“Life is a storm.
Bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next.
What makes you a warrior is what you do when that storm comes.
You must look into the storm and shout as you did when you were born…
‘Do your worst…for I will do mine.’
Then the fates will know you as we know you…as one who came to stand for integrity.”
*This is a paraphrased version of a birthday speech from “The Count of Monte Cristo.”
I seem to be a sword wielder.
Those who see life differently than I, might say it’s a bat.
No matter to me, I am who I am. I see it as a sword and I use it regularly, especially when I need to move out of an outworn paradigm or escape from the clutches of an addictive habit.
Everyone is batting, slicing and poking lately, not just me.
Each one of us is integrating, re-integrating, reorganizing, and even rewriting our stories. We are turning over apple carts right and left, leaving our former villagers agape in our wakes.
Sometimes this is not only upsetting, it’s incredibly painful. Sometimes we feel confused, sometimes certain, and in others there’s a lot of ease. No matter how we interpret recent big and small events, time is quickly moving and we are quickening whether we want to or not. That in itself feels sort of strangely easy lately because we simply don’t have the time to worry, feel guilty or get stuck anyplace too long!
I like this quickening…even though it often hurts me and anyone else in the surrounding or nearby energy fields. I just use my sword–or bat depending on how you might see it, to cut through my own tendency for sluggishness, guilt, grief, or even too much sympathy.
Even if you aren’t a sword fighter or batter, you might like this.
There’s a story about a woman who, on her last legs to enlightenment, crosses paths with a bent and tired old man carrying a bundle of wood on his back. She watches as the man loses his balance, all the wood falling to ground. It’s her choice, her final test, whether to stay and help him pick up the wood or to walk on.
What would you do?
One day a couple weeks ago, I must have misplaced my stinger because I found myself under a pile of rotten, moldy and crumbling sticks. An old man was laughing and skipping down the lane not too far away.
Sitting in what felt like a sodden mire of great trepidation, I called an old buddy of mine. Instead of pulling the decaying wood off of me, this friend sent along an article about spiritual warrior-ship.
It was a reminder. Here’s the link: The Unknown Lightworker–The Lightwarrior
Reading this blog helped not only to allay the sticky feelings that could have easily turned to guilt, it helped me to shift my way point…it got me up and through one of those more confusing moments recently when I might have stopped again to help an old man.
I’ve been reflecting for a long time on what it means to be a conscious, conscientious person, someone inside that often overused idea of ‘our spiritual journey toward enlightenment.’
What does it mean to be someone with integrity, and how do we define our placement along the way in terms of ‘all things being equal?’
One day while watching the second martial arts movie about Bruce Lee’s master teacher, ‘Ip Man2,’ I heard my answer.
Ip Man said at the end, “No man’s integrity is more valuable than another’s.”
Something really clicked in me and this was my mantra for several weeks. One day while reflecting on the message of Ip Man’s words, I saw an image of two circle patterns. Each circle had an outer ring with a fairly large center point in the middle. The first and larger circle appeared to be a Universal metaphor for integrity and had a lot of dots along the outer ring.
The second, smaller circle symbolized the individual circles in which we humans live and operate. It was an enlarged version of the dots around the Universal circle ring.
In that moment I felt truly clear about this idea of who is where on the way. We are only as enlightened as we are whole, and wholeness, or integration, is the same for everyone. No one person is better than another or further along the path than someone else when integrity is at the center.
All other points are just varying degrees of integration–stages along the way.
Each one of us is walking inward toward center; inward to our own center and inward to the center of the Universal principle of integrity. A balance of yin and yang inside of us, yin and yang together, inside a circle of oneness.
Have you heard? Menopause is a spiritual transition.
It is a grand and sacred occurrence that demands deep self-nurturing from within. During this phase of life, women, and the men around them, are asked to journey into unknown inner terrain and embrace feminine energies in an unusual way. At the very least they are guided to find a balance of both masculine and feminine energies inside themselves.
On the surface, menopause is still often defined as a sort of temporary state of being based on a hormonal shift. And in concert with its superficial design, not in deference, it is time to remember the deeper mysteries of the body as they reflect the constant flux and re-balancing of humanity and spirit, yin and yang.
Unlike its centuries-old predecessors, or even its pre-1990′s representatives, menopause no longer inspires visions of old gray crones on rickety limbs, old maids or even granny-hood and retirement. Youthful, vibrant and wise women are instead the ambassadors of this passage. In Goddess circles, there is a new term for those in this particular cycle of life: they are Queens!
Pretty much all women in any stage of menopause will tell you–whether it be pre, peri or post–this is a time of incredible growth and multidimensional change, especially if it is navigated naturally. One physical symptom can encourage a thought or an emotional response, which if given the least bit of attention can lead to moments of great inspiration and epiphany. In reverse, acknowledgement of that same creativity and connection can be traced back to an uplifting sense of physical warmth and well-being, and an aggravating hot flash, depending on the person or the moment.
Whether a conscious voyage or not, menopause will almost always call on the deepest forms of inner strength and stamina, self-worth, inherent confidence and capacity for sometimes excruciating inner expansion, even when hormone replacement therapy is the preferred method of management.
There’s only so much a false floor can hold.
Certainly an appropriate word when applied to any attempt to control menopause (as with HRT or even herbal support), management can potentially make the ride a bit smoother for a while. Yet, there is another option. Mastery, an essential practice of curiosity, self-compassion, positive outlook, intriguing emotional balancing acts and deft juggling, physical health, as well as a focus on spiritual connections, or devotion.
