“You don’t know who they will be,
the ones who open your eyes to life’s wild magic,
but when you find them,
it will not be hard to tell.”
-StoryPeople

 

There is a parable in African folklore about a king and his friend.

My teacher at the recent shaman practitioner training I attended shared this story with us.

One day this king and his friend are out on a hunting expedition. Something goes wrong with one of the guns and as the king picks up the gun it fires – and his thumb is accidentally blown off.

The king’s assessment is that this…is very bad.

But his friend remarks, “This is good!”

So the king sends his friend to jail.

About a year later the king is out hunting again and ends up getting captured by a tribe of cannibals. They are preparing to kill and eat him when they notice the missing thumb. They get spooked as they don’t believe in eating anything that isn’t whole.

So they release him.

The king runs to his friend in jail to tell him that he was right, it WAS good that his thumb was blown off, and he expresses great remorse for putting his friend in jail.

But his friend remarks, “No, this is good!”

Confused, the king asks him how in the world it could be good that he sent his own friend to jail.

And the friend explains, because if I wasn’t in jail right now I would have been with you on that hunting expedition and I would also have been captured.

But I would have been eaten.

How do you perceive the things in YOUR life?

The events in our world lately have seemed very, very bad.

There was a recent presidency by an unlikely character that seemed bad for plenty of reasons. It seemed to escalate divisiveness, hate, unrest.

But we also needed someone like that to rip up the rug and unearth all the dirt we’ve been sweeping underneath. The only way to true harmony is to go through the conflict you’ve been avoiding.

We can now begin to face our issues. We can begin to heal.

It did seem very bad.

But it was also good.

There was the recent appearance of a particular virus that seemed bad for many reasons. Sickness, death, the loss of jobs, the crushing blow to many small businesses, masks, distance from our loved ones, life events turned upside down.

But it has also pushed many to re-evaluate their lives, re-evaluate their health, leave their current jobs and seek deeper meaning as we face our mortality and the gift of time that we are given here.

It’s caused many to slow down and be able to appreciate the absolute smallest joys and blessings in life.

It does seem very bad.

But it is also good.

Before judging something in your life as being very very bad, can you leave a little space for the possibility that it is also very good?

Like the king taught us, sometimes the loss of a thumb just might save your life. Like the king’s friend taught us, sometimes being in the wrong place is really the best place possible.

It’s hard to know how life will unfold. And trying to control the outcome and manage all the pieces perfectly from our zoomed-in viewpoint will surely drive you mad.

The best thing to do is to trust.

Trust that when you zoom out and look down below, there is a plan in place.

Trust that someday in the future when you look back, it will all make sense and it couldn’t have worked out any other way to teach you the lessons you needed to learn.

Trust that every single person is here with a plan of their own, learning the lessons their soul needs to learn, in the ways they need to learn them.

So you can let go and just focus on your lessons. Your healing. Your growth.

Whew. There’s a lot of weight we can let go of when we realize that the only thing we can control in our lives…is ourselves.

And that the best way to control ourselves isn’t to control at all, but to let go and trust.

Try this practice when you’re feeling overwhelmed or lost:

First take a deep breath in through the nose all the way down into the belly so the belly expands like a balloon. Then let the breath out through the mouth with a big sigh and a little force making the sound WHOOOooo or HAHHHHhhhhh.

Repeat that two more times.

Then place your hand on your heart and speak this mantra to yourself or out loud:

I have TRUST in myself.
I have FAITH in my path.
I have PATIENCE for the plan that is unfolding.
I feel GRATITUDE for the good that is already present in my life.
I allow SPACE for the possibility that this thing that feels very bad, is perhaps also good.

Continue breathing in and out through your nose now, bringing the breath deep down into the belly (not just breathing shallowly in the chest). Close your eyes if you can.

And imagine all the many pieces of yourself scattered all over – from all the places you’ve been today, from all the people you’ve thought about, from all the stresses you’ve let your energy be drained into – returning back to you. Bring every part of you back into your body.

Continue breathing this way until you feel re-centered in yourself.

Now from this place, reassess the day.

There’s new magic stirring at Moondance...

 

In the last post we talked a lot about the Chrysalis phase; how this phase births us into our next becoming, our new chapter. You can revisit The End of Caterpillar Land here. 

And following the Chrysalis phase, there are now some new things going on here at Moondance!

For one, I’ve added two new services – Archetypes and Shamanic Energy Healing.

I’m super ecstatic about the addition of these two because it feels like it finally offers a truly holistic way to bring wholeness to our mind (Personality/Psychological Types), our heart/soul (Archetypes), our energy body (Shamanic Energy Healing) and our spirit (Spiritual Life Coaching).  
 
And two, I’ve completely changed the pricing structure so that it’s cheaper and easier to get started.

Now this isn’t a marketing ploy – if you know me, you know there’s two things that really eek me out: spiders and marketing, but I’m actively working on making peace with the spiders. No, this is just because personally and collectively WE NEED THIS. No more excuses.

All sessions are now individually priced at $90 per 90min session. Please note that some services do require two sessions to complete, and there’s a 6-week package that bundles all of the services together called Life’s Wild Magic.

PLUS there is now Student/Financial Hardship pricing available for $45 per 90min session.
 
SO…what is standing in your way now?

Just yourself, eh? Well luckily all of the services are extremely good at teaching us how to get out of our own way and allowing life’s wild magic to unfold 🙂

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain