Every act rewards itself, or in other words, integrates itself, in a twofold manner; first in the thing, or in real nature; and secondly in the circumstance, or in apparent nature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
October is my favorite month year after year. Being here at our 50-acre retreat tree farm in central Virginia, we sip wine beside campfires at night while during the day we work at clearing a meadow space to expand our pollinator’s garden. This remains a damaged landscape that is reclaiming itself after being clear cut ten years ago. The young forest that now surrounds us must have the stamina to grow despite the invasive species that constantly encroach. Today I may invest an hour removing honeysuckle vines that have a vise grip stranglehold around the trunks of young dogwood trees. Tomorrow I may use a machete to carve out another section of the hiking trail.
During these fall afternoons, I walk the already established paths gently removing the years’ growth of young sapling trees that continuously regrow along the path edges. This quiet solitary work, alone in the woods, is when the most creative inspirations in my day occur.
While walking in my young forest the idea occurred to share my deep love for intuitive guidance and how that comes to meet us when we put hand to page in a specific journal style.
I have been guided to a new 8-day challenge and I invite you to join me in this exciting creative exploration.
I have had an on-going journal habit since 1969. It began slowly and with much hesitation. I recall how frightened and exposed I felt in beginning to talk to myself on the page. There was trauma embedded in my cells. I had an understandable yet confounding fear of being seen. If someone could see me they could hurt me. The fear pattern was tremendous even though I faced it day after day.
In 1969 there was no term for post-traumatic stress. There was no available guidance to support my healing.
I was confused and attempting to find my way even before I found myself pregnant, even before I was hidden and shunned by my mother. I was struggling to be the young adult I yearned to be even before I was put into a position where my only option was to relinquish my newborn to the adoption system. I was in need of support and tender loving care even before I was set-up, entrapped, and violently attacked by three hulking miscreants.
It is profound that what brought a shift from all of the elements of a downward spiral was the hallucinogen which miraculously brought me to a new worldview. My consciousness was rearranged. I saw and I was an integral part of the depth of nature’s beauty.
This Navajo Blessing Prayer comes to mind …
In beauty, I walk
With beauty before me, I walk
With beauty behind me, I walk
With beauty above me, I walk
With beauty around me, I walk
It has become beauty again
It has become beauty again
It has become beauty again
It has become beauty again
Life and that LSD trip led me to The Farm and there I had the meeting that would change me forever … Alice.
In 1969 I was intuitively guided to open a blank notebook. I needed to begin to have a conversation with myself. The most important conversation of my life. The first words that I wrote into that notebook show the track of my tight and traumatized hand. The first message that I sent to me:
“communication is the most important thing.”
Since that time, I have done what I can to grow up and learn to be emotionally stable. I have developed many tools and shared in countless ways in my community through my art, speaking engagements, workshops, seminars, and art studios. Life is indeed a beautiful trail.
Over the past four years, I have recognized that my body has once again been experiencing trauma. I also feel that we are collectively traumatized. Just as our Mother Earth is exhausted and battered, we each and everyone need soothing and an opportunity to regain our balance.
For decades my go-to list of qualities for running a check n’ balance on emotional health has been William C. Menninger’s
The Criteria of Emotional Maturity
I have designed a short, no-cost program, a gift, for this time. I invite you to register and join the Free 8-Day ‘Free to BE Effective’ Challenge … we begin on Monday, October 19.
When you register you become part of the challenge email list. This means that each day you will receive a short video with a creative prompt. You can open the email whenever you choose and engage the prompt as your time allows. There is nothing to attend. You don’t have to show up anywhere at any set time. IF you want to connect with the ‘It’s About Time’ community you can take part in our private Facebook group by responding to the invitation to join.
At this most amazing time, it can be soothing to welcome and remember the creative qualities of emotional maturity … that’s the track we will be on for the Free 8-day challenge that takes only 15-minutes a day to engage.
This challenge is designed to orient and root your
creative energy for 2021
It’s inspiring to acknowledge a vision, a goal, a picture in your mind of the creative possibilities that self-love, and the capacity to adapt to change will provide in the months and years ahead.
We have just moved through the West Gate of the Natural Year. In this time between fall equinox and winter solstice, the circadian rhythms direct our ability to quiet down and simply BE. Since spring we have naturally been drawn toward activity and doing. This year particularly the take-action drive has been exhausting, especially when many of us have been held in check in the many ways that 2020 has required.
Coming through the West Gate on September 21, we are now in the Being or Yin half of the Natural Circadian Year. During these six months of the Natural Year the focus is upon:
rest
reflection
recuperation
rejuvenation
regeneration
2020 is winding down and you can reflect on what you have been given. You can lean into what you are currently receiving. Together we can mine the gold of emotional maturity, being grown-up, accruing the wisdom that the journey, thus far, has brought, seeing what it is that we would most like to share moving forward.
I am excited to consider what is up ahead as we creatively navigate the ‘never before’ of this time.
In the upcoming FREE 8-Day ‘Free to BE Effective’ Challenge we will use creative prompts to encourage The Criteria of Emotional Maturity by William C. Menninger, M.D. sourced from the Menninger Foundation.
I have found that these seven steps provide an empowering foundation for entering into a deeper relationship with Life and the Mystery ahead.
The ability to deal constructively with reality
The capacity to adapt to change
Relative freedom from symptoms that are produced by tensions and anxieties
The capacity to find more satisfaction in giving than receiving
The capacity to relate to other people in a consistent manner with mutual satisfaction and helpfulness
The capacity to sublimate, to direct one’s instinctive hostile energy into creative and constructive outlets
The capacity to love
In as little as 15 minutes per day, you are invited to place your creative attention upon “The Criteria of Emotional Maturity” as we explore the creative journal prompts that will assist you in drawing on how you feel.
Attend this free 8-day challenge if you are looking for an increase of Creative Energy bringing:
* Inner calm
* Freedom from symptoms produced by anxiety and tension and more
For the past 52 years, I have been devoted and dedicated to gaining insight and information regarding coming back home to the Center within. It is in our heart of hearts where PWP (Progress without Pressure) resides.
