Saturday, December 24th, 2011
Andre Lorde once said, “I am still learning– how to take joy in all the people I am, how to use all my selves in the service of what I believe, how to accept when I fail and rejoice when I succeed.”
Meridel le Sueur acknowledged, “Women know a lot of things they don’t read in the newspapers. It’s pretty funny sometimes, how women know a lot of things and nobody can figure out how they know them.”
And Anne Wilson Schaef explained, “Growing up and claiming our own lives is partially a process of listening to our own voices and distinguishing them from the crowd inside us, especially when the internal committee is a group of addicts.”
And I must also agree with Cornelia Otis Skinner, who admitted that, “Women keep a special corner of their hearts for sins they have never committed.”
Have I ever told you that I yearn to participate in a tomato-throwing fight someday? And I’d really love to learn to surf. And knife-throwing holds a particular appeal. But mostly, I hope I learn how to be me– gracefully– while there’s still time to enjoy it. I think that as we learn to recognize our true Selves, and to embrace and appreciate who we are, and what we are capable of accomplishing in this lifetime… we encounter a kind of awe, an awareness of what we COULD DO with all that ability. And therein lies hidden guilt.
In my case, I sometimes stop what I’m doing long enough to acknowledge what I’m doing. And in those moments of quiet, I feel quite overwhelmed by the blessings and support I receive in the course of my work. Seeing peoples’ truths, their “how I got here,” and often knowing how to give them tools that will make the rest of this particular journey easier– more enjoyable– better. Offering life-shifts that will change how an individual interacts with the world from now on– and thus changes their lifetime for the better. Listening to both what is said, and also what is being ignored because it is too painful. Making room for hope, possibility, joy, healing, wellness.
An acquaintance, Avery Energy, told me about Shamanic expert Dr. Michael Harner, president of the Center for Shamanic Studies here in America. I visited his website, and found an article he’d written many years ago. The article defined various aspects of Shamanic Practice. Not only was it interesting to read, but it also brought me face-to-face with large parts of the work I do in the world. Things I hadn’t really let myself recognize. They were too big for just-me to be doing.
Things like knowing- and not just believing. Things like performing miracles. Talking with plants, animals, and rocks, and all of nature. Journeying to nonordinary reality. Soul-retrieval. Extraction. Seeing illness in a client’s body as if with x-ray vision. Conducting lost souls. Spiritual Healing, Seeing and Divination. I utilize all of these in the course of my work. And these, plus a few equally amazing skills, are all the tools of a Shaman.
So really, I’m not doing this alone. I have a lot of help from energies that know so much more than I ever will. The challenge is in letting go of my fear, and being available to that knowledge. Being grateful for what is, and letting go of my desire to fit in– to be invisible among the many. That isn’t my path. I’m here to do something greater with my life and my energy. It is a hard road, and the lessons can sometimes be harsh. But then, as I open to learning new things, I discover so much that I already know. That I already am in the world. And there is room for celebration, and an awareness of Grace. Grace and good intentions create hope. Together with spiritual support and an openness to positive life-shift, they forge miracles.
Today, I invite you to welcome miracles back into your life. Maybe you begin with a little miracle– getting to the post office before it closes. Finding baby’s favorite teething ring before bedtime. Making it home safely from the company party. Miracles are everywhere, just waiting for us to notice.
Doris Lessing says, “That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.”
And Marian Wright Edelman clarifies, “If you don’t like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.”
Adrienne Rich says, “When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her.”
So, having spoken my truth about learning and being for the day,
I leave you with a poem from M.C. Davies:
Iron, left in the rain
And fog and dew
With rust is covered.
–Pain rusts into beauty too.
Be Well.
| Posted in Blessings, Research/Info, authored by: S. Brooke Elliott | Comments Off
