A well smudged home will change the course of my day.
A “random” heart shaped rock at my feet gives me the courage to admit a deep truth I have kept secret.
A shuffle of cards helps punch through mental fog that keeps me spinning in circles instead of acting.
There is a profound practicality found in what many dismiss as airy-fairy.
At the heart of any practice labeled woo-woo is the ability to bring present the more real hidden away in the complexity, and distractions, of the material, consensus world.
Sometimes what is is perceptible with our 5 physical senses does not give us complete information. Often we need to look behind the veil of the rational world to get the deeper, fuller truth.
When the unseen of life is allowed presence we are grounded in a more complete, a more real world. Rather than ignoring or escaping reality, we are brought ever deeper into it.
We find greater capacity for knowing ourselves and what we want, what is being called for and what is needed. Life expands beyond cause and effect and into dimensionality and wonder.
Purpose and power live here.
This is not blind trust, setting aside of logic, suspending belief, or wishful thinking. It is nuts and bolts information gathering, conscious choice making, and ultimately, practical life building.
The mystical woo is not a special effect used to fill the gap between the real and not real, it is an essential building block of what is real.
(if you want to find your own balance of practical woo you may be interested in The Guidance Sessions. Please take a look.)
Sometimes, more than we think, the most interesting is not what is meant for the public. It is the texture and grit of the back alley, the place where flaws are not given the illusion of perfection. Where they are patched only as needed. Left to live an uninterupted life. Where you can relax and not worry about good lighting or the right manners. You settle in to what is and allow the texture of a life fully lived reveal the art that can only come with time, mistakes, scars, and the right amount of privacy.
There are days when you feel, at best, a minor character in the story of your life. Circumstances beyond your control take over and push you to the sidelines where you watch and wait and pray for better times.
There are days when you are sure you are the villain. Doing, thinking, being, every single way that is wrong and hurtful.
You are scared. Cowardly. Mean. Deceptive.
Weak.
And yet,
You are never, can never, be anything but the Heroine Goddess of your life.
While there will be events and trickster alter egos that mess with your assumptions of how it is suppose the be, you are always the strongest force in your life.
Your adventure in this world can never be overtaken. This is essential truth.
Your heart creates your life rhythm. It sparks the fire that casts warmth into the corners of your doubts and light into your hidden darkness.
Time dances in your favor, bringing you partner upon partner from a world of ultimate possibilities.
Your desires and dreams ever conspire to see in what way you will take your rightful place on the throne of your own becoming. The glorious, only for you, place of honor in the temple that is your life.
Here is the obvious truth only hidden when you assume you have been banished from your temple:
What you long for will bring you Home. It will guide you precisely where you most want to be, bringing you intimately present in all that is.
Here you will find Bliss.
Heroine Goddess,
Crave your life.
Hunger.
Then let yourself dive ever deeper into fullness until you can no longer be contained and must burst forth into new form.
It is an illusion that you are sidelined, a lie that you are villainous in your life.
Remember your temple. Take your throne. Glory in the miracle of your radiance.
Quan Yin reminds us of our deserving of compassion
Have you ever felt like you have messed it all up? That you have made the wrong choices, settled for less, let your fear get the best of you?
Oh, it is so hard. Painful. Embarrassing. It makes you want to hide in a hole, or least hole up in your house watching an America’s Next Top Model marathon convincing yourself it is a profound sociological experiment. (Oh wait, maybe that is just me.)
It is hard to run head first into your own human faults and miss-steps. Those places were you slip into small, petty behavior, don’t give the benefit of the doubt, say something that causes unnecessary pain or are just plain mean.
Maybe you try and justify it but your gut knows the truth.
All of this is part of being human. No matter how much spiritual, self development work you have done. As much as you want to always come from your best, express the light of who you are, sometimes you mess up. You fall short. You screw it up. Sometimes in a really big, ugly way. A way that has consequences. A way that maybe we can not fully fix.
It sucks. It hurts. It can bring you to your knees.
It stings so bad you think that your heart must be ripped wide open and desert’s worth of salt is being shoveled in.
There is responsibility to take, apologies to make, repairs to be done.
There is remorse to feel. Karmic lessons to be learned. Insights to be gained. Growth to allow.
And even though you may feel you are the least deserving of compassion and care, you are actually in most need of and fully deserving of it. From yourself. Be tender in your words to yourself, loving in your attention, respectful of your pain. Be attentive to having your process be healing., not punishing or numbing.
I know this may be the hardest part of all, extending loving compassion and healing actions to yourself when you are feeling so bad about yourself, but do it. Just do it. It will transform you and free you from what otherwise is a prison of regret and shame.
Forgive yourself for messing up. For settling. Being mean. Doing it wrong in all the worst ways.
And then let it go.
Because no matter how bad it is, it is never, ever, never the whole truth about you. Maybe not everyone will see that, but you have got to know it about yourself. Those who love you know it. Let them help.
If you don’t let your mistakes retreat into the past, if you keep them alive as proof that you are not good or worthy, than you give your mistakes, your human imperfection that every single person breathing on this earth has in their unique way, the power to hold your light hostage.
Your light is not a function of your being perfect. It is the divinity and the wisdom of your heart expressing itself. When you hold on to hurt and self judgment you restrict how that light can flow.
It is never the actual mistakes we make that cause us the most pain. It is how we deal with ourselves around those mistakes.
How do I know? Experience. Lots. We all get so many opportunities to dance with our imperfection and how it rubs up against the world around us.
If we are attentive and loving with ourselves the painful mess ups hone our spirit, increase our compassion and empathy, actually sand down the harshness of our judging reactions and scarcity fears.
We, You, become more filled with light, more wise, more honest in the world, more at home in our skin and heart.
Please leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts. What works for you when you are in need of some self-forgiveness?
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the States. If we are lucky it is a day where we slow down, enjoy family, friends, and soul nourishing food. (FYI, I wholeheartedly believe that the second, or more!, helpings of potatoes and pie enjoyed in the space celebration and love nourish us more deeply than we know, so savor well!)
It is a time to bring awareness to all the ways in which we are blessed and loved.
Here is my Thanksgiving wish for you. That in the midst of celebrating in what ever way you do, whether with a large group of loved ones or alone (because sometimes we are alone and that is okay) or working so that the rest of us can be home, I want you to take some time to be thankful for You. This is especially important if your holiday is the kind where old triggers, resentments or family drama predictably play out.
You matter, You are important, You are a gift.
You, in all your beauty and imperfection. You, for the way you wake up and choose over and over and over in the course of a day to move forward, handle what is in front of you and love what matters.
You, for the way you don’t always get it right but keep trying and growing anyway.
There is so much to be thankful for. From the way your heart beats and keeps the biological rhythm of your life moving, to the way your heart spiritually expands in love every time it heals form a hurt or extends its love to another. From the way you dream even when disappointment tempts you to stop, to the way you respond in generosity even when it is inconvenient and for no other reason than you care.
I know it can be hard to see sometimes, the way you are amazing and special. We are not that practiced at seeing, let alone expressing thankfulness for ourselves. But do it, try it. I know it is vulnerable and can feel awkward but it will open you up to your life an amazing and honest way.
I deeply want this for you. To know the intimate joy of receiving yourself, acknowledging yourself, You feeling thankful for You.
Please share with someone who deserves some self thankfulness.
May you have a wonderful, warm, abundant Thanksgiving!
