Stories. We all have them. Our lives are one. Many really. Chapters connecting one to the other, building upon themselves in the growing and becoming of who we are. While hiking this past weekend, my 3 year old son (quite a storyteller in his own right), in response to my comment about how beautiful the view and land were, said that “God is writing a story.” And so it is.

And as each of us knows from high school English, a story consists of a few key elements - characters, plot, climax, theme and setting. Our lives too contain these elements. Whether we know it or not, claim it or not, we are the heroes and heroines of our own stories. We drive the plot that is our life, create and weather through the ups and downs. And live within the context of our settings. I feel perhaps that I will speak of each of these over time. Today though, I focus on setting…on creating and holding a sense of place in our lives.

What does it mean to hold a sense of place…? I imagine it as deeply inhabiting our skin, awakening to the sensual interplay between body, environment and inner experience. At its very best all meld into what feels like the snuggling in of spirit and skin, the tickling of memory that cannot quite be captured, something ancient, something of Home.

What do you feel, sense, imagine when you hear the phrase… “a sense of place” ? What creates the experience for you? What is the experience?

I have lived in three states, each drawing me in differently. On the coast of Florida as a child and adolescent I knew myself made of the sea. The smell of salt and sun, fish and seaweed…the feel of limbs moving beneath dark waters, sunlight flashing and rolling over waves…the sense of power and wisdom, the promise of mysteries large and deep waiting to be explored. Whenever life overwhelmed, saddened or frightened me, whenever I felt lost, alone or without answers…I sought out the ocean. It filled me, spoke to me, healed me with its beauty and eternal presence. It held something of me and offered it graciously with open arms whenever I needed.

What is the land of your childhood…your youth? How does it speak to you? What gives you strength or helps you remember who you are?

In my thirties I moved to Tennessee, quite a distance from my sun-drenched youth. But, as is always the case, Life…God…knew what I needed. A grounding and the experience of winter. Big open skies that dropped upon me and hills that rose and dipped, hills rooted deeply in the earth. And trees that lost their leaves…that gave all they had in return for the blooming that would come. Winters cold and white, raw and real, that lifted up and exposed everything without fear or mistrust. Yes, a trust in the cycles of all things, in the birth that follows every death, in the beauty hidden and always revealed. I remember standing in a thicket of trees my first winter, standing there, wanting to get closer, knowing for the first time, feeling it in the vast inner expanse found beyond blood and bone, in the core of my being, what it was to surrender, and what it felt like to be embraced by Love larger than myself. These gifts the fertile land of Tennessee gave me.

Reflect on the cycles of nature…do you see them in your own life? Feel them in your own being?

Now, in the great mountains of Colorado I seek the wisdom I know every inch of land has to share. The Rocky Mountains reach toward the sky above, dramatic in their strength, watching over the land as they have for millions of years. There is no boundary here, no way not to grow. Inner meets and outer and all stretches wide and tall, as far as the eye can see. Looking up, listening closely, the voice swirling down on the wind laughs at all impossibility.

What qualities do you imagine for the sky? Water? Mountain? Other landscapes? How do you connect to these qualities within yourself?

There is a fourth state…one in which I have not lived, but that has owned a part of me since my first visit. One that jogged those forgotten and still lost memories more than any other. Maine…along the coast where mountain and ocean meet, where the two lands I have known and loved become one. If the soul has a place it calls home upon the earth, a place it is ever drawn to, for me it is Maine.

Where do you feel your soul most intensely present?

A sense of place…to find it I draw breath and dip into the connection that lives between my singular being and the whole of what is. I find this most intensely in the simplest of moments…the drifting scent of pine along a mountain trail, that of a fire burning before me while I sit curled on a couch sipping hot tea, the vision of sailing masts dotting a harbor, a dock reeking of things old and dead, a good warm meal made rich by the sound of laughter, a sweet memory, a wildflower given by a small and desperately beautiful hand that reaches for mine. In these instants I am touched by all that is Divine. Beauty revealed and experienced. Love breathed out and made form.

