Month: January 2022

WHY?

It is important to understand my personal why but not so important to understand the why of the universe.

January 28, 2022

Tagged Consistency, Grounding, Meaning, Purpose, Why?

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Why?

When something happens, the first thing that we humans ask is why. Why me? Why now? Why this? Maybe it is because I feel more in control if I know the why of things. Maybe it is because if I know why, the world doesn’t seem quite so random. Maybe it is because I can better come to terms with whatever has happened if I know why. The fact of the matter is that knowing why doesn’t change what has occurred.

There are also the BIG why’s. Why do bad things happen? Why do we exist? Why is the world like it is? These are questions that humans have been trying to answer since the beginning. They are existential why questions that don’t have easy answers. They are questions that, when we do find a personal answer, only scratch the surface of the bigger question.

For me there are two whys. One is personal and is mine to answer. The other is universal and is out of my control.

The personal why is my why? What is my WHY? This why is my purpose. It is what I am called to do in this world. It is my reason for existence. It is what I spend my life honing, refining, and ultimately acting upon as I make my way in the world. It is what makes me who I am.

The universal WHY is much bigger, and I don’t believe that it is ours to understand. It is the grand design of the universe, and it encompasses all our lives. We are threads in the tapestry, but we don’t have the big picture, the big WHY.

It is important to understand my personal why but not so important to understand the why of the universe. That WHY is so much bigger than I am. However, if I understand my why, I can be more mindful of my own actions in the grand scheme of things. If my why is love, then my actions and my life resonate with my why. Without knowing my own why, I cannot be grounded or consistent. I become consumed with trying to find answers that don’t change what has gone before.

My task then is to discover my own why and to consistently apply that why to all my actions. If what I am asked to do does not fit with my why, then it is easy to say no. If my attitude does not fit with my why, then I need to change it. It takes self-examination, courage, and wisdom to know my why, but ultimately it is what makes for a purposeful and fulfilled life.

What is your why?

Barbara Garland
January, 202

When Does the Spiritual Become Political?

WISDOM

Don’t be afraid of the dark, of the carving out, the deepening, the breaking open. It is what gives you Wisdom and makes you into a Wise elder.

Goddess Inspired

January 21, 2022

Tagged darkness, Roots, transformation, Vessel, Wisdom

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WISDOM

Yesterday my wonderful spiritual director read an amazing poem to me about Wisdom. The poem talks about how life carves out, deepens, breaks open, and makes one a translucent vessel for the light to shine through. None of those things sound very pleasant, but I realize that difficult life experiences, the ones that break us open and carve us out, are the very things that give us Wisdom.

It is an interesting facet of human nature that we remember the difficult times in our lives before we remember the easy ones. We tend to look back with a kind of pride that we survived those tough times. We were changed by them. They were the pivotal times in our lives that molded us and shaped us into different people than we were before. They were the fertilizer that made us grow into more mature and wiser human beings. However, they are usually not what we would voluntarily choose.

I have written before about grief and the transformational power of the dark. It is in the dark that we begin the growth process. The dark is where we put down deep roots before we begin to reach toward the light. Without deep roots we are tossed and turned in the wind. We are unable to be grounded or centered. We feel adrift and alone.

Yesterday I drew an Oracle card that said, “Time for a Nap.” In thinking about this card, it seems that it is very important, when one is faced with the dark, to relax into it, to rest, to nap, to let our roots grow deep and strong. It is important that we remember that as we are carved out and broken open that we then become a vessel that holds deep wisdom.

There is a reason that we seek the wisdom of the elders. Wise elders are the people who, by virtue of having lived the longest, have generally had more difficult experiences that they have come through. They have grown through these experiences and have learned that the tough times are the times that we learn the most. They then become the translucent vessel of Lady Wisdom (Sophia) shining forth for others and sharing their hard-earned knowledge with whomever is willing to hear.

Don’t be afraid of the dark, of the carving out, the deepening, the breaking open. It is what gives you Wisdom and makes you into a Wise elder.

Barbara Garland
January, 2022

Treasure Island

Goddess Inspired

January 14, 2022

Tagged Quest, Search, soul, Treasure, Universe

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Treasure Island

Sometimes the Universe is not subtle. If I don’t hear something the first time, it keeps coming up repeatedly. This week is a case in point.

