Chaordic Steps

A rainbow affirmation on my last day at Kalipay Beach, Palawan
(photo by Mary Raynor)

I am now back in Manila to pack up and move out and move to Maia. My language is changing as I prepare to shift into a new way of life. I am being called to speak from my heart. There's a lot to express and share but they remain in my journal for now... lovingly vulnerable and brave until a language that can connect from the core as form can emerge to fully communicate. My life is going through a chaordic (chaos+order) process with all these changes coming up: my room now entering a messy stage with boxes and garbage bags; chicken pox looking sand fly bites all over my body after staying out on an island; fresh acne break outs as a reaction to my body detoxifying with raw food; and phlegm coming out from the detox helping my bronchial asthma heal.  But all is good. All this clearing and cleansing brings up the last few remaining pieces of my intensive inner work last year. I have never been so at peace.

Here's a beautiful poem by Em Claire to share a glimpse of my ongoing reflections.

Peace of I,

Sarah

Art + Advocacy Projects Aug 2011-March 2012

I have been to focused on inner work that I haven't had the chance to share a lot of my art activities since I arrived from Switzerland in August. Here is a documentation of my beautiful co-created art actions for peace and emergency recovery over the last 8 months :-)

Open publication - Free publishing - More arts relief

Lost and Found Poem

While clearing through my notes today, I found a silly loving poem I wrote for someone I deeply cared for 2 years ago. What a beautiful way to peacefully let go with the innocence of being children.

These days, in my solitude, I am a blanket to the lovemaking of the sun and moon rising and setting. I am lulled to sleep under the bright white light of night. I am thrilled by the lights twinkling in the dark. I dance with passion while the rain soaks my skin and clothes. I am quenched by the water of the sky. My feet kiss the earth while it responds with more through butterflies. Flowers fall from trees to woo me on the path. The cool wind wraps itself around me in a loving embrace in union with my Beloved.

Letting go of questions, of anger, fear, doubt, pain, what if's. There is a beautiful person to walk with on the road ahead when the time is right.

Every New Dawn

every new dawn

there is that tender moment 

of waking up fresh

from a dreaming journey

we sailed together 

as we tuck ourselves under 

the blanket of stars

fnuggling

and we continue under the hot sun

meeting strangers that keep

us (hiding afraid)

in conversations

in whispers

in unspoken monologues 

thought by thought building 

that wall 

are you there oh beautiful soul?

how beautiful we dissolve 

with bells of laughter 

just as the dusk 

this silliness my little boy

we are 

but children.

For R

Sacred Simplicity

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My first self-opened coconut

On raw food for 3 weeks and my scoreboard says 5 cooked meals so far. That's 21 days minus 5. You do the math. I do the eating with the flow :-) 

I have been living in deep mindfulness and clarity here at Maia Earth Village where I am intending to move into by the end of this month.

Highlights of my day are pranayama every sunrise on top of the hill, chopping coconuts, concocting ways live food can nourish me, walking with butterflies, sleeping under the full moon, identifying botanical medicine sprouting along the path, working on my solar powered macbook, and taking a shower with the rain. And my favorite? Dancing my heart out anywhere I want, anytime I want. Yes, my hands move even while I type away these words you're reading.

I feel so much at home.

This is Maia by Pi Villaraza

I took a big pause from the expected trajectory of my life direction - to venture into aid work as transformative artist and jump on a global mandala journey. I heard the 6 month  countdown to 30 years of earth time ticking and I felt the pressure and the traffic light changing to green at the forkroad. 

Quo vadis Sarah?

Ah but right now, I know the destination, but the journey is in the making in each moment and I am in peace with this affirmation. All that matters is this sacred simplicity every One participates and embodies here at Maia.

The mandala journey continues with ever evolving possibilities with great kindred spirits working on many levels from personal transformation to cancer cure to rehabilitating communities. Daily living here is Knowing, Being, and Doing according to the Maia Mandala in deep observation of Ego and Consciousness.

I know this: I am here to heal myself and to let the Earth be my teacher, healer, artist, and co-creator. 

Here we live in a moment to moment shift attuned to the flow of life source. Where is my fear rooted from? When can I let go of the past and be in the present? How do I now convert what I let go off into what I can receive to assist my own evolution and enlightenment?

I am here NOW. North Korea's feared missile attack this week violating UN Security protocols and being happy for a previous partner finding new love are just part of the ever evolving shifting of my being -- tapping into consciousness in awareness that peace begins within by letting go and in sending light. And in releasing and trusting my inner wisdom and light, I give more space for my own alchemic metamorphosis to flow and manifest over and over again in the knowing, being, and doing of this BEAUTIFUL MANDALA THAT I AM.

The New Rainbow Warrior

"There will come a time when the Earth grows sick and when it does a tribe will gather from all the cultures of the World who believe in deeds and not words. They will work to heal it...they will be known as the "Warriors of the Rainbow."   - Native American Prophecy

7 days of 100% raw food

7 days of self love and oneness with community and the earth

7 colors of the rainbow to use to look within

Above is the Maia Mandala we here at the earth village are guided with.

I was swimming in the sea yesterday and saw this beautiful rainbow on the sky. A beautiful affirmation of who I am in alignment to the next intentions to come.

I am overly grateful for the beautiful energies and spirits here at Maia Earth Village. There are around 11 countries represented sharing the common intention and vision of oneness by connecting with self, others, and the earth.

Maia's Internet Cafe (photo by Pi Villaraza)

I write on top of a hill with a beautiful view of the mountains and the sky kissing. This is the only spot with wifi access. The wind is blowing strong and the tarp on top of me is blowing like the ship’s sail. 

