Tag Archives: Jamie Ridler

Clarity

5 Replies

I’ve been thinking a lot about questions this week. About knowing the right ones to ask, being curious, listening and looking for answers everywhere. One reason is because I have the opportunity to ask a single question of an Intuitive Counselor I met at the World Domination Summit this summer (we talked the whole time about dogs, so I liked her immediately, knew she was some sort of coach, but not the specifics of her work until I looked her up later). I have the chance to get her help in getting clear about something important to me. I am working on the question, trying to carefully craft it, aware that the difference between “how” and “what” in a case like this can be enormous, and not wanting to be like one of those people in those old stories who are granted three wishes and completely screw it up, wasting the whole lot of them because they don’t word them wisely.

I’ve talked before about how I love divination, intuition, auspicious concidence, serendipity: a chance meeting, an unexpected connection, a feather in my path, a heart-shaped rock, picking a random line from a sacred text, tarot readings, throwing I-Ching coins, Hiro Boga’s Deva Cards, dream interpretation, Q-Cards qcasting, or any such oracle through which the universe might send me a message.

As I’ve said before, “Go ahead and think I’m weird, but I believe it’s just one more way to get clear about where I am and what I should be focusing on. I think this is one of the ways the Universe sends me messages, because I open my heart and ask, but even if it’s just a message from my unconscious or random chance that doesn’t really mean anything, I find it a useful tool for gaining some insight on my current situation, whatever that happens to be.”

And this week, Jamie Ridler provided two opportunities for getting clear, for asking the questions. The first was the Full Moon Dreamboard, the Full Frost Moon, which asked “What is clear about your dreams? What further clarity do you seek?” And, on the same day was Wishcasting Wednesday, which asked “What clarity do you wish for?” I didn’t even post about the wishcast, wrote it in my journal instead since I’d already posted that day about my search for clarity and what I’d discovered through my dreamboard practice. I didn’t want to bore you, kind and gentle reader.

But I can’t stop thinking about it, and it keeps coming up. Susan Piver shared with the Open Heart Project Practitioners a collection of questions she’s considering as we move into a new year, I am getting daily Wisdom Notes and prompts from Rachel Cole, and I’m in charge of coming up with a set of questions, contemplations for a collective of courage cultivators I’ll be meeting with in a few weeks. And yesterday I read Kat’s post on I Saw You Dancing, and it was all about seeking clarity, “I’m trying to understand who I am, why I am here, what I am going to do with this one precious life of mine.” What she discovered is

The destination I had reached was, in fact, exactly where I was already standing. And all the stuff that I am meant to do in this life is, in fact, stuff that I am already doing.

I keep bumping up against this idea, that I already am. It was the third truth in my Three Truths and One Wish post this week, “I don’t need to become something else, because I am already.” The comment I left for Kat said how much I loved her post, how she’d described the process,

The rambly abstract brilliant mess of this life we live, where we look and look and search and try and question and run around crazy, only to realize in one moment, in a flash that our feet and our breath are right there, the ground is right there, our heart beats the same rhythm it has from the very beginning.

Kat is hosting Reverb12 during the month of December, and as host she will provide daily prompts that help those of us participating to “reflect on the year that has passed and start to manifest your dreams for the new year.” More specifically, they will be about “celebrating the successes of 2012, honouring the challenges of 2012, and planting the seeds for a rich and rewarding 2013.”

The places I’m currently seeking clarity, where I have questions seem to be all related to obstacles, the things keeping me from living my best, healthiest and most wholehearted life, from fully realizing my dreams. I wish to be clear about working with those who are suffering and confused (both in my personal and work relationships, and with people I don’t even really know), I want to know how I can best help, I would like to understand the specifics of how I might turn my heart’s work into my paid work, I wish to realize how to completely let go of old habits and thought patterns that no longer serve me, I’d like to be clearer about my “thing” (where should I be focusing my time, my attention, my love? do I need further specialization or certification to fully step into my purpose? if so, what?). How to ask all that in the form of a single question is my immediate challenge.

While I understand that I don’t need to change, that I am already worthy and whole just as I am, fundamentally wise and compassionate and awake, and I am already thoroughly in love with my life as it is and full of gratitude for what I have, I’m so curious about what’s going to happen next.

Full Moon Dream Board: Full Frost Moon

9 Replies

from Jamie’s post

Jamie says of this full moon dreamboard, “Under the Full Frost Moon, allow that fresh chill in the air to wake you up to your dreams. Let creating your dreamboard be a clarifying act, bringing into focus the dreams that are in your heart. As you create your board, hold gently a request for clarity. Notice what is revealed.”

The Full Frost Moon asks: “What is clear about your dreams? What further clarity do you seek?”

Clear to me are my practices, my method, my desire and my longing. Writing, dogs, walking, yoga, and meditation are the process, the way of clear seeing, peaceful abiding, the comfort, the certain, that which sustains me, supports me, softens me. What is clear is that generosity, gentleness, and genuineness are my superpowers. That my purpose is to ease suffering by making people feel less alone, by reminding them of their potential and their true nature, to inspire them to trust themselves, to keep my heart open–brave and tenderhearted warriors, all of us.

Where I need further clarity is my own confidence. Everything else, every other struggle springs from this, each has this at the center, that shaky, shivery, raw sense of poverty, of brokenness, of fear and not enough. The further clarity I seek beyond this is how to make this loving a living, how to more fully integrate my life, my need for funding and my need for love (shared and received), how to make my process, my doing sustainable, how to fully embody and manifest my dreams in a more practical sense.

Before I even started to collect images, I had a strong sense of what they would be: the clarity would center around the comfort of shelter, a fireplace maybe, a cozy place to be and rest, surrounded by books and dogs and practice materials. The images I found were soft flannel, a blanket and slippers, a sleeping puppy, my meditation cushion, Watermoon Kuan Yin (the goddess of mercy, she who comforts those who call to her), yoga poses and phrases.

The confusion, the need for clarity, is represented by the “outside,” the weather and lack of shelter, the wild, the cold, unpredictable nature, the fox who can either be a wise messenger or evil trickster, the smoke of incense, what is left after the burning, what fades, the reminder of and reference to impermanence. The images I chose, that chose me, were much darker, starker than they have been in the past few dreamboads, collections that were softer and more peaceful.

The comfort of home, of shelter and companionship, of practice, of the predictable, the cycle of seasons, day and night.

If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it. ~Lucy Larcom

The wild of the outside, of change and impermanence, of nature and weather, the unknown.

When it’s snowing, the outdoors seem like a room… A room with the walls blasted to shreds and falling. ~David Berman

Let me respectfully remind you~
life and death are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by, and opportunity is lost.
Each of us should strive to awaken
awaken…
Take heed.
Do not squander your life.

We move through the world
with awe in our hearts.
Ushered by the push of the seasons.
At home in a mystery older than memory.

Time to be.
It’s winter–that festive time of endless adventure.
As you embark upon this snowy season of inspiration,
may you be in the moment,
stay warm,
and be totally prepared for anything you dream up.
Be inspired.

The spirit and practice
of moving into stillness,
the ease and joy of our true nature.

There’s magic in the moment.
Slow, pause, breath, behold.
The essence of adventure lies in every footfall.
Peace, mystery, magic unfolding,
a dream revealing itself.