Category Archives: Courtney Carver

Something Good

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1. Pema Chödrön’s new book. Seriously, with this and Daring Greatly and Cultivating Courage, you’d think the Universe was totally on my side, sending me the very resources I need at exactly the right time.

2. Andrea Scher’s new website, Superhero Life. If you haven’t taken a look yet, you totally should. Her tagline is “no capes, just courage.” It’s beautiful and she has so much to offer, creative magic and other good stuff. It has my head spinning with ideas and my heart pounding with love. Her Creative Superhero interview series is soooo good. Here’s one with Rachel Cole. You know I love that well-fed woman.

3. 8 Ways You’re Wasting Your Life from Marc and Angel Hack Life.

4. This quote from John Wayne: “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” Giddy up!

5. From Brave Girls Club, Daily Truth email, (I really needed to hear this one this week):

Dear Amazing Girl,

You have done such wonderful things, you really have. You have made differences that you don’t even know about, and you have touched lives that you have forgotten about, but that will never be forgotten by the lives you have touched. You have inspired others that you didn’t even know were watching and you have taught lessons to others that you didn’t even know you were teaching.

Please be kind to yourself, dear friend. Please take this day to see what is right about you instead of being distracted by what you think is wrong with you. Please thank your body for carrying you through your life, and thank your soul for making everything so meaningful. Please see yourself, even if just for a moment, in the absolutely cherished way that you are seen by those who love you, and especially by the One who created you.

You are far too hard on yourself. It’s time to treat yourself with the kindness that you deserve. You are just right, you are beautiful. You are capable and you are strong. Your life matters and YOU matter.

Please believe it. You are so loved.
xoxo

And, more wisdom from the same source:

Life is as crazy and harried as we allow it to be. When we want to make things special for those we love, we need to remember that what they want most is US. They want time with us. They want us to feel good and to be in a good mood and to be present. They want happy memories that include us. Sometimes this means that we must simplify so that we do not fall apart. Some times this means we need to let go of our idea of perfection and just show up AS IS.

6. What gives YOU the authority? from Alex Franzen on Unicorns for Socialism.

7. A good reason to meditate. In fact, the best reason.

Meditation practice takes place on a personal level. It involves an intimate relationship with ourselves. Great intimacy is involved. It has nothing to do with achieving perfection, achieving some absolute state or other. It is purely getting into what we are, really examining our actual psychological process without being ashamed of it. It is just friendship with ourselves. ~Chögyam Trungpa

And this quote, also from Chögyam Trungpa:

We have a fear of facing ourselves. That is the obstacle. Experiencing the innermost core of our existence is very embarrassing to a lot of people. A lot of people turn to something that they hope will liberate them without their having to face themselves. That is impossible. We can’t do that. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to see our gut, our excrement, our most undesirable parts. We have to see them. That is the foundation of warriorship, basically speaking. Whatever is there, we have to face it, we have to look at it, study it, work with it and practice meditation with it.

8. Feel Your Pain: mini-mission from Courtney Carver at Be More With Less. Again, the Universe seems to be sending me the very things I need to read right now.

Food, pills, shopping, or your drug of choice will not heal your brokenness. You might look put together. You may even feel better, but your pain will continue to do damage. Your pain will be evident in the way you treat yourself and others, and in how you let people treat you.

9. How To Start Your Life All Over Again – Especially After Loss Or Death from Tia Sparkles on Your Life Your Way.

10. Jennifer Louden interviews Brene’ Brown about Daring Greatly.

11. This quote from Brene’ Brown: “Courage has a ripple effect. Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little better & the world a little braver.”

12. More (super) power to ya! by Sherry Richert Belul on Cherry Blossom Soup. I loved this so much, so appreciate Sherry’s writing, and especially adore this line, “Laurie grabbed my hand, looked me in the eyes, and said: ‘I want you to know that this is who you are. You are the girl who can scrape the fallen pie off the ground and turn it into something delightful.’ ”

13. Brene’ Brown went on the Katie Couric show to talk about her new book. She’s so real and funny, like the best, smartest, kindest girlfriend you ever had. I could listen to her talk and tell stories for hours (and have!).

14. This is about the tattoo from Hannah Marcotti, the best tattoo story…ever.

15. Super cute dog portraits by Jessica Trinh. I dare you to look at her Flickr stream and not get a serious case of the warm and fuzzies.

