Insights – Melannie Thomas

Archive for the ‘Dreams’ Category

I am blessed to live in an area of California that Luther Burbank referred to as, “God’s chosen place in all the world, as far as nature is concerned.”  Farm to table is commonplace; sustainable farming practices are taking hold.  Farmer’s Markets and Community Supported Agriculture flourish in this verdant environment.

My question to you this week is, ‘Does your spiritual practice sustain you?’  ‘Does it provide you with clean, nourishing sustenance that maintains your overall health?’ ‘Does it provide daily support?’  ‘Does it support you in a crisis?’

We each must find our own way.  A way that is appropriate to us.  A way that sustains us through good times and bad.

It is a process, not an event.  Our spiritual body grows, changes and matures just as our physical and emotional bodies do.  As in our food diet, there is an ebb and flow in our spiritual diet.  There are days when we eat really healthy, and days not so much. So, too, with our spiritual diet.  There are days when we act from love, and days, not so much.  If our physical diet and/or our spiritual diet are out of balance, so are we.

Luther Burbank said many profound things.  One of my favorites is, “Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.”

Part of my practice is to keep fresh flowers in my home…always.  When I came across the above quote I felt a deeper connection to my spiritual practice.

This week I invite you to review your spiritual diet.  ‘Is your daily bread sustaining you?’  ‘Do you enjoy flowers in your daily life?’

It feels good to give.  I find it more difficult to receive.  Generosity is one of humankind’s greatest characteristics.  The following quotes are expressive of this trait.

“There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity.”

~Nathaniel Branden

“Religion is a complex and often contradictory force in our word.  It fosters hope and comfort but also doubt and guilt.  It creates both community and exclusion.  It brings societies together around shared belief and tears them apart through war.  However, what unites the faithful, whatever their religion, is the unshakeable force of generosity.”

~Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

“Money is not the only commodity that is fun to give.  We can give time, we can give our expertise, we give our love or simply give a smile.  What does that cost?  The point is, none of us can ever run out of something to give.”

~Steve Goodier

This week, I invite you to bask in the glow of generosity.

As a young person, and a young adult, I loved to wish on shooting or falling stars.  I always felt a sense of cosmic wonder at the sight of them.  At the time I knew nothing about meteor showers.

Beginning mid-July and peaking August 12, the Perseid Meteor Shower, which is debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet entering our atmosphere, will rain down shooting stars at a top rate of 60 or more per hour.

The Perseids and Leonids (which peak around November 17) are my favorites.  I have been known to frequently venture onto one of the many ridge tops in Sonoma and Napa County, to spend the wee hours of the morning waiting and watching for the shooting star spectacular.   Sometimes being profusely rewarded, and other times being shut-out by cloudy, foggy weather.

The Greeks believed shooting stars were human souls rising and falling.  Jews and Christians believed them to be angels or demons.  Wishing on a shooting star is thought to have originated with Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer around AD 127-151.  The act of wishing on a shooting star makes the wish come true.

The child within me never ceases to delight in the heavenly spectacle.  This year, if you chance to see a shooting star, make a wish.  May it come true.

Today we enter the ‘dog days of summer’.  Gardens are beginning to peak with vegetable and flower bounty.  Blackberries and pears, apples and grapes are ripening, BBQ’s and air-conditioners are getting a workout.  Cool salads, cool drinks an cool breezes are gladly welcomed and enjoyed with relish.

Outdoor living, camping, concerts, baseball games, swimming and hiking are just a few activities that  move into high gear in summer.

To enjoy the fullness of the season, there are some precautions to take: sunscreen, hydration, moderation and pacing are important.

This is a good time to begin preparations for the fall harvest and for the coming of winter.  Like ants, bees and squirrels, it is a good time to stock up on batteries, emergency food and water, replace furnace filters,  and do necessary repairs.

Wishing you all a rich and vibrant August, full of the magic and wonder of the season.

A recent conversation centered around the meaning of life and what is it about, sent me searching for insight from others.   I found the following quotes.  It  seems a good day to share them with you.

“Life is not about finding yourself.  Life is about creating yourself.”

~George Bernard Shaw

“My formula for living is quite simple.  I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night.  In between, I occupy myself as best I can.”

~Cary Grant

“The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.”

~Henri Nouwen

“Life is a song – sing it.  Life is a game – play it.  Life is a challenge – meet it.  Life is a dream – realize it.  Life is a sacrifice – offer it.  Life is love – enjoy it.”

~Sai Baba

Have a great week!

The plum tree is dripping with ripe fruit.  Soon the pears will be ready to harvest.  Relishing the first heirloom tomatoes from the garden, I am thankful for the bounty and variety of good, healthy food that is available to me.   We need good food to keep us well nourished.

So, too, we need food to nourish our souls and our spirits.  We thrive on the loving touch of others; on kind, encouraging words, on compassionate understanding and support, on an active spiritual practice.

“Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth.”

~Susan L Taylor

We are a world in crisis.  This week I encourage you to participate in healthy nourishing,  in all it’s many forms.

We all are a part of community.  For communities to thrive, they must co-exist harmoniously.

“We are constituted so that simple acts of kindness, such as giving to charity or expressing gratitude, have a positive effect on our long-term moods.  The key to the happy life, it seems, is the good life:  a life with sustained relationships, challenging work, and connections to community.”

~Paul Bloom

“This world of ours…must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Given recent events in our community at large, there is a lot of work to do.  I invite you this week to continue to invest in community.

The annual celebration of our independence is here.  In spite of this year’s tumultuous political turmoil and the ongoing economic challenges, we remain among the freest people of the world.

“So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.  Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.  Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!  Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!  Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!  But not only that, let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!  Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi.  From every mountain let freedom ring.”

~Martin Luther King Jr.

Take a moment today to give thanks for our freedom.

Beautiful, amazing, hard to believe, astonishing, surprising, awesomely mysterious…all words full of wonder.

The magic and beauty of the world never ceases to fill me with wonder.  I wonder at the intricate, complex and functionality of the human body and the universe around me.

“Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”

~Saint Augustine

“He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.”

~M.C. Escher

This week I invite you to experience the wonder of the world; small and precious, colossal and mysterious.

Today marks the Summer Solstice, accompanied by a full Moon in Sagittarius.  The Sun and the Moon, the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine join together.

This potent combo of light and dark offer us opportunity to create harmony and balance.  The action, intention and motivation of the masculine,  meet the reflection, fertility and renewal of the feminine;  allowing us to release old patterns.

Supported by this Divine influence, this week I invite you through meditation and ritual to tune into your authentic self.  Bring forth your pure potential.