Sophia's Children

“Without vision, the people perish.”

Most of us, maybe all of us, have experienced those times of vision-drought, times of vision-bounty, and those times of being in-between.

Or those times of “vision shakeup” — something that has happened recently for quite a few people.

In recent weeks, such a vision-shakeup stirred up an intense confusion and even dejection or despair for many among us.*

I know that I’ve surely crossed through the terrains I’ll write about here: deserts and forests; oases and mirages; lush places, and those that felt bone-dry.

We Journey Through Many Landscapes …

To be given a sense of vision is to be guided, inspired, energized, and expanded. To have the eyes of the heart and soul lifted to a worthy horizon.

Such a vision can shift our perception quickly. It can seem an oasis growing rich and fertile in a place that has seemed dry and barren.

Without it, life can easily become small, stingy, flat, dull, or even seemingly lifeless.

No wonder the gift of vision has been, by those who know, seen as a Divine gift of inspiration — from the Latin inspirare “blow into, breathe upon; to inspire, excite, inflame.” To be filled with the Spirit; to have that sense of heart-fullness overflowing from us.

A vision can be individual, guiding us uniquely, showing us our part in the whole, filling us with the essence of it … like manna that carries us across valleys and deserts.

Similarly, a uniting vision might guide, inspire, and uplift a group or tribe of people, an organization, or an even larger group of people — a nation.

When vision becomes obscured, or in a passage of vision-drought, we can fragment, fall into fear, and become myopic, even mean, seeing only threats without any larger context to see through or beyond them, or make meaning or discern purpose from them.

Some visions require us to be emptied out so that there is enough room for us to receive them and strength to be their guardians and keepers … the vessels for them; ambassadors of them.

For some visions, and perhaps the emptying, we must cross the desert to find an oasis for which there is no map.

These are the times of vision-drought, when one vision has dissolved and new vision hasn’t yet been given. The landscape of our lives becomes barren, or seemingly so.

These are the desert-crossings, and in them we may feel deserted by all that inspires.

In this place, we can easily become seduced by myopia, focusing on this challenge or that obstacle, the mirages that arise in the heat of the desert, and we unwittingly breath more life into them, some so much that they seem the monsters of the mythic journeys.

Some of these deserts seem so large, so all encompassing, that we begin to believe that desert is all there is. The memory of green, fertile places fades so  that we begin to question whether they really ever existed, or exist at all.

Even these times are, or can be, preparation, though we can also become lost in them.

Sometimes our vision quest leads us through secret gates and along hidden paths, places we know not, places of uncertainty that expand our ability to see with new eyes, or with all of our senses rather than just one.

Other visions may be micro-visions,  giving us just that bit of strength that we need to cross a dry patch, or a particular stretch of terrain.

We’re given what we need at the time, what’s timely, and what we can receive.

And some visions require a long period of journey, across many valleys and peaks, fertile lands and deserts, from the ocean to the inlands and back to the ocean again, in order to become strong enough, resilient enough, wise enough to receive them and be worthy keepers of them … vision guardians and ambassadors.

Through many of these landscapes, the false is sanded away so that we can reclaim those ways and capacities of seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing that have been packed away in the “Not Welcomed By Culture” treasure box stowed deep within us.

Vision-Catching, and Rx for Vision-Shakeups…

All visions, and the vision-seeds and ‘breadcrumb clues’ and intuitive nudges along the way, require receptivity, attention, and the ‘soft eyes’ that allow us to see with a more whole sensing than the tunnel-vision of cultural conditioning.

Sometimes we just need to stop, make space, be receptive, listen, sense.

As David Wagoner writes in his poem Lost:

“Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.”

Catching vision, or even getting a clearer sense of which journey landscape we’re in at the moment (and then what path-clues might be around us), is like this.

To benefit from the inspiration and sense of direction that comes with renewed vision — or some navigational guidance for the terrain where you are just now — schedule a “Committed to Progress” coaching trio to get started – you’ll find it here.

For more immediate Vision-Shakeup Relief, schedule Ala Carte coaching to help you begin to regain center and sort out next steps.

You’ll see that option here, too.

Big Love & Inspired Vision-Catching,

Jamie

• * (Sensitives will have felt that “disturbance in the Force” wave in the shared M-field!)

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If you’ve found regular inspiration … or a super-handy dose of it … in this and other Sophia’s Children articles and offerings, consider supporting the work in one of these ways:

See Support Sophia’s Children for a variety of options.

Renew your inspiration, insight, and clarity — team with me as your inspiration partner and navigation guide:

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Lots of love,

Jamie