Do you tend to “tackle” the tasks and projects you do in a day?  When you have a decision to make, do you try to force the right answer to come about?  There’s another way.

My blogging buddy, Gina, over at Professions for Peace wrote a lovely and insightful post about the wisdom of First Nations and this post in particular struck a cord with me…for many reasons.  Here she describes the way of looking at balancing the “masculine” and “feminine” in us, our lives, a nation, a culture as “running energy.”  What energy is running through you? What energy needs to be running through you in this season, this decision, this time in your life…and in our world???  She reminds us, from one of her teachers, that even when Native American nations were set to go to battle, they first went to the Grandmothers.  I love this quote from Gina: “He (her teacher) taught how all decisions used to have to go through the Grandmothers for final approval.”

I believe that we are in a time of reclaiming the feminine.  Our world is aching for us to return to honoring the Great Mother and balancing the energies of our planet with the sacred feminine AND sacred masculine.

I know, for me, that I go to the Great Mother, Great Grandmother, the Divine Mother.  To write.  To make decisions.  To listen.  To be nourished.

Gina’s post reminded me of a poem I wrote years ago about my process of writing…and living.  I hope that it resonates with you, dear ones, and your own journey of surrendering to the Divine stillness and wisdom within you for ALL the answers, words, poems, works of art, and decisions of your heart.

Surrender

I can try to push these words along with the illusion
that I am the god responsible for the poem
as I struggle, grasp, reach for
the perfect combination of words.
I can force these words to come forth with
angry demands like a frightened tyrant
shaking my firsts, torturing them to
submit to my pen.

This is one way to write.

Or
I can go to the garden of
the Great Grandmother of poetry.
I can hand over my arsenal
of illusions, plots and plans at her gates,
climb up onto her thick legs,
fold myself into her sturdy lap, and
surrender —
my effort
my pen,
letting the music of her still soul
write me.

As I rest and she rubs my back,
my effort dissolves, my hand drops my pen,
and her stillness swims through my bones.
She knows why I have come –
she beckoned me before time
to be right here, right in her lap
asking, burning to write.

Her eyes are closed as she slowly rocks back and forth.
The illusion of time fades and we simply
breath…and listen.

Slowly, quietly –
from the deep still waters of wordless prayer,
words begin to rise to the surface,
glistening like gems in the moonlight
dancing on the water
humming the sweet lines of poetry to be written.

Lisa A. McCrohan, © 2007

Dear readers, colleagues, clients, students…explore what energy needs to be “running through you” right now.  Notice if you are called to “make things happen” or surrender to something greater than ego, will and effort.  There is a time for it all.  Yet in our world today, there is an over-abundance of unhealthy “making it happen.”  We push ourselves so harshly and for so long, overriding the body’s innate wisdom to rest, integrate, and rejuvenate.  So much of my work as a Coach and Somatic Psychotherapist is about supporting clients to let go of efforting, to bring gentleness into the language they use with themselves, to bring kindness into the ways they treat themselves, and to heal old wounds NOT with analysis but rather with presence.  Find out more about Coaching I offer to folks around the world from the comfort of their home.  If you are local to the Metro DC area, find out more about Somatic Psychotherapy.