June rain. I waited all day. I dodged the raindrops and was rewarded by rainbows.
I read this post today about grounding your energy for health. The article is about breast health, but read to the last paragraph he talks about how walking outside is OF IMMENSE IMPORTANCE.
see–Of immense importance
I was walking next to the river yesterday and 8 river birds were diving into the calm glassy surface that looked like a mirror. They all stayed underwater together long enough so all trace of them disappeared and the surface water became again smooth and undisturbed. After a time they resurfaced for air, one by one in an unpredictable pattern and each flicked their heads to rid themselves of the last droplets off their plumes. They looked like perfect little creations popping up out of the ether fully formed and ready for more action. I watched them for a while.
We all have those ideas that keep nudging us, that won’t leave us alone. We don’t always act because they don’t come up for air fully formed. We just get a seed of an idea. The end product is often murky and seems out of reach.
At the end of a seminar I was listening to yesterday, Rev. Deb was asked a question by someone wanting to get clear on the message of the book they were writing. These are my notes for how she responded that I thought provided great insight on the process:
Get some clear questioning energy about the book
(your hesitancy) is the ego getting in the way.
This is so not about you.
There is something else to it besides your personal satisfaction.
Ego gets attached to identity and we are going to be changed by them (the book, the ideas)
So ego can sabotage it.
Once you are able to see this, that it’s not resistance, it’s sabotage.
Don’t judge or condemn it (the ego), just chat and explain to it that it can come along for the ride, but it needs to calm down a bit and trust you.
Treat the book or project like it has its own entity, ask it ”Reveal yourself to me”
Cultivate a relationship with the energy around it. Make a connection. Don’t worry about the end product.
Ask it “Who are you?’
“How can I serve you? Talk to me.”
Ask to be communicated with in your dreams.
Every idea comes with its own seeds.
Our job is not to push the seeds to grow.
Relax.
Trust.
Live your best self.
What idea/book/project/direction (you pick) has been nudging you?
I’ve been spending frequent but short amounts of time outside tending to the garden. I’ve been trying to establish a daily practice of caring for it. I hope to keep it’s wild ways in check this year and stay in charge (which is hilarious really), I’m nowhere near in charge, but the daily attention is having it’s effect. I’m not sure if the daily attention has me noticing more, or if I’m being shown more, which comes first?
While prepping veggies in the kitchen, for some reason, I had to leave what I was doing and go outside. Earlier it had stopped raining and the light was hitting the view just right. This is what I found.
These are hostas, they grow in the shadiest part of my garden under the branches of a sugar maple tree. They don’t show their flowers until much later in the season. They quietly add light to the shady areas through their vibrant foliage and deeply grooved leaves. After the recent rain the remnant drops reflected a passing cloud. These quiet plants are not quiet at all, they may be in the shade but they certainly make themselves seen and seem to say who needs flowers? I’m in favor of anything that reflects the light.
Raindrops or Stepping Stones?
Can you see the cloud?
This book found me in a thrift store, it was a dollar. Am I crazy to think that books find you? I didn’t read the jacket I just knew I have been in love with knitting in the past, and the heaven and earth reference had an attraction as it implied a wider view of knitting than stitches, patterns and yarn selection. I was right.
The subtitle “healing the heart with craft” is a recurring theme in the work of many of my artist classmates over at Hello Soul Hello Business. Susan Lydon writes and knits her way through a mid-life relationship, the death of her father, her loss of a friend and ultimately her own diagnosis and journey through treatment for breast cancer. She find herself, towards the end, working at an artist retreat on a first draft of the book. Read the rest of this entry »
Wisdom from the local vegan bakery (Zac and Ani’s) walls.
This week’s Bliss List (idea from Liv Lane) a new way to celebrate the little things that brought us hope & happiness this week)
1. Taking in the love at the Hello Business Hello Soul FBook group
2.This inspiring video buoyed me all week. I love at the end when Ginny Ruffner says,
“Why not expect the best possible outcome. What do you want to do with your life?”
