Live in the world as it is. Embrace it.

Be part of it,  lend it your precious heart.

Go forward, not driven by some need to make your mark,

But led by your tender heart that would heal the wounds that are everywhere and in all beings:

The wounds that are even in the land, scratched into the stones.

The wounds borne by the birds, the flowers, old men, trees, and pets.

With your heart as the soft cloth,

Wipe the brow of those in pain.

Your worth lies in little else than this.

Come home at last, to your own body, to your own Mother Earth.

Come home.

— Pamela Ann McDowell Saylor, 3.12.14

I am inspired by Laura Simms to reflect on the value of a fairy tale. Fairy tales are a gold mine of assistance in the art of living consciously. To go deeply into the layers of these stories which are actually in our own psyches, is to find a gold mine of assistance to remedy the agonies of living and to find inner peace. These journeys represent huge work on the part of the storyteller, who herself is forever altered in the process. Because of her work, others are able to take the journey, tailored to their own needs, liberating themselves.

Think, dear friend, reflect on the world that you carry within yourself. And name this thinking what you wish…Just be sure that you observe carefully what wells up within you and place that above everything that you notice around you. Your innermost happening is worth all your love. You must somehow work on that.

Ranier Maria Rilke

Something Laura Simms said about story inspired me to reflect upon my own understanding of what a great story is.  A great story is a shared experience, ever new each time it is told. It has infinite possibilities ready to be mined that lead to deepened self-understanding and empowerment. To “use” a great story to prove a point or to teach a “lesson” short shrifts its precious possibilities and grates against the soul.

Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Hold the vision. Trust the process.” — Anonymous on Facebook

Today I added a new element to the sunrise painting. I had not planned on this, but I felt compelled to do it. I wonder if I have taken a diversion from the vision or if this is trusting the process. Time will tell.

Make the Ordinary Come Alive

Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is a way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples, and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

By William Martin, The Parent’s Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents.

— Thanks to Joanna Patton

This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. Commons is a freely licensed media file repository.

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http://www.landscape-perception.com/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/stonehenge-is-like-a-sacred-prehistoric-glockenspiel-researchers-claim-9168812.html

This morning, after I painted the gray sky in the east, I noticed that I felt the impression of what I had painted in the cells of my body– not the sunrise sky itself, but what I had painted. I could see that doing the painting has fortified me in my own body.

Within the light that out of the world-wide heights

Would stream with power toward the soul,

May certainty of cosmic thinking

Arise to solve the soul’s enigmas–

And focusing on its mighty rays,

Awaken love in human hearts.

— Rudolf Steiner