{"id":1005,"date":"2012-02-13T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T15:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thequeenofmyself\/?p=1005"},"modified":"2012-02-08T15:38:05","modified_gmt":"2012-02-08T20:38:05","slug":"hard-work-of-heart-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2012\/02\/hard-work-of-heart-work.html","title":{"rendered":"Hard Work of Heart Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>I have grown to love winter. It is a time of being home and laying low. A time of making soup and catching up on my ironing. A time of long, indulgent hot baths and slow starting mornings in bed with a cup of tea and a good book.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>During February I will be sharing articles about Domestic Queens, Introverted Queens, Privacy Seeking Queens, Self-Loving Queens, and Literary Queens. And as always, I ask you to please share your stories on these themes.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Message for those doing the hard work of heart work&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By <a href=\"www.shilohsophia.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Shiloh McCloud<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When everything you think you know<\/p>\n<p>changes<\/p>\n<p>what do you do then?<\/p>\n<p>When all that you dreamed you might cause shifts<\/p>\n<p>what do you dream then?<\/p>\n<p>When who you thought you were isn&#8217;t<\/p>\n<p>how then to re-invent?<\/p>\n<p>When how you believed the world to be deconstructs<\/p>\n<p>how shall you trust again?<\/p>\n<p>When the ideas of childhood are no longer whole<\/p>\n<p>how do you re-connect to innocence?<\/p>\n<p>When the instruction manual you have been using de-materializes<\/p>\n<p>what step-by-step do you follow?<\/p>\n<p>When the life you thought you would have is out of view<\/p>\n<p>how then shall you claim a new one?<\/p>\n<p>When the paradigm you were living in no longer makes sense<\/p>\n<p>how do you enter one that matches who you are?<\/p>\n<p>When your heart hurts and the crack is opening even more<\/p>\n<p>how do you continue to love and to listen?<\/p>\n<p>When the unraveling has begun you must just wait on the Beloved.<\/p>\n<p>Sit in the broken sanctuary of your own heart<\/p>\n<p>even if the wonder and cries are so loud,<\/p>\n<p>that you cry all day. Know that you are not alone.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t try to get through it, get it done<\/p>\n<p>or rush to the next thing or to resolution<\/p>\n<p>or the illusiveness of completion.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t make up new stories to go in the place<\/p>\n<p>of the old ones.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sit in the discomfort and the spaciousness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Practice the thought that somewhere in your consciousness you have a memory or thought that remembers that healing is possible.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Healing is possible<\/p>\n<p>Creator built renewal into my bones<\/p>\n<p>The heart knows how to do its work<\/p>\n<p>Allow me to be present for this process<\/p>\n<p>Give me the strength and courage to hold on<\/p>\n<p>I surrender knowing what it will look like<\/p>\n<p>while at the same time claiming to be a part<\/p>\n<p>of the great unfolding of my life, and this life<\/p>\n<p>I will not rush myself<\/p>\n<p>I will not let others dictate my own cadence<\/p>\n<p>I will wait on the Beloved<\/p>\n<p>I will practice faith even when I don&#8217;t know what that is.<\/p>\n<p>And I will continue to open myself to miracles<\/p>\n<p>Amen<\/p>\n<p>*****<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Donna Henes is the author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thequeenofmyself.com\" target=\"_blank\">The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty in Midlife<\/a>. She\u00a0 offers counseling and upbeat, practical and ceremonial guidance for individual women and groups who want to enjoy the fruits of an enriching, influential, purposeful, passionate, and powerful maturity. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donnahenes.net\/queen\/consult.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">Consult the MIDLIFE MIDWIFE\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Queen welcomes questions concerning all issues of interest to women in their mature years. Send your inquiries to <a href=\"thequeenofmyself@aol.com\" target=\"_blank\">thequeenofmyself@aol.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have grown to love winter. It is a time of being home and laying low. A time of making soup and catching up on my ironing. A time of long, indulgent hot baths and slow starting mornings in bed with a cup of tea and a good book. During February I will be sharing&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11,3],"tags":[397,103,62,239,40,654,59,81,653,13,94,120,96,68,655,60,258],"class_list":["post-1005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spirituality","category-wisdom","category-womens-issues","tag-change","tag-compassion","tag-courage","tag-dark","tag-empowerment-2","tag-faith","tag-healing","tag-heart","tag-heart-work","tag-holistic-living","tag-meditation","tag-nurturing","tag-peace","tag-self-love","tag-strength","tag-transformation","tag-unconditional-love"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hard Work of Heart Work - The Queen of My Self<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2012\/02\/hard-work-of-heart-work.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hard Work of Heart Work - The Queen of My Self\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have grown to love winter. 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