When we are moving through life, we may promise ourselves that we'll figure things out AFTER we get through a series of events. This is especially true when we're NOT in control of circumstances (and believe me, no matter how well we plan and execute our plans, we are rarely managing more than our own thoughts and deeds). "Things" go awry. People react differently than we expect. Rains become floods before we see rainbows. Chocolate melts in our pocket before we get to taste it. I encourage you to move forward. Choose to focus on what is good, even if the best taste of what was sweet seemed brief and unsatisfying. No matter what we wish could have been, life is best when we move into greater possibilities. In a few months or years (or after a lifetime), we will pause and look back at those times with a better sense of our strength, courage, and pride. In that space, we are likely to frame experiences as blessings. When we do that, we shift time and space: Grief shimmers with joy. Hurts heal with forgiveness. Our life brightens and our heart opens the moment we find a blessing, whenever and however we see it. Generally speaking, when someone offers you chocolate, enjoy it immediately! When someone offers you a challenge, move through it as best you can. Choosing to act with GOOD WILL is the hallmark of a Finest Hour. Your choices, with good intention, transform your spirit and transcend circumstances. In seeking the possibility of a blessing, we become brighter and more brilliant. This is a natural process, just as pressure creates diamonds and stars form from explosions. How will I choose to see GOOD in every experience? This is an act of our will: to freely choose the good in every experience, even if it has passed. When we can do that, we learn the power of Love, of joy, of forgiveness. In that exchange, we have the power to shift reality, overwrite time, and receive Grace from those experiences forever. DonnaMarie Fekete 27 May 2016
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How does Sacred Space open within me? Often, I look to the sky, the sea, mountain tops, sweet sunrises and sunsets, at moonlight, in candlelight, in chapels, cathedrals, or forests to find Sacred Space. Where are the places that take your breath away, even if you are not standing there? How has time stopped for you, in moments of joy, wonder, and connection? What happens inside you when you remember those moments? What do you understand about how that makes your feel? How do you learn you can return there over and over, whether or not you can afford plane fare? Close your eyes. Breathe deeply. Ask for that memory. Say "Yes." Feel your soul unlock and open wide. Enter your Sacred Space and feel ALL that wonder flow in and through you, over and over again. Where am I? In sky, fields, oceans In molten lava forming continents In a sneeze that decimated tribes In the whisper of goodbye, and the cough of birth, clearing lungs for a healthy squall. What connects me to before and when? Stars, tides, seasons, images and genes of ancestors’ smiles, dances, prevailing against winds, struggling, shoulders against wheels, breaking ground, one deep plunge into birth, life, milk, teeth, blood, and love. Everything is sacred. Everything is limited to attention that I give. Everything eternal waits for me to see It is Presence. Everything creates itself with my voice, saying, "YES." DonnaMarie Fekete, May 20, 2016 My mood this morning was as gray and foggy as the mist laying along the lower branches of the trees. I recognized the feeling as isolation; the sense that the vibrancy of my interpersonal connections was static. This happens from time to time, usually when I remember the lively exchange of energies that swirled through my daily commute and work life. In retirement, I've learned to recognize this sensation without critiquing it. (The voice in my head could repeatedly exhort me to quit feeling sorry for myself and get over it.) Usually, I only need to "hear" it whisper once to silence it. I "feel the feeling without fondling it," as my friend Jack would say. I'd promised myself last night that I'd visit the local community center today and check out the selection of plants being sold for charity. I hoped to find some herbs to replace a few that didn't survive the blizzard in January. When I entered the site, two women who sat near me when I attended a musical presentation last week greeted me. As I moved to the selection of herbs, I was surprised to see a woman I'd met last Thursday (when another friend invited me to a "craft and chat" group). She smiled and reminded her spouse where we'd met. I stopped to talk with someone I didn't know about the coneflower she was considering, assuring her that they re-seed, and reminding her that it's the plant sold in health food stores as echinacea. "I take that supplement!" she said, surprised. Someone I met two weeks ago (when I tried a tap dance class) remembered me as "Spaghetti" because I use it as a mnemonic on how to pronounce my name. She was embarrassed; she wanted to ask me for my contact information, to keep me informed about when the class returns in September. When I stepped through my fog this morning, I felt like a fish struggling in a muddy pool. With a few sweet drops of encounter brightening my awareness, I slipped back into the shining stream of life-affirming presence. Sometimes foggy, murky feelings dull my sense of how souls shimmer. Each of us is called to grow: to flow, if not always visibly and splashing. All of us swimming through a sea of Being are seen: lit from a source we may not sense. Struggling, I may find myself beached in a muddy pool, anxious for the stream I left through doubt of my well being. When I rest, I become aware of rivulets opening, silently guiding me back to the sweetness of the stream, where peace affirms Presence through my life. DonnaMarie Fekete, 2 May, 2016 |
AuthorI've been paid to sing, act, paint, teach and write. What I do most to express myself is write. I've self-published four books: poems, essays, stories, and prayers. Archives
December 2016
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NOW is our Finest Hour! | I*D*E*A*S* |