Gillian's Musings: 2014-01-05

Saturday 11 January 2014

To Smile or Not to Smile...

SMILE be your own best friend

DAY 11

Behind the Paper Smile

Lips stutter into a curve.

Pegged at the corners,

This brittle smile

Sticks to my teeth,

And clutches at my heart.

NO LIFE HERE THEN?

Just pure resignation.

Musings

Today I want to continue my exploration of Smiling. I am really snowed under at the moment. So I greeted the beautiful crisp winter's morning with a snarl rather than I smile. Turning the TV on, I then became fascinated by the guy being interviewed. As he spoke, his face hardly moved a muscle. His lips snapped back and forth with mechanical precision. Not much life there either?

Well at least I wasn't the only one struggling!!! So entranced was I that I then I decided to practise my own smile. Fortunately, hubby was sitting in the other room at the time. The result was the piece, Paper Smile, above. Not a happy smile!

My paper smile had no energy behind it, and certainly no joy. Just an obligation to get myself out there, whilst hiding my true feelings, in deep denial, 'behind the paper smile.'

The 'Pause and Smile' smile comes from a different space altogether. For one thing, you are saying 'Yes to Life' and you don't have to pretend to like it. Rather than denying your feelings, acknowledge them from the 'bottom of your heart'. Have some compassion for yourself. Give yourself permission to be you. Although you may still have a huge to do list, your attitude will have shifted altogether.

So today if I catch myself hiding behind the paper smile once again. I am going to stop, smile and give myself permission to be ME!

Friday 10 January 2014

Pause and Smile

Why pausing amid the life's hurly burly puts some of the Spirit back into your Life!

DAY TEN

Today's an angry day,

An 'I'd rather stay

Under the duvet kind of day'.

It snaps at my heels,

Whipping me into action,

Pulling me into

A space I'd rather not be.

But...

As the in-breath comes,

I pause

And smile,

At the little girl

Who masks her despair,

With a glued on smile

And her willingness to dance

To some-one else's tune,

Until now.

copyright Gillian Holland 2014

Musings

A lot of us grit our teeth and just get on with life.

The outside world puts so many demands on us, there's genuinely

little room to take good care of ourselves.

That's where the pause and smile come in. It completely alters the way your see yourself.

Gritting your teeth is a bit like pushing your way through treacle: hard, hard work.

When you pause and smile, yes, quite literally smile at yourself, you start seeing your

self in a completely new light. One that really lights up your life! The mere act of softening

your approach to YOU brings a few self-realisations along the way. These can really

transform your life.

Like the one I had this morning. Try it! Have a magical, light-filled day

Thursday 9 January 2014

Being

Why its so important to say YES to life!

DAY 9

I can see clearly now

How important it is

To say Yes to life,

And to life's magic.

Moment by moment

Out breath follows in breath

In breath follows out.

No effort, no struggle

Just Being

Me.

Musings

What a day yesterday was. I took myself off to see 'About Time' - the Richard Curtis film with Bill Nighy and Rachel Macadam, after realising I need some down time. It was the best decision in a long while, not only was it a wonderful tonic, but a film with a message just for me, and thousands upon thousands of people like me around the world.

Saying yes to life, means you listen to its promptings. Rather than letting your mind drift into the future, or the past come to that matter, you pay attention to what's going on around you, and how you are feeling in the moment. Then you take positive action. An action which honours the way you are feeling. And then the 'Universe' or Source energy will open doors for you.

Guess what the film was about? Living in the moment, and letting go of the past. Well of course,.I wept buckets and did some letting go of my own. I felt as if I really had been lead to watch it, and was so glad that I listened to my promptings.

As mediums, our work is all about helping people to let go of the past by providing evidence of our loved ones survival on the other side of life. I believe message giving is really healing enabling people to release their grief and live in the moment. It doesn't mean that our loved ones guides and helpers aren't still there supporting us; far from it, it does give us hope and inspiration to move forward. Knowing there's an after-life helps put some of the magic back into our lives.

Without giving too much away, there's a moment in the film when the leading man realises he has to stop dwelling on the past to live in the present. He also realises just how much of the present he's been missing by living his life on automatic pilot, especially as far as his children as concerned.

So today I am going to make every effort to live today moment by moment, to listen to the promptings and whispers that are life....and when we listen to life, we are open to its magic......AND THAT'S WHEN WE CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS.

If you have an experience of your own that you would like to share about being open to life's magic please post your comment here, or under this FB post.

Have a magical day everyone.

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Peace

DAY 8

Peace is the Pause

Between the in-breath

And the out-breath

The out

And the in

Gillian Holland 2014

Musings

I need a bit of a break today, hence this piece about peace.

But it was also important to give it shape, to take it beyond the written word into the sense.

I believe sensing is the canvas behind the word. The blank slate, if you like that, from which all else springs.

What I tried to show was my writing as a wave of inspiration following it's own natural ebb and flow.

copyright Gillian Holland 2013

Tuesday 7 January 2014

Land of my Fathers

DAY 7

I can see clearly now…

The Land of My Fathers calling me home.

Back to the Fens, to East Anglia,

Where land and water morph and meld

And life’s sweet mysteries dance in the air.....

Beyond word

Beyond definition

into the Silence

To affirm life’s magic and to release life’s pain.

To surrender to its shifting waters

bearing me through life’s twists and turns

Back to the place I know as home

Where I am free to be ME

I watched Neil Oliver’s excellent programme on Sacred Landscape last night and was taken into an altered state of consciousness akin to an ecstatic state. He talks about the sacred nature of the Fens and our ancestors response to it.

Monday 6 January 2014

I can see clearly now Day 6

DAY SIX

I Can See Clearly Now

I CAN see clearly now!

Finally!

I have been looking at the world

the wrong way round.

Death isn't a full stop;

An annihilation or

A crash into oblivion.

It's part of life's rich tapestry;

A stepping stone,

A celebration,

The promise of Spring.

And the melting of Jack Frost's callous icicles,

That have held my life

in suspended animation

Musing:

Sometimes words just flow through me but it's not until a second, third and sometimes fourth reading that they really hit me. And this one, if you pardon the pun, was a real 'eye opener', a real 'ah-ha' moment, (especially since I have an eye problem. Words are truly healing, no doubt about it. But when we get into the zone, allowing inspiration to flow effortlessly through, magic happens and that truly is the icing on the cake. Sometimes its part of the healing process. Today I learned, through this piece of writing, that we can all get in our own way, inhibiting the healing process.