Honoring the Dark, Risking the Light
Our gifts arise out of a magical blend of challenges and talents,
of hardships and blessings.
When we honor the dark by turning toward the places within that need tending,
and honor the light by risking our gifts
that flourish only when offered,
we become medicine for the world.
I have found that when I take a significant risk,
life often prepares me by taking me into the shadowy underworld.
Without fail, I return with greater clarity, and more to give.
My offering to you this season is a poem that speaks to the divine interplay
between the light and the dark
from which our calling is born.
On the Day You Were Born
On the day you were born
the Spirits laughed and sang
as you entered this world
and brought your bone music.
The Gods, two headed and one
prasied your courage
knowing what awaited your soul.
Beaks, feathers and wings
sounded through heaven’s sky
and blessed you with protection
not from harm,
but from soul death.
Blessed you with courage, strength, grace and wonder.
Blessed you with holy waters
and the mark of a warrior.
Blessed you with wounds to come
so that service would be possible.
Blessed you with memory
of your true nature.
Blessed you with memory
of your sacred gifts and duty.
Blessed you with life
during the rise of the feminine.
Blessed you with a voice and presence
that would be heard.
Blessed you with gold
that would never run out.
Blessed you with a mission
that only you could live.
Blessed you,
Blessed you,
Blessed you.
By Aninha Esperanza Livingstone
Only the wounds that have been
turned towards with love can be known
for the blessings they carry.
For those that have yet to reveal their gold, I offer you this:
Ritual for Change:
1. Allow an image to arise that symbolizes a current challange.
2. Draw it from a feeling place. (No art critic invited).
3. Then ask, “What treasure do you bring?”
4. Allow a response through writing.
5. Then ask, “Is there an action or a non-action needed?”
(Sometimes it’s what we don’t do that is needed.)
6. Allow the image to respond in writing.
7. If this response feels wise and true for you, allow yourself to be informed by it in your life.
And remember, the timing of turning lead into gold, is never up to us.
Blessings, Aninha
