Mornings with Mary

Mornings with Mary

These pictures were taken early this morning
in my one Mary garden shrine.
It has been extremely hot here and the scent
of these angels' trumpets or moonflowers
are wonderfully pungent.

The Seventh Teaching from Ten Teachings, Wisdom from Mother Mary

by Gina Lake

Follow your Joy

You were given a compass,

and that compass is joy.

You are meant to in the direction

that brings joy, not in the direction 

that brings suffering. The egoic mind

promises you joy, but delivers only temporary

satisfaction and happiness.

Then the suffering that comes with feeling

you are never enough returns.

Most people do not follow their joy.

Instead, they follow the sense of not having

or not being good enough.  They allow the

sense of lack to drive them forward, seeking

here and there for fulfillment,

for what will fill the sense of lack created by

the human condition.

However, nothing that the mind suggests can fill that lack,

because the sense of lack was created by the same thing that

proposes to fix it.

The sense of lack can only be solved by

dropping out of the mind.  When you drop out of the

mind, you lose the sense that anything is lacking.

There never was anything lacking, and that is 

all you have ever had to see to feel full and

complete.

The sense of lack is so ingrained that most

people are unaware that it is there.

They just react to it as if it were true.

For most, this sense of lack, is a deeply held

belief.  It seems absolutely an

unquestionably true.

The sense of yourself and the sense of lack are both

manufactured by the mind.  They create the human condition

that is one of suffering.  You not only believe you are who you

think you are, but these thoughts about yourself tell you

that you are lacking and that your life - indeed, life

itself - is not good enough.

This unrelenting sense of lack interferes with the joy,

that is possible whenever you are willing to simply

be with whatever is showing up in your life.

The assumptions causes you to overlook the

happiness that is present at your core and ever

available in this simple and sweet present moment.

The happiness at your core is very subtle

unless you turn your attention to it and

allow yourself to experience it for more than 

a brief second.

When your attention is focused on fixing a perceived

problem, it is not available to notice the quiet

beauty, peace and joy that is already

present with you.

A wonderful Morning with Mary to you!

I changed the name to Mornings with Mary - with the

time difference and everyone's full schedules, anyone

can join in on any day.  The post stays up for the week -

just scroll down past my new posts.

Gloria was the only one who linked up last week - Gloria, I will

send you a full set of Mother Mary blessings seeds

and some of my brand new Archangel Michael Seeds!!

A blessed, joyful and art-filled week to you!

You are invited 

to walk with me through my Mary gardens

and to share your Mary inspiration

with us

Mondays with Mary

Here in the Southern tip of Africa we

are entering the balmy days of autumn
and I have been adding to one of my
many Mary gardens
The gorgeous purple flower
is an Angelico Serenity -
so fitting to grow around the
Mary statue

These pink beauties are all from the same
plant - they have a variety of pinks, lilac and
white flowers - all growing on the same shrub.

For ten weeks of Mondays with Mary

I am sharing extracts from the little book

by Gina Lake
Ten Teachings for One World : Wisdom from Mother Mary

The Sixth Teaching

To be with what is Real

What remains when thoughts and feelings are no longer believed,

when they no longer matter?  You are still here, right?

nothing really changed, and yet everything change,

because your relationship to life changed.

Before, your thoughts and feelings were seen as

primary and important;  now the fall into the

background, and the rest of life becomes

the foreground.

The problem with thoughts and feelings is that they do not

accurately reflect reality, and often they have no

connection whatsoever with reality,

although they pretend to.

In a sense, thoughts and feelings create a

parallel reality, one that contains

the you that you think of yourself as,

although that is all that that you is.

It is just ideas about you, mostly images 

and stories.

This parallel reality exists only in your own mind

(not even in other people's minds)

Imagine, for a moment, what it would be like if

someone who was angry at you disregarded that anger

or if you disregarded your anger.

How would that change relationships?

What can disturb the natural state of peace that

the evolved human is capable of?

Only a thought can ever disturb that peace.

Whatever you give your attention to becomes real to you.

Your awareness, which is peace, can experience life purely,

without the influence of the mind.

