Parting Gift

 

 

Musing…

“The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.”   

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Charise’s Turn:

It’s been a good year for poetry publication, one to celebrate. It’s been a hard year as well; but rather than put an emphasis on this, I’m choosing to celebrate my muse. She has a way of landing wherever, and however, I am. 

 

 

Here is a poem gift to close our 2021 blog (with a photo by Annie Spratt):

 

 

 

 

 

 

December

  

 

Less 

and less

delicious warmth

 

as winter unwraps 

its grey forlorn.

 

Also

––O also, 

sotto voce––

 

a silver gleam adorns 

the boughs bereft

 

to say, like a dare, adore me.

 

~ Charise M. Hoge

Get Fired Up:

Thank you for joining us in celebration of the muse.  

www.charisehoge.com

 

What You Really Want

Musing…                                                                                                                                             
"The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you

Don't go back to sleep.

 

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

 

People are going back and forth

across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

 

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep."     Rumi

 

 

Kate’s Turn:     
Half a century after William James—one of Jose Ortega’s greatest influences and philosophical progenitors—laid the groundwork of modern psychology with his statement “My experience is what I agree to attend to,” Ortega (Spanish philosopher) adds: “Nothing characterizes us as much as our field of attention.” This paraphrase might apply: tell me where your attention lies and I will tell you who you are. Or, what you see is what you get.

Throughout my recent medical challenges, I have been consciously using positive thought practices to stay focused on health and healing rather than engaging in fear and worry. I used daily practices to attain a positive state: calm, peace, trust, love. And my support system lovingly held me in this vision as well. Even when life is hard, when facing challenges, the truth is that life also offers beauty. I had kind and competent medical professionals in my service. The wonder of science and medicine facilitated miraculous healing. 

You can experience the wonder and miracles amidst the challenges. Seeing the glass half full helps anchor into a state of gratitude. For me, my gratitude has been an integral part of my journey to a full recovery. This positive state allows resources and support to emerge in facing the challenges. Staying awake, staying conscious, and focusing on what you want (in this case for me: full recovery to health) is your co-creating role in experiencing the life you desire.   

Closing Prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony

In beauty I walk

With beauty before me I walk

With beauty behind me I walk

With beauty above me I walk

With beauty around me I walk

It has become beauty again

 

Get Fired Up:  

Where does your attention lie? How can you use your field of attention to co-create the life you desire?

www.kroskalifecoaching.com

                                                                                       

Fresh Wonder

 

Musing…
“We walk, always, within enlivened mystery.”  Lyanda Lynn Haupt, Rooted

 

Charise’s Turn:

I’ve been reading a lot of fiction lately. My sofa beckons to me––to get comfortable and settle, the same way my lap appeals to our cat. A couple of weeks ago, I experienced a retina tear, evidenced by bizarre eye floaters. The tear was treated with laser. In the precarious seventy-two hours afterward, I was forbidden to read anything. Emails piled up, social media was ignored, current book (The Cold Millions) neglected. Coincidently, it was our weekend to be in the mountains, where my husband and I disappear from the city on a semi-regular basis. Many of my poems have been sourced from that setting. 

 

Something happens when nature becomes your 'book'––its pages filled with novel finds. My fascination landed on mushroom patterns, a splayed branch in the pond, a herd of ferns, whatever was right in front of me, beside me. While I’ve noticed the play of nature every time we are in these mountains, this time I lingered. This time it was immersive. I allowed myself to experience the vulnerable, changeable quality of living, within myself and in the world. And a rush of beingness stirred in my body, akin to strength. 

 

Get Fired Up:

Immerse yourself in a natural setting, with a sense of belonging to this earth. Behold what’s there, as it is, and notice what is happening in your being. 

 

“Wonder and enchantment require us to disengage from culturally constructed norms of rationality for adult humans and allow ourselves to be affected by the astonishing world that enfolds us always.”  Lyanda Lynn Haupt, Rooted

www.charisehoge.com

 

Good Medicine

Musing…

"Writing is medicine.
It is an appropriate antidote to injury.

It is an appropriate companion for
any difficult change."    Julia Cameron

Kate’s Turn: 
I have had more than my share of injury and change in 2021, due to multiple medical challenges the past 6 months. And I have received medicine of all sorts, both the traditional kinds, such as surgery, pain relievers and physical therapy, and the non-traditional medicines of qigong healing, prayers, visits, greeting cards, flowers, laughter and backyard beauty. Throughout, writing has been my soul medicine, a repository for emotions, dreams and reflections, a time of communion with my own journeying self through this passage. It has grounded me, centered me in my still point, the here and now, where I connect with Source energy, good medicine for my own unfolding, strengthening me back to wellness and good health.

