Category Archives: Amazing Women

Something Good

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image by Sharon Pruitt of Pink Sherbet Photography

Colossal: An art and design blog. This site shares the coolest stuff. Consider yourself warned: once you start looking, you might not be able to stop.

Danielle LaPorte’s Burning Question series. As a writer, I love to use these as prompts, but I think they are valuable even if you aren’t a writer or blogger, even if you don’t regularly journal or keep a diary. Just take a moment to contemplate, because, as Danielle says “Generally, I think people should ask more questions. Of themselves. Of each other. Questions are doorways that lead to higher consciousness… or pop culture trivia. Both are good. Join in.”

This quote, from Brene’ Brown’s latest TED Talk: “Vulnerability is not weakness….vulnerability is our most accurate measure of courage.” To acknowledge your fear, let it touch your tender heart, to be brave anyway, to keep your heart open, to remain vulnerable rather than closing up, numbing out, hiding away is courageous.

This quote, from Cheri Huber:  “The best preparation we can make for another time and place is to drop everything else and be present in this moment.”

image by Sharon Pruitt of Pink Sherbet Photography

An Erica Experiment: Saying Goodbye to TV… This post by Erica Staab, one of my new favorite amazing women, combines three of my favorite things: Erica Staab, Kristin Noelle (check her out, she’s also amazing), and the mindful TV viewing, digital detox revolution. Eric and I gave up regular TV for the last time in 2004, and it was one of the smartest, best things we ever did. Even if you don’t want to give it up completely, it’s good practice to do so for a week and see what you might notice or learn, about yourself or your life. It just so happens that Danielle LaPorte’s burning question for this week is “What would you like to stop doing?”

This post on Keri Smith’s blog: Make your own damn world. “Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping…Stop it and just DO!” Like I always say, if you are waiting for something to happen, stop waiting and happen. Or, stop doing altogether and just be.

My topography, Christina Rosalie’s blog. There’s a good chance I mentioned this once already, but it bears repeating. I first heard of this in my Blogging from the Heart class. Susannah Conway interviewed Christina about blogging, and I fell in love with how she talked about it–for example, she describes her mission statement for her blog this way “To offer evidence that it’s possible to begin, to dream things real, and to find the narrative of your soul in the midst of the uncertainty and the messiness of the moment at hand”–so I went over to visit her site, and I fell utterly in love with her, her gorgeous writing about small, simple things, things that are massive, brilliant, and heartbreakingly real.

Gwyn-Michael’s latest post on Scoutie Girl, learning to see again. the beauty in the breakdown. She says “What is mine to do in the world is to awaken people to other ways of seeing. To inspire hope where there is doubt, love where there is pain…I am an artist using my hands to show, my heart to see, and my voice to tell. I believe there is beauty in the breakdown, and I am not alone.” After a week of not being well, the wreck and raw of post retreat, a speeding ticket, the death of a loved one, and yet also so much beauty and love, I am with you, Gwyn-Michael.

from gwyn-michael's post

Day of Rest

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Amanda on Kind Over Matter shared this video in her Friday’s Lovelies list this week. It’s described this way:

Shot in Fire Island, New York, this film (4min. 23 sec) captures the secrets of eternal youth as Maia Helles, a Russian ballet dancer turns 95 but still remains resolutely independent, healthy and as fit as a forty year old. Made by Julia Warr, artist and film maker met Maia on a plane 4 years ago and became utterly convinced by the benefits of her daily exercise routine, which Maia perfected, together with her Mother, over 60 years ago, long before exercise classes were ever invented. (2011)

The video never shows the ocean, but but the wind, sound, light, worn wood, and plant life make me sure Maia lives in a cottage by the beach. Maybe not within sight of it, but certainly within walking distance. If you added writing and reading, some long walks, and a few dogs and maybe a cat to this video, and it would be exactly the life I dream of for myself when I’m old and and possibly living alone (without another person, that is, dogs and/or cats are essential, so not truly “alone”).

Maia says at the end of the video “My secret to long life is simplicity, work, and enjoyment.” What is your secret to living fully, to having your best life? If you aren’t already “there,” if you don’t yet know, what one small thing can you do today to start the long walk into that dream? Do just one small thing, something simple, even if it’s just to identify what you want and allow yourself to daydream about it, identify it, name it and call it.

You and I, dear reader, deserve the best, a long and healthy and happy life. We are worthy, we deserve it, and we have permission (a duty?) to be our truest self, to live our best life. As the beautiful Mary Oliver, another glorious and brilliant older woman, asks in her poem The Summer Day: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?“