Archive for the ‘returning to essence’ Category
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, 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 »
Thursday, 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 authenticity, Being, consciousness, divine feminine, Dreams, happiness, healing, managing change, not doing, nourishing ourselves, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 30th, 2010
Among the many prophesies about these challenging times we are inhabiting, the Hopi have commented on how things will continue to speed up. And their advice? “When things speed up, slow down.”
Isn’t it true that when we do slow down, the days seem longer? When we were children, time went so slowly. As we grow older and accelerate our “progress,” time speeds up. Proof that time is relative.
And isn’t it true that right now everything seems accelerated? For me it seems harder to stay in touch with everyone on a deep level, in spite of all the social media. Lives are getting more challenging and complex. Things are speeding up.
All the mindful meditation practices encourage us to notice all the elements of this very moment. That is slowing down to the now. And when I do that, I can actually see where I am. See better what drives me, what delights me. See more clearly what action I’d like to take next. See more wholly how I can serve.
What do you think about time? Is it running you? Are you “running” out of time? Or are you pausing, stepping out of time? Slowing down long enough to see and be?
Tags: centering techniques, consciousness, inner peace, living today, meditation, perception, Photography, spiritual practice, The Beauty Way, transformation
Posted in Being, centering techniques, consciousness, meditation, new life, not doing, nourishing ourselves, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, spiritual practices, The Beauty Path | No Comments »
Friday, April 9th, 2010
What do you look like to others? And how do you try to present yourself?
Each of us deals with the real fact that how we see ourselves may be different that the image others have of us. How do we begin to project a more authentic “look” that reflects who we truly are inside? Or is that even important?
In today’s culture we are so surrounded by invitations to be inauthentic and to conjure an image that is young enough, thin enough, glamorous enough…or just enough…that it can get exhausting. So how can we work on allowing our clothes, our makeup, our choice of hairstyle and the complete way we present ourselves in public to be just a natural celebration of being ourselves?
I love the days when I am going to an event and instead of struggling over “the right thing to wear,” I simply reach for the color that will nourish me, the necklace that will make me feel happy, the shade of lipstick that brings a smile to my face…and walk out the door just glad to be joining a community.
What if women all over the world rose up in protest of fashion tyranny and used fashion in this way: just a celebration of who they are. Certainly I know many women already accustomed to approaching their image in this way. But if we can encourage girls and young women to take a deep breath, maybe they will allow their “image” to reflect the celebration of being themselves, rather than one more thing to try to get right.
What do you think? What is your relationship to fashion and to the concept of your image? How would you like to be a leader in this area?
Tags: beauty, consciousness, Essence, fashion, inner peace, living today, musings, perception, Photography, Self, self image, The Beauty Way, women leaders
Posted in authenticity, conscious evolution, consciousness, feminine leadership, loving ourselves, nourishing ourselves, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, self image, shifting paradigms, The Beauty Path, women's empowerment | No Comments »
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
Being is wide-hipped
and wide-lipped.
She is like honey spilled
all over myself
spreading, oozing, sticky, adhering
to all my persistent doing.
Gumming up the works,
widening my cells, opening my heart, expanding to connect with all.
Being is curious.
She follows each feeling, each perception
without having to do anything at all.
She listens and sees
by moving under the thought or feeling
and simply holding it,
being it. Knowing it.
And then the most curious thing something happens
without will.
Something occurs, just appears
and then there’s a bit of doing to be done.
Not out of effort, just out of responsiveness.
And Being says that’s all we have to do. Really.
Just fully be and see what occurs
and respond to that.
That’s all.
Good bye to the hard case of doing,
to the constricted determination,
to the marching and the gritting of teeth,
to the stridency, to the striving, to the pushing up hills.
Hello to the honey, my honey, who is Being.
To the Mother who holds the seed,
the womb of the stars,
to the One within me who has already done it all
who knows it
and who simply
Is.
Tags: Being, centering, consciousness, Essence, inner landscape, inner peace, meditation, non-attachment, not doing, perception, Photography, Self, spiritual practice, The Beauty Way
Posted in Being, conscious evolution, consciousness, divine feminine, Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, loving ourselves, meditation, not doing, nourishing ourselves, Photography, poem, returning to essence, seeing oneself, self-healing, shifting paradigms, spiritual practices, spring, The Beauty Path | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
Two minds
What do you see in this image? I see a figure with two minds squeezed into one head. I guess, since the Sand Spirit I draw always reflects me, that I have two minds.
