Welcome to the maiden voyage of Pleasure and Soul! 

I'm opening a bottle of bubbly and toasting both this launch and  you, dear readers, who are setting out with me in our true-life adventures of reclaiming our deep, wise, voluptuous, courageous, insightful souls!

Why, you may ask, am I christening the newsletter Pleasure and Soul? Here’s why: "voluptuous" is derived from the Latin for "pleasure.” A bodhisattva is (this is my very liberal stretching of a traditional Buddhist term) a person deeply committed to service and the welfare of others.

So, ladies, a voluptuous bodhisattva is—ta-da!—a woman unreservedly devoted to her own lit-up, deeply pleasured life, and who gives generously to others from that overflow of love and pleasure.

Are you with me?

Let's go!

With love and pleasure,

FEATURE ARTICLE: If not now, when?

"When you die, God and the angels will hold you accountable for all the pleasures you were allowed in life that you denied yourself." ~Anonymous

My mom died last fall.

I sat by her hospital bed for a week as she lay dying. It being the south, all manner of relatives, blood and otherwise, streamed in and out of the hospital room and told long stories about Mama's life. My sisters and brother and I laughed buckets and cried rivers. The wonderful pleasures of drawn out southern tales, uninhibited laughter of aunts and cousins, and platters of fried chicken rose from the same deep life spring as the grief for my mom dying hour by hour in her white gown.

Since then, my own horizon of mortality—knowing that someday that will be me letting go of this sweet life—has loomed large in my mind's eye. The nearness of that horizon, whether measured in weeks or years or decades, hits me more in my fifties than it could have even 10 years ago.

I've thought often of that quote about being held accountable for pleasures denied. What luscious delights (that angels would gleefully incarnate for) have I tossed aside in my impatience to get stuff done?

In the bittersweet aching for my mom, I realize that this life is the one I've been given. This is it! This is it! In honor of her life, and mine, I stop now to relish the crisp delights of my afternoon Fuji apple, the sensual pleasure of my breasts rising and falling with my breath, the evening light shafting through the Japanese maples in the back garden, the scent of my husband when he leans over to kiss me.

And so, lovely and luscious women, I open my arms to welcome you as sisters on the journey! This full-bodied journey of awakening to the deep pleasures of life: pleasures that liberate us from lives far too tight and small for our spirits; pleasures that open us wide to what makes life meaningful and right. Pleasures that nourish our bodies and sustain our souls and, from that fullness, free us to give back to this sweet and achingly transient world.

I invite you to honor your own delicious pleasure, not as "self-care" or "self-improvement," but as light, water, and oxygen for your body and soul. I invite you to allow delight to heat up your own love and wisdom and ignite your passionate care for the world and for those around you.

What if authentic pleasure was neither detour nor distraction, but the royal road to your own heart and body and soul and spirit? What if your pleasures were a blessing, a mitzvah, for your own life and the life of everything and everyone around you?

What could you do, what could you offer, if you were lit up from within by the delights of your own body and soul?

When you meet your Maker and Source, what unsung pleasures will you have to account for?

Why not sing them into being now?

 ANNOUNCEMENTS
~I have a few openings in my coaching practice for boomer women ready to roll up their sleeves and engage in the work and play of creating deeply pleasurable and deeply meaningful, lit-from-within lives. To learn more about my work, go to http://www.MelissaGayleWest.com/howicoach.html

~I plan to include an interview with a deeply alive boomer woman in every other issue. What a treat for me and, I hope, and inspiration for you! Please let me know if you know any women who would be good to interview.

 INVITATION TO PLAY
"When you die, God and the angels will hold you accountable for all the pleasures you were allowed in life that you denied yourself." ~Anonymous

On "the other side," what pleasures (both large and delightfully small) do you imagine you'll miss most? How might your life be different if you allowed more room for actually enjoying them, now? Choose a pleasure from the list, and utterly give yourself over to it for ten minutes this week!

 ABOUT Pleasure and Soul
ANY QUESTIONS, comments, feedback?
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.

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

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