A super-secret, double-reminder for all fearless flowers:
If you but soak up the sunlight you are given, drink each drop of water I send, and strive only to be yourself, life shall quicken in your roots, spirit shall raise you into the light, and your bloom will inspire the world.
Wishing all you fearless flowers a blooming big week!
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If you are a coach or writer and part your blooming includes the desire to write or market a mind-body-spirit book, I hope you will join me today for the launch of the Spirit Authors community.
Lynn Serafinn has assembled an awesome lineup, and I'm so honored to be on her Grand Opening webinar panel today at 3 p.m. EST. We'll be talking about starting and writing your book and sharing all about the creative process. You learn more and sign up for this free event here. (There are equally great panels — all free — running this week; see the complete line up at the site.)
Image: Hibiscus plant, Eton Square, Pepper Pike, Ohio, August 2009
As much as I love the individual close-ups of flowers, what I really love is seeing a bunch of different flowers all together.
I love how seeing how a diverse group of flowers is made more beautiful when they come together in a group.
I so believe in the power of groups to hold us in a sacred space of transformation and love.
I often tell writers to find your writing tribe.
In flowerspeak, it means: gather together in a bouquet that has you bloom more boldly than you might on your own.
Sure, writing is mostly a solitary task (unless you have a co-author!).
But for our writer to be fully fed, I believe, you need to find your tribe.
I love that my friend Lynn Serafinn, the wonderful author of Garden of Soul (a book that uses flowers as a metaphor so beautifully!) is creating a online tribe for writers and coaches in the mind-body-spirit genre called Spirit Authors.
Lynn describes it as "a membership site...providing a comprehensive, inclusive, community-based program for aspiring, first-time and experienced mind-body-spirit authors, to enable you to transform your personal dream into a life-changing business asset in less than one year."
I adore Lynn. She's an amazing coach, experienced writer and has coordinated the launches for several best-selling books.
To celebrate, she's offering five days of wonderful (and free!) webinars on all aspects of getting published.
I'm thrilled and honored that she asked me to be on Monday's panel on Starting and Writing Your Book. The panel includes William Bloom, Allison Maslan and Daya Devi Doolin.
On Tuesday, the panel is on Pre-Publication Musts. Wednesday, Preparing for Publication. Thursday's topic is your book launch. And the grand opening week ends Friday with enjoying the success of your book.
I am so in support of what Lynn is offering. Both because I know she's great at empowering authors to successfully publish, and because I know how important community is for a writer.
If you are a writer who wants to write a mind-body-spirit book or has published and seeks to expand their market or a coach in this field who is thinking about writing, sign up for the free webinars (note you have to sign up for each individually) and learn morehere.
(If you cannot make the live calls on that day, be sure to register anyway, because you can download the audio recording later.)
I so believe that as writers how we learn and grow is by learning from other writers who have gone before — what did and didn't work, what they've learned through experience.
I know that the wise tending that Lynn will offer this tribe of writers will create a most beautiful gathering of writing flowers.
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P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I am an affiliate of this program. Which means that if you decide to join I get a commission. That said, I would recommend this program, affiliate or not, because I so believe in Lynn and her commitment to authors.
Flowering Fridays is a weekly look at flowers through the lens of what they might teach us about flowering fully in our life. Past editions are here.
Even before I knew what I was looking for, everything that has happened to me has led me into the presence of love, whether it was the physical presence of my guru or the presence of love deep within my own heart.
No matter what my life may look like from the outside, on the inside it is a constant process of turning toward that place, of trying to come face-to-face with love.
The more I chant and share my path with seekers from so many different countries and cultures, the more I am being transformed myself....
Chanting alone is not my path. It is my main practice, but my life—and everything in it—is my path...
When we do kirtan, the practice of what in India is called "chanting the Divine Name" over the course of a few hours, we are letting go of our "stories" and offering ourselves into the moment over and over again.
Chanting is a way of deepening the moment, of deepening our connection with ourselves, the world around us, and other beings. The Sanskrit chants that we sing—recognized for millennia as the Names of God—come from a place deep within each of us, so they have the power to draw us back within.
If we go deep enough, we will all arrive at the same place, our deepest Being.
When you hear my story, maybe it will resonate in your heart because, even though all of us walk our different paths and live our different lives, we are all headed to the same place: our One Heart of Gold.
If you haven't yet experienced it, a kirtan is a musical call-and-response of Sanskrit devotionals. (I'm over-simplifying here I realize.)
I find it to be both spiritually peaceful and energizing. I leave feeling so blissed out I want to kiss everyone I pass on the street.
In my limited experience, kirtans have the kind of groovy vibe you might expect to find at a Grateful Dead show, without the drugs. Expect to see some people swaying, playing a shaker, clapping or sitting lotus style looking like the Buddha under the bodhi tree.
I have a couple Krishna Das CD's and I find his deep voice soothing. In Milwaukee, we have one of the largest gatherings in the country, thanks to Ragani. You can find other kirtan events listed here.
So, kirtan works for me and Krishna Das as one way to connect to our "one heart of gold."
But, of course, it's not the only way.
Tell me, what might you do or experience this week that would bring you closer to experiencing our One Heart of Gold?
Photograph taken by me, Sunflower from garden, August 2009
P.S. Here is a video of Krisna Das. Also, here is a link to a phone interview he did for RockOm.net.
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 12:01AM 
