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Magic is real. Justice is worth fighting for.

T. Thorn Coyle

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To Clear the Way: on Need, Want, & Desire

Feb 10, 2018

To Clear the Way: on Need, Want, & Desire

What do you need to pay the rent? What do you need to feel healthy? What do you need to laugh again? What do you need to take care of your family/community/self? What do you need in order to create? What do you need to survive? What do you need to thrive? Take a breath. Feel your toes. Your fingers. Your heartbeat. Take another breath. Now tell me: What do you want? Do you want new soles for boots that have run down at the heel? Do you want food that satisfies your body? Do y

Jun 13, 2013

Seek Desire

. Seek out that which kindles desire in you. Is it this song? That painting? People on the street? This nightclub? That forest? Is it the way you dance in the evening, when no one is around? Is it the photos of people rising up around the world? What is it? Cultivate desire. Follow beauty. Find that which touches you. Let it move you, let yourself act. We have a world to re-align toward love. We can’t do this if we do not desire. What is it? What does your heart want? What do

Prioritize Desire

Dec 12, 2012

Prioritize Desire

. What does your heart or soul long for? What do your thoughts turn to? What is the desire that has been coiling at your core? What are you making a priority? If we do not act on our deepest soul desires, we are not allowing ourselves to do the work we are meant to do. We can choose to find ways to support our: art, activism, gardening, research, service, music, dance, parenting, writing, justice work, singing, laughter, study, leadership, spiritual practice…Name the abiding

Choose (Love)

Nov 14, 2012

Choose (Love)

. What exactly is it that you desire? What fills your heart and soul? What engages your actions? What are you choosing to make central to your life? I can tell you this: no matter how much pain you are in, no matter how lonely, angry, frustrated, sad, weary, or overwhelmed you may feel, there is still love in this world. There is still hope. You can choose to take a breath, raise your head, open your eyes, and meet this hope, this love. We all can. We are in this together. Le

Ordinary and Amazing

May 24, 2012

Ordinary and Amazing

. Yes, we are ordinary. Life is simply as it is, and stories seem exciting simply because excitement engages our emotions and draws us in. Storytellers take the ordinary and make it seem unusual because they have the ability to see things in a new light. They are curious about life in all its permutations. What will it take to make us curious about our own lives? Curiosity is the antidote to boredom, the antidote to ennui, the antidote to feeling stuck in a rut. What will it

Accepting Failure Creates Success

Aug 24, 2011

Accepting Failure Creates Success

I fail every day. Just ask my students. I also succeed. The same students – or clients, or friends – might likely tell you that, as well. My work is to teach, to mentor, to write, to present, and to show up. My work is also to answer emails in a timely fashion, to keep on top of the projects I’ve begun, to remain accountable to volunteers, to practice and study, to spend time with my friends, partners, and beloveds. My work is to listen, to plan, to remain open to what is aro

You Can Do This Amazing Thing

Jul 27, 2011

You Can Do This Amazing Thing

Sometimes we fear being taken over by desire: fearful that we will become out of control, obsessed, unrecognizable, arrogant, no longer in control of our destiny… Whatever our personal story is, there can always be something that holds us back. I have, however, seen many people ruined by sheer lack of desire. Nothing felt interesting enough, or safe enough, or worth their while… Or perhaps they felt that they themselves were unworthy of making full effort, committing, failing

Risking Criticism

Jul 18, 2011

Risking Criticism

“We won’t lie. The decision to become visible is a risk.” – Chris Brogan and Julien Smith We have put ourselves out there, followed the dream, taken the stand, shown up because it was right and necessary… and someone takes a pot shot, undermines us, talks trash. Being visible can suck. Not acting because we fear visibility is worse. In order to be criticized for what we’ve done, we have to be willing to do something. Sometimes the continued activation of our true Will in the

Redefining Success

Jun 24, 2011

Redefining Success

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou Love and creativity are renewable resources. Other resources are more scarce, and fear or ignorance create systems of injustice and devastation. These can make us feel alone, angry, bewildered, or like failures. There is enough success to go around, just not the sort of success we may have been taught to value. In redefining success, we begin to redefine our relationship to the overcult

Trying to Know (Thyself)

Jun 16, 2011

Trying to Know (Thyself)

The power To Know* requires a willingness to try, to attempt presence, to live with ourselves as we are and as we are becoming. It requires a little bit of each of the Four Powers in order to begin. We need that willingness I just spoke of, plus the courage of daring required to look at ourselves and our lives. Silence is also required – we cannot come into a state of knowing when constantly bombarded by noise and hustle and the wash of information that most of us in what is

Set the World on Fire

Jun 6, 2011

Set the World on Fire

There are many books written on self-love, probably more than are written on selfishness, though we could likely debate that. I’m not here to debate that. I am here to enjoin us toward the love of self that enables us to better love each other. I’m here to ask us all: are we not part of God Herself? Are we not an integral part of creation and the unfolding of the patterns of life? Really. Why are we here? We are here to find and follow our destiny. We are here to listen to de

Be Still… and Know.

