Immense Gratitude

8 June 2014 Dear friends, The title of this unscheduled email is 'Immense Gratitude' - as that is what I am feeling. Thank you to YOU, the person reading this, for the way you have supported me. Simply by choosing to stay on this mailing list (or reading this on Facebook or where ever else it may appear) - you are supporting me. Even if you receive the newsletters and don't always open and read them - that is fine too. Maybe one day you will open one and it will be just what you need to hear at that moment, as happens to me with all the wonderful writing I receive and do not have time to read for a while. Since completing my weekly newsletter/blog on each one of the fifty cards in the pack over the last year, I have returned to drawing one daily. I wrote a little about that in my monthly newsletter that most of you also receive. Over the last three days, even with vigorous shuffling and splitting and cutting of the pack of cards, this word 'Gratitude' has come out three times running. OK, I get it! A gentle reminder to make 'an attitude of gratitude' a part of my daily way of life. All too easy to slip into moans and groans and forget all my blessings. Yesterday an email popped into my in-box - and I am still beaming. Thank you so much to Fraser for taking time to write these words, and for permission to share them with you; "Dear Mary, This is not a polite little thank you note for your rediscovery cards, but a full-on raving fan letter! It has been such a positive experience using them in my journaling - affirming, insightful and fruitful.  They are a terrific resource. Aside from the benefit of using them they are delightful in their own right - beautifully produced and lovely to handle. I've taken to carrying them around in my bag in case I have a spare few minutes to sit and draw one out to reflect on or write about. As someone with a particular faith I have found that they dovetail very well my other practices of prayer and contemplation, and that often my writing blends these elements together to nourish and sustain my spirituality. So a big thank you for devising and creating them, and I hope they continue to be a blessing to all those who have acquired and use them. Best wishes, Fraser" Fraser was the first life coach I worked with - he was there with me through my first redundancy, helping by offering me a listening ear, a reflective and thoughtful response and tools for me to help myself. He is the reason I trained as a life coach and his book 'Why do I do this every day?' was a great inspiration. Thanks once again Fraser, and I am sure you are making a big difference to people in your new field of work. I will be writing more on the 'What next?' question that I took to the Conscious Writing Retreat with me. Some ideas have been evolving and becoming much more clear over the last two weeks. I will be building on the work of the last two years with the Dare to Blossom Rediscovery Cards, and exploring some new avenues as well. An image to share with you, at the end of a very special day yesterday of meditation, inspiration, writing and connection - not to mention gratitude - there was the most stunning sunset I've seen for a while. One of those where the colours spread out across the whole sky from west to east, in an ever-changing display of brilliance. In the west there was a clearance coming in and the sky was a bright turquoise at one stage, with the bank of clouds above me gradually darkening from yellow to orange, from red to purple. Au revoir for now, until the next time, go well and cultivate that attitude of gratitude, may it serve you as it is me. As always, please feel free to comment below with your thoughts and comments.  If you would like to own a set of cards to explore their power for yourself please visit the dedicated page. Thank you dear friends for visiting with me again this week and sharing my musings. Until next time, with love, Mary *if you have any difficulty accessing the 'blogspot' service, you can also read here on the Daring to Blossom website, or find 'Dare to Blossom Life Coaching' on Facebook.

Dare to Blossom Newsletter: June 2014

Reflections: Emerging

News: What Next?

Reflections: Emerging

This has been a very special time for me: the completion of my year of writing about each of the Dare to Blossom Rediscovery Cards feels like a milestone has been passed. As I mentioned in the final piece, on 'Celebration', there were other reasons that this time of year is significant for me, one being the anniversary of my cancer diagnosis.

Last weekend I participated in the long awaited 'Conscious Writing Retreat', led by Julia McCutchen at Glastonbury. 



I know I will be writing and sharing more about this experience over coming months. It was deeply powerful in a multitude of ways and will take some time to integrate. It was a true retreat: we stayed at the beautiful Abbey House, immediately next to and overlooking Glastonbury Abbey. All the major sites we might want to visit were in easy walking distance - the Labyrinth at St John's Church, the Chalice Well Gardens, and Glastonbury Tor itself.

