The natural gathering of fall hues of harvest I feel is behind us.  Winter is knocking on our doors.

I don’t feel like being cold.  This is always how I feel when the first cold snap hits.  Come March when we are still dealing with 30 degree days they will feel almost balmy. Right now they just feel cold.

Grey skies and bare trees do not inspire me the same way the colors of spring,summer and autumn do.  I instead find myself wanting to read, nestle, bake, nestle, drink hot tea nestle.

I feel the need to nestle. 

Words come differently into my mind, if I could take notes while in a warmth of hot shower, sleeping under mountains of blankets or while chopping vegetables for soup – you’d somehow benefit from those therapeutic fleeting word streams.  Ever find yourself brilliant in the shower only to find that exceptional brightness and clarity disappears the moment you dry off ?

I have also found myself, thanks to the ease of this new camera, thinking in shots, pictorial essays. Perhaps this too is a way of nesting, nestling in, finding the beauty and warmth somehow out of the chill ahead.

The picture below was taken in 2003 and  finds its way to my screensaver each fall.

Enjoy

I have a bit of history with woo-woo, zen like experiencies ranging from out of body, visiting entities, synchronicities, roaring visible energy and more.  For those not practiced in pause, the energy around you or energetic healing all of that may just sound plain weird. 

I understand.

Many of you know I’ve been in recovery. Partly from an ankle injury, to the car accident just weeks after. The car accident caused me to sprain my back and neck and have me loose the use of my right hand.  It wasn’t pretty

In addition, my emotional spirit was completely shaken with a divorce.  He left about the time of the accidents. Lovely, eh? A year ago I hit a bottom place,  an I lost me place that sometimes I still find myself wallowing in

Come this December I will celebrate the two year anniversary of these life altering events.  

I am working very hard to find my way to the other side of these challenges. 

In recent months I proudly added Jazzercize back to my activity regime. I Jazzercized for over 10 years before all this car accident busines. I rejoined because I finally felt that I could. I am totally loving it. I am doing the lite version with the local seniors. Yup my new crowd to hang out with are all in their 70′s. I think they are just wonderful!

I also recently took on a course in Mindful Meditation with Dr. Chris Johnson PsyD., my dear friend and woo-woo mentor. 

I shook things up a bit by taking a class on a Monday night. Those who know me, know I am deeply committed to routine and on Mondays I typically don’t like to venture out in the world. 

While all of it has been very positive I got myself out of the routine I had gotten comfortable in and got uncomfortable.
 
I addtitionally added homework to my already full schedule. Brilliant, eh??

The homework included practicing pause in a variety of meditative ways, attempting yoga and reading a fascinating book called Full Catastrophe Living by John Kabat-Zinn Ph.D.

How hard could that be?

I find the yoga challenging because of postitions that involve putting weight on my hand. The reading not a problem, Dr. Chris has a huge affection for stories and poetry and each of them she shares has been a gift.

The practicing of pause and doing meditations has been fascinating.

When the class began with about eight of us in all, I said outloud …this group has a nice vibe.

By the fifth class I stated how I was grateful for the collective energy of the room. I had experienced an out of body ”sitting “.  The last time that occurred for me was when I was pregnant with my children!!

Yesterday was our full day retreat.

We meditated on top of meditation, on top of meditation ALL DAY. Walking meditations, outside walking meditations, sittings, readings, more walking mediations, mindful silent lunching.

I have never experienced anything like this before. The impact for me of this layering of pause was electric! I was positively humming! Vibrating! I was surrounded by a moving core of white light. The light had a gentle roar. 

Needless to say my day was pretty peaceful and rejuvinating.

comfortable, everyone takes their shoes off…

natural beauty to focus on

glowing paper lantern

My beautiful Cleo is a black cat.

She’s absolutely everything Halloween.

She’s been with me since 1996 when we adopted her from a neighbor.  As the story goes she lives in our bathroom.  One might ask why.  Our bathroom is spacious.  It’s lovely actually and it’s especially lovely for a cat. 

The bathroom has a bright warm western exposure window that she can perch at.   Additionally she has a basket she can curl up in or a pillow up on a table she can snuggle on.  Seemingly that and the window are her favorite. 

She hangs out in the bathroom because we got a big female alpha dog and my Cleo doesn’t have her front claws. It wasn’t a good scenario.
 
What I love about my Cleo are her mink-minks or her expressions. She’s wonderfully vocal. I like that she looks right at you. Its as if she understands you!  I love how she wriggles around on the floor happy to see you. She’s never been a lap cat, although when she was a kitten she did tour each of our beds, keeping us company and purring into the night. I love that she didn’t just pick one of us, that she took turns. She was diplomatic!

I personally don’t mind having feline company in the bathroom. My guests though sometimes think it’s odd.

My favorite regal cleo pose.

Make it a booootastic Halloween!

Breathtaking View While On A Sunday Drive.

I am definitely experiencing a shift to autumn.

I see and feel it in many ways;  the glow of the sun, truly golden. The contrast of deliciously crisp air and the warmth of a fall afternoon. 

Looking forward to layers of clothing, slippers, hot tea, fleece, baking, soups, and bountiful harvest.

self on the vine

the vine is lush

contrast

autumn blues

K a r e n     H a n r a h a n
Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant
Mentoring YOU to Health Success
708.482.0678
 
Websites:
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Member of BNI – West Suburban BNI: “Chapter Mentor”
Member of West Suburban Women Entrepreneurs www.wswe.org
WSWE Board Member and Programming Chair