Embracing the Humanity of the Situation

One week day, I had dropped my son off at his program. As I drove out of the parking lot, I felt this immense joy and a merging of my whole self. I had remembered a time not too long before this event, when I was sitting at my laptop, manifesting this experience that had great importance in my life. I had made the decision and tied down dreams to reality, making it happen.

I had willfully created this event. My being exuded delight as I lovingly wrote a check and paid for this amazing experience for my child. It felt like a merging of dreams and reality, and a joining of my creative divinity with my humanity.

Another day, same time, same day, a week later, in the same place, something different occurred. As I was leaving, I was carefully observing the neighboring cars, ensuring I would not pull out at the same time. Slowly, I had backed up and tapped a car’s bumper behind me, just as I had shifted from reverse into drive. 

I didn’t even feel the bump as my vehicle had a metal bumper and it hit a smaller, plastic one. After getting out of the car, I had conveyed my apologies countless times, concerned with the other parent’s vehicle. I had given her my insurance information and that was that. 

It was when I had reached my car, when I got in to drive away, that emotions had come rushing over me. I felt fragmented into various uncertain and unpleasant emotions. I felt disorganized, messy, concerned about repair cost, and less than whole and solid. Just plain old not together. It was a disorganizing, shaking sensory experience. As the day wore on, I had felt exhausted from the scornful flush.

As *life* sense tends to present itself so simply and magically when we are attentive and aware, on the radio, a few hours later I got my message. I had tuned in to the Rob Base song, “Joy and pain is like sunshine and rain.” My body allowed a deep, pausing breath as I had made the connection and realized that both joy and pain, like two sides of a coin, have their place in the same space. 

We are able to experience on such a vast spectrum, inside our beings. I am awed at how immensely powerful we are as humans to be able to experience emotions on such grand feeling scales. It is part of the gift of our humanity, in whatever form it takes. 

Owning and Honoring Your Self Space

What is the quickest way to relinquish your power? Loose lips? Chatter box. Divulging too much information. . .things you didn’t necessarily want to share. 

Did you feel the need to fill space? Did it just slip out?

Did you hang up from a phone conversation with your boss or neighbor wishing you could redo the conversation? Like a candle engulfed in flames, did you melt – pouring into the empty space? 

Feel good about your awareness. This reaction you are experiencing is the first step in protecting your energy.

Next time, try imagining a container holding the candle, with firm, clear and comfortable boundaries that keep it from spilling over. Boundaries keep things tidy and you *choose* when you want to pour wax and how much that will be. It will be intentional and purposeful.

It just so happens that every area of life is interrelated, and fits this mold. So, when your home space gets messy and chaotic, when your bills get lost and do not get paid, when you give more of your time than you had planned and it does not feel good, it leaks energy just as when we leak our thoughts and words and regret it later.

An exercise to strengthen your boundary muscles or reinstate boundaries: 

By mindfully doing a physical activity, you can influence more than one area of your life simultaneously. Do you need more order so your intentions are clear and you keep your boundaries intact? Try lovingly and intentionally creating a container that holds various elements, (any liquid and solids). I am personally envisioning a vase where I add some stones from nature, some water and some flowers. The vase is reminiscent of my SELF holding my values with appropriate/feel good boundaries. I can share any contents of the vase when I choose. I can feel good about that.

We usually like to do what feels good, which often times is what we are good at. When we feel good about our action or conversation, we enjoy it more and it comes more easily.

Hey, Slow it Down!

I had the privilege of sitting with a few of the most grounded, solid and present, (younger than me) adults today.

Since being in Colorado, I have noticed many people are not in a rush and seem more grounded than my previous state of residence. I have had to really slow down driving around, because here *I* am the crazy driver. Or, was the crazy driver. So, I got to thinking. . .

If we all would slow down and really *be* with our moments, we would be missing a lot less.

Thinking of society today as a whole, people crave more time with their partners because they are more busy, more time with their children because the children are inundated, more time so they can work out because they have a desk job or eat less than healthy food because it is quicker to fix, worry about squeezing in some tutoring for the kids because they are "falling behind" in math because they are so busy and have so much worksheet homework they don't get to bake and play card games at home, that help us really understand numbers, they buy disposable everything because there is no time to wash, which of course is more pricey so they have to work more and of course that is less than good for the planet. 

