Last week my social media manager asked me to define joy since it has been my focus for July. In Chinese medicine, summer is the month of the heart and the natural emotion most connected with the heart in this system is joy. It is part of the rhythm of Nature. Her question made me realize I didn’t have a ready answer. After some thought and contemplation, I came up this understanding:

Joy, for me, is the experience where my mind is free and my heart feels its own passion …like a song for the soul that evokes enormous exhilaration and power to move mountains for a greater delight in all!

I realized that I cannot speak of joy outside of my own experience. It is not just a concept out there, a definition that is outside of my lived experience or wisdom gained.

As the weekend unfolded, a bigger picture of joy stirred my heart. I facilitated a Reiki Retreat last weekend and the magic of the cosmic energy that flowed through the group brought much peace and joy to me and the participants. Some finally found a touchstone of what is true for them in that place of joy and peace. What could not be overlooked, however, is this joy that people felt was born out of our individual awareness and experience of our own suffering; difficult and often painful life experiences where darkness overwhelmed.

Recently, a client sent me a documentary about horses and new ways that real master horse trainers are working with these magnificent beings. In the documentary, a photographer captured incredible shots of the pain horses experience with many of the techniques and equipment used today, explaining the real physiology of horses’ backs, noses and mouths. The contrast between these pain photos and the footage of these master horse trainers ‘inviting’ and ‘unifying in awareness’ with the horse was both agonizing and joyous. To watch the horse and master trainer be together in ways the mind is free and quiet – and where their passion exhilarated both into dance and free expression – stirred the passion in my own heart, my own song of the soul.

It was being present to the whole experience, being completely aware of the whole of the group’s experience at the Retreat that made real the joy for me.  It made me curious as to whether we can actually experience joy without the awareness that pain is simultaneously being experienced by its side. Perhaps that’s where joy’s power lies. It anchors alongside suffering or pain or difficulty so we can find our way out of this darkness. It serves as the balance and the freedom from this darkness.

However, too often we can’t see joy for the darkness. When I look back at some of the most difficult times of pain and inner suffering or darkness that I experienced in my awakening, healing and forgiving the past, I recognize what a gift my young niece and nephew were at the time. They brought such wondrous curiosity, natural joy and enthusiasm to life, to learning, to everything around them. I stepped away from my darkness of mind for a time and revelled in the joy of reading a children’s book with great pictures, playing Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Woods behind our house, or playing little games with our dog and cat friends. They were a saving grace to me …Universal Balance.

Today, I’m much less concerned with needing to escape pain or ‘suffering’ that I might have formulated in my own mind. What I am learning to do is go and be with the joy that is around me. Sometimes, it takes me longer to see it, but I can always find joy now.  And when I do find it, my mind becomes free and still for a moment and I can revel in the bliss of life. I really do want to dance and sing. Universal Balance happens and the pain shifts.

So I ask you: Where do you find joy? What is your experience of joy? Come and let’s be open to this journey this season, a journey of the heart.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.  Lao Tzu

 Last weekend I went to see Tommy, the musical currently playing at Stratford Festival. What an incredible show! The story takes us through the life of Tommy, a young boy who became deaf and mute as a result of childhood trauma. His spirit was trapped in the psychic splits this abuse caused and he was disconnected from the centre of his own core. The child actors did an amazing job of depicting the zombie existence of Tommy. The one place of his eventual engagement came as a ‘pinball wizard.’

As the story unfolds, Tommy grows older and undergoes lots of ‘medical and psychological’ testing to find out what the matter is. Nothing is truly revealed until a profound act by his mother finally breaks through to Tommy’s core. She shattered the illusion of who he thought he was. His freedom and happiness came in his discovery that his light was inside of him. He discovered himself and rejoiced in his ability to hear, speak and engage.

When the world tried to make him be their spiritual guru, he refused it and told them they already had what they needed inside of them. Go look for it there. Happiness comes first when we go inside and we experience the good fortune of loving ourselves. As Tommy discovered his centre and rejected the fame of being a spiritual guru to his fans and the masses, he realized he needed to go home and make peace with his family, those who had abused him and simply misunderstood the trauma he absorbed. And as the two ‘key skills’ that were offered last week, he faced the deep hurt within and sought peace with his family and his world, a vision that took him outside of himself.

