Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category
Haiku
Monday, December 16th, 2013
East wind blowing snow
Hints of winter fill the sky
Stillness in my eyes
Wild Cosmic Heart Retreat in Hawaii – 4 Spots Left!
Thursday, May 30th, 2013
Take a deep dive into your heart while enjoying time connecting and playing in Hawaii. The retreat includes exploring heart-centered practices and ceremonies, walks on the beach, meditations, chanting, sound healing, guided visualizations, gentle yoga classes, a bonfire overlooking the ocean, walking in a lava tube, Hawaiian excursions and cultural events and much more!
Spend a week exploring, listening, relaxing, connecting, playing, and laughing. The Second Annual Wild Cosmic Heart Retreat takes place at Kalani Oceanside on the Big Island November 3 – 9, 2013. There are four spots available for this amazing retreat.
Register with a deposit by June 10, 2013 and save $75. Payment plans accepted.
Luminous Light – Spring
Wednesday, March 20th, 2013
Bronze light entering my heart. Sunrise.
What light shines through you?
Happy Spring!
(Bronx, New York sunrise photo taken by Mary Anne Flanagan)
On My Nightstand
Monday, January 7th, 2013
These 13 books will make their way to my nightstand in 2013:
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money, and Miracles by Marianne Williamson
The Fear Project: What Our Most Primal Emotion Taught Me About Survival, Success, Surfing . . . and Love by Jaimal Yogis
Open Heart, Open Mind: Awakening the Power of Essence Love by Tsoknyi Rinpoche
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael Singer
Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson
My Life So Far by Jane Fonda
How to Solve Our Human Problems – The Four Noble Truths by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
To Sell is Human by Daniel H. Pink
Huna: Ancient Secrets for Modern Living by Serge King
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillipp Dendker
You pick the 13th book. I am always looking for book suggestions so you tell me what book must I read in 2013!
Enjoy and Happy Reading!
What’s Your Good News of the Day?
Tuesday, September 4th, 2012
Over twenty-five years ago I did some volunteer work in the Bahamas. I always joked that if I am called to volunteer in the Bahamas, who am I to deny the call? The volunteer work involved working with school-age children and building their library and playing games. We would go the school early in the morning and the youth would line up for assembly. Each morning the principal would ask, “Who would like to share some good news of the day?” Many hands would go up as children as young as six would share their good news. Their announcements would include everything from getting a new baby brother or sister, to losing a tooth, to getting an A on a test. Every morning we would start our day by celebrating the good news.
I took that lesson with me into the workplace and with clients and I find myself asking folks, “What’s your good news of the day?” For some this is a real struggle because no one has ever asked this question to them before. For others, it is a way of sharing their gratitude.
What’s your good news of the day?
The Working Journey
Monday, September 3rd, 2012
My work is to enjoy life.
My job is to question any stressful thoughts.
My vacation is waking up every day and hearing my breath.
My career is love.
My retirement is life.
Arousing Our Hearts to Life
Thursday, July 26th, 2012
I have been reading a lot of David Whyte’s poetry as I prepare for my upcoming retreat in Hawaii, The Wild Cosmic Heart. I have been reading about what arouses, awakens, opens, shifts, transforms, and lifts the heart. What would it take to listen to our wild, cosmic heart? As Whyte wrote, “Sometimes everything has to be inscribed across the heavens so you can find the one line already written inside you.”
In his book, Crossing the Unknown Sea, there is a poem that speaks to becoming more visible, to risking everything to becoming alive.
There is a lovely root to the word humiliation – from the latin word humus, meaning soil or ground. When we are humiliated, we are in effect returning to the ground of our being.
Shedding the carapace we have been building so assiduously on the surface, we must by definition give up exactly what we thought was necessary to protect us from further harm. The outlaw is the radical, the one close to the roots of existence. The one who refuses to forget their humanity and in remembering, helps everyone else remember too.
To die inside, is to rob our outside life of any sense of arrival from that interior. Our work is to make ourselves visible in the world. This is the soul’s individual journey, and the soul would much rather fail at its own life than succeed at someone else’s.
If you want to explore your untamed heart and risk becoming more alive, then join me in Hawaii November 4-10, 2012 where we will explore the vast sea of our hearts.
Another Growing Edge and Sacred Journey to Peru
Thursday, May 24th, 2012
On May 24 I fly to Peru to take part in a sacred journey. I will travel to the sacred sites of Cuzco, the Sacred Valley, Lake Titicaca, and the Crystal City of Machu Picchu. The journey is an opportunity to deepen my practices as a teacher and student of the Andean Master Path of the Inkan Cosmology. I have wanted to go for years.
My growing edge is calling me to South America. And my mind is turning up the voice of doubt. I hear my doubt voice as a constant question: “Are you sure you want to travel for 11 days on a trip that you don’t know anyone and in a country you don’t speak the native language?” Then, there is the travel within Peru itself. I will be traveling by plane, bus, and train with at least 15 strangers and staying in at least five hotels.
Maybe our growing edges are the places that call us to do more and be more. Maybe our growing edge is ready for us to reach out our arms and stretch father than we have before. Maybe our growing edge is beyond our limited mind (thinking) and calls us to listen to our unlimited heart (being).
Maybe our growing edge wakes us up to who we really are in the world. My growing edge is inviting me to be adventurous, curious, and courageous. Machu Picchu here I come!
What is your growing edge saying to you?
Mary Anne
World Peace Begins With … a Smile!
Friday, May 11th, 2012
World Peace Begins with a Smile.
World Peace Begins with Your Smile!
Just Like the Flowers, You Too Are Ready to Bloom!
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
I have been noticing the amazing flowers and trees bursting all over the East Coast. As I began to look more at the flowers, I noticed varieties I have never seen before (or if I have, I had ignored their beauty). Looking deep into the colors, I wondered when the seeds were planted. I became curious about the depth of the roots. I noticed so many forms of life fully grown and came to realize that this is the ultimate trust in nature that exists. And just when you think you know when Spring is going to arrive, magnolias trees blossom in mid-March!
How am I like the flowers? Where do/did I plant seeds in the hope and trust that they will fully blossom? How far down are my roots and which ones will I allow to become unearthed in new and amazing ways?
Just like the flowers, I am ready to bloom. What is bursting through the earth in your world? Just like the flowers, you too are ready to bloom.
Mary Anne