lead with your wild heart
TRANSCRIPT
Lesson 4
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
Lead with your Wild HeartModule 1 - Return to your Wild Heart
The Surrender
The SurrenderI have an uneasy relationship with the word ldquosurrenderrdquo
I was raised on a healthy dose of evangelical crusades and alter calls The alter call is that time in every good ldquocome to Jesusrdquo church meeting when people in the crowd are invited to file to the front and lay their burdens on the cross Almost always the same song is playing
ldquoAll to Jesus I surrender Humbly at His feet I bow Worldly pleasures all forsaken Take me Jesus take me nowrdquo
As the chords of the song begin those whorsquove been moved to repent surrender and dedicate or rededicate their lives to Christ file to the front where theyrsquore met by volunteers who will pray with them and give them a pamphlet or two about their new or renewed commitment to God
2
I would sit in the crowd usually feeling a twinge of guilt over not being repentant enough or a twinge of resentment at those people who were filing to the front but would still be just as unkind or self-righteous or judgmental the following day
In those days influenced by my years of Sunday School and Church Camp surrender didnrsquot sound like a very pleasant word Forsaking all my worldly pleasures Ugh It was all about giving stuff up and living like a pauper - like the rich man who couldnrsquot go through the eye of the needle unless he sacrificed everything On top of that Irsquod have to give up any dreams I had for my life any career aspirations or hopes of adventure - for a life of drudgery and ldquosaving lost souls for Jesusrdquo I would rather die than become an evangelist dedicated to saving the lost but if I wasnrsquot willing to do that was I really surrendering Was I worthy in Godrsquos eyes
It didnrsquot seem in my adolescent mind that God wanted me to have any fun Surrendering had nothing to do with fun or delight or discovery or dreaming It had everything to do with drudgery and duty and death and misery Why would I want to choose those things What was in it for me
Itrsquos taken me a long long time to get anywhere close to developing a more positive relationship with the word surrender It still fills me with unease because I donrsquot want to give up the things that are important to me
Even if you donrsquot come from a religious context the concept of surrender is a hard one to embrace ldquoDoesnrsquot surrender mean that yoursquore giving
3
ldquoYou must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for yourdquo ndash Joseph Campbel l
uprdquo Irsquove heard people ask ldquoLike in battle - if I surrender it means that Irsquom giving up the fight and admitting that Irsquom weaker than my opponent I donrsquot want to be considered weakrdquo
Herersquos a revolutionary question thatrsquos been poking around in my mind lately What if surrender is not about admitting weakness or choosing a religious life thatrsquos full of drudgery and duty What if surrendering to my wild heart means that Irsquom choosing a life of DELIGHT What if itrsquos not about giving up everything I am and dream of being but rather itrsquos about stepping more fully into my natural giftedness and interests What if itrsquos about living more fully and richly than Irsquove ever lived before
Letrsquos take a look at the humble caterpillar and consider what surrender means to her Chances are if caterpillars dream they dream of adventure and being beautiful and growing colourful wings and seeing vistas beyond their limited capacity on the ground (not unlike what I dream) Ms Caterpillar may be convinced that she is the only one who can make those things happen and so shersquoll work and work at primping and painting herself and reading hundreds of books on ldquoten easy steps to grow wingsrdquo Shersquoll consult the experts and read travel books about what she could see if only she could fly Shersquoll subscribe to the ldquoBecome a Butterflyrdquo newsletter and pay thousands of dollars to attend butterfly retreats She might sign up for butterfly yoga and ldquopaint yourself beautifulrdquo art retreats all the while dreaming of being something shersquos not She will try and try to CONTROL her destiny - quite the opposite of surrender
ldquoI canrsquot change the direction of the wind but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destinationrdquo ndash Jimmy Dean
4
But herersquos the truth of the matter poor Ms Caterpillar can not turn herself into a caterpillar no matter how hard she tries The retreats the newsletters the expensive consultants - they canrsquot do it for her either
The only thing that can turn a caterpillar into a butterfly is surrender She has to surrender to the mystery to the Creator and to her own DNA
Therersquos that uncomfortable word again - surrender Unless Ms Caterpillar gives up her stubborn independence and attempt at control starts spinning a cocoon and gives herself fully to the process that will see her lose the only identity shersquos known in the past become nothing but mush held together by the fibers of the cocoon she will never experience the things she dreams of What a sacrifice for someone who has only known the way of the caterpillar
But then when the surrender is over and her wings emerge just imagine what delight and freedom she must experience to see her dreams unfold before her eyes
Perhaps there are new narratives even in the old stories that can help us develop more healthy relationships with the word surrender For example perhaps the story of Christ is actually a metaphoric story that mirrors that of the butterfly The death on the cross was his chrysalis moment - when he surrendered his earthly body to become more fully divine That moment was a model for the rest of us - if we want to live
ldquoChange always involves a dark night when everything fal ls apart Yet if this period of dissolution is used to create new meaning then chaos ends and
new order emergesrdquo - Margaret Wheatley
5
our divine calling we have to give up our small lives and reach for something better
The Christian narrative is the only one I can speak to with any confidence but perhaps the same can be said for other religious narratives too - that what we see as surrender is actually a deeper journey to who we are meant to become
Not long ago I read Mary Karrrsquos memoir ldquoLitrdquo about her struggle with alcoholism Her story about getting sober is an excellent example of the power of surrender Though she tries and tries with all her might to give up alcohol she does not gain freedom from its grip until she is willing to surrender to her Higher Power
For a long time Karr fought a belief in any spiritual power outside of herself and though she was taught to recognize and surrender to a higher power in her twelve step program she just couldnrsquot wrap her head around it Finally though when she reached rock bottom and admitted herself to a psych ward to protect herself from her suicidal thoughts she got down on her knees and prayed The prayer and the surrender finally released her into a more powerful and free life Like the butterfly she could shake off her caterpillar body and transform into what she was meant to be in the first place
Karrrsquos story is also a lesson in continued surrender Though the butterfly only goes through the chrysalis stage once in the human life surrender is a little more messy If she doesnrsquot continue to get down on her knees and surrender Karr admits that she can easily fall back under the spell of alcohol That caterpillar body keeps trying to drag her back down to earth
ldquoOne does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long timerdquo - Andre Gide
6
ldquoBut to whomwhat am I surrenderingrdquo you might be asking Yoursquoll have to settle on the language that feels most comfortable for you - God the Universe Self Sophia the Feminine Divine your Higher Power the Greater Good or your Wild Heart Thatrsquos up to you I wonrsquot try to convert you to any particular paradigm I simply want to invite you to consider that there is inside you a restless spiritual authentic Wild Heart that wants you to live your whole truth and that canrsquot happen without the surrender That canrsquot happen if you try too hard to control the outcome
Butterflies donrsquot fly because they write good strategic plans or follow through on their New Yearrsquos resolution or have good life goals in place They fly because they surrender to their own inherent nature They fly because they simply do what theyrsquore meant to do
If you want to fly you donrsquot have to take a certain course (not even this one) read the right self-help books follow the right gurus adopt the right spiritual practices get a Masters degree in flying or change anything about who you are If you want to fly you simply (although - nothing about it is really simple) have to let your Wild Heart guide you into the path yoursquore meant to take
Therersquos a reason why you are drawn to certain ideas why you have the interests you have and why you have deep longings that wonrsquot let you go Therersquos a reason why you long to dance find your fingers itching to hold a paintbrush again yearn for the stage feel drawn to people who are hurting want to spend all your time digging in the soil or get really restless when you havenrsquot traveled in months Those are all messages
ldquoLiving is a form of not being sure not knowing what next or how We guess We may be wrong but we take leap after leap in the darkrdquo - Agnes de Mil le
7
from your Wild Heart saying ldquofollow your true love and you will find the way to flightrdquo
ldquoBut there are far too many risksrdquo you say thinking back to the wounds we talked about in the second lesson ldquoI will look foolish Irsquoll have to give up my comfortable life I will fail and then Irsquoll be the laughing-stock of my family Itrsquos probably safest if I simply remain a caterpillarrdquo
The problem is a caterpillar doesnrsquot really have a choice To go on living she must give up her caterpillar life and reach for the skies Itrsquos the same for you If you choose not to surrender to your Wild Heart your life will never be fully lived
You canrsquot soar to the heights unless yoursquore willing to let go of the ground
8
ldquoIn the Mind of God there is a ful ly created image of you at your most creative abundant and joyful And there is a divine blueprint by which this image would take form in your life It is not something you can make happen but it is something you can al low to happen by making the softening of your
heart your primary goal This is the meaning of spiritual surrenderrdquo ~Marianne Wil liamson
