Blessed are the Weird

Lately, I spend most of my time looking for rays of hope among the scads of craziness, anger and negativity out there. As I looked through quotes I captured in the past, this one popped out. I love that the words are subscript to an incredible image of nature and humanity mixed together. It warms my heart and brings a smile to my face.

The quote itself strikes me as very apropos for this particular post-election season. Much ado has been made of those who have felt or currently feel disenfranchised, separated and singled out or simply ignored. But it has always been those who think, write, speak and act differently who provide us all with a new way to envision the world.

We assume there are not many of these weird people. They fit in a category all their own. Maybe that's true. But as we move forward, we need to encourage their company. The poets, writers, troubadours use their words to bring us hope, to paint a different image of what the world can be. Or they explain to us what is broken and needs to be fixed. They have always been the ones to encourage us through any dark times.

The painters, sculptors, visual artists use their talents and abilities to show us what is, what is not, what could be. We have relied on them to point the way for us in the dark. They give us portals to each other, to the world around us and to ourselves.

When we lose our way so completely that even the words and music, even the visual arts presented to us only scratch the surface, then we rely on the mystics. They draw us into the deepest part of ourselves only to send us soaring out to the edges of the Universe. We find them out in the desert or high on the mountains or in a hermitage in the midst of the busiest cities. Although they baffle and confound us, we are drawn to them. Our connections with them, in whatever small or large way, bring us peace and joy.

We need the misfits in whatever guise they show up. Especially when the mundane worries of our lives grow heavy. What we also need to realize is that we each have the potential to be that misfit, to show up, to shine a light, to bring us closer to ourselves.

Who in your life is a misfit you trust? Which ones are living? Which are friends? How do they help you when you are down? How are you a misfit to others? How do you confound others?

Your Meaning

Multiple posts, anecdotes and stories have a seeker climbing a mountain or crossing rushing waters to reach a sage, yogi or guru. The seeker's ever-present question: What is the meaning of life? Responses range from sincere koans to multi-layered stories to snappy retorts. The replies remain open-ended. It's up to the seeker, the reader, to find meaning.

Joseph Campbell redirects the question. Life itself is not what holds meaning. We do. We are alive to bring purpose into the world. If we look at our lives, where do we find meaning? Generally, we find it in the presence of family and friends, in relationships with people and our surroundings. When we discover ourselves seeking life's meaning, it's often because we have lost touch with one of our primary or supporting relationships. This happens in various ways, from the death of a loved one to retirement to our childhood house being razed to a child's marriage and move. We feel grief because of the loss, whether it is something we deem positive such as retirement or our child's marriage or it is something we call negative such as death or a destroyed building. We think the positive losses should not create grief, but our hearts, our spirits, don't follow the course of our shoulds. We feel the loss and we are not able to control that sensation. This does not mean we aren't happy also. We often believe grief and joy don't occupy the same space ~ but they do. They both occupy our hearts.

What Campbell brings forward is that our search for meaning is truly the search for ourselves. Who are we? What brings us joy? How do we express ourselves in the world? When we feel lost or we have lost someone or something important to us, we have difficulty answering those questions. We want the outer world ~ or the Divine ~ to define the meaning of what we are feeling. But that doesn't happen. We are the meaning. All of what we feel is important and significant. It defines us.

In this moment, how do you define your life's meaning? What are you in the midst of doing? How are you living your life? What measure do you use to determine meaning? How do you deal with grief? Can you recall a time when both grief and joy were present in your life?

Expanding Horizons

Haindl Tarot

from the guide book:

I Ching Hexagram: 50 The Cauldron (Success)
The ruin cathedral's window opens to the sky. The remains suggest that humanity's ancient need to give structure to religious feeling.

Today, I took an enjoyable class on the minor arcana of the tarot. Each person brought their own personal deck and focused on the cards as we went through the general meaning of the numbers and the suits. When we finished the teaching part, we shuffled our minor arcana cards and drew one.

As I shuffled, I thought about an opportunity that had surfaced in my life yesterday. I was already leaning toward accepting it, but there was that little bit of doubt ~ of feeling that, perhaps, I was making a mistake. The questions that played in my mind were: How do I respond to this opportunity? Does it offer me what I need for my next step? Show me an energy to direct me.

