She Tells Me
Believe the person you are, she tells me.
Believe the shimmering beauty of sunlight on water.
Believe the wisdom of the ages, she tells me.
Believe the compassion that has lifted you up in the heaviest of times.
Believe, while you splash your love onto the ailing world, she tells me.
Believe your stunning self.
She speaks. I listen.
Tricia Schwaba, 2024
Navajo Proverb
Henry Miller on Surrendering (in letter to Anais Nin)
Channeling the High Priestess
She advises—
”There’s a certain amount of friction needed on this plane so you don’t go sliding all over the Earth.
Resistance and barriers foster strength and fortitude.
You carry on despite the sometimes devastatingly depressing drag.
Use the friction to foster connection to spirit.
Your draw to the Earth is proportional to the celestial draw of the heavens—
the warm earth tones balance the cool indigo.
Both are needed to access the depth and beauty of the loving heart.
So invite the friction in and get to know it.”
Tricia Channeling the High Priestess
Waiting on the Cold White
The stark, icy cold of winter— the whiteness, the no-complication, the no-contour, the many shades of white layered on various shades of gray has yet to grace the north— I see remnants of autumn with its breakdown and hollowness but I feel a void of expected seasonal change— the uncertainty of the Oaks as they hold tight to their few remaining leaves, the green mosses shine chartreuse, confused though brilliant, shrouded in a near-blue frost as they await the chance to rest and lie dormant. Today they still feel the heat of the Earth warming their tiny roots and reaching towards the suns periodic kisses on the tips of their beings.
I remain in hope that starkness will arrive ridding the landscape of the complication of muted hues and lake water that still moves under the too-thin layer of uncertain ice. I cling to the hope that the presented landscape will once again offer me a blank page on which to spew my new aspirations and my, as yet recognized, winter-oriented insights.
I’ve always appreciated, even needed, the starkness of winter and its simplicity. The freeze offers opportunities— a snapshot moment but for months on end, allowing nature to slow and stand still. In other seasons varying, vibrant colors are on display, swaying in both graceful and severe movements. Scents grab us and throw us into the past, our eyes are tempted into the spectrum of hues and the birds awaken us with their symphonies of sound. The eyes, the ears, the nose, can be caught in a sensual whirlwind. But winter is less demanding, offering time to hibernate, even contemplate about where we’ve been and where we are headed. We can dream about the blessings of warmth, appreciate the slow thaw and its accompanying new growth, small eruptions of green on the thinning blanket of white, bubbling over with possibility.
Time, space and quiet are conducive to the creative energy reset, a re-contextualizing, an embracing of the heat of new perspectives after which we can once again honor the words— “Hope springs eternal.”
Tricia Schwaba, December 26, 2023
Swedish Proverb
William Stafford Poem
Yoga Chick by Lucia Heffernan
Lift the Crown & Heart Please
This photo represents why I am adamant about postural awareness. Figure 1 posture can be the result of lack of postural awareness and why many of us may shrink by inches as we age. Figure 2 posture can be the result of yoga and the heightened postural awareness it offers us. And it leaves space for the individual vertebrae to move freely and leaves space for the vital organs to flourish. This costs nothing & pays off big time.
Shine
“People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
John O'Donohue on Beauty
"Beauty likes to keep away from the public glare. It likes to find a neglected or abandoned place, for it knows that it is only here it will meet the kind of light that repeats its shape, dignity and nature. There is a deep beauty within each person. Modern culture is obsessed with cosmetic perfection. Beauty is standardized; it has become another product for sale. In its real sense, beauty is the illumination of your soul."
Alice Walker
John O’Donohue
“Silence is the sister of the divine.”
John O'Donohue, Anam Cara
My latest mentor— John O’Donohue
Bowing In Unison
We are trees, grounded, lifted, nourished in some seasons, shedding in others. We all dance in the winds of our beginnings, hoping to be rooted deeply enough to stand tall, endure the chaotic winds that bully us, and harsh storms that attempt to break us. We sink into the clay of our ancestry while reaching towards the divine light of individuation. We reach out in the heat of summer, endure the harsh winters to flourish again and again, and yet again, steeping in the sun, our tough exteriors penetrated. We bend to the challenges, shedding limbs of no purpose, sometimes violently, while allowing branches of meaning to strengthen and bloom. None of us is like another, each displaying its own hues, textures, shape of leaves and fullness of integrity. Swaying in the winds of change, collective are our wishes to return one day to wherever-- maybe to a place of understanding of why we landed in the soil we did, why we blossomed with those colors at that time, why we stood tall when others had fallen. We are all trees breathing, stretching, bowing in unison to the mother that receives us, the father that calls us. As our lush leaves flutter, dancing in the Earthly winds we hold hope that one day we will know for certain-- why we have been.
Tricia Schwaba onset of 2024
Happily Ever After
Grace Slick, Then & Now
Channeling the High Priestess-- She says:
“One way to feel freer, more whole and stimulate vitality
is to own your shit. It will heal you.
If you don’t it’ll chase you down the rest of your days.”