The Circle is Unbroken

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Michelle with Sam and August

When was the last time you did something for the first time? I’m doing something each month I’ve never done before to honor that I am alive. Today I joined other humans since the Neolithic and practiced the ancient art of tattooing. I got a small circle tattoo.

My mother died a week ago today and I realized I never could have done this if she was still alive. She would have said, “Sugar, what’s next, wearing white after Labor Day, paper napkins? Are you buying a motorcycle and wearing leather?” Too late Mother. Well, I don’t wear white after Labor Day, for god sake, I’m not a savage. So, Mother, this one’s for you.

I chose the circle because of my boys, who also got circle tattoos. Years ago for my birthday they wrote the attached poem and gave me the pave diamond necklace I wear almost daily.

The Circle is Unbroken

THE CIRCLE

One of humankind’s oldest symbols,
first seen in the eye or the moon, and quickly transcribed on cave walls as an attempt to
communicate,
to bridge the gap between consciousness.
Then throughout history,
finding new shapes for the circle –
a halo, a marriage ring, a prayer wheel, Ouroboros –
yet always symbolizing the same thing;
the never-ending, Inclusion, wholeness, a cycle, infinity.
YOU ARE OUR CIRCLE
Always bridging our consciousness with your never-ending love
and inclusion;
always filling us and making us feel whole.
The circle, an infinite cycle, the love we always share.

Spiritual Girls Trip!

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Spiritual Girl Trip

We all have that one friend who is either on a trip, planning a trip, thinking about a trip or just getting back from a trip. That friend for me is Laurel Geise.

Laurel and I met in the summer of 2005 while checking emails in the business center at an airport hotel in Bangkok. Laurel, a Florida business executive, was the perfect balance of business meets Zen; she looked as if she would be equally comfortable in a boardroom or on a hike in the Himalayas. But it wasn’t until I heard her infectious laugh that I knew we would be lifelong friends. Her laughter starts from within and then travels to her eyes, which are the color of hot cocoa, sprinkled with tiny flecks of gold like mini marshmallows. Just being around her snickers and giggles is enough to transport me far far away from any worries I might have.

Over the years we have made an effort to travel to spiritually-based places like Tibet, Peru, Sedona, Katmandu, and Naples. Every time Laurel calls about our next great adventure, I get that tingly feeling that spreads to my brain right down to my fingers and toes. I need the buzz of the new, the thrill of the unknown, the seeking of new answers that push my limits. Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the mysterious.

Every spiritual trip we have taken has become a quest to discover who we truly are, what life is about, and why we are here. But nothing could have prepared me for our recent spiritual quest to Israel. “l’ai pas vu venir” – I didn’t see it coming. I was a religious study major in college yet I didn’t expect Israel to affect me so completely. So deeply. Even though so many have walked all the same steps in this Holy Land we made our own footprints. We entered paths where others have found meaning and even transcended; but in order to answer the question of our own lives, we had to show up and take our own steps. The only genuine safety in the world comes from risking oneself completely in order to become oneself more fully. Laurel and I did this.

I know I won’t ever be the same. This trip has cracked open something in me. I feel the opening up of an entire way of seeing and being present in the world. It’s not every day I get to slip behind temple doors, peek into ancient scenes, and see levels of the world that have timeless meanings and wild intelligence even amidst modern settings.

It’s good to be home, yet there is sadness and a longing I feel, having to wake up from the dream we shared. When I saw my lime green suitcase and Laurel’s black one coming out of the carousel at the end of our trip, I lost it. I sobbed and sobbed. And I cried on and off for days after. I know this was a physical release of a soul-filled experience.

Each journey we have shared has offered me a nugget of truth. In Israel, I discovered that the outward trips we have taken have lead me to an inward journey that has shown me how to bring more presence to my daily life, the ability to be more conscious, and permission to become uniquely and bizarrely myself.

I don’t know where our next girl’s trip will take us but I do know that I will always be ready for the next one with mi amiga del alma, a friend of my soul. Because in the end life is not about the destination or the journey, as so many have said. It’s about who walks with you and the friends you make along the way.

Have any questions? Feel free to contact me at michelle@michellecromer.com and sign up for your Power Color or visit me on Facebook at Michelle Cromer Creating a Meaningful Life.

The Power of Color

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Colorful office
Photo by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS
Colorful office
Photo by Jess Bailey Designs

When we enter a room or see an object for the first time, our minds register its color before any other detail. The colors our eyes can perceive are like words that form a subtle language of mood, energy, and insight. Color can exert a gentle effect on the mind and the body, influencing our dispositions and our physical health. Color has the ability to trigger our emotions, affect the way we think and act, and influence our attitudes. You unconsciously respond to the color of the walls in your home, your car, your clothing, and the food you eat based on your body’s natural reactions to certain colors. The consequences of the decision to paint a room or wear a specific article of clothing, therefore, go beyond aesthetics.

The colors you encounter throughout your day can make you feel happy or sad, invigorate you or drain your vitality, and even affect your work habits.

Red Office
Photo by Max Vakhtbovych

Throughout history, cultures spread over many different parts of the globe have attributed varying meanings to different colors. In China, blue is associated with immortality, while people in the Middle East view blue as a color of protection. There is also evidence that human beings respond to color in a very visceral way. Red excites us and inflames our passions. Too much red, however, can make us feel overstimulated and irritated. Pink tends to make people feel loved and protected but also can cause feelings of lethargy. Yellow represents joy or optimism and can energize you and help you think more clearly. Bright orange reduces depression and sadness. Blue and green are known to inspire peaceful feelings, and people are often able to concentrate better and work in rooms painted in soft blues and greens. The darker tones of both colors can make you feel serious and introspective.

