Dear Friends, 

Registration for Core Imaginations will close on Wednesday, March 25th. 

My NYC Workshops: March 27-29.

Here is the link to the newsletter with the description, location, fees, etc. of my talk and workshop in New York City at the end of the month, Mar 27 & 28.  If you live in the metro area, I would love to meet you there.  The talk is on sacred conversation and the workshop is on the karma of relationship. Please come.

A second workshop in NYC on Sunday Mar 29 (3:30 - 6:30 PM) which I am co-facilitating with Chocolate Waters. It is part of a series of workshops: Wine, Chocolates and Your Life for Lesbians and Other Courageous Women.  Chocolate brings her woman's heart and her genius as an autobiographical poet to guiding participants to reach into their souls through conversation and writing. This month's topic is The Power of the Feminine: Exploring What it Needs from the Masculine.  For all the details see the facebook page here. 

Please tell your NY Metro area friends about these events. Thanks.

This post is not a planned post, not one that I was thinking about writing. The post was a sudden surprise; waking up in the morning and just starting to write.

I had been contemplating the Stations of the Cross by Giotto from the 14th Century in preparation for Inner Easter. Giotto is known for being the first to paint emotional portraiture and his “Lamentation” is heartbreaking. I was also wondering what I might offer as a Holy Imagination of the Annunciation (March 25). And recently I have had conversations and emails with two mothers who have lost an adult child and grieve deeply.  

In this message, my heart resonates with these mothers, Giotto’s Lamentation, and the imagination of the Annunciation and the Blessed Womb.

Whether or not you know the mother’s sorrow for yourself, I know you will know someone who lives with this feeling.  Share this post with her.

Here are the thoughts on the grief of mothers that came to me…

To suffer means to "bear sorrow."

To grieve means to “bear the grave sorrow of the death of another or the death of something that meant life and purpose to you.” When you lose your child, you also lose the the part of you whose purpose was to be that child's mother in life and in so many active ways.  How do you mother a dead child?

Imagine the grieving womb, designed to bear life now flooded with the destiny of death.  My thoughts here are for all the mother’s who have lost a child of any age. I was conceived in a grieving womb as two years earlier my mother had given birth to a baby girl who only lived for 20 minutes and who she never held in her arms. I have counseled mothers bearing the grief of miscarriage, the grief of not being able to conceive, the grief of stillbirth, and the grief of abortion; those mothers who do not have the comfort of memories and stories about their child.

What are the 4 Ways We Grieve?

There is the grief of the senses: to only perceive via memories the voice, the touch, the way of walking, etc.  To keep painting and repainting the portrait of remembered sense impressions, to see them with inner eyes, to hear them with inner ears, to touch them with inner fingers. Wondering do they still see us from wherever they are?

There is the grief of the soul: to not experience the new thoughts, feelings and deeds of the developing  and who engaged and influenced your thoughts, feelings and deeds. How can one live without their questions, observations, experiences. And the working with the challenge of the grieving soul's questions of destiny, fulfillment, karma, and incompletion. Can a life be too short?

There is the grief of rebalancing the sense of self and the sense of future…of finding an upright center  that responds to the addition of the weight of sorrow and the sudden absence of the weight of the child’s presence. Rebalancing now that there are only memories and past; the future does not promise new memories.

There is the grief of learning how to include the “self as grieving mother” in your self-awareness. How to wear the veil of sorrow in such a way that the sun can still shine on you for here-and-there moments.  It is learning how to stay afloat as waves of shocking, bitter, and sweet emotions sweep over you, sometimes coming straight on, other times swelling up from behind.

What are the 8 Comforts for the Grieving?

There is the comfort of all the stories of your child’s life. Let them warm your heart when grief brings a chill. The ascent from feeling the freeze in your bones, in your whole body, to feeling a weeping thaw, and all the subtle stages leading up to a surprising warmth in your heart. An extra beating in your heart that tells you your child is alive in you. And there is the stages from not smiling at the memories to that first gentle smile, the twinkling in your eyes, a sudden little giggle and then the laugh and delight that the memories have come alive with a new power and suffering can step aside for joy's appearance.

There is the comfort of nature with the profound cycles of birth, life, death and rebirth.  At first, just let the sun, its light and its warmth, remind you of the gift of the light and warmth of of your child. But also let the sun remind you that you will rise from the darkness of grief and peek out from behind the clouds of sorrow.

There is the comfort of prayer and meditation.

There is the comfort of journaling & artistic expression: drawing, painting, collaging to express your grieving emotions.

There is the comfort of movement from the simple rhythm of walking to full expressive dance…let your whole body express your grief.

There is the comfort of sacred conversation with yourself, with your family and friends, with a spiritual mentor. When you choose to have a conversation, choose wisely.  You want someone who can witness grief without trying to fix it or make it go away because they are in a right relationship to death and grief. With this kind of loving witness you will not feel quite so alone in the solitude of your grief.

