Lara Vesta's Blog, page 13

Wild Transitions

Sophia Wild by David Hayward Change is wild.

In the past three months my previously (only recently) stable life, filled with expectations, methodologies and deadlines turned upside down with a move.

Which, in true domino fashion, upset a number of other previously stable entities with delays, surprises, shocks and a good shaking.

In the wake we've been a little stunned.  Waiting for the dust to clear.  What to mourn, what to accept, what to embrace? A teacher tells me to look to nature.  And what I see in the wake of catastrophic events--all relative depending on your species, size, situation--is the power of adaptation.

When faced with loss, you adapt, change course, move, make new decisions and directions based not on where you were or wished to be, but where you are right now. Elen of the Ways by Chesca Potter And when you are clear about your options, you share with your family, your tribe and community.  You paint them a picture of your most recent path.

I'm still shaken by all that has unfolded in this latest transition, still trying to reason my way out of some un-reasonable situations.  When I'm a little more settled, more clear, I'll be sharing here the stories.

Until then, I wish ease to your own.

Moving Week

This is the week of our big household move, and I'll admit to feeling overwhelmed, cycling though layers of grief and anticipation.  This house was home, root, garden, shelter, healer.  It is powerful, the mix, the threshold, the simultaneous release and embrace that is this present moment.

In times like this I am grateful for so much, humbled and in awe.

I need to be quiet a bit longer, to focus on the path ahead and do both the physical and spiritual work of preparation.

And when I settle, when I return, there are circles and webs to nourish, ceremonies to share, and a virtual cake of celebration to honor this year of business (Vestal Transitions was born a year ago today).

I hope you'll join me.
Love--

Evolving in Motion

So the next two weeks will be pretty interesting as we continue to sort and pack.  Our ETA for the new place is July 11th, and there are miles to go before that destination is reached.

I am continuing work through the weeks but may be brief in posting, and if you are trying to reach me I would ask for patience.  I will always answer your letters but there may be delays due to the move and the ever navigating of family life.  Once I'm nested I'll be back in rhythm, with news to share and exciting Vestal community plans for autumn.

After so many years of loving my work, but knowing something wasn't quite right, this time is a revelation.  For all of the trials of the moment, I wouldn't trade it for anything.  This is my path, opening, twining with the paths of others, labyrinthine and complete.  I can in no way see the end from this point, but I trust, for again and again--however dark-- my feet meet earth.

I wish ease in your steps...
--Lara

Revolutionary Education for Life Transformation, or how to move, parent three children and make magic happen simultaneously...

"What will you do with your one wild and precious life?" Mary Oliver's words have followed me around many a rapid strewn river bend, and this week I feel like I am closer than ever to an answer...

Tomorrow is the full launch of my new website (s), ecourses, books and kits...everything I've been creating for the past year is moving out into the open in one gigantic flow.  Which feels big, and fabulously right.  

And, as with any wave, many other things are caught up in the swell.

1.  I'm moving from my home of four years, it's official.  Our landlord is selling and we can't (yet) afford to buy in this neighborhood.

As I write this now, boxes line my living room, the house is in chaos, the garden calls to me for tending and in another month our family will be settled into our apartment, a whole new way of being on us for a year while we save some money and prepare for the future.

2.  All the kids are in for the summer, which in my teaching days meant that I would transition from working mom to at home mom.  Not so when my work is year round, my office the living room. How to mostly not lose it when times get tough... I'm a natural stress case.  It's genetic, a little type A mixed with some other pathologies too route to name.  But if there's one thing I've learned in the past four years it's how to resist the anxiety and depression that comes along with being overwhelmed.

And, yes, I'm kind of overwhelmed.

So I let it go.

My house is a mess, my kids are playing on those screened devices that I normally limit like soda and candy, the yard is only mine for a few more weeks.  Some emails aren't being answered, some appointments are rescheduled.  We are eating pizza, again, tonight.  And right now, I feel pretty great about it all.

