Completing Purpose with Heart

I want to share how I moved into completion of my latest project Follow Your Heart to Peace Coloring Book and Journal –  with a little (a lot!) help from my heart.

I began working on it since, at least, August of 2015.   I did hit “mid commitment blues” – that’s where you can’t remember why you started a project and cannot yet see the end!  I had many times I thought I would stop and a few times declared it complete.

However, my heart was not “complete”  with the project. This has definitely been my own personal journey of following my heart into peace.

I have shared that I have a daily practice of listening to my heart and then drawing/sketching the winged heart and writing an accompanying haiku. Some days I just sketch in pencil and other days I ink the lines and sometimes I color the image.

I have noticed that scanning the image changes the image…so here is a photo of what it looks like in creation mode! I find that the inking and coloring help to anchor the message in my mind, emotions and body. It’s like stamping  it “message received”.

I am sharing here a few of the daily heart haikus that occurred during my July month long push towards completing the project because I really do listen to my heart and that is how  and why I reached completion of the book.

My first clue that I would be reviewing and completing the book was on July 4, 2016, perhaps appropriate that it was Independence Day!   For me it was “IN” dependence day-returning with-IN to focus and listen to my heart to lead me.

My morning heart haiku, not so subtly pointed that out.  And I was given a vision of how the 4 weeks of the month could be divided into “manageable” steps to completion within the month of July.  Honestly, at that time, it only looked good on paper….still felt overwhelming.

Create the flower; finish what you have started;  completion is joy

On the next day, still overwhelmed at the idea of completing and publishing within 4 weeks, this was my heart’s message to bring my mind and focus present:

And in reviewing what I had in files I began to know how much I had already accomplished and how close to completion I might be.

So I began….one day at a time.

At the end of week one, this was the morning haiku:

completing week one; heart leaps into happy dance; joy reverberates

Time and time again the morning heart haiku would bring me to focus into the purpose of the moment or of the day:

 

each moment, practice; holding a steady focus; build strength or purpose

One important message I received often during the month’s push to completion was the message of balance and remembering to rest. Here is one of those reminders:

remember to pause; there is a purpose in the pause; tasks are like heartbeats; it’s the pause that refreshes; finding the rhythm

There were many reminders to honor stages and steps of completion and to celebrate progress not perfection.

lines of completion; mark progress along the way; progress, NOT perfection; celebrate stages

My heart providing encouragement on days of doubt…

 

and honoring personal completion:

sometimes completion; done with excellence & love; is a gift for you

So to honor the completion I photoshopped in the coloring book/journal image onto the daily haiku image and a new haiku emerged:

completing with heart

working with Love as your friend

smooths the way with Grace

I am grateful for completions and for the path of the heart and walking and working with Love as my friend and guide.

May you be blessed to work with Love as your friend.  

in gratitude