Open and surrender. Live in love and in truth. Use my voice. 
Commit to beauty. Dance freely. Be love. 

Fill myself. Breathe deeply. 
My breath, the wave I ride to the depths I seek. 
Deep dive. Be true. Listen, then follow. Eyes wide open. 

Begin with opening the heart, she says. 
Make friends with truth, authenticity, beauty.

Then
Connect with circles of women, waiting, 
healing, with presence. 
Listening. 
Sitting with what is. No need to change. You are perfect as you are. 
Acceptance
the most radical expression of love. 
{Spoken by friends easily, casually, teaching; 
me, catching truths as they fly through the air, effortlessly}. 

Start at the beginning, she says.
Where we all begin again and again, 
when everything important falls away. 
And we are left
naked
with the task of piecing ourselves back together. 
A chance to remember {re-member} ourselves in a meaningful
way. A way that makes this life worthy of our choosing.  

And this, dear friends, is our initiation, our path
home to our True Self.
My truth
Revealed. 
Unmasked. 

I've received healing and lessons from the mountains, desert, plants and animals again and again. I've shed tears of despair on the earth and they were received without judgement. I've danced in joy on the earth. When backpacking in Death Valley last year, I was struggling with some stories coming from old, old stuff. There's no hiding in the desert - the desert has a way of bringing things to the surface fast. Each step was a struggle to stay present and finally I stopped walking, frustrated and emotionally exhausted, and asked for guidance. What do I do? How do I make this stop? This is what the desert shared with me:

"Start by going inside. Quiet. Listen to the whispers of the winds - therein lies your answer and follow that. Yes - follow what comes forward and always you will be guided to that which is to come next for you - in beauty and in love. Stop the questioning of self, the questioning of others and focus on what is in front of you, what wants to come forward through you.

This week I’ve come back to the question: why The Great Round? I write on the front page that “The Great Round is the quiet space that calls to us, the emptiness from which all things flow.” 

It is. And it’s so much more.

It’s the feminine, the dark, the nothing that births the everything, the creative source. It’s home. It’s where we go in meditation, in sleep, in death. It’s where we start and where we return. It’s the formless energy that births form and receives us back again when form falls away. It’s the mystery.

Recently, looking for inspiration I pulled out my Faeries’ Oracle deck (by Brian Froud and Jessica Macbeth). The faerie cards always bring a smile to my face and a twinkle to my eye. They are beautiful, full of magic and mischief, and always have wisdom and healing to share. They remind me to lighten up and not take myself (or others) too seriously. They inspire me to be true to myself, live a life of love and to play. They connect me to the little girl in me who believed in magic and faeries.

Imagine my surprise when I drew card #53: