Tag Archives: Finding Home

Til Next Time, Madison

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I’m waking up one last morning in Madison, WI before heading back home to Brooklyn, NY later tonight.

Home–such an ephemeral experience for me, right now.

I arrived in Madison 2 weeks ago to discover just 2 days into my time here that life as I knew it in NYC was now forever altered. My relationship and our blossoming plans for a life together lay dead in the ground where moments before they had their own heartbeat. I was devastated, my ego grasping for some illusory semblance of control where there was none. I felt utterly alone and struggling to make sense of it all.

I wake up this morning, two weeks later, still in pain, my mind playing its games and weaving stories that make my heart ache with longing and anger and sadness…and yet something has transformed.

I have been blessed to work with 9 extraordinary women in this time. Women who I have been privileged to support as they blossom into their own truth and power–and in the process they’ve unknowingly realigned me with mine.

I’ve had the opportunity to connect with my best friend for the past 21 years to be reminded of the kind of unconditional love that transcends time and distance, and to witness her on fire with passion and purpose as she continues to expand on her path–such an inspiration to me. And then, there are her amazing kiddos–sleepovers with miss JJ only get better through the years.

And at the heartbeat of this trip, I have been here each day, supporting my mom, caring for her doggies…shoveling snow, of course…and finding myself.

I now pass the torch of care for my mom onto my sister who has also been a godsend in helping me process my grief these past 5 days.

I head back to Brooklyn with a heart that is filled with complex emotions, with visions of a future lost, and new ones emerging. No longer part of a “we” or an “us” and also more excited and empowered to be ME than I’ve felt in a long time.

Just me, finding home in the depths of my own being. It’s not as exciting as finding home in a place or another person, perhaps, and yet, it’s more dimensional…more real, somehow, more spacious and freeing.

With each day, with each losing and letting go, I’m coming home to my own heartbeat and discovering little by little what is truly meant for me.

Til next time, Madison.

:)Melissa

A gift from recent sessions with clients:

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I invite you to imagine all of life and the universe as one large body that is constantly ebbing and flowing in a process of maintaining homeostasis, just as our own body is in a constant of ebbing and flowing in an overall state of balance with itself. There is no “good” or “bad” functioning of the body, there is just…function.With every loss and gain of my ego’s desires, I find that I can get so mired in the details of my experience that I see duality everywhere: Fall in love–Yay! Relationship ends or transforms–heart-wrenching grief. Money in–yay! Money out–stress. Feeling strong and healthy–yay! Develop illness–heartbreak, once again.

When I step back from a higher vision and understand all of life operating as one body, suddenly I see that my pain or my pleasure, my having and letting go are all part of a larger process of ebb and flow. Life is living itself. Constant. Ever-changing and yet, always the same.

There is an emptiness in that awareness–my ego loves to attach uncomfortable emotion and create an experience of that emptiness–and yet there is great freedom in embracing how arbitrary and also necessary are the happenings of my life.

My life is in a constant state of balance with itself, and when I surrender to that, I find my center, I find peace.

So, I invite you to join me in the dance, Dearheart. There is an adventure to discover in this surrender.

I exist. With each day, I’m waking up further to the precious gift of that basic truth.

 :)Melissa

New Year’s Reflections

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As I reflect back on this past year, it has been a year of great courage for me.

I moved to NYC with little money in my bank account and fortunate to receive the support of great friends. I took on a life far from the cozy one I’d grown accustomed to and with each day, leapt into a new unknown.

I discovered burn-out in my work and had the courage to release patterns and dreams that no longer served me. It was scary and dark…deeply uncomfortable. I’m still letting go as I surrender notions of what it means to be a “success,” to have a purpose, what is meant for my life, what wants to be birthed through me.

It takes great courage to live inside the space of “I don’t know.” I’ve felt small and purposeless at times, a voice in my head constantly chiding “What if I never amount to anything?”–and that might be the most precious gift of this challenging year–there is something much more profound unfolding then my Personal Will can ever create or comprehend…and I don’t have to “amount” to anything to be a gift and receive the gift of my existence. A lesson I continue to learn.

And in the midst of all of that letting go and clearing out, a great love was being born and continues to birth itself with new adventures on the horizon–partnership was perhaps the least expected gift this year, and a most welcome surprise.

And now I face 2015 with continued courage, brand-new dreams, and a continued deepening of my surrender. “Thy will be done.” This will continue to be my prayer as I embark on yet another year of this precious life.

Poem: Our Love

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beautifulhands

Riding the train at 2am
And I’m struck by the beauty of our hands

This is what love looks like
Our love
The beginning and end
Of black and white
The beginning of something
Felt deeply right
In our bones

This man’s soul
Looks like my soul
There’s a sort of
Coming home
Happening
A sort of
Discovering wholeness
Happening

And all I can think is:
Look at our beautiful hands?
This man. I’m so in love with
This man.

©2014 Melissa Simonson

Poem: The Beauty That is All of Me

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Goddess

There is this deeply sacred part of me 
who is emerging. blossoming. 
becoming
loose. unleashed.
there is surrender here. vulnerability.
there is a tenderness birthing herself
warm and free. 
all that I feel is magic.
the beauty that is all of me.
I am in wonder. I am in awe.
and I am
fiercely.
ardently.
zealously.
in love. 

©2014 Melissa Simonson