Marcia’s Meanderings – Growth through Challenge

Hello Dear Ones!

My niece is 10 years old today. While I wrote a birthday wish on her Facebook wall, I was contemplating what life would be like for her this year. As I tend to do at times like that, I envisioned the most amazing experiences for the 365 days ahead – fun and laughter, joy and play, learning and growth – offering loving thoughts with expectations for positive experiences and fabulous outcomes.

I found myself flashing back to my own life at that age. I reviewed some of the joys and the challenges of being 10 years old back in my day- and that was several decades ago! The most joyous memories seemed a mixed blend of highs and lows – growth and fears.  A quality that I recall having then and retain to this day is my absorption of anything new. I was and still am like a sponge – taking in everything new around me!

One experience that brought me immense joy and drama was going to summer camp.  Like many children, I’d never been away from family for more than a few days at a time. To be gone for two weeks was an enormous concept, filling me with both excitement and trepidation.  The separation was a rite of passage. It became even more than that in many ways. Continue Reading →

Marcia’s Meanderings – The Mundane

This is the task you have chosen. To live the magical in the world of the mundane.

You know in your hearts that you are unwilling to succumb to the mundane. You know in your hearts that you have chosen this challenge because you needed to restore your faith in yourselves, and in the never ending creative process from which you spring. For you could not, through your rational mind, endeavor to accomplish any of the things which you hold important – you could not write, you could not sing, you could not paint, and you certainly could not create your reality.

~ Conscious Creation

Hello Dear Ones!

Have you ever watched an 87 year old man slide a light bulb into one of his socks till it fills out the tip of the sock where his toes would nestle and where a gaping hole can be seen? With wool thread – not necessarily the same colour as his sock – a sewing needle and the light bulb as the base for his endeavours, he proceeds to weave back and forth. His patient and persistent process results in a neat, fully functional and hardly visible patch of ‘cloth’ occupying the vacant space where once a toenail had pierced through. He has just extended the life of his sock.

Observing this process, you experience a sense of calm – both within the man as he works diligently, and within yourself as the observer. Similar mundane processes can be seen in many day-to-day activities: a woman spends several hours ironing and neatly hanging and folding clothes; a construction worker methodically ties the laces on his work books; a small child with two Dinky cars and a patch of floor keeps him/herself amused for more than an hour.

It is more likely that you can see the magical potential in the child’s behaviour than in the other options described above. After all, we tell ourselves, children have amazing imaginations! What about adults? Do we have fabulous imaginations as well? Do you? Continue Reading →

Marcia’s Meanderings – Gratitude & Appreciation

Hello Dear Ones!

The day, water, sun, moon, night…I do not have to purchase these things with money.
~Plautus

The above quote is such an inspiring one for me. It helps me to recognize the abundance of all good and wonderful things that there are in my life – ones I do not require money to purchase, yet that enrich my life immeasurably.

Here’s another quote with the same focus:

We don’t want things, people, or events. We want the feeling we mistake them for.”
Cindy Teevens from Twitter

When I look around me at the people, things and experiences that bless my life, I can’t help but to be grateful. I am so appreciative of all the bounty and the beauty around me; so fortunate to have such incredible people sharing their lives and walking with me on this journey called life. Many of you I will never meet in person. You bless my days remotely via the internet – through Twitter and Facebook.

There are days when I’m feeling grumpy or frightened or angry or less than abundant or … and on those days it is so easy to see the dark side of life rather than the bounty and the blessings; to see the glass as half empty rather than full – one 1/2 with the fluid of your choice, the other 1/2 with air! It takes less time these days to get to a place of feeling better – that in itself is a true blessing! It used to take days, weeks; there was even a time when I went months in a state of despair. That was a world and a lifetime ago. I am grateful every day that those days are long behind me. (BTW: I used to spell grateful – greatful! After all I was filled with the greatness of wonder and appreciation!) Continue Reading →

Marcia’s Meanderings – Forgiveness

Hello Dear Ones!

Just the other day I was chatting with an acquaintance who felt she could trust me enough to share some challenges she was having. Normally I steer any such conversations away from the negative or I walk away – in this case, hang up the phone – if I’m unsuccessful in altering the focus to a more positive influence.

For this particular conversation, though, I sensed something of value in hearing this woman out. I’m still not certain if it was for her benefit or mine. The fact that I’m the one writing about it today indicates to me that it was for my own benefit. Part of me hopes that something in our discussion stayed with her and may have helped her in some way. It is not my place to know.

Here is the gist of the chat: Continue Reading →

Marcia’s Meanderings – Writer’s Block?

Hello Dear Ones!

Ever have a day when your mind wanders when you should be focusing? I’ve been sitting here at the computer for a few hours now. Rather than writing this post, I’ve been playing scrabble games with my sisters on Facebook. When I had done all 23 games we share and with none left to do, I added new games. When I tired of that, I went to websites I’ve not looked at for a while.  When all of those had been checked with nothing found there to inspire me as to any specific topic to write here, I went on to something else.  Between all these different ‘things’ I was doing, I’d check back in to see if I had received any new e-mails and tweets.

What I wanted to do was to find something cool to discuss here in my Marcia’s Meanderings. Something creative and uplifting for your enjoyment or your consideration at least. Because this is a creative exercise/endeavour for me, I thought maybe writing some micropoetry for Twitter would help liven up my creative juices. I couldn’t even come up with a single haiku or senryu (definition & some of my own examples) or tanka (example) or even a basic four line poem! Now that is very rare for me! Continue Reading →

Marcia’s Meanderings – Food: a Love/Hate Relationship

Hello Dear Ones!

