Things falling apart reveals a new song

 Your story – every single note – is worth singing. Especially those dissonant, not-quite-X-Factor-ready tunes. And for those of you less musically inclined, this: Your story – every word, every phrase, every sentence, every paragraph, every page – is worth telling. Especially, those between-the-lines scenes you’ve kept under wraps.....

From:  Ronna at www.ronnadetrick.com/ 

Very rarely do I miss my favorite artist painting a new canvas across the morning skies, but this morning was one of those days.  Today, I gifted myself a rare morning of sleeping in.  There was a time in life that I would have spent the day beating myself up for not getting my early (usually 4 am) start.  A friend of mine (thank you Sandra) shared a new blog with me by Ronna Detrick (see link above) where she shared the idea that every single note of the musical interlude that is my song is worth singing.

What does that have to do with sleeping in?  I have shared with many of you that I have been in a story of a semi-serious medical story.  While I have sat with this "story" to learn the underlying lines, it never occurred to me until this morning that "every note" of this musical story was worth singing and worth telling.

I took a class with Contemporary Shaman Robin Rice which included some work with Alchemy.  In the course she shared a passage from the Second Book of the Tao by Stephen Michell.

"You have heard of flying with wings, 

but can you fly without wings? 

You have heard of the knowledge that knows, 

but can you practice

the knowing that does not know? 

Consider a window, it is just

a hole in the wall, but because of it

the whole room is filled with light. 

Thus, when the mind is open

and free of its own thoughts,

life unfolds effortlessly,

and the whole world is filled with light." 

Then, in commentary...

"Wisdom is not a something, to grasp or to have. When you discover the extent of your own ignorance, it's like a revelation. 'You mean that nothing I believe is true?' Suddenly a window appears in the hermetic chamber. A little openness becomes available. A little humility. Eventually you realize that there's nowhere the light doesn't penetrate, no where the non-wings cant fly."

I went deeper into the notes of the song to discover the wisdom of why the medical story is playing out again.  Perhaps it was the non letting go?  Perhaps it was even deeper?  As I meditated and journeyed to discover the wisdom, to discover the passages I may have missed in the musical.  

The quote that comes to mind to explain my discovery is by Pema Chodren.  

"Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing.  We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved.  They come together and they fall apart.  Then they come together again and fall apart again.  It's just like that.  The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen:  room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy."

So has health falls apart only to come together (a story that I have read before), the key is to make room to just BE.  That is the gift, the true blessing.  A note to celebrate.  If something is to be celebrated in one musical, is it not to be celebrated in every musical score?  

This morning I celebrate the notes of my health - with all of its falling apart - knowing that it is simply an interlude to make room for a new wind to blow.  As I stand to look out the window I see a glorious morning sun filled day.  The leaves are stirring on the ground from an autumn breeze.  A hummingbird enjoys the nectar of the bottle brush.  The rose bush covered in delicate white blooms framed by the brilliant green leaves of a banana tree.  A celebration in nature of changing seasons.  A celebration in musical notes during an interlude.    "Wisdom is not a something, to grasp or to have."

Thanksgiving Tree and Love Leaves

It is almost that time year again …  Each year a tradition in my home is to construct a tree.  A Gratitude tree.  Whether we construct from construction paper on a wall or we “plant” a tree (branch) in a pot to sit inside the house, we add “leaves” to it as the month goes on.  May sound strange to want to have “leaves” blowing around your living room, but I can only pray that I am so blessed that the “leaves” pile up.  By Thanksgiving Day, the “tree” is in full bloom with not a bare branch.  It is that time of year to post what the month of November means to me.

In my home the month of November is gratitude month.  During the week of Thanksgiving, each of us pick three names to call to tell them simply how grateful we are that they are in our lives.  Many times they are friends that I have not spoken with in sometime (I am not really a phone talker).  Some chuckle and find the call odd, but they usually will say something like “thank you, I am glad your in my life too.  But seriously Carla, what is really up?”  We laugh, sometimes cry, and best of all reconnect our souls. 

Over the years the names have changed some, but many have remained the same, and some new ones are always being added.  They represent family and friends that have been with my family through all the trials and low spots; as well as there to celebrate the moments we cherish for a life time.  In this hectic lifestyle we all seem to live in, it is easy to take for granted those around us that mean so much.  When we slow down enough to realize how blessed we each truly are, it is a profound experience.  Sure we all have issues – I had a teacher tell me issues are like tissues, pull one out and another pops up.  When it really comes down to it, it is the people in our lives that make the difference. 

I remember the year my dad crossed over.  It was made crystal clear to me how important it is to keep this tradition alive.  We really never know when it will be the last time we get the chance to say thank you for being a part of our lives. 

The amazing part of the tree tradition is that although some names may disappear as paths bear apart, our tree gets fuller and fuller each year.  It is near impossible to personally tell everyone that has touched our lives and blessed us over the past year.  This year … well this year the amazing women that I have shared a journey with is in the thousands.  People have stepped in to my life to walk with me on a journey and will never know the profound impact they have had on my soul.   So while I try to take a moment this year to personally thank each and everyone on my tree, if that does not happen my prayer is that they feel and experience the gratitude that I have for having crossed paths when them.  I am grateful they are in my life.  I am grateful because I am blessed simply for knowing them.

