Julie Tallard Johnson’s Blog

“Finding what we already possess may seem like a strange goal for a spiritual path. Yet the process of finding may provide us more joy than if the universe delivered all its secrets to us without any effort on our part.”   – Neil Douglas Klotz, the Sufi Book of Life, p. 265 

What impulses lie beneath the routines of the day? Hidden from view but there?

 A desire to write a poem, make a quilt, contact a friend, start that story, or visit that sacred place arises as a poetic impulse and along with her is your intuitive muse.  Follow her to where she leads.  

Each morning I witness

all that was made possible by yesterday’s seed and song.

The frost does what frost should do–

hold tight to what was once green so it can be green again.

 

Twenty-four swans, white in their flight move my view from west to east,

four lead swans compete without a fight

 

I want the lead too but without the fight,

a taking of turns.

I’ll take my lead when it is time to head west again.

Now it is sunrise, green giving into white, heading east into the light . . .

 

My morning walks in the prairie always yield an idea for my book, a poem or prose, and sometimes a response to a challenging situation. The prairie is my intuitive muse. Where can you go to touch that place of knowing, without doubt or resistance rising up their interference? Choose any place that naturally creates and brings forth what is inherently present within you all along. I recommend that one such place be in nature but other places may bring this forth for you as well. Great teachers can also provide that spiritual nudge you might desire. My muse appreciates my visits to the Deer Park Buddhist center in Oregon Wisconsin. I receive teachings from masters in the Tibetan Buddhist lineage, can walk their stupa, and enjoy the sacred art that surrounds me while in the temple.  Even here I bring a small pocket notebook, listening for the stirring inside afforded to me while listening to teachings or walking around the stupa. 

Deer Park Buddhist Center

4548 Schneider Drive

Oregon, Wisconsin  53575

www.deerparkcenter.org

When writing on a poetic impulse let go of any rules of writing or the outcome, just let the words flow through you. I often write prose and trust the words to come . . .

 

The snow clung to everything this morning as I walked through the prairie

 

each day, without effort the prairie brings forth her beauty . . .

Let’s put the bulldozers away and breathe.

“Breathe and no effort” as a teacher would remind me.

Don’t go crashing through the woods if you want the chickadee to land on your shoulder.

Wait and listen long enough and what you want will reveal itself to you.

She is there all along. 

There are no secrets. 

It’s not what we attract but what we notice. 

Whatever we give our attention to, becomes.

Every morning I pray to Padmasambhava, – 

soon I may become him.

Writing without too much effort develops your intuitive muscle and strengthens your trust in this gift. Enjoy the flow unstructured writing can give you; letting it take you where it wants. Read over what you have written with a curious and compassionate mind. Just read and appreciate what the poet is saying to you. Edit only when it is time to share your poem or prose. Much of my intuitive writing ends up in my books.

Let there be time each day that you open and notice what wants to speak to you, mirroring to you something inside yourself. Have your journal (or lap top) ready. Mark it as a time that you will be listening within and without. Often that which appears on my morning walks in the prairie spiral is inspirations for my writing or actions that day. There, then on the page, I discover (or release) a poem, an idea, or a response to some query.

“Throughout my whole life, during every minute of it, the world has been gradually lightening up and blazing before my eyes until it has come to surround me, entirely lit up from within.”  Pierre Teilhard De Chadrin, French author, Jesuit Priest, poet

Off and On the Page 

Name a sacred place that you will continue to return to, to be nudged by the poetic impulse and listen to the intuitive muse.  Do this for 10 days in a row. Once I committed to walking the spiral in our prairie three weeks before a birthday. I have only missed a day now when I am out of town. The muse knows where to find me. 

Commit to fifteen minutes of morning writing, either after a meditation or a visit to a natural, wild place (like your back yard or local park).

Write about your back yard using the following words:  meeting, known, golden, calling, muse, next.

“All of the great spiritual traditions want to awaken us to the fact that we cocreate the reality in which we live.” Parker Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness

A Spiritual Journaling Process for Writer’s, Artists and Spiritual Travelers.

The Gift You Were Born With - - Spiritual Journaling and Living the Fully Engaged and Intuitive Life.

“Every human being is born with some sort of gift, an inclination or an instinct that can become a full-blown mastery.”  Parker Palmer,  from The Active Life.