Of course this is true. I probably have more than two. But certainly living in a world of duality, I have two. One thinks everything should be logical, fit into categories and judged according to my criteria. (We could call that my left brain.) The other thinks everything is part of something else and that all things are connected, and looks for relationships and creative solutions. (We could call that my right brain.) This would be one way to describe my two minds. Are you aware that you have these both within you?
The Sand Spirit named Two Minds is telling me today that having two minds is actually fine, as long as I am conscious that I have them. Both logic and non-linear thought are helpful–both analytical and feeling-oriented. When I’m in one, I don’t have the other, and so I’m missing something. But when I am aware of my two minds, I am inside a third one–an aware, awake one that can observe myself. This is what we are capable of as evolving humans–at least at certain moments.
What do you think about your own right and left brain capabilities? And what about the objective observer, the third mind? Are you aware that you can switch from one lens to another?
Try choosing an issue that challenges you and observing it from the viewpoint of these three minds and see if some new ideas or ways of approaching the problem emerge.
Has this Sand Spirit helped you?
Tags: consciousness, non-attachment, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self, switching lenses
Posted in conscious evolution, consciousness, Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, shifting paradigms, spiritual practices | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
In the fall my husband Jon and I flew our Cessna 182 from Tucson to Taos to visit friends who have a wonderful mountain cabin. On the way, we saw fall leaves coming to their peak, almost as quickly as time lapse photography on the Discovery Channel. By the end of the long weekend when we returned, spots of gold like this one had spread, and whole swatches of forest were brilliant gold and orange. Superimposed on it all, I would see a moving shadow of our little plane, projected onto the screen of nature.
Plato saw reality in a way similar to this, as I recall–shadows projected on the back of a cave, like a camera obscura. Is everything we are so attached to a moving set of illusions?
Part of the Flying Lessons process I teach is the notion of seeing that we can move our vantage point around, seeing ourselves and our lives from above when that is helpful, defying the gravity of events on the ground level.
Another flying lesson is about opening our hearts to the beauty and wonder of nature, and to the beauty and wonder of our inner words as well. After all, we are part of the creation, and when we see that we are full of gratitude and a sense of connection to the whole web of life. The stories that fill the “middle world” which we usually inhabit are like this shadow of a small vehicle moving across the canvass of nature.
The key here is that we can observe all this. We are the first species that is conscious of ourselves. We have choices no part of creation has had before. What will we do with this awareness? Where will we travel on our journeys? What will our relationship be to the planet? What will our exclamations be as we observe our interaction with the planet; will they be utterances of wonder or cynicism? Small views or large? How curious are we to see what the extent is of our powers? How will we use them?
Or is the plane shadow just a “plain shadow,” just an illusion, just a passing image that no one saw anyhow?
What do you think? If, like me, you are a “philoser,” as I used to call myself when I was a child, and you too are sipping from a pot of tea, drop in and share your observations.
Tags: afternoon tea, beauty, Flying, Flying metaphor, inner landscape, musings, non-attachment, perception, Photography, relationship, Self, The Beauty Way
Posted in aviation, conscious evolution, consciousness, Flying, Gaia, Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, shifting paradigms, The Beauty Path | No Comments »
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Sand Spirit Insight card #21
I love this card. Sometimes I see a parental figure whose head is the peachy-apricot color, just radiating love on to the smaller one being held. Other times I see the higher Self holding the smaller self, and the smaller self feeling so good, so protected, so seen and so loved. Today it’s all of that: the soul within me holding me, loving me and me remembering that soul IS me, and so the two become one. Ahhh, it feels so good.
Sometimes it isn’t that we don’t think we are loved or protected. Maybe we believe in God loving us, or angels or guides who protect and care about us. But belief is in our heads. What is it that allows us to actually experience love? To receive it into every cell of our being?
What are your experiences of being able to open up in this way? Was it a result of meditation? A relationship? A teacher’s inspiration? Or was it mystery and grace?
For me, it has been all of them. And since I am a seeker of love, as I’ll bet you are, I collect these experiences. After enough of them collect within me, a tipping point is reached, and suddenly I no longer believe. I experience. And real life begins again.
Tags: inner peace, love, new life, Photography, relationship, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self
Posted in Guided imagery, loving ourselves, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence | 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.
