“…but this is it. This is Eden. When you see the kingdom spread upon the earth, the old way of living in the world is annihilated. That is the end of the world. The end of the world is not an event to come, it is an event of psychological transformation, of visionary transformation. You see not the world of solid things, but a world of radiance.”
Joseph Campbell – The Power of Myth
Two of our great storytellers left us this week. Perhaps different in perspectives, styles and genres, still in their own unique ways they each intricately wove the magic and power of word, and in so doing, captivated our hearts and evoked thought within. Gore Vidal and Maeve Binchy. They will be missed.
In a world that frequently looks chaotic and often profoundly dysfunctional, it may seem difficult, if not impossible, to find a tale within that tells of possibility, of beauty, harmony, and love. To step outside of a world story rife with melancholy and fear is a daring task. A hero’s journey, as Joseph Campbell would have said. Believe it or not, we all carry the opportunity of being heroes. It’s in our genes. And heroes and their journeys come in many packages. Not all are rescuers of damsels in the night or hobbits carrying a magical ring to its fiery destination. Some seem to be here and gone within the breath of a moment, others take a lifetime to travel.
Yet each of us weaves a story, consciously or not – the story of our life as it merrily bumps and puffs along, the story within that calls for us to be who we truly are; to dare to sculpt our world with new colour and new light, and then to open our hearts and love it into being.
Two great storytellers have left us.
It’s our turn, our time, to pick up that proverbial pen and write a new tale, be it epic, short, poetic, passionate, inspiring or just plain full of joy. Make it a walk in the park or a
cargo ship journey along the North-West passage, an idyllic stroll along the beaches of Hawaii, or a candlelight dinner with the person you love. Just maybe it becomes your very own version of Shangri-la. Imagine that.
We are the storytellers now.
So what world will you fashion? What story will you tell? What possibility will you envision?
Remember, every story, every word, every thought, is a ripple in the ocean of our lives.
Tell it well, tell it now, for us all.
Now you can get your very own copy!
It has been said that some stories have their own timing, a sense of place within the fabric and power of word when they choose to deliver themselves to our world. Such stories can drive authors crazy as we strive, usually vainly, to birth the tale before its inwardly designated moment.
BETWEEN WORLDS is one of those stories.
This, after many moons, is its first wave.
Set in present day Los Angeles California and in what has often been called The Garden of County Wicklow Ireland, BETWEEN WORLDS carves its tale along the pathways of time, casting us back through Ireland’s mystical mists into the sixth century and those precious moments before Glendalough became a renowned monastic city. It tells the tale of a woman who leaves her budding LA world behind to follow an invisible thread connected to the face of a man who has come to haunt her. Instinctively she feels Ireland carries the clues that will rid her of this vision and bring peace back to her world. The upper lake of Glendalough has other plans.
Called a historical romance by some, albeit with more than one twist, BETWEEN WORLDS is really a heart song to and for Ireland, and because everything is interlinked in our world, it naturally becomes a heart song for us all. Like all songs of the heart, it carries the potential for healing, and a key to love.
Be one of the first wave to read this EBook!
It’s a wonderful story whose time has come.
$9.95 CDN (plus applicable taxes)
You can order your copy(s) by leaving your contact details on the comment section below and we will get back to you. Payment is by PayPal. The EBook is available both in Kindle and main stream version (which can be downloaded onto Adobe Digitals Edition software and also thru ibook on your iphone). Each is also available in high or low res. Let us know which version you want.
If you want a taste of the tale before you buy, click on the Between Worlds – Sneak Preview page of this blog, scroll down, click on the pdf link below the book cover, and enjoy.
Word-of-mouth is a treasured thing when self publishing so do pass the word along to anyone who you feel would be interested. Truly it’s a story that deserves to be read.
I hope reading BETWEEN WORLDS will touch your heart. Writing it has definitely touched mine.
…book cover design by Tannice Goddard
No matter who you are,
No matter where you are,
No matter how easy or tough life appears to be –
Within every thought, every moment
And every breath
There lives an opportunity –
to love.
