“…Grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled
as to console
To be understood,
as to understand
To be loved, as to love
For it is in giving that we receive”
~ excerpt from Saint Francis Prayer
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Red Thread Letter #814
Held in The Heart of the Divine
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Dear Ones,
I want to share this affirmational prayer with you today. A prayer to remind you that you are held. I simply want you to know, somehow, someway you are held. When you say it, how do you feel?
You are held, even when it doesn’t feel like you are held. Even when the world seems like it is moving too fast. Even when more and more challenging news comes in. Even when you are trying to make sense of the senseless. Even when people you love are suffering. Even when you are suffering. You are held in love.
How is this possible? I have no idea, but somehow I feel it to be true. That doesn’t mean everything goes my way to affirm this feeling. Rather being held means, that as I go my way, I am practicing the feeling of being held, and in that, create a space of holding in which others feel held, and then I am held, a reciprocity of holding. It is a beautiful idea that Indigenous cultures know, that modern peoples have often forgotten. Yet in the Red Thread, we bring this awareness forward.
Through choosing to belong, we have a chance to make others feel as if they belong. This line of the Prayer of Saint Francis has been reverberating within me since Amber sang it to me last week over the phone.
“…Grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled
as to console
To be understood,
as to understand
To be loved, as to love
For it is in giving that we receive”
Feeling held isn’t only an affirmation that there is something greater than you can name. Some of you have a name you use to call on the Divine and some of you don’t right now, even if you did before. Just the name “Divine” works well when at a crossroads of knowing what to call on, they know who they are :-)
Being held is a practice of knowing there are many of us here along the red thread that are also holding you in this weave, and that you are holding us. Being held means you invite yourself to practice feeling held, even without external evidence – and it can relax your nervous system and warm your heart and hands. Consider drawing for a few minutes, just making the shape of feeling held – and notice how your energy changes. Practicing feeling held, IS being held, it is this relationship with Source – however you understand that dynamic power of Creation.
This morning I practiced feeling held – for me it is the embrace of the universe, the quantum reality that if I say I am held, imagine I am held, practice it in my body, it is happening in real time. When I draw it, it is the amplification of the sensation. This is where science meets spirit. This is my happy place, the place of dancing between worlds. I don’t need it to be proven that the Divine exists, yet it is proven that “LOVE” acts differently on the field and matter than hate. This is wonderful evidence that amplifies my practice of intention. Where love is at the center of all choices. This is at the ROOT of Intentional Creativity as a philosophy, that the energy of intention we bring to what we are doing, making, being, changes everything.
As for me, there are a lot of ups and downs and surprises with work. I find I can’t keep up well with all that is anticipated of me at this time. My heart goes out to other ‘leaders’ who are trying to navigate such a huge shift in operating as well as a terrain of change. At MUSEA, we are literally doing our very best to rise to the call of change, and thankfully already had lots of plans in place, while I know other small companies do not. Regarding the pandemic, we were going to start having events this month, but now we can’t. Moving our business ‘all online’ isn’t something I ever wanted, so I am working on managing that reality and my resistance to it, and the screen time. I take it day by day with lots of rest and creativity in between.
I have been ‘trying’ to stay off of Facebook since July 1, but it isn’t working as well as I hoped. I check in once a day instead of all day lol. As there is a lot that needs tending in our Red Thread community and other circles. Further, with all that is happening, there is this ‘anticipation’ that anyone who leads community is supposed to continue making stands perpetually about every new change – and it just goes on and on. Must I really post about mask wearing?
I am focusing less on the pandemic and more on Black Lives Matter and Re-Membering work. I’m also doing an incredible amount of heart-breaking research on what is happening with women in the world during this time. You can’t believe it, really, it is beyond my comprehension even though I have studied it my whole adult life. You can see things I am taking more public stands on through Artist Shiloh Sophia – I often share them in the Red Thread Cafe too. Meanwhile, trying to keep the Fall courses on track, like opening for Motherboard and later, Color of Woman: https://musea.org/
For me, this is a cycle of noticing how I feel, how I react, what I am called to. It has been good to notice how deeply woven Facebook is into the fabric of how I serve – that’s the learning. And for the 3-4 days at a time in the iMusea app I find I can relax into that space without fearing seeing information I am not ready to see coming up and all the stuff that happens in a highly curated space like FB, showing you what they want you to see. I invite you to tend to your own media. Thread what you are seeing intentionally with goodness.
I am deep into filming Artifact so far with an Episode every week, and I realize just how powerful it is to lead my own life from the perspective of teaching and sharing. I am loving that in Red Madonna we are having virtual church and that the theme is Psalms for Creation. In real time, I am sharing gifts I have and inviting you to your own. Intentional Creativity awakens me and keeps me in full presence and I am so grateful for this practice. I think of it less like a ‘process’ to complete, and more like a lifeline practice, a discipline. Every painting is a part of my practice.
Mostly, I wanted to just send you love and say I am thinking of you.
I pray you feel held by you, by us, by the universe, by the Heart of the Divine.
Weaving with Red Thread,
p.s. I am spending the morning in ceremony praying for someone I love deeply. If you wish to join your prayer to hundreds of women in our community, pull out a journal or go to your canvas and make some prayer dots.
Photo is from filming Artifact last week at MUSEA in Sonoma, California
