There hasn't been much paint moved around in the last week and a half... family time took priority.

There was contemplative road time, gathering, noisy chatter and reunion, excellent practice ground for presence and patience and flexibility, little rest and lots of food I don't normally indulge in. There was time together and memories made - the only thing that matters in the end.

There was also an incredible zipline experience - the Super Zip - 50 miles per hour for 45 seconds like Superwoman, over a river and through the forest trees - just like flying in a dream. It was beyond awesome, totally soul-liberating and like an invigorating push back into grounded embodiment. I highly recommend it - for more than the thrill - for the inspiration.

Then, on return, as it often is after a retreat from the studio, I am in critical creative mode... messy, spewing of sparkly, pulsing ideas... a mix of words and color... with frequent moments of deep breathing and pacing and stretching... some cleaning and clearing and prepping canvas and pages... arranging dates and vessels for the sharing.

I've been in conception and gestation mode for a couple of years, to be perfectly honest, including a nesting stage and a self-loving tending stage. A long time I know, but it was necessary. I do believe I've now gone into some sort of labor cycle that I can only ride out, sinking into the contractions as they come, and honoring the process of whatever might come from it. It's a bit uncomfortable, and completely alive with pulse.

This includes preparing content for the first RHYTHM™ Session {RELATE} that begins next month - there are only 2 seats left. This content, this journey is already rocking my world in my spiritual practice and creative process... it has just opened up doorways inside to deeper truth, brighter insight and a wider space for expressing and exploring love.

I also found out while we were away that I was accepted to host a Sacred eARTh RHYTHM Tent at the Southeast Wise Woman Herbal Conference this fall in Black Mountain, NC. I intend to share more on that later - but this is huge in my heart, as I've been an attendant and volunteer at the conference for years now. The conference is an amazing, empowering gathering in itself, and to have this booth space feels a bit like a coming out party for Hali Karla Studios in the local area here.

Which is perfect, because just before our trip, I connected with a local fantastic little venue to hold workshops and monthly circles. I meet with them next week to talk about dates. I found it in one of those completely random, walking by at the perfect time sort of scenarios... I love how the Universe conspires and knows when it is time even before we do.

Today was a day for the muse - who feels more like a bossy, but wise midwife in this cycle - and I surrendered to putting on page the arrangement for a very special experience for 2014. This is something that has been marinading for quite some time, and now it seems... obvious, easy and inevitable, in all the right ways. As usual, those on my mailing list will be first to hear about it.

A couple of years ago, I felt the spark that all of this was my path, and I had no idea how it would unfold. When I got real honest with myself, I knew I wasn't ready back then - I knew I needed to tend and mend my own heart, to take the time, to make the space, to commit and let it bond in the rhythms of my day to day. The best place to learn how to hold space for all this releasing of life, art and service into the world, is just like everything else - it begins with our Self. If we haven't fully explored what it means to be navigating in this form, with all of our stuff and patterns, and found a way to stay aware of where we stop and another begins, and when that begins to blur... then we have work to do before accompanying others on that path of discovery. So that's what I've been doing - this work of the body and soul.

So to be sitting in this space I'm in now, or rather pacing with the anticipation of a certain coming, a type of knowing and realization - about myself and my unique blending of gifts - that I've never quite experienced before, is nothing short of sensational. What I know is that I don't know - except what I know to be truth and of core value for my life - and I know that is exactly the place I want to begin from, again and again, even as it shifts, changes, and evolves.

It is the mystery I love, the cycles of creating, the waxing and waning of rhythms right inside of us and between us. Even when it takes on unconventional forms, looks messy and chaotic, or just like ordinary life.

Just This Life {8} - road time and birthing chaos

Backbone

Giveaway! ~ All I Did Was Listen