will we choose to resist the simple truth of caring and kindness?

 How can we begin to change this together?

 What simple compliment, act of kindness may you offer or accept today, toward becoming the change in this world we all share?

When the ‘Creative’ is Everywhere….

“How come God doesn’t want you to see him Linda?” questioned my tiny but very wise friend, 3 year old Ronnie. I stopped painting the trim on the door and looked into his deep brown eyes, wise beyond his years.  Eyeball  to eyeball  he pierced my soul unblinkingly.

“Ummm, well Ronnie, that’s a good question. I’ll have to think about that one for a minute”, I responded. 

Looking back now, I know that I most likely missed a wonderful opportunity in my speechless state.  Often I would respond to a child’s question with:  “Well what do you think” and from that query, have received some amazing insights. 

Ronnie, son of my friends, had been in my life since his birth. However after his father died when he was the tender age of 2, he became part of our family day care. I held him close, day after day, as he sobbed from the depths of his being, now also separated  from his mother who needed to go back to work.  Over time, we became deeply connected, this tiny sage and me, as we shared in common a well of deep inner quietness and contemplation.   

From this place, Ronnie had posed an ageless philosophical question, debated across the ages. I am not certain I remember how I finally answered him. I do know that it resonated within me from a similar place of seeking.

Ronnie was the echoing voice, the mirror of my own searching: a construct I could share with few others at that time. 

How come God doesn’t want to be seen, Ronnie? From my awareness today, I would now respond to him in this manner.

‘Ronnie, I believe that God /dess,  Source, Great Spirit, Creator ( insert your own words for the universal life force energy) from a great sense of humour gave us a most precious gift by not showing us the ‘Divine I Am ’.  Seeing God would be too easy and you would miss all the really important stuff like how God sounds and feels and how God talks to you and loves you, always.

And you might be looking in only one direction ~ when God is here and there and in the sunshine and the trees and peoples smiles and splashy rain puddles, the dancing music notes, in puppy dog kisses and fairy forests and rainbows, in laughing dolphins and fuzzy warm blankets and ‘specially inside your beautiful heart.’

And I would say to him today:

‘And it’s important to know too, that  ’God’ is with you also  in the sad times, and the scary: always there in the dark and the light.  The ‘God’ source never changes, it’s only us who may choose to move away from the eternal light and love.

We are also then invited to see the wonder of all the universe, whatever that divine energy is called, through the eyes of our own heart and soul,  just like you did then as a small child, since one must be able to see deeply, to pose such an insightful question.’

For the Creator of all is found in all things. 

 Even in you and me, my precious one~!
 

Help us Divine All Knowing  to see clearly with wonder, like that of a child: to sense deeply your Presence always.  Open our hearts to the abundant  ‘awe~ someness’  of life that surrounds us, reflecting back to us the reverberating wonder and intrigue of our bounteous world.

What Do You See, when you search for the Creator ?

What do you Sense, Feel, Hear, Intuit?

How does this feed and nurture Your Spirit ?

Warm wishes as you journey ~  Linda

Would It Be That Simple?

Kindness seems a simple word: ordinary, short, an every day type of word, easy to toss into any conversation. It’s unlike seemingly loaded words, such as ‘success’ ‘forgiveness’ ‘abundance’ ‘emotion’ ‘commitment’.

I investigated the WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD dictionary:
Kind (kind) n (OE cynd) 1. natural group or division 2. essential character 3. sort; variety; class. —adj. sympathetic, gentle, benevolent

Fascinating I pondered, that the ‘being kind’ concept, the emotion of ‘kind’ was listed last; that it seems to be most often observable in others; that it appears to be more powerful, through action. Hummmmm, (this is me musing on paper).

Canada, as true Canadians know, is a land where one may need both a bathing suit and a parka in the same day. We thrive, it seems on variety! And so, several days ago in April. I awakened to a beautiful artistic display of deep mid-winter landscape once again~! Some blessings come too often~!

I was delighted to hear Vince’s snowplough outside, as he’s been most obliging this winter, waiting as I search for my car hiding under mounds of sparkling white. He then quickly cleans my spot and I drive back in, saving me much time and labour. This day, rather than returning to work, I drove to the local coffee shop, purchased a coffee for me and a Gift Card for Vince. As I offered it to him with thanks you, he smiled and said:” You don’t have to do that!” “I know”, I smiled. “But, I wanted to!”

Arriving at my lakeside coffee spot, I intended to watch the beauty of the ice breaking into shattering crystal shards. My soul breathes differently when the lake is free once more to visibly flow and sparkle, to rest and reflect, much like me. Water watching in all forms is one of my favourite meditations.

