Is there something about a major transition that leaves you feeling disappointed? Or, do big transitions instead leave you feeling hopeful, inspired, and eager to move forward?
I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences by leaving a Reply in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
https://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.png00Lori A. Noonanhttps://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.pngLori A. Noonan2020-11-15 13:49:182020-11-16 00:49:49Transition of power
(did you know Thanksgiving used to be observed during early October and not late November as it is now in the United States?)
Yes, thankful even this year
2020
and its
harvest
of
stillness
reflection
eye opening
tears inducing
heart opening
heart closing
heart wrenching
heart healing
Awareness
and the time and space
to embrace
thoughtfulness
consideration
discerning
what’s
true
and real
and real(ly) important
For your consideration:
Notice, without jumping to quick conclusions, what this unusually strange and often unsettling year has brought up for you. What are you harvesting? Not from the surface-social-media-finger-pointing-mud-slinging level, but at the level of deep rootedness…feeling into what your heart knows to be true?
For me, among other things, I find myself doing an ongoing life review of sorts. I’m viewing my earlier experiences in a new (dare I say “novel” as in a novel virus) way. This time affords me an opportunity to be not only reflective but more inventive, more innovative, more imaginative, more creative.
Maybe Plato* was on to something!
(*Reference to his dialogue, the Republic and the idea that from necessity comes invention. More on that perhaps in a future blog post!)
Okay, your turn:
What’s been coming up for you during these turbulent times? Are you feeling less rooted? Are you nervous that you’ll be blown over by the winds of change? Will you join me in my pledge to stay rooted throughout it all?
I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences by leaving a Reply in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
https://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.png00Lori A. Noonanhttps://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.pngLori A. Noonan2020-09-19 19:23:522020-09-19 19:27:57All things being equal
(not to be confused with ‘currentness,’ which is something different, altogether)…
Love as currency
Caring as currency
Compassion
Respect
Understanding
Empathy
Oneness
Wholeness
The sustainability of each of us
And the planet
Depends on it
On us.
What matters to you?
Does it matter?
Yes.
It matters
No matter
what.
For your consideration:
Set a countdown clock on your phone or computer, for a quick 11 seconds. Without thinking, blurt out (and write down on a piece of paper), the first three things that matter to you. They can be lofty or grounded, simple or complex. No editing allowed. No filtering. No worrying about what others’ opinions may be. This exercise is for your eyes and heart only.
Repeat this process as many times as your heart desires. By the end of the day, take the entire list or sets of lists (remember, no editing), and put the paper under your pillow and sleep on it. Dream on it.
The next morning (again without thinking, without editing), jot down anything that arose for you since the previous day. Anything new that you discovered really matters to you? Anything that really doesn’t matter to you, after all?
On each new moon, if you so desire, revisit your list and see what still matters.
Okay, your turn:
Have you really felt into what matters to you? If not, why not? If so, what has been revealed? Anything surprising? Anything unusual? Anything you’d like to reprioritize?
I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences by leaving a Reply in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
https://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.png00Lori A. Noonanhttps://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.pngLori A. Noonan2020-07-20 18:50:322020-07-20 19:30:36It is a matter of what matters
What does easing into a major change mean for you? When have you benefited from paying attention to the signals and adjusting midflight? Where have you suffered from making no adjustments along the way, and instead struggled forcefully against the wind?
I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences by leaving a Reply in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
https://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.png00Lori A. Noonanhttps://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.pngLori A. Noonan2020-05-23 11:30:482020-05-23 20:35:00Messages from above
It doesn’t ask whether you have the new state-issued “Real ID”
With the special star symbol on it
COVID-19 doesn’t care how great you were
Or claim to be
Or whether you will be great again
From everything we know so far
It doesn’t attack plants
Or rocks
Or dogs
Or cats
It doesn’t go after
The winged ones
Or the finned ones
Or the creepy crawlers
COVID-19 attacks us as a species
It seeps into us as a human
It takes over our respiration
(Maybe it’s time for a re-SPIR-ration).
It forces each of us to come to terms with the fact
that
we are truly all in this one together.
So, to whom do you turn as your trusted news source?
Yourself
Your mind
Your discernment
Your wise judgment
Your body
Your heart
Your spirit
Your inner knowing
If it sounds like a duck
Walks like a duck
It is well, you know,
A duck
And so it is.
We’re all in this together.
Don’t lose heart
Or common sense
Which seemingly is not so common
Right now
After all
For your consideration:
Despite the challenges, and even because of them, this pandemic provides an opportunity for each of us to take a humility break. Let us be sensitive to what unites us rather than divides us. It’s what first responders do. Take heed. Let’s all be first responders. As humans. Let’s reSPIRate.
