Yesterday I dipped into the world of Natalie Merchant, and her stories of nursery rhymes. Of innocence, experience, adventures, and word-of-mouth traditions. Of poems, stories, and songs. Bringing them back to life, in her labour of love project, Leave Your Sleep.
What is so wonderful to me is that she linked the stories of the art and the artists so eloquently, putting the added dimension of musicality, to the beauty of the poetry.
It reminds me of the wonderful role of the arts in living, healing, and leaving a legacy, for the world. In it's infancy, growth, and eternity. And the wisdom passed through generations from numerous traditions, that teach us the core values and lessons of life's tests and virtues.
The most touching parts of her project for me was the research and descriptions of the lives of the poets. Bringing them to life. And recreating the meaning behind their artistic contributions, still relevant now and here. A universality of our human frailty, and ability to mend and transcend, through our own art and heart stories.
I have appreciated, and absorbed the beauty and revelations of so many poets, poetry, and music, that have lit up my life. Bringing me back to life, in the sometimes hum drum of existence. Throwing myself wholeheartedly and sensually into the experience, and the brilliance, that the words and communication bring. Hearing, feeling and listening. Dancing. Dipping, into favourites, and finding newness, regularly.
We can learn so much from the stories of others, and how parts of their life experience can touch our own lives as witnesses, creating a resonance and genuine compassion for the universality of living's passion.
May the purity of words and music bring you life and reverie. And what your heart, mind, and body need, as inner sacred and holy rememberings, touching you wholly, soul-ly and deeply.
SaraSwati Shakti.
And, for those wishing to dip further, one of my favourite TED recordings will add reality to this brief log description, bringing you into the experience of Natalie Merchant. It is quite long, so you may wish to get a cup of tea, and lose yourself in the experience utterly, totally, quietly, and completely. Right here http://youtu.be/vXVCf5VTHrw
©
Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
Tuesday 27 May 2014
Thursday 22 May 2014
Home
Yesterday I spent the day out with a friend. Walking the curves around Sydney Harbour. A lovely meditation and reflection of the combined beauty of nature and architecture. I have always had an interest in how these two elements combine, when lovingly, harmoniously refined. So easy to marvel at how it has evolved. Both planned, and organically designed.
So many artists, designers and architects have spent marvellous time and effort building and creating structures to house and enhance our hearts and minds. And it made me think, of the process, of what it is to have a home composed of the feeling that builds within structural meaning.
For me it is about the centre. Like the mandala. And how it feels, and is created and built from the central seed. And how it radiates into its surroundings, to a physical and auric periphery, of wider ground.
As with the heart. The seed from which all grows. Creating true and right from the pure start, and spreading out from the centre of what it holds, and is evolved and found.
And as it is with humanity, and nature, as it grows and radiates, in heartfelt organic stature.
Building, and rebuilding, solidly, foundationally, from deep core, central ground, and around.
The essence of design, of a world, a life, a building, a workplace, and a home. Any space, to capture and reflect, the true character and preferences, of the owner and occupant. And the meaning, and feeling, it has for them. And those they welcome.
How beautiful it is to really connect to the way a sense of being home feels. As a true reflection, of the personhood it reveals. Wherever, and whoever, that is.
Home
How sweet the sound
SaraSwati Shakti
Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
So many artists, designers and architects have spent marvellous time and effort building and creating structures to house and enhance our hearts and minds. And it made me think, of the process, of what it is to have a home composed of the feeling that builds within structural meaning.
For me it is about the centre. Like the mandala. And how it feels, and is created and built from the central seed. And how it radiates into its surroundings, to a physical and auric periphery, of wider ground.
As with the heart. The seed from which all grows. Creating true and right from the pure start, and spreading out from the centre of what it holds, and is evolved and found.
And as it is with humanity, and nature, as it grows and radiates, in heartfelt organic stature.
Building, and rebuilding, solidly, foundationally, from deep core, central ground, and around.
The essence of design, of a world, a life, a building, a workplace, and a home. Any space, to capture and reflect, the true character and preferences, of the owner and occupant. And the meaning, and feeling, it has for them. And those they welcome.
How beautiful it is to really connect to the way a sense of being home feels. As a true reflection, of the personhood it reveals. Wherever, and whoever, that is.
Home
How sweet the sound
SaraSwati Shakti
Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
Thursday 15 May 2014
Healing Meaning
It is here that you will find meaning in the unexplained, and the strength that guides you to the close of another day.
These were the words that inspired me to open and read Gregg Braden's 'Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer'. It gave me an answer to what I was looking for at the time. To guide my heart and mind. And the secrets to traversing a coming apart of my life. The hidden power of beauty, blessing, wisdom and hurt. The transformations, the lessons, and the feelings they brought.
I had just completed a course of study into the stages of grief, to help my client's gain relief, through the tasks they would take, through their own heart and mind fields of change they newly needed to shape.
Then my turn came. To put those skills into my own gain, and receive the blessings that came from prayer. To get through another day.
We all must find a way to work through the grief, the endings, the closures, we may need to traverse when they arrive some days. The letting go of old so that we can walk nobly toward our next stage.
