Divinity, Being

earth woman

Emerging from a dark and quiet world

Amid seasons of uncertainty and fear

Shines a bright light extending from the womb

The warmth of the mother’s breast

Comforts the soul and nourishes life

Creating a safe refuge in shades of deep red earth

The sacred companion embraces challenge

And smoothes away the bumps along the path

Teaching one to breathe, to exhale, to be

The orange dance is a turbulent fire

Yet the child of life sparks a sense of belonging

Surprised, she creates something greater than herself

The artist’s palette changes hue

While eternity expresses herself in awesome wonder

Through a brilliant yellow sunflower

Discovering the WholeSelf in a fragrant field of many

She smiles and has a cup of tea

While a soft breeze in celebration fills the air

The heart grows translucent

And expands with waves of resonance

The naked rhythm of a neighbor’s pain

Pierces awareness, while green bleeds and mourns

Discovering the element of peace, present within

Compassion sustains the greater good

The voice of justice sings in sweet harmony

Through the daunting blue terrain

Inspiring hope

The law of nature nurses the wound

And creative counsel calms the masses

Like cupcakes, true expression is a healing balm

The mind’s eye understands

And pauses in perfect stillness for reflection

Contemplating a deeper intention

The indigo prayer creates a space for openness

Becoming a center for Divine Consciousness

To move freely in the world

In the depths of her nothingness

Death whispers, as she becomes infinitely real

And surrenders into Love

One mind, One heart, One body

The gift of presence is made known

In perfect balance she is Divinity, Being

An Individual Moment

jk-atc-julie

Yesterday was a Country Gospel kind of day. Maybe I needed a closer walk with Jesus? Now, after a morning filled with Simon and Garfunkel, I’ve turned to my Ed Sheeran playlist. Tonight will be some jazz and maybe a glass of wine. Tomorrow will be something different. Maybe praise music, Meghan Trainor, or uplifting chants? Maybe my “Turn It Up Loud and Sing” playlist? Top 40, or Oldies? Will it be Peruvian flute, dance music, classical, Indigenous Rhythms, or Tom Kenyon’s songs of Magdalen?

Depends on my mood. It likely may be silence.

Life is like that.  Music, art, food, cultures, traditions, wisdom… there’s so much rich beauty to be discovered when we move out of our homogenized silos and venture out to explore the vast world of our magnificent inter-being.  Janet Autherine wrote, “If we all counted our blessings and then shared them with our neighbors, near and far, all our lives would be richer.” Let us move into the richness with joy and celebration. Let us wander out beyond our safe boundaries and beliefs to gather in the space between us. Let us risk and become vulnerable enough to really get it. And dare we not just “share” with one another, but really commune in the fullness of our differences.

Can we sit in our moments of anxious-discomfort long enough to really hear the answer to “what really matters?” Can we temper the impulse to judge or criticize with enough tenacity to clearly understand? Can we hold the form of unity with enough resilience to see the beauty in our neighbor’s prayer or a stranger’s God? Can we remove the illusory walls that separate and open the gates of enlightened truth with the strength to receive the universal blessings? I want to believe so. I’m all in – knowing it isn’t always easy, but imperative and clearly, perceptively ordained.

This is our time. Let us come together and sample the varied spices of life. Let us hear the beautiful symphonic notes, tones and rhythms. Let us see the full spectrum of colors, shapes, patterns and textures. Let us smell the fragrance of the full bouquet as we admire each individual bloom. And may we get lost in the oneness of it all, all the while knowing exactly where we are. May we wake to life and play together in the flow of infinity expressing itself as us.  May we surrender to our inter-being and get drunk with possibility and potential. And in the end, we’ll remember that we are the rich blessing of all that is, simply having an individual moment.

Yesterday was a Country Gospel kind of day…

A World of Love,

Julie

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We are enjoying beautiful daily meditations, shared intention, heart attunements, resonant community, and interfaith prayers and texts over at My DAILY DOSE of SOUL CARE​. All are welcome. Come join us and turn your attention to a daily practice that supports you and brings you into alignment with your highest purpose.

