Sparks in Wisdom's Fire

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Missteps Are Risk Steps

It’s not the letting go

but the free fall

that is important

drop into your soul

feel the rush

of finally taking

the risk of being

who you are

So, I did a thing. Invited the wisdom of others into my life. A big, humbling wow to those people who shared! Throughout this year, I will share the wisdom gifted to me. So far, within the wisdom I have discovered a powerful reframe — all my missteps are risks that drew me closer to who I am.

The questions that I ask myself…and invite you to answer:

Who am I?
What parts of me make me uncomfortable?
How have I made peace with the edgier parts of me?

Those three questions are tough to answer. Since we are in constant evolution, they cannot be definitively answered. Just as we discover the answer, as we let go of who are not and become more comfortable with our self, deeper uneases break free and rise to the surface. Each time we answer these questions deeper uneases rise to our consciousness.

Answering and asking those questions again is a lifelong endeavor. We return to them over and over again. In the answers we discover deeper parts of ourself. Maybe we discover a few more queries that invite us to risk more — to unapologetically show the world who we are. And, in our sharing are found real acts of bravery.

Although I didn’t specifically ask for how people saw me — many people shared how they saw me. I was humbled and honored that some took the ultimate risk of wise honesty. I challenge you to ask others how they see you.

Some wise words:

From J, two comments: “you treat everyone the same. It doesn’t matter if the person is an authority figure, a peer, or someone who needs help. You treat everyone with compassionate respect.” Which led to her second comment: “You are unapologetically you.”

Although the words at first made me uncomfortable, what she identified are integral to who I strive to be.

From B: “That you for the gifts and challenges you offer. You are SEEN!”

The Big Risk

B identified the edgier part of me: the one who isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers, to encourage change, to bring peace to an uncertain world. She also uncovered a fear — that I am invisible. Yes, she told me, “You are SEEN!”

For me, this celebration was a big risk. Who would participate? What would they share? With those questions answered, I discovered unconditional love and compassion.

Most of the comments were wise morsels that resonated with me. Some encouraged me to risk. Each wisdom spark invited me to dig deeply into who I am and root out the stuff that isn’t who I truly am. Those shards are birthed by my woundedness. I vow to heal them so I may be a stronger, more compassionate presence in the world.

Maybe growing into the wisdom while letting go of the shards of who-i-am-in-the-moment but who-i-do-not-want-to-be is where I am called to be as I walk more deeply into my 60s…into the revelations of and living forward in wisdom.

So who are you? It doesn’t matter what your age. You are a living, breathing wisdom seeker, a risk taker. What risks do you take in each moment to share you with the world?

Vanessa F. 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 or bring us joy. The result of time with Van? Creating a blue print for your life through a deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature. 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.

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

It's Your Turn — Choose

We are in the midst of the most beautiful time of the year — autumn. Okay, I might be biased. This has always been my favorite season. Maybe it’s because I am filled with relief after the heat of summer. Maybe it’s the brilliant splashes of earth tone colors. Maybe it’s the fact that my birthday happens just days after the autumnal equinox. Maybe I love the season for reasons I am not even conscious of.

I do not know the reason, but autumn has always pulled me back into the moment. As the leaves turn colors, crinkle up, and drop from the trees, I catch glimpses of tree skeletons. In those bare-boned trees, I recognize that although change is inevitable, I do have a choice. I can be stuck in the moment or realize that the letting go is happening with or without me.

So choose — to let go of the inevitable or cling to what no longer fits. I can hear you saying, “But, is that really a choice? What kind of choice is the lesser?” To which I reply, “Yes, it is choice. Sometimes the lesser is greater than we ever realized.”

In the choosing we acknowledge that when we cling to what no longer fits, we suffer. Because life is difficult until it is not. With each choice, we choose the degree of suffering we experience. Clinging to something that is ill fitting to our soul deepens suffering. The more we choose to ignore the inevitable, the more deeply roots of suffering twine into our soul until we can no longer separate the suffering from who we truly are. We become the suffering.

We make a choice but don’t have to be stuck in that choice. We can always decide to try something else. And, in that decision, we practice self compassion. We choose to love our self, to forgive our self, to heal those wounded parts of our self.

