Live Serendipitously

I’VE FREQUENTLY HEARD THE PHRASE – “You can’t live in love and fear at the same time” . . . and although I know this to be true, the phrase itself has always remained abstract for me.

Until last week – when someone said to me, “The cells in your body cannot grow and be in survival mode at the same time” — it suddenly clicked.  Of course they can’t.

Survival mode or fear triggers the fight or flight response – it is constrictive, your muscles contract and your adrenalin pumps to your vital organs, and blood is diverted from its normal, natural flow.  You want to run, escape . . . you tighten and tense up.

Love on the other hand, is expansive, receptive and fluid . . . Love is soft and pliable, flexible and supple . . . It opens you up . . . it gets you to say “yes”. . . it gets you to open your arms and heart wide.

Love bends . . . Love sways – and most of all . . . Love stays.  It does not want to run away . . . It does not want to change things . . . It does not want to merely survive . . . It wants to thrive and flourish.  It does not hold its breath and wait . . . It reaches out, it breathes, it exhales and embraces.

So . . . love touches . . . It does not recoil as fear does.  And with that “healing touch,” it illuminates and dissolves the dark umbrella of fear . . . And “everything” – including the very cells in our body – grows and prospers in the light of that expansive “touch.” 

Happy Friday y’all (I’m still enjoying “Southern Speak.”)  I hope you Love this day, Love this week, Love this year . . . and Love your life.

 Live Serendipitously . . . and EnjOy,

 Madeleine
“The Serendipity Lady”
www.madeleinekay.com

 Visit my Serendipity Day page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/serendipityday

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 Copyright © 2011 by Madeleine Kay.  All Rights Reserved.

 All writings in this blog are copyrighted by Madeleine Kay.
You may post this blog on a website without written permission as long as it
 is printed or copied in its entirety and all links in it are live and this copyright section is included.  For all other uses, permission in writing must be obtained.

You may also link to this blog or give out links to it.

I discovered today how to speak “Southern.”  How to make that broad, wide-open, very soft “ah” sound when I say my “i.”  And when I said it this morning, just the mere sound of it made me smile and feel warm and good.

My friend’s husband is from Charleston and whenever I call and he answers, I ask how he is and he says, “Ahm fahne.  Just fahne” – and I smile every time. 

Well, this morning, while taking my dog Yoda for his morning walk, one of the gardeners here asked me – as he always does – how I am.  This morning however, I responded quite spontaneously, “Ahm fahne.  Just fahne.”  And then I realized – “I did it!  I spoke Southern!” – and was amazed at how good it felt.

I realized that the secret to “Southern Speak” is being relaxed so your jaw reposes in a wide smile.  I realized that northerners like me, tend to speak with their lips tight so their mouths open up and down rather than side to side as southerners do.  I realized the key to “Southern speak” is simply relaxing . . . not thinking too much or trying too hard – just doing.

 On the way home this morning, I became bold and even experimented with “Y’all” – a phrase I had tried unsuccessfully to master last year.  And this morning, I said it perfectly – “Y’all” . . . It just rolled off my tongue . . . no effort, no trying.

No effort.  No trying.  That’s the key – not trying too hard so you become tight and tense . . . but rather, doing what needs to be done and then . . . just relaxing into the thing.

This was especially significant for me this morning – since I have been wrestling with several things I have been pushing very hard for – putting so much effort into them that I have been tight and tense.  This morning, on my walk, I asked God, “The Force,” the Universe, my Higher Self – to show me what I need to do to get beyond this tightness, this tenseness. 

And then the gardener greeted me as he always does.  But this time, I responded with “Ahm fahne.  Just fahne” – and I knew I had my answer.  I had to stop trying so hard . . . and just let go. 

Have you ever noticed how when you are trying really hard to remember someone’s name or think of something, you can’t.  And then, when you let it go . . . it suddenly comes to you.  I was reminded of that this morning . . . the power of letting go.

Happy Weekend to y’all . . .    

Live  Serendipitously . . . Keep smiling . . . Relax . . . and just let go!

Madeleine
“The Serendipity Lady”
www.madeleinekay.com

 Visit my Serendipity Day page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/serendipityday

 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

 Copyright © 2011 by Madeleine Kay.  All Rights Reserved.