This afternoon I received an email from an old friend that I have not spoken with for nearly two years.  He wished to share that he has begun to construct his Thanksgiving Tree and wanted to be the first one to share with me how grateful he is for having crossed paths with me all those years ago.  So I cried tears of joy, of gratitude and experienced love.  As a result, I have decided to begin early this year and really try to drop a note of love and gratitude to so many that have touched my life.  I looked up at my wall and saw the Thanksgiving Tree that has remained a constant reminder for the past eleven months and began to drop “love leaves”.

My Opinion on Occupy Wall Street

I have been asked repeatedly over the course of the past two weeks for my perception on or comments about Occupy Wall Street.  I have shared before with many, my political beliefs and opinions are not something that I share often on social media outlets.

I do believe the following:

"Decisions are made by those who show up" ~ Aaron Sorkin

I believe that regardless of what religion, spiritual path, gender, sexual orientation, age, or any other label distinction you wish to label yourself or someone else, have a responsibility here in the United States.  That responsibility is to vote.  It is a responsibility to participate in the process that allows us to state our opinions.
Voting is an ancient tradition.  Many of us come from proud traditions that have used the process of council for centuries.  However, apathy is a modern invention that removes your power.  Not voting because you do not believe it will make a difference is apathy.

If you choose not to vote, you are stating that you allow others to make all your decisions for you.  Standing aside sharing opinion without showing up to vote will not return the power your have given away.

Let's see what is effected by your vote.  Privacy issues, religious rights, health care, free speech, racial equality, separation of church and state, animal rights, corporate rights, media ownership, protection of endangered species, the environment as a whole, energy and alternative energy options, off shore drilling, jobs, and the list goes on and on.

A peaceful way to state your opinion is to vote.  So while change may come from protesters ... it may also come from voters.  How any one of us determine to show up is a personal choice.  It is my prayer that one day we all make the choice to change through complete peaceful conversation and mutual respect for all paths without violence in words or actions.  Until that time, may we all remember we are all related  ...

Awesome Women Hub Re-Think Tank: My reflections

Inspired to be of deeper service to the world and hearing the call to empower women worldwide in the new feminine models of community, Robin, Leslie, Carla and Sandra have come together to travel to each Awesome Women Hub Tour Stop to meet you!...

A RE-Think Tank forum comes to a close.   Spending many months immersed in the process of RE-Thinking various aspects of 'what the world needs next' has revealed many threads of a tapestry that is still being woven.  Beginning really in February/March time frame, I have sat in awe listening to women from across the globe re-thinking definitions such as what does beauty truly mean, to how can we show up in the business world as authentic selves, and even going back into history to re-think the messages our ancestors left for us to live by.

As this life force energy emerged from a group of women immersed both in live events and in virtual re-think tanks, the energetic signature fluxed, pushed, pulled, and caused torrents of shifts to occur in individuals (including myself).  Each re-think tank vastly different than the one before, each seemingly going deeper and deeper into shifting paradigms of society.

We began with re-thinking what fearlessness means, what it looks like, and how can one be supported in making a fearless statement into reality.  The old paradigm thought process of safety and tribal foundations looked at in order to bring them forward into a new paradigm of authentic selves.  We looked at how this applies not only in personal lives, but how to bring it into the business world.  As a result of that very first re-think tank, new collaborations were forged, new business ventures begun, and some stepped out of traditional health care to reclaim their lives.

Next, we looked at the simple word 'beauty'.   How to be the woman you are at your authentic core, without explanation or apology.  We looked at the potential of the world as a beautiful place in all aspects including relationships, reflection of mirrors, in business cooperation and in our voice.  The ability to shed old consciousness that limit our definitions and  our own ability to even love our own selves.  How do we carry the unified and authentic definition of beautiful into society?  Into business?  Into life?

We moved into looking at the ancestors and the messages they left for us.  How do we take those messages, those lessons and carry them into the future?  Asking even are they relevant to today's society and even more important, are they relevant to the generation that follows?  Can we learn from our ancestors?  Can we return to a tribal society where we co create and collaborate, nurture one another from the competitive survival existence we live in today?  Is all competition no longer a viable energy signature or is it some symbiotic relationship that must come into the evolution process?

We looked at the generation that follows our own.  What are we leaving for them?  Have we paused and asked them the question "what do you wish for us to leave you"?   We asked questions like we often think of society as me verse we, what happens if we come together as one rather than separated by age?  What happens when we go deep into our essence, can we do things different?  We went to the next generation and asked them the questions.

And then, the big question ... As our world globally is standing on the verge of change.  Change in nature.  Change in social structures.  Change in political temperatures.  Change in economics.  What structures do we need now, not ten years from now, but now in social society, professional society, or in organizational society itself?  Is it actually new structures that need to be created, or simply re defining the ones that already exist?  This single question generated overwhelming shifts in energy of those in the conversation.  Women becoming the architects of themselves, creating a blueprint for the foundation of their own authentic essence, and respecting the natural cycle of life as they assimilate into it.  Ideas emerged that are not just nice ideas, but concrete blueprints of carrying into society.  From sustainable living and heart centered micro changes, to new business ventures co creating a new vision of working with the autistic mind.

