The term Soul Flares was inspired by an essay by Clarissa Pinkola Estes called, "Letter to a Young Activist During Troubled Time" in which she writes:
The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these—to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both, are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.
Specifically, a "soul flare" is any act of kindness, creation, expression that creates light. Soul flares are created by people who dive deep inside themselves, beyond the layers of fear and the judgment, to find and to offer their beauty to the world—no matter how small---a smile, a song, a beautiful painting, an act of kindness. No special degree is required to make a difference in this world, no training or special gift--the world will be changed by the daily, accumulated acts of kindness and beauty.
Soul Flares, the organization, serves the people who are trying to be part of this collective force for good but who often feel outside of the mainstream efforts and organization. It's supporters do not fit into any mold: religious, agnostic, spiritual, realists, dreamers, new age, conservative, liberal, highly educated and hardly educated, male and female, young and old, rich and poor. But..they are curious, openminded and still willing to open their hearts.
Mission Statement
Soul Flares is a 501(c)3 educational nonprofit organization, founded in November of 2006, dedicated to providing the resources and inspiration needed to live a purposeful and soulful life in harmony with nature and all beings. The missions of Soul Flares, at its core, is about reaching beyond boundaries, gathering together kindred souls and creating the conditions for transformation, acceptance, and love. Meeting in a circle as equals, virtually and in person, we bring ourselves in from the cold and gain strength and inspiration from each other. Together we shine our own unique light in service of a better world.
Free and reduced rate services for people trying to serve the same mission in different ways, including consulting, website development, editing and marketing.
Soul Circles (A page on this will soon be posted.)
The Future Vision for Soul Flares:
Creating a network of Soul Circles across the country to support people trying to live soulful, purposeful lives.
Empowering individuals through training and support to lead their own Soul Circles.
A Community Website that offers resources, directories and opportunities for exchange for people seeking to live with soul and purpose.
Annual Wild Soul Tours to promote the creation of Soul Circles. (To help coordinate a stop in your city or town for 2008 contact me at annie@soulflares.org.)
Interview and record your stories about loss, love, and the journey of the soul.
Soul Flares Needs Your Support.
If the Soul Flares mission speaks to you in some way, please give what you can by visiting here.
If you don't like the internet, please call 802-922-3724 or send your contribution to:
Soul Flares
PO Box 47
Underhill Center, VT 05490
Or email me with your fundraising, grant writing or marketing ideas. annie@soulflares.org
I am deeply grateful to you and for the opportunity to do this work.
Annie O'Shaughnessy- Founder
If someone had told me twenty years ago that I would be founding and running a nonprofit organization on my own, I would have laughed and said, "Who me? Other people do that! I am just a climber - a jock." The journey from there to here has been a circuitous one, rich with experience both heart-breaking and life-giving (but, of course, they are the same!)
And, although some days it feel like it, I am not doing this "alone." Soul Flares now has 5500 supporters across the country who inspire and support me with their courage, wisdom, and generosity. I am forever a student and they are my teachers. Despite my fear about doing Soul Flares with two children to support, the calling was too persistent to deny. "If not me, than who?"
Martha Graham wrote:
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable, or how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to stay open and aware to the urges that motivate you.
Ever since I can remember, I have had a secret dream for my life. It has more of a feeling than a specific form, broad qualities rather than clear definitions. Bits of it resemble what I felt when my best buddy, David and I, ages 9 and 8, would spend days building a fort in the woods, pretending we were pioneers. There we'd be, sitting on the dirt floor, grinnin' with satisfaction, independent from “grown-ups,” in league with each other and closely bound by the secrets we shared and the time we spent being "real" with each other.
More difficult to describe are the fragile moments sprinkled through my life when I became briefly aware that much more of me was still to be birthed, that gleaming treasures existed deep inside and that my life could somehow be of use. The quality is of excited anticipation; the feeling is of being a flower unfolding. Within these moments grew the secret hope-- too precious to say out loud -- that eventually my truth would be revealed to me and my life would be filled with purpose, my heart with beauty and love. -
No wonder this was a “secret” dream. No wonder it only poked its rosy face out in the tender moments-- while lying still after making love, my ear against the beating heart of another human; or while perched half-way up a granite cliff, feeling the warm updraft, watching a falcon circle fifty yards away. In Nature, in Love, this secret dream of mine thrived. In the day-to-day world, it was clearly romantic nonsense. For many years, I moved back and forth between two internal lives: the life led by this dream and my love of wild nature, and the one driven by safety, security, predictability, and convenience. The latter dominated for a long time; my mind reasoned that honoring my truth would cost too much. More times than I care to recount, I closed the heavy hatch of fear over my truth.
But as Anaïs Nin wrote: “The day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
At my soul's insistence, I made a choice to change my secret dream to an impassioned prayer -- a clear intention to live fully, to honor this gift of life with all my heart, soul and mind. And I felt in my heart a big “Yes.” My prayers were answered when I met Roderick MacIver eight years ago, the artist and founder of Heron Dance, a nonprofit dedicated to celebrating the mystery of the natural world and the gift of life through art and words. I arrived in Rod's life with no experience in business, writing, computers, design or workshops --all the things I would eventually find myself doing. What I did have was a big love for him, a passionate belief in his work, and the determination to help Heron Dance.
Rod believed in my writing before I did, insisting that he share with his readers an essay I wrote for him called "The Opening." I haven't stopped writing since and soon became and integral part of Heron Dance. Together we grew Heron Dance from 5,000 to 30,000 readers. It was a work of love. Our creative collaboration resulted in a huge amount of beautiful and inspirational work such as the weekly Pause for Beauty emails, the Heron Dance Book of Love and Gratitude the Daybooks, Art as a Way of Life, and countless issues of the Heron Dance journal. It was during this time that I began leading my Reconnecting With Our Wild Souls retreats, which revealed to me a way of being in connection with others and ourselves that was truly life-changing.
When our time together ended last year, I founded Soul Flares, an organization with a greater emphasis on community and outreach through workshops and Soul Circles. After a difficult few years of slowly letting go of my life and my identity that was connected with Heron Dance, I have emerged fierce and more compassionate, humble and stronger, filled with more passion for this mission than ever.
I am deeply grateful to you and for the opportunity to do this work.
Blessings and Love to you,
Annie O'Shaughnessy
To learn about my life read an autobiographical essay I wrote in 2003 called "The River." Visit here.
Visit here to browse more of my essays and interviews
To sign up for my new bi-monthly e-newsletter Letters from an Open Heart, please visit here.
To learn about Soul Flares workshops, Soul Circles, and Speaking visit here.
Specifically, a "soul flare" is any act of kindness, creation, expression that creates light. Soul flares are created by people who dive deep inside themselves, beyond the layers of fear and the judgment, to find and to offer their beauty to the world—no matter how small---a smile, a song, a beautiful painting, an act of kindness. No special degree is required to make a difference in this world, no training or special gift--the world will be changed by the daily, accumulated acts of kindness and beauty. 
The Future Vision for Soul Flares
If someone had told me twenty years ago that I would be founding and running a nonprofit organization on my own, I would have laughed and said, "Who me? Other people do that! I am just a climber - a jock." The journey from there to here has been a circuitous one, rich with experience both heart-breaking and life-giving (but, of course, they are the same!)