Among the hustle of the holiday season, may you set aside a quiet moment of reflection and repose? Heck, set a timer for 22 minutes, if you must. Yeah, okay, that may not sound particularly spiritual, but it works!
For me, this holiday season so far has been one of deep study and stillness amongst the storm of society, external influences, and seemingly endless unrest. I go within, where all is well. I invite you to do the same. Let your soul be your guide.
Okay, your turn:
Would you rather plow through the holidays, making lists, and checking things off the list, going back to the list, checking the list again, and on and on? Or, would you rather smile at the joys of the season, the light, the shimmer and the glimmers of hope? What you see is what you get. The light is what you are.
I invite you to share your observations, 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. Noonan2021-12-04 18:21:062021-12-04 20:39:53A moment of repose
When we say someone has passed on, have they really left us, truly?
This time of year, with the observance of Samhain, All Hallows’ Eve, All Souls Day, Day of the Dead, all converging upon early November, the connection with the spirit world is stronger than ever. I feel it. I lean into it. I blend with it. With each subsequent year, I emerge more and more connected, more and more at peace, with all that was – and all that – is.
Okay, your turn:
Have you lost loved ones, and if so, did the love leave with them?
I invite you to share your observations, 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. Noonan2021-11-06 19:43:062021-11-06 19:43:08Across the veils
In agrarian societies such as rural Ireland, the harvest time was and is a time of bringing in from the fields all that’s been growing there. You truly reap what you sow.
Some prefer the word Autumn to describe this season. I like to call it Autumn. For some reason, I love saying autumnal. Saying the word aloud sounds as it is…full and rich. Another term in even more common parlance for this season (Fall) refers to the falling of the leaves from the trees. And, you may have heard the phrase “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
On a recent road trip to go apple picking, I visited a small (9-acre) farm and walked their orchard. An abundance of apples were scattered on the ground beneath each tree. Nature naturally (pun intended) knows when to release the fruit once the stems gradually loosen their grip, and the fruit becomes too heavy for the stem to bear. Gently, the tree releases its ripened fruit. So, somewhat to my surprise, I found the apple picking excursion to be more of an apple collecting venture. I did reach up and nudge a few apples from some of the trees into my basket. What stood out for me most, however, was the subtle, refreshing fragrance of the apples wafting in the air as I walked the paths between and among the trees. I felt a certain kinship with the apples and the trees, and thanked them for their gifts.
Whilst in a poetic mood, I leave you with a poem by John Keats that so lovingly captures the splendor of the season:
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep, Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
For your consideration:
As is often a theme here on Soul Notes, I ask you to take a moment to consider the lessons that nature teaches us, with each passing season. This Autumn, what are you releasing this season from your proverbial tree? What are you collecting in your basket? Any surprises?
Okay, your turn:
Share what are you harvesting. What are you bringing in from the fields? What is your bounty?
I invite you to share your observations, 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. Noonan2021-10-06 03:47:092021-10-06 03:59:04Coming in from the fields
“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
This phrase, popularized during the 1960s and ’70s has a nice ring to it, indeed. A catchy phrase, so to say. It’s a way of reminding us that we can start fresh, start over, each day brings a new dawn. It’s the latter part of the phrase, though, that can be confounding. The “rest” of your life, as in the remainder of your life, what is that, exactly? It’s unknown. It’s the grand mystery. The remainder could be years, months, or an instant.
Today IS your life, yes?
Sure, there’s the unfolding. There’s the becoming. There’s the planting, the cultivating, the growing, the expanding, followed by the harvesting and the fruits of our labor. There can be beauty, grace, lessons, and meaning in all of these. Heck, many a Soul Notes article has been devoted to these topics. In my own life, and in others’ lives, I advocate for the process of envisioning, and easing into the flow, and merging with the natural cycles.
There’s wisdom in setting sail and course-correcting with awareness and intention. It’s not an either, or. It’s an all-in. All-in this moment. All-in with all senses engaged. All-in awareness. Now. And again. And again.
For your consideration:
Here’s another popular phrase: “We have time to kill.” If we’re simply treading water waiting for the ‘real’ event to happen, then what happens in the meantime? It’s ALL in the meantime!
