Aligning with the Will of Heaven
One of the most difficult aspects of Conscious Manifestation is the understanding that it doesn’t necessarily (or even usually) mean getting what your ego wants.
As I often discuss with my clients and at my events, our goals have one purpose and one purpose only: they are there to help us to become who we want to be. They invite us to step into our potential. And so sometimes, as we move toward those goals, we have to release our attachment to the form our desire has taken, to make space for something else.
Once in awhile, this is quite painful because we realize we really really really want things to be a certain way.
And yet, if we can, in the midst of an ego shattering experience, surrender to something bigger, if we can release resistance and trust that our soul’s agenda is larger than our ego can understand, then we make space for magic and miracles to happen
I was thinking of that earlier this month as I drove to the airport to pick up the musicians who were coming in from Ireland for the Celtic Soul Experience.
The Celtic Soul Experience was a week-long series of events in Missouri, including a three-city concert tour, an Irish music workshop and a Celtic Spirituality retreat.
This event was, quite literally, the biggest thing I’d ever done in my career. I’d been nurturing the seed of the project for over two years, and working intently on the specifics for over six months.
It all centered around three musicians: Noirin Ni Riain, whose heavenly voice had been transforming my world since the mid 1990s, and her sons, Owen and Moley O’Suilleabhain of Size2Shoes, whose inspiring, brilliant and heart-healing tunes I wanted to bring to an American audience.
So here I was, on my way to collect them at the airport.
But, due to last minute Visa issues, Moley was still in Ireland, and Owen, who had been let out of the country on an emergency tourist Visa, was given strict orders not to perform.
As you might imagine, I was having difficulty with this set of circumstances.
Having Noirin perform without Owen and Moley was not on my ego’s agenda.
So I was hoping that, miracle of miracles, Moley would somehow make it to Missouri and Owen would be allowed to perform, since we were waiting hour to hour for news from the Embassy.
That didn’t happen.
And I had some choices to make about who I wanted to be in this situation.
Did I want to resist what was happening? Or, did I want to align myself with the will of Heaven by trusting that somehow, some way, there was a Blessing waiting for me and others in the midst of this apparent crisis?
Did I want to pretend that I knew exactly what form a miracle should take? Or did I want to trust in a miracle beyond my designing?
Thanks be to God that I had a lot of support to help me be who I wanted to be: My Mom, Mary Lou Schneider, who went on the road with us and kept me in one piece all week. Cindy Caldwell, my volunteer coordinator and all around wonder woman. The spirit of community among the musicians and promoters in all three cities.
We rode a roller coaster of emotions as I took Noirin and Owen to KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis, where Owen and Moley were to have made their first American television appearance on Great Day St. Louis, and watched other people perform with Noirin in their place.
We drove through Missouri where, time after time, Owen and I got up in front of each audience to apologize and explain why Moley wasn’t there, and why Owen couldn’t sing.
We did put together a wonderful lineup for the concerts: Margaret Waddell, Hannah Satterwhite, Lydia Ruffin and Gerald Trimble were among the many superbly talented people who enhanced Noirin’s lineup of songs and stories. We will always be grateful to the folks who stepped in at the last minute.
We watched Noirin touch 700 people’s hearts, ears and souls in three cities with her magical voice.
And at each concert, listening to that ethereal music, I was present to my own pain, and witnessed Owen’s and Noirin’s, as Owen sat, voiceless, watching other people do what he was put on this planet to do, unable to sing for people who wanted to hear him. And each day, wondering how Moley was doing in Ireland.
We dealt with sound issues and misunderstandings and our own disappointments, and we laughed until we cried over some of the zany things that happened on the road.
We were blessed to be part of something bigger than us. We raised enough money at the concerts for over 1,000 meals at Missouri food banks and sent more funds to Joplin to help people recovering from the tornado there. We announced the winner the raffle for next year’s workshop in western Ireland– and discovered that her uncle lives in Glenstal Abbey, where Noirin lives and works (so she’ll be seeing him when we gather there next summer!) And we ended the week with a magical Celtic Spirituality Retreat Noirin and I taught together in St. Louis.
By the time Noirin, Owen, Mom and I had a couple of meals together with my family at the end of the wild week, we realized something truly wonderful had happened: we had become more than business acquaintances and admirers of each other’s work. We had witnessed, up close and personal, how each one of us responded to intense personal and professional stress. And we liked what we saw. We were soul friends whose journey together was just getting started.
