Insights – Melannie Thomas

Archive for the ‘Dreams’ Category

I recently finished reading The Wisdom of the Donkeys by Andy Merrifield (2010).  It is not the kind of reading that one dashes through, rather like an exquisite truffle and a glass of fine wine, it is to be slowly savored.

A beautifully crafted work that leaves me wanting to have a donkey as a pet, and if not, then I want to befriend a donkey somewhere close by and visit regularly.

“With a search for slowness and tranquility in mind, Andy Merrifield set out on a journey of the soul with Gribouille, a friend’s donkey, to walk for days amid the ruins and spectacular vistas of Haute-Auvergne in southern France.  While Merrifield contemplates literature, science, truth, and beauty, Gribouille surprises him with his subtle wisdom, reminding him time and again that enlightenment is all around us if we but seek it.  With a forward by acclaimed writer Elizabet Marshall Thomas, The Wisdom of the Donkeys  reminds us that observing, being mindful, and living in the moment are essential to leading a fulfilled life.”   This excerpt is from the back cover, and expresses very well how I feel about this book.

I invite you to into the journey with Merrifield and Gribouille.

The everyday routine is back after the odd-one-day hiatus; domestic chores, paper-work, grocery shopping, plant-watering, cat-caring, ironing (yes, I still iron) and raking leaves day.

But there is something I noticed yesterday that my odd and even days have in common:  The joy I feel experiencing  the life around me. 

The chickadees are migrating.   I love watching as many as ten at a time of the sharply marked little birds taking turns snatching seeds in a flurry of feathered feeding.  The red-tail hawks are back in the hood; and the intense spicy,  outdoor smell is intoxicating to me.  

The beauty of the clouds and the majesty of the surrounding hills;  fir-tree tops  peeking through the sensuous mist that engulfs them, that bathes them;  vineyards turning gold, stunning even in the cloudy light; early blooming Christmas Cactus.

And again, I give thanks for the cornucopia of abundance that dances and weaves itself  throughout the tapestry of my life!

At the beginning of  Retreat Weekend each attendee picks a Medicine Card and the animal represented is their totem animal for the duration of the Retreat, (and beyond , if one wishes to work with the energy).

This year I choose the Weasel.  I was surprised as I usually chose a hawk, a fox, a panther, but never a Weasel or member of the mustelid family. However, when I read about Weasel in Ted Andrews fine work, Animal-Speak, I was duly impressed by how much I resonated with the book’s description.  I laughed out loud when I read, “Are you missing the obvious?”

I see complexities with astounding brilliance…but the obvious continually eludes me.  I am thankful for family and friends who unfailingly continue to direct my attention to the obvious. 

Animal totems can be very useful to us for the insight they provide into our own nature.  In many cultures the animal totem can be one of the most common forms of spirit guides. 

I gained a great insight into some aspects of my own nature through the weasel.  I invite you to look into the animal totem in your life.  It will be the animal you feel closely associated with during your life.

“Your mind is like a piece of land planted with many different kinds of seeds: seeds of joy, peace, mindfulness, understanding, and love; seeds of craving, anger, fear, hate, and forgetfulness.  These wholesome and unwholesome seeds are always there, sleeping in the soil of your mind.  The quality of your life depends on which seeds you water.  If you plant tomato seeds in your garden, tomatoes will grow.  Just so, if you water a seed of peace in your mind, peace will grow.  When the seed of happiness in you is watered, you will become happy.  When the seed of anger in you is watered, you will become angry.  The seeds that are watered frequently are those that will grow strong.”

Walking Meditation, Nguyen Anh-Huong & Thich Nhat Hanh (2006)

An important key to money success is understanding giving and receiving; giving to yourself as well as others and being able to receive with wisdom and confidence.  The gift of large sums of money, coming all at once, does not equal money success.  Witness the tragic financial lives of lottery winners.  How quickly many of them are back where they were, or worse, before they received their largess.

Money success is an attitude.  It is feeling good about what and where we spend.  Not for just a moment or a day, but for a sustained period of time.  It is a sense of financial independence and freedom arising from making good decisions about spending and saving regardless of how big or small the budget.  Money success is discipline; the discipline of keeping track, the discipline of saving, the discipline of spending.  Money success is not only learning your money style, but practicing it, owning it…living it.

“If you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams, and endeavor to live the life you have imagined, you will meet with unexpected success.”  Henry David Thoreau

“If you are worrying about money, work on increasing your sense of well-being rather than thinking about money.  Rather than asking, ‘How much money do I need today?’ ask yourself, ‘How can I create money today?’  There is an enormous difference in the energy you send out to the universe when you focus on creating money rather needing money;  the first is magnetic to money and the latter is not.”

Getting Money, Keys to Abundance, Sanaya Roman & Duane Packer (1988).