 All writings in this blog are copyrighted by Madeleine Kay.
You may post this blog on a website without written permission as long as it
 is printed or copied in its entirety and all links in it are live and this copyright section is included.  For all other uses, permission in writing must be obtained.
You may also link to this blog or give out links to it.

HAPPY SERENDIPITY DAY! . . . IT’S OFFICIAL!!

Serendipity Day is now an officially recognized annual event and special day to celebrate – nationally and worldwide! 

Chase’s Calendar of Events – the authoritative guide to special occurrences, holidays, anniversaries, celebrity birthdates, religious observances, sporting events, and more from around the world – has officially recognized, accepted and begun listing Serendipity Day in their annual Calendar of Events as a special day to celebrate.  Librarians, marketers, journalists, and other professionals have relied on Chase’s for more than 50 years to find out what’s going on and being celebrated on any day, week or year.    

Chase’s Calendar of Events is the most comprehensive and authoritative reference available on special events, worldwide holidays and festivals, civic observances, historic anniversaries, famous birthdays and much more.  The Los Angeles Times calls it – “The Bible of Special Occasions.”   

Serendipity Day is celebrated on August 18^th  and was celebrated unofficially worldwide for the first time in 2010.  This year’s celebration is the first official celebration of Serendipity Day . . . and you are invited to join in the inaugural official celebration tomorrow/today . . . on August 18^th. 

To help you celebrate Serendipity Day, I am offering a special discount on my book Living Serendipitously . . . keeping the wonder alive.  To receive this special Serendipity Day gift, go to . . . www.createspace.com/3476502 and type in promotion  code # W7VBWGXK when checking out.         

Happy Serendipity Day!

Making the World a Happier Place . . . One Person at a Time!

Live Serendipitously . . . and EnjOy,

 Madeleine
“The Serendipity Lady”

www.madeleinekay.com

To learn more about serendipity and how you can celebrate Serendipity Day . . . and to receive a free Serendipity Handbook, go to . . .   www.serendipitydayholiday.com

Visit my Serendipity Day Facebook page at www.facebook.com/serendipityday

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

 Copyright © 2011 by Madeleine Kay.  All Rights Reserved.

All writings in this blog are copyrighted by Madeleine Kay.
You may post this blog on a website without written permission as long as
it is printed or copied in its entirely and all links in it are live and this copyright section is included.  For all other uses, permission in writing must be obtained.

You may also link to this blog or give out links to it.

I was reminded once again, this morning, of the importance of going the extra distance, of stretching ourselves and our limits – the sheer joy of unimpeded curiosity and the amazing discoveries that being flexible invites into our lives.

I am in Ottawa now visiting a friend – and yesterday we walked along the trail beside the Rideau River.  This morning I walked alone and my friend went swimming instead.  When I arrived at the point to which we had walked yesterday, I was about to stop and turn around.

I don’t know about you, but I have all these little rituals I create for myself – one of which is always wanting to go at least a little beyond what I previously did.  So, I walked a drop further up to the beginning of a bend in the winding trail.  But instead of turning around as I planned to, my curiosity kicked in and said to me, “I wonder what’s beyond the bend…” (Those were my exact words to myself!!)

So I continued, and the vista opened up to a beautiful previously hidden view of the river . . . and to a large turtle that seemed to be stuck in a deep hole in the sand on the embankment, up near the sidewalk.   Fortunately, before I could interfere and try to help what appeared to be a turtle in distress, I was rewarded with the extraordinary experience of watching this large turtle giving birth . . . as she slowly lifted her body, dropped one egg each time, rested, swayed from side to side and then . . . as if to thank me and the woman who had come up and was standing beside me trying to capture the whole thing on camera as we patiently and lovingly cheered her on for at least fifteen minutes . . . the turtle lifted her body one last time high in the air and ever so slowly dropped her fourth egg – just for us . . . resulting in the only clear and complete picture of the entire process and indelibly etching in my psyche a magical moment of infinite beauty I will long remember.   

And that magical moment reminded me once again of the sheer joy and wonder of curiosity and my fascination with the thrill of the unknown . . . how the willingness to change one’s plan, route or routine; to stretch ourselves just a little beyond what we have already done . . . opens up for us previously unimagined new vistas and feeds and fosters that wonder within us that leads to more and more “Aha” and “Ha Ha” moments in our lives.  How the immense power of curiosity and opening up and responding to the mystery of “the unknown” invites wonder, joy and beauty into our lives . . . igniting a sense of excitement, adventure and discovery every single day. 

