Nourish, our women’s retreat begins Thursday. I am one of the leaders and I will present a module on tapping into your muse. Our muse is vital to our creativity which is as necessary as food in nourishing the body and soul of individuals and the community. There is something unique which can be shared only by you. When that is blocked or ignored, we can feel anxious or beside ourselves. Unexpressed it is lost for all time. On some level we know when we are not living our truth. The body knows and tells us through discomfort, pain, hot flashes, insomnia, and so on. (P.S. There is one space left at Nourish for a fortunate woman. Call Karen Cappa at 707 665-0809 to register.)
Women at Nourish will participate in a writing exercise to connect with their Divine Mother muse to discover what is needed for nourishment. In her book, Medicine for the Earth, Sandra Ingerman tells us when two or more are gathered, spirits create a divine child (or healing) and that we must receive love, divine light before we can heal with it. Sandra shares that the current societal imbalance of over giving coupled with the inability to receive is literally killing us. Profiles of cancer patients reveal they tend to give too much of themselves and don’t know how to receive love and nurturance.
Part of the challenge is that we often work from a place of want or scarcity and drive ourselves to burnout and overwhelm by trying to play too many roles. When we take time to connect with our muse, we become aware of our authentic or essential roles and stay on purpose. We live and act from truth, grace, and joy. We are present to life’s pleasures and actually receive our blessings rather than focus continually on what is absent. We give and receive, like breath. We know what would happen if we only breathed out. Sometimes I catch myself with velcro on my forehead and wrist playing the victim when I’m the one victimizing myself.
Where is that muse when we need her? Besides writing there are many ways we can tap into her. There’s meditation, prayer, music, dreams, messages in the outer world, divining cards, and more. Cheryl Richardson, personal coach and writer reminds us on one of her divining Grace cards, “Practice good soul care. The quality of our outer life is always dependent on the quality of care we give to our soul.” Thomas Moore writes “Let us imagine care of the soul as an application of poetics to everyday life.”
My book Star Kissed Shadows is a divining tool and can be opened at random with a question in mind for insights. Nourish attendees are going to do an exercise in which we connect with our inner child muse. She represents our purest intention, our innocence, wonder, playfulness, and excitement about life. She is especially helpful when we feel a need to control everything to find fulfillment. Each person will take a turn opening my book with the question, “How can I best nourish my little girl muse?” Star Kissed Shadows is available for purchase on this site. Go to the store. Our CD Sweet Tongue, Assorted Poetry & Music is also available and if you purchase both, you receive a complimentary fifteen minute intuitive phone consultation. May you have a long, satisfying relationship with your muse.
Alphabet Soup
My intuitive whiskers sense ideas
in the soft air of morning.
I sigh as feathery breezes skim over me.
Words slip on buttery sun
through an open kitchen window
into the empty bowl I’ve placed
for my muse to fill.
I lap up letter cream with a felicitous tongue.
L’s and m’s loll and hum between my lips.
Piquant p’s tantalize taste buds.
R’s roll on my palette, stop against artful t’s.
Juicy n’s slide down my moist throat.
Satiated, I purr, curl up in the lap of God.
©2004 Star Kissed Shadows, Sher Lianne Christian
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