She Let Go

/

A New Year Called 2023

Our world is organized into many cycles – timing, seasons, days, weeks and months and in January, we celebrate a calendar cycle, a new year called 2023.

Cycles are noted for their beginnings and endings.

In A Christmas Carol, The 11th Doctor commented with his usual sage advice:

Everything’s got to end sometime, otherwise, nothing would ever get started.

Now is our time for an ending.

A New Cycle

We’ve been writing here for 10 years and we are now cycling down that process. We’ve had periods of lots of writing, not much writing, and then bumping along the road with everyone else as we all attempted to manage the Covid pandemic.

Now, as we leave 2022 and enter 2023, it’s time to let go as we travel on to more life adventures.

No More Words

Sometimes, there comes a time when it feels like all the words have been said. As if there’s nothing new left to say. At a certain point, it doesn’t make sense to just keep repeating the words.

Silence sinks down. It’s not a dead silence; it’s filled with dynamism and movement, but not with words that are said ouloud.

Silence is alive in its potentiality of manifestation, yet it’s holding still for the moment. It’s right on the edge of a precipice of action, yet it’s as relaxed as if lying with eyes closed in a warm meadow in the valley.

Silence settles around us. We’re comfortable here. There’s simply nothing more to say.

And in that silence, here is a poem called She Let Go, by Reverend Safire Rose.

She Let Go

“Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of fear. She let go of the judgments.
She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.
She let go of the committee of indecision within her.
She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely,
without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a
book on how to let go… She didn’t search the scriptures.

She just let go.
She let go of all of the memories that held her back.
She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.
She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go.
She didn’t journal about it.
She didn’t write the projected date in her day-timer.
She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.
She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.

She just let go.
She didn’t analyse whether she should let go.
She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.
She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.
She didn’t call the prayer line.
She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.

No one was around when it happened.
There was no applause or congratulations.
No one thanked her or praised her.
No one noticed a thing.

Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.
There was no effort. There was no struggle.
It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad.
It was what it was, and it is just that.
In the space of letting go, she let it all be.
A small smile came over her face.
A light breeze blew through her.
And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.”

A poem called She Let Go read aloud with soft music underneath it.

Cycles Of Life

Life is filled with cycles of beginning and ending. This website will be archived as I take a sabbatical from public teaching of The Radiance Technique®.

The Radiant Nursing Facebook page will also be archived and remain accessible. Scroll through the photos for hundreds of memes, quotes and ideas for inspiration as well as the many images of the Sun for Happy Sunday posts.

New adventures are calling, and off we must go. It’s time to don a fedora and discover the world.

If you want, you’re welcome to visit me on a new website and blog: LeslieAnneliese.com. It will be under construction for awhile. Check back for when it opens.

Thank you for being here over the years and sharing it all with me. What a journey we’ve had and I’m filled with gratitude for you.

In the meantime…

Be Wild.

Be Free.

Shine On.

New Year 2022

/

Happy New Year!

We hope it will be a happy one, just as we have hoped every year since time immemorial. New Year’s celebrations are always filled with high hopes.

I write “time immemorial,” but we’ve only been celebrating the “new year” since Babylonian times, about 4,000 years ago. To us, as tiny humans, that seems like time immemorial, but you could ask the dinosaurs from millions of years ago and I don’t think they’d have much to say about the new year. But, I digress.

Back to our celebrations. Do you have some new year’s resolutions to mark this one-year journey around the sun? Read more books? Walk in nature on a regular basis? Reach out to friends and family more often?

As we clink our glasses, our celebratory cocktail has a touch of bitters in it, doesn’t it? It reminds us of all that was regretted, lost, or mourned in the past year.

The Virus And 2022

Will 2022 be the year that COVID begins to fade away? Everyone hopes so. When will the day come that the virus no longer dominates our news, activities and movement? It does cause one to pause and wonder whether we should be jet-setting all over the planet after all.

Perhaps we were never designed for that. Could it be that taking the slow-boat is a more natural way to move on this planet? Maybe a slower, more natural rhythm is what is ingrained in our DNA.

At The Portal Of Time

Time. We measure it, count it, divide it, and add it up. Sometimes we have too much, other times, too little. We cling to the past, or fret about the future. We think we know what time is. As if it were tangible.

In fact, time mostly exists in our minds, entangled in our thoughts.

There’s nothing wrong with the acknowledgment of the changing seasons and picking out dates that we celebrate on our man-made calendars. On the New Year, we celebrate a point that we call “last year” and rejoice at a point that we call “next year.” We might want to keep in our awareness that it’s all just one big flow of energy.

We’re always standing at a portal of time. In every minute we stand in the center of the present moment of consciousness and yet, the weight of our human lives often dims this realization.

Still, we sense it. We feel it. We almost see it. Just out of view, at the corner of our sight, it reminds us to look closer. Perhaps this year we will. This year, we won’t just stand in the gateway, we’ll step through to the other side.

Wherever You Go

Wherever you go, there you are. You start to realize that more deeply with each passing year.

