2014 Your Opportunity to Create Anything

Kalina Ivanov and Muriel Stockdale creating
Kalina Ivanov and Muriel Stockdale creating
Happy New Year to the year of the heart, the year of creation, the year of getting into basics like what makes you tick, what connects you and what sustains you. Times have been interesting and I think will continue to prove to be even more interesting. Think of where we have come from in our lifetimes. So many new things, when I was a baby we got color TV, today’s new babies will see reconstructed body parts, wearable tech and god knows what else. But what is the point of all the magical toys if our inner state cannot match them with a higher state of consciousness. It’s not worth it to create more and more stuff to destroy each other, that is just not satisfying, is it?

So where are the new things that help us lift our consciousness? I’m not suggesting that you go to Colorado today and buy some pot but instead look for tangible tools to free the mind and heart so that 2014 can be that year of freedom, creativity, satisfaction, accomplishment and absolute connection to the ones you love. Here’s how I manage to stay in the light.

First, I continue to practice my Mastering Alchemy lessons. In a lifetime of spiritual yearning, wandering, experimentation and practice I have finally found a path with astonishing tools of enlightenment that steadily drive me toward the success creating my own life that I have always craved. The path starts off by helping with understanding the boundaries between me and the world out there. Next it progresses to discovering the interference of other voices in my head like as Jim Self, the master alchemist, says, “Teacher, Parent, Minister”. Once discovered those voices, that try so hard to drive our lives, are politely invited to depart. From there the course of study begins to include the voices of master principles inviting us to align with our own power. For example Jim Self repeats often “be happy”. He invites us time and again to be confident, capable and kind to ourselves and I finally get it. The course continues to be exciting, inviting, interesting and joyfully challenging. The key here is attitude and crafting the right attitude and sticking with it is the stuff of mastery. I invite you to check out the site www.masteringalchemy.com and see if you find it useful to you too.

Next I continue to watch the world and seek out those bright light ideas that inspire, uplift and ignite respect and love for each other. I try to post them here but it’s been a busy year and I know I’ve missed  a lot of good moments that should be shared. Two things that are really critical right now and that speak to the new trend that we will swing together toward are these and they relate to money. I know that the economic downturn was terrifying for so many. That downturn was predicted for ages before it happened and the circumstances that caused it are not mitigated so the chances are we could be back there again any day. But you know me, my goal is to focus on what’s positive. So don’t worry let’s make another crash into a great opportunity. Already behind the scenes there are many people creating radical ways to construct the new economy. Right now I am reading a great book, “Sacred Economics” by Charles Eisenstein which invites us to consider trade and commerce in a far more enlightened way than we do today. For those who were shocked by the fact that so many lost their homes in the bad mortgage fallout how about those crazy Occupy Wall Street folks who are buying up bad debt and then just forgiving it so that people can move on? We are not out of the woods and we need the radical free-thinking ideas of new minds to solve the tremendous problems we’ve created for ourselves. They are out there working on it creating micro finance, new forms of exchange, better worldwide connectivity and safer forms of interaction. The big trees are dead and about to fall but on the forest floor when the light of the sun hits them so many creative shoots will sprout that we will be amazed we had not known that all that preparation was going on.

On a more personal note I want to encourage everyone to create, do what you love, write, draw, sew, sing because that is the new economy. Many of you know that I was an unhappy costume designer for many years, that I then quit my career to make my way into a new career creating uplifting entertainment. That career has been a winding path, with a group formed to support people who want to create spiritual entertainment, a short film that never became the feature I hoped for – yet. There were also a few scripts including a musical that wasn’t produced and TV pitches that almost made it as well as a couple of books still in progress and, of course, the diverse US flags that have had an awesome journey throughout New York and New England and have now settled for a while at least at Charlotte’s Place downtown here in NYC. My husband has been asking me continuously, “What are you doing? You’re all over the place, why can’t you focus?” and because I don’t know what to say, I have to follow my heart so I say, “I not making an appetizer, I’m creating a feast”.

So I’m so thrilled to report that it looks like exciting things are coming to life in 2014. One is a TV show developed by me and my dear friend, Kalina Ivanov, for cable TV in the style of, “The Borgias”. Our show entitled, “The Accidental Empress” is about the remarkable ascension of a Creole girl, Aimee Dubucq de Rivery to Empress of the Ottoman Empire in 1817. What makes this story more interesting is that it’s true and she’s the cousin of Josephine Bonaparte. So watch out for the show, it is currently being shopped around and our fingers are crossed. The second project is now an opera entitled, “Sitayana”. It is the story of Rama’s wife who was rescued by her prince after being kidnapped by the demon king, Ravana. For years this project languished after my dear friend, Philip Baloun, who hired me to write the book for the musical, died. This summer when I did costumes for “Ulysses” i proposed my script to my fabulous director, Crystal Manich and she likes it and graduated it from book to libretto. So we are developing the project. Keep your ears open for news of Sitayana too.