Take a moment and reflect on the small moments of grace you have known. Become aware throughout your days of these offerings.

I have gone on long now, trying to share my understanding of a sense of place. All with the hope of dropping you into your own. Stop for a moment and be where you are. Open your senses, open your heart…let them dance and intertwine. What is seen, heard, smelled, felt, touched? What arises from your belly in the small moments of awareness? Open yourself and let life sink in…Open yourself and let life flow out. Where the two meet, wonder awaits.

I am standing at sliding glass doors at the back of a house when a flicker of movement catches my eye. I look up and become aware of a large hawk perched just above me. There is a squirrel sitting next to it on a long tree branch that is somehow sticking out from the house. My first thought is that the hawk is going to eat the squirrel and is just waiting to attack. Suddenly a second hawk appears on the other side of the squirrel. And then, as I watch, the hawks take the small animal, each by a little front arm, and begin flying away from the house, the squirrel scampering down the tree branch as though on the plank of a pirate ship. When they reach the end of the branch the three of them move into the air, the hawks carrying the squirrel. I am besieged with sorrow, my heart hurting for the squirrel who I am convinced is being taken to some hawk den to become dinner. I feel the squirrel’s fear and helplessness. I am telling someone else this and they say…don’t associate with the squirrel, but with the hawk - the power and the strength. But somehow, I just can’t. And there, the dream ends.

I wake and of course wonder what this dream could possibly mean. I go through some immediate translations, well, mostly one: I am the small and helpless squirrel, about to get eaten, which, I admit, is a bit unnerving. I keep trying instead to place myself within the power of the hawk, but it eludes me. After some time spent meditating and just staring out the back windows of my home, some other thoughts emerge.

I have always been fascinated by dreams, have kept dream journals and often find myself mulling over what my psyche may be grappling with or telling me through its night wanderings. The symbolism of animals and birds is another whole study, and because they frequent my dreams, the two studies have naturally melded on occasion. So, as I sat rolling this one around in my head, here is what arose:

Squirrels are busy little creatures, always in motion, always active - finessed at the art of preparation. They also love to play, chasing each other up and down trees. Their activity is purposeful when working and delightful when playing - they are, dare I say, balanced creatures, though a bit frenetic at times. Now, hawks…hawks it has been said are the “visionaries of the air,” like Mercury, messengers of the Gods. So here we have squirrels, grounded in the work of the world, and hawks, carrying  the breath of Heaven on their wings. And what is happening? The hawks are lifting the squirrel into the air…to eat him?

Or perhaps, to teach him to soar?

Our lives are busy. It’s a fact. Filled with activity of one kind or another, doing the leg work of the world. We keep rhythm with today and plan for the future. Sometimes, seamlessly, and sometimes just trying to keep all the balls in the air. And then, there are periods when we live in the opposite domain - caught in a net of stagnation, when we sense the need for movement but cannot find its catalyst. Wherever we are the stirrings can find us - embedded in busyness or running beneath still waters - those that whisper of our longings and desires for action that is more purposeful and true and maybe a little more fun, and rest that is deep and restorative.  For activity that is lifted up and touched by something higher…a yearning to be carried on the wings of that which knows who we are and who we are in the process of becoming.

Is it all in our control…this process of becoming? This ability to lift up our intentions and our actions, opening to a higher level, one that deeply and truly expresses who we are and what we are designed to give and share? My answer…no. We are in control of the legwork - of our learning and our willingness to grow and participate in the process…to open our minds and hearts…to run on that branch and jump into the air, trusting we will be met, and that we will be taught to soar.

How exactly do we do our part? Where do we begin? We observe the world around and within us, we tend the garden of our souls with silence, with laughter, with compassion, forgiveness and love. We tend our lives and others with the same. We remember that it’s all practice, not perfection. We get up each day and do the best we can, understanding that “best” is not an absolute. Bit by bit we meet our shadow and learn its’ wisdom. We create relationship with our understanding of that which transcends - with God, the Universe, the Absolute, our own Highest Nature. We show up. And we keep showing up.

