Rebecca Wells's Blog, page 2

Healing

Dear Readers,

Soft, warm light came shining through my home office window today. It’s so good to see and feel the power of the sun returning to the Northern Hemisphere as summer-time comes tip-toeing in, delivering healing energy after a long, long winter. I feel the strength of that powerful healing from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. This springtime energy brings me back to life! I feel like a daffodil poking its way through the earth and up, up, up into the world.

Sometimes our souls need healing. Sometimes our bodies need healing. Sometimes both mind and body could use a shot of sunshine. Living with a painful chronic condition sends plenty of good, strong people right down a deep rabbit-hole where they hide away, hoping that the hurt will just go away, wrapping up in a blanket of numbing medication and praying for relief that may or may not appear.

Emotional pain can hurt as strongly as physical pain, and the two of them often sashay along hand-in-hand like chummy sorority sisters in matching sweater sets, strolling through people’s lives leaving broken bits and pieces behind. It takes kindness and gentle hands to lift up a wounded soul, sharing the warm sunshine and opening up to the process of healing.

I’ve survived what I thought at the time was an irreparably broken heart. I’ll bet you have too. When you’re in the throes of emotional pain, it feels like there’s no way to ever get past it. But we do. And we learn. And we grow through the pain into (hopefully) stronger human beings. And oh, the lessons that we learn as we grow!

May the warm light of healing glow from within you,

Rebecca

Everyday Transformation

Sandra Ingerman's Blog
"The whole book is happy, even the parts that deal with hardship, because spirituality is always close to the surface. It does show marvelous examples of how we can all perform little miracles every day, no matter how humble our profession, how empty our pocketbook, or how harsh life seems at any given moment." - Sandra Ingerman

True Beauty and Little Rituals

Walking through the market in search of fresh produce, I can’t help taking in the colors of fruits and vegetables, deep and rich; blood oranges, yellow bananas, purple eggplant and deep green broccoli dazzle the eye. As I ponder which items to add to my basket and which to pass by, out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of a woman so drop-dead gorgeous that she takes my breath away.

In her mid-70s, this elegant lady is dressed to the nines, wearing full make-up as though for an evening at the opera. Her hair is perfectly coiffed, nails brightly polished, jewelry twinkling and sparkling. Her equally attractive husband is by her side, attentive and lively. I couldn’t help thinking, “What beautiful people!”

Pop culture tells us that beauty is connected with youth and that when we get older, we leave beauty behind, but Calla Lily Ponder’s mother M’Dear and I know differently. We know that the light of beauty comes from within. Even the most perfectly featured face needs a beautiful soul to shine through with goodness, sweetness and love if it is to be truly beautiful.

M’Dear knew that a woman worn down by the 84,000 little details of life might decide that taking the time to fuss over her own self is just too much trouble. So M’Dear made The Beauty Porch a peaceful haven for women, a place to gather and talk, to pass a little “girlfriend-time,” all while getting a wash-and-set or a cut-and-color. Time would fly as fast as the laughter and talk, while Calla Lily watched M’Dear work her magic on women who arrived feeling tired and drained, but departed filled with energy, revived by the ministrations of M’Dear’s deft hands.

Real beauty is indefinable, yet tangible. It’s rooted in the way a woman feels about herself and her place in the world, and is less about the way a woman looks and more about how she feels about herself, her life and her place in the world. I have my own little beauty tricks (daily yoga and moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!), but I’m curious to learn how other women nurture their inner and outer beauty.

What are your rituals, the little things you can’t live without?

How do you insure that you don’t lose yourself in the day-to-day insanity of life?

How do you keep yourself beautiful?

84,000 beautiful blessings,

Rebecca

Planting Dahlias

I'm putting in my dahlia bulbs this weekend. So many of them wintered over beautifully! Now I'm on the prowl for sunflower starts. Every year I put out seeds, the birds get them. Any gardeners out there with ideas on how to keep seeds tucked in, safe from the birds (which I also love!)? I hope you all have a lovely weekend. XOXO

Peeking Between the Pages

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder is much more than I can say here as you also get to meet Calla Lily's friends in the novel as well as some of the people living in La Luna. I loved the descriptions of the food, people and the area of La Luna as well as the same types of descriptions of New Orleans. I found Calla Lily an easy character to like. She seemed a very vulnerable girl throughout - very caring and sweet. There were parts I laughed at and a few parts where I shed a few tears. -- blogger Peeking Between the Pages

Feminist Review

"Rebecca Wells allows the reader to travel to Louisiana through Calla Lily, and by the end of the novel, you feel you have shared an intimate conversation with each of her characters. Never having been to Louisiana myself, this book made me want to buy a plane ticket and escape to Calla Lily's magical community, La Luna." -- blogger Feminist Review

First Love

Today I found myself thinking about the magic of first love. In The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, sweet Calla Lily is blessed with so many people who love her, starting with the all-encompassing maternal love of M’Dear and the Moon Lady, from the moment she was born.

