Sparks in Wisdom's Fire: December 2021

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

A Tale of Tattered Edges

In the quiet of the moment, in the stillness of the night, I hear the determined uttering of calm in a chaotic me.

Yeah, you heard/read that right — chaotic me. I bet you thought I was going to say chaotic world. I thought about it. Then I realized the chaos of the world wouldn’t impact me so much if I was calm at my core.

The eye of a hurricane. That is what the core is. I wish to be within the calmness of the core as the storm rages around. I realize that as the storm encroaches my core, the edges get a bit tattered. That is inevitable. But, when my spiritual core is strong, I notice the tattering before it destroys too much of my core. With that noticing, I turn within. Awareness, I listen to rustling of calm.

Let’s talk first about how to cultivate calm. Within each of use is a kernel of calm, a sacred spark that ignites our awareness and awakens our objective observer. While our objective observer is always present, It take time and lots of effort to cultivate a connection to the calm — the power behind our awareness. It takes awareness to minimize the impact of irritation, aggravation, fear, and anger — the winds of storm that batter the edges of our core.

So, how do we mitigate the effects of the storm’s ravaging to move into stronger connection to our core? How do we cultivate calm? It is all about being awaken and aware. Until we consciously attend to the world around us, we miss what we judge as good, bad, and indifferent. With awareness we move away from the labels into understanding how these emotions and situations trigger feelings in us.

My goal, one day, is to be so awake, so aware that I live totally in the rolling moments. That I do not hold on to past hurts or am poised to leap into a hoped for future. To be here now and respond in ways that recognize the beauty in me. And the recognition powers the connection to my core.

And, the really cool thing? Through my core, I connect to the sacred, others, and all of creation. Through my core I am part of the Great All. Within my core beats the courage to venture into the brewing storm knowing that it can only superficially touch me. The core affirms that I am invincibly calm and prepared to respond to whatever life presents.

Cultivating calm isn’t easy. In fact, it is really hard. Cultivating calm is a moment-by-moment, lifelong endeavor. It requires that we attend to what is happening in the world and what is happening in our self. Bi-listening you are fully engaged internally and externally. I would even say that when you are bi-listening you have mastered the art of bilocation!

The key to cultivating calm and strengthening your connection to the core is living in the moment. Not holding on. Not pushing away. Acknowledging not absorbing distractions. Not acting out of judgment. Being nonviolent. Being in the determined calm is attending to who you are moment by moment.

In the storm-filled tattered edges, I wish you moments of determined calm.

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-coach-catalyst. As a contemplative coach, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating those places may scare us. The result of time with Van? Creating a blueprint for your life through a deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature.

Van is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

The Great Unknown

I woke to the silence of predawn wrapping gently around me. A voice lifted me into wakefulness. “It is time.” In those almost wake moments, I felt something greater than me flare in my core. Surrounded by its dark embrace, I recognized the Great Unknown was not out there; it is within me.”

The Great Unknown…what is this? For me, it is a conundrum. It feels familiar yet alien. It calls to me in a language that I feel I should understand yet the words and images are incomprehensible until I respond. This response is formed unconsciously with my intuition.

At times I am still surprised by my intuitive understanding of the rhythms of life speaking to me from the Great Unknown. The waning and waxing. The letting go and taking on. The death and rebirth. Those things are both disconcerting and scary as they call to me from the Great Unknown. But, my intuition smooths the fear and brings clarity amid the uncertainty.

How does your perception change when you realize that the Great Unknown is not some nebulous thing out there, but rests within you? What changes when you recognize it wrapping you in an embrace from within. Maybe that knowing is a bit disconcerting, but it also feels familiar. The Great Unknown is a curiosity that beats from the center of my being. It invites me to discover the parts of me long obscured by fear.

Aren’t you curious to know more about your connection to that space? The absolute wonder of your intuition as it translates and responds to the Great Unknown? The whispers that sound from within inviting you into wholeness?

Connecting and wholeness are necessary parts of healing. Maybe that is what the great unknown is — the ultimate healer. A place where you are made whole if you only have the courage to step within the unknown to face the joys, the sorrows, the angels, and the demons that walk with you.

How do you enter this space of mystery? There is no special path, no incantation, no magic that grants you entrance. For me, focusing on the breath connects me to the unknown. It gently wafts apart the veil between me and beyond. My breath is the pacesetter as I draw deeper into the unknown. It calms my mind, soothes my emotions, releases physical tensions. Through it I am aware and curious about what the Great Unknown will share with me.

Most important is my stance of communing with the mystery. Although I may want words, a message, an affirmation, I know that being embraced by the unknown in the moment may be exactly what I need. It isn’t about the message so much as about building relationship with this part of myself that is dark, mysterious, unknown.

