Sparks in Wisdom's Fire: January 2023

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Be the Light in a Shadow World

Darkness fell. As the lights went out one-by-one, I breathed deeply of the loamy silence. The awakening of the night made itself known in little scurries and breeze caresses. As the darkness surrounded me, my soul lost some of the tattered-ness. The angst unwound and peace twined within me.

As I peered into the lengthening shadows, the world reached out to me. Courage kindled, I reached back. Fear and courage twined together changing my perception bringing doubt and clarity at the same time. To clear the cobwebs of the day, I breathed deeply into the moment. I chose to surrender into my fear. As its trappings fell away, I took flight on the on the wings of curiosity.

Faster and faster the kaleidoscope of shadow images flew around me. Those I understood, I invited into my life. Others had me backing away in trepidation. A voice whispered, “No matter how you feel, breath deep, breathe wide. Feel your fear grip you. Surrender into the moment until your fear slips away. Stand tall. Stand proud. Walk into the moment. Trust each footfall takes your further along this path of wonder. Step by step the path that leads you home to yourself.”

Home to our self. Do you know where your home is? Each time I surrender into the moment, I reconnect to that place at my core. The wonder in each unfolding moment invites us to edge past the cracks through the crevices onto solid ground of self. This solid ground smells of magic and mystery; it sprouts wonder and glee.

As we step onto this ground, we leave our footprint of resolve and are enveloped by the beauty of our journey. We wake up to who we are and live from that knowing. We recognize that we are the light shining through the dark.

Darkness has fallen. The moon shines upon a shadow world. This can be a place of heart palpitations and fear or it can be a place of curiosity, courage, and daring. We choose how we are going to show up in each moment. And each moment gives us opportunity to choose the path that twines us home to ourself.

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-contemplative-catalyst. She uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating the uncertainty in your life. The result of time with Van? An evolving life blueprint that creates a deeper, sustained 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, January 24, 2023

Big Fluffy Flakes: A Tale of Curiosity

Big fluffy flakes of wet float down upon a chilly world. Peer closely! Within those flakes twinkle wonder. Breathe deeply of the wonder, and the world changes if only for the moment — the barren trees and ground, coated in those big fat flakes, appear magical. I, and maybe you, cannot help but laugh at the joy of those magical snowflakes.

Several hours later the world has returned to its wintery, weary monochrome. Peer into the monochrome. What do you find? Silence. Step into the quiet, rest in the moment. What is there? The ghosts of those flakes that beat with simple wonder.

The ghost whispers seem to say, “Life is uncertain. Sometimes within this unknown, life is really hard. It is filled with blips. Don’t give up. There are messages in the the unknown, in the blips.” I sigh accepting this truth. Another truth resonates through me. It is the magic, the mystery, twining in those impermanent flakes.

I sense this iridescent thread of mystery that connects me to the other and the other to me. Yes, we are in peculiar times. It is true that the world is uncertain. These “truths” are just part of the picture. Those falling snowflakes fill me with curiosity. I ask, “what else is there?” I ponder, “what if I dance and laugh and feel the joy in the beauty of each moment?”

Curiosity. We choose to see the sparkling magic or we can choose to ignore it. Sometimes the ignoring isn’t conscious. We are scurrying from what was to what will be. In the scurrying, we miss the moments of wonder. When these magical moments slip past us, we stay stuck in the mundane.

Mindful, we feel the fear threaded through the uncertainty while seeking to know what is just beyond our knowing. We know that courage will lift us into another space. That space? The extraordinary that is hidden in plain site.

To discover the extraordinary, we attend to the moment. Aware we notice the steps that we take from what happened before to what will happen. Only within those in-between steps do we see the mystery unfolding…feel the mystery unfolding…know the flare of a spark deep inside ourself echoing the mystery.

Aware we dive deep into our life. Each moment of the dive helps us see our purpose and live it with unbridled glee. Life is uncertain, impermanent, but with mindfulness we can experience each magical moment. In the experience we are made better.

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-coach-catalyst. She uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating the mundane and extraordinary. The result of time with Van? An evolving blueprint for your life that sustains a deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature.

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Magic Shimming from the Cracks

Magic is in the air. Can you feel it? A wild, wonderful effervescence of being. The magic twines through life’s uncertainty and illuminates the imperfections in our being. Within each of us is the mysterious beauty of imperfection. This wild beauty draws our attention to the mystery hidden within each imperfection.

This is not an awareness that smack our hands and whispers, “bad!” No, this awareness invites us into the mystery of who we are. It awakens our curiosity of the why and how this imperfection, a crack, came into being. From this crack our spirit sings forth and soars high into the stratosphere of our soul. This song urges us into our true self.

