Category Archives: Essential Journey

The answers lie within.

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Maybe you are searching among the branches
for what only appears in the roots.

~ Rumi ~

I am driving westward, towards the mountains. Behind me, the sun sears the horizon crimson and pink and gold. When I look into the rearview mirror, its light blinds my eyes.

Ahead, just to the right of me along the road embankment, the shadow of my car travels happily along, wheels spinning in the morning light.

A haiku writes itself in my head.

“Sun rises blindly / Shadow leads me into the west / The past falls behind.

I am off to a morning “Taste of EcoART” with Sherri Phibbs at the W.I.S.H. Studio an hours drive west then north of the city.

My critter mind has spent some time trying to talk me out of this foray into the mountains this morning. You’re too busy with wedding planning. You need to clean your office. Paint. Spend time with C.C.  Declutter the studio. Read that report. have all danced through my head, willing me from my path.

I stay the course. Pack up my car with ‘just in case’ winter clothing, a water bottle and my sunglasses. I turn on the tunes and drive.

“What’s the level of stress in your life?” Sherri asks me as we sit sipping tea beside the fire blazing merrily inside the yurt that is her studio/consulting space on the 10 acres she and her husband moved to a couple of years ago.

I laugh. It is my shadow laugh, I know. The laugh that would have me hide within it.

“Depends on the day and circumstances,” I reply. “Right now, practically non-existent. I’m sitting here with you in this beautiful space surrounded by nature. That’s pretty divine and not stress inducing at all.”

All the truth is, my stress can vary depending upon what I’m doing, or where I’m at. When I am avoiding doing the things that feed and nurture and support and enliven my spirit, my stress is high. This I know to be true.

Why then do I spend so much time avoiding doing the things that feed and nurture and support and enliven my spirit?

Good question.

A question worth living inside of, sitting with, breathing into.

I wander into the woods, find a clearing in the sun and sit at the base of a broken tree trunk. The mossy grass is dry and wintery. Snow covers the ground.

It feels safe and welcoming.

I clear a spot in the snow with my boots. The sun is warm and bright. I sit down, lean against the tree trunk and close my eyes.

I listen to the world around me. Deeply.

Before I left the yurt, Sherri provided me a drawing pad and pen and invited me to create a ‘sound map’ once I found my place in nature.

With my eyes still closed, I begin to map the sounds I hear on my drawing pad. A horse snuffling in a paddock to my left. A woodpecker drilling irratically into a tree. Far in the distance, a car hums along the main road. High above, a gentle breeze whispers through the uppermost branches. A dog barks. A bird tweets. Grass rustles.

I sit for awhile, breathing into the space, feeling, sensing, hearing, connecting with the world around me.

I stand up and wander further into the woods. A vision of a heart rock flits through my mind. I smile. What if I find one here in the woods? Dead branches, leaves, deer droppings and horse poop litter the forest floor. There are no stones.

I return to my sitting place where I have left my bag of writing and drawing supplies. As I approach, I spy something on the ground, right beside where I was sitting.

It is a heart rock.

I laugh out loud.

While I was searching in the woods, what I sought was lying right beside me, right where I was at.

Such is this journey called life. We go looking for happiness, success, wealth, fame, love, whatever it is we are seeking, out there, in other places when that which we seek is always right here, right where we’re at.

I breathe in and out, thanking nature for holding space around and within me.

The chiming of a Tibetan bowl ringing is calling me back to the studio.

I return and carry my experience within me.

Namaste.

The Power of Yes

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I am a “Yes’er”. When asked, “Will you?” “Can you?” I have in the past, inevitably replied, “Yes” — before considering all my options, before weighing the impact of what I am agreeing to will have on my life.

Some of my ‘yesy’ behaviour comes from a belief I do not have the right to say ‘no’. It also comes from a belief that if I do say no, people will be mad at me, they won’t like me. And, it comes from a place of wanting to be needed and to feel important.

