Category Archives: Inner Pilot Light

Something Good

4 Replies

1. 40 Things To Say Before You Die, which I first read about on Judy Clement Wall’s blog Zebra Sounds. Everything I share on my something good list is here because it’s, well, something good, but this is one of the best. I seriously am going to write these out on index cards and start carrying them around with me, and when I don’t know what to say, I’m going to flip through them until I find the right one, or pick a random one and trust the magic.

2. Saying Goodbye to Bingo: A Life Lesson in Letting Go of Life.

3. A Woman of Wholeness from Jennifer Louden. I especially love the opening lines:

Somewhere there is a room
made of bee’s wax and heart honey
and the sound that is left after the meditation gong has gone still

In it sits the woman you actually are

4. This quote from Herman Hesse, so comforting and wise:

You know quite well, deep within you, that there is only a single magic, a single power, a single salvation, and a single happiness and that is called loving. Well, then, love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it … It is your aversion that hurts, nothing else.

5. This quote from Parker J. Palmer: “I will always have fear, but I need not be my fears, for I have other places in my inner landscape from which to speak and act.”

6. Transformation Talk with Erica Staab + book giveaway. If you’ve been reading these lists for long, you know how much I love blogger Erica Staab. This video was the first time I got to see her “in person,” to hear her wisdom, her story in her own voice. Loved it.

7. Vulnerability, Daring Greatly and Stretching by Erica Staab. Another reason to love her.

8. I’m in Here, Can Anybody See Me? by Amy Ippoliti on Elephant Journal. Simple, short, and so true.

9. I preordered a copy of Marisa Anne’s new book, Creative Thursday – Everyday Inspiration to Grow Your Creative Practice.

10. This poem, shared on Carry It Forward, and from the beginning of Pema Chödrön’s new book, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change, (which arrived in my mailbox this week–yay!).

Living is a form of not being sure,
not knowing what next or how.
The moment you know how
you begin to die a little.
The artist never entirely knows.
We guess.
We may be wrong,
but we take leap after leap
in the dark.
~ Agnes de Mille ~

11. You’re going to hurt someone by Danielle LaPorte.

12. 10 Sheds/Cabins- Would You Live In These? on Relax Shacks. I might not live in them, but I sure want to play in them.

13. This, from my Inner Pilot Light (by way of the Daily Flame), made me cry.

You can’t see it now, but just around the corner of what’s hurting you now is what will arise to meet you and help you make room for what is next. In order to enjoy the blessing of this precious gift, you must endure the hurt you feel right now. Please, my dear, trust the journey. Wait ’til you see what I see in your future…

14. This quote, from John Irving: If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

15. You Have Permission (Right NOW!) from Leonie, complete with a free podcast reading.

16. From The Jump, a poem by Maya Stein on bentlily.

The language for courage is so stripped of words, a lump
of a secret only the heart knows the translation to. And yet, unsure
as we are, we recognize the call from down below, and find the edge and leap
even when we don’t. Once we wake up, we can never fall asleep.

17. Who Gave You Permission? a poem by Marianne Elliott, also on bentlily.

Something Good

3 Replies

1. Before and after of a mess. I realize that this is really only something good for me, but I still wanted to share it.

before

after

2. Got my shirt! It fits and it makes me smile.

3. Peonies. I don’t know why, but I am obsessed with them right now. I am planting at least three or four bushes when we redo our front yard so I can have them on my writing desk the whole season.

4. Obi’s rose bloomed. I’m not sure what kind of rose bush this is, but the smell and color is intense, and each bud has about 1000 petals. It grows next to one of Obi’s favorite places in the yard, by the back fence in a spot where he could see both the front and the back.

In the last months that he was alive, every time a new bloom would burst, I’d wonder which would last longer, the rose or Obi. I took a picture of him next to that rosebush during those last nine months that ended up being the picture I posted on Facebook the morning he died. Maybe it’s because I’ve been spending so much time in the backyard lately, but I have been missing that boy like crazy.

5. I can no longer, another great post from Christa at Carry it Forward.

6. The (Fearless) Love Essays by Judy Clement Wall. They’re here, they’re here! I can’t wait to read my copy. And Judy so wants them read, she’s offering them at variable pricing ($7 suggested), so if you can’t pay, you can still download a copy–because that’s how she rolls!

7. An excerpt from Patti Digh’s Commencement Address at Guilford College:

Carol Sanders…writes… “Follow the idea that calls you. As you start on your own life’s passage, follow the idea that makes you wake in the morning without an alarm, that calls you to scribble ideas on napkins and scrap paper and to lose all sense of time, that makes your heart beat faster at every corner with the endless possibilities.”

Yes, please!

8. Cultivate Your Play Ethic by Hannah Kane on Scoutie Girl.

9. Becoming the Person You Were Meant to Be: Where to Start by Anne Lamott. One of my favorite quotes from this is “We begin to find and become ourselves when we notice how we are already found, already truly, entirely, wildly, messily, marvelously who we were born to be.” Amen.

10. The 3 Most Important Questions by Vishen Lakhiani. Holy crap, this is gooooood. Watch it, do the practice, do it now.

11. Summer Manifesto. I love this idea, want to write one–way better idea than my summer to-do list.

12. 27 DOs + DON’Ts for being a badass woman from Justine Musk. Listen to this woman, she’s a badass.

13. Call Your Girlfriend Robyn/Erato cover by Lennon & Maisy Stella. I loved the original version of this song, but I loooove these girls. They were on the Today Show, or some similar morning show performing this week. I want them to come to my house and sing me to sleep every night.

14. Infusing Play into Mundane Tasks from Leo Babauta at Zen Habits. I like the way he thinks.

15. Joan Didion on Self-Respect on Brain Pickings.

16. A Girl and Her Room: Portraits of Teenage Girls’ Inner Worlds Through Their Bedroom Interiors on Brain Pickings.

17. This quote from Geneen Roth:

For some reason, we are truly convinced that if we criticize ourselves, the criticism will lead to change. If we are harsh, we believe we will end up being kind. If we shame ourselves, we believe we end up loving ourselves. It has never been true, not for a moment, that shame leads to love. Only love leads to love.

Amen.

18. Good advice for those attending the World Domination Summit with me (and hundreds of other people) in July.

  • A Story of Yes, from Andrea Scher on Superhero Journal, posted last year but still relevant, (she’ll be presenting again this year).

19. Live the Questions: Jacqueline Novogratz’s Advice to Graduates. Another commencement speech, another post from Brain Pickings.

20. Rilke on Embracing Uncertainty and Living the Questions on Brain Pickings.  Sorry for yet another, but this site was on fire this week.

21. Message from your Inner Pilot Light: When you choose to numb out – whether you numb out with TV, sugar, alcohol, drugs, smoking, or busyness – you dim my light. When you’re brave enough to face the truth, you’ll feel me glowing in the center of your chest, warm, steady, increasing in strength. Are you willing to face the truth without numbing out? With me, you’re safe to face anything. I’m right here.

22. A special offer from Susannah Conway. You already know how much I love this book, this woman, and this is a really great offer from her. Class starts tomorrow, so there’s still time!

22. Telling True Stories with Laurie Wagner, class starts on June 18th. I took the first round of this class, and highly and wholeheartedly recommend it.

Bonus something good: As someone who lived this era (the 80s) and loves a good musical almost more than anything, if this movie works, it will be so friggin’ awesome!