Summer Vacation

I came to Cafe Spirit for a quiet cup of coffee, knowing these next couple weeks will be busy with ice cream cones, games, and giggles. It summer vacation family time and, while I won’t have the chance to sit here and muse with my cafe friends, I will be on a spirit adventure of the best kind.
When I return the first of August, I will be writing about the empowering and intriguing information that is available to all of us in the ocean of energy we live in. I call it quantum energy insights. I hope you’ll join me at the cafe and share that adventure with me… and have many sweet watermelon moments until then.

And so my mantra for today: Embrace my possibilities.

Notes along the way… Jeanne

Manifesting Destinations

If I am ‘driving’ toward my desires, my thoughts are the different gears of the manual transmission in my dream mobile.

I know for sure my thoughts around my list-of-things-to-do is second gear. They keep me moving along though my sense of destination gets buried. It’s like stopping at every gas station, fast-food place, and gift shop along the way.

Distracting myself with rabid reading, indifferent television hours, sweeping what has already been sufficiently swept, and other time-eaters is surely the same as shifting into Park. Whatever my destination, these choices are not taking me forward even as they might serve for a time to soothe my soul.

Wanting is fourth gear. In knowing what I want, I keep my destination vibrating, inviting both circumstance and people to show up along the way and steer me in the best direction. But here is the challenge of knowing what I want. There is a distinct tendency to feel it must be grand enough to cover all things and into the future. It’s like trying to buy one pair of shoes for all occasions now and for everything arising in the next two years. Seeking to define what I want at such a grand scale is very much like shifting into neutral. I will idle indefinitely.

It’s what I want now and just around the corner that speeds my journey by giving me manageable choices. What do I want? The heat turned up. What do I want? To smile and laugh more often. What do I want? To share spirit time with others at CafeSpirit and as we gather in person. Each of these bring comfort and delight and that is, when it all comes together, the destination I am seeking.

And so my mantra for today: What do I want… right now?

Notes along the way… Jeanne

My Sister

Sisters are often noted for being steady, inspired, and sweet in the drama life is sure to bring. My sister careened along the neighborhood roads with me as I drove my husband to the emergency room, his finger in unknown chaos after cutting it on a table saw. She called me daily after my dog quietly left me on an every day Sunday morning; her voice kept me from floating away in the pain of losing a best friend. Years ago, when my divorce left me facing too many challenges, she showed up on my doorstep in her pajamas, ready to baby sit my toddler while I went to work knowing she would keep him safe from his unpredictable father.

The raging rivers I’ve faced along the way have surely been crossed more easily because my sister has been at my side, but she has been there for the other, and equally important, parts of my journey. On sunny days, she has blown on my balloons of possibilities. On cozy days, she celebrated all of my creative baby steps. Consistently trusting my intentions, she encouraged me to travel my particular valleys and hills with confidence in my choices.

All this and yet I can say her greatest gift may well be her utter willingness to explore that beguiling, mysterious, marvelous parts of me. Holding hands, we have been exploring our inner landscape to better know our personal spirit.

And so my mantra for today:  Appreciate spirit sisters.

Notes along the way… Jeanne

My Power, My Body

The doctor’s office… it is here we come for answers about our aches and pains, our breasts, bones, and hearts. Often we find answers. Not always. For these people who dedicate themselves to this service are the first to acknowledge they don’t have all the answers. But they are also adamant they have the best answers, exuding confidence they know the way.

Health care allies of modern medicine smile and nod, assuring me they care and I believe they are sincere. But, their caring doesn’t fill the void left by ignoring my inner wisdom. That is what I now understand. That is why I’ve come here today to reclaim my power.

Last time, I jumped on the medical train and believed I would find healing if I just took my seat and rode it out. The symptoms were eliminated with a surgical knife, but no one ever talked to me about deeper well-being where the original cause was considered.

That is what I want. That is adventure calling me now.  I know there are other answers, other ways that are responsible, health-giving, and proactive. There are others out there beating down the brambles of acceptable medical procedures and pushing through the undergrowth of health wisdom. I’m certainly not alone as I scramble out of this valley of fear-based medicine to find my own way.

And one truth stands clear to me as I watch friends and family on their own health journeys… symptoms might go away, but true healing is found within our personal power. That is where we find the insight to comprehend the connection between mind-body-spirit.

As I seek my unique path, I don’t know who I will invite to walk with me. I only know it will be a mix of knowledge and experience. And it will certainly honor my choices and intuition. Actively choosing a balance between current medical knowledge and my own instinctive knowing is part of keeping my power in growing my health.

And so my mantra for today: My well-being is empowered when I honor my inner wisdom.

Notes along the way… Jeanne

Beliefs Change

I came to another rather large stone blocking the way on my path of possibilities and, as always, the universe began giving me the tools I need to clear it away. This time, it included a book a friend gave me quite out of the blue.

