Returning Home

I'm just back from Omega's Agelessness Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I have returned home filled with energy, new inspiration, and a tired body. Rest and reentry are essential. Grounding myself back into the life I usually live. As you know this is not always easy when one is returning from one inspiring speaker after another, a gorgeous hotel room looking out on the ocean, constant companionship with like-minded people not to mention the ever present restaurant with choices beyond my usual menu and totally prepared without my effort. Reentry is not easy!

Of course, I've done this before, and sometimes with little success, but a lot of learning! I know the recipe:.

• Drop your expectations of this smorgasboard continuing!
  
• Don't talk about it too much to those who remained in their usual routine.
  
• Come into the moment.
  
• Get grounded.
• Don't expect anyone to be on the same page or even know what you're talking about!
  

Okay, got it! So now I'll attempt to do it again. Hopefully I'll succeed without being too hard on myself if I don't succeed..................

Well, you see this time I had such a busy work schedule awaiting me, so I dropped right into "doing it all", using the surge of energy that new ideas can provide. Big mistake! I really flattened. My body got too tired and I felt terrible.

My point in telling you this is that the medicine of my home saved me. I cancelled everything for two days, built a fire in the fireplace, walked around talking to my plants, slept, changed my sheets, drank a lot of water, touched my things, unpacked (no, I hadn't even done that), watched Oprah (she's amazing), slept, ate sparsely, didn't answer the phone, listened to my footsteps in the house, picked up my knitting, did some yoga and meditation, and then slept again in front of the fire. I finally began to feel normal. The point of telling you this, is that I again was shown how great it is to have the home ready to be this tool. It was easy to build the fire, take the naps, love the beauty, watch the sunset from a favorite spot, put on the lights that create my ambience, fluff the pillows that I love, make the quick snack, do my laundry, and just plain love myself in the way that is only best for me.

Please consider this my ode to my home.......

Do you hear me my wonderful space? You're not the Taj Mahal, and you are all mine,
with my pictures, my plants, my wonderful bed, my reminders of days gone by, my warmth,
my softness, my me. Thank goodness I took the time to put you together according
to what I need for I am again nourished and healed by you and by my
wisdom to finally stop, integrate all new ways I've expanded,
and relish my life with great acceptance and joy.

In Gratitude.

The Environment Within

I had borrowed a book, Wherever You Go, There You Are by John Kabat-Zinn, from my daughter Robin, and was reading it upon retiring. As I grew sleepy I let the reading material drop to the floor and went off to sleep. Waking in the morning I felt wonderfully ready for the day and decided to meditate before leaving my cacoon. I raised myself to a comfortable sitting position, did a few quiet Ohms (the rest of the family was still sleeping) and dropped into following my breath and emptying my mind (always a challenge!) The moments flew by as I emptied, refocused, emptied, refocused until slowly my imagination began sending me images of amazing, colorful flowers. There were bouquets, gardens, assortments of flowers. Some were just flowing in sunshine, some softly bending in breezes, some seeming to move like a river through this vast space of my beingingness. It was so beautiful and quite entertaining. I let it continue for as long as I could and then suddenly and slowly began to return to my presence in the room. I felt so deep and in touch with myself. A very happy experience.
Opening my eyes, I remembered the book that had slipped out of my hands to the floor the night before. Reaching down I decided I would hold it in my hands as I often do and slowly slip my thumbnail between random pages, trusting that there was an important message for me to receive. The book opened and on the page I read:

Don't go outside your house to see the flowers.
My friend, don't bother with that excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers,
One flower has a thousand petals
That will do for a place to sit,
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
Inside the body and out of it.
Before gardens and after gardens

Oh my!.