“How do you partake of its unlimited vision, its divine judgment, its holy discrimination, its clear intuition?  By letting the highest aspect of your being take control of your lower nature.  And when your true self takes command, you do not sound as foolish nor as irresponsible and your actions do not boomerang to dig a deeper hole for you than you were in before.  Your words resonate with the Power of Spirit, your emotions are motivated by love, and each decision is looked upon as skill in action.  With the energy of  Wisdom circulating freely, lack is transformed into abundance, illness to wholeness, failure to success, harmfulness to harmlessness, futility to fulfillment. ”

The Angels Within Us, John Randolph Price

Mindfulness is focusing on the present moment, on the now.  It means bringing conscious mind, day-dreaming mind, the deeper mind…the whole self, including it’s shadow aspects,  fully into the moment.

Nothing, no thing we do is unimportant.  From the simple act of tying a shoe to the more complex actions and decisions that living demands, all are important. 

As with meditation, breathing is essential…mindful breathing.  Focus on each breath.  Bring the full attention of your whole self to the rhythm of your breathing.  You will experience distraction, and when you do, bring the fullness of your attention back the passage of your breath.  As you practice, focusing will become easier.  The mind begins to clear, anxiety eases, a sense of peace and well-being grows steadily.  You can achieve a deeper harmony with the Divine.  Life gets better regardless of what is happening around you.

Bringing mindfulness and meditation together in daily practice is free.  And the investment of time and energy will pay great dividends.

We so often hear that laughter is the best medicine.  There is ample evidence, Maryland Medical Center; Psychology Today, April 2005; Helpguide.org, to name but a few resources, that make a good case for the health benefits of laughter.

Laughter can help protect our heart, enhance the immune system, reduce stress, release endorphins in the brain, reduce pain and/or discomfort, and even lower our blood-sugar levels.

Once begun, laughter is contagious and is spurred on by the laughter of others.  We have all had the experience of connecting with another person and getting the giggles.

Last week’s blog dealt with Crisis Fatigue.  To share some healthy laughter felt like a good thing to do. This week I am including a generous slice of humor.  I hope this brings you a few good laughs.

‘A turtle is crossing the road when he is mugged by two snails.  When the police show up, they ask him what happened.  The shaken turtle replies, “I don’t know.  It all happened so fast.”‘

‘Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything’.

‘I took my eight year old girl to the office with me on, ‘Take Your Kid to Work Day’.  As we were walking around the office, she started crying and getting very cranky, so I asked her what was wrong.  As my co-workers gathered round, she sobbed loudly, “Daddy, where are all the clowns that you said you worked with?!”‘

And…

‘An old man is met by his attorney, and is told he is going to be audited.  He rides to the IRS office with his attorney, and when he gets there, he begins to talk with the IRS agent.  “I’ll bet you $2000 I can bite my own eye!”  The IRS agent agrees to the bet, believing it an impossible task.

The old man laughs, pulls out his glass eye and bites it.  The IRS agent is dumbfounded.  The old man then bets $3000 that he can bite his other eye.  The IRS agent knows there is no way possible to do this, so once more he agrees.  The old man cackles, pulls out his dentures, and bites his eye.

Then the old man offers a final wager.  “I’ll bet $20,000 I can stand on the far side of your desk, pee over the desk, and get it into your wastebasket without spilling a drop.  The agent is absolutely positive the old man can’t do it, so one more time he agrees.

The old man indeed misses, peeing all over the desk and the paperwork.  The IRS agent jumps for joy, but then notices the attorney in the corner moaning.  “Are you all right?” asks the agent.

“NO!  On the way over here he bet me $400,000 that he could pee all over you desk and you’d be happy about it!”‘

Enjoy the laughter!!

Blessings!

Looking at our future from this moment of time can be frightening and overwhelming.  We are suspended in a seemingly unending COVID-19 nightmare, a profound disturbance in our normality.

The future is fluid; very little is set in stone.  Part of our future is determined by circumstances, part by ‘fate’ and then there is ‘free-will’; our personal effort and commitment and the consequence of our decisions or lack of decisiveness.  As 2021 begins it is a good time to take a personal inventory and make plans for your future.

I invite you to do an exercise of intention.  Create some quiet, centered, personal space, and write a letter to yourself  from the future you desire.  The focus can be in your career, your relationships, personal habits you want to overcome, and/or personal goals you would like to achieve.  You can address one issue or multiple issues.  Be as specific as possible not only regarding the end result, but also with the behaviors it will take to accomplish these goals.

Be realistic.  Be thoughtful.  Be kind.  As you write your letter treat yourself with respect and encouragement.  Affirm and support yourself.  Acknowledge your fears, soothe and remove them, choose to entertain faith, not fear.  Create a neat, clean document because you deserve  to be the recipient of a beautifully written letter from your future.

When you are finished, put the letter in an envelope and address it to yourself.  Then give it to a trusted friend, asking them to mail it to you in one month.  Do not omit this important step.

In this exercise, you will have set and defined your intention, and created usable strategies for attaining your future goals.

Start now…your future is waiting!

Blessings!