Nikki Starcat Shields's Blog, page 47

Parenting as a Spiritual Practice

I wrote the title of this blog entry last year at this time, saved the draft, and never came back to it…until now. It was originally inspired by last year’s annual Life Rocks! Radical Unschooling Conference, and now here I am at another one! So I figured it was time to share some of my thoughts on parenting as a practice.

The thing is, I haven’t yet met anyone who thinks they are a terrific parent. It’s such a tough job, though incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. Tough because it keeps changi...

Working It Out In Dreams

After a time of relative quiet, my dream life has become very active lately. It’s Spring, and as the land awakens, I’m remembering my dreams more often. A lot of them relate to travel, which for me means that I’m “on the way” to a new phase in my life. As I’m stepping more fully into my role as published author and entrepreneur, I’m going there first in my dreamscape, perhaps to explore the terrain.

The other night I was traveling to book signings and fancy dinners on a big touring motorcycle,...

Starcat’s Favorites: Finding Balance

This week was the Spring Equinox, when the balance between day and night is equal. I’ve been noticing where I can find balance in my own life. One of the things that has been coming into a lovely state of equilibrium is my balance between (left-brain) organizing and planning tasks and (right-brain) creativity and play. I’ve set up some helpful systems for staying organized and managing those types of tasks, which allows me to have time to be creative. It feels good!

One of those systems is the...

The Great Mystery and Creativity

I’m reading this fantastic book called Natural Grace: Dialogues on Creation, Darkness, and the Soul in Spirituality and Science by Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake, published in 1997. Fox is a theologian who writes about creation spirituality, while Sheldrake is an innovative scientist and author. They discuss the intersection between science and spirituality, particularly given recent discoveries of quantum physics.

I found this quote to be especially intriguing. In talking about dark matter,...

Starcat’s Favorites: Motivation

After a week and a half of sinus headaches, wacky hormones, and feeling generally in low spirits, my motivation is finally returning. Phew! Towards the end of the week, I was feeling creative and productive. Here are some of the things I’ve been working on, along with links for your perusal.

On the advice of my publisher, I joined both Amazon.com’s Author Central, and a site called GoodReads. Such fun! GoodReads in particular is like a Facebook for bookworms. I’ve been having a blast rating bo...

Practicing Patience

“Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control; the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen...

Imagination Trumps Insomnia

All my life, I’ve been a really good sleeper. I credit my Dad and his bear-like ability to sleep anytime, anyplace, for as long as he likes. I love to sleep. I have a deep delight in dreaming, too, and my dreamscape is an important part of my creative inner world. I almost always get my desired eight hours of sleep.

That said, over the past couple of years, every couple of months I’ve had something odd happen. I’ll wake up, or be woken up, a couple of hours before my normal wakeup time. And I...

7 Tips for March Motivation

March can be a challenging month. It’s not quite spring, but not really winter anymore, either. Some days I’m full of energy and ideas, ready to get moving. Other days, well, I can’t find much motivation to get to any of the things on my to-do list.

When you’re practicing living spiritually, it doesn’t seem quite right to force yourself to get up and do what needs to be done. You want your creative projects, in particular, to be inspired rather than rushed or lackluster. But you might have a d...

Starcat’s Favorites: Change in the Air

There’s been a lot of change in the air this week. We made it to March, and even though we’ve had more winter storms complete with snow, it is feeling more like spring each day. The snow melts more quickly, the sun peeks through with that glowy color of spring, and ideas are springing up everywhere!

My week included a lovely polarity session, lots of shimmies in my dance class, new potential collaborations with family members, a much-anticipated online event that was postponed due to technical...

An Inside Job

Last night, as we were sitting down to play a game of Cosmic Wimpout, I asked my family, “Well, what if the Universe just doesn’t like me? I mean, I chose Receive as my Word of the Year, and so far we seem to have more illness and less money.” I wasn’t feeling particularly down, but I had been pondering why things haven’t seemed to be moving in the direction I’ve been working toward.

Dryst is sick again, this time with a stomach virus. We were doing better with our finances this winter, until...