mindfulness – Penny Reilly Artist Beyond the Gate

Weaving a future…

Everything is in flux… not only the shift of seasonal change, but the whole vibratory force of a changing world. Consciousness reveals, everything we think about or imagine becomes real somewhere so, therefore, we can balance how we see the world and how it affects us, even indirectly and not let destructive forces rule.

Allowing consciousness to shift elegantly takes more than just prayers and dreams. Action is needed and, with us knowing who we are, implementation despite challenges from others, who may be uncomfortable, because change is confronting on any level for many.

If we are uncomfortable in emptiness… filling it with anxiety or restlessness, we will naturally refill the space with the same content… so rather sit in the empty until, by choice, embracing the magick of change, we renew the space with our deepest needs for wellbeing.

‌Nature doesn’t stop… she breathes in and out in cycles and seasons… we take her in with every inhale and release her again, taking into our body all it needs before letting it go. This can be applied to life in so many ways. When we are filled with anxiety, we forget to breath and so our bodies are depleted. Sitting in nature we can refill and reenergise ourselves on every level… it’s not just food we need to fuel us. Becoming familiar with all our senses is a way to remember what keeps us moving forward… what fuels us and what depletes us…

Senses stir

Ruffled fur

A bird floats

on a thermal

it cannot see

but feels

lifting its wings

A breath of air

A scent on the wind

A salty tang

An ozone explosion

Changing leaves

A changing song

A sultry breeze

Ripples on a dam

A falling feather

Forgotten bones

A place where

one feels the need

for silence

A chill on the skin

Ancestral walks

with kin

Trees whisper

in words

no longer understood

in the

forgotten language

found

in the dappled light

in the sacred wood

in the dreaming pool

of life itself

Wellbeing is something we have greatly misunderstood, I feel… thinking through things instead of feeling through things or a better yet, a balance of both. We cannot think straight if our adrenals are on overload… it’s our fight or fight mode that can leave us exhausted if not addressed with appropriate rest.

We clear so much that clogs our system through breath. Nothing fancy, just deep belly breathes and when we do this in nature our brain/mind/body all respond, to give us the sense of letting go, even when we’re unaware what we’re letting go of or even that we were hanging on at all.

Peace comes when we let go, when we stop questioning every little detail because when we don’t we lose momentum and miss tiny encrypted messages sent from the universe…

Humans have a constant need for answers that they can never truly find solutions to. If we were meant to know we would but, this said, perhaps being less reliant on what the internet tells us might be the place to begin; turning inward instead, to what our brain/mind/body is telling us all along… instinctively, intuitively and without embellishments.

Does a tree, mourn its leaves when first they change colour and fall; do they feel relieved of weight shed from the bough or do they just allow the ebb and flow of life?

There are moments in a day when things become translucent… when light falls specifically on one blade of grass, a water droplet, a bee’s wing, ripples on a pond, a fragile leaf… the world slows down, stills and the electronic white noise falls away… this makes simple sense. Do we need to know more or just be overawed by the fact that we are here to witness it all. Then, all that’s left is the ebb and flow of life… a heart beat song.

Live life

like the birds

Sing awkwardly

out of tune

raucously

dishevelled notes

feathered warbles

trilling dips and

soaring heights

deep multi-tones

wing-drummed drones

hooting cries

taloned moans and sighs

squawk your sound bites

screaming for human rights

with no sense of time

yell an orchestra

to the indecipherable sublime

entice the gentler gods

into the rhyme

of your heartbeat’s

outraged symphony

Walk softly… let things flow, toward and away… Awen /|\

Penny 💚🌳💚

On the move towards Solstice…

Winter arrived with a boom… days of autumn sunshine and colour, turned white by instant frost… brrrr, -3°.

Still… winter brings introspection as solstice approaches. We burrow deep into the cold… dark days, somehow bring hope. We know, subtle underground movement is already afoot… green shoots silently unfurl to break through the icy crust. When I close my eyes, I imagine them slumbering, waiting and with animism, perhaps anticipating, how the light will feel on their green flesh… sunlight, pulling on them, tugging them to reach up to the light from the darkness beneath.