Noirin, Owen, Moley and I are already planning myriad other ways to work together again once Owen and Moley’s Visa complications are resolved–including Celtic Soul Experience II in Missouri and Noirin spending a day with us at my workshop in Ireland next summer. And there are many other beautiful things brewing from the Celtic Soul Experience that I’ll share when the time is ripe.
For now, let’s just say that I am grateful I had the tools and the wonderful people to help me trust in the miracles I couldn’t yet imagine, rather than the one I thought I really wanted.
Because aligning with the will of Heaven gets me a lot closer to who I want to be than striving and pushing and resisting.
And manifesting peace and joy in the midst of a painful experience: that is a miracle in and of itself.
“Who you are, in any given moment, changes everything.”*
(Noirin Ni Riain sings Ode to Brigid to our daughter Bridget, who was named after the Irish Goddess and Saint)
Sending you the Peace that comes from remembering who you are,
kimberly
The Manifestation Maven
http://facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
*from the poem I Need A Sky that Moves by Kimberly V. Schneider
Email this postWhat Do the Dalai Lama, Steven Spielberg & Sinead O’Connor Have in Common?
When we talk about the word “genius” in common parlance, we usually mean a person with an extraordinary ability that sets them apart. Geniuses are rare and special.
However, the original meaning of the word genius is a bit different: it refers to the Divine aspect that lives in every situation, place or person.
We all have genius inside of us, but many people go through entire lifetimes without finding or expressing Divinity in a way only they can do it. And that’s a tragedy.
When a person DOES meet her or his inner genius, that’s a beautiful thing.
And when genius is given an environment that allows it to flourish, and then the stars align so that their genius can be an inspiration for others to recognize what is real and true and brilliant in themselves, well, that’s just magic.
Genius can take the form of seeing the beauty in every soul and every moment of life, like the Dalai Lama.
Or the ability to inspire through story, like Steven Spielberg.
Or a voice that touches our deepest emotions, like Sinead O’Connor singing Nothing Compares 2 U.
What’s your genius?
Do you know?
If not, when was the last time you looked for it?
And if you do know what your genius is, what do you do to nourish it every day?
One of the things I do on a regular basis to remind myself of the Divinity that lives within me is to surround myself with people and experiences that awaken my joy and wonder.
And in that regard, I have something in common with the Dalai Lama, Steven Spielberg and Sinead O’Connor, because each one of them has recognized and celebrated the particular genius of three people who are very special to me: Noirin Ni Riain and her sons, Owen and Moley O’Suilleabhain of Size2Shoes.
I would be bringing Noirin, Owen and Moley from Ireland to the U.S. for the upcoming www.CelticSoulExperience.com concert tour, Celtic Spirituality retreat and Irish music workshop regardless of their celebrity recognition, because they are truly spectacular. But perhaps a little star power is appropriate here, since we are talking about genius:
– Noirin has been invited to perform for the Dalai Lama on multiple occasions (he’s bowing to her in the picture at the bottom of this email).
– Steven Spielberg is a big fan of all three musicians, so much so that, in addition to buying lots of their music, he has hired Moley and Owen to work on one of his film projects. In Spielberg’s words, “Size2Shoes fits all!”
– Sinead O’Connor calls Noirin “my biggest influence and heroine in music.”
Many other geniuses of entertainment have recognized the special qualities of this musical family, including actress and film producer Anjelica Huston, who says,
“Nóirín Ní Riain has the voice of a Byzantine angel. She is surely the High Priestess of Gregorian Chant.”
And actor Russell Crowe raves,
“I’m a huge fan of Size2Shoes. From the inspired mastery of their harmonies, to the streetwise intellect of their humours. Unique, unaffected, awesome.”
If you live near St. Louis, Kansas City or Columbia, and you want to remember who you are and why you are here, I urge you to join us the week after Thanksgiving at one of the 3 concerts, the Celtic Spirituality Retreat and/or the Irish Music workshop. Do you really want to miss an opportunity to experience “the voice of a Byzantine angel” ? And did I mention that the spectacular Margaret Waddell will be joining us for all three concerts? And that Gerald Trimble is opening in Kansas City…
And, if you’ve been thinking about making the trip to the Midwest for one or more of the events, you’ll be so happy you did, and we’ll be delighted to have you there!
