DAILY We are at home, happier, more expansive when invited to the party. Prana is the same. This energy, or life force is pervasive. It is source material. But when we beckon it to connect to breath with awareness and meaning, we make the party come alive.
Read moreInspirations: Self Care
On The Road Again
Have you, like Willie, been itching to ‘get on the road again?’ Is the uncertainty, at best, and terror, at worst enough to make you press petal to motivational-metal and roar off toward new horizons? Is the inner emotional current growing such an insistently high decibel that you feel something within about to give way…the old brick and mortar cracking? Perhaps the edges of consciousness hear the resonance of Rumi’s dictate, “Seek the path that demands your whole being. ” This is an admirable directive at any time, but as life grows precious and precarious; precious because of passing time, and precarious from greater reluctance to risk, we cannot postpone this rough road. Despite it being steep and arduous, we are on the road again because most of us postponed it as long as we could. We chose the seduction of safety, or like Willie, we made music with our friends. We allowed turmoil to waylay intention, and wept when fear obliterated courage. The road of wholeness rises into the mountains, toward unknown destinations. It requires dreams, and faith to keep it going through steep, and twisty terrain. I am struggling with this road because I have not dreamed for too long, nor have I allowed the delicacy of fate and free will to hang in the balance. I have not wished upon the Moon, nor thrown coins in a fountain. If I cannot dream, or believe in my wishes, I cannot seek the path of my ‘whole being, ’ for the mystery of faith and fate stand side by side to the pragmatic good soldier. The voice of the dreamer opens the factual researcher to the unknown. The whole being contains and balances the visible, and invisible in equal measure. Becoming whole is to become efficient in what we… Read more »
Read moreAngels All
Today is the anniversary of the death of the woman who gave me a second life, Helen Rosenstock. Because I am a late bloomer, she entered my life late, when I was finally ready for her vision, her tools of a transformative baptism. The person you know as Samantha, is not the person I started out to be. It’s true none of us are, but some of us are unrecognizable. When I found Helen, she saw I had walked to replace the original imprint. A year ago, when Helen died, she appeared to me as a plume of smoke, stopping by as if to say, ‘remember~ life is magical. She was magical, but part of her mystery was in her gifts being of the earth, and for the earth: She said, “In order to see what you think is mysterious, open your eyes wider to possibility. To perceive and listen to the invisible is a talent everyone has. She taught that I need only be willing, for transformation to begin. To grow intuition she reminded me I required silence to hear what is unspoken. To heal, I needed to become an empath, and to maintain a body strong enough to heal itself so that it could hold that power for others. One day, as we stood at French doors, she said, “To heal others, you do not need to know what they should do. Simply open the door so they can walk through on their on own legs. Stand as their witness.” She taught me to be an ‘ambulance chaser’ one night, by asking what I thought as sirens filled the air. “Loud,” is what I replied. She said, “You have a choice in consciousness. You can direct healing light to a stranger in need, or you can think, ‘loud.’… Read more »
Read moreTrash Talking ~ Stories, Lies, and Myths
Last week I heard myself trash talking. It was sarcastic and funny, but hurtful. If I had been talking about a friend, I would not have wanted them to hear. This was not about a friend. The trash was about me. Once again I had found a sneaky way to open a well-worn scab, gouged since childhood. Aside from feeling disappointed I had pinioned myself to that old wound, I was pleased that this time I heard myself. Why does it take most of us so long to hear our stories binding us as prisoners to the past? Why is it so difficult to hear how we unconsciously create our lives? Hopefully, when ‘enlightenment’ does occur there is enough shock value that we stop to reassess. Instead of washing my tongue with soap, I’ve decided to re-script the old myth. In creating a new story I’ve needed to ask: Who and what formed the original version? What mythos moved into place when I began believing and speaking that story? How has it served me? Have I made my external world match my internal script? What requires liberating in order to no longer unconsciously trash talk this wound? How conscious must I remain in order to participate fully in a new script? What is the muscle I need to move into the yet untold story? With ears growing more acute, I hope to feel into energies that create assumed myths. As I choose to un-hook from well worn inner identities, I seek useful tools to make myself known to me. I shall rely more on symbols for they are more powerful than words. I will turn ever more strongly to music and dance for they are far more compelling than lectures. I shall remember that joy trumps fear every time. I… Read more »
Read moreThe Sacred Now
Now is the time to know that all you do is sacred. In late 1300, Hafiz wrote the poem, Now Is The Time. His words remain resonant in 2015; an ancient call to arms reinstating what is always needed, and has always been true. There is never a better now to expand consciousness and consecrate the body. For the body, like the earth, beings of the natural world, are being eclipsed by technology, intellect and speed. Intuitive complexities are losing a battle to the ease and safety of straight lines, and analysis. … Now is the time to understand That all your ideas of right and wrong Were just a child’s training wheels To be laid aside When you can finally live With veracity~ And love For the most part, we are secular beings. We set aside a few moments to ask God for help, or to rage at Her/His unfairness, rarely allowing veracity~ And love to settle in and soften life’s blows. The body as sanctuary takes practice. It is a rehearsal hall full of mirrors in constant use, requiring intention, resilience, and Windex. … Now is the time for the world to know That every thought and action is sacred. This is the time For you to deeply compute the impossibility That there is anything But Grace. Now is the season to know That everything you do Is sacred. Cleaning the mirrors that reveal us to ourselves is the daily practice of ‘chop wood/carry water’ that grows our light. In choosing the sacred now, we elect to integrate head and heart. We expand old visions beyond original teachings. We re-calibrate polarities of shadow and light, admiring both the convoluted and the narrow. The profane and hallowed live side by side where we fear beckons courage to grow. Our… Read more »
Read moreShow Me The Quan!