Eventually, there is the comfort of your conversations with your child's spirit. I have a friend in Australia, who lost her son when he was in his twenties.  She gives talks and writes about Mother's joy and how spiritually she maintains an active communion with her son though he is now across the Threshold of death. Maybe her experience is the transcendent stage of the suffering mother

There is the comfort of knowing there is no clock timing your process. You can take all the time you need.  And the grief of the senses, the grief of the soul, and the grief of rebalancing, each has their own timing, rhythm and resolve.

Please  share your experiences and thoughts on the Mother’s sorrow or the many experiences you have had with grieving any loss on the blog by clicking here.

With much love and tenderness,

Lynn

Inner work is tough work and hitting the mysterious and labyrinthine trenches of your soul requires guides, tools, support, creativity, humor and perseverance. 

Books, prayers, coaching, counseling, meditation, workshops, good friends...every kind of help is needed and available.  But ultimately, only you can do the work of becoming you. 

Below are the ways I can help you with your 2015 inner work of finding, knowing and becoming yourself… and making sense of it all. 

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Conversations with Me

Is this the year to answer a question, solve a mystery, survive a crisis, take a leap, imagine a future, find self-compassion, balance inner extremes, connect with a spiritual mentor and friend???  Can I support you, coach you, mentor you, celebrate you as you take on this threshold experience consciously and creatively.  I will bring a cosmic and spiritual context for understanding the challenges and realities of your life and make the cosmic and spiritual intimate and practical. 

Why don’t you schedule a complimentary 20 minute conversation here...let’s talk about what you want and how I can help.  

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The Imagine Self Academy

All Imagine Self Academy courses are offered online through recorded presentations and loads of valuable materials. Some include live group conversations and Q & A with me. Everything is downloadable. 

I just want to give you a brief rundown of the major courses available in 2015. I’ve included dates and costs so you can plan and budget.  I will be sending out detailed descriptions for the courses closer to when each one will be opening registration.

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Core Imaginations

the Imagine Self Curriculum for Imagining the

Whole Core Reality of Yourself

Registration closes on March 25.

...the most powerful, healing, liberating curriculum in the Imagine Self Academy.  You will want to come back to these courses many times throughout your life.

Core Imaginations is a year long, life long, curriculum that teaches you how to do self-compassionate observation and guides you to a fully alive imagination of yourself in ten core expressions: 

Your Image of Self in each of the Four Realms of Existence:

1. As a Physical Self in Dimensions of Space,

2. As a Living Self in the Flow of Time,

3. As a Conscious Self in the Possibilities of Relativity,

4. As a Divine Self in the Absolute

Your Image of Self in the Three Activities of Consciousness:

5. As a Thinking Self with a desire to know the heights of Truth

6. As a Feeling Self with a desire to seek the expanse of Beauty

7. As a Willing Self with a desire to act in the depths of Goodness

8. Your Image of Self as a Personality shaped by the Four Temperaments

9. Your Image of Self as a Perceiving Being experiencing yourself, the world, and others through the Twelve Senses

10. Your Image of Self as a Processing Being engaging with life  through the Seven Life Processes

 Cost is $477 for lifelong access to the entire curriculum (monthly payments available).

Click here for the description.

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Holy Imaginations & The New Festivals

I have found that the Christian Festivals (including the Marion festivals) offer extraordinary insights for individual inner work. I offer blogposts and courses inspired by the festivals. I approach these with an esoteric, non-religious, universal, 21^st Century understanding, not for belief or tradition, but for a brilliant yearly path for self-development.  The blogposts including the Inner Christmas Messages are a gift (but again, donations are so very welcome.)

The New Festivals courses are for self-study with one or 2 live Conversations with Lynn. Cost is $47 each.

Inner Lent 

5 lessons on facing the mysteries of temptation and overcoming all that challenges the well-being of your soul. The work of Inner Lent can serve your soul at any time of the year. 

Learn more about Inner Lent here.

Inner Advent

begins November 25^th 

4 lessons for recollecting, reviewing and releasing your year...preparing for Christmas and the Holy Nights 

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Wisdom Imaginations

the Imagine Self Curriculum for inner love and inner freedom

Imagining Your Inner Misfit

available now

guides you into a new relationship with the difficult parts of yourself. $27

 click here to register

Imagining An Inner Mother

May, 2015  ~ 4 sessions

We will look at the four great maternal gestures and recognize their presence or absence in our childhood.  We will learn how we can awaken each of these maternal gestures in our own soul for self-mothering. Cost: $97

Imagining An Inner Father

June, 2015 ~ 4 sessions

This course brings to our souls the great paternal gestures for self-fathering. Cost: $97

These two courses are excerpts from the Inner Mother Inner Father course.  We need an inner mother and an inner father to meet the needs of our inner child.  ​

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The Retreat for Women Seeking Outrageous Wholeness: 

Save the dates: July 9-12 in Chapel Hill, NC

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Here’s to your inner work and becoming new in 2015!

Blessings & Imaginations,

Lynn