I Hold Sacred Space

What’s Lighting My Fire in the Moment?
#HoldingSacredSpace

Together in liveliness and aliveness for me, upleveling a new octave or two:
#HoldingSacredSpace.

This is a Thing. For years, I didn’t realize, “This is a Thing.”

In July, #HoldingSacredSpace was my intent. It was directed at a specific project — creating a #WordAltar mixed media collage and poem about sacred land near here and holding that land as sacred space. Due date for the piece was midmonth.

#HoldingSacredSpace … It “comes out of me,” and as I’m now learning — it’s something I’ve always done! Rarely did I realize what was coming forth — thus making it impossible to own it.

In the past few years, blessed with finely-tuned mentors and astutely observing playmates, I’m better able to grok my capacity for this. I’m claiming #HoldingSacredSpaces as a core capacity … and one of my superpowers.

There’s profound hunger …
We radiant beings in feminine form are starving for deep connections in community, with resonant SiStars who are awakening to their own inner divine feminine flows from depths. And with brothers who are likewise awakening their own inner divine feminine.

To truly nourish and answer this call, being held within a safe and sacred space makes a h-u-g-e difference.

At the core … I’ve also wondered:
What is WITHIN that is yearning to be brought forth?
This question arises for me, and I’ve heard it from others …
a deep pang of thirst to bring forth what is within –
that is equal to the hunger to gather in sacred community.

The intent of my work now is to weave together a place where both deep hungers and thirsts can be attended to — a rich garden for each one who comes to play — space to cultivate their own #SelfNourishingHeart.

Safe. Sacred. Spacious.

My gift and greatest joy is creating safe, sacred, spacious gatherings —
with open-hearted, not-necessarily-discipline-specific
processes. We use words, yes, and open to visuals, while some
express in movement or sound. Or something else altogether unique!

What I’m Envisioning …
In real time, you and I, individually and in community, have space to connect with our own inner flows — what I call our #HeartFireMagic. Then create from that inner space. A whole life can be thusly created. Let’s see what happens!

Beyond the seasonal sacred circles of meditative vision journeying, making your journey-notes, falling in love with your own inner wisdom, I envision an onward journey beyond the 8 seasonal gatherings.

For those who are ready and willing, ignited to get on with creating, sourcing those creations from this inner sacred space, I am weaving new fields and groves of support — so we can ALL get on with creating in every possible way…

Specifics are only beginning to unfold. What emerges is likely to be in dialogue with the playmates who are called … Some may feel it most inviting to engage via one-on-one sessions.
Others may gravitate towards intimate group creative practices sessions
I imagine it like CoWorking/CoCreating sessions with mentoring, space-holding, and centerings built in.

It’s creating in community, because I envision my own work coming through as well.
My multidimensional self has many gifts ready to blossom. Gathering in intimate Pods of Conscious Creators feels like such a delicious way to play.
It’s calling to me.
Is this calling to you?
Are you curious?
Intrigued?
Wonder how it would work?
What if … you were to be part of the shaping of this sacred grove?
… Of making it your own?

We turn our attention TOWARD the sweet spacious light-filled chamber of our creations. And yes, Now!
It is time for each of us to reveal, bit by bit, in a more public way, the Heart…

of the Stars that We Are.

We will continue to play together and celebrate Mother Earth’s seasonal shifts.

Meanwhile, if you’re hungry to get going on creating your entire life as a work of art ... giving yourSelf permission to do so and getting on with it, be in touch! You can help to shape the clay of this sanctuary with me.

Drop me an email at bjmiddendorf (at) gmail (dot) com if you are curious and want to know more about the supportive field of creation that is emerging.

With big love and bright blessings,
Bobbye

P.S.

And that #WordAltar created for the July-August exhibit at the Placitas Community Library …

Mixed Media #WordAltar, Holding Sacred Space With Chaco Canyon

Are You Creating a Life that’s a Work of Art?

What happened to August? (And July, for that matter…) Suddenly it’s back-to-school and the Jewish New Year. I love the timing for that and often celebrate it — just because.

