Sparks in Wisdom's Fire: July 2019

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

The Aurora Borealis Of Your Soul

Deep within you is an ember glowing. You might to be able to smell its curls of smoke, feel the crackling of sparks, or see the flames flickering. Even if you cannot scent the ember, it is there. Believe in its existence, for the ember is you.

How do you find this ember? When you are quiet, focus your attention within. Allow your breath to flow to your core. Don’t despair that you will find it. Be in the silence. Trust in the wisdom of the ember. Know that you will recognize your ember’s warmth. It draws the breathe to it.

Reach deep into your being. Breathe into your core. Bask in the warmth of your ember. And, if you dare, blow a whisper of hope upon your ember, and another and another and another, until the sparks fly up, up, up through the chimney of your soul.

Soaring out of the chimney, the sparks fly into your quiet mind soothing its wayward thoughts. They calm the mad journey of fear to judgment to assumption to reaction. Breathe peace into the unsettled, the uncertain. Your quiet mind clears revealing your emotions running amok.

Oh, the emotions bursting within you! I wish that you shift through the starbursts of sorry, of suffering, of anger that explode from the kernels of your fear. Feel these raw emotions but do not hold on tight! They are meant to be experienced and released not to be coveted like treasured heirlooms. Allow joy to fuel that ember of yours.

I hope that you grab onto joy as you ride the shooting starts one after another as the ember explodes in the most beautiful aurora borealis dancing across the sky of your being. Within its glow are reflections of the beauty of your soul. It reflects the compassion in your heart. The ember’s aurora borealis lights the way of your truth.

For life is simplicity and complexity all at once. Deep within you is an ember glowing that propels you though this existence. It beats with your compassionate heart and loves you into the forever.

Lighting the tunnel is hard, courageous work. You’ve got to be curious and daring when you sift through the rocks, ponder the graffiti, and splash in the puddles. Maybe you do this alone, Maybe you get help from another. Light your tunnel with a single spark or sparks combined.

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is a Life Coach through Intuitive Connection, creates effective strategies for transformation by connecting her clients to their intuition. She is a 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, July 23, 2019

Lighting the Tunnel

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Has anyone ever said that to you? If you’re like me, it amplified your despair and made you want to hit the gas and speed to the end of the tunnel. But, life seldom happens like that. We have to work our way through the tunnel edging closer and closer to the opening.

Instead of squinting to see that pinprick of light glinting from so far away, what if we focused on the lighting the tunnel? Light shining brightly in the moment, we would be able to translate the graffiti on the walls, see the rocks in our path, and skirt around puddles. Instead of bemoaning the challenges, we would see them and have the power of choice.

We all have at least one or two things that just didn’t turn out the way we expected. Sometimes what happened was much better than expected. The other times fed our discouragement. Both of these types of memories fill our somatic memory banks. Both cast shadows. To light the tunnel, we look beyond the shadow memories cast upon the tunnel walls. We acknowledge our memories while not being caught in them.

Not getting caught. That is the biggie and very difficult. Sometimes the past unconsciously creeps up on us. Before we know it, the shadows in the tunnel paralyze us. We cannot see what is in front of our face. The pinprick of light floats farther away. What can we do? How can we see what the moment is offering us?

Get your bearings. Identify what is happening. Name where you are getting caught — the worries, regrets, and concerns at the root of being stuck.
Be with whatever surfaces. Even 90 seconds of full body listening without attachment, judgment, or defensiveness can minimize your angst.
Focus your attention on the moment. Name your challenges and how they prevent you from recognizing illusions cast by fears and worries.
Shine your light. Celebrate your strengths and the opportunities present in the moment. Gather hope, trust, and confidence that you are able to make profound changes.
Light the tunnel. Reframe your thoughts, rescript your words, and engage in simple acts that will move you into the light of who you are.

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is a Life Coach through Intuitive Connection, creates effective strategies for transformation by connecting her clients to their intuition. She is a 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.

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Tuesday, July 16, 2019

A Journey of Living in the Moment

Do you know who you are? Does your true self sing from the depth of your being? Do you reflect the wisdom of your soul? Do you see the beauty within not as an afterthought but as who you truly are? Do you love yourself?

Those mountains of our existence are meant to be scaled not feared. We climb not to reach the summit — although that is important, too, — but to experience the joys and sorrows of the mountain. With each foothold, each placed hand, we experience where we are. We feel our actions in the moment. We hear the sweet song of accomplishment. We recognize that this journey is not taken to grow one step closer to the destination but to live fully in the moment.

The shallow puddle and raging rivers are meant to be experienced with the same depth of our being. Neither is better or worse. Splashing in the puddle is not less exhilarating than being swept into the icy rapids of a river. Both are water. Water is life, isn’t it?