9
The Surrender
ldquoHow do you get to be so freerdquo Caterpillar asks wistfully of Butterfly
ldquoSurrenderrdquo Butterfly whispers as she flutters by
ldquoButhellip Irsquove read all the books taken all the classes and I just canrsquot seem to get off the groundrdquo
ldquoSurrenderrdquo
ldquoWhat do you mean ndash surrender Surrender to whatrdquo
ldquoTo the Mystery To your Creator To your own DNArdquo
ldquoHow do I do thatrdquo Caterpillar frowns
ldquoClimb up in that tree let go of the branch and spinrdquo
ldquoSpinrdquo
ldquoYes spinrdquo
ldquoBut I donrsquot know how to spin Do I need to take a course Is there a manualrdquo
ldquoYoursquoll know Once yoursquore up there on the branchrdquo
ldquoIrsquoll know How will I knowrdquo
ldquoItrsquos written in your DNArdquo
ldquoWhat happens next Do I have to spin my own wingsrdquo
ldquoNo sillyrdquo Butterfly giggles ldquoYou spin a cocoonrdquo
ldquoA cocoon Irsquove never heard of that before What do I do with it once Irsquove spun itrdquo
ldquoYou donrsquot do anything You just wait Inside the cocoonrdquo
ldquoWhat good does waiting do I have too much work to do to sit around waiting in a cocoon I have housework to do and children to feed andhellip well thatrsquos just ridiculousrdquo Caterpillar turns away her eyes back on the ground
ldquoWell then yoursquod better give up your dream of flying because thatrsquos the only way to get up hererdquo With a few flaps of her wings Butterfly rises higher
Caterpillar glances back at the sky Her eyes fill with tears ldquoButhellip I really want to fly Can you tell me a little more Please What comes nextrdquo
ldquoThe hard part The surrenderrdquo
ldquoSo wersquore back to surrender again That doesnrsquot seem very helpful And itrsquos kind of confusing What am I surrenderingrdquo
ldquoEverything you ever knew Every cell of your body Every story yoursquove ever told yourselfrdquo
ldquoI have to give up EVERYTHING Isnrsquot that asking a bit muchrdquo
ldquoYes but itrsquos worth itrdquo
ldquoDoes it hurtrdquo
ldquoOh yes It hurtsrdquo
ldquoHow do you handle the painrdquo
ldquoYou wonrsquot like the answerrdquo
ldquoTell me anywayrdquo
ldquoSurrender And trust You have to surrender to the pain and trust the process You have to give up control and let your body turn to an ugly gooey mushy substance while you wait for transformation to happen Your friends (those who havenrsquot learned to spin yet) will turn away because they wonrsquot recognize you It will be the hardest thing yoursquoll ever have to dordquo
ldquoI donrsquot know if I can do it I canrsquot handle that much painrdquo
ldquoYou canrdquo
ldquoButhelliprdquo
ldquoDo you want to taste the skyrdquo
ldquoOh yes I really really dordquo
ldquoThen you have to let go of the groundrdquo
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
The SurrenderI have an uneasy relationship with the word ldquosurrenderrdquo
I was raised on a healthy dose of evangelical crusades and alter calls The alter call is that time in every good ldquocome to Jesusrdquo church meeting when people in the crowd are invited to file to the front and lay their burdens on the cross Almost always the same song is playing
ldquoAll to Jesus I surrender Humbly at His feet I bow Worldly pleasures all forsaken Take me Jesus take me nowrdquo
As the chords of the song begin those whorsquove been moved to repent surrender and dedicate or rededicate their lives to Christ file to the front where theyrsquore met by volunteers who will pray with them and give them a pamphlet or two about their new or renewed commitment to God
2
I would sit in the crowd usually feeling a twinge of guilt over not being repentant enough or a twinge of resentment at those people who were filing to the front but would still be just as unkind or self-righteous or judgmental the following day
In those days influenced by my years of Sunday School and Church Camp surrender didnrsquot sound like a very pleasant word Forsaking all my worldly pleasures Ugh It was all about giving stuff up and living like a pauper - like the rich man who couldnrsquot go through the eye of the needle unless he sacrificed everything On top of that Irsquod have to give up any dreams I had for my life any career aspirations or hopes of adventure - for a life of drudgery and ldquosaving lost souls for Jesusrdquo I would rather die than become an evangelist dedicated to saving the lost but if I wasnrsquot willing to do that was I really surrendering Was I worthy in Godrsquos eyes
It didnrsquot seem in my adolescent mind that God wanted me to have any fun Surrendering had nothing to do with fun or delight or discovery or dreaming It had everything to do with drudgery and duty and death and misery Why would I want to choose those things What was in it for me
Itrsquos taken me a long long time to get anywhere close to developing a more positive relationship with the word surrender It still fills me with unease because I donrsquot want to give up the things that are important to me
Even if you donrsquot come from a religious context the concept of surrender is a hard one to embrace ldquoDoesnrsquot surrender mean that yoursquore giving
3
ldquoYou must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for yourdquo ndash Joseph Campbel l
uprdquo Irsquove heard people ask ldquoLike in battle - if I surrender it means that Irsquom giving up the fight and admitting that Irsquom weaker than my opponent I donrsquot want to be considered weakrdquo
Herersquos a revolutionary question thatrsquos been poking around in my mind lately What if surrender is not about admitting weakness or choosing a religious life thatrsquos full of drudgery and duty What if surrendering to my wild heart means that Irsquom choosing a life of DELIGHT What if itrsquos not about giving up everything I am and dream of being but rather itrsquos about stepping more fully into my natural giftedness and interests What if itrsquos about living more fully and richly than Irsquove ever lived before
Letrsquos take a look at the humble caterpillar and consider what surrender means to her Chances are if caterpillars dream they dream of adventure and being beautiful and growing colourful wings and seeing vistas beyond their limited capacity on the ground (not unlike what I dream) Ms Caterpillar may be convinced that she is the only one who can make those things happen and so shersquoll work and work at primping and painting herself and reading hundreds of books on ldquoten easy steps to grow wingsrdquo Shersquoll consult the experts and read travel books about what she could see if only she could fly Shersquoll subscribe to the ldquoBecome a Butterflyrdquo newsletter and pay thousands of dollars to attend butterfly retreats She might sign up for butterfly yoga and ldquopaint yourself beautifulrdquo art retreats all the while dreaming of being something shersquos not She will try and try to CONTROL her destiny - quite the opposite of surrender
ldquoI canrsquot change the direction of the wind but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destinationrdquo ndash Jimmy Dean
4
But herersquos the truth of the matter poor Ms Caterpillar can not turn herself into a caterpillar no matter how hard she tries The retreats the newsletters the expensive consultants - they canrsquot do it for her either
The only thing that can turn a caterpillar into a butterfly is surrender She has to surrender to the mystery to the Creator and to her own DNA
Therersquos that uncomfortable word again - surrender Unless Ms Caterpillar gives up her stubborn independence and attempt at control starts spinning a cocoon and gives herself fully to the process that will see her lose the only identity shersquos known in the past become nothing but mush held together by the fibers of the cocoon she will never experience the things she dreams of What a sacrifice for someone who has only known the way of the caterpillar
But then when the surrender is over and her wings emerge just imagine what delight and freedom she must experience to see her dreams unfold before her eyes
Perhaps there are new narratives even in the old stories that can help us develop more healthy relationships with the word surrender For example perhaps the story of Christ is actually a metaphoric story that mirrors that of the butterfly The death on the cross was his chrysalis moment - when he surrendered his earthly body to become more fully divine That moment was a model for the rest of us - if we want to live
ldquoChange always involves a dark night when everything fal ls apart Yet if this period of dissolution is used to create new meaning then chaos ends and
new order emergesrdquo - Margaret Wheatley
5
our divine calling we have to give up our small lives and reach for something better
The Christian narrative is the only one I can speak to with any confidence but perhaps the same can be said for other religious narratives too - that what we see as surrender is actually a deeper journey to who we are meant to become
Not long ago I read Mary Karrrsquos memoir ldquoLitrdquo about her struggle with alcoholism Her story about getting sober is an excellent example of the power of surrender Though she tries and tries with all her might to give up alcohol she does not gain freedom from its grip until she is willing to surrender to her Higher Power
For a long time Karr fought a belief in any spiritual power outside of herself and though she was taught to recognize and surrender to a higher power in her twelve step program she just couldnrsquot wrap her head around it Finally though when she reached rock bottom and admitted herself to a psych ward to protect herself from her suicidal thoughts she got down on her knees and prayed The prayer and the surrender finally released her into a more powerful and free life Like the butterfly she could shake off her caterpillar body and transform into what she was meant to be in the first place
Karrrsquos story is also a lesson in continued surrender Though the butterfly only goes through the chrysalis stage once in the human life surrender is a little more messy If she doesnrsquot continue to get down on her knees and surrender Karr admits that she can easily fall back under the spell of alcohol That caterpillar body keeps trying to drag her back down to earth
ldquoOne does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long timerdquo - Andre Gide
6
ldquoBut to whomwhat am I surrenderingrdquo you might be asking Yoursquoll have to settle on the language that feels most comfortable for you - God the Universe Self Sophia the Feminine Divine your Higher Power the Greater Good or your Wild Heart Thatrsquos up to you I wonrsquot try to convert you to any particular paradigm I simply want to invite you to consider that there is inside you a restless spiritual authentic Wild Heart that wants you to live your whole truth and that canrsquot happen without the surrender That canrsquot happen if you try too hard to control the outcome