Prayer is essentially what we feel, and think, and the words we say. They have power to create or to break another precious day. Honouring the process of pain, and taking responsibility for managing the tasks that grief entails, is a noble and necessary human process when it enters the day.
Facilitating the grace that each stage takes offers an experience of great humility, and dignity, when dealing with the work of healing. The wishing. And thinking. Meditating. And grieving. Reflecting. And affirming. Of our heart's long held yearning.
And coming to a place of knowing, in hindsight, that the closures, were the answers to the prayers of our heart's longing.
The heart yearns
Purely
Exquisitely
For what it most deeply desires
The yearning itself is the prayer
The innermost truth
The passion
Clearing the mire
And fuelling the fire
Of living's desire
May your prayers exquisitely lead you to a life truly and passionately well lived and give meaning to your living healing.
SaraSwati Shakti
Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
These were the words that inspired me to open and read Gregg Braden's 'Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer'. It gave me an answer to what I was looking for at the time. To guide my heart and mind. And the secrets to traversing a coming apart of my life. The hidden power of beauty, blessing, wisdom and hurt. The transformations, the lessons, and the feelings they brought.
I had just completed a course of study into the stages of grief, to help my client's gain relief, through the tasks they would take, through their own heart and mind fields of change they newly needed to shape.
Then my turn came. To put those skills into my own gain, and receive the blessings that came from prayer. To get through another day.
We all must find a way to work through the grief, the endings, the closures, we may need to traverse when they arrive some days. The letting go of old so that we can walk nobly toward our next stage.
Prayer is essentially what we feel, and think, and the words we say. They have power to create or to break another precious day. Honouring the process of pain, and taking responsibility for managing the tasks that grief entails, is a noble and necessary human process when it enters the day.
Facilitating the grace that each stage takes offers an experience of great humility, and dignity, when dealing with the work of healing. The wishing. And thinking. Meditating. And grieving. Reflecting. And affirming. Of our heart's long held yearning.
And coming to a place of knowing, in hindsight, that the closures, were the answers to the prayers of our heart's longing.
The heart yearns
Purely
Exquisitely
For what it most deeply desires
The yearning itself is the prayer
The innermost truth
The passion
Clearing the mire
And fuelling the fire
Of living's desire
May your prayers exquisitely lead you to a life truly and passionately well lived and give meaning to your living healing.
SaraSwati Shakti
Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
Tuesday 6 May 2014
Divine Mother Love
It's Mother's Day in May. A month of lovely, sunny days. The end of Autumn. Getting ready for hibernation. And Winter months. Of more togetherness. And blessedness. Inside. With mums.
It has been a week of reflecting on motherhood. And what that entails. The tensions and the benefits that it contains.
I was watching The Voice with my son last night, and could not refrain from marvelling at the story of Candice Skjonnemand, her mother, her daughter, and her son. And the support she gives, and receives, in pursuing her dreams.
Women and others who do the mothering in families must always balance attention, and quite often tension, between their needs and those of their beloved others. Putting their own and their children's needs together to be managed. And the dharma, as a mother, as a priority in the mix.
There is no denying that happy and fulfilled mothers lead happy and fulfilled families. And that motherhood entails much care and sacrifice, and responsibility for leading and developing young hearts and minds in families, no matter what that combination is.
A society that supports motherhood, and its divine honouring of the personhood, of women, wholesomely connected to their children, their sacred home, and their own dreams, in a balancing mix. Now, that's a beautiful dream, to fulfil.
May Divine Mother Love always be held sacred and blessed. And may it be suitably honoured in a way that is unique to each mother, on this special Mothers Day week.
With Love
SaraSwati Shakti
SaraSwati Shakti is a psychotherapist, coach, artist and poet. She is launching her first book Heart Art mandala'verse this year. You can follow her on www.facebook.com/LovingPsyche
Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
It has been a week of reflecting on motherhood. And what that entails. The tensions and the benefits that it contains.
I was watching The Voice with my son last night, and could not refrain from marvelling at the story of Candice Skjonnemand, her mother, her daughter, and her son. And the support she gives, and receives, in pursuing her dreams.
Women and others who do the mothering in families must always balance attention, and quite often tension, between their needs and those of their beloved others. Putting their own and their children's needs together to be managed. And the dharma, as a mother, as a priority in the mix.
There is no denying that happy and fulfilled mothers lead happy and fulfilled families. And that motherhood entails much care and sacrifice, and responsibility for leading and developing young hearts and minds in families, no matter what that combination is.
A society that supports motherhood, and its divine honouring of the personhood, of women, wholesomely connected to their children, their sacred home, and their own dreams, in a balancing mix. Now, that's a beautiful dream, to fulfil.
May Divine Mother Love always be held sacred and blessed. And may it be suitably honoured in a way that is unique to each mother, on this special Mothers Day week.
With Love
SaraSwati Shakti
SaraSwati Shakti is a psychotherapist, coach, artist and poet. She is launching her first book Heart Art mandala'verse this year. You can follow her on www.facebook.com/LovingPsyche
Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com
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