The accommodation was basic and comfortable, with no television to distract, and although there was wifi, I chose to only use this for a brief look at email messages rather than Internet browsing.

I found I was hardly even drawn to read the books I had brought with me, preferring to spend my time in my own writing, journalling and meditation. It was a joy to be able to use my pack of Dare to Blossom Cards daily.

Some days I came back to the pack and drew a card several times. So much was happening that when I returned to my room for personal writing time I felt things had moved on and my further thoughts would be sparked by shuffling and drawing anther time.

On Sunday, the last full day, I drew 'Emerging'. I had arrived on Friday evening hoping that a big new 'next step' would become clear for me over the weekend. A new book, a course or a new project - what would it be? Instead I found myself taken back to the practice of 'small steps', of moving forward steadily and openly, seeing what arises with each new turn in the path.



So 'emerging' was a perfect card. At lunch time I shuffled the cards well, and out it came again: 'Emerging' - making me smile. Then before dinner, when the same happened, I laughed out loud. I could hardly say I hadn't got the message: allow my next steps to emerge gradually; to organically evolve rather than looking for a giant leap forward.

Julia has posted some of the group photographs taken on the last day, I hope this link will take you there. One of the intentions we were encouraged to set was to continue some of the practices on our return home - and I feel these photos are a great reminder of the very special connections we made as a group and as individuals.

So, although I had intended to wrote a lot more for you about the experience, this week I am taking Julia's advice to go gently with ourselves. I am ignoring my 'inner critic' and sending this off to you as it is, unpoilished and maybe incomplete. At the same time it is heartfelt and full of gratitude - to  Julia for putting together such an extraordinary experience; to everyone there for each being a special part of the whole (and that includes all the staff at Abbey House); and to you - for reading this and for being with me in my continuing journey.

For you: some suggestions for your journal or meditation reflections:
- What is emerging for you?
- You could journal, flow-write, paint or collage to explore...
- Are you being gentle with yourself and giving time to the process?
- Do you want to plan some actions, some small steps, to take you forward?

 

News: What Next?

If you have any ideas about what you would like a 'what next?' to be, please do share them with me, either by replying to this email or on the blog or Facebook pages.

My plans at present are for "Dare to Blossom at Home" events - where you host a three hour workshop in your home in return for a free place for yourself. At present these will be in Cornwall, if you would like to know more, just get in touch.

Would you like the weekly blog about the cards to continue? Now I have finished writing about a different one each week, I have returned to the 'normal' way of using them, shuffling well and drawing out a card each day. This is currently part of my morning practice. Would it be interesting if I wrote and shared a little about this?

Today's card is 'Surrender': I am surrendering to not knowing, to living the questions, to being with uncertainty and feeling comfortable with that feeling of future possibilities not yet being clear.

Thank you - for being my companion, for your support and comments, for sharing your suggestions and thoughts. 

As always, please feel free to comment below with your thoughts and comments. 

If you would like to own a set of cards to explore their power for yourself please visit the dedicated page.

Thank you dear friends for sharing time with me here.

Until next time,

with love,
Mary

* find 'Dare to Blossom Life Coaching' on Facebook.

