Cristen Rodgers's Blog, page 17

The Creative Observer

We are natural-born creators, the architects of our lives and the sculptors of our shared reality.  We’re born into this realm with a personal toolkit that allows us to alter our world from the inside out.

In this toolkit we have a physical body that can build, a mind with which to invent, and a spirit that can energize anything we craft.  We hold the power of creation, and this life is our sacred opportunity to learn how to mindfully wield that power.

As a species, we have used our creative powers to improve most everything about how we live our lives.  We have become healthier, happier, and more productive; we’ve lengthened our lives and freed up our time – but improving some things can cause as many problems as it’s meant to solve.

When we make our lives too comfortable, we can easily become intolerant of discomfort.  We end up thinking of the uncomfortable, unsettling, or unsatisfying things in life as if they are wrongs that must be righted; and this extreme focus on what things can be distracts us from appreciating them for what they are.

Simply put, our eagerness to influence the world often interferes with the pleasure of just experiencing it.

We are all artists and our lives are our art –  and like any artist, we must temper our voice with a well-developed ability to listen.  Just as a writer must spend as much time reading as they do writing, we as creators must spend as much energy admiring the world as we do painting it.  This means that sometimes we have to allow things to be what they are, without altering them, even if they are less than what we would have hoped for.

This willingness to let things be is an important part of learning and growing in life.  Sometimes we need to feel discomfort and struggle, and we even need to feel the occasional heartache and pains.  We’re like diamonds; our beauty is born under pressure.  When we eagerly alleviate every little thing that rubs us the wrong way, we never have the chance to really develop our shine.

Often times letting go and letting be requires more courage and grants us more power than desperately trying to change something.  By listening, watching, and learning, we nurture greater awareness and we gather more inspiration than when we’re busy building, imagining, and changing.  This means that, when we do decide to bring out our toolkit and get to work, what we create surpasses those things that we immediately rush to improve.

When we nurture a state of inner calm and contentment, it’s easier to accept the world as perfectly imperfect – we can enjoy having our toolkit without always having it out and chiseling away at everything we see.  This actually reduces our suffering in life, because our struggles are really just lessons in disguise.  Every time that we push them away or try to fix them, they just come back around to us in another form – and each time that they come back they are a little bit tougher.  When we stop trying to always correct discomfort and instead allow it to be what it is, we give ourselves the chance to learn those lessons the first time and save a lot of unnecessary difficulties later on.

Sometimes it’s important that we put our toolkit away, let our art breathe a little, and spend some time just observing.  Even when the winds are blowing harder than we’d prefer, it’s often better in the long run if, instead of trying to fight against the storm, we just watch and wait for the silver lining to illuminate the lessons that wait just on the other side of the clouds.

It’s okay to take a break, and to give the world a break, and to remember that although we should appreciate our power to influence the world, we must also appreciate our ability to just experience it.  Perhaps this will help us appreciate that unique and perfect kind of beauty that can be found in living a sometimes imperfect life.

©2016 Cristen Rodgers

Angels in Overalls

Perhaps we’re surrounded by angels who are sprinkled throughout the population, dressed up in aprons and business suits, overalls and high heels alike. Maybe there are wings resting atop the shoulders of everyday people that, in countless little ways, peek out just long enough for us to get a glimpse. Maybe, just maybe, we see them all the time but we just fail to notice.

©Cristen Rodgers

The World is Your Canvas

We are all artists, painting our lives upon the canvas of reality.  Mix the colors your own way and apply emotion liberally.  Don’t be afraid to let your brushstrokes show, and above all else, make sure your art has soul.

© 2016 Cristen Rodgers

 

April Affirmation

My love is like a river that flows into the sea.  What I send out always returns from whence it came and is ever ready to depart again.

©2016

Rainbows and Fire

Did you know that you have Divine beginnings?  You were born of endless potential, made up of stardust and love mixed with rainbows and fire.  You came from everything and nothing, everywhere and nowhere.  You are a child of the Divine.

Though you once rested in the arms of heaven; you knew that there was still more work to be done on earth.  And so it came to be that you pinched off just a little piece of that potential, you mixed it with passion and a dash of fire, and you poured all of that love and light into a tiny bottle.  Carefully, you squeezed every last drop of this celestial stuff into your little human container; and then you took the lid and you threw it far, far away – you planned on always keeping close ties to home.

With your top wide open, you floated your little bottle down to earth where you could be an artist whose canvas is as wide as the universe and whose mediums are as diverse as the stars.  You could dip your pen in fire and write poetry with your life; you could splash love across the world and spill stardust from your soul.

