MAGNOLIA LOVE

 International Woman’s Day Art Show 

OMAH Orillia Museum of Art History March 3- April 9th, 2011
30 Peter’s Street South Orillia  10 -4 each day.

Magic Calls to Me

Magic calls to me from canyons
Rivers
Valleys
Shore
Glimpses I catch in sunbeam
Moon shadow
Hollowed out log

Magic whispers
Taunts 
Follow me
Dance along
The edges of now

Magic laughs
Smiles from faces as yet unknown
From friends
Friends everywhere I turn
Magic smiles back

And when
When in
Quietude I still and observe

I then see ever truly
Magic graces my whole world.

While visiting the west coast last summer this  beautiful magnolia almost past it’s prime, compelled, drawing me closer and closer. Leaning farther over a high balcony, I almost toppled to the ground attempting to catch its radiant light!

Later looking at the photo, only then did I see the true gift offered me. Its perfect heart center, reflecting  nature’s magical love, took my breath away. 

Profound messages grace my world from everywhere, when I but choose to see with new eyes, listen and follow.

From what magical place might  love offer its gift to you today, stirring your heart into new and exciting awareness?

Will you be ready to listen, follow and open to receive love’s bounty?

May you be graced with anticipation and wonder this day~

In lovelight Linda

Our Greatest Gift

I’ve seen two impactful, empowering movies lately:’The Soloist’ and ‘My Name is Khan’. Their message is profound and played a part in the creation of the prose that follows.

LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE

Let your light shine
Lightly whispering of new vistas ahead
Like sun sparkling diamonds on water

Let your light shine
Lightly sun kissing snowflake in frosty air
Like gentle caress on baby’s cheek

Let your light shine
Lightly tip toeing each musical note
Like glinting smile in Irish eyes

Let your light shine
Into depth of darkest night
Beaming rays of promise toward pathways of joy

Let your light shine
Lightly upon all lost and in hiding
Those curled inward hugging bone chilling cold

Let you light shine
Lightly on the long forgotten
Those perhaps masked as neighbour family, friend or foe

Let your light shine
Lightly on those only awaiting
Softened edges of anyone’s smile

Let your light shine
Lightly dancing on the edges of time
As together we create world be coming

New world shining
Light filled
Lightly~

Let your light shine~~

Now is the time, this moment is the place, we are the ones who may freely offer our greatest gift.  Our loving light~

Warmest loving wishes

Linda

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?

He never taught a lesson in a classroom…
He had no tools to work with,
 such as blackboards, maps or charts…
He used no subject outlines, kept no records,
gave no grades, and His only text was
ancient and well-worn…
His students were
the poor, the lame, the deaf,
the blind, the outcast—
His method was the same
with all who came to hear and learn…
He opened eyes with faith…
He opened ears with simple truth…
opened hearts with love,
a love born of forgiveness…
A gentle man, a humble man,
He asked and won no honours,
no gold awards of tribute to His expertise or wisdom…
in yet  this quiet teacher from the hills of Galilee
has fed the needs, fulfilled the hopes,
and changed the lives of many millions…
For what He taught
Brought Heaven to earth
and revealed God’s heart to mankind.

Verse  found years ago on a plaque….

I have long held the essence of this wisdom close to my heart. The simple beauty of a life, this way lived, would be of ineffable worth in our world today.

Know Thyself, Saith The Oracle 

Of Delphi

Today June 21, 2009, is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year; the largest amount of light, solar rays, available to us in the Northern hemisphere. Throughout the ages, people have celebrated this day in reverence, joy, anticipation, according to varied cultural traditions. 

The symbolic essence of the Solstice invites one to look toward the play of inner light and darkness.  It is said that at this time metaphysically, the veil between the worlds is thinner, more easily allowing the richness of self awareness and self discovery. 

Facilitating a workshop yesterday on varied aspects of ‘Soul Talk’ a participant, who knows me well, said: “You are all about self awareness, aren’t you.”

I heard this comment in a new way and easily responded, and now enlarge on my truth, by expressing it thusly: “Yes, since it is my journey, my responsibility, my soul call to deeply know and love me, I am all about self awareness. It is vital to me to honour and get to know all parts of me, since I have been created divinely, as we all have been. This is my soul growth path, my spirit leading me back to my authentic, Higher Self. The more I know, the more I know I have yet to know. And then the more I have to let go… (however I digress~!) 

I do know that I can only change myself and through this process my heart opens to more clearly connect to my Self,  Source and Others and my life shifts, amazingly.

Solstice is a powerful time for seeding new awareness’s, intentions, paradigms: preparing for new growth and a new harvest, both within oneself, and in ones everyday life. 

I offer prose today, from a mentor I have never met in person, who had a profound affect on my life years ago. Her name was Virginia Satir, a family therapist a forerunner in family therapy. I immediately resonated with her book PeopleMaking, and its wisdom helped me through a challenging dissolution and loss in my life.

MY DECLARATION OF SELF-ESTEEM
            
                                                         I AM ME

In all the world there is no one else exactly like me
There are persons who have some parts like me, but no one adds up
Exactly like me. Therefore, everything that comes out of me
Is authentically mine, because I alone choose it
I own everything about me:  my body, including everything it does
My eyes, including the images of all they behold
I own my feelings: anger, joy, frustration, love, disappointment, excitement
My mouth and all the words that come out of it
Polite, sweet or rough, correct or incorrect and my voice, loud or soft
I own all my actions, whether they be to others or to myself
I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears
I own all my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes
Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me
By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with me in all my parts
I can then make it possible for all of me to work in my best interests
I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me
And other aspects that I do not know
But as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously
And hopefully look for the solutions to the puzzles
And for ways to find out more about me
However I look and sound, whatever I say and do
And whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is me
This is authentic and represents where I am at that moment in time
When I review later how I looked and sounded, what I said and did
How I thought and felt, some parts may turn out to be unfitting
I can discard that which is unfitting,
Keep that which proves fitting and invent something new for that which I discarded
I can see, hear, feel, think, say and do
I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive
To make sense out of the world of people and things outside of me
I own me and therefore, I can engineer me

I AM ME AND I AM OKAY

VIRGINIA SATIR c 1975

What a wonderful day to celebrate the beauty of who you are…

 And all that you are becoming~

Solstice Blessings to you~