Archive for the ‘returning to essence’ Category
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
I walk out into the desert’s winter, watching for signs.
The blonde brittle grasses part, giving me a glimpse of apple green beneath.
The hard ground softens for ants wakening to build spring mounds.
Black broken trees play dead, but tell me the sap is rising like warm honey in their limbs.
The mountains’ sprinkling of sugar pours down into liquid in the washes.
Wildflowers are plotting from deep within their seeds, imagining their riot.
And I thrill to the feel of my heart widening into the sweet flow of breath within.
The land is remembering me into new life.
Tags: inner landscape, living today, musings, new life, perception, Photography, poetry, spring, The Beauty Way, winter
Posted in centering techniques, conscious evolution, death and new life, Guided imagery, inner landscape, meditation, nature as mirror, new life, Photography, poem, returning to essence, self-healing, spring, The Beauty Path, winter | No Comments »
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
What if your true voice–the one that represents your deepest truth and your most spectacular gifts–sounded like this flower looks?
I think it does. The question is, how do we remember how to bring out that true voice and give it to the world?
After all, if we don’t, our deepest message–which is what Angeles Arrien calls our personal medicine–could be lost to the world forever.
I just finished faciliating a luncheon seminar with an intimate group of 8 women seated around a table at one of Tucson’s loveliest resorts. This Feast for the Feminine Soul session was titled “Nourishing Your Authentic Voice.” So we discussed all the aspects of what the song is we want to sing, what stops us from singing it, and what might happen to us and to the world if we belted it out with abandon.
After all, we mused, how do birds know their songs? Well, it sure as hell isn’t because they think about it, try to figure it out, consider how it will affect other birds, or decide what they have to sing isn’t worthwhile. Their song is simply part of them, inseparable from their being– as the vibrant color of the flower in the photograph is inseparable from its petals.
We thought about the fears of singing out, and how they are related to being rejected or oppressed or made foolish or feeling unworthy, and decided that it’s true that these fears are part of being human. But as women leaders, we also know that we are, as the Dalai Lama pointed out recently, the ones who will save the world. And so the time’s up for those old fears. We long to move past them, to trust our voices. After all our lyrics are all about justice and love and compassion and all those other good things we want for ourselves and for the world.
We’re going to sing in the shower, in the grocery store, in our offices and in our bedrooms and board rooms. We want to belt out messages of truth and beauty and clarity, and we have faith that these songs will reverberate to places we cannot even imagine.
And you? What do you long to sing? What messages do you hope to contribute to the world? And if you spoke them with the deepest, truest voice within you, without false pride or false fear or apology, what might be the results? Could it be that you might change your loved ones in positive ways? Might you inspire others? Might you feel fulfilled and relieved from the freedom of being your real self?
Sing out and let us hear your voice.
Tags: authentic voice, beauty, Essence, Manifesting, new life, Photography, Self, speaking truth, women leaders
Posted in conscious evolution, divine feminine, Guided imagery, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, self-healing, women's empowerment | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Sand Spirit Insight card #4
I’m continuing my experiment of asking a question about a personal issue of mine, and then thinking of a number between 1 and 36, since that’s how many Sand Spirit Insight cards there are in the set. Today I asked about my lingering laryngitis. What do I need to know or do to get completely well?
Two numbers came to mind: 31 and 4. Interesting, since 4 is the sum of 3 and 1—so 4 seems to be up with this issue. The section on numerology and the Sand Spirits in my own workbook lists these words for the number 4: Work, foundation, order, health, service, practicality, application, loyalty, struggle against limtis, steady growth, rigidity and repression. Some words having to do with the light side of me and some referring to the shadow.
The Sand Spirit image looks like a guardian angel to me, and always makes me feel I am surrounded by protection and support. That’s a comfort. So I ask this angelic advisor, what words apply to me now, and what can I do to improve my health and my immune system?
The Sand Spirit points out that there’s a whole back story here about me not wanting to slow down, fighting limitations, not listening to my inner voice, and suffering health issues as a result. But I’ve been working on this. So now what?
“Still more layers,” she answers. “Loyalty…to others or to yourself? You’re still making your way toward equality in this department. Be willing to slow even more. Be very practical. You want to serve, and that is great. But some of your own needs are still being repressed. Look for them in your body…”
“So, would you say this has to do with speaking up for myself, or feeling I have no voice to do that?” I ask.
