Creativity

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Poetry…

Flicker...free in a morning sky...

A friend recently shared this poem by Hafiz.  It has meant so much to me that I want to share it with you.

“We have Not Come to Take Prisoners”

We have not come here to take prisoners,
But to surrender ever more deeply
To freedom and joy.
 
We have not come into this exquisite world
To hold ourselves hostage from love.
 
Run my dear,
From anything that may not strengthen
Your precious budding wings.
 
Run like hell my dear,
From anyone likely to put a sharp knife
Into the sacred, tender vision of your beautiful heart.
 
We have a duty to befriend those aspects of obedience
That stand outside our house and shout to our reason
“O please, O please, Come out and play.”
 
For we have not come here to take prisoners
Or to confine our wondrous spirits,
 
But to experience ever and ever more deeply
Our divine courage, freedom, and Light!
 
From The Gift: Poems by Hafiz
Translated by D. Ladinsky
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Blessings as Winter spins into Spring…unfolding new life…

May Gaea Be Our Guide...

“I bend my knee beside the pool of blessings at the threshold of eternity.”        (traditional Hebrew prayer: translation by Rabbi Sue Morningstar*)

“The ultimate spiritual teacher is moment-to-moment daily living.  The ultimate challenge of spiritual unfolding, of Becoming, is to bring through whatever is in the moment, the heart of your highest self, your Being, your Essence.”  Our Friends

Hello My Friends,

I am thinking of you as the year turns and the inwardness of winter begins to shift to the rebirth of spring.  I hope, wherever you live, and however your life is unfolding today, you feel within the newest shoots of life’s endless rebirth.  I hope everything in your life is well and good. 

The past year was amazing for me…starting with the building of my blogs: for Our Friends sharing www.innerteacher.wordpress.com.  My artwork can be found at www.stephanieknead.wordpress.com. 

A summer article about my communion and sharing of Our Friends (http://www.roseyroundtherogue.com/column8-16-10.html) was wonderful and introduced me to a new group of truly lovely human beings. 

I was blessed with an ongoing presence at Ashland Art Works Galleries, an artist collective here in my hometown.  (If you ever visit southern Oregon, please drop me an email or call.  I’d love to meet you, and I’m always available for in-person, as well as phone, sessions.  Meeting Our Friends in person is filled with love.)  I spent the late fall happily ensconced in my art studio creating new work for a show starting February 1st at Illahe Gallery here in Ashland.  (the photos will be on my art site as of February 1st.)

My poetry has been flowing.  As you will see, each new piece for this show is accompanied by a poem. 

So, the grace of the past year has been the infusion of my creativity, including Our Friends, more fully, day-by-day, into my life.  A greater gift is hard to imagine.  It is the inflow and epitome of abundance for me.  They say “Do what you love and the money will follow.”  Well, then, I should soon be very wealthy! 

May you be blessed with all you need this year.  May you recognize both the need and the receiving.  May you hear with your heart and body, letting go the stories of your mind and history.  May love light your way and may you feel yourself blessed every day.  May life always be received as a gift, a mystery, an honor.

Love,                                                                                                                                       Stephanie

*This translation is based on the multiple meanings inherent in every Hebrew word.  For those of you with a Jewish background the transliterated prayer is “Baruch Atah Adonai, elohaynu melech haolam.” 

Baruch means “blessed” or “knee.”  Atah means “One” or “pool.”  Olam means “threshold” or “eternity.”

 

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Recent Article I promised for your reading pleasure…

The Girl Next Door Is A What?

by Alan Rosenberg

My girlfriend is coming out of the closet.

No, not that closet.

A channeler for more than 20 years…  (keep reading below)

http://roseyroundtherogue.com/column8-16-10.html

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Being My True Self

"Building A Cairn" Me at almost 50 in meditation with rock and sun and trees and water...in a moment of love with Life.

This week an article came out about me in a local paper.  Those of you who know me, know that I have assiduously avoided advertising in any way my channeling work, that for 20 years I have cringed at the idea of it. 

But I am about to turn 50.  As I looked at my life’s continuum, I asked myself what I want to do with the rest of this life, what do I want bring to this life and this sacred earth.  My answer was obvious: what I have always felt in my heart and soul and Being, what fills me with nourishing joy, my communion. 

I am fortunate that my communion has evolved over the years to take several forms:  I offer Our Friends through sessions, a sharing that brings me new friends with almost every new person and blesses me with the felt knowledge that Our Friends offer the deepest nourishment to the people who come.  

I create art, which also reflects my communion with and love for this earth and this life.  I write poetry.  I write memoir and creative vignettes.  I write pondering, musing, ideas, and considerations.  I write what the muse tells me to write, and I am blessed that the muse is clear and strong with me. 

Turning 50, I realized that what I want to do, and what my soul needs me to do, is to share fully and ardently my gifts.  This is my source of nourishment and joy; it opens me to love in the most profound and deepest ways.

So when I was asked to allow this article to be written, I was almost willing to consider it.  It took several tries and some negotiation, but in the end I agreed.  I agreed in part because the man writing the article is my beloved, and I trust him to get me right. 

I agreed because he understood my need to be transperant about who I am and how I come to this work, why it is important to me, and why it is essential to me to offer it with the deepest human honesty…without packaging or branding or the “right” bullet points or currently popular descriptors. 

Of all I have learned over the past 20 years, I have learned that one thing is absolute with a gift such as Our Friends.  My first and only real task is to live my life, and make my choices — to the best of my ability — to keep the path, the felt-sense of my communion, clear and pure in my life and Being. 

Since this article (which I will post here next week for your reading pleasure…) has come out, I have been blessed to meet some wonderful people, new friends: grounded, clear, loving people of sweet heart, whose intentions for growth are deep.

I am feeling very grateful for turning 50, for the clarity it has brought me, for “coming out” more fully in my work and in my life, for my beloved who presented me so honestly and clearly (and with humor!) in his writing, for those who have felt drawn to come for sessions. 

Life has been busy the past week.  Next week I will get back to writing and posting Our Friends material.  Until then…

May you be blessed with peace and clarity, with entering the mystery of the present moment…whatever it holds, knowing that whether beauty or pain, it is of the moment and possesses a gift to bestow.  May you feel safe to open to your own feelings, Being, presence, and moment.  Love, Stephanie

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Denial

What you deny has great power over you.    Our Friends

"Moon Shadow" over Hood Canal, Washington...what we know is there but do not see is illuminated by what we do see. Let us use our light to see our shadows. Stephanie

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Honoring Path

“It is important that you honor your own path and your own way of communion with Creation.”                      The Inner Teacher, Our Friends

© 2010  Stephanie K. Nead     http://stephanieknead.wordpress.com/

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New Creation

All creative expression comes from the same source.  The blessed gift of being creative is the experience of “flow,” when time stops and joy is like a stream burbling through my Being.  One of the places in life where I experience this is in my studio.  Have a look at my latest creation.   You can find it and more at the link here:  http://stephanieknead.wordpress.com/

An image in fiber of lower Antelope Canyon in southwester U.S. These slot canyons are formed when floods pour through sandstone, carving deep and glorious channels through the earth. When the sun is directly overhead, the light bouncing down the slot creates rich, saturated colors and texture that is magnificent from below.