In Martha Beck’s “Finding Your Own North Star” I came across the statement, “I get to be wildly successful…..” I tried that on and it wasn’t a comfortable. “I am in complete health” would fit like my faded jeans, but “wildly successful” was much more like a beautifully tailored, lushly colored pair of silk slacks in a store I would pass by.

I knew I had a clue, something that would move that stone.

Settling into a quiet moment, I closed my eyes and imagined being nine years old, sitting at the dinner table with my family, saying “I’m going to be wildly successful.” My words fell into the gravy bowl even as my younger brother and sister looked up from their meatloaf as though I had spoken a different language. They have always been bright.

The stone moved a bit to the left.

This morning, in the insightful hours before sunrise, I closed my eyes again. This time I went to my husband and children. Sitting at an imagined dinner table, with everyone present, I declared, “I am wildly successful in everything I do.”

The cheer went up and the stone is gone.

I don’t have to know why my current desires don’t fit into the beliefs of my childhood family but I do get to show up at that imagined, long-ago table and announce my intention. In doing that, I empower my journey. I erase an old belief that no longer serves me.

And so my mantra for today: Changing my beliefs, changes my future.

Notes along the way… Jeanne

Joy

In the menu of life, this is a favorite I’ve ordered it often, thinking there could be nothing more obvious to make me feel satisfied. But experience has shown me it is much more than a triple-dipped delight with laughter sprinkled on top. Joy is such a tasty sensation, it asks for the right circumstance.

I don’t get to be half-present with joy. The meat of life can be gulped down with satisfaction while making mental lists, reviewing my indecisions, even worrying about the future. Soups of responsibilities can be filled with the left-over, wilted pieces from the back of the vegetable drawers and I still feel good about my choice. But joy is a delicate dessert that asks for my complete attention.

It comes in so many flavors; a moon slipping across the sky as it tickles the lake with its light… or bumping into a friend who has been sitting in the corner of my heart during busy days… even hearing my granddaughter’s voice. The flavors are endless. It’s the opportunity to taste that is my challenge.

But I’m learning when I am most likely to savor this illusive treat. Joy comes when I release the clamoring chatter. It is served in any moment I embrace with abandon because it’s not an event as much as it is the energy that swirls through me when I am choosing to honor my truth and listen to the whispers of my spirit.

And so my mantra for today: Be in the moment.

Notes along the way… Jeanne

Manifesting Intentions

Manifested intentions are infinitely confusing because they look so different when they become my days. Past intentions are powerfully, amazingly, almost magically growing my spirit and showing me the way to fulfill my potential, but the landscape looks so different I have trouble finding my self on the map I initiated… over time… with layers of desires.

But when I refuse to drown in worry and swim on the surface of possibilities, I see sparkling evidence of being exactly where I am best served now… and in every moment of my life. Dog paddling in reflection, I can calmly, comfortably comprehend what I’ve brought to my life, what it is giving me, what I am learning, and how beautifully intentions are the flowers in the gardens of my life.

And so my mantra for today:  My tomorrows are being shaped by today’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.

Notes along the way… Jeanne

Friendships Change

When do I let a friendship change? Though a bit scary, this feels like a spirit question of great possibilities.

If I need a friend to be what they have always been to me, then I am not allowing their life journey to change their perspective, needs, responsibilities, desires. I am holding them close to make me feel safe rather than walking beside them carrying a light of excitement and optimism as they find their way.

If I support a friend while believing they are taking the wrong path, I become a stone in their shoe, small enough for them to ignore, but limiting their comfort to run with change.

If I feel left out or left behind because new choices are being made, I am making our friendship my security blanket rather than a place to share joy, observations, and experiences.

It takes only a cup of tea at Café Spirit for me to realize my friendships will thrive best if change is a constant ingredient. In this way, I can explore the world with them. I can keep ‘seeing’ who they are… knowing they will transform as surely as the seasons… knowing they will flow into changing currents of potential… and knowing they will also fly as they build dreams.

And so my mantra for today: Embrace change in celebrating friendships.

Notes along the way… Jeanne

Anger

It occurs to me the danger of anger is not in offending someone, being too much, or creating upheaval. The underlying, insidious truth for me is the way unexpressed anger sucks joy right out of the bottom of my feet.

If someone says something provoking and I hold my tongue, I am unable to enjoy a conversation with a friend. When I tamp down my feelings… laughter, dance, and song are victims too. If I try to wrap the circumstance in silver ribbon, my spirit-driven pursuits become entangled and diminished in the pretend. Anger stuffed whets my appetite for comfort foods.

Anger pushed aside as though it is the enemy leaves me pacing rather than moving forward… listening to unceasing, circular chatter… focusing on what was rather than nurturing what I want… spending my energy on distress rather than seeking delight.

I came to Café Spirit with anger in my pocket. But action always scatters the force of irritation. For me, writing is a steady, powerful ally in expressing what needs to be said so joy can, once again, sit with me for a cup of tea.

And so my mantra for today: Honor my truth.

Notes along the way… Jeanne