The Soul's Extravagance

The soul's extravagance is endless.

Spring after spring after spring...

We are your gardens dying, blossoming.

Rumi

Have Faith

If you feel lost, or you don't know what you are supposed to do next, or your mother's cancer scan results came back with a less than hopeful outlook, I want you to do something for me. I want you to hold your faith. I want you to keep your mind and heart steady. I want you to focus on finding your way, looking for clues as to what to do next, and keeping attuned to left-field options. This is not the time to indulge the dark side of your nature. This is the time to reach beyond your known limits for the light.

I want you to have faith that solutions are available. I want you to have faith that your life and the life of those you love are held with reverence in the palm of God's hand. When you lay down at night, I want you to feel God's hand holding you as you surrender your self to sleep. I want you to have faith.

Do not take the low road. Do not give up. Do not shut down. Instead, ask for guidance. Speak through your heart. Breathe deep the rain and the fog. Reach for the sun. Have faith.

My First Ever Interview

Today, I'm in a state of bliss. Why, you ask? Because I am the recipient of graciousness and good fortune. All from one woman with a powerful voice. Today, I am the featured interview on the inspiring and insightful blog of Christine Reed, known fondly as Bliss Chick. It's my first ever interview and Christine could not have been more caring and wonderful in her presentation. To say I'm honored is an understatement.

If you care to know a bit more about me and investigate the world of Bliss Chick, go HERE.

Thank you for everything, Christine!

The Author Reads Her Work # 3

~For Kristin Jane~

Originally posted October 23, 2007.

The Only Opinion That Matters

The only opinion that matters is your own. Your opinion of yourself is the foundation of all events and happenings in your life. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the criticisms of acquaintances and strangers like I was this past week, it's time to shift your mind to the positive. About yourself.

What you think about yourself and the labels you unfairly pin to your lapel need to be rewritten. Your world is a reflection of how high or low you hold yourself in esteem. Join me in daring to think better of yourself. Join me in appreciating the 10,004 wonderful aspects, quirks and caring ways inherent in your soul. Look deep with me to find them. List your positive qualities and be ever so gentle in acknowledging the qualities that make you secretly cringe. There are pockets of pain supporting those less than savory qualities. There are reasons behind your outbursts and freak outs and meltdowns. You've been hurt. I've been hurt. It's time to kiss your wounds with love and understanding. It's time to support yourself like never before, no matter what.

You are star shine and tenderness and valor. You are exceptional in so many ways. You, just as you are in this minute, are a gift to this world. Think better of yourself. Forgive and soothe yourself. Dare to think you are fabulous. Act fabulous. Stay humble.

Use your new-found positive opinion of yourself as your shield and your foundation. Write a new label and pin it to your lapel~ "I support myself in my awesomeness". Share the gift of yourself with the world, unafraid. Be the love and appreciation and understanding you have hoped for and needed all along.

{The little cluster of fragrant blooms is "freesia".}

Welcome Spring!

The Mastery Of Mother Nature

The Author Reads Her Work #2

Guess what? I love my new camera. My Fujifilm Finepix S8100 with video capability. It is expanding my creative brain and has me giggling with delight. So get ready, videos aplenty are on their way. Today, I take The Plunge again. A post originally uploaded on June 13th, 2006.

I did this video in a rush. I didn't want other park revellers to have to explain to their children why a (crazy) lady was standing on the stairs of the slide talking to herself. Next time, though, I'm gonna slide down with the camera still running.

On The Wings Of Little Red Shoes

This little girl still exists inside of me. This past week, she has been stamping her red shoes in protest. She is afraid. Of many things. She is afraid her mother will leave her through the exit door marked "cancer". She is afraid she will be harmed(?), judged(?), terribly unsafe(?) if she allows me to keep exposing myself in ever widening increments. She is afraid she will cease to exist if I dare to lift myself beyond the confines of my small life. Her shoes are quite scuffed. She has asked me to lock the doors and turn away from the world. So she'll be safe.

I've said no.

Instead, I've asked the Universe to help me quell her fears. In response, They sent a bird. They sent a starling. The least loved little star-of-a-bird. This least loved bird was sent to my living room and my bathroom and my studio and my kitchen. They sent a starling to fly around my home in a panic. It knocked trinkets off shelves and art from the walls in its quest to elude my cats and find its way back to the open sky. "Do you see?", I told the little girl in red shoes, "If you confine your wings to small spaces, you are less safe. Panic and fear will consume you".

