November 24th, 2011
May you awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you respond to the call of your gift, and find the courage to follow its path.
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.
~Blessing, by John O’Donohue
November 21st, 2011
The light in me is the light in you.
Albert Schweitzer once said, “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” During this season of gratitude, may we thank all those who light the spark in others. And thank you for keep the flame lit.
November 15th, 2011
If we don’t put children first, who will?
When politics, sports, or money come before the safety of children, we fail as adults. If we don’t tell the truth, report a crime, or protect our children, how can we expect another generation to know or do better?
There is a greeting in Africa when people meet, “And how are the children?” This is done whether you have children or not as every village knows every child.
And how are the children?
Mary Anne
November 11th, 2011
As I stood waiting for my #5 train at Grand Central Station, I took notice of an MTA worker who I see every day. He helps keep the trains moving, lets the conductor know when to shut the doors, and assists struggling passengers. I have noticed how he does this with such kindness and always with a smile on his face. As I waited for my train, I went over to him to thank him. I shared with him that I have noticed how good he is with the customers and his positive attitude. He was very grateful for the compliment. He said, “I try.” I acknowledged his work, especially as people are always in a rush on or off a train. We chatted for a few minutes and he continued with his work.
My train started to pull into Grand Central and the MTA worker came over to me and before the doors opened he said, “You made my day.” All it took was a thank you. And what he didn’t know was that he made mine too.
I realized on my way home just how easy it is to make life nicer for another – a simple thank you. I have been much more aware of saying thank you and acknowledging people and noticing what a difference it makes.
Who will you thank today? Go ahead – make someone’s day sweeter.
Mary Anne
This is dedicated to all the Veterans for their service. Thank you.
November 9th, 2011
As I sat in an overcrowded subway ride in New York City, I closed my eyes. I could hear people pushing and complaining and I took long, deep, and slow breath. I knew it was going to take me at least an hour to get into Manhattan and I needed a mantra to feel calmer. I took a breath and the phrase, “Sit in your heart center” came streaming through.
Taking slower breaths as the trained jerked and screeched, I imagined myself sitting in my heart center. I started to feel expansive. I breathed love, forgiveness, and compassion in my whole body. As I left the train, I felt a sense of peacefulness.
I wanted to be with this feeling longer so after exiting the subway I found a place to sit with my notebook and write about “Sitting in your heart.” Here is what flowed:
Feel your heart. Call wisdom living in you.
There are limitless sources.
What does your heart say?
What does your heart want right now?
What is your heart saying to you about your day?
Take a deeper breath.
Fill yourself up with more of yourself.
Are you ready to fill yourself up with more love?
And more love? And more love?
Bring your hands to your heart center.
Do you feel that?
The love that you are is waiting.
What love name do you want to be called?
Sit in your heart center and notice.
Breathe through your heart center.
You are being breathed in your heart center.
Breathe. Sit. Be. Love
Amen.
Mary Anne
November 3rd, 2011
As a new month begins with endless possibility, I offer a heart-center meditation.
Take a breath. Breathe yourself.
Breathe in a way that feels best for you.
Close your eyes and breathe in through your nose and out your mouth.
Take in ‘more’ with the next inhalation – whatever that means to you.
And release ‘more’ with the next exhalation – whatever that means to you.
With every breath, go deeper.
With every breath, your brilliance awaits you.
Allow your breath to become softer and gentler.
Trust your breath. Your breath is your greatest teacher right now.
What is your breath showing you at this very moment?
Breathe through your heart center.
How will you be in your heart center today?
Breathe through that. Listen for an answer – however it arrives.
Bring your hand to your heart.
Breathe the lesson of your heart center.
Breathe your heart’s vision.
Breathe your heart’s deepest healing.
Breathe your Whole Self.
Through your heart center, allow love to flow.
Allow love to touch the heartbeat of everyone you meet.
Where do you go to touch love?
What love has come in deeper as you sit with your breath?
Love awaits you with each breath.
Open your eyes. Look around at the love you created.
Mary Anne
November 1st, 2011
One of my favorite authors is Joan Didion. Her writing is sharp and deep. And I credit her book, The Year of Magical Thinking, for helping me grieve after the loss of my mother. Her new book, Blue Nights, about the loss of her daughter is released today and I wanted to honor this brilliant writer by highlighting some of my favorite quotes. Each one is a meditation in and of itself. Do yourself a favor – go out a read one of her books.
The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.
To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves – there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.
Was it only by dreaming or writing that I could find out what I thought?
I was thinking as small children think, as if my thoughts or wishes had the power to reverse the narrative, change the outcome. In my case this disordered thinking had been covert, noticed I think by no one else, hidden even from me, but it had been, in retrospect, both urgent and constant.
