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beginnings

Alignment, emerge, I AM

Building a Mystery

May 19, 2015

Clear away expectations, and let yourself picture a wild, grand new world. ~ Martha Beck

 

Caroline W Casey quote

 

I am sitting on my own in the gathering twilight. The jungle of the day is winding down, the jungle of the night is waking up. I was listening to a recorded call by Martha Beck and Boyd Varty, and they were talking about truth. They were talking about the importance of gathering and deep work and play and something bigger and deeper than magic. They were talking about connection.

They were speaking my language.

And in that way that the universe plays with us, as the talk finished, my shuffle went to Sarah McLachlan singing Building a Mystery.

That’s how I feel right now. Like I have been given a sacred gift: the gift of being able to build my life from the ground up. But it is currently a mystery.

And I don’t know what to do with it. 

Martha and Boyd talked about not knowing where they were going, but knowing that they were going to be prepared to ‘move at dawn.’ To follow where the path leads.

Part of me would give anything for a crystal ball; for a way to see that we are going to be okay. But then it wouldn’t be a leap of faith. Part of me would like to be in total control and to have things work out exactly the way I want them to. But I know that would be an unnecessarily limited future as I can’t dream big enough for myself.

Caroline Casey, in Making the Gods Work for You, writes about playing with the universe and actively working with the magic and the stories and the stars. In the quote above she talks about conjuring the most beautiful and loving world, but it’s about collaboration with, not dominance over. It’s about moving forward and having faith and doing what you can to align with creation. It’s about listening. It’s about letting go. As I typed that, Sarah McLachlan (another song – Full of Grace – on shuffle, and I haven’t heard her on shuffle for years) sang ‘letting go’ exactly as I typed it.

Magic.

I’ll say it again: it’s about letting go.

It’s dark now, under the new moon. We are so deep in the jungle that the only light I can see is from a few scattered fireflies and a single light up on the ridge above us where the driveway onto our farm meets the dirt road. It’s a different world already, and it feels like anything is possible.

So right now I am asking for help. I am asking for a miracle. I am asking for transformational abundance. I am asking that together we conjure the most beautiful, loving world possible. And as always, I am asking for magic.

And now? I am letting it go.

Building a mystery is going to be so much fun.

I know it. 😉

 

xo

 

 

Costa Rica, gratitude

Celebrating the scrambled eggs

April 3, 2015

“So, that happened.”Sas Petherick after our first retreat

 

IMG_0239Yesterday on a Spreecast chat with two gorgeous women, I described my mental state as ‘scrambled eggs.’ I’m up, I’m down. I have moments of total clarity about what we want to do, closely followed by moments of whatthehellarewedoing!? I’m distracted by my need to take in the incredible thriving, fragrant, bustling ecosystem I am currently smack-dab in the middle of, my need to be getting on with The Move, the need to do yoga, make money, do the laundry, and, and, and, oh, and rest.

Yes, rest is the thing I am supposed to be doing right now. That was the plan.

The two beautiful women shook their heads and reminded me of The Huge Thing we have just done. That was really helpful, because in some ways, I had forgotten. I have moved on to the next thing.

In fact, every day, in every way, we are all doing Huge Things. For some it is huge to just get out of bed. For others it is dealing with illness, dealing with overwhelm, dealing with comparison, with guilt, with parenting, with ageing, with loving or hating or moving or changing or staying or lying or telling the truth or just choosing love over and over and over again, no matter how hard it gets.

I firmly believe that there is no sliding scale of bigness on the stuff we do. It’s all huge, and it is all relative. This being human thing is hard work, no matter where you are and what you do. And we hardly ever pause long enough to see that. There are no mini dance parties to celebrate our victory, or champagne corks popped on a seemingly ordinary Thursday afternoon. We save the special bottle for a more special occasion. We don’t celebrate because we are too busy moving on to the next thing.

So after the conversation was over, I got really quiet and looked out at the jungle. And took my first really deep breath.

So that happened.

We did that.

And we’re doing this.

It’s all good, and my eggs feel a lot less scrambled – maybe closer to poached.

xo

 

 

 


 

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Do you want to be part of a warm and open-hearted community of women, gathered around a virtual hearth fire? Would you like to join those women for discussion about spirituality, questions, self-care and magic?

Do you crave open, honest conversation about spirituality?

Then we would love it if you would join Sas Petherick and I for Heart and Hearth.

Costa Rica, really real

When your sunlit side requires a sports bra.

April 1, 2015

Yet we always envy others, comparing our shadows to their sunlit sides. – Margaret George

 

costa rica swingSunlit side?

Honest truth?

Downplay the awesome?

Uplevel the humour?

How does one ‘play’ writing about a total and complete life changing move to a hot country?

Eventually I want people to want to come and visit and I don’t want my Mom to worry. I would like to make some sort of living out of my writing, but I don’t want to put anyone off by either saying that a) everything’s all hammocks and margaritas (annoying to some) or b) I have to hold onto my boobs in the car because the roads are so bumpy, and we spent the third night creating ant traps out of tuna cans so that we could get a good night’s sleep (off-putting to most and definitely not a selling point).

Do I write about the trials and tribulations or the beaches and the adventures? I don’t want you to stop reading because you are bored of our move.  There are many blogs that I have stopped reading because I was bored of how bloody sunny it was in their world.  Readers, I think, can tell if you are trying to make money by being something. Nobody can sustain that kind of positivity and light dancing on sparkling unicorn horns all of the time.

Our decision to spend six and a half months here before making the official decision to move completely means that we have rented a place in the middle of the jungle. It’s just the two of us, and I brought books. Like, Brene Brown, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, David Abram books. The whole situation is one that will facilitate either deep soul work or serious navel gazing – or both.

It’s interesting to realise that even on one of the greatest adventures of my life, I am aware of what other people think. My audience. You. I am editing for content even as I move through my days – wondering what would make a good blog post. That’s no way to create a life.

So for you, dear reader, a commitment. I’m going to write a lot about this adventure. It will definitely not be all sunshine, but I will add neither shade nor glitter simply to make things more palatable for anyone. What you see will be what’s going on. All of it. I am releasing us both from my anxiety and giving you the whole story: sunshine, rain, ants, uncertainty, joy, reflection, spirituality, soul-work, unfortunate naval-gazing, and the occasional sports bra.

But it will all be the truth.

Pura Vida.

xo

 


 

hh2015badge250

Do you want to be part of a warm and open-hearted community of women, gathered around a virtual hearth fire? Would you like to join those women for discussion about spirituality, questions, self-care and magic?

Do you crave open, honest conversation about spirituality?

Then we would love it if you would join Sas Petherick and I for Heart and Hearth.