This was an extraordinary workshop filled with laughter, wonder and a deep appreciation for all the beloved young adults who gathered together for an end-of-the-year exploration of how their values can be translated into a map by which they could navigate the question: What are you going to do with your life?
We began sitting in a circle with paper, three colors, a paintbrush and a willingness to listen. Each student had just returned from a three-month internship, practicing living in the field of adulthood, and were full of stories that were longing to be poured out into the space. As we sat in silence I asked them to drop into their hearts and to feel where, during their time traveling and working in the world these last few months, their hearts had woken up in response to what they were seeing and experiencing. What was their wish for the world or themselves moving forward? We wrote our wish or intention on the paper in front of us and then as each person shared we put a single mark on the page to witness their story and then passed it to the left. When the page came full circle it was marked with the witnessing and listening of each person and was visually very impactful.
Each piece was then torn into eight parts and became a ‘soul packet’ for them to work with the next day. The next day they paired up and worked together doing the following process:
- On a piece of paper write down two of your most limiting and challenging beliefs about yourself. i.e. I don’t belong, I’m worthless, I never finish anything so why bother even beginning (procrastination), I am unlovable etc. Then, with your partner, come up with an affirming, forward moving statement of action that can be done instead of living into the limiting belief. ‘I am worthless.’ could translate into: ‘I wholeheartedly participate in everything I do, greeting feedback and experiences with an open hand.’ Write these onto two of the cards.
- After naming the affirming, forward moving action plans, take another piece of paper and write down five of your most deeply felt values. For example: creativity, love, beauty, generosity, and integrity. Once you have the five you are going to work with, write them on five of the cards and then put them in the order of importance. The next part is a ‘forced choice’ exercise which asks you to put them in a true order – which value is truly most important. For example, using the above list you would ask: Is creativity more important than love, more important than beauty etc. until you have an order that feels right. This is challenging and often quite surprising. It is impossible to do simply thinking about it so each student stands and feels his/her way into the truth of the questions. Once the order has been established it is time to combine the words to create a map, a life affirming action plan, your soul’s journey by which to navigate your life.
- Love, creativity, beauty, generosity and integrity: I dance through life with love at the center of everything – creativity flowing through me with every breath and gesture as I walk the beauty path with integrity, compassion and generosity.
- Honesty, trust, health, love: Living in honesty, I trust my heart while in full and complete health, I live and fall into love.
- Gratitude, unconditional love, nature, learning, creativity: I live in gratitude, and in this I find unconditional love. I am connected to nature, always learning, creating. (Ending with a picture of a heart)
- Alignment, creativity, integrity, compassion, love: Aligning my heart, body, mind and soul, I create my life with creative expression, being in right relationship to the world with integrity, filled with compassionate love.
- Wholeness, creativity, love, spirit, community: With my wholeness grounding, supporting and making me feel one. I am able to live my life expressed through my creative energy. I thrive in the love. I find within myself and other. Through my spiritual I find connection and reason for living in myself and the community around me.
- Embodiment, happiness, love, helping others, appreciation: By embodying and being surrounded by happiness and love, I am able to help others. Keep my friends and family in my heart and appreciate the entirety of the universe.
Ask me what I do? Ask me what am I going to do with my one wild and precious life? I am going to dance through my live filled with love at the center of everything and let my creativity flow through me with every breath as I see beauty, live with integrity and bring my compassion and generosity to all! I never have to not know again!
for in the palm of her hand was a fire ball of intense power and possibility.
Early morning and I am walking down 18th Street in San Francisco with one daughter on my left and the other a block away pulling out buckets and buckets of flowers that we will make bouquets from. It is Mother’s Day and I have been working with both my daughters the last few days surrounded by flowers and the natural beauty of both women shining through the work we were involved in. The market where Maia works was short staffed for Mother’s Day, their busiest flower day ever (!), and so Calli and I offered too help. We started early Friday morning at the San Francisco Flower Market following Maia around as she performed her particular magic – know ing where to go, what to purchase, and spreading delight wherever she went. We then filled our cars to the brim with lilacs, roses, posie greens, buckets of ranunculus, hydrangea, sweet peas and delivered the goods to the two stores. Calli and I then proceeded to trim, cut, and prepare twenty bundles of lilac, hundreds of roses, sweet arrangements of peonies, create bouquets guaranteed to entice and please any mom, all the while sipping small shots of coffee from The Mill, laughing with each other, trading shoes when our feet got too tired and burying our faces in the fragrance of the lilacs when our spirits flagged. Sunday morning dawned clear and cold and what happened that day was remarkable. The above photo is of a tree peony and for the last three days we had been watching it slowly open up – as this beauty got showier and showier and fuller and fuller in its abundant glory, people would stop in their mad rush forward to take a moment and stare, then smell, and then, take a moment to pause and appreciate the abundance and magnificence of the natural world. I couldn’t help but reflect on the invitation this flower presented – get showier and showier, become more and more glorious as nature reveals yourself to you and never apologize! This beauty never did, still isn’t and graces my desk this afternoon. On Mother’s Day Sunday, as children rushed around picking out the perfect bouquets for mom, this beauty held court surrounded by many other single stems of the same flower – I sold all the others. This one continued to open and astonish all who took a moment to pause and watch her slow entry into an ever unfolding glory. At the end of the day, this became the one flower I took home. As it opens even further it is a beautiful reflection of the work that beckons me forward in my life and resides at the center of my teaching – blossom, emerge, continue to open, close when it is too cold yet don’t forget to open when the warmth returns and BE the beauty that you are.
Seed Pods Living Arts Center 