Creations Call to In.Spirit.Action~~
‘It is when I seem to be doing the least that I am doing the most.
Leonardo de Vinci
As you may have noticed, my writer self has not been visible on this page lately. Since the beginning of 2010, I have been in a place of deep introspection, contemplative listening: more being than doing, the nourishing nurturing space so vital to the core of my ‘ I AM~ness’. Scanning my favourite art book, I was encouraged recently as I reread Jeanne Carbonetti’s insightful description of her process that so closely mirrors mine.
“…the world goes into soft focus…when I am in the waiting cycle…paying attention to the slightest stirrings that guide me to the next step….the being in the world, but not of the world…. Had I been busily engaged in something productive, I may have missed those stirrings.”
And so it is and was for me, when the art above began to call forth, beckon, flow on to the page guiding me from within to paint it into life. I stared fascinated, bemused by the pattern splay; the moving into intention phase, bringing essence into clear focus.
The following dialogue began running through my awareness ~ I burst out laughing, tears running down my cheeks and I had to stop the paint flow and capture the wordage flow on paper.
“I am Brigid. Brigid the goddess of Inspiration”, she began. Ummmmm… Okay, I thought: I had placed that card on my desk top recently for several months. Good, inspiration was stirring within.
AND THEN THE YAMMERING BEGAN
~I soon began to think of her as ‘Sassy Assy’ rather than Goddess Brigid, as you may immanently understand~
(~~ at sentence beginning will indicate Brigid’s words )
Hey come on You, it’s time to stop this now!
~~Huh~ I ain’t’ stopping
I mean you gotta quit spreading your fire wings…its getting ridiculous…you’re almost off the page
~~So what’s the problem…who’s to say…
Well, I am. You’re going into an art show, and so you will be viewed as a work of art and you should be …
~~Should be what! I’m a work for anyone to judge!!! No way!
Who are you? What’s up….you’ve waited all these years to come to this moment and you are telling me not to spread my wings, not to take up all the space that surrounds me…
Well no, I guess…
~~Whadda you mean…you guess…. I don’t believe you! What happened to you!!
Well we kinda created this YOU… together right?
~~Right… soooooooo
Well I only knew I was birthing something, ‘cause I felt so crappy for so long~ and then I sensed how close I was to this change within and … and I already knew what I was submitting to the International Women’s Day Art show! It was a done deal and…
~~And what !!!! I hadn’t appeared yet! ….so NO deal~!!
Well ummmmm…in my cauldron of mulling and fogginess of becoming ness ummm…ahhhh I just thought I’d play with paint…that creativity always feels good in the midst of my inner turmoil and then…
~~YAH and then….I SURPRISED YOU DIDN’T I~!!!!
Yah you did~ painted~ let it dry~came down the next day~and there you are staring at me~ Up heaving all my plans…
~~Hey you…Linda! …it’s like this…
~~if you are open to divine will, you are on the path of conscious living, willing to transform within and without…haha ~ what a word….within and out wardly….And then I am willing to allow you to paint me onto the page to show you what you are birthing i.e. Your INNER PHOENIX!!!!! What’s your problem with what I LOOK LIKE…~~!!!!!!
You’re gonna go through all this and then Give a Damn about what other people think about how I look!!!!! Seeding, gestating labouring and emerging IS MESSY work alright~~! There ain’t any other way…
~~And now that I am here, Lady….you bet I’m gonna spread my wings any which way I CHOOSE.
LOOK OUT WORLD HERE WE COME~!
Oh my jumping heavenly hosts, I silently mumbled, remembering the truth of the saying:
Be Careful What You Pray For~~
WEIRD HAS A PROBLEM
“Weird has a problem ervyone thought he was Weird, becau his Name was Weird.
The nxst day his Name was Prtty eryone love him.”
As one may see, I have kept this art for many years close to my heart ~ faded only in colour, never in import. My daughter created this wisdom piece when barely 5 years old. I have treasured it always and only now have I been drawn to bring my deep connection to this masterpiece of insight into words.
According to the Dictionary, one may find the following origin and definitions of ‘weird’
Adjective:
• Involving or suggesting the supernatural (beyond the natural)
• Fantastic or bizarre
• Archaic, concerned with or controlling fate or destiny
A few who have had, or presently live these attributes, often called heretics may include: Christopher Columbus, Joan of Arc, Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Beethoven, Florence Nightingale, Gandhi, Stephen Spielberg, Martin Luther and Coretta King, Stephen Hawking and the Dali Lama.
I clearly remember when I first heard some people scoffing Oprah as ‘weird’ for believing she could branch out into the magazine and television arena. All pioneers, geniuses, visionaries may be considered ‘weird’ whenever they venture into questioning or challenge existing concepts of the time. Moving beyond the known into new possibilities sets one up for labelling, fostered by fear.
Einstein addressed this fear head on, telling us that:
A problem can never be solved from the level at which it was created.
