September 7th, 2010
I’m listening again to Ekhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, and remember why it’s such a classic. It is so dense and full of truth, that if I could implement 1/10 of it, I know my life would change.
Of course I love the points he makes about seeing, since that’s what my own interest is. We don’t usually stop to really SEE a leaf, Tolle reminds us. And when we do stop long enough to “get out of time,” our perception shifts. Suddenly everything is vibrant and alive. We are seeing and being in a pure way, observing without the usual filters of judgment and labeling.
This is what photography has always done for me. It brings me back to my senses. It helps me see the light–in more ways than one. It is a medium that invites me to discover beauty where I might have settled for a passing glance.
And Tolle makes the point that when we perceive beauty, we are perceiving essence. And when we perceive essence, we are also perceiving ourselves. We are essence just like the leaf. We are beauty just like all of nature. And that is surely worth remembering.
Tags: beauty, consciousness, inner landscape, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in Photography, The Beauty Path, Tools for seeing ourselves, consciousness, inner landscape, nature as mirror, returning to essence, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms @ 07:52 pm | Permalink | No Comments »
September 2nd, 2010
I love using the Sand Spirit Insight cards to reveal a personal myth that might give you insight into a theme in your own life.
Choose three cards from the pile face down, or just think of three numbers between 1 and 36 and pick those. I chose #33, #16 and #11.
From a completely intuitive place, use the three “illustrations” to stimulate a story that pours out with the least amount of thinking possible. Here’s mine:
One day a mother was thinking hard about how to juggle all the activity and all the dynamics in her family. She had a very colorful, very vibrant family, but sometimes they all were confused and troubled by the changes among them and in the world. They were looking for signs about the Divine path they all might follow.
At times the mother despaired, feeling the grief that surrounded her own helplessness, and wondered if all her experience counted for anything.
Into her dreamtime flew a strange and comical bird, who in his serious form showed her how hunched over she might become if she took all the weight of the world upon her shoulders. Another way, he pointed out, would be to take it all lightly, like a sweet and funny story that was really based on love and on how alike we all are.
See how this story might have helped me? What do you see in the three cards? What story would you tell? Myths, especially when they come from ourselves, give us the gift of the big picture, the universal. This takes us out of the small world that entraps us when we forget that we are all connected and part of one Creation. The spirits from the sea evidently want us to remember that while we are all drops, we are part of the great ocean!
Tags: consciousness, Flying metaphor, inner landscape, living today, managing change, musings, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, transitions, ups and downs
Posted in Guided imagery, Imagination, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Tools for seeing ourselves, bringing out your gifts, coaching, conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, creativity and empowerment, happiness, healing, inner landscape, managing change, nature as mirror, seeing oneself, self-healing, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms @ 05:29 pm | Permalink | No Comments »
August 24th, 2010
Are you familiar with fractals?
This flower might not technically qualify, but it’s close. We can look at the whole thing and say it’s a flower. Then if we look at each section, it’s made of…miniature flowers. Flowers within flowers. Other more “exact” fractals might include a cauliflower.
Mini-worlds. That’s what fractals remind me of. The macro and the micro.
Our bodies are, of course, magnificent examples of the macro and the micro, of mini-worlds contained in a framework that is contained in a macro world that is contained in a galaxy…cells within cells. Bodies within bodies.
What worlds do you contain within you? What physical ones and what examples of cosmic consciousness?
I believe that in some sense, we contain everything, just as we are contained.
And what do you think?
Tags: inner landscape, musings, perception, Photography
Posted in Being, Gaia, Imagination, Photography, creative imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms @ 04:39 am | Permalink | No Comments »
August 19th, 2010
Sand Spirit #13
Today I drew this Sand Spirit, and had this dialogue with it. First, I asked, “Who are you?”
And I “heard” it answer, “I am a reflection of your essence, which is similar to the essence of every human, but also unique.”
“And why, out of all the images I could have chosen, did I choose you today?” I asked.
“Well, because this is a day when it would be good for you to remember your true essence and to recognize the true essence in all others. That way you can forgive your own limitations and the limitations of others, just by remembering who we all really are.”
“Thank you!” I say back. And then I ask, “Do you have any other message for me?”
“Yes, I think it would be great to concentrate most on the gift you see me holding in my left hand. This is a reflection of the unique gifts you have to offer the world, and the unique gifts everyone has to offer. Keep asking yourself what yours might be, and what each person’s might be also.”
“I will, Sand Spirit. Thank you for your wisdom.”
And what do you see in this Sand Spirit? What would your answers be to the questions? I would love to hear some.
Tags: beauty, Essence, inner landscape, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self, spiritual practice
Posted in Guided imagery, Imagination, Photography, bringing out your gifts, conscious evolution, creative imagination, inner landscape, loving ourselves, nature as mirror, returning to essence, seeing oneself, self image, self-healing, shifting how we see @ 10:56 pm | Permalink | No Comments »
August 10th, 2010
Guanacaste sunset
When we were in Costa Rica last month, I had some heavy things on my mind. Despite the fact that we were so fortunate, despite the profusion of juicy jungle life all around us, I was burdened. (I’m probably not the only one who has had things changing, falling apart and challenging me lately!) So my vacation To Do list had just one thing on it. It was one of the 7 Flying Lessons from my forthcoming book. It was easy to pick the appropriate one: Remember Why You Long to Fly.
