In moments today when you feel a tightness in your body, an ache or a lack of energy -SIT and notice it.  Sit and take 5 slow deep, low breaths and give this aggravation your attention.  Witness it and breathe with it.  Often these feelings and holding within our bodies are ways for it to speak of our emotions, our past and future feelings, needs, wants and grudges.  These pieces will not be ignored, much like a toddler your body will speak and then yell and then scream when we ignore them or just pat them on the head and say ‘go away and find something to do’.  Over time whispers of our past and our worries become so cumbersome they feel like a daily curse.  Your body can feel like a rebellious teenager that you can no longer speak to or handle or teach.

Listen to what you are carrying.  Breathe with it.  Give these voices your attention.

 

 

“Butterflies are not insects,’ Captain John Sterling said soberly. ‘They are self-propelled flowers.”
– Robert A. Heinlein, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

 

 

He is carefree.  He carries flowers and stuffs them into his shirt pocket, his pants, wherever they’ll hold.  His shoes are off.  His mind is clear of worry.  He is dancing anywhere the impulse strikes him. He is the Fool.

What does it mean to live this way?

You have to trust without reason and if you’re cheated, go on trusting.  You have to give without expectation.  You have to find light in every situation, no matter the darkness that may be present.  You need to be the light.  If at first you are only a little light for yourself, this is okay because with time your inner core will become so bright and bold that holding it back from anyone will prove to be impossible. Allow yourself to be where you are and to honor that for what it is.  Live your life with the strength and the love that is available to you in the moment.  If it’s minimal, humbly accept this for the gift it offers you with probable growth to come.

Being the Fool may look foolish to others, but being in absolute alignment with yourself is far from foolish; no one can keep you from being you or from feeling good about that.

A couple of months ago I decided to take the nearby trail barefoot after a chat with Jess about connecting to the earth more deeply through this simple action.  It’s a fast track to alignment.  I hope you’ll try it before it’s too cold out there to enjoy your skin against the dirt.

 

Let’s celebrate nature this weekend!  There is so much to be appreciated outside if you take the time to notice and the more you notice with appreciation, the more you will receive.  There is an incredible tide of loveliness out there.  Once you dedicate yourself to seeking this, there’s no stopping what will come rushing to you!! Enjoy ✨💛✨

on making and enjoying soup:

With just the right seasonings, a few simple ingredients can combine to make a delicious soup, requiring little disturbance or attention from the chef.  The key is allowing the ingredients to sit together, to merge so that all of the flavors have time to blend in a way that can fully delight your tastebuds.  After lining up the content, we can become the witness of a process that essentially comes together on it’s own.

Courteous exchanges are typically appreciated, though sometimes unnoticed.  When someone offers you a courtesy in passing, do you take time to appreciate politeness?  Might as well!  It’s an occurance that can be the breeding ground for gratitude and kindness.  Take that sentiment and spread it around generously!!

 

It’s the weekend! For a lot of people this is the main time they unwind.  If you’re around without much planned and looking for some super G-rated fun, or even if you’re stuffed to the gills with acivity after activity, go ahead and stop that for a few minutes to play a guessing game with an open minded buddy. 😊   Think of a color.  See the color in your mind and hold the vision for a while.  Ask your friend to guess the color.  You may be surprised at how accurate you are in guessing!  Go with your first instinct.  Don’t second guess! You’re simply not allowed! If it gets old fast because your telepathic skills are already honed to a T, make scrunchy faces into your camera. That’s fun for at least two minutes.  If you come up with something else, I’d love to know about it. 💕

Remember to make time for fun and Happy Weekend Everyone!!

Love can be the root of your breath.  Love can be the driving intention behind your responses to others. Love can guide you in service for the community.  In whatever guise Love appears, I hope you follow.  Go with the passions, the impulses, and your internal knowing  to lend yourself as a force for LOVE.

There are various situations that could sit you flat on the rear while you find yourself picking up the pieces of your life to examine the ways in which you may put them back together.

Before you go on that journey of repair you are absolutely vulnerable, exposed yet seeing no one and showing those who may pass nothing; you are still.  You are removed from yourself.  You are everything you were and everything you will become while skimming along the recognition of your dispensability and your indispensability. You feel your vitality hovering at it’s meekest pulse before it all falls into a mass of placated pieces.

It could be that you feign a crack free exterior for some time, not wanting to be broken.  However, if you can accept brokenness and make peace with the pieces in whatever manner they are presenting, mending can begin to happen.

With time, strength will come to take necessary action in gathering the parts you want to rebuild.  If you air on the side of optimism, you may be fortunate enough to find that being broken can mean being opened.

Being broken can mean holding unidentified space that allows you to shape what will be.

Being broken can mean a greater capacity for understanding others.

Being broken can be breathtakingly beautiful at times, if within the open space you let deep, cleansing inhalation stretch down into your toes with the warmth of light and love. The kind of breathing that heals and nurtures you.

There is a Japanese art form where potters repair broken pieces or sometimes purposefully break pieces and fill the cracks with lacquer and gold powder.  It is called kintsukuroi or kintsugi.  The belief is that the object is more beautiful for having been broken.  The gold traces the history, celebrating the story as it highlights places where the pieces have rejoined to become whole again.

“Expansion” by Paige Bradley is currently housed in a private collection (and while not a traditional example of kuntsukuroi, feels fitting for the purpose of this post). You can learn more about her work at http://www.paigebradley.com

Affirmation:

We are all golden links in the chain of good.  I see the light of others shining brightly within them.  I honor our likeness and our connection.

Seeing yourself and others in this way will work to change you from the inside out if you’ve been in doubt of the good in our world.  Look for goodness, be kindness, and you will find it is thriving.