The Between's End
The Dream becomes the Come True
who does she think she is, a flamingo?
yep.
how dare she try something new!- the pigeons
The view up HERE is spectacular!
Yay, me!
I'm doing 'It'!- the Flamingo
If you are surrounded by pigeons, perhaps you're out of your flock.
i’m not alone in the music studio
{ WHEN HEART & SOUL SPEAK }
The clock counts down its final, steady beat,
As silver frost meets golden candle glow.
I stand before the door where years retreat,
And 2026 waits for the snow.
I step across this threshold, bright and wide,
With nothing left to hide and naught to flee;
A sober heart, a clear and rising tide,
In the quiet grace of newfound liberty.
I carry gratitude like gathered grain:
For family whose love is bedrock deep,
For grandchildren, like sunlight after rain,
With promises that I am sworn to keep.
The Siamese curls, a shadow by my chair,
While in the light beyond, where spirits run,
Heaven’s pets are racing through the air,
Their earthly days of loyalty well done.
And there—Audacity—the noble horse,
With coat like velvet and a spirit bold,
Who guides me on a wild and rhythmic course,
Through home-life stories yet to be unrolled.
Awake and breathing, I have found the key
To rooms of ink and paper, white and vast;
The writer’s life has set the vision free,
The heavy chains of silence in the past.
On Substack’s digital and winding lane,
New friendships blossomed, kindred and sincere,
Through shared confession, joy, and honest pain,
We find each other’s voices, loud and clear.
The violin is nestled to my chin,
A wooden soul that speaks when words are thin;
The bow creates a bridge where I begin
To let the music of the soul flow in.
The door is gold, the future is a song,
The world is wide, and I at last belong.
~ {Flamingo It!} by G.S.
Performers come in all sizes and shapes and venues. Whether an artist in a gallery showing, a musician at a performance, a competition rider in the Dressage arena, or a favorite morning coffee barista - performance is life. We are all performers. I think the question is ‘What performance makes us come alive?”
{ The Heart & Soul Buoy-line }
Maker | Performer
{ I am wild-eyed about me. } Saying aloud the infamous words of my #3 heroine says:
"Aging is a privilege." - Lindsey Stirling { believe in your own awesomeness! }
The words .HEART & SOUL. have been speaking to me throughout 2025. These words are with me to carry close as I practice in my music studio this January - and prepare to record a brand new style of song and instrumental accompaniments.
Sometimes it is not the over-doing that is important, but the waiting found in the doing-nothing until the wind comes to fill the sails and set the course to the next destination. Now and then, as I read my eclectic list of varied Substacks, I find a feather to share and pass along. A feather that floated across my path and became meaningful in a special way. This is such a feather from Jonathan Fields.
finding It
During the past 20 years Jonathan Field has been speaking and handling horses while teaching large groups of people to understand the nature of the horse. Participants quickly come to realize it’s more about teaching the humans and helping them through their blocks than it is about the horse. By striving for the same partnership and synchronicity we see in nature - flocks of birds, or a lead mare turning her band of horses with just a glance of her eye - Jonathan helps us strive for and discover our own { SWEER SPOT } of comfort and in partnership with the world around us.
Lately, Jonathan Fields mentioned the Sparketype Assessment which he compared to the hierarchy in a horse herd, where every member finds there “fit”. Strangely, the author of Sparked (the book) shares the same name.
SPARKED: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work That Makes You Come Alive - The ultimate Sparketype “primer,” this book is a mandatory resource for everyone looking to understand your own Sparketype profile on a profoundly deeper level, and also learn how to put it to work.
You are about to discover your Sparketype™, the essential nature of work that fills you with meaning and lets you feel fully-expressed, alive with purpose and absorbed in flow (”sparked”). Your Sparketype serves as one of the single biggest clues in your quest to figure out what to do with what the poet, Mary Oliver, called your “one wild and precious life.”
BUT, THIS IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT -
As you move through the questions, take your time and answer as accurately and honestly as possible. Do not answer in a way that reflects how you “wished” you felt or thought you “should” feel. If you do this, you will likely be assigned a Sparketype that is not accurate, and it will not be helpful in your quest to figure out what you’re here to do.
Now, it’s time to discover your Sparketype!
» Sparketype Free Assessment
finding one wild & precious life
Once you know who you are, life is no longer a multiple choice problem to be solved. There is one direction you are called to travel and one journey set before you. The question becomes: “When will you start?”
Set a date.
Set a time.
Never hopeless.
Never helpless.
Pick a side.
I believe the power of a vision is sacred.
Not to puff up.
Not to shrink from.
But to stand our sacred ground.
keeping It real
Being a flamingo is not super flounce or prance. Not squawking or shrieking. It’s solid footing and finding balance and being together. Masterpieces just don't happen. The artist must be present and become proficient with their skills. The imaginaire must show up. Solo flights happen, but flocks are always good too.
Above all, to thine own self be true.
keeping It free
A re-balance of life, destination, and the journey of HERE.
A Heart & Soul Stage
{ A Place to Be Brave & To Try New Things }
Oh the “quiet grace of newfound liberty,” and the sunlight that grandchildren bring. Absolutely love your poem. What a beautiful piece of writing. Thank you for sharing.