This is your moment.
Aloha, Aliana
CHECK OUT THE NEW PAGE – Between Worlds – Sneak Preview
I’ve made it available especially for you.
When you get there, ponder the cover image (you’ll know its depth when you have read the whole tale), scroll down and click on the pdf link. It will take you into a Sneak Preview of the land and story of Between Worlds.
I hope it wets your appetite and encourages you to want to read more.
Enjoy!
Aliana
For most of us, if we think of it all, Shangri-la is but a mythical place hovering deftly within the elusive mists of time space. Writers wax poetic of its existence and movies enthrall us with its possibilities, but nowhere do we usually relate it to being other than in the Land of Myth. Myth, for many, means the realm of story, and story implies that it is not real.
So Shangri-la – a marvelous dream of possibility, even of a promised land, but not here, not now, not in the World of Reality. And even if by some freak chance it was here, then it definitely must be between those crazy mists, which anyone with any smarts knows are impossible to grasp (if you’ve ever lived in Ireland and trekked a good mist walk or two, you’ll know exactly what I mean). Either way, we the average Jean & Joe not known for being particularly adept at mist grasping won’t get to experience it in the here and now even if we wanted to, thank you very much. Or so we think.
But what is that image of Shangri-la?
Usually, especially when cast through book or film, it is an enchanted land, dusted with sunlight, soft breezes, lush green rolling hills, and a harmonious abundant life where everyone actually gets along. It often involves an arduous journey to find it. Think snowy passes midst high and impenetrable mountains, throw in a few Yetis, an avalanche or two, and you have the idea. And like any good story, it has more than one guardian at its gates, hence the Yeti, and of course, an arch villain. What would life be without one?
It speaks of a world in sync, a land that dances to a mutual inner rhythm, knows no boundaries to the heart, and effortlessly breathes an air of tranquil light. Because it ebbs and tides with ease, its creative abilities are unbounded, and so it is also a Land of Plenty.
Sounds good to me.
Curiously, the idea of Shangri-la has been wafting through the fabric of our world for quite some time, albeit under different names. Think the Garden of Eden, Shamballa, Heaven on Earth, even Paradise. Most are cast in the land of the unattainable, unless of course you grasp those gems between the lines. Many are cloaked within a spiritual quest and the prerequisite of divorcing oneself from the mundane, which by definition automatically implies that the world as we know it is at the very least, boring.
Another thread of that same theme is that you can’t get there from where you are, a koan if ever there was one. So change becomes a must, transformation a necessity, and enlightenment the ultimate goal, wherever you end up being when it happens. I’m picturing big fluffy white clouds midst a starry sky with a filigreed gate. No, not really.
All seem to be mysteriously etched in gold fire along the journey we call, life, which is another way of saying that perhaps they’re messengers, or maybe even keys. Why else would we secretly covet that dream of an idea in the depth of our hearts if we or someone somewhere wasn’t trying to tell us something? Like a honing device, or a heartbeat. If you think I’m kidding about the coveting part, ponder the number of hotels there are in the world called Shangri-la or the amount of ads circulating that encourage us to walk the beaches of Paradise, the restaurants named Peaceful Garden, or those retreat spas entitled A Touch of Heaven, and then there’s that wonderful town in Australia named, wait for it, Eden. Clearly on some level we like the idea.
But do we believe in it enough, do we want it enough, to make it real? And if we did, what would it look like?
More on this in the next segment… Aliana
This writing was done by a friend awhile ago and sent to me over the holidays as a heartfelt message for the coming times. I find it beautiful and, with her permission, wanted to share it with you. It was written by Elora Silk.
Blessed are they who seek the fruits of Life eternal
for they shall find the fountain overflowing with Love.
Love is the essence of Life;
the very fibre that weaves all breath and light together
Love is the Power that moves the oceans’ tides,
that holds the Earth and stars suspended in the sea of infinity
Love is the beauty that catches one’s breath,
implanting one’s awareness in the Creator
Love is the One Truth, the only Peace,
the heart and soul of all that is
Love is God I Am in all things
Listen! Love is the Song in the Silence.
