Flower Farewells: Embracing the Process

Namaste this Mindful Monday … Farewell DogWood Blooms!
Ode to the bloom; the once powerfully pink, now paled & browned petals.
Fleeting moment passed for smiling pink mid-air … now petals scattered
falling … falling … fading … fading … fading  away … until next spring!

Admittedly, transition & transformation are oftentimes challenging to embrace. The dogwood blooms outside my window have had their time this season with a few wilted, faded petals still clinging to the green and the rest scattered down below. The hills across the way were slow to green this dry spring season and are now, all too quickly fading back to their golden brown. Celebrating the green & pink comes easily, effortlessly, like breathing. I don’t celebrate the brown, I accept it and with the tools of gratitude, understanding & unconditional Love, I embrace the brown. Truly, I love the hills & petals, and brown is part of who they are.

Our school year is coming to a close. My last music classes are tomorrow. I’m going to the zoo with Jeremiah’s class on Wednesday; the last field trip before Jr. High. The free-form craft days last week had inspirational, imagination filled moments. I am fulfilled in mothering that process as I am in THE mothering process. Truthfully, Jr. High feels like brown hills but I embrace my man-cub for the awesome one he is & is growing into being. On our walk to school this morning, we discussed past lives, soul development, cellular memories in both body & soul as well as mind-heart-soul connections. Is it any wonder that my 12 year old son so often feels like my best friend?! One of his wise comments this morning was, “I’ve often thought of the mind as the treasure chest and the heart as the key.” Indeed!

As I bid farewell to the blooms that so beautifully buoyed me for weeks, I find myself yet again embracing the dark process within me of aligning with my calling & wondering what shifts are required to align with others similarly called. At New Thought Families, we believe that spending heart time with our children, ourselves, our families & communities with Source at the center,  is the sustenance that grows us & allows for beautiful blooms. Heart time is found in Love, laughter, play ~ fun & frolic ~ as well as sacred reverence. Our Feathers Of Faith Camp in the high Sierras offers an amazing setting for heart time. At the moment, we have a ways to go to have enough sign ups to make it happen. I am keeping the faith … and gluing feathers on the flyer invitations. I am inviting & doing my best to affirm miracle manifestation mindfulness. I am also applying this to the Summer Cyber Camp which at the moment, I have to admit has me somewhat frozen. Fear? Doubt? Probably. I am doing my best to embrace the brown hills process in me with a beckoning to the pink bloom dreamer within to reach for the light.

So for this week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation, who is up for embracing the process of Miracle Manifestation Mindfulness? I am! I am! That’s right! I AM! And with God all thing are possible. With Love, all of life is a circle, every farewell, a hello. I will leave you now with much gratitude for you being here and for us all planting seeds of possibility. Our daily Play & Pray Calendar is here! Our music video, Plant Our Planet is here!
 Plant Seeds Everyday in a Playful Way!

Meditative Mother = Mindful Mmmmm OM

Namaste this Mindful Monday!
This day finds me dashing about setting up craft materials for the free form arts-n-crafts days at the schools this week. For the 3rd & final time this year, I will serve at the 2 local campus’ with about 200 kids at each; every class comes in and creates for a class period. The kids are so happy for this creative space & time where they are allowed to flow & glow. For my part, it’s a whole lota materials preped, schleped, laid out, & cleaned up. However, I have an awesome helper, Fabulous Faye and the priceless service of holding this creative space for the seeds of inspiration to sprout. It’s what mother’s do!

Still I have to really stay mindful of breathing as I feel the pull of all else that calls this day, this week. This is what I have chosen. This is what I am showing up for ~ and JOYfully at that! Because it is my choice. So I am remembering to be an OM in motion. I am being mindful of putting the OM in MmmmmmmmmmmOM!

OM

Yesterday’s ‘Mother’ celebration was joyous with some family time and some time with our friends at the Methodist church. I helped lead the music which I loved and the kids were asked to write & share a celebration/honoring of mom. My amazing Jeremiah was inspirational in his writing & delivery of “Honoring All Moms.” Here it is in an unedited by mom format. I will post a recording of him ~ he is quite the presenter ~ onsite on our New Songs page as soon as we can ~ I may even post another mindful moment this week~! The poor child has just helped me set up the crafts for tomorrow with Fabulous Faye and he’s off to baseball practice. He is an awesome reminder of what spiritual parenting & mindful living can mirror back to you. That … and I am extra blessed by his generous soul ~ so happy he picked me for a mother!

