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All Good Things…

22 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by Harmony's Heart - Ashara Morris in Personal Growth, sagehood, Transitions, Vision, wholeness

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I am a Star Trek fan. I will date myself by saying that on September 8, 1966, when the original Star Trek premiered, I was there. I was 16, and my life was forever changed by the possibility of new worlds, new civilizations, and a Vulcan named Spock. A world a bit more benevolent than the one we were living on in the 60’s. Star Trek gave us hope.

As it evolved, so did we. And while I was extremely loyal to what is now called “Classic Trek”, I also fell in love with the Enterprise-D and its diverse, wonderful crew, headed up by Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

After seven years, Captain Picard’s Enterprise left the airwaves, and the two-part finale was titled “All Good Things.” It was a ripping yarn of time travel, alternate timelines, and quite satisfactorily (to my mind), ended the television journey of that noble ship.

NextGenCastOf course, there were films, and they were pretty good too. But eventually, the crew moved on, and JJ Abrams rebooted “Classic Trek” with an amazing cast and a new look at the world of Star Trek. Still hopeful, still full of new worlds and new civilizations, and with its feet firmly planted in our present. It’s great, and I hope it goes on for several more films.

As with Star Trek, growth and change is inevitable for all of us, and I am no exception. I’ve been posting on this blog for a couple of years now. It has nourished me as I navigated through the passing of my mother, a friend’s adventure with breast cancer, and the letting go of childhood wounds. I’ve also been nourished by the posts of my fellow bloggers, all beautiful women with warm, loving hearts, who have opened themselves up in this forum to share their deepest grief and their highest accomplishment. I salute you all.

This will be my last post for Women Move It Forward, but it doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped moving forward. Indeed, I will be posting on my own website, and taking my life and business to exciting new levels. New worlds. New civilizations. And, like the Enterprise, I will boldly go where I’ve never been before.

LeonardNimoySpockTo all of you I say, in the words of that eminent Vulcan – Live Long, and Prosper.

 

 

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Ashara Morris is a certified Equine Gestalt Coach, Animal Communicator and Trekkie. You can find more information about her and the work she does at www.harmonysheartcoaching.com or www.harmonysheartanimals.com.

 

Encouraged to Fail …. Or Not

01 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by BB Harding - Wizard's Ventures, LLC in Personal Growth, Transitions, wholeness

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Posted by BB Harding

Now tell the truth…what was evoked within you as you opened this blog and saw the giant red F? In terms of our typical conditioning, I would say that as a whole, we are not really permitted to fail. How many disparaging remarks are there for one who has failed – loser, no good/no account, worthless, ne’er-do-well, disappointment, washout. What if we saw our experiences, some of which relates to failure, as simply the possibility to learn? How would it shift perceptions, and the way one lives their life?

As I continue my studies of Human Design, one of the topics is the 3rd line profile (determined by the conscious or unconscious sun). Either a person has the 3 profile directly, or they might have a 6 profile where the first 28-30 years of life are as if one is a 3. In traditional Human Design the 3 is referred to as the Martyr. Not what you would call a very enticing label to have. As I listened to the instructor discuss the importance of creating a safe place for the 3 to experiment and to fail, and then when they fail to talk with them about what they learned, she had my attention.

For the 3, it is important to have hands-on experiences, where they try things and fail. They are designed to make mis-takes. This is the way that they learn to develop the knowledge and resiliency through tenacity and adaptation. In a group, when they say, “nah, that won’t work” pay attention, for they have been there, done that. The challenge is going through the experiences without becoming pessimistic – that everything that they touch turns to “caca.”

Since hearing this information a couple of weeks ago, I have been thinking about that off and on. I’m a 6 line, so the 3 line applies to the first part of my life. The foremost thought has been “and when they fail, ask them what they learned.” When they fail?!? I looked back over my life to see what kinds of things I learned about failure. How I was encouraged to go out and “fail” so that I could learn? Hmmm, not so much. In fact, I don’t really recall anything akin to “Honey, that’s ok. Tell Mommy/Daddy what you learned when you did that.” I also can’t say that they got really down on me because I failed, or even failed to try.