In July, I conducted my live sacred circle event for “Creating What Matters Most.” The afternoon’s energetic shifts were palpable, and the follow up call invited everyone to continue on the path they’d started just a short week or so before.

 

Welcome Philip!

 

August was a whirl of change and very much a family focus.  We adopted Philip, a natty fellow who wears a tuxedo all the time. He’s a burly Cocker spaniel adopted from PAWS (Pets Are Worth Saving) in Chicago. We all went to the adoption center, met him and brought him home. This was following on the heels of  a good-bye lunch at the vegetarian Annapurna snack shop in the Indian neighborhood on Devon Ave. Isabel departed the next day for a year in Delhi on her Fulbright and Critical Language Fellowship; Gabriel left on Monday for Los Angeles and his last year in college at USC.

On the third Sunday in August, I co-facilitated a sacred circle for Chicago IONS on Forgiveness with my friend, June Keszeg. Following that was nearly a week away, visiting family in West Virginia and giving Philip his first taste (with us) of country life. He loved it! Walks and foreign scents, rolling in wet grass, scrambling over rocks to the river, chasing tennis balls, and long car rides: he was soooo happy.

We had an intimate birthday celebration early (for me) in West Virginia as the wheel of the year turned into Virgo. We invited a local artist friend, plus Jonn, his mom, Philip and me.  We gathered for a fabulous picnic, tapas-like small dishes of my very favorite things, on the the porch.

Another guest joined us — the goat that got away from the neighbors. With Joan, the artist’s, help, the poor lost soul was collected and led into the fenced area. Then we called the neighbors to come get her as the downpour started. The distress in that voice, the goat separated from her herd, was palpable and echoed through the valley. Baaaaaaaaaaa.

I met a couple of online friends in person, spending a lazy afternoon walking along the river downtown with Shweta Parmar when she came through Chicago. Jonn and I celebrated with Isabel Faith Abbott at her one-year-cancer-free party perched in a River North penthouse party room with stunning views of the skyline.

I practiced my new learning of Healing Touch (energized with Qi)  [with a shout-out to Margaret Leslie and Deb Lipetz Weisenberger, my awesome teachers] on several situations, both for physical issues like pain relief for a dear friend post-surgery, as well as draining away some situational pain, stress and anxiety and filling the space with healing Light.

There’s magic tucked away in every life. If you would love to have a partner committed to helping you bring that magic into focus to become conscious of your life as the work of art that it is, then we should talk. You see, collaboration is the new black and the mantra for our time is, “Do NOT do it alone!”

I continue sharing purposeful messages in collaboration The True Purpose Instituteâ„¢ and am collaborating with Cassandra Washington’s One Degree Shift group on an inspiring new book. (For my section, I’m exploring curiosity as an attitude for Difference-Makers to cultivate. More on that project soon!)

After this spring and summer’s beta-testing of my new upgraded blessing, guiding people to “Go Deep First,” I am now inviting you to explore if now is the time to “Create What Matters Most” at ever-deepening levels. It’s a call to you if you resonate with phrases like courageous evolutionary, intrepid explorer in right livelihood, creator of your highest work, transformational leader, vanguard visionary, sage-hearted change-maker,  or if you have the soul of a difference-maker or are in a transition and at a crossroad between what came before (that’s coming to an end) and what is ready to emerge.  What will be your legacy? If this is up for you, let’s talk!

Reply here or message me, and we can set up a Taste of Deep Listening readiness conversation, to see if now is YOUR time and what you need to move forward.

With love and appreciation,
Bobbye

Summer Camps for Conscious Creators–Part 1

A shout-out to you, Conscious Creator: A lifetime feeling like a misfit, aching for the joy and refreshment of being replenished from deep within, longing to make the connection with like-hearted others… Make this summer your time to shine your light. Solstice, called Midsummer, is the start of summer, so DECIDE that this is your summer to create momentum and connect with your tribe. Here’s a start-of-summer listing of summer camps for Conscious Creators. En-JOY!

