The Path

Being on the path.  It's a daily, hourly, moment by moment process.  Staying attentive and connected is the task.  With loving attention the path unfolds.  We are well-guided if we listen and if we ask for assistance.  Love is what the path is composed of.  We love ourselves, we see the love that lives in others.  Loving life is the way steps are created on the path.  Joy and gratitude become the by-products of steps we take on the path.  Life is full and rich.

..."after I had experienced much, I learned to trust my own heart.  When you have this deep understanding, whatever occurs, you can let it occur, and all things will pass on and be quelled.  You will reach a point where the heart tells itself what to do...."                                                                                               --Achaan Chah     

Love and Grace

Love opens our hearts.  It brings us opportunities for grace to enter our lives.  We never know how an opportunity for change will come along.  Love flowing to us keeps us open to those opportunities, and they may come from very unexpected places.  Love invites us to be touched by grace, and we are then able to respond to opportunities in welcoming, rather than resisting, ways.  We are able to be guided by Divine Love that is greater than ourselves.  Doors open.  We are free to move through them.  Love shows us the way.

"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.  Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things...  Make love your aim..."           --St. Paul

Honoring

In the midst of large change anxiety comes and goes.  Recently for me, it has been coming in the form of old patterns and messages that come from a part of me that isn't authentic; that isn't truly who I am.  I have needed to turn gentle and compassionate energy onto these old voices in order to free them from their stuck places, and enable them to move on.  Only then am I fully reconnected to my peaceful center and to my process of positive change.

"Tibetan practices teach us that we benefit by honoring and feeding the demons.  When the demons arrive we must recognize that they are part of the dance of life itself.  When they threaten, it is only our illusions that are in danger.  The deeper our bow to the awesome changing powers of life, the wiser we will be, and when we embrace them, they turn into a rainbow.  Every color shines in the awakened heart."                                                     --Jack Kornfield

Opening to Gifts

Within the past week I have had several very powerful animal visitations.  Two in person, and one through the gift of thought.  Though the animals have been very different, their symbolism has included elements of plenty and abundance.  One clearly encouraged me to "Go for it."  These are welcome messages to me, and I'm continuing to stay open to the fullness of their energy and to further insights.  Conventional wisdom might say, "Look before your leap."  But I am being encouraged to leap and see where I land.  This is requiring the largest kind of trust I've ever placed in the Universe.  It is a fit for me at this time, and it calls on me to bring forward my fullest, largest self.  There is power available for us to access and utilize.  We are asked to open and receive.  We release control and allow the space that opens us to be filled.

"In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty...in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past conditioning.  And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrated the dance of the universe."                        --Deepak Chopra

           

Believing into Being

Amazing time.  Change is happening at deep levels.  We are all flowing with the tide of this change.  I am personally listening with all of my senses for the specific ways that Source is calling me to BE in this world at this time.  I am being asked to put full trust in the unfolding of my best life.  The task for me is to believe always that the Universe has my best interests at heart.  The active expression of this task is Being.  I am being encouraged to believe that by being who I am in the present moment,  the outward expression of my highest good will become the physical truth of my life.  Very challenging stuff.  And yet my beliefs are strong that there is overwhelming wisdom, benevolence, and power at work in all facets of my life and Life in its most grand form.  We are here to live and love and flourish within the vibrant energy of Divine Presence.

"You are already where you need to be.  You need go nowhere else.  Feel it now in the moisture on your tongue.  Sense the effortless filling and emptying of your lungs, the involuntary blinking of your eyes.  Just an inch or so behind your sternum where your heart beats.  That is where the makom is (the place of God).  Right here all along and we did not know it because we were fast asleep, here in this very makom."                                     --Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

  

Opening

I am in a process of opening.  And what I really want to do is make things happen.  But that is efforting, not opening.  Opening is allowing.  If I can stay open, I can allow things to happen; I can let things happen.  Opening is freedom.  I will continue with this process of opening. 
So why do I sit with my arms folded?  Fear.  I'm holding onto fear.  But fear is not a part of Divine Presence.  It is not a part of the essence of Source or Great Mystery.  If I uncross my arms and stay open, then I let go of resistance.  I release what is unnecessary and in the way.  At the same time my opening becomes an invitation.  Staying open invites Creation in.  It invites something to come to me which is necessary, healing, important, vital.  New.