As the signs say along the tracks of the London Underground: Mind the Gap.
Living with awareness brings the present moment into focus. Living without awareness is a life, erm, not really lived — a life suspended, like a tolling of a statute of limitations. Don’t be that person. Be you. All of you. All the time.
Okay, your turn:
Rephrasing the ‘the first day of the rest of your life’ into: Today IS your life — When you read this, what comes up for you?
I invite you to share your observations, 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. Noonan2021-09-05 18:02:092021-09-06 04:42:56Today is your life
What may be lesser known is this: Soon thereafter, Descartes revised his own saying, to: “I am, I exist.” (1641) Now, THAT’s the spirit!
When you’re thinking, you’re ‘mulling.’ You’re ‘somewhere else.’ Thinking takes you away from, or out of, the present moment. For more on this, refer back to this recent edition of Soul Notes, here.
Take the Olympics, for example. The athletes have prepared years if not even decades, yes. They’re in the best physical condition of their lives, also yes. They’ve ‘put in the work.’ Indeed. And yet, are they thinking much while they’re setting world records? Maybe. I suppose there is still some cognitive strategy at play. Are we thinking as we watch? Maybe, a little.
What draws us in as witnesses to these events, however, is the series of ever present moments. It’s the single points in time and space where everything converges. That’s where the magic is. That is when we are most inspired. That’s when we are in awe. That’s when we are all one.
For Your Consideration
If you’re not thinking, does that mean you no longer exist? This is not a rhetorical question. Of course you (we, I) exist! It is not our thinking which makes it so.
Okay, your turn:
As a carryover from last moon’s edition of Soul Notes, I ask you: Is thinking overrated? I invite you to share your observations, feelings, and experiences by leaving a Reply in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
“It’s become so automatic, I don’t even think about it when I’m doing it.”
“It is so ‘second nature,’ I could do it in my sleep.”
What if we put our second nature first? What if our second nature became our first nature?
When we say something becomes second nature, we mean that it’s not something we’re consciously aware of when we’re doing it. For example, once you learn how to drive a car, you’re not consciously aware of all the movements you’re making to drive the car, and to navigate from point A to point B.
It could also be something that we say we do by instinct — again, without really thinking about it.
“I don’t know how I reached out and kept that child from falling over the railing, it was just a knee-jerk reflex.”
In other words, it’s living from your subconscious. I wouldn’t say it is unconscious — it’s anything but that. Rather, it’s consciously living from what is there all along. Instead of relying on thinking to make it happen — we let the thinking take a back seat, and elevate the subconscious up to the surface.
We can invite it up and out to play all the time! Radical idea? Maybe. Worth it? Absolutely.
Is thinking overrated?
“I never gave it another thought.”
“I just did it without thinking.”
We say things like the above statements as if thinking is the central benchmark, the kingpin, the main yardstick by which to gauge our actions and experiences. Why have we given thinking such an elevated status?
Of course, in any given moment your brain never truly shuts off. It doesn’t completely disengage from your bodily functions any more than your lungs keep from expanding and contracting, or your heart stops beating.
It’s merely a part of you, and yet it’s not all of you. When your second nature kicks in — during any emergency for example — you bring your awareness into keen focus. You are bringing a blending in of all of you into and to that moment. You are one with the situation, each person in that moment, and truly one with all of creation. There are no boundaries real or perceived. I know this may seem trippy, and I assure you this is not a drug-induced blog post, if that’s what you’re thinking. What you’re thinking, see what I mean? We are a thinking-obsessed so called modern society.
For your consideration:
What if we allowed our thinking to fade into the mix of our lived experiences, almost as if we swirled our thinking into a can of paint, using a wooden dowel, and letting the thinking disappear into the whole of the paint? Would we miss it ? Or, would we simply allow it to swirl into the mixture that becomes the fully blended vibrant paint color? Did the prior paint in the can cease to exist, or did the new paint that was added in — did that no longer exist, once we mixed it all in together? Nope. It stayed. It melded. It only seemed to disappear.