For Conscious Creators -- Summer Camp Creations
A believing mirror for Conscious Creators; Image by Bobbye Middendorf

What will YOU make of this remarkable summer?
Ask yourself if it’s time for your own Summer
Camp. If you are a Conscious Creator, this is
YOUR time. Replenishment and creative play are
key to your health, wealth, and personal growth.

Take time to look into one or more of these
supportive communities/classes. You’ll play with like-
hearted others and build your impetus and
momentum with the wealth of information,
inspiration, and guidance to move along
the Dreams of Your Heart’s Desires!

Lots of rich and delicious opportunities to
create your future — starting THIS weekend!

It’s no secret that time seems to be moving at
warp speed and everything is changing almost
before it’s born.

That said, you’ll discover a
spacious creativity available when you step
into the Kairos time of the Conscious Creator…

The eternal present remains uncluttered and
focused, a place where you can step into
your fertile phase of BEE-ing!

1. Saturday June 23:
Bring Your Inner Vision — Out!
Virtual Vision Boarding with Sherry Murry

This event is the first of several fantastic outlets
for energizing your vision, purpose, projects, and
conscious connections over this summer 2012!

Get started here with my friend Sherry Murry’s
virtual workshop to sharpen up your Vision for the
rest of 2012 by creating your very own tailor-made
Summer 2012 Vision Board.
Details at:
http://visionwithin.eventbrite.com/

(Tell Sherry that Bobbye sent you!
It’s a soul-replenishing process from the
Songstress of Soul!)

2. Sunday June 24:
Live and in person in Chicagoland!
Gathering Chicago’s Change Agents:
Cultural Creatives Unite at
Chicago IONS.

This is an event for you if you’ve always felt
like you never quite fit in. You may be on a
path of Change Agent, Thought Leader, or Messenger.

Even if you don’t call yourself that (yet),
Paul Ray gave us a name: Cultural Creatives.

On Sunday, Adam Shames of Kreativity Network
updates the community with the latest
research based on his interview with Paul Ray.
Most important of all: It’s a
gathering of the Cultural Creative Tribe on 6-24.
(and you can connect with me live if you are able to
come out for it.) I’ll be scribing our community
town-hall findings, discoveries, and conclusions
on the flip chart.

If one-people-one-planet resonates for you,
we would love you to join us. Details:
http://chicagoions.org/programs.html

3. Monday June 25 at 5pm Eastern Time is the LAST
DAY and MOMENT for you to sign up
for Web Site Campwhere you get the hands-on
know-how to bypass a webmaster and go live with your
WordPress website.

Just Imagine how you feel.. fall is in the air,
the kids are back at school…
and you are confidently posting new content and
programs and updates on your OWN WordPress website !
What a relief!
How long have you been waiting?
Wait no longer!

If this is the summer that — no matter what —
your website goes live — then my colleague and
mentor Christina Hills is the best person to hold
your hand and show you the inner workings for
your own D-I-Y WordPress website.

Get comfortable with the basics.
You’ll soon fearlessly go under the hood,
see the Dashboard as a friend, and you’ll
get your web site up — finally!

Imagine building your website with WordPress–
and loving the process! It IS possible. Christina
helped me with my WordPress website.
And this short course is a great value.

Christina’s Summer Program covers the fundamentals
of WordPress for non-techie people who want
to build a website without a webmaster.

It happens live for 4 weeks, but then all
the materials stay online
for you to go through at your own pace.
Full details:
http://tinyurl.com/Websitecamp

Bonus:
If you sign up for Websitecamp through
my affiliate link,
http://tinyurl.com/Websitecamp

…then email me a copy of your receipt,
we’ll get you and your site onto
my schedule for a complimentary
“Inspire Your Message” copy review
(a $197 value) once the construction
dust settles.

4. Talk to me!
Leave a comment below (or send me an email
or use the contact form) and tell me how these events
land with you. Are you up for a summer
of letting your creative juices flow?