Come one, come all! Bring your friends! Share the joy!
Tickets and info available on the website; Columbia concert is nearly sold out and tickets are moving for the other two venues so this is a good time to get your tickets!
And of course, whether or not you join us for the Celtic Soul Experience, I am wishing you many experiences that awaken your wonder and remind you where the genius lives inside of you.
(Noirin Ni Riain with the Dalai Lama)
Blessings to you,
kimberly schneider
The Manifestation Maven
http://facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
The Healing Power of Compassion
Wretched morning with our daughter Bridget this morning.
Preadolescent angst and hormones combined with Bridget’s developmental delays and difficulty articulating what she is feeling, mixed together with my own adult worries over things that have nothing to do with her.
It did not make for the best start of the day. I did not like who I was being this morning.
As I watched myself start to succumb to a tantrum of my own in response to Bridget’s outrage that I had opened the front door rather than waiting to let her do it (believe it or not, in our house, this is a big deal), I somehow remembered to breathe and practice Tonglen, the ancient form of meditation I learned from western Buddhist nun and teacher Pema Chodron.
Tonglen de-armors the heart by teaching us to sit with difficult emotions and difficult circumstances. In Tonglen practice, contrary to our inclinations, we breathe in what is uncomfortable, and breathe out what would soothe the discomfort (sending that healing breath to ourselves and to others who are experiencing difficult emotions).
Rather than running away or masking the feelings, we discover, through staying present, that we can do anything, for one breath. We discover that we are more connected to each other than we realized. And that underneath all of the difficult emotions is a boundless compassion that is large enough to hold anything we bring to it. Once we have experienced it, this compassion empowers us to be awake for our lives.
I needed another dose of Tonglen in peace and quiet after Bridget made it on the bus this morning. So I sat in the quiet and breathed some more. And underneath my anger and frustration I felt sadness. My own and Bridget’s.
And then I got on Facebook and read about a little boy in the St. Louis area who lost his life yesterday. I don’t know all of the circumstances, but I think it is safe to say that until we adults learn to be present to our own difficult emotions, the innocent of this world will suffer. It is tempting, when we read about horrible things like this, to project all of our anger and fear outward, on to the perpetrator, the enemy, the bogeyman. But that won’t break the cycle of violence and despair.
Those of us who are committed to a conscious life have to stop passing our own shadow material around, unloading it on each other because it is too uncomfortable. One by one, we are called, moment to moment, when we are faced with emotional challenges, to be present to our emotions—to really feel them, so that we don’t dump our unconscious energy on to the people around us.
This is how peace begins. We find compassion for ourselves, even in the most unattractive aspects of who we are. We demonstrate that compassion by being present in each moment. And as we practice, we find that this compassion, which is much larger than our personalities, bleeds out of our broken hearts to heal the world.
I am a long way from practicing Tonglen perfectly. I have some very ugly and awkward responses to the people around me, even the ones I love the most. And sometimes I forget to do Tonglen when I am upset. Sometimes, I forget how to reconnect to my Source. And that’s the genius of this work. You don’t have to have it together. The healing begins, again and again, in the middle of each messy moment.
So today I am grateful, even for the sadness welling up inside of me as I ponder my conflicts with Bridget this morning. And for the pain I feel as I consider what Tyler Dasher’s mother must be feeling. Because I know that I am alive. And I know what to do with that pain.
I may feel helpless to offer any sort of comfort to Tyler’s Mom. But I can be compassionately present to my own feelings, which will help me find a large enough space inside myself to breathe for her. To pray for her. To pray for us all. To begin healing this broken world, one breath at a time.
Several years ago, as we awaited one of Bridget’s heart surgeries, I felt overwhelmed by fear and anticipated grief. A passage from scripture about King Herod’s slaughter of the innocents in Israel kept coming to me: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:18)
I wanted to run, screaming, from that image, the image of the crying mother. Because I did not want to be that woman. But I knew that the fears and feelings I was experiencing would just go unconscious if I covered them up. So I decided to practice Tonglen.
Below is a poem I wrote about that experience. Today I offer it up for Tyler’s family, and for all who have experienced great loss. May we keep breathing together, compassionately present to our own pain, so that we may create a world that no longer needs this sort of weeping.