3. Finding other blogs and then find that they love clean food too this is from Britt Berg.
4. My own cooking coming so easy these days, this week’s creations included lentil burgers and black bean hash.
5. L(14) asking me if we could go out and buy a journal, which sparked our discussion about how healthy & fun journaling is. I jumped onto her bandwagon and bought new pens for all the journaling I’ve been doing for the HSHB course.
6. Listening to Susan Cain, the author of Quiet during office hours with Dan Pink. I’m hoping the book is the start of a gentle revolution & a cultural shift to valuing the qualities of an introvert. On my Pinterest biz vision board, I found myself adding a fun visual list detailing how to care for introverts. This has found a place in how I do business and how I honor this side of myself and of others. I think good health depends on it.
Source: littlemissmomma.blogspot.com via Hannah on Pinterest
When my kids were little, their uncles would throw them up high to squeals of delight. They’d jump and beg, lift me up, high! I’d be stood watching, hovering, ok darting around underneath ready to catch them if they fell, thinking oh please, not that high. My daughter’s a high school cheerleader now, a flyer, and when the team through her up during the routine, I’m still thinking, oh please, not that high and she is still loving it.
This was a collage I made in November, the main image is from Yoga Journal. It was a few days before the first meeting of the Bella’s. The Bella’s is a group of savvy smart women that grew out of some local twitter connections. After a few dinner meet ups, the amazing Erica decided we needed to become a mastermind group. Once a month we take time out of our schedules to meet and help & support each other navigate the paths we are on professionally and personally. We have a closed group online on the facebook where the energy continues and we can share our weekly goals, struggles and conversations.
You know that feeling that you didn’t know you missed something until it becomes part of your life and you wonder how you did without it? Yes, that’s how it is.
Everyday is Rare Disease Day. I live very well with Takayasu Arteritis. I have never met anyone in real life who has the same disease as me, yet daily I am talking to others who are going through the pain of diagnosis, tests, and the struggle of living with a rare, invisible condition. We have a closed group on the facebook where we can check in with those others who have been there, done that. It is difficult when even our specialist doctors may not have seen many cases in their careers. If we end up in the emergency room or at a general practitioner, doctors there are often not conversant at first with the care that we need. Patients with rare diseases have to be very strong advocates for themselves and this group helps us to act as a collective. We have a document that explains our condition to download and take to doctors offices, we have a list of specialists worldwide who are willing to consult with local doctors. A few weeks ago, one women’s insurance company turned down the latest medicine needed for treatment, because it was off-label. It is hard to get medicines on label for our condition because there are so few patients, clinical trials are as rare. Within an hour this women had a link from a stranger to the Johnson & Johnson patient support grant network. It really is life-saving support.
You know that feeling that you didn’t know you missed something until it becomes part of your life and you wonder how you did without it? Yes, that’s how it is.
For the last nine days I have been talking the e-course Hello Soul Hello Business. I have been delving into the why and who of my new emerging business.There’s Kelly Rae Roberts and Beth Nichols, oh…and an intimate lively group of almost 300 artistic, creative women business owners who are using the private Facebook group to talk, mingle, share a-ha’s, laugh, cry, console, panic, regroup and FOCUS deeply on the mission of their soul (read this) and therefore their business.
You know that feeling that you didn’t know you missed something until it becomes part of your life and you wonder how you did without it? Yes, that’s how it is.
When you feel supported in this way, the research shows it changes you, you can go out and support others. The ripple effect is amazing. Magic really. My future biz partners & customers are going to feel this way when we do business together. Being part of something bigger than yourself, perhaps, is the start of being able to create something that is bigger than yourself. I’m getting thrown up higher by the day and I’m loving it now. Tell me, what’s working for you?
