October Sacred Essence

Hello dear women friends,

This month, with the Goddess conference looming, Jen has handed yours truly the Sacred Essence reigns. Here’s what happened since that momentous decision was taken…

I was recalling thoughts of holding a workshop on Abundance after being with some very driven, career-focused women last week. I then thought to myself, hmmm I wonder if that might be a good theme for our circle! I could use a little extra wealth, health and happiness this coming Summer as much as the next girl! At the same time, I remembered the fact that with Jen being in the creative flow of Goddess energy we were going to do a night with the Goddesses. Then She came to me….

This is Lakshmi! The gorgeous Hindu goddess of abundance.

And as I researched further, I discovered THIS is her month, in fact this Monday night is the eve of HER festival!

Here is some more about her…

Goddess Lakshmi means Good Luck to Hindus. The word 'Lakshmi' is derived from the Sanskrit word "Laksya", meaning 'aim' or 'goal', and she is the goddess of wealth and prosperity, both material and spiritual.

Lakshmi is the household goddess of most Hindu families, and a favourite of women. Although she is worshipped daily, the festive month of October is Lakshmi's special month. Lakshmi Puja is celebrated on the full moon night of Kojagari Purnima (this coming Tuesday 11/10).

And this from Doreen Virtue…

“Lakshmi is a beautiful and benevolent Hindu goddess who brings abundance to those who call upon her. Lakshmi’s connection to lotus flowers, elephants, and water represents her absolute faith in fertility and abundance available to everyone. She’s happy to bring supply to you, whether that means money, time, knowledge, or opportunity. Lakshmi works with Ganesh, the elephant headed deity who’s known as the “overcomer of obstacles”. Together, they’re an unstoppable team that works to help you release fear and accept abundance.”

So beautifully and so perfectly then, this month’s LUCKY circle will be titled:

Awakening Our Golden Seams of Abundance!

Could you do with a little extra good fortune in your life?

Come along and join us for some good fun and creative flow as we get our very own golden seams gleaming!

Sacred Essence Women's Circle

This MONDAY, 10^thOctober at 7pm til 9pm

Moonlight Prep Room - Silkwood School

Cost $20 (Come to 3 circles and your 4^th is FREE)

Bring along your yoga mat if you have one and a cushion if you like.

Please R.S.V.P. by Monday so we can arrange your materials for the arty festivities.

Looking forward to seeing you all for this lovely gathering!

Many blessings,
Melissa xx

P.S. Please forward this on to all your fellow goddess friends!

Up for some singing?

My Singing and Chanting circle is on tonight 6-7pm at

Spiritual Soul

Yoga and Massage Centre

Hollywell Rd

Biggera Waters

Just bring your voice and prepare to be uplifted in harmony!

New Project in Mindfulness

I have had a project glowing inside me like a little hot coal for quite a while now. It is glowing just that bit brighter now and has started to ignite into a beautiful flame. I can't contain it within me any longer and I just have to share it with you.

I am about to embark on a new project called Meditation Morning which I am planning on offering to those interested in my little community. During this hour or so, I plan to introduce people to mindfulness techniques which will help to relieve our stress, help us to BREATHE better, take better care of ourselves and learn to live

more fully in the now moment. This gift of presence will bring new quality into our lives by bringing to the forefront, greater personal choice throughout our daily lived experiencing. I truly believe this will enhance not only our own lives but those of our partners, children, friends and relatives as well!

To add momentum to my decision to get things started, I will be posting regular Mindful Moments with on the go tips and to let you know how we're all going with it!

Here goes!

Celebrating the close of Winter

It's circle time again over at Sacred Essence and we are shaking ourselves out and reaching out towards newness, warmth and colour of the dawning Spring. I'm happy to see the back of this Winter. It hasn't been an easy one with lots of coughs and sniffles. So I'm really pleased to be celebrating with FUN, Food and Felt-Making this circle.

If you can join us we'd love to see you this coming...

Monday 8th August, 7pm til 9pm

in the Moonlight Prep Room

Silkwood School

Shepherd Hill Lane, Mt Nathan

And if you can't come along, you can participate in our online task via our blog. Just check in after the event to see what's happening throughout the month. We'd love to have you join us!

Winter Spiral

This winter has brought with it lots of circling.

I have felt a bit like a buoy in the middle of a turbulent sea. With the force and energy of all that is going on around me, I topple over and go under and then I rebound back somehow ready to take the next surge. It's cold and uncomfortable and it FEELS isolating, despite the incessant company.

Meeting needs is my rapid concern. Mine are in there too somewhere.

Winter.

It's a challenging season for me. Round and around I go on this crazy ocean.... feeling a bit like the calm will never come!

Yet I know that eventually I will spiral into a fresh season of NEWNESS....when this winter will be done.

I can't rush it as much as I'd like to wind the clock along a bit some long, stuck days. Rather, I take note, in the moment, of how it all feels and how I am IN it and make a choice about how I would PREFER to be in it..... then do something about that.

What works? What feels BETTER?