Jeremiah:
Moms are quite amazing. I’m not even talking about our own moms. Have you ever wondered how a lion’s big, sharp, teeth, never cut their cubs when they carry them in their mouths filled with big, sharp, teeth. And how everybody fears the big “man eating” momma bear and when nobody is around, they are loving and caring. It always amazed me how a bear calm, loving and caring to raaah (and it always shocked me how mom could do it to).Just kidding of course. And birds, and how they feed their chicks, well I won’t go into great detail because it is really gross, but if you don’t think about it too hard, (good luck) it’s kinda sweet. But then they just push them out of the nest, but then again that too is for their own good. And penguins, their moms will go for many miles, hundreds even, eat fish, and come back hundreds of miles and were back to the bird feeding thing. Personally I think the dads are more amazing there but father’s day is in a month or two so I’ll wait on that one. But anyway moms of our own kind are just as amazing. They put up things like their kids, their kids friends, their kids messes, cooking for their kids, cleaning for their kids, their kids laundry and that can sometimes be a pain, shopping for their kids, their kids sports, their kids music, drive me here, drive me there, among a few things. And somewhere along the line I think we got it switched around that women a.k.a. moms were the weak type. I think it is the exact opposite. Moms are tough, they raise your kids, protect them, and keep a clean “nest” for them which can be the hardest of all. And I don’t know about you but, you the thing called “child birth” doesn’t sound fun and definitely not a job for the “weaker sex”. A year or two ago my mother’s day gift said “my mom is a gift”. Now don’t get me wrong she is an awesome mom. Now stay with me, as us youngsters say, she is ninja. God sure helped me pick a good one. But now I say “all moms are a gift”.           

So your Mindful Meditation Invitation this week is to mother yourself & others with the peaceful OM. Remember, we create it all and we can choose to create with the OM! Yippee! Join us online for our daily Play & Pray Calendar of planting seeds I am so grateful for you, your mindful moment here, and the OM seeds you will plant this week! Thank you, thank you!

Mother May Eyes: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Namaste this Mindful Monday!
How was your week of putting hands & feet into loving service of the shining celebrations inside you? At New Thought Families, I am planting seeds, tending sprouts and spring cleaning out the weeds! As always, I look to the Master Gardner for guidance and the pink dogwood blooms outside my window are a wonderful measure of faith, divine order, right timing and the all powerful presence of patience, perseverance & perfection. There is no accident, we refer to Mother Nature as this process of growth & guidance for presence & perfection is the stuff that mothers are made of.

Perennial plants embrace their time each year irrespective of the challenges or hardships of their environment. And I doubt they hold onto their experiences of season’s past. They simply say YES! So while basking in the beauty of these pretty, pink preachers, I am following their inspiration and once again putting out the invitation to the Feathers Of Faith Family Camp in the sacred Sierras this summer. I am letting go of  history & embracing possibility! Registration information is being loaded on site ~ check it out here!

In addition to the summer camp in real time, I am developing one in cyber time. Now this is a mixture of vision & inspiration with a heaping helping of faith and the courage of conviction that the worst that can happen is not so bad. I am saying yes to birthing the unknown knowing that co-creation is the heart of evolution. And anything co-created in Love cannot fail. I’ll give you the link one Monday soon so you can watch this concept sprout!

I affirm the perfection of the garden I am growing. I am seeing miracles manifest with my Mother May Eyes full of unconditional Love! Why not?!

I am choosing to see the yes that abounds with my willing, Mother May Eyes! We truly get to choose how we see our world. We recently had a 2 week cat sitting stint for our landlady’s 2 cats with Jeremiah ‘in charge’ of the job. Long story made short, 1 cat, Oliver, ran off  10 days into it and we spent 4 days looking, praying, calling, hoping. Ok, really just moments of those 4 days. Given our rural area, I had fleeting thoughts of coyotes, rattle snakes, raccoons, even a mountain lion. I also did my best to entertain thoughts of miracles. And thank You God, that’s what we got! When Jackie arrived home late on what would have been Oliver’s 5th night gone, he was here waiting for her at the door!

