conscious change Archives - Page 28 of 46 -

Go Gently

By Simone Lipscomb | August 31, 2016

So great is the darkness the only way I can see the hatchlings is to rest on my hands and knees. The moist sand, illuminated with phosphorescence, mirrors bright stars overhead.

The waves are rolling long. Just as two baby loggerheads find water, a wave washes far, far on to the beach and envelopes me with warm, salty water. I freeze, watching carefully for the tiny beings, small dark spots on this dark night. They find their way to the sea and I relax and feel myself connected….with all life.

Working with sea turtles brings me back to rhythms of sea and shore, light and darkness. They challenge me to find balance within myself, with nature…the cosmos.

Go gently little ones….go gently.

Ridiculous Beauty of the Dawn

By Simone Lipscomb | August 28, 2016

Take a chance. Risk the extra burden. So what if the sand is soft and your burden is more difficult to bear. It’s time.

Take the leap. Never mind the excuses or reasons to fear. Do it.

Oh, but it’s heavy. What if it rains? What if it lightnings and I have to make a run for it? What if? What if? What if?

Take a chance. Risk moving beyond fear.

Okay. I’m ready…but….

The sand is soft. Walking isn’t easy. It begins to sprinkle. It’s lightning off shore.

Something has shifted. I feel surrendered to the Path. I laugh and keep moving….it’s okay.

Until….

The light begins to paint the clouds…the layers and layers of clouds. I stop. I cannot move. The light pierces my disbelief….my doubting…my fears.

Look at me, it says. Look….at….me.

Tears kiss my cheeks. Laughter erupts from my toes…up and up and up through my belly….through my heart….my mouth and finally my eyes laugh at the beauty….unable to hold back. Not wanting to.

I lift my hands to the sky. My fingers play with orange, yellow and golden light. My heart shines through dancing fingertips.

My camera whispers, Pick me up, love.

My creative heart dances with glass and metal and electronics. The shutter clunks, the LED screen illuminates beauty that makes me gasp for breath.

At the end of suffering and pain, after the trials and storms, there is beauty waiting. It’s here. Now. Look up…with your heart.

The challenges and trials of the summer created a place of choice. Do I move deeper? Do I walk away in frustration?

My life coach has held my hand from afar and encouraged me to move deeper, to move beyond the obstacles within me reflected in the outer world. He has encouraged me to reach high and deep for love. And to not allow anything to keep my feet from the Path.

As I walk in the Sacred Temple of the Seashore I hear through the particles of light, This is what awaits the hard work of transformation. This beauty, beyond anything you have known, is what awaits those who remain true to the Path to which their soul calls.

Well, that does it. I leap and shout for joy! Why try to contain it? My open heart sings and salty tears flow to the sea. And I am made new.

So much has happened in the past twenty-four hours to open my eyes to the possibilities when I make as a mantra these words, I am willing.

He writes this morning, “Let your light shine in every corner of the world!” Everyone needs a life coach….a beloved friend who sees what we sometimes cannot see.

My gratitude list grows as I dance in the ridiculous beauty of the dawn.

On Becoming a Pearl

By Simone Lipscomb | August 2, 2016

One grain of sand is the beginning of a precious gem. We might not see a grain of sand as precious if it finds its way under a sandal strap or onto the rim of a water bottle and into a thirsty mouth. The amount of irritation one little grain of sand can cause is incredible. Once inside a mouth it seems no amount of swishing or spitting can dislodge it.

Imagine a giant clam at the bottom of the sea. Within the velvety folds of pink muscle is a huge, luminescent pearl. Years ago a tiny irritant floated into the clam as it opened to receive nourishment. It created discomfort so with infinite patience the clam used the same substance from which its outer shells were formed to surround the object of its suffering. The outcome….a beautiful, lustrous gem.

It didn’t stop being a clam or living its life. It didn’t rage through the sea declaring how wounded it felt. It used its own nacre or mother-of-pearl to coat the irritant with layers of its beautiful, iridescent self.

As I was contemplating the formation of a pearl it occurred to me that we have the same opportunity as clams and oysters. It’s common for us to have an irritant, a core issue, that follows us throughout life.

Haven’t I already dealt with this? Why does this keep coming up for me? I can’t open up to love, I was hurt in the past. I failed before so how can I try again? Why does this theme keep surfacing after years of working on it?

We become pearls by using the substance of which we are made…precious light….to create a beautiful life. The choice is ours. We can surrender to the irritant and become a victim of our past or we can use the magic of self-transformation to form a gem of our lives.

A pearl really is layers and layers of light surrounding a single grain of sand. Imagine the possibilities.

Message in a Bottle…#3

By Simone Lipscomb | July 18, 2016

It washed up during the sea turtle patrol walk not far from where I turned around. Usually I walk back on the road but the sand was firm so walking wasn’t difficult and it was a glorious sunrise with wild cloud formations over the Gulf and beach,

The bottle with the note in it was sitting at the edge of the surf. In the five seasons I’ve volunteered with our sea turtle team, I’ve found three messages in a bottle. Oddly enough, all during mid-July.

The first was after a wedding or commitment ceremony. It contained a prayer, images of the couple’s dreams and their vows. Their message, cast out into the Great Unknown, brought me a message of love and hope. I sent their hopes onward, out into the Universe, and kept the bottle in my office next to a dream board my daughter and son-in-law made.