The next morning Carlie and I had the pleasure of getting really close to a hawk who was  on the ground in the middle of the field. We stopped and acknowledged this incredible bird and wished it a wonderful day. To my happiness, the hawk invited me to remember the message of the birds this month about the mindset of happiness:

 “face your grief and hurt and seek peace with it, just as Tommy did. Then you will experience the good fortune of loving yourself and feeling happiness as a deeper state of living. Cultivate awareness so that you can see when ‘happiness’ arrives at your door in the ordinary moments of your life. And as you practise noticing happiness, you will feel deeper satisfaction. And as you express gratitude for this deeper satisfaction, you will open to the true self that holds the wisdom to live a fulfilled life.”

 The hawk then flew away and invited me to reflect on the happiness I felt at the show. Not only was I entertained with incredible music (it took me back to my teenage years of listening to ‘the Who’, a band I enjoyed listening and dancing to), I was called back to my centre to claim the good fortune of loving myself and realize that the inner peace I seek lies in my power to forgive those who have hurt me. Happiness, in this way, is an inside job to live. I leave you with this quote:

 Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.  Margaret Young

 Blessings of happy living as you step into Summer!

“It was the summer after my freshman year at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan. I packed my bags and shuffled off to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. For the next two months, I worked in the kitchen and the gift shop at Lake Yellowstone Hotel. On days off, I would fill a giant backpack with enough food, water, and clothes to last two days. New friends and I would backpack deep into Yellowstone’s grizzly bear inhabited forest and set up camp for the night (tents and camping supplies were carried on our backs too). These hikes were heart-poundingly difficult, and sometimes mosquito infested. But the beauty I beheld! I saw families of elk grazing or sometimes dashing off to a new location, giant moose resting under a shady bush, and a meteor shower unlike any I have ever witnessed. Every day that summer, I experienced a new wonder of nature. This convinced me that I wanted to have a connection with the force that created the beauty that I experienced. That was many years ago, and I still am compelled to have communion with the Creator of such wonder and magnificence.”   Barb

“The summer of 1996 was proving to be one of life altering experiences. Sitting on the beach listening to the waves was a welcome reprieve from recent days’ events. As the warmth of the sun’s rays subtly coaxed my tense body to relax, I listened as my 40-year old husband shared his recent cancer diagnosis with his long-time friend Trudy. Trudy, herself having just received a terminal cancer diagnosis, was unusually subdued as she listened intently.  As these two cherished people in my life shared their life defining experience since diagnosis, I found myself drifting to a difficult conversation with Danny earlier in the day. Believing “until death do us part” translated to 40 years from now; we never imagined that one of us might “part” in mid-life. I dug my heels into the wet, cool sand and savoured the sensation as the waves parted the sand for the sole of my feet to be embraced. This was not in our life plan. We were soul mates. How could one of us exist meaningfully without the other? I could feel my emotions of betrayal……anger……fear welling in my chest, as the reality of our circumstance sunk in. It is difficult to describe what followed. At this moment, Mother Nature with all Her grace and wisdom, using the waves and sand as Her medium, invited the overwhelm of these emotions to melt away into the wet sand through my feet. As awareness of this seemingly magical moment crept in, and a feeling of peace and harmony ensued, so did the realization I was not alone in this journey. I did not know where this new challenge would lead us, but I had the sense that no matter what happened, it would unfold as it should. Life happens, and when it becomes too much, you will find Danny and I sitting at the end of our dock. We invite Mother Nature to soothe our souls as we look out over the water enjoying the beauty of the moment. It is in the awareness of this moment, we know all is well. Life is good.”   Nancy

