Choosing A Walking Companion to Walk Truth

"You'll never walk alone"   1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein song from the musical Carousel 


It is True, I never walk alone.  Yet, I am often unconscious of just who my walking companions are.
When I walk with resentemt, the other companions at my side are inevitably, shame, blame, and expectation.  With this gang I can predict what my life is going to look like with pretty good accuracy-and it will be more of the same.  Like attracts like.
I don't  like walking around with resentment, shame, blame and expectation.

What if I made a different choice? What if I chose to walk with Truth?

While I am not sure what walking with Truth would look like,

I do know who would I choose to walk alongside me and Truth, at least for starters.

Today, I ask for wisdom, compassion and curiosity to walk with me and 'Truth'.

Tomorrow I can choose different companions as I continue my walk.  

Over time I will come to know Truth better. 

Self Reflection:  Who are my walking companions?  

  

October's Moon Totem in Full Splendor

Karen's 

A glance through my picture window,

With a sudden catch-breath,

Only inches away, I spy

Industrious creatrix.

Her abdomen, a gold and black mandala,

Wavers in wind gusts.

Legs extending equidistant,

Effect a delicate balancing act

On her woven work.

Braided zigzag anchors

Webbed hemispheric artifice.

Moment to moment, this:

A mindful solitary sentry
Suspended,

Grounded.


October Totem by Karen Newmand

Self Reflection:  Little spider is a powerful totem. Am I noticing more spiders in my life?  Am I living spider's gifts?

Resentment Prevention

It's hard to walk in truth in the world  with resentment as a body guard.

In my own life, I see how I have used my resentments as sentinels to protect my feelings, my ego and my needs.  Instead of developing clean and appropriate boundaries, I learned to carry around a psychic clip board reminding me of the hurtful  things people, places and things had and could inflict on me. Using this awareness helped me remain in an almost constant posture of defense, Not only is this stance terribly wearing on the physical body, it prevents an accurate assessment of our world and of ourselves.

Self Reflection: Am I willing to learn how to ask clearly for what I need or want, to state my preferences, to be able to accept disappointments, and make different (often better) responses/choices?

Dreaming the Web

What does it mean to have a dream where children are jumping on your web like a trampoline?
That was the dream that woke me up, and I couldn't get the image out of my head.

As it would happen, a friend of mine, an 'Irish elder' happened to call me later in the morning. I couldn't resist sharing my dream with her.  She is second generation in the US, but I still hear the Irish brogue of her ancestors in the wisdom coming through her:  Here is the essences of her counsel:
"Ahhh, well, you know, in the old ways, the spider is the totem for the weavers of wisdom. It sounds like your being asked to be a place for the children to come to learn wisdom and be nourished. Just now there's a dearth of nourishment on the planet for our children.  And a dearth of caring for your own inner-child as well.  And I don't mean you should be enabling her...and don' take yourself too seriously either. There's way too much of that."

I choose to take my dream seriously.  I hope I'm not taking myself too seriously. I'm glad to say my web in my dream seemed quite bouncy and resilient.

Self Reflection Prayer:  May the weaving of our lives be resilient, strong and flexible.  May they be places for sharing wisdom, nourishment and fun, for ourselves and for others,  most especially children.

The Meaning of Walk Truth

October's Cycle of Truth is to Work and Walk Truth.  My relationship with Work Truth is in all the ways I express my creative pulse by and through Divine Direction.  Walk Truth is the process of expressing my work out in the world and to others.  I  Walk Truth when I walk with the understanding my work is 'More God than me'.  Walk Truth is meditation in action.
In Work Truth, I create with and through spirit. In Walk Truth, my walk in the world is a spiritual practice.  It is often as colorful and rowdy as it is soft and contemplative.

Self Reflection: How am I currently expressing my life's work our in the world and to others? Do I need support to express my life more truthfully?  If so, am I will to ask for this support? to receive it?

Stepping fully into the Journey on Our Web

What flows from me inevitably leads me to becoming more whole
              and complete in my life.  
What flows from me is not originated by me, but through me.  