During this time of the stay-at-home directive in California, I’ve found myself giving the flowers and plants in my garden a little extra attention and tender loving care. And, the rainbow this morning appearing as a semicircle of rays of light above the roofline during the early mist reminds me that not all things beyond our control are unwelcomed. Even in the most trying of situations, there can be much beauty to behold.
Okay, your turn:
What does the phrase “forced oneness” mean to you? Is it an opportunity, or a curse? Or, is it something else altogether?
I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences by leaving a Reply in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
https://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.png00Lori A. Noonanhttps://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.pngLori A. Noonan2020-03-24 07:41:462020-03-24 16:46:05Forced oneness
With this season of holy nights and holy lights illuminating the darkness and lighting our path, we await each new dawn. We emerge into the day’s light, having risen from our moments of respite and retreat. I write this symbolically and yet from the physical realm, too. The deeper the well, the deeper the water; the deeper the reach down fully into the source.
At this, the final new moon of 2019 and among the few remaining nights and days of the 2010s, we are each about to step across a threshold from one decade into the next. It’s a time of high energy and high holiness.
All are sacred
All are holy
Are we wholly holy?
Yes
Does our wholly holiness show up wholly?
Not always
We focus on the season
We can focus on a lifetime
Well spent
Well enjoyed
Well served
Well shared
Deep from within
our own well
Our whole selves…
Sacred
Sacral
Sacrificial
Sacrum
Consecrated
Chamber
Heart
Night
Day
and
Light
again
For your consideration:
As we leave behind 2019 and cross into 2020, I wonder this: What’s on the horizon?
What is it that you hold most high? Most holy? Will you express it? Wholly?
I invite you to set a timer for 11 minutes, take three long deep breaths, close your eyes and allow an image, a word, a phrase, a feeling of what the next decade will represent for you and how you will move through this new decade as we approach that door, our front foot resting serenely and confidently upon the threshold.
Okay, your turn:
When you hear, read, or contemplate the word “holy,” what comes up for you? Is it tied to a particular holy-day, or a certain season? It is something to which you aspire? Do you bring it into your interactions at work or other communities, with your family, with your friends?
I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences by leaving a Reply in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
https://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.png00Lori A. Noonanhttps://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.pngLori A. Noonan2019-12-25 16:53:152019-12-26 01:53:49Wholly holy night and day, into the light
Promise me “you’ll always be mine,” they say in unison.
Instead,
Promise me you’ll be you.
Promise me you’ll be true
to you
and to me
And not to whom you think
I desire you to be
Promise me you’ll stay true to what you intend to be true
Promise me you’ll only make promises you sincerely intend to keep
Promise me.
Will you?
I will, too.
I promise.
~~~~
Tomorrow is not promised.
Today is all we’ve got.
And that is everything.
For your consideration:
What about “broken promises”? Are they based on unrealistic expectations, wishful thinking, both, or neither?
I know for me, an unfulfilled promise hurts more than no promise at all.
Like most every child growing up in Southern California, I fantasized about going to visit The Magic Kingdom…Disneyland. We did get to go when I was really little, and I was “too short to ride the rides,” as the signs said in front of the line for all the ‘big kid’ rides that my older brothers got to go on without me.
As I got a little older and a little taller, nearly every year, at some point, I would tug on my dad’s shirt sleeve and pester him with “please Dad, can we go to Disneyland again soon, can we, can we?” I believe my father did desire to make me happy, and sometimes, as I know now, he would say what I wanted to hear, without giving much thought as to whether it was likely to actually happen.
One time in particular, I remember when my dad announced to the family: “Yes, we are going to Disneyland,” and we set the date. I practically squealed with glee and leaped with joy. I counted down the days, imagining all the fun rides we’d ride at the amusement park, and how I’d get to have my picture taken with Pluto and maybe even Goofy, my favorite.
On the morning of the day that we were supposed to jump in the car and head out to Disneyland, I eagerly asked my dad what time we needed to be ready to leave. I was antsy with anticipation.
Engraved in my memory are these words in his reply: “Oh, Lori, we’re not going to Disneyland today.”
He didn’t provide a reason why. He dismissed the promise, and me, as quickly as I had asked the question.
I slumped down into my dejected heart and glumly walked back into my room without a spark of joy left in me.
I didn’t know what to believe.
So:
What if we were to commit to making promises from a place of what’s truly true? What if we made the decision to embody that promising promise now, and to carry it through…for ourselves and for all concerned?
Okay, your turn:
When have you felt the impact of a broken promise? What does it mean for you to make a promise?
