Listen to the poem
COURAGE
To be the beacon of love connected to source
With fortitude to stay the course
Clear and audacious, bold yet gracious
Find your oasis
In the deepest recesses of your heart
Breaking down the barricades
The ego fades and clears the haze
Integrity, authenticity,
Stripped and naked
This is what protects what is sacred
All so that you may remember
Who you are
This is courage
Bold heart, Lions heart
Flooded with both compassion and might
You are the guardian of the light
To relentlessly trust in your deep intuition
Daring the truth of your calling to come to fruition
Making each step you take instruct you
Deconstruct you, ultimately reconstruct you
Shedding the layers that never belonged to you.
Determination, inspiration, transformation
Answering the call to the invitation
You emerge
Your highest, most beautiful authentic self.
Closer and closer to embodying your purpose
Let it rise to the surface
Your life is your service
This is courage
Braveheart, lions heart
Ablaze with love, truth and insight
You are the servant of the light
To be the one who repeatedly promises
To keep being the one.
You commit to it again and again
Letting everything and everyone be medicine.
To trust yourself implicitly, explicitly
Allowing your heart to crack open
More and more and even more
For at your core you find the door
to other worlds not seen before
To all of creation.
Around each soul, your arms are wrapped
You see them, hear them, feel them
Let spirit work through you to heal them
You are the personification
of love
This is courage
Fierce heart, lions heart
Creating and protecting all that is bright
You are the mother of the light
To know you are a beautiful eternal being
Whose gift is so much more than seeing
Your commitment to unfoldment undeterred
As you see the invisible, hear the unheard
Angel wings amongst your things
Spirit guides walk by your side
You have become the hollow bone
Never alone
Your life given to the seeds you’ve sown
To live this life of divinity, humble nobility
Where there is honor in pure surrender
Power and grace in raw vulnerability
This is courage
Pure heart, Lions heart
You are truth, love and ancient wisdom
You are the Shaman
Courage Poem & Painting Reveal
The Story of Courage
Kerry and her boyfriend Don were in a long distance relationship for several years, when she decided to have me do a project for him. She was studying to be a Shamanic Practitioner and had had a vision of Don morphing into a lion.
So the painting was going to be of a lion and the poem about Don and all his lion-like qualities. Kerry wanted to wait until she returned from a two week visit with Don to do the interview with me. Since we were clear about the theme of the project, we decided I would do the painting first so I could start while she was away.
I started to sketch out lions. I didn’t like any. I sketched more. I even tried to get a few onto the canvas, all to no avail. Art has been my greatest teacher. If something is not meant to be painted, it will simply refuse to be painted. This has taught me not to push against the flow, to find patience, to surrender and allow for the magic to guide me. When I couldn’t even get a sketch on the canvas I stopped and took a breath. I always had done the poem first. Perhaps I needed to do things in my usual order, so I halted the project and waited for Kerry to return.
On the morning Kerry was coming home, I woke up to my eyeballs widening and to the thought, “it is not supposed to be for him, it is supposed to be for her”. It was not that I had been working out of order that had been the block, it was that I had not been doing it for the right person. First morning thoughts are sacred to me and I do my best to follow them.
I was reluctant to share this with Kerry, thinking she might be attached to the original plan, so I approached it delicately. But as soon as I started the conversation, she quickly said, “Funny you should say that”. As it turned out while she was away, the lion had visited her again more than once. It was clear he was there for her, he was not Don morphed into a lion, but a spirit guide to help her on her journey in becoming a Shamanic Practitioner. His message to her was simple. He told her with his eyes to have courage. I went back to work, the sketch got on the canvas and in time the painting was completed.
Kerry had also gotten the message that she was the guardian, the servant and the mother of the light. When it was time to write the poem, I knew these messages needed to be included.
Kerry ‘s training was demanding of her in new ways but opening and rewarding in just as many others. Being a Shaman is a calling and Kerry definitely had the calling. She was working hard to answer that call. Working is a funny word, it was more like surrendering. Surrendering to her own intuition, her ability to connect with spirit guides, angels, the divine and the light within her. She was transforming anything that was in the way of being a clear vessel for spirit to work through her. She was so committed and that commitment was so beautiful to me.
The painting and poem sit behind Kerry when she is on zoom working with clients, when she does healing work or leads a ceremony. She moves them based on where she will be working. She treasures them as I treasure having had the honor of creating them.