I was thrilled this week when my writer/artist friend, Donna, and her husband came for a short visit from Colorado. She and I had so much fun writing together. We would draw an Oracle card and write for five minutes on the subject depicted on the card. One of the cards we drew was Treasure Island. Today the Oracle card I drew was also Treasure Island. The subject of today’s lesson in a writing course I am taking was the Treasure Within. I don’t know about you, but I think the Universe is telling me to write about Treasure.

The premise of most stories about treasure is that it is hidden. It is not in plain sight with a sign that says, “get your treasure here.” It is usually buried deep underground or in a deep cavern in an inaccessible, difficult-to-find place. The treasure can’t be found without a search, and it is only found after a long and arduous quest filled with danger and many setbacks.

So where is the personal treasure, the pearl of great price? Is it hidden away in the dark cave of my unconscious, or is it found in the faraway god of the cosmos? Is it in the person lying next to me or in the work that I do or in the guru who promises salvation?

For me the treasure is deep and inaccessible unless I consciously, openly dig for it, not outside of myself but in the shadowy recesses of my darkness. The treasure is found in the darkness within, in the shadow that I don’t want to see. It is found in the grief and sadness that loss and death bring. It is the diamond that is forged from the depth of despair. It is the joy that bursts forth from knowing grief. It is sitting in the muck and blossoming forth with the incomparable beauty of the lotus.

The treasure can’t be found without inner work. It requires work to find it and claim it for myself. Going deep into the shadow and the muck makes finding the treasure even more precious. It isn’t easy to find, it isn’t easy to extract – but when I discover it, after a lifetime of seeking, I value it even more.

For me this treasure my true Self, my Soul self. And that self opens me to love – love for myself, love for others, love for the world. I must truly love myself first, shadows and all, in order to love others and the world. I must see myself as sacred and holy before I can see others as sacred and holy. I must acknowledge and feel grief before I can feel joy. I must get my hands dirty and dig deep, and when I find my true Self, I treasure that self even more because I have had to work for it.

Where do you find your treasure?

Barbara Garland
January, 2022Treasure Island

Grief – Love – Joy

So many of our emotions are opposite sides of the same coin. In the case of grief and joy, what binds these emotions together is love.

Goddess Inspired

January 7, 2022

Tagged connection, Emotions, Grief, Joy, love

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Grief – Love – Joy

In the past two weeks I have experienced the depths of great grief and the heights of joy – a bittersweetness that has permeated my inner being. On Christmas Day, my beloved aunt and surrogate mom got her angel wings and passed into another existence. On December 30, my lovely granddaughter began her new life as a married woman. Depths and heights, bittersweet and achingly beautiful.

I used to think that I was capable of only one emotion at a time. I couldn’t love and be angry at the same time. I could not find joy in grief. After many years of living, I realize that we are multi-dimensional beings, capable of holding many emotions simultaneously. I can be angry and still love. I can feel grief and joy, love and hate, all in the same moment. In fact, I am meant to have wildly differing feelings about any given moment.

For example, in losing my aunt, I felt both joy and deep grief – joy that she was finally free of her frail body and confused mind and sorrow that she was gone. I was happy for her and sad for myself. I will miss her in so many ways.

At my granddaughter’s wedding I felt the same two emotions, joy and grief – joy for two lives joined together in love and promise, grief at the thought that my own life is passing so quickly. Both emotions were strongly present in me and not at all contradictory.

So many of our emotions are opposite sides of the same coin. In the case of grief and joy, what binds these emotions together is love. Without love, I would not grieve loss. Without love I would not know joy. I can hold both of these strong emotions simultaneously because in essence I can’t have one without the other. I must love in order to feel either. Love is the catalyst for feeling both joy and grief.

Love is the key component in our emotions. If I can find the love in what I am feeling in the moment – grief, rage, joy, surprise, fear, gratitude, annoyance, or myriads of other emotions – I can find a way to reconcile what seems to be conflicting feelings. I can accept the bitter with the sweet. I can allow the feelings to be what they are, to allow them to flow through me, and to be at peace within the tumult of many emotions flowing at once. Grief – Love – Joy, flowing together in a dance of life.

Barbara Garland
January, 2022

About

New blogs will be added to this post every Friday.

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About Me

I am a seeker of truth, a truth teller, a lover of the Divine Feminine, an aspiring writer, a mystery, an open book, a work in progress. I have lived a long and varied life, and now in my seventies, I am being called to share some of what I have learned over the years. I hope to share the wisdom of the deep Feminine that is being channeled through me.

If the Goddess has ever whispered to you, I invite you to join me on an incredible journey of love and discovery. May you hear Her wisdom through these words.

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