Being a ‘Yes’er’ has also lead to some wonderful things. It’s lead me to do things I never before imagined I could, take risks I never thought I could, go places I never dared to venture before. But far too often, my automatic yes has come without thought, without measuring the distance between what someone else wanted and what I needed to feel balanced, whole and at peace within me and in my world.

I am learning.

I am learning to find my authentic yes. That yes that comes from knowing what I want more of in my life is only found from a place where I give myself the gift of freedom to ask for what I want, state my truth and do what fits best in my life, without compromising myself to fit into someone else’s.

I have discovered my authentic yes is a constant journey through my ‘no’. My authentic yes is not the opposite of No. It is not the immediate response of, “No. I won’t do that.” Or, “No, you can’t”. It comes through knowing what I want more of in my life. It comes from understanding I need to give myself time and space to breathe into the question, or, as Rilke wrote:

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” Rainer Maria Wilke

There have been many times in my life I have said no to the things I wanted to do and yes to the things I knew were not healthy, healing, supportive or loving of me. In those times, I was not saying YES! to life, I was saying NO to living in the light. No to shining. No to being my authentic self.

In those moments when I said yes to the things I really didn’t want to do simply because I was afraid or feared the opinions of others, I was saying yes to what I didn’t want in my life. I was acting from the dark-side of authenticity, the shadow side of living.

I’m giving up the game. Giving up saying yes to what keeps me playing small, holds me back from breathing freely. And, I am saying no to the things I know hurt me, pull me down and drag me back.

I am leaping into the power of YES!

YES! This is my one and only life and I choose to live it in the light.

YES! This is my time to shine. To dance. To laugh and spin about and be real and authentic and true to who I am.

YES! There is no one path to finding myself because no matter what path I take I am always on the path with me. This is the path where I find myself fearlessly saying YES in the joy of knowing, when I treat myself with tender loving care, when I celebrate my strengths and share my gifts, I am creating ripples of my best for all the world to see. In my YES! I know I am exactly where I want to be living this one wild and precious life for all I’m worth.

To contribute my best I gotta give up my worst

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I am off tomorrow to be in that place where hearts break open with every breath and miracles unfold with every heartbeat. I am off to coach at Choices for five days.

I am happy.

I am excited.

I am relieved.

Yesterday, at a team meeting, Mary Davis, Choices founder Thelma Box‘s daughter and the facilitator of the program, asked the group, “Why do you commit so much time to volunteering at Choices?”

Everyone of the 8 – 10 core team members present shared along similar lines.

We love being in a place where miracles unfold, and, where we get to live on purpose, every moment of every day.

I also like being in a place where I know everyone around me is supporting me in contributing my best, just as I am supporting them.

It is easy in the busy, crazy, schedule-driven competitiveness of everyday living to criticize, condemn and complain. My hair’s a mess, the price of gas too high, too low. I can’t find a parking spot — really, does that guy have to take up two spots? Governments are blind, bosses are stupid, co-workers lazy. The world is going to hell in a hand-basket. The world is falling off its axis.

It’s easy to see and speak of what’s wrong, what’s not working and what we’d do to make it different, better, other than what someone else is doing.

It’s also easy to forget that those we criticize did not get up this morning and say, “I’m off to do a horrible, piss-poor, really rotten job at whatever I do today. I’m off to make the world a worse place than it already is.”

I don’t believe any (or at least the majority) of us get up with the intention of creating worse. I believe we set out into our days to create better, or, in some cases to at least uphold the status quo if only so we don’t have to face the consequences of the changes we’d like to avoid.

Why is it then, that at water-coolers, in quiet corners, on transit buses or where ever two or more of ‘us’ are gathered, conversations often focus on what others are doing so badly, at least according to us?

When I get up in the morning I make a conscious decision to contribute my best throughout the day.

When I criticize, condemn and complain, I am not contributing my best.

So, if a + b = c, when I engage in C I am undermining my best and robbing myself and the world around me of the very things I want to contribute to make the world a better place. Engaged in the 3C’s I am actively engaged in doing the opposite of what I want to do because, whether actively engaged in A or B, I am making a contribution to the world. The one I focus on the most determines the outcome of my efforts.

