Lynn V. Andrews; International Author, Shaman and Founder of the Lynn Andrews Center for Sacred Arts Training

“Letting Go of Self-Importance of the Ego-Mind and Living in a State of Well-Being”

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Winning Essay is by Betsy P. from Sedona, Arizona

The winning entry to the 2010 Joshua Tree essay contest is Betsy P. from Sedona, Arizona. She has entered the contest each of the last three years. With just 3 or 4 days remaining to the entry deadline, she went walking in the Red Rocks near her home and took inspiration next to a running stream to write her story.

Betsy moved to Sedona from Long Island, New York after vacationing there every year. She just came to realize she should be there. So she picked up stakes and moved her successful, though all consuming, pilates/reiki/holistic healing practice to the area two years ago. The next year she also married.

Then 2009. No work. No jobs. No money. The Sedona community was, she described, devastated without the normal tourism traffic. So Betsy got creative with her time and her talent. “I don’t just do one thing anymore,” she says and instead accepted many types of work: trainer at a local gym, nanny for children, sewing and design and selling her work on the internet. “In Long Island I was very focused on work, now I am more able to diversify. To find enough to get by every month, then trust in Higher Power. My creativity is back, I like it better than complete work focus. Jill of all trades!” she says with a laugh.

She came to Lynn Andrew’s work about four years ago while reading about dreaming and dreaming techniques. She had a couple of dreams which came true and some lucid dreaming experiences. Could there be a way to develop that? She got a copy of Jaguar Woman and also the Love and Power Journal at the same time. Then a friend gave her a copy of Shakkai. Soon after she found the Lynn Andrews website and took some dreaming courses online. “I was enthralled with Lynn’s writing. During the online courses I had amazing dreams. I felt the presence of the Sisterhood [of the Shields]. Without that involvement [in the courses] it is harder to feel the connection strongly.”

To Betsy, winning the Essay Contest means the chance to connect with ceremony. To be with people on the same path. Also at this time in her life she is coming to terms with not being in control. To relax and stop over thinking. When she does this, she says, more opportunities open up. Here is Betsy’s winning Joshua Tree essay.

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Legend says that Bright Cloud Woman lived in the base of a copper canyon. When her husband passed and her twelve children grew up and left the nest, the Indian woman stayed behind to tend to her animals and crops. They say she grew very old, but still had the strength of a man half her age.

Each morning she arose to witness the flash of sunlight as it burst through the towering rocks. She told her Grandchildren that the first sparkle of the day was Great Spirit smiling at his creation, showing them his big white shiny teeth! And in the summer time she sat patiently in her rickety chair waiting for the great monsoons to arrive. After the first drops wet her prune lips the old woman stood up and danced in the torrential rains, blessing her fields of corn and blessing the Great Mother. It is said that every time it rained her long white hair turned golden and her limbs grew long and strong.

Great Spirit smiled at her the last time and Bright Cloud Woman departed from the earthly realm. To this day a patch of golden corn still grows in the canyon. They say that those ears of corn are the juiciest and sweetest anyone has ever tasted.

Not long ago I met a woman at a sweat lodge named Margaret. She told me that she was a lawyer, twice divorced and that her career had become all consuming. She explained how she’d left the corporate world and embarked on a new path studying healing and psychology. Her prayers were powerful. They spoke of challenges and endurance, and of how to weather the storms of life. Margaret had the gift of the sliver tongue and eyes dark like heavy rain. Her hair was gashed with a bright white streak and when she smiled her whole being radiated with warmth and compassion.

Later that week I found Margaret online, aka “Bright Cloud Woman.”

Her last post quoted the lyrics of a song; it read, “Heaven is a place on earth….”

It’s true I thought. I catch glimpses of it in the whisper of the trees, in the patches of green grass, and in the swoop of a bird’s wing. It’s there too behind cement walls and in the hustle and bustle of the city; Great Spirit smiling down on every place on Earth!

An old memory stirs and I recall traveling on a ferry across the Sound while storm clouds amassed in the sky. As the ferry lurched and my stomach tensed I huddled inside my hoodie. Suddenly the heavens opened and a blinding light cascaded from a hole like a giant spotlight to the Earth. Silhouetted inside the glittering ring a tiny fishing boat rocked on the rim of the ocean. I wondered if the man aboard could see the miracle that he’d become. Did he know that in that moment he appeared as the great Pharaoh transported across Ra’s kingdom?

I left a comment on Bright Cloud Woman's post.

I wrote, “Shine on dear sister!”