CREATIVITY

An unimaginable reservoir of creative potential constantly surrounds you.

Each thought you bring forward ignites a series of outcomes until

the one thought you hold the longest magnetizes all that is required

to birth it into the world.

Make room for me

as you determine which of your beliefs will spark the universe to rush forward.

IAM the oyster shell in which you create the pearl.

Several years ago I was walking the labyrinth at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, California. At that time I was serving on the board of Directors of Veriditas~ The Worldwide Labyrinth Movement. My 3 years working alongside Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress and a group of 11 devoted board members was very rewarding for me.  As a board, we always walked the labyrinth together & the synergy of that group often magnified my walks, loosening  powerful images and insights which would bubble to the surface before I exited.

The labyrinth at IONS is created with stones which outline the 12 circuits leading to its center.  It was along one of those paths that a repeating message began to emerge.  A message that soon exploded into hundreds of metaphors……..

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Walking a labyrinth creates an opportunity from within.  Over the 20 years that I have been involved with them, I am continually reminded of their gift to ignite a spark within me….. to tap my reservoir of creative thought which yearns to break the surface. So much of my attention to the exterior world holds those soul images at bay.  So I love the moment when I step over the threshold of a labyrinth and open to what lies within for me.  Such as the message I received that Sunday morning.

Walking slowly along the dirt path, an image of a craggy oyster shell dropped into my minds eye. It was  halfway open and appeared discarded along side of the path.  My inner voice whispered to me, ‘Who seeds the oyster shell?.’   Of course my mind discounted that image thinking it was kind of weird and I kept walking forward, mindful of my breath and of my companions upon the path.   But again, only moments after I wiped that image from my mind, it would spring back up and again I heard, ‘Who seeds the oyster shell?’   This time all of the stones outlining the pathway began to turn into those rough looking oyster shells.  Everywhere I looked, from the opening of the labyrinth to its center, the stones had turned into oyster shells.  Some tightly closed, others abandoned and empty.  There were a few that held such beautiful, glistening pearls that I almost bent down to pick one up.  ‘Who seeds the oyster shell?’

Over and over that same question was being asked of me.  Until the moment arrived when I answered back, “I Do.”   

After a long, quiet pause a level of awareness arrived and a rush of energy flowed through my body.  Bingo!  The continuous chant of ‘Who seeds the oyster shell?‘ and the realization within me that I was seeding my oyster shell unleashed a cascade of images.  So many ideas I had tried and grown inpatient with were the abandoned oyster shells.  My children were pearls. So were my poems, childhood lemonade stands and hospice service.  My un-manifested dreams were held within unopened shells awaiting my devotion and heart centered passion, so they could become luminous pearls.  Memories of adolescent angst over relationships and young motherhood dreams flooded my mind.  All symbolic outcomes of seeds planted within me. My life was an ocean bed of endless oyster shells in various stages of creation.  No judgement on those that had been discarded.  No regrets over empty shells.  Just the simple awareness that IAM the creator with endless potential.

Later I was invited to Crestone Colorado for a weekend.  In my research about the small town known for its extensive spiritual centers of various traditions, I discovered there was a labyrinth there.  So on my trip I scheduled a day to visit all of the temples there as well as the labyrinth.  Again, it was a Chartres style, 12 circuit labyrinth that a woman had lovingly created.  My friend and I set about our walk that sunny afternoon without any specific intention or expectation….. just another labyrinth walk, when I noticed something glistening in the sun.  Like a small diamond at my feet, I stopped to take a closer look.  There hidden in the path before me was a small gold oyster shell with a tiny faux diamond in it’s center and a large pearl dangling from it.  It took my breath away.

I suppose you could say that it had been dropped from a jewelry chain a time ago by another walker and I had just happened upon it.  But now that you know the story of events that lead up to that discovery….. wouldn’t it be more plauseable that this chain of events was set in motion 2 years earlier when I had that Aha! moment in California, thereby, creating a ripple of events in my Universe.  Leading to my trip to Crestone, walking the path of another Chartres labyrinth and discovering the very same symbolic image I had experienced years earlier, now appearing in real form?     Who seeds your oyster shell?  YOU DO.

POST NOTE:  I just realized my trip to Crestone was on Memorial Day Weekend, which is today, and the friend who traveled there with me just sat down on the sofa across from me with a cup of coffee wearing a T-shirt that says:  “Walking a Sacred Path, Veriditas”.  What are the chances of this happening today as I finish writing this?  You gotta laugh at the ingenuity of our shared Universe.