I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
https://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.png00Lori A. Noonanhttps://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.pngLori A. Noonan2019-04-04 15:59:332019-04-05 01:02:52Promise me
In this edition of Soul Notes, let’s talk about change. I’m not talking about change for change’s sake. I’m referring to those anticipated or even avoided changes that gnaw at us, and keep us at best distracted or at worst completely stuck, immobile, and hunkering down and ducking from opportunities that may expand us, help us and others, and even allow us fully to flourish.
Rather than resisting or avoiding change, perhaps it’s worth flipping it on its head:
What if instead it was a matter of welcoming and embracing change, in spite of, or even especially when, the outcome is uncertain? It need not be reckless nor done with wanton abandon.
With, in many instances, hotly contested races in the midterm elections held in the United States this week, many voters heartily embraced a change in the ruling political party and a rebalancing of power among the three branches of government. Not everyone held on for dear life to the status quo.
Some changes are certain. They are taken as a given, without resistance: The ebbing and flowing of the tides. The waxing and waning of the moon. The rising and setting of the sun.
Stages and seasons of growth in nature: those are accepted as certain, or nearly always so. Nature takes a certain trajectory, follows a certain course, pattern, cycle, movement, and rhythm. Of all the species, it is humankind that is perhaps the most not-so-kind to the natural world. We are the species that most interferes with the grand design of this world.
It is we who inject and impose contorted calendars and appointment schedules into what is an otherwise orderly order. We invoke what are for the most part arbitrary time changes such as “daylight saving time.” It is this imposing of our will over divine will that I would venture to say brings us strife and grief, and long-term suffering at the hands of fleeting, or even altogether unmaterialized, gains.
Maybe it really does come down to the invocations expressed in the Serenity Prayer: Accept the things we cannot change, change the things we can, and invite in the wisdom to know the difference. For those circumstances we cannot change, we can still indeed change our response. (See TheMeaningfulness of Meaninghere, referencing the work of Viktor Frankl.)
We are in control. We get to decide how we respond. We get to take inspired action. We get to adapt, move forward, expand, and grow. And why not? To stay stuck is tiring, uninspiring, and altogether dull.
For your consideration:
Is change something to be avoided at all costs? Why or why not? Does it depend on the situation?
Okay, your turn
Where has embracing change, even when initially it seemed scary, brought about improved outcomes for you? On the other hand, when would you have benefited from accepting a situation exactly as-is, and had fully appreciated it in that moment?
I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
https://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.png00Lori A. Noonanhttps://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.pngLori A. Noonan2018-11-08 19:42:442018-11-09 06:00:01Why do we resist change? (Or, do we?)
In this new moon’s edition of Soul Notes, let’s talk about richness. I’m not talking about financial riches. I’m not talking about material wealth.
I’m talking about a richness of life and living. I’m talking about a depth of flavors and sensory pleasures, not unlike a savory pot of wildly aromatic boeuf bourguignon simmering on the stove on a cool autumn evening. Or, the richness of sipping ever so slowly from a cup of hot cocoa.
No, this hasn’t turned into a culinary blog. Don’t worry –This is still Soul Notes. : )
For purposes of this article, though, again, I’m referring to a richness of being. Living a rich life is akin to an acquired taste — something that you build up to, and appreciate, like dry red wine and strong black coffee.
Is there ‘such a thing’ as ‘too much of a good thing’?
“Oh, but, there’s always the risk of there being TOO much richness,” you may be exclaiming. Maybe that’s true when it comes to food and beverages. It’s not so true, though, when it comes to living a full and enriching life. A well-lived life means having a depth of experiences. It’s not best lived at the surface level. A shallowly lived life is as bland as a soup without salt or pepper.
For your consideration:
I invite you to set aside a few moments to get quiet and listen for insights on where you’d like to bring in more richness, more fullness of flavor, into your life.
Take a stand. Claim it.
Finish this sentence for yourself: “I’m choosing to call in more richness in my….”
Then, consider:
What would enhance your day-to-day experiences in that area? What would it mean to you if you were to add more layers of depth to those experiences? What one inspired action can you take, starting today, to bring more richness into that area of your life?
For me, I’m welcoming in more richness in my relationships, both in business and personally. The one action I’m taking in that direction is by publicly proclaiming it here on this blog, with you!
Okay, your turn
What area of your life, would you say, holds the most richness for you right now? In what ways has that served you, and those with whom you have been interacting? How would you define a richly lived life?
I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences by leaving a Reply in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
https://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.png00Lori A. Noonanhttps://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.pngLori A. Noonan2018-10-09 18:15:502018-10-10 06:17:53Let’s talk about richness
https://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.png00Lori A. Noonanhttps://lanoonan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Logo-transparent-300x72.pngLori A. Noonan2018-08-10 18:35:502019-08-15 21:19:23Sandpipers dot the shoreline