Intentionally inviting the Great Unknown to walk with me opens the gateway of possibility. Recognizing the many ways mystery manifests throughout the day reveals the opportunities to deepen my awareness. With enhanced awareness I am better able to hear the many voices of the unknown.

Wishing you moments of connecting to the Great Unknown and discovering the wonder of you.

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Have you noticed?

Have you noticed? The days are getting darker — there just aren’t enough hours of light at least for me. It is just sooooooo dark! Sometimes I find myself wondering at what goes bump in these dark nights. At other times I feel the velvety caress of the dark night comfort.

But, most of all, I’ve learned to breathe into these dark moments . In fact, I call these moments between times. Moments that provide opportunity to just be. To adjust to the time of dark. To listen to what is being uttered within the darkness. To find sparks of light within the dark. To grow into my truth.

Now, I am not saying that the dark isn’t a scary place. The not knowing aspect of the dark is disconcerting. What I am saying is that the dark is a place that calls us into awareness. An awareness that invites us to use all our senses. That means for many of us, using more than just our primary sense, our eyes.

Some of us, me included, spend so much time focusing on what our eyes see that we miss what is hiding in plain sight. In the dark, it is really easy to miss what we cannot perceive with our eyes — what is obscured by the dark. We need to learn to perceive with our other senses.

I remember a Merton quote: “it would be good if we would open our eyes and see.” I don’t think that he was talking about our physical eyes. I believe he was talking about using all our senses. Only when we engage in full body listening do we gain a better picture of what is occurring. Only when we use all our senses can we understand what is being shared.

Let’s return to the dark to engage in discovery of the messages within it. First name what emotion is spiking in you. If you can, resist the urge to react to what you are feeling. Resist the urge to turn on a light. Breathe into the dark. Using your all your senses, notice you are picking up. This is a noticing without expectation.

You may ask yourself:

What do you hear with your physical ears? What is your mind saying?
What do you see with your physical eyes? What is perceived by the eyes of your soul and heart?
What dances on your tastebuds?
What flows in and out of your nose?
What do you feel physically? How are your emotions, your other senses impacting your physical body?

Just notice. Within the noticing, intend to understand. You may receive a word, a phrase, an image — something else. Be in the wonder of receiving. And, then, sit in this between time with whatever you receive. You don’t need to make sense of it. Just trust when the time is right you will understand.

While the dark can be a scary place, it is also a place where we meet our true self. Within the dark, whispers of intuition surround us. The whispers pick us up, lift us into the sky of our soul where we catch the thermal and fly into who we are.

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Courage & Compost Tea

It’s raining sheets of renewal washing away the person that I thought I was — the me that labors under the grime of illusion heaped upon me — by others and myself.

This isn’t gully washer rain. There is no flash flood warning in my soul. No, the rain is steady, cleansing. My soul takes a deep breath; the ground of my being inhales in the murky compost tea. Because, really, how can I grow into me without this rich brown compost tea created by misstep and learning?

Choice. I can stay inside this house built by illusion and battle the torrents of rain slipping through the worn slats into my house. With this choice, I hustle back and forth catching drops in a bucket. Or, I have another choice: I can step outside that house of illusions and into the fertile ground of what I believe. In that place, the rain pelts upon me awakening my true self.

But, stepping across that threshold is hard. I can feel my heart racing even as I think about what boogeymen wait for me across the threshold. Before my fear overwhelms me, I gather my courage, breathe in daring, and open wide my curious eyes. An inhale/exhale later, I am free of the house and my illusions as the rain pelts upon my being.

Once outside I explore the squishy ground and peer into the scrying puddles. Can I see my future in the rain splattering the murky water? Maybe. May not. But, in those silt filled puddles perhaps I can understand my past and see a way forward. I recognize that understanding the past is an important aspect of foresight. How can anyone decipher the messages that we are given until we can understand how our past twines with what we are given?

I realize yet again in the pelting rain that intuition speaks in mystery and code. Through challenges met and lessons learned, I have the capacity, the knowledge, the critical thinking to look at the weave , to separate the strands and look at the twining braid. Only then can I see the blessings, the grace that led me to this very moment.

That knowing, with a dash of curiosity, give me the courage to cross the courtyard of that house of illusions. With daring and courage I take the risk that carries me from the dilapidated, worn place into the spark-lit place of possibility. Crossing into the fierce wild, I breathe in the rain, drink in the compost tea, and am renewed.

It’s raining. And in the rain I gain the energy to renew myself — even those dilapidated, worn places. In the renewal I come home to myself. I invite you do the same.