In the Wild Changing of Things

The above was written by MORGAN HARPER NICHOLS. 

Her work is wonderful.

And below is another beautiful piece by author DONNA ASHWORTH

TIME CAN’T ERASE YOUR BEAUTY

Ageing looks good on anyone who believes

that it does.

It’s an inner light
kind of deal.

It shines through skin, bone, muscle and sinew - bathing everything you see in a luminous glow of peace, acceptance and utter loveliness.

It’s some sort of chemical reaction when self-love (at last) meets Mother Nature.

Then wisdom and hindsight all join together too and cast their magic -
until what you see is a woman who has evolved, grown, learned and risen many many times.

And it’s a beautiful sight to behold.

So, age however you like because if something is not making you happy, that will show.

Time can’t erase your beauty my friend, only negativity can do that.❤️

I hope you are having a lovely summer, and allowing yourself be in the uncertainty, that is always part of life.

xo,

Louise

Serenity in the Storm

Hopi Indian Chief White Eagle commented on our current situation:

′′ This moment humanity is experiencing can be seen as a door or a hole. The decision to fall in the hole or walk through the door is up to you.

If you consume the news 24 hours a day, with negative energy, constantly nervous, with pessimism, you will fall into this hole.

But if you take the opportunity to look at yourself, to rethink life and death, to take care of yourself and others, then you will walk through the portal.

Take care of your home, take care of your body. 

Connect with your spiritual home. 

When you take care of yourself, you take care of everyone at the same time.

Do not underestimate the spiritual dimension of this crisis. 

Take the perspective of an eagle that sees everything from above with a broader view. 

There is a social question in this crisis, but also a spiritual question. 

The two go hand in hand.

Without the social dimension we fall into fanaticism. 

Without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and futility.

Are you ready to face this crisis? 

Grab your toolbox and use all the tools at your disposal.

Learn resistance from the example of Indian and African peoples: we have been and are exterminated.

But we never stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire and rejoicing.

Don't feel guilty for feeling blessed in these troubled times. Being sad or angry doesn't help at all.

Resistance is resistance through joy!

You have the right to be strong and positive. And there's no other way to do it than to maintain a beautiful, happy, bright posture.

Has nothing to do with alienation (ignorance of the world). It's a resistance strategy.

When we cross the threshold, we have a new worldview because we faced our fears and difficulties.

This is all you can do now:

- Serenity in the storm
- Keep calm, pray everyday
- Make a habit of meeting the sacred everyday.

Show resistance through art, joy, trust and love.'

The Softer Things

And here is another softer thing I discovered this week:

SEX, LOVE & GOOP on Netflix, a 6-part series that is right up my alley. It follows 5 couples as they try out new techniques to improve their sex lives and reflect on pleasure, sex and love. It kind of makes me want to be a Sexologist, which I have been carefully weaving in with a few of the clients I coach, as I have a fair amount of Tantra training. But this is still very much a leap for me to discuss professionally.

The influencer in me wants everyone to watch this series and arrive at a better place with their own sexuality, as well as in a better union with someone else.

In the first episode, they discuss the EROTIC BLUEPRINT QUIZ, which I suggest taking after you watch #1.

That's all for this week my dears. 💗

The Jewel Inside

 

 Beautiful, adorable, 92-year-old Wanda B. Goines shares her poem.

There is Light

We can decide to be happy,

make much out of little,

embrace the warmth of our ordinary days.

Life unfolds as a mystery,

an enterprise who’s outcome cannot be foretold.

We do not get what we expect.

We stumble on cracks, are faced with imperfection.

Bonds are tested and tightened.

And our landscapes shift, in the sunshine and in shade.

There is light.

There is.

Look for it.

Look for it shining over your shoulder, on the past.

It was light where you went once.

It is light where you are now,

It will be light where you will go again.


~ A favorite quote from Call the Midwife

Aruba 2019

Those Tender Places in Ourselves

mama hands

Felt Sense Prayer

I am the pain in your head, the knot in your stomach, the unspoken grief in your smile.

I am your high blood sugar, your elevated blood pressure, your fear of challenge, your lack of trust.

I am your hot flashes, your cold hands and feet, your agitation and your fatigue.

I am your shortness of breath, your fragile low back, the cramp in your neck, the despair in your sigh.

I am the pressure on your heart, the pain down your arm, your bloated abdomen, your constant hunger.

I am where you hurt, the fear that persists, your sadness of dreams unfulfilled.

I am your symptoms, the causes of your concern, the signs of imbalance, your condition of dis-ease.

 

You tend to disown me, suppress me, ignore me, inflate me, coddle me, condemn me.

I am not coming forth for myself as I am not separate from all that is you.

I come to garner your attention, to enjoin your embrace so I can reveal my secrets.

I have only your best interests at heart as I seek health and wholeness by simply announcing myself.

 

You usually want me to go away immediately, to disappear, to sleek back into obscurity.

You mostly are irritated or frightened and many times shocked by my arrival.

From this stance you medicate in order to eradicate me.

Ignoring me, not exploring me, is your preferred response.

More times than not I am only the most recent notes of a long symphony, the most evident branches of roots that have been challenged for seasons.

 

So I implore you, I am a messenger with good news, as disturbing as I can be at times.

I am wanting to guide you back to those tender places in yourself,

the place where you can hold yourself with compassion and honesty.

If you look beyond my appearance you may find that I am a voice from your soul.

Calling to you from places deep within that seek your conscious alignment.