Which do I want it to be?

I am off tomorrow morning to contribute my best in a place where the vision is to “change the world one heart at a time.”

It’s a big job, but, the more of us engaged in changing hearts and minds to see we are human beings filled with infinite possibilities and the capacity to create the world we’ve always dreamed of, the more possibility there is of living in the kind of world we dream of. The kind of world where Love and peace and compassion and joy and harmony co-exist without fear of being condemned for the colour of our skin, the God or gods we do or don’t worship, the pedigree of our family tree, the depth of our pockets and the trajectories of our past.

The more of us who give up the 3Cs, the less we’ll be contributing our worst and the more time we’ll have to give everything we do and say and create our best.

I’m off to coach at Choices. See you next Monday.

 

The heart can be a messy place.

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IMG_1115My daughter, Alexis, writes about her messy pink squiggly heart on her blog today. Not the beating steadily to keep the blood flowing and your organs running kind of heart, but the heart of what matters in life kind of organ. The heart of happiness, love, contentment, joy.

That heart can be a messy place.

It can be filled with unease, insecurity, distrust. It can beat wildly with the abandon of a stallion racing across the plains, or cower timidly as a mouse reaching for the piece of cheese luring it into a trap.

Sometimes, that heart has no sense. It wants only to feel alive, to avoid what is causing it pain, to believe it is safe. And in its yearning for safety, it can open up to danger, to unsafe conditions, to the wrong thing posing as right simply because, that heart can be deaf and blind to its own beat, even when its eyes are wide open to the world outside.

Alexis writes about how, when her father and I separated when she was six, she learned that ‘love could be temporary’. “Happiness is hard for people who don’t trust anyone,” she writes. “Harder still, for those of us who don’t trust love.”

Yesterday, while sharing coffee with the amazing Michelle Jeffrey Horvath, we talked about love and loving and how our human expression of love is sometimes the exact opposite of what love is all about.

LOVE is never temporary or temperamental. It is permanent, eternal, everlasting.

It is how we, its human carriers, express it, live it, know it that can have temporal and time stamped limitations on its durability and presence in our lives.

There was a time when I thought Love came from outside me. I thought ‘in Love’ meant having someone else to keep me safe, make me happy, make me feel like I belonged.

I’ve learned through experience that no one else can give me those things or make me feel those ways. It isn’t someone else’s responsibility to make me feel ‘loved’. It’s mine to know and embrace. When I flow into and with Love in all things, I am always safe, always connected, always at peace. When I allow Love to embrace me with all its capacity to let me live as beauty and the beast, messy squiggles darting everywhere and white doves flying free, there are no limits to its presence in my life and who I can be in its presence.

I have learned that when I share that space called ‘in love’ with another, there are messy places, dark moments, shifting sands that can trip us up or draw us out of love’s abiding presence. In love with another is not synonymous with permanent, it simply means I must continually choose to stand in the broken, leap into the unknown, explore the shadows of who we are together, while holding onto what makes love real and necessary and life-giving between us — our decision to be together, to be in union, to be one with one another.

“In love” doesn’t mean out of stress, out of discord, out of the trigger zone of my own stuff erupting to make me want to run and hide and jettison all reason to stay together.

It simply means, I am willing and open and able to stay present in love’s light, together. Always committed to seeing my beloved as human, as real, as perfectly imperfect as I am in my human condition so that in our perfectly imperfect expression of Love, we see one another through eyes that are loving, with our hearts wide open to the possibility that together, our hearts can beat as one when we let go of judging, condemning, blaming the other for our imperfect beat.

Namaste.

Let your heart run wild

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Art Journal Entry Jan 5 ©2015 Louise Gallagher

Art Journal Entry Jan 5
©2015 Louise Gallagher

I love layering when I paint. I love combining words and images, colour and texture. This painting was created in my art journal. The words were added in photoshop and are from my journal.

I am not sure which came first. The painting or the words. Or if they evolved together.

It doesn’t matter how they unfolded. What matters is, they did.