“When I was a kid, my family used to go camping together. We often went to a campground near Owen Sound and other places up north. For 2 weeks we would swim, play golf and baseball, barbecue, sleep in a tent trailer, do fire camps at night and see neat things in Nature. We often went with other families and so we would run around the camp with our friends. I loved it and still today when these old friends get together on rare occasions, we still laugh and recall the fun and games we played as children. As we moved into our teens, we still wanted these times of camping and the only difference was that the nights just got later around the campfire and the stories more ridiculous! To this day, I love the opportunity to let all the responsibilities of the rest of my life be put aside for a while, to sit down around the campfire and tell great stories that make us all laugh. Laughter is one of my soul medicines and camping reminds me to replenish it for my life!”   Shirley Lynn

“Memories are priceless, especially the fond ones. I would have to go back to the summer of 1996 which was the first year I met my husband. He introduced me to the beauty of Georgian Bay. We were boating and jet skiing over the weekend enjoying the beautiful weather. I hadn’t had that much fun in years. The waters did get a bit rough at times, pretty bouncy. At night we all gathered around the fire and told stories. What a night. So calm and peaceful. Sometimes now when I get stressed or need to find my place, I think of the views of Georgian Bay that weekend. Oh, and how tall and strong the trees are. No matter how rough the waters are, the water is still underneath. I will picture myself underneath the water and know to keep calm and strong, as the rough water passes. -Relax, Faith, Resilience, Gratitude, Appreciation, and Strength.  Life is good.”   Sandra

“Happy Summer Solstice! When Allie was a toddler she used to chase the seagulls hoping to catch one so she could fly with it. So hold on to the thought that we can all fly with the birds when we let our thoughts soar and our dreams be lifted skyward!”  JJ

“When I used to live in Glencoe, a small farming community south west of London, the summer nights were the best! Our main rule was to be home when the street lights turned on. We always followed that rule. We made it home, but we did not necessarily make it in the house. Our backyard was attached and open to three other backyards in a subdivision on the very outskirts of town.  Our neighbour allowed the kids in the neighbourhood to play on her huge metal monkey bars. My brother and I would be allowed to play on them until our parents finally called us in. Many kids often joined us in our nightly sessions. Some of the best stories were told and we had many laughs. In looking back, these nights provided a carefree and simplistic time and I will always treasure those memories. Going forward, I continue to take time to get away from it all and socialize, especially with family and friends as much as possible.”  Cindy

“It was the summer of 1970. I was 16 years old and had started on first part-time job. My new friends that I had met at work were heading to Sauble Beach for the weekend. I knew there was no way my dad would let me go. He didn’t allow me to do anything. So I lied to him. I ended up getting a ride up with friends and I hitchhiked home at the end of the weekend. This was a major step for me. It represented two things. The first was that I was totally dishonest with my parents and I was never dishonest – miss goody two-shoes. And surprisingly it didn’t bother me. The second part is that I hitchhiked with a guy all the way home. And surprisingly that didn’t bother me either. Instead I felt totally free. Totally liberated. Totally in control of my life. The only other time in my life that I felt that way was when I divorced. This is significant for me because I never did anything like it ever in my life again. I have never felt that sense of freedom, that sense of control again. Yet I know how it felt and I know that I have longed for that feeling. But it has become a small treasure that I hold in my heart for just me. To bring out at a moment when I feel the need. When I went home after this weekend I went back to my “miss goody two-shoes” life.  If you were to tell anyone in my family that I did this, they would never believe it. If I were asked to do it again right here, right now, I wouldn’t even hesitate! Freedom is a wonderful thing. This has been a good exercise for me. It was a time in my life that I treasure but surprisingly had forgotten about for this past while.  It has definitely got me thinking!!”   Karen

