sacred space

Looking to the New Year. Living a Life Uncommon.

Looking to the New Year. Living a Life Uncommon.

Looking ahead to the New Year, I’m filled with hope, excitement, and yes, some nervousness and fear. From all indications of what I’ve observed about this particular mix of emotions of the past, this signals I’m on the right path and exactly where I’m supposed to be.

With Christmas now gone, I’ve realized I moved through it much easier than in the past. I believe in part it’s because I’m much better at letting go of expectations. I also believe it is because I have a much better perspective and understanding of who I am and what is important to me. Though I know I am never complete in this process, and I am a work in progress.

In years past, I’d have to have the whole week between Christmas and New Years just to re-group and find my way back to center. Where as this morning, I was eager to get back to my writing cottage and work on details for a Women’s Creative Sacred Soul Circle I’m forming for the winter months.

This is somewhat new territory for me, but something I’ve had a vision of for many years. There are many workshops I’m giving thought to while also keeping myself in awareness mode of not filling my plate too full, like I can tend to do. But I’m feeling very called to stay in a centered, sacred space of my own, fully engaged in what I’m feeling pulled toward….even when I don’t always have a clear picture…but putting my trust into the fact that a master plan is already in the works.

While workshops for women are my main focus for this year, I also want to stay dedicated to my blog because it’s a place that I’ve really come to love. While I thought I’d continue work on writing another book, I’m feeling called to table it for the time being. Though I will simmer in it and save nuggets of wisdom I find or that run across my brain, writing them down and collecting them in a folder should the time come to write that book.

I’ve realized I was struggling with letting the book idea go for now because I had mentioned it in my latest book, Wisdom Found in the Pause that it was something for my readers to be on the lookout for. It’s always a feeling that I’ve disappointed others if I don’t finish what I said I thought I was going to do. But I’ve realized holding onto something just for the sake of not wanting to disappoint others means I only really disappoint myself and more importantly, it blocks me from moving forward.

I continue to want to lead a life uncommon. What that looks like to me is continuing to do my own inner work, encourage that in others, live a life of creativity and less stuff, take some short jaunts away in our van we are in the process of converting to a camper, collaborate with my friend Rachel on future Talking Sticks workshops, and other workshop ideas we have in mind, a possible online collaboration workshop with my friend, Dawn of Animal Voices, and also volunteering to help with geriatric miniature donkeys coming to LaValley Equine Sanctuary this spring.

The other reason I feel it is a life uncommon is that I think too often we push aside our intuition and let fear get in the way, thus losing out on doing what truly matters most to us.  Everything I’ve written about my New Year ahead feels so heart centered and is coming from a place that feels true and right…and most of all it feels incredibly meaningful to me.

And as my mom eluded to in a note to me this month that when she looks at me she still sees a little girl trying to figure everything out and get it right, but she also sees the strong individual I am letting her light shine and spreading it out into a world that can sometimes be gloomy.

And she’s right…It’s important to me to try and make a difference in this world. I’ve come to realize that it does not have to be something grand and big…it just has to come from that sacred place within me. Because when it does, it by default does make a difference…it’s that positive and bright light of following your own soul’s wish, which it desperately wants for you to do, that you begin to live a more fulfilled life…and when you do, other’s who wish for the same will see that and want it too.

So my focus for the New Year is to continue to follow that true, inner light of mine, provide a sacred space through workshops for women to help them open to their soul’s whispers and inner light and to keep writing here on my blog. I also look forward to learning more about donkeys and being open to what lessons they will no doubt have in store for me.

It’s my hope that you will continue to return to my blog time and time again and that I can provide you with inspiration and encouragement to live fully into who you are and not only seek out, but truly live a meaningful life that is right for you.

“If you trace our roots to the very essence, you find we are all connected. On a deep level I am a tree and birds perch on my arms. In the Land of the Imaginative Heart, I am connected with spirit and earth.”

~Laura Hollic, soul artist

Photo above by Kevin Thom. Makeup by Rachel Duff. Costume, model Laura Hollick.

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A Sacred Space Within.

A Sacred Space Within.

My writing cottage has become so much more to me than I would have ever anticipated when it was built in 2007. It began as a place for me to have quiet while I did my writing and away from distractions in the house that would beg my attention – like washing the dishes, throwing in laundry, answering the phone (when we had a landline) or suddenly feeling the need to tidy up.

As I’ve written before, there was some sacrifice involved. I sold a red, sporty car – a Mitsubishi 3000GT that I owned to pay for the lumber to build the ten by twelve room. While in some ways it was a difficult decision because I loved that car, in other ways it wasn’t. It felt like the right thing for me to do.

But I didn’t really feel then, or now, that it was a sacrifice. I was making a choice and one I was comfortable in doing.

Little did I realize at the time how this space would become sacred to me. Joseph Campbell said that your sacred space is where you go to find yourself over and over again.

It’s how I feel about this special place of my own now, separate from our home, away from distractions. I think because I am a deep thinker, it is imperative for me to have lots of quiet and alone time. I can’t hear myself think among the noise of the world – the news filled with sadness and much hate – and the technology that can consume us.

But even if one isn’t a deep thinker, being alone is essential to one’s well being. When I think about when I was young and newly married, I was so scared to be alone when John went out. I didn’t like to be by myself. But the older I’ve gotten, the more I crave it. I need it. It is truly part of my self-care.

This little olive green cottage has helped me heal in many ways in which I needed to do so and why at one point I started calling it my Zen writing cottage.

It has brought me to a place within myself that I can go to be in peace when I need to. And what’s so interesting, that after all these years of having this quiet place to come to, I can much more easily carry that same feeling with me wherever I go.

And this is the thing I want to share. You don’t need a space such as mine, or to travel a long distance. We each have to find that space where we feel safe and can be alone – to hear ourselves think – to be alone with our thoughts and sort them out – to acknowledge them. I’ve found, that is what helps ground me – keeps me centered – fills me up once again.

While I’m not ready to give up this space of mine that has become a spiritual and healing place for me, I know I will be okay should I have to leave it behind someday. Because it’s what it has done for me that I can never lose – how it has supported me and helped me evolve – that I take with me. I will always have that now.

And I can now take this knowing into new territory. Whether a walk in the woods, siting on the sofa, or a walk on the beach – it’s the conscious choice of being alone, with myself, to fill the well of who I am and how I want to continue to grow is what is vital.

Some of my most cherished and treasured times have been with me, myself, and I, and within the Self of my own temple that I call me.

Just a friendly reminder that I’m giving away a copy of my new book Wisdom Found in the Pause – Joie’s Gift. To enter, visit my post from yesterday and leave a comment by midnight cst, Thursday, Oct. 27th.

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