And what is it that we don’t control? What I think of as the alchemical process of transformation. That which happens in the underbelly of our being. We don’t control the wings that lift us up, though we can open our arms and stretch ourselves to the sky. Each step we take to more deeply trust this process, the more we are given to see…and the more we see, the more deeply we are asked to surrender. Like the squirrel…to leap, to trust, to soar.

So much from one little dream? Who knows what the squirrels and hawks were doing in the night…but what is to be gained is found in the awareness allowed. I encourage you…observe, listen, play with your dreams, let them be your teachers and your guides. You might be amazed at what you discover.

And if the hawks visit in the night…go flying. Leap. Trust. Soar. Live.

Namaste.

I love this term…guiding question. But what exactly does it mean? Is it, perhaps, the yearning within that drives your greatest seeking? The one thing that weaves its way into your thinking, your consciousness, your life, at every turn…that which inhabits and defines the patterns of your experience, seeking to be known and understood and thereby lived through You?

I envision it as the North Star in the Heavens of your inner space…eternally drawing and guiding you to the doorways, experiences, relationships and opportunities that will in turn create the pathway to your greatest becoming. Ultimately it leads to your Omega Point, the place where you may know and be, in full, the truth and beauty of who you are.

So what is your Guiding Question? What propels you forward? Motivates your growth? Demands your attention (even when you try to ignore it)? What continually teaches you your greatest lessons - over and over and over again?

Imagine yourself standing upon a spot marked Now on the timeline of your life. You turn and look backwards over the footsteps you have walked. They flow out behind you like a great trail marking the way to this very moment. Perhaps certain events, choices or people stand out to you, some seeming to overshadow the entire journey. Allow these to be seen and recognized. Then, imagine, as though looking through a camera, that it all begins to zoom out…the individual stories become smaller, while the clarity of the whole becomes sharper. Between each point on your personal life map glimmers a golden thread…every event, relationship and moment connecting to the next like a wondrous dot-to-dot, unrolling perfectly to Now. Your whole life becomes a constellation in the sky of the greater cosmos.

What is the shape of your constellation?

Can you see the thread connecting each point to the next? Can you see how it all weaves together…how every step was necessary to create the you of this very moment? Even the worst of challenges - especially these…what strengths, talents, gifts have they catalyzed? What of yourself would you not know without them? If you really listen can you hear the question your entire life has asked?

Who are you?

The camera lens zooms out even further and your singular constellation becomes one of many…billions of points in the sky. And you also notice that from the moment of Now forward there are billions of more stars waiting…waiting for you to connect the next dot. An open space of pure opportunity and potential. No matter what shape your constellation has been up to Now, it is for you to choose the next…the shape to come.

Who are you called to be? If you follow your own North Star and answer to your Guiding Question, who will you be? What do you most deeply desire to create of this life…in this life?

Let the beauty, the stillness, the silence of the cosmos fill and surround you. Feel the presence of your North Star, the force that holds the answer to your question. Always it is there, shining brightly in the center of your being, waiting for you. When in doubt, when in fear, when lost…shift your perspective to this beacon, to the origin of Hope, and remember…you have all you need…your path is perfect…you are the co-creator of your every moment. And That which creates with you desires for you only and all that you seek and desire for yourself.

What do you now choose? In thought, in deed, in word, in Spirit? What step must you take to move, inwardly and outwardly, toward the “dot” of your choosing?

Let the breath be a thread to guide you…connect to it, watch it rise and fall…close your eyes or gaze softly at a leaf, a flower, a child…feel the space within you expand. Allow your shoulders to fall, your tongue to drop from the roof of your mouth, your face to soften. Surrender into Now and find yourself dipped into center. Rest here. There is nothing you must do. But in so doing, Grace abounds.

If every human being on the planet would take just moments a day to connect to the “ice field” within, I truly believe it would change the world. So, let us serve in this way, let us do so knowing that when we find our own inner ice field, it is, in truth, a conduit to the center of all that is, to the place where we live in truth,beauty and wisdom, together.