Butterflies donrsquot fly because they write good strategic plans or follow through on their New Yearrsquos resolution or have good life goals in place They fly because they surrender to their own inherent nature They fly because they simply do what theyrsquore meant to do
If you want to fly you donrsquot have to take a certain course (not even this one) read the right self-help books follow the right gurus adopt the right spiritual practices get a Masters degree in flying or change anything about who you are If you want to fly you simply (although - nothing about it is really simple) have to let your Wild Heart guide you into the path yoursquore meant to take
Therersquos a reason why you are drawn to certain ideas why you have the interests you have and why you have deep longings that wonrsquot let you go Therersquos a reason why you long to dance find your fingers itching to hold a paintbrush again yearn for the stage feel drawn to people who are hurting want to spend all your time digging in the soil or get really restless when you havenrsquot traveled in months Those are all messages
ldquoLiving is a form of not being sure not knowing what next or how We guess We may be wrong but we take leap after leap in the darkrdquo - Agnes de Mil le
7
from your Wild Heart saying ldquofollow your true love and you will find the way to flightrdquo
ldquoBut there are far too many risksrdquo you say thinking back to the wounds we talked about in the second lesson ldquoI will look foolish Irsquoll have to give up my comfortable life I will fail and then Irsquoll be the laughing-stock of my family Itrsquos probably safest if I simply remain a caterpillarrdquo
The problem is a caterpillar doesnrsquot really have a choice To go on living she must give up her caterpillar life and reach for the skies Itrsquos the same for you If you choose not to surrender to your Wild Heart your life will never be fully lived
You canrsquot soar to the heights unless yoursquore willing to let go of the ground
8
ldquoIn the Mind of God there is a ful ly created image of you at your most creative abundant and joyful And there is a divine blueprint by which this image would take form in your life It is not something you can make happen but it is something you can al low to happen by making the softening of your
heart your primary goal This is the meaning of spiritual surrenderrdquo ~Marianne Wil liamson
9
The Surrender
ldquoHow do you get to be so freerdquo Caterpillar asks wistfully of Butterfly
ldquoSurrenderrdquo Butterfly whispers as she flutters by
ldquoButhellip Irsquove read all the books taken all the classes and I just canrsquot seem to get off the groundrdquo
ldquoSurrenderrdquo
ldquoWhat do you mean ndash surrender Surrender to whatrdquo
ldquoTo the Mystery To your Creator To your own DNArdquo
ldquoHow do I do thatrdquo Caterpillar frowns
ldquoClimb up in that tree let go of the branch and spinrdquo
ldquoSpinrdquo
ldquoYes spinrdquo
ldquoBut I donrsquot know how to spin Do I need to take a course Is there a manualrdquo
ldquoYoursquoll know Once yoursquore up there on the branchrdquo
ldquoIrsquoll know How will I knowrdquo
ldquoItrsquos written in your DNArdquo
ldquoWhat happens next Do I have to spin my own wingsrdquo
ldquoNo sillyrdquo Butterfly giggles ldquoYou spin a cocoonrdquo
ldquoA cocoon Irsquove never heard of that before What do I do with it once Irsquove spun itrdquo
ldquoYou donrsquot do anything You just wait Inside the cocoonrdquo
ldquoWhat good does waiting do I have too much work to do to sit around waiting in a cocoon I have housework to do and children to feed andhellip well thatrsquos just ridiculousrdquo Caterpillar turns away her eyes back on the ground
ldquoWell then yoursquod better give up your dream of flying because thatrsquos the only way to get up hererdquo With a few flaps of her wings Butterfly rises higher
Caterpillar glances back at the sky Her eyes fill with tears ldquoButhellip I really want to fly Can you tell me a little more Please What comes nextrdquo
ldquoThe hard part The surrenderrdquo
ldquoSo wersquore back to surrender again That doesnrsquot seem very helpful And itrsquos kind of confusing What am I surrenderingrdquo
ldquoEverything you ever knew Every cell of your body Every story yoursquove ever told yourselfrdquo
ldquoI have to give up EVERYTHING Isnrsquot that asking a bit muchrdquo
ldquoYes but itrsquos worth itrdquo
ldquoDoes it hurtrdquo
ldquoOh yes It hurtsrdquo
ldquoHow do you handle the painrdquo
ldquoYou wonrsquot like the answerrdquo
ldquoTell me anywayrdquo
ldquoSurrender And trust You have to surrender to the pain and trust the process You have to give up control and let your body turn to an ugly gooey mushy substance while you wait for transformation to happen Your friends (those who havenrsquot learned to spin yet) will turn away because they wonrsquot recognize you It will be the hardest thing yoursquoll ever have to dordquo
ldquoI donrsquot know if I can do it I canrsquot handle that much painrdquo
ldquoYou canrdquo
ldquoButhelliprdquo
ldquoDo you want to taste the skyrdquo
ldquoOh yes I really really dordquo
ldquoThen you have to let go of the groundrdquo
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
I would sit in the crowd usually feeling a twinge of guilt over not being repentant enough or a twinge of resentment at those people who were filing to the front but would still be just as unkind or self-righteous or judgmental the following day
In those days influenced by my years of Sunday School and Church Camp surrender didnrsquot sound like a very pleasant word Forsaking all my worldly pleasures Ugh It was all about giving stuff up and living like a pauper - like the rich man who couldnrsquot go through the eye of the needle unless he sacrificed everything On top of that Irsquod have to give up any dreams I had for my life any career aspirations or hopes of adventure - for a life of drudgery and ldquosaving lost souls for Jesusrdquo I would rather die than become an evangelist dedicated to saving the lost but if I wasnrsquot willing to do that was I really surrendering Was I worthy in Godrsquos eyes
It didnrsquot seem in my adolescent mind that God wanted me to have any fun Surrendering had nothing to do with fun or delight or discovery or dreaming It had everything to do with drudgery and duty and death and misery Why would I want to choose those things What was in it for me
Itrsquos taken me a long long time to get anywhere close to developing a more positive relationship with the word surrender It still fills me with unease because I donrsquot want to give up the things that are important to me
Even if you donrsquot come from a religious context the concept of surrender is a hard one to embrace ldquoDoesnrsquot surrender mean that yoursquore giving
3
ldquoYou must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for yourdquo ndash Joseph Campbel l
uprdquo Irsquove heard people ask ldquoLike in battle - if I surrender it means that Irsquom giving up the fight and admitting that Irsquom weaker than my opponent I donrsquot want to be considered weakrdquo
Herersquos a revolutionary question thatrsquos been poking around in my mind lately What if surrender is not about admitting weakness or choosing a religious life thatrsquos full of drudgery and duty What if surrendering to my wild heart means that Irsquom choosing a life of DELIGHT What if itrsquos not about giving up everything I am and dream of being but rather itrsquos about stepping more fully into my natural giftedness and interests What if itrsquos about living more fully and richly than Irsquove ever lived before
Letrsquos take a look at the humble caterpillar and consider what surrender means to her Chances are if caterpillars dream they dream of adventure and being beautiful and growing colourful wings and seeing vistas beyond their limited capacity on the ground (not unlike what I dream) Ms Caterpillar may be convinced that she is the only one who can make those things happen and so shersquoll work and work at primping and painting herself and reading hundreds of books on ldquoten easy steps to grow wingsrdquo Shersquoll consult the experts and read travel books about what she could see if only she could fly Shersquoll subscribe to the ldquoBecome a Butterflyrdquo newsletter and pay thousands of dollars to attend butterfly retreats She might sign up for butterfly yoga and ldquopaint yourself beautifulrdquo art retreats all the while dreaming of being something shersquos not She will try and try to CONTROL her destiny - quite the opposite of surrender
ldquoI canrsquot change the direction of the wind but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destinationrdquo ndash Jimmy Dean
4
But herersquos the truth of the matter poor Ms Caterpillar can not turn herself into a caterpillar no matter how hard she tries The retreats the newsletters the expensive consultants - they canrsquot do it for her either
The only thing that can turn a caterpillar into a butterfly is surrender She has to surrender to the mystery to the Creator and to her own DNA
Therersquos that uncomfortable word again - surrender Unless Ms Caterpillar gives up her stubborn independence and attempt at control starts spinning a cocoon and gives herself fully to the process that will see her lose the only identity shersquos known in the past become nothing but mush held together by the fibers of the cocoon she will never experience the things she dreams of What a sacrifice for someone who has only known the way of the caterpillar
But then when the surrender is over and her wings emerge just imagine what delight and freedom she must experience to see her dreams unfold before her eyes
Perhaps there are new narratives even in the old stories that can help us develop more healthy relationships with the word surrender For example perhaps the story of Christ is actually a metaphoric story that mirrors that of the butterfly The death on the cross was his chrysalis moment - when he surrendered his earthly body to become more fully divine That moment was a model for the rest of us - if we want to live
ldquoChange always involves a dark night when everything fal ls apart Yet if this period of dissolution is used to create new meaning then chaos ends and
new order emergesrdquo - Margaret Wheatley
5
our divine calling we have to give up our small lives and reach for something better
