Sparks in Wisdom's Fire

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

It's Within You

Are you aware? Did you know? The world is a wild, wonderful, magical place. Sometimes I forget. Maybe you do, too. If you are like me, you get stuck in the chaos, the drudgery, the unexpected. You forget to see what is just beyond the surface.

As the uncertainty angels into us, we become imprisoned in an illusion of futility. I know, you don’t want to hear that. Neither do I. But, within us is the power of awareness, the ability to meet the uncertainty. In the meeting we dissolve the tangles.

I am not saying calling upon our awareness and abilities is easy. What I am saying is that we need not stay in this place of despair. It may not even be as hard to climb out of it as we think.

Like everything in our life, meeting this challenge is an inside job. Within each of us is a kernel of curious, of daring, that calls us into the wild, the wonder, the magic. But, how do we get there? We begin to nurture that kernel with our breath.

Inhale. Exhale. Feel your breath flowing through your body. Ride the stream to your heart. Sync your breath with your heartbeat. Be in the rhythm. Feel the calm permeate your being. Feel the curiosity, the promise twining into your awareness. Ask, “What promise is resting in between the heart beats? How do I need the promise to manifest?” Hold the answers gently in the palm of your heart.

With the promise tucked into the heart of your spirit, re-enter the stream of your breath. Ride the flow to your soul spark — that which connects you to all. If you dare, dive into the darkest depths, enter your place of wonder, of mystery, of magic. Listen to the mystery. Breath in the magic. Feel the wonder twine with the vibration of your promise.

Connect to your internal GPS — that which can make your promise real. Ask yourself, “What one thing can I do to realize my promise?” Start small, go big, land someone in between. It doesn’t matter where you start…just begin the process of making your promise REAL. Connect to your Velveteen Rabbit power!

Maybe you know how to channel your inner Velveteen Rabbit. Maybe you are without a clue how to make the promise real. Breathe deep. Breathe wide. Travel to your core — that place that shines within you. Trust in your innate wisdom. Know that the way is forged step-by-step. Listen with all of your senses. They call you into an incredible lightness of being.

It matters not how far we go on the journey. What matters is that we walk the path step-by-step and meet our challenges along the way.

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? Being the change you want to see in the world by 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, July 12, 2022

Grieving Into Hope: Communal Hope

We are a couple of weeks past the longest day of the year, yet it feels like we are in the darkest of nights. I am not even thinking any more, “What else?” We all know what happens when we anticipate a question like that.

Instead, I am reminding myself to be in the moment and to take life as it comes. Not as an act of complacency, but as an act of defiance, an act of hope, an act of transformation.

I take life as it is so that I can be the light wherever I find myself. To remind myself that in the dark, grief can festers. I don’t want to be part of the festering…as my mother would remind me: no good can come of that.

Last week I wrote about grief as a personal act. This week I am writing about grief as a communal act. Want to learn more about personal grief? Check out last week’s blog.

Communal grief ricochets off each of us and burrows deeply into the collective consciousness. This is the grief that becomes a living palatable, gritty thing. Untethered, it takes on a life of its own. It festers until we are overwhelmed. Lost in the dark, we cannot articulate the question, “if not now,” much less answer it.

How do we grieve into hope as a community? Within each of us is a kernel, no matter how small, of hope. Each of us has the potential to be the change even if it means moving through the quagmire of grief. That is the energy each of us brings — the energy that will sustain us through the grief into a new way of life.

Surrendering through the collective grief. So, how do we start? It begins by being with one another. Talking. Lamenting over what is lost. Purging grief through your tears. Being present to grief.

When those tears fall upon the ground of our collective soul, magic happens. Those tears compost for the collective garden. Within them is possibility. Drop by drop they change the landscape of our collective soul.

They feed our hope until collective hope pushes its fragile stems through that composted soil. If we pay attention, we discover how hope manifests in the words, actions of our self and others.

Because each of us in community are in different phases of grief, we share different energy with one another. Through our differences, we raise each other up. We move through our grief into hope.

I am not going to kid you. This doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. It takes community. It takes each of us. The African proverb says that it takes a Village to Raise a Child. It takes each of us, together to grieve into hope and in doing so, change the world.

This is an invitation to join in collectively grieving through hope.

Watch Grieving into Hope through personal and communal grief.

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Grieving Into Hope: Personal Grief

It feels like life has given us a barrage of one thing after another. Each of us can reflect upon our life, and I invite you to do that to pinpoint when you began in earnest to grieve a loss. The loss can be something personal. The loss of a loved one, a joy, a pet, something that was uniquely yours.

Recall a grief — it can be one tempered by time or one that is still poignantly fresh. Sit with the grief. Breathe into it. Which of the stages of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross calls to you? Are you in denial? Are you angry? Do you need to bargain? Are you depressed? Are you accepting the loss?

It doesn’t matter where you are. What is important is that you identify the grief and where you are in your relationship with the grief.