For the next six months my BLOG will be on Spiritual Journaling and intuitive development where you will engage the active life through the power of your intuition to create and manifest what is inherently yours. Join me as we open up more to our creative, intuitive life. Please feel free to send me questions you may have and I will respond to them on the BLOG. For one to one psychic consultation please email me at jewelhrt8@aol.com .

Living life intuitively and engaged takes dedication and sweat, and usually a supporting cast.

Bring forth your inherent gifts of intuition, creative expression and imagining.

I discovered in my writer’s life the principles and practices that apply here also apply in my spiritual life: - - Keep (the pen) moving, don’t think, observe every thing, be impeccable with your word, be a witness to your life, listen, breath, write it all down, don’t worry about what other’s will think or say, break free from habitual states, express yourself, appreciate the artist in everyone, trust, focus on internals rather than externals, challenge assumptions, compassionate inquiry will answer all your questions, be honest, don’t hesitate, tell your stories,  and so forth. In my spiritual journaling classes I use a diverse array of practices to move you along on your creative, spiritual path.

Presently I am completing my book on Initiation,  Imprisoned Splendor: Releasing The Inner Light Through The Wheel of Initiation, Fall 2009, I was fortunate enough to be asked to write an adult version of Teen Psychic (The Gift You Were Born With: Bringing Forth Your Psychic and Spiritual Gifts) and will be completing this in 2009 as well. I live the abundant writer’s life and love to share my capacity to create and manifest with you. Every book I write, every poem I create, and every new word I learn is part of my ever-evolving spiritual path too. My writer’s life engages the spiritual path and strengthens my psychic abilities. I see and experience my life through the eyes of a writer, a gifted psychic – and of a practicing bodhisattva. The writer and spiritual path both offer the means to wake me up fully and bring forth all the gifts I was born with. This can be true for you as well.

“In fact, anybody who is really awake has a very definite sense of themselves. Look at Jesus, He would go around and say, ‘I’m the Son of God.’” –Adyashanti, taken from The Impact of Awakening

Through development of your psychic abilities you too will have a stronger sense of self. 

Suggested reading: The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring by Parker J. Palmer and Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art.

“Spirit speaks to us continually, in dreams, through the melodic sounds of a stream, through deaths and illnesses, and all the dressing and undressing of the seasons. Still, we are often oblivious of its hum, wrapped as we are in a shroud of self-occupation­–worries, fears, angers, jealousies, and other catastrophes. Yet, like a youthful injury that haunts our old age or a fierce storm that changes the landscape in an instant, spirit illuminates the world in surprising ways. We all have those turning pointes in our lives­–either fully recognized in the moment or traced through hindsight–that spin us in a new direction.”  John Kain, taken from A Rare And Precious Thing.

Each BLOG will have writing (journaling) prompts and exercises to help you develop your intuitive, creative and spiritual skills.

 

On the Page

Write about a psychic experience using the following words:  ash, red, witness,  clear, ancient, now.

Write about times in your personal history when you were not believed and how this came to influence you not believing in yourself.

Journal about what you would like to get from this experience, this journey with me. 

You are invited to post any journal entries. Namaste, Julie Tallard Johnson, Jiivanii,  MSW, LCSWThundering Clouds Consulting and CounselingThundering Clouds Center for Creative Expression, LLCHealing Services Overlooking the River in Prairie du Sac WisconsinJewelhrt8@aol.comwww.julietallardjohnson.com608-963-0724   

 

We are coming to a close of our five-month journey of spiritual journaling our way to health and weight loss. We have come to find together that a more natural state of physical health is dependent on our state of mind, and our willingness to push through some habitual states. It isn’t really about the weight loss of pounds but that which weighs us down - - negative states, inactivity, habitual behaviors, obsession with our bodies, judgment of our bodies, fear and resistance. It is ultimately pushing through the weight of these that lightens up our mind, soul and body.

It takes sweat and tears and support to push through all that weighs us down and a willingness to recommit to an active life. Fortunately when we keep taking that one step forward, small as it may be, progress is made. Maybe just today I will eat mindfully, chewing each bite 25 times before I swallow. Maybe just today I will get out and walk. Just for today I will pack a healthy, tasty lunch and save money and pounds. 

‘Freedom involves decisions, and each decision is a destiny decision.” ­–Joseph Campbell

I leave you with THE EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF VIBRANT HEALTH and the four reminders.