In time of trouble, I had been trained since childhood, read, learn, work it up, go to the literature. Information was control. Given that grief remained the most general of afflictions its literature seemed remarkably spare.
That I was only beginning the process of mourning did not occur to me. Until now, I had only been able to grieve, not mourn. Grief was passive. Grief happened. Mourning, the act of dealing with grief, required attention.
Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death.
You have to pick the places you don’t walk away from.
Mary Anne
October 27th, 2011
During a recent lunch break at a conference, I decided to take a walk and leave about 45-minutes for my lunch. Upon returning from my walk, I stopped in the hotel restaurant, ordered my veggie burger, and was told it would take 10-20 minutes. Plenty of time to eat before the next seminar, I thought and placed my order. I waited – and waited – and waited. After some apologies, I was told my order was coming. Fifteen minutes before I was due to go back to my next seminar, I was handed a bag with my boxed lunch. I went to my hotel room so I could organize my course materials and opened up the box. It looked like a raw hamburger. It was thrown together in one of the most unappetizing ways I have ever seen. I kept staring at it. Just the thought of eating it turned my stomach. Due to the long wait, my meal was “complimentary.”
My anxiety kicked in as I had a choice to make – eat or go to the next seminar. Knowing I would be useless without food, I opted to leave the hotel and go to a local restaurant to get lunch and miss some of my next seminar. I found a local seafood place and ordered lunch. The staff was very polite and would regularly update me on the status of my food order. The cashier looked and me and asked, “Would you like a cupcake while you wait?” I smiled and realized how much this restaurant wanted their customers to feel cared for and happy. The cashier described their homemade cupcakes and said they would wrap one for me to take with my lunch. I returned back to the seminar full – not just from food, but from the idea of being fed with care.
All day I kept thinking about the contrast in service – given a raw hamburger or asked if I wanted a cupcake. I thought about how easy it is to be filled with simple pleasures, like, attention, and good customer service. Where in my own life do I serve others a raw hamburger and where do I serve a cupcake?
There are days I serve raw hamburgers with my attitude and unwillingness to be understanding. And there are days I serve cupcakes with my kindness and generous spirit. Clearly, I want more cupcakes – to give and receive.
Mary Anne
October 26th, 2011
The peace you are seeking is seeking you. The forgiveness you are waiting for is waiting for you. ~Enlightened One
This week I picked up an old favorite to re-read — Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist, was imprisoned in Auschwitz and Dachau, and he writes eloquently about his harrowing experiences in the death camps. It was through unimaginable suffering that Frankl was able to find meaning not only in his life, but to fully understand how others find meaning in theirs. He writes in his book, “When we are no longer able to change a situation…we are challenged to change ourselves.”
How can we change ourselves? Viktor Frankl writes, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” I have been choosing an attitude of “Occupy Forgiveness” for a few months. Forgiveness has taught me to live in the present and leave the past behind. When I find myself seeking peace, I have noticed that peace is seeking me.
Are there people and situations in your life you are still carrying around with anger, disappointment, and sadness? Please join me on a journey of peace in an upcoming telecourse on Forgiveness. Resting in Radical Forgiveness telecourse starts Monday, November 7 at 8PM (ET). Peace, Mary Anne
October 25th, 2011
After returning home this weekend from a coaching conference where I sat a lot, I decided to go for a walk to a local store and had a back spasm so bad I thought my leg was going to give out. I stretched my back and put a gel on to take away the pain. The spasm returned later that night and into Monday. My lower back pain went from an aching whisper to a big shout.
I spent the next day putting on a heating pad, more gels, did more stretching, and took some Advil. I decided to ask for some healing energy and positive thoughts from friends on Facebook. Many of my friends sent me kind messages, energy, and love. One friend wrote, “Sending healing energy and suggesting you listen to the messages your lower back has for you.”
Throughout the rest of the night that my back was aching, I used meditation to adjust to and release the discomfort by creating visual images that could penetrate muscles, heart and mind. I listened to my back and what it has been trying to tell me for months and I have been ignoring.
How long have I carried (back) pain, not just in my body, but in my mind? What’s cracking, restructuring, and rebuilding inside and out? When was the last time I allowed myself the rest I so deserve?
Certainly, something that causes any kind of pain – mental, emotional, or physical – must be questioned if I am truly to move beyond it. What is lodged so deep in my spine? What or who am I storing and agreeing to painfully hold onto?
It is time to push past the pain, the drama, the unspoken, and LISTEN. It is time to really listen to my back. It is time to move forward peacefully. I have ignored the whispers of back pain and now my back clearly has a message for me. I am still listening.
I love that my back pain has a treasure for me – a message of love. I am open to receiving it. Amen.
Mary Anne