Kryon in Cork

On Sunday I went to a great songwriting workshop run by John Spillane as part of the Clonakilty Guitar Festival.  I had been listening to the audios of Lee Carroll’s trip to Ireland over the weekend and so when John said to pick something to write about I immediately thought of Kryon.  I was lucky enough to hear Lee and Maria O’Farrell Carr and Jane Donald speaking in Cork a few weeks ago before they set off on their sacred tour of Ireland.  We spent a wonderful day in Maryborough hotel and had a lovely walk around the grounds at lunchtime.  This was the inspiration for my song.

https://soundcloud.com/iamclairemarieb/kryon-in-cork

 

  

Cosmic Connections

Some memories from the magical Earthsong camps this summer in Co. Tipperary...  This year I took part in the astrodrama and family constellation workshops and found them very powerful.  

The night we stood in a column

of sound, harmonies ricochet

off the tree trunks.

John speaks of the possibilities

of elementals around us,

while one little boy nestled in

long arms

looks up through pure

brown eyes-

seeing it all.

Rain blurs the window.

The white horse is still

in the field

next door.

I am back in my own home.

New roots quickly shoot down.

I feel the calmness that comes after kirtan.

Self-doubt and Happiness

I was woken at 6.30am and duly nudged to write this blog post, so taking a leap of faith I have finally stopped resisting and here I am!  It’s been over a year since I’ve posted.  I have been writing but never quite got around to posting anything and then the moment would pass and I felt less likely to, until suitably wrapped up in busyness, my blog slipped out of my day to day concern.

 I have just finished reading Gretchen Rubin’s ‘Happiness Project’.  It is a very thought provoking inspiring book but what impressed me most was her honesty, her authenticity and her sense of self-acceptance.  One of her guiding affirmations on her quest to explore happiness was to “Be Gretchen”.  This meant really embracing her own real likes and needs, not what she would like them to be or what she felt other people might like or expect.  

And so as I reached the end of the book, I was starting to see why this book might be relevant to me. (When I picked it up in the shop, I was looking for a birthday present for my dad but I quickly realised that it was I who needed this book and I got confirmation tingles when I decided to buy it).  I could feel I was starting to get my aha moment but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.  I’d just read this very detailed book about Gretchen’s life.  There were many aspects I could relate to and some were revelations as they had been for her. For example I really love children’s books too but have never really acknowledged it and had limited myself to only reading these books with my kids.  Now I have given myself permission to read kids books for my own enjoyment too and plan to re-read the whole Anne of Green Gable series that I loved so much when I was growing up.

The thing that really struck me was although there were lots of other aspects of Gretchen that maybe I couldn’t relate to that easily, it didn’t stop me admiring and liking her, respecting that she was different to me.  I was intrigued that I found her so interesting.  I think this is down to her transparency and honesty.  She didn’t airbrush the difficulties of being disciplined enough to stick to her happiness resolutions. 

So how does all this translate to me?  I spend a lot of time journaling my ups and my downs, my feelings, experiences, sometimes poems or songs, but for my blog, I had decided it was only to be poetry.  Sometimes poems come easily. Sometimes there are gaps, but in the meantime when I allow myself, I scribble away filling up my journals.  This isn’t work, it’s just what I like to do.

I was also woken up yesterday morning early and the message was to wake up, grab your pen and start writing.  This is for your blog.  But I was super sleepy and by the time I did wake up and start writing I wasn’t sure what the blog post was anymore….

Self-doubt is one of my travelling companions in this lifetime and very obligingly came rushing in to reassure me that no-one really wants to read what I have to say.  But I have also realised that since I know self-doubt is there, it’s up to me to first just acknowledge that’s it’s popped in again and then continue whatever I am doing regardless.

I realised I had made the confines of my blog too narrow.  I want to be able to write about anything I feel like writing about.  I want to explore the freedom of self-expression  through honesty, transparency and authenticity.  It doesn’t matter whether anyone reads this or not because in the act of writing and posting I am exploring my vulnerability and this is the start point for growth.  To stretch out of my comfort zone away from the ‘safety’ of poetry into the unknown…    

Olive's Shed

It's International Women's Day

Letting Go

Inside my heart there is an ocean

I can hear the roaring of the waves

I want to sing that song

Bathe in the cool waters

Immerse myself in the currents

And follow the flow

To adventure and

Wonder and delight.

Usually I wonder how

I can get there.

I shrug and act helpless

As if my mind ran the show.

But today is different.

I can just go there

Easily simply

By letting go.

I wrote this last week after having a session with spirit medium PIna Lazara and author of  Love is the Essence of the Soul Chrysalis.  My homework was 'Letting Go' :-)

 I loved Pina’s book.  I admire her courage for writing it even though she wasn’t sure how it would be received or what people would think of her.  It gives me the courage to pursue my own book. 
I really liked the sense of timelessness where life events are interwoven with dream-like stories.  My favorite bit was about the beluga whales and as I read it, I could just feel myself drawn in that magical world and I was in the sea moving up and down in the swell.  

Pina writes openly and honestly from her heart and I found I couldn’t put the book down.  I read most of it in an afternoon.

Check out  Pina's Blog and you can get her book there too.

Yoga Magic

Last weekend at Lissarda estate, West Cork,  Bella Hancock and Claire Osborne  had a fundraising yoga day in support of  Collateral Repair Project - Helping You Help Refugees in Jordan.  I went along to the wonderful Kirtan in the evening led by Kenny Dread.

Bella gave a moving talk and slide show about her visit to Jordan last Autumn where she taught yoga and dancing to refugees at the CRP's Community & Family Resources Centre.  Bella & Claire are travelling again to Jordan in March and you can support them here if you like collateral repair - yoga for refugees in jordan

The poems below were inspired by Bella's talk and Alexandre's beautiful pictures from Jordan.

Photo credit:Alexandre Reisdorfer

Yoga Magic

Photo credit:Alexandre Reisdorfer

Lissarda last

Dead of night

Star bright

Seeking kirtan

Finding softly

Polished timber floors

Crackling fire

Bella talks of Jordan

Surpassing pain

Planted in yoga

Smiling eyes of children

Women opening up

Photo credit:Alexandre Reisdorfer

Men sitting in 

Dignified silence

All tuning inside

To themselves

Finding they are

Still alive

Green shoots

Of hope and wonder

Sprouting

‘She said she loved the dancing the best because it made her forget about her problems’  Bella Hancock

When I’m dancing

My mind stills to

A point.

Photo credit:Sumaya Agha

Then the metronome

Of my body takes over.

Time is suspended

And I am moved

About in space

Joyfully

Childlike

As if for the first time.

I ebb and flow

Freely

For now the life

Inside me

My fierce

Beautiful soul

Is not stemmed

By the events

Of my life

Or the pain in my heart

That is my waking

Companion.

For now I spin and turn

With an ease

That surprises me.

Entranced

I am danced

Past my limitations

Past my fears

Propelled into

My heart space.

Womb-like safety

Candlelit darkness

And at it's centre

A message addressed 

To me says

‘Welcome Home’