I remember discovering my report card once where there were D’s and F’s all over it. I don’t recall my parents taking me to task for not being the best and brightest. As a younger child, my specialty was sports and reading comic books, not really much to measure success or failure. I played to have fun and occasionally to win. The thing I loved most in the comic books was the “fact page” located in the center. I learned how flies walked on the ceiling and impressed my teacher; and that serfs had to live a year and a day away from the manor they were tied to to become a freed-man. That factoid came in handy when I was a junior in high school. It wasn’t until 7th grade that I started to really engage with classroom activities. My teacher taught us to diagram sentences, and I fell in love with that process. After that, I did much better at school. Ah, I digress.

So, not taken to task for outright failure, what did happen? I would say I was encouraged to do better. If I got a B, why didn’t I get and A? If I didn’t get something done, how could I work harder to make it happen? If I didn’t do well, then I didn’t reap any rewards. How to avoid doing things that didn’t work. Ah, that last thing was a big one, and lends itself to some of my risk-taking adversity. I have a preference for not failing. During my period of contemplation, I had the realization that I probably would have never made the lightbulb if I had been Thomas Edison. Even though I have had experiences that have had me “figure things out,” it still is not a preferred method of operation. I like to know that I am more sure-footed than that.

I have noticed the last few weeks, that I have been wondering about reversion to the energy of my 3rd line stage so that I could become more tolerant of experimenting and rechoosing. I may have shared before that one of the challenges for me has been that once I made a choice, I felt as if I was stuck with that choice. So, making a decision was not a light thing to do. I didn’t want to cut off opportunities; I didn’t want to make a mistake. I hadn’t learned that it was part of my experiencing and that the thing to do was to look at what I had learned from the experience. There is a sense of release to know that another perception is what will I learn rather than I have failed.

How can you work with the concept of failure? How much permission do you give yourself to learn from your “mistakes?”

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This will be my last entry as a regular contributor to the Women Move It Forward blog. It has been an honor to participate with this amazing group of women, and share some of my thoughts over the last (nearly) three years. I hope that they have brought inspiration and new perspectives to your lives.  I’d like to also thank you for tuning in to read the wisdom that is shared in this space.

Surrender

18 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by Hoofprints To The Soul in balance, Coaching, Health, Living MultiDimensionally, Personal Growth, Relationships, Self-Care, Transitions, wholeness

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Written by Carroll a member of Women Move It Forward.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~Albert Einstein

Do you want to change something in your life?

Are you getting up on the same side of the bed each day? Are you drinking coffee in your favorite mug? Driving to work the same way? Seeing the same people each day?  Are you living in a routine each and every day and expecting to have a healthier happier life?

What risks are you inviting into your life?

The last few months I have been shaking up the energy of my life. I have had a professional home coach come in and show me where my life energy was stuck by having me look at the stuff in my home. She showed me through clever questions where I was holding onto things for no reason other than a sense of lack (stuck).

Again through caring and concern she questioned me about the purpose of my”stuff” and that lead to a very insightful awareness that all stuff has its own energy. And just like breathing, I can’t just breath in and hold; I can’t bring stuff into my home and hold or the energy will get stuck. For new things to happen I have to make room by letting go of the old.

I now have an office transformed from a stuck in time storage room, into a creative fun space I gravitate to even when I have no “work” to accomplish.  The side affects are a new path is opening up and I can feel life and my heart speaking.

I am seeing new horizons.

I challenge you to look at you life, shake up your routine, step into new risks and surrender to letting go and letting in  new horizons.

