Flight, by Carolyn Rowland

My eye was caught by the slightest of movement on the train window. A tiny almost transparent light green insect had landed during the train stop and was now moving slowly across the window. As I watched, the train began to move and instead of flying off, the insect clung to the window pulling its wings in closer. The train began to pick up speed and I could see the insect stiffen against the wind and pull itself closer to the window, trying desperately to
hold on. It slid slightly down the window as its grip loosened and then suddenly one leg pulled free. I willed it to just let go and fly but it continued to fight to hold on. The tension in the remaining limb holding fast was visible even though the insect was so small that details of it were hard to see. The train continued to increase its speed and finally, the insect was
pulled free, lifted its wings and flew.

As I exited the train at my stop, I began to laugh. I had been willing the insect to just let go and fly but how many times had I been the insect, fighting to hold onto where I was, when if I could only let go, I too could take to the wind on my wings.

Be the rain falling on your skin....

Taking a Walk on an Autumn Day

I just returned from a walk with my dog, Phoebe. It is a gorgoeous fall day here in the lower Hudson River Valley, although I didn't think so when I walked out my door. I complained, or my mind did, that I had gotten out too late. The sun was being blocked by clouds and the wind was blowing. But Phoebe needed her walk and so into the car we went.

As we drove to the trail, which is 26 miles of bicycle trails through woodlands, I began to think of an email discussion I am having with my spiritual mentor, Rhonda. I have been realizing that I don't appreciate life. I am always so busy. Do what, I'm not exactly sure, but it all seems very important in the moment. And the moment seems overwhelmed by all this important stuff I am doing... even the joy of creating often gets lost to the busyness of this doing of mine.

On my creativity workshop held several weekends ago in Pennsylvania, we were working on identifying the parts of our personas that keep us from our deeper, truer self. And I realized I had an Energizer Bunny running me. In fact, I sometimes feel as if I am the Energizer Bunny, pushing ahead across the landscape, not looking left or right, never stopping to notice the flowers much less smell them.

This isn't true in actuality. I am on a path toward inner peace and finding my true center. It is the calling of my soul and I am hearing its song more and more often. But sometimes, it seems, I can only hear the "Go go go!" of the Energizer Bunny.

And so, as I drove to the trail with Phoebe, I reminded myself to remember the walk is for me as much as Phoebe. I need it for my soul. I needed it to find peace.

As we began our walk, however, my Energizer Bunny mind took over and I started thinking about all I had to do that I hadn't done, and started making plans. Until suddenly I stopped and remembered to remember why I had come on this walk. And it wasn't only for Phoebe.

Remember to remember is a phrase and a knowing that I have received from working with my mentor, Rhonda La Rue, and it has become a mantra of sorts -- when I do remember to remember.

I began to look around me at the splendour of the scene. Which suddenly had become splendour that made my heart beat faster. The sky, half blue, half gray seemed no longer ominous. The color of the leaves nestled against the reservoir were in their fading glory. I said to my soul, please let me see this walk through your eyes. Let me shut the eyes of my mind and open to the sight of eternity.

Did I succeed? Well, not every moment of the walk. Phoebe and I walk for about an hour. But as I drifted in and out of the different ways of seeing, I began to calm, and laugh at the way my Energizer Bunny mind wrapped itself in knots trying to get my attention.

And then I'd open to the eyes of my soul. And everything about me turned beautiful. The gray sky was a searingly spectacular as the blue sky. The bare branches held as much grandeur as the multi colored leaves. The wind brought autumn, its sights and smells, whirling about me like a magic carpet of color. My sight truly changed and felt happy. Happy on the walk. Happy being with Phoebe, who of course, only sees through the eyes of the soul. Happy being.

Creativity as the Path of Soul

Most of us delegate our creativity to our writing and "other creative work." We compartmentalize our writing as something we "do", something that is outside our "normal life" - even outside our "real life." By compartmentalizing our creativity an separating it from our everyday life, we ensure that our writing will suffer; we will be in an anxious rather than a fluid relationship with our creativity.

I am coming to see that the more we allow the creative flow to support and enliven our life "outside our writing", the more integrated writing and life will be. Writing no longer is something we must "find time for", something we have to "fit into our busy schedule"; rather, writing becomes a natural outflow from life itself, just as life becomes a natural outflow of our writing. The more I explore this, the more effortless my own writing becomes. It is no longer, "Oh, my God, I have to sit down and write." Rather, the desire to write becomes a gentle guide to the writing itself.

This isn't something that our minds, stomping ground of the Inner Critic, can easily grasp. In fact, if we try to embrace this flow as a concept, it can become scary. This Life Flow is an experience that rises up from the knowing within the cosmic inner world of our deepest being.

Continuing the prompts: walking the path of relationship to self, creativity and the song of the soul....


"In the core of my being, I am...."

Creativity, A Call to Awakening Workshop

A new and inspiring workshop led by Emily Hanlon

October 13-15, 2006
The Country Place Retreat Center, White Haven, PA

The multifaceted journey of creativity is not limited to the arts. There is another level of creativity that beckons us: awakening to the deeper truth of who we are, or who we would be.

Labyrinth as a Metaphor for the Journey

There is a large, beautiful labyrinth at the retreat center; it is on a small hill that is bathed in sunlight. Taking advantage of such inspiration, we will work, among other things, with the labyrinth as the metaphor the journey inwards.

In the ancient myth of Ariadne, her half brother, the Minotaur, half-man, half-beast, is imprisoned at the heart of the labyrinth and fed the brightest and most promising youth of Athens in sacrifice each year. It is Ariadne, muse and guide to truth, who gives Theseus the golden thread that leads into the labyrinth, where he slays the Minotaur and then follows the golden thread back into the light.

Each of us has a Minotaur caged inside us. We, too, feed this beast the best and brightest of our creativity. In the workshop, we will use writing and other creative methods as Ariadne's golden thread!

Using the image of the labyrinth is a bridge into the deeper mystery of self is a powerful creative experience that shifts our relationship to self and allows us to hear our true voice.

"Back into the labyrinth, where we are found or lost forever."
W.B. Yeats

Explore the workshop at:
http://www.thefictionwritersjourney.com/Creativity_The_Call_To_Awakening.htm