"Jump up here," she said calmly. Her calmness in the face of my fear could always soothe me. But not this time. I had come seeking her on this journey, and had landed in a deep gully with sheer cliff walls rising high above me. As I stood wondering how I could get up to where she was, I became aware of a noise and a vibration that made my body tremble. A raging wall of water was rushing towards me, threatening to engulf me and carry me away! I stood paralyzed with fear, stuck in that spot, yet able to hear her voice above the roar of the approaching water. "Just jump up here," she said again. Trusting her as always, I willed my body to jump, just as the first drops of water reached out to touch my body. As the churning water raced below us, she turned to me and said, "Any time you are feeling overwhelmed by all that is coming at you, you can just move out of the way."

What happens when you wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep because of all the thoughts running through your mind about things left undone, deadlines that seem impossible to make, responsibilities that seem overwhelming, and so on? How do we move out of the path of all that overwhelms us and find an oasis of calmness? Who or what in your life can guide you away from all that threatens to carry you away? How do you not get caught in the "gully" in the first place? What does it take?

It takes courage. It takes imagination. It takes commitment. It takes listening to the whispers of your heart, in whatever form that might take. Meditation, shamanic journeys, creative visualization, journaling, therapeutic art-making. These are some of the tools that can help you find the place of inner knowing, of inner wisdom - a place that can provide the oasis, the calmness, the sense of well be-ing that is needed to restore balance to your life. A wise friend once told me that "We are human beings, not human doings. We need to be more than we do."

Human nature being what it is, it is hard to limit what we do, so that we might have more time to just be - be with ourselves in a way that allows clarity to come into our lives and help us jump out of the way of all that we take on, or that life brings our way.

From above all the rushing water I had a different perspective on what had been threatening my existence just moments before. Turning to her, I said, "I followed your advice to jump up out of the way, and the water has lost the power to overwhelm me." "Of course it has," she smiled.

Make this the day that you find a way to jump up out of your personal "gully." Listen, and then be with the answers you receive.

©1999 Deborah Kelley

Spirituality, healing and creativity are three strands that Deborah Clark Kelley weaves together in her life. She believes strongly that we contain all the wisdom and knowledge that we need, we just need to tap into it. Shamanic journeying is one way that she gets in touch with her inner wise woman, and the journeys then become the basis for her "Heart Whispers" column in "The Kaleidoscope," a regional magazine.

Deborah holds two certificates in Art and Creativity for educators, and is a practising Reiki Master. She has recently completed a spirit-guided story for the Indigo children, called "Anahanda and the Children of the Light." Deborah lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children and two black cats. She loves receiving email messages at wisewoman@monad.net. Visit her website at http://heartworks.net .