April Showers - April 08 Newsletter

April Showers
We’ve had a lot of rainy weather here in the desert of late. As in the saying "April showers bring May flowers," Mother Nature is preparing itself for growth. In this phase, the ground is being made ready. In our own lives this is a very important phase that many of us often skip in favor of "doing" and trying to make things happen. The thing I have learned by watching nature is that it is always seeking balance and it never forces. I know that when I have skipped this preparation cycle I end up pushing and forcing things. When I pay attention and nurture the incubation process of the ideas that want to be birthed that they easily and naturally come to fruition. In this way I am a steward for what is coming through me as opposed to trying to make something happen. For me, this is the difference of being in flow and being in the struggle. When I notice myself struggling I can be sure that I have skipped the vital process of incubation. What this process of incubation looks like for me is noticing my thoughts, noticing what’s grabbing my attention and noticing what my natural impulses are. These things all give me clues as to what is wanting to come through me.

Reverend Deborah L. Johnson says in her book, The Sacred Yes, “What is being birthed has it’s own timing, it’s own gestation period, it’s own sense of when it is ready to spring forth. No amount of forcing, planning or setting of time lines and schedules will alter this one iota.”

So let it rain. Clear your mind so that the Divine ideas wanting to be birthed through you can take root.

Tips and Tools
If you want to know what it is that wants to come through you, try this on:

Take a small notebook with you for about a week. Write down the themes in your thinking and the things you are drawn to. Areas may include:

• Music
• Books
• Colors
• Movies
• Foods
• Places

What are your natural impulses? Do you want to:

• move
• rest
• dance
• simply be quiet?

Just notice the process that is happening through you. What is extraordinary to me is that this is all happening without our conscious effort or intent. Paying attention is a fabulous way to nurture the process unfolding within.

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Heart Matters

Today is my fathers 91st birthday, a young buck really when you consider my mother who turned 95 on January 1st. They are in the hospital together, my dad went in for a stroke and my mother, not to be outdone, came in a day later with pneumonia. My father has also been diagnosed with dementia. He sang songs that made no sense and he joined me in singing happy birthday to him. He came in and out of lucidity and yet this was one of my favorite conversations with him. During his life he was a brilliant man, a scholar, a bishop and father of 14. But since a heart attack and subsequent quadruple bi-pass about 15 years ago my father has come out of his head and into his heart.

As a little girl I always saw his big heart. I used to write him poetry. "Dear old Dad, only one I've ever had." (My poetry was quite profound even then.) I used to call him cuddly and he and the the rest of the family used to think that was the funniest thing they had ever heard, as he was quite a stern man. It wasn't until I became a teenager that I lost my ability to see who he really was.

I'm glad I'm back in my heart now so that I can enjoy this time of nonsense and tenderness. He told me today that he always knows it's me on the phone because I call him POP. I said, "Is that because I'm the only one that calls you that?" He said "Not only that but I can feel the tenderness of your heart beneath the word."

I'm hoping that I can keep cultivating conscious dementia so that I can continue to appreciate the important parts of life.
Happy Birthday Pop
I love you forever
Megan

The Body Knows

I feel happy today. It's the warmest day of the year so far. I love how the sun feeds me and nourishes me. I've felt for awhile that my body needs the sun and have thought that all of this stuff about fearing the sun is a bunch of bull crap. When I let myself soak in the rays I feel more alive and healthy. I was talking to the Doc at my office about this and he mentioned that most sunscreens cause more cancer than the sun because of all of the chemicals. Being a sun baby, that makes me happy and intuitively feels right to me. I just don't like stuff between me and my sun.

I think all of us instinctually know what is best for us. I believe my body holds a tremendous amount of untapped wisdom. I think my body has always talked to me and I'm now getting better at listening. I find that when I listen to my body, life is so much more ease full and fun. For much of my life I've depended on my mental intellect to survive. As I tap more in to my body's wisdom I'm finding more of a peace and an experience of being that I never got from thinking.

Lately I've been practicing simply noticing my breath. Feeling my chest expand and listening to my breath as it comes in and out. I notice that when I do that my thoughts stop and it gives me a few moments of simply being. I've felt more able to listen to what my body is telling me since starting this practice. I seem to know what I want and need more easily.

I find that if I ask a question while consciously breathing and moving that I discover ways of looking at and addressing things that would have never occurred from just trying to figure stuff out.

So what wisdom does your body have to share with you?
Tune in and see.
Peace Out
Megan