The Week Before Open Heart Surgery
I watch her face soften
in the blessed trust
of sleep. And I feel the weight of her trust
in me, the awesome
and terrible weight of
motherhood, hovering over my life
like a wrecking ball.
I try to practice the
tonglen
of mothering.
Breathe.
Breathe into my fear and
meet it where it lives, in that closed off
part of my soul that used to run
from the pictures
of the childless mothers
whose babies’ lifeless bodies were
pulled from the river or
lost in the rubble or
left to rot under
the overpass after
the kidnapper had satisfied
some unfathomable
need.
Keep breathing.
Breathe in
the shock
the cry
the mute
despair.
Breath out….
what?
What could soothe
The raw and screaming
Emptiness
of a childless
mother?
I do not know.
Breathe in the
uncertainty.
Live the uncertainty.
Breathe out the
certainty that I am done
pretending
that the pictures of
the childless mothers:
those women in
Israel and Palestine
and Iraq and Rwanda
have nothing to do
with me.
“Rachel weeps, for
her children are
no more.”
I do not want
to know you,
Rachel.
I do not want
to be you.
But I will weep
for you, Rachel.
I will weep
for me.
I will weep for
a world that
has to know
this sort
of weeping.
Copyright 2002, Kimberly V. Schneider
Today may you discover the boundless compassion within yourself. Blessings and Peace,
Kimberly
The Manifestation Maven
http://facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
My favorite resources for learning Tonglen are Pema Chodon’s audios, Awakening Compassion and Good Medicine.
President Obama Was Cleaning out My Garage…
If you want to find out about the funny dream I had last night, (it involved the President of the United States, some chickens, our cat, and a few pigs…) I’ll get to that in just a moment.
If, however, you want to skip to the part about how you can WIN a spot at next year’s workshop in western Ireland, where you’ll be trekking to ancient sacred spots and immersing yourself in poetry, music and the elements with me, my family and an intimate group of spiritual seekers, that’s at the bottom of the email….
Now, back to the dream:
Last night I dreamed that President Obama was cleaning out my garage.
He was very cheery about it too! My husband David and I came home to find him there with his sleeves rolled up, finishing the job.
We waved goodbye to the President, then walked around back to look at our new hen house, where our chickens were sleeping contentedly on their nests, along with a few happy pigs. I told David that the chickens were going to begin laying “in a few weeks!”
One of our cats walked in and at first I was concerned about him eating the chickens, but he did not bother them. The three of us, David and Tiger and I, just stood there in the hen house, smiling and looking at the sleeping animals.
At first when I awoke, I was puzzled by the dream. I’m not at all political anymore, and even when I was, I have never dreamed about a President. And I haven’t lived on a farm. So what was the deal with the chickens and the pigs?
Luckily, I had a bodywork appointment with my friend Marilyn Eagen and a phone conversation with my Mom this morning. Those two wise women held a space for me to discern the meaning of my dream:
The chickens laying in a few weeks represented the wonderful blessings coming our way as a result of the Celtic Soul Experience I’m facilitating with Noirin Ni Riain,Owen O’Suilleabhain and Moley O’Suilleabhain (world class musicians from Ireland) the week after Thanksgiving.
The pigs sleeping in the chicken house came from something I just read the other day about the Chinese symbol for security and happiness being “a pig under a roof.”
The pigs, chickens and the cat peacefully co-existing reminded me of the many different faith traditions coming together for the Celtic Soul Experience.
And the President represented a higher power—an aspect of the Universe that had access to resources that I did not—and he was taking care of things for me.
It was a wonderful message for me this morning. A reminder to be in the joy, to smile as I watch those sleeping chickens, and to expect happy surprises.
Because the best things in life often come to us in unexpected and wondrous ways, and all we can do is marvel!
For instance, have you been thinking about coming to Ireland with us next summer for the Dancing on the Edge workshop June 23-30, but weren’t sure HOW it could happen?
Well, if the thought of being with us in Ireland next year makes your soul sing, then the Universe will take care of the details. And here’s one way that might happen:
We are selling raffle tickets for at all 3 of the Celtic Soul Experience concerts in Missouri (Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis) to raise money for charity—and the Grand Prize is a spot at next summer’s Dancing on the Edge Workshop with me in western Ireland! www.KimberlySchneider.com/trips
Just think, you could experience an incredible evening of uplifting, transformational live music from some of the most talented and spirit-filled vocalists and songwriters I’ve ever witnessed, AND win a spot at the Ireland workshop too. (Prize includes 14 meals, 7 nights lodging, all sacred sites and guides, plus the weeklong workshop with me and an intimate group of spiritual seekers . Plane fare and travel to and from the airport to Ballyvaughan are Not included).
