The Invitation
“Sit Down
relax
and then become still
so still that beyond
your heartbeat
you can hear
the mice breathing
in their morning meditation . . .
so still
that you can hear the water
softening the skin of driftwood . . .
relax your gaze
let your eyes rest
and widen
your perspective”
(Invitation by Sadhbh Adamea)
Today is a day for wonder. Crooked Lake is warm from the heat of late August, but a morning chill hints at approaching autumn and gives rise to a soft mist. The mist hovers above thick lily pads. Too early for Halloween, the lost phantom sways in the clearing across the lake floating atop cattails and lake grass.
I am trying to conjure my own spirits as I search for an opening line, an opening image for my writing. As if on cue, the sign arrives flitting between the broad leaves of our sycamore tree. A ruby throated hummingbird sups on insects and sap, leaving my heart open to memory.
Remembering a story my father once told me, I smile. One mild autumn day, when the wind was still warm, he fell asleep on his favorite chair beneath the shade of the sycamore tree. He dreamt of my mother and when he awoke, he swore that he felt the soft flutter of a hummingbird alighting from his shoulder.
Signs – they are all around us: waiting to be observed, to be understood. If we open our minds and will ourselves to trust in that which cannot be explained through logic, but rather through very real, and at times tangible, forms of energy, we may discover new paths. Unexpected journeys invite creative growth, and signs may guide us toward new opportunities.
Nicole Rank
This summer I had the pleasure of visiting with Nicole Rank. Nicole is the founder of Love-Eyes Spiritual Development, a wholistic wellness company in Ireland that hosts retreats, spiritual coaching, and writing workshops.
Writing under the pen name Sadhbh Adamea, Nicole has also published an interactive book, Limitless: Sharing the World through Love’s Eyes, that features her own poetry and journaling activities that promote mindfulness and meditation.
Nicole and I enjoyed a lovely coffee and chat in Westport, County Mayo. We discussed writing, teaching, poetry, our belief in chance meetings, new friendships, and the power of signs.
When two creative souls meet there is an instant connection. We talked about the power of words.
Nicole remarked, “the world of words is in constant flow.” By studying language and crafting words to give light to nature, memory, love, we can paint the ebb and flow of the tides, changing seasons, new relationships.
A German native, Nicole moved to Ireland and finally found her home. The poetry of Ireland is imbued in her people, in the ocean that washes upon her shores, the animals that live in her fields.
Nicole was welcomed to the country during a solitary forest walk where she encountered the knowing eyes of a fawn. Nicole muses, “we stared at each other for a while. It felt like an invitation into the divine, a mirror that reflected an ancient place in my heart.”
She knew that her heart was safe and her words would grow in the sea and soil of Ireland. While Nicole’s English improved, she found herself drawn to the ancient Irish language. I asked her what word continues to inspire her art.
Caithinín, she said. This evocative word speaks of “a speck of dusk, a husk of corn, a snowflake, subatomic particles . . . the goosebumps you feel when you contemplate how everything is interrelated . . .unified.”
This word speaks of meetings that are more than chance. It speaks of the link between the past and present. Caithinín inspires the seeker to be ever aware of moments, beautiful, fantastic, unexplainable, that others may miss. A stone bearing centuries of fossilized shells and bones that rests on the strand. A dandelion that dances in the June sun.
If Nicole could be any flower, it would be the dandelion. Much like her words, the dandelion “can take on the form of the stars, the moon, the sun. It can fly, it is grounded, it shines.” We can eat of the leaves and be nourished. Nature sustains our spirit, art feeds our soul.
Wonderstruck. Transcendence. As Nicole explains, “the universe communicates with us at all times. Signs show up as feathers, birds, angel numbers,” a caterpillar alighting on a book of poetry. The seeker taps into the creative force of the universe and pulls forth words and wisdom, the power to change and grow.
Books are integral to the seeker. We find energy in well-worn pages, note strewn passages, the broken spine of a favorite read. Nicole remarks that “pages smell of change and transformation.”
As teachers and seekers, Nicole and I recognize Nature’s invitation to walk on her land, to draw meaning from her power. To create poetry from her spirit. With a knowing glint in her eye, Nicole explains that we don’t have to comprehend the mysteries of nature or the meaning of every word, we just need to read a poem to connect with our creative energy and find “understanding in the space between the words.”
Our conversation about the journey of the artist and the art of writing reminds me of a quote from Virginia Woolf: a woman “must have a room of her own to write.” Inspired by the enchanted woods and strands, fields and forests of Ireland, Nicole has forged a space of her own to write and think, dream and create.
Summer may be ending, but for seekers, it is a time of new beginnings, inspired invitations. Carve space to write and read during this gentle month when daylight begins to soften.
Sup on the harvest and nourish your soul with words. You may just find a new path where you can catch the first leaf that falls from the wise and wizened branches of the sycamore tree.
