The Spark of Living

Music of the Day – Into the Fire by Sara MacLauchlan

Link to music/lyrics – http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sarahmclachlan/intothefire.html

DSCN1830

I have settled many times in my life for what I believed was the “right” thing to do – that which caused the least resistance and calmed the waters. And when I have done that, it is my own inner storm that rages inside building until the thunder rolls. I settled into an existence – not a life – because that was what was expected.

I often felt the fire creeping up, beckoning me to jump in experiencing fire and passion – life.

I say no, and I look back to see what I might have missed. Often I look back with regret knowing that I may have missed something that would have brought a spark of life into my very beingness. The times I have said yes were magnificent. So why say no?

Fear, moving out of my comfort zone are the only answers there are. I no longer wish to play it safe and do what others expect. I no longer wish to keep the waters still. Don’t make waves? Hell, no! I’m moving into the fire! I know there are risks, and I know that I will be pushed past my comfort zone, but it is into that fire that I become purified – whole. It is the fire that reignites what has been extinguished long ago.

I am an ever evolving woman and the masks that hid my safe place are falling off and burning away in the fire. I am becoming the me I want to be. It may be difficult for those around me that see me as they wish to see me, but they will become accustomed to me. At least, the me that no longer plays it safe. The me that lives her passion. The me that does not get burned by the fire but is filled with desire – with heart passion – with the spark of living!

Raven/Wolf – Run Free

Music of the Day – Keep Your Eyes Peeled by Queens of the Stone Age

Link to Music/Lyrics – http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/queensofthestoneage/keepyoureyespeeled.html

Raw and dark are the images that come to me today.  Why?  Images of my life as I have lived it, loved it, embraced it, flow through the inlets and outlets of my mind. I need so much more than I have, oh, not because I lack or because I have not had enough. I have had love deep and felt loved more than most. But I failed myself, never allowing myself to experience all that I could have.

Fear held me back. Fear of losing the mask of “everything is great” and of being all right. Always doing what I thought was right, never just doing because I desired or wanted, and I led you through this journey. You, so trusting that my face and smile were what they appeared to be. Me, knowing that deep inside, it was never enough, there was more that I wanted.  You, not wanting more yet being the strength that could show me the way. You, finding your place of peace within me.

And, yet, always a hidden desire lurked underneath that threatened to expose me. Expose me for the woman I wanted to be, not the woman I was. So, I fought what I thought were demons, sometimes stretching your limits and pushing your boundaries.  But, fear stopped me, stopped me from being who I was meant to be.

And now, that woman is breaking free – wild and wanton – filled with passions unfulfilled, filled with dreams not realized, filled with desires not recognized. In free abandonment, ready to experience what she dared not speak. Eager to allow her passions to take her to a mountain she dared not climb.

You are afraid, afraid of this new woman that has entered your life. She does not blame you, she understands that she is different.  She understands that you want to hold on. She understands that this fear of losing her is inconceivable to you.  She is longing to be free and wild – yet you hold onto what has past.

She is Raven who has perched in her mind bringing her messages of what was to come. She is Wolf, alone and afraid in a pack that only understands her outer face, but not what is deep inside.  Wolf and Raven – together powerful forces – are calling her.  Her inner self is calling her to become who she was meant to be.

Don’t you know that you cannot hold Raven wanting flight? Don’t you know that she will fight with all she has? Do you not know that you cannot hold Wolf in chains when she want to run free in the night? She will chew her own legs to be loosed. The Crow takes flight, the Wolf runs free. Crow and Wolf are traveling together now in the woman you no longer know.

Will you let her experience? Or will you keep her chained to the anchor that is your security? Do you not know that allowing her to run free and wild, you will keep her with you.  She will never leave forever, just for a bit here and there.  She needs to feel freedom to expand and be.  You may add links to her chains so she feels she is free, but she feels the chain nonetheless.

She does not desire to leave forever, just to break free of the pack with which she travels and spread her raven wings to fly high above the lands. There is no other pack for her but the one she has traveled with thus far. This is a longing that travels deep within Raven and Wolf.  Will you let her stretch without tethers and give her sovereignty over her own spirit/soul?

Open to her now and learn from her the mysteries she will teach you, if you will just let her be wild and free – ready to experience what she has been so fearful of – until now.

White wolf and Raven

What’s Yours?

Music Muse of the Day – Dirty White Boy by Foreigner

Link to Song and Lyrics – http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/foreigner/dirtywhiteboy.html

I love this process!  This morning as I opened this song, images of the bad boy – we’ve all known some – came into my mind.  Frankly, it was what drew me to my husband many years ago – he had the looks and reputation of being a bad boy.  But I cannot take this song so literal this morning because I am realizing that it’s not really the lyrics or the musician’s meaning of the song.  This process is about recognizing those pieces of myself that are ready to be released and explored.

So, what is the “Dirty White Boy” in all of this?  It is that part of me that is all me.  It is about owning my truth and knowing that regardless of my outward face, the inward knowing of who I am is valuable and worthy.  There is that “Dirty White Boy” inside of me – inside of all of us.  That part that knows that we are not perfect – we have flaws – we have imperfections – that people around us may not like or appreciate, but we know that they are all a part of our perfection.

I cannot speak for you, the reader, but I can speak for me.  I have a quick temper, and when I feel safe, I let it loose.  Well, sometimes, I let it loose anyway.  But when it’s over, it’s over.  The temper gives me passion and is a calling card for the fire in my soul.  I may be Pisces, but I am on the cusp of Aries and have Leo ascending – steam! And I am in love with that part of me because it’s fire and water and passion!

Now here is my struggle!  I have this tendency to put myself and my needs and wants on a shelf so that someone else can experience theirs.  I will put what I desire on hold even though it hurts inside and even though I know that I will hurt in the process, but I will sacrifice.  I have been accused of enjoying being a martyr, and there may is some small truth in that.  But I justify it in my mind that I would rather hurt than someone I care about.  It is not a healthy attitude, and one with which I struggle.  Maybe I enjoy pain?  I don’t know, but it is something I am exploring.

My story is that I am a caregiver and I fix things, so if I need to give up something for someone else, then so be it.  Yeah, see? We all have those things that need discovering and reframing.  So, that’s my “Dirty White Boy.”  What’s yours?