“Remember the little one at the bottom of the image who is the younger, smaller you?” the Sand Spirit asks. “You need to be her guardian angel and prompt her to speak up for herself. She needs to feel equal to the aspects of yourself you consider more worthy, more together, more of an achiever. When you accept the shadow as equal to the light, all will be well.”
And so, once again, the Sand Spirit has more wisdom that I know how to live out. So I am off to give that a try.
What did you see in this Sand Spirit image? What message does the figure have for you today?
Tags: centering techniques, Essence, inner peace, living today, meditation, musings, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self, spiritual practice, transitions
Posted in centering techniques, coaching, divine feminine, Guided imagery, Imagination, meditation, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, self-healing, spiritual practices, Uncategorized, women's empowerment | No Comments »
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
self portrait with grasses
I’m taking a wonderful tele-course from Craig Hamilton, who is teaching for Integral Enlightenment. Craig seems to be a highly evolved, gentle and thoughtful human who is giving his listeners wonderful exercises for shifting their lenses to a place beyond ego. Even though this kind of surrender isn’t something we can “do” or “accomplish,” it’s so lovely and true when we experience that place that I want to extend and expand my experience of living from that place.
Craig led us on a guided meditation back in time to the moment when the universe had just begun, as a tiny seed or point of energy he calls the evolutionary impulse. We felt the impulse within that seed to expand and create, and experienced the evolution of all things. We were each within that pinpoint, and thus were asked to experience ourselves as the evolutionary impulse, now in the form of a body/mind. Then, through that lens, he asked us to view whatever challenge we are facing in our lives and see how that challenge looks.
All I can really put into words is that next to that experience of being the evolutionary impulse, or being part of God, my challenges look pretty insignificant. My body felt a great relief, a relaxation, a surrender. Now I don’t hve to do it all by myself, I remembered. Now there is no self that has to try so hard.
And how did this feel, we were asked. Well, to me, surrender feels like being a blade of grass that is being gently blown by the wind. I bend, and am caressed.
And so, as my spiritual practice, I’m going to try to return to being that evolutionary impulse or that aspect of the Creator every day, which after all, is what every spiritual practice is about. If, once again, I can surrender to the intelligence of that Creative Force, I can be at ease, in grace, beyond ego–and connected to all that is.
What is your spiritual practice to move beyond ego, and how does it work for you? What does surrender mean to you and how do you experience it?
Tags: centering techniques, Craig Hamilton, ego, Essence, inner landscape, inner peace, Integral Enlightenment, meditation, perception, Photography, Self, spiritual practice, surrender
Posted in centering techniques, conscious evolution, Guided imagery, inner landscape, meditation, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, self-healing, spiritual practices | 8 Comments »
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
rainbow carrots
Wow! Have you seen these rainbow carrots? I thought they were so lovely that I decided to buy them no matter what the high-end grocery store was charging. They would be so fun to cut up! I couldn’t wait to see how much they held their color when cooked. And would the purple ones taste any different from the plain ol’ carrots I’ve been eating all my life?
I love it when something fairly simple and completely natural takes my breath away. Somehow it’s proof of persistent innocence. And of the real things that tend to give us the most pleasure.
It occured to me when I roasted these carrots with garlic and good olive oil, rosemary potatoes next to them, that food we consider beautiful probably gives us extra nourishment. All the research being done about the mind/body and about the body’s propensity to open with pleasure and close with fear on all its levels of functioning–well, the facts are a blur. But the impression I have is that when we take time, when we choose foods that are beautiful and pleasurable, our body breaks out into a big purr and is able to use the nutrients in the food to bolster the life force. And life force is what we want.
I had a client the other day who has been through such a major trauma that I feared she might be in a depression too deep for me to handle. I asked her how big she pictured the life force inside her to be. I asked her to picture it in the form of a flame, figuring she might tell me it was the size of a pilot light. She floored me by telling me it was as big as a house. I’m not worried about her now. Sure, I’m empathetic about the grief and the pain she has to go through, but I’m not worried about her in the long run because she has a life force as big as a house. She has rainbow carrots inside her.