16. This quote, from Geneen Roth: When we don’t allow ourselves to have what we already have, to be who we actually are, to taste what’s in our mouths, we walk around with anorexia of the soul. Always deprived, always starving for more, never able to get enough.

17. Facing the Fear of Death and Really Living Now on Tiny Buddha.

18. This quote from Cheri Huber: What we’re seeing here is how the layers of self-hate keep us from experiencing our intrinsic, inherent enlightenment. It’s simply a matter of realizing what already is. It’s not necessary for us to DO anything. What we’re seeking is available to us when we stop DOING everything else.

19. A Writer’s Manifesto from Raam Dev.

20. Nervous Christopher Maloney sings “The Rose” on XFactor.This is why things like Andrea Scher’s Cultivating Courage class and Brene’ Brown’s Daring Greatly book are so important, why the work that those women and so many others are doing, the encouragement they are giving people is so important, because without it, these sorts of voices are kept forever silent.

21. Sleepwalk with Me trailer. I really, really want to see this movie.

22. Susan Piver telling a story about the blues (as in the music), ecstasy (as in the drug), and the Buddhadharma at How I Learned It’s Complicated.

23. This quote, from Mark Nepo: How easy it is to be cruel when afraid, and how difficult it is to accept that we are all capable of terrible things, and how cleansing it is to realize that true kindness breathes just beneath this acceptance.

Book Writing Saturday

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Throughout the week, as I’ve been thinking about my upcoming Book Writing Saturday, where I would spend four hours working on my book as I’ve been doing every Saturday for the past month, I had a strong sense that that I had to alter my approach.

For starters, Dexter was pretty sick this week. The anti-inflammatory we were giving him to ease the discomfort of his maybe probably most likely but we can’t really be sure cancer did a real number on his belly. By Monday night, he couldn’t even keep water down. So we had a long, hard week of more vet visits, more medication, more suffering, more sleepless nights and worry. Thankfully, already by Tuesday night, he was feeling much better, but I’m feeling distracted and tired.

at nine years old and so gray, he still looks like a puppy sometimes

Book Writing Saturday was hard enough when it was simply a matter of already having an intense, full time job, already getting up at 4:30 am every morning so I can do everything that needs/wants done: laundry, dog walking, groceries, cleaning, exercise, sleep, paying bills, blogging, self-care, yoga, meditation, maintaining relationships, etc. There is so little extra time, and already not enough play or rest. But I noticed it wasn’t just that–I was being a bully to myself about the whole thing, pushing to get four hours of work, work, work done on my book. I was beating myself up, wasn’t having any fun. And if I’m just going to be mean to myself about it, what’s the point?

Love is the point. I love writing. I love telling stories. I love inspiring others to live more fully, to love more deeply. I love sharing my truth, and in so doing hopefully reminding whoever is reading that they are loved, that they aren’t alone, that they are already perfect, basically and fundamentally wise, compassionate, and powerful. There is a book inside of me that wants out, and at times it feels like the creature from Alien, so I really have no choice.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ~Maya Angelou

I started off today by using a prompt suggested by Courtney Carver at the end of her post, On Writing, to write about a detail of your childhood. When I touched my pen to the page, the thing that came up was something I stole. In fact, it was the first thing I remember taking, knowing that it was wrong but doing it anyway because I wanted it so bad. It was a small, white glass Avon empty perfume bottle (Sweet Honesty) made to look like a Scottish Terrier with a gold collar, just like this one. I took it while I was playing at friend’s house, taking it into the bathroom and hiding it in the waistband of my shorts. I loved it, and in my blind desire I justified taking it without asking, (because I couldn’t risk that they’d say “no”). As soon as I got it home, took it out and rubbed my finger against it’s smooth side, I knew I would never be able to enjoy having it, no matter how much I wanted it, but I also was too embarrassed, too ashamed to return it, so I took it to a vacant field at the end of our street and threw it as hard as I could into the emptiness.

This led to more writing about theft, desire and longing, shame. But then the writing took a turn. You see, kind and gentle reader, yesterday Tammy from Rowdy Kittens included a link to one of my blog posts in her Inspiring Links. That more than doubled the amount of traffic I normally get, which gave me that feeling of “if I would have known you were coming, I would have cleaned up a bit.” It made me start thinking about changes I’ve been wanting to make on my blog, which is perfect timing because tomorrow is my one year blog anniversary.

Which ended up meaning that today wasn’t so much about book writing as blog writing, blog brainstorming, blog planning, blog design and redesigning, blog dreaming, blog inspiration, blog love.