You might wonder how did this happen? I might have wondered too but now I know. For years I worked under the same conditions of under paid, over worked, under supported, not enough time, no respect and etc. I always felt like, “poor me” “why does this keep happening to me” until I had to admit if this dynamic keeps happening it has to be in my own world construction somehow. Two times in my life I saw with absolute clarity how I created situations. The first was at NYU with my thesis production. In my first year I saw the teachers absolutely rip a designer to shreds during her critique. It was not necessary and so cruel and much of what they cited was not her fault, I was shocked and that experience stuck with me. I was terrified it would happen to me too and wouldn’t you know two years later, it did. The other time I created with absolute clarity was when we broke the rudder on our first boat. It was in the shop all summer so we didn’t get the license for it. On the last day of summer they told us we could pick it up. I was fretting about getting a ticket for not having a tag and I went on and on about it. Guess what we got, lucky us.

With that kind of clarity in creating the invitation is there to figure it out. Many years later, a lifetime later, I am delighted to say that with the help of Mastering Alchemy I get it. I am not a master yet but I am so much better at the creative process than I was. This year I will be good enough so that you can watch the Empress on TV and come to Broadway to see Sita get rescued by her prince Ram. That’s my intention. I also intend great things for you too; may there be blessings, connecting with friends and family, satisfaction in accomplishment, recognition and opportunity for you all in 2014. 

Muriel

2012

I woke up early this morning, actually it was still the middle of the night, and I was so excited to be in 2012. I was so excited I felt like I did when I was a kid and Christmas was coming the next day. I call 2012 “magical year” Why you may wonder and I also may wonder? I am not quite sure why except that I now know that the gifts of 2011 were great and I know that by my own personal inner shift much enlightenment has grown within me so I only expect more of the same for 2012.

2012 is a year of extraordinary promise & prophecy, which nourish either our fear or our hopes. So many have written about it, talked about it and even made movies about it and at this point – the very opening of the year – we can still have no idea what it really will be like; doom and gloom or a brand new world. All I know at this point is that by my choice to live within a hopeful, life affirming focus, that is what I will get. 2011 was proof of that for me. So for 2012 I choose to believe in heaven, angels, faeries, beneficent aliens, good politics, banks of service, serendipity in business, good and supportive friends and all that is life affirming.

Looking back I find that 2011 was the year that I think I mostly settled in the now. Yes, now, and that is a huge achievement, something I have been working on for probably eons although I only realized this was my mission relatively recently. Living in the now is such a relief. It seems there is more time for everything, things get done in just the right time and in just the right way. There is far less angst about what happened in the past and what might happen in the future leaving me with the joy of savoring what is going on right now. Serendipity and miracles seem to find space within the now that they can never pry open in the future or in the past and yet there is something about living in the now that changes both the past and the future. 2012 is about living in the now.

Gregg Braden speaks eloquently about zero point and explains complex science of the shift of the ages and how we are moving into no time or now time, where linear time collapses into the now. All this is great but seemed nosense to me until I began to actually understand now time on a completely different level of consciousness. Discoveries in physics point out that time is an aberration. Ancient sages tell us that we live in a dream world and that our true nature is in all time. But this is so perplexing, it is almost the craziest koan out there and stops the brain short. In spite of that living in now time, now I have the faintest inkling that the sages are right and the we are eternal, it rings true and feels comfortable to me. The realer than real world of our spirit seems closer to me in now time.

It used to be that when I took on a project it was about accomplishing the task, finishing quickly, efficiently and producing a good product. More and more it has become about filling the moments with joy, reveling in now. So I am choosing projects that really pay off in the moment and the relevance of the end result is far less important to me. I guess this is “life as art”, there is no determined outcome but what really counts is the joy of exploring the process and stopping when the product feels finished. I am so much happier now than I used to be in my “work” mode. I suppose it should be called “fun” mode.

For New Year’s Eve we share a gift exchange with our friends. This year the gift was to be homemade. Of course everyone was a bit stressed about it even me and I can make so many kinds of things. Anyway I chose to make something not typical of my skill set – a lamp. My strengths lie in fabrics. I had such a great time making that lamp. It was so much fun creating something different and beautiful out of stuff that was around the house – a curtain rod, plate, some stones, a piece of veneer and some silver leaf. I do admit that I have some kind of unusual stuff kicking around, being a crafty person. The project was so satisfying and stretched my sense of what I can do. Also I was so impressed and delighted to see all the marvelous things my friends could make which ranged from baked goods, to plantings, pictures in frames, another lamp, artwork, jewelry, pottery, glass work, carpentry and more. I think everyone enjoyed their assignment. I know for me it was a beautiful affirmation of the great value in making something for the love of the making and the joy of giving all done in the very precious now.