Sophia's Children

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will do.” ~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

If you do have a notion or yearning, even if it’s only a whisper of a gist, then interesting things can unfold if you extend the invitation, live into the question (as Rilke advised), and feed the heartful yearning with your attention.

Living right and aiming true are very much among the higher themes of the fiery Sagittarian archetype, and the ancient story about Artemis and her silver bow (for aiming true) offers Saj-flavored clues to the Divine Gifts with which we’re already equipped, whether we know it or not.

But the desire or soul-deep yearning to live right and aim true calls us to delve into the long-famed advice of the Delphi oracles: Know Thyself — how else will we know what ‘living true’ means for us, much less where the aim would be true?

To find our purpose-clues, we reflect and live into these questions, of course, but those of us who feel called to the great adventure and authentic vocation of living right and aiming true also dip regularly into the wells of inspiration.

We dip into the Well of Inspiration when and as we need it, and inevitably we’ll find a few favorite, very reliable inspiration-wells to dip into — whether through guided imagery meditations or external inspirations.

One of the latter for me, for a long while, has been the work of Rod MacIver, and his former organization, Heron Dance.

Here’s one of Rod’s inspiration-sharings about the master woodworker, Sam Maloof, from the Heron Dance blog archives:

“Maloof derives his strength from resorting to something outside himself, from an appeal to an honorable code of conduct, an elevated sense of order, to a deep, abiding faith. He lives an ethical, right-minded life and cites integrity as the most important part of his work and of his creativity.”

“I try to live right. I always try to adhere to what I think is right, and that, to me, is the most important part of creative work.”

“When people come to me and say how they are caught in jobs that they hate and how they really want to work with wood, I feel bad for them because of the courage they lack. I’ve never had a bad day. But I tell them too, there are risks. I try not to paint a rosy picture. So many risks–economic, spiritual, emotional.”

“You may sell, you may not. We don’t know from week to week if we’d earn anything. You have to work maybe twelve, fourteen hours a day. I see in my mind what I want to make. I risk my time and a good piece of wood to do it. There’s the risk that in the transformation I won’t match the vision in my mind. But I believe in aiming myself true, and that frees me to accept those risks.”

Sam believes in the unseen influences that guide him.”

– from the book Uncommon Genius by Denise Shekerjian. (Rod MacIvyer says), “I recorded this excerpt in my journal several years ago, and part may be my summary of the book’s text.”

See the full entry, and more inspiration, in Rod’s Heron Dance blog archives.

And, as ever, when you’re looking for inspiration, vision-clarity, and clues to your ‘true aim’, you’ll find much inspiration here in the Sophia’s Children archives, and in other self-guided or ‘believing mirror’ offerings.

Big Love,

Jamie