It is part of the flow. Of being in the process versus thinking about HOW I am going to make it happen.

Sometimes, like when I’m painting or writing, I find myself in the flow, at one with its unfolding and I feel embraced and supported by grace and ease.

Other times, like when talking with someone about something that holds an emotional charge, it is a bumpy ride fraught with energetic discourse that doesn’t flow all that smoothly. It is only when I come back to the page, either written or visual, that I find myself again effortlessly easing into the flow that was always there, awaiting my return.

No matter the measure or pace of my journey, whether I willingly surrender my resistance to being present or not, when I allow myself to awaken to the evolutionary impulse to create better, to create more of what unfolds my human condition in Love, miracles happen, art appears, words become my truth.

The other day, while having lunch with my friend Mark of Mark is Musing, he asked me, “Do you know what you’re going to write when you sit down at your computer in the morning?”

I laughed. Seldom do I have a plan for what I’m going to write. Often, I begin with the words, “I wonder what will appear today as I write…” As long as I keep typing, the letters form into words, the words into phrases, the phrases into sentences until eventually, I see the wholeness of what was unfolding through me when I first sat down to type.

“I then go back and delete the beginning thoughts and simply allow what appeared to be present. I seldom edit. I simply let it be.”

It is always a mystery and a miracle to me.

It is always a journey of letting go of fear and trusting in the process.

May you journey through Love today. May your heart be filled with joy. May your body be at rest. May your mind be at One with all that is when you let go of imagining what you need to be or do is anything other than surrender to Love.

Namaste.

 

 

Walking on ice

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Wordcloud created by Tagxedo (www.tagxedo.com)

Wordcloud created by Tagxedo (www.tagxedo.com)

I made the wordcloud of the words that appear most frequently on my blog. (Thank you Tagxedo)

I was surprised to see that ‘breath’ is the most frequently used word on my blog. It didn’t surprise me to see that heart and love are used pretty often too!

It’s all about the heart.

Our hearts send more messages to our brains every day than the brain sends to the heart. (source)

It’s important to know this because we think what we think is what is real. Yet, if we stop to listen to our hearts, we’ll the real answer is beating quietly beneath the thoughts pounding wildly to keep our fears at bay. We think the rapid beating of our hearts is all about fear, but it’s not. Backed up by our thinking, our hearts beat faster in a desperate attempt to get our attention. But, we’re too busy listening to our minds telling us to run, hide, lie, cheat, deceive, freeze and every other thing we do to avoid the things we fear the most, pain, loneliness, rejection, abandonment, looking stupid, being ‘wrong’, being shamed, being shunned…

On Sunday, I walked along the frozen river. Above, the sky was a cerulean blanket of clear sky sailing into infinity. Below, the snow covered river lay still, it’s capacity to move freely held tightly in winter’s icy grip.

Around me, the air was crisp and cold. Inside me, my heart beat freely. My mind wanted to scare me with its worries about how solid was the ice, especially when occasionally, the icy surface of the snow-covered river would crunch beneath my footsteps.

My mind screamed, “Get off the ice!”  My heart knew the truth. There was nothing to fear.

And so I kept walking until the shoreline on the other side of the river called out to me to cross over.

Again, my mind chattered away about the insecurity of the ice.

I took a long slow breath, calmed my thinking and crossed the river.

My mind wanted me to believe the ice would crack and I would fall into the frigid waters flowing deep below the frozen surface of the river.

My heart wanted me to experience the beauty and wonder of walking amidst the open spaces. Of feeling the cold crisp air against my cheeks. Of hearing nothing but the silence of the river valley. It wanted me to visit the site where in July, we carefully placed two heart rocks in the woods along the river bank to honour the wonder pooch. And, just as Ellie once helped me walk fearlessly in the sunshine, my heart wanted me to conquer my irrational fears and flow into and with the serenity surrounding me.

I chose to flow freely with the beauty of the day and let my fears rest quietly in my mind.

They were only thoughts and thoughts can be changed.

Namaste.

Grow only love.

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Art Journal Entry Jan 3

Art Journal Entry Jan 3

Ann over at The Year of Living Non-Judgmentally, shares her morning mantra today and invites visitors to share theirs.

I shared what I painted as a page in my art journal on the weekend.

Also today, Leigh at Not Just Sassy on the Inside, invites people to share their thoughts and feeling on where peace begins for them. It is part of a challenge she has initiated for the month of January called, Journey2Peace. Throughout the month, Leigh will be posing questions, challenges, ideas on peace and inviting people to chime in with their thoughts and ideas.

And that is the beauty of this world of blogging. I read someone else’s thoughts and ideas, answer the invitations they post to share and am reminded of what is important for me, or, as in the case of both Ann’s and Leigh’s posts today, am given an opportunity to see where I have gone off track or slipped in my commitment to live from my heart.

I got caught up in my ego on the weekend. I got immersed in my own circular thinking about how it is someone else’s fault that something went the way it went. Which, of course, means, if they’re to blame for how it went, then they’re also responsible for how I felt about how it went. In which case, I get to abdicate responsibility for my thoughts, responses, actions, etc.

Abdicating my self-efficacy does not create peace in my heart, my mind and world. It only creates victimhood, self-pity and discord inside and outside of me. And while I might find it comforting to picture myself as riding high on one of the four horses of the apocalypse in self-righteous defense of my position, holding onto my inner dialogue as to why they’re wrong/I’m right only stirs up trouble in my heart. I can’t hold out arms of love when I’m holding my sword high in defense of my right to fight for peace of mind.

Peace of mind does not come from outside of me. It’s nexus is within me. I am its creator. I can also be its destroyer. I decide which path I choose. I decide which wolf I feed.

I gave succor to the wolf of self-pity, anger, blame and shame on the weekend.

It was of so human of me and, humbling. My response reminds me that it is a moment by moment choice I make to walk in peace, or not.

No one can make the choice for me. To create peace in my world I must be the peace I wish to create. I must  let go of playing in the mud of self-pity, blame and shame and tend to my garden in Love.

What about you? Where does peace begin for you? What are you watering your garden with today?

 

 

Letting go of control is impossible.

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FLOW Acrylic on canvas 12" x 16" ©2015 Louise Gallagher

FLOW
Acrylic on canvas
12″ x 16″
©2015 Louise Gallagher

For the past several years I have meditated on a word that acts as my ‘way-finding’ for the year.

Last year, the word that found me and rested with me throughout the year was, At Onement (atonement). The year before, Rejoice and before that Redemption.

This year, the word that found its way into my being present is, Flow.

I use the phrase, “found me” on purpose. I do not choose the word. The word chooses me. Left to my own devices, I’d probably choose something easier like ‘food’ or ‘fun’.

Allowing space for a word to find me is challenging. My mind wants to take control, to self-direct the process.

My heart knows better.

According to Wikipedia, the “positive psychology” definition of flow is, “Flow, also known as Zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.”

For me, Flow represents even more than just being in the moment, fully engaged. It means giving up my resistance, releasing my grasping for control and surrendering myself to what is, without fearing what might be if I am not dictating the way it must become.

I can be a despot sometimes. Yup. Just ask C.C. or my daughters. Sometimes, I like it all my way.

Funny thing about having it all my way… When it’s all my way there’s no room for anyone else’s way, or even for the Universe to turn up and have its way.

Being in ‘flow’ means, accepting I can let go of control and live in the in possibility of miracles shining all around. For my eyes and heart to be open to seeing miracles all around, I have to be willing to let go of holding the reins so tightly there’s no room for the light to get in.

Even in two short days of living with this word, I can feel the dissonance that happens when my mind chatter wants to overwhelm my heartbeat because it fears the quiet steady drumming of possibility at my door.

No way, it says, snapping at the synapses in my brain. You will not give up control. No. No. Never!

Be strong of heart, my wisdom voice whispers. Control is an illusion. You are not giving up anything.

Oh.

I hadn’t thought of that.

Could it be that my fear of letting go of control is really all about letting go of something that isn’t real?

Hmmm.

