Insights – Melannie Thomas

Archive for the ‘Coaching Tips’ Category

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and Father’s Day is June 17.  What perfect moments to reflect on what we have inherited from our parents and our ancestors.

Beyond the passing down of ‘things’ there is a trove of traits and characteristics that we are heir to.   We hear catch-phrases like he is just like his father; she got her good looks from her mother.  As we age I think we all can begin to identify with certain looks, manner of speech, traits and talents (good or not so good) that have been passed on to us through our genes.  And we will pass similar tendencies on to our children.

But beyond the genome  is nurturing; how we are treated within our family of origin, our community, our culture, and our environment.  These are powerful factors that contribute to the shaping of our individuality; our uniqueness.

These respective special days give us an opportunity to honor, to forgive, to nourish and to embrace our inheritance.

As I was planting a new herb garden and deciding what vegetables to plant this year, I began to muse on garden as metaphor.  Gardening is a true joy for me.  As I’ve grown older the emphasis has shifted from the intensity of backyard food production to flowers.  I have my favorites.  Petunias, hydrangea, azaleas, begonias, iris, poppies, cyclamen, carnations, roses and ornamental grasses to name a few.

The analogous garden of life, of family and of friendship came into my meditation.  How similar they are in terms of the beauty and richness they add to our lives if we cultivate them with loving care.  All gardens need tending, weeding, fertilizing, watering and loving attention.

Are the gardens in your life thriving?

Albert Einstein was more than a great mathematician/physicist, he was also a great philosopher.  I often overlook the philosopher, and then it happens.  A quote like the one below brings me up short, reins me in from the daily grind, and gives me pause to reflect.  How is the gift operating for me and the social milieu in which I swim.  I invite you to pause and meditate on the words so profoundly woven together.

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.  We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Albert Einstein

“Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.”
Walter Anderson

Like many words used capture and express our feelings, ‘happiness’ means many things to many people. In general, it is considered a state of well-being. The following are some of my favorite poetic expressions of happiness. I invite you to ponder, to meditate upon them.

“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.” Margaret Lee Runbeck

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln

As the Spring Holy Season gets well underway, I look for moments that connect me to the numinous; to the stunning beauty that surrounds me as the earth awakens to springs’ green pallet.

One such lovely moment came to me in this simple but profound piece by Douglas Jerrold, “A man never so beautifully shows his own strength as when he respects another’s weakness.”

Sending the peace, beauty and glory of the Season to you and all yours!

There is great merit in poetic expression.  Life’s experience presented in rhyme and prose offers us concise and powerful images upon which to meditate.

To wit: this weeks word expressed poetically.  “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

~Anais Nin

An equinox marks a time of equal hours of light and dark in a day.  There are two per sun-calendar year.  Today is the Vernal or Spring Equinox.

To the ancients these cosmic cycles were of great importance.  The remains of great stone monoliths throughout the world  are testimony to the powerful significance of marking the four solar seasons.  Stonehenge in Europe and Chaco Canyon in the U.S. are good examples among many.  ‘Civilized man’ is seemingly not as dependent on these solar events to signal or initiate actions of planting and harvesting, of preparation for summer and winter.

Yet the precise patterns quartering the solar year gave rise to celebrations and rituals proper to each season; bringing tribes, clans, communities and families together at regular intervals and connecting them to the rhythms of their worlds, physically and spiritually.  Traditions that continue today in various forms the world over.

For me the Equinox marks the beginning of the Spring Holy Season; a time of renewal both physical and spiritual.  Wishing each of you the joy and beauty of this Sacred Season.

I have it…UGH!  Catch up with you all next week.  Enjoy the rain.

My current ‘dream cycle’ is a very active one.  Mulling over a dream fragment from last night and, sychronistically beginning some prep work for a Dream Workshop coming up in April, gave me the inspiration for this word of the week.

Dream is both a noun and a verb.  Dream research demonstrates that everyone dreams.   Dreaming from a literal perspective is a valuable tool for understanding ourselves.  But there is more beyond the dream experience occurring in our sleep.  As applied to a dream job, partner, home or vacation, it means having (or hoping for) the ‘ideal’.

We also day-dream.  Spend time in a reverie or fantasy; we can also dream-up stories, profitably or not.  To dream is also to ‘imagine’.  I believe that day-dreaming combined with active imagination can spark ideas that can become reality.  A new profession, hobby, place to live, an invention, a recipe, a book topic, music, lyrics, and more can originate from this process.  But so like our sleeping dreams, we most often forget these inspired moments as quickly as we forget last night’s dream.

This week I invite you to a fresh look at your dream world…inside and out.