I'VE BEEN STUCK FOR SO LONG ...

It's funny how many blog posts run from my heart, through my head and then seem to dissipate into thin air.

I'm a Contemplative - I think, a lot. I reflect, assess, process, transfer information to varying sources and then apply it deeper with a focus that many reserve for work they are actually paid to do. I can't help myself - I'm convinced this behaviour is programmed into my DNA.

I like to think that it makes me a better person in the long run - albeit, my invisible contributions via a sound and balanced Presence doesn't go over well with those rooted firmly in the world as it exists in a practical, left-brained reality.

Which actually makes me quite frustrated with my own Self too - because I have a vital and dynamic left-brain that frowns regularly on the more Spiritual Self committed to Self Actualization at all costs.

I've been so stuck for so long.I have ideas - I even have visions of an Ideal Life I'd love to lead, contributing my gifts in service to fellow travellers on the path to connection, to wholeness and to rising above the living of life as we've been told it needs to be lived but instead, to live it in the way the more Spiritual amongst us tell us is possible; honouring our inner calling, bringing what we love to do into the world because the world needs more people who love what they do.

It's an interesting time right now - and people like us are possibly Pioneers to a more balanced and happy way of getting by each and every day ~ feeling blessed and grateful and content and not needing to be Rock Stars screaming out our existence and how we got here and how 'you can too' from platforms far and wide.

People like us - we can be the change we desire to see in the world. We can bring deep meaning and significance to ordinary acts that, when connected to other ordinary acts, can bring about a change that is so needed.

Do you feel that? Do you feel that a change is needed? I do. And I also feel that I can be instrumental in leading that change. And it is exactly HOW to do this that has kept me silent and away for so long. It's my Passage right now - and I'm learning and living the truth in the Garden Stone's wisdom depicted above: There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

I do things differently. I see things differently. And yet, I am me - so in that regard, it is difficult to recognize that what I do and what I see might be of any interest at all to others. I'll bet you've been there too - thinking you're all ordinary and not nearly as impressive as some of the voices out there - the ones going places with Followers galore and 'rocking it out' in the name of being anything OTHER than ordinary.

Something Different This Way Comes ... 

I'm about to introduce a series on this site that holds the intent of attracting kindred Spirits willing to engage in a meaningful process that honours this mantra I hold for my Self: Live Life Present and Awake with Clarity, Focus, Enchantment and Response-Ability.

I know that it is possible to go deep, to confront barriers and to practically explore Spiritual Concepts that are often presented in language and experience that seems impractical in the day-to-day realities we all experience. The magical and inspiring words of others can lift us while we read them - and then be forgotten once we've moved on to the next thing.

It doesn't have to be this way. It IS possible to have meaningful conversation about things that matter and to connect with others on a similar path for the mutual uplifting of us all. And in so doing, we make our individual worlds a better place - which then ripples out to Humanity as a whole.

Do you feel a similar pull to move toward something that will better align with who you sense yourself to be? Tell me about it - let's talk.

I'M ON MY WAY ...

I love to read. One of the things that helps me determine whether or not I'm reading a good book is if I can 'see' myself in it somewhere. Perhaps in the main character - or reflected in that character's friends, family members or somewhere in the greater community.

If I want to be the person I'm reading about, or I'd love to know that person, for whatever reason ~ I love the book. If I'm inspired by the character(s), the qualities they bring to life, the challenges they face and either work through, or don't ~ I'm grateful for participating in the experience.

More than ten years ago, I read a book called The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg. Briefly, it's about a woman named Nan who just turned fifty, and is dealing with how it feels to be an aging woman in this culture. She is very much focused on all she is losing. She decides to just leave on a driving trip, and the novel alternates between entries she makes in a journal and letters to her husband, Martin. By the end of the book, she has switched her focus from all she's losing to all she actually has.

There's a passage in this book that I return to every now and then ~ as not only do I sometimes feel this way myself - but I'm quite aware that others in my sphere of existence do as well: It's found on page 274 and it reads like this:

And now, in my own stillness, I hear something. 'Where have you been?' my inside body whispers to my outside one. Its sense of outrage is present, but dulled by the grief of abandonment. 'I had ideas. There were things to do. Where did you go?'

What can I answer? Oh, I had some errands to run. I had a few things to do. I needed to get married and have a child and go underground for 25 years, be pleasantly suffocated. I meant to come back. But the bread crumbs got blown away.

So many of us have drifted. Some of us don't really remember who we used to be - and we don't feel completely comfortable with who we're living as now. Or we're caught in transition ~ on the way out of one phase of our lives, knowing that we're to step into the next one - and not entirely sure what that step should be, where it should be placed, for what purpose.

We are questioning what lights us up from the inside out ~ or we're fully aware of what fuels our inner light but we're not sure how to bring that into the reality we're existing in so far.

What if our bread crumbs didn't blow away? What if, when we're ready to look back, clues to who we once were lay waiting for us to decipher - and like scattered bread crumbs, we could pick up the ones that we want to re-integrate into who we now are and allow the others to blow away?

What bread crumbs would you see, the ones you'd want to keep and put in your pocket to remind you who you are? And how might these bread crumbs help you clarify your next step on the path of where you're going, from Here to There?

 

I AM SAILING ...

Welcome to Gentle Passage ~ a space for anyone and everyone moving through, under over or past something on the way to one place or another.  

Welcome Fellow Travellers, Journey Companions, Friends and Kindred Spirits.

Whether you are transitioning from one state of being to another, emptying of all that no longer serves you, elapsing into the flow of Life, seeking Inspired alternatives, all of the above or any combination of the above ~ stand with me here, at this point in our journeys where we have chanced to meet. 

Feel the gentle breeze reminding us that whatever we're facing is not all that there is.

Hear the sounds around us that desire us to know that as big as our challenges feel ~ we are bigger. And as big as we are, the Universe is bigger still. And in the grand scheme of all of it ~ birds still sing, leaves still rustle, children still laugh, rain still pings.

See that, in spite of how isolated we may be feeling ~ we're actually connected, so very connected; to each other, to alternative approaches, to compassion, to love.

Sail with me, through the passage of time ~ and together, let's create ourselves in whatever ways feel right, knowing that here, in this space at least - we are seen in all our Beauty, we are worthy of whatever healing awaits our attention and we are valued beyond measure.