Tag: love

Message 2Men The Great Remembrance

Dear Men..

We miss you.

Deeply.

When women gather together in circles..

we tell stories of how much we long for you. Crave you.

Pray for you to rise and meet us here.

We mourn your missing presence.

In our childhoods.

In the homes we’ve built without you.

In our beds.

We hold hands and beg God to set you free from whatever keeps you from standing at our sides.

Right here.

Here In intimacy.

In integrity.

In wholeness.

In freedom.

The places where you are caught in dishonesty..

shame..

fear..

addiction..

we grieve and rage over.

We see your pain and we see your power.

We miss you.

We love you.

We can’t wait for you to come home

For the men who have..

thank you so much.

Please call your brothers..

start men’s circles..

show them the manuals.

Tell them of what you gave up.

Of your brokenness and acceptance.

Of what it truly means to take up the mantle of protector.

Please.

There aren’t enough fathers..

resources and leaders for men to sit at the feet of.

The women have tried.

We can’t do it.

The restoration must come from within the Masculine.

The Feminine cannot mother grown men into wholeness.

We cannot strap men to our backs and walk.

We tried.

We bow out.

Not gracefully.

But in mournful acceptance nonetheless.

And we will wait for you to burst free from the shackles patriarchy has placed on you.

We pray.

We pray.

We pray.

For the Great Remembrance.

~ Shade Ashani

4 Agreements

The Four Agreements

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.”

~Don Miguel Ruiz

Art | Catrin Welz-Stein

The Grace Project

So I had shared this lovely photograph of my beautiful artist friend and Grace Goddess Marianne Duquette Cuozzo… along with these fabulous words of Glennon Doyle… The post went viral… and now Facebook deleted it and said “I was going too fast”… Ugh… this platform!! Here are these fabulous words and Mariannes gorgeous photo again: “Your body is not your masterpiece — your life is.

It is suggested to us a million times a day that our BODIES are PROJECTS. They aren’t. Our lives are. Our spirituality is. Our relationships are. Our work is.

Stop spending all day obsessing, cursing, perfecting your body like it’s all you’ve got to offer the world. Your body is not your art, it’s your paintbrush. Whether your paintbrush is a tall paintbrush or a thin paintbrush or a stocky paintbrush or a scratched up paintbrush is completely irrelevant. What is relevant is that YOU HAVE A PAINTBRUSH which can be used to transfer your insides onto the canvas of your life — where others can see it and be inspired and comforted by it.

Your body is not your offering. It’s just a really amazing instrument which you can use to create your offering each day. Don’t curse your paintbrush. Don’t sit in a corner wishing you had a different paintbrush. You’re wasting time. You’ve got the one you got. Be grateful, because without it you’d have nothing with which to paint your life’s work. Your life’s work is the love you give and receive — and your body is the instrument you use to accept and offer love on your soul’s behalf. It’s a system.

We are encouraged to obsess over our instrument’s SHAPE — but our body’s shape has no effect on it’s ability to accept and offer love for us. Just none. Maybe we continue to obsess because as long we keep wringing our hands about our paintbrush shape, we don’t have to get to work painting our lives. Stop fretting. The truth is that all paintbrush shapes work just fine — and anybody who tells you different is trying to sell you something. Don’t buy. Just paint.

No wait — first, stop what you are doing and say THANK YOU to your body — right now. Say THANK YOU to your eyes for taking in the beauty of sunsets and storms and children blowing out birthday candles and say THANK YOU to your hands for writing love letters and opening doors and stirring soup and waving to strangers and say THANK YOU to your legs for walking you from danger to safety and climbing so many mountains for you.

Then pick up your instrument and start painting this day beautiful and bold and wild and free and YOU. Paint this day beautiful, bold, wild & free.”~

~Glennon Doyle, Momastery

We are not there yet : Your Child Really Loves You

I know what you are thinking…

My alienated child hates me.
No true, your child is being brainwashed to reject you.
Your child really loves you.

Maybe I wasn’t a good parent.
Not true, you were and are an awesome parent- no doubts.

My child is going to forget all the good times we had.
Not true. Your child remembers everything and wants to have you back in their life. They can’t right now; they are trying to survive.

My child talks badly about me to their friends.
Believe it or not- they don’t. They praise you and sometimes brag about you.

My child will never come back to me.
A bond between a biological child and a parent is almost impossible to break. There is a very good chance that once they gain clarity on what happened to them, they will reach out to you.

My child is probably going to be screwed up for the rest of their life.
Not true. Alienated kids are survivors with incredible resilience. They know how to adapt, show allegiance and fight for what they believe.

I am never going to be happy unless my child is back in my life.
Oh, not true. While your child is gone, this is a wonderful opportunity for you to work on you and develop positive self esteem. This is your time to be happy despite your pain. Make friends, meditate, pray, take long walks… Get ready…So when they return, they can say- “ Wow, my Mom/Dad is sooo awesome!”

