It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon; the sky outside my study window is a pale, luminous blue undulant with sunlit clouds. Grey-shingled slant of roof; lift and droop of linden branches at play in a July breeze. Pollen sifts golden to the ground.
My heart widens into the peace of the day.
This week has been rackety with blare and screech, banging and hammering – the controlled chaos of reconstruction. A crew of workmen has trooped through my house over the past few days, replacing the floors in my office, reading room, and library.
Those floors have needed replacing for a couple of years now, but I’ve put off getting them done. First, because — pandemic. But also, because the cacophony and disarray that accompanies any renovation disrupts my life and the energetic container within which my work unfolds.
These days, my tolerance for chaos is limited; there’s more than enough chaos in the world. I can’t and don’t attempt to avoid its fractures, but I won’t voluntarily put myself in its path except to fulfil a purpose compelling enough to make tangling with it worthwhile.
My new floors are beautiful. My study, where I’m writing this note to you, is light and spacious, lovely and — transparent. (Yes! That’s the word I’m looking for.) It holds me and my work in a field that is so quiet it’s almost invisible; yet it’s richly generative. This field leaves me free to explore and create; it never imposes itself. It serves its function beautifully — and is itself beautiful.
I aim to be that too.
In my work, in my life, in my heart, I am an artist who collaborates with the cosmic field — and all that it holds of beauty and blessing — to create environments, programs, practices and processes that serve us in becoming the whole of who we are so we can skillfully offer our gifts to the making of our world.
Our world needs us, each of us, to bring our whole selves to the task of renewal and regeneration. Steadily. Faithfully. Devotedly. With focus and power.
To do this, we ask ourselves these simple questions, and answer them as honestly as we can.
What do I really want?
What must I let go of?
What will I devote myself to?
What does the soul of this creation want — for itself, from me?
How will I partner with it to fulfil its desire and my own, in the field that holds both of us?
I have asked myself these questions at every stage of my life and the life of my business.
My work now, in my 70’s, is to mentor and nurture those who have the desire, capacity and willingness to immerse themselves in the body of work I’ve created over the past 40 years, learn from it, experiment with it, embody it, and build, on its foundation, their own lasting contribution to our world.
Last Fall, I opened the Deva Alchemy Mentor Training – a 9-month, private, professional mentoring and training program for leaders in the field of transformation.
Last month, the first of my mentor trainees graduated from the program. Her life and business have transformed beyond her most star-bright dreams. She is living, creating, and serving her community from a place of inner cohesiveness, integrity, power and clear purpose. And both she and her business are flourishing, beautifully.
This journey took her through a complete re-formation of her life and work. She met it with courage, heart, willingness, trust in herself and in the process, and in loving, intimate partnership with the Deva of her business. I’m immensely proud of her, as I am of the other leaders who are on their own pilgrimage through the program.
Last week, she and I talked about what that journey was like for her; the unravelling and reweaving it has called her to. She spoke of where she finds herself now; and what’s emerging as she continues to develop her body of work.
Your art and journey will be unique to you. Ask yourself the questions I’ve shared, above, or craft your own questions to help you pinpoint what matters most to you, and what is calling you now. Then clear the decks of anything extraneous to your purpose, and walk your path with courage and confidence.
I wish you clarity, willingness, trust, and the immense powers of your soul to accompany you.