The second bottle contained a very moving note about a young man that died in a distillery explosion in Kentucky. His mother’s friend sent her message out into the Great Mystery and asked the finder to let Kyle’s mom know it was found. I wrote a blog about it, let the damp note dry and sent it all to Rhonda, Kyle’s mom. I hope her grief was eased by knowing Kyle’s story lived on, his life touched others he had never met.

This last bottle had blue liquid in the bottom. Somebody forgot to use waterproof ink. They didn’t seal the cork. They also used a form letter…imagine sending a form letter out into the Universe. A fill-in-the-blank message in a bottle….with water-based ink. The paper was saturated and was falling apart when it was removed from the bottle.

I wondered….how often do people use a fill-in-the-blank wish list for their lives? Are we willing to live life by default or can we have the courage to work for our dreams? Are we sloppy in our life dreams? Are they easily erased by the challenges that come our way? Can we have the audacity to use permanent ink and create imaginative requests of our lives and be so full of belief that Something Out There will find it and respond that we seal the cork well so when it’s opened, the message is received with clarity.

It was a fun thing for the kids to do…fill out the form letter, toss it in the water and imagine. No big deal. But it reminded me to live with intention and realize that everything I do affects not only my life but the lives of others around me. Whoever opens up a blog post and reads it or sees one of my images of dolphins or whales or ocean life…they are, in some way, affected. When I smile at the grocery clerk or hold the door for a stranger….or snuggle with my 11 month old puppy…or rub my kitty friend’s ears…every action matters.

It’s easy to live in a vacuum and forget that we do make a difference. Every little thing we do….it matters.

What would your message in a bottle say? Would you use permanent ink? How would you prepare to send it out into the Great Mystery?

Waiting for Light

By Simone Lipscomb | July 17, 2016

I was seated on my mat waiting for class to begin. Behind me I heard a voice whisper, “I love you, Simone.” That’s when I began to come out from under a cloud. I turned around and gave Caitlyn a quick hug. “Thank you,” I whispered back. Finally, breath returned as I inhaled deeply and refocused on the yoga instructor.

The past few weeks have been heavy with hate. From Orlando to Minnesota, Louisiana, Texas, Iraq, France….the killing, bombing, acts of hate built up a dark cloud that felt smothering. It didn’t help that I was bullied and learned what it felt like for hate and meanness to be directed at me during this time. I came away from the situation with more compassion and understanding for those who are hated…for any reason but perhaps something like their skin color, who they love, their religion, their gender…education level….size of bank account….species… every day I went out on my back porch and sat in the hammock swing under the shade of a grandmother oak tree and stared into a lush courtyard. How can hate be so rampant? What are we doing to ourselves, each other…the planet?

Times like these are when my choice to be single really weighs heavy on me. This is when I want a man’s strong arms to embrace me and tell me it will be okay or if it’s not, at least I have someone to share the pain and grief of a world gone psycho. When the world is imploding on itself is when I most want companionship…not to fix the insanity of the world but to help me keep from slipping into the dark hole with so many others.

Toward the end of the week I was struggling. My self-talk was getting progressively more negative and I was quickly slipping into old behaviors of self-doubt and admittedly…self-hate. I mean, everyone else is doing it….

The cloud began to lift on the way to yoga class. A rainbow appeared in the sky. Rainbows have been very prominent in my life over the past few years, especially when a message is trying to come through. Then in class my friend reminded me there is love in the world amid hate. Then this morning’s sea turtle beach patrol brought more peace.

The darling dog boy awakened me at 3.15am. My alarm was set for 4.30 so going back to sleep wasn’t an option. I quickly jotted down a couple of dreams, fed the critters and then headed to the beach. It was far too early to begin walking the patrol section but the need to connect with the Gulf was great.

In yesterday’s meditation I saw, in my mind’s eye, a man holding my hands and then placing them on the white sand of the beach and then standing beside me as I knelt in surrender. When I arrived over 45 minutes before sunrise the beach was far too dark to see turtle tracks or nests I had to check. So I stood and then knelt and placed my hands on the sand and surrendered.

Waiting for light…what a perfectly timed teaching to receive. How agonizing it is to wait for change….of self, others, the world…in those dark moments before the light returns fear can grasp the strongest mind and heart.

The street light in the distance was brilliant as I stood in near complete darkness at the water’s edge. One light can illuminate such a large area. And the sun…well, that can illuminate massive areas of our Ocean planet. Like the beach this morning….every small bit of light increased my range of sight. Yesterday’s mediation reminded me to focus on light and love every time doubts, fears and grief surfaced.

As the light grew, moment-by-moment, peace returned to my mind and heart. As I began walking, a chant arose. Peace to you, brothers and sisters, peace to you. Love to you, brothers and sisters, love to you. Joy to you, brothers and sisters, joy to you. To every gull, tern, ghost crab, great blue heron, dolphin, shark, human…Peace to you.

At one point I looked out over the Gulf and saw a very high blow from a cetacean…too big for a dolphin. Who then? I glanced behind me and there was a cloud forming a big okay symbol, like a hand. That brought a smile. And then the large rainbow as I neared home brought even more peace.

During this time where hate is being exposed, where the insanity of darkness seems to fuel hate, it’s important to let nature heal our hearts and minds. And it’s a time to join together in harmony and love and build upon peace by living it with those ready and willing to be in that space with us.