The world has lost a treasure trove of notable talent recently, and personally, I have lost loved ones of some extraordinary talent. There are many endings to the world we have known opening confluence to large questions: What is disappearing that I have loved? What were qualities in those famous lives that gave them value? Why do I care when I hear they have died? How have I been transformed by those I loved that are now gone? How did they share their wisdom and grace? Poignant endings are opportunity to review: What am I funding that will be missed when I’m gone? What healing can I offer? Am passing on anything of true value? How do I carry and translate the light of those who have gone before? Confluences create un-expected recognitions. Does it take loss to comprehend what we have, who we are, what we value? The ending of a job, a long distance move, a child leaving home, and the big one, death offer windows to regenerate, reconsider, re-animate, and re-value. Questioning the value of a life is impossible, that of an event or a season, a bit easier. Using Labor Day as a marker to summer’s end I ask: “Did I wander and waste enough time? What of value did I glean from the garden? Have I laughed enough? What about the worth of a single summer’s day? Do I assess 24 hours, by how alive I have been, or how many days I have left? $1000.00 is a crass amount for one exquisite day on earth, and if it’s the last day, a $1000,000.00 doesn’t begin to cover the bill. Tomorrow, I shall wake and call out, “Show me the ‘Quan!” By sunset, I shall murmer, “I have grown this day by heart. I etched… Read more »
Read moreBecoming Wizards
What do I want in this coming year? Who shall I become? How shall I pass through the eye of this needle? How do I face the storms of my fear? What magic elixir is at hand to help? The Year of 2014 opens with a New Moon in Capricorn. It is not the only Capricorn energy in the sky, Venus retrograde, and Pluto also visit this Saturn ruled sign. Capricorn is about mastery and value. A wizard is one who has mastery over Self, and values the many gifts of that self. A wizard also claims mastery of time and space. Wizard’s understands the alchemy of turning dross to gold. Their real genius lies in understanding the alchemical components in fear, hatred, jealousy, shame, and ignorance and accepting them. There is no turning a blind eye, or judging the darkness, rather-in the embrace and acceptance of what is, they transmute dross to gold. Their gold is that of freedom, love, fulfillment, kindness, and joy. If we are to learn about becoming a wizard, it’s good to begin with the best. The most famous is Merlin, of Camelot. His home was a crystal cave. His top student, Arthur- became king. Their pivotal journey of transformation was called a quest, and the end of the quest was the discovery of the Holy Grail. For their story to have meaning, view it symbolically. Merlin embodies inner wisdom, true for women as well as men. The crystal cave is the chrysalis home, the heart, which holds the mysteries of enlightenment. The young Arthur is the un-tutored self, the daring fool willing to risk, hoping to find the gold of the Holy Grail. The quest is a life journey, and the Holy Grail is the spiritual, imaginative, Soul-Self. If the planets are offering support… Read more »
Read moreWheat From Chaff
Each of the four seasons offers a particular impetus that feels natural to the body, fitting the logos of that season. In the shift to fall, we reach for a fresh start, and may pull back in dismay, feeling overwhelmed. Spring’s bright beginning has an entirely different energy to its new life. The fall ‘new year’ carries weight. Perhaps it is childhood years of beginning a new grade, and adjusting to an unknown teacher? With falling leaves, the psyche is assigned to grow and own itself in new ways, expressing itself in better forms. Ancient memory-bones that gathered in the harvest, preparing for winter, celebrated bounty, or knew death approached. It is a serious time. There is less possibility in this beginning than spring’s exuberant birth. In the Northern Hemisphere, the first stray turning of green to gold announces summer’s somnolence over. Even tropical locations contain signs of a new dance, replacing August’s easier waltz. Astrologically, moving from Leo’s creative enjoyment to Virgo’s perceptions of refinement, and integration, ask we separate wheat from chaff, that we take inventory for the time ahead, and bring talents into alignment. Virgo asks the soul, “What is your sacred work, and what do you need to heal to grow whole?” Along with the Sun’s entry into Virgo, Rosh Hashanah, literally ‘head of the year,’ symbolically gives fall an extra new year oomph. In the Jewish oral traditions, Rosh Hashanah marked the completion of the world’s creation, and perhaps some world-memory feels we now have to go out and do something about it. In Virgo fashion, we’d best do it impeccably, and preferably looking as chic as possible. Whether we love fall, or loathe it, follow the Jewish faith, or none at all, facing these shadow elements gives pause, and can bring anxiousness. The anxiety… Read more »
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