Walk With Beauty!

My eleven year old daughter, Jesse and I, were walking home from her school one afternoon.... she skipped and hopped across the dividing lines of the patterned pavements without the weight of her school bag, as she had begged me to carry it for her. We chatted about her day and the intricate cracks in the pavement, and she exclaimed, ‘how beautiful the cracks were,’ as they made her hopping and skipping to miss the lines more fun, even as we laughed together! *Smile*

We are all surrounded by beauty even as we perceive it differently. Some may recognise the beauty in the morning sunrise even as a sunset leaves me breathless. I see the cracks in the pavements, as just that - ‘cracks in the pavement’... whereas my daughter sees them as intricate patterns of beauty that make her hopping and skipping more fun, even as I recognise the smile on my daughters face and the spontaneous laughter that bubbles from inside her as the most beautiful sight in the world.

We all share beauty! Often, it takes us by surprise.... it may be in the face of a new born child, or the smile that a stranger gives, or even in the words of a song. It may be in a great act of courage reported on the evening news, or the smell of freshly baked bread. It may be in a simple flower as it unfolds in the early Spring, or the first leaves that burst forth on the branches of a tree that has stood bare through the Winter. It may be in a young girl’s eyes as she dances, twirling across a room, or it may even be in the cracks of a pavement that contains patterns of beauty..... At times, life may seem harsh, even ugly, however if we are open to beauty we will find it beneath each step, as there is no beginning or end to beauty for the person who is aware.....

Ernesto Cardenal said, that we can argue about the reason for the universe and even the meaning of the universe, however we can never argue about the beauty of the universe! And even the Navajo people have a prayer to acknowledge the beauty of the world....

I walk with beauty before me
I walk with beauty behind me
I walk with beauty above me
I walk with beauty below me
I walk with beauty all around me
Your world is so beautiful, Oh God.

When we fail to recognise and acknowledge beauty we are doing the opposite in our apathy, and worse when we criticise anything or even what another perceives as beauty, we distract from those things that are beautiful... When we fail to recognise the beauty that surrounds us, in all aspects of life, even in the simple patterns beneath our feet... We fail to recognise and acknowledge our own beauty! When we fail to recognise our own beauty, then we are simply blind to the reflection of beauty in another persons eyes....

Marianne Williamson wrote, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?”

Who am I to be beautiful?

The reasons we deny our own beauty are as complex and as many as the steps we walk in a day, and gives credence to our fears... To deny our beauty is to deny the beauty in everything that surrounds us, and this in no way serves us... When we start to recognise our own beauty within, we will start to recognise the beauty in the simplest things. Even as we acknowledge beauty in our every moment, we will start to manifest that beauty outwards, from our heart and our essence and allow it to flow through our relationships and our entire life....

To ‘Walk With Beauty’, no matter were our steps take us is to realise the essence of the Beauty of the Universe and to Embrace the Beauty within Ourselves!

Love and Laughter to You and Yours
Mands

My daughter Jesse!

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Spring Updates

“Wow, I look great!”

“What’s wrong with me?”

I received a call from a client one morning, and I could hear the tears in her voice as she tried to share what she was experiencing through hiccups and choking out her words. My heart sank, as we had been working together for more than a year, and I had glimpsed a healing within her and envisioned the Spring as the start of a better future for her. After six years in therapy with counsellors and psychologists, and another year visiting me for two to three hours per week, during which she shared with me the trauma and heartache she had experienced in her life, I believed she was ready and deserved to heal and experience a better side of life.

I took a deep breath and waited for her to calm down and her words to become more coherent.... “What’s wrong with me?” she asked. “What do you mean?” I responded.

“I saw the green leaves on the trees this morning, and the pretty flowers on my way to work! I have never noticed the trees or even flowers before... they are so beautiful! I even looked at myself in the mirror last night, and thought, Wow, I look great! What’s wrong with me?” she said, even as she began to cry in earnest.

In 26 years of living, this young woman had recognised and acknowledged her beauty for the very first time, and in so doing she began to recognise the beauty in her surroundings even as she drove to work in peak hour traffic. She was simply overwhelmed by how much beauty there was in her life, and in herself.... and so her journey to heal had began.

When I met with her later that week, I saw a bounce in her step and I was awed by the radiance of her inner beauty shining through. Even as her perspective changed and her heart healed, her life changed as she chose to walk more with beauty.

Love and Laughter to You and Yours
Mands

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If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.
-- Yogi Berra

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From "A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles"
by Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

In order to ensure our progress toward the goal of enlightenment, the Holy Spirit has a highly individualized curriculum for everyone. Every encounter, every circumstance can be used by Him for His purposes. He translates between our perfect cosmic self, and our worldly insanity. He enters into the illusion and leads us beyond it. He uses love to create more love, and He responds to fear as a call for love.

Everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just don't know it. To become a miracle worker means to take part in a spiritual underground that's revitalizing the world, participating in a revolution of the world's values at the deepest possible level.

We're all assigned a piece of the garden, a corner of the universe that is ours to transform. Our corner of the universe is our own life - our relationships, our homes, our work, our current circumstances - exactly as they are. Every situation we find ourselves in is an opportunity, perfectly planned by the Holy Spirit, to teach love instead of fear.

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Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
-- Anne Frank