 Next, here in this Blog and in my Spiritual Journaling class I will be focused on intuitive development, writing and creativity. Join me here or at Healing Services Overlooking the River in Prairie Du Sac on another journey.  Most Monday’s I will have a new post about psychic development, writing and creativity. If you want to get an announcement of the Blog, please ask to be put on my Blog email list. If you are interested in this next Spiritual Journaling class, see below. 

Again, thank you. 

The Eight Principles of Vibrant Health

1.  Mindful eating/living. Chewing our food slowly. Preparing our food with attention. Every part of the eating process slowed down. Use journaling as a way to maintain awareness around your habits and strengths.

2.  Intentional living. Hold conscious intentions in mind. Live an intentioned driven life. Write out your intentions and script around them.

3.  Physically active life. Keep moving, stay active. This includes your physical body as well as your creative life.

4.  Freedom from habitual states. We discover this through knowing our pain stories and rewriting our life to be in alignment with our intentions and principles.

5.  Acceptance  “We discover that as long as there is any part of our self we’re not accepting, we’re not going to let go of hell and penetrate through all the phenomenon that hypnotize us with pleasure and pain–all the thoughts of self, all the identification with the body and perceptions and states of consciousness.” Stephen Levin, taken from A Gradual Awakening.  Wake up to your true nature through acceptance and compassion.

6.  Recognizing that our relationship to food is central to our spiritual path. As Lama Surya Das reminds us, - - how, when and what we eat is central to our spiritual practice. Know that as you practice mindful eating and other conscious practices with food, you are engaged in a spiritual practice. 

7.  A healthy, vibrant life style is connected to the natural world. You spend at least 15 minutes a day in natural light. Your body is tuned into the natural rhymes of the seasons by how you live. This includes the practice of ritual. Of recognizing that everything is alive and interconnected.

8.  Listening to the body (not using a scale, not giving into emotional eating as best you can). The body knows. Trusting the voice of the body and taking the time to listen to her.

 

The Four REMINDERS

Small matters

Do your best

Breath

When stuck, serve someone else.

 

“Ritual introduces you to the meaning of what’s going on.

Saying grace before meals

lets you know that you’re about to eat

something that once was alive.”  Joseph Campbell

For Now Try This

Review all the notes and journal writing you did through out the five months. What practices do you find most helpful? Where did you get most stuck? What are your strongest habitual patterns? What are your greatest strengths? Take time to journal your responses.

Mark off 30 days on your calendar.   I used a yellow highlighter. 

For thirty days commit to the following: 

Choose one physical habit to fast from for thirty days. Can be a food or food related.  I am fasting from the habit (and trigger food) of chips.

Choose one conscious action (related to your physical well-being) you are going to engage in each day for 30 days. I am choosing to do power walking for an hour each day.

Choose one other habit to fast from for thirty days, this habit clearly interferes with your creative, spiritual life.    I choose to fast from watching reruns at night.

Choose one food related behavior that enhances your health to practice for thirty days.  We all drink the juice and flax seed in the morning. I choose to my last meal by 5:30 pm.  

Choose one conscious action to take everyday that opens up more of your creativity/spirituality.       I choose to rise by 5 am to write or meditate before my daughter gets up.

I am already engaged in walking the spiral each morning after my daughter gets on the bus. This has now become habitual. May all that is good for us become habitual. I have given up wheat and gluten, as my body feels so much happier and healthier without it. This is a clear and easy choice on my part. May all our choices that lead to our health be clear and easy. 

Give yourself some time to acknowledge in your journal the above commitment. Commit to yourself in writing. 

“This farewell comes from a forgiving leaf

that skipped with the others and then found

a lucky storm that brought me here. Listen –

hold on as long as you can, then thrust forth;

            make truth your home.” 

                                                            –William Stafford

 

 

 

A Spiritual Journaling Class for Writer’s, Artists and Spiritual Travelers.

The Gift You Were Born With - - Spiritual Journaling and Living the Fully Engaged and Intuitive Life.

 

“Every human being is born with some sort of gift, an inclination or an instinct that can become a full-blown mastery.”  Parker Palmer, from The Active Life.

 

This October I am offering my next series on Spiritual Journaling where you will engage the active life through the power of your intuition to create and manifest what is inherently yours. Begins October 13^th at Healing Services Overlooking the River in Prairie du Sac.

