Evelyn Carayannis, Living The Life You Love

03/05/2026

yes, thank you Matt Licata

There is a movement in the path of awakening that does not lead upward at all.

It does not move into light or expansion or transcendence. It moves downward — into the body, into memory, into what has been waiting for us.

Many of us first encounter awakening as a kind of opening. Something softens. The tight center around which experience once revolved begins to loosen, and we sense a wider field of being that is less defended and less afraid.

This opening can bring relief. It can feel like freedom — as if we are no longer confined to the narrow room of the person we believed ourselves to be.

But the opening is only the beginning.

Sooner or later the movement turns, and awakening begins to draw us back into the very places we once hoped to leave behind — into the body, into relationship, into grief, into the unfinished conversations of the heart.

This turning is the descent.

The descent is not a failure of awakening but its deepening. Where the opening reveals the freedom of awareness, the descent reveals the depth of being.

In the descent we begin to meet the parts of ourselves that could not be lived before — grief that had no witness, anger that had no safe expression, tenderness that had nowhere to land.

What returns is not pathology but life itself.

Over time we discover that awakening does not remove us from our humanity. It returns us to it — more slowly, more gently, and with a greater capacity to remain present with what is vulnerable and unfinished.

The path continues not upward but inward, into the density of lived experience, where awareness and embodiment gradually become one movement.

02/21/2026

Thank you John O'Donohue.

FOR A NEW BEGINNING

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

JOHN O'DONOHUE

From his books 'To Bless the Space Between Us' (US) / Benedictus (Europe)
Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store

County Clare, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill

02/21/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18K2Jz286v/?mibextid=wwXIfr

02/12/2026

The Word
by Tony Hoagland

Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,

between “green thread”
and “broccoli” you find
that you have penciled “sunlight.”

Resting on the page, the word
is as beautiful, it touches you
as if you had a friend

and sunlight were a present
he had sent you from some place distant
as this morning—to cheer you up,

and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing,

that also needs accomplishing
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds

of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue

but today you get a telegram,
from the heart in exile
proclaiming that the kingdom

still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,

—to any one among them
who can find the time,
to sit out in the sun and listen.

Image: photo taken by Evelyn Carayannis LMFT, Niantic, CT

02/10/2026

When we slow down enough to listen, the psyche begins to speak.

Not in words, usually - but in symptoms, dreams, patterns, longings, and subtle disturbances that refuse to go away.

When we take time to attend to these communications, a quiet dialogue begins to form between the conscious self and the deeper psyche. Over time, we begin to realize something essential:

Our struggles are not random. They are meaningful expressions of the soul, seeking contact, coherence, and integration.

What we often call “symptoms” are not errors to be erased, but emissaries - carrying intelligence from a deeper layer of the self. They are messengers of the ally, the inner guide, inviting us toward greater wholeness.

But this kind of imaginal listening requires a foundation.

If the body does not feel safe, or the heart is not present, the imaginal realm can feel destabilizing or dissociative. This is why the first gateways matter so much.

Regulation and presence come first. When the nervous system can settle and the heart can stay open, imagination becomes medicine rather than escape.

It is through image and symbol that the psyche restores meaning. The nervous system can regulate. The mind can observe. But only imagination can create.

And creation is how healing truly happens.

When we enter this terrain, healing no longer feels like a linear return to “normal.” It becomes an unfolding work of art. The psyche begins to shape experience the way an artist shapes clay - working with shadow and light, memory and longing, pain and beauty.

Dreams, synchronicities, and inner figures stop feeling like distractions. They become companions. Teachers. Allies.

We discover that suffering was never a mistake to be erased, but a canvas through which something deeper has been trying to emerge.

In this way, healing becomes less about fixing and more about participating.

Less about recovery, more about creation.

To live imaginally is to live in relationship with the unseen - to sense the psyche moving through all things, quietly shaping us from within.

We become collaborators with the intelligence that has been guiding us all along, learning to listen, respond, and create in dialogue with the soul.

02/05/2026

THE BLESSING OF THE MORNING LIGHT

David Whyte

The blessing of the morning light to you,

may it find you even in your invisible

appearances, may you be seen to have risen

from some other place you know and have known

in the darkness and that carries all you need.

May you see what is hidden in you

as a place of hospitality and shadowed shelter,

may that hidden darkness be your gift to give,

may you hold that shadow to the light

and the silence of that shelter to the word of the light,

may you join all of your previous disappearances

with this new appearance, this new morning,

this being seen again, new and newly alive.

Photo: Evelyn Carayannis - Barn Island - Stonington, CT

01/26/2026

Thank you Amanda for this. A reflection of what is moving through me. 🙏

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1QeTUyCm7d/

01/19/2026

The Light-bringers

By Demelza Dhotel

When the world feels bleak and dark
And sadness sits with you.
Look for those with loyal hearts,
of kindness and beauty true.
Those that emanate such warmth
that their very presence
feels like a warm hug to the soul.
And that hold their guiding torch in hand.
Reminding you to keep your steadfast resolve.
When it feels like the world
is losing its way, out of kilter, spinning out of control.
Search for those calm of spirit
to help soothe your worries and console.
And search for those that feel like the Sun.
You won't need to look very far.
For there are many unsung heroes
Whose hearts shine bright like stars.
And if in the vast ocean of space.
You're struggling to navigate your way.
Let that sadness sit, with you, in place.
Until the light finds you and washes it away.
For there are many
light-bringers out there.
The lighthouses,
the moon, stars and sun.
Shining their guiding light.
And who knows...
perhaps, a light-bringer...
You too are one.

Photo: Evelyn Carayannis - Connecticut Shore

01/15/2026

Sometimes I forget that my body is nature,
I forget that it’s wild
and alive,
and born from the stars.

Sometimes I believe all the stories are true,
about not being good enough,
or smart enough,
or thin enough,
or young enough.

But then I remember those moments with the trees,
the ones where I meet them, as if for the
very first time.

Those moments I am struck by the beauty
of each unique pattern, each fractal branch …
the moments I feel their
life force,
speaking in a language
before words.

And I picture for a moment what it would be like to listen in on a conversation between the trees.

I imagine them complaining about,
being too gnarled up,
or too wide,
or too skinny,
or just not quite symmetrical enough.

And then I start to wonder what I look like to them,
what my pure
nature body
is like,
without
any thoughts.

What would I look like as a tree,
or a flower,
or a mountain?

What am I,
beyond all the stories of
not-quite-rightness?

What am I,
as wild,
unnameable stardust?

What am I
un-removed
from the forest
or mosses,
or flowing creeks?

Sometimes I forget that my body is nature.
But then I remember, and everything changes.

Photo: Evelyn Carayannis at Lake Eerie

01/08/2026

The Clearing
By Martha Postlethwaite

Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world
so worthy of rescue.

Photo: Evelyn Carayannis - Essex, CT

10/03/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BBVu46pZY/

Send a message to learn more