From Where I Sit ~ A Sabbatical for the Soul

Somehow, when you are in the tropics, it's easy to lose track of time. There is a sense of timelessness that washes in with the waves, a whisper of "Just Be" that floats in with a warm breeze. I've been listening to those soulful notes and allowing them to take me deeper.

That's why you haven't heard much from me. We've finally moved into the little writer's cottage by the sea, the one I've been longing for for years. It serves as the perfect hostess for my creativity. And because it is, you'll be hearing from me less and less, for a while anyway. In fact, I've cleared my desk to take—for the first time in my entire life—a real sabbatical for 30 days of uninterrupted writing.

This feels like a luxury to me, but an essential one (oxymoron that it is). Creative people need creative space and vast expanses of time to honor the Muse. If you are a creative person, I wonder, do you allow yourself this "luxury"? I hope you do.

And sometimes, even though we are well-intentioned, we just don't make the commitment to honor ourselves in this way. It may take a nudge from a wise other to give our souls what we need to express themselves, to thrive.

My "nudge" came from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes. I fell in love with her work in the mid-90s. Her landmark book, Women Who Run with the Wolves, opened up a pathway for me to explore the deep soulful Feminine through myth and story. In doing so, for the first time I really explored my self.

An e-mail from Dr. E's publisher announcing her new book and on online series of fireside chats with her based on The Dangerous Old Woman (a work thirty years in the making) sealed my decision. Dr. E said this about her own choice to go "underground" and write:

"What you’ve heard over the years about my having disappeared and gone underground to work and write is true. When people ask where the heck I’ve been and why I so seldom come out when called by the “clattering world,” I often want to respond by saying that one can’t fulfill one’s calling by being called away. Rather one fulfills one’s calling by filling up . . . by studying, thinking, listening, looking at, living in the layers of life beyond the collective ones. Then . . . one can pour outwardly again."

Isn't her statement profound? She gave voice to what I've been feeling (but then wise woman others do that, don't they?). It is time for me to fill up again. I've not done so for an extended period since 1994. Do you think I might be due? I do. :-)


So for the next month or so, I will not be blogging for the most part. Not going to my computer until later in the day. Not taking phone calls before 4:00 p.m. Of course, no TV, but I haven't had one of those in five years. In other words, as few distractions as possible so I can hear the whisperings of my soul and, yes, put them down on paper. There are books to be birthed!

I will, however, be sitting in on Dr. E's fireside chats. I can hardly wait for the first one which begins Tuesday, April 6. (You can learn more about the series by clicking here.) And I'm finishing up my Lovingkindness online retreat with Sylvia Boorstein. Two powerful ways for me to fill my energetic well. That, and plenty of beach walks, watching dolphins, and yummy dinners with my beloved.

Should you need to reach me, I'll be available by e-mail through the Contact Box here. And here's an early announcement for the only weekend retreat (so far) I'll be leading in Michigan, once I return home. Check it out. June 25-27, "Come Back to Your Center." A fitting subject, don't you think? And I will continue to offer Spiritual Direction to women long-distance, one-on-one, should that be something you're interested in.

It's all about the spiritual journey—yours, mine, and ours—and I hope you will create time and space in the next month for your soul to sing. To write, paint, draw, dance, hike, rest. To do whatever it takes, as Dr. E says, to "fill yourself up ... to live in the layers of life between the collective." Will you? I hope you do.

So, what would it take for you to create even a tiny sabbatical for yourself?

As always, I hold you in thought, heart, and prayer.

Blessings,
Jan


(Writing image courtesy of www.djcl.org)

A ROOM OF HER OWN ~ From Where I Sit ~ Being Present

BEING PRESENT

Many years ago, I fell in love with the work of Joan Chittister, OSB. She is an outspoken gal who doesn't mince words. You know exactly where she stands on any number of issues. Her column in the National Catholic Reporter, in fact, is titled, "From Where I Stand."

She's inspired me to reconsider the course and future of this blog. I created it last summer. At the time, I hoped to use it as a "teaching tool," to share what I know; what I've learned from wise others along the way. It's now mid-winter and in the spirit of reflection, I'm feeling change is in order.

I've made a decision. I'm going to do something here that I have wonderful intentions for but never seem to get around to ~ journal ~ on a regular basis. To simply share what is happening with me. What I'm noticing. What I'm learning personally. Where I'm rising and falling, drifting. The view from where I sit.  

I hope you will continue to join me. Though, to honor my new creative projects (they need room of their own to breathe!), I'll likely be posting just one day a week. I also hope you will continue to share with me how your spiritual journey is unfolding—how YOU are rising, falling, drifting.

Here goes. I begin ... 

I've been traveling. Gone from the "Nest" for 4 days, which often seems like a lifetime to me to be away from my beloved husband. Away from the silence I cherish. Away from the Bay whose depths hold my heart.

And when I travel, offering programs and spiritual counsel, even though I mightily love what I do, a big part of me is here ... on the couch, gazing at the gray/green liquid, listening to ambient music, or just sitting in the silence. Candle aglow. Yes, this is my life and I love it so. I feel so blessed to do what I do and live in a place of great beauty. Creativity flourishes in this place.

But I miss it terribly when I am gone. Sometimes I even feel a little sickly when I am away for too long. When I drive back home and can finally see the water, I feel like I can breathe again. I literally feel my heart open a little wider just by catching the view.

So I have this tug and pull in me. I love what I do (when I travel/work) and I love being home. Do you ever feel like this?

A little voice inside of me says I "should" be happy wherever I am. That if I was a completely evolved woman I would be fully present wherever I find myself. I'd carry my home with me wherever I go.

I'd be a turtle woman.

I'd be content wherever my sturdy legs took me. After all, I actually DO have everything I need to be perfectly well, happy, and whole tucked right inside of me—wherever I go.

But sometimes I forget. I get spiritual amnesia, forget to use my tools, and wallow a little in "missing-ness." Bask a bit in not being absolutely fine where I find myself.

So, me and my life are a work in progress. I have the intention to be very present wherever I am—and actually most of the time I am. But I never claimed to be perfect, nor would I want to be.

It's a blessing to be a human being in this body with all these lessons to learn. Perhaps it is even a blessing to forget, because in the remembering we fall back into the arms of gratitude for this life we have been given—wherever we find ourselves.

I hope you are happy today, wherever you are.

And, as always, I welcome your thoughts ... 

(Image, "Turtle Woman Interrupted" by Jennifer Long courtesy of http://www.bookcrossing.com/artists/longdeherrera ) 

~~~0~~~

What I'm reading: Happiness is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life by Sylvia Boorstein

What I'm listening to: Soundtrack from "10 Questions for the Dalai Lama" by Peter Kater. You can also view the trailer for this film there.