Living music

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The Music
For sixty years I have been forgetful,
every minute, but not for a second
has this flowing toward me stopped or slowed.
I deserve nothing.  Today I recognize
that I am the guest the mystics talk about.
I play this living music for my host.
Everything today is for the host.
- Rumi
What if we lived our lives as though we were the Living Music?  Would we be living differently?  What would be different?

Travel and appreciation

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Visiting Ireland. With my husband and my in-laws. What lessons I’m getting to learn!

On my first day here, I finished Jerry & Esther Hicks’ book, Ask and it is Given. I’ve been able to use the processes from the book several times each day. The basic premise of the processes I’ve used is that when you are feeling something that doesn’t feel good, you can “reach” for something that feels better. What’s great is that no matter where we are, we can reach for a thought, belief, or circumstance that feels better, and of course, one that we believe. I keep finding myself in frustrated and/or irritated mode. And in each moment, I can remember how grateful I am to be in Ireland with my husband. How grateful I am that I have a body that works as well as it does. How grateful I am that four and five generations ago my ancestors chose to leave Ireland for San Francisco! As beautiful as Ireland is, as wonderful as the people are, I’ve become so accustomed to wide roads, amenities I take for granted, etc. When all the things I’m grateful for come flooding in, it lifts me from being irritated. Amazing. Not that I’m not back there the next time my father in law does something that irks me, but it certainly is giving me more time to appreciate what is great in my life.

What’s mine to do

Filed Under Authenticity, Coming out of hiding, Gratitude, Joyous Living, Sparkle | Leave a Comment

Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.
- Henry Ford

Have you ever found something you were really passionate about…a thought or idea that you knew was “yours” to build on, even though it might seem unlikely to others? I’ve come, grudgingly, to realize the idea of inner sparkle is “mine.” Being a fairly serious sort much of the time, this sparkle idea often seems unlikely to me, let alone others to whom this gift hasn’t been given. For months, I’ve really tried to put it aside, pretend it isn’t there, get on to more serious subjects…important subjects. Railing at God that He must have something more important for me to be working on than (aack!) sparkle. Yet the railing does little good, and for my own sanity, I work to investigate my negative thoughts and obstacles to seeing sparkle as something not only valid, but valuable to many people, perhaps even key to living a more joyous and productive life. Couldn’t that thought be just as true?

One of the hiccups is that the word sparkle has the connotation of “bling” but that’s not the kind of sparkle I’m talking about. I’m talking enthusiasm and joy, awe and wonder,204545936_fa331c0bb0_m.jpg appreciation and gratitude for this amazing life.  Letting ourselves fill with those qualities. Fill to overflowing, so that they overflow and send sparkle on to the next person. I smile when I think of those people I’ve seen who are our natural sparklers. People can’t help but lightening up around those kinds of folks. Maybe it’s that they strike something within us that has been covered over and now gets a chance to shine. I think it’s time that more sparkle does happen. More light, more inner peace, more joy, more hope. With this inner sparkle, this enthusiasm, our hopes and dreams may shine to the stars. Do I want to live like that? Do I find that valuable? Do I want to be filled with awe and wonder and enthusiasm? Uhhhhh, yeah.

What would your life be like with more inner sparkle, more enthusiasm? What would you be up to? What makes your heart smile? Where and how can you find more of that?

photo: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/60/204545936_fa331c0bb0_m.jpg

What is calling you out of hiding?

Filed Under Authenticity, Coming out of hiding, Embracing uncertainty, Freedom Challenge, Gratitude, Joyous Living, Sparkle | 1 Comment

As a part of starting a new year, I am in the process of changing many things. Over the last year, I’ve recognized that my work has been changing, taking on a slightly different theme from the one I’d originally started with. I noticed I hadn’t been using my old cards for some time because they no longer “felt right.” So, several months ago, I began working with a long-term friend of mine, Billy Hill , to remodel my logo. “Have you put it on anything besides stationery?” asked Kathy Mallary , somewhat bewildered by my “hiding out.” “Does it have some significance for you? Does it express you and your work is some meaningful way? If so, then let people know about it!” she said. So, here is my remodeled logo - which has tremendous significance for me! The dancer element was the one piece I didn’t want to lose, for a variety of reasons. First of all, even though I’ve not been trained as a dancer, my soul dances all the time, so a logo that expresses me and my work, would naturally include a dancer. This dancer, in particular, leaps with joy and abandon. Secondly, the body of the dancer is made up of a “J” (for Joyous) and an “L” (for Life) - for Joyous LifeWorks. The circle is significant, to me, because it represents being able to come out of one’s shell…sensing the opening and leaping for it…undaunted, and with joy!