“Be. Here. This moment. Now is all there is, don’t go seeking another. Discover the sacred in your artist’s tools; they are the vessels of the altar of your own unfolding.”    Christine Valters Paintner, PhD (The Artist’s Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom)

Get Fired Up:                                                                                                                                   
How can writing be a tool that offers good medicine in your unfolding?

www.kroskalifecoaching.com 

Failure of Fear

San Carlos, Panama

Musing…
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face...You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”   Eleanor Roosevelt

 

Charise’s Turn:
I recently visited my ninety-two year old father after a year and seven months of pandemic related separation. He lives in Panama, which has tighter restrictions and Covid-19 safety protocols in place than the United States. The biggest hurdle for going to see him was fear: fear of traveling internationally, fear of a positive covid test result, fear of being quarantined and not allowed to return as scheduled. My world (like yours, perhaps) has shrunk dramatically since March 2020. It’s been a mostly secluded kind of life, with virtual work and quiet writing time. Brief opportunities to step out into a larger community seem surreal. 

 

Any decision to leave the U.S. to be with my father for a week could not rely on a ‘safer’ or ‘better’ situation. The best we could do was to be vaccinated. My fears about going were grounded––especially after getting stuck in Morocco last spring, which required a rescue charter flight to get back home. It wasn’t a matter of getting past fear, or denying risk, that set my plan in motion. What I had to do was allow fear to fail to sway me. When that happened, then the prodding of something stronger––namely, love––became an organizing force. 

 

Get Fired Up:
Where, in your life, is there something stirring beneath the surface of fear? Can you “look fear in the face” and find the courage to be led by love in your decisions? 

www.charisehoge.com

Keep Going

Musing…

“…still and still moving….”  T.S.Eliot

Kate’s Turn:

I have discovered that making and breaking my own record keeps me going in my practices. It is the kind of motivation that has me competing with myself. When I first began to practice qigong, my Master encouraged his students to practice for 100 days and to notice how our well-being improved. If I missed a day, I had to start counting from Day 1 again. Eventually, I stuck with it to make it to 100 days, and by then, it became integrated into my lifestyle. Another example: during the winter months of the pandemic, I began an online language course for more mental stimulation. The program sets a small daily goal, and awards and bonuses are granted as I continue my consistent daily practice. 

In both examples, I just didn’t want to break my streak; I wanted to keep going to make the daily goal. I began to wonder how I could establish a structure that would encourage and reward me for engaging in my creativity practice each day.  How can I have a small, attainable, daily engagement with watercolor painting or writing, much like I have integrated with qigong and learning a new language? How can I get hooked into maintaining my own streak of practice times? I have been advised to touch my creative practice each day, even if in a small, simple way. It then transforms from a streak record to be integrated into an eventual lifestyle. 

 Never let a stumble in the road be the end of a journey. Just keep going.

“I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.”  Vincent van Gogh

Get Fired Up:                                                                                                                                            

What kind of structure can help you be consistent with your creative practice? 

What helps you to keep going?

 

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."  Lao Tzu

                                                                                                                         

www.kroskalifecoaching.com

  

Ordinary to Extraordinary

tea for two in NYC

Musing…
“A man's bewilderment is the measure of his wisdom”. Nathaniel Hawthorne

Charise’s Turn:

It may be cliché to say that the reemergence from being a homebody to venturing out in the world is extraordinary. But it definitely is not a ‘return’ to anything I experienced before. Yes, I am returning to the studio after fifteen months of teaching yoga virtually. Yes, I returned to a favorite city for a visit––New York City, where I lived during graduate school. And yes, I am returning to the annual arts festival in Mathias to host a poetry table (like many events, this was cancelled last year). How extraordinary that any of this can happen! 

These happenings are colored by a previous lack, or loss, as well as tested knowledge that nothing can be taken for granted. I am arriving, rather than returning, to the places and people I have missed. It’s like stepping out of a cave into a sun-drenched landscape––delightful, and bewildering. 

Get Fired Up:

What ordinary things have become extraordinary for you? 

Welcome this newfound, bewildering, perspective. 

 

www.charisehoge.com

 

Springing Once More

 

Musing…

“See the possibilities of beginning anew.”   George Eliot                                                                                                    

Kate’s Turn:
Taking time to be fully present to the world around us can expand us, through awe and a sense of gratitude. I am in awe when witnessing the burst of spring. In a relatively short amount of time, our world transitions from the dead of winter to the new life of spring. My ventures outdoors immerse me in multiple colors and fragrances of seemingly infinite life forms. How wonder-full each bud to bloom unfolds in its perfect signature expression. All the information and direction needed to do so is held in its seed. I am inspired by the vigor of its need to express itself once again, and, given the right conditions, it will do so naturally. I am basking in this inspiration, listening to my own creative urges that have sprung forth after having rested quietly during the winter months.  

