It's autumn in the mid-Atlantic USA. Daylight is shifting in its beginning and ending. Morning takes longer to emerge from night; colors are slower to filter from the muddle of darkness to shades of gray to the glow of sunrise. I noticed dawn's delay this morning with its similarity to how I respond to our early alarm. I forestall waking. I keep my eyes closed, cocooned while Vince washes and the news rattles and flares. After awhile I compromise, opening my eyes, with no corrective lenses, keeping my focus soft as I listen for cues to bridge my dreams with reality. Eventually I reach for my specs and the day zaps into focus. I clearly see ALL the light, noise, action, and my responsibility for joining the party.
We are always invited to use our energy fully, wisely, and joyfully each day. We are also allowed to measure our responses, consider our options, and become willing to participate in any opportunity while we remain fully connected to our dreams, our spirits, and the POWER that LOVES and supports us, WHATEVER WE DECIDE. I offer peer support and creative activities that focus on your I*D*E*A*S ~Insights, Decisions, Energy, Authenticity, and Spirit. Together we share a FINEST HOUR that transforms, grows, and expands life abundantly, with joy and gratitude.
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Welcome to a new month and, in the northern hemisphere, the start of "meteorological" autumn. Whatever the calendar says, due to an overcast sky, our morning plunged us into the shadow of a late fall morning. Out of season, we turned on the headlights for safe travel. Warm, moist air settled on our skin and lingered to assure us that summer will be here for awhile. These sensory overlays remind me that nothing about time is linear: *Everything* happens at once. Any moment of awareness is a median where miracles grow along the path we take. I am covered with the shadow of clouds, blanketed in humidity, wrapped in reminders of change: Comfort shifts with awareness. Each time light, heat, cold, love shock receives my attention, Grace offers me a miracle: Connection to lives past, longing for a future, and understanding that this moment is more important than where my next thought falls. Afterthought: When I reread the reflection a few minutes after I wrote it, I had an urge to shift "humidity" to "humility." The original represents the physical nature of my awareness and the second the interior "medium" where awareness grows. What version calls you to Fall In more deeply? DonnaMarie Fekete 1 September 2016 Wisdom tells us (via Ralph Waldo Emerson, I think) that there will always be others with lesser and greater gifts than ours. In my cosmos, each of us is exquisitely beautiful and infinitely talented. The kick is that we pay attention to influences that inform us differently. We alter our perceptions to validate those external prompts and circumstances. We seek to alter our self perception, to measure ourselves among those who are greater by changing circumstances- how we dress, who we know, what we say or study or feel- based on songs, stories, society, history, economies, or customs. We may not feel loved unconditionally and naturally, so we create conditions that help us measure our radiance in "acceptable" doses. I know this from personal experience at the most physical level. I've been pudgy (except for a few years here and there) since I started first grade. Have I allowed that fact (or medical opinion) to shift how I used my array of talents? I did indeed. I stepped back from some opportunities and saw others as a means to change opinions, stereotypes, or history. I would be the chubbette that sang sexy songs; or the professional whose self-education equaled great minds; or the artist whose fuzzy eyesight became the means for giving others new perspectives. My body may be the simplest external element that informed my decisions on how and where to shine. One of the greatest shifts in my understanding of how CREATION (God, Energy, Spirit, Source, Cosmos) flows through me as intellect, emotion, spirit, skill, resistance, choice, and courage came when I read Marianne Williamson's (paraphrased) statement that what we fear most about being alive is our POWER within it. Believing that, I still weigh circumstances before forging new experience. I recognize that my all my opportunities can be wildly successful, based on my choices with them. Whatever variable energies I expend on those opportunities must always be, because I AM, an expression of my life purpose: To be happy and know that I am loved. For that, I am responsible. You really love me when I express that power honestly. I love you more when you act from the love that flows through you. I fully believe that, no matter what circumstances and arguments arise externally, I -and you, and everyone on the planet- exist to love and feel loved. No matter what that looks like around me, Love continually unfolds through me and everyone, merging our dreams, wishes, and hopes into Greater Love and infinite creation. How often do I confuse ego with my attempts to energize the deep desires of my heart? We call for connection, acceptance, and love. We instinctively express beauty, joy, peace and love. We dance. We