I sequestered my lazy cats in the bedroom and closed the remaining doors. I opened a window in my living room. I could hear the starling clicking its nails on the second shelf of cart in my kitchen. I bent down to see it and soothe it. Oh, such a beautiful bird! I talked softly to it for a time, thanking it for coming, but telling it wings were never meant to be shut away, so I've opened a window back to the sky. "Fly. Be free, little star-of-a-bird." With that I pulled the cart away from the wall and forced the bird out of the kitchen and down the hall. By the time I turned the corner of the living room it was gone.

To my amazement, the little red shoes stopped stamping. The lesson was clear. Locked doors and confinement are not the way to live. To fly on the bountiful sky is to be free. Only there, against sunshine and stars, can calmness and purpose and love spread my wings wide open. Only there can healing take place and the self be truly expressed. Fearless and safe in little red shoes.

Yellow

I Pray To The Birds

If ever there was a poem for me, this is it. I stumbled upon it just the other day. Where ever you are Terry Tempest, thank you for hearing the words of my heart and writing them down.

I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward.

I pray to them because I believe in their existence,

the way their songs begin and end each day~

the invocations and benedictions of the Earth.

I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear.

And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.

Terry Tempest

The Author Reads Her Work

And so it begins. My next step. My little dare to myself. My unfurling a petal in the quest to bloom. I read aloud to you.

Today's selection is called "Do Not Be Afraid", a post I wrote on December 16th, 2007. I'm holding the camera, so the image bobbles as I breathe. One take, no fuss, no self judgments. Good enough. Upload it and post it.

For those of you who do not know me, this is what I sound like.

Nothing More Healing Than Love

Every once in awhile, something small and meaningful crosses your path and stops your breath. That every once in awhile happened to me today at 5:56pm. And it stopped my breath.

It started at my local bank on the way home from work. Every teller was wearing a broken heart t-shirt with writing on it. The letters were small. To read the message required staring at the chest of a woman much younger than me, so I refrained. I thought to ask what the message said, but for no explainable reason decided not to.

I drove the short distance home. I began the climb of the enclosed stairwell that leads to my 2nd floor home. In the waning light, I almost stepped on something. It was small and solid and odd. It was a red and black clay Buddha. A couple steps up was a second Buddha. A few more steps revealed a third. At the top of the stairs, on the landing, was a neatly folded t-shirt with a broken heart and writing on it. My jaw dropped.

I stepped into the door and read the t-shirt. It said, "To the soul there is nothing more healing than love". My eyes misted over. Such true words. Because there was no note with the shirt, I looked inside at the label to see if it would give me a clue as to what this was about. The label read, "L.I.F.E. line for flight 3407. Made with love in Clarence, NY". I burst into tears.

I have no idea who gave me these 4 gifts. Did everyone in Mayberry get a t-shirt at their doorway today? If they did, why did I get 3 Buddhas? Surely, no one else on my street got 3 Buddhas. And why 3? Is the giver aware of the 3 posts I wrote about flight 3407 in February?

I can answer none of my questions. It's a meaningful mystery I may never solve. The website listed on the t-shirt is underdeveloped and gives me no clues. It does not matter. I don't need to know. Though I never imagined it while writing my messages of hope, the compassion I extended has returned to me.

Tonight I will light 3 candles and set them on my Buddhas. I will say more prayers for the broken hearts of flight 3407. I will send out more love to heal more souls. I will wear my new t-shirt to bed and dream of a life for us all, where Love. Is. For. Everyone.

{My 3 posts about Flight 3407 can be found here and here and here.}

Thank you, whoever you are...

Reflection Of The Divine

Despite all your doubts and merciless self-judgements, your sabotage and fortified walls, you are still a reflection of the Divine. You matter. You are relevant. You are loved.

Hearts On Fire

If you can see the truth of who you are, if you can stop comparing yourself endlessly to those around you, you can notice who has lit a flame in their heart and you can borrow their spark to make your own fire.

We are here to ignite the very best in each other. We are here to help each other shine. There is more than enough room on the stage for any and all who want to make a difference, spread the love, and heal the world with the offerings of their soul. We are fuel for each other's callings. We are gateways. We are midwives.

Do not look to some one else's accomplishments and daring and find yourself lacking in their wake. Instead, have enough respect for yourself to stand in the light of their fire and dare to strike your own match. Every one's offerings are needed. Mine and yours. Some one, somewhere, right now is waiting to be illuminated by your words or deeds or heartfelt act of kindness. Step out of the shadows. Accept the truth of who you are. Take the perpetual match into your own hands. Light your heart on fire. Pass it on.

"Your heart is on fire and you give me permission, you make room for me to set my own heart on fire." Comment left by Evenstar Art ( after having finally stopped the incessant comparing and finding herself lacking) on a post by www.inkonmyfingers.typepad.com, February 28, 2009.