In this manner, we share the world of the spider – wherever we go, we spin our own web. Whether our web is humble or glittering with jewels, it’s still created with our fantasies, illusions and deceptions.

Sure, we might change some different ornaments on our web depending on our location. A French croissant, a German beer, an American hamburger (webs are, after all, all about catching food), but it is still a web of our own making with all the sticky traps of the unawakened mind.

Changing the decorations on our web will not change the web itself. Once we recognize this self-made construction surrounding us, it helps us to break free. Our awareness expands and we become more clear about our reactions and conditioning. We still have a web, we need one to live, but it no longer defines us, limits us. It’s only a part of being on this planet, not the core of who we are.

New Year Wish

This last year, we didn’t publish many blog posts. Words seemed limiting, inadequate. However, words help us to communicate, so maybe we’ll talk a bit more in the year to come.

For now, as we usher in 2022, a heartfelt wish is captured in this illustration by Pamela Zagarenski.

“My wish for you... a holiday, a winter, a year, a life full of joy & peace.”
— Pamela Zagarenski

Let’s also add, may it be a year full of good health – with healing on all levels.

Happy New Year 2022.

Happy New Year 2021

/

Out With 2020

Wow. It has been a year. A year of challenge for everyone.

The pandemic burst into our lives, marched into all our dwelling places and made itself at home, settling into every room of the house, as if it would never leave.

Loss Moved In

There was a great deal of loss. Loss of friends, family, and animals. Loss of homes, jobs, and income. While we struggled under the weight of the pandemic, any type of loss seemed even more intense, heart-aching, harder to bear.

There was a loss of vacation travel. On a more somber side, there was a loss of travel to see loved ones, family and friends. We missed holidays. birthdays, births or deaths. We felt the loss of being close together, a hand shake, a kiss on the cheek, a long hug.

We are picking ourselves up now. Everyone holds out hope for an end in sight. Perhaps the vaccines along with community exposure will lift enough of us into a sort of herd immunity.

Silver Lining For Other Creatures

While we lived in lock-down, the planet breathed a sign of relief while it had a break from our incessant activity and pounding on the Earth. In nature reserves, birds were able to relax and have the security to build nests, lay eggs and hatch their young. People were not trampling on their nesting grounds.

It makes one wonder if we couldn’t allow our national parks and nature reserves to have a month or two each year without any of us stomping through them.

Less air pollution was markedly visible above the cities worldwide. Water quality improved. In Venice alone, the lack of cruise ships promoted cleaner water. Noise pollution decreased. While not everything was perfect, poaching increased during the pandemic, we could perhaps look at what was beneficial and see how we could mimic that in normal conditions.

When lockdowns become less and our activities ramp up, we might find that we have less time for meditation. Yet, in such a strong environment of loss, past wounds of loss can open again and become tender. It’s important to remember that the time spent in our meditation is what nurtures us in our world of activity, bringing us more balance and awareness.

A Blessing for The New Year

Let’s welcome a blessing for the new year. What is a blessing? The dictionary defines it as:

– the act or words of a person who blesses:
– a special favor, mercy or benefit:
– a favor or gift bestowed by God, the invoking of
God’s favor upon a person:
– praise devotion, worship, grace said before a meal:
– approval or good wishes.

Another fun fact regarding the definition of the word blessing – whenever animals gather in groups, they are identified with a collective noun, like a pride of lions, a gaggle of geese, or a swarm of bees.

If you should ever stumble upon a group of unicorns, they are formally named… a blessing of unicorns.

As we say goodbye to 2020, we offer this blessing – a poem by John O’Donahue. Beannacht is the Gaelic word for blessing and currach is the word for boat.

Beannacht, by John O’Donahue

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.


Be sure to take a few moments to listen to Mr. O’Donahue recite his poem. His voice and accent capture the wild, sea-whispering Celtic wind.

In With 2021

As we enter 2021, we lift our eyes to this new cycle and we’re filled with hope that this year will be softer and kinder. We invoke a well-known blessing of our own:

May the longtime Sun shine upon you and guide your way home.

Wishing you and yours a new year filled with healing and love. Stay safe. Stay healthy.

Happy New Year!

Happy Easter

/

It’s Easter Sunday

“The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is inside of you.”
— Joel Osteen
 

A New Dawn by John

It’s Not Outside Of You

Powerful words from Joel Osteen. He speaks of an active participation, your participation, not something unattainable floating in the sky out of reach. He calls to the resurrection, a renewal, within you.

Don’t be fooled be the world of outer appearances. It’s not outside of you, it’s inside you. You are not just a materialistic thing, you are the living, breathing experience of your life, your heart, your inner light.

Christianity points to a resurrection, a coming into the Light. You have the power to step into it.

It’s a journey, that’s for sure. And yet, it’s one that each of us can make. Indeed, some say it’s the destiny of all humans, no matter how long or how many lifetimes it takes them to get there.

It’s Inside You

Easter and its promise of greater light, the resurrection of our heart – we can relax into the rebirth that is offered to all of us. The light is within you.

Allow yourself some time to focus on this light, within and without, and share this holy day with Christians all around the world.

Easter is now and always.

