Heed the Call

What nags at you, reaching back  from your possible, desirable future? Yes it is that: possible and even within the realm of the probable if only you will heed the Call that beckons only to you!

Martha Graham said it best:

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” 
― Martha Graham

Physicists now theorize there are flows from the future to the past as much as from the present via memory. What is a future memory but a vision? Sages say: “All creation is finished in the lower worlds,” as the outer reality is but a reflection, a projection from higher planes.

images are from pixabay.com

So look within, listen, and heed YOUR call! The universe will meet you half way!

Life Is… A Mountain with Vistas

Do you sometimes wish you could view your entire life—Past, Present, and Future—as a whole? This month we will entertain various ways by which you might approach this sort of overview in relation to your Life Dream.

What is a Life Dream, anyway? It is your Vision of an ideal set of future conditions. To establish a Life Dream requires imagining a holistic Vision, like being on a Mountain with vistas!

From the top of a mountain you can gain a 360 degree overview. You can see how the different landscapes interact with the sky and sea, for instance, and where the lush forest ends and the plains extend.

 

So I invite you to a form of Vision Quest this month. Set out to discover or further explore your Life Dream.

A Vision Quest requires dedication and preparation. Contemplate in silence, surrendering your Mind to Highest Good. Ask to receive a Vision when you are ready to, one that will help you to clarify the path you are on; study its direction as you wend your way forward. Where is your current path leading to? Have you designed it well to reach a place of fulfillment and service? Are there turns you can anticipate in the Road ahead? How can you be an active Agent in your own chosen path?

A Vision without a task is but a dream

A task without a Vision is drudgery

But a Vision with a Task can change the world.

–often attributed to Black Elk (Sioux)

 

The Allure of Travel–Promptings

It is Prompts Tuesday at Better Endings for the weekly topic of Travel. How does travel help you to attain Better Endings or how have you used travel to facilitate Better Endings in your life? I was sharing yesterday about how I usually try to think of a trip away from the usual routine as a Vision Quest. Do you do that too? I find that setting up my trip focused around answering a significant question in my life helps me to frame the trip as a spiritual quest or adventure.

Here are some prompts you can use to focus on Travel Better Endings:

• Travel as a means to jump-start your focus
• Travel to ‘shake out the cobwebs’
• Travel for the sake of travel and Adventure
• Travel to consider future relocation
• Travel because of longtime association with a place (like to check out a reincarnation feeling)
• Business travel
• Family travel
• Relationship partner travel
• Newlywed travel stories
• Road trip stories
• Travel as a pilgrimage
• Travel to relocate
• Driving vs plane or train travel
• Travelling inward
• Hiking/ camping travels
• Travel with your pet(s)

 

I invite you to write or talk about or contemplate/meditate about or artistically represent your own reflections on one or more (or another) of the above themes. I welcome your insights, comments and stories!

 

Travel Tales as Travel Tells

Ironically, Travel Week on Better Endings has come about this week whilst I am, literally, travelling! I’m in Las Vegas through tomorrow with a terrific group of 5 college students who will be presenting a panel of papers at a conference here based on research they conducted with me for a class on Ethnographic Research.  The study is about “Mapping the Terrain of Cultural Perspectives about Natural Resources and Sustainability Issues”. It’s an exciting and timely topic.

So, I’m in Vegas, away from a normal routine of work, family and home environment. Last night, as I posted from my cell phone in the balcony of the MIRAGE theatre, I was able to see the spectacular, wonderful Cirque de Soleil LOVE testimony to the Beatles’ legacy; What a treat! I grew up with the Beatles, who defined my generation. It was elevating to sing along as the story of the Beatles was portrayed through acrobatics!

But I digress. Then again, isn’t that the Better Endings opportunity of Travel? That we CAN digress…

To me, travel is an opportunity to expand my horizons on all levels. Change “lifts” you out from the normal, mundane, everyday reality, offering a freshness of experience, an openness to new vistas, new conceptions, new ideas.

I always approach travel as a Vision Quest. I like to frame a deep spiritual question and open myself to inner guidance so I might arrive at a new level of understanding and awareness during the pregnant opening of ‘time out of time’, ‘space out of (routine) place’.

So, here in Las Vegas: Lights, action, glitz, diversity, addictions…nearly a fantasy realm for many. Who comes here? Gamblers,entertainers; those wishing to gamble or to be entertained; as well, those seeking freedom from their daily grind to appreciate life apart from normal routines and environment .

What about you? How have you used travel in your life? What potentials might travel lead to or expose?

I invite and welcome your Travel Tales this week on Better Endings!

Vision Quest

A Task without a Vision is drudgery;

A Vision without a Task is but a Dream;

But a Vision with a Task can change the World.

–        Attrib. to Black Elk, Oglala Sioux

So complete this thought: When I Grow Up I Want to Be/Do: _____________________________

Answer first as you might have answered when you were a child. Explain why you would have wanted this or why you might have answered this way then.

Complete the statement a second time as you would today:  When I Grow Up I Want to Be/Do: ___________________________

Why? Describe your VISION, your Life Dream. Please don’t feel you need to limit yourself to an “adult” sense of practicality or self-limitation. You are allowed to answer BIG! This is Your Vision. Let It Shine!

That’s all for today. Saturday is First Principles of Better Endings day, and as we have been exploring the domain of television this week, VISION seems the principle to apply.

Do feel free to share your Vision. I welcome your Comments and I will publish your Stories!