"We need to remember that where we are going is here, that any practice is simply a means to open our heart to what is in front of us.  Where we already are is the path and the goal."                                          --Jack Kornfield 

Releasing

This time is rich and full and challenging.  Large transformation is occurring.  In order to let in a new experience we must let go of old experience, old beliefs.  Often there are also parts of our lives and elements in our cells which just have to exit before regenerative energy can be brought in.  Emptying out; taking in.  Every day we breathe.  In, out...in, out.  Every piece of our life experience repeats this same process, in forms that are both microcosmic and macrocosmic.  The greater our awareness is of this life rhythm, the gentler, smoother, and easier is our interaction with all of life.  Releasing becomes a practice for the Soul.      

"Let go, and let God."                   --Unknown

This Moment

One day this week I started my day thinking of the "million" things  I needed to do.  I went to work continuing to think about the "million" things I could be doing if I was at home.  As the day went on, I began to notice that being at work was a sort of respite from the "million" things I needed to do at home.  By the end of the day I was reveling in the butterflies I saw, the cooler temperatures after such a long, hot summer, and generally exulting in the fact that it was a beautiful summer day.

Each day challenges us to meet it head on--face to face, moment by moment.  We're invited to fully inhabit these days.  There are superb gifts in each moment, if we take the time to be present.

"Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite.  It actually takes guts.  Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior's world.  We can do this even at the most difficult moments.  Everything we see, hear, taste, and smell has the power to strengthen and uplift us."                                                                                            --Pema Chodron        

Grace

Our lives are filled with joys and challenges.  Each day brings a plateful.  We have the power to experience our lives as gifts or as burdens.  I am grateful for the gift of grace.  On days when things have hung heavily around my neck, or events have startled me into fear, I have experienced grace unexpectedly.  That's the nature of grace.  It is a lovely surprise.  A gentle hand reaching out to bring me back to myself.  I am able, at some point, in some way, to reach out and request assistance, and my request is graciously answered.  

"Our passion for life is quietly sustained from somewhere in us that is wedded to the energy and excitement of life.  This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as a blessing.  We enter the world as heirs to a harvest of memory, spirit, and dream that has long preceded us and will now enfold, nourish, and sustain us.  The gift of the world is our first blessing."                                                                                          --John O'Donohue  

Love

Love is all around--everywhere.  It's in the essence of every creature, rock, and tree.  In every person we encounter.  The heart of the earth is exuding love all the time.  We're here to soak it up, and to use its positive, vibrant energy.  It comes through us as we live and share our unique passions and personal expressions with the world.  The more we do this, the more effortless our lives become.  Love comes in to guide us, shape us, and change us--and to bring us to our best selves.  Enjoy the life that is truly yours to live!

"Find some time alone outside.  If you are tempted to look out a window and let your view substitute for being outside, try this activity both ways.  I find that even a pane of glass disrupts the flow of nature's wordless message to me.  Even just stepping out your door and sitting in your yard or on a small balcony will enrich this [experience].  It is the difference between phone contact or holding hands with a loved one.  Which would you choose?  Nature chooses the hand-holding option."                                                                         --Susan Chernak McElroy                                                   

        

Flow

We are wrapped in the energy of All That Is.  Divine Presence infuses us.   Sometimes I myself get disconnected from this flow of energy.  I get stuck.  This being stuck is a stumbling block.  It is usually a knot that I need to untangle.  I think stuck places are good opportunities to gently attend to ourselves, to listen deeply, and to make space for the emergence of the unknown.  Often the block is a constriction caused by some fear that needs to come into consciousness.  It helps me when I step back, allow some time, and gently invite the stuckness to come forward to be released.  Often it needs some avenue of creative expression to become fully known.  The result of such caring attention is that beautiful flow is restored.  Life continues on in beauty.

"Beauty before me, I walk
Beauty above me, I walk
Beauty below  me, I walk
In beauty, I walk
To the direction of the rising sun, in beauty I walk
To the direction traveling with the sun, in beauty I walk
To the direction of the setting sun, in beauty I walk
To the direction of the dippers, in beauty I walk
All around me my land is beauty, in beauty I walk."
                                                         --Navajo Chant of the Night Way

    

Solidarity

The Universe is present and actively involved in the continual unfolding of All of Life.  Believing in ourselves and in our unique gifts is our task.  Tension sometimes arises when we move toward our best selves.  Many conflicting energies surround and infuse us.  This tension triggers the "old" but blesses the "new."  Our focus on our higher good continues to shape us and form us.  The Universe stands with us and guides our steps as we open ourselves to Larger Awareness.

