Pieces

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As a family wedding approaches, I am aware that some people are angry about the past and aloof from those they associate with it. I have decided that their feelings have no power over me. This morning my daughter and I wrote this intention: “We stay in the present and simply enjoy the wedding experience.” That’s it.

Nancy’s book Simple Serenity contains parables and exercises to guide the reader to experience the spiritual gifts of patience, kindness, and forgiveness that love requires. Buy it on Amazon by searching for Nancy Oelklaus.

Perspective

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“Thank you for safety and service” was my prayer on the day after I had a flat tire.

The flat happened AT THE END OF a day of sightseeing with my friend Ash. It went flat while the car was parked in my garage.

When I discovered the flat tire, I called AAA and waited a couple of hours before someone came to remove the flat and put on the spare. I waited with my friend, on my terrace with its amazing view. Ash and I ate supper together.

The next morning I drove to the place where I bought the tire. While I had a “dirty chai” at a new coffee shop I’ve been wanting to try, the workers repaired my tire. An hour later, they put my refreshed tire back on the car, and I drove away.

Now I can tell this story two ways. Do you see? Either way, vibrations go out, and we tend to attract to us what we send out. That’s good to remember.

Rigor

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This Japanese maple was dying, one branch at a time. Finally I found someone who knew what to do to save it. He dug up its roots, which were intertwined, choking each other. He cut out a big root that was the worst culprit. He programmed irrigation to give it the right amount of water. This morning, when I walked out the door, this is what I saw. The tree actually has blooms among the new leaves! Sometimes, to save a tree—or a person—radical treatment is needed. Unless we get to the root of the problem, we experience the same hurt again—and again—and again. My specialty is getting to the root of the problem. One client said that I help people “optimize their lives.”

Gambel Quail

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After I finished my coaching call, I walked into the family room and looked out the glass wall to the terrace. For the first time—ever—I saw a male Gambel quail on top of the wall that encloses the terrace. Because it was unusual to see quail so close to the house, I looked up what quail symbolizes: I am protected and safe. Photo by Zach Pallister

You write or draw it: Have you had any unusual experiences with nature lately?

Pot of Coffee

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After years of making coffee one cup at a time, today, inspired by my neighbor, I brewed a whole pot—just for me. Unexpectedly, memories flooded over me—memories of my mom and my aunts brewing a pot of coffee after lunch and sitting around my grandmother’s round oak table to savor the cup and conversation. What flooded over me was the gratitude I had for these people who encouraged me, praised me, and let me know in myriad ways that I was loved.

All of that in a pot of coffee.

You write it: What is a pot of coffee to you?

Heart Meditation

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Here’s how I begin every meditation class at Village Yoga in Sedona: https://www.villageyogasedona.com/online-yoga-classes

Take three long, deep breaths. Inhale all the way to your navel and whoosh the breath out. Now place your hand over your heart. Realize that this heart started beating somewhere around the third week after your conception. You were a tiny mass of cells. A moment came when some of those cells started pulsating. Ever since that moment, your heart has been faithfully pumping blood and oxygen throughout your system, sustaining your life. So through your hand, to your heart, say “Thank you. Thank you for so faithfully sustaining my life.”

Because your heart has been with you since your very beginning, it knows everything. You have no secrets from your heart. It has a wisdom about you. So ask your heart now to guide you through this day.

Invisible Changes

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My bedroom has windows facing east and north. To the east are ancient volcanic hills; to the north Sedona’s famous red rock formations. My sight line is northeast, across a pond and beyond to Lee Mountain.

This view is my daily reminder of constancy and change. The hills are constant. But the position of the sun moves as the seasons change. And what causes this movement?

The rotation of the earth. I can’t see or feel the rotation, but I know it’s happening because of the changes I see through my windows.

Often, change is invisible. But if you look carefully, you see its result.

Energy

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The human system derives energy from four sources: Physical (eat, drink, exercise), mental (thinking, problem-solving), emotional (positive and negative, energizing and depleting), and spiritual (powerful, effortless, underutilized).

Do not confuse spiritual and religious. Most often, religion flows from mental and emotional energy.

In my coaching, I work to lessen mental and emotional energy and increase the spiritual, which gives more power for less effort with better results.

How do I do this? In three phases: awareness, acceptance, action.

What is your experience with these energies?

Strength from Horses

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Last week I participated in horse therapy, led by Belle Shook in Cottonwod, AZ. It wasn’t the first time I had experienced the sentient power of horses, but it was the most impactful. Horses sense our vibration—what we are wordlessly thinking and feeling—and they respond.

My greatest gift was the moment when the three horses lined up behind me. Overwhelmingly, a feeling came over me that I was safe—that they “had my back.” It was the first time I had experienced that feeling since my husband died. It was a void that I had not acknowledged.

Emotions are powerful. Maybe this is a good day to acknowledge what’s going on with you and look around for helpers.

You write it: Have you ever derived strength from horses? What was it like?

Why Am I Not Getting What I Truly Want?

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Please do go to my website, https://www.NancyOelklaus.com, and listen to the 5-minute recording entitled “Mirror Neurons.” Then read The Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto. These two sources provide the scientific basis for the adage that, from our thoughts and feelings, we create our own experiences, moment by moment. No one does anything “to us.” So, if you aren’t living the life you truly want, look within. Set an intention that IS what you truly want.

It might also help to participate in Serenity Meditation on Mondays at 12:00 noon MST. Register here at least one hour before the meditation begins: https://www.villageyogasedona.com/online-yoga-classes

Peace be with you.

Reconciliation

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In the preface to A Love Story, I wrote, “His mischievous sense of humor was intact, and I saw a familiar flicker of a smile. It was clean between us.”

It is a great blessing to have a relationship that is “clean.” But many of us have the other kind, in which resentments have been allowed to remain. That is why I recorded “Reconciliation” and posted it to my website as an audio tool. www.NancyOelklaus.com

If you would like to experience reconciliation, I offer these simple steps: Feel all the feelings. Decide how you want to be in this relationship. Say or write, from your heart, what you truly need to say. Begin your writing with, “What I truly need to say is. . . .”

Going through this process may be all you need to do—because, you see, the problem and the solution are within you.

You write it: With whom would you like to experience reconciliation? What is your next step?