Coming out of hiding, coming out from a shell. Exciting, invigorating, a little scary…just because it’s new. Does every new year hold this much hope? Probably, although, maybe because I am getting older, I’m wanting to make “sure” I live my life full out, so each day seems to hold more opportunity - or at least more opportunity that I’m willing to reach for.

Inquiry

What are you hoping to leap for this year? What is calling you out of “hiding?”

Drowning in Thanks

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It's Thanksgiving week here in the United States.  Most of us are so blessed, yet it's so easy to take so much for granted.  Even though I have so much, I occasionally find myself whining.  How is that possible?  In some ways, I think I succumb to that Deadly Sin - greed!  (or materialism)  It's so rampant, it seems normal.  There's always the next "big thing" to come along.  

A while back Adam Kayce suggested rather than trying to "root out" problem issues, sometimes it's better to drown them with the good stuff.  Actually, that may not have been exactly what he said, but that was how I heard it!!   So, this week of Thanksgiving seems as good a time as any to overwhelm my whining with some lists of gratitude!  Here goes (in no particular order):

1) the young maple tree in front of my office is adorned in beautiful leaves

2) I have an office

3) the weather has been beautiful

4) my spiritual path feeds my soul

5) my husband is a sweetheart (he's working on a handyman project for me right now)

6) I'm healthy

7) my son is healthy and relatively happy

8) my daughter-in-law is a gem

9) my grandchildren are healthy - and beautiful

10) I enjoy my work and the people I work with 

 boy, this list could really go on…

Inquiry

What are you grateful for?  Do you have a gratitude practice?  Can you look around you - even in challenging situations - and find something to be grateful for?

Sending you blessings and best wishes for this Thanksgiving week! 

Living a full life

Filed Under Authenticity, Embracing uncertainty, Freedom Challenge, Gratitude, Joyous Living, Setbacks as opportunities, Sparkle, Stretching the comfort zone | Leave a Comment

Over the last six months, three of my dear friends have lost their spouses.  Each time, I've been shaken by it, but I guess this third one has felt like a real wake up call.  All the cliches apply:  Life is short; Life is precious; Don't take life for granted; etc.  I want to throw everything that does not matter aside and give my passion and purpose free reign.  How else will I manage to keep finding new levels of inner peace?  Each time I squelch a part of myself that exudes joy, I can feel a bit of my soul shriveling up.  I don't want to die an unlived life!!  I pray that I can keep tapping into this passionate part of myself and help others to do the same, so that our world thrives on the best of ourselves rather than the fear that seems to be running rampant.

Tantrums

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Aaack!  The shaking continues.  I returned from our Death Valley adventure to find myself in a technological nightmare.  Okay, that’s a little dramatic – but it seemed like a nightmare to discover my email not working – no sending, nostuck in the mud receiving.  Usually that wouldn’t be THAT big a deal, but I’d sent out some important correspondence before I left and was expecting some in return.  Wasn’t there.  Couldn’t find it.  Couldn’t figure out where it was, much less how to get it.  Missed a meeting.  Then the internet clouds parted and I was bombarded with all my missed email, plus a lot of junk.  Found out I’d lost a client because didn’t respond right away.  Found out a “big name” guest speaker cancelled a week before the event we’d been promoting heavily and we didn’t have anyone else lined up.  That was it.  I’d had enough.  I jumped from frustrated to “I CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” to “I CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!” to “I MAY AS WELL JUST GIVE UP!” in seconds flat.  Thankfully, I had a session with one of my healing coach/mentors, James Keeley, who let me rant for a full twenty minutes.  I thought I was done at 10, but nooooo, I just needed a breath.  I ranted.  I raved.  I whined.  I cried.  I'M STUCK and THERE'S NO HOPE FOR ME!  

“Are you complete?” he said.  Spent, I finally said “yes.”  

“So, bring compassion to that place that wants to just give up, the place that needs support and caring.”  After a minute or two of this receiving of compassion, he asked, “From this place, now, will you give up or get up?”  Great question.  Changed my perspective immediately.  Had I heard stuff like that before?  Yep.  A bunch of times.  What was different about this time?  Haven’t a clue, but somehow it got “into my bones” and, for now, seems to have made a huge difference.  I’m getting up.  And I’m jazzed.

“Adversity introduces us to the stuff that we buy into unconsciously.”  I've been a coach for several years and on a deeply spiritual path and this tantrum still needed to happen.  I thought I should have been beyond this, to be SOOO much nearer enlightenment.  But clearly, this stuff still needed to be questioned, cleaned, let go of.  So, again, I get to see a reason for embracing what I perceive as difficulties and finding the gems in them.  They really are here for my benefit!  Aaack!  What a trip this life is!  How fascinating the trials, the shaking necessary, to reach inner peace. 

