Sparrow Song Studios is the home for my love of processing and sharing my explorations with you.
Hi, I’m Sallie. Welcome to my journal. It has become my life’s work to explore and put language to engaging in the vulnerability and courage it takes to create the meaningful and rich connections with God and one another that we all crave.
Emotions Never lie. That’s a load of bull hockey.
I feel I have done my job well when I look at a photo I made and say – there they are! That’s my friend, Tiffany, that’s my friend Kim… And I see them there on the screen. Not a likeness of them, but who they are coming through the image. It’s something you can actually feel, it resonates when it’s the real thing, and it falls flat when it isn’t. That’s why you can have the most visually spectacular image, but it leave you cold and flat – because the person in that image didn’t show up, who they are didn’t come through. But wether we know it or not, we are all searching for that resonance, that recognition in one another. We just might not be familiar with it when we find that resonance, and we don’t know how to find it again.
The frustrating part is how very clearly we are told to hold back that part of us – the part that resonates with others. We are told to hold back, tamp it down, don’t overwhelm people, don’t be too much. So we retreat into an internal place we believe is safe, and perhaps it is. Perhaps you have experienced the same thing I have – the horrible pain of people mishandling your heart. And ugh – it’s just the worst. It hurts so badly when you decide to be vulnerable to someone and they respond — poorly. That safe internal dwelling we have all carved out for ourselves sometimes is the very reason we survived. But it’s no life. It’s no way to live long term. So when it’s time, when you are ready, gather up your courage and your luggage and move out of there. Permanently.
continue readingRoadblocks, Hand Slaps, and Other Things that Derail Us
And just now, a sparrow is in the lobby – flying around, hitting the glass, trying to get out. So I opened the door and left the room so she could escape. What in the world timing is that? I was literally looking up birds for my new logo. I’ll take it as a big ole’ confirmation.
Sparrow Song. The idea is that we all have a song inside of us – and it is lovely and our very own song. And our only job is to let it come out of our bodies. The sparrow is our creativity, our expression, our Voice. Wether it’s in song, writing, art, dance, whatever expression that is unique to you – you were created to release. Very bad, no good things happen when we don’t release that creative flow that’s in us. It becomes stagnant water and begins to poison us instead of being an alive, life-giving part of us. The very thing we were given as our greatest gift to ourselves and the world can begin to turn in on us and become bitter water. The danger is that we can become bitter in our thoughts and consumed with self pity when we see others doing the things we dreamed once of doing (or just being successful at anything at all!) – when along the way we hit a road block and it stopped us in our tracks.
continue readingThe Job of the Good Apple
Woman empowerment… yes. Slaying all the men to get it? No. A new and instantly beloved friend told me to look up Nikita Gill – Wild Embers within the first two minutes of meeting for the first time. So I read it.
WILD EMBERS
We are the descendants
Of the wild women you forgot
We are the stories you thought
Would never be taught.
They should have checked the ashes
Of the women they burned alive.
Because it takes a single wild ember
To bring a whole wildfire back to life.
Nikita Gill
For all the women who felt burned alive by something greater and darker and more powerful than they. Just like I did. Just like so many who believed the lie that they didn’t count.
Structure: Prison or Freedom?
The year of Balance and Structure. And I nod. Yes. This is right. This sinks down into my soft inward places and breathes a sigh of relief.
Yes.
Structure.
Without it, my energy to accomplish flies out into the ether — it’s scatter shot. So much of it wasted. And my energy is so precious. Years ago, I didn’t understand this was even happening. It never even occurred to me that I was pouring and pouring and POURING out my very life’s force – mostly onto the ground.
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