Celebration

13 May 2014 This is card number fifty - the last one in the pack. It may seem that I have chosen to keep this word for the last one, but in reality it 'chose' itself. Last year, a few weeks after starting this journey to share my experience of reflecting on each card, I decided I should check that I was using a complete pack. The reason for this goes back to when I first designed the cards. At the beginning, in 2012, they were purely to use during a mew series of workshops. During the workshops we drew a card, and used the words and colours as prompts for some flow-writing and creative activities. My idea at the time was that people could, if they wished, take 'their' card away with them. Most people did this, so of course I ended up with some incomplete packs. Many people asked me if the cards were on sale so they could purchase their own set, so the following year I began offering them as a means to access your inner wisdom. So - hence the need to check the pack I was using, and I eventually established that there was one card missing even when I combined all the loose cards I had, and that was 'Celebration'. So that was it, I felt that was meant to be the final card. I do feel a sense of celebration and achievement at having stuck with it and kept up the practice of writing regularly about a card, and, even more significantly, of sending it out to you. Sending even when it felt raw and vulnerable to be exposing my inner thoughts. Inner thoughts that were not polished and edited, simply shared with you as an offering to perhaps be a companion to you. As I have mentioned here before, it has proved to be just when I felt most vulnerable that the words I shared were the most significant for some of you reading them. I have started writing this on Monday in preparation for sending it to you on Wednesday or Thursday. And today, Monday 12 May, is another day that I am able to celebrate, as I do my best to remember to do every fresh day. 12 May 1994, twenty years ago today, was the day that I received a diagnosis of cancer. So, I can celebrate today twenty years of life that I may not have had; and the beginning of my journey home, of rediscovery of my self, and of my wisdom within. Maybe I could say the journey begins with birth and ends with death, and I would also say, for me, that the last twenty years have been precious due to my awareness of how easily I could not have had this time. ----------------------------------------------- Joining you again today, Thursday to complete this to send to you, I am smiling at the challenges I have felt this week. Despite my best intentions, at times I have felt tired and grumpy, anything but happy and able to celebrate. And that is human and normal. Maybe I am feeling a slight sense of anti-climax: having completed this challenge - what next? I have yet to decide if I will continue the practice of a weekly blog/newsletter. You may remember that I have booked a place on the "Conscious Writing Retreat" over the May Bank Holiday weekend with Julia McCutchen. That came up with perfect timing and will be an opportunity to review how far I have come and renew my vision and inspiration for "what next?". All I can say right now is - watch this space. Returning to my celebrations: the colour of this card is a rich crimson red, perhaps a 'Christmas' colour, and well-suited to rejoicing and marking a big event. It also prompts me to think about celebrating small everyday wonders: waking up to a fresh new day; eating a simple breakfast of muesli and yogurt; going out into my garden and enjoying the flowers. The month of May here in Cornwall is so special, everything in nature is fresh and new. Here is a photo of a rhododendron I have in a container outside my garden office. This year it has more flowers than ever and they begin dark orange in the bud then open up into glorious shades of yellow. For me, the exuberant burst of colour is a perfect illustration for 'Celebration'. As always, please feel free to comment below with your thoughts and comments.  If you would like to own a set of cards to explore their power for yourself please visit the dedicated page. Thank you so much dear friends for sharing my musings.along this journey. Until next time, with love, Mary *if you have any difficulty accessing the 'blogspot' service, you can also read here on the Daring to Blossom website, or find 'Dare to Blossom Life Coaching' on Facebook.

