New Year Wisdom

Cardiff Castle by Corinne Whiting

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” | Rainer Maria Rilke

Thankful November: Day 13

Day 13 * I am grateful for: Times when, for some unknown reason, strangers gravitate toward me…on days when I also happen to feel open and receptive to hearing their stories. Today, in the midst of some relatively short-lived bus banter coming home from downtown, a man revealed so much to me about his day that he moved himself to tears. Although I’ll never know the background as to why that one particular anecdote carried such significance and emotion for him, I felt that—for one moment—I was let in on something sacred.

And I wondered why we don’t share/bare our true selves with/to strangers more often. Vulnerability can be a beautiful thing.

“We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” ― Gwendolyn Brooks

Thankful November: Days 7, 8 & 9

Day 7 * I am thankful for: Saying yes to unexpected adventures.

Day 8 * Simple beauty.

Day 9 * Live music. Always, live music.

Building a Bank of Memories

Magical morning mist, Cowichan Bay, BC

This, I think, is what love is: taking it all in, hoping for the best. Admiring the lake’s shimmering surface and unknown depths. Building a bank of memories, and cherishing them all equally.
~Jane Smiley

A Midsummer’s Anti-Recap

People keep asking how my summer’s been, and I don’t quite know what to say. (First off, why the past tense, people? I ain’t saying adieu to this season just yet!)

Also, it’s been so much, a bit of it all; it’s been everything. There’s no tidy response. It started off with so much unspeakable sadness, and it will end with a bittersweet ache, too (my brother and sister-in-law move to the UK next week!).

But, man, in between, there’s been so much goodness. Life is so full, so multi-layered, so surprising, so rich. I pinch myself sometimes—the deep-rooted connections I’ve made, the beautiful music I get to hear, the waters I get to frequent, the fiery sunsets I get to drink in. These days, I’m just really sitting back and taking it allllll in.

“There are no simple answers in life. There is a good and bad in everyone and everything. No decision is made without consequence. No road is taken that doesn’t lead to another. What’s important is that those roads always be kept open, for there’s no telling what wonder they might lead to.”~D.J. MacHale

*Days like these, thank you*

When self-employment feels daunting and stressful and uncertain and cuckoo, will you pretty please remind of days like these? It’s been a mighty fine week.

Synchronicity

Synchronicity is all up in my grill these days, and I’m digging it. Call it hokey, woo-woo, pure coincidence, whatever…but I love this stuff. I feel “tuned in” (which, believe me, is not always the case), and I’m feeling grateful for that.

Summer in Seattle is sailing along with biergarten reunions, country music-fueled, sunset boat rides, birthday cycle saloon beer tours, “secret” shows in barn-like spaces, beach bonfire concerts, canal runs, park sits and so much more, and I currently feel optimistically open to discovering what the rest of this sunny season might bring.

Here’s hoping your summers are full of goodness so far, too:)

“I do believe in an everyday sort of magic — the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we’re alone.”~Charles de Lint

Through My Eyes: Hwy 2 Mini-Adventure

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“We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.”
~Kahlil Gibran
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Ushering out the old & in the *new*

There are times when I get caught in my own head, tripped up by my own stories. (More often than I care to admit.) I’m a sensitive, emotional, observant, intuitive Pisces. There are aspects of these traits I love about myself, that I have come to embrace as true assets; yet there are other parts I know could be further tweaked. I am learning to look at them with a gentle, interested eye, and I see their potential harm. There is work yet to be done.

This year, my 35th year, I want to (finally) allow much of that unneeded “old”—the dead weight that no longer serves me—to drop away. I want to be lighter.

My birthday falls at a good time of year—smack dab in the drab of gray winter, when I often need a wee lift, a celebratory boost to remind me that life is indeed beautiful and that winter will not last forever and that I am buoyed, supported and very, very fortunately loved.

This weekend, I surrounded myself with those who remind me of this. I enjoyed chats, laughs and adventures in the snow and the rain, I indulged in good food and drink and, throughout it all, I tried to listen to that inner voice.

I am still reflecting on this past year, not quite ready to reveal any sort of astute recap or contemplative summary. But I am looking back with gratitude (cos much of it was really stinkin’ awesome), and I’m looking ahead with quiet hope. (Thank you to those of you who have made my life such a beautiful ride thus far.)

“At the center of your being you have the answer: You know who you are and you know what you want.”~Lao Tzu

Hues of Here

This week I’ve been feeling strangely invigorated. I don’t know why it comes as a surprise (post-vacay, dead of grey winter), but it does. I haven’t been sleeping much or that well either (and oddly, that seems to be okay, too).

After five wonderful days away, I just feel there’s so much I want to attend to here (before I jet off again!), so much nesting home time and city socializing time—catching up with friends (real-life and fictional….hello Parenthood and Nashville characters as well as the couple books I’ve recently been juggling:)).

I know I’m a broken record, but I have such wonderful people in my life. Such.

There’ve been a few things this week that could’ve rattled me, and maybe momentarily they did, but overall, I’m feeling hopeful. Able to see the full picture. I’m so thankful when these waves come (because I well know how swiftly they can ebb and flow).  I’m in a trusting phase. I feel open.

Just feeling grateful on this Friday, I suppose. Happy weekend, friends.