“It was only a few years ago. The first time I stayed at Wasaga Beach. Wolfgang and I had just enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the deck of the house we were renting. We saw a twinkle in a tree across the creek; it twinkled so brightly it caught our eye. As the sun was setting and evening was growing darker and darker, we saw a few more twinkling lights. The darker it grew, the more lights there were. Soon there were thousands of tiny twinkling lights. They looked like fairies gently flying and swaying across the creek and right up to where we were standing. We did not know what it was we were experiencing until the following day. We do know we had an amazing sense of peace and excitement at the same time. It was truly beautiful and we did not want to leave the deck and go into the house. Later that same evening, we heard the sound of something crossing the creek, sloshing in the water and stamping up to the backyard of the house. We got the camera, and caught photos of a doe deer and her two young fawns. They were just grazing on the grass. Quite content. We know the deer now, and feed them corn every evening, as we go back to the same house each July. The first time we saw and heard them was exciting and filled me with a sense of awe. They are majestic, yet playful. Wary and somewhat skittish, but curious about us, and still strong and graceful, able to bound across the large lot and creek into the woods in a flash. They teach you that you can be strong and gentle together. We later found out that the twinkling fairy lights were fireflies and they were in abundance that year. It was such a beautiful, exhilarating experience. It drew us closer and it gave us a profound appreciation and awe of nature. Our best holidays are always those spent embracing what nature has to show us.”   Judy

“I immediately thought of my best friend, Tess, and being at her cottage as a youngster. There were many kids on Smirle Street, but Tess and I were really close. Her parents would take me to their cottage every summer until I left Ottawa at age 9. The memory is of swimming in the beautiful lake, with water so clean. We also would canoe around and check out different cottages or little islands. Tess’ grandfather built one cottage and then a few years later bought a new cottage beside the old one. The old cottage had secret pathways through it – one upstairs and one that went from upstairs to downstairs. I loved that place! Across the gravel road there was a pond that would be FULL of tadpoles, and we would go with a glass jar and scoop some up and check the different ones out: some tiny with tails, and some big starting to develop legs. So cool. Good memories.”   Sam

“The summer of 1981 was a memorable one for me. I just finished high school and was looking for adventure. I found it in the form of biking across Canada with 21 others from various parts of Canada and the US. We started in the Pacific Ocean and ended 2 months later in the Atlantic. I learned a lot that summer and I won’t bore you with the long version about all our trials and tribulations, joys and triumphs – can you say character-building? What stands out for me even today is the value of community in supporting each other through the highs and lows of our life journey – each of us could probably still recall a time on that trip when we didn’t think we could go on but someone said or did something that gave us the necessary support to keep moving forward. A simple squirt of water did the trip sometimes. Other times an imaginary tow line pulled someone up yet another mountain. I like to believe that I have carried this lesson forward in my life. I want to remember and act on the knowledge that reaching out and offering help and support to someone (whether in big or small ways) can have a positive impact on that person, and maybe me too. As Red Green used to say, “…we’re all in this together”. Some of you who know me may think – “I didn’t know she liked to bike”. And you’re right. I don’t. Never really did. I’ve rarely been on a bike since. But it still was the ride of a lifetime. Kind of a coming-of-age adventure that will stay with me forever.”   Lucy

Thanks to everyone who shared their best summer holiday memories along with the impact they had on who you are today. Congratulations to Cindy who is the winner of our random draw for a one-of-a kind Beat the Heat of Summer Gift Basket.

Yesterday I realized just how many happy moments are available to me in the course of one day. I had a really good night’s sleep. Carlie and I had a wonderful 15 minute walk today – she is post-surgery so it brought tremendous happiness to both of us to be able to get out and sniff ‘new’ things. We celebrated my mother’s birthday and we connected with family and friends over dinner. We enjoyed hearing my nephew sing via computer. Moments of joy. And that is what the birds sang to me: happiness is moments of joy, the good fortune of loving myself.

These little moments of joy are gifts when they come to us in our day. They lift our mood, celebrate our relationships and bring joy to our real existence. At the same time, we need to cultivate awareness so we recognize when these little moments present themselves to us, face to face, heart to heart. That may sound simple enough and easily done, yet it can be difficult to sustain when we face challenges and disappointments.

Last week, Lucy shared her insight of how we can spread happiness; cultivate more of it in our environment by responding and encouraging more of what makes others happy. We are not asked here to disregard loving ourselves or to neglect the boundaries and self care that invites happiness in us. Rather, I believe, the expansiveness that Lucy was talking about comes out of having a deeper sense of meaning in life.