Flexibility

7 May 2014 This card seemed to validate my decision to have a 'week off' sending the monthly newsletter last week. Allowing myself to be flexible. Sitting here writing to you I smile as I am feeling almost the opposite of flexible. Having spent most of the Bank Holiday weekend in the gardening 'jungle-bashing', clearing and tidying - I feel stiff and sore. However, there is also a lot of satisfaction in seeing how much better things look. I also took some time out for a walk in the bluebell woods at Lanhydrock. It is my intention to do this every year, but sometimes I miss the short season. This time the timing was just right. The walk goes along the River Fowey from Respryn Bridge - here is a photo of the light on the river as it flows to the sea.    I spent a while here just watching, and listening to, the river. The light was mesmerising - ever-changing as the water flowed. The ultimate expression of 'flexibility', literally going with the flow. At the same time the water seemed to have a strength and ancient power. The natural cycle of water from raindrops in the clouds, to streams flowing into rivers, down to the sea and then evaporating again up into the sky. Many people experienced all too strongly the power of water in all it's forms this winter in England with floods and storm damage, as have many people around the world. The ancient tree on the opposite bank fascinated me. Trees adapt and change all the time, but seem solid and fixed. Many have longer lives than human beings. I loved the shape of the branches against the sky, reaching outwards and upwards. After reflecting on all this and simply enjoying the peace of the moment I continued along the path until it crosses a footbridge and then walked up into the beech woods. The scene immediately changed to being surrounded by towering trunks with the bluebells starting to appear in the distance between them The contrast between the brilliant green of the new leaves and the purple-blue of the blossoms never fails to take my breath away. As you can imagine, I couldn't resist taking many photographs, here is another of my favourites. This weekend has been a time of variable weather meaning plenty of flexibility has also been needed in plans and arrangements - as is the way in any place with our sort of climate. 'Going with the flow' like the river has seemed the best way to be in this time. Sometimes it is necessary to be more like an immovable object, more like a boulder in the stream (though the boulder will eventually be worn away by the action of the water - but that is another meditation altogether.) And there may be a certain point beyond which even the branches of the tree cannot move in the wind: when the breeze becomes a gale and the gale becomes a storm - sometimes the tree cannot withstand the pressure and will fall. There were a number of recently fallen  trees along the way as I walked through the woods. Some seemed to have been old and rotten and thus less able to remain flexible. This piece of flow-writing has itself felt like watching the stream: I have been watching my thoughts and writing them here to share with you. Sometimes they have stalled as the water does coming to a boulder; at others they have felt confused and jumbled - with rather mixed metaphors perhaps - as the water looked as it swirls around on it's way downstream. At the same time I have not felt any particular attachment to those thoughts, or any need to make sense of them or make them 'fit' any particular story. They are just as they are, just a meditation of passing images. I have yet to mention the colour of the card - strangely, on my screen it appears just like the blue of the bluebells in my photos, even though the card itself on my desk is a slightly more pink shade of purple-blue. Either way, to me it feels a reflection and calm colour, an aide to a meditation. As always, please feel free to comment with your thoughts and comments.  If you would like to own a set of cards to explore their power for yourself, please visit the dedicated page. Thank you dear friends for visiting with me again this week and sharing my musings. Until next time, with love, Mary * find 'Dare to Blossom Life Coaching' on Facebook.

May 2014

May 2014

Welcome to the Dare to Blossom Newsletter

In this issue:

Reflections: Giving Thanks

Guest article: Reflection - Easter and New Life by Cate

News: Enterprising Women Conference with Alex Polizzi

Reflections: Giving Thanks

This has been a year of gratitude for me. Gratitude becoming a practice that I am more able to return to when things aren't seeming to go well. This evening, as I write this, I am grateful to Cate for submitting her piece as the first guest article. Starting from the simple actions of cooking eggs, she is led into thinking about her responses to life, creating a beautiful piece of flow-writing.(If you don't like eggs, or can't eat them, treat it as a beautiful metaphor.)

If you read these newsletters regularly you may recall that I suggested you might like to submit something, partly as a way for me to reduce my own potential load of writing monthly as well as the weekly Rediscovery Card pieces. It is only a 'potential load' as it has rarely felt that way, and I have two more cards to write about before completing my challenge to myself of writing about all fifty cards. I have yet to decide what happens next. More on that when I have completed the task.

The invitation remains open in any case, please do send in anything of your own writing you'd like to see included here. Provided I feel it is suitable for this place, I will be happy to include your writing.  

My gratitude list is now very long and I feel blessed that it is so. In this month of May I always give thanks when passing the 12 May, the anniversary of the day I was given the diagnosis of cancer. It will be particularly significant this 12 May as it is twenty years.

Last Sunday Dave and I visited a favourite spot - the Japanese Garden at St Mawgan. It is beautiful at any time of year, and particularly so in spring and autumn. Now the acers are in the first glory of new leaf, wonderful fresh colours in an amazing range of shades: greens from bright acid colours to softer olive greens; varigated leaves with pink and green together; and stunning bright pinks and reds. This photo captures just a hint of one peaceful scene.



I am full of gratitude to the people who created the beautiful garden and who tend it so that it looks completely natural.

Thank you also to each of you reading this: every one of you is dear and precious.

