Manifestation, Meaning, Spirals and Essential Being

I’m back from an intense journey into Manifesting a Meaningful Life. Seven of us chose to engage and stay with some of the most intense, provocative, compelling and sometimes most difficult conversations that I’ve had the honor of being part of, for some time.

When I think about the life that I’ve created for myself…the life that I’ve manifested from what holds meaning for me, from the essence of who I am in the world….I am mindful that my life really is magic. Every now and then, in the midst of what was unfolding in the room, I would become aware of this ‘mindfulness’ in the background…this sense of being absolutely delighted at it all! This is my life! Every day, filled with conversations that have meaning in my life and in the life of others. Every day, filled with big belly laughs, big tears, lots of hugs and a willingness to live large. Every day, discovering more about myself in a way that makes it impossible for me to NOT see the ‘more’ in everyone around me. I like my life. I am truly blessed.

Surrounded by people who are awake and willing to engage; people of courage and stamina and depth on all fronts; people who are willing to laugh at themselves and have the courage to challenge their own ‘truths’ and ‘reality’, my week has left me filled with great hope for us all. Although my body needs to just hang out and do nothing for a couple of days (maybe doing some of that ‘nothing’ by worshipping at the Temple of Tim’s), I feel gratified, fulfilled and ready for the next wave of my own evolution. I know there is always more.

The notion of ‘Emerging Futures’ is a powerful one! With the gracious support and permission of those others in the experience with me, the entire six days were recorded, from beginning to end. I have become aware of how so much of what comes out of my mouth is impossible for me to repeat. I have moments when in the flow of the words themselves, some other part of me is startled by the statement and excited by the discovery. This time, it’s all recorded.

I know there were some incredible waves of information on manifestation, meaning and the link between the two. Information on the connection between ‘essential being’ and our experience of ‘meaning’. There were also waves and waves of information on Manifestation Spirals – how they work and how to engage with them, with intention. There was some great new information/insights on The Great Cosmic Tit (yes, I know…some would prefer that I find another way to express this…and it is what it is!). And all of it has been captured and recorded.

Each of us in this process will no longer be the same – and we will forever be becoming more. Of that, in me, there is no doubt. From this last experience will come another manifestation/meaning experience that will weave itself through the new ‘Emerging’ five-day. I now know where it can go…how far it can go…and how powerfully it can unfold. We really are up to it.

As much as I sometimes wonder why I’m here, these are the experiences that remind me of what sources it all. There is a fundamental truth that underlies everything that I am…that I do…that I engage – and that is: I AM the godforce…and so is everyone else. Imagine who we will have become when we free ourselves of an external god and make room for us to discover it in each other. Imagine what creations await when we re-awaken to the truth of that inside the ‘I’ that I am. In that single breath, the world will redefine itself.

Breathing is good…..

Manifesting....Meaning

Day 3 of 'Manifesting a Meaningful Life' is half-way through. As much as I am a full participant in this process in one way, I am also separate from it in other ways.

What it says to me is that I can chanage my life - completely! - in the blink of an eye.

It tells me that manifestation shaped by meaning creates a magical life.

It tells me that it's easy and can produce results in less than 3 days.

Wow! My life...their lives...and all of it a template for living - period.

And now, I dive back into exploring and discovering the rest of my life.

Breathing is good....

Women's Voices - Women's Choices

Kofi Annan has said that the future of the world is in the hands of women. Others have said similar things. Inside - where I live - I know this to be true.

Women are unbelievably powerful! Not when we strive to be like men but when we choose to be the woman that we are. We are still the gender that gives birth. We are still the hand that rocks the cradle - and shapes the future. When we forget that - not because of its function but because of the form from which it emanates - we become complacent and silent partners to our own demise.

The September Newsletter carries a piece that I wrote because it is meaningful to me. I've included it below.


Women's Voices - Women's Choices

Women talk. It’s what we do. It’s also one of the things we do best.

We come together in small clusters and we talk about the things that matter to us. We talk about the people we care about. We talk about our dreams and the things that get in the way. We talk about what we love and what we hate. We talk about our children, and their children, and how their worlds are working or not.

So essential to who we are is our desire to talk that it has long been the butt of jokes, held up for scorn and ridicule, and made fun of in sitcoms, cartoons and the movies. So compelling is its impact on all of our lives that the simple act of choosing NOT to speak, in and of itself, wreaks havoc and causes great distress to the people around us. In our stony silence, the absence of what we do so naturally becomes the punishment that others must endure.

We are not just talking to hear the sound of our own voice – we are shaping our worlds.

Conversations. Conversations that connect us. Conversations that allow us to move closer together or push apart. Conversations that redirect focus and attention, the nature of which will feed or starve an issue, an event or an intention. Conversations designed to soothe or disrupt; to create space or collapse it; to build relationships or to destroy them.