Tags: Essence, food, living today, managing change, musings, new life, perception, Photography, Self, sense of humor, spiritual practice, ups and downs
Posted in conscious evolution, humor, Imagination, managing change, meditation, Photography, play, returning to essence, self-healing, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Often I pick a Sand Spirit Insight card at random, trusting that I know which one will tell me what I need to remember for the day.
This is an image I’ve always loved. I see a woman with a heart-shaped face, wearing flowing robes and bedecked with ceremonial scarves and decorations. Her body looks relaxed and she is walking forward gracefully, her right hand over her belly.
This woman is full of love and grace, and she is very earthy. She loves her body and loves and cares for herself in the best sense. She has a sense of humor and loves pleasure. All who come across her feel better just for being in her presence. I feel better just drawing the card with her image on it.
This Sand Spirit has come to remind me that we all–men or women–have this juicy, beautiful, fun and holy feminine energy within us. I think today my message is to bring her out and let her show, let her walk in the world. That ought to make today a magical day.
What do you see in this card? What does the form or figure that pops out for you have to say? And how do you respond?
Tags: centering techniques, Essence, Flying metaphor, inner peace, living today, musings, new life, perception, Photography, relationship, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self, sense of humor, spiritual practice
Posted in centering techniques, conscious evolution, divine feminine, Guided imagery, Imagination, nature as mirror, Photography, play, returning to essence, self-healing, spiritual practices, women's empowerment | No Comments »
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
Whenever I go to visit my grandchildren in South Pasadena, CA, I stay at a sweet B&B called the Artists’ Inn, where every room is decorated to honor a different artist. I’m especially fond of the Georgia O’Keefe room, but really the best part of my stay is afternoon tea. Ella and Henry, the eldest of the grandchildren, come and have tea with me. They each choose a china cup, and every day a different treat has been freshly baked. I flavor the tea (you can guess that sugar is a major ingredient) and set us up in the dining room. Their mom gets a little break, and I have the pleasure of giving them a ritual they only do with me. I also have the pleasure of giving myself a ritual I only do with them.
Ella and Henry look like little European children to me in their black hats, seated in front of lace curtains. And, there’s something about them having tea that suggests another country. We don’t pause for tea in America; in fact it’s hard to pause at all. Maybe that’s why Starbucks has become such a phenomenon.
I wonder what would happen if I treated the child inside me to a sweet pause in the middle of every afternoon. A china cup with sweetened tea, a conversation with a friend or a poem to read and consider. I might be healthier and stronger for it, and perhaps more peaceful.
Our pace of living today is frightening. And my only choices seem to be to 1. complain about what the world’s coming to or 2. take control of my own pace and regulate it.
How do you regulate your pace? Do you pause every day? Do you give yourself something sweet–sweet tastes or sweet music or sweet musings? I invite you to share your thoughts–they might help preserve life seen through an artist’s lens–or through a child’s.
Tags: afternoon tea, artists inn, grandchildren, inner peace, little break, living today, musings, own pace, south pasadena ca
Posted in centering techniques, children as teachers, conscious evolution, managing change, Photography, play, poem, returning to essence, self-healing, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Flying Lessons
Want to fly? Especially if you’ve seen Avatar, you know what I mean. Don’t we all long to soar in that free, powerful way that connects us to everyone and everything? It’s an image as old as humankind–soaring above our earthly cares and the solidity of the material world.
There’s only one catch–the one I learned when I was in flight training, earning my private pilot’s license back in the late ’90’s. The catch is that the scariest part of flying isn’t taking off or soaring or looking down on the little ant houses below. It’s getting that heavy piece of machinery back on the ground in one piece. It’s landing.
And yet we have to address that catch, because it’s basic. That is, who would be crazy enough to take off and soar if you didn’t think you could get back on solid ground? We are human, after all, and subject to gravity. So sooner or later we have to come home.
When I was learning to fly, and especially through the years that have followed my training, I’ve chewed on the metaphor of flight and on the many lessons for life my female flight instructor, Clio, taught me. Clio didn’t intend on being a spiritual teacher or the “aviation therapist” I called her, but I thought the spiritual training I got was pretty cheap at $65 per hour.