Stepping into Brilliance

19 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by JocelynHastie in Anxiety, balance, Coaching, Living MultiDimensionally, Personal Growth, Relationships, Uncategorized, wholeness

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Have you ever seen successful people become targets for others that seem to look to “take them down a notch”? Have you ever found yourself participating in finding fault with successful people? It sometimes seems that our culture delights in creating idols, then tearing them down.

I have certainly participated in this practice. I recently watched a Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking and commented that I felt it was much more a performance than a speech rather than celebrating the brilliance of the presentation.

If we step into our brilliance, we may become a target for others who don’t celebrate their own brilliance. Are you ever afraid that if you let your light shine, others will attack you?

I recently watched someone I admire greatly “take it on the chin” in a rather public evaluation. The format of the event did not allow for a rebuttal, and I watched my friend hold his head high and stand in dignity. I was inspired by his grace in this situation, and aspire to be like him.

When you are the one in the spotlight, do you invite feedback? Can you find a place where you can be objective about what is shared? Sometimes I’ve found the comments that stung the most when delivered were those that I had the most to learn from once I could get through the emotional upheaval and see it from the other side.

Even when the comments seem hyper-critical, we now have the gift of another person’s perspective, even if we do not agree with their conclusions. I think of the little birds out in the pastures who pick through the horse poop to find the bits of undigested grain. If we can find the grain within what appears to be poop, we will remain on the path to continuous improvement and lifelong learning.

Having the gift of another’s opinion can help pave the pathway to success. The secret is in knowing ourselves well enough to take what fits, and discard what doesn’t. We mustn’t place more value on others’ opinions of us than we do on our opinions of ourselves. Then we can stand in our own glory and be grateful for the contributions of those who have offered guidance along the way.

I wish you guidance and glory.

  • Jocelyn Hastie

Ruminating

04 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by BB Harding - Wizard's Ventures, LLC in Personal Growth, Relationships, Transitions, Vision, wholeness

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Contributed by BB Harding

I’ve been taking a class on writing.  The intention of the class is to support people in writing in their authentic voice.  My intention was to find my consistent voice, and allow it to open up for me.

In one of the first exercises I wrote the following:

  • When I am around someone who thinks they know it all, I tend to not speak.
  • When I am around someone who is loud, boisterous, passionate.  I tend not to speak
  • When I am around someone who is always talking, I tend not to speak
  • In the last couple of years, I have tended to sit back and not speak
  • I need a question to get me started, and then I need patience from the other person to allow me to feel my way into things.
  • Unless I know a topic really well, I will not speak.  I might not even question if I don’t find that the other person has the space for me to ask.
  • I appear to have a preference for hiding.  Shying away from making my potential inaccurate observations known.

I was, of course, surprised by what I wrote, and at the same time, it gave me words around the things that I did know about myself.  I have struggled mightily to put my thoughts into words that others might be able to relate to.  There are times that I think and feel much differently than how others feel, and in the midst of their passion, I am paralyzed to speak.  I am acutely aware that I can have a limited perspective on many things – I don’t see or know the whole picture.  For me, it can be especially tricky when I can see “both sides of the story,” and I don’t feel strongly one way or the other.  It is also difficult to verbally navigate when something “just doesn’t feel right” to me, and no real data to back me up one way or the other.  I have learned to keep my “potentially controversial” thoughts to myself.  I have had both admiration and fear for my friends that are strong activists, who have very strong opinions about what is wrong in the world.  Admiration because I can see and feel their passion that has ignited into a firing inferno, and fear because the inferno is overwhelming and I don’t have something like that that I feel about, and more than likely, I don’t see things the same way that they do.  (And strongly imagine that they won’t see my point of view either.)

There are days where something will “hit” me and then I will spend some time thinking about it.  I let things sit until they either make some sense to me, or they leave.  This is typical done in the quiet recesses of my mind and are seldom shared. Today, I want to do something different.  To take a chance.