So . . . Live Serendipitously . . . and always keep the wonder alive!

Madeleine

“The Serendipity Lady”

www.madeleinekay.com

Visit my Serendipity Day page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/serendipityday

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Copyright © 2011 by Madeleine Kay.  All Rights Reserved.

All writings in this blog are copyrighted by Madeleine Kay.

You may post this blog on a website without written permission as long as it

is printed or copied in its entirety and all links in it are live and this copyright section is included.  For all other uses, permission in writing must be obtained.

You may also link to this blog or give out links to it.

As I look out my window at this spring’s dense foliage just across the street, I am reminded that being rich has more to do with ripeness and fullness than it does with money.  And . . . I have discovered, maturity does too.

Happily ensconced in the Peter Pan syndrome for years, I am now discovering that growing up, getting older and being mature are really a ripening – a fleshing out and filling up of who and what we are . . . a deliciously exciting process that I never imagined.

Contrary to what I thought when I was younger, maturing and getting older are not at all limiting; they are an expanding and a broadening.  They are not a drying up; they are a ripening and a succulence.  A succulence that comes from something more organic and whole than just hormones.  A succulence that comes from being integrated – whole, complete and substantial. 

When I was younger, I was afraid I would lose something if I grew up or “matured,” but I haven’t.  Instead, I have expanded and broadened and been enriched . . . and in that, I have become rich – overflowing with abundant life and a pregnant, almost pubescent richness that I never could have imagined, a richness and a fullness that make me feel  radiant, full and lush . . . like the thick undergrowth of a Tahitian island.   

I am discovering more and more that – like an orange when squeezed if ripe, what comes out of it is the sweetest, tastiest, most thirst-quenching juice – when life presses on you or me or “squeezes” us – if we are ripe – what will pour out of us is the sweetness and fullness and richness that is within us . . . bathing us in their sweet-scented aroma and continuous flow. 

So I invite all of you to join me and celebrate getting older, growing up and maturing – to learn, as I have been learning . . . to savor and enjoy the sweet nectar of maturity . . . and to live juicy.

Live Serendipitously . . . and always enjoy!

Madeleine  

“The Serendipity Lady”

www.madeleinekay.com

Visit my Serendipity Day page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/serendipityday

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Copyright © 2010 by Madeleine Kay.  All Rights Reserved.

All writings in this blog are copyrighted by Madeleine Kay. 

You may post this blog on a website without written permission as long as it is printed or copied in its entirety and all links in it are live and this copyright section is included.  For all other uses, permission in writing must be obtained.  You may also link to this blog or give out links to it.

Things are not always what they seem – which is an open invitation for us to delve deeper, care more, let go . . . and be non-judgmental.  I was reminded of this twice this morning while walking my dog Yoda (blond terrier mix like Benji – only cuter).

While waiting for Yoda during his intensive and thorough foray into every flower, bud and leaf on the bushes in front of us, I noticed what looked like a coin buried in the sand of the parking area in front of the cottages where these bushes were.  I bent down and picked up the dull bronze penny, cupped it in my hand since I had no pockets and walked home with Yoda . . . frequently looking at it as I ran my fingers over its slightly textured surface. 

When we got home, I put it down to wipe Yoda’s paws, and when I picked it up again – I noticed it was not a penny at all . . . it was a dime.

Now that may not seem “earth shattering” to you – but it was to me, for it is in the small, seemingly insignificant things and events of our lives that we grasp and come to understand the larger ones.

So, seeing that it was a dime (when I was so sure it was a penny) stopped me in my tracks and made me say “Wow!”  For even though I know things are not always what they seem and that appearances can sometimes be just that – appearances and not the underlying and larger reality – it was just such a direct, concrete, simple, “almost acting out” of this principle right before my eyes, that it stunned me.

You see, one of my neighbors, who has always been healthy, robust, agile and energetic,  is undergoing heavy duty chemotherapy and is rather lethargic, slumped over and sometimes drags his feet now.  I have been avoiding him, not knowing what to say or where to look (certainly not in his eyes) – and when I saw him slumped over as he was walking yesterday, I said to myself, “Oh, my God,” and thought the worst.

Well this morning, another neighbor mentioned him and verbalized this same response to his appearance, holding up a mirror to me of my own perhaps false, certainly unfair, assumptions.  This prompted me to tell her not to let appearances seem to be reality, for she will mirror that reality to our neighbor, who will see it in her eyes.