We can step out of our thinking brain and experience all of creation in a 360-degree (up down, all-around) way. We can live life in a way that I would deem to be spherical.
I contend that our lives would take on a, pardon the pun, whole new dimension. I’ve been living this way the past few weeks, and it’s been wild as heck and soooo nice to give my brain a rest. I’ve been putting my brain on an ongoing moment-by-moment ‘time out,’ and it’s been wondrous. And, in living this way you’re never alone, because you are living from a place of being one with everyone and everything.
Okay, your turn:
Does this idea of living from what I am calling a place of spherical awareness — living wholly and completely from outside the thinking mind — does that appeal to you? Are you willing to give it a go?
I invite you to share your 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. Noonan2021-07-10 23:54:002021-07-12 00:20:53Making second nature first
There is something to be said about consciously evening out the wear and tear on something as much as possible. It keeps it refreshed. It prolongs its life. It prevents undue strain on any one area or facet.
Take a moment to reflect:
What in your life right now could benefit from a little rotating? Sure, it could be your mattress (ha!), but what about different parts of your lifestyle or your life’s journey? Is there a particular area of your life, or your thought patterns or beliefs, that’s been stuck way too long in the exact same position? Has there been so much pressure consistently applied in a single place, that it’s worn out? If not physically, then intellectually or emotionally?
You’re at choice to do something about it. Can you flip it? Rotate it? Turn it upside down? Inside out? Even simply envisioning doing this can create a magical revelation for you. Try it!
Okay, your turn:
Did you try rotating something in your world? If so, what did you notice? If you haven’t tried rotating anything, will you soon?
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. Noonan2021-06-10 05:06:332021-06-10 16:29:37Things we rotate
When we hear (or say) that we are destroying our planet, are we not indeed acknowledging that we are destroying ourselves? Does not nature (and we are nature) come with its own divine structure? When we build up artificial structures, only to dismantle and destroy them, what value remains, if any? When you hear the word infrastructure, what does that connote for you?
Okay, your turn:
Do these lines of inquiry present any new awareness for you? Would you rather not pay them any mind? Is there a risk in doing so? How about in not doing so?
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. Noonan2021-05-11 04:39:572021-05-11 18:29:14Deconstructing what we construct
During the pandemic, do you find yourself all the more appreciating the simple pleasures? I do. I have. I will continue, I hope. I love hearing the birdsongs each morning, gently awakening me from my slumber. The city din of rush hour traffic that is no longer rushing has given way to a clarity of chirping, instead.
Okay, your turn:
What about for you? What are some of the simple pleasures you find along the way, during your day-to-day? I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences by leaving a Reply in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!
P.S. Poetry inspired ‘with a wordsmith’s twist’ by My Favorite Things and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.
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. Noonan2021-04-11 09:06:322021-04-11 18:12:38April showers
Why do the dog and the cat and the hamster and the guinea pig and the goldfish
not seem to notice?
Is it because they don’t wear watches
or look at the clock
Ever?
For your consideration:
What if the entire world took a collective, heartfelt, time out during these time changes? For one hour, twice a year? Let’s take time changes into our own control, and allow ourselves 6o minutes to hear the messages of our soul. I mean this as a deliberate practice, and not as an esoteric concept.
For me, the past several years, it’s been a reset so to speak for my nervous system – my physical body system, and my inner knowing – my spiritual body.
Back before my more recent devotional and deep dives into the spiritual realm, I hosted in my home “clock parties,” where a large group of my friends and I would toast to the time change, eat clock-shaped frosted sugar cookies, and dance the night away the Saturday before the time change. So, there’s that option, too. Pick your poison, erm, tradition.
Okay, your turn:
Making the switch to and from Daylight Saving Time (by the way, it’s Saving, without an “s” at the end, in case you’re wondering…as was I…the things I ponder!) – Does making the switch by one hour twice a year impact you? If so, in what ways do you notice it? Sleeping patterns disrupted? Stomach growling at seemingly weird hours? Are you happy about it? Frustrated? Maybe for you it’s not a big deal either way?
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. Noonan2021-03-13 11:27:572021-03-13 20:29:43Time change awaits
