Skookum tob tob: a pure and noble heart. Where am I in this myriad of options? How do I create an atmosphere of well-being? Not just me being well and happy, but a respect for my environment, the animals, people and elements that are close to me. Do I find myself not keeping small things small? Or over analyzing, criticizing and judging whatever happens to be closest… at firing range so to speak? How can we find center? Where does real serenity, peace of mind and a balanced life and attitude exist? They say if you spot it you got it. What is my most common feeling throughout the day, this month, this year? Where do I get suspended in a reaction? Where do I get caught in thinking my needs are more important than everyone else’s? We can see how short sighted we are when we are only thinking of ourselves and our own needs. The time of the lone wolf is over. We are being called as a collective, and due to some shifts in our economics, living as communities, families, collectives, and r...

“Go in the direction of where your peace is coming from.” ― C. JoyBell C. Where does my peace dwell? Where is my dwelling place? Does it have a place or time of assurance? Do I make clear limits and boundaries around what gives me peace, sanctuary a feeling of restfulness? It can be a moment in a busy day…. When something gives me pause. A trees yellow branches stripped by winter, across a purple twilight… a Child asleep in my arms, hailstones striking my window, preparing a meal, noticing with each step that the earth is frosted… Wonder, sanctuary, beauty and heart… Where do I rest, do I hurry through the wonder? do I hurry through the beauty in order to get to the next task ? We are so focused on what we need to do that we don’t even realize how exhausted we really are until we stop but only for 5 minutes… Do we come home to 1 million tiny do lists we’ve made to ourselves with not one playful, fun, or restful thing on any of them. Do we savor the precious gift...

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What I am thinking of myself is what I am making of myself. I am building my future out of the straw and bones or supple flowers that fill my mind and create what comes out of my mouth. Our words are our horses that we send out into the world to do the work and wildness of creating our lives. The horse is the symbol of potency and power, words are power objects. The one’s we say to ourselves and to others are medicine bundles. Are they empowering for us, for others? I build a new world from all the letters that make up the words that we think or speak. What is this new world that I build? From the words and images in my heart and what are the horses that pull the chariot that contains my future. It’s taking me somewhere, how can we know where? Reflect – On my heart. What does my heart want me to experience? Acceptance, love, creativity, gratitude. Reflect. Listen. Then act, speak, move, create from your reflection. Bring something into being that is tangible. Pick up the phone, m...

Thankfully we humans have the ability to reason. Perhaps. Perhaps not. There is a poem by Walt Whitman where he states ‘I think that I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self contained. Not one bows to another. Nor to his kind. That lived hundreds of years ago’…from  Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass.  Animals simply live. They take care of what they are faced with each day. No one does for them. I have yet to see entitlement in the animal kingdom. Or a lion who says with a den full of cubs and a nursing lioness  ‘well I am king of the forest, someone else should hunt for me’and I will relax here in the comfort of my cave’. Interesting how they don’t think the world owes them anything. How everything is earned through the energy they put in. There is no wild creature that does not know how sufficient they are. We do make them weak and reliant. Pets are wonderful but animals who sustain themselves in the natural cycles of winter, spring, autum...

On the land in Idaho at Nine Muses the Retreat Center that we have for artists, writers and meditation we have frogs. Tiny little frogs, and frogs as big as a small coconut. This is such a blessing, I love hearing them sing and talk. I love finding them hopping up the steps, or sunbathing on the water lilies in the sweet kingfisher pond. This is a good sign. Frogs are so sensitive to the environment that they wouldn’t be there unless the land was healthy. What they show us in our time here at Nine Muses is that things in the environment are in balance and the frogs are steadily increasing in number. This is how we know the environment is healthy for us and for them. What are our own significators that our environment is healthy? that the landscape of our interior and external world is healthy. What are significators that we are on track in our own lives? That we are in balance? Well…more often than not we are happy when we are living every day of our lives. We have moments where we...

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Dear Community, I have written a prayer as I know we are deeply impacted by the events that happened yesterday, may you find comfort and solace in these words at this time. In  Beauty, Char Great Spirit, Creator. We come to you with humble hearts and we ask for your comfort and healing. We are not a broken city but badly wounded and in grief for those we’ve lost. Members of our community, precious creatives, healers and visionaries have come to join you creator. We believe it is too soon for their divine appointment. We need your help. Please heal us of this violence creator, rearrange our hearts, remove from us any desire to harm anyone for any reason through word, thought or deed to harm anyone in anyway. May those who have crossed find their way to you, may they know the comfort of your angels, may they have a safe journey to their divine appointment with you. And may we be changed by this tragedy, may it open, deepen and transform us into people who care. May we mentor the youth...