I personally am aware of a woman finding the strength to enter a safe house, a woman quitting her "job" to embark upon a spiritual journey into sustainable living, women collaborating in new teachings giving their authentic selves a voice, a book being written on new healing, a woman embarking on new research into autism, and a sustainable community garden beginning.  These are just stories I have heard of in the past week.  There are literally hundreds of new ideas being birthed from the RE-think tank forum's.

So did we find the answer to the question, "What does the world need next"?  The cycle of nature tells us that a seed is planted, the growing process must happen before the the fruit is harvested.  As with nature, the seeds have been planted and now the growing process.  It maybe some time before we can truly assess if the RE-think tank forums resulted in long term answers to the question.  What can be ascertained then?  That every individual that participated at some level in this past years process has forever been affected.  The way the perceptions of society, relationships, business, and family are seen have shifted.  A new way of thinking and 'seeing' has emerged.

I have been humbled and honored to a part of this process as the Director of Connections on the National Team, I can assure you that I too have been affected.  My perceptions shifted.  I have been blessed by conversations with women from across the globe whose experiences in life are vastly different than my own.  We have come together to re-think, discover, and birth new ideas, new ventures, and new paradigms to bring into the world.

So to all the women whose souls have touched my own across the globe, I thank you from the depths within my heart.  Robin, Leslie, and Sandra ...  there are not words, but then again, you already know and feel.  Thank you.  Mitakuye Oyasin.  Mwah.

October 28th and the Mayan Calender

I have been asked my opinion again on the Mayan Calender and the date that is fast approaching of 10/28/11.  What does it all mean?

First understand that what I share is simply my perspective and opinion, I urge each of you to take your questions to journey and seek your own perspectives.

According to the Mayan Calendar, of which I am by far not an expert on, there is a time when the cycle ends.  The specific date of this cycle ending has been named as 12/12/12 and by some 10/28/11.  Let's start with this, the Mayan Calendar is a time measurement calender that was used for spiritual time keeping.  Spiritual time keeping is vastly different than physical time keeping.  I am not sure that any in today's modern era are capable of truly understanding spiritual time keeping anymore.

We know that all of life for all time has been about cycles.  In nature we have the cycle of growing.  We seed.  The seed germinates.  The seed sprouts.  The leaf forms.  The buds appear.  It flowers.  The fruit appears.  The Harvest.  We take the seeds from the harvest.  And the process begins again.   Simplistic but is one way to look at the cycle of life.

Many believe that this is a new cycle or a new wave of energy that is beginning.  Physical time accelerating to begin the return to spiritual time keeping.  A wave that will bring energetic frequencies to our world that will be available to everyone in order to raise their own vibration to keep up with this "new" or at least different cycle.

Do I think that anything dramatic, life altering will happen on the 28th?  Well every moment, every day something dramatic and life altering happens when I choose to have that perception.  The consciousness of the Earth is shifting.  We are beginning to return to a place outside of everything being a duality reality.  However slowly it may be happening, we as a society are beginning to see that we are truly All Related.  This is a unification in consciousness.

Going back to the cycles of nature, we know that diversity in nature is vital.  The greater the diversity, the better the ecological world flourishes.  Diversity and duality are two vastly different concepts.  We need diversity.  The difference is that duality means we assign a label to "something" as positive or negative.  Diversity means that differences exist; neither positive or negative - simply different.

To go deeper, duality not only exists in society and nature but even more importantly within our own consciousness.  As this duality exists within, we lower our harmonic vibrational frequency with life.  Thus, we become irritated, fatigued, and fearful the lower this vibration goes.  With this lower vibration, we find ourselves in conflict with self, with our communities, with our governments, and with life itself.

This wave of energy that is thought to be happening is to raise the vibration levels in order to allow more to come back into unification within in order to create an external unification of consciousness and thus peaceful society.

Many times we do not "hear" the whispers in the winds as each of these shifts occur.  Thus, one of two things happen.  We either go into panic mode and deeper into the duality consciousness.  Or we begin to "hear" and shift our own personal consciousness into a unified consciousness.   This is a time, in my opinion, that the whispers are becoming louder and more pronounced so that more "hear" them.  This is the change in the old vibrational paradigms that have come into being though our evolutionary process.

Back to October 28th, how will the whispers be "heard"?  I believe the whisper will be loud enough for many to "hear".  The key will be not about 'how' but our reaction to the 'how'.  How will, as individuals and as society, we react and deal with the 'how' of the whisper.

As we look back to the cycles of nature, we are in the fruition cycle.  The fruit ripening and ready to be harvested.  Will we harvest the fruit and discard the seeds or replant the seeds for the next cycle to begin?

I am sure that the one's asking my opinion were hoping for a more defined answer to the question, however, I truly believe that the answer to the question will be multi layered based upon personal reaction of the 'how' in conjunction with society as a wholes reaction to the 'how'.