I have long held the vision that as a global citizen there would come a day when I would be able to travel from country to country without the need of a passport.  Much like I do here in the states.  As an auto driver, I go from one to the other, and do not require special documentation.  There are times that I do have to go through a checkpoint, especially in states that border Canada or Mexico.

I have been taken aback by the controversy over the “border wall.”  I can remember the first time I heard about it, I wondered why would we want to move toward isolationism when the emphasis is on globalization?  I now wonder how did it come to pass that we fear for our safety so much that we want to build a wall between us and our neighbors to the south?  What are the things that would need to be taken into account so that we could truly solve the problem?  And is a wall the answer, or dialog, collaboration, out of the box thinking?

In the last year, I was made aware that in order for a change agent to be effective, they had to be able to hold the energy of both polarities and be inclusive.  Inclusive of the positions of both sides so that the view of the problem could rise and be seen at a higher level. The maxims that you must ask the right question to gain the insight, and you can’t solve a problem with the same thinking/energy that created it came flooding in.  What would need to be taken into account in order to get to that higher level of seeing?  I imagined that things like “what are the things that cause/entice our southern neighbors to come into the US?”  “Is there substance to the fears that those in the US have towards our southern neighbors?”  “Do these fears apply just to them, or to all who are different from ourselves?”  “How can the differences be bridged?”  “What change in perspective needs to take place in order to create safety and harmony?” “How can we rise beyond the fear and lack to know that all is well?”


Over the years, through the many catastrophes, I have watched as people have come from all parts of the world to assist and support other parts of the world.  How many have supported earthquakes in Japan, Iran, Haiti, Mexico, China?  How about the tsunami in Thailand?  Illnesses, water quality, food shortages in Africa?  Outreaches that even though they are not classified as such, carry the energy of being a citizen of the world and caring for each other?  Even here in the states, how many people have come to the aide of those whose lives have been turned upside down by the hurricanes, fires and floods?  It hurts to see such vitriol thrown around, distrust escalated to the point of exclusion and the need for walling oneself off, being lulled into a false sense of security.  I am reminded of a friend of mine who delivers speeches.  He had one speech that talked about how the solution to problem A became problem B.  We create a wall thinking that we are solving problems related to illegal immigration, drugs and crime, and then what problem does the wall create?

There are times where it feels frustrating.  I don’t have the answers, and I don’t yet even have the question that would provide the greatest breakthrough when answered.   I hold that somehow, we will be able to come together for the benefit of raising the consciousness of the collective, and with that intent, the answers come forward.

I ask myself, how can I change my perspective so that I can embrace new possibilities rather than push against something that seems off?  I know that I can be in charge of how I proceed and hold that others too will do the same.

 

You can have anything you want, you just have to know how to want…

21 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by Hoofprints To The Soul in Anxiety, balance, Grief, Health, Living MultiDimensionally, Personal Growth, Relationships, sagehood, Self-Care, Transitions, Vision, wholeness

≈ 3 Comments

photo of maneki neko figurine

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán on Pexels.com

Written by Carroll a member of Women Move it Forward Blog.

I have lead a blessed life!

Every-thing I have truly wanted, I have received.

I told my son his entire life “you can have anything you want, you just need to know how to want.” I tried to explain the how, but that was very difficult. It was such a deep part of me I could not see what all I was doing or being.

There was one area I could not get what I wanted – my attitude about myself. I had no idea how to find my value without achievement or how to keep a healthy weight. I could lose weight if I had a goal. I always seamed to create a protective layer around me.

I have come across Dr Joe Dispenza.

Game Changer!!!!

He gives the how. He uses science to explain what the body is doing. He said our bodies are our subconscious minds. He has data to show people healing everything from stage 4 cancer, Parkinson’s, MS, spinal trauma, and so many other things.

How?

Meditation and breath.

