I AM THE BEST VESSEL!
on channeling and showing up for the ideas that come to us, plump blackberries in spring, witnessing ourselves, etc.
Elizabeth Gilbert in ‘Big Magic’ taught me that sometimes an idea visits you and you think how cool! but you don’t act on it and so it jumps from you to another host because the idea’s only goal is to manifest itself into reality. If you can’t do that for the idea, it will simply find someone else. It’s nothing personal, it’s just the way ideas work. They orbit you again and again until they finally give up and move on or until you finally accept and execute the work required to bring this idea to life.
When I had the idea for a (secret) project I’m now creating, it had been orbiting me for 4+ months but I didn’t yet know how to act on it. (I had forgotten that clarity comes through action). (The idea just wants you to start moving, that’s all it needs. It will guide you if you simply show up for it).
So anyways, this idea visited me in the car as I was headed to see a friend and I could feel its urgency. This would be its final effort before it would search for another more willing artist if I didn’t commit now. In this heavenly moment of soul sight, I realized just how much this idea had pursued me and how in the 4+ months since its first visit, something had happened to me that made me ready to be the artist that would give this idea life. With an emotional, blubbery voice, I suddenly found myself chanting “I AM THE BEST VESSEL, I AM THE BEST VESSEL, I AM THE BEST VESSEL!” as I drove down PCH, tears of creative clarity streaming down my face.
As I continued to chant, it felt like I was in the middle of a powerful drum circle, being roasted over a fire as I began the intense initiation of this idea into my very being. With each shriek, the idea lodged itself further and further inside of my chest, for what better place to live than the heart as bringing this idea to life could only be an act of love. (Like babies, authentic creation is pure love.) After the last shriek rolled out of me, the following silence was loud...the air still buzzing from the creative energy as this sacred ritual was now complete.
This reckoning is now a gentle weight I carry on my chest, one that reminds me to get to work and one that gives me creative comfort. It is the responsibility and specialness of knowing this idea chose me. This is the pleasant and intimidating weight of purpose––when you accept that you are the best vessel.
WHEN AN IDEA COMES YOUR WAY THAT ELECTRIFIES EVERY CELL IN YOUR BODY, DROP EVERYTHING AND CHANT: I AM YOUR BEST VESSEL, I AM YOUR BEST VESSEL, I AM YOUR BEST VESSEL! FEEL IT SLOWLY SETTLE INTO YOUR BODY. SHARE YOUR DEEP THANKS. THEN GET TO WORK. START SHOWING UP. DON’T FORGET THAT YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN FOR A REASON. THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR SPECIFIC GIFTS THAT THE IDEA NEEDS IN ORDER TO BE MANIFESTED. BE THE BEST VESSEL THAT YOU ARE. YOU ARE MEANT TO BIRTH THIS ART BABY INTO THE WORLD.
Blackberries
Is it okay if I add a bit of mint? It tastes more like spring that way.
A gentle smile that cradled me, then a tiny nod.
I don’t know why but I wanted to feed it to him.
I gently prodded each of the blackberries, to see which one punctured most easily. Only the softest, juiciest, plumpest for my love.
Before delivering the parcel between his slightly parted mouth, I pulled the berry to my lips and gave it a kiss, a stamp of love before its journey.
I told him to close his eyes, partly to engage taste to the fullest, and partly for my own viewing pleasure. (The beauty you perceive cannot exist outside of you without it already existing within you.) (To observe another’s beauty is to also see that within ourselves.)
There were small ripples across his cheek as his jaw effortlessly ground the berry down to its seeds, his tongue cleaned off his molars, and his adam’s apple guided it along its way.
To give and receive. My work was done.
Why are we here? he asked.
To do just this, my love. To…
Sit in the sun first thing in the morning. That is nature’s coffee.
Run into the ocean and shriek as the cold touches our soft, winter bellies.
Create things out of nothing, just like this sentence.
Singe our eyes as we can’t help but stare down the sunset every evening.
Laugh and dance and talk about the universe with those that see our soul’s truest essence.
Gather roadside wildflowers to make tiny flower arrangements for ourselves and for fairies.
Hold one another close and feel our heartbeats sync up.
Warms each others’ fingers in each others’ hands and each others’ toes under each others’ butts.
Feed each other ripe blackberries with a sprinkle of mint in the springtime.
That’s it. That’s all.
3 Quotes 💡
Manifestation queen/artist @peathefeary on worth:
“The more you do things solely to prove your worth the more you call people into your reality that you have to prove your worth to.”
Writer Maggie Nelson on bearing witness to ourselves:
“Eventually I confess to a friend some details about my weeping—its intensity, its frequency. She says (kindly) that she thinks we sometimes weep in front of a mirror not to inflame self-pity, but because we want to feel witnessed in our despair.”
Actress Zoe Saldana showing us what self love actually looks and feels like:
“I know who I am. I love who I am. I like what I do. I like how I do it. I like my mistakes. I like the way I learn. I like the pace with which I learn from my mistakes. I don’t wanna be anyone else but me.”
3 Symbols
🌸 Blossom (spring is here and it always feels like hope)
🦁 Lion (I’m a Leo sun and I’m finally coming into it more and more and it feels really really good)
🎀 Ribbon (we all have divine gifts that we are here to discover and use, how exciting!)
3 Mantras 🪷
When I share my work and my ideas, I keep the channel open and the river flowing. (I do not need to hoard my good ideas, that is scarcity and blocks up the river).
My desires come to me with ease. (I do not have to ‘grind’ to get them, that is capitalist nonsense).
When I prioritize rest, I treat myself as the divine being that I am. (Rest is resistance).
With love,
Kristen 🌸 🦁 🎀