New day

Soul Whispers Rather Than Resolutions

Carol WoodliffLeave a Comment on Soul Whispers Rather Than Resolutions

No Resolutions This year there will be no long list of resolutions which imply that I am somehow “not there” yet, that I will probably forget by February. I let go of the demands of my taskmaster who pushes and worries about what is next and I soften into those softer heart and soul whispers.  I remember those.  The things  that I am most proud of including my move to Los Angeles to pursue acting, writing From Scared to Sacred, studying the Andean healing and shamanic traditions were urgings from that voice that were so strong that I said “Yes” and followed through.  My brain thought they were rather crazy, but I overrode that logical brain and did them anyway and I’m so grateful I did. The logical brain isn’t always my friend My mind thinks it can figure out how to do this thing called life as though life […]

family photographs on Ancestral altar with candle

Day of the Dead Reflections

Carol WoodliffLeave a Comment on Day of the Dead Reflections

I was thinking of how often as a young girl I was told to be “nice,”  and I started to write about the messages I wish I had received instead of “nice.” This took me on a journey of ancestral awareness and healing, perfect on “All Souls Day” or “Día de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead). What I Wish Instead of “be nice,” I wish they had coached me in how to speak the hard truth with compassion. Instead of “Don’t be so dramatic,” I wish they had said, “You feel deeply, let me help you channel those feelings, learn from them, and express them productively with others and in art.” Instead of “Don’t think being smart makes you better than anyone else.”  I wish I had been told to celebrate my gifts and find the gifts in others to celebrate. Instead of saying “We are not athletic people” […]

back view of woman in the woods wearing witch costume

Reflections on the Witch

Carol WoodliffLeave a Comment on Reflections on the Witch

I’m starting to see witch decorations all over my neighborhood.  Most are funny and non-threatening, but they got me thinking about the Witch archetype. The Witch, the wise old woman of the woods, the hag invited me to dance with her and write about her.  This is the dance we did on the page.   For centuries now, the old feminine soul, the wise woman has been suppressed.  She has been relegated to dried up, asexual and useless.  She has been made a caricature, ugly with a wart on her nose. The older wise woman, often called the witch or hag, was about community and service about birthing and dying and everything in between. She was connected to nature and mysticism.  The wise eccentric lady that you went to for answers, whose witches’ brew was often a cup of tea and some herbs for what ailed you. Somewhere along our development man […]

Carol tending fire at Palm Springs retreat

Tending Fires

Carol WoodliffLeave a Comment on Tending Fires

Humans have been tending fires for thousands of years as a form of survival. The fire kept us warm, kept predators at bay, gave us  ability to cook. Today most of us are not concerned with keeping fire in the hearth to keep the house warm, we rely on invisible energy sources like electricity and natural gas to keep our homes warm and to cook. But we still like a fireplace or sitting around a campfire.  It is like it hardwired into our DNA to make us feel connected, a place to gather and tell stories. I love to hold fire ceremonies. Tending fire connects me to mysticism and ancestors of the land. I love to watch how each fire accepts the offerings and alchemizes them. Some are consumed immediately some take a while to burn. A couple of weeks ago at our first Live Your Opulence Retreat, we had […]

Painiting of an eye/face with hearts

To my cornea donor

Carol WoodliffLeave a Comment on To my cornea donor

To my Cornea donor, Dear Beautiful Soul. I know nothing about you. Whether you are man or woman, old or young. But this I know, the gift you left behind has changed me. Where I might have gone blind from the genetic disease I was diagnosed with; now, I have the gift of sight and opportunity and I intend to use that gift wisely. I promise to see the beauty in the world using the cells you donated. Together we will write and make art. I will not take your gift for granted. I will fully use it in my photography, art, writing, in appreciation of life and service to our world. Every night I will say a prayer of gratitude when I can drive rather than being reliant on others to drive because my night vision was so distorted by light refractions, I didn’t dare drive. Your gift gave […]

Bear eagle and jaguar wild animals

I have lost my wild

Carol WoodliffLeave a Comment on I have lost my wild

Was working with the idea of wildness and had the feeling that I was no longer connected to the wild, untamed part of myself. I wrote down “i have lost my wild.” and the rest spilled onto the page. I lost my wild My passion My spontaneity My certainty of what calls to the animal within. Trying to remember my dreams for my life, the world Have I forgotten or outgrown them? I am in between now Have no energy to go on a grand adventure No desire to work to figure it out. No inspiration to journey looking for answers. Have the daily demands of my domesticated life killed my untamed? I can sit with a tree and be content I don’t feel the need to hunt for more Am I a bear mamma hibernating? Or a jaguar taking a nap in a tree? Am I an eagle resting […]

2020. New Year. New Decade. Thank You. Thank you.

Carol Woodliff4 Comments on 2020. New Year. New Decade. Thank You. Thank you.

When I think back to the beginning of 2010, I had no idea how much my life would shift and change in the next 10 years.  Sometimes it is helpful to look back with gratitude for how far we’ve come, what we have survived and say thank to the Divine Universe/God for helping us to make it to another year. At the beginning of 2010, I was working on From Scared to Sacred in a Writer’s Group.  I was a hypnotherapist seeing clients. I was working part-time nights and weekends at the law firm I had worked at since 1989.   In 2010, I submitted my book in something called “the Next Top Spiritual Author Competition.”   Even at the time, I thought that a competition among spiritual authors seemed like an oxymoron.   And it turned out to be a divine plan to connect me with like-minded people around the world.  These […]

Children Will Listen

Carol Woodliff1 Comment on Children Will Listen

I was walking through my neighborhood with my dog and I noticed a father kicking a ball around with his six or seven year old daughter. As I walked further along the street I heard the innocent little voice of the girl say, “But daddy that’s cheating.”  The father replied, “but the ref didn’t see me.” The little girl said again,  “Daddy you are cheating.”  The father replied “The referee didn’t see me do it.” It’s been 2 days and that little voice is still reverberating in my head. Is this what you want to teach her, Daddy, that it’s okay to cheat at a game as long as the ref doesn’t see you? Whether it’s cheating, unfair, illegal, or immoral, as long as you get yours, it’s all okay? A snippet of the song, “Children Will Listen” from the musical Into the Woods popped into my mind: Careful the things […]

Monarch butterfly on flower

For a moment…reflections on a funeral procession

Carol WoodliffLeave a Comment on For a moment…reflections on a funeral procession

This morning as Luna and I were taking our walk, a funeral procession passed us.  Two motorcycle police officers escorted a hearse and about 20 cars with their lights on.  The officers stopped traffic so that the cars could flow as one unbroken procession through the intersection in front of me.  I felt waves of grief flowing through me.  Was it theirs or mine? I placed my hand over my heart.  I breathed, and did Tonglen, a Buddhist exercise of acceptance, compassion and connection.  I felt the grief and breathed out love, hoping each person in that procession caught just a little fragment of comfort. I do not know the circumstances of that death.  I do not know whether the deceased was an elderly person who had lived a long life or a life cut way too short.   I do know that those in the procession will now have to […]