Dance It Out!
When life gets too serious and you need to shift something…dance. Here’s an invitation.
Creativity
Creating something from nothing is an act of magic. It is an act of courage. We move into the realm of possibility when we surrender to the force of creativity.
And it is a force. But what is it that calls us to tap into that force? What moves us from ideas into action?
I imagine a gigantic cauldron of star dust, a cosmic soup, that contains every possible particle of the creative process. I lean over the cauldron and dare to look into its depths and touch the surface with my finger. It ripples and boils with potential and invites me to dip my hands into its richness. I stir that soup of infinity and watch as ideas bubble to the surface. Yes….that! And that! Oh, wow, look at that!With gratitude I enfold the ideas into a medicine bag for safe keeping and journey back to waking consciousness, ready to create.
It’s easy to ignore the creative ideas that enter our minds. It takes courage to follow through and even more courage to share what we create with others. But here’s the thing: the act of creating changes the world for the better, even if we never share it with another soul.
So here’s an invitation to dip into the cosmic soup, lovingly take the ideas that surface and use them to create something simply for the fun of it. When we do this we change the world.
To see more of my creations, please visit my website and explore the BOOKS page, SPIRIT MEDICINE DESIGN page and PHOTOGRAPHY page.
The Magic of Memories
The other day a friend of mine commented how a video on the Fontana Lake Cleanup brought back such good, childhood memories for him. As my canine companion, Buddy, and I walked at Deep Creek today I reflected on my happiest childhood memory.
My immediate family, mom’s sister and her family, grandparents, aunt and uncle and another extended family went to the Smokies together…14 of us in total. One day in particular was amazing. My cousins, brother and I went tubing on Deep Creek. The water was so cold yet I couldn’t bring myself to get out. Our parents were watching from the picnic tables and we were having a big time.
Before my dad got sick and before all of the adulting there was this magical time in the mountains that became my most treasured memory of family.
When I was feeling the pull back to the mountains, I was trying to find a place around Asheville, where I had lived before, or Black Mountain and there was absolutely nothing that worked. My house in Alabama was getting attention but nothing was working out for a sale. For over 18 months I looked and looked and couldn’t believe the dumps with high prices for sale around Asheville.
So I finally got a contract on my home and had to find a place. As I drove past the sign for Dillsboro, Sylva and Cherokee on my way to Asheville, I heard a question: Where did you always want to live as a child? But I was worried that living an hour away from Asheville would be difficult and too scary to start over…again…far from everyone I knew. But as it happened, a cousin saw my social media post about looking once again in the Asheville area for a home and he said, You gotta meet our cousin in Sylva. And in the end, it was that question I heard that opened my mind to hearing what my Sylva cousin had to say about the area.
Yesterday I sat at the dining table in my little cabin and gazed out at the mountain ridge of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I live here, I said aloud. My childhood dream realized. Eight miles via the back way into the Deep Creek area from my door…that’s how close I live to my happiest childhood memory.
It’s hard to always know what calls us to certain places. But this time around, I felt I owed it to myself to align with the happiest place I remembered. My love for the area grows as I celebrate my one year anniversary here in five days. There are other reasons I’m here and I’ll share those in another blog, but for today I’m smiling at those treasured, magical memories.
Life Happens
Today as I was flying I felt the greatest sense of freedom. A huge hawk developed interest in the drone so I had to bring my bird down as the hawk could have been super-destructive to my aircraft. Then I watched the hawk play in the late afternoon thermals. And when it lost interest in my bird, it flew over the mountain top so I could resume operation. And flying…and freedom.
Flying in the bigness of open land reminded me of diving, of floating weightlessly in water. There was a sense of expansion and a loosening of bindings. Diving does that for me and so does flying the drone or visiting amazing natural environments. At one point, after I landed her to change batteries, I felt so anchored in the present moment and everything else…EVERYTHING…was gone. It was just my awareness of dirt and sky and mountains. It was good…seriously yummy feeling.
Too often we allow ourselves to become mired down in worry, fear…no need to list the distractions that can tear us away from the present moment. The more I am able to be truly present in that expansive, joyous moment, whatever distracted and sucked my energy from me evaporates.
Diving, flying my drove, hiking along the creek, playing my native flutes, watching the fire, walking the spiral labyrinth…whatever I do that brings me into the present moment is where I find sweetness of life. So it seems I need to do more of the things that support my soul, that nurture my spirit.
What brings you into that sweet place in life where everything fades but the present moment, the beautiful moment where life truly happens.
What if…we save ourselves
What if the Second Coming is within our own hearts. What if the trumpets we hear awaken us to do the work of the heart. What if the master Jesus gave us everything we needed to awaken consciously and now it’s up to us to awaken to those teachings of compassion and love.
I suspect as a race of beings we have gone as far down as we can go in the evolution of consciousness and there is no need to list our faults. Look around. See the destruction, lack of empathy, lack of compassion and greed and desire for more material ‘things’ at any cost.
Yet….we also have an amazing capacity for selfless action, love, care, compassion. So we know absolutely it is within our reach to embody what was taught by the master Jesus.
No president or government will save us. The change we seek is deep within each of us. No exception. It is time to stop screaming and pointing fingers and do the hard work of self-transformation….that is if we actually want to change.
It’s time to put our egos on the altar of sacrifice, to release judgment of others and embody the change we wish to know in our communities, in our nation.
We were given the keys to the kingdom. Let us not squander that amazing gift.
What if we save ourselves.