Inspiration and Expression

My teacher, Carol Fox Prescott, tells me, “Every inhale is inspiration, every exhale is expression.”

Inspiration. Expression. Inspiration. Expression.

Hermes whispers to me, “I am no further away than your next breath.”

Inspiration. Expression. Inspiration. Expression.

Martha Graham said, “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.”

Inspiration. Expression. Inspiration. Expression.

When you breathe in, what inspiration enters your body? Your mind? Your heart? Your spirit? What is the vitality, the life force, the energy, the quickening in your soul when you breathe your next breath?

Inspiration. Expression. Inspiration. Expression.

When you breathe out, what do you breathe into the world? What do you speak into the world? What do you dance into the world? What do you write into the world? What do you create into the world?

Inspiration. Expression. Inspiration. Expression.

If you hold your breath, if you keep that inspiration inside, if you block the life force that flows from the universe into you, seeking expression, it will never exist in the world and it will be lost. There is only one of you in all of time. What you have to express into the world is unique.

So, what is yours to say?

And what holds you back? What gets in the way of your full expression of yourself and your inspiration? What makes you catch your breath? What makes you block that life force?

For me, it’s fear. If I say this thing that is mine to say, if it comes out of my mouth out loud into the world, I will be shunned. I will be revealed as not good enough. Some vital part of me will be rejected, or deeply misunderstood. I can’t say that.

I started coming out as a lesbian when I was 16. It was a process that took years, but by the time I was done with graduate school, there was no area of my life in which I was hiding my identity as a queer woman. So, when I began to get serious in my spiritual path as a witch, I decided I would not tell anyone outside of my witchcraft community and my wife. Coming out was hard and painful and deeply scary. It took years, and it took all the courage I had. I was not going to do that again!

When you hold your breath, when you block the vitality that is trying to express itself through you, when you keep your inspiration inside, something is lost from the world, and you never breathe as fully as you should. Something is lost from the world, and you stay small and afraid.

As you can tell from reading this blog, I didn’t stay in the witchcraft closet. There came a time when I had to come out again, had to tell the world again some piece of my identity that is often deemed unacceptable. But until I did, I could not fully share the vitality, the life force, the energy that is mine to give the world. I could not be honest about the truths I’ve learned or the wisdom I’ve glimpsed, the things that I have to offer into the world.

I serve the herald of the gods, and if I’m holding my breath, I can’t speak the messages that are given to me to speak to the world. So, expression in order to make space for the new inspiration.

Inspiration. Expression. Inspiration. Expression.

I still get this wrong sometimes, of course. There are still things I struggle to say, and times when I remain silent out of fear. In those moments, I hope I can remember that new inspiration is just a breath away.

“I am no further away than your next breath.”

May it be so for you, as well.