Isn’t our “first love” really love from our mothers?

It’s different from any other kind of love. It comes from way down deep. As deep inside a person as can be. It’s primal. It’s forever. It knows no boundaries and no end. A mother will love her child all of her days, regardless of circumstance.

Tell me about your mama, what she means to you, and how she’s helped you to become the person that you are today. And on this Mother’s Day, tell me what is the best gift you can give to honor her, whether she’s still here with you or not.

Blessings,

Rebecca

Aftermath of the Louisiana Oil Spill

My heart is breaking as I learn the news about the oil spilling poison into the Gulf waters and probably moving in to the rich marsh waters. This simply should not be happening. But it is. The photo above is of the first bird to be rescued and cleaned of the toxic substance coating his feathers.

Please look at the bird with me, at its beautiful, wide wing. The Northern Gannett is normally white with a yellow crown. Here it is – black with heavy oil stopping it from flying, from its spectacular bouts of plunge-diving for fish, diving into the ocean from 130 feet in the air. It’s just one of the many birds, mammals, fish and so many types of wildlife threatened by the oil spill off the Louisiana coast near Venice, LA, in my home state. Louisiana, still recovering from Katrina, is knocked to its knees again.

The fishing industry is in Plaquemines Parish, where President of the Parrish, Billy Nungesser says, “This could be six Katrinas, where for years and years there’s not as much work.” This is where Louisiana people have fished their entire lives. They don’t know anything else.

Our insatiable need for petroleum in all its forms will continue to assault the earth unless the mammoth, multi-national oil companies are first reigned in and then punished, where necessary, for their actions. Along with that, we must examine our own addiction to petroleum products, from the gasoline we use to drive 5 miles to the grocery store and back, to the plastic containers which hold our toxic-laden detergents. We’ve got to feel the embrace of this earth as it holds us and provides us with a home. After that, we must return the embrace and protect and defend this sweet planet rotating, revolving, growing and giving.

In my new book, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, the oil industry plays a part in a love relationship. I knew that in introducing this presence of oil searching and refining off the coast of my state I would be treading on thin ground, but I prayed that none of us would be hit with just how thin the ground is.

Look at the bird. Pray with me, if you will, that the water, the birds and wildlife, the marshes, the people, the state and the skies will suffer as little as possible. Then let’s keep our own hearts open and look at the way we can clean the feathery, white wings of birds and to protect them from ever being soiled again.

Thank you.

Blessings,

Rebecca

Mothers Day 2010

When I think of my Mother, I think of her doing a million things at once. But at least one day a month she declared it her“mental hygiene day.” On that day, we brought her steaming hot chicory coffee in bed, and looked at the array of books she had spread around her bed table. So it’s only natural that at Mother’s Day when I think of the best gift to give my mother, it’s books!

In these times, when we all have to watch most every dime we spend, what gift can you possibly give your mother for fifteen dollars? That’s the cost of my most recent book, “The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder,” which has just come out in paperback. It’s a book about different types of love: the love between girlfriends, the love between a young girl and her boyfriend, the love between a man and a wife—and most of all, the love that exists between a mother and her child. This last love colors all the other loves. On this day, set aside to honor mothers, I hope you’ll think about leaving your local Indie bookstore with a copy of “The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder” for your Mom.

Love and blessings,

Rebecca

ps: You'll find a special Mothers Day message from me on YouTube!

Creating Calm

It seems like the world is moving so fast these days! Here on our little island we are somewhat isolated from the hectic pace of urban life, but geography by no means keeps the stress of the world at bay. My husband and I are careful to avoid over-stimulation--an attempt to protect our minds and bodies from the damaging effects of too much negativity. We avoid the 24/7 news channels, choosing to limit ourselves to select programs on National Public Radio and a few newspapers. But even with this limited exposure to the news media, I sometimes feel overwhelmed and have to go on a “news diet” from time to time.

Still, I know that just because I’m not seeing the chaos of the world it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I just have to practice good self-care in order to be the effective citizen of the world I want to be.

Do you ever think about how each of us can contribute to a more loving, caring atmosphere around us? If, as the song says, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me,” what actions can we take to promote goodness right where we live?

Thoughtfully,

Rebecca