As if I had called on her, Nature helped me with this lesson. For most of the first week it had been too cloudy for any sunsets. So when we had a clear evening, we planted ourselves on the beach. It was quite a show. The cloud blanket that had been providing the overcast lifted just enough to be completely lit up, creating a rose glow on everything and everybody. Nothing to do here but point, laugh, exclaim. Pure, unadulterated beauty.
Being on that beach was like flying. I felt lifted, transported. In the presence of something wondrous and magical. It rendered any of my own concerns small…or perhaps it just bathed them in a rosy light and made me see that all will be well. All is already well, I remembered.
What do you think happened in this scene? I believe I finally re-opened my heart. The beauty had been all around me the whole time, but this overwhelming scene just cracked my heart open, and I remembered.
I want that feeling of flying, that ecstatic feeling, because it re-connects me with the truth. The truth that I am a spiritual being capable of great flights, and that I am connected to everyone and everything.
What makes you remember why you long to fly? What lifts you and transports you and opens your heart and causes you to remember All That Is?
I wish you that experience of soaring. Why not remember today?
Tags: beauty, consciousness, Flying, Flying metaphor, inner peace, living today, perception, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in Flying, Imagination, Photography, The Beauty Path, aviation, consciousness, nature as mirror, nourishing ourselves, returning to essence, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms @ 06:58 pm | Permalink | No Comments »
August 5th, 2010
Have you seen sand spirits like this? Surely you’ve walked on a beach where the iron filings leave streaks in the sand. And where the tide reveals shells and rocks that sit perched on top of the pattern like a head on top of a robe. Have you imagined that these faceless robed ones are spirits?
If you’ve seen my Sand Spirit cards, you know that I’ve spent a lot of time imagining this, and working with people willing to dialogue with these “spirits” to see what wisdom emerges. (If you haven’t seen them, consider going to throughadifferentlens.com and hit the Sand Spirits tab.)
These spirits, now long-time friends of mine, are proving themselves international. I discovered the original images in Mexico, and this photo is from a recent trip to Costa Rica. Where else have you seen the “faeries of the sea,” as shamanic teacher, Tom Cowan, referred to them?
Perhaps there are colonies of spirits hidden within nature, just as the Celtic celebrants believed. We can regard these invisible ones as friends who help us live in and understand more than one level of experience at a time. Kind of like multi-tasking in this “middle world,” we can experience the spirit world while walking “on practical feet,” as teacher Angeles Arrien puts it.
Look around you now, wherever you are. What elements of nature are nearby? Even if you’re in the middle of a city, you have sky and clouds. Can you see figures in these elements of nature? What if you played with them as if they were “signs” meant to help you walk in more joy and peace and wisdom? What might they say, then? And how would you respond?
Everywhere in the world, we have the earth, and her spirits. We simply need to open our eyes.
Tags: consciousness, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, spiritual practice, The Beauty Way
Posted in Imagination, Photography, consciousness, creative imagination, nature as mirror, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms @ 05:56 pm | Permalink | No Comments »
July 29th, 2010
Blue Morpho
This is my favorite Costa Rican Butterfly, which I got to see again at a Butterfly farm, where the trained guide held this one in his hand for us to see and appreciate. The butterfly facts of life he shared were stunning to me, and made me think again about the subject of transformation.
Did you know that caterpillars have within them “imaginal cells” that carry the blueprints of their future lives as butterflies? I think of these almost like photographic negatives, and also like the luminous field that surrounds us all. This energy carries a blueprint of what we might become as well, and that’s why it’s so important to “clean” this field as often as possible and to keep gathering light energy around and within us. We want those blueprints or negatives to carry the highest and best possibility that we will then manifest in form.
Are we like imaginal cells in our society, who all carry blueprints of transformational possibilities for the planet? I like to think so. What do you think?
I found it amazing to hear that caterpillars also have wings! They aren’t visible, but they are incorporated into the caterpillar’s body. During their stay in the chrysalis, the wings begin to unfold so they can be available when the chrysalis breaks down and the butterfly emerges.
Perhaps we too have wings of sorts–forgotten angelic parts that are within us. When our time come to break out of this form, I like to picture those wings unfolding and presto! Flight!
Finally, one more fact about the Blue Morpho delighted me. The wings are not really the beautiful sky blue they appear to be; they are transparent. From ground level, one can look up at the morpho and see that the wings are transparent. But the top part of the wing reflects the sky, and so appears to us to be exactly the sky’s color.
So we too may not be the “color” we appear to be to others. We are really light beings, and so we reflect what is around us. In reality, we are transparent, light-filled. And all our colors, though beautiful, may be illusions.
And so how is all this butterfly stuff useful? Well, for me it helps me to remember that there is “more than meets the eye” in every person and every situation. If much of what I see is illusion, then I must continue to train my inner eye to see the invisible, and to bring that vision into my life that I might see more clearly and use that vision to become a wiser, clearer, more loving human being.
