Insights – Melannie Thomas

Archive for the ‘Intuitive Guidance’ Category

Change is inevitable.  For mortals it begins at conception.  We grow in Mother’s womb for nine months, and then we’re expelled.  This is the beginning of a lifetime of change.

Changes range from small and imperceptible to enormous and overwhelming.  Our bodies, our minds, our environments…all are constantly shifting.

There is joyful change, unwelcome change, little change, big change, traumatic change, ecstatic change, simple change, complex change, seasonal change, climate change, and aging.  The only constant is change.

Although change is an essential part of living and dying, we often rebel against it, try to avoid it, outsmart it, and just plain not face it.

I invite you this week to look at the nature of change in your life.  To make necessary adjustments; to find acceptance; to embrace change.

Life is a series of ups and downs.  Suffering is part of the human condition.  We all suffer; physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.  There are moments when it is unspeakably challenging to move through our suffering.

It is a lonely walk.  Yes, we can have (and be willing to accept) support from many quarters,  but it is a solo journey.

On my path, I am often reminded of a saying from A.M.O.R.C.  It is upon the golden cross of life that the rose of the soul blooms.

Suffering is profitable as well as seemingly senseless.  As you navigate the stream of life, I invite you to let go of ‘senseless’ and embrace ‘profitable’.

It rained a good amount here Saturday, now the earth has that sweet, spicy smell I love.  When I stepped outside this morning,  I breathed deeply the aroma of Fall.

It is an early harvest in wine country. In cultures around the world, it is time to celebrate and and express gratitude for all the land produces.  As I begin preparation for Winter, I remind myself to stop and savor the beauty of this abundant season.

I invite you to take a few moments today and breathe in the aromas and let your eyes feast on bounty beautiful.

Early this morning I had one of ‘those’  dreams.  “Wow, oh wow….,” I heard myself saying as I woke.  A dream so engrossing, I knew I had to write it down.  Overcoming my resistance, I got up, found pad and pen, and, ten pages later, I am happy it won’t be lost in the stream of consciousness that follows.

Everybody dreams.  Not everyone remembers dreaming.  Unless written or recorded, even the most powerful and intense dream will  begin to fade by evening.  Sleep research has shown that dreaming occurs during the  REM phase of the sleep cycle, and is essential to our health.

Dream is both noun and verb.  A dream is a language of images, a symbolic language.  We each have a unique dream dialect.  Recording our dreams allows us to interpret meaning based on our personal dream language.  For example, a ‘black cat‘ in my dream may not represent the same meaning as a ‘black cat’ in your dream.

I am so very grateful that I am a dreamer.  My dreams guide me, teach me, do a lot of process work for me, and contribute to restful sleep and good health.

This week I invite you to acknowledge and honor your dream world.

Every dawn heralds the beginning of a new day.  We move into our routine slowly, quickly or somewhere between, depending on the day and our circumstances. The everyday grind draws us into the ordinary actions of daily living.

One foot in front of the other;  one step at a time, we navigate the stream of consciousness.  Home, work,  children, shopping, cooking, cleaning, caring for ourselves and others, commuting, resting, relaxing, entertaining, exercising,  connecting, networking, listening, learning, chores and errands…all aspects of everyday.

So too is quiet time;  meditation time;  prayer time.  These precious moments are the easiest to forbear.  Yet managing to weave these activities into the thread of everyday pays great benefits.  They center us, prepare us, help us to ‘go with the flow’.  They can endow the mundane moment with calm, with hope, with meaning.  And having this daily centering enables us to better manage the unexpected when it arises.

This week I invite you to put  some  Spirit time in your everyday .

I began reducing the size of my material goods  two weeks ago.  I am into it, I’m  obsessed.  I missed my annual spring purge and the amount of ‘stuff’ I have is weighing me down.  But this downsize is a biggie,  far beyond spring cleaning.  I am moving to a smaller space.

I started the downsize with my books.  Then into my closets.  My really large 4 drawer file cabinet is empty, reduced to 2 medium-sized  boxes.  My dresser drawers are now only a third full.  My Granddaughter took four boxes of kitchen goodies home.  And Redwood Gospel Mission is coming to pick up a truck load of goodies.

The sorting process is an extended walk down memory lane.  I found a cache of baby teeth.  Can’t imagine their donor’s would want them at this stage of their lives, so out they went.  I was sailing through my closets until I came to a beautiful dress that was a gift.  My immediate thought was, “I can’t give this away.”  Then I realized I have never worn it;  gone!

I threw out my college transcripts.  I kept years of poetry.  It feels great.  It is empowering to go to the deepest levels of this downsizing.

The basis of Capitalism is  consuming and acquiring.   Deep downsizing is making me less inclined to consume and  acquire.  Instead,  bringing my focus to what I need and what I really use.

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!

In the cool, still, early morning I put on latex gloves, protective clothing and glasses, and a mask.  After filling  my pump sprayer with Image Brush & Weed Killer, I head out to do battle with one of the most invasive species in the world, acacia mearnsii.  I can personally attest to its reputation for spreading fast and being difficult to eradicate.

Native to Australia, there are several hundred species.   Acacia has many positive uses and symbolic associations; perfume and wood for furniture and fuel.  It figures in  Egyptian Osiris and Isis mythology.  For Freemasons it represents purity and endurance of the soul.   Believing the smoke will keep demons and ghosts away it is used in incense rituals in India, Nepal and China.   But to me acacia mearnsii is a weed.

Weeds are unwanted plants.  Plants that compete with food plants.   A weed is also any plant that grows outside its native habitat.  The non-native, very invasive Ludwigia is choking many riparian habitats in Sonoma County.  And acacia mearnsii wants to choke the acre we share.

There are good weeds, like Dandelion (unless it has invaded the lawn that is your pride and joy),  St. John’s Wort, Burdock and others like them that have food and medicinal value.  And then there’s acacia mearnsii and its 99 most invasive relatives.

Although I am having some success,  I am certain this weed will out live me.  For the moment the battle continues.  I feel I am winning if I can just hold the ground I have gained.

Not  sheets of paper in a book, table extenders, thin strips of gold foil, or  metal  pieces that are part of a leaf spring, but natures food factories.

Deciduous and Evergreen, all shapes and sizes, leaves  provide life-sustaining food and oxygen.  The color of leaves give us information.  When my dwarf citrus tree leaves have yellow in their edges, they are telling me they need more nutrients.   When leaves change color from green to glorious shades of red, yellow and orange, they signal the coming of Autuum.

I raked the first  fallen leaves on August 2.  I can’t remember an earlier start to my raking season.  The next few weeks will challenge me to keep up with the bounty. Indicating the early arrival of fall, the turning leaves remind me to hasten my summer projects and begin  preparation for the coming winter.

Gorgeous weather, beautiful surroundings, quiet conversations, boisterous laughter,  fabulous food , five generations;  family reunion.

My maternal Grandparents gathered their family together every summer. No matter how scattered,  everyone came.  I grew up knowing all my cousins.  Over the years there have been stellar reunions, not as often but achieving the same results.

Saturday we came together.  Hugging, kissing, crying, laughing;  lingering in the soft glow of re-connecting.

We have become a frenetic culture.    My sincere hope  is that you will be able to set aside some precious time for reunion with those you love.