Doing what you’re born to do

Filed Under Authenticity, Embracing uncertainty, Freedom Challenge, Gratitude, Joyous Living, Setbacks as opportunities, Sparkle, Stretching the comfort zone | Leave a Comment

Yesterday, I received a "you've got to see this" email from a friend.  She was absolutely right, even though at first glance, I was thinking "Oh, brother!  What is THIS?"   

Here is the link to an amazing video:

http://www.maniacworld.com/Phone-Salesman-Amazes-Crowd.html 

I'm not an opera fan and I don't have much appreciation for these talent shows, but I was so inspired by is this young man's talent (of course…he's THAT good), by some of the things he said (for example, that his singing has always been "his friend"), and that he followed his guidance to do what he knew he was meant to do.   

In the video I saw a seemingly ordinary young man blossom as he stepped in to his knowing of who he is, of what he carries, of his unique gift.  He is doing what he loves to do.  Although we may not have this particular talent, each of us does have some rare or precious gift…and the clue as to what it is will be in what we love - or what we've considered "our friend" throughout life's tough times.  I am so inspired by this "lumpy" young man having the audacity to say, "I sing opera" despite the disdainful looks of the judges.  YES!

This is what I'd like to do - to say "Yes!" to my gifts and to help others say "Yes!" to theirs.  To learn to be audacious enough to say, this is my gift, this is what I love to do!  As I'd mentioned to a friend a while ago, to be able to say, "Yes, I'm weird.  Isn't it wonderful?!!"  What freedom there is in that!  Here is a path to inner peace - to be free to be ourselves, fully, completely, audaciously! 

Shaken, Not Stirred

Filed Under Embracing uncertainty, Gratitude, Setbacks as opportunities, Stretching the comfort zone | Leave a Comment

I fell in love with Sean Connery when I was about five.  Not, as you might imagine, given the title of this post, as James Bond, but as Michael McBride Connery in Darby O'Gillin Darby O’Gill and the Little People, one of the first movies I remember seeing (after Sleeping Beauty, my age five favorite).  Please don’t consider this a recommendation of the movie, unless you are interested in seeing a very young, very handsome (in my opinion) Sean Connery.

Actually, Sean Connery has nothing to do with this post other than an opportunity for me to reminisce about being little, experiencing a "first crush." Oh, and being able to see WHY I had that experience in the first place.  My goodness, he was handsome!   Okay, okay, back to  "reality."  What “Shaken, Not Stirred” really has to do with is the process I feel like I’m going through.  You know those times of growth that feel like your very foundations are being rattled rather than life being gently stirred?  Yep, this is one of those shaken times.  Fortunately, I think I’m learning that being shaken in this sense isn’t necessarily bad.  Even that the unsettling isn’t bad, just another opportunity to learn a new sense of balance, to embrace the uncertainty.  Part of my recent teachings have been around the idea of choice, of being able to step into a new choice at any time.  If, indeed, we are new creations in every moment, this unsettling and regaining of balance is really just part of the process.  So, I may as well get used to it – and learn to enjoy the ride, including the spills I take!  (Aaacck!)

Inquiry

Two, actually:

Just for fun, who was YOUR first crush?

Are you being shaken?  Stirred?  Osterized?  In what way(s)?  How are you dealing with it? 

Stepping into our bigger selves

Filed Under Authenticity, Gratitude, Joyous Living, Stretching the comfort zone | Leave a Comment

In a recent class discussing living a full life, my instructor asked us to go into our hearts and see (or hear or feel) what our deepest heart would long to have written on our gravestone.  (It wasn't as morbid as it might sound, honest!)  Mine went something like, "Loved God and shared that love with all her heart, soul, and being."  When each of us had the opportunity to discuss our epitaph - and to feel what our lives would be like if what we'd written had come to fruition, I was filled with incredible joy and the excitement of possibility…like the windows of possibility were being thrown open.  Dr. Laird suggested that I not just look at the window, yearning for those possibilities, but rather take a chance and step through those openings.  These images, he said, were Divine images, showing me as a new creation - don't hold back…step in to this new creation of someone who is, basically, for me, a "fool for God."  I'm reminded of the near-ecstacy I felt reading of Saint Elizabeth who "loved Jesus to distraction."  So often, I feel I just want to chuck all my pretenses and just say "yes" to Divine guidance…to be that fool for God.  What are my options?  I can keep playing safer…looking "good"/normal/mainstream on the outside.   I'll stay relatively safe…unfortunately, safe hasn't been all it's cracked up to be, at least not for me.  If I want to live this rich, juicy life, time's a'wastin'.  Let me be the quirky, joyous, irrepressible creation that makes me feel fabulous!

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