sing. We marvel. We shape words, twigs, dirt, and pigments: Forming images, spinning outward, calling others to our vision of creation. When our attempts to manifest these longings fall outside social, family, or institutional frameworks, we sense dichotomies. We fall into judging disparities as faults. We accept outside definitions of the infinite within us. Spirit challenges us to see our gifts, dreams, and decisions as authentic and loving~ validated and existing among uncountable possibilities that emerge through the thoughts, acts, and intentions of others~ ALL of which unfold at once and seek to merge in Love. DonnaMarie Fekete 25 August 2016 Over the last few days, I've been exchanging emails with a dear friend that dipped into our common well of hopes and dreams, fantasies and facts. In one, he shared a family story that reminded me of another tale he'd told a few years ago. I told him that, if he combined the two, he'd have a sweet nostalgic essay about transitions, and what pieces remain when things change. Because I'm confident in our relationship, I copied and pasted the two notes together, added about ten words tying them together, and sent him his essay. He replied bemused, that his life —and memories— were puzzle pieces. He added a lovely compliment: "My favorite friends all have one thing in common — you all make me think and find possibilities." We became friends working and taking work breaks together: laughing, philosophizing, analyzing project plans, planning literary adventures, parsing lessons from his childhood spent between mountains in WV, sharing dreams, and nourishing each others' souls over soup and salad. His wonder at seeing his life as a puzzle reminded me that Wisdom says we rarely understand the beauty of our present life, because we construct it without a full and open viewpoint. Our exchange shows how, when we allow others to reflect on what they see emerging through us, we can be amazed and grateful for ALL we don't see unfolding. Our lives are works of art Our masterpiece grows in bits and pieces. We see patterns; feel them fall into place. We sense another side, but We must trust others to tell us, “Beautiful things are emerging because of YOU. DonnaMarie Fekete (aka Thea Donna) Creative Coaching, Consulting, and Connections Finest Hour Services In the last few weeks, we've been stunned repeatedly by tragic news that impacts our serenity and safety. Events --and reactions I've witnessed-- have whirled me around and confounded me with contrasts. Yesterday, in a moment of despair, I lost my ability to "see" beyond my feelings. I wondered what I could do (with a wealth of loving friends) to change the atmosphere enveloping us. I called to my social network, "How can we bring light to the pain, anger, and distrust of the past and present to become stronger and healthier together?" They answered immediately with reminders that peace begins with me. As often happens, I found my center through a *reflection* of it that they offered me. The power of their loving intention stayed with me through the evening and into this morning. My morning inspiration was an affirmation of the energy of differences: In times of confusion, I am balanced and aware. I am open to change. I am secure in my personal well being. I am blessed by opportunities. I respect opinions that live outside my heart. I perceive tension as the essence of new creation. I appreciate differences as a foundation for understanding and growth. Before 7am, I offended a driver behind me by not exercising my option to turn right at a red light when he expected it. He SCREAMED a protracted "GO!!!!!!!" (for a full five seconds) through his open window. I continued to wait until I was secure about the gaps in the 50-60mph traffic. When I turned onto the main road, he whipped around to my left, and flew past another driver on my right. He streaked up the road a quarter mile and stopped at another red light, where we were side by side with each other. For the next two miles, he stayed to the right, drove at the speed limit, and as near as I could tell, continued with no aggression. I rode along to his left; we followed our regular route to the MARC station, as he drove south. I could create a story around his reasons for screaming, racing, and regulating his behaviors. Somehow, whatever balance he regained in a few seconds, between our brief encounter and the next quarter mile, tension initiated a change. Somehow, my choice to respond without escalation affected his conduct and possibly the safety of dozens of others who shared the road. Others encourage me with the statement that chaos precedes creation, in astronomy or in society. If I, as an individual release my "right" way, what I gain is balance with others to build bridges. Today, I'm grateful for awareness and balance in moments of opportunity. 