#truth – Cara Carozza

Living Maya Time – Reflections on Iq

Iq gave me more opportunities to listen than to express myself over the past thirteen days. As a daughter, as a mother and as a friend. Iq is not subtle. It is breath, wind, voice and the hurricane. For me, Iq arrived as the hurricane. I expected a pleasant breeze and ended up with howling winds. I’m feeling a bit breathless from it all. Still, I’m grateful to have heard with clarity what was spoken to me. Iq seeks to liberate our voice so that we can experience the freedom of expressing our authentic self. Sometimes that process is less than graceful and sometimes it triggers those we care about most.

I’ve gotten really good at speaking my truth since I started writing and it’s become one my most powerful tools for regulating my nervous system. What I hadn’t realized was that it has also made me a great sounding board for others. Through witnessing my own feelings, I have developed more compassion for the feelings of others. I have cultivated the ability to hear what used to illicit anxiety and panic. I’ve developed perspective. I understand that until certain feelings, ideas and memories are expressed that they will divide and alienate. If they are given space and allowed to exist, they often dissolve. Once dissolved, they are easily carried away by the wind.

I focused on my heart each time words were delivered to me that made me want to act or respond instead of listen. I breathed deep into my diaphragm and imagined that I was drawing blue light from the heart of the sky into my own heart. I then exhaled deeply through my root chakra sending the light deep into the earth. Pacha Mama sent me her own soothing green light all the way up into my heart and I found myself softening. I was able to have empathy and remember times when I had felt similarly.

Even within a storm we can find a still point. Within my still point I was able to see the way forward. My way forward was a cup of cacao and a micro fire ceremony on Wajxaqib’ Toj. The fire always listens and always grounds me. Tomorrow we are joined by Tz’ikin, the eagle or the hawk. We’ll want to stay grounded while we’re taking in the scenes below. Tz’ikin offers vision and is the intermediary between heaven and earth, but can also get distracted by all there is to see. May you soar above it all and find exactly what you are looking for over the next thirteen days.

In quiet reverence,

Cara

Living Maya Time – Reflections on Tz’i

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Today I can honestly say that my faith has been restored. The word Tz’i means dog and this Nawal offers us an opportunity to look deep within ourselves to discover our own true nature. Tz’i enables us to sense that which is ordinarily hidden from our view. The dogs extraordinary senses fuel its persistence to discover bones of truth that have been buried for a long time. Perhaps for generations.

Emboldened by my fortified perception and already possessing the innate wisdom of a mother, I patiently unraveled and discovered the roots of the knots that N’oj had revealed. Decades old, yet still festering. I tended the wounds as a mother would. With attentiveness and compassion, but not denial. Tz’i reminded me that my job as a parent is a lifetime position. It requires a lot of faith and a lot of loyalty. Qualities that are often ascribed to our canine companions.

Being a parent is an instinctual job. We learn by doing. Our children do not come with an instruction manual and each one is different. My husband and I have four children between us. We each arrived with two and we decided that was plenty. Even though our hearts longed to know a child that was just ours, we both believed that it wouldn’t be fair to the four that we already had. They needed and deserved for us to give them our full presence. To finish the job that we began before we fell in love.

We did the best that we knew how to do and still we’ve made mistakes. Mistakes that have polished our souls and led us to have a renewed compassion for our own adult parents. Tz’i reminded me that I’m still my mothers precious baby girl even if I’m technically a senior citizen and on the path to grandmotherhood. When my cabin project hit a literal roadblock, it was my parents who came to the rescue with a solution. Reminding me that my own mother is still parenting me. We’re all just walking each other home to spirit and I’m so grateful to be exactly where I am.

Tomorrow, we welcome a new dawn and a new concept. Our faith restored, our senses heightened, we are ready to step into the new ideas and experiences that are awaiting us in this next trip around the calendar wheel with Aq’ab’al.

Gratefully,

Cara

Words Matter-Meditations on Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. entered the world 120 years ago today. He is probably best known for his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, but he authored many other books during his lifetime. A total of 33. Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California. Affectionately known as, The Salad Bowl of the Nation, Salinas made its fortune, after the depression, on “green gold” and it remains an agriculture town today.

Salinas is also where I keep my office and I am reminded of Steinbeck on a daily basis. I am blessed to have a fantastic view of the Steinbeck Public Library. The front of the library is flanked by a statue of Mr. Steinbeck and an immense boulder that is inscribed with one of his quotes, a favorite of mine, “Books are the best friends you can have. They inform you and entertain you and they don’t talk back.”

Books do not talk back, but they speak nonetheless. Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his realistic writings that combined sympathetic humor and keen social perception. He told stories that many in the Salinas Valley would rather not be told. The Grapes of Wrath, his acclaimed and prize winning novel was banned by several local schools. His books were even burned, both in the city of Salinas and other cities throughout the country. They were condemned as obscene.

Today this same community celebrates him with one of the largest literary museums in the United States dedicated to a single author. His birthplace and childhood home is a restored Queen Anne style Victorian that now houses a charming restaurant and gift shop. His name graces not only the library, but also the post office, an elementary school, roads and even part of the highway, not to mention numerous businesses. He is our most famous native son.

It’s hard to imagine a time when his books and his ideas were not only unpopular, but actually outlawed. It inspires me to speak my own truth every day and reminds me that peoples perceptions can change in time and when offered another’s point of view.

But…first we must use our words. We must speak our truth. Our very own, uniquely us TRUTH! No matter how unpopular. That’s what I intend on continuing to do. I invite you to join me.

In love,

Cara

P.S. I have just submitted my Audiobook for its final review before publishing! I expect it to be available early next month.