Meri's Musings

Too many little girls are taught to be nice to color inside the lines to squelch their anger to put others first always. But wholeness comes from integrating light and shadow. Anger signals boundary violations and the need to teach others  what is acceptable and what won't be tolerated. Putting others first all the damn time just makes us feel depleted  taken for granted and unimportant except as a functionary  for others. Be your WHOLE quirky beautiful self not some truncated, socially prescribed version of yourself.

Coach-consciousness seems to be nudging me in the direction of posts  with a transformational message. So if you're looking for sweetness and light as you meander through blog posts today, I'm inviting you to move on. . . . because this post is about diving deep letting the light shine through the cracks about abiding in a place of darkness and learning the lessons it holds. Not a topic for the faint of heart. Yesterday, I talked about  accepting what's true and finding empowering questions that move you beyond obsessing over why's (when the why questions are  a form of resistance to what is)  When we find ourselves in a dark place, a place of heartbreak and loss, a place in which we seem to be in some kind  of suspended animation while the outside world spins dizzily, one of the most important questions may be "How can I find a space of peace in the midst of this darkness?" "A Candle to Lig...

Be unabashedly unreservedly unapologetically the YOU you were meant to be. Carbon copies are decidedly outdated.

What a desire!   To live in peace with that word : Myself.   Sylvia Ashton-Warner

Even the most unartistic among us are makers of masks. "Carnivale" copyright 2005 Meri Arnett-Kremian. Because we want to hide ourselves from others or because we don't recognize our own truth, we create the impression that we are stronger or weaker than we truly are. We lead people to believe we are brave when we are quaking in our boots. We imply that we are helpless despite our actual competence, often to make others feel stronger and more capable. We disguise our acute intelligence with shallow thinking, with reckless behaviors that belie our thoughtfulness. We create masks with layers of misleading words, inauthentic gestures, veneers of half-truths overlaying our real selves, worrying that we're not good enough as we are. While these masks may be colorful, they hide our light from the rest of the world, keep all but those closest to us (and sometimes even our intimates) from encountering the gift of our deepest selves. What would happen if you faced the world w...