So now I’m writing a book: Flying Lessons for Life. And as I work on Lesson #1, Know Where You’re Going to Land, I’m full of thoughts about how important this concept is to me and to the clients I see. Almost everyone these days is “in transition–” a polite word for deep doo-doo in some area of life. The economy is hard, relationships and systems are falling apart, and the universe seems intent on decomposing anything that isn’t sustainable for the new future it must have in mind. So knowing where we’re going to land is more than just a handy skill; it’s a basic necessity.
Where do you go when everything falls apart? How do you find solid ground? Do you go to outer things? To family and friends? To substances? Activities? Or do you go inward? If so, how do you find center, that place where you can stand no matter what is going on around you?
I’m working on some ideas around these questions, but I’d love to hear from you. How do you know where and how you’ll land?
Happy flying!
Tags: Avatar, centering techniques, Flying, Flying metaphor, managing change, perception, Photography, spiritual practice, transitions, ups and downs
Posted in aviation, centering techniques, Flying, humor, Imagination, managing change, Photography, returning to essence, spiritual practices | No Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Sand Spirit Insight card #31
Perhaps you’ve seen my Sand Spirit Insight Cards. I thought I’d do a little free teaching about how they work by posting some of my own experiences. So here’s the card I drew today and the little story of what it says to me.
Today I’m sick, and I’m also sick of being sick! I’ve had a problem for over a year with getting over viruses that stick like a quicksand that pulls me down. I’m not into laying low for another couple of months, even though I’m trying to be patient. So I asked the Sand Spirits for some advice.
This card #31 is an image I photographed horizontally; that is, the way I’ve always viewed this card is the view that would be rotated 90 degrees. Since this software is still new to me, I couldn’t figure out how to rotate the image. So, let’s work with what seems to be firmly in place, even though I don’t want to see it that way!
When viewed in my “normal” way, I’ve always seen an eye with a tear falling from it. Sometimes that is a gentle hint to accept grief that I may be not willing to feel. That’s what I thought was up here when I first picked the card.
Now that I can’t turn it, and am forced to look at it “through a different lens,” (serves me right, I suppose) I see a seed. The stone that was formerly the iris of the eye is now a seed planted in the earth (or planted within me, perhaps) that seems to be radiating energy out into the ground that is containing it. A drop of water (which I suppose could also be a tear) is penetrating its space, bringing it nourishment.
Hmmm. So there is a seed within you, Pam, the Sand Spirit says. And it is radiating energy into the very ground of your being, even though all that is invisible to you. And, this is a time for that seed to receive nourishment. It needs the “water” of pure emotion, the moisture and juiciness of Spirit. So don’t be dry and brittle just now. See if you can keep the soil, the ground within you moist and receptive. The seed will appreciate it. And by the way, the seed is YOU! The seed is your essence, which is after all, what you are wanting to bring out from within.
The important question is, what do YOU see? You may see something completely different in this image. If so, what is the form or figure and what is its message? I’d love to hear from you!
Tags: Essence, inner landscape, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self
Posted in centering techniques, Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, managing change, meditation, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, self-healing, spiritual practices, Uncategorized, women's empowerment | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
When I took this photo of a stunning tree (is it a Cypress?) I encountered in Santa Barbara, I wasn’t thinking about an open heart. I just noticed the golden light of the sunset on the trunk, and the wonderful geometric shapes of the branches.
But today, in thinking about the seminar I’m teaching on Thursday about living and leading with an open heart, I happened to look at my friend, the tree. I believe it has a perfectly open heart. Its core is open to both earth and heaven, drawing nourishment from both, and giving back to each. A good model for living and leading, I think.
When I look at the tree, I also think of the yoga Tree Pose. When I enter that pose, at first I’m just thinking about keeping my balance while lifting one leg and positioning the foot along my standing leg. Once settled into the pose, however, I’m able to lift my arms like branches, a motion that opens my heart. Does this mean that you have to have your balance before you can open your heart?
I do know that when I begin to fall out of balance and am afraid, my instinct is to close my heart. It’s an old notion of protection. So the practices of photography and also yoga are good reminders. Regain my balance and open my heart. Sink my roots into the earth. Raise my arms to the heavens. See now, what the next step might be.
Tags: centering techniques, Essence, inner landscape, meditation, perception, Photography, spiritual practice
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