Knowing …

Below is a spiritual meditation about knowing that struck a chord with me.  Here’s to more real knowing in this New Year for all!

Melody

If I knew you and you knew me,

and each of us could clearly see

By that inner light divine

the meaning of your heart and mine;

I’m sure that we would differ less

And clasp our hands in friendliness,

If you knew me, and I knew you

Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart

A Must Read: Callins’ first novel

A dear friend of mine and first-time author, Cindy Callins, has a novel hot off the press called Under the Windmills.  Check it out; I hear it is great.  I’m looking forward to the read.  Melody

 

 

Welcome 2012!

Whatever your resolutions or aspirations for this New Year may be, many blessings.  Over the holidays I’ve read several wonderful books, and have come along many great questions and quotes, like: ‘Is it possible that you can live your whole life and never meet the person living your life?’ (attribution unknown).  What a wonderful question to ask ourselves, and begin to ponder, at the start of this New Year.

Poet Mary Oliver expresses this thought in another way in a line from her poem “When I Am Among the Trees“.  While I may have shared this poem in an earlier blog, this particular line deserves repeating and resurfacing on this January 1: “I am so distant from the hope of myself“.

Here’s to a wonderful New Year in which we connect the hopes and dreams for ourselves with ourselves.

Happy New Year, Melody

Soapbox Sharing

Kimberlie Dykeman is an outstanding author (check out her website and great book called PURE SOAPBOX), television host, international spokesperson, producer, and speaker.  She recently sent me the following holiday toast called 2012 YOU. 

Happy Holidays, enjoy and salud!!

Hello, Melody! No doubt, you chalked 2011 up to another year of roller coasters, curve balls and reality checks! Funny, even though we may not be best of pals or done business together, we are indeed still connected in fellowship, so I pray that in this final month of December you are confettied with blessings beyond belief. Remember that this is the time to find joy and hope in your life and share it with others. To further understand the value of peace and bring its comfort to those in turmoil. To unwrap the love in your heart and express it to friend, family and stranger alike. To reflect, reenergize, and reboot the “2011 YOU” to emerge a brighter, bolder, better “2012 YOU”. Now, without further ado, my holiday toast to you: Rescue braver. Spend wiser. Shine brighter. Speak clearer. Follow closer. Breathe deeper. Commit firmer. Pray forever. Trust freer. Laugh fuller. Befriend gentler. Celebrate grander. Fly higher. Treat kinder. Donate larger. Sleep longer. Sing louder. Forgive quicker. Share richer. Plan simpler. Reply sooner. Kiss sweeter. Serve swifter. Stand taller. Hug tighter. Smile wider. Dance wilder. Live bolder. Act younger. Love deeper. May you hit the ground running with your hair on fire when the ball drops on the 1st! Cheers to our opportunities ahead and the promise of the New Year. I wish you and your family for a joy-filled, peaceful, healthy Christmas and Hanukah.

~ Kimberlie TV Host . Int’l Spokesperson . Producer . Author . Speaker . kd@kimberliedykeman.com . 310. 500. 9587 Kimberlie Dykeman & the SOAPBOX® brand

The Redbird Foundation

Recently I had the true privilege of attending an amazing women’s retreat led by author and international speaker Paula D’Arcy.  Paula is the author of numerous books and enlightenment tapes, including the 1996 book Gift of the Red Bird: The Story of a Divine Encounter.  Perhaps you’d want to check out her website entitled The Redbird Foundation.  I highly recommend her.

Many blessings and opportunities for sacred spaces like during a church women’s retreat.  -And Happy Thanksgiving this coming week.

Melody

May today …

A friend sent me the following poem, and I’d like to pass it on.

Saint Theresa’s Prayer

May today there be peace within.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be confident knowing you are a child of God.

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

World days

Today in my church, University United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas we celebrated World Communion Sunday.  Along those same lines, this coming Sunday, October 8, 2011, is World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. 

Seldom a week goes by that I don’t hear accolades about the role of hospice in end-of-life times.  For our family, hospice was and always will be a Godsend.  Perhaps the same is true for you.

Let us remember and celebrate all the tremendous hospice care professionals across our world as we look to World Hospice and Palliative Care Day.  In this organization’s web link, there is a tab to ‘tell your story’ which I hope you will consider given the power of stories to change peoples’ lives and give comfort to all by knowing we are not alone.

Melody

Gratitude for the privilege of laboring

On this Labor Day 2011, I find myself reflective, within a lens of wide and deep gratitude, for all those who work hard on a daily basis to serve others.  On a personal basis, I am grateful for my own clients, bosses, work colleagues, professional mentors, and many others.  From a Central Texas perspective, I am grateful to the fire fighters and emergency personnel who are working around-the-clock to eradicate several horrible wildfires burning out of control, in some cases, around the great cities of Austin and Bastrop and elsewhere.

In sum, I am grateful to work, for work, and for those who work alongside me.  For those looking for work across our country, I am especially thinking of you.

Many blessings to all on this Labor Day 2011.  Melody

Remembering Chris …

This weekend I have thought a lot of a dear friend’s son, Chris, who was killed in a tragic car accident on this weekend eight years ago.  -And I am reminded of how words from a simple hymn can provide some sense of comfort, both during a funeral, and these many years later.  This particular hymn, which we sang at Chris’s amazing service, is called the ‘Hymn of Promise’.  Perhaps these words will be of comfort to you at some point in time:

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
There’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity,
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

Same kind of different as me …

“A dangerous homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery.

An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel.

A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream.

A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it.

That’s a description of the book Same Kind of Different as Me, which I just finished reading.  It’s a another must-read: a tremendously powerful story about friendship, hope, new beginnings, survival and spirituality.

Check it out for yourself.

Melody