The Christian narrative is the only one I can speak to with any confidence but perhaps the same can be said for other religious narratives too - that what we see as surrender is actually a deeper journey to who we are meant to become
Not long ago I read Mary Karrrsquos memoir ldquoLitrdquo about her struggle with alcoholism Her story about getting sober is an excellent example of the power of surrender Though she tries and tries with all her might to give up alcohol she does not gain freedom from its grip until she is willing to surrender to her Higher Power
For a long time Karr fought a belief in any spiritual power outside of herself and though she was taught to recognize and surrender to a higher power in her twelve step program she just couldnrsquot wrap her head around it Finally though when she reached rock bottom and admitted herself to a psych ward to protect herself from her suicidal thoughts she got down on her knees and prayed The prayer and the surrender finally released her into a more powerful and free life Like the butterfly she could shake off her caterpillar body and transform into what she was meant to be in the first place
Karrrsquos story is also a lesson in continued surrender Though the butterfly only goes through the chrysalis stage once in the human life surrender is a little more messy If she doesnrsquot continue to get down on her knees and surrender Karr admits that she can easily fall back under the spell of alcohol That caterpillar body keeps trying to drag her back down to earth
ldquoOne does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long timerdquo - Andre Gide
6
ldquoBut to whomwhat am I surrenderingrdquo you might be asking Yoursquoll have to settle on the language that feels most comfortable for you - God the Universe Self Sophia the Feminine Divine your Higher Power the Greater Good or your Wild Heart Thatrsquos up to you I wonrsquot try to convert you to any particular paradigm I simply want to invite you to consider that there is inside you a restless spiritual authentic Wild Heart that wants you to live your whole truth and that canrsquot happen without the surrender That canrsquot happen if you try too hard to control the outcome
Butterflies donrsquot fly because they write good strategic plans or follow through on their New Yearrsquos resolution or have good life goals in place They fly because they surrender to their own inherent nature They fly because they simply do what theyrsquore meant to do
If you want to fly you donrsquot have to take a certain course (not even this one) read the right self-help books follow the right gurus adopt the right spiritual practices get a Masters degree in flying or change anything about who you are If you want to fly you simply (although - nothing about it is really simple) have to let your Wild Heart guide you into the path yoursquore meant to take
Therersquos a reason why you are drawn to certain ideas why you have the interests you have and why you have deep longings that wonrsquot let you go Therersquos a reason why you long to dance find your fingers itching to hold a paintbrush again yearn for the stage feel drawn to people who are hurting want to spend all your time digging in the soil or get really restless when you havenrsquot traveled in months Those are all messages
ldquoLiving is a form of not being sure not knowing what next or how We guess We may be wrong but we take leap after leap in the darkrdquo - Agnes de Mil le
7
from your Wild Heart saying ldquofollow your true love and you will find the way to flightrdquo
ldquoBut there are far too many risksrdquo you say thinking back to the wounds we talked about in the second lesson ldquoI will look foolish Irsquoll have to give up my comfortable life I will fail and then Irsquoll be the laughing-stock of my family Itrsquos probably safest if I simply remain a caterpillarrdquo
The problem is a caterpillar doesnrsquot really have a choice To go on living she must give up her caterpillar life and reach for the skies Itrsquos the same for you If you choose not to surrender to your Wild Heart your life will never be fully lived
You canrsquot soar to the heights unless yoursquore willing to let go of the ground
8
ldquoIn the Mind of God there is a ful ly created image of you at your most creative abundant and joyful And there is a divine blueprint by which this image would take form in your life It is not something you can make happen but it is something you can al low to happen by making the softening of your
heart your primary goal This is the meaning of spiritual surrenderrdquo ~Marianne Wil liamson
9
The Surrender
ldquoHow do you get to be so freerdquo Caterpillar asks wistfully of Butterfly
ldquoSurrenderrdquo Butterfly whispers as she flutters by
ldquoButhellip Irsquove read all the books taken all the classes and I just canrsquot seem to get off the groundrdquo
ldquoSurrenderrdquo
ldquoWhat do you mean ndash surrender Surrender to whatrdquo
ldquoTo the Mystery To your Creator To your own DNArdquo
ldquoHow do I do thatrdquo Caterpillar frowns
ldquoClimb up in that tree let go of the branch and spinrdquo
ldquoSpinrdquo
ldquoYes spinrdquo
ldquoBut I donrsquot know how to spin Do I need to take a course Is there a manualrdquo
ldquoYoursquoll know Once yoursquore up there on the branchrdquo
ldquoIrsquoll know How will I knowrdquo
ldquoItrsquos written in your DNArdquo
ldquoWhat happens next Do I have to spin my own wingsrdquo
ldquoNo sillyrdquo Butterfly giggles ldquoYou spin a cocoonrdquo
ldquoA cocoon Irsquove never heard of that before What do I do with it once Irsquove spun itrdquo
ldquoYou donrsquot do anything You just wait Inside the cocoonrdquo
ldquoWhat good does waiting do I have too much work to do to sit around waiting in a cocoon I have housework to do and children to feed andhellip well thatrsquos just ridiculousrdquo Caterpillar turns away her eyes back on the ground
ldquoWell then yoursquod better give up your dream of flying because thatrsquos the only way to get up hererdquo With a few flaps of her wings Butterfly rises higher
Caterpillar glances back at the sky Her eyes fill with tears ldquoButhellip I really want to fly Can you tell me a little more Please What comes nextrdquo
ldquoThe hard part The surrenderrdquo
ldquoSo wersquore back to surrender again That doesnrsquot seem very helpful And itrsquos kind of confusing What am I surrenderingrdquo
ldquoEverything you ever knew Every cell of your body Every story yoursquove ever told yourselfrdquo
ldquoI have to give up EVERYTHING Isnrsquot that asking a bit muchrdquo
ldquoYes but itrsquos worth itrdquo
ldquoDoes it hurtrdquo
ldquoOh yes It hurtsrdquo
ldquoHow do you handle the painrdquo
ldquoYou wonrsquot like the answerrdquo
ldquoTell me anywayrdquo
ldquoSurrender And trust You have to surrender to the pain and trust the process You have to give up control and let your body turn to an ugly gooey mushy substance while you wait for transformation to happen Your friends (those who havenrsquot learned to spin yet) will turn away because they wonrsquot recognize you It will be the hardest thing yoursquoll ever have to dordquo
ldquoI donrsquot know if I can do it I canrsquot handle that much painrdquo
ldquoYou canrdquo
ldquoButhelliprdquo
ldquoDo you want to taste the skyrdquo
ldquoOh yes I really really dordquo
ldquoThen you have to let go of the groundrdquo
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
uprdquo Irsquove heard people ask ldquoLike in battle - if I surrender it means that Irsquom giving up the fight and admitting that Irsquom weaker than my opponent I donrsquot want to be considered weakrdquo
Herersquos a revolutionary question thatrsquos been poking around in my mind lately What if surrender is not about admitting weakness or choosing a religious life thatrsquos full of drudgery and duty What if surrendering to my wild heart means that Irsquom choosing a life of DELIGHT What if itrsquos not about giving up everything I am and dream of being but rather itrsquos about stepping more fully into my natural giftedness and interests What if itrsquos about living more fully and richly than Irsquove ever lived before
Letrsquos take a look at the humble caterpillar and consider what surrender means to her Chances are if caterpillars dream they dream of adventure and being beautiful and growing colourful wings and seeing vistas beyond their limited capacity on the ground (not unlike what I dream) Ms Caterpillar may be convinced that she is the only one who can make those things happen and so shersquoll work and work at primping and painting herself and reading hundreds of books on ldquoten easy steps to grow wingsrdquo Shersquoll consult the experts and read travel books about what she could see if only she could fly Shersquoll subscribe to the ldquoBecome a Butterflyrdquo newsletter and pay thousands of dollars to attend butterfly retreats She might sign up for butterfly yoga and ldquopaint yourself beautifulrdquo art retreats all the while dreaming of being something shersquos not She will try and try to CONTROL her destiny - quite the opposite of surrender
ldquoI canrsquot change the direction of the wind but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destinationrdquo ndash Jimmy Dean
4
But herersquos the truth of the matter poor Ms Caterpillar can not turn herself into a caterpillar no matter how hard she tries The retreats the newsletters the expensive consultants - they canrsquot do it for her either
The only thing that can turn a caterpillar into a butterfly is surrender She has to surrender to the mystery to the Creator and to her own DNA
Therersquos that uncomfortable word again - surrender Unless Ms Caterpillar gives up her stubborn independence and attempt at control starts spinning a cocoon and gives herself fully to the process that will see her lose the only identity shersquos known in the past become nothing but mush held together by the fibers of the cocoon she will never experience the things she dreams of What a sacrifice for someone who has only known the way of the caterpillar
But then when the surrender is over and her wings emerge just imagine what delight and freedom she must experience to see her dreams unfold before her eyes
Perhaps there are new narratives even in the old stories that can help us develop more healthy relationships with the word surrender For example perhaps the story of Christ is actually a metaphoric story that mirrors that of the butterfly The death on the cross was his chrysalis moment - when he surrendered his earthly body to become more fully divine That moment was a model for the rest of us - if we want to live