Conversations. Conversations filled with tears of joy, of fear or of rage! Conversations that forgive and others that let us get even. Conversations that are designed to make us forget. Conversations all, fueled by the words that flow up and through us, carried by the sound of our unique voice and tumbling out of our mouths. Without exception, they end up designing our lives and that of the people we care about. They invite or force change; or they keep us locked into the patterns that are already shaping our lives.

This is not to be messed with! These conversations can make or break a person or a process; build an empire or destroy one; lift spirits – ours and that of others – or cause hope to come crashing to the ground. They can shape an outcome or make it disappear entirely from our reality. The ‘slip of a tongue’ can transform lives faster than any great plan or strategy ever could. Small wonder that so many, for so long, have made fun of it. Were we to recognize in ourselves the power of this force that so many others fear, we would end our commitment to living small, colorless lives.

Women are the world’s masters at gathering in small groups and having conversations. Effortlessly masterful.

Women are also the world’s best hope for a living, organic collective that supports life.

Gather this force mindfully and direct it with intention. Gather the force of what comes naturally to us; determine that this world and its future are up to us; and begin the conversations that offer hope, evoke potential and define new ways of being. The ones that free us from the secrets that keep our world small and dark. The ones that keep us bound to the 'truth' of the dogma that our bodies know to be lies. The ones that reveal to the world who we are, what we care about and that we are no longer willing to hide behind the veil of our history, our cultural conditioning or the shame, long carried, that does not belong to us.

What we talk about with each other can change our world! Many among us have already chosen to awaken from the cultural slumber that has allowed us to lie still and silent while our lives have been determined for us by others. . These voices now carry the quality of an aware and unique presence, given strength by their discoveries from Fully Alive….or Sekhmet Rising or the Horses book….or the Women and Power cd’s….and they are awake! The alternative is to continue to keep our voices small and tinny that we may tolerate the drivel that consumes our lives.

As we harness the power of that at which we are effortlessly masterful; as we become determined to engage in conversations worthy of the sound of our own voices and the magnitude of our own potential; as we gather the women in small groups and bring voice to the deeper truth we all carry, we have begun to declare: we are this world’s best hope.

Louise

I have chosen to share it with others in the event that something...some small vibration of remembrance...will awaken in other women. A vibration that will grow in density and intensity and strength that will allow us to be who we are naturally, to do what we do naturally and to engage it all for a deeper truth that will allow the force that we are - particularly as a collective! - to emerge.

Women's Voices - Women's Choices is, in some way, my declaration of what I believe it will take to profoundly change our world - quickly! Women sitting around the kitchen table. Women in conversations over lunch. Women chairing staff meetings, board meetings and family disputes. Women chatting while they tend to their children, at home or at the park. Women talking about designs, of buildings and clothing and people's lives. Women - on telephones, in letters, on email - with other women talking about themselves. Not about the stories they tell of what was or what could have been but about their truths long hidden and now revealed.

Breathing is good.....

Inevitable destination

I'm noticing how easy it is to slide back into the status quo....to let the steady hum of habit take over living moment-to-moment, resulting in what was becoming our only choice for what can become.

It takes effort - of body, mind and spirit - to stay awake. Why? Not because sleep is the essence of our being. On the contrary, I believe being awake is our essential nature. However, I am also mindful of how the dense mass that surrounds us applauds and rewards, encourages and welcomes that coma of habituation. Perhaps the greatest challenge to us all and the greatest leverage that the culture of coma has, is that we hate to play alone. We would prefer to play a game that is not of our choosing than to find ourselves alone and without playmates.

We are more willing to surrend ourselves to the mindless game than we are to create one for ourselves...than we are to playing alone.

We more easily slip into pretending who we are not than we are able to stay true to who we are if doing so demands that we be the only light in the perceived dark.

We are more willing to lie to be wanted by others than we are to risk standing alone in a truth that might result in solitude and copious amounts of our own company.

All that, and we are still mangificent! It just goes to prove that our inevitable destination is the truth of who we are. I guess the only real choice we have to make is how long we want it to take for us to get there.

Breathing is good.....

The Turtle is back!

Years ago, on my second trip to Kona, Hawaii, I was drawn to a ring. A silver ‘shield’ that covers the finger from knuckle to knuckle, it carries a carved silver turtle on its back and two sea shells, with an amethyst nestled between the sea shells. I wore it constantly for many years, such that the band took the shape of my finger; never taking it off except to clean it and even then, for only very brief periods of time. And then one day, I could no longer find it.

