This is me (Roderick MacIver) talking, not Archibald.

I had an great experience about 2am last night. I like to work in the early hours of the morning and so set my sleep schedule up around that. In the wee hours, I was working in the office, looking through Nurturing the Song Within. By mid-December the window for orders for Heron Dance books in time for Christmas starts to narrow, so I decided to do a post on Nurturing. (There are still a few copies left. I don’t plan to reprint it.)

As I flipped through the book, I came across the two-page spread “Guides Imaginary and Real.” Reading that, and its suggestions of various guides one might consult in journaling, I came to the one about thinking of your Quiet Center as a person, and consulting it for any insights in might offer. It seemed a great time to consult with that entity, so I closed my eyes, relaxed, and concentrated on my breath for a few seconds. I welcomed my Quiet Center, and asked it if it had anything to share with me. To set the context, I’ve had some struggles lately as I set up my new gallery and try to get the word out that it is here.

Immediately, my Quiet Center offered these thoughts, “You are so fortunate. Your work has attracted a tribe of gentle, kindhearted, thoughtful people. They support you and keep you going. Just relax into that. Don’t worry about the hard hearts and the cold shoulders. The reality is that most people are just not going to understand you, or relate to your work. Focus on the fortunate reality, not the unfortunate reality. You are very fortunate.”

Afterwards, I was filled with gratitude, and also an increased clarity about what I do, who I serve, and who not to worry about. I’m not going to change anybody. The objective needs to be not letting others change me. And serve, as best I can, this beautiful little tribe I have somehow lucked into. Even though I may often not be worthy of them (you). It brought to mind a quote by Vaclav Havel, a poet, playwright and former President of Czechoslovakia.

I feel that the dormant goodwill in people needs to be stirred. People need to hear that it makes sense to behave decently or to help others, to place common interests above their own, to respect the elementary rules of human coexistence. They want to be told about this publicly. . . Goodwill longs to be recognized and cultivated. For it to develop and have an impact it must hear that the world does not ridicule it. . . I never try to give people practical advice about how to deal with the evil around them, nor could I even if I wanted to -- and yet people want to hear that decency and courage make sense, that something must be risked in the struggle against dirty tricks. They want to know that they are not alone, forgotten, written off.
- Vaclav Havel, President of Czechoslovakia, from the book Summer Meditations