Artist of the Spirit

As an artist of the spirit, the Toltec of today knows there are no rules she must follow, no belief system she is required to embrace, and no leaders to obey. She seeks complete freedom from fear, and absolute surrender to love and acceptance. The modern Toltec discovers a happiness that is the result of love and acceptance flowing out of her, and she knows there is an endless supply of love - it is her nature to love. She embraces life, and dances in joy and gratitude for every moment of her existence. This is the Toltec path and this is the modern spiritual warrior - an artist of the spirit.

~ Allan Hardman The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book


An artist of the Spirit. An Artist of the Spirit. I love that. Wow. I embrace that I am an Artist of the Spirit. I am going to change that quote to be personally for me and embrace it more fully.

As an artist of the spirit, I know there are no rules I must follow, no belief system I am required to embrace, and no leaders to obey. I seek complete freedom from fear, and absolute surrender to love and acceptance. I discover a happiness that is the result of love and acceptance flowing out of me, and I know there is an endless supple of love - it is my nature to love. I embrace life, and dance in joy and gratitude for every moment of my existence. this is my path and I am a modern spiritual warrior - I am an artist of the spirit.

That felt powerful. To own that for myself. To live from that place. To know that I an Artist of the Spirit. And so are you.

Creativity Takes Courage

Earlier this morning I sat with my pen and paper in hand doodling as my imagination took flight. I wasn't there. I wasn't present with the paper or the pen. I was off, submerged in my imagination. At some point along the way I heard a voice say, "What are you doing? Seriously, what are you doing? You aren't a teenager, who gets to have their head in the clouds... you aren't a professional writer who gets to write all day instead of work a job... and besides... you won't be any good at writing when you come down from your cloud of daydreaming that you can let your imagination be such a large part of your life. Your imagination is not for the every day. It's just not realistic to live that way. Only very special people get to live in a place where their imagination supports them on a daily basis... and trust me Melissa, you are not that special..." I could go on and on, because believe me, that voice went on and on beyond what I just shared. I am sure you get the picture. Filled with thoughts and fears about not being "good enough", "worthy" or "failing" and with "failing" I then would prove to myself that ultimately I wasn't "good enough" or "worthy".

I know I am not alone in these thoughts. There are a million self-help books, videos and seminars designed to help you work through these issues with yourself. Trust me, I have read many of them. I have been to many different seminars and workshops and classes to learn how to love, value and appreciate myself. They have helped tremendously to learn about myself, the way I handle the world and myself is a continual process for me. One that I will never give up. It has taken me a lot to get to the place that I know I will never give up on myself again. I may stumble, I may have to continue to listen to and work through that voice in my head that says those things to me. When I stop to think about it, I realize, I have come so far... I know this because today my reaction to that voice was, "That is a silly voice who is just voicing my fears".

What do I do with fear when I recognize it now? I decide to acknowledge it and do the thing or things I need to do to move through that fear. After I heard the voice, I did the thing it wanted me not to do. I wrote. I wrote and wrote and wrote and then wrote some more. I would succeed at writing that morning. I would not let myself deter myself. I would not let my fear take over. I would write. I would express my creativity. I would dive to the depths of my soul and explore the vast universe. I imagine that I am made of space and stars waiting to be explored. The beauty of that vision is that I have made myself a universe waiting to be explored, just as the stars are waiting in the sky, so am I.

Today, I embrace that Creativity Takes Courage. Courage that I have in spades. Each time I step more fully into the vast universe that I am and put on my suit of courage, I tell myself, I love you, I love you, I love you! And the voice responds, "I love you more."