Recognizing challenge as the ever-present gift for growth.
My hope is that by reading my story, you will feel the connection to your centered core and the desire to come from that place of health within, while supporting your child’s place of wholeness and connection.
The Cultivation of Life is The Practice
There was once a girl. She twirled in the sunlight and danced under the stars. She found herself so thankful for the sky and sun. This was the beginning of her presence, her peace with life. She thanked the stars for their appearance. Like musicians on a stage, the stars entertained her and inspired her. She found awe in the vastness of her surroundings. She knew when she was thankful, she was part of the whole, that her peace was the peace of the galaxies, of existence itself. That connection was her connection to self, to all.
She went walking through the stream, feeling the cold water on her feet and the unknowingness of the stream bed under her toes. She had a moment of fear, uncertainty about the unknown. She trusted. She let go of the “un.” Certain, she felt known. She grew. She moved past a thought. A thought can take us on one path or another. Her gratitude for the Earth and her awe of the ethers, allowed her to let her fearful thought float away down the river like a fallen twig from a tree. In this, she was alive.
The girl came to a cliff edge overlooking the valley. A sunflower that had already lived through its prime had scattered its seeds around the fallen stem. She was tired from her day and the hot sun. By taking the time and planting the seeds she was the cultivator. In this she realized her own strength in showing up to participate. She swirled and twirled and ran about, ecstatic about growing her surroundings, until she was out of breath. It took some time, but she found her breath again. In breathing, she felt her lungs fill, air moved through her and calmed her body.
Again and again she stayed focused on her breath, until she wasn’t thinking of stars or sunlight, flowers or the growth to come, the space or the view. She was just breathing, not even realizing that without this breath she would have no existence at all. And so, she continued to breathe. In this, she found total freedom.
In that gratitude, she cultivated herself. In that trust, she freed herself. In letting go of fearful thinking, she awoke herself. In that aliveness, she found herself.
