Excerpt #1

Chapter Four
Sacred Feminine and Quiet Power

"I believe that all of us are created with a sacred emptiness inside.  One spiritual writer calls it a 'spaciousness.' The task of spirituality, then, is to keep this spaciousness empty. The temptation is to fill this void with distractions or temporary fixes. Our soulfulness depends on letting go and orienting our deep longings toward the only one who can fill it É God." – Kevin Anderson

I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey. – Seal

Pura Vida is the saying in Costa Rica where ample opportunity exists to experience "Pure Life" of food, nature, fun, and adventure. We enjoyed the essence of just being in the splendor of the Rain Forest and the mountains and the ocean – it was unforgettable. My favorite memory is of the day we went to the rain forest and went on the canopy ride hundreds of feet above the ground. Imagine ten to fifteen treehouses with cables connecting them that form a path downward just above the canopy of the rainforest and all it's exotic beauty. I befriended the guide during our hike up and I savored the challenge of speaking Spanish with him. The group was unaware of our conversation, and so it came as a surprise when I announced what he'd convinced me to do – which was to slide down the cable hanging upside down in tandem with his cable seat. I looked at my husband, who is an engineer and understands cable, and he agreed it would be safe. I then hooked my cable to the guide's, wrapped my legs around his waist and flipped backwards and upside down while we slid over the canopy. If you knew how timid my truest nature is you'd understand just how surprisingly free I felt letting go of all of my fears and reservations and simply enjoying the thrill.

Pura vida for me is the time I let go literally and figuratively to find joy. Our spirit is yearning so much for us to let go, trust, and find joy. It's scary to do so, because we move out of our comfort zone or need to control our environment, but the result of practice through contemplative listening brings the most amazing joy and love we can ever dream to know. Happiness is formed from within, and every time we let go of an Ego-based deception, we become more vividly the woman waiting to announce her voice and place in life.  The last four years of my life have been so remarkable, I can no longer keep the beauty to myself. I desire all women to know unconditional love and acceptance, because I have a vision of grand connectedness and power of feminine voice: where all is possible and world healing is possible. Experience the remarkable nature of true voice waiting to announce itself to others.

Jack Keroac had a vision when he wrote On the Road in 1952 and completely changed the nation. The book named the fear of complacency the younger generation felt while growing up in the unrest of nuclear anxiety. Underneath the image of June Cleaver cutting vegetables in her kitchen at the "Leave it to Beaver" household, was a nagging voice echoing "Is this all there is?" Keroac showed a life engulfed with passion and pleasure and spiritual awakening. Even the style of his writing was free from the restrictions and rules of grammar. Keroac preferred to write about snapshot moments of intense, sensual living where "tires kissed the highway" and left the perceived reality of establishment and control. The artistic genius of: Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; Jerry Garcia, "The Grateful Dead"; Neal Cassady, symbol of hope and change (Dean Moriarity in Keroac's novel) and many others collectively formed the Merry Pranksters, who took a bus trip in a bus called "Furthur" to connect a nation. Specifically, the bus went from Califorinia to New York to visit LSD guru Timothy Leary for "Spiritual Discovery" (Searles, 1991). Symbolically, the combined artistry of the Pranksters and followers spread a message of a truth with no limits. The nation was forced to take notice.  Cassady and Keroac challenged bureaucracy and establishment systems by creating a counterculture that simply wanted more than complacency.  Keroac's writing was analyzed for its rhetorical or communicative value by Omar Swartz's article "Rhetorical Transformation in Kerouac's On the Road." Swartz identifies Keroac's symbolic naming of unrest as created by the Beat culture. Swartz writes how Keroac "empowers people to take control of their lives and to reject the dominant forces that constrain their thoughts and their actions". As the flame that ignited the Beatnik movement and hippie counterculture, Keroac moved a nation out of their heads and into their hearts. Keroac guided from Conventional to Post-conventional value because he saw his truth and lived it. Keroac experienced his truth by paying attention to spirit. Specifically, he removed ego and followed spiritual bliss through three connotations of "beat". "Beat" is 1.) the rhythm or breath of life, 2.) as defined in a public discussion by Holmes (as cited in Swartz):

More than mere weariness, it implies the feeling of having been used, of being raw. It involves a sort of nakedness of mind, and ultimately, of soul; a feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness. In short, it means being undramatically pushed up against the wall of oneself.

Finally, "Beat" becomes a Catholic, spiritual connotation for a religious experience. "It meant 'beatitude,' a Catholic condition of blessedness." (Sorrell, 1982 as cited in Swartz).

Our culture is complacent in its busyness. We have moved back into our head, and our ego, and our conventional thinking about material value. Our hearts scream for focus as they burn out from fragmented passion.  They are longing for interconnectedness. We keep trying to do to fill the need we have, and we've become pieces rather than whole. We need to stop doing and start being. We need to channel our passions toward spirit, passion, and compassion, toward our own "condition of blessedness".  We know this is not all there is. We know there is "something there" to be gently guided into and know our place. We push ourselves against the wall of our very Self and dare question what we need. We engage in life meaningfully, writing our own novels from the pages and experiences so richly creating our own path of truth. We know this in our experiential knowing, our Highest Good.