How do I get to that better feeling?

This is all part of it actually. Writing about it. Drawing about it. Sharing and being witnessed IN it. These are the little saviours for me. A process of inquiring - unfurling and finding meaning in it all.... gaining hope and momentum for possibilities in a way forward and through. I am stronger and a bit more aware as I take the next few steps. That's good :)

My Spiritual Life

It's no surprise that I'm drawn to a spiritual life. I'm the daughter of a scientist/modern day theologian and a stay at home mother of five (can't get much more sacred than a life lived with children). I was raised amidst a large (no, huge) extended Catholic family and attended catholic school and church on weekends until my rebellious teens. Years later, I returned to teach in the primary school which was my own along with other fellow students who also became fellow teachers. I taught alongside some of the teachers that taught my siblings and myself and my Dad continues to play music in the same church I sang at as a young girl. Yet a Catholic I would call myself not. Despite all the familiar faces in all of the schools I taught at, bringing some degree of a sense of connection, I guess my spiritual calling has taken me much farther afield. I would now call my own spiritual journey a colourful and eclectic one. My mind is open, along with my heart. I like to explore and experience. It's not that I'm trying to find that one approach that fits, more that I have come to appreciate a variety of sacred viewpoints. I am learning that for me, it feels right to take what I need and appreciate from a range of sources, practices and ritual. I am learning that I can listen to my Inner voice and be led by that. I am thus in liquid process of an evolving faith. Where I find myself taken on this journey is to places of sacred comfort and unconditional love and kindness.

Inclusiveness has something to do with it too. I am a big believer in the idea that across all faiths and in all the searching hearts of this world, there remains one solid need. I sense one massive beating heart - a pulsing of the whole world's yearning for inner peace and contentment. And in answer to that call exists One, constant and true, pure source of LOVE. I believe that no matter how great our call for love, that there is always enough for us all - if only we can each find it. I think that's why I believe the relationship a mother has with her children is so divine, so spiritual in and of itself. A child's love for her/his mother is probably the closest tangible (in a physical life sense) thing to a relationship with our God/Goddess/Divine/Creator/Source/Spirit/Universe or whomever or whatever we would like to engage with. A child NEEDS this love. We all need it. How it may look and feel like - how it indeed manifests for each of us is unique, but in my mind, we're very much the same in this need for unconditional love.

So love truly felt (in all its lushness, surprise, excitement, fulfillment) and spiritual contentment are for me, one in the same thing. So with this in mind, I'm going to resist the urge to get frustrated at not getting enough "me time" or not being able to achieve something greater than what I can accomplish, and go and enjoy the rest of my weekend - caring for my sick five year old, nurturing my littlest one and lavishing my husband with random acts of kindness and LOVE with as much of myself as I can muster. And I *know* that it comes back to me reflected in the most perfect way. Of course, I also note that I have taken enough time for myself to come and reflect here too on why it is I do what I do; to take a breather; to do what I love; to write and to freely ponder my spiritual life on the go! Don't need church for that.

one woman two spirits

I have been inspired today over at Lavendilly - after reading my beautiful friend Jen's latest post on re-defining achievement. I think this is my all time favourite topic and one that we Mammas can help each other with.

We modern, well educated girls were brought up with a strong work ethic and a genuine achiever spirit within us. I have really strong memories of being encouraged to seek the best life has to offer. It was oh so important to achieve your best at school so that you could achieve a great further education....so that you could achieve a great job....so that you could achieve your career ambitions.....so that you could achieve personal and financial rewards..... so that you could one day be able to settle down and have a family! For me, it certainly was a high flying time, literally.

As a young, single woman I achieved many of my dreams - among them several academic achievements in film, education, yoga, creative arts and experiential therapies. I've enjoyed a rather colourful musical life in an array of rock bands and melodic, alternative duos and trios and performed solo across London. I travelled widely and experienced some of the most amazing nature power spots in the world from the incredible experience of the highest highs and lowest lows of Egypt to almost touch heaven in the Himalayas to the indescribable majesty of the fjordlands of Norway - to mention a few. I have held a variety of jobs from check-out chick to artist to nannying to singing to early years teaching to now leading singing and chanting circles and co-facilitating our Sacred Essence circles. And as for my spiritual journey, I have been transformed a few times over through the many beckonings of my soul to partake in the ancient arts as well as modern forms of self inquiry and 'inner work'.

I am proud of my achievements as a young woman and now I feel I have arrived where I really want to be...... because along with this achiever spirit to soar in the world (which never seemed truly satisfied), I also have this beautiful innate mother instinct which longs to retreat to the comfort of a safe and secure home, to nurture my precious babes as best I know how. It's a balancing act this motherhood/womanhood gig. One eye on our beloved ones and one on our beloved self quest! (As illustrated in the eyes of the mother in my painting above, Woman and Child, 2009.)