I searched everywhere I could think of for that ring! Every box, drawer, nook and cranny; every purse and suitcase; home, office, floor of the car…and no ring to be found. I learned to not think about it (much!), trusting that it was still on my holodeck somewhere and in my universe and that when the time was ‘right’ (whatever that meant) it would come back into my life.

And it’s back! Turns out it was indeed sitting in a bag…in a box…in a bigger box….in a drawer that I had long ceased to think of as my own. Hmmmm….I wonder what those are all metaphors for….

The moment I found it, it went back on to my finger. Ever since, things have been moving at mach speed. Ideas coming fast and furious. Events unfolding effortlessly and with grace. Others coming into my life in ways that invite huge growth on my part and, quite likely, theirs too. Although I’ve been told (likely by the woman who sold me the ring!) that turtles are symbols of prosperity and abundance, I took a moment to revisit what is said about turtles.

“The turtle is a creature of two elements, Earth and water. The people of the Turtle Clan share an affinity with both. They enjoy helping things grow, both plants and people, yet require freedom to do their own things, as the turtle has its freedom in the water. “

That had a resonance and somehow, felt familiar. Funny part is, I’ve never been drawn to Earth and Water, and have long felt at home with Fire and Air. What occurs to me is that Fire and Air, without Water and Earth, are an incomplete expression of the potential of Ether or I’o in my world. I’ll have to think more about that one.

I moved to another web page to look specifically for a Hawaiian perspective.

“Honu means turtle in Hawaiian. The honu is considered a symbol of the island (the word for land is 'Aina honua). The Sea Turtle Is A Sacred Spiritual Guide Known As An Aumakua. Honu Is The Symbol Of Peace, Good Luck And Long Life.”

All of that feels ‘right’ for me, too. Something has changed since I rediscovered my turtle and have melded myself with it. It is not by accident that the ring re-surfaced shortly after my explorations of Hawaii, its history and its people had been rekindled. I know that the months between now and April when I am at the Mauna Lani for the Emerging Futures: Huna experience, will deepen, widen and expand in ways that will further stretch who I might become.

Soon, I will turn much of my attention to completing the new Huna book. I know that it will now be different. How do I know that? The turtle is back.

Breathing is good…..

I AM...and what more can there be?

Wow! Where have I been??? It feels as if space and time have compressed and I went to bed on August 29th and woke up on September 7th! How kool is that! Louise-Van-Winkle….

Looking back, it feels as if I’ve come through some kind of maze….have maneuvered myself through experiences and conversations and discoveries that churned and turned and twisted themselves in ways that were invitations for me to look much deeper into myself. I must say, I am delighted with what I’ve found.

I’ve been ‘doing this’ for a long time. More than 25 years of my life have been lived in pressing the edges of what I knew ‘myself’ to be. In those years, I’ve grown; have found new things and let go of old ones; have felt amazingly connected and terrifyingly alone. And through it all, I have become MORE than I ever imagined possible. The interesting part for me is that THAT was the process that took me where I needed to go. No good/bad; no right/wrong, just living and engaging and being….and becoming.

I’ve discovered that this ‘more’ does not need to take a long time, nor does it need to be a struggle. What it does seem to require and demand is that I be completely and (what some might call) brutally honest – with myself. No room in there to fool myself or tell myself the stories that I would like to have be true – about myself. Far more potent has been my willingness to allow myself to see what I know – deep inside, where I live – is the truth of who I am. Sometimes, I discover it to be beautiful. Other times, it feels ugly and nasty and cruel. And truth be told, it's all me.

In the years that I’ve been experiencing, creating and living what has come to be known as the ‘WEL-Systems body of knowledge’, I am aware that some have found me to be a delight – and others have held me as the devil herself! Over the years, I’ve gotten hundreds of ‘love letters’ from those whose lives have been powerfully transformed and I’ve gotten a sprinkling of not-so-much-love letters from those whose lives have been equally powerfully touched…and held in check by their commitment to their own truth. Either way, I am grateful for each has been the invitation for me to see myself through the eyes of another. And yet…I wonder…in a holographic universe (which I hold to), is there ever really ‘another’?

When I look back on the last week or so, I have no idea where I’ve been and I am very clear of where I am. I AM. I AM all of it…the perceived good and the bad; the creation and the destruction; the expansion and the collapse. I AM the joys and the sorrows; the delights and the fears; the questions and the answers. In that moment of awareness of it all, there is nothing that I do not already know. The more important question becomes: am I both willing and able to live it? And am I both willing and able to live it FULLY?

Today, I am clear that the answer to that is a resounding, compelling, powerful, profoundly and deeply vibrating YES! Wherever my life leads me, and however it takes me there, I choose to go with the full measure of who I AM. And for me, there is nothing other worth investing my time, my thoughts, my energy or my life in.

Breathing is good….