Inspired

Coming Home

winter morning

 

Please bring strange things.

Please come bringing new things.

Let very old things come into your hands

Let what you do not know come into your eyes.

Let desert sand harden your feet.

Let the arch of your feet be your mountains.

Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps

And the ways you go be the lines on your palms.

Let there be deep snow in your inbreathing

And your outbreath be the shining of ice.

May your mouth contain the shapes of strange words

May you smell food cooking you have not eaten.

May the spring of a foreign river be your navel.

May your soul be at home where there are no houses.

Walk carefully, well loved one.

Walk mindfully, well loved one.

Walk fearlessly, well loved one.

Return with us, return to us.

Be always coming home.

Initiation Song from the Finders Lodge/Always Coming Home by Ursula K. LeGuin

 

This quote is from Always Coming Home, and although I haven't read it myself, it's a fantasy/science fiction story about post-industrial California. It seems that the explorers in this book are always on their way back home, even if they're on their way to other lands. I really love this idea...wherever they are, they are at home. They are always coming home. I can relate to this sense of wherever I am, I'm at home.  Wherever I travel I always feel I could stay there for a long time. I can feel both at home and yet not at home.

This writing also speaks to me about life transitions...moving from one stage in life to another (from child to adult), taking on a new role in life (becoming a parent) or even moving from one year on to the next. I like to think that as we adventure through life we're neither staying the same nor becoming someone new...we`re becoming more of who we are. 

We're coming home to ourselves.

 

As we transition from 2010 to 2011

my wish for us all

is that we are always coming home

to our true selves.

The Next Step

snow lights

 

As you raise your foot for your next step,
smile, knowing that the path has already been laid.

Enigma

 

Words to ponder as we take these last few steps into the new year.

Blessings dear friends,

(photo taken in Hawaii and treated with textures for an abstract wintery feeling!) 

Merry Christmas!

the inner harbour of Victoria with the Parliament buildings in the right.

 

For most of you, the day is over now…gifts have been exchanged, the meal devoured.

Today I was aware more than ever before, that the true gift of Christmas is love. 

The most important…the only…gift that I can give that means anything, is my love. 

The most important gift I receive is love and I am so very blessed to receive so much.

My wish today is that you too were blessed to both give and recieve this gift.

 

On a Dark December Day

It was meant to be of course.  One could hardly be expected to walk past a cafe with a name like this on the winter Solstice, and not stop…

.

…especially when cappuccino's were a Solstice special today for $2.00.  I resisted the special and ordered a London Fog…a huge pot of it as it turned out.  We had just finished our Christmas shopping and were feeling quite smugly satisfied with ourselves. 

So we sipped and nibbled…it was a cafe with “granola leanings” and I happily tucked into a gluten free biscuit. 

We perused all the posters for concerts and yoga classes and fund raisers for food banks. 

We oohed and we ahhed over babies and small girls with curls.

And when we finally and reluctantly drained our cups, we donned our coats and wrapped our scarves tightly around us to brave the cold outside.  As we stepped into the street and began to walk away I stopped, turned around and took a photograph.

It was a Solstice interlude of the best and most satisfying kind.

 

(and no it wasn’t snowing today…my “snow” was created through the magic of textures)

Let There Be Light!

 
 

Did you see the eclipse last night?  It was an amazing phenomenon…the last one that coincided with a solstice was in 1638 and there will never be another like it in my lifetime so yes, I stayed awake for it.

I was out for dinner yesterday evening and when I got home I decided to sleep in the back bedroom which has french doors that open to the south.  In that room it’s possible to lie in bed and track the moon as it crosses the sky (if you happen to have the occasional sleepless night as I sometimes do).

It was a bit overcast but the clouds thinned enough to see most of the eclipse.  In the darkness of the night I couldn’t find the right lens for my camera without throwing on all the lights or alternatively, tripping over things in the dark, so I didn’t get a photograph. A thin layer of clouds caused a general fuzziness over the moon here on the west coast of Canada, so I consoled myself with the thought that it wouldn’t have been a great shot anyway.

But…as exciting as the lunar eclipse was…the thing I’m really "over the moon" about is that today is the winter solstice! 

Today the sun hovers slightly and then begins it's journey back north. 

Today marks the beginning of longer days and shorter nights for those of us in the northern hemisphere. 

