​One of my favorite artistic traditions comes from Japan and is called Kintsugi, the mending of broken pottery with gold. It reminds me of the deep wounds of the heart that we all have experienced in our lives.  Even though we’re unique as individuals in how our paths unfold and how we move through our challenges, all of us still experience wounds of the heart. 
 
A Kintsugi artist, instead of hiding or disguising the past that has caused the break in the pottery, transforms the piece’s damage and history into something beautiful. The piece of pottery glimmers with cracks that are filled with gold, giving the pottery an appearance that is unique to itself, unlike any other piece.  A creation of a glorious, new life! 

​What suffering, with deep wounds of your heart, have you experienced?  Have you suffered grief, betrayal, or jealousy? 
 
How do we make sure that our deep wounds of the heart don’t cause us to become hard-hearted or without forgiveness or compassion for ourselves and others?
 
How do we make sure the pain we feel doesn’t lead to feeling ill will toward another?  Keeping them at a distance as we struggle with trusting or connecting with others.  

How can our wounds of the heart be healed? Opening up to compassion, love and understanding.
 
In Scivias, St. Hildegard shared about the person we can become “…who is without any blemish of hard-heartedness, ill will, and unfairness.”  As this person, your heart is open and flows with love, empathy, and compassion, in and out like your breath. 
 
You accept others and yourself.  You forgive easily.  You are open to love. 
 
St. Hildegard also spoke about her vision of a person in sapphire blue who’s surrounded by light and warmth.  “Imagine a very bright light, and inside it there is a person who is the color of sapphire. This person is completely surrounded by a very pleasant fire of reddish color. The very bright light completely surrounds this fire of reddish color, and at the same time this fire completely surrounds the light. Both the fire and the light surround the person, existing as one light with one force of potentiality.”
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We can imagine this bright light and reddish fire coming to infuse the wounded cracks of our heart with warm, healing gold.  Our hard-heartedness melts away. We are able to, once again, feel love and compassion for ourselves and open our arms to let it flow to others in the world. 
 
 
Consider the following in your own life:
 

1. Where have you felt hard-heartedness, ill will, and unfairness toward yourself or another?  When did this start and why?

 

1. Picture molten gold that shines with a bright light and warm reddish color. Let your wounds that resulted in your hard-heartedness be filled with the warm, healing reddish-gold light.  You are being filled with compassion, love, and understanding.

 

1. Once you are filled with these healing forces, listen inwardly. Where are you called to extend this healing force in the world?  Where will it go? What will it do?

 
Hold these questions in your heart within your meditation or before bed.  See what bubbles up to help you to heal the wounds of your heart. 
 
 If you would like support to heal the wounds of your heart, I invite you to contact me for a free 30 minute initial consultation.

​Challenges are a part of life. Whether we embrace them or try to avoid them, we all come up against roadblocks in our life from time to time. They could come from other people or circumstances that enter our path.  Or a tragedy or devastating event that brings us pain.  Or they may even be internal challenges – our own lack of energy or motivation, inability to focus, or limiting beliefs.  

​Often like a bolt of lightning, challenges come into our lives and jolt us awake. How can we learn to stay strong, instead of crumble under the pressure?  How can we learn to see the opportunity or gift that may be presenting itself within the challenge?
 
Obstacles that come into your path are opportunities for you to grow beyond your current state. To break through the ceiling of your perceived limitations. 
 
Yet they may be difficult to view this way when you’re in the midst of the storm and feeling trapped or ready to drown.  How do we transform them to help us move forward instead of being stuck in the current circumstances?  

Obstacles, if not overcome, can overwhelm and stop you from moving forward in the vision for your life’s journey.  They can keep you stuck, usually in fear, unable to take action in order to grow. 
 
St. Hildegard, in the second part of Scivias, shares a vision that we can use when coming up against challenge, “lmagine a very bright fire which is….wholly living, …and it is blazing violently... And imagine this flame lighten in color and give forth a bolt of lightning.”
 
And she continues, sharing how this bolt of lightning that may come into your life actually leads to a clearing and a cleansing of the air, “Behold, the air…– suddenly rising up, and the flame sending sparks into the air, thereby leading the air to perfection. The air sparkles and is put in order...”
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​And this even brings a gift, a new creative force into being, “After that, this flame sends forth some of its fire to a little clod of muddy earth which is lying on the ground. This flame makes this little clod warm so that a body and blood are brought forth. This flame breathes into this body and blood, and a person is brought forth. With this finished, the bright fire… brings the whitest of flowers to this person…”
 
Take a moment to look back into your life.  Where have you had challenges that now, you can see were creative opportunities for growth in your life?  What were the “whitest of flowers” or gifts from the situation? What do you appreciate now, looking back?
 
Be grateful for your own resiliency to come out of the darkness and grow! Celebrate – with joy and love – the you that has evolved through these moments! Offer appreciation and gratitude for the enduring light that shines in your life – the “whitest of flowers”, as St. Hildegard says.  

Now that you’ve considered the past, come to the present moment.  What obstacles present themselves to you today?  How can you see them as creative opportunities for growth? Let me offer some contemplative questions for you.

• Identify an obstacle that’s present in your life today.
• Consider how it began – when, where, how, why?  What triggered it? 
• How does this obstacle interfere with your path in life – your relationships, your gifts to share with others, your goals, your well-being?
• What creative opportunity is being presented here? Imagine what might arise in your life if you were able to transform this obstacle into an opportunity?  How would you be empowered to move forward?  What positive changes would arise? How would you grow?  Picture yourself already in this moment. 
• Ask your higher self or spirit guides for guidance in discovering the next steps needed to reach this moment beyond the obstacle. 

