Sacred Space

Prompt: Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? Author Gretchen Rubin

Today the last ‘thing’ I made was Sacred Space, a place of sheltering and open-ness for a client and friend. I am blessed in so many ways ~ most of what I do for ‘money’; invites the opportunity to create and hold Sacred Space. To use materials from within myself. Depending on how I am creating Sacred Space on any given day some of the materials will change. Yet they all hold an invitation to use an Open Heart, to listen deeper hearing what is said in the stillness of the moment as we begin. Inviting the Divine nature that is in each of us to guide the work of the day. Today it was on a massage table. Holding someone in a time of vulnerability, while they were also physically vulnerable. The courage that is required some days for us as human creatures to show up in our own lives, to share with me the fears, joys, sorrows, pain; body re-memberd or inwardly focused. The stories that are shared. I am honoured by this trust, this surrender into my safe keeping.

I create containers for healing, growth, and wonder whether it's with massage, gardening, food or Art; I find most of what I am about is creating a Safe place for others and myself to reside. Places that invite us to our Highest Becoming. My client, my self, the ripples that our healing sends out into the world.

What is it I desire to make, create? A children’s book ~ I have one floating around in my head. Being more honest here I would say I wish to create books! I have a couple rolling about, calling, I see them lurking behind my dreams. Perhaps 2011 will be the year I put them to paper, let me rephrase "I will make the time to create the books I feel lurking. Inviting myself to make and take the time I need to feed my soul." Knowing that I too deserve to be held in Sacred Space. Saying this I know also that books are Sacred, to be able to take the time needed to read or write for the sheer pleasure requires us to create Sacred Space.

. "Come, dip your pen in the language and write, tonight.
The Muse is standing by with bottles of ink."
-Marni Norwich, 2004



photo taken in October at Cornerbrook

Going, Going, G O N E

Prompt: “Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?” Alice Bradley

Oh, how I dislike that phrase. Let Go. It’s not like the items that we need to “let go” of are a suitcase that we can drop on the side of the road ~ some very, very deserted road! Some of those events have been things that have helped to form the person, I am today. For the most part ~ I love ME!

Let Go ~ of that person, that relationship? As a verb meaning: to abandon, forsake, leave, quit, relinquish ~ ICKS! Even when a person or relationship in my life is difficult I find it hard to forsake it ~ what part of me becomes lost to myself if I can turn completely away from someone? How do I then become extinct, gone for good?

Yes, indeed there are also friendships that this past year no longer serve me on a regular, day to day. I find more that I surrender into the fact that we are no longer a good match. I still hold them and YOU in my heart. I am here if you need me! CALL. I will not abandon you, but I will also not put myself in the path of mine or your destructive ways. In the past I have made choices that walked completely away from folks ~ somehow I found and still find it in my heart to be concerned in a more global sense.

Now what about stuff ~ Stuff in general ~ not anything in particular ~ I am an Artist and therefore keep hanging around all kinds of ‘items’ that others might choose to throw away. In has stepped The Great Purgapalouza Act of 2010. I have been going through clothing; seems I really am fairly conservative in my dressing; if you get rid of the scarves – NOT. Yet there have been items lurking for a couple seasons that I no longer wear, due to fit or it’s just not me. Papers in files~ these are my worst nightmare, articles that I believe I “should” save for future use, heck I never look at them again and only once in a while do I say to a client – oh, read this. Magazines with pictures that I might use for a collage ~ who am I kidding I don’t do collage!! I have friends that do, enjoy their work so I think, perhaps a Vision Board? Sorry, it’s not happening so ~ heck pack them up and out the door! OH, Wait! Here is something I have “Let Go”, subscriptions to monthly magazines, if I notice an article I really feel I’ll read then I pick it up – otherwise, how many subscription do you have coming on a regular basis that you don’t even look at, or put in the bathroom? My bathroom is much too small for a rack of magazines!

