Wisdom from the Fire – connection, courage, compassion, consciousness are what’s needed
I am writing you this Sunday morning with the Feminine Wisdom for the Week not from my home and studio in Valley of the Moon California. I could never have anticipated where I would be writing you from today and what I would have to share for this week…
Noah and I (and Sahaji our border collie) evacuated our home Monday morning due to the fires in Northern California. First I wanted to let you know we are safe. We awoke in the darkness at 6am to a fire orange sky and the smell of dense smoke, with no power or cell phone. We didn’t know what was happening… we just knew we needed to leave. So we grabbed a few things including our computers, a sacred piece of art, my yoga mat, my crystal cowgirl boots and my wise woman coat. I couldn’t really see so good in the dark and I had just a few minutes to take a breath and choose what mattered and what was needed.
We cannot return home and the area is still surrounded in fire, but for now our house is standing in our little village in the heart of this Valley of the Moon, which we are extremely grateful for as many have lost their homes. There have been so many stories of amazing human connection and courage and compassion and also heart wrenching accounts of looters and lost pets. It’s been days of surrendering and doing our best to hold an energy of calm and choosing love over fear.
So where am I writing you from? And what is the wisdom I can share for us?
More than ever, I am so clear that it will be our connection, compassion, and consciousness that will bring us through these intense and uncertain times.
During this experience of the fires, I am experiencing in the moment everything I teach, live, and practice. And I am grateful for the practice and wisdom I have lived and studied for over 15 years to embody this way of being – so when it gets hard I know what to ‘do’. Which stems not from action and doing first, but from stillness then action. Even in the midst of fumbling in the dark, I stopped to breathe to consider my actions.
I’ve included here three wisdom bytes I can share with you for to take in, chew on and bring into your life.
Wisdom Byte #1: It’s our personal spiritual practice + the connections and circles we cultivate that bring us through intense and uncertain times with grace.
I spent the day on Monday after leaving my home with my soul family in Sonoma, sitting in circle, being with each other, which was like landing in a nest of love that created calm admist a big inferno of fire and fear.
And then on Tuesday morning, I knew I needed to leave Sonoma – my system was in stress from all the smoke. Instead of freaking out and reacting from fear, I was able to slow myself down in this very intense reality, and drop into the self-love practice I do every morning, where I connect with my body and intuition & ask “What do I need?” Because I connect in this way every day, doing the same simple practice, a response from within came so quickly.
I felt deeply in my body the need to come to the sea. I knew there I could relax my nervous system. I needed to be in a place where I could hold the calm and stillness for this land I love and the people who live in this community. That was my part.
30 minutes later, I received an invitation from a women in one of the circles I lead. She had a vacation home at the sea that she wasn’t using and offered it to Noah and I and Sahaji.
I connected to what I needed. She compassionately opened her heart and connected with me. I received. And her space has given me the sacred space to hold space for this valley I love and be present to all that is happening, the reality of what is being lost and also the space to listen deeply to what is wanting to emerge.
The time to strengthen our inner core and community is not in the middle of the swirl and storm.
We must strengthen our inner core and community DAILY, through our daily practices
and through the circles and relationships we cultivate.
*******
Wisdom Byte #2: The intensity of these times is a call for each of us to listen & lean in & liberate ourselves
from what binds us to fear and separation.
(taken from the sea where fire sun descends into earth and sea)
These tragedies and storms we are experiencing around the world, and have been increasing… the floods, fires, hurricanes and the human “explosions” are ALL connected … they are not separate… and we are all connected to them, to this land that lets us live on it, and to each other.
What is happening is a collective experience, one shaking up and waking up each of us – for any places and ways we are out of coherency in how we live, in the work we do and what we give our life force to, in our relations, in our relationship to ourselves, in our relationship to the land, in our very PRESENCE every day in how we show up.
Each of us must be willing to look at these incoherencies and release the fear that binds them to us, now. Not from fear or lack or urgency but from a knowing that NOW is the time to be the full PRESENCE you are where ALL IS BASED FROM LOVE.
This means our work, our relationships, our body, our money. All. Must support and sustain humanity, the earth and ourselves or we have to ask “Why are we doing this?” And then have the courage to speak up, stand up and make shift happen, to our lives and the systems we work and live in.
Don’t fear the changes your heart and soul are calling for. Don’t push down the whispers of your soul.
Be courageous in slowing down, pulling back the veils of the collective “reality” / illusion
to make the shifts you know are needed,
before the swirl becomes a storm.
*****
WISDOM Byte #3: Offering our connection & compassion and staying conscious is what we can do for each other
As we as a world continue to face intensity and uncertainty and situations that challenge us at our core, for those not in physical harms way, this is what you can ‘do’:
While it is important to ‘see’ what is happening as fires, floods, acts of violence truly affect people in devastating ways, choose COMPASSION over WORRY and choose to FOCALIZE on images and visions of what calms the energy and adds LOVE – connection, compassion, courage – to the field vs. amplifies the fear.
You can do this by acts like:
1. Creating an “altar” with intention and activate the feminine super power connection – Choose a few words that hold the energy that will support the situation and then use your intuition to make a simple but mighty altar. The altar above and below are from two of the women in my Feminine Super Power Year and Path of Self Love circles/programs from Taiwan and Canada. I asked the women in my circles to create altars and prayers focused on CALM, CONTAINMENT and CONNECTION… creating a web of support for those, including me, that were in need. It mattered.
2. Coherent communications – Only put in energy that creates connection, compassion and elevated consciousness in the social posts and communications you send. Bring in wisdom and love not worry or images from the news that amplify the fear. Only share news that informs and grounds. There has been a lot of fake news and sensationalistic news that has added to the fire and fear. It’s been the prayers and compassion and the grounded real information that has brought calm to the people.
3. Connecting with those you know impacted in any challenging time – don’t be afraid to reach out or bother. Even if it’s a text or an email or post, and they don’t reply, your love and connection creates a circle around them that holds them as they go through what they are going through. I’ve had women from my circles emailing me personally. Friends texting. And even friends who were brave enough to CALL me which meant all the difference because they wanted to share their voice with me. Don’t be the person who is too busy to call, or thinks you will be bothering someone.
The circle in this way is real. Connection creates Courage.
Love is NEVER a bother. It’s often a life saver.
I am grateful to be on this journey with you and I hope that the words I share over time will serve as a source of illumination, inspiration and wisdom as you walk your path as the powerful presence of courage, compassion and wisdom you are. (This is me on my walk after altar making wearing my wise woman coat, headed to the sea to be with the earth, led by Sahaji, whose name means to live in the flow of grace.)
*****
NOTE on THE ART OF SACRED CIRCLE
INCUBATOR, ACCELERATOR & TRAINING
I am more committed than ever to holding this sacred space for those of you with a calling to create a new gathering, program or circle to bring people together. We must have circles that can hold and guide us at this time. In moving with the flow and trusting divine timing, and given the fires I’ve been moving through and with, we’ve decided to start two weeks later than originally planned – Nov 9th, on the Wisdom Moon . Go to www.ArtofSacredCircle.com to get the invitation
Dear Christine and Noah,
I live in England and have lost my partner and home two years ago. Thank you for your inspiring post in these turbulent times.your work has helped me carry on.luv and hugs Charlotte
Charlotte thank you love for the post and reaching out – receiving the love and hugs and sending the same to you. thank you for your resilancy and for continuining to carry on in love. with heart, Christine and Noah