Sow the seeds
Weave the web in time
Weave
sow
Grow
in wisdom
in knowledge
of the
life stream
and the
soul spark
of
intelligence
…breathe
All one
Awen

I love to connect in this way to the earth and all things, by knowing I am a part of it all, as it is all a part of me… all of me, contributing to the wheel of life.

Life is a moment and in that moment, all moments exist. Life can appear fleeting or be forever in full consciousness. There is no separation between who we once were in the scheme of things, are now or will be “one day”, for all is a continuum.

Complex thoughts, and yet not, unless one thinks in straight lines, past, present, future rather than in circles, and cycles of ascension and descension… expansion and contraction, filling up and emptying out.

There again, perhaps our very challenge is overthinking. Does nature think, “I’m a daisy; I wanted to be a rose.” Does an amber-coloured leaf in autumn, wish to be green?

As children, we fight to maintain our identity until parental expectation, educational institutions and peer pressure, forces competition, whittling away at our personality, character and psyche until we’re swamped, drowning, in other’s expectations of how they perceive we should be. We’re moulded by circumstance.

This is the pivotal moment, when we can realise, we are in fact, our inner parent or teacher, continuing to hear and be instructed by the echo of their physical counterparts instead of learning to simply be ourselves.

The thing is… nature doesn’t judge how we behave, how we express ourselves or criticise who we intrinsically are, with or without societies trappings… just as a daisy doesn’t wish to be a rose.

Letting go of guilt-induced reactions to how others respond to our internal change, can be like running a marathon… but when does the adult self, stop apologising for who they are, despite the constant inner and outer critique.

Nature doesn’t judge the leaves falling, to strip branches bare, or new leaves budding on near-naked limbs.

Life in all its ages and stages is a precious gift so why waste it, desiring to be something we were not designed to be? Isn’t this a unique wonder in itself?

Observing nature, we see there are few straight lines, except those we create. Nothing is linear. Droplets of water constantly change shape to adapt and are a part of a greater body be it a droplet, an ocean or small pond. If we understand everything is energy in constant motion, where there is a void space, something always rushes to fill it and there is no judgment in the process. Unless we ourselves, judge that filling as good or bad and this, dependent on where our thoughts are leading us.

If we can reconnect to nature’s cycles, movements, brief pauses, breath held and let go… a beating heart, a pulse within myriad pulses, we simply become. Every cell becomes luminous with cell-wisdom-memory of everything experienced, and in the remembering, remembers its source.

When we become aware, strength lies in the allowance of emptiness and in not filling empty spaces. In this knowing, we can choose substance to fill the void, and in fact always do, even by not choosing. Waiting, empty, gives us clarity to know what we truly desire. I speak not of “having” for the sake of it …because it’s the most recent fad or gadget, but more the awareness, “being in emptiness” can bring. It has its own taste, smell, sound, sensation and there is nothing to fear there, except the proverbial fear itself.

My waking and sleeping moments, fill with the rhythm and scent of nature’s cycles rather than the tick-tock of the business world. Although that said, I run my own studio… one has to live, but the key is to find the ultimate balance between the perceived mundane and the “spiritual life” …and there we have it – everything is spirit/energy, and therefore, spiritual… sacred.

Hollowing out
emptying
Seeking the purpose of life,
in simply being
Giving up
the fight for more,
allows unhindered flow

Living… simply being
with no place
left to go
Past
present
future
merges
the well of life
upsurges

The wheel spins
on and round
All places,
all seasons
begin and end
…on sacred ground.

The ocean tides, whittle away at the shoreline as we wear away our lives, often in needless struggles for understanding.

