Butterfly Balance Wellness Center

Fully Alive

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

Poem: Fully Alive by Dawna Markova

I've been cleaning out my inbox and found this poem that I sent myself 10 months ago so I could post it on my blog. I had long forgotten about it, but it touched me this morning as it did the first time I read it. I knew it had to be shared and hope it will touch you also.

What one thing can you do today to feel Fully Alive? To not die an unlived life?

Improving the World

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a
single moment before starting to improve the world"
 ~ Anne Frank

What is one thing that you can do right now to help "improve the world"?

Do you think that improving yourself counts? You're part of the world, aren't you? Wouldn't living to your highest potential also help the world? What does "improving the world" mean to you?

Everything in the world is made up of energy. We all interact with everything around us on an energetic level and are far more intertwined than you might imagine. Sometimes it's easy to think of ourselves as being alone, and that our actions make no difference to anyone or anything around us.

Tonight Phil and I are going to attend a blessing ceremony for the Duwamish Waterway - you can find more information about this by clicking here. It promises to be an "hour of Reiki, Peruvian shamanism, gong, Native American flute and a special crystal singing bowl ritual to bless the waters of the Duwamish River." This is my contribution to improving the world today.

What will you do?

Is This The Way Things Were Meant To Be?

Charlie Thistle has worked 20 years at the Department of Normality. One gray day fades into the next until one night he wrestles with the question, "Is this the way things were meant to be?"

I receive DVDs each month from Spiritual Cinema Circle. To borrow words from their website, each DVDs". . . includes a mixture of features, shorts and documentaries that explore spirit, spirituality, existence, morality, compassion, the power of the mind, metaphysics and other enriching topics that take your personal journey further."

Here is a link to a short movie called Charlie Thistle, as described above. The link will ask you to sign up for their service. There is no obligation to do so in order to watch the film, nor do I get any incentive for passing this information on to you. I am sharing it because I thought it was an interesting, short film about what can happen when we step outside of our comfort zone.  I also love the films I receive each month from Spiritual Cinema Circle and would recommend checking it out. If you're a person who enjoys what I share here on my blog, you might enjoy this as well.

I've always been a person that others have described as "marching to the beat of a different drummer." I think it's part of  living in integrity to follow your own path. And once you do, it's hard to go back to "normal" - or others' perception of what is allegedly normal. Charlie Thistle's experience echoes this as well.

Hope you enjoy the film. Let me know what you think of it.

Lost

For the handful of you who actually read my blog, I apologize that I haven't been posting as regularly lately. Mostly it's because I've been feeling very lost and didn't feel like posting nothing but whining. :) Actually, I don't even know if it would've been whining. I don't think I really knew what to say. And that doesn't make for very interesting blogging. :)

I feel like I'm going through this huge shift. I know I've been doing a lot of energy work on myself and with my own practitioner, but I think it's more than that. I didn't end up going to church for a month (which is really rare for me) because I was just feeling so disconnected from Spirit and life and everything. I've been doing a lot to sabotage myself, and have been aware of it, but felt unable to control doing it. It's been weird. I've been trying to revive my meditation practice. I feel as if I need to stop and listen to what's going on for me, and maybe get the answers from there. It's really hard to describe, and I know I'm doing a poor job of it.

Re-reading this, it sounds like I'm describing depression, but that's not it. I think what's happening is that I'm in a state of transition in many ways - physically, mentally and emotionally, and sometimes change is hard. It's often easier to shut down and run away than to deal with the change, even if it's good change. When I start to ignore self-care and eat poorly and don't take good care of myself, it's a way of shutting myself down. I deserve better than that. I'm working on it.

So bear with me, please, if I sound a bit disjointed. I think it's all for the greater good, and I've just got to work some stuff out. I've got stuff I want to chat about here, but haven't had the energy to get into with the heat, on top of all of this. It'll all work out. :)