Heartfelt Dolls
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    • Heartfelt Dolls: companions for the journey
    • The Quotidian Doll: an introduction >
      • The Quotidian Doll Blog: introducing a Heartfelt-doll-a-day
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      • Matariki
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      • Heartfelt dolls in a series >
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        • A cautionary tale ...
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      • Black Dog: one woman's experience with depression >
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      • An Advent Retreat in Daily Life
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    • Heartfelt waiting: reflections on the season of Advent >
      • Matron Saints of Un-named Women
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      • A Lenten Walk
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      • Voices on the Via Lucis
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      • The Mouse
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      • These Parables Blow Me Apart!
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      • An Intentional Walk
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      • Does God Exist?
      • The Sewing Basket
      • Advent: A Sacred Space
      • A Secular Liturgy
      • Your Call
      • Dance me To The End Of Love
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    • Blessings on the wind: a year of blessings >
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    • Prayer flag blog
  • Gratitude Flowers

THE ALCHEMY OF CHANGE

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To be human is to be a being of change.
I am struggling with this as I encounter great changes in my life.
As is my way,
I looked to poets and writes and artists to accompany me
as I look, listen and lose myself in these changes.
As is my habit,
I have chosen doll-making to express myself.
I randomly, perhaps serendipitously, chose The Fisherman by Julie McCullough
as a means for exploring the changes in my life.

In Greco-Roman mythology,
the fish is a symbol of renewal,
of change,
of transformation
and of preservation of life.
So here am I, the fisherman, riding these changes, this transformation.
This is not a passive activity:
I have the opportunity at any time to disembark.
I also have oars to steer and guide my responses.
Looking carefully at this doll, I see that
I am one with this renewal, these changes.
I have grown out of them and I will continue to grow with them.



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The most difficult part of change for me is fear of the unknown.
Waiting for test results.
Waiting for answers to applications.
Waiting for 'the boat to come in' as my mother would say.
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

In my meditation,
I have found that water holds an endless mystery.
It represents that which is certainly there
but cannot be seen.

And so, I am embracing the mystery;
standing with an open heart in the liminal space;
embracing the unknown with a grateful heart;
being open to receive the gifts which I am offered.

The Fisherman doll immerses me in the depths of mystery.
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The depths of the ocean are the milieu of the fisherman.
We are awed, sometimes even overcome,
by our findings from the deep.
But these findings, this new knowledge,
has the capacity to transform us and our world.
We cannot discover what the ocean has to reveal
unless we plunge into it.

So I, too, must plunge into the changes that confront me,
and join in the cosmic dance.
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Water is a womb symbol -
an emblem of fertility and birth.
From water springs life.

Change  is a fertile ground.
All the questions that change proposes
are an invitation to rebirth and renewal.
All the doubt and angst and grief that change brings
can be the rich ground in which new life is nurtured.
But there is always movement -
gentle, encouraging, nurturing,
rhythmical, soothing, transformative,
violent, turbulent, destructive -
toward new life.

Every change is embryonic.
Every change offers an invitation to birth new life.
Will I offer hospitality to change in my life?

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In Norse mythology,
the fish represents adaptability and determination.

Change is intrinsic to the flow of life.
We do not grow without changes
in our physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional selves.
Sometimes we get stuck in an immature stage of life,
especially after a traumatic event such as abuse or serious illness.
However, we must acknowledge and embrace the event as a part of our life story,
and adapt to a new, changed life.

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Through change,
we have the opportunity to grow in knowledge and wisdom
and to become inspired.
The choice is ours.

Do we allow ourselves to become resentful, entrenched, angry even,
at the changes we encounter,
or do we respond with gratitude and receptivity
and cherish the knowledge and wisdom we have gained?

Are knowledge and wisdom the oars with which
we steer a course through our lives?

Do we allow the change to become a part of us -
so we are enriched
and evolve into the best we can be?
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Accepting change,
especially that which is not self-imposed,
involves a change of perspective.
I need to set aside the idea that change is an imposition
and receive it as a gift,
to be opened, treasured, responded to.
I need to welcome the invitation to grow;
to hope;
to believe in a transformed tomorrow.

Happiness and freedom
are daughters of change that is
willingly accepted and embraced.
Picture
visit sticks and stones
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