There is a spell or a poem

A spell to Commit Pronoia, Jennifer Welwood

Willing to experience aloneness,

I discover connection everywhere;

Turning to face my fear,

I meet the warrior who lives within;

Opening to my loss,

I am given unimaginable gifts;

Surrendering into the emptiness,

I find fullness without end.

Each condition I flee from pursues me.

Each condition I welcome transforms me

And becomes itself transformed

Into its radiant jewel-like essence.

I bow to the one who had made it so,

Who has crafted this Master Game;

To play it is pure delight,

To honor it is true devotion.

This spell or poem spoke to me this morning while doing my practice of reading mediations. A reading mediation is one in which the language of the scripture, if you wish to use that “religious” word. A reading mediation can be a selections of passages from your favorite books or quotes that you may have accumulated in a journal or dairy. Words and language that your feel as you read them, I like to say them out loud, it gives me a sense of life, gives the words and lanuage energy, lets them loose on or into the Universe. As ritual passages they become more magical, reciting the words consciously allows for them to form, give meaning, allows you to feel and sense what they mean, how structure and or tone informs your spirit, breathe, take a moment between the sentences, hold the last one until it lets go.

Letting go informs your conscious you are ready to receive the next line, the next assistance, the next illumination, the next loving caress or uplifting phrase that will carry you on to the next.

Listen to your voice, the sound of it, are you quiet, is it tough or tender, are you commanding the words forth with projection, or are you meekly rendering them across the air into your space? Are those words intimate, are they strong and powerful, like a lover encouraging you on? Sudders my come, you may feel sweaty or faint, or nothing. If nothing, stop, breathe, re-set your intention, your purpose.

Read the previous sentence, or passage, feel it now, understand your pace, how does it feel now?

There are days that it becomes routine and you rush through the practice just to get on with your day, it is okay for now yet remember to embrace the practice next time. That energy and consciousness is what you take with you into your day. A word or a phrase may come to you when driving to work, or doing your chores, a conversation with a friend or even a stranger can sometimes remind you of who you are, and who you are seeking to become. In a flash or later in a thoughtful moment your warrior has come upon its weekness or its strenght, here is where the creative tools are brought forth to craft your being.

It is not perfection we seek even when it feels like that is so. It is the authentic self we seek and begin to know. In our aloneness we are not alone, in our fear we are fearless, in our pursuits we discover we can be transformed.

Delight in the journey, find laughter in the imperfection, and joy in the challenges. Embrace the gifts each moment offers.

There is that poem or passage, or even a spell that leads you…

 

engaged in becoming…

Enchantment invites us to pause and to be arrested by whatever is before us; instead of our doing something, something is done to us. This is the way of the soul, which is primarily the receptive power in us; by letting ourselves be slowed down and affected by nature, we are fashioned into persons of substance, even if at a more active, conscious level we are forcefully engaged in becoming something else.  Thomas Moore.

into the moment!

My thoughts are to just offer the above words and photographs like I did yesterday yet at another level there is more creative juice desiring to be expressed.  The words and ideas in Re-enchantment are so refreshing in so many ways… offering views I have not witnessed for a while. If that makes sense.

The heat had made going outside so oppressive that spending time photographing anything was not really an option, the moments being outside where more to get from one place to another, but never really to enjoy, for the pleasure of a walk was taken away by 100 plus degree heat, the stillness where birds didn’t even sing, the sadness of the plants all dry and dropping along the paths, making one wonder why they are even still alive at all, they have to be really reaching down into their wells for a hint of water.