Yup ~ stuff! I am grateful for The Great Purgapalouza Act of 2010. It gives me pause, when ever I think to buy an item. How will it work or add to my overall life experience? Do I need it? Sometimes, yes even to that extra pair of sneaks (buy a pair off a pair, still 6 pairs) or another pair of ‘Mary Janes’ or any red shoe! I stand on my feet, I love my feet – they need good shoes.


Yet overall, I have radically cut down on purchases of stuff ~ Hmmm …LET GO OF STUFF… Going, going GONE. I see a t-shirt on Zazzle!

I am Grateful that I am loved for me, with or without the extra ‘Stuff’.
And to all a good night!




photo of crow~ Thank you T.Griffin at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tirzymcwirzy/

W O N D E R

W O N D E R


Day 4 Prompt: Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? @JeffreyDavis108

Funny how when I read the prompt ~ I find myself first with a quick slap down! Those of you who know me well, know that sometimes it takes me a day or two to process something we might have talked about. To sit with, listen to the quiet of what was said, or wasn’t. The same is true here ~ I must sit with the prompt ~ I found myself in Awe and Wonder when someone else I know in a virtual way wrote that they were attempting to respond in 15 minutes ~ WOW! I am Awed ~ they are heart felt and wonderful to read ~ Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally ~ stop by and check it out. I need more time,I'm still processing- like a computer with dial up, google looking for more then the slap-down. The truth in the essence of the slap down.

I grew up in a house with 4 other siblings, two parents, one of which, (they took random turns), at any given time wasn’t really present ~ I learned to listen between what was or was not said. I assumed that my sibs did the same; as we’ve grown into adults now without the buffer of our parents, leaves it difficult for me to Speak ~ To feel they can Hear me. This is a tricky business, let me tell you! Back to Wonder ~

Wonder ~ my cultivation of this amazing state of Grace, runs deep in my veins, touching the roots of my soul; it has been and IS my glue. Yet, with the purgapalouza pruning, that came as a storm this year; I have needed to reach deep into my fire pit, for the spark of Wonder. To invite myself to be curious, to RE-member that I am Stardust! That which dreams are made of, finding the Light reflecting, off of it’s long distant death. Like an Astronomer, I have had to look daily, into the telescope of myself, choosing to make it part of my day. Tending to the Star-ness, watching, looking, listening, marking it’s presence ~like a comet. It has been a choice; really a matter of life and death; to step outside myself ~ to step firmly into ME ~ to fan the flame that is my saving Grace. To open my eyes, to look deeper, listening closer, heart vulnerable, touching into places I thought long ago healed ~

I choose to live in Wonder, Awestruck, Overwhelmed with the Beauty of Life. I will continue to weed and prune, remove what strangles me, keeping me from myself as well as those that see deeper into the reflection of US. Who I wonder do you See, when you look at me? Who is it that I don’t know?




photo again from my stay at Cornerbrook, October 2010
ps Am hoping my 'Editor' will understand that she is out of town, and unable to get my writing back to me in a day so...please know that all grammar errors, usage of the wrong word, or misspellings are completely my own.

A Moment - Day 3 Reverb10

And the prompts keep coming ~ day 3 and I’m already sort of falling behind ~ I noticed that Day 4 of the Reverb10 project is sitting in my Inbox! It has been a very busy day of cooking for a 3 day workshop. At 3:14 AM EST, with fruit still to cut, I come to write my response ~
The question : Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards)
Having had all day to sit with the question, I thought of many moments ~ to realize that they were more about my gratitude. To feel alive I believe we must be able to have gratitude ~ yet having gratitude doesn’t necessarily mean we are truly Alive.

I am blessed that my work day, presents me with multiple moments of noticing how I may be of service. Moments that show me how magic the Universe can be. When it comes right down to it ~ It I S!

