Monday’s Random Thought: Day After

Friends, clients, students, acquaintances and random folks send me pictures of hearts regularly now. So fun. This is gum found on a sidewalk that caused someone to think of me. Flattered. Of course. 

Often the morning after a holiday can be a let down. A feeling of Really, it’s over? can wash over you like the smell of rotten garbage. I don’t smell rotten garbage this morning and I am pretty sure I am not having a sugar slump from too much chocolate but there is this feeling. A full day of being with family, celebrating Easter in a way that honored all of our needs this year, I am grateful. I let go of expectations and I am actually feeling a little bummed it’s over. I am not ready to be back into the ordinary swing of things. The little moments of the weekend filled me to over flowing. Dying eggs together, making Easter breakfast as a family, laughing in the kitchen, my kids and their cousins hiding the candy filled plastic eggs this year for the adults to find. And I will always remember this as the year we chose to take naps and play softball in the park as a family instead of going to Sunday Mass. It was all good.

That can be the aftermath of a fun filled, satisfying holiday experience. The time goes so fast, it’s over in a blink. But, it’s really not over. The tulips and daffodils still hold life in their petals, the smell of hard boiled eggs fills my nose when I open the fridge. (Oh, the rotten garbage smell may be a little true!) The memories are fresh and my heart is full.  And that is the promise of Easter. Rebirth. Renewal. Fullness of life. This happens in the ordinary. New life can be found in the every day. Yesterday is not today but the gifts of yesterday can be brought into the regular routine of it all. There is joy in the routine. There is renewal in the business as usual you need only be open. Open and grateful to what awaits. Life is full even when we are engaged in the ordinary tasks of every day living. It’s how we choose to live that makes the difference.

I honor my feelings of being a little sad it is all over at the same time I embrace what is before me. (Lots of egg salad.)

Do you need to be gentle with yourself the day after a holiday? Do you need to remember that there is new life even in the ordinary business as usual?

Hi,  I’m Jenny Gwinn McGlothern, Certified Transformational Master Life Coach, Retreat Leader and Writer. As founder of my retreat business, Mama Needs A Refill, LLC, one way I know I fill my cup is by showing up to a blank page to write. Thank you for stopping by and reading my Random Monday Thoughts, because I will be honest that fills my cup too, knowing others are reading my filled page. Life is too short to blog about anything else unless it touches my heart. Please know I appreciate you joining me on this journey whether you visit every week since I began in 2008 or this is your first blog stop.

Interested in life or spiritual coaching or want to learn more about my retreats in Seattle, please find me on FaceBook, www.FaceBook.com/MamaNeedsARefill or visit my website: www.mamaneedsarefill.com)

Monday’s Random Thought: The Bud of Possibility

The calendar says spring has sprung. The blossoms in my yard knew this a few weeks ago. It is the tight buds on my Weeping Crab Apple tree that draw in my attention. It is not their full pink blossoms soon to adorn the tree it is the unwound bud of hope that has my heart. I have been watching the buds all over the neighborhood and it is the unopened ones that make me smile even more than the ones who have already opened up fully.

Hi,  I’m Jenny Gwinn McGlothern, Certified Transformational Master Life Coach, Retreat Leader and Writer. As founder of my retreat business, Mama Needs A Refill, LLC, one way I know I fill my cup is by showing up to a blank page to write. Thank you for stopping by and reading my Random Monday Thoughts, because I will be honest that fills my cup too, knowing others are reading my filled page. Life is too short to blog about anything else unless it touches my heart. Please know I appreciate you joining me on this journey whether you visit every week since I began in 2008 or this is your first blog stop.

Interested in life or spiritual coaching or want to learn more about my retreats in Seattle, please find me on FaceBook, www.FaceBook.com/MamaNeedsARefill or visit my website: www.mamaneedsarefill.com)

 

Monday’s Random Thought: Peace in the Chaos

With the intention of being all art deco and creative I purposefully spilled a cup of coffee on the counter for this shot. Oh, so daring, right?

Peace…it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart. – unknown

This message is on my fridge. The very spirit of its meaning, the thing I strive for, the very essence I work on daily. Many days I forget. Many days I remember. With practice I get there.  Sure some days I start all over like I have no idea of what I have learned before. Amnesia strikes hard. But then a miracle happens, I remember. Ahhh, peace that’s right, I tell myself, that’s the thing you desire. I am lovingly reminded that all doesn’t have to be still and quiet around me in order for me to be at peace. What’s inside is what matters. Peace doesn’t have to be tied up in a delicate ribbon. Peace is offered in many packages, sometimes loud, messy, unorderly ones. Peace. The thing I want to hold like a warm, soft baby in my arms.