ldquoChange always involves a dark night when everything fal ls apart Yet if this period of dissolution is used to create new meaning then chaos ends and
new order emergesrdquo - Margaret Wheatley
5
our divine calling we have to give up our small lives and reach for something better
The Christian narrative is the only one I can speak to with any confidence but perhaps the same can be said for other religious narratives too - that what we see as surrender is actually a deeper journey to who we are meant to become
Not long ago I read Mary Karrrsquos memoir ldquoLitrdquo about her struggle with alcoholism Her story about getting sober is an excellent example of the power of surrender Though she tries and tries with all her might to give up alcohol she does not gain freedom from its grip until she is willing to surrender to her Higher Power
For a long time Karr fought a belief in any spiritual power outside of herself and though she was taught to recognize and surrender to a higher power in her twelve step program she just couldnrsquot wrap her head around it Finally though when she reached rock bottom and admitted herself to a psych ward to protect herself from her suicidal thoughts she got down on her knees and prayed The prayer and the surrender finally released her into a more powerful and free life Like the butterfly she could shake off her caterpillar body and transform into what she was meant to be in the first place
Karrrsquos story is also a lesson in continued surrender Though the butterfly only goes through the chrysalis stage once in the human life surrender is a little more messy If she doesnrsquot continue to get down on her knees and surrender Karr admits that she can easily fall back under the spell of alcohol That caterpillar body keeps trying to drag her back down to earth
ldquoOne does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long timerdquo - Andre Gide
6
ldquoBut to whomwhat am I surrenderingrdquo you might be asking Yoursquoll have to settle on the language that feels most comfortable for you - God the Universe Self Sophia the Feminine Divine your Higher Power the Greater Good or your Wild Heart Thatrsquos up to you I wonrsquot try to convert you to any particular paradigm I simply want to invite you to consider that there is inside you a restless spiritual authentic Wild Heart that wants you to live your whole truth and that canrsquot happen without the surrender That canrsquot happen if you try too hard to control the outcome
Butterflies donrsquot fly because they write good strategic plans or follow through on their New Yearrsquos resolution or have good life goals in place They fly because they surrender to their own inherent nature They fly because they simply do what theyrsquore meant to do
If you want to fly you donrsquot have to take a certain course (not even this one) read the right self-help books follow the right gurus adopt the right spiritual practices get a Masters degree in flying or change anything about who you are If you want to fly you simply (although - nothing about it is really simple) have to let your Wild Heart guide you into the path yoursquore meant to take
Therersquos a reason why you are drawn to certain ideas why you have the interests you have and why you have deep longings that wonrsquot let you go Therersquos a reason why you long to dance find your fingers itching to hold a paintbrush again yearn for the stage feel drawn to people who are hurting want to spend all your time digging in the soil or get really restless when you havenrsquot traveled in months Those are all messages
ldquoLiving is a form of not being sure not knowing what next or how We guess We may be wrong but we take leap after leap in the darkrdquo - Agnes de Mil le
7
from your Wild Heart saying ldquofollow your true love and you will find the way to flightrdquo
ldquoBut there are far too many risksrdquo you say thinking back to the wounds we talked about in the second lesson ldquoI will look foolish Irsquoll have to give up my comfortable life I will fail and then Irsquoll be the laughing-stock of my family Itrsquos probably safest if I simply remain a caterpillarrdquo
The problem is a caterpillar doesnrsquot really have a choice To go on living she must give up her caterpillar life and reach for the skies Itrsquos the same for you If you choose not to surrender to your Wild Heart your life will never be fully lived
You canrsquot soar to the heights unless yoursquore willing to let go of the ground
8
ldquoIn the Mind of God there is a ful ly created image of you at your most creative abundant and joyful And there is a divine blueprint by which this image would take form in your life It is not something you can make happen but it is something you can al low to happen by making the softening of your
heart your primary goal This is the meaning of spiritual surrenderrdquo ~Marianne Wil liamson
9
The Surrender
ldquoHow do you get to be so freerdquo Caterpillar asks wistfully of Butterfly
ldquoSurrenderrdquo Butterfly whispers as she flutters by
ldquoButhellip Irsquove read all the books taken all the classes and I just canrsquot seem to get off the groundrdquo
ldquoSurrenderrdquo
ldquoWhat do you mean ndash surrender Surrender to whatrdquo
ldquoTo the Mystery To your Creator To your own DNArdquo
ldquoHow do I do thatrdquo Caterpillar frowns
ldquoClimb up in that tree let go of the branch and spinrdquo
ldquoSpinrdquo
ldquoYes spinrdquo
ldquoBut I donrsquot know how to spin Do I need to take a course Is there a manualrdquo
ldquoYoursquoll know Once yoursquore up there on the branchrdquo
ldquoIrsquoll know How will I knowrdquo
ldquoItrsquos written in your DNArdquo
ldquoWhat happens next Do I have to spin my own wingsrdquo
ldquoNo sillyrdquo Butterfly giggles ldquoYou spin a cocoonrdquo
ldquoA cocoon Irsquove never heard of that before What do I do with it once Irsquove spun itrdquo
ldquoYou donrsquot do anything You just wait Inside the cocoonrdquo
ldquoWhat good does waiting do I have too much work to do to sit around waiting in a cocoon I have housework to do and children to feed andhellip well thatrsquos just ridiculousrdquo Caterpillar turns away her eyes back on the ground
ldquoWell then yoursquod better give up your dream of flying because thatrsquos the only way to get up hererdquo With a few flaps of her wings Butterfly rises higher
Caterpillar glances back at the sky Her eyes fill with tears ldquoButhellip I really want to fly Can you tell me a little more Please What comes nextrdquo
ldquoThe hard part The surrenderrdquo
ldquoSo wersquore back to surrender again That doesnrsquot seem very helpful And itrsquos kind of confusing What am I surrenderingrdquo
ldquoEverything you ever knew Every cell of your body Every story yoursquove ever told yourselfrdquo
ldquoI have to give up EVERYTHING Isnrsquot that asking a bit muchrdquo
ldquoYes but itrsquos worth itrdquo
ldquoDoes it hurtrdquo
ldquoOh yes It hurtsrdquo
ldquoHow do you handle the painrdquo
ldquoYou wonrsquot like the answerrdquo
ldquoTell me anywayrdquo
ldquoSurrender And trust You have to surrender to the pain and trust the process You have to give up control and let your body turn to an ugly gooey mushy substance while you wait for transformation to happen Your friends (those who havenrsquot learned to spin yet) will turn away because they wonrsquot recognize you It will be the hardest thing yoursquoll ever have to dordquo
ldquoI donrsquot know if I can do it I canrsquot handle that much painrdquo
ldquoYou canrdquo
ldquoButhelliprdquo
ldquoDo you want to taste the skyrdquo
ldquoOh yes I really really dordquo
ldquoThen you have to let go of the groundrdquo
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
But herersquos the truth of the matter poor Ms Caterpillar can not turn herself into a caterpillar no matter how hard she tries The retreats the newsletters the expensive consultants - they canrsquot do it for her either
The only thing that can turn a caterpillar into a butterfly is surrender She has to surrender to the mystery to the Creator and to her own DNA
Therersquos that uncomfortable word again - surrender Unless Ms Caterpillar gives up her stubborn independence and attempt at control starts spinning a cocoon and gives herself fully to the process that will see her lose the only identity shersquos known in the past become nothing but mush held together by the fibers of the cocoon she will never experience the things she dreams of What a sacrifice for someone who has only known the way of the caterpillar
But then when the surrender is over and her wings emerge just imagine what delight and freedom she must experience to see her dreams unfold before her eyes
Perhaps there are new narratives even in the old stories that can help us develop more healthy relationships with the word surrender For example perhaps the story of Christ is actually a metaphoric story that mirrors that of the butterfly The death on the cross was his chrysalis moment - when he surrendered his earthly body to become more fully divine That moment was a model for the rest of us - if we want to live
ldquoChange always involves a dark night when everything fal ls apart Yet if this period of dissolution is used to create new meaning then chaos ends and
new order emergesrdquo - Margaret Wheatley
5
our divine calling we have to give up our small lives and reach for something better
The Christian narrative is the only one I can speak to with any confidence but perhaps the same can be said for other religious narratives too - that what we see as surrender is actually a deeper journey to who we are meant to become
Not long ago I read Mary Karrrsquos memoir ldquoLitrdquo about her struggle with alcoholism Her story about getting sober is an excellent example of the power of surrender Though she tries and tries with all her might to give up alcohol she does not gain freedom from its grip until she is willing to surrender to her Higher Power
For a long time Karr fought a belief in any spiritual power outside of herself and though she was taught to recognize and surrender to a higher power in her twelve step program she just couldnrsquot wrap her head around it Finally though when she reached rock bottom and admitted herself to a psych ward to protect herself from her suicidal thoughts she got down on her knees and prayed The prayer and the surrender finally released her into a more powerful and free life Like the butterfly she could shake off her caterpillar body and transform into what she was meant to be in the first place
Karrrsquos story is also a lesson in continued surrender Though the butterfly only goes through the chrysalis stage once in the human life surrender is a little more messy If she doesnrsquot continue to get down on her knees and surrender Karr admits that she can easily fall back under the spell of alcohol That caterpillar body keeps trying to drag her back down to earth
