Loving Inquiry

Eventually you will learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit. -George A. Sheehan

I have loved every moment taking part in Sana's poetry as healer workshops, savouring the word-full nourishment of time to write and share with other poet-lovers. This sounds like a soulful, sumptuous series. I hope you can make it too!

Today as I sit with myself in meditation, I hear how I am in need of my own love, my own affection, my own closeness. "Don't go too far from home," a voice says. "Stay here, with me, and listen. There is so much to feel, so much to savour, so much to receive. A whole world right here inside this present moment attention." What are you in need of today? Close your eyes for a few moments and listen inside. What do you hear?... Share your discoveries below: www.lovinginquiry.com

Coming up in less than a month, a new session of Woman in Mirror. Have you always wanted to write a memoir but are not sure how to begin? Do you have memories you would love to put down on paper for youself or family? Is there a story inside you would love to share with the world? In a safe and supportive space online, get the support you need to tell your stories in your unique voice.

It can be very awkward to move from between seeing with the eye of judgement and the eye of the heart, half caught in an old way of seeing and yet sensing, even... remembering, that a larger and more generous vision is possible. ~J. Ruth Gendler I have been especially needing to practice this "larger, and more generous vision" these days, as the farm where we have lived for 14 years is up for sale and we are preparing for the changes that will come. How much this place has meant to me: I wrote my PhD thesis on Loving Inquiry inspired by its many beautiful wooden gates and have taught hundreds of hours of workshops in the studio I have been privileged to have here. I wrote my memoir over five years here and am now writing a novel. And I can't count how many hours of yoga, meditation and dance I have engaged in here, nor the many hours of connection with the insect, plant and animal beings with whom I've shared this home. And yet, the Buddha reminds us, in his 5 reflections that we will all grow old, get sick, die and lose everything we love, and that we are heirs of our karma (actions). Which all may sound devastatingly difficult to accept and yet, it gives us choice, moment to moment, on how we live, what we choose to spend our time and money and energy on and how we treat ourselves and others. Choice requires Awareness. Without it, we aren't really choosing but following the automatic unconscious patterns. Which brings me back to Gendler's potent words. Seeing with the eye of judgement is crippling. I know it well. Judgement toward self, toward others, toward what happened in the past, and what is happening now. However the eye of the heart is accepting, it welcomes, allows, invites, lets be. So I am practicing day by day, hour by hour, to see with this "eye," and will keep practicing. Meditation helps. Lots of it, and dancing, writing, savouring every moment in the studio I have. How do you practice seeing with the "eye of the heart"? Where do you get "caught in an old way of seeing"? And what helps you to sense and remember that a "larger and more generous vision" is possible?

"Does death possess a beauty that wewho fear death, who find it ugly and obscene cannot see?" Parker Palmer I know it's spring which is meant to be signallin...g "new life," and yet I can't help but ponder the other, the ending that is always the out breath of beginning. As we stand at the precipice of so many changes in our lives and in the world, it would do us good to accept that death and life are none other than the long lost twins who, separated by ignorance, now journey their way back home. How do we honour their reunion? Celebrate all parts of the cycle, ageing and youth-ing, sage-ing and stumbling. I never imagined I would learn so much from the downs I have had this year. And that I would accept and acknowledge that the ups will always have their downs embedded in them. And yet, why the focus only on vertical? What about the movements sideways? The veering left and right? And all those curves? How would you describe your year behind in shapes? And what signs of life, and death, are you seeing all around this spring?

Take the quiz and discover your unique set of intelligences...

Take the quiz and discover your unique set of intelligences...

What does freedom mean to us at this time? This little poem has an answer.

Watch and shout out at the beauty courage and power of these women and girls of every gender and size and voice!!

How to find some peace in an overstimulated world.

