Over the winter break, I sat by a hot fire in Inverness, California and thought about the year ahead. I was starting to think about my own desires for the coming year and as I did this, the fire in the hearth started to die out. The wood we were using was slightly damp from all the rains and it was taking quite a bit of nurturing to keep the fire hot enough to burn through the wet wood. My kids and I were committed to keeping our heat source alive, so when the fire started to quiet down and smolder we diligently went to the kindling wood, chopped it into fine slivers and gently nudged the kindling into places where they could receive some heat.
Once the kindling got just hot enough, we’d hear a quiet pop that would let us know there was a spark. That’s when we blew on the tender spots of the kindling wood. With just the right amount of gentle blowing, more sparks would start to appear, then a dandy bit of popping would ensue and sparks came alive! The sparks rallied and would give us a good show before flames burst out to wrap themselves around our damp wood and heat us from our heads to our toes!
The cycle would last long enough for us to go a few rounds on our Scrabble board and then the smoldering, kindling, blowing, sparking, flame igniting process would start all over again. We each quietly enjoyed this process very much. No one complained when it was their turn, in fact, it took on a sacred quality as each person quietly focused on keeping our fire alive.
It was during one of my turns that my mind meandered back to my thoughts about my desires for 2010. As I sat blowing on the kindling I realized how close the process of tending this fire was to the process of bringing our desires to life. I really saw how, through the right mixture of raw materials, (kindling) warmth and gentleness (environment) our desires can be sparked. They are simply potential waiting to take shape. Once the spark of desire happens, it is our choice whether to nurture it or not. (Blow on it and create the right environment.) As more attention is gently given to the desire it has the possibility of growing into its fullest possibility (flame) and becoming uniquely alive and dynamic (fire) before it dies out (smolders) and the process begins again (quiet, the sacred moment of attention and tending).
As I looked back over the last year and thought about the people who had gone through our yearlong program and my own life and work, this metaphor, of tending the fire, became very alive for me. I see that the process we engage in with our own lives and work, is very organic and cyclical. Our process of bringing our desires to life is more difficult to attend to because our lives are complex. However, for those people who take the steps of bringing even one desire to life, the process is life transforming.
Bringing even one desire to life can have life changing impact, like the alchemical nature of fire. Of importance to understand is that, the process of bringing desires to life needs awareness, commitment, the right environment and support. These are things we aren’t taught how to do. We may assume we know how but, really, how many of us had the kinds of nurturing, supportive, skillful environments that modeled this process of living?
At Keys to Living the work we do with clients begins with them becoming more connected and clear about their most potent desires, followed by permission to honor, support and commit to them. Every time a client goes through the process they grow and change in profound ways. We will be continuing to write about the process of bringing desires to life through out the coming year as we will be doing this with groups through our programs at Keys To Living.
If you get any thing from reading this today, I hope you take away with you the importance of the moment of connecting to your desires. This is the sacred moment of quiet where it all begins. Please follow along this year as we make the process visible through this blog, add your comments to nurture process or better yet, join one of our free tele-classes or programs to receive the support you need this year to bring your own desires to life.
Upcoming offerings
Free Tele-class, Sparking Desire: A Key to Vision and Clarity
Four Week Tele-class, Vision and Clarity: A Key to Creating What you Want In Your Life
Written by Ruth Oprean Cardillo, CPCC
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Sparks of Desire and The Creative Cycle
Once the kindling got just hot enough, we’d hear a quiet pop that would let us know there was a spark. That’s when we blew on the tender spots of the kindling wood. With just the right amount of gentle blowing, more sparks would start to appear, then a dandy bit of popping would ensue and sparks came alive! The sparks rallied and would give us a good show before flames burst out to wrap themselves around our damp wood and heat us from our heads to our toes!
The cycle would last long enough for us to go a few rounds on our Scrabble board and then the smoldering, kindling, blowing, sparking, flame igniting process would start all over again. We each quietly enjoyed this process very much. No one complained when it was their turn, in fact, it took on a sacred quality as each person quietly focused on keeping our fire alive.
It was during one of my turns that my mind meandered back to my thoughts about my desires for 2010. As I sat blowing on the kindling I realized how close the process of tending this fire was to the process of bringing our desires to life. I really saw how, through the right mixture of raw materials, (kindling) warmth and gentleness (environment) our desires can be sparked. They are simply potential waiting to take shape. Once the spark of desire happens, it is our choice whether to nurture it or not. (Blow on it and create the right environment.) As more attention is gently given to the desire it has the possibility of growing into its fullest possibility (flame) and becoming uniquely alive and dynamic (fire) before it dies out (smolders) and the process begins again (quiet, the sacred moment of attention and tending).
As I looked back over the last year and thought about the people who had gone through our yearlong program and my own life and work, this metaphor, of tending the fire, became very alive for me. I see that the process we engage in with our own lives and work, is very organic and cyclical. Our process of bringing our desires to life is more difficult to attend to because our lives are complex. However, for those people who take the steps of bringing even one desire to life, the process is life transforming.
Bringing even one desire to life can have life changing impact, like the alchemical nature of fire. Of importance to understand is that, the process of bringing desires to life needs awareness, commitment, the right environment and support. These are things we aren’t taught how to do. We may assume we know how but, really, how many of us had the kinds of nurturing, supportive, skillful environments that modeled this process of living?
At Keys to Living the work we do with clients begins with them becoming more connected and clear about their most potent desires, followed by permission to honor, support and commit to them. Every time a client goes through the process they grow and change in profound ways. We will be continuing to write about the process of bringing desires to life through out the coming year as we will be doing this with groups through our programs at Keys To Living.
If you get any thing from reading this today, I hope you take away with you the importance of the moment of connecting to your desires. This is the sacred moment of quiet where it all begins. Please follow along this year as we make the process visible through this blog, add your comments to nurture process or better yet, join one of our free tele-classes or programs to receive the support you need this year to bring your own desires to life.
Upcoming offerings
Free Tele-class, Sparking Desire: A Key to Vision and Clarity
Four Week Tele-class, Vision and Clarity: A Key to Creating What you Want In Your Life
Written by Ruth Oprean Cardillo, CPCC