Kia Kara, Christchurch
Stay strong
Our hearts are with you
aloha, Aliana
In some ways, it feels like it was centuries ago when I started researching what was to become the book, Between Worlds. Like its heroine, I too was pulled over to The Green; that mystical, often magical, frequently haunting place known as Ireland. It is truly a land of layers, of stories, of polarities, and of love. Ireland is a door to the heart. 
After years walking its pathways, I’m convinced of that. But like any magnificent door, it requires a key, and finding the key to the heart of Ireland becomes a journey in itself.
There is a saying that some places make you pay your dues. For me, Ireland was one of them. Of course once you do, there is no end to what they might tell you. And once you do, they never quite let you go.
Birthing Between Worlds, finally, is for me a give-back. It is a story that so deeply wanted to be told that it yanked me clear across the Atlantic to follow its trail, plunked me at the edge of Glendalough, and demanded that I listen. Had I known the journey it would take me on, perhaps I would never have gone. But that’s the force of such things, isn’t it. To tempt and tantalize, envelop and immerse you to such a degree that you find yourself heading off a proverbial cliff with no idea of the outcome or even the steps along the way.
For me, it has been a story worth telling, something that has been hidden within the mists for far too long. Ultimately it is a story of the heart. After all, it’s from ancient Ireland. How could it not be?
And, it’s a self-published book searching for its audience. Perhaps you are one of those people meant to wander through its pages and be touched by the magic of its story.
Aliana Alani July 2011
LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD – AOTEAROA – Where stories linger like slender strings of tiny ocean pearls within your billowy sleeves of cloud-like memory. Where sky and sea walk hand in hand and in their mirage-like midst worlds both old and new appear to hover, and on their very edges ethereal doors stand ready to be entered, to share gifts perhaps waiting to be given. Is it but a dream to feel this way? And yet somehow, I think not.
Kia Ora, you say.
Aloha, I answer. For that is what I know in my heart.
Heart – the door you offer, at least to me – the chance to enter a land of ancient openness and be at peace, to walk with ease again along the corridors of time. As if a jewel had been here patiently waiting to be retrieved and lived anew. Strange to find you now, for I have landed on your shores when the earth is rumbling mightily and the ring of shifting sands and olden fissures is making itself known. Breaking through the seeming solidness of life and coughing up its innards for the entire world to see.
Kia Kaha, you say, for you have been through this before and know no fear.
Is that the opportunity, when all else falls away, to know no fear? To know that life always begins anew, that if we open our hearts and trust the birth, it can perhaps be even better than before, that we are strong in spirit no matter what?
I am touched by the hearts of people on this land of yours, Oh Long White Cloud. Touched by their generosity and kindness in the midst of devastation – their willingness to reach out and help another. It is the humaneness within humanity, is it not – to offer aid without question or condition? Too often we forget this as we stride our world of ever-increasing gadgets and sound bites. Your people are helping us to remember.
Ke Aloha Aotearoa, your beauty is astounding. Gods have walked upon your earth and fished in your waters. Songs have been sung in your honour and winds have dashed your shores. Mountains high and long have risen dressed in snowy garments. And films have told stories of Middle Earths and Hobbit kingdoms. You are part of a realm we now call, The Pacific. But somehow you are part of something else as well. It lives within the very fabric of your air, and hence within the fabric of your people. Amongst all else, it is a strength of heart and the never-ending ability to dare to weave new story into life, no matter what. A wondrous gift this is for the world to see and feel. Thank you for bringing it to our table.
Kia Kaha, Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud. Kia Kaha New Zealand.
You are loved.
Aliana Alani 2011
…I wrote this piece one week after the big earthquake hit Christchurch. As the week went on, I became deeply moved by the people there and New Zealand as a whole. At the time, I sent this to friends, but now that I have this blog, I wanted to share it with you. Christchurch still lives on shaky ground!
22shangrila 