He also stated that imagination is more important than knowledge: a statement that challenges much of our civilized fast forward nations of today.
Having the courage to live one’s differences to ‘risk being weird, may come with a high price tag. Living this truth, one may be criticized, ridiculed, ostracized and even killed. I remember Sonia Choquette saying that like her, we must be ready to stand in the face of a thousand people telling us we are crazy for simply following our natural inner knowing, our intuition that guides us through life.
WEIRD, in the art above looks happy, excited, friendly, welcoming, gutsy and ready for any new adventure that may come his way. WEIRD looks like someone I would love to have as a friend. In many ways he looks like me and several of my closest friends.
I have not known the artist to make anything look ‘Prtty’ just to please others. Her strong sense of self from her earliest years seems to have inherently guided her forward and I highly respect that quality in her.
When she was young child, I remember often awakening to her before 6:00 a.m. questions: ‘Mom, I’ve walked the dog, had my breakfast and done my art? What can I do now?’ She was always excited about life and the next thing she could learn or explore.
She first taught me about sending double body language messages when I was concerned for her safety as she headed out to the road; she just stood there at 4 years old and said to me:
‘Don’t talk mad at me with a smile on your face’.
The one, who when I brought the gerbil cage in for her Show and Tell, immediately took it to her legally blind classmate so he could first see up close, touch and talk to them. Then she passed it around to the rest of the class.
Both the dog house and her bedroom shelf, she constructed from her own inner schema at 7 years of age. She sat in the garage rafters of our new single parent home, politely saying to the neighbour who offered to help us hoist the heavy 2 x 10’s into storage: ‘No thank you, we can do it ourselves’, when he offered to help us. I quietly smiled, since I already knew how she would respond to his offer.
Deciding to construct a dinosaur for her Science project in grade one, I was enlisted for library research that very day. During the month it took to complete the project according to her own stipulations, advice from her dad and me was all she required. The principal later explained that the judges did not award her first prize, since they couldn’t believe she had done such a complex assignment yourself.
This didn’t appear to concern you since you knew and I knew, and also the principal knew her level of excellence. Her belief in her abilities and certainty of outcomes aligned with what today, we term the ‘Law of Attraction’… much like another definition of the word Weird from the dictionary that both surprised and excited me.
Weird: before 900; (n.) ME (northern form of wird) OE wyrd; akin to WORTH; moving into the miraculous.
Akin in my mind, to the solid belief she held and holds in her ability to achieve her visions and goals to this day.
I was reminded of this assurance again the other day in the bookstore, seeing a tiny three year old walking down the aisle toward the children’s section; her mother following behind. At one point her mom instructed, let’s go this way now. She responded never looking back, never wavering from her goal:
‘No, mama, I’m going this way. I have my own mind you know’.
I smiled at her mom; she smiled in return continuing to follow her wee one. I, the quietly championing watcher seeing not just her, but both my daughters at that age, all the while thinking to myself:
YOU GO GIRL~!
In the words of Astrologer Jonathan Cainer:
At school, they teach us all to read, to write, to add numbers together and to behave ourselves. They give no classes in how to develop intuition – build deeper, more meaningful relationships – or even how to relax and enjoy life without feeling constantly pressured. No wonder our world is in such a state. We are urged to value achievement more than empathy and money more than love.
Life authentically lived invites us to own the so called ‘weird’ to honour uniqueness in ourselves and in our children: we are meant to ‘have our own minds’ so that the ever expanding, evolving world of new possibilities may grace our lives.
How might life change if people were to influence fate and destiny by owning their authentic worth?
If the chosen definition of ‘weird’ were to mean moving beyond the natural’ or known, what might be possible if we joined in this together?
In closing, I return to Einstein:
There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle or you can live as if everything is a miracle.
May your days be filled with peace and love, this holy season~ Linda
I Was The Small ‘i’ In The Middle of ‘HIDiNG’….
Love Invited Me To Stand Tall ~
I remember at a very young age pursing my mouth shut, hiding my heart.
I also remember 14 years ago, receiving an inspiring book from Holli, ILLUMINATA, by Marianne Williamson. I see myself high-lighting as if it was yesterday: ‘The history of the world is the history of control ~ by institutions, individuals and ideas…..seizing someone’s soul is the ultimate form of control because without our soul we are without love.’
At the everyday level control is the insidiously lethal process of slow death of the spirit…totally legal ~ Hidden rules blaringly written in invisible ink in many houses, businesses, churches, governments throughout the world. Secrecies, veiled threats: Children should be seen and not heard. Boys don’t cry. If you want your diploma, job, position, this is how it will be. THEY are our enemy. WHO do you think you are! Shackling of the spirit, hanging the head, hunkering inward, squelching the voice, hide, hide hide ~
Like the invisible man in the movie Chicago singing: “I’m just invisible me.”