I have been working on me. I have been doing the meditations for almost a month. For 40 years I have had hay fever and sometimes even after taking allergy medications, my throat would close almost all the way and I would have to lie down gasping for air. Now I can go feed hay without medication and I only sneeze a few times. During one mediation my knee felt like it grew twice the size even though it looked the same. Right after the meditation it went back to normal feeling and a childhood injury was healed. No more over extending when I walk.

I listened to testimonials and people talked about healing, abundance of wealth, and divine experiences coming to them. Can you imagine the amount of energy a 1000 people can create in a room in a week? I will be one of them as soon as the Universe organizes it. They are my tribe.

Are you searching for something? I recommend looking into his books, meditations, interviews. and testimonials… they can change your life!

Here is a link to Dr Joe Dispenza and his message in an interview on Impact Theory.

Testimonial from Lorna she had a minor stroke and lost 25% of her vision in one eye. she could not drive or work. She speaks of her healing.

This is a short view of his December 2018 week long advanced retreat.

This is his webpage.

Mind over matter!

Do You Belong?

26 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by JocelynHastie in balance, Living MultiDimensionally, Personal Growth, Relationships, wholeness

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Do you belong? Do you help others feel that they belong? What does that mean to you?

Last fall, I heard Dr. Erik Carter speak at events in High River and Calgary. His words were powerful, and his position is that there are ten dimensions to belonging. A pronouncement that “Everyone is welcome” is not enough. True inclusiveness and belonging requires much more.

Dr. Carter challenges us to ask the following questions about people with disabilities and their families. I think the concepts can be extended to anyone. Here are the ten increasing dimensions of belonging he puts forth. Are individuals:

  1. Present
  2. Invited – personally, not a global invitation
  3. Welcomed
  4. Known – as individuals
  5. Accepted – beyond tolerated
  6. Supported
  7. Cared for
  8. Befriended
  9. Needed – we miss you when you’re not here
  10. Loved

I invite you to consider the people in your life that seemed quite different from you when you first encountered them. I suspect that the more you got to know them, the further along this spectrum you progressed – and the more similarities you saw and the less the differences mattered.

When have you felt that you belonged? Where on this spectrum did you feel you sat? When have you invited others into your world? How far into your world? Where on this spectrum did that relationship sit?

I challenge you to think about this concept as the holiday season winds down.

Dr. Carter is Professor of Special Education at Vanderbilt, and his website can be found at https://www.erikwcarter.com/.

Expanding Gratitude

10 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by BB Harding - Wizard's Ventures, LLC in Living MultiDimensionally, Personal Growth, Relationships, sagehood, wholeness

≈ 1 Comment

Written by BB Harding, one of the Women Moving It Forward

Shortly before Thanksgiving, I woke up one morning and had the thought “How would my life be different if I focused on wanting what I have rather than having what I want?”  Ok, my first thought was well, that doesn’t make sense.  What does a person use to “incentivize” themselves if they don’t have something that they want?  How does one better themselves if they are willing to stick with what they have?  What about those who really have a lousy life – how do they put that thought to work for themselves?

Every cloud has a silver lining.  How many times have you heard that?

I easily came to realize that “wanting what you have” is akin to “being grateful for what you have.”  It has been said that gratitude is one of the greatest things that you can have.  How many famous people have you heard talk about the power of gratitude?  How many have linked happiness to gratitude; success to gratitude; health to gratitude?  How many trainers and spiritual teachers espouse journaling each night before going to bed on 3-5 things for which you are grateful that day?

I took this thought with me throughout the days that followed.  I spent time reflecting on things in my life (what I have) and looking at the level of want for those things.  Since it was already there, it wasn’t something that I spent time wanting, in fact I gave very little thought about having it.  It just was.  And, it wasn’t anything where I was particularly appreciative for the fact that I did have it.  Again, it just was.

Another aspect was if I did have gratitude/appreciation how deep and wide was that feeling?  Here is what I mean by that.  One thing I totally love is a hot shower.  I nearly always thank the warm water as it courses over me for how good it feels; how nurtured I feel as it does so.  How much gratitude have I ever given to the infrastructure and people who have made running hot water in my home possible?  Going that one step further begins to expand the gratitude that I experience.