I could let weeds of judgement & doubt sprout up ~ like what didn’t Oliver like about us?! But I am embracing the miracle of his safety & the goodness of this gift of life. In moving forward with summer plans, I am likewise choosing to align with my highest good & the highest good of all.  This week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation is to weed out any negative thoughts or actions that threaten your garden blooms! May you see yourself, your life, with fresh May eyes full of unconditional mother Love.

I just finished the edit of our 4th Conscious Comedy Tell~A~Vision: Working Wonders. Freshly on YouTube, give it a look, listen & laugh(?!) ~!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Husn7yexDRo

 Tell~A~Vision: Working Wonders

In Service To Celebrations

Namaste Mindful Ones this last Monday, last day of April!
May Day! May Day! Yes, the month is nearly upon us and I have much on the list to be in service to ~ including being here ~ here & now with you!

First of all, a promise is a promise. Last week, I promised to voice a few sprouts out of the darkness. I can’t say a whole lot yet but I will say a little. First of all, I have learned anew that when great inspirations come in that sweet flood of Spirit, the nay sayers within can come up rumbling & grumbling. This meant a whole new round of spring cleaning around here! Literally, a big pile of give aways are nestled in 1 corner of a much cleaner garage and I am left again choosing faith over failure. I will also say that the fun celebrations are still smiling of their infinite possibilities and I will be speaking of them here in the coming weeks. And from the depths of mystery … I will say, still somewhat secretly, think Summer Camp … Sacred Summer Consciousness Camp … ~!

Service itself is a celebration! Kiss Of Bliss blogger Dr. Angi has an amazing project underway giving out Gifts Of Love. Her hand painted masterpieces on paper bags have gifts going out in a pay it forward Kindness campaign. She’s giving out some through her blog ~ and I won one! Yippie! You can too! Go to Kiss Of Bliss! I will most likely frame my bag and make 1 or 2 (or 3?!) more to pay forward. I’ll let you know!

Jeremiah and I were also in service this last week to our local Methodist church. We haven’t been in attendance this year … only twice since we were in the Christmas eve play. The reasons that go with that are multi-layered and may show up another blog day. But the community of fine folks there are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the beautiful church and had a great dinner. I was asked to write a song which Jeremiah  & I performed as part of the festivities. I may get a rough recording of it onto the new songs page but here are the lyrics:

Built On Love 2012 Laurie Story Vela
~ A Tribute to the United Methodist Church, Sutter Creek, CA

Chorus:
Friendship & Fellowship, we gather in Faith
In these hallowed halls filled with God’s grace
Love builds this sanctuary sacred every day
Holy harbor, a refuge, where folks find their way

Voices of the Pastors echoed here with gold mines
In bar rooms & school rooms, gathered where they could find.
Then in 1859, Abram took faith door to door
saying let’s build a church where we worship our Lord.
Chorus

Yes, we tribute those united who came before;
those who first built these walls & opened these doors.
Thank you Reverend Fish, we honor you …
And we’re grateful Rev. Walker for you built the pews!
Chorus

Your hearts & hammers precious ancestors ring on loud & clear
Your Love built this sanctuary that we hold so dear
United we still gather as you did in yesteryear
We welcome & we worship; Christ community continues here.

Bridge:
Hearts & hands still united & gathered to serve
from conversations to quilts, fine meals with hors-d-oeuvres!
Decades of dedication, choirs of voices raised high
and the steeple … like your people … reaching for the sky!
Chorus
Holy harbor, a refuge, where Christ leads the way …

Jeremiah in our last Conscious Comedy, "Ego Busters"!

And now, Jeremiah is on his way home as Rev. Karene Piccolo is on her way here and we will be taping our 4th Conscious Comedy Tell ~A~Vision episode. This act of service leaves us doubled up in laughter every time! In service to laughter, to joy, to evolution through creativity. Visit our Videos page for links to all of our comedy shows; we really hope you laugh too ~ at our sheer ridiculousness ~ or at least smile with amusement. Our daily Play & Pray Calendar will be updating for May … the Love goes on ~ and on & on! In service. In celebration! 