Sadly, it seems that the years have faded your memories of home and you’ve forgotten the magic you’re made of.   But, haven’t you ever noticed how sometimes it seems as if your bottle is just a little bit too tight, like you need more space to move and more air to breathe?  Well, though uncomfortable, these feelings are there to remind you of a secret that you have somehow managed to lock deep down inside.  They are there to remind you to just look up – your lid is still open.

No matter how long it’s been since you thought of home, and no matter how beautiful or horrible your art has become, the truth of your noble birth still remains.  If ever you feel small, just remember that you are made up of the light of millions of stars, that you hold the entire rainbow in your essence, and you arose from the same energy that holds the planets in motion, that carries the wind and seas, the same energy that sustains the sun.  If ever you feel alone or bound, just remember that you are the child of eternity, risen from an infinite field of pure and perfect potential.

The next time that you feel tired, or alone, or like this container is a little bit too small, just remember to look up.  Just take moment to peer out through your open top and I’m sure you will be renewed, invigorated, and inspired to see that there’s a trail of stardust leading you from this little bottle all the way back home to your Divinity.

©2016 Cristen Rodgers

The Book of Life

Your story isn’t isolated; it is but one page in the chapter of humanity, tucked inside the book of history.  Use your space and choose your words wisely.

©2016

Thirsty for Truth

Image: Elf Woman in a Magical Forest by NejroNIn many ways, spiritual truths are a lot like spring rains.  When the rain falls upon the upturned face of a flower she has no choice but to acknowledge its presence – but only when that rain gets at her roots, only after it seeps down past the grass and the rocks, making its way through the mud and clay, does it help the flower grow.

Like that flower, our roots are covered too; they are buried beneath all the things that we cling to as a part of our identity.  Every definition that we give to ourselves, each judgement that we make about the world, and all of our beliefs and assumptions that we rigidly hold are piled atop our souls –  and before any truth can seep down in there where it can nurture future growth, we have to be willing to dig through these layers and clear away the debris.

Even when the rains of spring fall equally upon the entire garden, each flower will grow at her own pace and will bloom in her own unique way.  This is because how she grows and when she blooms depends as much on the receptivity of her roots as it does on the frequency of the rain.  It could rain all day, but if the layers are too thick for the water to penetrate, she will remain thirsty.  So also our own growth depends as much on our openness to truth and our ability to let it get deep down into the heart of our identity as it does on how many truths we listen to and understand.

When we are defensive about who and what we are, the truth may make sense but it will be of little effect – the rain may fall upon our face but will have difficulty watering our roots.  As it has to make its way through these thick layers of defensiveness, it gathers impurities that make it potentially as detrimental as it would have been beneficial.  The more that we are willing to peel that defensiveness away – the more beliefs we are willing to challenge, the more assumptions we can push aside, and the more fears and expectations we can break apart – the easier it becomes for the truth to seep down into our soul; and the purer that truth will remain as it makes its way through.

In this season of rebirth and new growth, let’s aspire to not just hear truth but to really receive it and allow it to change us.  Let’s get in touch with our roots and wiggle them around a little, loosening up all of the debris we’ve piled atop them.  Let’s open ourselves up to the rain, unafraid because we know that the more we lose the greater our gain.

©2016 Cristen Rodgers

Image: Elf Woman in a Magical Forest by NejroN

 

The Beauty of Blooms and Torment of Thorns

Image by Lucy Jane Purrington (click for source)

What things in life have soft petals without also having a few sharp thorns?  This is what makes life so very sweet, the chance to appreciate the complex mixtures and vacillating fusions between soft and sharp, tenderness and tearing.

Too often we instinctively pull back after our fingers are pricked, and we learn to fear the way they bleed.  Without realizing it, we begin to focus so much of our energy on avoiding the thorns that we never notice that we’ve only managed to bury the rose.

All things in life have the beauty of blooms and the torment of thorns; but only we get to decide what to do with that which we receive.  We could bury it all away and never have to worry about the sharpness of thorns – but what kind of life would that be?  To never feel the softness of velvet petals, to be blind to the crimson color of love, and to miss the chance to drift away on the subtly sweet smells of summer?  Far better it would be, it seems, to risk getting pricked and have the chance to witness the exquisite beauty of the rose’s unfolding.

©2016 Cristen Rodgers

My Secret Prayer

My secret prayer for you, my friend, is that one day you can look without closing your eyes.  I hope you see that no matter how long you avert your gaze, the fresh wounds and the old scars remain; and so too do the mistakes you’ve made that caused others pain.

My secret prayer for you, my dear, is that by lighting a candle inside you will finally see the wounded child hiding away in there – and I hope you know that throwing judgements and criticisms will only make it scream louder.  I hope that you learn how to look at your pains without tearing them back open, and to see your wrongs without shying away, for neither denial nor disdain make for effective medicine.

