The Playful Path
Contemplations on Holy Becoming
It often seems that life bends us towards a very different path than the one that we think we are heading down. This was very much the case for me this year. After spending all of 2023 working towards building a home with my partner, that path all but dissolved in my hands, this summer.
I felt shock for the first few months as much changed so fast. As a result, I wasn’t able to really work or create in the way that I had hoped. My photography business was put on the back burner and I turned inward. I didn’t really feel like I had much of a choice in the matter.
Questions of how I would survive without a home and how I would financially support myself while going through such a life altering process, were constant. But through the art of contemplation (as opposed to a fear based reaction), I was able to walk what I have come to understand as the Playful Path.
That does not mean that it has not been hard.
There have been days and nights when I was washed upon a shore that felt so far away from any proper provisioning. But I not only made due with what I had, I created from the deep Mystery. I said yes to what felt good and most importantly- I said No to what did not feel good.
Through contemplation I was able to find the necessary lucidity to navigate the often chaotic terrain of transformation.
In the Art of Contemplation, Richard Rudd goes on to illuminate the simple yet profound practices that will inevitably, over time, bring us into greater harmony with life. It takes courage to open ourselves up the mystery that we innately are. We cannot claim we want change but then slam the door on it when it comes knocking. The next thing you know, your house is on fire.
In my own journey this last year, there has been many moments when it felt more appealing to swing back into a zone of safety and comfort, but the gentle flowering of the Unknown within my own being is a succulent scent that always seems to beckon me into the garden.
Once in the garden, I am called to the Forest.
There comes a moment, when you have contemplated your life enough that a new terrain of reality opens up. There is no crossing back. I have stood at these thresholds, not so much in hesitation, but in a deep listening.
Am I ready? Is there anything wanting to be expressed at my current level of reality? How do I feel about leaving my current environment behind? Is there something left to grieve or release? These are less conceptual questions but more so emanations at a soul level that seem to rise up into my consciousness.
This year I have embraced an openness and curiosity at such a profound level that all aspects of my life have organized around what wants to open.
The contemplation of who am I and what did I incarnate for are anchors on this playful path through the terrain of endless possibility. I don’t want things that are not for me. I want deep heart expanding love. I see and feel it close. I want sustainable impact and service. I am in the creation of this. I want to be financially secure. I am working on it. I want experiences that bring me into deeper truth and sovereignty. I am living these experiences now.
As I have danced along this playful path, I have been gifted with some precious kindred souls. I have so many incredible woman in my life and I want to share some of my favourite images from this year of limited yet powerful creation.
Contemplating each image it is clear that each is a mirror to something I myself journeyed through. At some point this year, I was not sure I had the will to keep picking up my camera to create in these ways. But when I look at each one of these images, I feel the heart of each woman. I feel her story, her courage, her own journey through the wild terrain of her own becoming.
How can I stop? I can’t. And so I sit inside the temple of my own being and light the instance, set the alter, make my offerings, and give my praise to all this year has opened up for me.
May we meet in play soon.
My books are open for Infinite Body Sessions in 2025.