The Moon Divas Certification, Self-Care and Transition Support, Ceremonies for Communities, and several kits and ebooks are all up in the shop.  The courses aren't email integrated yet, meaning you get a set of download links instead of a pretty weekly email, but they are up and functional.  And pretty amazing.  I would want to take all of these classes, the true test for any work I create.

Tomorrow there will be new additions and promotions, and even though I haven't completed everything exactly as I thought in the timeline I had, I'm really proud of this work, for what it is in the moment.

Once the moving dust settles I have all kinds of exciting plans to spill, including teaching opportunities, upcoming live classes, some business propositions for the faithful MD and Vestal U audiences (that's you!) and, of course, continual inspiration and community creation.

We'll celebrate, together.  Because what is is pretty great if you let go of your expectations.

With love in the flow--
--Lara

Behind the Curtain: It's Me!

Dear Friends:
Today it begins, yet another process of transition and evolution both personal and professional.
Here I am struck by inspiration:

That truly positive transitions can only happen when we are further integrating and refining our deepest selves.

Meaning:  The more of YOU you are, the more happy and full your life will be.

I've been gestating this for the past couple of weeks.  Last month I celebrated my one year wedding anniversary.  This marriage, a second for both of us, has required a lot of personal delving and negotiation.  But it has been extraordinary in so many ways, primarily because in this relationship I can live my truth, be fully and oddly myself.  It isn't always easy, but I am consistently surprised by how my expressions of honesty deepen our relationship.  Not because of him, but in his proximity, I've become the woman I was always meant to be.  In this relationship I've been challenged to authenticity. On the beach at sunrise taken by my daughter, February 2013. NYC Pedicab ride, October 2012...the Hurricane Honeymoon. This past month we found out that the home we've lived in for the last four years, the back yard where we were married, the front room where I've healed and written books, the plum tree and wild gardens where our children are comfortable and happy, is going up for sale.  We may be able to buy it.  We may not.  Either option bodes for change.

But by staying open, balancing the threads of what was with what may be in the present moment, understanding as I cannot help but do after my own transitory journey the past seven years, that the best place is the one where our biggest growth can occur, fills me with possibility.  Here my strength emerges, after a moment's grief.  Here I laugh and look to the future.

Owning and integrating authenticity means change, and change is life lived broad and wide.

With this in mind I have an announcement:  I am rebranding Vestal Transitions under my own name.

Lara Vesta, Inspiration +Transformation

What does this mean?

All Vestal programs continue, including the emerging Vestal University with creative education for life transformation:  Moon Divas Certification, Ceremonies for Communities and Self-Care and Transition Support courses are all set to launch in new incarnations come Solstice, June 20th, 2013.

This website will continue to exist as a primary Vestal home, though it will shapeshift some through the summer, in conjunction with the new laravesta.com--due out on the Solstice, too--a site focused on my art and writing.

This change means more for more:  More opportunities for connection and collaboration for more individuals everywhere.  The Guidebook remains free and is flying through the world now.  Continue to share it with all you love! And if you enjoyed this offering, please consider donating to my Each One Help One scholarship program (in the shop).  Any amount at any time is welcome. With this program I am able to offer workshops, classes and ceremonies to the many women in transition who are experiencing financial need.  

If you live in the Portland Metro area, this fall Vestal University will be hosting a live Moon Divas Guidebook Certification course, including Moon Divas Certification for Professionals.  Details and registration coming soon!

Plus, a few surprises, including a new book on its way.  Hurrah!

Vestal Transitions has had an incredible year.  I have learned so much, made many connections, collaborations, have experienced a distinct surge in supportive appreciation that has really humbled and moved me.

So why rebrand, when things are swimming along so well?

From a business standpoint, I need more people to find me.  After a year of mostly interior operations (building the business from my living room) I'm finally ready to promote this work in a large scale way.  Branding all of my endeavors under my own name helps people discover this work faster and easier. 

That's the business-y gist.

But it's also because I am a writer.  A mother.  A maker and artist and a celebrant, too.

Because I have never allowed myself to step fully into my power as creator.  And the question that I've been considering for months now is, Why?