Maybe we only choose a different path when we realize that we can stay in the ugly of suffering or we can choose a different way. Choice is always painted with the brush of beauty. For choice is fresh air, ruffling of leaves, a revelation of what is buried beneath our suffering.

The best thing about choice? No matter what we choose, if we don’t like the choice, we can always choose again. Regardless of what happens, we can combat any choice induced suffering with self-compassion. When we practice self-compassion we love our self, forgive our self, heal those parts of us wounded by our experiences and misinformed choices.

I am not saying any choice is easy. Seldom does one single choice spin our life 180 degrees. I am not saying that we will never experience radical change with one choice. In reality a change begins with that first choice of a series. Through rolling decisions, we clear suffering, heal wounds, and ultimately come home to ourself.

Life is a series of choices — rolling moments that invite us to mimic the autumn trees. To rejoice in life as it changes, to let go of what is shriveled and no longer fits, to willingly prepare for that period of dormancy, to know that rebirth is ongoing, continuous.

So, no matter what I choose, I commit to let go and practice self-compassion to alleviate my suffering. How about you?

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-coach-catalyst. As a contemplative coach, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating life choices. The result of time with Van? Creating a blue print for your life through a deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature. 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.

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

To travel you must yield

The phrase, to travel, you must yield, jumped out at me as I read a recent Charter for Compassion email. It spoke of the way one must travel a one lane road that was open to two-way traffic. I was intrigued by this saying. Of course, a few days later, I put it into practice as I walked the labyrinth.

Five of us walked a labyrinth on Sunday morning. The labyrinth was a bit smaller than I was expecting. The path was narrow. The border between lanes was ever narrower. As I walked, I understood that saying: to travel you must yield.

Let me say that I have always been bit non-bending when I walk a labyrinth. I never deviate from the path. To step anywhere other than the walkway…well, it just wasn’t going to happen for me. But, my strict adherence to staying on the path just wasn’t possible on that early morning. I had to be flexible and communal in my walk.

I found myself stepping onto the borders and sometimes on the part of the path going in the opposite direction. Yet, I never lost site of the path that led me to the center of the labyrinth. Instead of being frustrated, I chuckled. I recognized that my walk mimicked the way I journey through life. Maybe I find myself in the weeds or get turned around, but I always return to the path better for the experience.

Have I mentioned that there is always a message waiting for me in the heart of the labyrinth? Well, the message arrived earlier on this walk. On that morning, my walking of the labyrinth let me know there was nothing wrong with my life journey. The journey of side steps and stepping back from beginning to end was perfectly okay. To travel I must yield — to myself, to others, to the sacred manifest on the journey.

While I may believe that at times I step far from my intended path, I really have not. I am just ankle deep in the weeds of challenge. Or, I find myself treading the same part of the path again. But, the weeds, the deviation to my forward moment are necessary to bring me exactly where I need to be in this moment. No matter where I am, I find the potential to breathe into the glory, the grace that life holds.

To travel you must yield for it is in the yielding that the wonder of life really happens. In the yielding, we find those moments to breathe, to look deeply into the shadows of our self, and to understand that life is lived in those moments when we walk the path that brings us home to our self.

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Be A Troublemaker

Be a troublemaker, a risk taker, a game changer. Be courageous. Identify unevenness. Go against the flow. Transform yourself, and, in doing so, change the world.

Being a troublemaker is not for the faint of heart. Not for sleep walkers. It requires that we are awake to the moment. That we live with eyes wide open. That we willingly navigate the fog that obscures living from our core. That we courageously name the fear of what lurks in the shadows of souls — ours, others, and the collective.

Troublemaking requires letting go of any complacency, naming what has us stuck in stasis. Breathing through what stops us. Listening to our intuition. Gingerly navigating our way through illusion’s fog with the clarity of our intuition.

There are cautions to engaging in troublemaking. Sometimes we see so clearly what needs to be changed that we do not notice that others are not seeing as we do. What is clear to us is mud to them.