The card I drew was the Three of Wands. In the Haindl deck, which I use, the word Virtue is on it as well as the I Ching hexagram 50, The Cauldron. Perfect.

The Three of Wands is about being prepared to take risks and explore new opportunities. It represents initiative, ambition, drive and desire ~ with a dash of risk-taking. It symbolizes an inner balance and optimism as well as the energy needed to take on great adventures.

In some other Tarot decks, the Three of Wands features the Caduceus, Mercury's winged wand twined with two snakes, which is the symbol of the healer or shaman who can travel between worlds.

It's message is one of following one's intuition, staying in the moment and moving forward. It suggests to act quickly on an idea or desire because this is the perfect timing. There's nothing to lose from taking the risk. Embrace the change and follow the vision.

This was a surprising, as well as not surprising, card to draw. I chuckled when I saw it. Three weeks ago (to the day), I had voiced to the Universe that I wanted an opportunity like the one that showed up yesterday. And now, it seems, even the random-seeming draw of a Tarot card confirmed what I already knew: that it was time to move forward and expand my horizons on this one.

What method do you use to confirm decisions you feel may be a flight of fancy? What belief system do you have that helps you move forward? How do you work with your own intuition? How do you share what you intuit with others?

Sum Total

"Life did not begin at my birth. ... I am the sum total of [others'] experiences, their quests."

Although my thoughts and my dreams often circle around my personal life, I am continually expanding those horizons. I have the choice of limiting myself, of putting blinders on. All I see then is what's in front of my own face. It's easier to live that way. I don't have to see, acknowledge or encounter what is going on around me. I don't have to read opinions or ideas that I don't already have or agree with. That would be the simpler way to live.

What Wiesel suggests is that life is not that simple. When we stop learning, refuse to expand our knowledge and experience, we miss the fullness of beauty. We lose sight of the beauty that lies in diversity and difference. Just as a flower garden is made up of a variety of sizes, colors and blossoms, so the world around us is made up of beauty.

His words ~ "divine beauty" ~ suggest that through diversity, exposing ourselves to what has come before as well as what walks beside us, we are lead to whatever we find or name as Divine or Holy.

As we look beyond ourselves, we have the choice to envision a different world and create a different mythos for the present and the future. We have the opportunity to leave things as they are, to believe we are powerless, or to broaden and share our experiences and our quests, adding them to the sum total that balances our world.

In light of recent events, what do you want to learn? How do the stories of your ancestors affect your choice? What do you want to leave for the generations that follow? How will you contribute to the sum total balancing the world?

Solitude and Community

...we need solitude and community simultaneously: what we learn in one mode can check and balance what we learn in the other. Together, they make us whole, like breathing in and breathing out. ....Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one's self. .... Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other.

~ Parker J. Palmer

In the midst of all the shifts and sea-changes of the past weeks, I find myself pulling into my shell as well as seeking the comfort of simply being with others. Many around me expressed feeling the same tidal pulls. The full supermoon has only added to the depths and breadths of the shift.

There's the sense of being alone in a crowd. Like wandering through an unknown city, with hundreds of people rushing past, the feeling can be soft, almost unnoticed. Or harsh and overwhelming. What I've been feeling is simply drawing energy from the presence of others. This keeps me aligned, deep in my soul, centered. When it begins to swing to the harsh side, I make my way to a quiet corner, a place apart from others, though I continue to be aware of them.

I thought 'unplugging' from social media would help. Instead, I felt a sense of losing contact with my community. What I wanted, needed, was connection with others. Light touch connection. A friend texting with information about a personal issue we had previously discussed. Another messaging that she's doing okay after being ill. Someone posting he'd just received a job offer. A phone conversation about dreams. These are the people in my community, the ones who keep me awake and grounded.

Another thought darting through my head was to find gatherings of like-minded, like-hearted people. My basic introverted nature reeled at that one. Being with a few people with whom I have a connection is one thing; being in a crowd of mostly unknowns is another animal completely. Yet this path works better for some people. They need the energy of groups, the opportunity to 'get lost' in a common cause.