Sit with the grief and how you named it. I am going to ask you to use your five senses to create a multi-sensory image of your grief:

What does your grief look like?

What does it sound like?

What does it feel like?

What does it taste like? (yes, grief can have a taste!)

What does it smell like?

Create a multi-sense image of your grief. Hold it gently in the palm of your heart. Ask it, “Grief, what would you tell me?” Listen to the response. Tuck the message gently into your heart knowing you can return to it over and over again.

Grief has always has a message. When we converse with Grief, we are given a kernel of hope. Always.

How do we move through grief? Grief in all of its grittiness has a companion. That companion’s name is Self-Compassion. Self-compassion is the gentle reminder that we cannot have life without loss. It is not here to erase the suffering. No, it calls us to find ways to alleviate suffering. Compassion, like grief, is an inside job.

ISelf-compassion is caring for you. Self-Compassion says, “I may not change the trajectory of your actions, but I can minimize your suffering.” Open yourself to me and watch what happens.

And, that is important. Because as individuals, we grieve. Self-Compassion asks us to surrender into the messiness of our life instead of ignoring the grief. Compassion asks us to face the grittiness with courage. When we get to the final stage of grief, acceptance, we accept the loss not because we want to, but because any other action would not have us being true to our core.

This acceptance is not an act of complacency but an act of power. Only when we listen to the voice of loss do we discover the possibility of hope. Within grief, within loss, is hope.

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Tingling Spidey Sense

Navigating a New World With Tingling Spidey Sense

A friend of mine reminded be earlier today that nothing is permanent. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this is true. Because, hey! We all want to hold onto the good stuff and rejoice when the unevenness fades away. Impermanence — we have this tug-pull relationship with it.

We are in such a time of upheaval. Intellectually, I know that the roller coaster of change is bringing about a new way. Honestly? I’m not sure I am liking where we are. But, when I am nonjudgmental, I can taste my concern, listen to my anger, and see the shimmer of fear. I’d recommend that you pay attention to how you are feeling; to discover why you are feeling what you are.

We live in a world that kind of reminds me of how I was raised: Because I told you so. I know what is best. But, really? I’m an adult. I think I know what is best for me. I also know the boundaries of “none of my business.” It seems others have not learned that a lesson.

The world has gone crazy. Boundaries are bulldozed. The government is up in people’s business where they should not be. And, not in people’s business where they should. The travesty is not over yet. In fact, my spidey sense is tingling is ways that have me on red alert.

A Thomas Merton quote comes: “to live prophetically, you’ve got to be questioning and looking at the factors behind the facts. You’ve got to be aware there are contradictions.” He calls us to question, discover, investigate, seek, reflect. To know that sometimes contradictions are the twisted, convoluted paths that lead us to understanding.

I get it intellectually — my heart is a whole different story. You may think that one or more of the decisions of the Supreme Court were a good thing. They fit within the way that you see the world and how it should be. Or, like me, you may see the unevenness of those decisions because they are totally not in the world view of how a government from the people and for the people should be acting.

Life is impermanent. Nothing stays the same. I have a question for you: Even if you believe any of these decisions are right ones, what happens when a freedom of yours is violated? Think it cannot happen? If the Supreme Court asks you to hold its beer, do. not. do. it. Because if rights violation can happen to the vast majority, it can happen in your small slice of the world.

This wild wonderful life has become so narrow. Too many crossovers into the land of not my business. But, this narrowness is not permanent. Permanent is a subjective thing: it can be as long as our inhale or one of the sacred’s inhales. I want this to be one of ours. But, for change to happen, we’ve got work to do.

So what do we do? We hold firm to what we believe. We look at those factors behind the facts. Stop reacting and respond with wisdom. We call people out with compassion. In doing so, we become the change where all rights are protected.

My spidey sense is tingling. Something is very wrong. This time I am going to pay attention. Sidestep the gas lighting of the vocal minority. Identify my biases. Listen to what is happening. Ask what I can do. Hold myself and others accountable. Be compassion in the truest sense.

Most importantly, I am going to act like my life and yours depends upon my listening to it…because it does.

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

These Times Are A Changing

These Times they are a changing…what are they changing? Us — me & you!

We are in a wonderfully amazing, fiercely terrifying, possibility-filled time. Yeah, there are times that I jump past the wonder and amazement through the possibility and right into fierce terror. These times might be chaotic, but do I really need to get caught in the snare of my fear?

With that question, I mentally/

emotionally back up to get a clear image of what is happening. I remind myself that this is my wisdom year. It is not every year I celebrate my croning! This is my year to explore the wonder, breathe deeply into my core, and exhale wisdom into the moment. There are times when I feel that I didn’t get the message about being the wisdom keeper that I shared with everyone else.

Then I remember that shenpa is part of each of our journeys. This is the word that Buddhists use for what catches us. I ask myself, “What catches you?” The answer is simpler than getting untangled from the result! When I am not aware, the list of triggers to my reactions is endless. When I am aware, I can see those snares and sidestep them.