ldquoOne does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long timerdquo - Andre Gide
6
ldquoBut to whomwhat am I surrenderingrdquo you might be asking Yoursquoll have to settle on the language that feels most comfortable for you - God the Universe Self Sophia the Feminine Divine your Higher Power the Greater Good or your Wild Heart Thatrsquos up to you I wonrsquot try to convert you to any particular paradigm I simply want to invite you to consider that there is inside you a restless spiritual authentic Wild Heart that wants you to live your whole truth and that canrsquot happen without the surrender That canrsquot happen if you try too hard to control the outcome
Butterflies donrsquot fly because they write good strategic plans or follow through on their New Yearrsquos resolution or have good life goals in place They fly because they surrender to their own inherent nature They fly because they simply do what theyrsquore meant to do
If you want to fly you donrsquot have to take a certain course (not even this one) read the right self-help books follow the right gurus adopt the right spiritual practices get a Masters degree in flying or change anything about who you are If you want to fly you simply (although - nothing about it is really simple) have to let your Wild Heart guide you into the path yoursquore meant to take
Therersquos a reason why you are drawn to certain ideas why you have the interests you have and why you have deep longings that wonrsquot let you go Therersquos a reason why you long to dance find your fingers itching to hold a paintbrush again yearn for the stage feel drawn to people who are hurting want to spend all your time digging in the soil or get really restless when you havenrsquot traveled in months Those are all messages
ldquoLiving is a form of not being sure not knowing what next or how We guess We may be wrong but we take leap after leap in the darkrdquo - Agnes de Mil le
7
from your Wild Heart saying ldquofollow your true love and you will find the way to flightrdquo
ldquoBut there are far too many risksrdquo you say thinking back to the wounds we talked about in the second lesson ldquoI will look foolish Irsquoll have to give up my comfortable life I will fail and then Irsquoll be the laughing-stock of my family Itrsquos probably safest if I simply remain a caterpillarrdquo
The problem is a caterpillar doesnrsquot really have a choice To go on living she must give up her caterpillar life and reach for the skies Itrsquos the same for you If you choose not to surrender to your Wild Heart your life will never be fully lived
You canrsquot soar to the heights unless yoursquore willing to let go of the ground
8
ldquoIn the Mind of God there is a ful ly created image of you at your most creative abundant and joyful And there is a divine blueprint by which this image would take form in your life It is not something you can make happen but it is something you can al low to happen by making the softening of your
heart your primary goal This is the meaning of spiritual surrenderrdquo ~Marianne Wil liamson
9
The Surrender
ldquoHow do you get to be so freerdquo Caterpillar asks wistfully of Butterfly
ldquoSurrenderrdquo Butterfly whispers as she flutters by
ldquoButhellip Irsquove read all the books taken all the classes and I just canrsquot seem to get off the groundrdquo
ldquoSurrenderrdquo
ldquoWhat do you mean ndash surrender Surrender to whatrdquo
ldquoTo the Mystery To your Creator To your own DNArdquo
ldquoHow do I do thatrdquo Caterpillar frowns
ldquoClimb up in that tree let go of the branch and spinrdquo
ldquoSpinrdquo
ldquoYes spinrdquo
ldquoBut I donrsquot know how to spin Do I need to take a course Is there a manualrdquo
ldquoYoursquoll know Once yoursquore up there on the branchrdquo
ldquoIrsquoll know How will I knowrdquo
ldquoItrsquos written in your DNArdquo
ldquoWhat happens next Do I have to spin my own wingsrdquo
ldquoNo sillyrdquo Butterfly giggles ldquoYou spin a cocoonrdquo
ldquoA cocoon Irsquove never heard of that before What do I do with it once Irsquove spun itrdquo
ldquoYou donrsquot do anything You just wait Inside the cocoonrdquo
ldquoWhat good does waiting do I have too much work to do to sit around waiting in a cocoon I have housework to do and children to feed andhellip well thatrsquos just ridiculousrdquo Caterpillar turns away her eyes back on the ground
ldquoWell then yoursquod better give up your dream of flying because thatrsquos the only way to get up hererdquo With a few flaps of her wings Butterfly rises higher
Caterpillar glances back at the sky Her eyes fill with tears ldquoButhellip I really want to fly Can you tell me a little more Please What comes nextrdquo
ldquoThe hard part The surrenderrdquo
ldquoSo wersquore back to surrender again That doesnrsquot seem very helpful And itrsquos kind of confusing What am I surrenderingrdquo
ldquoEverything you ever knew Every cell of your body Every story yoursquove ever told yourselfrdquo
ldquoI have to give up EVERYTHING Isnrsquot that asking a bit muchrdquo
ldquoYes but itrsquos worth itrdquo
ldquoDoes it hurtrdquo
ldquoOh yes It hurtsrdquo
ldquoHow do you handle the painrdquo
ldquoYou wonrsquot like the answerrdquo
ldquoTell me anywayrdquo
ldquoSurrender And trust You have to surrender to the pain and trust the process You have to give up control and let your body turn to an ugly gooey mushy substance while you wait for transformation to happen Your friends (those who havenrsquot learned to spin yet) will turn away because they wonrsquot recognize you It will be the hardest thing yoursquoll ever have to dordquo
ldquoI donrsquot know if I can do it I canrsquot handle that much painrdquo
ldquoYou canrdquo
ldquoButhelliprdquo
ldquoDo you want to taste the skyrdquo
ldquoOh yes I really really dordquo
ldquoThen you have to let go of the groundrdquo
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
our divine calling we have to give up our small lives and reach for something better
The Christian narrative is the only one I can speak to with any confidence but perhaps the same can be said for other religious narratives too - that what we see as surrender is actually a deeper journey to who we are meant to become
Not long ago I read Mary Karrrsquos memoir ldquoLitrdquo about her struggle with alcoholism Her story about getting sober is an excellent example of the power of surrender Though she tries and tries with all her might to give up alcohol she does not gain freedom from its grip until she is willing to surrender to her Higher Power
For a long time Karr fought a belief in any spiritual power outside of herself and though she was taught to recognize and surrender to a higher power in her twelve step program she just couldnrsquot wrap her head around it Finally though when she reached rock bottom and admitted herself to a psych ward to protect herself from her suicidal thoughts she got down on her knees and prayed The prayer and the surrender finally released her into a more powerful and free life Like the butterfly she could shake off her caterpillar body and transform into what she was meant to be in the first place
Karrrsquos story is also a lesson in continued surrender Though the butterfly only goes through the chrysalis stage once in the human life surrender is a little more messy If she doesnrsquot continue to get down on her knees and surrender Karr admits that she can easily fall back under the spell of alcohol That caterpillar body keeps trying to drag her back down to earth
ldquoOne does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long timerdquo - Andre Gide
6
ldquoBut to whomwhat am I surrenderingrdquo you might be asking Yoursquoll have to settle on the language that feels most comfortable for you - God the Universe Self Sophia the Feminine Divine your Higher Power the Greater Good or your Wild Heart Thatrsquos up to you I wonrsquot try to convert you to any particular paradigm I simply want to invite you to consider that there is inside you a restless spiritual authentic Wild Heart that wants you to live your whole truth and that canrsquot happen without the surrender That canrsquot happen if you try too hard to control the outcome
Butterflies donrsquot fly because they write good strategic plans or follow through on their New Yearrsquos resolution or have good life goals in place They fly because they surrender to their own inherent nature They fly because they simply do what theyrsquore meant to do
If you want to fly you donrsquot have to take a certain course (not even this one) read the right self-help books follow the right gurus adopt the right spiritual practices get a Masters degree in flying or change anything about who you are If you want to fly you simply (although - nothing about it is really simple) have to let your Wild Heart guide you into the path yoursquore meant to take
Therersquos a reason why you are drawn to certain ideas why you have the interests you have and why you have deep longings that wonrsquot let you go Therersquos a reason why you long to dance find your fingers itching to hold a paintbrush again yearn for the stage feel drawn to people who are hurting want to spend all your time digging in the soil or get really restless when you havenrsquot traveled in months Those are all messages
ldquoLiving is a form of not being sure not knowing what next or how We guess We may be wrong but we take leap after leap in the darkrdquo - Agnes de Mil le
7
from your Wild Heart saying ldquofollow your true love and you will find the way to flightrdquo
ldquoBut there are far too many risksrdquo you say thinking back to the wounds we talked about in the second lesson ldquoI will look foolish Irsquoll have to give up my comfortable life I will fail and then Irsquoll be the laughing-stock of my family Itrsquos probably safest if I simply remain a caterpillarrdquo
The problem is a caterpillar doesnrsquot really have a choice To go on living she must give up her caterpillar life and reach for the skies Itrsquos the same for you If you choose not to surrender to your Wild Heart your life will never be fully lived
You canrsquot soar to the heights unless yoursquore willing to let go of the ground
8
ldquoIn the Mind of God there is a ful ly created image of you at your most creative abundant and joyful And there is a divine blueprint by which this image would take form in your life It is not something you can make happen but it is something you can al low to happen by making the softening of your
heart your primary goal This is the meaning of spiritual surrenderrdquo ~Marianne Wil liamson