Guest article: Reflections - Easter and New Life by Cate

Outside in the garden, Spring is much in evidence, young green leaves are forming on the trees, apple blossom and early flowers are in bloom. Over the Easter weekend I found myself considering new life and the choices I make in regard to how I wish to live my life today. One morning as I was about to make my breakfast, I held a free range egg in my hand and considered the many ways I could choose to cook it.

I had taken a half dozen egg box out of the fridge. Cleverly designed it carefully holds and protects the eggs in transit over many miles and through changing hands to my home. From a farm and its hens to my local supermarket. Cool storage keeps the eggs fresh until they are required. I lifted the lid of the pale green, recycled cardboard box and carefully selected an egg of my choice. I studied its size, shape, delicate pastel-brown shade and the unique markings on its shell.  

Rarely do I have a boiled egg in the morning, that is something I like to have on a Sunday evening instead. I still make toasted ‘soldiers’ as my mum did when I was a child (and she continues to do so today). I have enjoyed making scrambled eggs for breakfast many times as it is quick and easy, as is a fried egg. However, I wanted to make a poached egg that morning. For this I need a bit more time and concentration.

To make a boiled egg, I pretty much know the result I will have. The hard shell defines the shape of the result. Timing is of the essence as I cannot see the inside cooking as the water bubbles and boils around it. The result, rarely a surprise, takes the form of a solid white, with the yolk held in the middle. If you are like me, cooking is timed to hopefully result in a nice soft, runny yolk to dip buttered toast into whilst hot, with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Scrambled eggs mean a complete change in the visible outcome and texture. Scrambling the egg combines the whites and the yolk as one, in a soft, fluffy, irregular shaped mixture. They also require some whisking or beating as part of the preparation and then regular stirring in a non stick pan until ready.

A fried egg is slightly different. As I break the shell and lower the egg into a frying pan, I can see the white of the egg, gradually clouding and then the yellow of the egg cooking. It obligingly sits there with little movement and waits until it is ready. I wanted to make a poached egg as I had a little more time to devote to my breakfast.

So, to the task in hand. I have aspired for some time to make the perfect poached egg. Not in a pre-shaped mould, but free form, in a pan of hot water. When I lived in Australia, a Sydney cafe brunch was not complete without a pair of beautifully poached eggs sitting on top of hot, toasted, crisp, golden brown, buttered Turkish bread or rye, with fresh or cooked spinach and tomatoes on the side. I miss that.

In recent years, I have set myself the task of becoming proficient in the art of poaching eggs and I am getting better at it. It has taken patience and practice as well as humility to ask friends for tips and help along the way. Unlike other recipes, I have not looked this up on the internet, I like the personal touch. I’ve learned not to strive for perfection in cooking or life, so this process has become more of an enjoyable experiment and lesson in observation. Making a poached egg is now something I don’t take too seriously, it is something I can be more light hearted and playful with.

As I went through the motions of deciding my approach, the preparation and cooking of my humble poached egg, I thought about how similar this method of cooking and process is to my life and the way I wish to live it at present.

With shallow water in a pan, the water comes to a simmer fairly quickly. I then hold the pan handle and swirl the water in a circular motion. In my life I don’t like the inner feeling of turbulence too much - anxiety, fear, or uncertainty, I’d prefer more stillness, but life is full of change and motion.

I then add vinegar - a spirit. This is needed to bind the egg, to hold it together. The motion of the water coupled with the vinegar prevents the egg from foaming up, all over the pan in a frothy bubbly mass. I then have to take the risk of cracking the egg shell and drop it carefully into the swirling hot water.

Before my eyes a beautiful rounded form emerges. The white folds around the yolk and I can observe the egg cooking, gently buffeted by the simmering. Sometimes the result is even up to Vogue Living standards - one of the glossiest of cookery magazines.

In the moment I made my poached egg this Easter, I saw before me the way I currently feel about my life. I have lived wanting security, stability, certainty - like a boiled egg. I can be scrambled at times, get in a muddle, mixed up and feel a bit beaten. I can take an easy path and sit there like a fried egg flat in the pan, without too much turbulence, being a bit predictable, or I can take a more risky and experimental path. The swirling motion of the water is like my ever changing life, if I remember the ever present spirit of life available to us all, which can truly hold me together sometimes, I can let life gently shape me to a beautiful, natural form.

