She who reconciles…

She who reconciles the ill-matched threads
Of her life, and weaves them gratefully
Into a single cloth –

~ Rilke ~

Remember this…

You are not broken.

You are opening…

The unlived life…

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.

~ Steven Pressfield ~

I don’t often do this – tell you about a book before I’ve finished it. This one, though, is so full of truth that I just have to share it. The title is “The War of Art: Winning The Inner Creative Battle, and it’s been parked on my Kindle for far too long, clearly!

It’s about finding, accessing and bringing to the world the incredible gifts we come here with, the ones that get buried over time and cause all sorts of dis-ease when they remain covered in layers of Shoulds and Ought Tos.

It’s about fear and moving through it, and what a good sign fear is, really.

And about using it to heal.

What a gift.

Worry is..

Worry is like praying for what you don’t want…

I am not sure who said that first – I’m just grateful to have this little mantra in my toolbox.

It’s so true, isn’t it?

What would happen if we all “worried” – expended that sort of energy – about what we DO want?

What would happen if we each took a little time, here and there, to paint the world with love, with joy, with light?

We could heal the world, in a heartbeat.

We could.

Let’s start today…

connecting…

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world,
we lose connection with one another -
and ourselves.

~ Jack Kornfield ~

I forget, sometimes, how important it is to connect in person. I’m really good about doing it wirelessly… I’ve written here before about my revised opinion of the value that Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media bring to our lives – mea culpa. I was wrong and have publicly admitted it – the caliber and sheer number of friends I have made in the last couple years is just astounding. And it’s so much easier to visit in your pajamas. A very efficient system, really.

Still, it’s a little two dimensional, you know? Here’s what I’ve found in the past nine months or so – if you can actually meet these Wireless World companions “in the flesh”, jump at the chance. Do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200, do not hesitate or dilly dally in any way. Forget your to do list, the phone calls you must make and going to the grocery store – just set a time and place and show up. Really show up. Don’t worry about what you are wearing, or if you look like your picture. They will know you, these folks who read your sleepy, first thing in the morning thoughts and likely know more about who you are today than the person you have worked with for years.

If you are really you online, they will know you. And love you. Immediately.

I’ve done it, I know this to be true. Trust me. I just forget to make time and do it.  I get going, and believe that I am fine on my own, just like that bird.  Even though I know that so much of life is the company we keep, the connections we make, the world we weave together.

So today, I took my own advice. A lovely friend, part of the #spiritchat and #soulcall family on Twitter and someone I have exchanged deep thoughts and questions with on a near weekly basis for months on end, was wise enough to say “Enough. We need to set a time and meet. Pronto.” And we did.

It was wonderful. We laughed, we caught up on the back story of our lives, we connected.

What a gift.

I hope you will try this one at home, friends. And if you are near DC, let me know. I’ll make the time.

All in good time…

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen all at once.

~ Albert Einstein ~

Here’s what’s been on my mind – time. Jet looks, in this frame, the way I feel when it seems that there is too little time, that I can’t possibly fit it all in, that I should just give up and watch reality TV with a pint of something good.
Either that, or make like Jet and just whirl in circles around the backyard.

The other day, I posted some photos of my newly finished studio and the first painting I started in that space on Facebook. One wise friend asked “How do you have time for this?!” And I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

For so long, time has been my challenge, my koan, my dragon that refuses to be slain. I don’t think I am alone on this front.

And so my answer to her was that I don’t know.

But I do.

I know that the more I believe there is not enough time, the less there seems to be. And the more I am present and trust that there is time for everything, just not all at once, things open up. In a big way.

It’s a choice – one that I make many times a day now. To breathe, be still, feel that I am here. Right here, right now.

And in that moment, everything settles, and somehow, magically, time expands.

Until the next moment when it all threatens to close in on me. And I repeat the process, opening up my internal lens to allow all the light in, to see the good.

Right here, right now. When I allow it, magic happens.

Every day.

Shifting…

Occasionally we experience a sudden, intuitive shift in our understanding.

And in these times, sometimes the words of others are more easily accessed than our own.