Whatever pattern you need in order to stay grounded, centered, deeply yourself and deeply connected, follow it. Trust the intuition that drives you forward.

How do you feel when in solitude? in community? What connects you most deeply to yourself? to your community? How would you describe your community? Are there more than one? How are they similar? different? How does solitude feed you? How does community feed you?

Be the Lighthouse

My latest Teabag Tarot took me by pleasant surprise today. By nature, I am clearly a dualist.... half light, half dark. I swing from one to the other and every stage and step in between.

When people tell me to change my beliefs, emotions or actions in some way, my first reaction is to dig in and refuse. I want to acknowledge what is currently true for me before stepping into the change space. Change is also part of my nature ~ early on in my life my mother called me Windy because my moods changed like or with the wind. I want to own the change myself. And I do. I swing back and forth ~ and I do it to my own tempo.

That made today's Teabag Tarot especially pertinent. It felt quixotic.... and it felt grounding. All at the same time. I look at what is most important to me, what feeds my soul, what rises out of the dark depths of my being. What I find in those depths is that gentle spreading of the light at dawn ~ or at the rise of the full moon. I love bathing in the often surprisingly soothing light of the full moon. Everything in me gets lighter. No matter what the situation around me, I find myself smiling, wanting to dance or prance in that light.

First, the light has to spread inside me ~ to fill my dark corners and brighten my senses. Then, I can stretch out and be the lighthouse. The light inside me beams out toward others. I know they see and feel it. It is reflected in them, in their responses to me. It's not particularly MY light or a glaringly bright light. It's gentle, accepting of where they are, helping to carry them on to the next place or moment or day.

Being a lighthouse means essentially two things: the light comes from within and it shines through the fog, the dark and the storm. There's no need for a lighthouse in the glaring noonday light or when everything is going our way. It's more important now than ever: when we are all in the midst of turmoil, darkness and change. I'll do what I can.

What are you doing to encourage the light within you? How are you being a lighthouse? Are you in need of a lighthouse? Where do you look to find that light? Who in your life spreads that light and encouragement? Are there moments when you can find the light within? and moments when you can't?

Full SuperMoon in Taurus 2016

Tonight's ~ or tomorrow morning's ~ SuperMoon will be the largest since 1948 and will not happen again, in this range of size, until 2034. However, depending where you are, it may not be at its perigee until the wee hours of the morning. So the visual at sunset may seem disappointing.... or not. In all honesty, I haven't been able to discern the subtle difference in the nearness of the moon from one SuperMoon to another.

Some specific information:

A supermoon typically refers to the concurrence of two phenomena. One is when the moon is within 90% of its closest position to Earth in its orbit. ... The other phenomenon is syzygy, which is when the Earth, sun and moon all line up as the moon orbits Earth. When both a perigee and syzygy occur and the moon is located on the opposite of the earth from the sun we get a supermoon. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2016/11/13/tonight-record-breaking-supermoon-biggest-68-years/#58d05c0c6574)

Looking at other aspects of this moon, it occurs in Taurus, a steady, practical earth sign. Its energy is about illuminating the goal to motivate and realize our fullest potential. This particular SuperMoon will help us see things in practical and logical ways for implementing action plans with calm and clarity. It's a reminder to focus on worth ~ self-worth and emotional worth as well as financial issues ~ for the sake of security and overall, global responsibility.

There is conflict ~ or more precisely, a back-and-forth pull ~ between expansive Jupiter calling us out and Pluto in Capricorn wanting us to release the old and play it safe at the moment. It becomes a matter of letting go of people who no longer match with us as well as ideas that no longer serve our higher good and pacing ourselves to continue forward. All in all, it's about trusting the process ~ which in the moment, feels awkward at best, crazy at worst. Yet it remains our only way forward.

Are you living your life to your fullest potential? What self-limiting beliefs do you have? What are you willing to release? How do you feel in the large light of the SuperMoon? How are you creating security for yourself? and those you love? What darkness is this SuperMoon illuminating for you?