When the interfering, fearful mind is not heeded, it is possible to

discover the 'great peace that passeth all understanding'

Annie, you won last week's Mary Blessing Seeds!

Please send me your postal address and I will send them off to you.

And this week I am gifting another bag of Mary Blessing Seeds

You can read more about this beautiful idea

in my sidebar and if you search other posts about Blessing

Seeds.  Also have a look on my Etsy shop and read

some of the wonderful feedback I have received.

with love,

Hettienne

YOU ARE INVITED.

Mondays with Mary

is not a religious event -

it is a celebration of all

things Mary

in her many forms and aspects

in the many cultures and tradition

of our world.

Whatever this means to YOU.

and in whatever way you want to celebrate

the Divine World, both profane and sacred,

in your belief, in your creativity,

your religion,

your understanding and

in your ideas and expression.

A place of sharing and growth!

The philosopher Thomas Moore, in his wonderful works on Soul, 

really defines it for me. Everyone has a Soul and thus a religion of the Soul, 

and that may be found in the enchantment of everyday living, in art as a sacred undertaking, 

or it may be found in the practise and application of a holy book and its teachings.

And to spice things up,

I will offer a give away for all those

who do participate

anywhere in the world.

THE FIFTH TEACHING

from the book

Ten Teachings for One World : Wisdom from Mother Mary

Realize that your thoughts and feelings are not yours

What if your thoughts and feelings were not yours? What if by some

odd occurence, your thoughts and feelings were exchanged with someone

else's?

Would you still be who you are?

This is a profound question and worth pondering.

If you answered yes, what is it that remains if your thoughts

and feelings were no longer the same?

How much would this change your behaviour and how you see yourself?

Would you suddenly behave and see yourself differently?

The extent to which you tend to identify wit, believe and act out

your thoughts and feelings is the extent to which this thought

and feeling exchange would matter.

Or would it?

How different are your thoughts and feelings from other people's?

Don't all people have similar thoughts and feelings?

aren't you essentially more like other human beings than

different from them?

Do your thoughts and feelings make you unique or does something

else make you unique?

Everyone has the same needs, drives and desires :

for survival, food, water, sleep shelter,

security, safety, comfort, love, belonging,

happiness, peace and beauty.

All human beings also have similar feelings :

everyone feels fear, joy, love, guilt, anger, shame

jealousy, envy, hatred and greed.

So generally speaking, what makes people different is the extent to 

which they believe and act on their thoughts

and which thoughts they believe and act on.

The same is true of feelings : Your relationship to your feelings,

particularly to uncomfortable feelings, really matters.

Your relationship to your feelings determines whether you will

feel bad or not and how you will behave.

The feelings that you believe and focus on are strengthened

and become determining forces in your life,

while ones you brush off have little effect at all.

So again, what if your thoughts and feelings were not yours?

They are what give you the experience of being a human being,

while you are actually much more than a human being.

You are a spiritual being.

So, if your thoughts and feelings are not yours, then do they matter?

They seemed to matter because, after all, they were yours.

Aren't they what make you you?

Who are you if you are not these thoughts:

They are what make up the human you, but they 

are not what make up the real you.

Aren't you what is beyond all thoughts and feelings?

So, again, do your thoughts and feelings matter?

What if they do not?

Then what?

on what basis do you live life if not on the basis of your thoughts and feelings

But how to do this?

this brings to the sixth teaching ....... next week

and this week I am giving away a set of the Mother Mary Blessing

Seeds.  You can read about them and how they came to be

elsewhere on this blog and also on my Etsy shop - all links in the sidebar.

Have a great week and please leave a comment if you do link up.

with love

Hettienne

Mondays with Mary

a weekly blog post where the Mystery of Life is explored

as Divine;  where Love is the Muse
and her divine touch opens the heart and

brings breathtaking creatures forth!

Here, the Divine Mary, Mother of All,
creatrix, eternal nurturer, bringer of new life
and also witness to suffering and death, is my muse.

You may dip your quill into the glowing ink

and play along with your own musings or you
may ponder with me on the many stories
of Mary and her many names
through the length of time
and who is she today?
in our ordinary lives.