I am not responsible or creating the idea, the inspiration. 

I am responsible for using all of my senses (including the sixth sense)

And allowing what comes to flow through me.

This I can allow, support, encourage.

This I can nourish in the womb of my being.  

I trust what comes through me will be known to me 

           at the right time, 

                        and the right place.  

This is the stance of faith.

Just like with spider, the fibers to spin her web flow from her when she is

           in the right time 

                        and the right place/space.

Self Reflection:  Read this contemplation aloud four times. Then, sit and listen, just for a few minutes, letting the specific truth of this message for YOU come into consciousness.  If mind wants to run away from what  is coming in, gently bring her back until you feel the resonance of the message settling in your heart. 

Note: Spider totem represents a feminine aspect of the creative source 

                 and is part of all of us, whether we are female or male.  

Aligning your Dreams, Desires, Goals and Vision

Sara writes:  To be honest, when I sat down with the four circles of 'Dreams', 'Desires', 'Goals' and 'Vision' this morning, I wondered why on earth we had chosen four words that meant the same thing. Then I started writing:

• Desires-what my heart is calling for, that for which I feel a lack or emptiness 
• Dreams-what I would love to have in my life.  Again mostly what I don' have (yet)
• Goals-what I hope to accomplish, in specifics
• Vision-how I see myself manifesting in the world and how the Universe manifests around me

I remember a time, about 13-14 years ago when a similar exercise (in the middle of a corporate  retreat) nearly caused a complete emotional breakdown.  I was living my life trying to fulfill someone else's desires, reach goals that had been set by those who controlled my financial future, had room only for the dream of safety and didn't dare let myself look at a vision of how my life was manifesting.

When we are not in touch with our inner self, we lose the ability to weave a coherent web.  Those four apparently similar words end up disconnected when they do not spring from our own inner truth,  from our own core wisdom.  

Self Reflection: Are my Dreams, Desires, Goals and Vision in alignment?  Can they all be contained and supported by the web I am weaving with my choices and my life?

Stereopsis Moon

Stereopsis New Moon , Lisa Kay, 9/30/16

 Looking into a black ceramic crock pot, soaking in my sink, I captured this strange and astounding photo that I titled,  Cyclops. The mandala image was created from the interaction of  vinegar and baking soda. I have been contemplating and wondering about the meaning of this image ever since the new moon. What does this have to do with the moon cycle? What I discovered is that a more fitting name for this mandala is Stereoposis rather than Cylops. This greek term (stereo meaning "solid" and opsis meaning" appearance") refers to one's ability to see with both eyes that which may is hidden from each eye alone.  For me, this is a reminder to stay open to seeing and perceiving with what Educational Philosopher, Maxine Greene has called a "wide-awakeness."

Connecting Our Hearts to Our Visions

Carolyn writes:

This past July, I had the privilege of spending a weekend with Bob and Lee Nitsch, the son and daughter-in-law of the late Grandmother Twylah Nitsch.  Twylah was the Seneca Elder who shared the Seneca teachings of Cycles of Truth, a foundational part of the Moon Circle Journal, with all who would listen.  Bob and Lee carry on her work, and came to Philadelphia to lead a weekend seminar for contemplating and experiencing the meaning of the Cycles of Truth in our life.  Participants were invited to take contemplation time outside in the gardens surrounding our meeting place.  During one walking meditation, I came across this placard peeking out from among the flowers:

When I uploaded the pictures off my I-phone last week the photo I snapped of Jung's quote was the one that 'just happened' to land in the front of the album. Jung's quote is fitting for the waxing moon phase for October's call to walk and work with/in Truth. I think about my difficulties having 'clarity of vision' and I reflect on Sara's intuitive interconnection of visions, dreams, goals and desires on the Waxing Moon journal page. I ask myself, "where inside me, do I need to look (or sense) more fully, deeply, thoroughly to be more fully awake to my work and to the way I walk in my life? Am I willing to look there?"

Self reflection: Are there places I need to look within myself to be more fully awake to my vision for my life? Am I willing to look?