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by Reverend Misa

Have you ever said a prayer and then wondered why you weren’t getting an answer?

Have you heard someone tell you that sometimes the answer is “No?”

Me too. And then I discovered that sometimes the answer is “Yes,” but it comes with some qualifications and preparation I may or may not want to do. I’m laughing at myself right now because that is exactly the message I received at Vision Quest this year.

SpiritQuest-2013-campfire-400x267Many of us, including me, brought our prayers to the Sacred Fire. We prayed for many people in need of healing, financial support, good relationships, guidance and gentle crossings to the other side. We also prayed for our own well-being and we received a collective answer for our dedicated group (in addition to our personal insights), though I expect it may be challenging for many of us to fully incorporate the guidance into our lives.

We were encouraged through our dreams and interactions with each other to let go of old, familiar roads to our goals that are not likely to work any more. We were called to surrender our preconceived ideas, seek help, and find new roads if we wish to make it to our intended destinations and the fulfillment of our purposes. That sounded good until we realized we needed to put the insight into practice.

Most of us already know that the changes we need to make to truly live in the fulfillment of our desires require we abandon well-trod, but non-productive paths. We know it, but we don’t always know what new path to take. So we pray for guidance, and guidance tells us to surrender the old ways and open to unknown, new paths. We get scared, remain frozen, and nothing changes. Does this sound familiar to you?

bike-1010775_640It has certainly been a pattern in my life. However, true to the nature of life’s evolution, the minute I give up the old ways and surrender with abandon to the adventure of the unknown, I am reborn. In order to sustain the new path that then naturally opens to me, I am typically required to adopt new thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behaviors and habits. I must plunge into the risk with complete trust that I can become and live-out a reality better and greater than what I currently experience!

If you were at all connected to us through the Sacred Fire of these ceremonies, you too might be feeling this same call to surrender and new action. And it can be a wonderful challenge to consider your life in terms of taking a new road. It can also be scary. As I’m sure you already know, the scary part occurs when you think about surrendering to the unknown.

adventure-767042_640A friend of mine once defined fear as an audible inhale, that stops at the top of the breath. He defined excitement as that same inhale, followed by an audible exhale of exhilaration. The difference between the kind of fear that can leave you frozen in your tracks and the kind of exhilaration that has you engaged in the adventure of life occurs within the cycle of a complete breath.

In other words, physically and metaphorically, you transform fear by continuing to breath through it, focusing on the adventure of the moment (relief, joy, completion, fulfillment or whatever flavor adventure is to you). You engage the risk of living fully.

Sometimes the answer to your prayer demands something from you—the grand and wonderful risk of change. Has the Sacred Fire been calling to you? What are you being called to change?