Magnolia tree in Minneapolis
Just before New Year's, I sat down to do a meditation to listen for what words and messages will serve as guideposts for the coming year. My words for 2014 would be — SERENE and STAMINA — and the message was that this year would stretch me immensely, but that the stretching would be good and so very worth it.
My job was to be serene through all of it.
Indeed, this has been one of the the busiest and most demanding year for me professionally. In addition to individual healing session work, officiating two weddings in June and planning a dream trip to Paris and the UK (to name a few things on my to-do list), I was also hired to help "birth" two amazing books this year for the best kind of clients — ones you love and adore being with. Midwiving these books has meant travelling most months to work on-site. Which has been incredibly wonderful. And oh-so-very-stretchy.
Part of what has been especially "stretchy" for me is to let go of some old beliefs about how work has to be hard, about not having enough time and feeling overwhelmed by my to-do list.
Instead, I am deepening my sense of what is possible for me – for how I move in the world and for how fun, easy, joy-filled and in the flow work and life can be — if I only allow it.
I was in Minneapolis this week for two days of consulting.
We covered a lot of ground during our time together. And we also made time to do a meditation and paint, to take walks by Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun each day, to take a midday break to go shopping, to eat amazing food, to have some separate alone time and to have deep conversation. One day, we even made time for a quick 15-minute nap.
Throught it all, I experienced a beautiful feeling of nourishment and flow — of trusting and allowing, listening and responding moment to moment, of feeling held and carried each step of the way.
On one of our neighborhood walks we passed by this beautiful magnolia, just opening to bloom.
There was a palpable sense of ease, flow and trust in its blooming process. No struggle, no overwhelm. Just allowing the bloom to happen and allowing its beauty, power and light to emerge.
Again, I am reminded of how much the flowers have to teach me — as I too learn how to open to bloom in a new way.