Let me know what’s up in your life, work,
and heart. How are you faring in refining
and polishing your message, regularly
sharing your great content, and connecting
with your perfect people for
building your tribe? Is it smooth sailing —
or have you hit some potholes?

How may I be of service to you in your
busy life and business?  (Sometimes a
believing mirror can help you see things
that are invisible to you.)

5…Watch for more news, events, and
inspired connections coming soon.

(Save the dates: July 23-August 16 for
a juicy new Write Synergies Circle gathering!)

Happy Summer 2012!
Happy Solstice!

May this dark of the moon
be the seed-starter for the
Dreams of Your Heart’s Desire.
And keep on shining your light — in words!

Love, Light & Laughter,
Bobbye

P.S.
And be sure to check out the
new 2012 Summer Solstice poem at
WriteSynergies.com:
http://tinyurl.com/JuneSolstice

P.P.S.
I’m just an email/phone call/Skype
session away if you’d love a dose of
creative support and inspiration for
your messages.

Be Happy Where You Are AND Hungry for the Thrill of Creating

Embracing dichotomies and dancing with polarities expresses the beautiful dance of the Divine Feminine Spirit, now coming forth to be reclaimed in many spheres. Seth Godin’s blog today inspired a message pouring forth from the Divine Feminine Spirit now arising and being reclaimed from her long exile.

“An alternative is to be happy wherever you are, with whatever you’ve got, but always hungry for the thrill of creating art, of being missed if you’re gone and most of all, doing important work.”
–Seth Godin

My friend Patty Walters calls it “Yes AND,” a key principle in her brilliant improv-for-business work based in enchanted Santa Fe.

Others like my friend and mentor Paul Bauer of Dreams Alive talks about embracing the polarities.

Gaining traction for this process of holding seeming opposites within ourselves (without going crazy) is not the usual model that the black-and-white old paradigm world wants us to live by and believe.

We have a “crust” of old assumptions around this seeming dichotomy. It is time to release and break through, so that we are embracing and dancing with the polarities, the dichotomies, where love creates the symbol of yin and yang, balanced, both present, and somehow in beautiful harmony. In love are all the dichotomies transformed into wholeness.

This is the way of the Divine Feminine Spirit — in business and elsewhere. The Divine Feminine Spirit, like the female of the species, gives birth to male and female alike — literally giving birth to the polarities. She encompasses within her the creative spark, the divine fuse of life force, the connection to Source and the greatest good for all.  How can both sides of the equation NOT be sacred?

Dance! Reclaim your unfettered agility for holding fire and ice, male and female, child and adult, in solid, grounded, harmonic, and fully encompassed balance.

 

 

5Cs to Live Your Legacy in Words

More than What You Leave Behind, Live Your Legacy in Words

I’ve written about living your legacy before.  It’s that important.  The following action points are part of an upcoming booklet of experts sharing insights on “defining your destiny,” a project coordinated by Paulette Ensign, the  undisputed queen of the tips booklet.

My suggestion: Test out these 5 Cs to bring your legacy alive. Use words. Write it all down. Document your process for yourself and others.

1 Center —

Begin by taking a deep belly-expanding breath or several.  Focus on your heart-center.  Listen for your internal wisdom and directions from inside.  Write them down!

2 Contribute —

From that breath-centered mindfulness, focus on the deepest gifts you are here to share.  Who are the most perfect recipients of your gifts?  Write down who you are here to serve and the gifts you yearn to offer.

3 Create —

Hold in your heart both what you are here to offer and who you are meant to do it for.  Envision what it looks like when those two come together, with results for the highest good.  Write that down.

4 Connect —

Bring your inner connections and ideas into conversation.  Invite your most perfect people into your sacred circle with powerful words and intent.  Connect and LISTEN.  Write down their words, what they want.

5 Commit —

Write down the specifics of your intent and commitment to create, connect, and contribute.  It’s your map for living your legacy.  Build it day by day with conscious actions — to make the difference you came here to make.

