Showers & Flowers

April showers bring May flowers. Remember that? Lately, I’ve found that those showers that bring flowers don’t always happening in April. With ongoing climate change, flowers can pop up after showers in just about any month. And those other showers in our lives? Well, they bring flowers anytime, anywhere.

What about those showers and flowers in our life? Do you have showers in your life? I know that I do. They can be an irritating drizzle wearing my attention down or the clap and flash of a thunderstorm. Most are every day showers that wet the ground of my soul.

No matter what, those showers say to me, “Hey! Look beyond yourself. Pay attention! You are missing something BIG.” And, when I listen, I see into the splattering of the rain and envision the potential of flowers.

Showers are just another name for life challenges and life lessons. These are opportunities that encourage us to show up as our best, most courageous, most authentic self. They wash away the grime of our illusions until all we have left is our true self and what is really REAL.

As we meet challenges, learn lessons we may even find our self liking the rain. If you are like me, you may find yourself dancing in the rain! Is there a better way to meet those challenges than dancing through the moment? 

I remember during my college years donning a pair of cloth Mary Janes when it rained. I would skip through puddles, spin around, and turn my head toward the sky. All the while I laughed for the sheer joy of the rain. I hope that I meet most of my challenges in the same way today.

The rain, like challenges and lessons, invigorates me. I mean, it is only a bit of water falling from the sky. Maybe I get a bit wet, but hey! that’s life. This I ask myself, “What would life be without rain?” The world would be dry and arid. A whole lot boring. While the rain may be challenging, it is also daring and wild and fierce and magical.

As I dance through the rain present in a life challenge, an amazing thing happens. In place of those met challenges and learned lessons, flowers appear. Maybe they are flowers that I might have chosen for more garden. Others might be wild, fiercely beautiful, exotic surprises. 

One thing is for sure: this field of blossoms is something that I could never have dreamed would have been created by the showers in my life. 

The winds of March have given way to sunnier, warmer weather. April showers are inevitable. 

What challenges will you attempt this month as you prepare for the flowers…whenever they blossom in your life?

 

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-coach-catalyst. As a contemplative coach, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating the mundane and extraordinary. 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.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2022

There Is Just Try

Lyrics have been written. Songs have been sung. Quotes have been made for this tiny, one syllable, three-letter word. Does the word try get a bad rap? I think it does. Remember the Yoda quote? “Do or do not. There is no try.” Was it a little shortsighted? I think so.

So before you read any farther, I have a confession to make. I am an unapologetic Try-er, a risk taker who has gone out on a limb or two that have cracked. But, I have also leap from limbs into the great unknown and discovered myself on the thermals. 

Mirriam-Webster defines try as an attempt. I don’t know about you, but it seems that I have spent my entire life attempting one thing or another. The goal of each try? To be who I am. I’d like to think that each try got me a little closer to me.

Does not quite reaching that goal make me a failure? Does trying and allegedly not succeeding make you a failure? Of course not! Trying is all about figuring out where you are in this life journey. Trying is a way of negotiating this event we call life. Trying is part of discovering what works for us …and what doesn’t.

Let’s use a down-to-earth example. One of the things that I am aware of during this Time of Covid is the inability to try on clothes. So, yesterday I bought this really cool tie-dyed sweatshirt. I brought it home. Put it on. Guess what? If you guessed it didn’t fit, you would be right. So, now I get to do one of my least favorite things — return it. 

If you think about it, when you try and don’t quite get what you were expecting there are consequences. You, and me, get to decide what to do about them. Does that mean that this try  was a failure? Of course not. It was an attempt at adding a cool sweatshirt to my wardrobe. No loss, no fail. 

Maybe you and I need to look at tries in other arenas in our life the same way. In this wild, uncertain journey you and I can never know for sure how something is going to work out. Until we scooch out on that limb, we don’t know. if the limb will hold us, if we will go crashing to the ground, or it we will leap into the unknown.

 If I’ve discovered on thing on this journey of trying, this life isn’t about the complacent. It is about taking risks — the underpinning of trying. So, try to me isn’t a bad thing. In fact, when we try, we engage three important life skills:  

• Be curious. Have a questioning stance. Be open to what you find. Ask the questions not to expect a definitive answer but to get a bit closer to the answer. Be flexible in reframing what you find into a deeper question.
• Be daring. Try new things just for the experience. You may discover, like that sweatshirt, the fit isn’t great. Or, you may discover a new direction, a new skill, or something that just says, “this is me.” 
• Be courageous. Trying can be scary. Even paralyzing. Look your fear in the eye. Gather the strength to meet your fear, address your concerns, breathe into your courage. Then just do it — TRY. Courage says, “Who knows what will happen, but I am going out on that limb! Join me?”

Try, because really, what do you have to lose? Own your inner Try-er. And, maybe, just maybe you will gain a part of you that was never really lost just hidden under the weight of your fears. 

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an unapologetic Try-er who encourages others to embrace their inner Try-er. As an Intuitive-Coach-Catalyst, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She 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.

Website / LinkedIn / Facebook / @fyrserpent / ©2021

Gifts from the Unexpected

So, this past summer I did a thing. I cut my hair really short. Well, really short for me. I have been enjoying wearing hats because short hair doesn’t stick out in unsightly tuffs!

