Greetings, sisters!

And Happy New Year to all you Feral Nuns out there! I was deliciously stunned at how many of y’all emailed me after the last issue to claim Feral Nunhood, and the delight and passion with which you did so. As a result, I’ll be launching the Feral Nun blog later this year, official home for the Disorder of Feral Nuns.

Ahhh, the holidays...I spent two luscious weeks sleeping, meditating, loving, knitting, reading, walking, and eating great food and imported chocolate. I allowed myself to sink into the dark and hallowed quiet of a Northwest midwinter. How good can you get?

This newsletter is about blessings, and I want y’all to know what blessings you are in my life.

I started this newsletter to create community for women over 45 hungry for more pleasure and soul in their lives. What I didn’t know was how rich and rewarding the deepening and widening connections with y’all were going to become.

Thank you, all of you. And many pleasured blessings to you all in this new year!

With deep love and pleasure,

FEATURE ARTICLE: Falling Blessings

Well, it’s a new year, and you know what that means:

Intentions. Goals. Willpower.

Ick.

Ladies, at 53, I’m ditching the self-torture we call New Year’s resolutions. They’ve lost their shiny promise. Three decades of yearly resolutions haven’t made me sleek, organized, muscular, or rich, or made me kinder, gentler, and more compassionate in the process. What I’ve often ended up with is a self-inflicted boatload of shame instead.

This past holiday I thought, no more. But then, I wondered, how to mark this passing of a year instead?

One afternoon I was staring out the kitchen window at the cold rain falling on the barren garden when grace happened. In my imagination, the bare cherry tree burst forth in pink blossoms, petals floating down into the garden as pure blessing. I felt myself standing beneath the rosy drifts with arms and heart wide open.

And I remembered one of my favorite Japanese poems, written by a spirited and eccentric Zen priest:
All are nothing but flowers
In a flowering universe.

What if, I asked myself standing there in my kitchen, blessings are falling all around us, all the time, graced petals of an eternally blossoming universe? What if-- in some way that makes no sense to my rational mind (but infinite sense to my 53 year old soul) --  all that’s asked of me is to stop, lift my head, and notice being showered in tender blessings?

Cherry blossoms, god bless ‘em, don’t give a rat’s ass how much I weigh or how many wrinkles I sport, how low my breasts droop, or whether I’ve cleaned the cat box. They just fall, and fall, and fall, there for all who stop to receive their beauty.

So, standing there at that window, I realized my New Year’s wish:
To receive countless blessings.

That’s all. That’s it.

Stop. Breathe. Notice. Receive.

In the week since then, I’ve experienced the deep delights of blessings falling all around me:

• The sensual pleasure of breathing
• The stark January beauty of bare dark tree limbs against a heavy sky
• Hugs and smiles with husband, daughter, family, friends
• The deep midwinter silence of the park I walk in
• The voluptuous colors and textures of yarn at the Fiber Gallery

I’m astonished at all the blossoms/blessings falling around me every moment, blessings I fail to welcome in my Very Important Haste to Get Someplace Else.

Now, please know that I have NO intention to count these blessings. What a pedestrian treatment of lavish gifts. No, ladies. I’m rolling in them. What else is a gal to do with such embarrassment of riches?

Several post-45 clients came in last week to Talk Goals for the New Year. (After all, I’m a coach, right?) None of these ladies had any oomph left for pinching and pushing their tired midlives into newer, shinier models of the perfect life.

I shared with them what I was doing. They all lit up. Each decided to play with opening and softening and receiving in the New Year, rather than efforting:

• Karen is playing with receiving love, however it shows up in her life. She’s ready to be surprised.
• Donnalee is tickled pink to open up to what makes her happy in simple ways, to be a student of her own delight.
• Zara is allowing herself to soften into, and trust, contentment.

I’m reminded of the Hindu saint Ramakrishna’s reminder: the winds of grace are blowing all the time; all we need to do is raise our sails. Perhaps those winds of grace are the same ones blowing innumerable blossoms/blessings our way.

So ladies, I’m raising my sails for 2008. I’m softening into slowing down and raising my gaze to the drifts of blossoms showering me and the rest of this flowering world, opening my arms and heart wide to receive them.

For this new year, what might you wish to soften into receiving? Email me, and I’ll share your wish in the next newsletter. Let’s learn from each other.

Let’s be blessings for each other and for the world around us. Let’s roll in these boundless blessings falling all around us, on this suffering and uncertain planet. The world needs us, our pleasure and our delight.

Anyone care to join me?

COACHING SESSIONS WITH MELISSA
If you would like to:

• Experience deep and authentic pleasure in your life
• Create a life that sings for you, free from struggle and efforting
• Free yourself from damaging cultural myths about growing older that limit your aliveness, creativity, and unique genius
• Making a meaningful difference in this time in your life
• Deepen your spiritual journey in a way that reflects who you are now
• Reclaim curiosity, gratitude, and wonder for your journey

Read more about how you can benefit from private coaching with Melissa: http://www.MelissaGayleWest.com
If you're interested, contact Melissa at Melissa@MelissaGayleWest.com, or 206.427.1325

 ABOUT Pleasure and Soul
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Contact me at Melissa@MelissaGayleWest.com

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This newsletter and all content within it is Copyright(c) Melissa Gayle West 2007 except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved. I encourage you to share this newsletter or reprint material from it in other electronic or print publications, provided a link to http://www.MelissaGayleWest.com and copyright information are included in the credits. Please send a copy of the publication.

Melissa Gayle West
106 NW 104th St.
Seattle, WA 98177