As is expressed in my mission, ‘wisdom’s way to peace’, I experience profound meaning in my life by helping others make peace with themselves, their families, their environment, their Higher Power and Presence, with their lives and so forth by connecting them with their own inner wisdom. We all have conflicts of some sort, hidden and conscious. Developing skills to cultivate an attitude of happiness and expanding our awareness to embrace the moments of joy as they arise are powerful antidotes to the conflicts that so often take up space in our mind and wind tight in the connective tissue in our bodies.

As we build skills to be happy in our attitude, we need to practise these skills to sustain this attitude over the long haul. As these moments get stronger and more frequent, we evolve into deeper states of satisfaction. Deeper states of satisfaction open the door to experience deeper levels of fulfilment. Feeling fulfilled is reserved for those moments and times and continuum of experience that connects us to our purpose in life, to that which gives us a meaningful sense of existence.

So how do we move from moments of joy to living a fulfilled life where happiness is not just about an emotional feeling, but rather an existential sense of meaning and purpose that contributes to the larger good?

I will share two key ‘skills’ to sustain inner happiness leading to fulfilment for you to contemplate and test. Please bring your own insights to this conversation.

(Remember, the birds asked me to go and ponder their wisdom: So to my surprise, the robin’s message tells me that being happy means that there is good fortune in loving myself. Good fortune comes when I appreciate what I have; it comes when I open to the moments of joy as I share my gifts for the greater good. I will be ‘lucky’ when I find joy in my place in the world. The Welsh understood this kind of attitude as being wise.)

1. What is it you are seeking to accomplish that is bigger than you? If you don’t have anything, then you must find something or happiness will be fleeting and inner fulfilment will always remain elusive.
2. What still hurts? Unresolved hurt can turn into resentment, depression, anger, despair and a gripping sense of alienation from being loved and belonging. It trips us up at the most inopportune times when a path to happiness opens up.

When you are honest with yourself and listen with heart to the answers that arise from deep within your core to these questions, what path to happiness becomes revealed? Is it what you imagined? What is one first step you need to take to bring momentum and new life to this path of something bigger than you and/or beginning to heal that inner hurt blocking the way? Let’s get started.

 Namaste.

Last week Rayna and I (Lucy) moved into the next phase of our training (puppy classes are now complete). One of the skills required in the first level is for me to be able to prompt her to wag her tail. Huh? [The premise is that it shows social engagement, specifically with me]. Sounds easy enough except that Rayna doesn’t wag her tail as readily as some other dogs do. This has made me consider what a wagging tail means.

Without going into all the nuances of tail wags, I am limiting a wagging tail here to mean what we understand as the “I’m happy to see you” wag. I began to pay close attention to when Rayna wags her tail – I learned that she wags her tail when greeting a new person or animal into her environment, particularly if she is feeling comfortable and fairly confident. A novel stimulus is likely to invoke a wag from Rayna.

As I stated above, we presume a wagging tail to mean the dog is happy to see us. They are outwardly expressing their happiness in that moment. But does that mean the dog is a ‘happy’ dog? Are ‘tail-waggers’ happier dogs? If a dog doesn’t wag its tail as readily, is it less happy? Specifically, is Rayna unhappy if she doesn’t wag her tail as readily someone like Carlie?

More observation and reflection revealed that tail wagging is simply one outward expression of how the dog is feeling at that moment – “I’m SO HAPPY to see you!” There could also be sparkling eyes, a lolling grin, jumping and bouncing around, etc. All are momentary outward expressions of an internal state of being, in this case, happiness.

One trainer suggested that if I want Rayna to wag her tail more, I need to mark the behavior and reward her for doing it – this will increase the behaviour. Interesting! I can reinforce and increase someone else’s expression of happiness simply by rewarding them in a meaningful (to them) way. I have the power to increase happiness around me by responding and encouraging more of it in others.

This confirms for me that happiness is expansive – we really can make more of it if we intentionally set out to do so. Being happy and expressing it freely has a positive effect on those around you. At some point all of these outward expressions of happiness will shift the internal state of being to match the environment. Who doesn’t feel uplifted and loved with a greeting that says “I’m SO HAPPY to see you!”? And who can resist responding with our own variation of “I’m SO HAPPY to see you too”?

Take a few moments to consider your own life. Are you happy? How do you express it? Do you reinforce happiness in others? How? Do you encourage it in yourself?