This felt like the perfect start to the year. A movie that asks the questions, what is wrong with the world and what can I do to change it? It’s really the story of a journey towards awakening to the connectedness of everything interspersed with interviews with those studying the science behind the theories. It is one of those, “I want everyone to watch this” type movies.
Lynne McTaggart (The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe
) talks in the beginning of how we make sense of our lives by telling stories, through history this has been so. We look back on the stories, such as the earth is flat and can feel superior. But, she warns, science is just another story that we use today, to make sense of our lives. What gets more intriguing is later on when David Suzuki (The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature
) talks about how the economy is a similar story that we use to run our lives. We have elevated it to a level of having a life, a reality, while it is entirely a generated reality. This movie, will make you reconsider accumulating wealth beyond your needs.
The director, Tom Shadyac’s Father founded St. Judes Hospital, the model of love your neighbor, love your enemy. How come this model doesn’t spread? His interview with his father and his explanation of why it doesn’t spread was one of the most moving of the whole movie.
Many of the scientists interviewed have books published. Heartmath has a lot of them in their research library. As someone who has seen a 3D image of my heart spinning on a monitor more times than most, it was fascinating to think that they are finding information in the pause between the heartbeats. Information that is linked to the emotions we are feeling. The heart rules over the head, as often seen when we feel anger. During outbursts of extreme emotion we often do things that our brain would under normal circumstances overrule. We function better in a state of empathy, empowerment and love. While we may think of this as obvious, the science is now coming forward with evidence. As involved as I am in learning how to stay healthy despite a different prognosis, this direction of research is of great interest. It seems to be bringing a full circle to the science of the west approaching the same conclusions as the ancient healing traditions of the east, and this can only be good for us all.
This is the emerging story. The confluence of technology and the ancient story are coming together. Quantum Entanglement, reinforces the mystical idea that we are not separate. There is a scene with yogurt that is interesting. They imply that the stress felt in the room by the director is picked up and registered via electrodes set in the yoghurt, it reminds me of the secret messages of water. It appears he is connected to the yogurt, but they can’t explain how. They point out the vast majority of our genes are identical to our animals. It encourages celebrating our dependence on our relatives, the rest of life on the planet. Like I said, a great start to 2012. I hope you get to see it. I’d love to know what you think.
In Oprah’s interview she asks Tom why he called the movie “I am”. I don’t think she had watched it when she asked that. He was asking the questions of scientists and thought leaders what is wrong with the world and what can I do about it? After watching the movie, there is no question of why the movie is called “I am”.
Yep, this is how 2012 is going to feel.
Supporting Words: Bravery, Discovery, Curiosity, Possibilities, Allowing.
I had fun working through the workbook mentioned in this wonderful post by my fellow DWYL participant Hazel Burton
As for resolutions, they make me consider the following from Zen Teacher, Cheri Huber
Life is not reasonable, it is paradoxical.
When you stop trying to change, you will be different.
When you accept everything as it is, everything will have changed.
When you are no longer focused on knowing, you will know.
When you are no longer identified as a self, you will be self-confident rather than self-conscious.
When you are no longer interested in doing, you will be able to do anything.
When you do not care at all about success or failure, you will succeed.
—from How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Cheri Huber
I bristle at the yearly insistence that we all need changes and improvements in order to be happy, successful, more acceptable. However, I do like to use the new year to consider direction and to set an intention of attitude and orientation of feeling for the coming year.
If your new to this style of cooking check out this article about macrobiotics in Eucalyptus magazine January 2012 edition. I appreciate the quote ”leads to the pursuit of a more healthful balanced life”
My investment resolution for 2012 will be a continuation of the habit. One cooking class a month. And…more time at the Kushi so that I’ll complete their training in the near future.
As for business, the first few months will be taken up with Hello Business Hello Soul, I’m hoping that this will help bring Mindbodynourish for health & wellness professionals to life with all the ease of a perfect landing after a clean jump.
What’s your word for 2012?
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