 I must repeat last week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation to put hands & feet to the shining inspirations sprouting in you ~ in service to celebration & celebration of service!  Here’s hoping your celebrations are sacred, silly & service centered ~ in conscious expression of mindful, meditative, miraculous YOU!

Sprouting Celebrations!

Namaste Mindful Ones!

This faith filled week is seeing some super celebratory sprouts for New Thought Families~ yippee! And, I must keep them in the darkness another week or so … What I can share is the amazing fortitude of sweet Spirit. The force of Love that lives in each of us is always looking to evolve, to grow, to create, to express. Our job is to get out of the way so the inspirations can come in a flow of grace and then keep showing up with a moment to moment yes of next steps.

What’s happened for me this last week was a lot of clearing through the darkness that yielded a flood of light! I highly recommend spring cleaning! It is truly amazing the energy it shifts and the room it makes ~ on so many levels! In keeping with the week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation to have faith in the darkness & let faith show me the light, I was rewarded with some shining visions, thank You God! And in keeping with opening up to new possibilities, some of what is showing up is surprising ~ even to me! So, then the next challenge is to take it out of my heart & mind into right action steps. I PROMISE to post some (initial) version of it here next week.

Outside my window, the beautiful pink dogwood blooms are sowing their celebrations. This week is their time! I celebrated them here last year on April 25th … Amazing how nature cycles back in a blaze of glory!

Pink Blossoms Sprouting Celebrations!

What is sprouting in your yard? In your life? In your heart? This week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation is to put hands & feet to the shining inspirations sprouting in you! Remember to allow dark times as well as the careful gardener tending times to the light filled celebrations! As always, we invite you to play & pray everyday! You can do it with us online! April’s multi-media Play & Pray Calendar features some cool sea life pictures. Thanks so much for sharing the garden with us this moment … may we all successfully sprout our celebrations!

Sowing Celebrations

Happy Mindful Monday!
Happy for no reason & happy for every reason. Some week’s easier said than done! Our Mindful Meditation Invitation this last week was to look for the flow of grace ~ even (especially?) in the midst of challenges. Did you try it? How did you do? I must say, “it” tried me! In the wake of a week of challenging energy … ripple effects from the previous weeks, I suspect … my body seem to be kinda falling apart ~ or at least bearing the brunt of ongoing stress. But I am happy to report that I have once again experienced the power of mind over matter, affirmation in the face of infliction, and most importantly, faith in the darkness. I am reminded of the power of faith. And the absolute necessity to live by it. For it is only with faith that I reach for the spiritual tool box to apply whatever virtue is calling … forgiveness, compassion, Love, always Love.

Springtime is the glorious season of seeds sprouting & buds blossoming. This last week our beautiful petals took a powerful pounding of icy rain and not too far up the road, a big blanket of snow. I must agree with TS Eliott: “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.” And when we compare this with our physical states and metaphysical awakenings … rising from the darkness to bloom or even be re-born in spring, it is not uncommon for our own ego, subconscious resistance or whatever you want to call it to rear its ugly head. Mine came up roaring! The good news is, if we remain awake & aware, forgiving & compassionate, we can use any & all “fertilizer” to not only sow our seeds but grow our souls. And that, is cause for celebration!

So before I wrap up & offer this week’s Invitation, let me share just a few of the reverent resources that came my way … just today! You see, everyday, every moment beckons with Spirit guidance cheering us on to transcend our pain. I truly believe this. It is the substance of divine order. It is fueled by faith … but it is the super grade fuel. You see, it’s not just having faith that everything will work out ~ for our highest good ~ but the faith to reach out to meet & greet the Love that is always waiting. There are a plethora of writings, of teachers, of media that can put these Spirit messages before us. I am re-awakened that part of my mission here is to add to the perhaps less than plethora of these materials for young ones and families. But, for here and now, and for you ‘grown up’ reader, let me share a few of the beautiful resources that floated in to me this very day. The Science Of Mind magazine with daily guides is a wonderful monthly resource. Yesterday, the May edition came and even though I haven’t read much of April yet, I was drawn into the May Ernest Holmes article, an excerpt from his book, This Thing Called You: “The answers to your problems lie not in God’s willingness, but in your ability to believe.” Holmes advocates the use of repeated affirmation to change consciousness, “The Law Of Good is continuously operative in my life.” This article, as so much of Holmes’ work is chock full of powerful affirmations and just by reading the power of his words & beliefs, my own energies were re-aligned & uplifted. “If you would exchange joy for tears, forget the tears and turn to joy. Change your mental pictures and thus create new experiences. You must not only realize that God is right where you are, you must also know that the Law Of God responds to you. Say I sense my oneness with all of life. I enter into the joy of conscious union with the Infinite. …”