Two months ago, I rode a ship to Cagayan de Oro to do arts relief work for survivors of Hurricane Washi, an overdue effect of climate change. While on the ship I recalled being on Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior for a climate change campaign 5 years earlier. Now, I feel like on the same ship with the heavy flapping sound of the tarp playing with the wind on top of me while I sit on my yoga mat up on this hill. This time, becoming the rainbow warrior myself.

Sailing on the Rainbow Warrior at 24 for the Renewable Energy Campaign

I am meditating on many things while I am here: to continue with my Masters in Arts for Peacebuilding, to continue with arts relief work in Cagayan de Oro, and if to continue accepting job offers and/or opportunities that may not be directly aligned to my own birth vision.

Most of all, I am here to answer, understand, and become this question: Who Am I?

(Maia mandala photo by Pi Villaraza)

Rebirthing with the Mandala

I started conceiving this mandala journey since 2008 and started mapping the beautiful sacred circles all over the world 2 years ago. 



I am writing this at the Mactan airport in Cebu, my birthplace, while waiting for my flight. I have just taken a ship called “Princess of the Earth” from Cagayan de Oro last night and woke up in prayer with the ocean at 4 am for guidance on this next part of my journey. 



I am en route to Puerto Princesa to commune with a beautiful conscious community of seekers, artists, gardeners, life and light workers. 



The community is guided by self-inquiry and self governance by “knowing, being, and doing” based on the principles of the Maia Mandala. This inspiring mandala was cultivated by Pi Villaraza, a fellow Filipino whose spiritual seeking led to the discovery of Inner Dance; and developed with Juanita Naidoo, a beautiful South African soul who is a guide to new beings. The development of the mandala was also co-created by members of the Maia Conscious Community.



I am taking a pause from arts relief work for survivors of Hurricane Washi/ Typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro. There are so many things I can do to help through an upcoming community art project based on the mandala as a healing and integrating medium. So many ideas brewing in my mind. 


Yet after 2 months of working, I found myself burning out. How can I sustain my energies and resources while helping others? How can I be of highest service through the co-creative process of artmaking?

How can I continue bringing the mandala into awareness and embodiment by first deepening my knowing and becoming the mandala myself? 

One of my spirit teachers taught me this important lesson about being an artist which I am still learning:There are two kinds of artists: 

One who paints the flower andOne who becomes the flower.

Giving birth to this mandala journey begins with my own rebirthing journey by  becoming that flower in every moment in awareness. 

I am now at this moment, 29 years old on Earth in this lifetime. Each moment is an opportunity to find my bliss by staying at the center of the wheel - wherever and however it may turn. This is my first lesson of the mandala.

Ok, logging off and wait for my boarding announcement :-) 

Breath as Life

I write from Cagayan de Oro City where I will be based for the next few months as a consultant for a psycho-social support project for children survivors of Hurricane Washi/ Typhoon Sendong. Washi caused deadly flash floods in Northern Mindanao wherein thousands have died, are missing and have been displaced during the dawn of December 17, 2011.  


I am grateful to be given the invitation to help design and implement creative, transformative, healthy, and sustainable relief work in 3 barangays with about 240 to 300 children assigned to Kids for Peace Foundation through support partnership from Save the Children and SIDA. 


I'd love to share more about that but after a week-long workshop with Save the Children and other partner  NGOs in learning about psycho social support, establishment of Child Friendly Spaces, and development of modules - I just want to take a breather and take time to be present with my breath and the next steps that will be revealed.


It has been awhile since I shared my thoughts online. I still have backlog blogs about the arts based actions I shared with the Mindanao Week of Peace last November. Most of the time, my reflections have remained in my journal as transitions from 2011 to 2012 became too beautifully intense. It was just too deeply personal to share in public. Perhaps I can share some snippets of these beautiful insights sometime.

For now, I want to slow down and regroup my intentions and next steps while attuned to my breath. 
I'm happy to share a mandala design I illustrated for the album "Hininga" (Breath) by GINHAWA (Growth in Wholeness and Wellness Associates), a non-profit that promotes well-being through creativity and spirituality. It's a CD of deeply inspiring songs for meditation and rituals. One of the beautiful spirits I look up to, Leah Tolentino (who heads GINHAWA) gave the concept and the inspiration for the design of the cover. She wrote most of the songs while some were composed by Yeyette San Luis and Airene Landicho. Hininga is a beautiful musical masterpiece of the powerful voices of Yeyette and Airene. I was also given the beautiful opportunity to share my voice as harmony for a track "Hininga ay Buhay" (Breath as Life) with my friend Nota Magno. It was beautiful to have been able to channel a beautiful spirit song for this track which up to know still puts me in a trance whenever I listen to it. Here's a sampler you can listen to.

The songs in this album aim to foster well-being of the person and an affirmation of the whole of life, especially God's creation.  Just as the breath is the bridge of the spirit to our embodied self and the connective thread that links all beings (trees, animals, flowers, forests, human beings in the past, present and future), these songs express our intrinsic inter-connection.  One can listen to most of the songs for relaxation. Some of the songs   can be used for activities (workshops, retreats, rituals)   for the healing of the self, community and creation.  (text from CD jacket)

You can also check out the other samplers of songs on this album through this link:


Hining ay Buhay: http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/ab645e29b024271e29d5a283a13606

If you are interested in purchasing copies of the album (especially bulk orders), contact 0915.2952826 or ilishta@yahoo.com