Have you ever wondered, ever asked or wanted to know just how it all works? And even more specifically, how you can become part of the process, to truly become who you seek to be, and create - or co-create - the life you most desire?

I want to share this week something I recently read. It comes from Neale Donald Walsch’s book, Home with God in a Life That Never Ends. Beautiful and touching, as I have found each of his books, this one offered a “100 Word Formula for All of Life” - a simple statement of creation that both makes sense, and offers a place to begin - and that is a gift.

100 Word Formula for All of Life

Hope is the doorway to belief, belief is the doorway to knowing, knowing is the doorway to creation, and creation is the doorway to experience.

Experience is the doorway to expression, expression is the doorway to becoming, becoming is the activity of all Life and the only function of God.

What you hope you will eventually believe,

what you believe, you will eventually know,

what you know, you will eventually create,

what you create, you will eventually experience,

what you experience, you will eventually express,

what you express, you will eventually become.

This is the formula for all of life.

It is as simple as that.  

from, Home with God by Neale Donald Walsch

 So, here’s to the miracles made of hope and to the truest and greatest becoming of each of us, and of all.

Slipping into center, all exteriors disappear. I am lost in God.

Slowly…ever so slowly, breath fills the emptiness, and I am born once more.

Like the plant pushing through dark fertile ground into the light of day, I awaken.

Nourished, strengthened, made new.

The sun rises and life rushes in.

I run with it, the wind at my back, arms outstretched.

Re-membered.

…In the resting place between breaths, may all that has ever been be released. May the moment of now pass away… and with it - all regret, all fear, all worry, all need. In this simple dying may you be made free.

________________________________________

Every day I tell my son that I love him, always and forever.

When surrendered to the restful arms of the Beloved, hear these words in your own ear…

You are loved, always and forever.

Namaste.

So turn up the music and move.

Just dance baby, dance.

I fell in love with it immediately. Not, I admit, with the mathematics, for I am no mathematician…but as an Inner Poet. It captured my imagination. And beyond that, I saw it as a different kind of Unifying Theory - one that lifted the veil of the Universe and revealed the dynamics within the great web that make all life One. I do not pretend to speak as a scientist, but instead with poetic understanding, describing what I see and feel in the bones of my soul.

In String Theory it is proposed that all that is - that which lives deep within and beyond cells, molecules, atoms and quarks - reverberates from a multitude of strings. Identical strings, with varying tension and vibrations that determine what kind of particle is formed, the force or matter ulitmately created.

It is a beautiful vision…an orchestra of strings, vibrating in perfect yet unique rhythms, playing the music of the Universe.

With this vision, I offer a creation story…

From the void of the Absolute, through the Wisdom of the Godhead, a collection of strings once came together. Each carried within it a piece of Truth, of Beauty, of Goodness. The whole of the collection synthesized into a unique pattern, and then began to play…a melody like no other that had ever played before. From the music and the lyrics came the sinews of a Soul. Within the notes and words was placed a significant and purposeful piece of the Whole, a message that could be expressed only through that Soul.

So it is that each of us is a vibrational resonance of God. At the deepest level of our being we are the words and music of the Divine. From this we have come forth, and from our individual expressions have come that which makes us Human - our personalities and bodies, our stories, perspectives, cultures and experiences. In the presence of skin, the lyrics and the melody are quieted, often dulled, sometimes completely drowned out. But NEVER lost. It is this music, our Poetry, that is the yearning we feel within, forever drawing us forward, always toward our re-membering.

Every circumstance, relationship and experience - the light and the dark - is part of our poetry. Every emotion, thought and movement, a verse in our song. All offers us the opportunity to move into greater awareness, to know ourselves and experience the fullness of both our humanity and our Divinity. Only through awareness can we begin to open and to grow, to love, to give and to become…to ask…who am I? Who do I want to be? What qualities of Being am I designed to know and to express?

The embodied life is our opportunity to remember the purpose, the message, that was written into our Souls, and to share it with others. For only we can play our symphony.

Is Om not the sound of creation?

…Was it not said…in the beginning was the word…?

Hear the music. Dance your poetry.

Namaste.