Today as I walked around the boxes which contain artifacts and treasures from the past ten years of my life, I reflected on the sadness which loss always brings, even as I look with anticipation towards the future.
I have never been one to dwell on negatives but I often think about the difference between losing a loved one and losing a dream.
Our family and close friends are tied into the plans we make for our future but a dream is born of ourselves and represents the creative forces which drive our soul forward to its life lessons.
Women have traditionally had this creative force realized with the conception and birth of a child. What of women who never conceive? What do they have to drive their lives forward? It has always been a question in my head and a reason why I celebrate all women on Mother’s day. I was once told that the ability to create is not confined to procreation but all things which are born of our desire.
I have been lucky to have children and a strong creative drive. I thank my teachers past and present for their input.
Many years ago, I realized a dream to become an interfaith minister. My hope was to establish and operate a small church or sanctuary which would be the home base of services geared towards women affected by a challenging history. The Sanctuary at Hestia’s Hearth became a reality. The loss of my business partner and best friend just after our opening didn’t derail the program and services, but the energy needed to sustain it.
Five years after her death, I finally acknowledged the realization that the dream was not to be fulfilled in the way it was first envisioned. With a few prayers, I found a loving couple, or rather they found me and chose to live in the home attached to the Sanctuary.
As I survey the boxes filled with treasures and collectables which had been chosen to grace the walls and tables and corners of the sanctuary, I have come to understand that they represent nothing unless I choose to make them the symbols of a failed enterprise. They are not the dream nor are they attached to the dream. The dream is with me and dies when I die unless I allow it fall by the wayside of self defeat.
So I have said my goodbye to the dear friend who taught me much about life. I will say my goodbyes to the building, the things, the space and even the person I was ten years ago and move on to a future whose enterprise is yet to be realized but whose dream is alive and well.
The Will to be True Blog 
The Spiritual Compass
Posted in Comments, Musings, tagged @womenzpace, creemore, discover the path, sanctuary, spiritual compass on March 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The Spiritual Compass
Some years ago, when I was buying everything that I could see, but not really understanding why I would ‘need’ a particular object, I found that over the years the knick-knacks, which I purchased or found in different corners of this wonderful country of ours, have become very useful as I’ve grown older. Many objects that I purchased on faith, have justified my faith. I realize that part of what I needed to do was to put together or synthesize my trinket world and my concrete world in a way that made sense. After much internal struggle this past year, I was able to finally recreate a little sanctuary to replace the space that I had in Singhampton. Above all, I did not want to lose the energy which helped to build that original space nor a vision of the benefit of a having a small quiet corner in the midst of a busy world.
Rediscovering objects that I saved over the years has enabled me to look at life and look at what look at what I can now make useful, not just to myself but also to others who utilize @womenzpace now open at Discover the Path. The compass, which hangs in the window, is fashioned from metal and stained-glass. It serves as a reminder to me every single day that life is full of points of light and dark, soft and sharp. All of these things meld together to create our own guideposts to choosing paths for living life when we hit the inevitable crossroads. However, the compass is so much more than points. Attention to its non verbal message helped me to realize that I could add some non specific cues for each of the sixteen points and to this end, I have started working on a draft of the way in which I hope our visitors, meditators and healers will find a helpful resource, which can be individualized, in the search for balance.
We all have a spiritual compass. Our great difficulty is determining how that spiritual compass can be utilized to make our lives better. The complexity of a compass should provide an understanding of the self within the self and how each aspect of the self can serve the other.
A compass, like so many other tools or events in the daily life, can point or drag you in many directions. Life is circular and while we may sometimes feel that we are walking in a straight line through an endless desert, truth is that we will wander out of it, encounter an oasis of peace and beauty before entering yet another period of desolation. It’s always a circular path. That give us hope, which is heartening, because we know there is change ahead. A wheel/circle has 360 points on it and each of those points can certainly impact your life in some way. Moving degree to degree won’t necessarily make you feel like you have exited a prescribed route, but when you look back from time to time, you will see where you have been, what you have experienced and know that there is a future which is different. In my mind, there is a great need to create some grouping. It has been done with Astrology for millennia.
Personally, I created groups or sections in the compass in which I can identify tools or find cues in the visual circle of our life which will will help us to utilize the best of a particular grouping by choosing from a portfolio of elements, senses, and energies. Our goal is to help the individual realize all that nature has to offer in terms of foundation, color, feeling, sensation, sight and sound needed to support health and well-being every day.
Moving forward, we are looking at this spiritual compass as a template for our present and our future and we offer anyone interested a chance to frame their own compass in ways which are meaningful to them.
I am posting a picture of its beauty. I have no idea who is the creator but will remain eternally thankful for its inspiration in helping me to define and concretize the mission of the Sanctuary @womenzpace
Spiritual Compass
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