We’ll be choosing one finalist at each of the 3 concerts and then do a drawing for the Grand Prize at the December 1st concert in St. Louis. Raffle tickets are $5 for 1 or $20 for 5 and the money will go to Missouri charities.
So, are you joining us at one of the
Celtic Soul Experience Concerts?
Tickets for all three shows, plus the Celtic Spirituality Retreat and the Irish music workshop, are beginning to move quickly! Find out all the details and get your tickets at www.CelticSoulExperience.com
And in the spirit of the Chinese character for security and happiness,
May you always have a pig under your roof (and a President to clean out your garage).
kimberly
http://facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
The Manifestation Maven
The Bright Blessings of Samhain Darkness
In the northern hemisphere, sunset tonight ushers in the Celtic season of Samhain. (If you want to learn more about Celtic Spirituality and music, by the way, be sure to check out Celtic Soul Experience events coming up the week after Thanksgiving!) www.CelticSoulExperience.com
During this window between Samhain/All Hallow’s Eve and Christmas/Solstice/Midwinter, the veil between the worlds is thin and our ancestors are most accessible to us. It is also the beginning of the dark half of the year, a time to become more intimate with the hidden, mysterious, “shadow” aspects of ourselves.
In the west, our egos tend to avoid the dark. We yearn for perennial spring and summer. But we can’t have light without darkness and, as writer Annie Dillard reminds us “you do not have to sit in the dark. If you want to see the stars, however, darkness is necessary.”
Like all aspects of duality, light and darkness are two sides of the same coin. The experiences that shatter our egos are also the situations that lead us (if we let them) directly to our heart’s truest desires. It is only in resisting some aspects of our experience and clinging to others that we create suffering for ourselves.
You may have heard the story of Persephone, one of the goddesses of ancient Greece. According to Greek mythology, Persephone was Queen of the Underworld. I grew up learning that Persephone became Queen after Hades abducted her and took her to the Underworld. Interestingly, as an adult I learned a different version.
In the more ancient telling of Persephone’s story, she is picking flowers in a beautiful field one day when she hears the plaintive cries of the dead emerging from a cleft in the earth. Her heart opens in compassion and she feels a pull to answer their call.
Although she is young and afraid to leave the realm of perpetual light and pleasure where her Mother Demeter rules, Persephone faces her fear, surrenders her innocence and enters into the unknown with her eyes open. And it is only in the Underworld, where she faces the cries of the lonely and confused souls amidst cold and darkness, that she finds her power and becomes a Queen in her own right.
What does Persephone’s story tell us about creating more of what we want? Paradoxically, when we stay in the world that we know and push the feelings, ideas and experiences that make us uncomfortable “underground,” our power is limited.
When we are willing to go wherever our souls may lead us, particularly when we are armed with compassion, then we become Queens and Kings. We are Masters and Mistresses of the Universe. And because there is nowhere we are unwilling to go, anything becomes possible.
You can choose which Persephone you would like to be—the one who walks consciously into the Underworld, or the one who goes kicking and screaming, too distressed to see where she is going.
Life will take you into the Underworld, there is no doubt. If you enter it willingly, resolving that while you are there you may as well learn something, you are likely to remember the way out. It is when you deny that the Underworld exists, or spend all of your energy avoiding it, that you get abducted. When you are taken to the Underworld without your consent, it is much harder to find your way out.
I was grappling with an Underworld invitation one Samhain season when I wrote this poem:
Prayer to Persephone on Samhain Eve
I am not afraid to bid farewell
to the greening time,
the growing time,
the harvest time.
This year, Persephone, let me join your descent.
Open the hidden door
to the earth’s very womb
and let me slip inside.
Lift the veil from my eyes
and reveal to me the Otherworld.
Lead me through the realm of faerie:
The glistening, glittering, gossamer world of enchantment.
I am not afraid.
Take me further still,
into the darkness.
Whisper sweet words in Charon’s ear
And hush the snarls of Cerberus
So that I may come
to the silent place
the waiting place
the winter place.
I am not afraid, Persephone.