"...we take an individual journey, as might a hero or heroine in an archetypal story, leaving what is familiar and embarking on a new quest.  And, as is true in any universal story, we are not alone.  We find many helping allies, as well as obstacles, unexpected gifts, and unforeseen circumstances that catalyze our growth and strip away what is unnecessary in our lives."
                                                                               -Angeles Arrien 

Grounding

Staying grounded.  Such an important part of the change process.  This doesn't have to mean that we're adding weight or heaviness or difficulty to our journey.  Sometimes that's how it has felt to me.  Like I've been grounded.  Stopped.  Slowed down.  A more expanded view of grounding includes honoring the large changes that are happening, facilitating and inviting energy into those changes, and allowing them to unfold in their natural organic way.  During this allowing process, it is often helpful to reconnect with larger Earth energy by spending time in nature, possibly even by just sitting on the ground.  This sort of grounding offers balance and support to the change process which can often be experienced as unsettling or chaotic.  Change is good, and we can befriend it as we revisit nature and stay grounded.

"The desire to replenish, rebalance, and come into inner harmony and natural rhythm is a universal longing that spans time and traditions.  We can nourish it in nature...
In traditional societies of North America, individuals who are in transition go on vision quests, spending time alone in nature without diversions.  This allows them to go within, listen deeply for guidance, and reflect upon what is true and right for their spiritual development and life purpose.  Narritjin Maynuru Yirrkala, an Australian Aborigine, said, 'We long to see the ground.  It is our power.  And we must stay close to it or maybe we will get lost.'"                                                      -Angeles Arrien
                                

Showing Up

All of Creation is here for us to enjoy.  It is the matrix in which everything is created and has life.  But not by itself.  Every part of this life is connected.  Each of us is here to contribute our part.  We have the choice about how we will participate.  Will we jump in with both feet and be our most authentic selves, or will we roll through life less fully, following the culturally prescribed plan?  In order for us to live authentically, we have to show up.  Be present.  Add our own unique flavor to the recipe.  We can't become our greatest selves without cooperating with All That Is.  If we are absent or fuzzy and unclear, there is no cooperative or co-creative energy match.  We have to bring forward our own special clarity and purposefulness for grand co-creation to take place.  When we step up with clearness, Creation guides us to bring our truth into being.

"It's never too late to be who you might have been."
                                             -George Elliott 

"Today, like every other day,

We wake up empty and frightened.

Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.
Take down the dulcimer.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."
                                            -Jelaluddin Rumi 

Being Authentic

Living in this fast-paced world of plastic, concrete, and hyperspeed communications sometimes makes it difficult to live connected to our authentic selves.  We go at breakneck speed living lives with impossible schedules, chasing after a paycheck or something solid that will pay our bills.  If we reflect on this life we see that much of our lives has been about this chase.  One benefit of getting older is that we have more of this life to reflect upon.  If we are honest with ourselves we might see that this chase has not been about who we are deep inside.  It has just been what we learned along the way.  When we take the time to listen and look at this deep question of who we are, we may find that we don't know very much about the answer.  NOW is a good time to start listening and looking. "Later" doesn't get us any closer to the answer.

"Reclaiming the authentic self and developing character are essential tasks in the second half of life.  Congruence within our nature fosters authenticity.  Acting with integrity is the practice that brings us into alignment and congruence...  People who have character and are honest say what they mean, do what they say, and say what's so when it's so.

The practice of being authentic requires us to release outdated or unnecessary patterns and beliefs.  It takes daily discipline to stay connected..."

                                                                   -Angeles Arrien

Being True

We are co-creating with Divine Essence.  When we participate in creative activities, we are adding to the larger positive Creation energy all around us.  We create anew every day when we live our authentic lives.  We are contributing to positive change in the world just by being who we truly are.  What a fun fest!  We get to jump into the river of this living, breathing, moving, liquid, flowing world.

"I would love to live like a river flows carried by the surprise of its own unfolding."
                                                      --John O'Donohue

Clarity

A diamond is valued for its clarity and brilliance.  Clarity is a valuable gift.  It gives us wisdom; insight; a spark of inspiration.  I am in the midst of such clarity.  That which was unknown to me is now known.  This knowledge ignites a flame in me.  A torch to light my way.  In some ways it is blinding.  But I still hear everything loud and clear.  Everything is new.  Life is Large.

"The clear bead at the center changes everything.

There are no edges to my loving now."