My secret prayer for you, kind soul, is that one day you’ll stop throwing punches at your shadow long enough to realize that you’re just another person trying to figure it all out as they go.  I hope you can give yourself just a taste of the compassion that you give to others – that you admit to yourself that falling down is just a part of learning to walk, that mistakes are unavoidable, and that failures are never the end of the story.

I pray that someday you’ll realize that all of the criticisms, the judgments, and the blame were never yours to begin with and that it’s time to let them go.  I hope you see that those things were given to you by others, others who had wounds like yours that they wouldn’t let heal.  And I pray that you can forgive – forgive yourself for being cut and forgive those who wielded the knife, and most of all forgive yourself for the times when you were the one cutting.

My secret prayer for you, my friend, is that one day you make peace with all of who you have been so you can start picking up the pieces of who you are.  I hope you accept that what’s done is done, that you can’t retrace your steps to pick up the things you’ve lost along the way, but you can start to rebuild.  Then perhaps you will finally exhale that last bit of hurt and shrug off the last regrets that are still weighing you down.

My secret prayer is that you soon understand that being good doesn’t start with the things you’ve done or built, it doesn’t start with where you’ve been or who you’ve loved.  Being good starts with accepting who you are.  I hope one day to see you cry tears of relief rather than tears of sadness as you courageously approach the mirror of your soul, gaze straight into your own eyes and say, “I understand. I forgive you.  Let’s start again.”

My secret prayer is that you will be able to look at yourself with the casual glance of a well-acquainted friend and smile an absent smile at your stupid choices.  I hope that one bright, shining day you will be able to roll your eyes at your mistakes, and laugh a hardy laugh at your imperfections and shortcomings, knowing full well that this is often the only way to learn.

Above all else, my friend, I pray that you come to see that all pains are just separation from love, even your own secret ones.  And I hope the realization washes over you like a tidal wave that you don’t need an excuse to love yourself – that you can love yourself just because you need it.

I pray these things not only for your well-being but for the good of us all, because the world doesn’t need more people beating themselves up inside, making a bloody mess of their broken hearts and tattered shreds of their minds.  We have enough of that and all it brings is more pain.

The world needs more precious hearts like yours who finally choose to see the beauty of their scars and the light in their own eyes.  My secret prayer for you, my friend, is that you take all of that love and tenderness you show the world and you dare to turn it inside out.  And I will wait patiently and hope that I will be there to see, to stand witness on that day when you finally, fantastically set yourself free.  This is my secret prayer.

©2016 Cristen Rodgers

Painting with Pure Light

Image source Fotolia

We each have within us an infinite palette of emotions that we use to paint our personal realities.  There’s a complex array of possible hues; and for each different hue there are as many different shades.   There’s the crimson heat of passion and the rosy warmth of friendship.  There are teal waters of tranquility, golden rays of happiness, and charcoal fingers of sadness.  One of the greatest pleasures in life is the ability to mix these many colors in our own way to create a unique, one of a kind work of art; but we often find it more frustrating than fun because we become victims to rather than creators of our palettes.

An artist doesn’t identify with their paint; nor should we identify with our emotions.  We are not the joys and anxieties, or the pleasures and pains of our daily lives.  These are simply the colors that we splash upon each day’s canvas.  We are the source of these emotions; we are the white light from which all of these many colors are derived.

In a way, we are like the rainbows that decorate the spring skies.  We begin with pure, undiluted light from which we create three primary colors – love, fear, and serenity.  And using those three little colors, we can mix continually more emotional tints and tones.

When we forget our inner light, when we identify instead with the shade of our sentiments and the machinations of our minds, we begin to feel as if we are being created by them rather than being creative with them.  We may find ourselves dipping our brush in the same fears over and over again and responding to everything with tinges of anxiety, judgment, and insecurity.  Or we end up continuously painting with the blood of past pains and wondering why the wounds won’t heal.

The only way to reclaim control is to take the time to be still and remember who we truly are, to re-connect with the pure light of our inner being.  When we move from the inside out, rather than the outside in, we can choose which primary colors we begin with.  We can heal our hidden pains and face our secret fears.  When we embrace all of who we are, we get to choose which parts we want to work with, giving ourselves the absolute freedom that a great artist deserves.

Perhaps by consciously moving back into the pure light of our souls, we will remember that life isn’t quite as serious as we like to pretend it is.  We can remember how to be playful with this artistic experiment we call life.  By reclaiming the entire rainbow that lives within us, we can become the free-spirited artists we were always meant to be, dipping our brushes in the light of our own souls and painting our passions across the universe.

 

©2016 Cristen Rodgers

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