But lend me your strength
when Lady Death greets me
with a frosty kiss
and grant me your courage
when the soft sweet pool of nothingness
envelops me.
Remind me Persephone
that Winter will come,
whether I want her, or no,
and that she bears gifts for those
who are willing to receive her.
For the candle makes no magic
in a warmly sunlit room,
and departed souls can’t come to visit those
who won’t acknowledge death.
Take me with you, Persephone.
I am not afraid.
Only promise me
I may return with you
In Spring.
copyright 1999, Kimberly V. Schneider
Sending you wishes for “conscious” Underworld adventures this Samhain season!
And I hope that part of your celebration this year of that special time between All Hallow’s Eve and Christmas will include at least one of the Celtic Soul Experience events!
Peace of the illumination that can only arrive in the dark to you,
kimberly
The Manifestation Maven
What Does “Follow Your Bliss” Mean?
You’re probably familiar with Joseph Campbell’s exhortation to “follow your bliss.”
But, what does that mean, exactly?
The dictionary definition of bliss is “heaven” or “paradise.”
So, following your bliss means to do whatever, in this moment, brings you into alignment with your true nature. With your essential Divinity. With the God/dess that lives and moves and breathes and experiences its being-ness through YOU.
It does not mean distracting yourself from what feels uncomfortable.
It means being present and fully alive, even when that hurts. It means knowing yourself as the heroine or hero in a grand story-your life.
Right now, I happen to be in one of those rare and precious periods where I can glimpse the wondrous nature of my story. I’d like to share a piece of it with you, in hopes that it empowers you to follow your bliss.
[And if you are curious about what I was hinting at last week when I talked about “Dancing While Your Corn Grows,” I am going to reveal it here! So read on…it’s all part of the bliss.]
Almost 20 years ago, my lifelong interest in ancient and mystical religious practices shifted to the spirituality of the Celtic peoples—the tribes that came to live in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, western Germany and Spain.
Internationally renowned Irish vocalist and theologian Noirin Ni Riain played an important role in awakening my awareness of my Celtic heritage. Her voice transported me to the Otherworld and helped me remember who I was. And when I facilitated my first ritual in a Celtic Spirituality group, it was her music that I turned to for inspiration.
Years later, David and I named our youngest daughter Bridget, inspired by the Irish Saint and Goddess evoked in Noirin’s version of Ode to Brigid. We used to play and sing Noirin’s song for Bridget as she recovered from heart surgeries, grateful that we had given her a name that means, in Irish, “resilient strength.”
In 2009 I finally went to Ireland for the first time. The music and poetry, legends, landscapes and people nourished my deep creativity and joy; I began writing poetry again and learned to play the Irish drum.
One of the best parts of the trip, however, was meeting two extraordinary brothers, Owen and Moley O’Suilleabhain, who played original music each day at the workshop I was attending. Their musical talent and essential hopefulness healed something inside of me. I felt happy just being around them. One morning, as we were heading out to visit an ancient sacred site, Owen said to me, “you seem to know a lot about Irish spirituality and music. Who do you listen to at home?”
“Oh, I listen to lots of different Celtic musicians, but my favorite artist is Noirin Ni Riain,” I said.
“You follow Noirin?” Owen asked, seeming a little surprised.
“Yes. My Mom and I both love her music. She’s amazing. Do you know her?”
It turned out that Owen and Moley knew Noirin really well—because she is their mother. And she came to perform for us that night.
You can imagine my joy and surprise upon meeting Noirin in person and hearing her sing, together with her sons, whose music I had also grown to love. I left Ireland that year with two goals:
1) bring groups to Ireland for soul-healing workshops; and
2) do anything in my power to introduce Owen and Moley’s music to an American audience.
I did bring a group back to Ireland the following year (I’m doing it again in 2012).
And now I’m bringing Noirin, Owen and Moley to America for a week of Celtic Soul Experience events, including three concerts, an Irish music workshop and a Celtic Spirituality Retreat!
I’m not usually at a loss for words but it is difficult for me to express the absolute happiness I have at realizing this dream, and being able to share the joy with people back home.
I hired Noirin, Owen and Moley to sing for the workshop I did in Ireland last summer and I have seen the magical healing effect of their voices and personalities on person after person. To be able to bring that magic home for you is a spectacular high.
I’m following my bliss!