--Jelaluddin Rumi

 

Gratitude

As old leaves are cleared out and spring emerges with a flurry of plant and animal life, I am remembering the abundance of the past year.  I feel grateful for the bounty, gifts, and provisions that came into my life in the midst of uncertain times.  I have been cared for in numerous ways.  My life is rich and full.  Now even the smallest events are exquisite miracles:  a bud opening to become a beautiful blossom or bright green leaf, the colorful call of my local mockingbird, the scent of lily of the valley or lilacs on the breeze, or being present to observe a tiny jumping spider behaving in shy ways.  Unlimited beauty and interaction are ours to be received and enjoyed, coming as abundant gifts that evoke instant gratitude and appreciation.

"I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn."         --Henry David Thoreau   

Believing

Believing calls forward our best selves; our highest good.  Who you think you are is who you are.  It's not just a wishful "think--and that will be who you are."  It comes from a core knowing that this is who you are.  And it's just a matter of believing your way into being yourself, and acting on that belief.  Assistance comes from Divine Source as you find a resonance with All That Is. 

"I will no longer act on the outside in a way that contradicts the truth that I hold deeply on the inside.  I will no longer act as if I were less than the whole person I know myself to be."           --Rosa Parks  

Go Ahead

Go ahead. Grow.  This is the season of the sap running.  Of the sleepy plants and animals waking from dormancy.  Plants green.  Animals resume their active lives.  Movement replaces stillness.  The deep energy of Earth pulses through all of us.

"I'm going to plant a heart in the earth

water it with love from a vein

I'm going to praise it with the push of muscle

and care for it in the sound of all dimensions.

I'm going to leave a heart in the earth

so it may grow and flower

a heart that throbs with longing

that adores everything green

that will be strength and nourishment for birds

that will be the sap of plants and mountains."

                     --Rosario Murillo

This link offers lots of resources for women's health and growth

Journeying

As I open to and listen for the path of my life, I am made more clearly aware that this journey is my own.  It can't belong to anyone except me.  This journey is mine to live out in the world, and no one else can fulfill what is mine to fulfill.  This has brought up a stark feeling of aloneness.  I don't feel alone in the sense that no one cares for me.  But alone in the realization and acceptance that I came into this world by myself, as myself; and I will leave this world by myself, as myself.   Divine Source is with me throughout my journey, whether I feel connected or not.  This feels like a humbling and reverent awareness of my own commitment to my life.

"...each of us has to inhabit his or her own soul in order to find out who he or she is and where the intimacy of his or her heart touches the world.  No one else can tell you that; the maps that others have are of no use.  Each life must find its true threshold, that edge where the individual gift fits the outer hunger and where the outer gift fits the inner hunger."                         --John O'Donohue

"The Journey you are on is deep and powerful.  Your roots go far below the surface of your appearances.  Your infancy, childhood, adulthood, and old age are phases in the development of a plant.  The root that produced the plant has produced other plants in the past, and will produce more plants in the future.  That root is your soul.  The plant is your life.  The plant grows, withers, and dies.  The root remains.  ...the root is more than the plant."                             --Gary Zukav

Super Moon

Our brains have internal biological clocks.  Much instinctual behavior is influenced by the changing seasons.  We respond physiologically to day/night schedules, global tides, lunar cycles.  Women in particular feel a physiological connection with lunar cycles and moods.  We have recently been in the middle of several changes to our circadian rhythms.  Today is the day of the vernal equinox, the first day of Spring.  We just changed our time schedules to Daylight Savings Time, which influences our sleep/wake cycles.  And this Super Perigee Moon represents the turning of an even larger cycle:  the moon's orbit around the earth.  The moon at this full stage is closer to the earth than it has been since 1993.  Events like this can put us in touch with our ancient history and primordial life.  All  are reminders of how large Life really is.

"Within the circles of our lives
we dance the circles of the years,
the circles of the seasons
within the circles of the years, 
the cycles of the moon 
within the circles of the seasons,
the circles of our reasons
within the cycles of the moon."
                --Wendell Berry

Creating

We are in the process of creating our lives.  I am personally amazed at the co-creation I am presently experiencing.  Co-creation with Divine Source means that I do a lot of asking and listening and living in the moment.  I have found a solid connection with Big Love, and that love is in full support of my heart's desire.  This process of working together to unfold my life holds a vitality that is new to me and filled with creative synergy.

"Where a life of less awareness once unfolded unconsciously, a new and conscious life now emerges.  New goals appear, and new ways of relating lead you to them.  New satisfactions, never before considered, fulfill in unexpected ways.  Meaning pervades all that you do, and joy carries you forward like a leaf on a river.