So, ask yourself: “what catches me?” If you aren’t quite certain, spend time paying attention to what is triggering you. There are no wrong answers to this question. Each answer echoes in what is impacting you in the moment.

Why is identifying your shenpa important? If I have learned nothing in the past six decades, it is that I need to identify what catches me before I can go forward. Unless we — you and I — identify the stuff that lures us into a sticky web of reactions then we are going to continue to walk right into it.

What is that thing that catches you? Name it. Then do a deep dive to the root. You might discover an aggravation, anger, fear, or something totally different. To neutralize the shenpa, you’ve got to name it! That naming starts at the root where you eradicate the tangle of shenpa.

Mindfulness — being aware in the moment stops you from getting caught in shenpa and reacting. In those moments that you just are not present and get caught, don’t beat yourself up! Afterward find a time of silence. Reflect. Identify what tangles you. Remember, knowledge is power. Power helps you to navigate what catches you in the moment. That navigation leads to a life of transformation.

So, these times are a changing. I hope that you and I are changing in ways that make us more resilient and aware.

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.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

A Wild Ride Into The Question

This current ride is wild. Honestly? I am not a roller coaster kind of gal. The dips and turns. Wow! It seems we are living in a time where the good, the bad, and the ugly…all happen simultaneously. There are times when I get so caught up in the melee that I just have to disconnect less I get mired in despair or just overwhelmed by everything.

How did we get to this place? How do we get out? Those questions overwhelm me until I remember that to answer any question, I need to calm and centered into myself. Only when I am calm, can I hear a gentle voice rising from my core. It tells me that I am not asking the right question. “So, what is the right question,” I ask?

Focusing my attention on the voice, I hear three questions:

How am I being impacted?
How am I called to be?
What is my learning/takeaway?

How am I being impacted?

To discover the answer: Breathe deep into what you are experiencing. Find the calm at your core. Choose one thread to focus on. It can be something that personally impacts you or something that impacts the greater world. Listen to what your body, mind, spirit, and heart/emotions say to you. You don’t have to have all the answers, just get an initial impression of how you are impacted.

How am I called to be?

Take what you gleaned from the first question. Name what you noticed. Identify what catches you. If you need to dive deeper into the first question, do so. Come to an understanding of how you are called to be. Then ask, “How am I being called?” Or, “What is the one thing that I can do to make a difference in my life or in the life of others?” Create a plan to act!

What has changed inside of me?

Ask yourself, “How does the experience of understanding change me? What is new in the knowing about myself?” Take what has changed inside of you and find ways to integrate it into your being.

Life is all about asking the right questions and being courageous enough to live into the answers.

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.

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Fierce Magic

Each time I walked this week the world became more and more alive. With each turn around the building I saw something new. The world was alive, wild, and free. It woke up something inside of me. The newness called me to move through the uncertainty and enter the fierce beauty of the margins.

Nature reminded me that life is fluid and dynamic. I heard its whisper, “What will you choose?” In that moment on the margins I chose to be fiercely, unapologetically me. That is, I chose to live from my core.

Let’s return to that thickness I felt. It seems that the world is atilt. Can you feel it? Standing in the center of the tumult just makes me dizzy! When I stand in the margins of this tilt-a-whirl world, I can feel the freshness zipping by me. Hope blossoms as I edge more fully into the margins.

There is a comfort in the wild. I can hear the feral invitation to see the world not as the scary, uncertain place but as a new paradigm. I am called to be in the world with a new perspective — a place where the possible becomes real.

The margins are the place where truth calls, where courage sings, and beauty touches every aspect of life. How do you get there? By letting go of the fear of uncertainty. Enter the margins by anchoring into your core.

Try this: begin by breathing into your core. If you are unsure where your core is located, ask to be shown the flickering spark. Follow the breath to your spark. At the core, your breath ignites the spark sending out tendrils of your being toward the sky and into the ground.

These tendrils travel deeply into the earth. Your roots connect you to Mother Earth. Once connected, bring this twining energy up to your core. See yourself become a tree.

Feel the tendrils moving up from your core creating a canopy of self that brushes against the Source above. Through Earth and Sky and Self notice the many ways the Sacred calls to you. Find rhythm in your connection to sacred.

Connected to sacred, step out of your comfort zone. Do something different — even if it is just a thought — be in a place that makes you uneasy. Find comfort in the unknowing. I know that this is scary hard, but it is the path to growth and change.

Ask yourself — what am I seeing? What am I hearing? What am I sensing? How am I called to be in the margins? How will I make a difference in myself? In changing myself, how do I change the world?

Realize that you do not have to answer all these questions in the moment. They are answered in your way, in your time.

I know that life is uncertain, sometimes scary. Join me in the margins to discover the courage, the strength, the fierce magic that is you.

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.