And, if it feels blissful to you to imagine experiencing the healing, joyful music of Noirin Ni Riain and Size2Shoes (the name of Owen and Moley’s group) at a concert with me, or to be with the four of us as we facilitate a Celtic Spirituality workshop for you, then I hope you will take a look at the events we’ve put together right in the middle of the USA, the week after Thanksgiving.
You can get all the details here:
Wishing you the joy of living your dreams,
kimberly
Kimberly Schneider
The Manifestation Maven
http://facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
Dance While Your Corn Grows
In the northern hemisphere, we are right in the middle of the harvest season.
(Happy Thanksgiving to my friends in Canada!)
At this time of year I like to take stock of what I have “harvested” in my life and count my blessings.
I also have to remind myself that every dream and project has fallow times and growing times, in addition to reaping times.
It is not always time to harvest, and, in fact, in can be counterproductive to mess around with nature’s wisdom by trying to push things along.
Sometimes, there’s nothing you can “do.” Sometimes, “doing” is a form of resistance. In order to be in the flow of whatever you are gowing, you need to learn to dance while the corn grows.
I’m getting ready for a huge, luscious harvest right now—one of the most joy-filled projects I’ve ever played with because it involves supporting the success of people who have been sources of inspiration, enlightenment, laughter, healing, creativity and fun for me. I’m still pinching myself that this dream is coming true (I’ll tell you all about it next week!)
As I wait for this particular harvest, which is going to happen November 28-December 3 of this year, there are lots of things for me to do (the energetic equivalent of watering and nurturing and tending). And yet, I know—I know I know I know—that the MOST important piece of this coming harvest is stepping into the energy of what I am creating right NOW. If I spend each day between now and November’s end wondering:
o Will my corn grow as big as I want it to grow?
o What if it is not exactly the right flavor?
o What if there is a hail storm?
o What if there’s not enough rain?
o What if there’s to much rain?
Well, that sort of energy just isn’t going to be good for my corn.
I need to dance while my corn grows.
This is the time to look at that luscious, multicolored corn and take pleasure in the fact that it is warming in the sun.
This is the time to sing to it.
This is the time to marvel at how it began as a tiny seed of an idea, and now it is growing into a fertile field of food that is capable of feeding multitudes.
That, my friend, is a wondrous thing.
What are you growing right now?
Whatever it is, don’t wait for the harvest to celebrate the process of bringing it into being. Let your joy be complete every moment along the way.
That is the true harvest. The harvest of your presence to this moment.
Peace of the present moment to you,
kimberly
The Manifestation Maven
www.Facebook.com/KimberlyVSchneider
When Happy Is How You Look…
What does happy look like for you?
Do you smile more?
Have a sparkle in your eyes?
Become indifferent to mirrors?
Several years ago, when I visited western Ireland for the first time, something interesting happened. After a couple of days spent hiking in the limestone landscape of the Burren, visiting ancient sacred sites, staring at the ocean, peering over cliffs, immersing myself in poetry, music and the elements, I stopped caring how I looked.
I quit applying makeup.
I let my hair be wild.
At the same time, I was laughing more. Dancing. Reflecting. Tapping my toes along with traditional Irish music. Lying on the grass. Singing.
Near the end of the week, a couple of different people commented that I my looks had changed since I arrived.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You look younger,” one replied.
“You seem freer and happier,” said another.
I couldn’t help thinking of the lines from the Fleur Adcock poem, Weathering, about what happened for her when she spent time in England’s Lake District:
“But now that I am in love
with a place that doesn’t care
how I look and if I am happy,
happy is how I look and that’s all.”
What makes you look happy?
If you feel that stepping into the magic that is western Ireland might be an answer to that question, then perhaps you’d like to join us there next summer for Dancing on the Edge: A Celtic Soul Experience! You can watch a slide show of places you will encounter there, and hear some wonderful Irish music at:
www.KimberlySchneider.com/trips
You’ll also find all the details about the program on that page.
Peace of a happy countenance to you,
kimberly
P.S. this Saturday, October 1st is the last day to receive a complimentary updated cottage OR private room upgrade when you enroll in the Dancing on the Edge workshop in western Ireland. If you already know you want to come, reserve your spot now to get your free upgrade!
www.KimberlySchneider.com/trips
Step Back into the Magic of Your Life
What do you, each day, to remind yourself that you are alive?
Where do you place your attention, to awaken yourself again to the magnificence of being?
