She Eats Lightning for Breakfast
This night,
She is shedding the skins no longer needed
Heavy trench coats shaken off on the dance floor
As she moves her body she feels the electricity build
A lightening up of all the heavy hearts held inside
Turning towards the shadows with wide eyes
She says: I see you, shadow stories,
Thank you, for your teachings,
And… you are not my master.
This dawn,
She declares
I will not hide from myself
I will not turn from suffering,
I will not let fear dominate my experience
I choose to eat lighting for breakfast!
I have lived through the sorrows needed
To shape the self that is mine to become
And I will love with an unreasonable appetite
For loving what is hard to love.
This day,
She dances weightless through the crowds of chaos
No longer fearing attack or needing protection
Finding a freedom that is chosen,
The kind that exists even in the middle of war
She finds the needs in the world, unique to her gifts
And nurtures them, unafraid, knowing, deeply knowing,
The Great Great Spirit has chosen us to do a great work
And each of us is preparing ourselves for the journey ahead.
This time,
Is not a time to be ‘out there’ without being ‘in here’
Each of us doing the work we need
To do to get free of the stories keeping us from serving beauty
Dance with me through the chaos because I need you
As long as we are in our own way
We cannot go where we are most needed
This is the strange medicine, that in tending the
Wounds of the world, your own wounds are tended.
Your time,
This is your time simply because you are alive
The mystery has brought you a sacred assignment,
Your piece of the red thread is pulling you forward
Listen up, you don’t need to save the world
You don’t need to save yourself or get it right
Lay down those heavy thoughts to discover
Your time has arrived, just show up, and because of you:
What can be saved, will be saved. This is more than enough.
This is why she eats lightning for breakfast.
A great force of light comes through
She can block it or bear it
The heat is intense,
Sometimes it threatens to consume, annihilate
She turns the lightning into prayers.
Shiloh Sophia
Emergence: She Eats Lightning for Breakfast – a Work in Progress (WIP)
This is the work of Intentional Creativity. Our painting as process, as journey into the unseen realms to gather information. I’ll share a little bit about the symbology.
The image below on the left of the two hearts with antlers is where it started. I began the painting 4 years ago+ when going through a heartbreaking time in my life. The dots were for the number of years I was alive. The big jagged line was unavoidable tragedy. The hearts are connected by a red thread – but in this case it wasn’t for the past love – but a cry into the darkness for my Beloved to appear to me somehow. Each horizontal mountain line represents the past, present and future. It has been in my studio – because I love it, and the intensity of it – but the other day as I was preparing to teach DIVA X and MYTHOS I knew I had to work out my own stuff first! The second image on the right, below is mid-process.
The image above has been painted in many layers, which you can see also on my FB page here all the images – as it unfolded. Whoosh that was a lot to go through in one painting. I was intentionally approaching it as a painting of transformation – something to move me from one place to the next. That’s what Intentional Creativity is all about – movement of stuck or old energy patterns and ideas – and yes, images.
This kind of depth is what we will explore in MYTHOS starting next week – and you will create a new story – and do writings for yourself like the one I received from my painting process.
Dear One,
I finally found a simple sentence for my sacred assignment – which I have been searching for… I awaken and encourage through creativity. We had lunch at our new place with the owners of Cafe Gratitude, Mathew and Terces and they asked – what is your calling? So since then I keep asking. It feel so complicated – so I was happy to arrive at a simple clear place. But, not without some digging. My painting in-process above, shows some of the journey – and then the writing gives language to some of it. This isn’t good writing in that it is well-written; it is just my unedited process written this morning. Sometimes it helps people to do their own work, the inside work, when they see others doing theirs, so I share it with you in that spirit.
I have been shedding a previous archetype for over a year now and hoping the painting/ritual/process, and writing the words above would do the trick of making the final turn towards the self of the future. (SEE ME JUMPING FOR JOY at big changes) There comes a moment of threshold where we can say yes to stepping over, or continue to hem and haw on the boundary for untold amounts of time and say no to ingesting lighting. The title came purely through the process, I asked, she said, I eat lightning for breakfast. Sometimes we have no idea what that really means.
I am at a music festival, WorldFest in CA and we came to see a favorite, Nahko Bear; it is very inspiring and powerful to be in ceremony with the energy of the music – he considers each concert to be a ceremony and opens with a chant to the four directions. Awesome experience. And he was wearing a red thread!
All of this process, was to prepare myself for what’s ahead. Next week I feel blessed to begin a new course, MYTHOS with Jenafer Joy and Mary MacDonald, two of the women I have been creating Cosmic Cowgirls with for over 8+ years. They were here this Spring and we cooked this up for our community – all 3 of us in the first videos, and then the last batch is me after my return from the little mermaid episode in Denmark. The painting crosses the alchemical bridge to a new place in the myth of our lives – gives us direction and adventure for the future. Excited to share this with you at a time when so many of us are working on our stories and what our part is in this sad sweet circumstance we find ourselves in….we begin with a look at longing, and constraints (and something about lobsters trying to get out of a boiling pot) – you know how we do it here at Cosmic Cowgirls. This is a rare treat to have all three of us in the same class – on video. YUP!
When hard times come, I write. I paint. I teach. I share. I have Red Thread Cafe with you. Perhaps, you, like many of us right now are in need of some truth telling and myth busting in our lives. We may not end happily ever after, but on the journey there is going to be some good laughs, conversation and creative alchemy that strengthen us for the journey.
standing together….creating together…in red thread….and paint and dancing…
Festival gear: fuzzy gold sequin ears & feathers in my hair
and leather earrings, a gift from Flora Aube :)