 

Living life intuitively and engaged takes dedication and sweat, and usually a supporting cast.

 

This course will bring forth your inherent gifts of intuition, creative expression and imagining.

 

I discovered in my writer’s life the principles and practices that apply here also apply in my spiritual life: - - Keep (the pen) moving, don’t think, observe everything, be impeccable with your word, be a witness to your life, listen, breath, write it all down, don’t worry about what other’s will think or say, break free from habitual states, express yourself, appreciate the artist in everyone, trust, focus on internals rather than externals, challenge assumptions, compassionate inquiry will answer all your questions, be honest, don’t hesitate, tell your stories,  and so forth. In my spiritual journaling classes I use a diverse array of practices to move you along on your creative, spiritual path. (If you have taken a previous class of mine, there will be new material, focusing on psychic development and writing). 

 

Presently I am completing my book on Initiation, due out in 2009. I am also writing on my fiction, which I intend to complete by next spring. I was fortunate enough to be asked to write an adult version of Teen Psychic and will be completing this in 2009 as well. I do live the abundant writer’s life and would love to share my capacity to manifest with you. This class will generate the desired movement you crave in your creative life. Every book I write, every poem I create, and every new word I learn is part of my ever-evolving spiritual path. My writer’s life engages the spiritual path and strengthens my psychic abilities. I see and experience my life through the eyes of a writer – and of a practicing bodhisattva. They both offer the means to wake me up fully and bring forth all the gifts I was born with. This is true for you as well.

 

 

This is a commitment to your creative, intuitive life. I am limiting this group to 10, so as to be able to focus on helping each one of you generate the desired movement with your spiritual and creative intentions.

 

As a way to honor and complete this course you will offer a presentation of your work to publishers, our communities or/and to friends. (Breath! This is a vital practice of a writer’s path and of any spiritual, creative life – to have it interface and influence our communities). Many writers and artists are stuck in the “creativity” phase and haven’t experienced manifestation as a result of their work. Through this course you will experience manifestation of your creative and spiritual intentions.

 

“In fact, anybody who is really awake has a very definite sense of themselves. Look at Jesus, He would go around and say, ‘I’m the Son of God.’” –Adyashanti, taken from The Impact of Awakening

 

We will meet three Monday evenings of each month, the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th for 9 months, 5:30 to 8:30 pm. Our first session begins the 2^nd Monday in October. It goes from October 13th till June 22^nd.  The cost of the class is $30 per evening. Please send a deposit of $90 for the first month to PO Box 186 Spring Green, WI 53588. Scholarships are available, just ask.

 

Suggested reading: The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring by Parker J. Palmer. During the course I will recommend Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art.

 

“Spirit speaks to us continually, in dreams, through the melodic sounds of a stream, through deaths and illnesses, and all the dressing and undressing of the seasons. Still, we are often oblivious of its hum, wrapped as we are in a shroud of self-occupation­–worries, fears, angers, jealousies, and other catastrophes. Yet, like a youthful injury that haunts our old age or a fierce storm that changes the landscape in an instant, spirit illuminates the world in surprising ways. We all have those turning pointes in our lives­–either fully recognized in the moment or traced through hindsight–that spin us in a new direction.”  John Kain, taken from A Rare And Precious Thing. 

 

Namaste, Julie Tallard Johnson, MSW, LCSW

Thundering Clouds Consulting and Counseling, LLC

Healing Services Overlooking the River

www.julietallardjohnson.com

608-963-0724

Bonjour from Montreal, Canada.

We have done a lot of walking while here in Montreal. And even our visit to the nearby Granby Zoo had us walking several miles to view all the animals. Bringing the right shoes helped a lot but I found having a good mind set to be just as valuable. As I move among the crowds here, whether it be in the metro or on the street, I find myself easily lost in thought rather than mindful and present. I notice how so much around us is about food and body image — restaurants, advertisements, weight loss promotions,  fashion, ice cream for sale on every street, along with coffee shops and clothes stores. I catch myself caught up in how others are dressed. I am not certain if it is the heat or the city — women of all ages and shapes wear clothes that reveal soft bellies, lose breasts and tops of thighs. I feel a discomfort in my own body as I walk among strangers who don’t really care if I am a size 2 or 16.