If you are anything like me, your bookshelves are stocked with wise words of power that can help you reach for the light and grow you up from even the stinkiest fertilizer. Irrespective of your shelf status, here is a wonderful online resource for you. Check out this vast inspirational online library of teachings: http://www.trans4mind.com/

I was also reminded today of the power of meditation. For me it is a daily practice that fuels my tank. And talk about faith? I just show up with faith and Spirit will feed me every time. Meditation is a powerful practice for all … from any walk of life or religious beliefs. It is the time sitting in the quiet that allows us the freedom to walk the path in the midst of the noise. If you are interested, there’s a great website for transcendental meditation. http://www.tm.org

I also caught this awesomely inspirational video today, an interview with Anita Moorjani about her story relayed in her book “Dying to be Me”.
You can watch it here on Conscious Media Network:  http://www.cmn.tv/videos/anita-moorjani-on-dying-to-be-me/

And the list of today’s faith filled reminders goes on … my beautiful 12-year-old boy still smiling and hugging me today even though I gave him a not so hot hair cut last night. The growing buds outside my window … they did not die in the weather but are growing on in anticipation of the gorgeous pink blossoms that live inside them. This astounding technology that lets me express Love here & on our Play & Pray calendar pages with some strumming on the keys … mmm it is all good.

Thanks so much for sharing this moment. Let us name & claim the celebration of life! This week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation is to have faith in the darkness & let faith show you the light! I am keeping the faith and hope the same for you. Here’s our music video, Ask In Faith.

Rejoicing in Choicing

Mindful Easter Monday Greetings!

This day after the Spirit Rising of Easter, beckons of new beginnings. As Christ rose from the dead & spring blooms rise from the darkness, we are offered the reminders to ascend from all that holds us down, or even, dare I say, all that has become deadened within us. What buried dreams or desires within you are calling for resurrection?

So often our lives race on without pause for reflection & re-direction when needed. This season, I find myself having many Gethsemane Garden moments … Our Mindful Meditation for this last Holy Week was one of living in gratitude aware of the flow of grace; to see & celebrate the flow of God’s grace in our homes, our travels, our world and to truly embody it in a renewed Spirit Rising within us. I had a few challenges during the week including leaving my purse in a restaurant … it seems it is lost & gone forever (though a small, optimistic part of me is still waiting for it to show up at the post office~!). Because we were on vacation, the purse was full of extra goodies … like my digital camera & Flip video camera. The camera was full of pictures … most importantly all the student snapped photos from our 6th grade Peace Cabaret. It is such irreplaceables that tug at my heart. Still, I get to choose to flow with grace. I think the biggest challenge lies in accepting me & my actions and not going too deep down into the “Let’s figure out why I’m sabotaging myself” garden path. The flow of grace is always available even and especially in the awkward moments of life.

Jeremiah & I pray daily and so we included those who have my belongings & other prayers for acceptance & safety over the purse situation. Even though I didn’t slip too much into drama & felt fairly peaceful about the whole thing, it took me a few days to come to recognize the flow of grace. So I am applying this to other challenges, paying attention to the presence of sacred purpose in all. 

Grace  means more than gifts. In grace something is transcended, once and for all overcome. Grace happens in spite of something; it happens in spite of separateness and alienation. Grace means that life is once again united with life, self is reconciled with self. Grace means accepting the abandoned one. Grace transforms fate into a meaningful vocation. It transforms guilt to trust and courage. The word grace has something triumphant in it. ~ Yrjo Kallinen

So after our Holy Week challenges & (churchless) Easter celebrations, this Mindful Monday finds us nearing another completed spring vacation. Then, back to school where Jeremiah has 37 days left before moving on to Jr. High. After entering his high school math class a few weeks ago, he is feeling more independent & I am feeling less protective … I guess! It seems I am once again facing & embracing those big life questions that have challenged me for many years … community, opportunity,  … just plain unity ~ you know, where to live & how best to give.  But rather than drowning in the details, I am rejoicing in the freedom of choicing! Jeremiah & I both agree to do our best to be happy for no reason & happy for every reason ~ no matter what! What a blessed life this is … so full of choices! Here’s the 3rd verse of our Begin Again song:
 Life is such a series of choice after choice.
Why not choose the voice that causes you to rejoice?
Moment by moment, we can begin again.
Joy is always calling you … Let it in, let it in, let joy in!