Cate -  26th April 2014

News: Enterprising Women Conference with Alex Polizzi

If you are within reach of Wadebridge in Cornwall on 13 May or Buckfastleigh in Devon on 14 May, you may be interested in a chance to hear Alex Polizzi speak live. At each day those attending will be entered in a free draw to win a one-to-one business review with Alex (two chances at each venue). There are also workshops on a variety of subjects and plenty of time to meet other women in business. I'll at the Cornwall event as part of my role as an enterprise coach and trainer with Outset Cornwall, and it would be lovely to see you there. Full details and booking via the Enterprising Women website.

Thank you - for being my companion, for your support and comments, for sharing your suggestions and thoughts. 

If you are waiting for this weeks's Rediscovery Card piece - it may not arrive until next week.  I have not yet written it, and I may give myself a break and more time to consider and write to share with you. As I mentioned above, there are just two cards left of the fifty, and they will both be done before I set of for the 'Conscious Writing Retreat' with Julia McCutchen - perfect timing.

As always, please feel free to comment below with your thoughts and comments. 

If you would like to own a set of cards to explore their power for yourself please visit the dedicated page.

Thank you dear friends for sharing time with me here.

Until next time,

with love,
Mary

*if you have any difficulty accessing the 'blogspot' service, you can also read here on the Daring to Blossom website, or find 'Dare to Blossom Life Coaching' on Facebook.

Being

23 April 2014 A great  card to have this week when I've been having an Easter break, and able to really appreciate 'being' as well as doing. My challenge is to keep that awareness strong in the busy times. To be conscious of how I am being as well as what I am doing. Many of the qualities that are important to me in 'being' - such as love, compassion, grace - all too easily become yet another list of things I 'have to do.'. How can I choose how to be, when sometimes I feel I do not know who to be? It has taken me a long time to come home to myself enough to begin, again, to know. A few years ago a person senior to me where I worked (and who had interviewed me and influenced my appointment) said something that really rang an alarm bell for me. Something along the lines of 'Where has Mary gone?' After a redundancy (my second) and a lot of effort in job applications and interviews, I was in what felt like my 'dream job'. I'm not sure what happened then exactly, but maybe I was trying too hard to be exactly what I thought the company, and my colleagues, wanted me to be. In any case, various events shook my confidence badly. I felt as if all the aspects of my work I was good at had been demolished and shown to be false.  The comment 'Where has Mary gone?' was part of a process of rebuilding and recovering, remembering what I am good at and who I am. I hadn't realised how lost I had become, how disconnected from my own inner wisdom, from my true being. Each of us has this, our true self, our being that just is. Just is the essence of each of us. Just is the unique and amazing bright spark that only this one individual can bring to the world, and that can shine simply by being themselves. These events took place after I had already spent many years rediscovering and becoming more aware, and that 'crash' felt as if I had slipped all the way back to the bottom of the mountain again. I have often used the metaphor of the spiral path to comfort myself when I feel I am revisiting the same old issues, yet again. The thought that maybe I am at a higher level on the upward spiral, passing over the same things again but able to see them from a different perspective has been useful for me. One of my coaches, (I am usually working with someone for my own support and development) challenged me on this, with questions such as 'What if there is no mountain? What if there is no path? Nowhere you have to go, no one you have to be - what if you are already perfect, you need do nothing, just be?' By changing my thoughts about something, can I change my reality too? Recently I bought myself a very special pendant, a silver spiral with a tiny peridot stone in the centre. Looking at this now, even though it is a man-made three-dimensional solid piece of metal, I can visualise it as representing a continuous reality, a universe where there is no space, no time, all is one and we are all part of the whole. Each a part of the multi-coloured, magnificent world, not having to do anything, simply be, simply shine out as our true selves. Here is picture taken on the rich dark leaves of the plant growing in a pot outside my summerhouse study. I am finding it difficult to write about 'Being', and I am not sure if my words are making any sense at all. And, maybe that is not surprising, I am trying hard to 'do' something (writing at the moment, but it could be speaking, painting, drawing) to represent something that just is. 'Being' is just being, it needs no qualification or description. However to return to the beginning of my thoughts here - in that case, can I choose to be something positive: happy, rather than sad; assertive rather than aggressive? Or if sometimes I need to be sad (or angry or grumpy), can I be those things in a way that helps rather than destroys - for myself and others? Again I am tying myself in knots with words. The colour of this card, the rich luscious purple, feels whole. As if it is sufficient in itself. And rejoicing in being that which it is. Maybe that is something I can aim for - rejoicing in being, whatever that being encompasses at this particular moment? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am smiling at myself now. Having written that piece as 'flow writing' (without editing or self-censoring), I went back and started doing just that - thinking 'Oh, this isn't very good, not sure if it makes sense.' The purpose of sharing these thoughts has always been, for me, to be open about the process that I go through when I draw a card, and the thoughts and feelings that arise prompted by the word and the colour. So I am smiling at my impulse just now to start looking for good quotations, and to go back and edit - as that would have gone against that aim. How interesting that I have forgotten that now, after nearly fifty cards - though I know this has happened on other occasions. My wish is that by sharing my random thoughts, by simply being me, there may be some nuggets within that pique your interest in some way (even if to laugh at, or hopefully with, me!) As always, please feel free to comment below with your thoughts and comments.  If you would like to own a set of cards to explore their power for yourself please visit the dedicated page. Thank you dear friends for visiting with me again this week and sharing my musings. Until next time, with love, Mary *if you have any difficulty accessing the 'blogspot' service, you can also read and comment here on the Daring to Blossom website, or find 'Dare to Blossom Life Coaching' on Facebook.