Truthfully, we all eventually realize there is no controlling much of anything in life, much less this wondrous cycle in spite of its many unmarked capillaries to denial. The creative power of menopause is unfathomable, and that is no exaggeration. Women may as well look upon this as a transcendent event because it will take them into the shadows of the unknown whether they are ready or not. Mastery–skill, understanding and virtuosity among other definitions–is proportionally a much more accommodating vein through which the grander energy currents can move and flow.
Unfortunately, menopause is not really seen by the outer, non-menopausal world as anything beyond some sort of middle aged, physical event or, strangely, a day marking the end of menstruation. It’s different now. Consider this: 11 years ago, out of approximately 281.5 million people, there were 32 million women in the US between the ages of 35-49. That’s over 11 percent of the total US population.
Today those same women are now between 46-60 years old, in some part of the menopausal cycle. Along with that incredibly large and influential portion of the populace, we can thank Dr. Christiane Northrop for its current state of visibility. Since the publication of “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom” in 1994, many interesting and informative books have been published about menopause, it’s physical, emotional and even spiritual aspects. They are filled with personal stories, information about how to alleviate symptoms and the management of life during menopause.
No one yet, has written a book about truly the mastering energy of the female body during menopause. There are several key sections & chapters in a book about mastering the energy of menopause:
1. Acceptance
2. Gratitude
3. Enjoyment
4. Amusement
5. Trust
6. Self-compassion
7. Self-empowerment
8. Self-observation
Meanwhile, here are some questions to ponder in present time or for future reference:
-How do women take practical command of their own spiritual journey during menopause?
-How do they find mastery here, and then help to guide the next generation through this incredibly demanding and magical time in life?
-What if some day down the road access to herbs and supplements, not to mention pharmaceuticals, were denied to the average person?
-What if there were no more candles or bathtubs filled with sea salt, CD’s and ipods, chamomile tea?
-What if there were no more external substances and outside remedies to ingest?
-What if we were asked to find a way to communicate with the true God and Goddess of our hearts, as opposed to some fluffy ideal that makes us feel good…temporarily?
-What if, humanity was one day fully blessed with remembrance and guided toward a gateway into the deepest most inherent part of our beingness?
-Would we know the way? Would we have the courage to step through the gate, to embrace the truth of our inner sanctuary and essence?
-Would we be willing to nurture ourselves enough to find that gate and to sustain that once beyond it?
If you’d like to be part of a menopause survey and study, please join the Queen of Fire Community!
I’ve learned a little lately by watching myself create stress out of thin air. Because of that self observation, now, instead of making haste when I’m at home feeding the cats or making dinner, I move thoughtfully and slowly; I breathe while I work; I drive the speed limit more and more, and I’ve begun to give myself time in between engagements. These are the simple things I do to shift my programming.
One of the sources for my stress, I’ve fairly recently discovered, is driven by a need to please. Now this isn’t profound, yet it’s something we all do at some level. It can be incredibly insidious. We often ignore and or we continue to find deeper levels of it. It’s not hard to spot this trait in others, though our own blind spots get bigger as we get stiffer. Take a moment to honestly inquire within about how you try to please other people.
Do you see it? Why do you do this?
How does it appear, in what situations, and where does it come from? Its origins are probably linked to a deep desire for relationship, fear of losing those relationships or some other deeply rooted survival concern which honestly could be just as stressful as the obsessive compulsive act of pleasing. Even the relationship you have with your personal image, your work and other definitions in the world are at stake here.
On a more positive note, this desire to please is connected to a desire to serve, albeit at times quite compulsively; to help or to assist in some way. For me, well all I want is to make sure everyone gets on the road to ascension! That’s a lot of work, isn’t it? And it’s really not my job, anyway. How much effort and stress do you think that stirs?!
Are you stressed right now? How so? Take a few breaths, touching your lower abdomen between your navel and pubic bone. Feel the connection between your breath and this point on your body. First ask yourself how you feel physically, wait while you breathe and then ask to sense the emotions present. Maybe you notice some thoughts running through your mind; these are linked to emotions and of course, the mental tapes are often the cause of stress in the moment.
If you can get past the front story, can you find what lies underneath those stories? Take a few more breaths, relax and ask for the information to surface. What drives your stress?
Is your stress primarily emotional, mental, physical or even possibly spiritual? Are you in the midst of a personal crisis, a serious health issue, death in the family, marriage, new born, financial instability, war, natural disaster, work pressure or job shift, perfectionism, emotional suppression, simple digestive concerns or even self-worth issues? Do you experience any spiritual oppression or any other negative and pervasive energies?
Breath by breath you can access the cause. Not so ironically, you really can’t access the information while in a state of stress! Take another deep breath to release any negative or intense energies. Do it again, repeating this slow, thoughtful breathing for at least 9 cycles. If you’re compelled to jump up and do something, take another deep breath, noticing how you feel.
Your breath will take you on an inner journey, deeper into more thoughts, buried dross and long forgotten experiential emotions. Be still, like a bird watcher. Feel the rhythms of your breath moving and cleansing.
Journal about your stress in this moment and again when you take the time to explore, inquire and self-reflect; request more clarity as you drift off to sleep tonight, awakening with new insights and relief.
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