9
The Surrender
ldquoHow do you get to be so freerdquo Caterpillar asks wistfully of Butterfly
ldquoSurrenderrdquo Butterfly whispers as she flutters by
ldquoButhellip Irsquove read all the books taken all the classes and I just canrsquot seem to get off the groundrdquo
ldquoSurrenderrdquo
ldquoWhat do you mean ndash surrender Surrender to whatrdquo
ldquoTo the Mystery To your Creator To your own DNArdquo
ldquoHow do I do thatrdquo Caterpillar frowns
ldquoClimb up in that tree let go of the branch and spinrdquo
ldquoSpinrdquo
ldquoYes spinrdquo
ldquoBut I donrsquot know how to spin Do I need to take a course Is there a manualrdquo
ldquoYoursquoll know Once yoursquore up there on the branchrdquo
ldquoIrsquoll know How will I knowrdquo
ldquoItrsquos written in your DNArdquo
ldquoWhat happens next Do I have to spin my own wingsrdquo
ldquoNo sillyrdquo Butterfly giggles ldquoYou spin a cocoonrdquo
ldquoA cocoon Irsquove never heard of that before What do I do with it once Irsquove spun itrdquo
ldquoYou donrsquot do anything You just wait Inside the cocoonrdquo
ldquoWhat good does waiting do I have too much work to do to sit around waiting in a cocoon I have housework to do and children to feed andhellip well thatrsquos just ridiculousrdquo Caterpillar turns away her eyes back on the ground
ldquoWell then yoursquod better give up your dream of flying because thatrsquos the only way to get up hererdquo With a few flaps of her wings Butterfly rises higher
Caterpillar glances back at the sky Her eyes fill with tears ldquoButhellip I really want to fly Can you tell me a little more Please What comes nextrdquo
ldquoThe hard part The surrenderrdquo
ldquoSo wersquore back to surrender again That doesnrsquot seem very helpful And itrsquos kind of confusing What am I surrenderingrdquo
ldquoEverything you ever knew Every cell of your body Every story yoursquove ever told yourselfrdquo
ldquoI have to give up EVERYTHING Isnrsquot that asking a bit muchrdquo
ldquoYes but itrsquos worth itrdquo
ldquoDoes it hurtrdquo
ldquoOh yes It hurtsrdquo
ldquoHow do you handle the painrdquo
ldquoYou wonrsquot like the answerrdquo
ldquoTell me anywayrdquo
ldquoSurrender And trust You have to surrender to the pain and trust the process You have to give up control and let your body turn to an ugly gooey mushy substance while you wait for transformation to happen Your friends (those who havenrsquot learned to spin yet) will turn away because they wonrsquot recognize you It will be the hardest thing yoursquoll ever have to dordquo
ldquoI donrsquot know if I can do it I canrsquot handle that much painrdquo
ldquoYou canrdquo
ldquoButhelliprdquo
ldquoDo you want to taste the skyrdquo
ldquoOh yes I really really dordquo
ldquoThen you have to let go of the groundrdquo
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
ldquoBut to whomwhat am I surrenderingrdquo you might be asking Yoursquoll have to settle on the language that feels most comfortable for you - God the Universe Self Sophia the Feminine Divine your Higher Power the Greater Good or your Wild Heart Thatrsquos up to you I wonrsquot try to convert you to any particular paradigm I simply want to invite you to consider that there is inside you a restless spiritual authentic Wild Heart that wants you to live your whole truth and that canrsquot happen without the surrender That canrsquot happen if you try too hard to control the outcome
Butterflies donrsquot fly because they write good strategic plans or follow through on their New Yearrsquos resolution or have good life goals in place They fly because they surrender to their own inherent nature They fly because they simply do what theyrsquore meant to do
If you want to fly you donrsquot have to take a certain course (not even this one) read the right self-help books follow the right gurus adopt the right spiritual practices get a Masters degree in flying or change anything about who you are If you want to fly you simply (although - nothing about it is really simple) have to let your Wild Heart guide you into the path yoursquore meant to take
Therersquos a reason why you are drawn to certain ideas why you have the interests you have and why you have deep longings that wonrsquot let you go Therersquos a reason why you long to dance find your fingers itching to hold a paintbrush again yearn for the stage feel drawn to people who are hurting want to spend all your time digging in the soil or get really restless when you havenrsquot traveled in months Those are all messages
ldquoLiving is a form of not being sure not knowing what next or how We guess We may be wrong but we take leap after leap in the darkrdquo - Agnes de Mil le
7
from your Wild Heart saying ldquofollow your true love and you will find the way to flightrdquo
ldquoBut there are far too many risksrdquo you say thinking back to the wounds we talked about in the second lesson ldquoI will look foolish Irsquoll have to give up my comfortable life I will fail and then Irsquoll be the laughing-stock of my family Itrsquos probably safest if I simply remain a caterpillarrdquo
The problem is a caterpillar doesnrsquot really have a choice To go on living she must give up her caterpillar life and reach for the skies Itrsquos the same for you If you choose not to surrender to your Wild Heart your life will never be fully lived
You canrsquot soar to the heights unless yoursquore willing to let go of the ground
8
ldquoIn the Mind of God there is a ful ly created image of you at your most creative abundant and joyful And there is a divine blueprint by which this image would take form in your life It is not something you can make happen but it is something you can al low to happen by making the softening of your
heart your primary goal This is the meaning of spiritual surrenderrdquo ~Marianne Wil liamson
9
The Surrender
ldquoHow do you get to be so freerdquo Caterpillar asks wistfully of Butterfly
ldquoSurrenderrdquo Butterfly whispers as she flutters by
ldquoButhellip Irsquove read all the books taken all the classes and I just canrsquot seem to get off the groundrdquo
ldquoSurrenderrdquo
ldquoWhat do you mean ndash surrender Surrender to whatrdquo
ldquoTo the Mystery To your Creator To your own DNArdquo
ldquoHow do I do thatrdquo Caterpillar frowns
ldquoClimb up in that tree let go of the branch and spinrdquo
ldquoSpinrdquo
ldquoYes spinrdquo
ldquoBut I donrsquot know how to spin Do I need to take a course Is there a manualrdquo
ldquoYoursquoll know Once yoursquore up there on the branchrdquo
ldquoIrsquoll know How will I knowrdquo
ldquoItrsquos written in your DNArdquo
ldquoWhat happens next Do I have to spin my own wingsrdquo
ldquoNo sillyrdquo Butterfly giggles ldquoYou spin a cocoonrdquo
ldquoA cocoon Irsquove never heard of that before What do I do with it once Irsquove spun itrdquo
ldquoYou donrsquot do anything You just wait Inside the cocoonrdquo
ldquoWhat good does waiting do I have too much work to do to sit around waiting in a cocoon I have housework to do and children to feed andhellip well thatrsquos just ridiculousrdquo Caterpillar turns away her eyes back on the ground
ldquoWell then yoursquod better give up your dream of flying because thatrsquos the only way to get up hererdquo With a few flaps of her wings Butterfly rises higher
Caterpillar glances back at the sky Her eyes fill with tears ldquoButhellip I really want to fly Can you tell me a little more Please What comes nextrdquo
ldquoThe hard part The surrenderrdquo
ldquoSo wersquore back to surrender again That doesnrsquot seem very helpful And itrsquos kind of confusing What am I surrenderingrdquo
ldquoEverything you ever knew Every cell of your body Every story yoursquove ever told yourselfrdquo
ldquoI have to give up EVERYTHING Isnrsquot that asking a bit muchrdquo
ldquoYes but itrsquos worth itrdquo
ldquoDoes it hurtrdquo
ldquoOh yes It hurtsrdquo
ldquoHow do you handle the painrdquo
ldquoYou wonrsquot like the answerrdquo
ldquoTell me anywayrdquo
ldquoSurrender And trust You have to surrender to the pain and trust the process You have to give up control and let your body turn to an ugly gooey mushy substance while you wait for transformation to happen Your friends (those who havenrsquot learned to spin yet) will turn away because they wonrsquot recognize you It will be the hardest thing yoursquoll ever have to dordquo
ldquoI donrsquot know if I can do it I canrsquot handle that much painrdquo
ldquoYou canrdquo
ldquoButhelliprdquo
ldquoDo you want to taste the skyrdquo
ldquoOh yes I really really dordquo
ldquoThen you have to let go of the groundrdquo
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
from your Wild Heart saying ldquofollow your true love and you will find the way to flightrdquo
ldquoBut there are far too many risksrdquo you say thinking back to the wounds we talked about in the second lesson ldquoI will look foolish Irsquoll have to give up my comfortable life I will fail and then Irsquoll be the laughing-stock of my family Itrsquos probably safest if I simply remain a caterpillarrdquo
The problem is a caterpillar doesnrsquot really have a choice To go on living she must give up her caterpillar life and reach for the skies Itrsquos the same for you If you choose not to surrender to your Wild Heart your life will never be fully lived
You canrsquot soar to the heights unless yoursquore willing to let go of the ground
8
ldquoIn the Mind of God there is a ful ly created image of you at your most creative abundant and joyful And there is a divine blueprint by which this image would take form in your life It is not something you can make happen but it is something you can al low to happen by making the softening of your
heart your primary goal This is the meaning of spiritual surrenderrdquo ~Marianne Wil liamson
9
The Surrender
ldquoHow do you get to be so freerdquo Caterpillar asks wistfully of Butterfly
ldquoSurrenderrdquo Butterfly whispers as she flutters by
ldquoButhellip Irsquove read all the books taken all the classes and I just canrsquot seem to get off the groundrdquo
ldquoSurrenderrdquo
ldquoWhat do you mean ndash surrender Surrender to whatrdquo
ldquoTo the Mystery To your Creator To your own DNArdquo
ldquoHow do I do thatrdquo Caterpillar frowns
ldquoClimb up in that tree let go of the branch and spinrdquo
ldquoSpinrdquo
ldquoYes spinrdquo
ldquoBut I donrsquot know how to spin Do I need to take a course Is there a manualrdquo
ldquoYoursquoll know Once yoursquore up there on the branchrdquo
ldquoIrsquoll know How will I knowrdquo
ldquoItrsquos written in your DNArdquo
ldquoWhat happens next Do I have to spin my own wingsrdquo
ldquoNo sillyrdquo Butterfly giggles ldquoYou spin a cocoonrdquo
