Insights – Melannie Thomas

Archive for the ‘Health & Healing’ Category

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”  ~Melody Beattie

A special thanks to all of you who follow this blog,  support my work, and  make the world a better and brighter place because of your presence in it.  Many Blessings!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”  So wrote Thomas Paine.  Moving into third stage labor as we birth a New Age is creating times that try men’s faith.

A strong, active belief system is essential to our survival; an absolute necessity for securing peace of mind.

As the world stands in shock and horror before the growing terrorist jihad,  now is the time to steep ourselves in the benefits of positive spirituality.

This week I invite you to review, assess, and strengthen your personal belief system.

Love the weekly CSA box I share with a friend.  Having decided that we don’t want to CSA through the winter, we went searching for other options.  Then a casual conversation with a neighbor introduced us to farmfreshtoyou.com.  She has been a customer for several years and is very pleased with the service.  We signed up.

I had no idea that the organic food market had expanded to home (or office) delivery…but why not; and, there are companies spread out across to US.  Put ‘organic food home delivery’ in your search bar and you will be as amazed as I was by how many companies pop up.

I invite you to check it out. You can customize your order and prices are very reasonable.

PS  If you decide to sign up with farmfreshtoyou.com, please use this introduction code, MELA1547, and we both get a discount on our delivery.  Pretty cool huh!

Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley found its way to the top of my book pile.  I didn’t realize I still had a copy.  As I sat staring at the cover, I realized that years ago when I read this work, it had had a profound influence on me.

It led me to other Huxley writings, Brave New World and The Perennial Philosophy: An Interpretation of the Great Mystics, East and West.  I bathed in the illumination of his work, his wit, his wisdom, and his insights.  The following is a tiny sample of the tidbits that continue to resonate with me.  Enjoy.

“Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.”  A. Huxley

“There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”  A. Huxley

“The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.”  A. Huxley

No, not Easter eggs…coloring books.  Adult coloring books are  hot items.  Touted as a simple and affordable way to reduce stress, the popularity of this movement is growing exponentially.

According to Livres Hebdo, adult coloring books are more popular in France than cookbooks.  Americans are on the band-wagon.  Check out www.amazon.com/books and you might be surprised by the volume of offerings.  Pinterest and Clip Art & Crafts have single pages you can download for coloring.

I confess, I have been coloring for decades.  In fact, I am not sure I ever stopped coloring.  The Dover Coloring Book series is a staple always found in my creative cupboard.  Current issues are Color Your Own Seed Packet Illustrations, Japanese Prints Coloring Book, and Favorite Wildflowers Coloring Book.  For me, it is not just the beautiful illustrations, but also the crayons, colored pencils, water-color pencils, pastels and colored pens that are part of the process.

And, yes, I do find it relaxing and enjoyable.  I invite you to take a stress break and engage the art of coloring.

Laugh.  A good way to start a week  Enjoy!

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”  ~Terry Pratchett

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot.  And suppose you were a member of Congress.  But I repeat myself.”  ~Mark Twain

“Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don’t always like.”  ~Lemony Snicket

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.  Then quit.  No use being a damn fool about it.”  ~W. C. Fields

“Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car.”

As each season arrives with it’s smells, colors and weather patterns, I often say to myself, “This is my favorite season.”  I believe it is the marking of time, the cyclical change and the resplendent beauty that the Goddess of each season displays, that enamors me.   This piece by George Eliot expresses my heart in Autumn.

“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love – that makes life and nature harmonize.  The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one’s very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit.  Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking successive autumns.”

So many ways to be moving; change a position, take an action; be emotionally/spiritually moved; leaving one place for another, literally or metaphorically.

I am excited to announce that ‘Insights’ is moving!  Beginning October 1, 2015 my office will located in a small professional complex at 2841 Cleveland Ave. #11, Santa Rosa CA, 95403.  My phone number will remain unchanged, 707-887-8485.

My current office is being converted to residential housing; a far more compatible use in this W. Steele Lane neighborhood.

The new ‘digs’ have an excellent security system, are energetically peaceful, quiet, and aesthetically pleasing.

Looking forward to working with you in this lovely space.

This Wednesday marks the coming of fall.  Sunday there will be a total Lunar Eclipse.  A time to finish the harvest and begin preparation for winter.  If predictions are realized, this will be a powerful El Nino winter.

For many of us in Lake, Napa, and Sonoma Counties, it will also mark a time of profound loss.  There will be much to do in the coming months and years.  The people of Lake County are a rugged, independent bunch.  They will rise like the Phoenix from the ashes.

There are many ways to help with the recovery effort.  Redwood Credit Union has a donation fund with a 100% going to benefit Lake County residents.  The Red Cross, on the front line everywhere, is always in need of our support.  And there are several sites accepting help for the many animals that need vet care, food (as many fields were lost) and homes.  As well as efforts to connect missing pets with owners.

Firefighters, several of whom lost their homes to the conflagration, deserve our support and immense gratitude.  Especially those on the front line at the beginning, who were faced with really difficult decisions.

Thank you all for your prayers, concerns, sympathies and support during this difficult time.

The last 24 hours have been difficult.  Prayer and concern, constant companions throughout Sunday.  By evening family and friends were reported safe.  Many are now homeless; fleeing the ravenous flames with just the clothes on their backs.  The losses are dumb-founding and mind-numbing.

Land so near and dear to my heart and memory, has been devastated by the ‘worst tragedy Lake County has ever seen’.  It is not over.  The threat is on-going as this fire remains wholly uncontained, wholly unpredictable, and wholly dangerous.

An immense debt of gratitude to the firefighters; emergency personnel; people of Calistoga; the Red Cross; Ranchers who opened their barns and pastures to the many displaced horses; and those who rescued wandering, disoriented pets, and now begin the search to re-unite them with their families.

In crisis is opportunity.  The opportunity to practice altruism; the opportunity to discover the depths of one’s  faith; the opportunity for deeper bonding and understanding between family, friends and strangers alike.   The crisis will pass, but the challenge of recovery remains a formidable task.