In focussing on letting go of control do I simply have to let go of holding onto the impossible?

Can it be so simple?

I’ve got another 363 days to find out.

 

 

Every year I create a painting to provide me a visual stimulus for my new word for the year. I created the painting above using a new technique I was trying out for the first time yesterday.  It was fun and fascinating and fabulously rewarding to allow the paint to flow!

I am also linking this post to Michelle W.’s Friday prompt at The Daily Post  — the invitation was to share a photo of something that speaks to NEW for you. This photo and painting are new for me this year!

 

2014: The Year of At Onement

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At Onement Mixed Media

At Onement
Mixed Media

It was a year to celebrate. To rejoice. To give thanks. It was, as Dicken’s would say,  the best, and the worst, of times. There were moments that truly took my breath away and moments that broke my heart wide open.

A broken heart is an open heart and an open heart is a loving heart.

I am grateful for every moment of 2014. Grateful for the highs and the lows. Grateful for the sorrow and grief, and the love and laughter. I am grateful for the losses and the gains, the missing of loved ones and the welcoming of new friends, new experiences, new ideas.

I am grateful.

There were many turning points in 2014. Many moments that stopped me in my tracks and gave me pause to contemplate the wonder and majesty of life, our human condition, our shared experience here on earth.

There was, the loss of Ellie the Wonder Pooch. The grief of her passing and the celebration of her life. There were friends who gathered to bid her adieu and friends who wrote to wish her well on her final journey. And there was the moment I sat with her in the silence of her final breath and said good-bye. My heart was heavy in that moment and still, there was gratitude for this loving creature who taught me so much about compassion and loving unconditionally and who saw me through the darkest times of my life and walked with me into the light.

There was war and terrorist attacks around the world and drones flying and righteous speeches calling men, women and children to take up arms and heartfelt pleas to put down arms of destruction and hold out arms filled with nothing but love for one another. Here on our Canadian soil the horror of radicalism drove home the need to honor and respect each other where we stand and not give into the call to kill one another in the name of whatever God we worship.

There were outbreaks of disease sweeping through nations and killing indiscriminately.

There were rising oil prices and plummeting oil prices. There were losses and gains. Winners and losers.

And always, there was love giving rise to hope. Making room for possibility. Creating space for better in all our hearts, minds and souls.

2014 was the year of atonement, or as it was said in Old English, At Onement, my word for the year. Meditating on At Onement lead me to oneness, within myself and with the world around me and the Universe. In my focus on atonement, I felt the deepness of gratitude stirring my soul and the breath of forgiveness easing my heart. At Onement drew me closer to understanding the oneness of my human condition and my connection to all humankind. To our connection, our sameness and differences and the beauty in each of our unique places on earth.

2014 drew me closer to my capacity to be the dreamer and the architect of my dreams.

2014 gave me wings and the belief in my ability to spread them wide and soar.

And, 2014 gave me room to grow, to inhale, exhale and take in all the beauty and wonder and awe around me and know, I am safe no matter where I am in the world when I stand in my truth holding onto nothing but my capacity to Love fearlessly, completely, unconditionally.

2014 taught me to let go of fear that I will never be enough, or never have enough, or never know enough.

2014 taught me to celebrate the small moments and the large. It taught me to see the beauty in every heart and make space for the sacred in every moment.

2014 was a continuation of the years before and the years to come where I learn to be my human self in all its complexities, all its wonder and awe, and all its beauty and the beast living in harmony within this flesh and bone that carry me through each day.

2014 was my year to step with confidence onto centre stage of my own life and say, without hesitation or fear or false modesty, ‘This is where I belong. This is where I must be to live this one, wild and precious life for all I’m worth.”

The earth has turned 365 orbits around the sun and now, 2015 awaits.

It too will be a year for learning. A year for growing. A year for stepping into the true magnificence of my human condition where I know unequivocally, that we are all here on this earth to shine, to beam and to love one another with all we’ve got to give. And in our loving unconditionally, we will receive the greatest gift of all — our hearts filled with nothing but Love. No hatred. No condemnation. No fear. Just Love.

