March 2024: A Mindful Transformation
Embrace the powers of silence, stillness, breath, observation of sensation and season...partners in your mindfulness practice
Harnessing the Transforming Power of Spring
Welcome to March, my dear!
Here is a question for you…
If you could harness the power of spring, what might that look like to you?
Would you be a color evoking the newness, freshness, litheness of this season of rebirth?
Would you be the sound of a sweet songbird, reawakening from the cold and quiet of winter?
Would you be a flower, pressing your strong, delicate bud up through the thawing earth?
Spring arrives once a year, and its arrival usually occurs at a time we’ve been intensely craving light, earthy fresh scents, invigorating warmth from the heat of the sun.
Is the season of spring upon you…wherever you may be in the world right now?
No matter the season, take 60 seconds to pause…breathe deeply and fully, expand your lungs and heart center…observe with your senses…
What sights, sounds, scents surround you right now?
North Carolina Springs
We were living in Asheville in the spring of my 47th year when we were blessed with the presence of two groups of baby turkeys. Their moms would walk them into our yard where they would feast on birdseed we would lovingly toss for them multiple times a day.
Each of the babies would make the “Peep! Peep Peep Peep!” sounds to alert their mamas…“Here I am!” We loved the sounds of their peeps so much and would sit on our patio and watch them closely, quietly for weeks!
It was during one of my mindful morning visits from the sweet turkeys that I realized…how is it possible I’ve lived 46 other springs but this is the first spring I’ve had baby turkeys to watch, feed, and admire?
Forty-six springs without the joy and witnessing of this delight?
I longed for a repeat of past springs where I would take mindful opportunities to notice what was before me…sights, sounds, scents, textures and tastes of a season that brings so much beauty, happiness, life, joy.
A do-over, if you will, where I could mindfully observe and embrace the transforming power of spring.
Do you ever wish you had the chance to do-over some of the seasons of your life…any regrets of missed chances, connections, opportunities?
Which seasons?
How old were you?
What do you think you missed?
What do you wish you had noticed…created…experienced?
What can you do right now, in this current season of your life, to mindfully move through your days with more awareness, delight, connection to all you desire to see, hear, touch…be?
Who needs you right now to be a leader, mentor, mother, friend in their current season of life?
As we move into this bright new season…let us reflect on spring…
An Offering
the fullness of spring *
pretty soon, the trees will be full
life as we once knew it
will resume again
stepping into the grass
barefooted and free
smiling into the warm rays of the sun
songbirds telling us happy tales
about berries found
filing their little bellies
*poem from Fear and Musings: A Journey from Anxiety to Peace Through Poetry, Prayer, and Practice
on being mindful…
Look deeply, my dear…What do you see? What do you know?
Which image connects you to nature…connects you to your innate divine wisdom?
What do you hear…from the inside…whispers from beyond?
a practice
When you come into a daily practice of mindfulness, you access the divine wisdom in your breath, your heartbeat, in the nature that surrounds your physical, mental, emotional, and energetic bodies.
When you pause and take a moment to escape the non-stop mindless chatter, chaos, and distractions via noise, music, and sounds that invade your world and personal space…
When you close your eyes, turn on your listening ears…tuned to the station of your inner Spirit…
When you surrender your own noise…the thoughts on repeat of worry, overwhelm, sadness, fear…
And you choose to sit in silence and stillness…mindfully connecting your awareness to that which your Spirit, God wishes for you to know…
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