FIVE FEARS TO FEAR: AND THEN, NO MORE

One more blessing here for you now dear souls. Just put your hand over your heart, or just lean back, or rest your hands palm up in your lap… just relax, and take a deep breath.

FIVE FEARS TO FEAR, AND THEN, NO MORE

by C.P. Estés

Going over and over one’s fears
is empty
and emptying.
There’s something greater that sustains.
We call it Esperanza… Hope.
We call it Querer es podar, Desire is power.
Hope and desire are power.
Fear—ha!
Fear—ha!
Ha, hum—fear.
Pstt, pssh, poof.

Consider that most fear
is not fear of failure:
rather, it’s fear to live fully,
in full power.

Choose your petty fears carefully,
because they can grow truly big teeth.
Instead, draw your attention here…
I have several fears
I would like you to have…
Fear these:

Fear not loving
while you have the chance.
Fear becoming bitter.
Fear cynicism.
Fear turning to stone.
Fear living underwhelmed by everything.

When the culture drags you back and forth between being fearful and being a person who gives blessings…

Give blessings.

When the culture drags you back and forth between being fearful and being merciful…

Be merciful.

When the culture drags you back and forth between being fearful and being forgiving…

Be forgiving.

When the culture drags you back and forth between fearing and loving…
When the great “they” say it must be decided, one or the other,
you can either be fearful, or do the other,

be loving…

refuse to do only one.
Choose all of them.

Be fearful, and bless others.
Be fearful, and be merciful.
Be fearful, and forgive.
Be fearful, and do.
Be fearful, and love.

It is by doing…
by doing the blessing,
doing the mercy, doing the forgiveness,
doing the loving, and doing the doing…
that fear is dissipated.

___________________

CODA: The above photo is photoshopped by a designer and is one of my favorite pictures. It runs with and without the quote on it but particularly, havent you felt this in dreams or perhaps in reality… That your wings are ready, just strong, turgid even, and ready to, deeply anxious to soar? The winged one is a strong archetypal image that has to do with ‘getting it,’ with delivering ‘the needed message.’ So many act as angel to us, and sometimes we to them.

with love,

dr.e

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From Dr. E.: Blessing-Poem, “Hymn of Gratitude, For We Are Pleased by Dangerous Old Women and Their Wild and Wise Daughters”

Dear Souls: Here is an excerpt from a blessing poem with nine staves: this is the first stave in “Hymn of Gratitude, For We Are Pleased by Dangerous Old Women and Their Wild and Wise Daughters.”

I’d like you to just lean back in your chair, take a deep breath. It’s so nice to breath, isn’t it, speaking of el viento, the wind. Inspiratus finds a hard time getting into people who are breathing shallowly or tightly… you know those who go: huff, huff, huff, huff?

Have you ever noticed when you’re upset and suddenly breathing like a little locomotive, huff, huff, huff, huff? Take a deep breath now: Ahhhh! Place your hand on your heart, or leave your hands open in your lap, palms upward, and relax back. Just relax for a bit now…

“Hymn of Gratitude, For We Are Pleased by Dangerous Old Women and Their Wild and Wise Daughters.”

by CP Estés

For all the elders of the world,

each and every kind ever created,

those who have been carried gently by the waves,

and those who have been half-wrecked

by any number of storms and squalls,

those who have clung to the wreckage long enough

to make it halfway in,

and thence to have gained landfall.

For the elders,

who in all their variegations,

in all their sorrows and talents,

who now stand shy or certain,

semi-disheveled or pulled together,

but nonetheless hip-wide and proud.

From Dr. E: Blessing-Poem, “One Day When I Was Old”

Here’s is the blessing-poem  for you from the first release of The Dangerous Old Woman manuscript, fireside #2. It is called, “One Day When I Was Old” and  was written twice, having some of the same lines fore and aft, as in curanderismo chant.

Peace be with you, good souls.

with love,

dr.e

———————————————

“One Day When I Was Old”

by CP Estés

I remember one day when I was young,

forty-five years or so old,

I woke up an old woman that morning.

Not quite in body all the way, but close.

And also in mind.

And I thought, “This is good.”

For also, in the face I was changed,

a little bark-chipped and creased,

like a tree long-lived enough

after having been planted so long ago

by some winged bird

accidentally letting fall a semi-sacred seed

into some almost impossible place,

precisely the way most of us came to earth–

unplanned, and yet sticking to the place

where we were dropped,

growing, growing flowers and fruits

set into our DNA–

and this too was good.

I leaned through the window

of my bathroom mirror,

and touched her old, cracked face…

From Dr.E.: Blessing-Poem, “I Am Not Needed There…Fire! Give Me Fire!”

Dear Brave Souls: I’m placing this blessing-poem here for you as encouragement, as support, as knowledge… all of which are far different and often more sustaining than ‘information’ alone. Peace be with you. Til we meet again at the fireside …soon.

With love,

Dr. E

——————————————–

I AM NOT NEEDED THERE … FIRE, GIVE ME FIRE!

by CP Estés

I am not needed.

There are enough scholars

arguing both or all sides of everything.

(I always laugh when I hear about “equal time”

as though there are only two sides.

There are thousands of sides to everything.)

I am not needed there.

There are enough etymologists.

There are others who can use the beautiful words

like nosology, tautology,

eschatology, exegesis, and omphalos—

(not to mention syzygy)

even though only five-thousand people worldwide

know what those words really mean.

I am not needed there.

There are ever so many beautiful singers,

whose voices are sweet or clear or powerful.

And though I love to feel them play my bones,

I am not needed there either.

There are more than enough people busy

stirring the pot, taking the high road,

knowing all the short cuts,

calling more cooks to supervise the broth,