Life As It Is

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When I think about life as it is, I am reminded of a saying that has been attributed to the mystic Julian of Norwich, “All will be well and, in the manner of all things, all will be well.”  At times life is messy, chaotic, and filled with what we do not desire.  We may attempt to hold tightly to our illusions and create a more palatable, if unrealistic, view of what life, our life, should be.  That creation is a fantasy, which supposedly fulfills our desires and wants.  Unfortunately it does not, because it is not real.

Chaos is inherent in life as it is.  Of course, within chaos lies possibility.  In our struggle to live life according to the illusion we hold to, we throw our life and authentic self out of balance.  Until we accept life as it is, we lack the springboard on which to launch a life that is all it can be.  All will be well when we align our personal experience of reality with life as it is. Only through this alignment will we discover what is beautiful, right, and life giving in our world.

Life is a wondrous roller-coaster ride that gives us both the greatest joy and the deepest despair, and every emotion in the between.  We experience life’s roller coaster only in the present moment.  We can only enjoy this ride and move in alignment with our authentic self by accepting the joys and the sorrows and the in-betweens for what they are.  This acceptance is the gate through which new possibility manifests.

Taking Life As It Is in the entrepreneurial spirit of curious daring,

Vanessa

From the book Engaging Compassion Through Intent and Action, pp. 37-38

To learn more about the book or purchase a copy, Intent And Action dot com

Coincidence or Miracle?

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Have you ever had a book passage, movie  quote, or song lyric just gets stuck in your head?  I have.  Finally banished from my consciousness, those words or image burrows deep into my unconscious mind only to surface at the most peculiar times.  Watching the movie Signs in a darkened basement filled with surround sound logically would imprint a memory of those almost silent, scary scrapes of the alien feet across wooden floor.  But, no.  What I remember is the quote from Graham Hess: See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?

It’s been a long time since I believed in coincidence. In fact, Albert Einstein’s saying: there are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle rings true to me.  I believe that every thing is a miracle and there are no coincidences.

When I am aware, I notice life's rhythm.  In this natural ebb and flow, nothing happens by chance or coincidence.  There is a simple beauty in the natural elegance of life.  Even when I am standing knee deep in the mud tending to my lotus blossom, I see the miracle within the moment.  And, with this knowing, I turn to the day with a smile upon my face. In my awareness I am poised to celebrate each miracle and each non-coincidence.  Within each lays the grace of being and the nudges of my intuition. With each I can meet the challenges and the lessons in the moment.

So, I ask you, “Which kind of person are you? Who do you desire to be?”

And, I wish that within the grace of each moment that you become your deepest desire.

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The Spring, The Stream, And The Stump

Smack dab in the middle of Somewhere, Kentucky is a retreat center named Bethany Spring.  Nestled in the far back corner of the property is an actual spring.  Most days you can hear and see a clear trickle of fresh water flowing from a broken stump of tree. The hidden spring, the trickle, and even the broken stump remind me of me.

As I reflect upon that slow trick of water, I think about the spring deep within each of us.  It is the holder of our essence, our creativity, our inner knowing…our reason of being.  When we are quiet, we follow the trickle back to our essence, our spring.  Here we recharge while resting in the quiet.

Once recharged, we reenter the stream and swim from our place of being into our place of doing.  This connection between the spring and the stream, our being and doing, our intent and action creates our lived experience.  The sustenance found within the stream shapes our actions.  In return, our actions shape who we are at the source.

If that gnarled stump could talk, what a story she would tell! Each life lesson is proudly displayed in each knob, each twist, and each unevenness.  With no cosmetic enhancements, she lives.  The spring, the stream, and even the stump reflect the beauty created by courageously and daringly meeting each challenge not because we have to but because we wouldn’t live any other way.

How does your stream reflect your spring? What stories could your stump tell?

Wishing you the joy of connecting with your spring, stream, and gnarled stump!

Vanessa

www.intentandaction.com

www.healingwillow.com

Carving To Set Hope Free

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I no longer make New Year’s resolutions.  When I fumble, they tumble from my grasp crashing onto the floor.  Discouraged, I fill my world with self-recriminations. Instead of continuing this downward spiral, I turn inward focusing on my breath. In the silence of my quiet mind, I bask in the warmth of my hopes.

Clarity comes to this nebulous land as my hopes rise from the depths of my soul to the surface of my heart.  No longer hidden, I befriend them.  Chisel and hammer in hand, I carve to set hope free.  I sing the joyous song of becoming to the rhythm of my carving beat.

Only by resting in the silence of my quiet mind do I find the clues to guide my hopes on the journey of manifestation.  In this place I don’t feel the stress and anxiety of something trying to fit into something already preformed.  Rather, when I allow myself to move with the rhythm of the chisel and the hammer, I discover the path shard by removed shard.  In the smoothness of the stone revealed, I am no longer shrouded in the illusions of my fantasy resolution.  The hammer beats in sync with my heart.  I am exactly where I need to be.

In my mind’s eye I know where I want to be at the end of 2015.  My heart is suffused with curious daring; my spirit, courage.  I whisper, “Show me.” And, then with my hope lying gently in my hand, I begin to walk, skip, and dance to the beat of hammer and chisel.  I joyously glide on the path in constant awareness of my hopes transforming my reality.

What are your hopes for 2015? 

Wishing you the awareness of the rhythm that draws your hopes to manifestation,

Vanessa Hurst

www.intentandaction.com

www.healingwillow.com