Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Happy Leap Day!

It’s Leap Day. It’s actually a day that means a lot to me. I learned a lot about leaping over the past 10 years. I went through a period in my life when I made some huge, scary leaps. At first I was hesitant, or to be more accurate, terrified, so terrified that it created anxiety attacks. What a learning experience that was! It was amazing though because the learning turned out to be about trusting myself, my heart compass, my inner knowing. I had to learn to trust it even when it didn’t make sense to anyone else, and harder still even when it didn’t make sense to me. I learned how subversive doubt can be to happiness. I stood at that corner of trust and doubt many times – even wrote about it. It was a cliff really more than a corner. I would stand on the edge of it trembling and looking down, seeing where I would fall if I dared leap.

Looking back now from this Leap Day, I’m glad to say that every time I chose trust. Ok, maybe not the first time every time but eventually when that inner knowing kept saying the same thing I learned to trust its knowing. I trusted it because I knew it came from a deeper place, a place of truth. That was a place that my mind and its doubt were not familiar with. Luckily me, myself and I or me, my heart and mind, all learned together.

Making that choice of trust over doubt changed my life dramatically, every aspect of my life. It didn’t mean that everything was bliss every moment, but it did mean that I could remember the knowing of bliss every moment. I knew that if I was trusting my heart compass I would find my way because it always points to Spirit. I know that in every cell of my body now. It’s an amazing feeling. My mind still has its doubts and I listen to them once in a while, but mostly my mind and my heart live and create in harmony.

Those terrified leaps that I began with got easier and were made with less hesitation, until I no longer doubted that my wings would work or that the wind would rise up to meet me. I never once plummeted to the earth. I landed a few times less than gracefully or took a couple nose dives that I pulled out of at the last minute, but I never crashed, I never forgot the truth of my heart.

Now I run to the edge of that cliff and truly leap off, wings spread wide, eyes looking forward toward the light, a smile on my face and in my heart, knowing the flight will lead to joy and learning. These days I wouldn’t dare miss the leap! I’m deeply grateful to my heart for that.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Offerings of the Heart ~ Snake's Fall from Grace

This is a story I wrote a few years ago. I have been reminded of it a couple times in the last week. So I figured it was time to share it again. Enjoy! I enjoyed writing it and the new perspective it brought. The parts that always jump out at me as the key every time I read it are towards the end in bold - you may have a different key!



The snake’s fall from Grace.  Once he was revered for his great wisdom for he was long and old and wise and in each of his many vertebrae carried the stories of the Universe.  He could fit into places others couldn’t and wrap himself around All.  He was a messenger and a teacher.

He could show you the spiral with a curve of his tail and lead you to its center.  Whether the center was the beginning or the end only he knew.  He did not teach by instruction but by experience.  And when souls chose to experience separation from the One he lead them to the place of separation, the great tree on Earth where the journey was made from Oneness to separation, from one realm to the other. 

He was their guide.  He led them there lovingly knowing the pain they would endure in their choice, but knowing that the wisdom would grow from that choice.  He knew they could remember and find their way back to the tree.  But when the first soul realized its aloneness, its fear of disconnection, it screamed a heart rending cry and when it finally, fearfully opened its eyes, the first thing it saw was snake.  It’s companion and guide now something fearsome. 

Snake still who snake was, he tried to comfort the soul but in its chosen human form it could no longer understand snake’s language or its movements, it could no longer see the spiral.  Realizing this, snake then remained perfectly still.  He changed his color so that he blended into the scenery, so that the soul would not be afraid. 

Still he remains hidden everywhere we look.  If we would see him in his true form we could begin the journey back.  He waits patiently for us to remember so he can again guide us to the tree that serves as a bridge.  Then we can be reunited in our human form with the Truth.  Then can we live fully the choice that we made so long ago.  For truly the choice was to experience the feeling of separation not to live in it.  For to feel separation one must then also feel Oneness.  The feeling of separation is the hiss of the snake that can lead us back.  For if you feel separate then you must have some memory of being One.  So allow the separation to lead you back to Oneness by its very existence, by the awareness of it and that it must have an opposite.  Then will the snake raise its head and do its mesmerizing dance to lead you home again, home to wholeness. 

Snake again your friend who leads you through the stars and along the spiral to the Source of All.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Offerings of the Heart ~ My Motto

Let me be my yes, my heart an ember of love ever glowing. I had decided that this was my new motto, but I’ve changed my mind – slightly. My new motto is, I am my yes, my heart an ember of love ever glowing.  I prefer “I am” statements, even if I’m not there yet.

Having the weird quirks that I do, I looked up the word motto. It comes from Latin, muttum for sound or utterance. I like that, it makes sense to me. I believe our words have an energy of their own. If I speak it, I have begun to create it, to create the life I want to live. I am my yes, my heart an ember of love ever glowing.

There have been lots of times when I was my yes only begrudgingly. I have had a practice of being willing for a long time now – or at least saying yes, even if I wasn’t entirely willing. For me that is the biggest step, my own willingness. My willingness to learn, to release, to trust, to forgive, to grow, to love, to live in and as Spirit. It was the first and biggest leap, Yes! Many times I yelled it at the sky, or more often at my car radio when songs would come on to remind me. I still occasionally roll my eyes, but usually now I say it joyfully and quietly. Yes. A tiny ripple of sound, a tiny ripple of energy. Yes, Spirit, I am willing. I will leap, and fly, knowing there will be wind.

I am my yes, my heart an ember of love ever glowing.