 
Use this practice for several days in a row and see what “whitest flower” arises in your life.
 
Check out the many resources available to support you on your spiritual journey in my Free Healing Library here. 
 
 “Instead of asking “what’s the problem?” ask “what’s the creative opportunity?” Deepak Chopra 

​The Universe supports you in ways that you may not even fully realize.  Yes, it does!
 
You may not realize this each and every moment in the day. You may even feel quite alone in the world at times.  

​But in truth, the Universe supports you each and every moment because you’re not separate from it. You’re one within it and it is one with you. That means that love, wisdom and peace that’s the nature of the Universe is also your nature.  And the support that is offered can show up in the world as angelic beings in many forms. 
 
It may be that sometimes you have certain people or events that bring something good into your life.  Or maybe you’re protected from something harmful that might’ve crossed your path. Or possibly you have an inspiration for an idea just when you need it most.
 
It might even seem that the Universe is conspiring to support you! 
 
Just ponder that idea for a moment.
 
The Universe is conspiring to support you! 
 
If you can open yourself to this idea, this possibility, the Divine oneness that you’re a part of becomes more apparent to you. You see that these moments aren’t accidental, but actually support and guidance coming to you. 
 
St. Hildegard shares in her 6th Illumination in Scivias how heavenly spirits are like a crown of light radiating to support us.  

​“Imagine….heavenly spirits on high…They are shining very brightly….they have faces that are like the faces of people. The looks on their faces appear as if they are pure water. (They) also have wings on their shoulders…The looks on their faces appear as if they are the image of the Word of God shining in a mirror….arranged in a circle as if they are a crown.
 
But all…are resounding with wondrous voices – accompanied with every type of music – all the miracles which God performed in the blessed souls.”
 
 
Imagine this crown of light that shines in the Universe for your own unique life – divine guides conspiring to support you in each and every moment.
 
And if you turn your energy and attention to this Divine support and presence, then they’ll even manifest more and more in your life.  One might even say miracles arise!  

​What if we were to expect miracles like these in our lives?  Expect that angels surround us and are available to support us if we simply ask?  How would that shift our view of our own life?
 
Moments of miracle appear in your life often. Cherish these moments no matter how small they are.  Don’t limit, in your thinking, the ways that you think miracles may appear. Open yourself to all possibilities. 
 
Miracles come to us in many forms.  They could be a healing.  Or a person who comes into our lives.  Or an opportunity that presents itself.  Maybe an adventure or an experience in nature.  Or many pieces falling into place in just the right way for you to take the next step. 


Put on your “miracle glasses” for a moment with me and look into your life’s journey so far.  When in your life did you have moments of support or goodness?  Where and how did those arise?  Who were the people, as angelic beings, involved who brought goodness into your day? 
 
When did you feel protected by harm that could’ve arisen?  Almost as if a circle of angelic beings were protecting you?

I invite you to explore this practice for the next week.  Each evening before bed, review your day.  Identify 5 ways that you felt supported by the Universe that day. Consider how that help arose.  Express your gratitude for these miracles – both big and small – that you received.
 
Check out the many resources available to support you on your spiritual journey in my Free Healing Library here. 

​All of us have people who come into our lives with messages for us. Sometimes they’re inspired teachers who we welcome into our lives as it’s clear they’re there to teach us something that we need in just that moment in order to align with the divine vision for our life.  

​Others come into our lives to help us learn something that’s needed but we don’t feel so inclined to welcome them with open arms.  The message they bring makes us uncomfortable.  We don’t want to see or hear it.  We want to hide.  Yet later, in hindsight, we see the importance of what that person brought into our lives and how it was needed at that time.
 
Who are the inspired guides who have come into your life to help you at just the right moment?  What did they share with you?  Was it hard to hear? 
 
Looking back in your life, how did that message change your path in life?  

​In the Fifth Vision of the First Part, Scivias, St. Hildegard speaks of the prophets who are showing us their signs. These prophets help us to see the direction we need to go.  They are messengers to guide us on our path.
 
Who are the prophets or inspired teachers in your life right now?  Who have come to guide you in the right direction?
 
St. Hildegard also had people in her life who shared with her messages that she needed to hear.  
 
One such confidant in her life was the monk, Volmar, who supported her in following her divine calling, even when she felt incapable of doing so at times.
It was Volmar who was the first person to validate her visions as divine experiences.  He recognized her rare spiritual gifts and became a good friend and mentor for many years in her life.
She shared her experience and her self-doubt with him, and he strongly encouraged her to write. Over 10 years, she shared her experiences in the text that would become her visionary work, Scivias.  Volmar became her secretary, writing down the words she dictated.  

He also encouraged her to campaign on her behalf to have her visions recognized by the Church as a divine message of God.  This led to Pope Eugenius III approving of her work and moving her forward into the public light as a spiritual and intellectual leader – something that was unheard of during these times, and even prohibited for women.
Volmar, St. Hildegard’s priest,  confidant and secretary, was in her life for over 60 years. 
St. Hildegard shows us how the steps on our journey can become a little easier to follow when we recognize those in our lives who come with important messages for us.

Who’s bringing the message that you need to hear in your life today? 

Listen with an open mind and heart to what comes. These often are messages from the spiritual realm, bringing the news you need as guidance to align with the divine vision in your life. 

I would be honored to be a guide in your life. Check out the many resources available to support you on your spiritual journey in my Free Healing Library here.