Having spent most of my year in a struggle to break free of old patterns, old ways of reacting, most of my experiences through this year have been inward and solitary. Reflective~

On one of those days I choose to be on the beach, I’d trekked over on my bike, knowing I would get a ride home from my friend, Maury. While waiting on the beach, laying in the warmth of the sun; I found myself alone – listening and noticing the world around me with my eyes closed. It seems as I feel back into that moment that a storm must have been in the making. it was late in August, maybe even early September. Willard Beach was sort of quiet; I come from a large family so I am often able to shut out voices when I am out in the world of nature. I remember sinking into the sand, feeling the grit of it – what paper would it be? An overall sensation of sand, and also each grain. The warmth of it against my skin, at some moments almost too hot to the touch. I could feel the shift of the afternoon Sun as it moved across the sky from high noon to ‘fourish’. It’s late afternoon radiance moving from overhead to it’s place on my right. I could feel the sound of the lapping water on the boats moored to my left. Feeling the sound, I drifted into meditation and the clear knowing and feeling I was one with the Earth. I wanted my breathe to match Gaia’s; in the way we do when laying with a lover. Moving into the water, I too became, something for the tide to lap and rock; knowing that my friend was coming became my anchor to the human world. I felt my connectedness to ALL, I could taste Divine-ness in my breath, on my lips. Each grain of sand, the vibration of the fish, rocking with the boats. The wind whispering in my ear, secrets of waters far from where I was.

When I invite myself to find that still-ness, I feel so much more alive. Now in the early morning, I look for that stillness to finish, the task before me~ to RE-member that I am part of a greater picture. To RE-member, that as each of us passes our unique signature is lost, and yet remains in all that we have touched.
Alive, Life Divinity in Action!


photo of the Quintessential Maine chair

Day 2 - Reflection on This Year

Today's question from the prompts of the Reflection on This Year from Reverb 10 is:

What do you do each day that doesn't contribute to your writing - can you eliminate it? (Author of prompt Leo Babauta)

Oh, the short and snappy answer to the question was ~ well, of course! Yet, is it so easy? Well, miss smarty pants if you feel like it is so easy~ then why is it here in the first place? It's not so much a doing, as it is a way of thinking about myself and what I have to say. Though as I say that I realize it is indeed a "thing" that I am doing ~ It has to do with not feeling or believing anyone will read or listen to what I have to share. Thoughts and Wisdom. Poems of Great Love, small Sorrows, or the Ordinary turned Extraordinary. The Ebb and Flow of Prayer. All of these a part of my day. Who wants to hear what I have to say? Yet, on a good day ~ I write on one of my three blogs - yes, that's right not one but three and a drop in on a fourth. Lo and Behold, I do have 'followers' and they are not all people I personally know! How wonderful is that?

So, today and for the next 28 days ~ I will knock at the door to my inspiration ~ knowing, believing and changing a pattern inside myself! I invite you to join me on this journey. I hear you knocking to read, listen and share with me! I hear your knocking and I find myself willing to Open my heart and soul ~ oh, right and the door to let you IN ~ Welcome!




Photo is from the door of Cornerbrook a most Magical place

Metamorphosis

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Metamorphosis


The etymology of the word derives from the Greek meaning transformation, transforming. This past year was spent looking deeper at patterns that no longer were useful or serving me. Which brought about some inward travel, pain, sadness, joy, great and small shifts. Simplifying of my 'belongings'. Following me heart's song.

Clarity ~ 2011




photo taken October 30, by Judy Myatt after a amazing day - Drums and Dreams

I Sing to You Each Year ~ Happy Birthday

Today is your Birthday,
Do you know this as the Day?
Today it isn’t snowing
I’m no longer 17,
And You ~ you are older then that now.

You don’t know me,
Only we do.
There is a Resonance deep inside,
I know you and you know me.
I think of you often,
Wondering about your Life.

My wish for you, each day
Has been in your Highest Becoming.
Happy Birthday, may you hear this
Whispered on the Wind.
Knowing it is me ~
Yes, I sing to You each year~
Happy Birthday!






photo of the full moon November 21, 2010 Portland, ME
by Candace Pilk Karu