Dear Qoya Family,
FROM MY HEART TO YOURS
I offer this from my heart to yours. I am writing this as the new moon in Sagittarius is exact. I would have loved to have gotten to it sooner, but that was the fate of this day. I hope that if this email finds you and you choose to open amongst the many messages coming your way, there may be something here that feeds the fire that you are tending in the sacredness of your heart and your hearth.
When I think about Sagittarius, I think about the quest for wisdom, the courage to speak truth and the fire that transforms. I feel the one who is conscious that they are on a journey, one where each step, each action and non-action, is all woven together. And I wonder how the inner witness is doing in each of us as we observe our journey.
When I feel into the deep grief and sorrow of this time, in my personal life and collectively, I know that I'm not alone. I feel your heart there, too. I'm grateful for all the circles who have gathered over the years to nourish and support one another to build our capacity to honor the tender-hearted places of living a human life. I honor the wholeness of our hearts that are each asking to be guided in a way that can support the wellbeing of All.
These last few nights, I've revisited the book The Smell of Rain on Dust by Martin Prechtel. I couldn't recommend it more for those looking for encouragement to trust the grief they feel. I also like to listen to audio books by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, who begins them by addressing those who listen as part of the tribe of the sacred heart, Scar Clan. Then I came across to something Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes wrote. Here it is:
INSPIRATION FROM DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTES
Tears are a river that take you somewhere.
Weeping creates a river around the little boat carrying your soul-life.
Tears can lift that little boat off rocks,
off dry ground, carrying it downriver
to someplace new, someplace better.
Members of the Scar Clan
A river of tears is one of the strongest evidences of a "crash and burn" initiation into the Scar Clan.
Scar Clan is part of an ageless tribe of human beings, not defined by geography, racial color, national affiliation, nor language.
Scar Clan membership comes from having lived through a great something, which, in some way, has forced, cajoled, seduced one into believing a promise of a nourishing and honorable thing, but then those were denied, souls misled instead, bled-out spiritually.
Scar Clan is made of tribal members who have been spiritually assaulted, insulted, imprisoned, long embattled in some unjust way. Scar Clan is made of those who cry out, but no one hears; those who are heard, but not listened to; not responded to in effective healing ways.
Scar Clan includes those who have suffered being in the midst, unrelievedly so, of others' ongoing sufferings, yet have somehow managed to maintain sanity and deep heart, despite lack of both sanity and heart "by others for others."
Scar Clan membership comes to those whose hearts have been carved deeper by registering fully, instead of turning away, who have been in the line of fire instead of protected, thereby being charged ever after to follow both a burdened and compassionate pathway for life.
Scar Clan members bear pain in seeing how some fight to maintain the ruins of power rather than using bare hands to rescue the brilliant lights lying buried under the rubble.
Scar Clan is a gigantic group of souls who are in the midst of healing self and others, who at least halfway have reset their own bones, who still move with standing-room-only heart, despite certain fragilities that come from scar tissue aching at unpredictable times, many years after wounding.
Scar Clan in this tribe, despite stuns and harms to spirit, despite white bandages still trailing, despite shards in the heart, still stands. Still rises. Still carries warmth. Still will not be stilled.
May all those who identify with those words be met in the sacred space of their heart.
How do you/me/we continue on our journey amidst the personal and collective challenges that arise?
MAKING BEAUTY
My dear friend Carrie Firestone has been a profound teacher for me in so many aspects of life and specifically on how to embrace the journey that is your own sacred life. Some of you may have heard her sing as during lockdown online classes, she would often bless the space with her sacred medicine songs. And now, her album exists in the world. I feel her album as a musical mirror, a reflection for the tender times on our journey.
Here are some words she wrote about her process in creating and sharing this album.