Night and day flit across the horizon bringing dark and light. We step into the shadow gaining access to our mystery. We gather our mystery to our heart as we walk into the light. There we decipher the message. Within both is the origin of our grace and wisdom. We live sharing both, don’t we?

Good and bad are labels tattooed upon things with our judgments and assumptions — mine and yours. Unless we touch the core of who we are, who knows what is real and what is illusion. The truth of what is good and what is bad resonates within the sacred thread connecting me to you and connecting us to all of creation. Feeling the sacred resonance, we know the nature of truth that leads us to good.

We are not so different at the core. We have only to listen to see beyond the distraction and resonate with the sacred within. To connect one to the other we must recognize how my truth, and yours, resonate with the one Truth. In doing so, we accept that sometimes our imperfections blind us to the one Truth. And, we seek to discover fears, named and unnamed, that taint our connection to what is real. In doing so, we discover another piece of who we are.

So, do you know who you are? As we grow in understanding, our knowing gains greater clarity in each moment that we attend to life unfolding instead of peering into the horizon of prize ungained.

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Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Enough & the Territory of Dangerous Expectations

If you follow my blog, and I hope you do, I you might notice I write about the power of enough. Maybe you have read The Compassion of Enough+. If you haven’t, maybe you’ve learned a powerful lesson of doing too much or having enough of a situation. Maybe you live simply and know the rhythm of enough in your life. Or, maybe you are just curious about what enough means for you.

Enough is a powerful lesson to use and then live. I am the person who goes the extra mile, sometimes on tread bare tires. That’s who I am; how I am wired. Not too long ago I realized that my enough was too much and not enough at the same time. I was caught between continuing on the path toward fatigue and stopping to reflect and discern. Going that extra mile landed me in the territory of dangerous expectations — mine and others.

My philosophy is that no matter what the situation or the compensation, I show up as my best self determined to do any job to the best of my abilities. The desire to be enough often unbalances me. Out of balance, I push myself into the territory of dangerous expectations. It happened recently. I expected that sharing a mistake that I had found would lead to gratitude and a quick resolution. I was wrong.

My desire to be enough; to do enough was met with aggravation and irritation. I didn’t like the jagged feelings that rolled over with me. I got upset. And, then as calm rolled over me, a voice whispered, “When will you learn? When will enough be enough for you?” Well, I decided maybe I had reached that point. To be sure, I re-evaluated how enough powered by true, authentic core.

I asked myself (and perhaps you can ask yourself these questions as well):

What were my true responsibilities in this situations? How did I overstep them?
What were the roots of that led me beyond enough into the territory of dangerous expectations?
What imperfections of mine were my actions feeding?
In retrospect, what was enough in this situation asking of me?

Four simple yet really tough question that, when answered with truth, empower me to create strategies to live with the power of enough. These questions can help each of us find the way back from the territory of dangerous expectations into our authentic self. And, help us circumvent this desolate space again.

When have you crossed the boundaries of enough and entered into the territory of dangerous expectations? How did you make the return journey to your authentic self? Let me know!

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, July 2, 2019

Imperfect in an Uncertain World: Being Nonviolent

Of late, I’ve been feeling a bit more battered by the uncertainties in the world and the glaring visibility and vocalization of my imperfections. I write about both our imperfections and the uncertainty in the world in my book: Imperfect in an Uncertain World. The book is a foray into creating a peaceful heart and a nonviolent haven. I am sharing an excerpt from it this week:

We are imperfect beings living in an uncertain world. Our imperfections are what stop us from being authentic. These may be illusions about our self. They may be judgments or deep seated fears. It is not a person that triggers our reaction; rather our illusions, judgments, and fears do. For example, we might have very different political beliefs than another person. We may feel attacked by that person during a conversation. Or, instead of feeling attacked, we might hear what the person is saying, not take it personally, and respond with compassion.

No matter how much we ignore our imperfections, they do not disappear. We do not want to ignore or banish them from our life. Imperfections are tools to help us become our best, authentic self. They are challenges to meet and lessons to learn. Shifting our perspective from imperfections as unwanted flaws to important life tools, we are no longer stuck in feelings of failure and having unattainable expectations for our self.

With this acceptance, our paradigm shifts from viewing imperfections as a bane of our existence to engaging them as vehicles of growth. This is the beginning of self acceptance. Instead of seeing imperfections as personal failures, we reframe these parts of our self. They become opportunities to identify old wounds. This paradigm shift is paramount to healing our woundedness and living nonviolently in an uncertain world.

Once we heal our woundedness, we are longer trapped by imperfections. The window of our soul is cleaned, and, through it our authentic self reflects. With awareness and practice, our personal violence-induced flares lessen. Any acts of violence are met with a self compassionate response. Compassion for others is an outcome of self-compassion. We heal the world by first healing our self.

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