When that baby cries I don’t have to say goodbye to peace. I can hold her and in her squirming, in the thick of her holler, I can be at peace. I can be connected. I can be whole. It’s a choice. I sometimes want to scream but I can choose to respond with the stillness for which I hunger. I can be quiet among the noise. As I trust, letting go of how it all looks, I can hold peace gently no matter the sound within, for that is where it must begin. There will always be outside noise even on the top of a mountain. I choose to breathe again, slowly. I choose to find stillness, faith, connection despite my surroundings. I must. For that is how my thirst will be quenched.

Hi,  I’m Jenny Gwinn McGlothern, Certified Transformational Master Life Coach, Retreat Leader and Writer. As founder of my retreat business, Mama Needs A Refill, LLC, one way I know I fill my cup is by showing up to a blank page to write. Thank you for stopping by and reading my Random Monday Thoughts, because I will be honest that fills my cup too, knowing others are reading my filled page. Life is too short to blog about anything else unless it touches my heart. Please know I appreciate you joining me on this journey whether you visit every week since I began in 2008 or this is your first blog stop.

Interested in life or spiritual coaching or want to learn more about my retreats in Seattle, please find me on FaceBook, www.FaceBook.com/MamaNeedsARefill or visit my website: www.mamaneedsarefill.com)

Monday’s Random Thought: Giving it Up

On one of my morning walks I discovered this leaf embedded in the cement, perhaps by wind and rain or someone’s feet who walk this path before me.

Lent. That season of reflection and preparation that runs 40 days until Easter. Half way there. I grew up Catholic where you gave something up during this season. Parents encouraged us to give up TV and candy while they tried their efforts at giving up alcohol, meat, eating between meals, sugar.

As an adult I too tried my efforts in the past of giving things up but it never brought me closer to God. It left me frustrated feeling like a failure. My reasons always self-focused, Oh, I can lose weight during Lent if I give up “sinful” foods. Years ago instead of focusing on “giving up” something I used the season of Lent to “take on” something. I took on meditating ten minutes every day, sitting in silence, saying something kind to others. These efforts brought me a lot closer to anything Divine than “giving up” ever has.

This Lenten Season I chose to walk that old school Catholic way proving you can take the girl out of Church, but you can’t take Church out of the girl. I  chose to give up something as well as take something on. (Drinking more water every day. And yes, peeing more this season in the process.)  It wasn’t alcohol, red meat, or sugar. I chose something that gets in the way of me living fully far more than a glass of wine, tacos or a chocolate chip cookie. And trust me a lot more challenging. (At least for me.)

Judgement. Self judgement is where I had to start before I could begin the journey of letting go of judgement of others. I have stumbled. I have succeeded. I have failed, I have begun again. I have become so much more aware of how critical, defeating judgement stands in the way of me loving fully. It blindly blocks any Divine Light from getting through. I feel lighter. I feel whole. I may never give it up completely for it has its positive place indeed. But I see the self defeating line it draws in my heart. I am able to catch myself now with practice and give it up on the spot, redirecting, reframing, letting go, taking a different path.

The path will more than likely take a lot longer than 40 days. With awareness and learning every step I am half way there and that is perfect. I am grateful to be half way there. No judgement for how long it takes. Only faith. Only trust. One step at a time.

Whether or not you observe Lent is there something you want to give up or take on that can lead you down your path of living life more fully, connected to all you are meant to be?

Hi,  I’m Jenny Gwinn McGlothern, Certified Transformational Master Life Coach, Retreat Leader and Writer. As founder of my retreat business, Mama Needs A Refill, LLC, one way I know I fill my cup is by showing up to a blank page to write. Thank you for stopping by and reading my Random Monday Thoughts, because I will be honest that fills my cup too, knowing others are reading my filled page. Life is too short to blog about anything else unless it touches my heart. Please know I appreciate you joining me on this journey whether you visit every week since I began in 2008 or this is your first blog stop.

Interested in life or spiritual coaching or want to learn more about my retreats in Seattle, please find me on FaceBook, www.FaceBook.com/MamaNeedsARefill or visit my website: www.mamaneedsarefill.com)