Imagine A Woman

Imagine a woman who believes it is right and good she is a woman.
A woman who honors her experience and tells her stories.
Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and life.

Imagine a woman who trusts and respects herself.
A woman who listens to her needs and desires.
Who meets them with tenderness and grace.

Imagine a woman who acknowledges the past's influence on the present.
A woman who has walked through her past.
Who has healed into the present.

Imagine a woman who authors her own life.
A woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her own behalf.
Who refuses to surrender except to her truest self and wisest voice.

Imagine a woman who names her own gods.
A woman who imagines the divine in her image and likeness.
Who designs a personal spirituality to inform her daily life.

Imagine a woman in love with her own body.
A woman who believes her body is enough, just as it is.
Who celebrates its rhythms and cycles as an exquisite resource.

Imagine a woman who honors the body of the Goddess in her changing body.
A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.
Who refuses to use her life-energy disguising the changes in her body and life.

Imagine a woman who values the women in her life.
A woman who sits in circles of women.
Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets.

Imagine yourself as this woman.
- Patricia Lynn Reilly

Trails of Life

"Isn't the trail of our relationships the time it takes for the heart to practice it's part in the movement we call Love?  Isn't the trail of our honest questions the time it takes for the mind to practice it's part in the movement we call Wisdom?  Isn't the trail of our changing beliefs the time it takes for the spirit to practice it's part in the movement called God?  Isn't the trail of our Oneness, those brief moments when everything comes together, isn't this the time it takes for Love and Wisdom and God to bring the common place in us alive?" Mark Nepo

Blame

THE SAD GAME

Blame

Keeps the sad game going.

It keeps stealing all your wealth

Giving it to an imbecile with

No financial skills.

Dear one.

Wise

Up.

Hafiz

Mother Wisdom Speaks

Mother Wisdom Speaks

Some of you I will hollow out.
I will make you a cave.
I will make you so deep the stars will shine in your darkness.
You will be a bowl.
You will be the cup in the rock collecting rain.

I will hollow you with knives.
I will not do this to make you clean.
I will not do this to make you pure.
You are clean already.
You are pure already.

I will do this because the world needs the hollowness of you.
I will do this for the space that you will be.
I will do this because you must be large.
A passage.
People will find their way through you. A bowl.
People will eat from you and their hunger will not weaken them unto death.
A cup to catch the sacred rain.

My daughter, do not cry. Do not be afraid.
Nothing you need will be lost.
I am shaping you.
I am making you ready.

Light will flow in your hollowing.
You will be filled with light.
Your bone will shine.

The round, open center of you will be radiant.
I will call you Brilliant One.
I will call you Daughter who is wide.
I will call you Transformed.
By Christine Lore Webber ©

Somatic Perception

"Somatic perception is the capacity each one of us has for knowing what is best for our own body.  When we awaken somatic perception we take the ownership of healing away from an expert and give it back to our own body.  We let our own wisdom tell us what and how much to eat, how to exercise, when to rest, how to heal.  Healing begins when we realize and rediscover our instinctual somatic perception.   this can happen only when we stop trying to control or fix or transcend the body and instead let the animal of the body lead us into healing."  Marion Woodman

Inner Work

"Real and abiding consciousness change doesn't just happen.  We have to work for it, in our own hearts and in the world.  I am just as impressed by the inner work that each one of us does as I am by the work we do in the world.   By inner work, by spiritual work, I mean living the examined life; watering the seeds of wisdom, confronting our shadowy parts, because I'm telling you, inside each one of us is our own little mean mini-Maciavilli.   It takes work to tame our mini-Maciavilli.  It takes spiritual work that quiets the reactivity of the mind and expands the heart in wider cirlces.  It takes psychological inquiry to heal our family wounds and uncoil our unconscious ego urges to dominate and punish.  Without this kind of inner work our primal, tribal reactivity waits in the wings and it takes over when crisis' loom.  I'm not saying the point is to become some egoless saint.  I'm just asking you to consider trying to change yourself even as you try to change the world because how we do what we do is as important as what we do."  Elizabeth Lesser

New Consciousness Leaders

"While we will probably never grasp the entirety of God's thoughts or the wisdom of the universe, or whatever you call the vast organizing principle of existence, we can listen more deeply for inklings, we can pay closer attention to the cause and effect of our actions.  We can raise our own standards of behavior toward something kinder and grander. 

What might leadership look like if generated from a wise consciousness?   Here's my stab at some answers.  A New Consciousness Leader knows the difference between strength and force.  Strength comes from a deep, inner confidence; from loving and respecting and expressing one's own authentic self.   That kind of strength opens the gate to real love of others and life itself.  Force comes from a deep inner wound that spawns the urge to dominate and even the score.  A New Consciousness Leader uses her strength.  She is bold, direct and decisive.  She views terror and violence as the tactics of cowards and fools.  A New Consciousness leader also knows the difference between outrage and rage.  I think of outrage as Holy Anger.  Strong emotional responsiveness to the pain of others; to injustice, to ignorance.  Outrage is fierce but it never dehumanizes.  It fills a leaders sails with the winds of action, but it also fills her heart with discernment and compassion.  Rage, on the other hand, is like a forest fire.  It is impatient and it is vindictive and it is short sighted.  A New Consciousness Leader uses the energy of outrage to persuade and guide and include and create."

Heartfulness

"Heartfulness is knowing what your love and having the guts and grace to go for it.   It is a balanced blend of wisdom and passion."  Elizabeth Lesser

Open Heart

"A happy heart is one that is larger at all times than any one emotion.  An open heart feels everything and absorbs it into a bigger and wiser experience of reality."   Elizabeth Lesser

Wisdom

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk. ~Doug Larson

Spiritual Adventure

"The spiritual path is the process of fearlessly peering into the mysterious nature of life and relaxing our mental and emotional grip on our own place within it.   Learning how to do this opens the way to a kind of wisdom that answers our own questions and touches the deepest strands of our longing."   Elizabeth Lesser

Illusion

"A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering." ~The Buddha

Worry

“We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our
families, cherishing our friends, and living our lives.” Maya Angelou

Wisdom

"The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the ordinary."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Kindness

"What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?"  Jean-Jack Roussean

Wisdom

"Wisdom comes most easily to those who have the courage to embrace life without judgment and are willing to not know, sometimes for a very long time.   It requires us to be more fully and simply alive than we have been taught to be.  It may require us to suffer.   But ultimately we will be more that we were when we began."

Life

"Life offers it's wisdom generously.   Everything teaches.  Not everyone learns.   Life asks of us the same things we have been asked in every class.  "Stay awake.  Pay attention."   But paying attention is no simple matter.  It requires us not to be distracted by expectation, past experiences, labels and masks.   It asks that we not jump to early conclusions and that we remain open to surprise." 

Wisdom and Healing

"Perhaps wisdom is simply a matter of waiting, and healing a question of time.   Anything good you've been given is yours forever."  Rachel Naomi Remen

Holiness

"Perhaps the wisdom lies not in the constant struggle to bring the sacred into daily life but the recognition that there may be no daily life, that life is committed and whole and despite appearances, we are always on sacred ground."  Rachel Naomi Remen

Listening

"Listening is the oldest and perhaps the most powerful tool of healing.  It is often through the quality of our listening and not the wisdom of our words that we are able to effect the most profound changes in the people around us.   When we listen, we offer, with our attention an opportunity for wholeness.   Our listening creates sanctuary for the homeless parts within the other person.   That which has been denied, unloved, devalued by themselves and by others.  That which is hidden."   Rachel Naomi Remen