You see, my mother, (who is completely cured, healthy, healed and radiantly alive now) was deathly ill a few years ago, with three different cancers consecutively, plus a blood clot on the brain afterwards; and by all medical standards and prognoses, she should have been dead at least three times.  She looked like the perennial “walking death.”  She looked hollow, frail, ashen, and every other ghastly adjective you can think of – and everyone, including her doctor – gave her up for dead.  They avoided her and never looked at her, certainly not in the eye, just like I have been doing with my neighbor. 

But after my penny changed into a dime this morning, I now want to not only not avoid my sick neighbor, I want to go over to his house, look him straight in the eye and tell him not to care what other people think they see when they look at him; not to let that be his mirror – not to let that appear to be reality.  I want to tell him that reality is whatever we want it to be – that we create our own reality by our perceptions and often re-create reality by our vision and the strength of our will, just as my mother did.

I want to embrace him – with the love I have been withholding from him out of fear – and I want him to look into my eyes and see the mirror of a new reality . . . of everything that is possible, no matter what appearances seem to suggest.  I know this is so . . . because I learned it from my mother. 

Blessings to you all.  I hope you are enjoying the wonders of this glorious spring . . . with all its possibilities and its promise of new and exciting realities.

Live Serendipitously . . . and Enjoy!

Madeleine
“The Serendipity Lady”
www.madeleinekay.com

Visit my Serendipity Day page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/serendipityday

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Copyright © 2010 by Madeleine Kay.  All Rights Reserved.

All writings in this blog are copyrighted by Madeleine Kay.
You may post this blog on a website without written permission as long as it
 is printed or copied in its entirety and all links in it are live and this copyright section is included.  For all other uses, permission in writing must be obtained.
You may also link to this blog or give out links to it.

Hi Everyone,

    HAVE A TERRIFIC TUESDAY! 

         –      Spring is coming and it is time

                   for you to make whatever you want, come to life and grow …

               EnjOy the attached image of The Power of Serendipity!  

                   http://madeleinekaylive.com/Power_of_Serendipity.pdf

Live Serendipitously . . . and EnjOy!

                                                                              Madeleine Kay                                                                                                                    “The Serendipity Lady”                                                                    www.madeleinekay.com

Visit my Serendipity Day page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/serendipityday

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Copyright © 2010 by Madeleine Kay.  All Rights Reserved.

All writings in this blog are copyrighted by Madeleine Kay.                                        You may post this blog on a website without written permission as long as it              is printed or copied in its entirety and all links in it are live and this copyright section is included.  For all other uses, permission in writing must be obtained.
You may also link to this blog or give out links to it.

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday whose husband is working on a Rife Machine – a machine that heals diseases by using the appropriate frequency for that disease.  (To greatly simplify this . . . Since everything is energy, each disease has a frequency and this machine zaps it with that same frequency, kind of like Pac Man, or Ella Fitzgerald hitting a note and blasting the glass.)

While showering this morning, I was thinking about Love (aren’t we all?) and why and how love heals.  We’ve all heard that love heals.  Great minds throughout the ages have told us so; even the Bible extols the virtues and power of love. And most of us have heard that love heals because of its high frequency.  Since everything in the universe is energy, including us, as again, great minds and popular thinkers from Einstein (the penultimate metaphysical physicist) to the ever popular Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra have told us, then the energy of love – its high frequency – heals.  I always thought I got it.

But this morning, in the shower, thinking about the Rife Machine – I really got it.  And I am so excited about getting it, that I had to share it with you, in case any of you, like me, always thought you got it before – but somehow the “getting it” got stuck in your minds and was therefore, limited and small.

Imagine pages and pages – an entire loose leaf notebook filled with pages listing every disease, ailment and malady known to man and their corresponding frequencies.  This is what my friend showed me yesterday.  Then imagine Love – as not only the highest frequency, but the most inclusive – the frequency that includes all the others!  Yeah – now do you get it?!  The entire notebook gets reduced to one page . . . one sentence . . . one word!

So – it is imperative, literally a matter of life and death, that we love life; for that love is what creates, sustains and supports our radiant health – what Friedrich Nietzsche calls “Great Healthiness.”  So – Love, Love, Love – Love the work you do; Love where you live; Love your friends, your family, your spouse, lover or significant other; Love the air you breathe, the blue sky; and Love the lone bright yellow day lily growing along the side of the road.

