~ “Marinade” Is My Favorite Word Right Now ~
~ Remembering Mary Oliver ~
~ Another “Falling In Love” Moment ~
~ Being Lead Home ~
~ This Week Can Be Marvelous ~
~ Too Adorable Not To Share With You ~
~ What’s a Kukuau Moment? ~
~Curiouser and Curiouser~
~ With Thanks~Giving In Mind ~
~ Leonard Cohen & These Few Words~

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
    for Living Your Brilliance!

Hello Dear Hearts,

There are those experiences that are too deep and rich for words.

They ripple through my inner terrain, organically shifting what I’ve known as “me.”

They call for time, rest, spaciousness and the willingness to marinate in the unknown as it has its way with me.

Right now I’m marinating in the honey and spice of my week-long experience at an ISTA Training that I was privileged to assist at.  

I am grateful. I am amazed.  I’m sweetly reminding myself to “let this be” as I marinate a while longer.

With tenderness and yum,
Sharon  

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
    for Living Your Brilliance!

In Loving Gratitude to Mary Oliver, who gave me countless “sweet reminders” through her poems that have challenged, inspired and changed me.   
When it’s over, I want to say:
all my life I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom,
taking the world into my arms
~ Mary Oliver ~
Mary, the heavens have taken you into their arms …  With amazement, I imagine!

With gratitude,
Sharon  

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
    for Living Your Brilliance!

Hello Sweet One,

I fell in love.

It happened early this morning when I was licking the thick, sweet honey off my spoon.  

I paused to fully indulge in the luscious flavor and sensual texture.  In the intimacy of that moment, with just the honey and me, I fell in love.  

I fell in love with bees and the nectar-rich botanicals that yearn for pollination.  I fell in love with the astonishing bee alchemy that transformed the pollen into honey.

I fell in love with Harry, the bee guy who delights me with his kindness and his knowledge and his heart for all things bee and honey related. I fell in love with the bee wisdom passed down over thousands of years.

I fell in love with a moment that was filled with gratitude for the beautiful gift given to me when I licked that honey off my spoon and dropped into appreciation for all that went into bringing that honey to my lips.

I fell in love with the practice of stopping and deeply appreciating the immense energy, creativity and grace that goes into everything that is part of my life.  There is a lot here for me.

With awe and so much sweetness,
Sharon

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
for Living Your Brilliance!


Dear One,
As you move into this next year …

Be bold. Be humble.

Put away the incense and forget
the incantations they taught you.

Ask no permission from the authorities.


 Close your eyes and follow your breath
to the still place that leads to the
invisible path that leads you home.

~ Saint Teresa of Avila ~

    With love and blessings for this New Year,
Sharon

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
    for Living Your Brilliance!

Hello Dearest,

In the midst of these Holy Days, I send you love and a yummy cyber hug.

I delight in this week; the week between Christmas and New Year’s Days.  There is a pause, like the places where the in-breath turns to the out-breath. And the out-breath turning to the in-breath.  Time seems to slow down and offer an invitation to rest and be still.

It’s a ripe time for reflection on the last year. It’s a rich time for putting attention and intention toward the coming year …. With every ending, a new beginning.

The “to-do list “of stereotypical New Year’s Resolutions lost its juice for me many years ago, replaced by experiences and practices that are a better fit for me.  Consequently, this week, I’ll be marinating in questions that speak to the core of my being ….

What are my deepest longings?

What makes my life meaningful?

What yearns to be lived through me?

What is my heart whispering?

What would I dedicate this year to?

These are sacred, precious questions to sit with and savor.  I’m not searching for an answer or trying to “get this done”.  I invite the questions themselves to have their way with me.

The words that emerge are simple, but elegantly potent and poignant.  A few words or a sentence from the heart carries a quality of vitality and truth that a lengthy mental “essay” misses.   This is a practice of invoking the sacred wisdom and gentle voice of my heart and soul; listening with openness, curiosity and wonder.  

I think of this “sweet reminder” from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke … “Live the questions now”.   Indeed.  Live the questions now.

There’s a myriad of ways the start of a new year is honored and celebrated.  (With respect, I am mindful that there are cultures and traditions who celebrate the start of a year at a different time.)  I bow to whatever style or tradition you embrace.  For me, I’m going to do my best to live the questions now.

Here’s to an extraordinary 2019!
With love and possibilities,
Sharon

 

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
for Living Your Brilliance!


Hello Precious One,

Sometimes a quick smile is the perfect soul food.
Reminding you to find delight in the simple things that cross your path.