ldquoA cocoon Irsquove never heard of that before What do I do with it once Irsquove spun itrdquo
ldquoYou donrsquot do anything You just wait Inside the cocoonrdquo
ldquoWhat good does waiting do I have too much work to do to sit around waiting in a cocoon I have housework to do and children to feed andhellip well thatrsquos just ridiculousrdquo Caterpillar turns away her eyes back on the ground
ldquoWell then yoursquod better give up your dream of flying because thatrsquos the only way to get up hererdquo With a few flaps of her wings Butterfly rises higher
Caterpillar glances back at the sky Her eyes fill with tears ldquoButhellip I really want to fly Can you tell me a little more Please What comes nextrdquo
ldquoThe hard part The surrenderrdquo
ldquoSo wersquore back to surrender again That doesnrsquot seem very helpful And itrsquos kind of confusing What am I surrenderingrdquo
ldquoEverything you ever knew Every cell of your body Every story yoursquove ever told yourselfrdquo
ldquoI have to give up EVERYTHING Isnrsquot that asking a bit muchrdquo
ldquoYes but itrsquos worth itrdquo
ldquoDoes it hurtrdquo
ldquoOh yes It hurtsrdquo
ldquoHow do you handle the painrdquo
ldquoYou wonrsquot like the answerrdquo
ldquoTell me anywayrdquo
ldquoSurrender And trust You have to surrender to the pain and trust the process You have to give up control and let your body turn to an ugly gooey mushy substance while you wait for transformation to happen Your friends (those who havenrsquot learned to spin yet) will turn away because they wonrsquot recognize you It will be the hardest thing yoursquoll ever have to dordquo
ldquoI donrsquot know if I can do it I canrsquot handle that much painrdquo
ldquoYou canrdquo
ldquoButhelliprdquo
ldquoDo you want to taste the skyrdquo
ldquoOh yes I really really dordquo
ldquoThen you have to let go of the groundrdquo
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
9
The Surrender
ldquoHow do you get to be so freerdquo Caterpillar asks wistfully of Butterfly
ldquoSurrenderrdquo Butterfly whispers as she flutters by
ldquoButhellip Irsquove read all the books taken all the classes and I just canrsquot seem to get off the groundrdquo
ldquoSurrenderrdquo
ldquoWhat do you mean ndash surrender Surrender to whatrdquo
ldquoTo the Mystery To your Creator To your own DNArdquo
ldquoHow do I do thatrdquo Caterpillar frowns
ldquoClimb up in that tree let go of the branch and spinrdquo
ldquoSpinrdquo
ldquoYes spinrdquo
ldquoBut I donrsquot know how to spin Do I need to take a course Is there a manualrdquo
ldquoYoursquoll know Once yoursquore up there on the branchrdquo
ldquoIrsquoll know How will I knowrdquo
ldquoItrsquos written in your DNArdquo
ldquoWhat happens next Do I have to spin my own wingsrdquo
ldquoNo sillyrdquo Butterfly giggles ldquoYou spin a cocoonrdquo
ldquoA cocoon Irsquove never heard of that before What do I do with it once Irsquove spun itrdquo
ldquoYou donrsquot do anything You just wait Inside the cocoonrdquo
ldquoWhat good does waiting do I have too much work to do to sit around waiting in a cocoon I have housework to do and children to feed andhellip well thatrsquos just ridiculousrdquo Caterpillar turns away her eyes back on the ground
ldquoWell then yoursquod better give up your dream of flying because thatrsquos the only way to get up hererdquo With a few flaps of her wings Butterfly rises higher
Caterpillar glances back at the sky Her eyes fill with tears ldquoButhellip I really want to fly Can you tell me a little more Please What comes nextrdquo
ldquoThe hard part The surrenderrdquo
ldquoSo wersquore back to surrender again That doesnrsquot seem very helpful And itrsquos kind of confusing What am I surrenderingrdquo
ldquoEverything you ever knew Every cell of your body Every story yoursquove ever told yourselfrdquo
ldquoI have to give up EVERYTHING Isnrsquot that asking a bit muchrdquo
ldquoYes but itrsquos worth itrdquo
ldquoDoes it hurtrdquo
ldquoOh yes It hurtsrdquo
ldquoHow do you handle the painrdquo
ldquoYou wonrsquot like the answerrdquo
ldquoTell me anywayrdquo
ldquoSurrender And trust You have to surrender to the pain and trust the process You have to give up control and let your body turn to an ugly gooey mushy substance while you wait for transformation to happen Your friends (those who havenrsquot learned to spin yet) will turn away because they wonrsquot recognize you It will be the hardest thing yoursquoll ever have to dordquo
ldquoI donrsquot know if I can do it I canrsquot handle that much painrdquo
ldquoYou canrdquo
ldquoButhelliprdquo
ldquoDo you want to taste the skyrdquo
ldquoOh yes I really really dordquo
ldquoThen you have to let go of the groundrdquo
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
ldquoWell then yoursquod better give up your dream of flying because thatrsquos the only way to get up hererdquo With a few flaps of her wings Butterfly rises higher
Caterpillar glances back at the sky Her eyes fill with tears ldquoButhellip I really want to fly Can you tell me a little more Please What comes nextrdquo
ldquoThe hard part The surrenderrdquo
ldquoSo wersquore back to surrender again That doesnrsquot seem very helpful And itrsquos kind of confusing What am I surrenderingrdquo
ldquoEverything you ever knew Every cell of your body Every story yoursquove ever told yourselfrdquo
ldquoI have to give up EVERYTHING Isnrsquot that asking a bit muchrdquo
ldquoYes but itrsquos worth itrdquo
ldquoDoes it hurtrdquo
ldquoOh yes It hurtsrdquo
ldquoHow do you handle the painrdquo
ldquoYou wonrsquot like the answerrdquo
ldquoTell me anywayrdquo
ldquoSurrender And trust You have to surrender to the pain and trust the process You have to give up control and let your body turn to an ugly gooey mushy substance while you wait for transformation to happen Your friends (those who havenrsquot learned to spin yet) will turn away because they wonrsquot recognize you It will be the hardest thing yoursquoll ever have to dordquo
ldquoI donrsquot know if I can do it I canrsquot handle that much painrdquo
ldquoYou canrdquo
ldquoButhelliprdquo
ldquoDo you want to taste the skyrdquo
ldquoOh yes I really really dordquo
ldquoThen you have to let go of the groundrdquo
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
ldquoI would like to beg you dear Sir as wel l as I can to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to
love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language Donrsquot search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would
not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now Perhaps then someday far in the
future you wil l gradual ly without even noticing it live your way into the answerrdquo mdash Ranier Maria Rilke
Heather P lettwwwheatherplettcom
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
12
A lack of visionI would like to invite you in this lesson to create a ldquolack-of-vision boardrdquo I suspect that many of you have in the past created vision boards trying to find some new clarity and purpose in your life This time instead of seeking clarity yoursquoll be letting yourself sit with the messiness and blurry vision that comes with surrender
A few months ago when my Mom was dying and so much of my life seemed unclear a friend of mine dropped off a bag of odds and ends that he thought might be used in my collages or workshops There were several maps in the bag and something about the blurry place I was in made me want to tear up the maps
I glued the torn map pieces onto a large paper and then I started playing with paints and random images I was quite intentional in choosing the images not to try to seek any vision but rather to surrender to whatever was emerging for me in my time of grief Most of the images were related to a journey and the words reflected my sense of being lost (A portion of it is on the left)
It was a healing and meaningful process for me You can read more about it here What emerged was a greater sense of comfort in surrendering to what I couldnrsquot control Go ahead Try it
Creative Process
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
13
Journal Prompts
1 The word surrender makes me think of
2 My negative thoughts about surrender are
3 My positive thoughts about surrender are
4 I like to picturename the higher power to which I surrender as
5 My lack of vision board revealed to me
6 The wild-hearted part of me that is calling me to surrender is
ldquoAlways say lsquoyesrsquo to the present moment What could be more futile more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is What could be
more insane than to oppose life itself which is now and always now Surrender to what is Say lsquoyesrsquo to life mdash and see how life suddenly starts
working for you rather than against yourdquo - Eckhart Tol le
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
14
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Filiz Telek is the term ldquoimaginal cellrdquo Like the cells in a chrysalis that hold the hope of the future she senses the beauty of the butterfly world emerging
She has spent the last couple of years living in the gift economy and traveling to places where she sees the Brave New World emerging Her role in life is to serve as a storyteller filmmaker and edgewalker showing us glimpses into the future that help propel us forward with hope I donrsquot think I could improve upon the way she describes herself ldquoWild at heart free in Spirit curious in mind I am a nomadic artist world traveler spiritual seeker a process host a social innovator an Earth activist a community organizer whose purpose is to serve the evolution of human consciousness and awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart amp spiritrdquo
Video link httpsvimeocom55946488Password mywildheart
Featured InterviewA Conversation with
Filiz Telek
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
Additional Resources
For further inspiration on the topic of surrender the following books may be of interest
Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus
Manrsquos Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Transitions Making Sense of Lifersquos Changes by William Bridges
Let yourself feel your deep desire right now Desire is the cal l of your incarnate soul and a messenger of your Sacred self ~Hiro Boga
15
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you
Unless otherwise attributedAll content and images are the property
of Heather Plettwwwheatherplettcom
Without written permission resale of any content herein is prohibited
If you wish to make copies of or distribute any of the content please contact heatherheatherplettcom
With proper attribution yoursquore welcome to quote sections of this document
Thank you