Love the life you live — and live the life you love.  LIVE SERENDIPITOUSLY . . . and always keep the wonder alive, for that is literally what keeps you alive.

EnjOy,

Madeleine Kay
“The Serendipity Lady”
www.madeleinekay.com

 Visit my Serendipity Day Facebook page at www.facebook.com/serendipityday

 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

 Copyright © 2011 by Madeleine Kay.  All Rights Reserved.

 All writings in this blog are copyrighted by Madeleine Kay.
You may post this blog on a website without written permission as long as
it is printed or copied in its entirety and all links in it are live and this copyright section is included.  For all other uses, permission in writing must be obtained.
You may also link to this blog or give out links to it.

Hi Everyone . . . Happy Friday,

Spring is finally rearing its head here . . . and it feels delightfully, delectably, delicious after such a cold, snowy winter!  I hope you are enjoying it wherever you are too!

Usually, I write you on a wide variety of subjects . . . always unexpected and usually arising quite serendipitously.

This morning, while walking my dog Yoda (a blonde Tibetan Terrier Spaniel mix) I found myself thinking a lot about the Living Serendipitously Retreat I would love to put together . . . and my mind just kept going back to the very first chapter – I Like Myself – in my book, Living Serendipitously . . . keeping the wonder alive.

Quite spontaneously as I was walking, I began reciting a litany of all the things I like about myself. 

I like the fact that I am tall.  When I was growing up, I wished I were shorter.  I felt gangly and awkward and would have liked to be shorter and more petite.

I like the fact that I am slender.  As a child, I was painfully thin at a time when Marilyn Monroe and buxom curvy women were all the rage . . . and I wished I were more voluptuous.

I like the fact that my skin is dark and my complexion olive.  Growing up I felt it was unfeminine and unattractive.  Now I feel it is sexy and alluring.

I like the fact that I think and experience life associatively, rather than linearly.  Although it makes life more complex, it also makes it so much richer.

Actually, once I started, I found I could go on and on about the things I like about myself . . . which is nice.  I realized most of us could probably go on and on about the things we don’t like about ourselves, the things we are not happy with . . . but would often be hard pressed or have to think a lot to come up with what we do like about ourselves.  I realized that perhaps it is just a matter of shifting our focus slightly . . . and just starting unabashedly and quite spontaneously.   

As I kept listing and spouting out things that I like about myself, I felt myself getting really excited . . . almost ready to burst out in song.  I practically shouted out, wanting everyone to hear . . . “And the thing I like MOST about myself is my enthusiasm!”  Yes, I like the fact that I do get excited about things – no matter how big or how small . . .  things excite me.  But I don’t get stuck on that thing because there is always another and then another and yet another thing to get excited about . . . making my life continually ripe with possibilities for plucking, enjoying, relishing, savoring and pursuing . . . and just experiencing and luxuriating in . . . even sometimes, if just for the moment.  My enthusiasm makes my life rich in its immediacy and its continuous “NOW” moments that are rich and ripe and succulent.  Yes . . . I like that . . .

So I invite you all to say the things you like about yourself.  Don’t think about it . . . Just start saying them, preferably while you are doing a simple activity that you enjoy – like walking.  Just begin and say “I like”. . . and then let it flow.  You will be amazed at how easy it is and how much you find that you do like about yourself and how much fun it is.    

And then . . . after you say a bunch of things that you like about yourself, say, “And  the thing I like MOST about “myself is . . .”  and see how good you feel when you say it.  Say it with enthusiasm.  Say it with gusto.  Say it with sass.  Say it like a little kid.  Say it like you mean it and really want people to hear you and know it. 

And then . . . just luxuriate in the sincere, unabashed compliment you just gave yourself.

EnjOy . . . and Remember to Live Serendipitously!

Madeleine Kay
“The Serendipity Lady”
www.madeleinekay.com  

Visit my Serendipity Day Facebook page at www.facebook.com/serendipityday

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Copyright © 2011 by Madeleine Kay.  All Rights Reserved.

All writings in this blog are copyrighted by Madeleine Kay. 
You may post this blog on a website without written permission as long as it 
is printed or copied in its entirety and all links in it are live and this copyright section is included.  For all other uses, permission in writing must be obtained.  You
may also link to this blog or give out links to it.