Journey to recovery. image courtesy of shutterstock
I recently revived my Morning Pages to recover my creativity. It is Week 4, and I am experiencing emotional pangs. My friend Anne tells me that the moon seems to be in a certain alignment to cause our human tides (after all we are 80% water) to be pulled in this direction. Coincidence? Perhaps.
Julia Cameron speaks of how the recovering artist can often feel like being in terra incognita. Why? Because creativity isn't about fantasy. In finding oneself more, the original unique truth of who you are starts to play out. Any false self begins to fall away.
"Art lies in the moment of encounter. We meet ourselves and we meet our self-expression. We become original because we become something specific: an origin from which the work flows." - Julia Cameron
Awake I see more. I am clearer in observation. More sensitive in my energetic encounters.
I was recently asked to prepare a keynote for LeanIn Malaysia Career Program Graduation Awards. Exploring the historical perspective of What Women Want, I found the voice of many women of the ages come through me.
Snowflake
More open and real.... "The snowflake pattern of your soul is emerging" whispers Julia Cameron off the pages of her book The Artist's Way .... as if it had been frozen for decades. In preparing for this keynote, I visit my Duty as a woman in this life, and the conflict with Love (of Who I am, What I wish to do, How I would like to spend my time).
I feel numbed by conditioned expectations through the ages, other people's definitions of who we should be, and blurred by undersleep, overwork, underplay, Facebook, YouTube, toxic relationships - all junk food for the soul! The more I am writing these Morning Pages, the more I am erasing these smears on my consciousness.
Love vs Duty
As I perused the achievements of women through history, it seems that most stay the norm of anonymity. Yet there are always outliers. Duty usually calls for us to be what is expected in society. However, there are many that desire their passions fulfilled beyond duty. They pursue what they love.
There is a tale often retold about Sir Gawain and The Loathly Lady. In this legend, King Arthur had to find the answer to "What Women Want". Is that not the most mysterious and difficult of questions?! .... When the answer is revealed that what women most desire is: their will - the sovereignty to decide and choose their way - the spell that binds the Loathly Hag in her misery is broken. So how are you going to release your being bewitched into what may seem your duty? What do you truly love to be? Are you willing to pursue it?
There is no doubt the pursuit of what one loves has its costs.
"The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run." - Henry David Thoreau
Still - I now have a choice. Either: Love of what I desire. Or: Duty to be what is expected of me. It is up to me. If the will is there, then no obstacle appears a barrier. Ah ... What will I be? What will I do?
What if - Love is our Duty?
As I consider the smorgasbord of feelings and experiences I can opt for - as I pursue what I love.... I have the sense that I am no longer like a thoroughbred chomping on my bit, tethered to a pole, anxious to be in a race to be won. Still in a yard close to the stables where I feel safe, I am more relaxed. Awaiting nothing yet expecting everything.
When the right call comes for my soul, I know I am attuned to it. I am listening with all my senses. I will hear it. I will answer to what 'feels right'. (I can always post-rationalise it!!)
This week, I will allow 'buried dreams' to surface. I will tune in to the sirens of their melodies. Be resonant with those souls that are meant to co-create what we are purposed for. I can already sense it all coming together.
Opening up my mind, I am training my antennae to the pulse of these wavelengths. Opening my heart, I am receiving the integral rhythm of these energies that are leading to the greater good of humanity. Opening my will, I am tapping to awaken the inner Force that fuels the truth that I am.
Flowers blossoming. image courtesy of shutterstock
I am feeling my life is like a flower. The bud is on the vine, and not completely open. Yet the promise of the beauty and brilliance of colour and fragrance is already there to be shared. Those that recognise it awaits. Those that are yet to notice it is on the fringes. For some will arrive when the flower is blossoming. Others when it is in full bloom. There will be those that will remain until the blossom withers, until it is a memory of its former glory. Not because of what the flower was, but for the gift that we shared when the flower bloomed for us. The gift remains, and gets passed down not only as a vision of when it held our attention, held court so it seemed. But it will forever be etched into our hearts for those who wish to meaningfully remember ... and tap into our dreams.
The Call to Adventure heralds. I am ready to cross the threshold once again on the start of another Hero's Journey. To savour and learn from what is it that I truly love to be.