Anne Heck

Blessing All

I've just returned from a 5-day intensive training with internationally renowned dowser Joey Korn. It was an inspirational learning experience and one that I have truly taken to heart.

Joey has developed a form of spiritual dowsing that works with Life Force energies to bring healing and balance to peoples’ lives and living environments.

In the training, Joey taught us in the same manner that this information was revealed to him, enabling us to ask similar questions and test energies with our own dowsing.  We had the opportunity to practice intensely with balancing energies -- patterns that appear in our homes and on our properties as well as within our own beings.   We also had the opportunity to participate in some remote work for individuals who had requested it.

I've returned home inspired to bless all people, places and situations.  It's such a simple act and yet produces  such profoundly beneficial results.

Joey will be in Asheville to teach a workshop the weekend of November 21 -22.  Contact him for details if you're interested in this work.

She Who Shines

I participated in vision quest in mid-August; here I spent 4 days and 4 nights on a mountain without food and water.  My experience is not easily put into words.  What I can share is that this experience touched me more deeply than I anticipated and kindled in me much greater self-trust.

In preparing for quest, I was inspired to create a doll as a gift for my teacher who supported me in such a good way.  As I played with her coming into form, she began to whisper to me that she was an expression of my light, and her name became "She Who Shines Her Inner Light."

Her presence is strong and full, her belly bulging with a sense of self.  She stands tall and opens her arms to embrace all that is. 

There was a sweetness in gifting her to my teacher as I felt I was sharing with her the gifts she had given me with her loving support.  I have deep gratitude for the ceremony of quest, for the way it opens us to infinite possibility and for the strength and resolve of our inner light.

Playing with Color

Color is magic.  Perhaps this is so because colors can combine in infinite ways or perhaps it's simply that they can so quickly inspire me.

My daughter Liza has been mixing potions lately.  It usually begins with color -- all our food coloring mixed into water.  And then there are green leaves and brown dirt and some pinches of white sand.  

She was inspired today to turn cloth different colors.  Fortunately for both of us I had a selection of old dyes in my craft bin, so we sat and ripped fabric into pieces and chose our favorite colors to play with.  I mixed dyes and Liza stuffed the fabric into the bowls with plastic spoons.  Then we hung the colored fabric outside to dry in the sun.

Liza was thrilled with the colors and instantly had ideas about how she was going to use the fabric. I, too, began to fantasize about how to combine tiny swatches to create a rainbow.  It's likely that these pieces will be tucked into a toy box or will be incorporated into my fabric stash. 

What I love is that it only takes a peek at the color and I, once again, experience magic.

Ahhhh Summertime!

For years I’ve claimed fall as my favorite time of year.  I love a carpet of colored leaves underfoot and feeling crisp air about me. 

Right now, it’s summertime and I’m finding this moment full of perfection.  The black raspberries have come and gone and this morning I made a batch of berry muffins from my dwindling supply.  As well, the peaches are golden and sweet and are, yes, wooing me to relish this summer day. 

I’ve been making a practice of observing my beliefs and am humored by some of what I’ve learned about myself.  In light of this moment, I can honestly say that I no longer believe fall is my favorite time of year.  I’ve realized that I don’t have to choose favorites because every moment can hold the fullness of what I perceive a favorite contains.  The more I stay present to what this moment offers, the more fullness I experience in life. 

So, in this moment, I have my cup of hot tea, a fresh-baked berry muffin and I sit on my front porch taking in the songs of the morning.  This moment fills me . . . ahhhh summertime!

Heeding the Call

Last summer I had a dream in which I was surrounded by a community of beautiful, powerful women.  This vision was so unexpected and so enticing that I paid close attention to what arose in relation to it.

Within a week, I received a call from one of my teachers; she shared that a request had come to her to hold a Vision Quest ceremony for women.  I knew this was where I wanted to be and was quite sure, even at that time, that I would be going atop the mountain to request a vision. 

For the past year, I’ve been sitting 2-3 times per month with a group of extraordinary women.  I’ve had the opportunity to look more closely at my personal history and to get to know myself more deeply.

If we want to know ourselves, we have to surrender to a Higher Power who knows all about us – our weaknesses, our mistakes, and our potentials.  Many Native American tribes do this through a meditation known as the “Vision Quest” – the setting aside of a time and place, alone out in nature, to communicate with Spirit and explore that which is within.  Somewhere in that space of time as we are questing (or in the preparation or aftermath of the actual quest), answers come.

I’m at a crossroads in my life as I’ve spent much of my adult life healing, raising my awareness and knowing myself deeper.  At this point, I’m choosing to have clarity about my future path of service.  I’ve heeded the call to sit on the mountain for a vision this August.  I have much gratitude to be supported in this work by a circle of beautiful, powerful women.

Lightness of Being

My doll-making journey has paralleled my recent musings on the feminine.  One of my latest creations has brought me messages about the mystique and beauty of being female.  Her name is 'Cinder' and as may be apparent by her photos, she's very perceptive while being a tad mischievous.  Cinder came to me after I visited the darkness of my scapegoat and I'm still reveling in her lightness of being.

