Archive for the ‘Storytelling’ Category
Embracing Our Creative Messiness
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
“Embrace the messy imperfect genius. Seek to be misunderstood by creative minds.” ~Ross Martin
One thing I have learned over the years as an entrepreneur is that when I am in my most creative space, I have to release being a perfectionist and jump into my creative messiness. I need to create space that allows me to explore crazy ideas, play with projects in messy ways, and be willing to be incomprehensible to others. Some will so understand me and my process and others will walk away, poke fun, or misunderstand. It is that moment I know I am ion the right track – the track of embracing my creative messiness. In this space I can be judged and critiqued and it makes me a better business owner.
Go ahead – embrace your creative messiness!
Mantra: I embrace the creative messy genius in me. I thrive in my genius.
Pummeled by Love
Monday, July 9th, 2012
Happy Summer! I hope everyone is having an amazing summer. I am looking forward to my annual Pummel Day. Every summer, my dear friend and I go to the beach for the day to enjoy jumping and getting knocked over by the waves. Or as my friend said to me the first time she realized I loved big waves at the beach, “You mean you love to get pummeled by the waves?” Yes!
The day deepens my connection with my dear friend, my connection to Mother Ocean, and my connection to surrendering to everything that is beyond my control. I can fight the waves and get turned upside down or I can go with the waves and feel a pure sense of surrender. I can go against or with the current. That is always my choice.
Pummel Day is about connection, friendship, nature, and love – the totality of life. As I reflect upon it deeper, I find myself asking:
What if I allowed myself to be pummeled by love? By gratitude? By peace? By grace?
When that wave knocks me over later this month, I will rise from the ocean with a smile on my face – pummeled by love.
Feel free to share your summer story with me to post.
Thanks & peace! Mary Anne
Would You Rather Fit In or Stand Out?
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
It’s easy and safe to fit in, to conform, to do what everyone else is doing. And yet for many of us, that is no longer working. It is time to step outside the crowd, to stand out, to shine and bring our gifts to the world. Staying small isn’t serving anyone.
I work with lots of people and organizations who are ready to play bigger in the world. Just recently I sent an email to a client and asked them to dream ‘boulder’ – of course the spelling should have read bolder. And yet, boulder seemed more fitting. In order to stand out, to really stand out, we may need to move the internal boulders holding us back.
What boulder are you ready to move out of your way? What would it take for you to stand out?
{Permission to share photo taken by my friend Clarance Dickinson}
Sister Rita Margaret
Friday, May 4th, 2012
I had the opportunity to go back to my college and give a workshop. It had been twenty years since I had graduated and the campus had tripled in size (including the parking lots!). It was amazing walking around the college campus and taking in the energy of students preparing to finish a semester and others getting ready to graduate. I had some time before the workshop to walk around campus, visit with some professors, check out the new academic buildings, and (happily) purchase a new college t-shirt.
As I walked passed one of the buildings, an older woman was sitting on a bench with a big smile on her face. I walked over and introduced myself and she said, “I’m Sr. Rita Margaret.” She seemed thrilled that I was there to give a rhythm workshop and that I was a proud alumna. Sr. Rita Margaret started telling me many stories, including one about the founder of the college – a brilliant woman who had a vision of a (women’s) college and fought to make it happen. She went on to tell stories of the many dreamers and brilliant minds that made the college the incredible institution that it was and still is. We laughed and shared stories about our lives. She was curious about my work, my dedication to service and healing. She apologized for not being able to come to my workshop, but she explained that she gets tired and instead, she would say a prayer for me. I told her my rhythm circles were a form of prayer so we would be praying for each other.
After more than a half hour together, I stood up to go for one more walk before preparing for my workshop. I thanked her and she said, “Come, give me a hug.” We exchanged hugs and I walked slowly around the campus. All I could think about were Sr. Rita Margaret’s stories of the history of the college and her smile. When I made my loop around the building back to where I started, the bench was empty. Sr. Rita Margaret had left – she left the bench, but not my mind and heart.
She gave me the gift of her time, her knowledge, her wisdom, and her smile. Sr. Rita Margaret taught me about being present, generous, kind, gentle, and loving – a lesson as an undergrad I took for granted. Twenty years later, it was the best class I ever sat in.
Thank you Sr. Rita Margaret and Caldwell College.
Mary Anne
This is dedicated to my beloved friend and mentor, Kathy Detlet. I also want to extend my gratitude to the many Sisters for my excellent education and for modeling service and faith.
My Divine Feminine: A Mother to Many
Friday, April 13th, 2012
In a recent shamanic session with my friend and shamanic healer, Joe, I wanted to explore some healing about my feminine side. As more powerful feminine energy began emerging, it felt time to deal with some past beliefs about my feminine side – the parts I have rejected for a long time.
As the shamanic drumming began, I moved into a deeper level of consciousness. The drum beat changed and I shifted out of ordinary reality. I was able to go deeper inside myself – inside my womb, my ovaries, and my sense of being a woman. My intention was to accept my feminine side, which I rejected at 15 because I knew I was not going to bear children. It was a huge discovery knowing that I would not be “a mother.” I was overcome with grief and thought I would disappoint my parents.