With personal clarity, we leap into the trouble, land exactly where we need to be only to discover that others have not, did not, leap with us. The ensuing backlash — well all I can do is shudder. We have inadvertently caused strife.

Does that mean that we stop troublemaking? Of course, not. With or without our actions, change is inevitable. Things improve or devolve. Things never stay the same. To trouble make is to identify what is not working and discern how we are called to respond to life’s uncertainties and unevenness.

We may discover upon discernment, that a gentle knock is much more effective than a battering ram when we are attempting to bring about change. But, sometimes we do need that battering ram. Troublemaking is all about figuring out what is needed in the moment and then figuring out the most appropriate way to do it.

Action through troublemaking is possible through the power of discernment. Through discernment we answer the questions: What outcome would we like to see? What are potential ramifications of our actions? How might we make trouble in ways that rouse awareness and ruffle feathers without triggering abject fear and irrational anger? While a side effect of troublemaking is the stirring of the pot of fear and anger…we don’t want to trigger a cataclysmic reaction.

I am not saying that fear is a bad thing. Fear is a part of life. Fear, when acknowledged, is a catalyst for change. Fear, when identified, sparks our courage. It invites us to step more deeply into the shadows, to figure out what is really at the foundation of what is happening. Once in the shadows, we gather the sparks of understanding and wisdom that have the potential to transform the world.

Courage asks what trouble shall I cause? Then, our inner wise one strategizes. For troublemaking without strategy, without discernment, has the potential to pitch us into a quagmire of anger and fear. Through the strategizing of discernment, we actively engage our inner troublemaker bringing about transformation in our self and change in others.

So, be a troublemaker, but be smart, name the fear, call upon your courage, understand how others are navigating the unevenness — then, discern strategies. Because, really, the world needs more troublemakers who can stir up the status quo, let go of the uncertainty, and bring balance to the world.

In the words of John Lewis, Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America. I would add only troublemaking can redeem the soul of the world.

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-coach-catalyst. As a contemplative coach, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating those scary places. The result? Creating a blue print for your life through a deeper connection to your intuition. 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.

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Wisdom Seeker.  Wisdom Keeper.  Wisdom Sharer.

So, it is here! I am less than a week away from my croning — the BIG 6-0. I am intentionally entering my wisdom years. Because, well, croning is all about wisdom — seeking, keeping, and sharing.

While crones are traditionally older women, accepting your inner crone or being wise transcends gender and age. It doesn’t matter if you are male, female, nonbinary; young in age, elderly, or somewhere in between, the crone speaks to us whenever, however, wherever she wants. We have only to be open to the ways wisdom presents itself to us.

Wisdom Seeker

The crone urges us to seek knowledge, gain understanding, and use both to spark our wisdom. Being a seeker requires us to live in the moment, to be aware of how we get stuck in our beliefs and judgments, and to recognize when we are less than objective.

Calling upon crone energy we open to where our intuition leads. Intuition whispers course changes, gives us gems of wisdom, and shows us patterns. Wisdom is nourished when we accept the intuition that flows from our soul.

Wisdom Keeper

No matter where we find our self on this journey, we are a repository of wisdom. From the time we are little, we gain understanding and often unconsciously tuck these tidbits away only to have them rise to the surface during epiphany moments. Sometimes we don’t even realize that we hold the wisdom that changes our life.

Over the moments we gain more and more wisdom. Seldom do we wake up aware of this vast library of inner knowing. No, really being aware is a product of the heart and the head. We reflect with our heart objectively feeling our emotions and the impact of life experience in order to understand. We introspect with our head to find patterns. Within the patterns we gain wisdom.

Wisdom Sharer

What is a crone if not someone who share wisdom? A crone is humble and vulnerable— aspects integral to this sharing. A crone in confident as a carrier of wisdom and share without arrogance. Also vulnerable, a crone shares wisdom without knowing how it will be received.

A wisdom sharers is also a empath and bringer of compassion. They listen with their full body naming what is there and what caresses, and bombards, their being from others. Using their empathy, they share compassion not to enable but to help another walk through suffering in a way that empowers them while alleviating suffering.

