The Great Cloud River – Meet me there….

Enter the cloud river

where the words

are dripping with honey

and our lips speak

of only love

that has never been harmed.

This is the place between places

the space between spaces

where you can go

to dip your toes in the

cool waters of creation

and believe again

that renewal is possible.

This is where time

is no longer linear

and unstretches itself

from its sleepy curl

and begins to offer

little silver fishes

of timelessness.

Gifts from the midnight muse

are sometimes shiny and wet.

This is where the poets

and the artists and the healers go

to put their heads

in the clouds of

possibility and speak

promises that aren’t

about keeping secrets

but are about exploring

what you see when you

enter through

the door at the back of your heart.

I am looking out now

through the colors

in your heart so I can see

the world with new eyes.

When you call on me

whose name is love

you can always find me

where hope springs eternal

and smiles are as dependable

as morning and laughter

resounds in the branches

of bloom filled trees.

This is the place where

we dip our golden cups

into the streams of creativity

and find ourselves laughing

the gravity from our

bodies until we are only light.

How good it feels,

this buoyancy because of you.

Can you smell the presence

of the angels?

We call this place

the great cloud river but its

real name is beauty.

Meet me there.

Written from the Red Thread Cafe in San Francisco on cool Sunny morning…

Dear Ones,

Today I want to talk about the connection of friendship and the power of the heart to heal….

Many moons ago (16 years) I was in an art store in Colorado and I saw this amazing woman. I instantly recognized her as one of my own, and as the story goes, began to talk to her and make a connection. Three of my best friends, I picked by hand. She was one of them. A bond was formed, and our then partners and us became the best of friends, sharing many a meal and sacred circle and ritual. As time unraveled we all moved away.  While we never truly lost touch of our heart connection, we also did not see each other though we knew the love was always there. And I think in our hearts we knew one day we would see each other again. Last Sunday was the moment when Dakota River flew into San Francisco from New York and flew back into my life. It was midnight when she arrived at Casita Paloma and Christine Arylo and I greeted her with drums and candles and playfulness as we had been enjoying mucho rojo vino.

Seeing Dakota, it was as if no time had passed – don’t you love it when there is a friend like that?

Do you know this place? As if from the first moment you have known eachother forever, and no matter how much time has passed it is as if they were never truly gone? This is how the red thread works with those who truly belong to eachother in the great circle of life.

Dakota was at the first circles I led. She was there at one my first workshops (we handmade menstrual pads!). She was there with my husband and I before my heart was broken to pieces. I was there with her and her love before their rivers parted. I heard her prayers for her life and work. We knew one another’s greatest loves and because of that, the ability to understand the beauty and the grace and the hardship of our lives since we walked the Colorado trails was so bitter sweet and savory. We both felt healed this week through our connection and made a lasting bond of friendship. We decided that place would be called the Cloud River and that we could always find eachother there. There are those you should never let go if you can possibly help it. If the Universe is kind and brings you one back on a river of love, don’t let them pass you by. Reach out for their hand as if it is the most important thing in the world. It might be.

At this moment she is on the plane back to New York. Her work has been working with those in society who are the most harmed, on the front lines she has shared her love with the world. Our common vision to be of service all these years, to serve those who are hurting, helps us to speak a language that not everyone can understand. When your life is dedicated to soothing the fevers of humanity, you are altered and the fabric of the world looks different and it is important to look at it with others who share a similar story and experience. I hope, and have asked her to work with The Cosmic Cowgirls on the rape crisis journal – cross your fingers with me that she says yes. Wouldn’t it be amazing if one of my lifelong dreams was fulfilled with an old friend who knew me when I was just 25 and fired up about changing the world? Back then I studied to be an advocate, and thought I would do the works she chose to do – but the universe had other plans for me, Our Blessed Lady told me I had to teach painting, and that was the front line I would serve – one with paint on the end of it.

I close this red thread letter with an invitation. Is there someone, that it is time you reached out to? Someone you would like to invite into the healing waters of the great cloud river?

Loving you all so very much it hurts, but in the super good way.

Shiloh Sophia