May these weekly posts bring some of the
lustre to your day that they bring to me
and my take on life!

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

 by any other name would smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare

I leave this post up for the week and

will announce the lucky winner of the week's

giveaway on the weekend - in time for the

next Mondays with Mary.

See below for this week's giveaway!

The Fourth Teaching

(extract from The teaching for one world : wisdom from Mother Mary by Gina Lake)

Accept Life as it is

It is impossible to love or feel at peace

unless you accept life as it is.

Non-acceptance closes the hart, which is the

doorway to love and peace.  There is no

other way but acceptance to open that door.

When you accept it, peace comes and

love flow once again.

This is a hard truth for the mind to swallow.

because the mind is designed to reject,

resist and desire something other

than the way life is.  This resistance is natural

and how you were built to respond to life.

Nevertheless, there is another way.

The mind's rejection of the way life is does

not have to be your internal experience - your experience of life.

There is another possibility.

Is the mind wise enough to know what is best for it?

Like a child, the mind does not know, but it thinks it knows.

Fortunately, you are inherently wise.

Something else within you knows the truth.

Look to that which is wise within you to determine

your stance toward life.  Your internal experience

is governed either by your or your mind.

Peace and love can be how you feel about life.

Find that which is within you that loves and is at

peace with life just as it is. 

That has always been awake and aware within you.

All the photographs were taken in my studio

with my new mannequin - and as you can see

I am ever so in love with it!!

This week's giveaway is a pouch of 

Mother Mary blessing seeds.

You can read more about them here

Please leave a comment if you sign up to participate

with love

Hettienne

Mondays with Mary

The Third Teaching

from Wisdom from Mother Mary by Gina Lake

Declare Your Deepest Desire

What do you really want?  This question is an

important one because the answer determines where your

energy, attention and resources go.  The answer

is therefore also likely to determine what

you will get.  Sometimes you are not even aware

of what you want, and other times that is all you

are aware of, and you suffer over it.

Following your desires provides you with

opportunities to taste what life has to offer,

and that is how it is meant to be.

So even your more superficial desires are not

a mistake;  they just are not what they pretend to be.

They are not actually important,

and they do not bring you the peace and happiness

you really want.

This is my third teaching.

Declare that you want peace and love.

Feel the depth and power of this desire

and let it fuel your will to give peace and love your attention.

Everyone's evolution eventually comes to this :

You realize that your deepest desire is for peace and love

and you declare this in your heart. 

Then life conspires to bring you exactly that.

You are love and peace.

These are some of the shrines I photographed during my trip

to Kildare, Ireland.  I was amazed to see a Mary statue 

in the middle of a traffic circle!

This week I am gifting one of these Parisian articulated paper dolls.

They are actually tags - you can clip them to a gift

or you can hang them in your studio or

on a mirror.

Be your own kind of Beautiful

or

Write your Story.

They both come with miniature wooden pegs and

a froth of hand dyed lace.

with love

 Hettienne

Mondays with Mary

Gloria you are the winner of the Mary Heart!!!

yay!! Please send your postal address and

I will send you a parcel.

(I use www.random.org to pick the winner

every week)

For Mondays with Mary I am sharing extracts

from a little book by Gina Lake

'Ten Teachings for One World : Wisdom from Mother Mary'

I found this book to be such a source of peace -

I hope it speaks to your heart as well.

The photographs were all taken in my garden

"The Second Teaching - Acknowledge the Hand of Grace

You are more precious than you realize.

There is no one else like you anywhere in the

universe.  Human beings are unique

and each of you is a unique human being...

There is nothing that is apart from the

Divine's care and consideration.

The Divine has a hand in even the smallest

aspect of creation.

It has a plan for each and everything it has

created,

and it guides the unfolding of this plan.

The hand of God within creation

is often called Grace.

 It can appear accidental, capricious or purposeless,

but always this hand moves with wisdom, love

and in accordance with a greater scheme.

This is not to say that terrible things do not happen

that are not the hand of God, for the hand of

humankind produces terrible results at times, and

this is allowed as part of the plan.