These are today's stats for the latitude where I live which is (interestingly) just south of the 49th parallel...the border for almost all of Canada and the US.  The southern end of Vancouver Island dips down into what might have been America if things had gone differently in 1859!

 

Let there be light!!

The photograph above was taken on the evening of December 20th as we were leaving a friends home…there was a thin layer of cloud covering the moon. It was taken with my point and shoot and I’ve layered it with textures from Kim KIassen.

Life in a Snow Globe or is it real if there’s no angst?

 

 

Update on my December state of mind:  p...e…a…c…e…f…u…l  Yay!

Thankfully the usual frenzied hoopla seems to be passing me by or rather, I’m not buying into it.  It’s not that we’re not busy because we are and it’s not that life is perfect because who the heck has a perfect life, it’s just that…shock, gasp…I’m actually enjoying December this year!  Amazing.

 

 

I’ve decided not to attempt any more Reverb posts as they’re simply too time consuming at this time of year.  It takes a lot of time to thoughtfully reflect on these questions and even more time to write about them!  At least it does for me.  Maybe I’m just done with “reflecting” for this year but my focus at the moment is to play and enjoy life.  Which I’m doing.

Right now I’m loving…

laughter with lunches

sipping a warm “hot nog” and listening to soft, gentle piano music in a local piano bar (with my favourite man)

Sparkling Christmas lights reflecting on the water

bundling up in my cozy Cowichan Sweater for walks with Molly

a bowl of licorice allsorts that was sitting on a friends coffee table (until I got there!)

George Winston’s December on my ipod…love this and this

pictures of chubby English robins

paints and brushes and canvas…and getting lost in the flow of it all

hugs with friends and family…especially big bear hugs!

crinkly eyed smiles to go with above hugs

voices that join together in song…especially Mr. I’s choral group

big, bright, BOLD moons…and an historic eclipse that’s happening tonight

Starbucks Tazo Chai breaks…there’s always time for that!

Bells that jingle on my front door

hopeful messages

emails from far away friends

Christmas movies…watched “Love Actually” last night.  I seriously 'heart' that movie.

 

Wishing all of YOU a full list of things you’re loving and enjoying right now,

#reverb10 - Wisdom

 

 

 

I'm semi-participating in #Reverb10 this December (as time allows).

Prompt:  December 10 – Wisdom What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out? (Author: Susannah Conway)

The wisest decision I made this year was to not put pressure on myself to partcipate in Reverb10 every single day this month!  OK, just kidding…well, not really .  December is a busy month and the last thing any of us needs is more pressure! 

Wisdom.  We seem to accumulate it as we travel through life.  It’s a trial and error kind of thing, as in, “sheesh, I’ll never do that again” or “WTH was I thinking!”.  Yeah, more like that. 

It’s not something we can read about, intellectualize and absorb…that’s called “smart”.  Wisdom usually comes with a  broken heart, a loss, maybe some anger, a lot of tears, a bruised ego; it’s much more experiential.

This year has been interesting for me because it’s like all the "wisdoms" I’ve learned over my whole lifetime just clicked.  They just went click, click, click, click, click…into one giant CLICK!  And what was this giant CLICK, you may be asking?

It may not feel very profound or even very wise to others, but the giant click for me was that all of life is uncertain.  We'll never get to a place where everything is "certain"...there will never, ever be any certainty in life.  As long as we’re looking for certainty, (read: control over life) we’ll be in pain. I always knew that intellectually, but my little inner controller hadn't really accepted it.

THERE IS NO CERTAINTY. 

And that’s OK.   I’m learning to relax into uncertainty. 

Accepting this has given me the permission to let go of the need to feel in control…which in turn, gives me a new perspective of being open to possibilities.  It’s about reframing the context of uncertainty.  "Uncertain" stops being “bad” or “scary” and begins to mean “new possibilities” that were unknown to me before.  

Do you remember, how exciting it was when you were young, to get one those new giant boxes of crayons with so many choices to colour with?  (I never actually got a really giant box, but I coveted them.)  Relaxing into the knowing that life is...and always will be...“uncertain” is a bit like that…it opens up a new and bigger box of crayons with unheard of new colours and hues to play with. 

So here I am, ending 2010 by colouring a new and uncertain experience with a brand new, giant box of crayons.  Ahhh, the possibilites!  I think I'll start with "Wild Watermelon".

