Archive for the ‘seeing oneself’ Category
Monday, December 6th, 2010
I’m going to go through the Sand Spirits Insight Cards in order, so you’ll get one per week to think about. This is week #2 and card #2. See how this relates to what’s up for you and add your comment!
First of all, the number 2 is all about relationships. How are your personal and professional partnerships? This number speaks about communication, interdependence and right relationships.
Now, what do you see in this image? I see a figure who looks androgynous, and who is dressed in a robe. S/he has her hands in prayer and light around her head. If I look closely, I see her left eye open and her right eye closed. It appears that she’s standing in water.
I ask her who she is. She says she is a spiritual energy, an archetype who could help me this week.
Tell me what message you have for me about myself and my life, I say. She says I am to keep my left eye open–that is, be sure my right brain is activated. That means using my intuition more than my logic. She says I could find myself “in hot water” in some way, and if that happens, her advice is to focus on what is right, and on my gratitude for all I have and for all that is going well. That will keep me “en-lightened.”
How do I translate this into actions and attitudes I can start right now? Well, technological things are driving me a bit crazy at the moment, so I guess I’m to bypass logic and use my intuition about what to tackle and how. I don’t see any “hot water” yet, but I’ll be on the lookout and be ready to focus on the positive. And I’ll pay special attention to nourishing and strengthening partnerships on every level.
How about for you? What does this Sand Spirit say to you about yourself and your life? How does that advice pertain to this week, and particularly to partnership and relationship?
Tags: centering techniques, creative imagination, Nature and the soul, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards
Posted in consciousness, creative imagination, Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, Tools for seeing ourselves | 2 Comments »
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
I haven’t blogged in a long time. Not sure what the block has been about it, but these things happen. So in order to take action, I drew a Sand Spirit Card. Let’s see what it has to say about procrastination and blocks:
What I see in this photograph is a holy-looking figure wearing a robe and holding its hands in prayer. (Is that what you see?) Below it is a smaller figure. I’ll talk to the larger one. Who are you? I ask it.
“I am a representation of your higher self, talking to your ‘lower’ or more materially-oriented self.”
And what do you have to say to my smaller or lower self about procrastination? I ask.
“First, it’s normal. We all are changing all the time, and sometimes during periods of transition we cannot stick to our old routines. So, just forgive yourself and move on when this happens.
Second, when you realize that you’re motivated to begin, or at least dissatisfied with your waiting, just dive in. Beginning is at least half the battle.
Thirdly, have faith that all the prayers you offer about being able to be more of your real self, about contributing to the world and about manifesting more wisdom…all these prayers are heard, and their answers have perhaps been percolating during your hiatus. So consider the possibility that even your procrastination has served a purpose.”
Wow. OK, I answer. I feel relieved, and grateful for this wisdom. Thank you, Sand Spirit.
Now it’s your turn. What do you think about these three comments about procrastination and blocks? Are they true for you? If so, how will you apply them?
And what do you see in this Sand Spirit image? I look forward to a dialogue with you!
Tags: perception, Photography, procrastination, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, transitions
Posted in authenticity, bringing out your gifts, Imagination, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, Tools for seeing ourselves | 3 Comments »
Monday, October 11th, 2010
Nature and the Human Soul
I just enjoyed another weekend at our Rocking X Ranch in the Sierra Ancha mountains of Arizona. The time in nature always relaxes my body and mind, and leaves plenty of room for my soul to speak and to listen. My favorite sound is the wind through the Ponderosa pines, that sounds like the ocean. My favorite feeling this time was the cool air that was so refreshing after record-breaking heat in Tucson. And my favorite sights are too many to name. But I liked the way the sun came through this old glass that held my iced tea as I read by the stream.
I finished Bill Plotkin’s big and important book, Nature and the Human Soul. How right he is that our culture (which he calls “patho-adolescent,” is not what makes us true adults. We grow instead, by our immersion in the wild, natural forces that are akin to our souls. Then our task is to harvest what we learn from outer nature and our inner one, and bring it back into the world. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more of us could do this?
My reading and musing made me feel so fortunate that I have a place to remember who I truly am, and how lovely the universe is that birthed me and this life I love. Experiences like this nourish my passionate desire to bring tools into the world that help us “see the shape of the soul,” “make the invisible visible” and make the “unconscious conscious.”