The people I sat with today grow much of their own food. When they bake cookies, I'm pretty sure they don't buy the ready made loaf of cookie dough at the grocery store. They are baking cookies for the process of baking, just as much as for the product. Both are just as delicious. 

Think of all the things that could be gained by *being* with the task at hand. . .even washing a dish, or wiping down the table. There is much of life that is blurred out of vision and experience when rushing about. There are some things that just can't be rushed and still reach the same result. Life is one of them.

Also, consider picking fruit too soon, putting pasta in the water before it's really at a rolling boil, or wine that hasn't quite aged. Next time, When you get up from your computer, *be* with your moment and slow it down. Really take note of what you previously missed in the last rushed blur. Your life will thank you.

Joyful Resuscitation

We are in the middle of packing for an out of state move. Today I have needed a little reassurance, supportive words, and gentle yet powerful nurturing. My guidance was brought to me in a playful, engaged moment with my five year old daughter. I peeled a few oranges, and together we sat, leaning over a shared plate.

Over the next few moments, I could feel a sense of calmness, as I had peaceful focus. We talked about our oranges and if they were juicy, great or just okay. We deemed them just okay, but the message delivered through the wise and open channel that is my daughter in the moments following, made this snack sharing sweeter than I could imagine.

And this next moment, I was given another gift from my young daughter, besides her love and being. I acknowledge that she is powerful beyond measure, a Director of Spirit, of all that is Love.
She said, "Mom, let's play how powerful a woman are you." I said "Okay. . .I am powerful enough to move my family of six to Colorado." With a kind an assuming tone she replied, "Of course you are," and sealed the sweetness with a snuggly hug.

She had asked a poignant question returning me to my natural state of being. . .an empowered creator. 
Our guidance, messages delivered from our own inner truth, can be brought in any shape or form, even in this next moment. I relish the divinity of this every day moment.

Walking the Plank to Flip Fear

Summer brings about childhood memories of standing on the diving board, bouncing, waiting for fear to dissipate as the cool, blue water enticed from below. I recall counting, as I talked myself into making the splash from the plank that hovered over the deep end. One, two, three, . . .I will jump on 15. And, then I would allow distraction, and return later. The lure of the diving board kept reeling me back. I could see the smooth splash of a perfect dive, and feel the way the water would separate for my body and glide over my skin upon entrance head first. The desire to have this experience was so great, and so real, that it eventually overpowered the fear.

The moment arrived. I could feel the sandpapery, platform under my toes as I gripped for comfort. I stood there ever-present and still, and plunged head-first into the inviting water. Cool, exhilirating, bubbling. . .I was on top of the world, as I was rising to the sunlit surface, smiling. The next thing I did was race back to the diving board to do it again, and again. Fear conquered, I was boldly and fully engaged with life. Man, I loved that feeling! I had flipped my fear coin, and landed on courage, which allowed me to buy into adventure!

Landing on Mars

I have a music enthusiast for a daughter. I notice how she feels the music through singing the lyrics, dancing to the rhythm, humming the tune. While sitting with her recently, she told me her favorite song is "Just the Way You Are", to which I enthusiastically inquired "Oh, Billy Joel"? She looked at me like I had just spoken in a foreign language and spontaneously replied, "eh, Bruno Mars". Ah, lightbulb moment!

At that moment I saw the vast in between, as my senses were upswept with the pullback of the generational gap. Yet, in this in between, or gap, my young inner girl was meeting her at that moment with something that was important to her. I recognized the similarities between the songs we both enjoy, which belt loving someone just as they are. Isn't it curious how in meeting someone where they are, we tend to scroll through our own bank of experience, whether met immediately or not, to come up with a connection?

From this space of connection, I enjoy honoring individuality through expression. Regardless of the relationship, we relate to each other through the same human emotions, and in this space of being able to meet and feel commonly, the empathy joins us together and maintains connection.

Discover Your "Self"

You do not need to wait for others in the world to reflect back to you what they see.  Projecting your true self (what is inside) can be vulnerable. It can feel easier to wait to see what you think is needed before you put yourself out there and step in. It can appear easier to go with the flock, and be like others, rather than projecting your truth. It can be the difference between putting your cards on the table to be a participant in life, or holding and hiding them for keeps. This reminds me of a powerful poem.

Mother Teresa – Do It Anyway

People are often unreasonable,
illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.