Insights – Melannie Thomas

Archive for November, 2020

“Heal yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon.  With the sound of the river and the waterfall.  With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds.  Heal yourself with mint, neem, and eucalyptus.  Sweeten with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile.  Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a hint of cinnamon.  Put love in tea instead of sugar and drink it looking at the stars.  Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain.  Stand strong with your bare feet on the ground and with everything that comes from it.  Be smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with your forehead.  Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier.  Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember … you are the medicine.”  ~Maria Sabina, Healer & Poet

During times of great challenge, self-care is more important than ever.  Breathe, Center, Relax and Heal.  Take good care!

Blessings!

The Holidays are here!  A time for gathering together with family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to give thanks, to celebrate and to socialize.

Gathering is an assembly of people coming together for meetings and events, especially for festive and social ones being held for a specific purpose.

As covid-19 continues to ravage our country, gathering together can be hazardous to our health, and to the health of others.  Logic dictates that we don’t celebrate with anyone who is not a full-time member of our household.  Yet, emotions tug and cajole hard,  encouraging us to go forward with festive plans.  There are positives and negatives in either decision.

If you are choosing to entertain, or be a guest, the following list may be of assistance to you.

• Limit the number of people
• Stay six feet apart
• Have hand sanitizer available (at least 60% alcohol)
• Require masks when not eating or drinking
• Avoid poorly ventilated spaces
• Place central AC on continuous circulation
• Use hepa filters
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces
• Use single towels in bathroom or paper towels for hand drying
• Use gloves when removing garbage, trash or recycle bags/containers
• Do not let pets interact with anyone other than immediate household
• Wear a mask while preparing and serving food to guests
• Have one person serve all the food so utensils are not handled by multiple people
• Launder table linens, dishcloths, kitchen and bathroom towels immediately after the event
• Dispose of sponges
• Use no touch trash cans if possible
• Consider plastic utensils, paper cups and plates or a combination of
• Limit people going in and out of areas where food is being prepared
• Check your State and Local government for the latest rules governing size of groups allowed to gather together
• If you are a guest, bring your own hand sanitizer and masks

Recently, I had a small gathering, five people total.  The weather dictated indoors.  We had three hepa filters (two large which we borrowed) placed in a triangle, and we had three windows cracked open slightly.  If we didn’t have the hepa filters, everyone would have been required to wear a mask.  Hand sanitizer dispensers were placed in obvious and easily accessible places. Paper towels in the bathroom, and one person plating and serving dinner as well as one person cleaning afterward, were additional protocols.  We did not eat together at the dining table, choosing instead to eat our meal distanced from each other, but still able to connect and enjoy each others company.

“This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful and thoughtful, in a word, more alive.”  ~Alice Waters

“Every gathering of Americans – whether a few on the porch of a crossroads store or massed thousands in a great stadium – is the possessor of a potentially immeasurable influence on the future.”  ~Dwight Eisenhower

The above quotes reflect both the positive and negative consequences of our collective behaviors throughout the festive season.

If we want to relish being ‘more alive’, if we want the ‘immeasurable influence on the future’ to not be a continuing upward spiral of casualties, I invite you all to take the necessary precautions suitable to your situation.

Many blessings for a joy-filled Thanksgiving!

Sacred Marriage, a union of opposites.  Carl Jung described the sacred marriage within as the anima and animus joining together in Heiros Gamos.

“If we are to live without silencing or numbing essential parts of who we are, a vow must be invoked and upheld within oneself.  The same commitments we promise when embarking on a marriage can be understood internally as a devotion to the care of one’s soul: to have and to hold…for better or for worse…in sickness and in health…to love and to cherish, till death do us part.

This means staying committed to your inner path.  This means not separating from yourself when things get tough or confusing.  This means accepting and embracing your faults and limitations.  It means loving yourself no matter how others see you.  It means cherishing the unchangeable radiance that lives within you, no matter the cuts and bruises along the way.  It means binding your life with a solemn pledge to the truth of your soul.”   ~Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening, pg 374-75.

To find the way between our internal opposites means to stay with the struggle and tensions between them.  Commitment to the process leads to the opportunity for Self-realization and personal growth…the journey to the Authentic Self.  Only then can we experience the truth of inner peace.

Blessings!

Veteran’s Day has been set aside to honor the men and women who serve us and our country.

There are many events locally and nationally in which we can participate, in person or on television.

“Honoring the sacrifices many  have made for our country in the name of freedom and democracy is the very foundation of Veteran’s Day.”  ~Charles B. Rangel

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic.  It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”  ~Arthur Ashe

“But this Veteran’s Day, I believe we should do more than sing the praises of the bravery and patriotism that our veterans have embodied in the past.  We should take this opportunity to re-evaluate how we are treating our veterans in the present.”  ~Nick Lampson

I invite you on Wednesday to join in the celebration: a moment of silence honoring our veterans is a powerful prayer.

Words are many things.  Words are intelligent sounds, or sometimes not.  Words name things and people. Words are one way we communicate with each other.

There are words of encouragement, household words, harsh words, curse words, and words of wisdom.  There is a play on words, a password, and word crafting.  We can have words with,  we can break our words,  and eat our words.  Words can comfort, inspire, and motivate as well as destroy and incite.  Words are powerful.

Thankfully, the 2020 elections are almost at an end and with it the onslaught of words flooding the country.

I have chosen the following quotes about words as a focus of meditation for the coming week.  I did my best to select three from the many wonderful words I read.

“Better than a thousand hollow words is is one word that brings peace.”  ~Buddha

“Speak to yourself like someone you love.  Encourage yourself, motivate yourself, and uplift yourself with your words.”  ~ATGW

“Your words have power.  Speak words that are kind, loving, positive, uplifting, encouraging and life-giving.”  ~Unknown

Blessings!