Wishing you all a beautiful and colourful weekend!

#reverb10 - Community

I’m taking part in #reverb10 this December…when time allows!

 

we and our shadows

Today’s Prompt: 

December 7 – Community Prompt:  Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)

 

Community…our peeps…our tribe. We all have them…family, childhood friends, workmates, classmates, neighbours, sports teams, spiritual groups and other organizations we might belong to.

Can a community be as small as two people or does it need to be bigger?  It’s all about belonging, connecting and sharing.  Some people are loners, but still connect with others somewhere, somehow.  It’s essential to our sense of who we are and how we fit in to the world.

Throughout our lives we've have different communities…they change as we ourselves change and we find comfort with like minds…people who understand us or share a common interest. People come and go from our communities…as do we ourselves.  Sometimes it’s a process of trial and error and sometime it’s an instant connection that fits like a snug glove.

Rather than reaching out to new communities this year I’ve been focusing on my own inner community…me, myself and I.  We really need to know and love ourselves before we’re able to effectively share our amazing “wonderfulness” with others.  Any neediness just pushes the tribe away!

The newest and most encompassing community in our world is the internet.  It connects people who would never have had the opportunity to connect otherwise.  It crosses international boundaries and vastly different cultures to bring people of a comment interest together. 

It brought you, from your part of the world, together with me, in mine.

And I’m so very, very glad we’re connected in this community!

Happy blessing’s of joyful connections to everyone,

 

Letting Go...

 

This December I’m taking part in Reverb10…or at least as much of it as I can fit in!

 

Today’s prompt:  December 5 – Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why? (Author: Alice Bradley)

I thought I would get away with not explaining myself any further on prompt #1… but yesterday’s prompt picked right up on my theme of “Letting Go”.  (I’ve been away again for five days visiting my dad so yesterday was spent driving through mountains and sailing the seas)

I’ve done a huge amount of letting go this year, starting with “stuff”.  We downsized (our choice) from a large home to what seems in comparison, a very teensy, tiny one…with very little storage space.  We still have some purging to do but we’ve sorted and carted loads of stuff to thrift shops and charity organizations.  It’s been monumental, both physically and emotionally.  There was one moment of despair and tears at the thought of letting go of even more of my mother’s “treasures”…letting go of her things feels like letting go of her…but on the whole it’s felt good.  As in a “making room for new energy to come into my life”, kind-of-good.

I’ve let go of a lot emotionally as well.  That seems to be an ongoing job and there’s always room to go deeper!  The last ten years or so – since leaving work – have been all about moving into an acceptance of who I am and leaving the strivings of the work place behind.  No more trying to prove myself to anyone, no more feeling that I need to look younger and accomplish more.  It’s become more about satisfying me.

This year in particular I’ve finally come to rest in a place of letting go of feeling responsible for everyone’s happiness.

IT’S NOT MY JOB.

None of us are responsible for making anyone else happy. When we take “our stuff” out of the mix, It tells others that you honour their own strength and trust that they can find their own happiness and joy. It’s not selfish or self absorbed to be kind to ourselves first and foremost.  It’s essential.  It’s loving.  And it’s taken me a long time to get here.

 

Wishing you all a beautiful journey of self love,

(the photograph above is actually two photographs of tree branches that were taken while at my dad’s last week, and then merged with two textures (the birds and a sky background) from Michelle Black.  Ahhh, the magic and mystery of Photoshop!)

The Wonder Of It All

 Plumeria Blossoms

 

I’m taking part in Reverb10 this December.  Reverb10 is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next.

The Prompt:  December 4 – Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)

I don’t make a special effort to cultivate a sense of wonder in my life, but two sure ways for me to become aware of the wonder that always surrounds us is to be around both children and nature.  I love the way children so easily see wonder…it’s their natural state if we don’t squash it. 

And I’m always astounded at the wonder in nature.  I’m in awe of both it’s simplicity and it’s complexity and of it’s utter perfection, even in seeming chaos.

Which leads me to the wonder of Spirit in my life.  I find this wonder hard to put into words and the only one that even comes close is “love”.  Where there is love there is spirit, where there is spirit there is love, where there is spirit/love there is wonder.

And that about sums it up!

Wonder is an acknowledgment of the power of the mind to transform"

Christina Baldwin

Wishing you blessings of Wonder (with a capital W!)