My weeks are always so full of adventures and learnings, joy and creativity! This week past was no exception: mountain hiking to view the amazing wildflowers in our area; extensive work on the 4th draft of my upcoming novel; copious micro & haiku poems written (check them out here: Poetry Corner); and my daily journaling as guided by Iyanla Vanzant‘s book: ‘One Day My Soul Just Opened Up’.

There is one more thing that has begun to occupy my time and focus the past two weeks. I mentioned in last week’s post Trusting the Divine to having had a love/hate relationship with food over the course of my lifetime. My weight has fluctuated and varied over the years with the comings and goings of happy, sad and stressful times. I have been as slim as a size 5 and as stout as a 22 1/2. Recently I’ve been registering in at a modest size 15/16, and yet … this is still not a satisfactory comfort zone for me. Continue Reading →

Marcia’s Meanderings – Trusting the Divine

Hello Dear Ones!

What a whirlwind Easter weekend! Fun, occasionally emotional and deeply enlightening. AHA moments all over the place. Check out one of them in my She Says – The Sandbox post.

The other major AHA moment is the one I’ve chosen for this post. Yes, the subject line – Trusting the Divine – tells you the potential intensity of the topic. Intense, yet powerfully uplifting!

It was my Day 3 of the 40 day and 40 night guided inner journey with Iyanla Vanzant’s book: One Day My Soul Just Opened Up that set all of this expansion into action. It is my writings from that particular exercise that I wish to share with you. That and the unique happenings that arose the next morning. Continue Reading →

Marcia’s Meanderings – Contrasts and Choices

Is it possible to be the visionary and the actionary of your own life? Not only possible, it’s the way most of you intended it to be. It’s the best of all worlds. What can be more exhilarating than to find a dream from the contrast, to fixate on the dream and let it give you pleasure as it grows, and then to watch Law of Attraction bring it into manifestation while you help with your action? Does it get any better than that? You didn’t think so as you made the decision to come forth into these physical bodies. You said, “This is the best time in all eternity for a Creator to Create.”  Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Kansas City, KS on Sunday, September 27th, 1998 #390

Hello Dear Ones!

The above quote arrived in my e-mail inbox this morning. During the night I had awakened to thoughts of what I’d write about in this week’s post. The fact that this quote and my nightly inspiration were a perfect match confirmed for me that the topic was appropriate. Synchronicities like this add to the scope and dimension of my life. Love it!

Topic at the ready, I’m sitting here not quite knowing where to start. Originally my topic was to be solely about choices. To make a choice, one needs to have thoughts or things from which to choose. In the above quote Abraham talks about being a ‘visionary’, an ‘actionary’ by finding ‘a dream from the contrast.’ A good place from which to step out. Stepping out into contrast. Contrast: a good place from which to begin. Continue Reading →

Marcia’s Meanderings – Thank you, Twitter!

Hello Dear Ones!

For a woman who, back in November of 2009, was behind the times in internet technology and who didn’t want to be connected in any way shape or form through the internet (other than e-mail) with others who merely seemed to share their daily activities, complain about the lot of their lives and saw little humour or joy in their daily existence, I’ve come a long way.

A major thank you to my son Nick for his soft insistence that I get involved in this internet technology. He got Mike and I set up and started. Nick’s teachings and suggestions have been invaluable and bang on! He saw this as an extension of what I was (and we were) already doing – journaling and interacting with others of like mind and heart. He was so very right!

A major thank you also to my husband Mike for his technical knowledge and persistence in making all of this come together for us. Nick got us set up and started and Mike flew with all that has pulled together what we have and do now here on our website and throughout the Ethernet.

Today I am a blogger and proud of it. I write regularly and am an active participant in both the Facebook and the Twitter worlds. The Twitter community, for me, has become the central focus of my days – and it is a true delight in my life. Continue Reading →

Marcia’s Meanderings – Freedom to Be

Hello Dear Ones!

In a mere 24 hours I’ve been immersed in two contrasting aspects of life and living. Both had lessons to teach me.

Eight adults doting upon one soon-to-be two year old child was an incredible and delightful sight to behold. When not dancing around like children themselves, the adults would pick up items with which to make music – a squeaky toy or hands slapping on thighs or a wooden spoon on a pot lid – all to ensure the continued antics of this non-stop child who adores music and motion. Where mere moments before some adult was complaining of aches and pains or a headache, they too were up on the floor wiggling in tune to the beat, the child carried in their arms as a dance partner. There was awe and laughter and adoration – adults for the child, and child with each of the adults. Precious!

Then I arrive home to an e-mail announcement that my father is downsizing his apartment and would each of us, as his kids, care to lighten his load of personal belongings by selecting from those items he no longer has room for or requires. Ah, to have an item of my father’s would please me immensely! Some of the choices are wood carvings he crafted himself. Others are unique and exquisite memorabilia from places as exotic as Greece and Egypt. Yes, Dad, thank you!

Both encounters triggered within me a dichotomy of emotions. From the joy of unlimited and boundless energy and expression, to the contrast of release and perceived limitation. From having need for nothing and enjoying life unfettered, to having much and then finding the need to give it all away.

Where do I fit into the picture, being somewhere in the middle of both scenarios and yet closer to the older end of the spectrum rather than the beginnings of life? Believe it or not, I feel closer to the beginnings of life. My body may be attempting – with my obvious yet resistant consent – to rebel against life’s physical challenges. Yet my heart and my soul are closer to the innocence of youth and the desire to be unfettered and to revel in the freedom to just be. Maybe that is where my Dad is as well – wanting to relieve himself of life’s burdens and to set himself free just to be once again. Is that really such a bad thing? In the moment I think not.

Just me, meandering …

In Light and Laughter,

Marcia