Sparks in Wisdom's Fire: May 2019

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Love By Any Other Name Is…Love

Do you love with your whole heart, with every molecule of your being? Do you love with your thoughts, words, and actions? Do you love while never uttering the words, “I love you”?

Love invites us into expansiveness. Its exposes our core asking us to be vulnerable, open, humble. While love may shout from the rooftops, it is also the gentle breeze that wraps around a bruised heart or soothes the ravages of tears. Love is healing grace shared heart to heart.

Love sometimes knows no words. It simply is a smile, a gentle stroke on the arm, a gesture of inclusion. Love says in a myriad of ways, “You got this. I am proud of you. I love you. You belong.” These reminders are often uttered without one single word.

Love paves the way of opportunity. Knowing that we are loved propels us to take one more step down the unlit path of the unknown. Love holds our hand and soothes those scary thoughts of defeat and failure. Love gives us the strength to try one more time.

Love believes in potential. No matter how small the ember’s glow, love blows gently upon it. Love adds kindling of support until the sparks of possibility flare into a midnight black sky of despair. Love catches those sparks and holds them gently until we can claim them for our own.

Love powers the truth at the core of our being. It awakens our courage to be who we are. Love nudges us into acts of curious daring. Love reminds us, “It’s okay to be your own self for who else could you be?” Love is the power that propels us through the dark night into the awakening morn.

Love brightens the day. It shines into the crevices and shadows that we fear to peer into much less walk through. It shows us that there is nothing so horrid that we cannot shine from our authentic core. Love accepts us for who we are and invites us to be all that we can be no matter what the external circumstances.

From the seeds of this love spirals our beautiful true self. In our truth we give birth to compassion. Through each act of compassion, we seed love into the world. Just. Like. That.

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is a Life Coach through Intuitive Connection, professional speaker, and author who weaves her inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Contact Vanessa @ vanessa@intentandaction.com for life coaching, keynotes, programs, and intuitive consultations.

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Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Be Here Now Or Starting Where You Are

The moment is all we have. Be here now I often hear. This way of being is fine and well, but what do those words really mean? And, how can we accomplish being present in this busy world where we have ten thousand things to do and five thousand worries and regrets?

Be here now is another way of reminding us to be fully present to what is happening. When you drive a car, you drive that car. When you speak to another person, you listen intently to the verbal and nonverbal cues. You do not cut off another person because you needed to change lanes at the last minute or you do not cutting off the words of another or formulate a response during their sharing. You recognize that the nature of a conversation is to respond after the other speaks.

Most importantly, when we are in the present moment, we live in a stance of understanding. We willingly look at the world with fresh eyes. Those eyes are directed both inward and outward. We see the wonder, and distractions, of the world while perceiving our response or reaction to it. Through a stance of understanding we soften our presence in the world.

We learn from the moments in which we were not present. Think about a time in which you made an assumption, reacted from it, and discovered the fallacy in both your judgment and action. Ask yourself

How did you feel?
What were the ramifications of your reaction?
How did the situation change you?
Most importantly, what did you learn from the moment that you fell out of?

Perhaps you learned the consequences of not being in the moment — the loss of critical information, trust, or peace of mind. No matter what the lesson, if you learned it, you were propelled back onto the track of being here now.

How can you dive deeply into the moment growing roots of presence? Some suggestions:

Consciously feel the connection of your foot to the ground for five or more steps. (I often do this as I walk to the car.)
Breath into the moment for five breaths noticing how you are being distracted. At the end of this breathing, refocus on the moment.
Learn what triggers pop you out of the moment. Be on guard and aware of those triggers in each moment.

Perhaps more important than be here now, is to start where you are. When you start where you are, you have no expectations about your behavior or no need to shame or blame your reactions. What you bring to the moment is a willingness to consciously and intentional respond in the moment. And, that intent makes all the difference in the world.

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Tuesday, May 14, 2019

A Landscape of Gifts

Boxes strewn across the landscape of life. Some are works of meticulously wrapped art while others are haphazardly assembled with way too much tape. Most are somewhere in-between. Do we dare open the gifts?