Back to Rayna. I feel fairly confident that overall she is a happy dog (which makes me happy too). I have noticed that Rayna demonstrates her happiness in multiple ways (some more endearing than others). Sometimes that includes wagging her tail. Now I just have to get her to do it on cue…

Happiness … pass it on!

submitted by Lucy Martin

Over the course of June, we will explore this attitude or goal of ‘happiness’. And why not; how can we bloom if we have no inner state of happiness?
Recently, I went to hear the Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi Rinpoche who is the Founding Director of The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of the first questions he asked the audience was, “how many of you plan to wake up and spend the day feeling upset or angry?” How many of you wake up and say to yourself, “I plan on feeling miserable today?” Of course, no one raised their hands. He went on to say that one of the key reasons that we don’t feel happy lies in our lack of understanding of what happiness really is all about. So let’s explore it!
On one of my recent daily walks, I asked Nature which ‘relation’ wished to share wisdom with me about what happiness really is about anyway. The birds volunteered to share their wisdom with me. And so for the past few weeks I’ve been listening. A robin has been coming and sitting on my windowsill at work, peeking in and ‘participating’ in my sessions with clients at very key moments. Synchro-destiny shall we say!
I asked her, “What can you share with me about being happy?”
Her response: “Being happy is loving yourself, no matter how big or how small your spirit is. Being happy is appreciating who you are and what you have been given to live your best. Being happy is enjoying your place in the world and the gifts you bring for the greater good.”
What I noticed about this robin’s response is her emphasis on ‘being happy.’ Happiness is already planted within our centre, within our core. We may need to lift off the layers of unhappiness that shroud and deny us this experience of ourselves. At the core, we are designed and have the talent to be happy, however.
I wanted to know more about what she meant by ‘happy’. What do you mean by ‘happy’? I asked this robin.
She replied, “Happiness is a moment of joy.” She flew away and told me to sit with this understanding.

I decided to look up its origin and found that “happy” comes from the Middle English hap (‘chance, fortune’). To my surprise, the robin’s message tells me that being happy means that there is good fortune in loving myself. Good fortune comes when I appreciate what I have; it comes when I open to the moments of joy as I share my gifts for the greater good. I will be ‘lucky’ when I find joy in my place in the world. The Welsh understood this kind of attitude as being wise.
I offer a gift of gratitude to this robin who blessed me with this wisdom and joins me daily on my windowsill reminding me to be happy and open myself to good fortune. Coming back to the comments of the Venerable Tenzin Pridaryahsi – much of our being happy is whether we ‘practice’ or ‘train’ to be happy. So stay tuned!
Here is one conversation I’m having about what happiness means. What do you want to add to it? Where are you stuck and without the attitude of happiness? If you are willing to explore and practise happiness, contact me at shirley@shirleylynnmartin.com.

This week the weather has turned cold again. I even saw tiny ‘snow wisps’ in the air one morning. With my winter coat on and insulated boots, I walked around and checked out the flower gardens. The forget-me-nots, trilliums, narcissus and bleeding hearts are all in full bloom. With the tulips on their last hurrah and the peonies just budding, various colours still dazzle the landscape. I wonder what allows them to bloom and be hardy in this frigid weather.

The flowers hear me and respond to it. “Practise” they say gently. They understand the challenges of blooming in spring, a time of transition and new birth. “What is it you practise?” I curiously ask.“Sustainability” was the reply. I ponder. I breathe. I open. “Tell me more. You practise sustainability?”

“Yes, we practise being who we are.” They know I’m surprised. The conversation isn’t what I anticipated and they play with my expectations of what I believe the answers will be to my questions. “We practise every day. Not just here and there when we feel like it or think we have the time or energy or resources to bloom. We only have a season to bloom. We live it to our fullest potential. We never waste a moment.”

After I pause to allow my heart to catch a breath they continue. “We know we are incredibly beautiful. We don’t spend any time living in doubt about the value of our essence. We are lovely and we practise being lovely and thinking lovely about ourselves every day of our season.”

