Posted on January 25, 2015 by AlianaAlani

Warm wishes for a wonderful 2015 coming your way! May all your fondest clearest and most empowered dreams come true, and may they always be filled with love.

We are almost at the end of January (how quickly it goes) and already it’s been a whirlwind of a time in our world. I’m coming to you late in this as are my good wishes to you. New Year’s found me flat out with that flu/cold virus that has swept across North America and so it’s taken awhile to rise up from that bed and catch up with, well just about everything.

So here’s goes … a bit of news on the work and a few thoughts re what’s been going on.

TEMPLATES FROM THE GARDEN – the sacred geometry artwork I’ve been doing. There’s a new one available. It’s called – Awakening Creativity. It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s powerful. If you feel drawn to see it, to perhaps become a Keeper of its Focus or to buy it as artwork, send me a quick email c/o 22shangrila.com or leave a message here and I’ll get back to you with images and info.

IN THE REALM OF SKY – the small children’s book I wrote and posted here last year – has been available for you to read free-of-charge for awhile now. I want you to know that I’ll be taking it down from this site within the week. So if you want to read it before then, do so now. After that, the book will be available, hopefully late this year, but in print form. Hence you will need to buy it. I’ll update you as that happens.

SESSION WORK – For buckets of time in the not-so-distant, I was available as a spiritual facilitator for private sessions, workshops, retreats, and speaking events. It was a potent time. I ended up taking time out, partly to go to Ireland and follow a yellow-brick road that took longer than one could possibly imagine (okay maybe you could), and partly to focus on writing and exploring our world. Recently I have started being available for session work again. This is often long distant work, so by phone or Skype. And it is always with a focus of coming home to your true essence and to the Garden of Love & Light. You are welcome to email me if you feel this work might be for you. At present I am only available to see a few clients at a time.

There are new projects beginning, new artwork, and hopefully a bit of poetry. I’ll update you on those as they happen. And thanks for taking the time to check it all out!!

THE WHIRLWIND … If the beginning of 2015 is any indication of how this year will be, at least in the world-at-large, then hang onto your hats and get centered because that’s what we’ll need to be to either ride out the storm or shift to a new paradigm. Shifting is definitely in the cards – we have been moving toward it for awhile – as is living in The Garden.

So balance, kindness, and compassion are key now, as is that ever constant – love – which ultimately allows us to prosper in the best of ways.

It has always been my sense that to truly live in The Garden of Love, one must surrender attachments; to old ways of being, old stories, perceptions and judgements. One is often called to forgive what was in order to love what can be. The term ‘wiping the slate clean’ comes to mind.

Non-judgement (& no one said this one was going to be easy) also requires a tolerance of being; to look beyond the histories and stories (ours or another’s) to the Spirit that lives within (whether you call it Spirit, the Divine, God, or the Eternal); remembering that the essence of all Spirit is the same – that when I look at you, I am indeed looking at Spirit. When I allow that, I am able to recognize that we are all truly one.

At the level of Spirit, freedom is a way of being. It is meant to be that way in our world as well, just as we are meant to be the conscious expression of Spirit in our world.

With that in mind, freedom becomes a right, not a privilege. So when we in this world attempt to inhibit freedom – whether that be freedom of speech, freedom of expression, or any of the other freedoms we should be holding dear, we are in fact inhibiting a path to the conscious manifestation of the essence of our own being here on earth.

So here’s the thing – It is easy to allow freedom when it’s all going according to your own take on things; when what you say or believe matches what I think. It is when you speak, write, or parody in a way that seems to counter what I have chosen to believe, that the challenge arises. Will I still recognize your right to freedom of expression or will I damn it?

Voltaire, a French philosopher, writer & historian has been quoted as saying, “I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” From time to time, I remind myself of this gem of wisdom, especially in moments like those in Paris recently.

I am as well a storyteller. Stories come in many forms, one of which happens to be satire. Satire has been around for longer than you and I can remember. It has always been a way to poke fun at or shine a light on that which is out of balance in the world. Just as art in its myriad of forms has also been a way for us to rise above the mundane, to dare to dream, to live beyond the expected, to change, to laugh, to cry, and again, to shine a light on that which is or is not working.

It is through story that, consciously or not, we end up creating new worlds. How sad if the world we ended up with would be but a tiny crafted box only big enough for infinitesimally small experiences and even smaller expressions of being; a box with no freedom and very little light.

Which for some reason brings me to William Butler Yeats who wrote in a now famous poem – “I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

So in this year of 2015, let us dare to dream a world of harmony and love into being, beyond the hatred and fear. Let us reach beyond those boxes to the skies and dare to live with passion. And most importantly, let us dare to love.

Blessings and love to you all.