Falling Forward

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When I think of the fall, I think of harvest – reaping the yield of produce that was tended to all summer in crops and gardens.  It’s a time of ripened abundance where we literally enjoy the fruits of our labor – a time when we experience growth, productivity, and completion.  Bushel baskets overflow as vibrant colors begin to fade and turn.  Days grow shorter and sunlight wanes minute-by-minute.  Sadly, the landscape transitions to brown and barren in its pallid journey toward colder temperatures.  The sense of closure begins to overwhelm many.  Our productive and vibrant season appears to die and come to an end.  Sometimes it feels more like loss when the lifeless signs of a winter pause replace the active flurry to gather-in.

In a contemplative space of harvest, I consider my personal growing seasons – times of planting, cultivating, harvesting, and rest.  Why is it that when I’m not producing, I feel incomplete?  Why is it that more satisfaction comes from the plethora of active growth and vibrant energy?  Why do I discount the time of rest and judge myself so harshly?

Winter is the slowest growing season in an apple orchard, but it’s also one of the most important. Cold winters are very important for apple trees. The trees need rest to produce flowers and fruit each year. It takes about 900 to 1,000 hours below 45 degrees to prepare the trees for the next season.  While the trees are resting, they are pruned.  Extra wood is cut out so plenty of light can reach the leaves and fruit. This helps keep the tree healthy and prepare it for an abundant harvest of nutritious, tasty apples with good color.

Maybe I am like an apple tree, complete and whole in all of my forms and all of my creative seasons.  There is purpose and intention to the cycles of my life.  Sometimes I’m quiet and germinating.  At other times, I’m in full production.  When I embrace the intention of rest and go within, I can grow into my highest potential.  Actually, I can become so much more than I can even imagine.

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In the spring, when temperatures begin to warm, buds appear on the branches of an apple tree and leaves begin to emerge.  Beautiful, fragrant apple blossoms bloom into their full grandeur and the tree is a spectacular sight.  The sweet spring version of an apple tree is whole and complete in and of itself.  Festivals bring people together to celebrate the trees in full bloom.  Florists use apple blossoms in creative designs and the branches have inspired many artists.  Apple blossoms are a Chinese symbol for beauty and immortality.  The apple blossom encourages action, motion, courage and passion.  If I were an apple blossom, I would arguably be complete and whole and enough.

The beautiful, fragrant blossoms are only one function and stage of the apple tree.  When pollinated by insects, the next miracle of life begins and an apple grows in place of the fading blossom.   As the blossoms die and fall away, the tree is filled with apples and the growing season starts over.  Plush green leaves warm the landscape as apples grow and turn a variety of hues.  Soon the leaves turn into magnificent fall colors and the apples ripen.  Once again, it’s time for harvest.  Apples can be used to eat, cook with, make beverages, and so much more.  The apple, as a fruit, is complete and whole and the fruit produces seeds, which are complete and whole.

With all of this abundant life, we mustn’t dismiss the simple elegance and genius of Nature’s plan.  Winter is necessary.  Rest is essential.  Pause is imperative.  And, the bare winter tree is complete and whole in itself.

William Arthur Ward said, “Faith sees a beautiful blossom in a bulb, a lovely garden in a seed, and a giant oak in an acorn.”  It is time we see ourselves with this same faith and magnificent potential. This year, as I fall forward into the quiet space of rest, renewal and regeneration, I will honor this season with gratitude and reverence.  When I’m not “producing,” I will experience myself in all of my wholeness.  I will cherish the time of rest and remember my precious birthright to blossom, grow, and flourish.  I will not only harvest and celebrate the fruits of my labor, but also mindfully gather the seeds of potentiality and hold sacred my ability to plant them.

Life is perfect.  The cycles and seasons are purposeful.  As an expression of this Divine Creation, I will allow my true essence to emerge in all of its glorious and splendid forms.  I am enough… I am whole.