Adrianna Larkin

Fay Fleming is my guest on May 4, 2010 on PASSION’S PURPOSE & PROSPRITY radio show. Her book “Mother Wit” was introduced to me by a mutual friend…and it truly was a gift.

Not only did I have the perfect guest for my program on the Tuesday preceding Mother’s Day, but I had found a new treasure.

“Mother Wit” is delightfully put together with simple bits of wisdom any mother could appreciate, along with spaces for journaling and notes. In conversing with Faye she described it as a book to take with you on a plane, light but inspiring reading –and that hardly does it justice, in short: I love this book.

It reaffirms my experience that the most profound thoughts often arrive from the most unlikely sources. Sources so close to us that we hardly appreciate them for the riches they hold.

I am lucky enough that my own mother is still living and providing me with a fine example of her own Sacred Fire at 81 (she just started dating again with an 81 year old companion who still works part time).

We tend to get locked into the idea that “learning” (in a way that we asign it value) has to come in a certain package: school, a seminar, a training module…but in truth: it is all around us.

It is in our experiences, our relationships, wearing the mask of our hopes and our dreams…it is what every mother with “wit” already knows: Our questions already come with the answers in tow, it is just how we choose to see them.

One of the great realizations I had while writing my book, “Igniting the Sacred Fire” was the space that was created by loss and change.

It is the gift we seldom see.

I read somewhere that “nature abhors a vacuum” and will seek to immediately fill the void. Even in the devastation of a landscape from a forest fire, pinecones receive what they need (intense heat) to germinate and start the regrowth.

What we so often fail to see is that in our “nothingness” there is space, and that space is a placeholder for something else to come in. (Just as the loss of trees on a hillside, leaves space for new ones to grow.)

If this idea seems hard to grasp, think of it this way: you can’t park a car in a space already occupied. A parking place only exists because of the ‘emptiness’ that occupies that spot…

A by-product of living in the “age of informaton” is that we can’t escape from all of the stimuli. It is on our phones, in our eateries (in the form of televisions) in our social exchanges (links on facebook and twitter). The result of so much “intake” is that it leaves little room for quality “output", as it affords less time to know ourselves and those things that we really value.

And I am as guilty of this as the next person. So with this latest realization, I chose to gift myself the guilty pleasure of non-doing.

This week I am taking a Tuesday night off from radio (only the second time in two years that I have not done a weekly broadcast). April 27, there will be no program for “PASSION’S PURPOSE & PROSPERITY". Now I am looking forward to what comes in with that gift

I tend to think it will be wonderful, but whatever comes–it would have not come without making room for it.

Namaste

Wearing dual hats as producer & radio host (in addition to my writing & performance activities) I receive a number of press releases about new books and projects - more than I can process most days - and so I look for what really resonates with me.

The notice about a forthcoming book called “The Upgrade: Fulfilling the Promise of Human Potential” by energy healer and author Doug De Vito offered exactly that kind of resonance.

Dougs request for assistance came from a mutual friend who forwarded a request for votes as he had entered the Next Top Spiritual Author Contest(www.NextTopAuthor.com).

Certainly as a recent author myself, I knew what it meant to get that publishing deal. Perhaps that was the thing that caught my eye initially, but what held my interest after that, was simply: the content.

Doug makes a compelling case for helpful and healing bandwidths that we can conciously access to provide an upgrade for all aspects of our lives, giving us new access to healing and transformation.

Any musician knows that “feel” of the right sound…and its effects on the whole body. I don’t think there will ever be words to describe it (it truly is an experience thing) but others have used terms like ‘mild euphoria’, ‘intoxication without the loss of motor control’, and ‘the most fun you can have outside the bedroom’….

We are “feeling” kinds of creatures (although sometimes we choose to believe otherwise) and the awareness of subtle energies have always been present for me both in, and outside, of music. Doug’s book seems to validate what I think I’ve known all along - only he brings the science with him to back it up.

I’m excited to have a conversation with Doug to get more information, and if you would like to join us, you can tune into PASSION’S PURPOSE & PROSPERITY on 4/20/2010 at 7 pm CST - or catch the archive anytime after - by accessing (or pasting) the following link:

http://tobtr.com/s/1008405

Depending on who you ask these days, this world of ours has become a dark scary place….

As a graduate of the “glass half full” school, I beg to differ. One of the many reasons I hold out hope for our world and the next generation, is because every now and then I have the pleasure of meeting someone like Chris Castle, my guest on this weeks radio program “PASSION’S PURPOSE & PROSPERITY".

Aside from the fact he is an accomplished musician at age 18, he has a grounded, common sense focus that my generation tends to think is lacking in youth, or can only be acquired with the passage of years and experience.

Sometimes, it’s just there.

I have seen it in my own offspring and their friends (and I admit: I could be biased) however, it is reassuring to know that outside of my immediate circle, there are people I still encounter at all ages, in all walks of life, who know who they are and have that sense of self that is in integrity with what they love.

It shines like a beacon for the rest of us, reminding us that the world is not as dark as it seems.

As someone who has yet to master the art of remaining in the present moment, I can appreciate the book written by my radio guest this week. Dr. Arnie Kozack, author of “Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants” has a different spin on mindfulness meditation–one that makes it a better “fit” for me, as I am sure it could be for others.

He offers metaphors as a means of understanding and cultivating mindfulness acceptance, and frankly that lends a little Western flavor to an age old Eastern dish.

Nothing like a little seasoning and familiar color to enhance the appeal of something new.

I think on some level we have had that sense of mindfulness, we may liken it to being “in the zone", feeling focused with the proper amount of attention and detachment. (I frequently get there when I am planting flowers in my garden.)

With the bombardment of stimuli that ranges from televisions in eateries to a barrage of e-mails, (still can’t get used to the that first one…but thats another blog topic for discussion) mindfulness offers a not just a way to be aware of activity but alter our reactions to reduce stress and get more out of life.

There was a time when I was first trying this out it felt hard, certainly awkward–and nearly impossible–as I tried to grasp with something so different from my Western perspective. Now in a context with metaphors that make it easier to understand, it feels like my favorite pair of shoes.

Ones that fit really well….

Namaste.