"The seed of intention for recording Deeper Than Bones was planted at the 2017 Collective Retreat in Costa Rica and has continued to be nurtured by the Qoya spirit in the six-and-a-half years since then. Just like in Hip Opening when we practice slowing down to feel more, the long gestation of this album and accompanying book has allowed time for me to feel the medicine of these songs. They have seen me through the profound initiation of the birth and death of my daughter, and the resurrection of my spirit on the other side. Whatever the unique joys and challenges of your life may be, it is my hope that these songs will call you home to yourself, to a truth that lives deeper than bones."
The album became available on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, and everywhere else you get your music at 12:00am on November 19, 2023. The Deeper Than Bones book is a multi-faceted visual journey through the album which also includes a digital download of the music. The lyrics are interspersed with dreamlike collages, delicate cut-outs, hand-sewn inserts, and hidden touches of magic to make an interactive altar in book form. It is available in a limited-run edition of 99 books, designed and hand-finished by artist Alison Dilworth in creative collaboration with Carrie.
To listen to the album on Spotify, search Carrie Firestone as an artist and Deeper Than Bones as the Album Title or click here.
You are also invited to explore buying the artistic journey of the album of the limited run edition. There are not very many; may the people who feel the call to them receive them. I have to say that the first time I read the pages of the book, it has a powerfully healing experience. Click here to learn more.
You're also invited to join us for a Qoya Community Listening Party on Saturday, December 30th, 2023 11:00am-1:00pm EST. We will gather as a community beginning with an introduction by Carrie and Rochelle and then play the album straight through with an invitation for each person to receive in their own unique way through rest, intuitive moment, and the shared awareness of gathering together in the spirit of the songs as we honor the ending of the calendar year. Click here to sign up and enjoy the feeling of being in community. And for all who are able, please also consider donating to the 501c3 Non-Profit Organization Carrie and her husband Ezra started called Love Runneth Over to support other families with young babies in the NICU.
NOTICING GLIMMERS
Amidst challenge, I continue to be nourished and fulfilled by visiting my creek in the morning, and I cherish the opportunities to dance and be with others every time I get to. I hope you have your sacred places to continue to deepen your personal relationship with nature and your special people with whom you can share the truth of your heart.
I savor my son's cuddles and hilarious things he says, like the other morning when he said right upon waking, "Mom, the land is good. Bread is good, but rust is stupid." Or when he looked me in the eye and said, "Mom, when we die and come back, I want you to be my mom again." I hope that when you have a moment that breaks your heart open you can linger there, the way you would slow down for a sunset. May we continue to practice our capacity to absorb the grace that life offers us.
These types of moments I'm describing are glimmers. Glimmers, in contrast to triggers, are cues—internal or external—that guide one back to feeling joy or safety. The term "glimmer" was popularized by Deb Dana, LCSW. Triggers are cues—accurate or not—that move the body into those fight-or-flight or freeze states. Glimmers are also cues—but they are cues that move the body into a feeling of safety and connection. Glimmers will feel a little different in everyone's bodies, but they're generally warm and fuzzy feelings where you feel cozy, safe, and connected with yourself and/or others.
I'm leading a few classes next week called Noticing Glimmers. As we journey towards the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, in the midst of darker days and longer nights, there is an invitation to nurture the light we carry inside and notice the glimmers that reorient our perspectives and nourish our nervous systems. This practice is not to bypass the challenges or look away from the injustice in the world. It is to strengthen us to be able to soften in a world that can be harsh and to hold the wholeness of our experiences. What begins as a practice of individual awareness can then be translated into receiving clear guidance on how you can be a steward of glimmers in the world and contribute to the safety and well being of others.
Noticing Glimmers Class
Saturday, December 16th from 3:00pm-5:00pm in Stone Ridge, NY
Sunday, December 17th from 5:30pm-7:30pm in New York, NY
Thursday, December 21st from 11:00am-12:30pm EST Online on Zoom
I offer a prayer for each of our individual journeys. May we remember that like nature, we are wise, wild and free. And may we remember that we are woven together.
With love,
Rochelle (from the base of the creek in the video below, listening to the light of the sun and offering my reverence to the flow of the water)