Cherish

16 April 2014 Such a comforting card, 'Cherish' feels to me much like 'Gratitude', and also somehow softer, more gentle. A warm idea, cherishing those people and things already close to my heart. Feeling grateful, yes, and also feeling fondness, love, warmth. Here, in my cosy office/study, I am surrounded by cherished things. What makes them 'cherished'? I realise as I write that what makes them so are the memories attached. So, even if I did not have them any longer, I would still cherish them. A week or so ago, I had the delight of being asked to speak to a group of women in Cornwall, known as 'Wow - Magical Meetings for Women'. I had a 'sort of' plan for the hour I was to speak - which I find the best sort of plan - having an idea of some themes and then speaking from my heart. That morning as I collected things together to take with me to set the scene for demonstrating the Dare to Blossom Rediscovery Cards, I wasn't sure what to pick as a centrepiece. In my two glass-fronted bookcases I have a collection of cherished ornaments and gifts - and my eyes were drawn to a special piece that my late mother made. There is a picture below as it is hard to describe, my mother was an expert in embroidery techniques and she used this skill to make a number of items to sell as gifts and this is one of those. A beautiful beach pebble to which she has glued embroidered pieces that look a little like seaweed and sea anemones, maybe starfish even. Such a simple yet original idea - and a gift I cherished when she gave it to me, and even more now. Taking it with me that day felt as if she was there supporting me (and I am sure she was). The purple background colour of this card combined with 'Cherish' feels rich and sumptuous; luxurious and special. 'Cherishing' can also be a part of self-care and self-love: if I do not allow myself to feel cherished, by caring well for my body and soul, how can I have the energy and inner resources to cherish others? Now I am thinking of a more active feeling than that of enjoying a memento - where people are concerned cherishing for me means speaking out and acting. Showing those I care for in words and deeds that they are special to me, that they are appreciated and loved - and cherished - just as they are, for who they are, without the need to prove anything. As always, please feel free to comment below with your thoughts and comments.  If you would like to own a set of cards to explore their power for yourself please visit the dedicated page. Thank you dear friends for visiting with me again this week and sharing my musings. Until next time, with love, Mary Also find 'Dare to Blossom Life Coaching' on Face book.