This morning I danced to a playlist I have been listening to for a few months, filled with lyrical instrumental tunes and pulsing African rhythms that put me in an especially spacious mood for movement play. Allowing my body its joy, I was filled with such delight, such glee, that all I could do was smile and be grateful. And keep on dancing! The hummingbirds were also feeling it!! At the feeder outside the window of my studio, a quartet of the dazzlers were frolicking and ca...vorting with just as much excitement. Although hummingbirds may look like they are fighting for places at the feeder, in fact they are having fun and getting exercise when they wrangle with each other like that. As an artist, I have often felt as if I was fighting for a place at the "feeder," whether that meant performing at the best open mike events, being published by the right press, or having my poems accepted by a certain journal. It took me a while to find those places where the writing I did was welcomed, and appreciated. I had to trust that there was an audience for my words and that, if I kept writing, and being true to myself, my audience and I would find each other. I had to listen to where my words were being received with love and acceptance, and where my voice was valued. It wasn't easy because I had ideas of what the process "should" look like. One of the difficulties lay in having compared myself to other writers, whom I admired. I wanted my words to be accepted and appreciated like theirs. But I couldn't "be" them. I had to stay on track with my own expression, to keep focusing on what I had to say, and crafting how to say it. This has been a significant part of my journey of Loving Inquiry. Learning to accept and value my own words, to honour the subjects I write about, and celebrate my voice in its quirky, original uniqueness. I also learned that at different times, we have different audiences. That our words, like our bodies and minds, change, as we delve into new subjects, try new genres, and evolve as artists and human beings. My journey has unfolded in its own inimitable way. I am grateful for those mentors and teachers who have encouraged me, and for the audiences and readers who have received my words with enthusiasm and generous attention. This is what we need to flourish, as writers and as artists. People who invite us to open into our authentic expression, who hold us with compassionate curiosity, and allow us to find our particular ways into print and performance and play! It is no wonder that I do the work I do in the world. I have been lucky with mentors and teachers. I have received so much and so I give in return. It is with such delight and glee that I welcome and receive the tentative, emerging voices of others. Just like I welcome my quirky original dance moves, and those of the hummingbirds, who never fail to astonish and inspire! www.lovinginquiry.com

During this time of uncertainty and fear, we need ways to ground and support ourselves, keep our energies strong and kind and calm. Some of the ways I do that is through making collage, journal writing, dancing freely in my studio and letting my emotions out, walking outside and being in the garden, eating well. Being grateful for all that I have and am, and remembering to feel the arms of the universe around me, knowing that I am held within the cosmic fabric of love as are we all.

"We have a mythology that tells us that writing is a torturous activity. Believing that, we don't even try it or, if we do, and if we find it unexpectedly easy, we stop, freeze up, and tell ourselves that whatever it is that we're doing, it can't be 'real' writing. What if there were no such thing as a writer? What if everyone simply wrote? What if there were no 'being a real writer' to aspire to? What if writing were simply about the act of writing?" (Julia Cameron, The Writ...er's Life) Why is is that we consistently doubt our abilities to put words to the page? I think Julia is pointing to something important here. We are too caught up in the identity of writer, and not allowing ourselves to do what brings us the utmost healing and nourishment, which is to let the words out, allowing the stories to be told, and the love to be shared. If you feel you are at a loss for words, that what you have to say is insignificant, or if you often judge your journalling as "rambling" or "boring" or "trivial," it's time to give yourself the gift of freedom. Let go of what you think being a writer is supposed to look like, and sound like. Open to the writing that comes, however it feels. And let yourself be bathed in the beauty of authentic expression. Every artist, painter, dancer has to start with the improvisation of beginning. With every new painting, and every new dance, they have to begin again. They have to remember that who they are is more than the identity of their craft. They are the dance, the paint, the image. We are words, taking shape, and then losing form. We move in and out of expression. How we told our story yesterday will not be how we tell it today, nor tomorrow. Don't be attached to how it should sound. Nor to who you are becoming as you put them down. Let the words come, and let them be. Be the current with which life speaks, dreams and loves. Be the passion that flows from your hands and heart and mind. Be the beauty of life living through you. Write, write and write some more. For more inspiration, visit www.lovinginquiry.com.

I'm so excited to be co-faciltating this workshop with the entrancing Shauna Devlin.