Your creative nature unfolds in your perfect signature expression as well. Your soul-seed, given the right conditions, will manifest in your unique expression. Use the inspiration of nature, springing once more to express itself boldly, to nurture your own blooming. Begin again.

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it; boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”  Goethe

Get Fired Up:                                                                                                                                            
Engage in springing once more. Give yourself the right conditions to move from bud to bloom. You have everything you need written in your heart, your soul-seed.

“The world is but a canvas to our imaginations.”  Thoreau

www.kroskalifecoaching.com

Keep At It

Art by Sandra Guiloff

Musing…
“Dogs are my favorite role models. I want to work like a dog, doing what I was born to do with joy and purpose. I want to play like a dog, with total, jolly abandon.”  Oprah Winfrey 

Charise’s Turn:

I started a poetry blog (mix and moss poetry) the summer of 2014, to have a place to publish my work. This was before any publishers of journals, magazines, or chapbooks accepted my poetry. It was a way to share my poems and to hold myself accountable to writing. Now, on the cusp of a second chapbook publication, I have what you would call a good problem. Many of the posts on that blog need to be altered to remove the poems that will appear in Muse in a Suitcase.  

 

As I scan through these posts and make changes, I see the devotion invested in writing over the past five years. You never know where a single inspiration will end. The lesson I’ve learned is that it’s adamant to begin, no matter what. When the impulse comes to write––to create, in whatever medium––there’s an opportunity to make something of it. A single poem joins another, then another, and so on, to coalesce into a body of work, a book. I’m over the moon about this result. It’s not easy to act on a certainty of faith when the result is completely uncertain. But how else can something amazing happen? 

 

Get Fired Up:

Begin…the creative thing that you feel inspired to do. Then, keep at it. Take breaks to play. And keep at it.

www.charisehoge.com

 

Dream

Musing…

“I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”  Vincent Van Gogh                                                                                                                                                        

Kate’s Turn:

Uncertainty generates anxiety. You certainly have had your share of it this past year. Uncertainty also holds possibility. Sonja Lyubomirsky, psychologist, says that 40% of your happiness is in your control, determined by your intention and actions. Even though there are many things out of your control, you can channel the fear of the unknown towards the manifestation of your dreams. Using the creative process, you can take steps to build the life you desire; it is a way of leveraging those fears. The first step is to dream.

“Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity.”  T.S. Eliot

Get Fired Up:                                                                                                                                            

Can you let a heart’s desire start to bloom?

Welcome a new idea and explore its possibilities.                                                             

Let your heart be light. Live the life you imagine.

“Live out of your imagination, not your history.”  Stephen Covey

www.kroskalifecoaching.com

Random Acts of Thoughtfulness

Musing...

“Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.” Maya Angelou

Charise’s Turn:

On a sunny, seasonable day last week (no snow, rain, sleet, freezing temperatures), my husband and I opted to leave our home offices and take a walk. We made our way to the Capital Crescent Trail, which was originally a railway track. The funny thing is, we walked that actual track when we first met, as teenagers. It was easy to do, since the trains had stopped running. Now a paved walking/biking trail, there is still a tunnel with “duck ins” designed for pedestrians to step back from passing trains. And there’s a glorious echo of voice if you choose to sing or shout when you’re in the tunnel. Last week we spotted a tiny Buddha and singing bowl in one "duck-in" alcove. Someone had created a sacred space there, a place to pause, to play the singing bowl. 

 

Anyone can pass by the alcove and miss seeing what is there; and anyone can take the items away. Whoever placed them there is unconcerned about these possibilities. That person wants to offer a sense of peace, of buddha nature. And when we are focused on getting to the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s so helpful when someone directs our attention to the light of compassion at the point where we are.   

 

“Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great sanctity.” Mother Teresa

 

Get Fired Up:

What can you offer to others to bring more light, more peace during dark times? 

Be ready to receive the gifts of compassion that others offer you. 

www.charisehoge.com

I'd Like a Word

Musing…

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine––and the shadows will fall behind you.”  Walt Whitman                                                                                                                    

Kate’s Turn: 

In my annual New Year’s practice of finding a word as my focus for 2021, I struggled to land on one that gave me promise for moving forward. Providence? Yes, I have received much, and am grateful for it. True, but that word seemed to focus on the past. Positivity? Yes, we certainly need a lot of that, but that word seemed too confining to my own experience. Kindness? Ah, now this word gave me some energy. An act of kindness always lightens a situation. Kindness goes a long way and is often paid forward when received. My intention to offer kindness is actually a way to create my own sunshine, and be a star when things are dark. In these challenging times, it is sometimes difficult to see the light. However, it is the light that gives us hope and helps us to weather through the dark times.

“Love will find its way through all languages on its own.”  Rumi

Get Fired Up:

How can you shine, even in dark times?

What is your word for 2021? 

“I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”  Sarah Williams, poet

www.kroskalifecoaching.com