Choose to surround yourself with the colors that you are attracted to and make you feel good, and you can create an environment that makes you feel nurtured, peaceful and uplifted.

Have any Feng Shui questions? Feel free to contact me at michelle@michellecromer.com and sign up for your Power Color or visit me on Facebook at Michelle Cromer Creating a Meaningful Life.

Balancing your Backyard with the Five Elements

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balancing your backyard with the five elements
Since your garden and your backyard are an extension of your home it is also important to make sure to balance these areas with the five elements. Here’s how:

Earth Element1. Earth Element: We all have a lot of earth in our backyards and gardens due to the soil and the colors of the earth and the shape of a square. This area always reminds me of the energy of the goddess Gaia, Mother Earth which is life itself, the very soil that sustains us. Every culture has a version of this goddess. The Greeks call her Gaia from the Greek word “ga” which means land in the ancient Greek language and is sometimes spelled with a “ge” which is where we derive the word geology and geography. I learned in Peru that the Incas called her Pacha Mama. This goddess is so old she predates writing.

2. Fire element: This element can be brought in with a fireplace or fire pit or with the color red, orange, or pink in flowers or the shape of a triangle.

balancing your backyard with the five elements3. Water Element: many of us have pools that represent water or you can bring in the color blue in flowers or furniture or the shape of curves.

 

4. Wood element: Often times we have outdoor furniture made of wood or we all seem to have lots of trees. The shape of wood is the rectangle which might be shutters or perhaps you can bring in the colors of wood, browns, and greens.

5. Metal Element: Round is the shape of wood which can be in tables or planters. I have metal statues in my backyard representing the material itself and metal can also be in the color white.

When we balance the energy in our backyards we also balance the chi and the yin and yang within ourselves.

Have any Feng Shui questions? Feel free to contact me at michelle@michellecromer.com and sign up for your Power Color or visit me on Facebook at Michelle Cromer Creating a Meaningful Life.

Living a Radically Balanced and Congruent Life

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Living a Radically Balanced and Congruent Life

At my first real job, there was a partner in the firm who was having an affair way before there was the Internet. The mistress would mail him letters and our receptionist would carefully open each letter, make copies for everyone in the office, distribute them in our mailboxes, put the letter back in the envelope, and deliver it to the cheating partner.
Should I have?

  1. Told the receptionist to stop this immediately.
  2. Tell the wife of the partner
  3. Make popcorn because this was a great novella!

Yes, stopping the behavior would have been the proper thing to do, but I chose “c” because why the hell not? I didn’t like the man. However, if this happened today, I would respond differently because living a balanced life means there are no lines separating your beliefs, your integrity, and your character.

For most of my life, I lived highly compartmentalized. I was one person when I was with my friends, a different person at work, and yet another person with my family. I didn’t even realize I was at least three different people on any given day, and none of them was me. They all contained fragments of me, hidden beneath my attempts to be something I was not. It’s this kind of fragmentation that chokes the spirit. It took me a long time to realize that even though a lot of people choose to live this way, I don’t have to.

When I wrote my first book, Exit Strategy; Thinking Outside the Box that was the only thing I did. I didn’t volunteer at the homeless shelter, I didn’t have dinner parties, or participate in social media. I wrote and edited and wrote and edited until it was done. My life was highly unbalanced, and it was extremely effective. However, during this highly unbalanced success, I continued to attempt to accomplish inner balance, meaning every thought, action, project, and dream, everything flowed together and in the same direction. All aspects of my life were in sync. The sense of purpose was startlingly clear. I realized then that when I’m living in complete congruence, complete alignment, and complete balance, no part of me is conflicting with any other part of me. There is no disagreement. No disturbance. No imitation.

Being Balanced is godly
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Being Balanced is godly.

Although simple to articulate, there is nothing simple or easy about becoming a balanced human being. Yet, accomplishing inner balance is the foundation of why we pursue a spiritual path. We cannot be truly healthy if we are out of alignment. We cannot be truly honest with others or ourselves if our head and heart exist as two separate forces within us. We cannot ever know what a fulfilled life is about if we are always compromising our intuition and inner guidance for fear of the consequences. We can never consider ourselves truly honest people if we live a life of continual compromise and self-betrayal.

What would it mean to live an inner-balanced life? Self-esteem would be rooted in personal integrity. Intuitive guidance would work in harmony with our intellectual and emotional resources. The field of life would be engaged on multiple levels, acknowledging the continual operation between the physical and mystical realms. Physical laws govern the physical life and mystical laws govern the soul’s journey. The connecting bridge is inner balance.

Of course, we’re not the same person in every situation all the time. We’re not binary, single-function amoebas. We manifest and express ourselves differently according to what is appropriate to the events surrounding us. That’s pretty natural. What is not natural is to change who we are; manipulating ourselves in order to fit some kind of mold of what is or isn’t right.

I strive every day for there to be no discernible difference between the person I am when I am working and when I am playing. Everything ideally is completely integrated between my heart, mind, body, and soul. No division between my purpose and my life path. My desires and dreams and my contribution to the world are one and the same. This is what it means to me to be completely and radically balanced.

Have any Feng Shui questions? Feel free to contact me at michelle@michellecromer.com and sign up for your Power Color or visit me on Facebook at Michelle Cromer Creating a Meaningful Life.

Michelle Cromer