Link Love

Found a new blogger whose writing style I dig. This bit on transitions resonated a lot. (I feel a lot of change in the air as of late, and it’s contributing to some awfully toss-and-turny nights. This time of year is always a melange of nostalgia and potential-tinged excitement, I find.)

Call it hippie-dippie if you will, but I increasingly love this astrology stuff.

Brene’s the wisest of ’em all. (And I’m so bummed I somehow missed the boat to hear her speak here at Town Hall in a couple weeks!)

Adorable. (I love clever people.)

I wish this wasn’t so darn relatable about our/my 21st-century over-connectedness.

With any kind of luck, I’ll be seeing a new fave Nathaniel Ratecliff this weekend!

Hope the weeks are off to a great start. Happy September manana (rabbit, rabbit!).

Will the garden grow, will the rivers flow…

“I Worried”
by Mary Oliver

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well, hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism, lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning, and sang.

Dance On

“In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions.
When did you stop dancing?
When did you stop singing?
When did you stop being enchanted by stories?
When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?”
~ Gabrielle Roth

Guest House

“This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival; a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and attend them all. Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows… still, treat each guest honourable. He may be clearing you out for some new delight.” (Rumi)

***TRAVEL***

I am happiest when:

*My feet are bare, my toes sandy

*My hair is tousled from the wind, tangled from the sea

*My skin is warm from the sun, shimmering from sunscreen

*I am meeting new people, having new conversations, trying new things, absorbing new information & experiences

*I am just slightly beyond my comfort zone and empowered to learn I’m often capable of so much more than I initially assume

Kauai was incredible, and I am so grateful to have had the amazing opportunity to go (AND to experience that magical, soulful, stunning place in the manner I did!). Now I am back in Seattle, and while I do love this place (I do, right? Ha, please remind me…), I’m missing island life big-time.

How to retain that carefree JOY that permeates the soul while exploring someplace breathtaking and new? Therein lies the forever challenge…

For now, I’m going to put on some Jawaiian tunes, walk to yoga, do boatloads of work and as-gently-as-possible ease my way back in. Thanks, Kauai, for making me feel so lucky and so very alive.

“The sun shines not on us but in us.”~John Muir

It is what it is what it is*

“We have a choice. We can spend our whole life suffering because we can’t relax with how things really are, or we can relax and embrace the open-endedness of the human situation, which is fresh, unfixated, unbiased.”~Pema Chödrön

Recently I am working hard to accept this notion of accepting what is. (I’ve been working on it for years & years now, it seems; why is this *little* concept the hardest thing to master? It sounds like a no-brainer, right?) Some days, I see so, so clearly how so much of our suffering (crankiness, restlessness, anxiety-tinged moments…) is self-imposed, merely getting caught in that unproductive wormhole of wishing for things to be other than they are.

On those days when I can simply ride the wave and take it all as it comes (the good, the bad, the unexpected, the intuited), I see how free I feel, how unattached I am to the outcome, how much more effortlessly things seem to just fall into place.

Life recently has been chock full of celebrations, kind gifts, soothing SUN, lots of movement, doctors appointments (to FINALLY get to the bottom of some food allergy stuff, touch wood), several wonderful *coincidences*, a couple mild disappointments, a lot of productivity (on some fronts) and loads of procrastination (in other areas). Some people I care about deeply have been going through really tough things, and I’ve been feeling their burdens from afar (hello, Pisces…Also, I learn more and more that, for better or for worse, I have the true characteristics of an empath).

But overall, I feel the hopefulness of spring blooming all around me. This is a lovely time of year, really. I’m working hard to roll with the punches, not get stuck in the muck.

Bottom line: Life has been FULL.  And that’s mostly a really good thing. Because of it, though—this weekend I’m demanding some quiet and stillness for myself (sometimes tricky for me), before things rev up again next week. Fun/busy/exciting happenings linger on the horizon, and I’m determined to steady myself in the interim.

Another Year *Wiser*

The thing about birthdays, is they make you wonder…how are there days when we—when I—could ever possibly forget that I am so, so surrounded by love?

What a brilliant reminder.

“You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” ~RUMI

Like No One’s Watching

“Don’t move the way fear makes you move. Move the way joy makes you move.”~ OSHO

I just LOVED this little guy at last weekend’s bluegrass extravaganza (inside a Hyatt Regency, of all places), who was dancing his wee heart out—stationed front and center—in jig-ready wellies/boots. He paid no attention whatsoever to who else might be watching (and believe me, I was not the only one captivated by his enthusiastically-executed freestyle moves). His lack of inhibition was so refreshing and inspiring.

At what age do we lose that freedom, and when is it time to get it back?

I turn 36 tomorrow, and, if I’m being totally honest, that number catches me a bit by surprise. It’s been mostly a really good year, sprinkled with some moments that were tougher than I could have ever foreseen as well as many moments that were far more magnificent than I ever could have possibly dreamed up. I will find myself celebrating sans family for the first time in forever, which makes me sad, but I also relish the fact that I will be surrounded by a loving, supportive, fun, funny, soulful “family” of Seattle-based folks who are more amazing than I could have envisioned before I surprisingly dropped my finger on this place on the map.

Here’s to a new year of possibility and moving in joy…..like this lil’ lad reminded me, the beauty of dancing—wild & free—like no one else is watching at all.

*watch & listen*

“Walking. I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.”~Linda Hogan (b. 1947), Native American writer

*connections*

“When connections are real, they simply never die. They can be buried, or ignored or walked away from, but never broken. If you’ve deeply resonated with another person or place, the connection remains despite any distance, time, situation, lack of presence, or circumstances. If you’re doubtful then just try it- go and revisit a person or place and see if there’s any sense at all of the space between now and then. If it was truly real, you’ll be instantly swept back into the moment it was before it left- during the same year and place with the same wonder and hope, comfort and heartbeat. Real connections live on forever.”

{This photo of me was taken by my friend Melissa. Doesn’t the filter make it EXTRA amazing?}