This week we are beginning a new Full Self Emergence course at Sunrise Ranch. This is a 27-week residential program designed around the 7 Days of Creation and an understanding of the creative process.

As the director of this program, I hold a space for the participants and their process. Everyone at Sunrise Ranch has the opportunity to do that as well. There’s a need for safety, for compassion for their process, and most importantly a need for a loving surround. That’s what happens in the space of my heart. I understand that if I want to have change in the world, I must go to my heart. That is the place where everything and everyone meets. It is a vibrational place where everyone in the world can reside.

This place in the heart can be a womb space for Creation. As you enter into a new cycle it is wise to hold a womb space for that process. We are capable of holding the atmosphere of the womb for a new idea, a new project, for a new beginning. That atmosphere is held for what is set in motion and for what begins to happen.

We can each create a sacred space for what is to be born into our world, and we can hold precious things in a womb of love as they gestate. Just as it takes nine months for an embryo to become a child, it takes time for transformation and emergence of the self. As a community, it is a privilege to hold sacred space for things to transpire, for life to happen, and for Creation to manifest in its glory.

When we decide to keep the holiness of life safe, we create a place of sanctuary, a place of transformation, and a place of rest. Is it possible to feel a lot and go through life changes, to have relationships change and still be at rest? I say it is. I say it is when you hold a womb space. It is a powerful place. Most people know the use of the word, having to do with a child growing inside a woman’s body. Amazing things are happening in that little space—transformation at a very rapid rate. For that to happen, the space must be held safe.

We ask people who come to participate in Full Self Emergence not to start a new intimate relationship. The main reason we recommend that is the need for them to hold a space for themselves. Oftentimes when you start a new personal relationship, it’s very distracting. It could be a lot of fun, and very exciting! But it can be very distracting from the path you choose and the primary purpose of your life. You were and are interested in your own transformation and being of service in the world. When transformation is happening and it gets uncomfortable, a person can look for distractions. That may happen unconsciously, so we try to make the distraction conscious.

This morning I kept thinking of a Beatles song:

In my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom: Let it be.

In my hour of darkness, in my hour of unknowing, in the place of the womb, she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom. Wisdom is always present when one decides to respect the womb. I think my most brilliant thoughts when I’m surrendered. When I Let it Be. That’s what I choose to do in my hours of darkness and uncertainty—surrender. How about you?

I have a good brain. I was a good student, magna cum laude, summa cum laude, top five of the class, and all that. But if I can’t be in the place of opening myself to the wisdom of what is trying to be created right now, it means nothing. Yes, I’m very good at Sudoku and crossword puzzles. They say it’s good for your brain. But wisdom? Wisdom happens in the place of the womb where my heart says yes. And my heart also says I don’t know, and my heart also says Yes I will, and who I am says I will serve.

I had a conversation with a friend this week who was working with some health issues, and she was saying, “I’m doing everything I can naturally to heal this thing, and finding ways in which I can be of service, and I’m frustrated because it’s not working.” She was holding a space for things to work out. She was surrendering to her process. In that place of surrender, we may also need to receive. There are blessings that come to assist you. Maybe you need a medical procedure. Maybe you need somebody else to give you advice. In a heart space where there is the sacred surround of the womb of all Creation, there is a giving and receiving. We surrender to being loved, and loving what is being given.

One of the things Dr. Phil McGraw says is that everybody needs a soft place to fall. And I do believe that if we constantly think that we need to be the strong one, the realms of our heart will become stiff. There needs to be fluidity in there, both for the giving and the receiving. Fluidity allows the giving of your gift and the beauty of who you are. Everybody has a very special gift to bring. But we also need to be willing to receive the gifts of the people who have been given to us by life. I know we might be waiting for the perfect people to show up, but these are the people who were given to you.

Don’t you sometimes think, I wish I had someone who was more like me? That way I’d at least understand how things work. But no one is like you. Some people are similar. Our siblings are often more like us than other people. Even so, if you think about your siblings, they are not you. No way! We might laugh at the same things and we might sound alike on the phone, but when it comes to the gifts we bring? My sister Paula, in her patience; my sister Debbie, in her generosity; and my sister Vicki, in her dedication. They are very different women. And I am interested in receiving their gifts. They are in my life to be in this space of Creation. But they are not me.

At Sunrise Ranch, we have a new configuration of FSE participants. Some are brand-new to Sunrise Ranch, some have lived here a little while, some have lived here an extended period of time. They are all going to participate in this process. The question for us who live here is this: Are we willing to hold a womb space for them? We each have that gift to give in so many situations. Your presence really matters. You get to assist when things are not going easily for someone. And I always tell the Full Self Emergence participants, “It will get difficult, mainly because you asked for change. And I and we are here to assist.” This is true for any group of people who come together, not just here at Sunrise or in this particular program.

In one of my favorite psalms, Psalm 139, it says “Thou hast searched me, and known me….” When I surrender in the womb space, that is the experience I know. God has already searched me and knows me. No hiding out, and no desire to hide out. You know my up-standing and my down-sitting. The psalm also says “My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.” It doesn’t say “when I was conceived” but it implies that—from the moment that “I was made in secret,” a connection to the invisible in the womb space is known.

As we enfold sacred things and keep them holy and safe, we get to see the beauty and the sacredness that manifests. It is soon to be full-time spring here in Colorado, when things begin to grow. The grass is already beginning to turn green. Seeds were planted in the garden a few days ago and we received a glorious rain that followed. This will allow things to crack open and be born into the light.

Let us plant seeds, hold the womb space, and watch them grow. Let us bless the living things in our life through the stages of their growth. The seedling does not look like the fruit. But we can welcome the fruit by holding a sacred place for the seedlings that are showing up. This is true for the things of the earth as well as the things of the heart. We can hold space for each other and for ourselves. Let the seed sprout. Let the seedling grow. Let the plant blossom and bear its fruit. Let us provide a safe and sacred womb.