Your life is no longer yours alone.  You are a companion of the Universe.  All of Life is your partner and together you create powerfully."              --Gary Zukav

Abundance

This week I was visited by a buffalo in one of my dreams.  In the teachings of native people, Buffalo brought the gift of prayer to humans.  The buffalo was also the major source of sustenance to the Plains Indians.  The invitation from buffalo is to show gratitude for whatever comes to your life to support you.  I have certainly had this experience of abundance coming to me recently.  Not in ways that I would have imagined or predicted, but in ways that were certainly sustaining.  I have prayed for the arrival of abundance, and those requests have been answered well.  I feel grateful, and I experience wonder as these mysterious workings unfold.

"The medicine of buffalo is prayer, gratitude, and praise for that which has been received.  Buffalo medicine is also knowing that abundance is present when all relations are honored as sacred, and when gratitude is expressed to every living part of creation."                       --Jamie Sams and David Carson, Medicine Cards 

Change

Living with change is not a comfortable prospect.  I always want something good to stay the same.  But that would mean zero growth.  Change is a constant.  It feels like my task of this present time is to become more friendly with the notion of change.  Not just to tolerate it, but to embrace it like a friend.  Especially, I am supposed to learn not to fear change.  Even though up until now that fear has been hardwired into my primitive, reptilian brain.  My alert responses are activated.  I'm watching for potential danger; threats; mishaps.  What an exhausting way to live.  I am being encouraged now to open to change.  To lean into the process of change as a creative unfolding of good for my life.  Just the sound of that feels better already.  Maybe I'll try going with the flow.

"There is no state of enlightened retirement, no experience of awakening that places us outside the truth of change.  Everything breathes and turns in its cycles.  The moon, the stock market, our hearts, the wheeling galaxies all expand and contract with the rhythm of life...  It is only by letting go into this truth that we awaken to that which is timeless, the reality of freedom."                  
                                                                         -Jack Kornfield 

Being

I am being--living in the moment.  Life is expressing itself through this moment.  I am knowing nothing more than this moment.  I am living life straight out.  Trusting that this moment is as it is meant to be.  It is who I am.  I am living me, being me, doing me.  Being... sweet moments of exquisite awareness and attention.

"A new way is one in which being is more important than doing.  Doing follows being and is an expression of it, rather than a frantic, aimless motion powered by fear or guilt through orders from outside.  Doing in a new way is an act of love, which is the physical manifestation of the spiritual connection among all things."                      -Sunlight, from Being:  Guide to a New Way

Holding Steady

New life can have its challenges.  Some days feel dark and cloudy to me.  Often the challenges come in the form of anxiety and discomfort--old messages that need to make noise to get my attention.  They need to make noise because this is their final hearing.  They recognize the new life that is happening, and they have been called forward to transition out of my life.  In the midst of this process the voices feel overwhelming, until a moment comes when I once again have the experience of feeling affirmed in my new life.  It's a give and take--a push and pull.  I move forward.  I acknowledge resistance.  I continue to move forward.  Staying on track with true life/true self is my task.

"This being human is a guest house.  
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor

Welcome and entertain them all
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house 
empty of its furniture.

Still treat each guest honorably,
He [she] may be clearing you out 
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent 
as a guide from beyond."

--Jelaluddin Rumi         

Dewy and New

I am breathing new life.  Breath of life beginning.  New, soft breath.  Fresh breath.  I am learning to be in these new moments.  Feeling my way into something that has just begun to grow.  For now, I am spending gentle time.  I'm listening for ways to nourish, encourage, and care for this new life.  Breathe...

"May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder."

                                                               -John O'Donohue

 

Letting Go

This picture says it all.  In the process of change we must be willing to let go.  To let go of the comfort of the "pod"--the place we once knew, where we've come from, and what's familiar.  My fear rises to the surface when I think of this.  I remind myself that the fear is old, and not helpful, and it comes forward for acknowledgment and release.   And then I look at the gift I get to take with me when I let go.  There is the seed of my huge new life--the essence of my becoming--that goes with me and flies on the breeze.  It finds fertile soil, waits for the right conditions, and then it slowly begins to emerge with a life force of its own.  All things move in a natural order and progression.  It is my job to stay in and with the unfolding; to remain engaged in the process.