How do you chase the image, or the shape, or the flavor or sound of your soul? Where do you go to remember the wild, natural part within you? And how do you long to bring that essence into your world?
Tags: Bill Plotkin, consciousness, Essence, inner landscape, living today, Nature and the soul, perception, Photography, Self, soul
Posted in consciousness, inner landscape, nature as mirror, nourishing ourselves, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, self image, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010
I see a funny figure in this Sand Spirit image– a dog or weasel standing on two legs,with its head in profile, looking to the left and showing us a huge black left eye. Do you see this? Its body has a stone at the waist or midpoint and another one near the feet. This seems to be a very grounded figure to me–one who sees and feels in its body and has its feet on the ground in a solid way. I think when I speak with this figure, what it says will make sense.
And how do I come up with what I see in this abstract photograph that began by being an abstract, natural arrangement of stones and streaks in the sand? How do you come up with whatever you see?
I see this way just by opening my active imagination, by using my intuition and my right brain, that non-linear, non-logical way of knowing. This way of seeing is called by some people “second sight.” Another way to look at it is that it’s our 6th sense. Our “common sense.”
What we see through the inner eye is just as valid as what we see with the outer one. And sometimes, even when we’re confused by what we see with the outer eye, the inner one makes sense.
When we are told, “Oh, that’s just your imagination,” one response might be, “What do you mean by just?” Why denegrate the inner eye? It has been responsible for everything creative in the human-made world. Our vision is the beginning of actions we call genius. Without seeing it first inside, we wouldn’t do much.
What are you going to do as soon as you finish reading this? Imagine doing it. See the inner movie? Doesn’t that happen all the time? You run a quick version of what you’re planning through the inner eye, and then you “see” how to go about it.
Now that is just common sense.
What do you think? I welcome your comments!
Tags: consciousness, creative imagination, Imagination, living today, musings, perception, Sand Spirit Insight Cards
Posted in conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, Creativity, creativity and empowerment, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Monday, September 27th, 2010
This weekend I was at the Rocking X Ranch, having my own retreat with my husband. Across the creek from this group of chairs is a long and wide patch of blackberry bushes, partly visible in this photo. The blackberries were ripe, and so of course we picked all we could reach.
I always learn from picking blackberries. Here were the lessons they taught me this time:
1. Blackberry juice is a powerful and brilliant dye.
2. Greed can hurt you.
3. Overreaching is not always a wise idea.
4. Cost benefit analysis can be done very quickly. (Are there enough berries in there to justify climbing in and risking more scratches?)
5. Sometimes your harvest falls apart in your hands, and in such cases the best move is to eat and enjoy.
6. You may think you’ve looked hard, but coming back in the other direction, more abundance may be revealed.
7. You never know what planting one vine may create down the line. (Jon’s mother swears the whole patch started from one she planted years ago.)
8. On a given day your crop may look meager, but by the very next day you may have abundance.
9. Gratitude makes the eating sweeter.
10. Look under. Look up. Look between. Look around. Look ahead and look back. Expect to find and bring a large container.
11. Persistence pays.
12. A pie made from what you pick will be the very best.
13. Nature gives and gives and gives.
Tags: abundance, gratitude, inner landscape, Nature and the soul, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in nature as mirror, Photography, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, The Beauty Path | No Comments »
Tuesday, 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 consciousness, inner landscape, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, The Beauty Path, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Thursday, 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 bringing out your gifts, coaching, conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, creativity and empowerment, Guided imagery, happiness, healing, Imagination, inner landscape, managing change, nature as mirror, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, self-healing, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Tuesday, 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, creative imagination, Gaia, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, Photography, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms | No Comments »
Thursday, 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 bringing out your gifts, conscious evolution, creative imagination, Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, loving ourselves, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, self image, self-healing, shifting how we see | No Comments »
Tuesday, 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 aviation, consciousness, Flying, Imagination, nature as mirror, nourishing ourselves, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, The Beauty Path | No Comments »
I’m going to go through the Sand Spirits Insight Cards in order, so you’ll get one per week to think about. This is week #2 and card #2. See how this relates to what’s up for you and add your comment!