A Friendly Universe…

Posted on October 23, 2014 by AlianaAlani

AMONG OTHER GEMS OF WISDOM, Einstein has been quoted as saying, ‘that the most important decision we can make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or a hostile universe’. I’m guessing he was also saying that whichever one we believe in is where we will focus not only our attention but our resources. In other words if I believe the universe is hostile, then I must create measures to protect myself (think: guns, walls, armor). If I believe the universe is friendly, then I must come to the table of life with an open heart, perhaps even an outstretched hand.

Personally I vote for the friendly universe. I can’t picture any other reason for hanging around: The hostile universe having been done a zillion times over and truly (if one were being cosmically honest), boring beyond belief (an interesting turn of words, I realize).

But here’s the trick. And it’s especially true if the choice is new. Just because I choose to view the universe as friendly does not mean that the buggy-boos of the hostile one won’t come to my door to taunt me. To see how serious I am about the world of friendly. To even say, ‘hello hello, won’t you come and play my game – after all, it’s the only one in town’. Well it’s not.

And yes, I have walked through the world that is hostile. I’ve experienced its fear. I know what it feels like. I’ve been challenged by it. And I know how hard, when in its midst, it can be to see and feel anything else. When it feels like your heart is being torn apart and everything you hold dear is being cast to the wind.

But it is precisely then that we must turn our attention to a universe of love, if that is what we truly want and believe in. We must be courageous in our knowing, daring in our awareness, and constant in our vision of a world, and yes a universe, that is in harmony and balance with itself and with all else. We must turn to the harmony within and let its light cast a glow of love within ourselves and then outward into the world – our world – until the mist and the buggy-boos of the hostile dissolve. And they will – no matter how real they appear to be – if we hold to the love long enough to strength its chords and allow its music to ring forth.

So if you vote for a friendly universe (and this by the way is a good time to make a choice if you haven’t already) – think harmony – think love – think balance – think peace – think it NOW – see it everywhere (yes, even through and beyond that hostile mist) and then feel it as though it were the most delicious wondrous experience of your life, until lo and behold you discover it has become your life, and your world.

AND REMEMBER, ultimately we are all stardust dancing in the winds of the Eternal – the Heart of Love. Everything else is an illusion.

Stay strong and friendly Canada. It’s who you are.

We are connected

Posted on June 6, 2014 by AlianaAlani

In the distance a friend cries, mourning the passing of another

A senseless passing

In the distance, as though on cue a bird listens, then shutters

Wings flap, a caw is heard, and an honouring begins

In the distance

Here, a wind blows and swirls. There, a wave builds within the deep

Reaching the shores of another’s heart on the opposite side of distance

Who turns in wonder, for nothing happens without knowing

We are all connected

We move like butterflies fluttering to the tune of another’s song

Angels gracefully flying the skies of each other’s spirit

Dancing along moments of joy and sorrow, yours and mine

We are connected

In that distance, a man’s heart opens, daring to love again, further

Feeling it we turn his way, and remember – the magic and wonder

That is possible, here in our beautiful sometimes fragile Garden

Where we are all connected

…for Naren & his family

Starlight

Posted on March 20, 2014 by AlianaAlani

We are starlight, for a brief second,

and then are no more.

Back to the centre

to home

to the formless again.

We are starlight, for a brief second.

Why then this strife?

Why such discord?

What for?

We are starlight.

Why not Love?

Raining Sapphires …

Posted on February 1, 2014 by AlianaAlani

I wrote most of this a couple of years ago. Suddenly woke up yesterday knowing I had to dust it off, edit & update it a bit, and share with you. I hope that in some small way it touches a positive chord in your heart. Blessings to you, Aliana

It was raining sapphires along the sands and beaches of my heart. The sky kissed the air with perfumed stardust and the earth trembled, shivering like a fragile expectant lover. It beckoned as lovers often do in a strange hypnotic fashion, its rhythm enticing and provocative, its inner smile illusive and tempting. Yet somehow I could not follow, not fully, not yet. Perhaps it was the dust that clouded my vision. Perhaps it was fear, of the known and the not. Perhaps it was the one thing I frequently chose to ignore, to dance around, to two-step, to tango, to fox-trot, from there to here and fro; the one thing I knew would eventually happen, and yet … Perhaps it was all of these, and more.

This was, after all, my story, hence my world.

The picture comes in fragments. It is unstable and will not hold. That is its illusion, and to some, its reality. It appears increasingly bleak and fond of monochromes, especially shades of grey and black, as though its creator had decided to cast it all in shards of steel and bones of white ash, with a dash of startling midnight blue. Its waters pound against timid shores. Its winds blow like hurricanes of ancient memory. It does not speak of tomorrows, only what was, what might have been, therefore by lineage and association what could be, today. It tantalizes through threads of adrenaline pumped with escalating chords of anxiety. Its song is of flight and fright, of dread and fear. Its clothes are many layered, yet its costume remains the same. If it has its way, soon wherever we turn, this will be all we see. It will be all we feel. It will be all we think we know. We will be wrong but…

For this is a road of dissolution and dismembering that ultimately can know no air.