Why don't I believe that I can make my living as a writer and artist?  Why have I been so shy about actively pushing the Guidebook out into the world?  I believe in this work wholeheartedly, have had incredible feedback, but I've yet to engage in some of the basic tools of promotion.  And why is that?

Because I'm a big chicken?

I'm naturally reticent, a pretty private person.  In my past life as a teacher I had little use for reaching into the broader world, was able to live without social media, without putting myself out in the open.  Large scale revelation has been one of my heaviest resistance barriers, my deepest fears.  The Vestal Transitions business name allowed me to hide still, to speak in a different voice, a larger and more impersonal voice.  Oz behind the curtain.

When really, it's all just me.  Writer, artist, teacher, celebrant, connection maven, resource weaver, story shaper.  No crack team, no staff, no paid bloggers, no Voice of Vestal.  Just me.

Integration, honesty, strength, facing my fears and releasing my work--imperfect and beautifully flawed--into the world as inspiration for others to do the same:  this is not possible while hiding even a little bit.  I need to use my true power.

In the hope you will do the same.

Because we are changing, the paradigm, the dynamic, the conversation.  And change is nothing without risk.  For every gift there is a cost.

I choose the risk of revelation.  Or revolution.  Join me. From Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith

How to Embrace Change

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."--Anais Nin

Change is a constant.  


Some we choose--though willingness doesn't imply ease.  (I chose a divorce, and it was one of the most wrenching experiences of my life.)


Some enter our lives without will or warning. (Our landlord has decided to sell the house we've lived in for four years, a place we'd hoped to be at least a few years longer.)


And in either case, fighting change is a natural and fruitless enterprise.  In both my personal life and in witness to the lives of so many others in transition, I've found the most graceful and energetically useful thing we can do when faced with change is to understand the stages of transformation, and Lean In. The Stages of Transformation, Butterfly Style Such an obvious and excellent metaphor, the butterfly's transition can be looked at in four phases:


1.  Pre-liminal:  The caterpillar.  This is where you begin when the impulse or impetus for change overtakes you.  To fight change, for a caterpillar, is death.  Instead, this phase requires an alignment with your deeper self, spirit and a commitment to practices that keep you grounded (see Tools for Transformation for more on this).


2.  Chrysalis:  This is the phase I have been in for a while now with Vestal Transitions.  There was a new vision wanting to come through, a new way of offering, but without stillness I couldn't hear what was trying to develop.  


The Chrysalis phase is one of retreat, of self-care, art and dreaming.  It is often the hardest phase for many of us to occupy--we want the change to be over, we want the new form now!  But until we slow down and allow the voices and expectations of others to fall away, we can't really hear our soul's longing. 3.  Emergence--What is created in the chrysalis can no longer stay dormant.  This is the energy of the sprouting seed, the birth, an egg cracking with the chick inside.


I'm in this phase with my business transition, what I've been gestating for the last few months is newly shaped and the chrysalis just cracked open yesterday (in fact).  There is so much excitement in emergence, it is important to remember that it takes tremendous energy and strength to bring forward a new form.  Continuing to practice active self-care and harnessing your resource network is vital to a smooth emergence.  


This is the place to ask for help, and say yes anytime anyone offers.


4.  Flight--Public delight, recovery, acceptance, return...
Flight is not the end of change, but a new beginning.  Maybe for a time you will soar on wings of ease through soft winds and pines.  But inevitably there will be a new form creating itself elsewhere.  Life begets life, each beginning is an ending, each ending a beginning.  Flight is a time of gratitude, knowing that our living isn't linear, that you will be called to adventure again the cycle of death, descent, rebirth. Embracing change means leaning in to the now, the moment, what is.  Even if it is painful.  Even if it is uncomfortable.  The more we resist change and the more fear we bring to the process of our own unfolding, the more constricted our lives become.


When we open to change and see our lives as a continuous spiral of opportunities, we can find our place in each day with love.  With ease.


I'll have some pretty exciting emergence announcements of my own up in the next week or so, along with destinations, deals and secret project previews...


Until then, may we be open.

The Arrow and the Bowl

Taking Aim Change is inevitable, celebration is optional.  (But whom among us would deny a celebration?)