You are beautiful, unique and special❤️

Love A Woman

“If you want to change the world . . . love a woman — really love her.

Find the one who calls to your soul, who doesn’t make sense.

Throw away your check list and put your ear to her heart and listen.

Hear the names, the prayers, the songs of every living thing —

every winged one, every furry and scaled one,

every underground and underwater one, every green and flowering one,

every not yet born and dying one . . .

Hear their melancholy praises back to the One who gave them life.

If you haven’t heard your own name yet, you haven’t listened long enough.

If your eyes aren’t filled with tears, if you aren’t bowing at her feet, you haven’t ever grieved having almost lost her.

If you want to change the world . . . love a woman — one woman

beyond yourself, beyond desire and reason,

beyond your male preferences for youth, beauty and variety

and all your superficial concepts of freedom.

We have given ourselves so many choices

we have forgotten that true liberation

comes from standing in the middle of the soul’s fire

and burning through our resistance to Love.

There is only one Goddess.

Look into Her eyes and see — really see

if she is the one to bring the axe to your head.

If not, walk away. Right now.

Don’t waste time “trying.”

Know that your decision has nothing to do with her

because ultimately it’s not with who,

but when we choose to surrender.

If you want to change the world . . . love a woman.

Love her for life — beyond your fear of death,

beyond your fear of being manipulated

by the Mother inside your head.

Don’t tell her you’re willing to die for her.

Say you’re willing to LIVE with her,

plant trees with her and watch them grow.

Be her hero by telling her how beautiful she is in her vulnerable majesty,

by helping her to remember every day that she IS Goddess

through your adoration and devotion.

If you want to change the world . . . love a woman

in all her faces, through all her seasons

and she will heal you of your schizophrenia —

your double-mindedness and half-heartedness

which keeps your Spirit and body separate —

which keeps you alone and always looking outside your Self

for something to make your life worth living.

There will always be another woman.

Soon the new shiny one will become the old dull one

and you’ll grow restless again, trading in women like cars,

trading in the Goddess for the latest object of your desire.

Man doesn’t need any more choices.

What man needs is Woman, the Way of the Feminine,

of Patience and Compassion, non-seeking, non-doing,

of breathing in one place and sinking deep intertwining roots

strong enough to hold the Earth together

while she shakes off the cement and steel from her skin.

If you want to change the world . . . love a woman, just one woman.

Love and protect her as if she is the last holy vessel.

Love her through her fear of abandonment

which she has been holding for all of humanity.

No, the wound is not hers to heal alone.

No, she is not weak in her codependence.

If you want to change the world . . . love a woman

all the way through

until she believes you,

until her instincts, her visions, her voice, her art, her passion,

her wildness have returned to her —

until she is a force of love more powerful

than all the political media demons who seek to devalue and destroy her.

If you want to change the world,

lay down your causes, your guns and protest signs.

Lay down your inner war, your righteous anger

and love a woman . . .

beyond all of your striving for greatness,

beyond your tenacious quest for enlightenment.

The holy grail stands before you

if you would only take her in your arms

and let go of searching for something beyond this intimacy.

What if peace is a dream which can only be re-membered

through the heart of Woman?

What if a man’s love for Woman, the Way of the Feminine

is the key to opening Her heart?

If you want to change the world . . . love a woman

to the depths of your shadow,

to the highest reaches of your Being,

back to the Garden where you first met her,

to the gateway of the rainbow realm

where you walk through together as Light as One,

to the point of no return,

to the ends and the beginning of a new Earth.”

~ Lisa Citore

If You Want to Change the World, Love a Woman (2008)

Art: Chie Yoshii

Chie Yoshii

#SacredSistersFullMoonCircle #Spirituality #WomensWisdom #WomensEmpowerment #RedTent #SacredFeminine #Goddess #GoddessCircle #GoddessStudies #CyclicalLiving #WheeloftheYear #Mythology #Magick #Folklore #FolkTradition #Woman

Birthing

“They told you about the contractions but did they tell you about the expansion?

Did they tell you how your body would open to make way for the whole universe to pass through?

Did they tell you how your heart would explode with a love bigger than anything you’ve ever known as you pulled your baby to your chest

They told you about the ring of fire but did they tell you about the crown of stars?

Did they mention that there is a moment when your baby enters the world and you leave your body and touch the heavens and become the light of a million galaxies?

Did they tell you how the pain of stretching to receive your child would be more exquisite than any sensation you’ve felt?

They told you you would scream but did they tell you about how you would roar?

Did they tell you about the power that would rise up from your belly as you called your baby forth with your mighty voice?

Did they tell you how you would embody the wild woman within you and breathe fire with your song?

