Internal Sat Navs and the Re-calculating Route

I'm a great believer that we meet people in life for a reason.  These reasons can be varied and confusing at times, but I feel that there are lessons to be learned from each and every one of our encounters.

As a typical Pisces I can be a bit of a dreamer and not always decisive on my direction in life however I have met people and been in situations that have made it abundantly clear to me the direction i do not want to take.

These people are like the Magical Map Shifter, they can throw you off course.  They change your direction in life either temporarily or permanently, sometimes in a good way sometimes not so good.

We need to accept that not everyone we meet will be for our higher good, some interactions may happen to actually make us question ourselves about just where our motives and ideas have been leading us.

This can sometimes make us have to double back on our life journey and plan to re-route and make the changes we need to make in order to reach that better place.

Some people turn up to help take us further down our path when we feel stuck, lost or just need company over the rocky bits of the mountain we need to climb.  These are the people that sometimes, just as quickly disappear from our lives.  Yet, these are the people who impact on us and magically shift our personal maps for the better.    

In years gone by, I would simply refuse to acknowledge my part when things went wrong, when I wandered in to bad places.  I now see that I had to accept my part in these things, and I can now understand that the people who were there with me at the time were there to show me a lesson about myself.  Believe me some were pretty hard to learn.  However each person that has touched my life has been a part of my personal map, they helped shape the landscape and build the pathways that needed exploring.

I feel that every connection we make in this life has the ability to be a magical map shifter, we just need to choose which of these can help us on our journey and which ones want to take us to the dead ends.  

Parlour Games and Positive Movement

Hands outstretched and her vision obscured by the blindfold, she steps out cautiously, hoping to get a sense of where she is. 

Sometimes in life the only way to move forward is to go blindly, feeling for a touch of something solid to steady us as we go.  The inability to see what lies ahead can make the journey scary but it may be that we may cannot have the distraction of stopping to see what is around us.  If, like the woman in this card, your current place is one that is appealing, you may decide to not move anywhere and become stagnated in where you are.  If, however your surroundings are not so pleasant you would hurry yourself through to get away from it, and miss something important that you needed to find there.  

Some people will happily go along and enjoy the adventure, relishing the air of mystery, not knowing where they are going but happily explore wherever they are.

Some people are reluctant to move, but know that the blindfold will not come off if you don't even try.

Some peoples' blindfold is thrust upon them and have no choice but to participate and fumble about in fear and dread, but are then happily surprised that they found courage and strength in themselves to allow their lack of vision move them forward.

Then we have the ones who will stand on the spot, refuse to move, if they can't see where they are going they are not going to take the risk of falling or bumping into something for fear of hurting themselves.They fear they will end up somewhere unpleasant, that they will be made to look foolish, so they stay exactly where they are.

I think its all a part of life, instead of being focused on how something looks, we need to experience how something feels.  We need to sometimes have the courage to use all the other senses to guide us. 

In todays modern age we are bombarded by media images of what our lives should look like, The beautiful people with their beautiful families and homes, the fantastic successful careers they have.  

In reality what do these people feel.  Does the woman struggle with food issues in a bid to stay slim, is she constantly concerned by her looks and fear the first signs of age.  Is the man in her life spending vast amounts of time working out to keep that six pack, toned pecs and pert butt after a long day in a cut throat job that drains him mentally.  Are the children nurtured and having quality time with their parents or being pacified with material goods.  Life may look good but how does it feel.

If we stop just using our eyes to see where we are heading in life and allow ourselves to just take a 'leap of faith' and let our other senses take us where they will, we would possibly find a lot more satisfaction in where we find ourselves and the lessons we have learned.

If you have faith in your gut feeling, then you are not going to go wrong. 

Light My Fire

Enchanted Map Oracle, Colette Baron Reid

I love the fact that what I do to pay the bills leaves me plenty of time to embrace the things I love.  I may not be an expert in any of my hobbies and interests but I have the luxury of time to pursue what makes my inner light shine.

As a child I loved to create, and was always being reprimanded for the scrappy bits of paper lying all over my bedroom floor among crayons, scissors, glue, pens and pencils.

I begged my mother to teach me how to knit at the age of 7 and spent many a happy time knitting blankets for my doll’s pram.  They were by no means perfect but it sparked something in me that made me realise, inspiration is enough to lead you anywhere.

Many years later I worked in a craft shop where I could indulge my passion for card making, scrapbooking, and mixed media art.  It also gave me th opportunity to demonstrate things I had learned and share that knowledge, in the hope that even one person gained inspiration to give it a go themselves.

I even taught myself to crochet about 12 years ago via the internet, something my mother had never learned to do so was unable to teach me.

I’m no expert at any of these activities, but, I can produce decent results.  The end result is not necessarily the goal for me, it’s the doing, and it’s the idea of taking some basic items and playing with them, from the initial idea, to the activity, of putting the idea into motion and doing it for me.  I'm not really bothered if someone doesn't appreciate my efforts, however its a bonus if they do.  Its a bit like keeping a diary, albeit a very tactile one, nobody keeps a diary for someone else to critique.its personal to the writer.  This is how I view my creations.

The same goes for my love of tarot and oracle cards.  I enjoy getting to know the cards, looking at each image, seeing how each one makes me feel.  My take on a card may not match some else's, however, neither is wrong, we just view things from slightly different angles  

Visually I adore Colette Baron Reid’s Enchanted Map oracle, the artwork is stunning. The images are rich, emotive and intriguing.

I look at these cards as mini pieces of art, and am in the process of using some of the images in a photo manipulation programme to create wall art for my home. 

I’m using the card ‘Spark’ to go on the wall in my bedroom, near my bed.  

I’m using the image and association of the card to remind me that every day I will find at least one thing that will bring me that flash of inspiration.  It may not be obvious at first but it maybe that one thing tat keeps coming back into our mind, as if the subconscious is telling us 'take note'.

Whether that be a creative inspiration, a topic that piques my interest and learn more about, (or blog about) even an insight to check in with myself, work on an underlying issue or just to remember to enjoy ‘being’.  It may be the tiniest thing, but it will resonate with me, touch my heart and my spirit.

I don’t want to spend my days with my eyes, ears and heart closed to what is happening around me.  I want be open to the little quirks of life that may sometimes pass us by.  

I talk to some people and think ‘How can someone be so blinkered?’  They must walk around with their eyes shut. 

This is an amazing planet we live on and a fascinating universe we exist in, why are some people just happy to merely exist here and can think no further than the tip of their noses.  

We, in the grand scheme of things, only inhabit this planet for a millisecond of time.  Surely it would be nice to think of just one thing we could leave behind to say ‘I was here’.  Just a small wisp of ourselves that, even if it touches just one single being, can be our legacy.

We can’t all be Michelangelo, Shakespeare or The Buddha, but we can be inspired by them, whether it be for the art, the mastery of language or their dedication of finding true spiritual peace. 

 We can all find a spark somewhere and use it to light a torch to guide us on our journey through this life.  You just need to be looking in all the right places

SO GO ON, CREATE SOMETHING AS BEAUTIFUL AS YOU!