Searching for the perfect hat, I came up disappointed. A friend posted pictures of her works of crochet art. I remembered the afghans I crocheted decades ago. I am sure you can see where this is headed. So, I did another thing — researched crochet patterns, asked for advice from my crochet artist fried, and bought yarn and hooks. So, that might actually be three things.

My reasoning about creating my own hat was how difficult could this be? Yes, famous last words. The first attempt I created a doily. I bought additional yarn and more hooks. The next attempt was lopsided. Next, I practiced crocheting by hooking a scarf for my son. 

I found another pattern and began anew. The first hat was the size of a small basket. So, this was an unexpected gift! I am using it for my crochet projects. And….I may just have to crochet some Easter baskets. I’m just finished my next hat. It is a win! 

On the Crochet Journey

On my journey to crocheting a hat, I knew that I wouldn’t stop until I had a hat. I fully expected the unexpected as I attempted to make a hat that fit. Each time I didn’t quite succeed, I learned from my mis-hooks. I also told myself that if I couldn’t ever figure out how to make a hat, well, I would use that yarn for something else. No matter what happened as I hooked the yarn through the stitches, I was living in the moment. 

This journey of crocheting has been a practice of mindfulness and a foray into the unexpected. Counting stitches I notice how often my mind wanders from the moment. When I breathe into the flow of the hook, I relax and the stitches are more even. Crocheting is now on my list of contemplative practices.

Crocheting, Mindfulness, & Risk Taking

But, more than that, living in the moment is an exercise in risk taking. It is a willingness to meet the unexpected by being okay with the outcome. It is about not giving up or giving in to frustrations. Even though I am secreting hoping for THE outcome, I am open to where the path leads me. 

And, I am not just talking about crocheting. Each time I begin a new venture, I open to the evolution of my plans. Each time I pen a book, wax a reflection arc, or paint an aura portrait, I practice meditation and contemplation. Through focusing my attention, meditation, and listening to my inner voice, contemplation, I fully am in the moment. I am trusting that my intuition will guide me over the hitches into exactly where I need to be. 

The Call of the Unexpected

The unexpected calls us into the moment; calls us to take a risk; calls us to listen to our intuition. Life really is in the journey. Each moment of that journey is a way station destination of awareness and realization. Each moment calls us over and over again to be exactly who we are. 

So, the unexpected can be a place of fear where we startle at every creak. Or, it can be a place of curiosity and daring where we explore the world anew. What will you choose?

 Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an Intuitive-Coach-Catalyst, who uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She 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.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / @fyrserpent / ©2021

A-Get-Back-On-Track Month: February

Hush. Listen. The world is coming alive. So are you. The Goddess Brigid. Imbolc. Candlemas. St. Blaise. February begins with a bright flash of light drawing our attention, guiding us home to our self.

The brilliance of illumination lights your world. Like a flash of lightning across the terrain you can see the path clearly — the way and the obstacles. So, what do you do? Do you burrow into yourself throwing the cover over your head or do you take those tentative first steps into the light of who you are? 

I have found that the small steps, not the grand gestures, bring me closer to a goal. It is really the small, sometimes seemingly inconsequential actions that awaken intuition. I clearly hear the messages that call me into the next step. But, this listening requires that you peel back those hidey-hole layers, climb out of the burrow, and take those first tentative steps on the path. This is not for the faint hearted. Courage and daring are both needed on your path of purpose.

How do you take steps down this path? First, decide what you want. What is your focus in the short term? Maybe you want to be healthier, write a book, deepen a relationship, secure a new job. Remember this is your dream. There is no wrong way to achieve it…just choose. You can always revise the path to your dream! 

Get quiet, breathe into the moment, ask the questions: “What is my dream? Where do I begin in this moment to attain that dream?” Listen to the answers.

Some examples of what you might hear:

• You may say, “I want to get healthier.” In answer, maybe you begin by taking a sugar sabbatical for a week. Do away with all the overt processed sugar — candy, baked goods, etc.
• You may say, “I want to write a book.” You begin by writing a thesis statement about the subject followed by writing a first draft outline for the book. 

These initial steps are only the beginning of your journey to dream realization. Each step gives you the impetus to go deeper. As you take those tentative steps, listen to where your intuitive guides you. The external light is not the guide; it awakener of your inner wisdom. 

As you listen to your intuition, be prepared to take the next step and the next step and the next step until you are dancing through your life with purpose. Who know what your dance will look like — one step forward, slide to the right or maybe to the left, sashay forward, one step back, spin, dip.  Who knows where your dance partner intuition will lead? When intuition is involved, wherever you go is sure to be in the direction of your soul purpose!

Leaning into the light from within is about coming awake to your dreams through intuition isn’t about succeeding in every moment of every day. It is about responding by listening to your intuition, navigating through your life challenges, and somehow, somewhere along the way living your purpose in the big and small moments. 

So, February is a month where we begin with a flash of light and see the light grow noticeably longer as we edge into spring. Like the growing year, we can edge deeper into an awareness of who we are and live from that  knowing. 

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an Intuitive-Coach-Catalyst, who uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She 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.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook 

Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2021