To keep my well juiced I have found sources of refreshing language, inspiring lives, creative work of people who are creative artist themselves. I heard the message to pick up “The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life” I had a copy that has been sitting in pile in my room, but I had come across the volume a few times in other places. I have had this book for years, I had even begun to read it but put it down because I was not ready for it than. There was a time because of my love affaire with Conversations with God books, other spiritual books lacked much interest or felt unappealing, even through many books are suggested by Neale Donald Walsch/God throughout the Conversations with God series.

in the details

Re-Enchantment along with Pronoia the wondrously outrageous writings of Rob Brezsny the river of ideas, inspiration, creativity have bathed me in renewing activity of the senses. That included a trip to the Town Center formerly the Mall, to a week-long used book sale with my friend Linda, which included a journey over to the library so she could use their computers while I perused the videos and books-selves.  Finding the selection of videos a bit wanting I headed the Photography section, and glad I did! First of all, the light in the area had been fixed, second the selves were neat and orderly, not always the case in under visited areas of the library.  I had just bought a half a dozen books so why was I looking for more books? Why was I in the photography section, the line of books informed me of that. I found a biography of Ansel Adams, not someone I am really drawn too but someone I thought could shed some light of photography and nature. Plus there is the wondrous “street photography” book, Bystander: A History of Street Photography, an over sized packed to the gills with wondrous photographs from the late 1800, into the 1970’s.

Grand moments

So I get to travel back and forth in places around the world, capturing moments of city streets, everyday moments and moments that caused history to change. I get to read about a man who was not only a photographer, a nature photographer, considered to be one of the finest nature photographers, but also a life long member of the Sierra Club .

an opening.

I thought there was more to this… it didn’t feel finished but I am going to let it go now! ( a few hours after writing).

Comfortably Numb or a Firework

Push hard to get better, become smarter, grow your devotion to the truth, fuel you commitment to beauty, refine your emotional intelligence, hone you dreams, negotiate with your shadow, cure your ignorance, shed your pettiness, heighten your drive to (love) look  for the best in people, and soften your heart – even as you always accept yourself for exactly who  you are with all your so-called imperfections. Rob Brezsny

commitment to beauty

This may become a book report, or maybe just an observation on where my life is today and where I wish it to go? The above quote is from Pronoia is the antidote for paranoia: How the whole world is conspiring to shower you with blessings. This the full title more or less for this amazingly sometimes irreverent but always joyous, passionate language and guide to following your bliss, traveling through the maze of everyday muck into a joyful blissful experience of life. Which something I desire to do and be.

I became aware of Rob Brezeny some years ago when one the men at Easton Mt Retreat center suggested his astrology site to me. Free Will Astrology  I would read the weekly report, and this is not your Mother astrology reading, these are off the wall, sometimes vague, yet always entertaining and informative. (if you’re looking for a new take on your astrology) .

My friend posted  Comfortably Numb  this morning on Facebook, and I resonated with the song immediately for that is what I have been experiencing in my life, now there is a negotiation with shadow, to admit such a state of being! Just going through process but not really feeling one way or another. Sometimes I say to myself, I am just being present. Is being present the lack of emotion or feeling? I always seem to have more questions than answers, one must precede the other, I think?

Light shine through the forrest !

So the admittance of this fact of numbness is a place of surrender, a place of knowledge,  and the reason for Pronoia to show up in my life more fully. I was at Barnes and Noble to meet a friend, I needed some human contact and a person I could communicate with, yet the day was an odd day, one in which I felt shifts of energy, low vibrations in another space, and even with my friend I didn’t feel completely connected as I usually do. So once she left I went to look for Jeff Brown’s Soulshaping which they did not have in stock but I had seen Pronoia on the shelf and if felt that was the sign to purchase and dive into this material. For a few day before I was reading astrology newsletter and had used a quote on my Facebook page which got some notice. “Evil is boring. Cynicism is idiotic. Fear is a bad habit. Despair is lazy. Joy is fascinating. Love is an act of heroic genius. Pleasure is your birthright. Receptivity is a superpower.”  It was in the energy of those words that I reached out, that I began to search for more, I began to desire to have this language that is positive and wildly blissful be part of my life experience.  So there you have it, in order not to be so darn serious, I have chosen to be heroic to experience pleasure, listen more intently to the message.  No one can change me but my choice to do so, as my friend Laurie,  Holistic practitioner  uses as her motto or guide suggest “Follow your heart”. Wise advise.

sweet fragrance

So I leave you with another song one that I hear in my mind very often. Katy Parry’s Firework: “there is a spark in you, ignite your light … your a firework !

Growth Question: Are you comfortable numb or are you lighting up the sky like a firework?