Can you sense when you’re moving through a transition?
I’ve recognized that I sense it indirectly. If I’m struggling for control in any part of my life, chances are something’s emerging in another area. In this cycle of growth, I’ve worked towards releasing that reach for certainty by watching the moon slowly shed its shadow.
This nightly ritual has given me the space my spirit needs to stretch. It also helps to remind me of the natural cycles. It helps me to be patient with growth. It makes me feel safer in the darkness.
If I sit in the shadow, my eyesight slowly adjusts, and I can see again. The dance of the shadows isn’t as frightening to me as it has been in the past, and I’m so damn grateful for that!
I’ve also been intentional on a whole new level about listening to my inner wisdom and being present for my experience and emotions in the moment. It’s a leap from when I’d ignore the shadow side (both my own and others in my world) and was afraid to be alone with my own thoughts.
We are all becoming. Our growth is a continuous journey. We’re more like laundry than dinner. We’re never done. 🙂
So much is happening right now. Below is the latest I’ve got.
What’s new for you? Schedule a call below and let’s talk.
xoxoxo
Vivi
Interspiritual* Teaching & Invitation:
This is the invitation:
Our next journey together is a fun, short, summer-school experience.
Current Within (U)niversity members can join us by clicking this handy link here.
Or if you’re not in the community with us and want to play, you’re welcome to join us for the live calls.
Let me know you’re interested by adding your email to this list, and I’ll send you the call-in details.
Here’s the deets for our learning journey:
Spiritual Instruction to Illuminate Your Path: On Your Journey from “what I should do” to “what I want now” or… from the search for meaning and control to the experience of being alive.
Beginning this Friday on the next full moon and ending on a new moon
8 weeks — 4 Live Sessions
July 27 — 8 pm CST
August 12 & 26
September 9
What we’ll be exploring:
- Tuning into what you really want
- Developing Your Intuition
- Aligning Your Life with Work and Vocation
Again, if you’d like more details on the next 90-Day Journey, here’s the link in Within (U) and I’ll send you call-in details for the live sessions.
This is the Teaching:
A Parable from Nietzsche (I’ll also record a video soon. If you haven’t joined me on YouTube at www.youtube.com/viviantv, remember to subscribe, and click the bell to be notified when I record a new video.)
When Love.Being.Human first came to be, I voraciously looked for theories, stories, and experiences from across the ages to help me understand what it meant and what I was supposed to do with it. There were a ton of stories that layered beautifully over it; this is my current favorite.
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche describes The Three Transformations of the Spirit.
- The First is the Camel of childhood and youth. This is our season of obedience—receiving instruction and information from our society on what’s required of us. This is where we learn all our “shoulds.” But the camel runs out into the desert, where it’s transformed into a lion.
- The lion’s task is to kill the dragon, and the name of the dragon is “thou shalt.” The “thou shalts” or “shoulds” might be from our parents or last night’s news. When the lion throws off all the shoulds and comes to its own realization, it’s transformed into a child.
- The child acts from its own inherent nature, instead of following rules. It is rooted in its tradition while being unique to its own personality.
The clearest way to see this in action is when looking at the work of an artist (and we are all artists). I recently went to Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg. It is a major retrospective of his paintings, featuring fifty works that span three decades of his career—from the artist’s earliest mature works to his recent, monumentally-scaled paintings. I could visually see the transformation from the camel, to the lion, and finally the child. His creative expression is still rooted in the tradition of Japanese painting and folklore but is uniquely Takashi.
My hunch is you’re a lion killing the dragon of shoulds. Me too.
Arting:
I recently made a pretty crazy and scary announcement (to me) about making more art. I’m establishing a home for that journey on Patreon. You can visit the platform here. What I’ve learned is that creating art is making gifts for people. I’ve had the opportunity to have lived a life where I’ve explored experiences that connect us and draw us closer. If you wish, I can build something for you.
The next project is a labyrinth. I love the idea and the experience of the labyrinth. There’s no such thing as a wrong turn in the labyrinth. By design it’s one continuous, symmetrical path. Walking the curves at times can feel like we’ve lost our way, but we always arrive at our center. The experience invites us to trust the unfolding of our lives, one step at a time.
“I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”
Mother Teresa
Writing:
The book that wants to be born has grown into form in this way.
- January – Intention
- February – Outline
- March — Table of Contents
- April/May – Beginning of Introduction
- June – DRAFT of entire Introduction
- July – Developmental Edit by my editor
- Next – Title and Book Cover
I simmered myself in a personal writing retreat for most of June and finished the introduction. An excerpt from an unedited portion of the introduction is below:
“Over the years I had never quite accepted my good fortune. It was as if I was waiting for something “bad” to happen. In my mind I believed this was it. Except that nothing had happened to me except my own self destruction. I had been medicating myself with wine, denial, and distraction, as well as anti anxiety and depression pills. I realized that I didn’t want to feel anything because nothing felt right. But who could tell? No one except my immediate family because I was still functioning and moving in the the world while smiling on the outside. Inside it felt like an emotional tornado was tearing me apart—between what I thought I should do and had always done before and something else.”
The edited version of the entire Introduction is here in case you’re curious and want to read where it is now.
What I’ve learned so far and want to share with you is Do it wrong until you do it right.
I’ve collected over a dozen books on how to write, but the only thing that really got me to where I am now was to sit down and just write. That and my Google searches for anything Anne Lamott. It’s one of the principles of Love.Being.Human—the distinction between knowledge and information and a personal lived experience. You can’t read or learn how to ride a bike without actually getting on a bike. We can figure out what our training wheels are, but we gotta get on the bike.
Interspiritual Definition of Choice:
The late Wayne Teasdale, author of The Mystic Heart, coined the term “Interspirituality” to describe a spiritual perspective. Beneath the diversity of theological beliefs, rites, and observances lies a deeper unity of experience that is our shared spiritual heritage.
Mystical spirituality is the origin of all the world religions, and every authentic spiritual path offers unique perspectives and rich insights into this deeper, direct experience of truth.
What’s your definition?
If we’re not already working together and you’re curious about getting more support around figuring out where you go from here, share your name and email below and we’ll connect.
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