Torn is how I felt just this afternoon trying desperately to plant the limp potted plants into the (now not so new) garden bed while the children got louder inside demanding my attention. While my achiever spirit screamed within "I want to create a beautiful garden!", I looked down at my earth crusted fingers and hands and then into the yearning eyes of my littlest one, dropped the shovel and went about scrubbing my hands with vigour so that I could go to her.

As modern women and mothers, we embody this dual purpose every day, and it's hard to know how to juggle time between them. It's hard sometimes to be satisfied to be one at a time. For me it's definitely a test of patience. Then I realise, that sometimes deafening cry of the achiever spirit within me, that really doesn't like to be interrupted is actually being called to her greatest quest ever! All of the experiences and acquired skills of my past life as a single woman have been grooming me for my most important role. Like my friend Jen, I make the choice to be present to my children (though sometimes they might need to wait a minute or two).

Ah well.... the garden bed lies fertile......and she waits.

And my children, my truest legacy, and my Mother spirit call me to be better than ever.

Some days I don't know if I measure up to the challenge and I long for one path, but of course my children chose me for who I am... and I am... one woman with two spirits.

Finding Sacred Essence this holiday

I'm so loving that our women's circle is up and running again for 2011. We have a new website too which helps keep us all connected throughout the month until we meet again in May. You might like to see what we've been up to here.

Our first circle has taken us on the journey inward to reconnect with our Higher Selves.

We have done so through story, sharing/discussion, meditation, song, sacred ceremony and through creating our own crown - a lovely beaded wire head piece.

Our journey began with a wonderful story called Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady. Though our focus was on the theme of sovereignty - and specifically connecting to the Higher Self within, each of us took from the story what was just right for us. I'm a huge believer in the beautiful synchronicities that weave their way through our experiences and if we listen carefully enough and take enough notice, there is so much to be gained!

Over at Sacred Essence, I posted here and here about my experience after the circle of how I have learnt that it is through our relationships that we tap into a well of opportunity for connecting to our Higher Self voice if we just learn to tune into it. For me as always, it seems, this requires a slowing down and a process of mindfulness on what is happening in the moment, as it unfolds. It's getting easier with practice, but it's definitely something I have to keep plugging away at. In fact, it's literally a matter of plugging into a Greater Source of Divine LOVE (my...OUR Sacred Essence) in order to reconnect/refresh/reframe and re-act in a more harmonious way.

I've been practising it these past weeks of school holidays. We've been renovating the laundry, trying to keep up with child-centred activities to keep the boredom at bay and having my mother-in-law stay at the same time. It has certainly been an on-the-go, all emergent exercise in the art of mindfulness! Sometimes I have succeeded in keeping connected to my Higher Self (and my preferred way of Being) and at other times I've felt myself lose touch quite suddenly! I am really finding that what is working most for me is choosing JOY. As I choose the emotional high road for myself, everyone around me seems to benefit. I suppose it's living in that higher vibration that joy brings, which is certainly vastly different to the dull, clanging throb that frustration and a frayed temper brews if given half the chance.

So with that in mind, here are a few JOYOUS moments I have savoured these past few weeks...

I hope your Easter holidays has brought with it some Sacred Essence too!!

growing my heart

I'm back! .... finally!

I'm finding myself a new woman this year and life is abuzz with possibilities.

Largest in my life and most wonderful is my new role as mother of two. It wasn't until I read this in print very recently that I embodied this truth more mindfully. "Hmm" I thought, "Yes, that's definitely me now." After just shy of five years as a Mamma of one I got used to being a certain way. There seemed to be a lot more struggle in that somehow. Not sure why. It just seems now that with my second little one that my motherhood is now not only in full swing with a beautiful baby to love and nurture again, but also that I, the mother am now more confident, more connected and more relaxed in this privileged place. Why did I put it off for so long?! I guess part of me wondered if I could really do it - spread myself evenly between two precious souls, ....share my heart with another! But it's amazing how my heart has grown! And with this big, open, gleamingly happy heart, I embrace my place in this world right now more than ever. For once in my life I feel really really SATISFIED!

It doesn't matter that my new baby's birth wasn't what I had hoped it would be. It doesn't matter that I'm a bit pudgy still. It doesn't matter to me that I'm not getting to all my jobs in a day. It doesn't matter that the bathroom is still old and the kitchen is falling apart (okay well yes that annoys me sometimes), but what has been whispering to me each day isn't the usual obsession about how things should be, rather it's a quietness breathing within me... simply being. I'm realising that life is really all good. There are so many opportunities every single day for me to simply be in the moment with my girls. To enjoy their absolutely blissful smiles. They both have dimples afterall! Little exclamation marks of cheer on their soft little cheeks. Makes you just want to kiss them all day!

One of the benefits of having waited all this time for our second is that our first big girl is now at school! I'm so proud of the person she is becoming. We've had our obstacles and some separation anxiety but she is surprising me in ways that make me smile every day. And as I watch her grow up so fast, I'm so glad to have a new baby in my life again. I really feel as if this little one wants me all to herself through the day, just like her big sister did for those early years.

So with this newfound centredness I feel very grateful and somehow much more open to life's opportunities to love.