Excerpt from IN THE ABSENCE OF PAINT, by Celeste Monette Blair
Stand up and imagine there is a HOOLA HOOP around you. In this phase of your Personal Renaissance, perhaps you have found a space where, having suffered some loss of love or life, freedom or maybe you lost your mind; now here you are.
So what if you burned your own house down! What matters now is that- right here, right now, you get to chose who gets closest to you, who is allowed to effect you, whisper in your ear.
Chose who can get in your hoola hoop slowly, and carefully. Sit back and watch people before you let them in.
Remember, it is a priviledge to stand inside your hoola hoop, a most precious gift.
IMAGINE you are renovating an old house; doing the work pretty much, yourself. You need one room where you can pile up rubble and stand at a workbench but you will also need a safe little space where you can find respite after a day of serous renovation.
Each day, wherever you sit still, see this space in your beautiful mind. On the walls, write your strengths:
EARNEST, PEACEFUL, DETERMINED, KIND, STILL, ALIVE, RESILIENT.
As you tear out the old wallpaper, replace sheet rock; imagine you are removing that which is not serving the space:
RESENTMENT, UNFORGIVENESS, DOUBT, TOXIC TIES, UNHEALTHY BEHAVIORS.
Ultimately, your relationships can make or break your rebuild. Perhaps, in part, this is why monks or old Victorian bad-asses, great artists and visionaries, historically, went into a place of solitary. When the goal is to reach a higher plane or deeper understanding, we need some space.
Think of it this way, if you are renovating your house, you aren’t ready for company.
” Run my dear,
from anything
that may not strengthen
your precious budding wings.
Run like hell my dear,
from anyone likely
to put a sharp knife
into the sacred, tender vision
of your beautiful heart!”
– Hafiz