World-changers, writers, authors, visionaries, and conscious creators partner with Bobbye Middendorf, The Write Synergies Guru, to clarify their healing messages. If you’re ready for results greater than the sum of the parts, if you need the right words so people “get it,” if you want to make the difference you came here to make, then connect with Bobbye to live your legacy in words and “Write to Sell Without Selling Your Soul.”

Sometimes it’s a gem of truth

Molly Gordon wrote in her ezine today about how we don’t have to be superheroes and how to address our tendency to think we need to be.  Using the power of daily ritual is one way to keep the stress of superheroine roles out of our bodies.  Molly is expressing from her own deep truth of experience a great wisdom here — with a wink of fun tossed in for good measure. (Keep the crown, Molly. You deserve it!)

Seth Godin‘s post today on “winning” ended with this sentence: “What if the win is the ability to give a true gift?” It was one of those phrases that raised goosebumps, often for me an indicator of a powerful truth.

The gifts and creations (books, businesses, ventures, artworks, practices, creative projects) that you are bringing out to the world are created from the deepest heart of you. Coming from this fiery heart of creation, fueled by your passion for expressing your gift, you have a sacred trust to this, your creation and brainchild.

How can you maintain the purity of your intent as your creative project makes its way in the world? How can you preserve authenticity and integrity? How do you prevent it from becoming corrupted by the eddies and currents of the everyday and the toxic approaches that seem the common currencies?

This was one of the most powerful lessons from my recent retreat with the Dreams Alive and Relax-Online partners, Paul Bauer and Susan Castle. This powerful circle embodied the sacred and gave each of us the impetus to embrace our own sacred truth and creation while bringing it to life.

Your creations come from the heart and carry a sacred message. To speak that message in a way that connects with your perfect people (tribe, community, readers, clients, customers) requires a similarly sacred approach.  Isn’t it time for sharing the sacred stories in a way that your people can really get it?

Daybook for a Conscious Creator

As creators, especially conscious creators, it’s important to get out and feed the imagination regularly.  Julia Cameron calls this taking yourself out on an Artist Date.  So tonight, I took myself out and reconnected with my past — those years ago when I was an Interdisciplinary Arts student at Columbia College.

Tonight was the opening of the Retrospective exhibit of paper and book artist, Marilyn Sward at the Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts.  I went down to 11th Street @ Wabash in Chicago to see the opening and reconnect with some old friends, including the brilliant and ever-delightful artist/educator/curator Suzanne Cohan-Lange. Bestselling author Audrey Niffenegger was there, also a former colleague of Marilyn’s.

The late Marilyn Sward was one of my teachers when I was getting my grad degree at Columbia. She was utterly passionate about hand-made paper and the book arts.  Jeff Abell, another of my Columbia teachers, is putting together the catalog, coming out later this summer.

From her early sketchbooks to her late aerial photographs, with paper installations, hand-made books, and everything in between, Marilyn was profoundly engaged as both artist and teacher. It is good to be reminded that creations come in many shapes and sizes, and that artists contribute in many ways.

As I stood on the Roosevelt Road elevated platform in the early evening sunset, to the West, the towers of St. Ignatius reared up, at least a mile away. Closer by, the glass high rises along South Michigan Ave. glittered in the waning sunlight. Away to the East, across Lake Shore Drive, I was looking right in the front door of the Shedd Aquarium. Chicago stood awash in its most gorgeous light.

In a different vein, as I write this, the firecrackers are still popping all around me and horns still blare periodically, as Chicago celebrates the Stanley Cup win for Chicago’s own Blackhawks.

Jeanne Kolenda wrote this evening about the seeming inability of people to notice beauty even when it’s right there in the subway, playing a Stradivarius. So this is a sort of time-out post to acknowledge, appreciate, and be conscious of the complex fabric  of life fully lived all around me — at least today.

There will be time enough for more bridge-building tomorrow.

Creation and Commitment

Love is the continuous birth of creativity within and between us.”
–John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

On the near side of the bridge, where you are looking across and seeing your circle or community across the gap of where the bridge needs to be, there with you, on your side of the bridge, is your creation.

