Can I Handle the Changes by Camilla Downs

Can I?

The changes.
Create fear,
they do.

We’re all getting older,
life is not as it was.

What is this strange
thing happening?

It is true things change,
nothing stays the same.

What is happening?

Can I handle the changes?

It’s all changing
I’m changing
they are changing
nothing is as it was.

There’s no stopping
the changes.

It’s the one thing
we can be sure will
arrive – changes.

Why do the changes
create such suffering?
Why do the changes
have to be experienced
in …..

Go here to read more ….

Poetry and Photography: Can I Handle The Changes

High Energy and Low Energy and Wild and Crazy Wind

January 14 2018:

Solo walk yesterday. It was a high energy day yesterday. Complete opposite today. Feel like I was up all night doing strenuous work. And I slept hard all night. HA! This interesting and magical thing called life …. I will have to request the night off tonight from whatever I was working on in my sleep!!

Solo Walk Vintage Lake 1.13.18

January 18 2018:

Solo walk this afternoon. Wild and crazy wind kicking up itty bitty white caps in this tiny lake. (Pictures a tad blurry as I couldn’t hold my arms still from the wind blowing so hard!!) This walk felt so incredibly good. Gratitude and love overflowed and blew away in the winds. Amazing!! The wind was Wild!! Suited me and my inner Wild Woman! xoxoxoxo

Solo Walk Vintage Lake 1.18.18 #1 Solo Walk Vintage Lake 1.18.18 #2 Solo Walk Vintage Lake 1.18.18 #3 Solo Walk Vintage Lake 1.18.18 #4 Solo Walk Vintage Lake 1.18.18 #5

One Breath at a Time by Camilla Downs

December 13 2017:

One Breath at a Time

One breath at a time, dear one

You find yourself in a vast ocean of your own creation.
An ocean full of the humanness of life.

Joy, love, peace,
laughter, happiness, abundance,
beauty, compassion, kindness.
Fear, sadness, greed,
competition, judgements, shame,
guilt, jealousy, loneliness.

At times you feel as if you
are on the verge of drowning.

One’s arms and legs have become
heavy with the struggle of this
ocean swirling with humanness.

What is one to do?
There is no ….

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Poetry and Photography: One Breath at a Time

Shining Star Bag by Camilla Downs

You can take
All the hearts
Nature puts forth

And put them 
All in a bag
Made of stars
Wrapped in a
Bow of beautiful
Green grass.

But there’ll be
Days when no
Matter the beauty
No matter the love
No matter the
Depth of knowing
How the Light
Shines within.

There’ll be days
When a heaviness
Envelops and that
Shining star bag
Full of love ….

Go here to read more …

Poetry and Photography: Shining Star Bag

Lead the Way by Camilla Downs

Musk Thistle #1

“Lead the Way”

I know not what I am doing.

This requires more than
self-confidence could ever provide.

This beckons a confidence not of my self.

A confidence ruled by the force
that causes the musk thistle do what it does.
Sprout, grow, bloom, wither, blow
with the wind, and re-seed.

The force that holds the stars
in the sky and the same force
that grew two beings in my womb.

This beckons a …

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Poetry: Lead the Way

The Way of Pain by Camilla Downs

“The Way of Pain”

Experience the pain, we must.
Feel the pain, be with the pain,
so as to receive the shining gift
that awaits on the other side
of the pain.

Physical pain, emotional pain,
as long as we push against it,
fight against it, cover it up,
smother it, drown it with
numbing agents, we miss out
on the indescribable beauty
that awaits when we lovingly
embrace it and walk consciously
through it.

Pain is a ….

Poetry and Photography: The Way of Pain

 

The Key of Alchemy by Camilla Downs

Sun Rays with Poem 2017

“The Key of Alchemy”

When ignored,
the darkness within
slowly erodes this physical body
When stuffed and buried deep within,
it silently grows stronger.

At some point along the path
and at many times,
the darkness surfaces.
Like a bullet train
or ever so slowly as a tortoise.
It will not be denied.

Keep turning our hearts away, we can.
Yet, the darkness will not depart
until it has space to be recognized.

The darkness, the shadows
only wish and pine for this space.
To be seen and accepted and felt
with compassion and deep love.

As the darkness is wrapped
in a loving embrace,
the transformation begins.

Acceptance, compassion and love,
serve to alchemize the darkness and shadows.
Transforming and melting the darkness
into the light.

The darkness may transform like a
freight train or may ever so slowly
transform as a tortoise.
Yet, it will transform when met
with love and compassion.

The irritation,
The anger,
The loneliness,
The despair,
The confusion.
Surface as they rub
the darkness within.
These feelings and emotions are the
key that allow an
opportunity to free oneself
from the suffering of denying
the darkness.

Freedom to live
consciously and authentically
is the gift this Key bears.

Oh, glory be,
the Key of Alchemy.
-2017, Camilla Downs, Lessons from Nature

Liberation by Camilla Downs

Cloud Dancing with Full Moon 2017

Liberation

She was tired.
Tired of trying to figure it out.

Tired of trying to make things work.
Tired of manipulating circumstances
to make things work.
Tired of trying to control situations to make things work.

Tired of living in confusion.
Tired of the suffering
created by way of her thoughts.

Tired of the chains that
bound her to the suffering.
Tired of dragging those
invisible chains through life.

Tired of not loving herself.
Tired of not being loved.
Tired of the responsibility of it all.

Tired of questioning her every decision.
Tired of hiding the Truth from herself.
Tired of running from her own self.

Tired of the darkness within.
Tired of the pull of the ego.

What she craved.
What she desperately needed.
Was … FREEDOM.

In desperation she dropped to her knees.
Crying out to the all knowing,

Take this tired body,
Take this tired mind,
Take this confusion,
Take this suffering,

She let it all go.
She released it to the divine.

She asked for liberation
from her self-induced suffering.

Liberate this soul.
Liberate this heart.

Allow this heart to open.
Allow this heart to
receive and know unconditional love.
Allow this mind to know Clarity.

Liberation to the graceful
place of Knowing Freedom.
Liberation to the Place
of letting go.

Letting Go
And saying Yes
to Life. -©2017 Camilla Downs, Lessons from Nature
(Written in May 2017)