As 2015 approaches, I surrender holding onto what was to breathe into this moment where all there is is everything I need to live fearlessly, completely free.

May each of you know the wonder and majesty of your true selves shining brightly for all the world to see, there is only one way for humankind to live together, only one way for us to create peace and tolerance and acceptance. And that way is Love.

Wishing each and every one of you a peaceful and loving New Year.

Namaste.

Waiting for Christmas

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DSCF0639It is that holy time of year again. A time when here in the northern hemisphere, we await the coming of the light after the long dark nights of winter. It is a time when the Christian world awaits with expectant breath the coming of a child. A time when fir trees are adorned with glistening lights and carolers sing out to passers-by and children smile at snow falling and presents piling up under the tree. It is a time to celebrate the sacred nature of our world, the miracle of life, the waning of darkness soon to become light.

This is a time for renewal, for pause, for welcoming in the light. It is a time to make room for gifts, the gift of life, the gift of love, peace, hope and joy.

It is a time to celebrate the human condition in all its manifestations here on earth. It is a time to celebrate the coming into being – of not just the Christ child, but of all of us.

This is a time of awakening. A time to make room for the spiritual aspects of our nature, the holy essence of our being human. It is a time to slow down, to live in the moment, to appreciate the small things of life unfolding in wonder every day. From the delicate light and warmth of a candle flame to the quiet stillness of the darkness just before the dawn, this is a time to prepare, to make ready, to enter into the anticipation of life coming into being and of light following the darkness.

In this time of waiting and awakening, I invite you to take a deep breath in. In. Out. Breathe. Let your eyes gently close. Let your jaw relax, the muscles of your face soften.

Breathe in. Feel the coolness of the air as it enters your body.

Breathe out. Feel the warmth of your breath as you exhale. Feel the air upon your skin, the softness of its caress.

Feel the world around you, growing quiet, settle into peacefulness and breathe.

Breathe.

Imagine you are standing beneath a star lit sky high upon a hill. Around you the world spreads out in the darkness. Above you a blanket of stars glitter in the velvety dark sky.

Imagine you are all alone yet connected to the millions of others who stand as you do, alone upon a hill beneath the star littered blanket of night.

Imagine, as you breathe in, they breathe out.

Imagine, as you breathe out, they breathe in.

Imagine you are all one breath, connected through this one air you share and breathe into, connected to the millions of others breathing with you. This air that nourishes your body, is the air that nourishes theirs.

And as you stand, breathing as one, you spread your arms wide, raise your face to the moon and stars above and whisper,

“I am here. I am willing. Let the night and the moon and the stars give way to what is to come. I am waiting for the light. In my waiting I open my heart to the beauty and the wonder unfolding all around me. I open my arms to receive the gifts of this season of peace, hope, love and joy. I am waiting.”

We are all waiting.

Together.

Let your body feel the peace, hope, love and joy of this wondrous time of year flowing all around and within you. Feel your heart soften, your breath deepen, your mind open wide.

Sit and breathe in the beauty all around, open your heart and mind and soul and body to receive the gifts of the Universe shimmering in the light of a million stars showering your heart in Love.

Breathe. And be one in joyous expectation of the coming of the light.

In this time of waiting, let Love be your companion. Let Love light your way. Let peace be your path from darkness into light.

Now  Breathe. Quietly.

And in this moment of quiet, let a song arise within your heart and you wait patiently for the sun to return, for a child to be born.

Let us each be the light in the darkness awakening for all the world to know peace, hope, love and joy.

Namaste

 
Expectant Silence  (An Advent Poem)

In expectant silence
the world awaits
the coming
of a child
heralding
a world
of peace
hope
love
and
joy.

In the quiet
of dawning light
I await
morning
streaming rose and gold
threads of glory
filling the sky
with the promise
of a new day
born in the darkness
of the night

silence descends
light enters

I feel
the breath of the Divine
rising up within me

awakening my soul
with fluttering wings
and with each breath

I become an oasis
of peace
hope
love
and
joy.