On July 7th Vestal Transitions will celebrate an important anniversary:  one year in business!  And, as with all children, this first year after birth has been a time of milestones, development and important growth.

To celebrate, we--for now I have partners here, a whole lovely net of supportive souls--will be unveiling the new Vestal U, Moon Divas Courses refined and redesigned for certification or personal edification both, offering special promotions, freebies and opportunities galore.  The full invite and announcement will be up on the Summer Solstice, June 21, 2013!  We'd love to have you join us, personally, virtually as the journey unfolds. Letting Go  In the past and next few weeks I'm a bit underground with business-y class-y things, but I'll try to keep things tidy on the site with updates.  

I've been thinking a lot about the energetics of accomplishment, of doing.   In my last post I talked about respite, and this is where I'm still puzzling:  how to keep an attitude of receptivity and ease even in the midst of action.

Professionally, I tend toward the arrow as a metaphor:  The power of the bow drawn taut, a limited supply of shots in my imaginary quiver.  But recently, I've been meditating on the bowl.  If the arrow is tight action, tension, stress incarnate, the bowl is being, opening, catching, flow.  

In the realms of transition and self-care, one is easier than the other, and both are attitudes that can be adjusted as needs arise.

Culturally, we are taught that the arrow--focused intention, effort and strain--is superior energy for achievement.  But maybe you would like to experiment with me over the next few weeks.  What happens when you breathe and relax everywhere, how is your time directed, what blessings can you receive? Being, Receiving A mantra for the week:

"I am open and receptive to the abundance of the universe."

Here's to meeting in the flow...what are you opening to?

Plotting and Scheming

This is what my inspiration looks like.

Sometimes it is action, sometimes reflection, but it requires restoration and an open armed willingness to receive.

This week marks the end of the Moon Divas Certification Pilot, thirteen weeks of education--on my part--about the gifts and challenges of administering online learning.  I have yet to fully digest the experience, but the lessons are unfolding and I am grateful to an amazing group of women who trusted me enough to invest in this process.

There are new stories in creation, new information to share, queued up and waiting fill this space in the days and weeks to come.  Right now the road calls, deadlines spread out and I'll leave you with a hope for ease and reflection in your own hours.

Spring News: Rites of Passage Workshop!

Early Moon Divas, Circa 1994 Oh, it has been a while. The Moon Divas Certification Pilot is humming along, and I have to say between mothering, admin and creation I've been stretched these past few weeks.  Now I'm leaning toward emergence, like the sun and leaves and flowers.  You?

The big news today is that my lovely sister Samantha Zipporah and I have been cooking up an amazing workshop series for May:  Claiming and Creating Rites of Passage for Women and Girls.  It's a two weekend event, hosted on the new and full moons, one for women, one for women-to-be (or women becoming).  We're planning art and story, saunas and sleepovers, excellent food and incredible community.  If you live in or around the Portland area I hope you can join us to create a vision of better futures and fuller lives.

There's more up our collective sleeves, too!  As the Pilot wends its way complete I'll be in touch with more news, partnerships, readings, celebrations and opportunities to gather and grow. 

In all that is blooming, a seed awaits.
xo!

A New Story for Women Everywhere

This is a story that came through me.  It is beyond me, from elsewhere.  I wrote this story first in a two hour sitting, after a walk with my children.  They were in the living room with me while I wrote it and the whole time I was writing I was conversing with them, answering questions, laughing.
Normally my writing work is solitary, done in silence and requiring aloneness.  But on that day I felt like someone else was writing, something moved through me with ease and joy, finding a willing channel.
This is also the first short story I've published in years, picked up by the wonderful magazine Literary Mama.  I would love to think this story will inspire other stories, that we can break open a silence and offer our blood stories to each other and the world.
What is your blood story?  What is the story of your first menstruation, your best ever bleeding?  What rituals do you long for?  What ceremonies do you employ to honor your bleeding time?
Let us share and weave further this web.  The holy potential of healing is in our bleeding, in out sacred blood.
You can read the rest of the story here.  Then I hope you'll add your own: 
Blood Stories by Lara Vesta