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
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This morning was dusty, with pollen in every sunbeam. New, pale, lime green leaves were vibrating, not just with the breeze, but with birds doing aerobics in the branches. A goldfinch shook its wings out against a cluster of oak buds, revealing its camouflage. The cherry tree that I believed would hardly blossom this spring exhaled and dropped a shower of pale petals that brushed my arm before they settled onto the new grass rising in emerald spires. In those ten seconds, all the activity before my eyes mirrored earthquakes, volcanoes, cries for life and loss, tides and floods: one living organism we limit by saying "I." Why believe that we can ever be in solitude, unless "alone" refers to the moment we realize that all are ONE with everything that happens in this moment? Suns rise dense with pollen, trees vibrating from finches shaking out wings it dusted, camouflaged in the bright green of unformed leaves, setting off sneezes of children bounded by headphones, with no plan for any step but the dub of their earbud. Seed stuff covers me as ash pours from volcanoes in Puebla, Vanuatu, Italy, Tanzania, Guatemala, Kamchatka, Hawaii: shaken from the rim of fire collapsing homes and breaking hearts from Fukumoto to Ecuador, flooding Houston, covering the Rockies with snow. Breathe. Robins are pulling life from the leaves that fell a moment ago, in September. Look. Blossoms drift across a sunbeam, pale pinks fade to white on emerald grass. Listen. Caw trill, coo, chirp-- remind dinosaurs to fuel my commute from this instant. Alone in nature? Sol, I, too, die and Live with You and you. One Earth. One Life. One Now. DonnaMarie Fekete, 19 April 2016 The sun didn't rise this morning. The neighborhood went from night to gunmetal to nickel. The sky bordered on dull platinum as I drove across the river toward home. As the wipers pushed the showers from the windshield, my awareness centered on the stitch in my side, the crease under my right shoulder blade, the dull knob of resistance in my left elbow. I wondered what this meant to my overall health, deeper inside my body, with its inventory of missing and compromised organs. At that moment, a great blue heron stretched and flew across the bridge just above me. Time slowed to the width of its wings and the length of its legs. My mind rose to watch it follow the river and curve away. I breathed its blessing of long life, strength, and power, and instantly moved into multiple dimensions: I crashed into the truck before me; I reversed to the instant heron entered my line of sight; I was an insect riding the back of the bird; I moved through penetrable cells of asphalt, vinyl, metal, glass. I exhaled. The moment carried me into the intersection, solid, with *no wonder* that those feelings of dis-ease were gone. *Did you wonder if something ordinary can be wonder-filled? Of course it is! Finest Hour Peer Support and Coaching honors shifts from challenge to change. Your *Insights*Decisions*Energy*Actions*Spirit are keys to transcending and transforming opportunities. NOW is your Finest Hour! How will we share it? Have you encountered folks who seem to be intent on bashing your hopes and dreams? I admit, there are times when I begin to listen to their words of doom and gloom. If I shift my attention, they begin to sound like an anvil chorus: "BANG! DON'T HOPE for MORE or ANYTHING than HEARTACHE!" Funny though, once I began singing along with that tune, it made me laugh! How can anyone HOPE for heartache? Our hearts are keyed into joy, for love, for light, for more of all that shines in the dark and brightens the day. When I remember that, their next CLANG! strikes Sparks and SPLITS that bit of hope into *Star Seeds* that spin off into souls who are open and ready to grow more hope! Hope has enemies. They worry, work, and hammer hard to undermine Hope. They pound their message, clanging, banging, knowing Hope can be hidden, dismissed and denied. Hope’s allies are noisy, chanting their truth~ Hope always returns when invited. Hope regenerates. If someone manages to shatter Hope, it sparks and scatters away from attackers. Hope’s remnants fly and multiply for ALL who welcome it home in their hearts. DonnaMarie Fekete, 30 March 2016 WEDNESDAY is HOPE DAY in the Finest Hour Community on Facebook. Visit us anytime for reflections on transformation and transcendence! When we realize that terror is a heartbeat away, a step from where we stand, and a few fingers from the hand that waves us welcome home, we may be tempted to run to safety, find shelters, and retreat behind barricades. I'm asking you to deny the impulse to flee. Stay present and focused. Do the next RIGHT THING. Keep calm and carry on. Be the change you wish to see in the world. We can be powerful, courageous messengers of freedom by living authentically, openly, and mindfully in the day we are given by Working, Playing, Loving. To BE the LIGHT that conquers evil, simply practice the ordinary, regular routines that connect to Highest Power, Love, Joy, Peace, and its INFINITE SOURCE. I have successfully integrated three options to stay centered in confusion: Pray (bless others), Look for Light, and Live out Loud. When we are bombarded with news of evil, chaos, and despair, we consciously connect to greater good than we may see around us. We become a channel for peace, an instrument of change, couriers of courage. Let us PRAY ~ for any soul whose life has been disrupted through violence, terror, fear, anger, chaos, greed, or division. Let us LIFT~ our hearts in the light of hope, compassion, understanding, peace, reconciliation, generosity, and unity. Let us LIVE~ honestly, joyfully, courageously, and lovingly so that others may share sweet dreams of freedom. Finest Hour Services offers one-on-one support, group coaching, and workshops for