Wisdom seeking, wisdom keeping, wisdom sharing is found in each experience that we connect to our soul spark, listen with our heart, and find the patterns fo wisdom within our head.

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

The Bright Light That You Are

May you light shine…may your spirit soar…may you breathe in magic…may you ignite wonder…may you know the beauty of your soul

Life is easy until it is not. Those moments of dis-ease create an illusory dimming of our life. But, do we really dim? Of course not. I hope that you, that me, that we, can find a way past the illusion into the light.

May your light shine

The illusion cause by difficulty often overwhelms. Unable to see past that fog, we wander in the gloom. How do we stop this aimless wandering? We have only to open our eyes. It really is that easy. Awake to the beauty in the world, we see, we feel, we know our light shines brightly. We recognize our self in that light.

During these moments of brightness, we turn our light within. We point our light into our shadows. In the shadows we discover the hidden wisdom gems. Using them we clear the fog from our being. And, in the clearing, we lift off into the sky of our soul.

May your spirit soar

The fog of illusion cannot withstand the courage in our heart. Our courage evaporates the illusion, and a vista of possibility appears. Soaring into the sky of our soul, we gain a new perspective. The obstacles shift into learning opportunities. Looking down upon our life, we are finally able to see the path that leads us home to our self.

So, soar high. Soar free. Within the soul sky exists the understanding to seed the garden of our spirit. Within the sky are the drops of rain that bring our garden to life.

May you breathe in the magic

Within each of us is a spark of wonder, a spark of connection, a spark of the sacred — these are the stuff of magic. Living within these magical sparks, we accept the invitation to change our consciousness. We see the world as it is. And, with this paradigm shift, we blow away the illusion. We see our glowing soul embers.

Blowing upon the embers in our soul, the sparkleys fly free. Within their rhythm, we laugh at the sheer joy the sparkleys bring. Hope is birthed from our laughter. We experience of the magic of wholeness. Made whole, we adapt our heart song in ways that heal the world.

May you ignite the wonder of who you are

The light is shining; it clears away our illusions. Fog lifted, we see what gems sparkle within our shadows. We soar higher and higher in the sky of our soul. We survey a land twinkling with possibility and hope. There is magic to behold in the wonder of who we are. And, in that wonder life shifts. The world is a lot less dim when we illuminate the bright light that we are.

May it be so.

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

go out on a limb

take a risk…go out on a limb…wake up…the world needs the change that is you

That’s a tall order — taking a risk, going out on a limb — heck sometimes waking up is hard enough on any give day. But, what happens when we REALLY wake up? When we pay attention to the world around us? That comes with a big risk. Awake, we cannot ignore what is happening in the world. It is in the waking up to risk taking that we change the world by changing our self.

Risk — when you go out on a limb, you don’t know if the limb will hold your weight or if it will crack. If it cracks, you don’t know if you will plummet to the ground or grow wings and soar into transformation. Living in the unknown is the nature of risk.

When you take a risk, you are never quite sure what will happen. It means that you journey outside your comfort zone hoping that change will occur. But, no matter how you couch it, change is scary. You cannot control what will happen when change happens.

If you are like me, sometimes you take a risk. You think you gained whatever you thought you were risking. Other times you get really discouraged about the results. What I have found is that no matter what the result of the risk, I land in the fertile ground of possibility driven transformation. Think about that. Even when you think you failed; you have not. Because in that perceived failure, change happens.

Risk. What do you do? How do you engage risk? First, get in touch with you. Think about the illusive goal — the prize that you have your eyes on. This is your journey — the one you take toward the prize. No one can tell you if it is worth the effort. Your decision. Your choice. Your change.

Ask yourself:

What is stopping me from grasping the prize?

What one creative thing could I do to grab hold of that prize? To live the life I want?

What is the risk?

What do I have to gain?

If it doesn’t work, what do I have to lose?

Answering these questions demystifies and redefines the risk. It helps put things in perspective. And, maybe it lessens the anxiety, the fear. Maybe in the redefinition, the demystification, you edge a couple of steps out on that limb.

Take a risk; make a choice to live your life fully and without apology. That is all that risk asks of us. Remember that no one but you can take the risk. This us your decision, your choice, your change.