Tags: beauty, consciousness, Flying, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in Flying, Imagination, bringing out your gifts, conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, death and new life, inner landscape, nature as mirror, seeing oneself, shifting how we see @ 06:55 pm | Permalink | No Comments »
July 22nd, 2010
Costa Rican turtles
While I was on an idyllic vacation in Costa Rica, I was shocked to have a disturbing nightmare that “woke me up” with a warning.
In the dream, I was driving a car too fast around a curve. To my horror, straight ahead of me was a toddler standing alone, right in the middle of the narrow road. I recognized her as a young version of my precious daughter, Erin (now a mother in her own right.) As in many other dreams I’ve had, little Erin seemed to represent everything innocent, beautiful, creative and fragile.
There was no time to come to a stop. To avoid hitting the toddler, I began to swerve right, onto the shoulder where there was a small store. At the moment a mother and her toddler came out of the store and walked in front of my car’s path. Confronted by the choice of hitting my own toddler or a mother and her new life, I woke up in a sweat, wondering what this nightmare could mean.
By the middle of the next day my frantic mind stopped long enough to see the simple truth. “Slow down,” the dream was saying to me. “Slow down before you mow down innocence, femininity, creativity, beauty and new life.”
And I was in the right place to practice. Costa Rica has a much slower pace than the U.S. That’s why their favorite expression is “Pura vida,” which means life is pure and good. They seem to get more juice out of every moment than I have in my usual pace. These turtles are good at practicing slowness, so I will hold them as totems.
I take my dreams seriously, so I am still practicing at home. Slow down. Breathe. All I have is this moment–with all its innocence, beauty, creativity and new life.
How do you keep your pace slow enough to make sure you experience “pura vida?” I’d love to hear your comments.
Tags: beauty, consciousness, inner peace, living today, managing change, musings, new life, own pace, perception, Photography, spiritual practice, The Beauty Way
Posted in Being, Dreams, Photography, Uncategorized, authenticity, consciousness, divine feminine, happiness, healing, managing change, not doing, nourishing ourselves, returning to essence, seeing oneself @ 11:43 pm | Permalink | 1 Comment »
June 16th, 2010
Maggie just had her “happy” and she is two. What did she have to say about that? “My happy June.” Yes, her birthday was in June. And on the day, she just kept saying, “My happy.”
It is her happy. She has every right to have “happy.” None of us would want to deny a two-year old as adorable as my grand daughter her “happy.”
And as for the rest of us? Do we know as certainly as Maggie that it is natural and right for us to have our own “happy?” If so, why does it seem hard to hang on to sometimes? Why are we so affected by outer events that we forget about that birthright? Why do we just hand over the power we have to claim “happy” for ourselves?
This is a simple wish for you to find your “happy” right now, independent of any challenges or sadnesses happening in your life. It is still your “happy” and it doesn’t even have to be your birthday, or June.
This is your moment.
Tags: birthright, challenges, consciousness, happiness, inner peace, musings, perception, Photography, ups and downs
Posted in children as teachers, conscious evolution, consciousness, happiness, loving ourselves, new life @ 05:06 am | Permalink | No Comments »
June 12th, 2010
Can you believe this ceiling? It’s part of the Boulder Teahouse, a building originally from Tajikistan that was shipped to CO in pieces and re-constructed. Sitting in that environment with my daughter Laura and my recently graduated grandson, Simon, I wondered what it would be like to live in a culture so steeped in beauty that it is all around you and in you. I imagine, perhaps with too much romanticism, that it would be more difficult to be cruel or thoughtless if you were surrounded by evidence of human creativity and crafstmanship. And, perhaps it would be harder to get lulled to sleep than it is entering a shopping center that looks like any other shopping center in the country.
If it sounds like I’m an architectural snob, I admit this is probably true. I’m in California right now, where architecture in certain areas has been preserved and maintained and honored. I love wandering past Craftsman and Victorian houses, admiring the romantic Spanish colonials and appreciating how the landscaping frames and enhances the buildings. Architecture is part of our highest human expression. To me, dull and repetitive architecture is a sign that the creative spirit has gone to sleep or is not being honored. What happens to a society that has stopped valuing beauty in our surroundings?
We don’t have to be part of that trend. No matter where you live, you can use your imagination and creativity to enhance your nest. What are new ways to put together your belongings that will be an expression of you and your appreciation for beauty? Just the exercise of thinking about this can fire up your awareness and your creativity. When that’s at work, other things in your life can change as well, because you will be awake as a creative being.
What can you take away or add or re-arrange? I’d love to hear your ideas and solutions!
Tags: consciousness, Creativity, inner landscape, living today, perception, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in Creativity, Imagination, The Beauty Path, bringing out your gifts, creative imagination, creativity and empowerment, inner landscape, seeing oneself, shifting paradigms @ 04:19 pm | Permalink | No Comments »
I’m listening again to Ekhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, and remember why it’s such a classic. It is so dense and full of truth, that if I could implement 1/10 of it, I know my life would change.