I could likely question what they mean by thinking lovely, but that may be a conversation for another time. This conversation comes to an end and I am left to contemplate their wisdom. This conversation, as all heart-to-hearts are meant to do, leaves me changed.

So here is the simple and profound wisdom I am gifted here:

• To sustainably live our potential, we must practise living our loveliness, our beauty every day because that is who we most naturally are.
• Since our lives are a gift, waste not our loveliness on doubt and disbelief.
• Completely own our loveliness, our beauty and we will realize our potential (even when the winter winds blow in our spring!).

What is your ‘practice’ of living your loveliness? Does your ‘practice’ offer you a sustainable way to live your potential, even through the challenges of life?

I would love to hear from you about what you practise and how often. Thank you for listening to the flowers this month. Nature will offer us more insights and wisdom next month as we continue our conversation with Her.

“If I have made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent.” – Sir Isaac Newton

If you are anything like me, there are days you simply want inner peace now or you want the change you desire so you can manifest your goal now. And in those moments, you really can’t see the advantage of practising any kind of patience for the long vision of fulfilling your dream. The turtle or snail’s pace of waiting for the ‘gold’ seems interminable and can give us such grief. At least, this is a mental habit I have had to outgrow!

Spring flowers, as we’ve been speaking about, offer us such beautiful and clear metaphors of living into our potential, of the process of coming into full bloom. This spring I’ve been curious about tulips in a new way and largely because of the gardeners in my life who teach me about the subtleties that go beyond my own practice of buying bulbs, planting them and waiting for the colourful bloom the following year.

A friend writes, “growing saleable tulips from offsets requires a year or more of growth before plants are large enough to flower. Tulips grown from seeds often need five to eight years of growth before plants are flowering size. Commercial growers usually harvest the tulip bulbs in late summer and grade them into sizes; bulbs large enough to flower are sorted and sold, while smaller bulbs are sorted into sizes and replanted, for sale in the future.” Even the tulip knows it takes quite a significant investment over a steady period of time before the pleasure and joy of coming into full bloom manifests! A lot of time is dedicated to growing to the right size and having the right characteristics. They don’t rush themselves to bloom – ‘forcing it’ only weakens the longevity and strength of the bloom.

I have noted a few lessons the tulips teach us about being patient for ‘our time to bloom’ :

1. Watch for unrealistic expectations that cause you unnecessary grief and upset. Like tulips, your potential isn’t going to manifest within a few months.
2. Create goals and visions and hold them lightly. The Universe might have something in mind outside your mental definition of growth and happiness. But create goals and take action.
3. Practise non-attachment to outcomes. Expect the unexpected.
4. Remember what really matters to you even in the face of ‘life happening’. Trust that what you really want will manifest.
5. Nurture optimism and inner faith. You will bloom, even if you have to endure a few winters first.
6. Give yourself a break and sit down and ‘smell the roses’. Pushing and forcing the outcome won’t make the blooming come any faster or better.
7. Cultivate a practice of gratitude and acceptance of life as it is. It will change as soon as you accept the moment.

For me, becoming a patient person has summoned perseverance, resolve and discipline in the absence of a dream fulfilled. It has also called out of me a rigorous trust in the face of seemingly too many ‘winters’ before the ‘gold’ manifests or the blooming finally is experienced. When dreams are aligned with Universal Love and Light, they will manifest … but it may take years of dedicated growth and right action.

Why be patient? The blooming will be colourful, spectacular and bring incredible joy to everyone who is touched by this dream – most of all you!

This weekend has been a wacky one in terms of weather – cold, rain, snow/sleet, wind. A bitter reminder that we are not in charge. My little Rottie friend Rayna who is unapologetic about being a fair-weather girl (not too hot or cold or wet please) was not at all thrilled with the idea of walking (outside!) in this misery.

But it did give me an insight I may have missed with nicer, more agreeable weather. I observed how the flowers (and yes, dandelions too) currently in bloom have protected themselves against the elements – they have tightened their petals to shield their core (the parts inside the flower related to reproduction). They are still vibrant and attractive but not open to the damaging conditions that ultimately could affect its ability to pollinate and reproduce (a key purpose of a plant).