I would embed the music video of Begin Again, but as you may have noticed here the last few weeks, something has changed here at WordPress and I can’t seem to figure out what! On my Laurie’s Stories blog at Blog Spot, the embedding is still going just fine which does bring me joy, thank you very much. Soooooooo, there we go, more choices!

Speaking of embedding videos, we do have 2 new ones: an Easter Sunday Celebration featuring our Season Of Peace wrap up song & our Easter Affirmation Tree and our 3rd Conscious Comedy Tell~A~Vision: Ego Busters where we will hopefully make you laugh or at least smile & you can check out my 12 year old Jeremiah’s ‘ego wisdom’.  You’ll also be highly entertained by our co-creator Rev Karene Piccolo. Click on our picture below and you’ll find both new videos on our website as well as our multi-media, interfaith, intergenerational daily Play & Pray Calendar.

Thanks so much for taking a mindful moment with me here! This week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation is to continue to see & celebrate the flow of God’s grace in all of the resurrected, renewed Spirit Rising stirrings within us. Namaste, Love!

Check out Laurie Story & Jeremiah’s latest videos!

The Grace Of Gethsemane

Greetings this Mindful Monday … this sacred day … Holy Week. An incredible week of celebration, tribulation and resurrection. This, of course, being the week that Jesus went from the waving palm fronds of celebration & accolades to the incredible suffering of the cross to the ultimate Spirit Rising, life eternal of Easter. It is an invitation to all of us to visit our own Gethsemane for relection (re)dedication,  renewed inspiration. Gethsemane is symbolic of the struggle that takes place within the consciousness when truth is realized as the one reality. ~Charles Fillmore

I bid us all great blessings in our own gardens this Holy Week of renewal. Remember that all seeds need some darkness to sprout. And that painful fertilizer always somehow make us wiser. Wherever you are in your garden, germinating, sprouting or already enjoying full bloom, I celebrate you and this gift of life. I celebrate the death and birth in the cycle of life so apparent in spring and Easter, and in all that is holy. It is all Holy Spirit in action.

Holidays are holy days of remembrance and celebration and they are also known as a time of rest, vacation, or leave of absence. This Holy Week finds Jeremiah & I vacationing with my sister & niece in San Diego, about 9 hours from home. My niece is on a pro youth soccer team and they have had a tournament here this weekend. Given my relationship with sports, it has been an interesting time …~! I celebrate my niece who is a great athlete; a fast forward, scoring 50% of the goals for her team this weekend.

In the wake of our busyness last week with the Peace Cabaret and so many other things, just getting here was a win for me! And as our Mindful Meditation Invitation of the week reminded me, life is truly a gift … in all of the triumphs & challenges! I have my ongoing juggling act of all the facets of my life I feel called to … like New Thought Families. From the road, and God’s good graces, our April Play & Pray Calendar is up and running and we offer you a cyber Easter Blessing “Hunt” to add to your Easter reflections and connections … Easter Blessing Surprises are here!
The story of Easter is the story of God’s wonderful window of divine surprise.   ~Carl Knudsen

And so we flow this Holy Week and time of holiday happenings. Here’s the prayerful intention that we can all flow this Holy Week ~ full of deep dive ease & grace. A holiday is a holy day, and holiness doesn’t happen to us. Holiness is a choice we make, and holidays are portals of energy through which the experience of things that matter most is increased within us and in the world in which we live.  ~Marianne Williamson April brings us Earth Day, Arbor Day and a new Season from the Association Of Global New Thought. With the close of the Season of Peace (April 4th) comes the Association’s Season of the Earth running April-June. The inherent beauty, renewal, and reawakening of spring is ever calling our attention to our beautiful planet ~  to the ever increasing Green Scene awareness. We continue ours on site, and at home.

