Roots and Branches

I love when synchronicity happens, and I love how often it happens in my world.

Yesterday, I finished my Reiki III training and now embark on the lifelong path of deciding what being a bearer, and teacher, of that lineage means for me.
And a lot of it had to do with sharing wisdom beyond my logical mind: Not brushing my rational thinking self aside, but sharing other ways of knowing alongside that wisdom.

This morning, an email from Natasha Soto dropped in my inbox with this poem:

There’s a song called curandera I love, where the iLe, the singer, sings over percussion:

(My translation:)

I am the curandera, and i will heal you today,

I don’t need candles to light the way.

I fly to the future, the past, and the present,

I balance between life and death

I am the medicine that purifies you

…I look for simplicity when things get overcomplicated.

(Spanish:

Yo soy la curandera y hoy te voy a sanar,

no necesito velas pa poder alumbrar.

Vuelo hacia el futuro, el pasado y el presente,

me voy balanceando entre la vida y la muerte.

Soy la medicina que a ti te purifica,

busco la simpleza cuando se te complica.

Soto situated the poem within her larger conversation about circumventing the mind, in her case through work with shamanic journeying.

There is a strong correlation between our experiences: In both cases, letting the mind step aside so other parts of ourselves can step in.

So the medicine we need, whether it’s energetic or through the act of creation or whatever else, can be as simple and effective as it’s meant to be.

For me, and probably also you, it’s very easy to overcomplicate everything by letting our mind take the wheel and try to construct stories and meaning around what we experience. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just not the only way of knowing. 

And using only one of our pathways to experiencing life can limit the amount of life we’re able to deeply experience. 

I say this as an academic, and thus as someone who trusts and relies on the rigors of logical, critical inquiry as a way to understand and explain the world in ways that are replicable or at least rely upon common language and theories. 

My logical, inquisitive mind sits at the core of all I do: But what I also know is that part of myself is just one part of myself. I can honor and cherish it as well as other pieces of me that experience the world differently.

And, most importantly, I’m not dis-honoring my logical self and my thinking mind by also making space for my intuition, connection to energy, or the creative elements of my being that don’t fit cleanly into boxes.

For me, I’m honoring that part of myself more deeply, because I allow it to exist within the whole of my experience. Because I’m able to look at and get curious about my desire to explain everything, and see where that doesn’t necessarily work because we don’t have the language to explain everything we experience (and, in some cases, because words alone are insufficient to encompass an experience).

Sometimes an experience just is: It’s not a grand narrative or something with a deeper meaning that requires me to untangle a nest of mental knots in order to “discover” and then transcend to the next level of meaning.
But the meaning can also be discovered as much by allowing and by letting our minds wander as by performing mental gymnastics (which is why daydreaming is so important to the creative process).

Sometimes, often, the world is here to be experienced richly and fully, integrated into our own lives as we move on to experiencing the next moment. 

My teacher Julia Albain described it yesterday as letting sand fall through our hands: We can’t “catch” and hold all of the sand, it’s just going to keep flowing.

But the experience of feeling the sand as is brushes past and flows through your fingers? THAT is life at it’s best: The experience of letting the sand flow in that moment, knowing that there’s more to experience, so just releasing and enjoying the feeling of the sand.

Without trying to tell a story about every grain.

And, to trust ourselves and the universe enough to know that, if there is a deeper meaning or some message to uncover, or some next step in our path, that it will be revealed in its own right time.

Our job isn’t to overanalyze, but rather to prepare the path within our creative ecosystems (or build the temple, if you like that metaphor) so that when those messages come through, we’re ready to receive them and act upon them.

To build a practice that serves us and the work, and to see that as a daily devotion, a practice and process, not a to do list. 

A living embodiment of the work, whatever your work is, that has room for every part of you to exist within.

This week, if you feel called to, I encourage you to think about what that path or temple (or whatever imagery feels generative to you) looks like. Really let yourself visualize it. Don’t worry about logistics, and don’t worry about how it translates to the daily act of creating (yes, it’s connected to how we build routines or craft goals, but that’s for later). 

For now, just get clear on the visualization of this space that holds you and your work: Really let yourself imagine it holding you and your dream work. And revisit it in your mind daily, or more.

And finally, trust yourself to know that when the ‘how tos’ connected with how you move in this creative space are ready to come through, they will (honestly, what comes through first for me is mostly calls to just be messy and playful and create stuff for the sake of it, just like throwing spaghetti at a wall, so that’s what I’m doing).

I’d love to hear what comes through for you!

My discounted 2 hour 1:1 sessions are only available for a few more days (through midnight on October 31): 
After that, the price goes up, so if you’re feeling the call, now’s a good time to book a session.

Come get some coaching to get through the knothole on that project you just can’t seem to make time for or make progress on, talk through those ideas that feel muddled, or get some nice, cozy energy healing.

If you’re ready to receive some caring, nonjudgmental creative support that will challenge and nourish you, I’m here.

Bookings made this week are valid for any time this week or in November (or beyond, if you need a later date).