They told you you would bleed but did they tell you how that sacred blood wouldn’t scare you?

How you would feel grateful for that magical liquid of life as it trickled down your leg?

How you would honor its flow and how it would help you heal a lifetime of hating your body’s bleeding cycles?

They told you these stories and taught you to fear birth, to fear your power, to fear yourself.

But you’re stronger and wiser than that mama.

You know that birth is your divine dance, your soul’s song, your moment with God, and you walk fearlessly into her open arms.”

~ Catie Atkinson

https://m.facebook.com/spiritysol/

@spiritysoul on Instagram

Art: Medha Srivastava, “Motherlove”

https://www.facebook.com/medhasrivastavaa/

#SacredSistersFullMoonCircle #Spirituality. #WomensWisdom #WomensEmpowerment #RedTent #SacredFeminine #Goddess #GoddessCircle #WheeloftheYear #Mythology #Magick #FolkTradition #GivingBirth #Birth #Childbirth #SeasonoftheMother #GodtheMother

Love is not a cage

True, deep longing love desires the very best for the person who receives our affections,

even if in achieving their highest form and happiness they are taken away.

The highest form of love is not a cage,

but the open sky.

The highest test of this love is letting go and trusting everything will happen for the best.

The highest and most divine love is a form of non-striving and trust.

Letting go instead of trying to control.

Even if letting go rends your heart in two,

let it bleed and continue to love till you can smile.

Art ≈ NICOLAS NADJA

Woman

Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads, a woman who feels too much, a woman who writes…

Don’t fall in love with an educated, magical, delusional, crazy woman.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who thinks, who knows what she knows and also knows how to fly; a woman sure of herself.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who laughs or cries making love, knows how to turn her spirit into flesh; let alone one that loves poetry (these are the most dangerous), or spends half an hour contemplating a painting and isn’t able to live without music.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who is interested in politics and is rebellious and feels a huge horror from injustice. One who does not like to watch television at all. Or a woman who is beautiful no matter the features of her face or her body.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who is intense, entertaining, lucid and irreverent.

Don’t wish to fall in love with a woman like that. Because when you fall in love with a woman like that, whether she stays with you or not, whether she loves you or not, from a woman like that,

you never come back.

–Martha Rivera-Garrido

Hug the Mother

Hold the mother, not the baby.⁣

⁣

Because the baby’s being taken care of—⁣

fed, snuggled, and given all the love in the world—⁣

by not only the mother,⁣

but her partner, grandparents, siblings, cousins, and friends.⁣

⁣

But the mother,⁣

may have gaps in her mind from lack of sleep,⁣

may be mechanical in her motions as she’s healing,⁣

may feel more like a mess than a mother,⁣

may be sitting in bed, crying, feeling overwhelmed in her body and life,⁣

may be full of mom guilt because in her mind, “she’s not good enough,”⁣

and she’s bleeding, wincing in pain, swollen and emotional.⁣

⁣

And the mother’s that baby’s whole world and needs to be seen, so she doesn’t disappear into that postpartum fog.⁣

⁣

So, hold the mother, not the baby.⁣

⁣

A mother agrees that her baby matters more.⁣

But she’s hurting, while she’s the person behind the baby,⁣

in the background, making it all happen:⁣

feeding her baby at all hours,⁣

snuggling her baby close to comfort newborn cries,⁣

and being that baby’s everything.⁣

⁣

So, it’s the mother who needs your love.⁣

⁣

And a mother will remember who held her up.⁣

⁣

So instead of “I’m coming to see the baby,”⁣

try saying, “I’m coming to see you 𝘢𝘯𝘥 meet the baby, too.”⁣

⁣

Because the mother needs to be held more.⁣

📸: This Mama Doodles

……………………………………………..⁣⁣

My Children’s Book 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺: 𝘈𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘴 𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘉𝘪𝘨 𝘍𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘛𝘰𝘰 is out everywhere: https://amzn.to/317TvVc

Body

I wonder if you know,

the work your body has done today.

And every day.

How much disease it has fought off.

How many times it could have failed but battled on,

how many ways it could have broken but did not.

I wonder if you know,

the work your body has done today.

And every day.

And each day it has done this amazing job,

without your help,

without your approval,

your acceptance,

your kindness.

Each day it has soldiered on,

regardless of the constant stream of negativity,

pulsing its way from your brain to your cells.

Not good enough.

Not attractive enough.

Not the right shape.

Perhaps it’s time to see your body for what is truly is,

An amazing and mind-blowingly competent machine.

To get your soul to where it needs to be in this life.

To let you live.

I wonder if you know,

how much better you would be as a team.

I wonder.

Donna Ashworth

From ‘I wish I Knew’: https://amzn.to/3JVMJlZ

Art by The Ronald West Gallery

#bodypositive #art #poetry #bodyimage #selflove #selfcare #wordsofwisdom