It can then become easy to slip into thinking about the breadth and depth in other areas.  How about food – am I grateful to the fruits, vegetables, meats, grains that end up on my plate?  How about the farmers/growers, transportation, markets, banks, appliances that have all played a hand in having food show up on my table for consumption?

I come to realize just how unconscious I have become to the things that have shown up in my life and how they got there.  All with very little appreciation for the “effort” that it took to get there.  At a higher level, very little appreciation for how I am able to energetically organize my world so that they are consistently there.  How often does a person honor themselves as a powerful being?  I know I seldom do.

My reflections on “having what I wanted” took me down the road of enquiring “who is it that wants” and “why is it that it is wanted?”  What need is wanting to be fulfilled?  Why is that need there?  An example might be “I want a cookie.”  The “why” I want a cookie might include things like I’m bored, I want a distraction; I want something sweet in my life; I feel like something is missing and want to fill it; I’m feeling frightened, and as a kid, having a cookie was a sign that “all was well.”  Another want might be a new flashy car.  The “why” might be because I want to feel the sense of freedom that comes from having the wind in my hair; I want to be the envy of all of my friends; I have something to prove; I am trying to create a sense of value in my peer group; I want to make an impression on people when they see me in my new car; I want to exude success, especially when underneath I’m not certain about whom I am.  I begin to determine that wanting things that I don’t have is more wrapped up around “lack consciousness” than “abundance consciousness” – I lack something – rather than I am filled with joy at having something.

In my Human Design studies, Karen (Curry Parker) has shared that part of the manifestation process is to be signaling the universe that “this feels good, more please.”  This then allows the magnetic monopole to attract those types of experiences to me.  If I don’t like what is going on, then I can “tweak the request.”

I am seeing more and more, that to appreciate what I have, to expand my level of gratitude can be a life altering event not only for me, as an individual, it can set a new frequency for the community and planet.  Being fully engaged with what is present.  Bringing all that is present into harmony.

I went searching for a few quotes and here are three I want to share.  Each has an aspect of my own conclusions for “wanting what I have rather than focusing on having what I want.”

Oprah Winfrey:  Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.

Robert Holden:  The real gift of gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.

Kristin Armstrong:  When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in.

In this season, I invite you to find the things in your life that you are grateful for, and then be grateful for all that has been organized in the universe to bring it to you.

 

What in the World…..?

05 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by Harmony's Heart - Ashara Morris in Animals, Personal Growth, Relationships, Transition from Bullying/Being Bullied, Transitions, wholeness

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Tags

animal communication, Animals, balance, cats, Centered, change, Vision

A post by Ashara Morris, one of the Women Moving it Forward.

There has been a lot of unhappy things in the news lately, it seems. Our country is becoming Fascist; innocent people are being murdered for no reason other than someone doesn’t like their religious beliefs, or the color of their skin, or one of a hundred other “reasons”; animals are being thrown out of the windows of cars, or left to die on a road, or in a backyard.

All my life I’ve loved animals. I’ve always felt that people, for the most part, can take care of themselves, and if they can’t, they should be cared for. There are millions of caring, loving people out there who do their best for the humans who cannot help themselves. But the animals have no voice that most are willing to listen to – because if they did, they would be humbled. The animals don’t have much in the way of rights, either, but that’s another blog.

Let’s talk about hearing those animal voices, and how thoughtless some humans are to those species who can’t say out loud, “No matter what, I love you.”

I saw a post on Facebook the other day about a kitten who was thrown out of the window of a car. This happened in the county and state in which I live, and I have never been so saddened by an event. Tossed away like a piece of garbage. Discarded.

A LIFE.