"Only to the extent that we let go into change can we live in harmony with those around us and with our own true nature.  No matter what the situation, awakening requires trust:  trust in the greater cycles of life, trust that something new will eventually be born, trust that whatever it is, is perfect.  Wise letting go is not a detached removal from life.  It is the heart's embrace of life itself, a willing opening to the full reality of the present."                              -Jack Kornfield   

Growing

I am growing, changing, becoming.  In the hands of the Creator.  I don't know anything.  I am starting at square one.  Living my life differently--it's unknown territory.  I'm being pulled forward; allowing myself to be pulled forward.  There's a lot I don't know.  I am opening to being shown by the all-knowing Source.

"As you choose intentions that come from love, you will create healthy, constructive, good-feeling consequences.  As you become aware of everything that you're feeling, you become aware of everything that you're feeling, and often much of that is painful, until it has been released.  More joy, less  pain.  More love, less fear."                 -Gary Zukav  

Warmth and Kindness

In the Buddhist tradition there is a meditation for lovingkindness in which you hold yourself in your own awareness with love.  In our western culture, this is a challenging exercise.  An essential element of this loving attention is the act of forgiveness.  One way I feel I have neglected to practice this is in shining that compassion on myself.  I am aware that I have needed to offer forgiveness to myself for those decisions I've made in my life that were not in my best interest.  Because I had not taken the time to nurture myself--to hold myself in loving awareness--I was not connected with my own Source.  In those times I made decisions that kept me from living my true life and caring for myself in the best way.  Today I hold myself in that loving space, and I release those moments of carelessness.

"The time has come to turn your heart 
Into a temple of fire.
Your essence is gold hidden in dust.
To reveal its splendor 
You need to burn in the fire of Love."
                              --Jelaluddin Rumi     

Gathering

For me, this is a time of gathering.  I am gathering strength, wisdom, clarity of heart, and trust.  All of this is preparing me for new life expression.  It is a time for discerning what is most important, and receiving the available energy of this new unfolding.

"Experience is the arena where this whole adventure happens.  The hidden structures of experience become the windows of being.  This is how we unfold and enter deeper into knowing.  Our times are so passionate and absorbed.  It is a great era to be in the world; there are so many new horizons opening up all the time."

    -John O'Donohue   

Opening to the New

As I thought about what I might be opening to, I was reminded of an experience I had early last summer.  I was outside in my garden, when something flopped onto my hand.  I looked down, and there on my hand was a monarch butterfly.  It had newly left its chrysalis because its wings were heavy and damp.  I was so amazed when it landed on me, that I immediately sat down.  It stayed on my hand for over an hour, drying its wings in the sun, with liquid seeping from its body so that it could shrink down and become light enough to fly.  After some more time, I coaxed it onto a nearby jasmine plant.  I was able to take several pictures of it before it took a brief flight out to the wall.  It basked in the sun for an hour or so more, and then it was gone.  I was in awe that I had gotten to witness the intimacy of this new life beginning.  Life is such a gift.  Which feels like the essence of this quote I wanted to share:

"Choose life--only that, and always--and at whatever risk.  To let life leak out, to let it wear away by the mere passage of time, to withhold giving it and spreading it, is to choose nothing."

                                          -Author Unknown

Passing from Death into Life

Something is dying. Old ways are dying. New ways are beckoning. The grand cycle continues--birth, death, rebirth. I honor and value the contributions of my life that no longer serve me. I am being invited to let go. Things are not what they used to be. The old is breaking down to provide nourishment--fertile ground--for the new.

"Our work is to interpret this Life/Death/Life cycle, to live it as gracefully as we know how to, to howl like a mad dog when we cannot...and to go on..."

                                                             -Clarissa Pinkola Estes 

The Whitefeather Story 

Whitefeather came to me.  As I was considering a name for my website, I wanted to convey the sense of lightness I now experience after many years of life journeying.  Then I recalled a meditation time several years ago with my wise woman friends that had been preceded by a story that one of my friends shared.  She had been to a workshop where the leader had talked about names that the participants resonated with or felt “at home” with.  She said they were asked what name suited them.  As she said this, immediately the name Whitefeather came into my thoughts.  During our meditation time that followed I remembered thinking, “Well that’s nice, but when will I ever use that?”

So now several years later, the name had come back to me.  And so had several other good options for website names.  I was still undecided about my domain name when I was doing some reading one day.  The middle of this particular book included several meditations accompanied by appropriately related photos.  I landed on one about clearing physical blockages.  In this visualization, the author invited the reader to “ask for transformation of the malady—represented by the white feathers.”*  There on the same page was a beautiful photo of white feathers!  The linking of transformation with the white feathers was a direct and powerful connection for me.  Whitefeather Art was born! 

*Cell-Level Healing by Joyce Whiteley Hawkes, p. 69