So until Easter Monday … let us make our Holy Week Mindful Meditation one of living in gratitude aware of the flow of grace. In our homes, our travels, our world, may we see & celebrate the flow of God’s grace. And may we truly embody it in a renewed Spirit Rising within us. Namaste, Love.
 

Sunshine Kisses

Namaste this Mindful Monday!

I received a lovely Sunshine Award nomination this last week which is apparently circulating the blogoshere … Dr. Angela Kowitz Orobko is a consummate blogger and I referred to her Kiss of Bliss blog here a few weeks back: http://akissofbliss.wordpress.com She weaves her art with insightful commentary & lots of useful references and resources so she always has interesting, informative & inspirational posts. So thank you Dr. Angi & because you thought enough of my little weekly blog here to pass the Award wand to me, I will pass it on. Though I must say, I must modify the rules (don’t I always?) a bit according to my abilities.

The Sunshine Award, like all other rewards, has some rules:

• Include the award’s logo in a post or on your blog ~ Dr. Angi!
• Answer 10 questions about yourself ~ Do I hafta?
• Nominate 10-12 other fabulous bloggers ~ I don’t get out much … I’m nominating 2!
• Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs, letting them know they have been nominated~ Will do~
• Share the love and link the person who nominated you. Hugs & kisses to Dr. Angi & Kiss Of  Bliss http://akissofbliss.wordpress.com

TEN QUESTIONS

1. Favorite color: Rainbow (all colors!)
   OK, today, orange for sunshine and the fruit that is the color and the sunshine state that grows the fruit!

1. Favorite animal: Giraffe or turtle or frog (do amphibians count?)
2. Favorite number: 7
3. Favorite non-alcoholic drink: Water (really!)
4. Prefer Facebook or Twitter? Facebook (only because I never go on Twitter!)
5. My passion: Creative Expression
6. Prefer getting or giving presents: I prefer giving presents (though I also like giving to me which also = getting!)
7. Favorite pattern: Circle (It’s never broken!) ~Mandala, endless patterns
8. Favorite day of the week: Sundays (churches fill up with folks celebrating God!)
9. Favorite flower: China Lilies

Here are my top picks of blogs that bring Sunshine:

Well, I’m sure there are many light filled blogs out there but I just don’t get out much. However, I do have 2 wonderful recommendations for you. Both of these ladies are artists who live in beautiful, nature filled places. They both share their art and the wonderous places they live as well as their poetic hearts & musings.

http://starbear.wordpress.com/  EnJOY Starbear’s “Place of Spirit, Spirit of Place ~ Joy”

http://wwwmountain-momentscom.blogspot.com/ EnJOY Carol’s “Mountain Moments”!

So, this exercise has brought to light many lovely lessons. First, it is a wonderful thing to acknowledge the work & passions of others. Next, I don’t like picking favorites. Also, I don’t like ‘have-tos’! And finally, as with all things, everything we say yes to necessarily means we are saying no to other things. So hopefully, at the end of the day, we can award ourselves the “Wise use Of Time & Energy Award” which can always use the light of discernment!

Each season brings new choices for our time it seems. For the Season Of Peace & Non-Violence, Jeremiah & I performed a Peace Concert yesterday. It was a joyous, love filled event full of high vibrations. And I have been spending lots of time with Jeremiah’s class producing a Peace Cabaret that culminates this week in school-wide performances. The kids have come a looooooooooooong way and I think we will be having a very positive impact on others and on the planetary vibration with our efforts. A combination of music & drama, Jeremiah is playing a few of his favorites, George Washington Carver and Frederick Douglas. He also solos John Lennon’s Imagine with voice & keyboard. I feel so blessed to be able to serve him, his classmates & school with this project. And when the stresses or gremlins come up questioning this use of time, I just affirm my gratitude from my sunshine self that knows my young son will soon be a man quite capable of orchestrating his own creative projects. Now is my time to be his mother and it is a job I treasure.

When we look at our lives as treasure ~ even and especially the challenges ~ that’s when the miracle mindset can take root and grow. Last week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation was to embrace all of creation, including our co-creations as monumental miracles. This week, as we move into Holy Week, I invite you to see your life as the greatest gift you’ve ever been given … and yes, that includes every challenge. Affirm the light filled presence of all things possible Love … all things possible God filling your every breath.