Feb 15, 2011

Be Still… and Know.

photo by Scott Liddell How do we open to knowledge? How do we follow it? The answer to both questions is the same: we learn to listen. Most of our lives are crowded – with the bustle of jobs, family, advertising, television, shopping, cleaning, cooking – making it feel quite difficult to listen to anything but the clamor. We are also riddled with a constant barrage of thoughts and emotional states, sometimes brought about by our very wish to know what it is we are supposed to

Ordinary Brilliance

Jan 2, 2011

Ordinary Brilliance

“I feel frustrated that I cannot seem to touch the core idea of what my deepest desire really is. I have feelings around it, but not the ability to articulate this…and I recognize that I must be somehow standing my own way.” Some of us get the bolt out of the blue, the crystalline, perfect answer, the guidance we have been waiting for. Others of us get the small feelings, the intuition, the subtle unfolding moment by moment, day by day. Either way, our work is the same: we s

Inquiry, Engagement, Caring, and Delight

Oct 28, 2010

Inquiry, Engagement, Caring, and Delight

“Failing helps you see how far is too far, failing helps remind you that failing isn’t fatal, and most of all, failing opens you up to succeeding.” – Seth Godin, from “Graceful” We all make mistakes. We all have fear of something or another, whether well founded or not. Can we learn to turn our mistakes into lessons? Can we risk regardless of our fear? Some of us are fear failure, and still others fear the responsibility of success. Either of these keeps us in stasis, keeps u

Live the Life You Want: a Very Long Post!

Oct 23, 2010

Live the Life You Want: a Very Long Post!

Personal example: I don’t comprehend authors who “write the books they have to so they can someday write the books they want to”. That seems ridiculous to me. What, is our religion a market where we chase every fad, hoping to get noticed or make a buck? We just show up. We listen. We do our work. We speak. Some exchange happens. Some people will notice. Most people will not. But that’s OK. I don’t need to have that kind of a relationship with everyone. Sure, I’d like to sell

The Persistence of Desire

Oct 16, 2010

The Persistence of Desire

(more notes from a larger work in progress) We often think of desire as a sharp yearning, something filled with fire and passion, a thirst that must be quenched immediately. But desire often shows its face in sheer persistence. This is what mystic philosopher G. I. Gurdjieff called a “wish”. A wish is the continued return to the well, year after year. A wish follows the water back to source. A wish notices the small sparks when the come, and uses these to build a sustainable

Your Life is Not on Hold

Jul 12, 2010

Your Life is Not on Hold

Dance a new creation today. Rise up inside yourself and find that which dances. You have waited too long in silence, in the corners of your life. Be bold! Be brash! Be strong! Beauty wraps his copper arms around you. Sorrow lifts you up into your joy. She Who waits around each secret corner sends out the calling that reveals your Name. There is nothing to wait for. There is only this moment. Seize the day. When we put off joy, when we defer desire, we stunt our growth. Hard w

You Can’t Copy a Revolution

Jul 10, 2010

You Can’t Copy a Revolution

When you hear the call of your soul, what in you feels excitement, and what within you feels dread? There is story after story of prophets and mystics trying to refuse the call, because they felt they were not good enough as they were, or they were frightened of the implications for their lives. There are just as many stories of people – artists, musicians, athletes – who have followed that call against all odds. I know both types of person, and often they are one and the sam

What do You Offer the World?

May 11, 2010

What do You Offer the World?

What is your recipe for making trouble? How do you upset the status quo? What do you infuse your work with? What inspires you to take the ordinary risk of bringing your whole self to work, to love, to life? What tries to hold you back from this? Don’t you want more? Many people in my spiritual direction practice lately feel like things are too much and they cannot keep up. Thing is, we don’t have to keep up, and we certainly don’t have to speed up. What is more helpful is to

Risk. Desire. Connection.

Apr 23, 2010

Risk. Desire. Connection.

“Talking in an unhurried way with neighbors or walking across a field with a child — we are powerfully full of information, visions, clarity, generosity and our future. We already have what the corporations want to sell us. We are born with that fire. This “whole thing” is organized for us by the god of the Earth.” – Rev. Billy Talen from his blog. “These people are not separatists, demanding that the outside world provide them with the tools to practice their esoteric religi