Within the fragments reside people, lands, countries, and stories. Within the fragments are hearts capable of soaring yet feeling broken, their worlds crumbling around them – security, sustenance, love – all seem to vanish within one large long cosmic breath. The classic, Poof, and there is no more. The cause varies but the result appears the same. The world watches in horror, its compassion tinged with a hidden worry that any minute the breath will turn in their direction. What then? What happens after that? So we begin to speak in apocalyptic terms, with words and gestures both large and expressive. We speak, often forgetting the power of thought, the energy generated by sound and intent. Forgetting what many of our ancestors knew; that by doing so, we may indeed be calling our own little apocalypse into being. We may be helping to magnify its possibility.

For it too travels a road that ultimately can know no air.

Like the many sides of a fine diamond or those sapphires on the beaches of my heart, inside each facet of the stories that make up our lives, no matter what appears to be happening in the moment, no matter whether we love it or hate it, lives an inner jewel that hovers like a secret key waiting to be discovered, a key that can unlock untold mysteries and bring with it endless peace and happiness. A key that is ours to have and use; that has always been there and always will be. The key may appear unique, perhaps even exotic, yet one thing that it carries is a link to beauty for beauty is a corridor to the heart, and the heart is one giant door to love. Love, as many have waxed poetic, is all there really is. In case you have forgotten, as many of us do.

Beauty is often said to be in the eye of the beholder. Where one person sees devastation, another observes within its skeletal midst an awe-inspiring splendor. Where another perceives garbage, someone else sees a dance of wonder hovering midst an air-floating plastic bag. And where some envision approaching death with fear and horror, others see within the light of life waiting to be reborn.

If you track this thought with me, you will perhaps find that hidden key. That lingering midst despair and devastation, no matter how impossible or painful it may seem (and it often seems totally impossible and incredibly painful) is an opportunity to view hence feel the beauty of existence, even if it is only for a moment, a seed of possibility blowing in a wind of turmoil. That in so doing, you may find yourself bringing that solitary seed of beauty to the fore more and more each day until one day, amazingly, within you only it will exist, having now blossomed, as seeds are apt to do, into a magnificent abundant garden of life, your life, and death, whatever form it had been taking, will have vanished mysteriously into the endless unknown.

Every moment is an opportunity, especially for love.

With that those sapphires sparkle and glitter, tossing their brilliance into the centre, into the heart finally, sprinkling their ethereal wisdom like starlight upon the ocean of my soul. A door within blasts open.

And I am home.

Me & the writing of BETWEEN WORLDS …

Posted on November 19, 2013 by AlianaAlani

Awhile ago in what is beginning to feel like another life, I wrote a book called, BETWEEN WORLDS. Sculpted from within the mist and memory of Ireland, it tells a tale of a man many later came to call a saint, and a woman remembered, if she was remembered at all, as a sinner. It is an archetypal story. It is also true.

Like many stories locked within the mists of time, it comes laden with baggage and hidden agendas. Agendas, as other writers might tell you, have a nasty habit of not liking their stories to be told. That is, quite obviously, why they have been plopped usually unceremoniously into the depths of that deep dark place sometimes called (at least in Ireland) – the bog.

It is from the bog that they must be retrieved and that, as you may have guessed, is the beginning of what Joseph Campbell would lovingly call – the hero’s journey.

Thus began my quest.

Did I want it? Not consciously. Did I ask for it? Again, not to my immediate awareness. Did I take it on? You betcha.

You see, there was this woman, like an often fleeting apparition, walking around Glendalough – that’s in County Wicklow – think old monastic city, ancient times, power, and yes sometimes light. She was hard to ignore. As was the energy of the place and the sense of whispers and messages slipping forth from the very fabric of the land – the ‘tell the tale – you must you must’ kind. Perhaps you could have walked away from that. Clearly I didn’t.

Frontcoveronly - half size - for internet

I’m mentioning it now because, though I have shared the how-I-got-to-it story to friends, I have very seldom spoken of it to others. The book is not yet well known. It’s self-published, it’s in eBook, it’s on the blog, you have to find it.

I could quite simply let it stay that way. It did after all take many years of my life and I could be forgiven for being tired. But it is a story that begged to be told, and told for a reason most honourable, and I, the storyteller, would be remiss if I didn’t give you a glimpse of why.

… stay tuned please

– book cover by Tannice Goddard – Glendalough photo by Kevin O’Kelly (Ireland)