mindfulness, balance, and centering meditation. NOW ~in times of challenge and change~ is our Finest Hour! How will we share it? DonnaMarie Fekete, 22 March 2016 Here in the mid-Atlantic of the US, the first day of spring often brings snow as well as sun, reminding how resistant even seasons are to changing. Being creatures who know our "place," we may forget that in another longitude, we have kindred spirits who are counting their blessings, making an inventory of what will sustain them through cold and dark. Equinox may be the best day to reflect that our world shares one life cycle: Spring to Harvest; Autumn to Blossoms. Twice each year, at equinox, we share light equally no matter where we stand. As Above, so Below: Seasons change. Life bestows blessings of growth, harvest and home. Days turn dark. Cold and frost warm. We stand this day between heaven and earth, with equal knowing: blossoms will seed, be gathered and gleaned. Always around and within, the cycle begins. Without and with ALL, we rise and fall. As one turns from winter to Spring, communities grow with Love. As others swing from summer to Autumn, neighbors store thanks for longer nights than days. One day twice in every year, ALL are One in equal Light. Finest Hour Creative Peer Support/Coaching and Workshops support your your transitions and transformations. We allow your Intuition*Decisions*Energy*Authenticity to SHINE! Contact us for a complimentary 30-minute session. Check out our Heart/Mind/Spirit Activities for opportunities to shift your Light Cycle! I noticed this morning that there is a major difference in the darkness when, against my wishes, Daylight Savings returns it to me. The birds are singing their hearts out! I welcome the shift that signals a change in seasons, as January closes and February starts. As cold as those mornings can be, winter fades. As late winter mornings slowly turn from black to blue to gray, bird calls change from the harsh cough of starlings and piercing caw of crows, to early geese pulling their flock along with steady honking. Before I see robins, their trills filter through the woods, a sweet promise that the season is changing. As light grows each day, I'm aware of more and more calls: cardinals whistle, jays chatter, woodpeckers drill, doves mourn. As my delight in dawn's orchestra warms my heart, the clock springs forward and I'm thrust back into night, grudging the return of darkness~ longing for twilight to be recycled over four more weeks . This morning, for the first time (unless, perhaps I'd completely forgotten), I walked out into the darkness to hear the avian orchestra tuning itself as sweetly as I'd enjoyed it a week ago. I was enraptured! Spring is still singing in the trees! How is it, that after years of complaining about returning to dark mornings, I never realized that the birds don't need sunshine to welcome the day? Why should I put my celebrations of life on hold, because someone tried to turn out its light? I admit to being tantalized by calls to LEAP INTO PASSION AND PURPOSE AND COLLECT A SEVEN FIGURE INCOME! It's probably because, while I'm quite bright, it has taken me TIME for me to understand that my expressions of abundance, passion, and purpose are as diverse as wildflowers and as authentic as cow patties in a verdant pasture. I'm a mix of qualities characteristics, and emotions, so the only way I've become fearless and free is to let what enrages and agitates me be replaced in ways I can engage and appreciate the situation. That includes humor, resistance, advocacy, surrender, action, flight, and prayer. Fearless Freedom often comes when I follow my heart regardless of others' promises or practices. When I allow myself to flow through a range of feelings, I'm experiencing freedom at this very minute. When I act from what brings me into alignment with my core values, I become fearless and recognize opportunities without limits. FEARLESS FREEDOM helps open my heart to miracles. Frantic Emotions Aggravate. Restore Loving Expression and Souls Sing. Find Release and Essence Emerges. Divine Opportunities, Miracles Live through US. DonnaMarie Fekete 11 March 2016 Today is International Women's Day. At the risk of stating the obvious...
Every woman everywhere, has reason to be honored. Single, married, coupled, lonely, consecrated, liberated, gay, straight, bearing children, childless Women feel the pull of tides, walk with pain, rejoice at blood and mourn its loss. We start each day knowing mother to daughter, back to Eve or Lucy, seed or star, at First Breath all (hu)man kind and power seeks our presence. DonnaMarie Fekete, 8 March 2016 It's been FOUR YEARS since we celebrated a leap day. Still, today is a day unlike any other and just like every other turn of the sun and moon. How many of us can look back across decades and pinpoint each February 29th? What we remember is much more rare, deeper, brighter, darker: When did we take a leap of faith, plunge into the unknown, or step out of the ordinary? What happens between intensity, opportunity, and outcomes are the small, sweet, daily opportunities to be present and trust that each moment is precious, beautiful, and EXACTLY what we have chosen to learn more about our purpose in this life and the possibilities beyond it. TODAY is a wonderful day to remember that tomorrow may not come; yesterday may be farther away than years ago; and when we LEAP, we don't know how or where we'll fly. We only TRUST that this is a rare and beautiful opportunity to enjoy this moment, NOW. DMarie Fekete, 29 February 2016 Finest Hour supports your I*D*E*A*S for transforming Simple Moments, Finest Hours, Soul-Filled Days, into an Inspired Life. NOW is our Finest Hour! How will we share it? Check our Peer Support, Heart-Mind-Spirit, and Consulting services for more information. |
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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