I noticed how tight I am in my body, uncomfortable in the knowing that I am not the size and shape I once was, or could be. 

Then I asked myself, “Is this how I want to travel?” Is this how I want to experience this moment? Since I am always traveling — always a visitor (it may be a visit of 40 more years but a visitor nevertheless), what do I want to do with this precious time?

I remember now that it is not so much where I am traveling but the shoes I am wearing and the “luggage” I am carrying around in my mind. Instead of carrying around judgment about mine or other’s body, or about what my next meal will be, or dissatisfaction with myself — I decide to empty out the contents of this “suitcase” and let some air in.

I take a deep breath and realize that all this mind stuff is a veil in front of reality — of all the diverse beauty that is for me to feast on, in this moment. That at age 53 my belly can be on the softer side. That there is a feast for the eyes, ears and nose to behold each moment. And that it is a waste of my energy to be caught up in how I may appear to others. I realize that the true feast is whatever the present moment has to offer. And to be a good traveler means to participate in each moment. When I let go all the extra mental luggage — of how I should be, the what ifs,- - I find myself able to enjoy and participate in whatever the moment has to offer — be it a noisy city meal at a street cafe or a walk the prairie at home. 

In the Ancient Chinese oracle of The I Ching it reminds us that we are all just travelers here — and to practice this mindset as we move through our day. Even though it is just another Monday and the routine is pretty much set out for you — what you carry in your mind will determine the experience for the day. Pretend you too are visiting a country where everything is new. As I go out into Montreal today (we are visiting the Biosphere and Old Montreal) I will appreciate the newness around me. I will leave behind the weight of heavy thoughts and enjoy what will surprise me today — a new sight, a fresh taste, and an unknown word. I will experience the city through the mind and eyes of my daughter, who left her suitcase at the station and travels very light. She is always ready for the next adventure.

For today and this week, let’s all be like travelers in a strange land. Pretend each person you see you are meeting for the first time. Each meal is new (order something you haven’t off the menu or pack a picnic lunch and eat out on the grass), take the long route home, hear the sounds around you as if for the first time. See your loved one fresh. Eat your meal slow so as to remember each flavor. Look up and out the window at the new sight. Take the time to write in your traveling journal. Explore a different route home, wish the stranger on the bus or in the lunch line a good day, notice something new.

Make sure to wear your walking shoes and take your journal with you.  

 Traveling Journal Entry for 8/22/08

We are into our 2nd day and it is hot. Took the bus and the metro (underground rail). Lydia was more interested in the city squirrels, the greedy seagull and a few ravens when we got to the park that overlooked the city. We traveled to the open market and got some spicy olive oil from Little Italy. The truth, the city is intense and hot and well, dirty. There are a lot of polite beggars with their empty cups. They don’t hassle you they just silently remind you they are here too. Lydia placed a two dollar coin  in into the beggars bowl that was a dog’s water bowl. This beggar and his black lab sat in front of the pet store that had a $700.00 puppy for sale inside. Lydia had us visit the puppy twice.

Across the street from our $130.00 a night B&B is a center for the poor. They give them lunch. We have our car parked in there lot for a minimal fee. 

The truth is we couldn’t find the french restaurant that lets you bring in your own wine. Our feet sore and heads loaded with city we returned home with a bottle of red wine in a brown bag. Tired and hungry. The woman who made the reservation for me was upset — now the restaurant wouldn’t trust her next time she made a reservation for a guest. But we got lost. We did walk by a restaurant that was empty except for the three waiters dressed in white and black. I didn’t want to go in if that was the one and be the only customer.

So we went out to the local bakery and deli and bought herb potatoes, brie, 2 loafs of bread, butter, liver pate and two personal deserts —  for me a lemon torte, for Lydia a double chocolate torte with a center of carmel. We stopped by the nearby market and got her  two grape spritzers. Fortunately the wine opener sat displayed in the kitchen to be borrowed for the red wine.

We went up to our room.  I took the sarong that my friend Michele gave me a couple birthdays ago for our indoor picnic and spread it out on our bed. On it we put our traveling feast. Our French cuisine. And we drank and eat and laughed and caught up with ourselves.

You can get lost here in the moving traffic, the city noise, the shops and the endless stream of faces, all foreign.

The heat of the city and its intensity makes beggars of us all.