Leaving

January 31, 2017.  Lately, a series of dreams have occurred driving solo in my Rav4, and while I puzzle over the varying symbols (a horse in the back seat, a bear hauling me and Rav4 up a huge tree) the constant of behind-the-wheel is perhaps of greater significance. Pondering if the Dream Maker is promoting solo travel, I found my way back to this poem.

My last big solo drive was January 2013, to Taos NM for a meditative intensive.  I was quite hyped about going, both for the experience once there and for the long hours driving.  Driving solo is a unique meditative experience in and of itself.

But going entails separation … this poem wrote itself between home and Taos.  While I have no photograph of the departure scene beyond the poem’s imagery, I do have the contrast view a few hours post arrival.  Parting words of caution rang in my ears as I skidded into Taos along with a major snow storm, icy roads, and much anxiety.   Nothing prettier than an undamaged car, blanketed down for a few idle days.

 

 

Summons

January 22, 2017.  Each year (for seven years now) I concentrate in Nov/Dec on connections, intentions, directions for the coming calendar year.  I do this in a group led by Janet Conner (janetconner.com) tagged “The Lotus and the Lily”.  Janet’s book by that title shows one of my earlier mandalas.  A multi-step process, each year revealing more. The mandala changes year to year, evolving to reflect both my growth and changing surrounding influences.   Initially termed intention mandalas, Janet now calls them invitation mandalas; I consider mine a contract with Spirit.

True to my SoulCollage(R) training, I rely primarily on imagery.  I won’t try to explain all the symbols here!  Just a little about the structure:

Background, a foot bridge into foggy unfamiliar territory: this is specific to 2017 US upheaval (beyond my control) – I will Step Forward across that bridge into the fog.

At center, a spiral “antenna” for receiving

Moving outward, my four commitments:  observe, create, trust, accept

Moving outward, my four challenges:  the Toltec Four Agreements

Moving outward, areas I rely on Spirit to help me sustain: harmony, resilience, open-heart hearing, sufficient resources … PLUS … acknowledgement that I need Spirit’s help in ways I cannot fathom: represented by golden footsteps

January Perspectives

January 11, 2017.  I can’t recall a more turbulent November/December than what 2016 dished up.  And 2017 promptly slapped down a hard freeze.  No more meditative consolation from my landscape!   Or so I thought – but observing Buddha and St. Francis staying  put in spite of the devastation captured my imagination, and a poem crept in as solace.

And listening to our President’s farewell speech last night gives me resolve to stay put in my stance that we are all in this together, more alike than not, and together we will grow from whatever follows.

Let The Dream Maker Lead

January 7, 2017.  My 2017 has begun with a flourish of intriguing dreams, stirring me to create a collage of dreamscapes that have made repeat appearances in recent years – trails, steps, bridges, houses, fences, water, mountains.  I’ve yet to figure out how to take a photo while in a dream … so these actual photos stand in as symbols for the illusive dreamscapes.

(Perhaps another night,  another  collage of dream animals – cat, duck, and a new one this week: horse.)