Any crack that we discover is not bad; it is not good. Each fracture is a beautiful necessity for our growth. As Leonard Cohen reminds us, “there is a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in.” Through those cracks in our being the light gets into our self. Through these cracks, our light escapes into the world. Through the cracks we connect.

These cracks are badges of courage. We practice bravery when learning lessons and meeting challenges. Each crack calls us into our self. As the light shines through the cracks, we breath in sacred light and heal. As the light flows from our cracks, we share our healing with the world. Within the mystery of this healing, magic shimmers. This magic makes us who were are.

Really what is magic? Dion Fortune reminds us that magic is “changing consciousness at will.” When we change our perception of our imperfections, when they are no longer bad or good, our life transforms. When we operate from a place of neutral, we take full advantage of the wisdom within those imperfections. Through that wisdom, we hold on tight to this wild ride and show up exactly as we are.

So, there’s magic in the air. Breathe deeply. Let it seep into your cracks. There is much light to share — yours, mine, and the sacred. Within the sharing, we become whole.

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

In Like a Lion

In like a lion hoping the lamb shows up soon! Okay, I know that it usually used for January not March, but January seemed to come in like a lion. Not weatherize. No, it feels rather leonine from personal to professional to politics and beyond. There have been lots of opportunity to show up beaming our light from our core.

I know, I know….this is a tall, a huge order. What do we do? Sometimes all I want to do is hide under the covers and hope for calm. While that is sooooooo tempting, I cannot. What can we do? Well, I am a proponent in listening for the messages that show up around me. Lately a lot has been showing up in my inbox about being a prophet, a change agent, a shaker-upper.

We are being called to step out into chaos, into uncertainty and use both as springboards into a new way of being. Sounds scary, right? How do we do this? As with all aspects of our life, living in these leonine times is an inside job…we’ve got to live from our core.

Living from the core is being comfortable with our core. It is about finding that space inside of us where we are aware of how the world impacts us. The core is not necessarily a place of peace and clam but a place where we can access peace and calm.

Here are some suggestions:

Spend time — 90 seconds, five minutes, 20 minutes or more daily resting at your core. Breathe into the moment. Quiet your mind. Just be. Listen to the whispers in your core however you define their origin (your intuition, the sacred, a guide, etc.)
Anchor yourself to the core. Become familiar with the cord that connects you to your center. Befriend it. Know that you can follow it back to the core whenever you need respite.
Create a stance of aware recall. This is a way of paying attention to what is happening to you. When the mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual alarms ring, you will be able to energetically back up and and follow the tether to the refuge in your core.

We all get battered by the winds of change. That is inevitable. But, we can seek refuge in our core. Practice my suggestions, change them up, find some of your own. It doesn’t matter how you connect and live from aware recall, what matters is that you do connect at the core and live your truth.

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

2023: Dancing in the Middle Ground

Listen. Magic is in the air. A stillness is in the moment. Can you hear a quiet guiding whisper? It’s an invitation to surrender into the New Year. Let go of the what-ifs. Waltz into the new. This is a reminder that when we cling to the what-ifs, we miss the what-might-be’s. Those what-might-be’s are only accessible in the moment.

To get to that place of alignment with the what-might-be’s is no easy task. We all know that life is filled with the beauty of uncertainty. It is filled with joy and suffering, regrets and celebrations, the what-if and the what-is. If we spend so much time on looking behind us, we are not able to move forward. When we focus on what catches us, we are caught in spiral of pain and suffering.

But, this year does not have to be THAT year. 2023 is a year of dancing in the middle ground. To name what we want and then navigate through the uncertainty and around those pesky boulders and pebbles. To be flexible and courageous enough to shift in ways that have us living into our truth.

We don’t have to look past the distractions or let our self be caught on the briars of what-ifs. We can choose to stand in the moment of what-might-be balanced and aware. With courage and curiosity we can take one step and another and another — not to hurry into the future but to relish the time as we move into the evolving moments.

With each step we create the foundation of what-will-be. Although this foundation is built upon the stones of resolutions, aspirations, intentions, we can’t stop with them. Name them while embracing what unfolds in each moment. Only in in the now do we notice what we are doing to manifest the seemingly little things that will bring us closer to those resolutions, aspirations, intentions.

So, today, I challenge you to dance into each moment ready to experience whatever life offers. Know that within each moment is an invitation to live from your core and be the person you know you are.

Blessings for a phenomenal 2023