April 18th, 2012
As my partner and I listen for where our next ‘home’ is, I see this as an opportunity to listen to the vibration of the word. I explored the energy of the word home in my meditation.
Home. OM. Home. OM.
You have the blueprints of your home inside you.
You already have the lights, furniture, and keys you will ever need.
The front door is always open.
Hand over the keys over to the universe.
You have love – home.
You have peace – home.
You have an oasis residing in you – home.
Listen to your New Home Mantra:
I am here.
I am home.
I have arrived.
Home.
I am ready for my home outside to match my home inside.
Mary Anne
Posted in Meditation | 1 Comment »
April 17th, 2012
Mother Earth is speaking.
Are you listening?
Mother Earth is listening.
Are you speaking?
{Photo by Mary Anne Flanagan}
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April 13th, 2012
In a recent shamanic session with my friend and shamanic healer, Joe, I wanted to explore some healing about my feminine side. As more powerful feminine energy began emerging, it felt time to deal with some past beliefs about my feminine side – the parts I have rejected for a long time.
As the shamanic drumming began, I moved into a deeper level of consciousness. The drum beat changed and I shifted out of ordinary reality. I was able to go deeper inside myself – inside my womb, my ovaries, and my sense of being a woman. My intention was to accept my feminine side, which I rejected at 15 because I knew I was not going to bear children. It was a huge discovery knowing that I would not be “a mother.” I was overcome with grief and thought I would disappoint my parents.
This disappointment and grief went into my “beingness” and I have been carrying that inside me ever since. I felt ready to release this lifetime of grief. As I took my next in-breath, I felt my mom’s presence in the room with me (she passed away in 2000). During the session I felt her and heard her voice, a soft whisper speaking to me: You were my miracle baby. I knew you would be a strong woman in the world.
I reminded her that I am not having children and I have rejected my feminine side for a long time. My mother’s words were so clear: You have birthed so much life in the world. You have mothered many. You have given birth to so much love in the world. You have mothered many. Go birth and love yourself in the same way. Birth yourself, again. You have mothered many. Thank you for giving so much life and love in this world.
You have mothered many. My dear daughter, you have mothered many.
With tears streaming down my face, I knew what my mother was speaking of – this wonderful feminine that has mothered many. I just had to be reminded of my Divine Feminine.
Who would I be with my Divine essence fully in the world?
I would be Mary Anne – a mother to many.
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April 11th, 2012
Some of my most productive meetings have taken place in bodegas, street corners, coffee shops, and at times, the ladies room. I have found that engaging in visionary conversations is easier when in it’s in an informal environment. Everyone, including myself, lets their guard down. Informal meetings and conversations have provided many rich and vulnerable exchanges.
Capturing my most creative ideas happens the same way – in free-spirited places and with inspiring people. I write my ideas on whatever is in my pocket – my iPhone, a business card, a napkin, my hand, a notebook. It’s fun to have to translate various scribbled notes on papers stuffed in my pockets or in my bag. Years ago, I had a boss in the South Bronx who drafted his best ideas and proposal outlines on paper towels or napkins. When he had an idea, he wanted to make sure he captured it. I remember many meetings with his ideas scrolled out on paper towels.
Twenty years later, and I still find myself writing ideas and notes on napkins. I love capturing my creativity in the moment with whatever is at hand. I know there are many good ‘apps’ that would probably work just as good as the napkin method. Then again, maybe it’s time for a napkin app.
How do you capture your best ideas? What is your creative process?
And if you see me, I may just need to borrow a scrap paper or napkin.
Mary Anne
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April 9th, 2012
Meditation: Turn your awareness to your breath.
Breathe easy in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Ask your hand to go somewhere on your body that needs attention.
Breathe more fully where your hand is. Close your eyes.
Feel the space in between where your hand is not there.
Notice parts of your body where your hand is present.
Breathe light and kindness. And more kindness…
Allow yourself to breathe kindness through your hand.
How are you transmitting kindness?
What is your message of kindness? Just listen.
Take a deeper breath in and out – kindness.
Open your eyes and see the world with kind eyes.
See the world with kindness – what’s possible?
How kind of you to gift yourself more kindness.
Radiate kindness with every interaction.
To a kinder, gentler you, Mary Anne
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April 6th, 2012
Are you open to more beauty?
Are you open to more love?
Are you open to more brilliance?
Are you open to more ideas?
Are you open to more joy?
Are you open to more laughter?
Are you open to more peace?
Are you open to more kinship?
Are you open to more stillness?
Are you open to more bliss?
Are you open to more and to more and to more?
Are you open to more YOU?
Mary Anne
{Photograph by Mary Anne Flanagan, Madison Park, NYC}
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April 4th, 2012
Spring gives us the opportunity to recognize that we too go through endless cycles of gestation, birth, growth, death, and rebirth.
What opportunity will you explore this Spring?
Welcome to rebirthing.
Mary Anne
{Photo by: Mary Anne Flanagan
Greenwich, CT}
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April 3rd, 2012
I have never worried about my glass being half full or half empty.
I’m grateful for the water.
{Photo taken by: Mary Anne Flanagan}
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March 30th, 2012
In a recent conversation with my partner, she asked me what my passion was. I told her it was traveling and writing. She said, “But what is your inner passion?” I found myself stumbling and babbling all sorts of ideas. None of the ideas felt like my one passion in life. Then I asked myself the question and when I listened from that perspective, I knew the answer: “Service.” My passion in life is service. It’s something I was taught by my parents and a gene I inherited. I told my partner, “I will always be of service, no matter what I do in life.”
It seemed my answer was so obvious that I began to search for another one. Sometimes what we are really passionate about is right in front of us – something we do daily or is a part of our essence. When you think about your essence, what do you bring to the world?
What is your one passion you share effortlessly?
May you live your passion each day in celebration with the world.
Mary Anne
And if you need assistance unearthing your passion, feel free to contact me to set up a coaching session. Live your passion!
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March 27th, 2012
As we enter a new season here on the East Coast, I am reminded of all the new growth that is (always) possible. It’s a season of renewal and new life emerging from the earth. I catch myself in awe of the beauty of Spring and its bursting of colors. Perhaps because it seems earlier than usual, the trees and flowers look brighter. I find myself asking, “Was that magnolia always that pink?” And I have found myself befriending Spring. What or who else is there to befriend?
I want to emerge from the earth the way the flowers do – slowly, effortlessly, and with joy. To emerge, I must befriend myself. But how? In her book, I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, Dawna Markova speaks about personal renewal and living with purpose. She writes about entering the abyss and entering life with wholeheartedness. One of Markova’s paragraphs spoke powerfully to me:
So many of us are afraid of meeting ourselves, alone, without distraction. We have been taught to fashion an image of who we think we are supposed to be and show that to the world. Through the fear of knowing who we really are we sidestep our own destiny, which leaves us hungry in a famine of our own making. Each of us is here to give something that only we can offer, and when we avoid knowing ourselves, we end up living numb, passionless lives, disconnected from our soul’s true purpose. But when you have the courage to shape your life from the essence of who you are, you ignite, becoming truly alive. This requires letting go of everything that is inauthentic. But how can you know your truth unless you slow down, in your own quiet company?
How can I befriend myself like I am this Spring season?
Yours in friendship, Mary Anne
Tags: Awakening, Dawna Markova, I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, Listening, Spiritual Stories
Posted in Storytelling | No Comments »
As my partner and I listen for where our next ‘home’ is, I see this as an opportunity to listen to the vibration of the word. I explored the energy of the word home in my meditation.