Perhaps we step timidly toward a gift and carefully open it. We are eager to discover the contents yet cannot bring our self to destroy the wrapping! We may be apprehensive about what is inside and give it a shake or three. At other times we courageously bounce to the gift and tear off the paper. We are sure what is inside is exactly what we want. We may be wrong.

Each moment of everyday is a gift. Although we may desperately wish otherwise, at times, the gift might not be what we want. It may fill us with angst, trigger suffering. In those moments we have a choice. We can cast aside the gift in anger or we can allow the plethora of emotions resulting from the gift to wash over us. We realize that these waves of emotion are not meant to overwhelm but to raise awareness.

This awareness shines light on the purpose of the gift. In this light we wonder: What can we learn as we absorb the gift into our being? How does it shape the person we are becoming — the one who slumbers in the core of our being? To find those answers we daringly dig into the box. We discover that some of the answers to these ponderings are much more difficult to hear than others. Some messages, once heard, while difficult to ignore, are even more difficult to assimilate.

But, one way or another, we assimilate the gifts into our life. Sometimes we just need to open several boxes finding the same rejected gift before we learn. At some point we recognize that the gift is not going away. We either accept what it teaches us or create an endless cycle of suffering.

There is always of choice of how we use these gift-building blocks to grow into our best self. At one end of the spectrum is joyfully; at the other is bitterly. We can become bitter at the difficulties present in some of the gifts or we can find joy in the lesson they teach us. With joy, we activate the possibilities by shining our light regardless of our experience.

For each gift is a challenge. To meet the challenge we live from our soul, act from our heart, and share our presence. In doing so, we reveal our wonder to the world. That this the true gift — seeing our life as not good or bad or indifferent, but opportunity to discover the authentic spark within.

With acceptance, our spark jumps from gift to gift. We become the person we have been all along. For within each gift. be it emanating suffering or happiness, gives up the opportunity to being our personal best. We share our personal best, our gift, to the world as a pollinator of peace, a carrier of compassion, and a grower of gratitude.

What gift made the most profound difference in your life?

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is a Life Coach through Intuitive Connection, professional speaker, and author who weaves her inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Contact Vanessa @ for life coaching, keynotes, programs, and intuitive consultations.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook /

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

The Magic Bullet

The magic bullet: a quick fix; a righter of the uncertainties in the world that ignore my imperfections and yours. This magic bullet often meets a need for control in a very uncertain world. I discovered that need on a recent program evaluation (ouch) and in myself every time I play the lottery. (sigh)

Is a quick fix even possible or sustainable? Maybe that magic bullet we all seek isn’t so much a radical change in the world around us, but a subtle re-ignition of the spark of self. It may seem trite to say, “be the change,” but what if internally we were truly the change without expectation that the external life would change? What if we knew that any change would be internal and only about us and our response to our life?

If we met the world with that intent, it would be easier to give up any expectation that our actions would trigger mass change in a world mired in fear. Giving up that expectation, we reconnect with our humility and vulnerability. No longer does the weight of the world rest on our shoulders. The heaviness released, we lift our head to see the possibility.

Can you feel the heaviness lifting from your shoulders as you let go of the need to be the magic bullet? With that shift comes the realization that life really is about us — as individuals. And, the greatest change we make is the one that triggers our personal transformation. That is the only magic bullet that will ever have.

This paradigm shift requires a transition from needing to change the world to engaging in our own personal transformation. Our actions are not externally driven in a haphazard way to change the world. Instead, we focus on living our best, most authentic self. As a result, we share our light with the world.

It is not that we do not want to make a difference. No. We understand that any difference we make must begin with us without expectation it changing another. This is transformation cultivated in the heart. This is the magic bullet we need. We accept our imperfections as tools for growth. We stop othering because of their imperfections. As we relax into change, we invite others to do the same.

Magic bullets are unique to each of us. They are tempered in the fire of our transformation and offered, not as changes agent in an uncertain world but as the light that shines from our change.