This disappointment and grief went into my “beingness” and I have been carrying that inside me ever since. I felt ready to release this lifetime of grief. As I took my next in-breath, I felt my mom’s presence in the room with me (she passed away in 2000). During the session I felt her and heard her voice, a soft whisper speaking to me: You were my miracle baby. I knew you would be a strong woman in the world.
I reminded her that I am not having children and I have rejected my feminine side for a long time. My mother’s words were so clear: You have birthed so much life in the world. You have mothered many. You have given birth to so much love in the world. You have mothered many. Go birth and love yourself in the same way. Birth yourself, again. You have mothered many. Thank you for giving so much life and love in this world.
You have mothered many. My dear daughter, you have mothered many.
With tears streaming down my face, I knew what my mother was speaking of – this wonderful feminine that has mothered many. I just had to be reminded of my Divine Feminine.
Who would I be with my Divine essence fully in the world?
I would be Mary Anne – a mother to many.
Befriending Ourselves – Again
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
As we enter a new season here on the East Coast, I am reminded of all the new growth that is (always) possible. It’s a season of renewal and new life emerging from the earth. I catch myself in awe of the beauty of Spring and its bursting of colors. Perhaps because it seems earlier than usual, the trees and flowers look brighter. I find myself asking, “Was that magnolia always that pink?” And I have found myself befriending Spring. What or who else is there to befriend?
I want to emerge from the earth the way the flowers do – slowly, effortlessly, and with joy. To emerge, I must befriend myself. But how? In her book, I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, Dawna Markova speaks about personal renewal and living with purpose. She writes about entering the abyss and entering life with wholeheartedness. One of Markova’s paragraphs spoke powerfully to me:
So many of us are afraid of meeting ourselves, alone, without distraction. We have been taught to fashion an image of who we think we are supposed to be and show that to the world. Through the fear of knowing who we really are we sidestep our own destiny, which leaves us hungry in a famine of our own making. Each of us is here to give something that only we can offer, and when we avoid knowing ourselves, we end up living numb, passionless lives, disconnected from our soul’s true purpose. But when you have the courage to shape your life from the essence of who you are, you ignite, becoming truly alive. This requires letting go of everything that is inauthentic. But how can you know your truth unless you slow down, in your own quiet company?
How can I befriend myself like I am this Spring season?
Yours in friendship, Mary Anne
Failure That Matters
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
The author and entrepreneur Jonathan Fields recently posted a blog, Why Failure Must Be on the Table, which describes the experiences of failures as gateways to opportunities. He writes, “Entrepreneurship–or any process that seeks to evolve the status quo–requires you to regularly test commonly held limits and beliefs. The natural outcome of this is that sometimes you’re right, other times you’re wrong. Either way, you never know until you get out of your head and take action in the world.
The potential not just for failure, but failure that matters, failure you feel, must be on the table. If it’s not, then what you’re setting out to do is either so safe or so devoid of the potential for impact that success might allow you to check a box on a piece of paper, but beyond that, nobody’ll care. Including you.”
We must know that what we are embarking on has the capacity to fail and yet give us as entrepreneur’s incredible lessons to grow and stretch. It’s the learning process and taking the leap that distinguishes the success stories to the stories that never get told. At times, it may feel like ‘a leap of faith’ but it brings us closer to the edges of our dreams. We push ourselves and do it afraid, because not doing it is more painful – and we fail ourselves.
Fields adds in his blog, “So, yes, living, acting and deciding to move forward in the face of potential failure isn’t easy. Especially when it requires you to go all in. And especially later in your lifecycle when you’ve got more on the line. To risk success in art, in business, in love, in life is, indeed, a bit terrifying.
But really, what’s the alternative?”
What is the alternative? Take the risk – and be willing to leap into failure that matters.
Mary Anne
What Dream Have You Abandoned?
Friday, February 10th, 2012
As I prepare to take another dream and make it a reality, I thought about all the dreams I have put on hold. Are there dreams I have abandoned? Am I ready to revisit some dreams and notice if it is time to shine light on them?
Is there an abandoned dream that is ready to be explored again?
This reminds me of a Lanston Hughes poem: A Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Listen to your dream(s). They are speaking to you.
{Photo taken by Mary Anne Flanagan}
Create Your Art – Be Visible
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
The Faces of Courage
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the revolution in Egypt. I thought about all the courageous people who stood up for change. I have clear images of Tahrir Square and watching all the people in the streets. What courage it must have taken to raise their voices against years of oppression. Standing up for the good of a country is a courageous act and one that led me to say yes to going to Egypt last year.
After reading about Egypt, I turned the page and read about Congresswoman Giffords turning in her resignation. While I felt sad about seeing Congresswoman Giffords leave Congress, I knew she needed to take time to heal from her gunshot wounds. Giffords story is so filled with hope and courage.
Pema Chödrön says “Like all explorers, we are drawn to discover what’s out there without knowing yet if we have the courage to face it.”
What is an act of courage you will take? What are willing to explore with courage?
Mary Anne
Special thanks to the people of Egypt and for Congresswoman Gabby Giffords for showing me what courage looks like.