The composer, musician, and performer Enya lives in apparent seclusion, guarding her identity and privacy far from the public arena. Nevertheless, her beautiful music reaches far beyond the walls of her cloistered studio, and the peace and joy it has brought to millions is acknowledged by the sales of her various tapes and CDs. Enya does not seek or expose herself to the trappings of fame or celebrity, preferring to guard her privacy and her space in order to more fully cultivate her creative expressions and her spirit.

 

It may be years while Enya creates and records her music from layers of her own voice and synthesizers--one upon another--and until she has achieved her own creative goals. She values her creativity and her expressions above the recognition and accolades public attention might bring to her personally.

 

Enya lives her spirit and gives from it as her way to be in the world. After September llth her music provided solace and support to her many admirers; comfort and encouragement though not a word was expressed. Her music was and is the comfort and encouragement her life lives out. Her life is an inspiration and invitation.

 

Insight and imagination are within you.

Have you ever met someone you knew you would like immediately? You felt a connection and a "click" of manner, speech or presentaion which made you feel safe and comfortable. A familiarity which could open a pathway to deeper connection and friendship may have begun this way.

 

Have you ever met someone you didn't like--someone who struck you as overbearing, egotistical or difficult and who you knew instantly you would not like them? Perhaps you felt uncomfortable with them, and so you were more inclined to avoid rather than "connect" with them. You didn't, perhaps, feel that you had any connection with them.

 

How often have your first impressions been accurate? Have you experienced a deepening of your understanding or awareness as your acquaintance with others have progressed? In what ways were you "right"  or "wrong" about others on first meeting them?

 

So much of our knowledge of others is visual that our assessment of them is often barely auditory. Our body language: our appearance, our gestures, our facial expressions combine to communicate so much to others before they or we even speak. The visual information we take in actually speaks much louder and longer than our spoken words. The visual impact is deep and lasting.

 

Insight and imagination are within you.

When everything is going well and you are at the top of your game it often feels so good that you forget the down times. When everything is down its hard to remember the good times. Its sometimes a real challenge to find the balance between elation and the feelings of success and the "down times" so called "failure" brings.

 

A young golf pro we know mentioned that she had coached a client for a number of sessions, working on various aspects of her game. Having moved through a checklist of items she had accomplished, the client happily announced that now that she had perfected her game, she didn't need any more lessons or coaching. She was riding high!

 

The golf pro smiled, knowing that even the best players are always developing their game; something is always in need of improvement and work; nothing is ever "settled" or complete. Tiger Woods, having won a Master's championship declared that he needed to work on certain aspects of his game. A champion knows that the accomplishment is never complete and there is always something to work on.

 

Sure, success feels good, but it is always in development. Success is an ongoing  process. In fact, perserverance is success.  A professor we know says, "anyone can write a dissertation; it just takes perserverance."  Staying power. Commitment. Keep on keepin' on and learning from the process, whether you are riding high or feeling down.

 

Insight and imagination are within you. 

Today we saw a back yard filled with greenery. Huge Elephant Ears framed the brick patio; hanging baskets of blooming pink begonias reached out from every corner of the house; tall walnut trees dropped their large green and ripe nuts with a thud as they hit the grass. A small fountain rippled on the side of a porch and another filled a small bucket and dumped it rhythmically from a spring beyond the patio."What do people who don't garden do?" she asked intently. Inside the house is filled with plants and her basement is a nursery for African Violets. This woman has filled her surroundings and her life with green growing vegetation of every kind, shape and size.  The lampost outside is embraced by a Mandeville vine with large white trumpet blooms and Spider Plants dance along the walkway to the front door.

There is so much going on here that one cannot really take it all in. It is a celebration of plant life and a comfort to the one who lives therein.

 

What do you surround yourself and your life with? Look around you and see what you have decided to celebrate and allow to comfort you. Not long ago we visited a house with so many beer bottles we couldn't count them all. Posters hung on the walls celebrating various brands of beer. Bottles of beer met us at the front door and announced their presence in every room of the house. Hard to talk about much but beer with the fellow who lived there. Beer was it!

No doubt there. He knew what he liked.

 

Comfort comes in so many qualities and kinds of experience. Are you conscious of your own desires and joys? What gives you the greatest sense of pleasure and contentment? How have you brought that into your day and your life? Whatever "floats your boat," as the saying goes.

 

Insight and imagination are within you.

So many stories from childhood begin with the words, "Once upon a time." There is something magical about that opening, which speaks of something wonderful or amazing which became manifest or real "once upon a time." The notion that something is possible stirs our interest and our imagination, and catches our attention and enthusiasm. We open our senses and our minds to hear more about what came into being, or what transpired "once upon a time."

 

A wonderful educator named Maxine Greene has for her entire career inspired students and teachers to think of what is possible; what might be. Here is a teacher who does not ask or want students to conform or "fit in" but who wants them to experience the fullest freedom of imagination and intellect as is possible. She would like for everyone to feel the pull of the energy of possibility and the freedom to make the possible real. Maxine Greene would invite you to consider what might happen in your day and in your life if you began to think about and live your life from the standpoint of the possible rather than the given.

 

How would your day be if you lived on the premise of the possible? How would your life change if you connected to your fullest expression of your vitality? What if "once upon a time" you lived your day as the creative and expressive spirit and being you are? What if one day after another you built a new way of living your days which led others to someday say, "once upon a time.." there was a friend of mine who lived her/his life as a full and exhuberant expression of her vision and desires?"  Possibility lives within you. "Once upon a time..."

 

Insight and imagination are within you.

How often do you touch in with your own feelings and thoughts? If you are continually monitering what is going on externally you are no doubt dismissing the value of your own desires and wishes. Touching into your own desires and following your own heartfelt wishes may not always be possible, but knowing who you are and what your life energy wants to do in order to express itself is every bit as important as what is going on in the external world.

 

Drumming is a wonderful way in which to connect with your soul. Drumming can reconnect you to your heart's song and open up possibilities you otherwise might dismiss or pass by. Drumming "tunes the soul" as Healing Drummer Toby Christensen says. What better way to touch in than through drumming. Find a group or follow your own path toward your soul's guidance and direction. Insight and imagination are within you.