I began to think about how this is a good analogy for our own lives. We talk a lot about growing and blooming into our best self and life purpose, and this is desirable and good. But the flowers remind us that even in the midst of our peak times of purpose and brilliant confidence, we need to protect our core, our essential self from the less than desirable environment we may find ourselves in.

How do we do this? How do we protect our inner core from being whipped about by the wind, from having our spirits dampened by the rain, our growth restrained by the cold? What inner reserves are necessary to ride out the storms and challenges until the warmer air and sunshine return?

For me, a few ideas come to mind. One is preparation – planning ahead and gathering the necessary resources for these inevitable challenges to our perfect blooming. The petals serve as perfectly sized boundaries that shield our inner core from harm. Another is resilience – having the strength and confidence to know that ‘this too shall pass’. And finally, having a sustainable growth – too slow or too fast makes us more susceptible to the elements or a less than ideal environment. We can’t always help or change where we are planted but we can thrive nevertheless. As Mary noted a few weeks ago, a tulip she planted upside down overcame this challenge and rose into full bloom anyway.

What are the key elements that you have (or need) in your life to thrive and reach full bloom? What petals do you need to develop to protect your self from harm? Are you in need of some help with managing your growth and blooming? Call or email to make an appointment with Shirley Lynn for skilled support and guidance as you face the challenges that keep you from your most vibrant colourful blooming.

Wishing you a vibrant Spring!

submitted by Lucy Martin

We have been incredibly gifted with gorgeous weather this past week in southern Ontario. The daffodils and hyacinths are in full bloom and the air quality is marvellous (except for those who experience pollen allergies). Each year I marvel at the genius of flowers to poke through the awakening soil and begin their journey toward painting the world with vibrant and brilliant perfumes and colour. There is something about flowers that restore hope and faith in the goodness of life for me. They restore hope in the possibility of living my potential because they do it every season.

Remember the 4^th ingredient of hope? “We must create a good plan outlining the resources needed and how we use them.”

So I listened to the daffodils, hyacinths and budding tulips about the function and structure of a good plan. In my watching and listening to these flowers over this past week, I noticed the structure and function of the questions they live to answer.

1. Who am I? The response is “I am Spirit incarnate as daffodil”.  Nothing more, nothing less.
2. Where am I? Again a simple response: “In the present moment.”
3. What do I love? Response: “to be alive and healthy and bloom. To be as purple or white or yellow as I can be! To spread happiness.”
4. What blesses my life? An obvious response: “Rain, sun (energy), good nutrients, a balanced ecosystem, even the rest time of winter.”
5. Why must I live now? “To help the Earth and all her relations heal.”
6. What is the ultimate gratitude? “That Great Spirit is and moves and loves and is the Source of all our being!”
7. How do I bloom? Last question and last response: “I ask for what I need. With gratitude and humility, I seek the wisdom of my community (bio-diversity) to help me grow. Finally, I answer the call to awaken and bloom in alignment with the answers to all of the other questions.”

It will take me some time to ponder this wisdom of the spring flowers as it is not what I had anticipated focusing upon in my blog about creating a good plan and outlining our resources to accomplish it. What I do realize, however, is that the function of a good plan provides answers to good questions! The structure of a good plan is to help us achieve our hope … to bloom in the fullness of our beauty and who we are destined to be!

As you look at what you hope for this spring and beyond, as well as your plan about what resources you need and how you will use these resources to accomplish your preferred future, what are the underlying questions you are answering? Are they good questions? Are they useful? What answers will you likely get to these underlying questions? Will these answers be ones that allow you to bloom vibrantly?

As a Soul Coach, I see that my purpose is to support people in living their potential, to bloom vibrantly from one’s soul, one’s inner core and light. I help people to listen to the voice of wisdom within and to discover both the questions that matter to the heart as well as their path to the answers. As clients discover this partnership where the path of wisdom and compassion to our life’s hopes and dreams is witnessed and shared by another, both coach and client enrich our lives and our learning. As you journey into your blooming this spring, find yourself a soul witness to help you create a good plan that answers the great questions of your heart and live your hope!!