MY NEW BLOG!

Dear Friends,

Please visit my new blog, affiliated directly with my website at:

http://www.cleashannon.com/blog/

I look forward to seeing you there and hearing your comments on the new format!

Make it a great day!

THANKSGIVING EVERY DAY

 

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” Cicero

On the 1st of November we begin our annual tradition - creating a month filled to overflowing with daily thanks.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
Melodie Beattie

Everyone who sets foot in our home has the opportunity to share a gratitude - large or small. A token of the many overlooked and underappreciated simple pleasures that we take for granted each and every moment. Why postpone the thanks and cram it all into one day Instead we choose to spend the entire month of November lavishing gratitude on those around us.

On Thanksgiving Day we pass the gratitude bowl around our table. Everyone pulls a thankful note and reads aloud the anonymous gratitudes we've gathered throughout the days of November. It's become one of our favorite and most cherished traditions!

This year I've chosen to let the gratitude swell behind our home and our small bowl. Each day I will post a gratitude to my Facebook status. I’m eager to watch the thankfulness I share grow and thrive.

Will you join me?

Post a single gratitude a day as your Facebook status…perhaps it will shift the direction of someone else’s post towards thankfulness. Gratitude is contagious!

” Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners   who make our souls blossom."
Marcel Proust

BELIEVE

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
Toby Reynolds

"If you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true." <em>The Alchemist</em> Paulo Coelho

EQUINOX

 

Fall arrives today with its colorful crispness, its cornucopia of  richly harvested flavors, reminding us of the bounty we have to celebrate.

A certain sweet sadness arrives with Fall. The lingering warmth, the longer days. The changes draw our attention to the contrast of winter already on its way.

Rich gem colored tones of sunset and leaves, delicious baked-in, wood-smoke smells, audible crunch of leaves under foot, crafty exploration of All Hallows’ Eve costumes, earthy messiness  of pumpkin carving, sharing family traditions, founding new ones…

I am eagerly anticipating the glory of Fall! What do you look forward to?

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GARGLE

 

“Some people drink deeply from the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.” Bright, Grant M.

What an absolute pleasure to share an exchange with someone capable of synthesizing, applying and actively participating. A rich dialogue. A willingness to engage, to risk opinions, to gain understanding.

When was the last time you made time for such a conversation?

KNOWN

"Not being known doesn't stop the truth from being true." Richard Bach

Each one of us holds a great yearning to be known. An intrinsic desire to be completely absorbed by another. Not assimilated or even understood. Simply heard and accepted.

We must first know ourselves thoroughly in order to share this gift with another. And in the process of sharing our knowledge the reciprocal can occurs. This is not always the case, but the opportunity exists! Sometimes we are so eager in our own effort to be known and revealed that we neglect to allow the reverse to happen as it naturally will. Effortlessly.

How well do we know those around us? Do we hesitate to hold the conversations that will allow this knowledge to be shared? Is our priority in the knowing or the being known or in the process of this rich exchange?

Prerequisites. Is it necessary for us to be open to the point of being willing to know another as much as we know ourselves in order to be known? A willingness to know another deeply and at times utterly painfully. A shared experience that holds the possibility to be sublimely liberating and glorious.

What we choose to with do with this knowledge changes everything.

There is such rich opportunity in this uncharted territory. For forgiveness, acceptance and love to blossom and thrive.

Do you know what it's like to be truly known? And to know another?

INVOLUNTARY

 

“Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Fascinating the involuntary response that is our body’s breath. The gentle, irresistible action that tugs and releases the air within us in and out of life each instant.

Without the least bit of help from us, this mysterious system defies our bidding, escalating with our emotions and triggering cascades of internal responses to which incapable of  granting either permission or disapproval. 

Beneath the surface our breath operates continuously. Only when we try to cage it, holding our breath in, silent, does it become fierce and noticeable.

Through each and every moment our breath accompanies us: silent, steadfast, loyal.

Yet while we rarely acknowledge its constant presence, breath is the only involuntary response over which we have any direct control. For what purpose I wonder?

With the practice of pranayama I have witnessed the direct correlation between breath, body and mind. My own serene stillness at the end of a series of long, deep, satisfying breaths or a series of Nadi Sodhanai . My restless energy fueled by Kapalabhati. The steady, open-mouthed chill of Shitali.

And the times when my breath is illusive, sharply reminding me of its own free will. The jagged roughness at the end of wind-sprints. The intensity of inhale corroborating with an unexpected touch or thought.

Gentle reminders that the breath is ours up to a point. The mystery remains regardless of what science can explain.

What is the quality of your breath in this very moment? It’s texture, length, taste, sound?

Subtle changes. What does our awareness shift in the qualities of our breath and the quality of our experience?