The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. — Steve Jobs, mystic?
Precisely how we each arrive at our true calling is an intricate and highly individual dance of discovery. This year on the Mystic Tech Journey I will share and celebrate initiations of ensoulment. Ensoulment is a word that I am using alongside embodiment. Why such a word? Sensitive, soulful teachers need ways to point to this powerful intention. My intention is to be not just in body. I want to be in soul. I am finding LOTS OF ROOM AND JOY to be a healthy soul in love with the Divine.
What is the song I came to sing? Some questions are soul food. I’ll never forget Annie, a Seattle InterPlayer, tell me about putting on her street shoes after a dance class. She asked a little girl nearby, “Who is picking you up? The little girl answered, “Mommy,” and then the little girl asked Annie, “Where are you going?” Annie replied, “Home.” To which the little girl queried, “What waits for you there?” That question rang in Annie’s and my soul.
“What waits for you there?” and “What song did I come to sing?” are soul questions. Bell ringing questions are the creative work of folk who aren’t content with getting by, who know something in us is singing, dancing, and seeking true north. I call this soul.
It is in body that I attune to the song and dynamic dance of the Divine. My challenge is to stay open to Mystery’s infinite field of attraction, to synchronicity and wonder and….drumroll…….truth.
As a young adult it took everything to really put soul first and stay on the path. My initiations into soulful living began in earnest. During this time I had my own burning bush moment, followed immediately by a two month trip Africa, that gave me ten years of lessons. In years of child-rearing and career building I began seeing my own and other people’s deficits over and over. God didn’t protect me from myself or the world. It took lots of prayer, soul searching, and yes, initiations to continually attune to Love. Some of you may recall that I received specific instructions during this period to practice 1) efficiency of energy, clarity of vision, and courage to love.
Now in my fifties, I wield some power in decision-making, financial resources, and maintaining the place I’ve created for myself and others. All of this can activate me many more hours than a full time job. No wonder those in charge aren’t the most mystical folk. Right when I have “it” I really need to let it go. I am still in these initiations. I know when I am through an initiation when it feels easier.
All stages require practices and support to keep opening to the Mystery of Love. Thank God I have InterPlay to open body and soul, Alanon to keep admitting my powerlessness and now Mystic Tech to specifically claim ‘ensoulment.’
How do YOU stay open to soul?
This week I took a spirit detour. Thursday I took a walk along the bay and picked up some driftwood for an altar I want to create. An intriguing blue arc danced in the water and I scrambled down the rocks to retrieve it. Reaching for the arc with a stick, I slipped. My boot g boot into the bay and I slid across a coat of green algae. For a second I didn’t know if I was going swimming. Fortunately, the only portal I fell through was the one in my heart. Philosopher Dan Demmet said about happiness, “‘Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.” Wonder and creativity open me to risk and live.
Paradoxically, openness requires familiarity AND adventure. In Singing the Soul Back Home, shaman Caitlin Matthews reminds journeyers to enter mystical realms through a familiar tree. Each of us needs the right recipe of balancing openness and security. I know my Mysticism flourishes when I
- Locate my imagination in familiar starting places. WHERE I AM
- Ground in a devotional practice. (InterPlay?) WHAT I AM
- Engage trusted companions. WHOSE I AM
- And then let go. TRUST THE I AM.
If you are intrigued by this quest I welcome you to consider journeying with Mystic Tech cohorts to honor initiations we are in or have completed. Perhaps you have art or a ritual to share. Perhaps you would you like to strengthen your unique wisdom tools and offer them to others in playful, joyful ways? Perhaps like me you are a little at a loss for the specific witness that artful mystic need.
As the host of the Mystic Tech Journey I offer companionship in a variety of ways: The easiest is to sign up for the emails with updates and free goodies.
For more intentional journeying consider one to one, small groups, personal and group retreats, and the new MYSTIC HEART WHEEL, a curated blog for publishing members. Check it out.
TO Go deeper Click here to learn what is entailed in the Mystic Tech Journey.
I am happy to email or talk on the phone if you think you might like to participate. Contact me.
~~~~
Follow this link to a mysterious guest!
“What is the song that I came to sing? Maybe I’ve been a part of the symphony all along, and everyone around me has heard every word — except me.”