Cinder is teaching me the value of staying light, of not taking myself too seriously, of dancing to the mood of the moment and being playful.  Part of what she's here to teach me is how to fly.  Interestingly, her wings have gone through several iterations and she tells me they're still not quite ready for take-off.  I'll revisit this when the timing is right.

Meanwhile, another doll is coming through to support me in balancing my masculine and feminine aspects  -- the Compassionate Mother.  This one is taking time and patience and I feel her overflowing with light and love.  Stay tuned!

Cultivating the Feminine

Over the course of my life in general and more intimately over the past few months, I’ve observed the degree to which I identify with my masculine nature. It’s been my tendency since early childhood to live up to expectations of my father and society’s masculine-oriented expectations of success.  In many ways, I’ve walked what I felt was the ‘more respected’ path, often dismissing my own feminine desires as ‘wimpy’ and ‘unworthy.’

I'm aware that it’s not the case that this rejection of my feminine nature resulted from being violently raped; perhaps it’s more likely that incident was predicated from my conceding to our cultural belief in feminine powerlessness.

With this awareness, I’ve been experiencing some anger and loss and am seeing part of the path before me as a quest to heal this feminine wound.  In my quest, I’ve been resonating deeply with the Native American Flute.  I made a bamboo flute last year and fell in love with the process.  This past December, I happened to express my interest to my dad and he decided to run with it.  He's quite skilled as a woodworker and though he knows little about music, he's been spending the past month crafting native flutes.  I visited this past weekend to take part in the process.

As I move into this space with greater respect for my feminine nature, I'm profoundly aware of those places that I have, in the past, plowed through life only desiring an outcome, how I mistook this moment as unworthy compared with product or result, how I severely undervalued the power in simply being with what's before me.  As I embrace these more flowing aspects of my nature and allow my intuition to take precedence, I'm beginning to understand the power inherent in the feminine.

It feels timely that I'm creating flutes and also a blessing in many ways to have my father by my side.  I'm grateful for being shown this way to embrace the balance of my wholeness. 

I'm anticipating some sweet flowing music.

Grateful for our Time Together

One of our dearest friends passed on this evening.  Jordan has been a constant loving energy in our lives for years.  She has grown with my children, basking in the sun on our front porch, sitting patiently outside our door waiting for her doggy biscuit, lovingly sitting by our side to have her ears scratched and always making herself available for soft cuddly hugs. 

Liza has always had a special relationship with Jordan which I've written about before.  It was Liza who wisely shared that even though Jordan couldn't see, it was okay because she had eyes in her heart.

We all felt sad today to know she no longer walks with us; Liza took it hardest.  She shared how she just hugged her yesterday out in the sunny grass and how she just wanted to hug her one more time.

It made me realize how grateful I am for my time in communion with others, for companionship with those I love, for the time we do get to hold hands, scratch ears, hug and touch one another, for the gentleness and unconditional love of our furry friends.

This evening, Liza and I sat on the earth beside where Jordan was buried, the stars barely lighting our faces; there we said our words of gratitude to Jordan for our time together.

As we sat, I thought of how Jordan had loved us for years, even when she couldn't see us.  Now it's our turn to engage those eyes in our hearts.  Thank you, Jordan.

A Precious Gift

Children offer such heart-warming reminders of the really important things in life.  My 9-year-old son Joseph was asked to write a poem over his holiday break about a gift that was precious to him.  I wondered if he'd write about Star Wars Lego or, perhaps, his new adventure belt with all his survival tools in it.

I was touched by what he wrote --

A Hug From My Parents
by Joseph Heck

a warm blanket
wrapped around
me
a rainbow
of colors
up next to
me
the taste
of candy
fills my mouth
I smell
the
scent of
mints
sparkly
like a
bee drawn
in by a
flower
like a
purr
of a cat
on my lap
sweet
warm
special

Solstice Reflection

Dollmaking continues for me and they're coming in all sizes and shapes.  What's more, those that are appearing feel light - a perfect match for winter solstice. 

This little woodland fairy was inspired by the work of Salley Mavor.  I made a little cotton draw-string bag for her to live in and gifted her to my friend Miriam who runs Drum Song Sanctuary in Chapel Hill, NC.  Last week, I drove to Drum Song to take part in an Arapaho Sweat Lodge Ceremony. This ceremony is one for cleansing through sweat and prayer; it gave me an opportunity to be clear about what I'm no longer wanting to carry.

Cleansing seems to go hand-in-hand with this solstice time of the sun's rebirth.  I watched the sun rise this morning and stated my gratitude for new beginnings.

Cleansing is also in sync with my desire to create  -- to put outside of me that which desires to come out.  And my creative urges seems to deepen in proportion to the depth of cold that surrounds me.  We had a winter reprieve this past week with some near-70 days and I was out on the hiking trails, but as old man winter came knocking this morning, I felt myself drawn back into journal pages and fabric swatches.