The second teaching is Acknowledge the hand of Grace in your life.

You see, you are never separate from that which created you,

but rather, you are that which created you. 

Just as a child is made from the DNA and physical material

of the parents, you are made from and of

the same love that is the motivating force within the Divine

and all of creation.

The life force and love that run you run everything,

for they are the very essence of God.

But herein lies the rub : you have been given free will ....

... and the ability to choose is Grace as well.

Your life has been designed perfectly to bring you exactly to 

point that you are right now, which is exactly

where you are meant to be.

You cannot make a mistake, for all so-called

mistakes still take you where Grace intends.

I invite you to participate in

Mondays with Mary - you can join in any day of this week.

I will announce the winner of the giveaway next Monday.

When you link up below, please leave a comment - sometimes

the link does not show up then I can find you.

This week I started playing with paperdolls

and yes, Paula, you are so right, they are very addictive.

I will post a few more here in the week -

one of these French ladies will be given to

a participant next Monday!

have a wonderful week!!
blessings
Hettienne

a frothy combination of paper, vintage doilie lace

and flowers and feathers!

See the tiny little black bird on her shoulder

whispering encouragement :

Write your Story

it says

She comes with a tag

and a miniature black peg

Her typewriter is separate

and her arms can move!

Join in on Mondays with Mary

and 

stand a chance to win

la journaliste or la photographe

or the ballerina or wait and see

on Monday when I line them up for you!

blessings

Hettienne

The First Teaching

Open and Receive

You only need to see

that love and guidance are already

present in every moment

for this to be your experience and your reality.

If you find this love and guidance

difficult to perceive,

then merely express your openness

to perceiving and receiving it.

Do not say 'I cant feel it'

because that is like saying

'I won't feel it'

and so you won't.

Instead,

say 'I am willing to feel it'

and then feeling it will become a reality.

True enjoyment of life is possible when you
open to the possibility that you are not a victim
of a cruel world but a willing participant
and an adventurer faced with all manner of challenges,
all of which can be overcome, if not actually,
then at least, internally.

Every challenge can be won with the proper
attitudinal shift, with a shift
in consciousness.
Every difficult can be used to make you stronger.

You can be what you truly are when you open
to that possibility ........
This is the first step and the first teaching.

 Ten Teachings for One World : Wisdom from Mother Mary by Gina Lake

Welcome to Mondays with Mary

and this week I am gifting one of these beautiful

Hearts of Mary -

a wooden handmade heart, ready to hang.

If you want to participate, link up below

and I and others will visit!

Have a wonderful week

blessings

Hettienne

For Mondays with Mary yesterday

I promised this shrine to a blogging friend

that participates in the hop!

Le Sanctuare - The Sanctuary

I put in four numbers (for the four participants)

into the random number generator

on random.org

and it gave me

NUMBER THREE

Kate Steeper

Congratulations Kate!! 

Please send me your postal address and

I will mail the shrine to you!

Please come back next Monday

and see what I am giving away then!

Maybe I will give a sneak preview later

this week!

Have a wonderful week

blessings

Hettienne

Please grab my Mondays with Mary badge

in the side margin

and play along every Monday!

The gracious Rebecca started Mornings with Mary

months ago, and it became one of my favourite

link ups.  However, due to her busy travel

schedule Mornings with Mary is no more.

But I am continuing with Mondays with Mary

and

YOU ARE INVITED.

And to spice things up,

I will offer a give away for all those

who do participate

anywhere in the world.

Mondays with Mary

is not a religious event -

it is a celebration of all

things Feminine and Divinely Feminine.

Whatever this means to YOU.

and in whatever way you want to celebrate

the Divine Feminine

in your belief, in your creativity,

in your ideas and expression

The philosopher Thomas Moore, in his wonderful works on Soul, 

really defines it for me. Everyone has a Soul and thus a religion of the Soul, 

and that may be found in the enchantment of everyday living, in art as a sacred undertaking, 

or it may be found in the practise and application of a holy book and its teachings.

So please grab the badge

and spread the word

and be back here on Monday

and I will reveal the give-away

Blessings

Hettienne