Do you notice the first smell of fall in the subtly shifting air?
Catch the smile in your beloved’s eyes and let its warmth radiate out from your heart to your fingertips?
Get drawn into another’s contagious laughter, to the point of helpless tears, even though you’ve already missed the joke?
A few years ago, I had forgotten how to notice any of this.
I was exhausted. I had been working too hard to create the life I wanted, not realizing that all the while I was missing it right in front of me.
The capacity to recognize the magic in my day-to-day life had gone numb.
As I later wrote, in a poem called Why Beauty Went to Sleep,
Perhaps she would have said
that sleeping
was the only reasonable answer
to sameness.
After all, even extraordinary awakenings become ordinary
when given over to the realm of obligation.
Better to rest
and wait
for something truly surprising:
a miracle—for once
not of her own making.
And then a miracle DID happen.
I woke up in western Ireland.
What I mean is, I decided I HAD to go to western Ireland, that what I’d been putting off for years could no longer wait, that my soul was starving for what I would find there.
I found: my Self.
I found her in
the way the sun beckons from just beyond the hills,
giggling yellow flowers
spilling themselves haphazardly
over black and white rocks,
ancient places of power
that require getting lost
in order for one to find them.
The green hills, the crumbling ruins, the clean air on my face, the ocean, the dolmens, the rainbows, the laughter, the slowness, the music, the poetry, the quietude, the stories, the ancestral memories, the palpable presence of the Otherworld, the pubs, the fresh seafood, the canopy of stars, the simplicity.
Somehow, I knew who I was again, standing on ground that was new to my feet but achingly familiar to the part that was remembering again what it was to write and sing and dance and laugh.
I was home.
Do you remember what home feels like?
Do you know how to find it?
Of course, you may not need to go to Ireland, or any other part of the world, to remember who you are.
Perhaps you need to stand in the grass in your bare feet.
Or join a choir.
Or finger paint.
Or learn how to make samosas.
I don’t know the sound of your soul’s quiet voice, but you know it.
You know what you need to do.
Take the first step.
Step back into the magic of your life.
Peace of miraculous awakenings to you,
kimberly P.S. If western Ireland happens to resonate with your soul too, you can join me there next summer. Enrollments are already coming in now for the 2012 Dancing on the Edge Workshop. And if you register by September 30, 2011, you can choose a free updated cottage or private room upgrade!
Find out more at www.KimberlySchneider.com/trips
The Antidote to Exhaustion
I hope you had a glorious weekend!
In the U.S. we celebrated Labor Day yesterday—a holiday to honor all those who work.
Ironically, I spent Saturday of Labor Day weekend working too hard and stressing out about all I had to do to get ready for my Managerial Communication Course, which begins this week (I’m returning to my law school alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis, to teach MBA students).
By the end of the day I was exhausted.
I woke up Sunday morning thinking of a David Whyte’s story of his friend and mentor telling him:
“the antidote to exhaustion is not rest. It is wholeheartedness.”
And so, instead of working, or resting, I began the day hiking the foothills of the Ozarks at a park near our home.
Here was my to do list for Sunday:
- sing with the trees
- breathe deeply
- dance with the wind
- expand horizons by gazing out over cliffs
- connect with the flow of the Meramec River
- stop to let the rush of a passing freight train reverberate through my body
- send my soul out flying with the hawks
- kiss the ground with my feet
Not surprisingly, I’m facing this week’s to do list with a renewed spirit and more energy to give my students the best of myself than I would have if I had worked on Sunday (or even just slept in at home).
We all feel exhausted at times.
And if you are feeling that way today, consider:
what little shifts in attitude or activity would invite you into a state of whole-heartedness?
For me, nature is a great restorer—and I also found a lot of satisfaction this weekend in creating some luscious, healthy meals; eating outside; playing ball with Bridget; laughing with David and helping Maddie pick out her Homecoming dress.
What about you?
What brings you into a state of whole-hearted appreciation of your life? (Do you remember? If not, it’s time to experiment until you find something!)
I’d love to hear what brings you into wholeheartedness.
Peace of a full heart to you,
kimberly P.S. I have two available spots left in 2011 for people who want to do individual Soul Retrieval Days with me (one spot in November, one in December). If you are interested in exploring that opportunity, let me know by contacting me at support@kimberlyschneider.com or posting here and I’ll email you an application.
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