Ring Out Wild Bells

/

Call Out To The Wild Sky

It’s time to say goodbye to 2019 and a big hello to our new year of 2020.

Ring Out, Wild Bells

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
   For those that here we see no more;
   Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
   And ancient forms of party strife;
   Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
   Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1850)

Happy New Year 2020

As we speed around the Sun of our solar system, another year has passed.. Whirling, stumbling, whisking ourselves into a froth as we count down, and then count up, another year, another decade.

We humans like to count things. We like to measure and and delineate our hours and days. It helps us to feel organized and to make sense of a wide world without borders that looms before us.

The cosmos whirs on without a thought of numbers or counting. What is a year to the universe? Does the universe count its cycles? Maybe it measures things in a universal breath. How long is a breath-in and a breath-out in the deep, dark vastness of outer space?

Inhale. Exhale.

The Light In Our Hearts

Alfred Lord Tennyson, coming from his Victorian background, rings in Christ who represents the light. Whatever our religion or spiritual beliefs, we keep the light burning bright in our hearts as we welcome a new year and move into winter.

The Winter Solstice has passed.

Even in the dead of winter the days are slowly growing longer, carrying us forward into spring.

A little more light each day.

Let that light warm your heart along the way.




Holy Saturday

/

We Wait In Stillness

We hold in the stillness of our breath and we wait.

It’s the Sabbath, Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter.

Mary, Mother of Jesus

The day of the crucifixion of Jesus took place on a Friday. The Sabbath would begin at sundown. On this weekly day of worship in the Jewish faith, they were forbidden to work from sundown of Friday, the beginning of Sabbath, until nightfall on Saturday, the end of Sabbath. Therefore, they wanted to procure the body of Jesus and place it in a tomb before the Sabbath started.

One of the symbols of Holy Saturday is the Pietà, a representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of her son.

When they took Jesus down from the cross, Mary, the mother of Jesus, held his broken body with love pouring forth from her heart. In spite of her decimating sorrow, Mary did not turn away. She tenderly held the precious son she had birthed into this physical world.

Could Mary know what was to come? She could only hold steady in her faith and love, and wait.

Frankincense And Myrrh

“Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews.
With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus.
Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen.
This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.”

They prepared his body for the tomb. The body was likely anointed with embalming oils – myrrh, to protect from decay and frankincense for fragrance. The same precious oils brought to the Jesus child by the Three Wise Men, foreshadowing this event.

“The aromatic perfumes and resins used in burials had a dual purpose. Perhaps the more obvious reason to use perfumes and aromatic resins is to mask the inevitable smell of decay.
The other purpose is related to the chemical properties of the oils, which slow the process of decay and protect the body from insect scavenging.”

Disciples Wait In Sorrow

As for the disciples of Jesus, they were in hiding. They were stunned, their teacher was dead. How could this be? Wasn’t he going to free them from Roman rule? What about all his teachings and healings? What would become of that?

How could they know they were waiting for a Resurrection?

Swallowed by sorrow and despair at the loss of their teacher, their beloved rabonni, especially under such harsh circumstances, they wept. Bitter tears washed through their souls.

Fear and anxiety also swept over them. Would the authorities arrest and kill them, too?

But. for this moment, Holy Saturday, there was nothing to be done outwardly. It was the Sabbath, a day of rest, work was not allowed.

They waited.

We Wait With Hearts Aflame

Whether we are religious or not, whether we’re Christian or not, we can participate in the symbolism of Holy Saturday. We build upon our awareness of process.

Jesus didn’t jump down from the cross, already resurrected, despite being mocked to do so as he was dying. It was a process that took physical time. Who knows how much inner time was required?

We live in a process in our every day lives. We walk through cycles of birth and death. Loved ones are with us, and then leave us. Seasons come and go, cycles begin and end. Within them all is a process of Holy Saturday, of holding and waiting.

We hold, but we’re not passively holding. Our hearts flutter in anticipation. We have the knowledge that a Resurrection is coming.

We wait for the flame to be lit.

We wait for the sun to rise.

We wait for the moment that we will walk free into the light.

We wait in Holy Saturday.

Happy New Year 2019

/

Hello To New Year 2019

Last year was a wild ride and it appears that the bumps in the road will continue.

As a new year rolls into view and we practice writing 2019, remember to listen to the quiet voice in the heart – even while everything and everyone around us runs at a frantic pace.

Take Time For You

Be sure to take time for the little things this new year. Take a break from social media, set down the smart phone and enjoy a walk among the trees.

Bake some bread or cookies. Make a thick stew. Read a book, one that you actually hold in your hands.

Take time to exercise and stretch, to listen to music, to nurture your joy.

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

In this rough-and-tumble world, even if it seems like it’s crumbling around you, look past the worldly troubles and focus on the light in your heart.

For students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), take time for a meditation with TRT® hands-on in Front Position #1, in the heart. Use of TRT® expands the radiant energy of your heart center. It supports a deepening of heart-filled wisdom. Listen to your heart as you decide which way to go.

Happy New Year!

“Let not your heart be troubled…” from The Bible, New Testament, John 14:1