Recently I was called upon to make some determination as to the nature of my personal passion -- the lens through which I view the world and operate within it. In the Cherokee paradigm that I study under Virginia Sandlin, there are seven abstractions which are at work in this reality, each inclusive of the others and totally interrelated.

Each of us can find among these abstractions, a passion which guides our thoughts and actions. Those seven principles are: source, support, communication, creativity, personal discipline, logic/reasoning, and presence. Imagine my surprise at learning that the principle by which I primarily operate is "personal discipline." I have never considered myself to be disciplined.

"Discipline" has always suggested to me some imposed structure into which I would have to squeeze my life, lopping off big pieces of self in the process. The word alone conjures pictures of military barracks and 0600 wake-up calls, where I, like Gomer Pyle, would drive my sergeant to distraction with my lazy ineptitude. I'm about as disciplined as a cat.

Semantics is a funny thing. On deeper analysis we find the word "discipline" to be analogous with "mastery." Discipline in its highest form does not come from some imposed authority but by the honoring of personal truth. The path of personal mastery is one of moving in harmony with one's own integral nature.

Through the years people who have had readings and healing sessions with me have, no doubt, discovered that my focus is always on acknowledging and honoring where they are in the present and providing the tools to lovingly move them to the next level. This, to me, is what life is -- ascending through each of life's challenges and learning through experience. I believe in viewing your life as work of art in progress -- honing a magnificent sculpture to reveal its integrity of form.