Sending a big smile your way,
Sharon


 Donkey nannies in Italy
Each year in Italy, grazing animals are moved from high pastures down to the plains. Newborn lambs are unable to make this journey on their own. Instead, they ride in the pouches of a specially made saddle on the back of a donkey or a mule nanny. They are taken down at rest stops and returned to their mothers for a bite to eat and a bit of nuzzling.

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
for Living Your Brilliance!


Hello Miraculous One,

These days I’m blessed to be living in a place surrounded by the lushness of nature; tropical plants, ocean views and breezes with bird songs and surf are my everyday background sounds.  It’s a unique situation and I know how richly blessed I am.

The other night, as I was grooving to some music at Kukuau Studios (a fun, funky, little music venue in Hilo). I stopped moving to the beat and looked around the room at everyone else who had come out this rainy night to enjoy some music and dance.  The medley of diverse people brought a smile to my face and tenderness to my heart.

It’s always a holy moment when I stop and let the extraordinary miracle of another being sink into my awareness.   But here’s what  moved me during that Kukuau moment … NATURE!

WE are nature. We ARE nature.  You. Me. Everyone in that room.  Everyone.   We are as stunning and extraordinary as all those things I mentioned in my first paragraph.  And I was hit by how I’ve separated “nature”  from “humanity”.

I looked around that hot, crowded music studio and soaked in this part of nature . Wow!   What an extraordinary expression of nature I was surrounded by!  These miracles of earth, air, fire, water and magic that we human being are.  Not separated from “nature” but an intricate part of it. A beautiful part of it.

I’m awestruck when I view another person through the eyes that appreciates the colors of a sunset or the uniqueness of a blossoming orchid; when I listen to the sound of a voice with the delight given to a bird song; when I enjoy the temperature and texture of someone’s skin or hair with the same appreciation I feel when my feet are tickled by grass or massaged by a walk on sand.

One of Hafiz’s poems starts with the line …
Start seeing everything as God,

Today I’m changing that to
Start seeing everyONE as God

I see you.
With love,
Sharon

 

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
for Living Your Brilliance!

smiling like a Cheshire Cat

Hello Loves,
Now, isn’t this a great morning practice?

Sometimes I believe as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast

Staying curious with you, in love,
Sharon

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
for Living Your Brilliance!

Hello Precious One,

Here in the USA we’re stepping into the week of our Thanksgiving holiday.   Traditionally it’s a time to “count your blessings ” which is a stellar practice to do anytime … all the time.

With gratitude, I’ve been pondering the myriad of  unseen blessings that impact me beyond what I can imagine.  Our lives are woven together in continual givings and receiving that are unknown.   I call that “grace”.

When I came across this writing from Danielle LaPorte it beautifully expressed the sweet grace we unknowingly share with each other.
This is my Thanks-giving offering to you.

In love,
Sharon

Right now there are Tibetan Buddhist monks in a temple in the Himalayas endlessly reciting mantras for the cessation of your suffering and for the flourishing of your happiness.

Someone is writing a book that you will read in the next two years that will change how you look at life.

Nuns in the Alps are in endless vigil, praying for the Holy Spirit to alight the hearts of all of God’s children.

A farmer is looking at his organic crops and whispering, “nourish them.”

Someone is willing to lend you money, wants to know what your favorite food is, and treat you to a movie. Someone in your orbit has something immensely valuable to give you — for free.

Something is being invented this year that will change how your generation lives, communicates, heals and passes on.

The next great song is being rehearsed.

Thousands of people are in yoga classes right now are intentionally sending light out from their heart chakras and wrapping it around the earth.

Millions of children are assuming that everything is amazing and will always be that way.

Someone is in profound pain, and a few months from now, they’ll be thriving like never before. They just can’t see it from where they’re at.

Someone has recently cracked open their joyous, genuine nature because they did the hard work of hauling years of oppression off of their psyche — this luminous juju is floating in the ether, and is accessible to you.

Someone just this second wished for world peace, in earnest.

Someone right now is fighting for a good cause so that you don’t have to.

Some civil servant is making sure that you get your mail, and your garbage is picked up, that the trains are running on time, and that you are generally safe. Someone is dedicating their days to protecting your civil liberties.

Someone is regaining their sanity. Someone is coming back from the dead. Someone is genuinely forgiving the seemingly unforgivable.

Someone is curing the incurable.

You. Me. Some. One. Now.”

–Danielle LaPorte

 

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
for Living Your Brilliance!


Hello dear ones,
You lose your grip
and
then
you
slip
      Into the masterpiece

   Leonard Cohen from a Thousand Kisses Deep

There’s nothing else to say,
But I do wonder why sometimes I hold on so fucking hard.

With love,
Sharon