Join us at New Thought Families for our daily Play & Pray Calendar as well as our other intergenerational, interfaith offerings like music videos. Here’s Jeremiah & I in the music video, God Spot:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-m3jXqb8Ds

Monumental Moments

Namaste this Mindful Monday!

I have just experienced a monumental moment; my just turned 12, 6th grade boy is sitting in a high school algebra class as I type this. I just walked him across the street to the high school with his buddy & cohort in advanced math. They have been allowed to go ahead in math for many years and this year on a computer math program through Stanford. Since they have now surpassed our Jr. High level math classes, they will go to high school math from now on. I’ll spare you the rest of the logistics but suffice it to say, this is definitely a sky moment for us! ~The song I wrote for Jeremiah when he was in utero sings, “I vow to give you safe nest, I vow to give you the sky.” I never thought I would have to hold high school sky space this early and yet I am so grateful that he is allowed to embrace and expand his genius mind. I will not be a crab!! (See last week’s post for more on the crab pull of resistance!)

 And yes, I said the “g” word. Genius. God expressed. We all have our moments of genius whether we consider them monumental or not. And why not? When our babies utter their first words or take their first steps, we proud parents squeal with delight and indeed, embrace the moment(s) as monumental. I believe our all things possible God does the same; when we make forward motion in tiny steps or giant leaps, we are expanding our expression of Love, our expression of God. Sometimes we call it genius, more often we call it gifts and perhaps, sadly, the most often, we don’t call it at all. But as awakening, conscious beings we are called to call! Called to call the beauty of each day, each sunrise or sunset, spring bloom or hatched egg  as the monumental outpicturing of Love that it is. Let us turn, this moment to what is right before us … be it computer screen, sky of any hue outside the window, our own hand poised on the scrolling mouse … say, “I celebrate you!” “I honor you!” “You are monumental!”

Now, I hear the doubting Thomas voice of a college professor who severely marked my paper in red when I argued that every thing is a miracle. Guess he didn’t know the quote from THE genius himself, Einstein: “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” By living in the sacred awareness of  everything is a miracle, every moment truly is monumental. It just so happens it often takes the bigger moments to wake us up to monumental and miracles as a way of life. Consider the online Free Dictionary’s definition of monumental:

1. Of, resembling, or serving as a monument.

2. Impressively large, sturdy, and enduring.

3. Of outstanding significance: Einstein’s monumental contributions to physics.

4. Astounding: monumental cowardice; monumental talent.

So does thinking of the ordinary as extraordinary diminish the standouts? Only if we let it! Sure, we’re not going to build monuments of every breath but that doesn’t make each breath less monumental. Ok, splitting hairs on semantics maybe but I, for one, am happy to be re-awakened this monumental moment! I am also celebrating the culmination of many cow & crab moments (again, last week’s post!) with the revision & implementation of new videos on many web pages at Laurie’s Stories. Will it mean a business break through? I certainly hope it will help but in this moment I can woo hoo myself for perseverance & pluck! ~ AKA Faith & Fortitude! Now, I must say, completing this project doesn’t mean perfection but co-creation is often about the messy middle of things that are perfectly imperfect. I saw this in our Free Form Craft Days with the kids last week as well. Letting go of perfectionism isn’t always easy but it is almost always required to manifestation. And perhaps what’s needed most is just to adjust the view of perfectionism. What if a sunset angel sat back with their paintbrush musing, “Oh this would have been a good one if only I had …”

In our Mindful Meditation Invitation last week, we embraced all facets of co-creation, even the resistance. For this week’s Mindful Meditation Invitation, let’s embrace all of creation including our co-creations as monumental miracles! Thanks so much for your monumental moment here with us today; I mindfully hold you as the miracle you are! As always, we invite you to daily reflections on our intergenerational, interfaith, Play & Pray Calendar at New Thought Families where you are always old enough to pray & young enough to play!  Here’s a re-post of our monumental debut of Are We There Yet?
Conscious Comedy
Tell-A-Vision!

~ Can’t get the media insert to go … so for now, here’s the perfectly imperfect delivery with the  URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJtPxWkBVYk&list=PL076BCF76BA2FA915&index=1&feature=plpp_video