18 July 2016 Today the sun stands still. Depending on where you are stationed, it could be the longest or shortest day of the year. Of course, any day (or night) might seem endless, depending on how we relate to the experiences we measure with time. When have moments in your life suspended in joy or agony, while others -equally intense- streaked away in a heartbeat? Magic and miracles happen over and over again in our lives. The real mystery is how we learn to *SEE* them in the moment they occur. Science has shown us that it is our *attention* that makes the smallest particles dance. Perhaps the seasons were set in motion to remind us that we must STOP time -sink into darkness, or ascend into sunshine- to sense the infinite possibilities that flow through us and become reality. At Solstice we are keenly aware of light: How it covers us, Where it stops, When it connects Stars, seasons, souls. As each hour unfolds, May we remember~ In *any* moment, WE are the stream Infinity chose to Sparkle in every Season, Ceaselessly. DonnaMarie Fekete How could magic happen *any* time? It happens when your I*D*E*A*S: Intention, Desire, Energy, Action, Spirit combine to transcend and transform your reality. NOW is your Finest Hour! How will we share it? There are an infinite number of possibilities in the universe that solar systems will be destroyed. There are equally infinite possibilities that when stars collide, new galaxies, energies, beings emerge. Everything we imagine conforms to physical laws: Chaos constructs the cosmos. Constellations rise from fire and ash. Energy begets energy. When I began teaching, my primary grade students loved to act out a little song: "Old House: Tear it down! Who's going to help me tear it down?" They were just as enthusiastic about the second verse: "New House! Build it up! Who's going to help me build it up?" Both verses continued with same words: "Bring me a hammer! Bring me a saw! Who's going to help me?" We'd talk about the different ways we used tools to tear things down and build something new. The most inexperienced students could imagine ways to use what was taken apart: clean them, mix them with glue, straighten what's bent, sell scrap to buy materials. We kept the discussion concrete: tearing down and building were rarely about rebuilding relationships, communities, or broken hearts. As adults we learn that destruction and chaos affects us in real time, in our personal emotional lives. Someone we love will collapse. Strangers will be mowed down, even as they dance for joy, celebrating with pride, love, and victory over decades of suspicion and estrangement. After such decimation, we stagger, we stumble. We are stunned. Still, there is only one thing to do when everything falls apart: BUILD something new. Dust off what is strong. Use what remains. Imagine what can be improved. Act with confidence, enthusiasm, and faith. We rebuild because we ARE creation, recycling, renewing, reconnecting energetically, emotionally, intentionally. Life compels us to CREATE itself, over and over, simply to remind us that we frail beings are as magnificent as the suns that light our days and power life through uncounted eons. I am built from stars that formed in chaos. I formed from an intent to merge, become something greater, develop into fullness, push into life, fill my lungs, call for love. All I AM declares: Shake me, Stun me, Shock me. Start me on the path that spins me into ACTION. DonnaMarie Fekete Finest Hour Services support your shift from challenge to opportunity. We honor your *Intentions*Decisions*Emotions*Actions*Spirit* to creatively transcend and transform experiences. Now is your Finest Hour! How will we share it? Oh, June! You are filled with memories that celebrate life and love. Through my childhood ... and for countless others, you launched fireflies into the summer dusk. Long before I was born, you welcomed one of my three (lucky me!) beloved grandfathers to the world. In 1974, you invited me to perhaps a half dozen weddings and anniversary celebrations in three weekends. From those weddings, you introduced me to twins who, even when they looked nearly identical, were delightfully different and as independent as they were entwined when I met them through a sonogram. You brought me a great niece twenty years or so after those June weddings and sent her Pap-Pap (another of those weddings) to heaven last year. A few years later, in another decade, you slipped a child into my good friend's life on the day my Uncle Leo left it. Just this past week, you reconnected me to childhood friends, let me laugh at myself through the eyes of a child, and reminded me how large and small the span of the same few years can be between 16 and 33, then at 63 and 80. Every June brings me the most daylight in the year, and within a week, lets me see daylight last a few moments less. The fireflies will continue to light the dusk, fewer and fewer for weeks to come. "If I could save time in a bottle" it might look the way lightning bugs did when I was a child. Those were sweet nights of wonder, laughter, and love, that taught us more than anything else, that we can't capture beauty and confine love. We may appreciate those magical, living moments most when, having been amazed by what we can't understand, we set them free to fly into a future we trust will bring us more light than darkness. DonnaMarie Fekete June 2016 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 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 |
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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