Riveted my attention searing deeper to levels of ‘my own hiding’ still silently lurking within me. And I remember the people who ‘saw’ me, even in my hiding and who gently and surely loved me, as I loved myself back to who I am today.
For Love Is Always The Key.
Now is the time to look to our inner wisdom, to love and to be loved back to our authentic selves. Now is the time to heave off our hiding cloaks, return to the truth of who we are divinely created to be.
Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most.
We ask ourselves: ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and famous?’
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us.
When we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
RETURN TO LOVE: Marianne Williamson, 1992.
THANK YOU MARIANNE~
Today, I see even more clearly the imprinting of others courage to speak up steadily guiding my soul, encouraging me to come out of hiding; to take the leap in sharing my writing, photography, art and to begin inviting others to offer their Soul Prints of change, also.
Come join me in envisioning our new reality~ a wellspring of loving light and creativity, flowing out into our world ~
I Am The Ceo Of Letting Go
Grasping, Clutching, Breathing, Ahhh…
My Journal: the ‘raw unplugged’ … Lakeshore ~ AUG. 26th/09
“If the wind could blow my troubles away
Blow my troubles away…..”
I remember walking another beach years ago pleading, shouting these words into the raging storm flinging my arms skyward in supplication ~
Today – just whacked, wiped, trusting, living in the now ~ affirming ~moment by moment,
Knowing, conscious of, not in denial of all the lessons, challenges that are moving me forward to
creating the new all of which I can alllllmossstttt ~~~~see~~~ on the horizon.
So, I am sitting at a picnic table~
First time hungry today ~ having eaten a Tim’s bagel, broccoli soup ~ watching the wind surfers.
Am feeling stronger more connected to the world around me and am now mostly my calm observer self again. And knowing, I cannot STOP LETTING GO~ ……..letting go of stuff, things, relationships that no longer flow anymore, taking to goodwill store, garage sale-ing, gifting, recycling, repairing, restoring, refurbishing, passing it forward, giving, giving, giving, letttttting goooooooo~
Computer clearing, deleting, reorganizing, recreating, sorting, simplifying on and on and on ~ Cleaning, organizing cupboards, closets, drawers, cubbies, making space for the new~
~energy, ideas, people, love, gifts, abundance and prosperity in my mind, heart and soul, home, work, relationships
I’m the CEO of LETTING GO! Renewing, re-membering, transforming my life.
Letting go of residuals of hurt, sadness, fear, resistance, grudges, denial, confusion, disorganization,
I cant’s, don’ wannas, won’t works, of competition, of ‘better than me’s ~
The list of FEARS ~~~~ False Evidence Appearing as Real is endless~~~
Could build the Great wall of China, block by block if one chose to pile up the blocks of fear inculcated within us by all that surrounds in this world……So many blocks, damn blocks~ invisible~
Invisible ghosts in the mind ~ so powerful~ overpowering~
when we ‘BELIEVE’ THEY ARENT’ THERE…they hold even more of our POWER.
GHOSTBUSTERS~ name of the movie~
Ironically most descriptively powerful when it’s MINDBUSTING that is needed.
I AM THE CEO OF LETTING GO~ Flinging myself into the void of all possibilities….
END OF JOURNAL ENTRY…..
And then the windsurfer walks up to me and begins to tell me his story. “My wife and I came from Newfoundland 20 years ago for job interviews; I am a sail maker.
(I smile as I hear my spirit laughing…..I always know when I am in for another butt kicking into the next shift….all from good intentions, of course~! )
“I had an interview in another city and then came here. The interview went well and then my wife and I went to explore the city. We found this windy bay, full of sailboats and windsurfers and decided this was where we were meant to be. It has never been that windy since! But we have been happy here, taking weeks or months off to windsurf at the best surfing places on the continent when the work is slower. Now we have bought property in a beautiful place up north, by the Great Lakes and building our home on the water. Amazing isn’t it how spirit gets us to where we are to be, I grin and he and his wife laugh with me.
“Then I say to him: It must take a lot of strength to wind surf.
“No he responded. Actually see that young woman over there in the striped top, the one who looks like the wind will blow her over. She is one of the best surfers in the club. She knows how to sense the wind, to bend and move with the waves the motion of the bay.
She moves so beautifully across the water, with no effort.
By now, I am grinning, sassing spirit, inwardly saying…. OKAY ALREADY… You know I ‘know’ this lesson, but obviously you’re taking me through a refresher course.
I AM TO BE LIKE A WINDSURFER~ letting go of ’being strong, TRYING to make it work ~ I am to return to trusting, sensing, moving, flowing, riding the waves of life…..letting go, letting go with arms flung to the sky again,
welcoming the NEW, for the joy of the ride and highest call of my soul.
What might shift, arrive for you, if you should choose to let go~ perhaps of just one thing: the one right there ~ in your awareness?
How might that change your life?
Come join me, surfing along the waters of life~!