In only a moment I realized this viewpoint was not a good choice at the bottom of a medium hill. I was now sliding on the icy surface beneath the snow, stranded. On the hilltop, I noticed someone in a car and thought they may have remembered to bring a cell phone, unlike me. Walking up the hill, I watched them turn and drive away. Well I thought they must have been afraid I would ask them to push me out. ‘Wow’, my Observer self said: ‘I’m certainly moving to less reactivity in my situations and this is a good thing’!

Okay, ‘all that is’, I vocalized. (my prayers come in all shapes, sounds and forms.) ‘I know it. I have made a not so great choice and I can begin the long cold walk home, but is there another possibility?’

No kidding! In 5 more steps a van pulled up! Really! Approaching, I sensed I was safe, waved to the man, rolling down his window and said: “Hi’, you don’t know me, I’m Linda and I can’t get my car up the hill, would you have a cell phone I could use?”

“Linda”, he said “hop in the van”.

You would have to know me, to realize that it is very unlike me ordinarily to concur, but this time I chose to listen deeply to the intuitive message of my gut. ‘Go ahead’, I sensed, ‘you are very safe here.’ So into his van, I stepped.

In short, I called CAA for roadside assistance, thanked the man and reached for the door handle. I heard him say: “What if you give me the keys and I will give it a try. What have you got to lose, Linda ?” 

I laughed into his gentle eyes and handed over the keys. Shortly thereafter, my Freedomobile nudged to hilltop; me high five-ing and him, one of those seasoned people who have innate driving skills within, grinning widely.

Calling CAA back, the representative laughed when I told her I had gone to get a gift card to thank someone, gotten stranded having my coffee, had met a complete stranger who ‘rescued’ me and so I no longer needed assistance. My new stranger, friend was laughing listening to how I had ended up in my predicament, I was laughing in the telling of my story, my new CAA friend was laughing, saying, “There really are great people in the world, aren’t there!”

There are, for certain.

Finally asking his name I shook hands with Nick, who was only on that very hill because he had gotten lost on his way to help someone else! I told him I was a writer and asked his permission to tell our story. His nod and smile were my affirmation. “Nick”, I said, “I would like to pay you”.

He reached out and patted my shoulder, saying “Linda, HAPPY EASTER.”

Some people are only in our lives for a short time. We never truly know when or how come they appear. Often they are there when we most need them. Sometimes they are the bringers of quiet miracles: most always in a form of kindness. Kindness, I have observed, goes round and round in circles, blessing both the giver and the receiver  in mystical, magical moments.

And me? This incident brought to me the gift of deeper awareness. The gift of being present for self kindness: in this case, by remembering my cell phone.  By being lovingly responsible for myself.

Kindness after all, must begin from within. We cannot give to others, that which we have not first given to our self, kindly.

It’s really is that simple.

Smiles and blessings
Linda

“If it makes your heart sing, it’s a soul thing.”

 One day bubbling with happiness these words spilled on to the card I was making. There before me, lay puzzle piece answers to the most elemental questions of life: the very questions I had been asking of my self since my earliest years.

“Who am I?”

“What am I here for?”

“How come the adults don’t seem to know how to do this thing called Life?”

I now know that my pondering, a prayer some might say, was a need within me, beckoning me, soul calling me toward my purpose for being. Even at 4 years of age, in essence I was asking the universe, the source within me, how to gain insight into the care and nurturing of my own soul.

For many years I forgot my soul song. I wandered, living an outward everyday life, doing many of the things society told me would bring happiness, yet knowing something was deeply crying within me. Always seeking, I functioned in the world of family, relationships, education and the professional world the best way I knew how. I survived. And, I also accomplished some wonderful things.

Yet inside, I often felt hurting, hollow, in hiding. I now realize I was not alone in this way of functioning in the world; however, I didn’t yet know that much of the world also existed in this same manner.

But that day, in the magic of simple prose, answers to my inner questing challenged me boldly, with profound simplicity.

“Linda, Linda love,” my soul spoke, “go search out that which makes your heart happy. Then, I will join you in creating your new soul song~!”

My wish is that here you may find inspiration, musings and aspects that stir your soul, inviting you to consider new ways of questioning, seeing and being in your life.

Today, I invite ‘You’ to come join me in creating Your New Soul Song; in finding those things that make your heart sing, your belly fill with laughter, and your gifts to flow out into the world.

In Peace, Love, and Joy

Expect Miracles!