TorbiAloysiusSmallWhat must those people think of themselves? How fearful they must be that they are so without value that it’s okay to devalue another life, and as a result feel better about themselves. I can tell myself that all day, and I mostly have compassion for those people who would throw a kitten, a living being, away like a piece of trash. Compassion is winning out over other, baser instincts – the part of me that wants to rip them to shreds, to toss them out a window and see how they feel. But what good would that do? It only serves to escalate the anger, the fear, the discombobulation we are all feeling during this time of great transition. Staying centered and trusting the Universe is paramount.

So I meditate. I pray. I let go of the anger, and I send those people, and all humans for that matter, Love and Light and the hope that some day they may listen to those small voices, who love us so much that they allow themselves to be tossed out of a car window to get our attention. Those small voices, those lives, and the lives of all the humans sacrificed, saying “Wake up! Wake up! Do you really want to go down this path again? Love one another. See yourself in me, a small furred creature, or a human with another color face. We are all the same. We are all part of God. Wake up!”

p.s. The kitten, for those who are wondering, was rescued, doctored, and has found a loving home.

p.p.s Happy birthday today to my mom, who would be 93 if she were still on the planet. She loved all animals, too, especially dogs and cats.

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Ashara Morris is an Animal Communicator and Certified Equine Gestalt Coach who loves all things furred, feathered, scaled, or whatever. She is President and CEO of Harmony’s Heart, LLC, home of Harmony’s Heart Coaching, Harmony’s Heart Animals, and The WindRider Project. Find out more about her and the work being done at Harmony’s Heart at www.harmonysheartanimals.com, www.harmonysheartcoaching.com, or www.thewindriderproject.com.

Inktober

22 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by Through the Horse in balance, Personal Growth, Self-Care, wholeness

≈ 2 Comments

We are 22 days into October and I have drawn 22 days in a row!! Why?  Inktober, that’s why! What is Inktober? Well, Inktober was created by Jake Parker in 2009 to improve his own inking skills.  It has since become a worldwide occurrence to celebrate ink and thousands of artists participate each year. Basically,  it’s 31 days, 31 drawings.  Each day has a word assigned to it and the words are rather random.

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Day 5: Chicken

Our local Chamber of Commerce tweaked the rules a bit to include pencil drawings, thank goodness!  They also added a prize!  Participants who post their drawings to Facebook all 31 days with the hash tags #Inktober and #InktoberCarbonCounty will be entered into a drawing.

When I saw the post in late September, I thought, “cool, that’ll be fun.” It’s been so much more than that!

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Day 17: Swollen

You see, I’m an artist, have been all my life.  However, that piece of me was buried for many years.  My mother-in-law did not like my art and to avoid the constant judging, dirty looks and rude remarks when she entered my home, I took most of my art off my walls and stored it in the basement.  I didn’t paint and rarely even drew for the 10 years I lived next door to her.  Since moving to Wyoming in 2009, I’ve been rediscovering that piece of me, uncovering it layer by layer.

What began as a simple, fun exercise has reawakened a part of me in ways I never imagined.  I spend 10 – 40 minutes on each drawing.  Some words have been easy, others have been difficult.  I don’t “love” every drawing and I’m OK with that.  That, too, was growth as I used to expect every drawing to be perfect or I’d tear it up! Whether it’s good or bad,  I’m putting it out there for the world to see!  This simple exercise has also gotten me through some very stressful days. I’ve been able to take the word for the day and create a drawling that represents where I’m at in that moment. For instance, on day 7 the word  was “exhausted “.  By then I was several days into making my daughter’s wedding dress with a deadline of the 10th! Exhausted was an understatement! 20181007_1929511This was the drawing I created to reflect that.  I was able to smile and let go of the exhaustion in a way that allowed me to continue. The dress turned out beautiful and was a perfect fit.

As October comes to a close, I may have to find a way to continue this on my own.  I may not do it every day but I definitely want to continue to feed this part of me!

Loving Inktober!

20181006_1738302

Day 6: Drooling

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