Love Oracle 9: Emerge More Fully into Joy

Which of these 8″ x 10″ layered intuitive paintings speaks to you most today as you contemplate the questions and issues in your heart and in your life? 

They were all painted with layer upon layer of mark-making in warm & cool colours before harmonizing the background with a tinted glaze and applying the main subject with the use of a home-drawn & cut stencil.

Pick one and scroll down to read its love oracle guidance. May it help you emerge more fully into joy.

Dear Beloved,

Do you know how a nautilus grows?

When it gets too large for its existing space, the (ultimately) volleyball-size nautilus adds on to the open end of its shell, expanding the diameter in a spiral configuration. … Every 150 days or so, a nautilus forms a membrane at its tail end that separates almost all of its body from the older portion of the shell.The one exception is a tube-shaped appendage called a siphuncle that extends back through the previously constructed chambers.

When first formed, a chamber is filled with fluid. But over time, as the growing nautilus adds bulk, the siphuncle sucks the fluid from the chamber. As a result, the shell becomes more buoyant, counterbalancing the added weight of the living animals to maintain neutral buoyancy (a condition of neither sinking nor rising).

Over the course of its life, a nautilus might add up to 30 chambers. In addition to gradually adjusting for its own increasing weight, it also can add or remove fluid from the old chambers more quickly to compensate for sudden changes such as a hefty meal or a sudden loss of part of its shell. (source)

Basically, when it gets too big for its space, it expands that space instead of trying to fit where it no longer belongs.

And instead of totally ignoring or throwing away its old comfort zones, it makes good use of them.

So what message is your heart translating here for your life?

How can you repurpose the rich experiences of your past (no matter how you perceive them) to to help you create new meaning and joy today?

Which area of your life needs more space to breathe and grow?

What old points of view, ways of being and doing no longer serve you?

Are you still trying to fit yourself or your life in a box that is now way too small for who you’re becoming?

What mindset needs to shift for you to move forwards?

The only constant in life is change itself. Embrace that need for change and grow into a more expansive container for joy.

Painting: Essence of the Universe (8″ x 10″)  Professional acrylics & glass beads on gallery-wrapped canvas with painted edges. SOLD

Dear Beloved,

It’s time to emerge from the goop to spread your wings and fly. 

There’s a good reason caterpillars stuff themselves before hanging upside down and spinning themselves into a chrysalis (for butterflies) or cocoon (for moths). That’s where they digest themselves until they’re basically goop – a very necessary process in the life cycle.

They need that time to regenerate into a new and different form. From that enzyme & protein rich goop comes a complete transformation, a beautiful metamorphosis.

For most caterpillars, it takes 5-21 days. For others in really harsh conditions, it can take up to 3 years.

The pandemic qualifies as harsh conditions and we’ve been in it for a few years. It’s OK if you felt the need to cocoon and stuff yourself….

But if you stay in that state, you may suffocate in your own goop and not grow into who you were meant to become.

It’s time to satisfy a new thirst for life: to do what it takes to break out of your shell (whether that be your home, your shrunken comfort zones, or limiting beliefs).

It’s time to spread your wings – discover who you are today.

You are no longer meant to be a caterpillar and to measure your goals, dreams, etc. by caterpillar standards. 

It’s time to get to know the Butterfly-You! What delights does this newly-emerged version of you want to explore? 

Your cocoon / chrysalis may have served you. But is it time to break out now?

Enjoy the freedom to be Truly You no matter what stage of your life cycle you’re in!

Dear Beloved,

May the spirit of the hummingbird inspire your journey this week and for years to come.

This amazing tiny creature can move like no other bird – up, down, backwards, forwards and even hovering in one place. Its movement possibilities seem endless.

So are yours! You have so many choices in every moment of where to place your attention with an environment rich with blessings to take part in. 

Also, hummingbirds travels 2000 km twice a year between South and North America- another amazing feat!

One way they can do this is that they spend their time searching for the sweetest nectar to drink from. They trust that the nectar will be there. When they finally discover those juicy flowers, they don’t just drink from them, but fully experience and taste the sweetness of their nectar.

That’s your Love Oracle message for this week. Drink deeply from the sweet nectar of life, searching for the sweet moments and trusting that there is sweetness all around you if you have the eyes to see it and the heart to feel it.

So rise up, settle down, go forward, backwards or hover – know you have the power to choose what you focus on and what you drink from to nourish your vision of the world you want to see and the experiences you want to live.

Be in the moment. Choose your joy and really taste it!