All energy is in motion constantly, in waves and pulses, just as our body is in flow and flux, cyclical birth to death, with each waxing and waning moon. We are ultimately 78% fluid. Our body is at the mercy of those internal and exterior tides unless we can be observant, present in awareness as those tides turn. Thus, we can see ourselves not as helpless puppets, but empowered by those very tides, toward the shores of creative consciousness by our own choices.

Our natural state
of being
is magick
Moving between
full, exhilarant joy
and oft, comedy tragic
Spaces between
filled with
liquid notes sublime
in cycles spinning
adhering to the rhyme
Diaphonous, silken threads
on the loom of time
fading in and out
annual, biannual, diurnal
We are but a blip
in life eternal

Walk softly… make wise choices… Awen /|\

Penny

You can now find me at my website http://pennyreillyauthor.com for direct book purchases.

What dreams are made of…

We dream… we all dream, sadly mostly of ‘one day when,’ with little appreciation of today, this moment and the fact that we’re here, alive, sentient and uniquely individual and that we can make a difference wherever we are on this beautiful earth home by needing/wanting less…

Naturally, there are those things we need for basic comfort and safety… a roof over our head, clean water and fresh food, loving relationships, community and family friendships… this goes without saying but objects do not bring lasting happiness.

Just for a moment, in that ‘wherever’ space you reside in this moment, stand still. Close your eyes and simply focus on your breath… then consciously shift to a four count breath in and eight count breath out, which allows the lungs to clear the stale air from the bottom of the lungs fully. You may feel a little dizzy if you’re not used to truly emptying out your lung capacity but then there should come a sense of euphoria at being in ‘clean, full breath’ mode…

When we find this space on a more constant level, we begin to relax into our day more easily and no matter where we travel through the day, we remain more and more in this space of awareness until we no longer have to think about the getting there, we just are there.

The hum of bees can bring you that same feeling… the purr of a cat, wind in the trees, the tap, tap, rhythmic tap of a branch against your window, the mournful cry of curlew… even a gentle snore of a close partner can soothe and relax the diaphragm and release breath deep from within… stress held in our very bones…

Today’s stresses puts a burden on us… changing our way of being constantly in angst and easing the way to a more conscious approach leads to simply being… in our work, in relationships, family crisis… all emotions are better handled… more kindly and intuitively handled, when we come from a place of inner peace, leading us on into inner strength.

With our mind clear, we better know what action to take rather than acting on impulse in sticky situations from a base of fear.

Simple thoughts and actions and yet, simplicity is the key to everything, whittling down complexity into bite size pieces. Tackling the frustrating need for things, perceived to be out of reach… realising objects are mostly on a want not need basis, especially if they don’t come under the simpler needs of life, which in turn releases the fear lack.

This is the space within, from which I write and/or paint. Connected to nature allows a quasi download of information to flow. I recognise it by the ease of it and by not needing to stress about the process or worry that if I don’t get it down quickly, it will disappear. Thoughts disappear but this space remains. It’s a combination of seeing and listening that goes beyond stressing about a particular context. Editing comes much later, after the whole piece is written.

To be in this space most of the time here at home on the farm amongst the wildlings, is where it all begins and ends. It can be naturally triggered by a sight, a scent, a sound or a fleeting feeling of something ‘other’ occurring. An image can trigger words and words can trigger an image to form in my artwork… nothing happens in isolation and thus, we find a wholeness in all of our senses combined and individually. When we apply this to our ability to dream, we create whole new possibilities for understanding our existence, which includes acceptance of the fact that we are creating our own life and purpose… hopefully giving us the reason for being rather than constantly asking the universe to tell us what to do or to make our ‘purpose’ known to us.

in this space we get to decide and create that purpose…

Deep within
the wild dreamer stirs
awakening from slumber
as change occurs
Be willing to sense
how your own needs are met
Stay awake… be aware
lest your dreams you forget
You are the dreamer
and you are the dream
One and the same
it’s within to be seen
You have slept long enough
wake up human-kin
Awaken the wild dreamer
find your truth
find your magic
…within

Walk softly… edit the dream when it no longer describes your purpose… Awen /|\

Penny