 

I may ask you to alter your diet, get more sleep, exercise regularly, breathe more consciously.

I might encourage you to see a vaster reality and worry less about the day to day fluctuations of life.

I may ask you to explore the bonds and the wounds of your relationships.

I may remind you to be more generous and expansive or to attend to protecting your heart from insult.

I might have you laugh more, spend more time in nature, eat when you are hungry and less when pained or bored, spend time every day, if only for a few minutes, being still.

 

Wherever I lead you, my hope is that you will realize that success will not be measured by my eradication, but by the shift in the internal landscape from which I emerge.

 

I am your friend, not your enemy.  I have no desire to bring pain and suffering into your life.

I am simply tugging at your sleeve, too long immune to gentle nudges.

I desire for you to allow me to speak to you in a way that enlivens your higher instincts for self-care.

My charge is to energize you to listen to me with the sensitive ear and heart

of a mother attending to her precious baby.

 

You are a being so vast, so complex, with amazing capacities for self-regulation and healing.

Let me be one of the harbingers that lead you to the mysterious core of your being

where insight and wisdom are naturally available when called upon with a sincere heart.

💗(Unknown)

Thanks Giving

Happy Thanksgiving from my home to yours,

Louise 💜

Every Morning a New Arrival

I had no idea how old Rumi's writings are until now. He died in 1273! This is not a typo :-)

Boy was he ahead of his time. 

It makes sense that The Guest House is the most frequently recited poem in mindfulness retreats and courses.

Here are some great Rumi quotes to get us through this arctic freeze:

• The wound is the place where the light enters you.

• Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.

• Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.

• Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.

• Love is the bridge between you and everything.

Ahhh, nice huh?

xo

There is a Crack

 Yesterday on Pleasant Lake

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in

That's how the light gets in

~Leonard Cohen



It’s been a few years of being cracked wide open, and splintered apart and I can honestly say now that I am grateful for all of it.

Without the cracks, I would never have seen, learned and embraced so many of the lessons that I have on this spiritual journey. I feel more whole now than I ever have.


More to come in the New Year. 

As always,

in love & light,

Louise

A Vibration, A feeling, A Thought

I'm not a big prayer, at least not in the typical sense.
Someone told me recently that what we think about is actually like praying.

"Thinking is like praying," she said.

So it's best to think good thoughts so that negative thoughts, or worries, don't become reality.
So that we don't give strength and life to them
or a tree to grow on.

What we think about, we become.
Like lovely little affirmations.
Like little bits of golden gifts to ourselves.

Sending love and prayers out into the world to you all today.
xo,
Louise

I Am

My Mama's hands

I am not old…she said

I am rare.

I am the standing ovation

At the end of the play.

I am the retrospective

Of my life as art

I am the hours

Connected like dots

Into good sense

I am the fullness

Of existing.

You think I am waiting to die…

But I am waiting to be found

I am a treasure.

I am a map.

And these wrinkles are

Imprints of my journey 

Ask me anything.

~S.Reynolds

Lately

When life gets challenging, as it has been for me for about a year now,

I try to remember that this is just many hard moments, strung together, like a necklace, that I am passing through.

I try to find the new strength in myself.

I try to find the deep down lessons.

I try to see who I am now, that I wasn't before. 

And what I have discovered, that I never would have, if adversity hadn't come my way.

It sure brings gratitude to my doorstep, when I remember to look for it.

It brings an optimism for better days, that I have never had to reach for.

But it has also made things much more crystal clear for me, of what I want and don't want.

Perhaps this is one of the greatest silver linings about hard times, in the middle of our lives.

So here I sit thinking.

A fish outside of water.

Quieting the Voice

I returned from my trip to Cuba on Thursday to growing concerns about the precarious health of someone in my family. For me it has been a year of worry and great concern about a multitude of things that life can unfortunately throw at us.

It has also been a year of realizing that I truly don't have control over much, except my thoughts and where they wander, as well as taking very good care of myself.

Last night I eased myself into the pool and Cried Myself a River. I remember when my Dad passed away, almost 17 years ago, that the shower became this oasis for me. The pool wasn't nearly as private of course, but I discovered that allowing myself to wail, whilst swimming, was so very cathartic.

I'd been holding onto the tears for days, trying to be the strong woman, I fear not being.

I believe that letting the tears come, allowed me to sleep like a baby last night, with the comfort of my mama's soft, red plaid, fleece blanket, wrapped around my naked and very frightened inner child.

Let our tears come, let them water our souls.

May we step into the light,

even when it is raining.

On Becoming

A refreshing message to read and encompass at mid-life,

or at any age actually.

How often is that we think we know how things are

only to find sometimes that they are perhaps scarily, yet rejuvenatingly, different?

Not very often.

Where do we hang when what we've always hung upon is uncertain?

With ourselves is where.

When nothing is certain,

anything is possible.

There is such beauty

in the curiosity and mystery of living.

xo

Where The Light Is

Where do we find the light hidden in the tiny crevasses of winter?

So easy to see when the sun shines upon glistening snow

or when firelight catches someones eye,

in their naked truth.

Sometimes it's simply hidden inside the silent words we read

or the familiar melodies we hear

or in the tenderest of moments we see,

just beyond our reach.

Or in the hand we touch and draw slowly to our lips,

softly nibbling a knuckle.

Birdsong

Through crystal clear stillness

Nothing matters 

but breath and light

Limbs slice through atoms of hydrogen and oxygen

Weightless, impression-less

I am at home here. 

Alone here

I remain 

In my oasis of flight