How is it doing? How is your book coming? How is your business thriving? Are the paintings being painted? Are you teaching the classes, connecting with the clients, creating from the heart?

Does your creation have your full commitment behind it?

Yes, it’s two more Cs for the near side of the bridge. Are you creating your creation, your creative project? And are you fully committed to creating it and imbuing it fully with your gifts?

Fully committing to your creation means nurturing it with love, with passion, and with dogged determination sometimes.

I just watched  The Road this evening with my son. It’s a dystopian future as envisioned by Cormac McCarthy.  It is love clothed in a dogged determination of the father to care for his son, even when all else  fails.

Somehow the sense of commitment to his child, even in the midst of a flat, colorless and sometimes horrific world, is the level of commitment that we too are called to bring to our creations.

We create out of love, because creation is the nature of love. We commit to create, then we love and nurture our creation into manifestation. The act of creation strengthens us, as creators. It strengthens our community. It draws forth the creation itself, as it sings into the world something new.

Have you measured your commitment to your creation today?

Create and Implement

Create and Implement: Sounds simple. And it’s the heart of the matter, isn’t it? If you are a visionary author, writer, messenger, thought leader, or conscious creator with a mission to heal, the idea is to get the work (and its healing results) out there into the world, to start serving the people you came here to serve.

I just read a review for a creativity process book over at Amazon, and there are now comments on the comments. One of those subcomments really struck home. Do these creativity process books help you take action on making your art (whatever it may be)? Or does the process lull you into endless loops of reflecting on the process?

It’s a fine line, I think. Because the inner journey, as discussed in prior posts, is important to building a strong foundation for the outer expression of your work and gifts and greatness in the world. But at a certain  point, it’s time to just do the work, to build the house, write the book, call the clients. How can you use these “process” approaches to launch you into the doing of the actual work (art) you came here to do (make) — and not as an excuse for endless procrastination and preparation?

Note to self: Is this a potential danger of the Write Synergies Path work that I am creating? How may I structure this “process” so it’s more about moving my people forward with doing whatever is the important work/art/creation/venture?  How do I prevent myself and others from falling into the thrall of something completely impractical and tail-chasing as an excuse to avoid the work of creating?  How can I make sure there is practical traction?

My personal challenge IS in doing my “own work,” whatever that may look like. It looked for a time like poetry. And for time it looked a lot like collage/assemblage. Then photography. Now it seems to want to shape itself into a book. Or several. And collaborating with visionary thought leader clients to support and mentor them in creating their most important writing projects.

This post, “create and implement,” is really all about encouraging you in the doing of your work. To do full justice to “create and implement,” it really calls for more detail than a  single blog post here.

You ask, “Do I just start creating?”  Yes. Sometimes you just start. Sometimes, instead, the creation “starts” you–its call is so persistent that it seeps out of your pores and your pen or across the keyboard without your even being full aware of it. This is the luscious process of what I call “divine dictation.” Something comes out, flows out the pen and onto the page.  I know I wrote it, but I don’t have a clue where it came from. These are the moments of the gift. It’s important to grab the gift moments, treasure them, and build on them. They are the gold.

Then there are the other moments, when the engine is cold and it’s tough to start. These are the times when the “Just do it,” motto comes in handy. Times that call for the admonishment to be willing to write what Anne Lamott calls, the “shitty first draft.” Get something out there. Pen to paper even when you don’t really “feel like it.” (And here, a perfect time for acknowledging the gift of the 30 day blog challenge, to get stuff done and out in spite of resistance, procrastination. So thanks #blog30 community!)

Remember: It’s a stronger house with a foundation, and it’s a stronger creation when it has the grounding and foundation of having done the inner work first, tapping into the vision and building on your authenticity, gifts, and greatness.

Be grateful for the gifts and moments of golden flow. But keep on writing (creating) anyway, even if you feel like you are plugging along up a steep incline. Think of the view when you get to the top. Just make sure you are climbing the right mountain!