The Divine's Call

I am hearing the Divine’s call. A whisper of inspiration that comes directly from the Heart, and I know it is time to act.  I have heard the call before. In fact, I hear the call daily. Sometimes it is a few words whispered. Words that clarify, or inspire and I share them as opportunity presents. Often it is an action taken, a decision made and then the realization that I am in the right place at the right time. The call may be a series of events or synchronicities unfolding in perfect order, without effort on my part. Sometimes I know what I need to do, other times it is done before I even realize I was called. The Divine works in mysterious ways and I am in constant awe.

The call I hear today is one that says, “Time to step out of the box, Cheryl. It is time to put yourself out there!” When I look back, I realize that the whispers started a while back. They started with a call last spring, the inspiration to create the Heart and Soul Business Network. The Heart and Soul Business Network created collaboration opportunities for a number of Heart based businesses and individuals in the local area. It connected us together in some unexpected ways that created friendships and partnerships. It generated business opportunities as well as countless opportunities to support each other.

When I look back at that event, the two most important gifts are the friendships it created and the Clearing Process shared by Matthew and Terces Englehart, authors of Sacred Commerce and founders of Café’ Gratitude in San Francisco, CA. One of those friendships flourished because we became clearing buddies. Over a period of several months, my friend Cathy and I connected by telephone to clear each other. Several mornings a week, I pulled myself out of meditation and, still in my pajamas, called Cathy “What is lurking in your shadows?” I asked. Then I listened, with every fiber of my being. “This is what I heard.” I shared. A turn around question like, “What makes your heart sing?” followed by an acknowledgement brought us full circle and miracles happened for both of us. Often the miracles were in the clearing itself; sometimes it would be some innocuous comment that led to amazing insights in the moment, or days later.

Every day we told each other the truth. We shared our deepest sorrows. We shone the light on our shadows, we laughed, cried and slowly but surely the stories we told ourselves unraveled. Our perception of the world shifted and the butterfly’s wings unfurled.  We found each other in the fire of transformation and intuitively knew that the fire would burn only that which no longer served us.

Clearing has touched other relationships as well. My partner Lucas and I cleared each other and watched our relationship deepen in unexpected ways. The clearing process created a safe container for the truth to be shared and required us to listen from a deeper place. I discovered a sensitivity, and a tender place in Lucas not seen before.

When I became clearing buddies with another dear friend, our relationship was transported to a new level and I watched an amazing woman begin to settle into who she is and find peace there.

My shifts over the last several months are significant. There is increased confidence in who I am. I understand what it is that I offer, and the impact that I have on people around me. I know what it means not only to love, but to be love. I am able to do this, because my heart is not weighed down with old stories filled with old pain. I no longer build walls around the heart in order to protect it from unknown enemies. I am joyful and completely and totally in love with life, just as it is. I experience life living me, and it is glorious.

I also realize that who I am as a coach is changed. The old paradigm that sees the coach as a thinking partner supporting the client to create the life of their dreams, excavate their calling or find a solution to a challenging problem, no longer entices me. I experienced the simplicity and beauty of the Clearing Process and ir wants to be shared. I want to be with the client who is ready to step fully into the fire of transformation. She understands what it means to “be love” and knows that loving is just the tip of the iceberg. My clients are not afraid to peel away the layers of their persona and are ready to face the demons that keep them from stepping fully into their potential. Most important, the client accepts that we are not in control and is ready to surrender to life in all its perfection.

So this is a Divine invitation, an invitation to join me in the fire. The fire is hot, but it doesn’t burn. It is a fire that cleanses, clears and prepares you be the love that you truly are. The time is now and you are not alone. Do you hear the Divine calling? 

One Voice

Last night I realized the extent of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. Fear rose up, like an unwanted intruder. “Are we safe here, what about my boys, what will happen to all of us? “ It was a very personal fear; the deepest of all fears. It was the fear of death.

When I woke this morning, my journal called and my morning pages came to life. I wrote with abandon, no thought, no consideration and I poured out my grief. My grief for Mother Earth; for the fish in the sea, for the birds that own the air and the green life that is her coat of many colors and the source of our sustenance. I cried for the children, here now, full of hope and for those yet to come. I cried for all of us and the tears flowed and the words wrote themselves.

Then my prayers filled the pages; a prayer for all of us, prayer for guidance. I prayed with abandon because the truth is, I have no idea what to do, how to stop this and make this right. “I am lost”, I prayed. “I don’t know what to do! Show me!. Please show me!” Then I lay my burdens at the feet of the Lord of the Universe. I surrendered all of it, my life, my loves, my hopes, my dreams, my very being. I surrendered all of it. And the tears flowed and the call came.

I put down the pen and I closed my eyes and the Great Mystery called and I heard her. Wrapped in love’s arms, I floated. I melted into the great abyss and all of it dropped away. The grief, the sorrow, the pain, even the surrender, because there was nothing to surrender. There I stayed. I missed my favourite yoga class and I floated. I open my eyes at last when life called me and I did the dishes and sent my love on his way.

As the morning unfolded and I enjoyed the glow of my earlier experience, something inside of me began to mutter. “This isn’t it Cheryl!” Argh! I could just scream! “What do you mean this isn’t it?” “There is more.” the voice responded. Then I saw a book. It is a little book that sits on the table in my Heart Cave (my personal sanctuary) called The Way Out, written by an unknown author. I opened the book to a chapter called “The Next Step” and I read. The words were familiar, not just because I had read them before, but because I live them.

The words rang like church bells, calling me to truth. “The way out has been shown to you, but you must walk in it. No one can do it for you.” See God as yourself and continue to do this until you feel yourself as God, as love, as the divine. “Make a determined and unrelenting effort to think only God’s thoughts and to see and hear only the good and perfection in everything and everyone, resolutely shutting your eyes and mind to appearances and looking right through them to the good they hide.” The next step is to be love, to trust and turn it all over to the divine. This is my experience. When I do this, in this moment, the divine works through me and I am alive and awake in a way that I cannot begin to describe.

And then, you guessed it, I cried. I cried because I doubted myself. I wanted to ask someone. Is this true? Is this it? “I wish I had visions, I wish I saw lights, I wish I heard voices so someone could tell me if this is it!” Then I laughed out loud. The truth is, I do hear voices. This inner conversation is proof. I just don’t trust that it is THE voice. And then the voice said, “There is only ONE voice. What other voice would there be?”

The truth is, I have waited for that magical, mystical moment, when I will be forever changed. Those moments, come, they go and they come again. Every time they come, I think, “That was cool, but that’s not it!” And I go back to the basics, to living, loving and trusting. Then I return to the silence for my nourishment. I return so that this form that I appear to be can return to the world and once again be love. I am in awe of the simplicity of it all.

Is this THE truth? I don’t know. It is simply the truth revealed, in this moment. You see; I am just like you my beloved friend. I hear my voice. I hear ONE voice and I know that I will listen more closely now.