Category Archives: Writing

Something Good

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The Universe saying “yes.” This happens all the time, if you are paying attention. It happened for me today, more than once. Sometimes, it yells in celebration, and sometimes it’s as quiet as a whisper, and it happens more often when you are on the right path, doing the good work that is uniquely yours, following your calling, trusting your heart, knowing your hungers, being wholeheartedly yourself. It’s been happening for me a lot lately, and often when it does, I burst into tears. For so long I ignored it, told it to wait or even shut up and leave me alone, and all it wants is the very best for me. The love and wisdom that is available to us, all the time, can be utterly heartbreaking.

image by renaissancechambara

Leftovers. Thanks to the boy for this. I opened the fridge to make my lunch today and realized there were multiple options, so much that I felt like I was ordering off the menu of my favorite restaurant. He takes such good care of me.

Spring. Spring Break isn’t until next week, and technically according to the calendar it’s not quite Spring yet, but the warm weather yesterday and today, more daylight, and crocuses blooming say that it’s close. I ate my second breakfast today sitting in the backyard with the dogs, one of my all time favorite things to do, (I think it’s theirs too), and I can’t wait to do more of that.

image by Armin Vogel

Online classes. I feel like I have stumbled upon this magical wonderland of creativity and support, wisdom and kindness. There are so many classes available, taught by so many amazing women, and though I don’t really have this kind of time, I keep diving in. I just started “Blogging from the Heart” and “Telling True Stories” will be right on its heels. You, dear reader, can only benefit from me spending time immersing myself deeper into the practice of writing.

              

Live music. Last night, I saw Gregory Alan Isakov and Ani DiFranco in concert. There are plenty of bad things I could list about staying up late, standing in a dirty hot loud crowded space for four hours, getting shoved around and groped, having drinks spilled on you, but that’s not my point here. My point is there’s something good about hearing and watching music performed live. The force of sound vibrating in your chest, that bodily experience of the music. A direct and immediate conversation between an artist and their audience. Anything can happen, spontaneously, in the moment. You are trapped in the crush of humanity, screaming, dancing, singing, clapping, and sweating. There’s the potential for aggression but also the opportunity for compassion, for you to soften to those around you, the chance to be in the moment, feeling what you feel, allowing emotions to arise and dissolve, feelings evoked by a person opening their heart to you, telling the truth. This is all possible, mistakes, bravery and vulnerability, life and pure love.

Ani DiFranco, image by Julio Enriquez

Global Sorority. This is yet another fabulous Kickstarter campaign that I pledged this week. It’s a documentary planned by Tia Kelly & Loretta Cella. They explain it this way:

It’s our hope that these documentaries will be used not only to bring awareness, and aid the upward mobility of women and girls in developing nations, but also to be a learning tool in schools and colleges in the western world, offering a platform for discussion around women’s issues and also giving young women a starting place as to how they might connect and make a difference, in their own lives and in the lives of young women around the world.

As with the “Realizing Empathy: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Making” and “Danielle Ate the Sandwich Album” Kickstarter campaigns, I pledged because I wanted to see the final product, but also because I believe if the project is realized, the world will be a better place, suffering will be eased, and I am all in for that.

Color Me Katie blog. This blog is fun, sweet, colorful, and makes me so happy.

Kate, a 24 year old freelance photographer, actress, street artist and fun maker!

And finally, the tiniest-big dose of happiness and cuteness the internet has to offer: Dancing Baby Plover from Dou Dou Birds. Click on the image to see the other three views. The sum of four enables you to see the full measure of his little happy dance.

Learning Things by Heart

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Epiphany: a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.

I met with my meditation instructor this past week, and during our discussion about something else, she inadvertently gave me insight into a bigger issue I’d been contemplating, struggling with.

I’ve talked about it before: I have trouble staying on a middle path. I practice and live too tight–work too hard, try to do too much, smash myself to bits–and because of that, I end up collapsing into practicing too loose–exhaustion, numbness, depression, and smashing myself to bits, (notice how I can work that in no matter what end of the pendulum swing I’m in?).

I have been on a mission to “fix” myself, to change, to break out of old habits that no longer serve me, a life-rehab, but my approach has been a lot of the same old, same old. And is it really about changing, becoming someone new, someone else? Do I need another self-improvement strategy, another self-help plan? Another diet, another book, another workshop or class?

And you, when will you begin that long journey into yourself? Rumi

The reminder from my M.I. is that instead of grasping or searching for something else, anything more, I could try sinking deeper into my practice, the wisdom that’s already with me.

For example, instead of reading six books at the same time, rushing through so fast I barely remember it once it’s over because there’s a long list of ones that I have to get to right after, I could try reading one, maybe more than once, really know it, savor it. Or instead of training to be a yoga teacher, I could remain a practitioner, sinking in and truly embodying the practice, learning the full measure of what it has to teach. Or, instead of filling most of my week with regularly scheduled blog features, I could spend more time writing, straight from my heart, exactly where I am. I could remember the importance of naps and staring at my toes. I could connect with reality.

As Susan Piver so brilliantly shared in her Huffington Post article, Meditation, Relaxation, and the Self-Help Demon, “stop, slow down, look within and allow for both your brilliance and your brokenness.”

If we are looking for or saying “yes” to one thing, we are essentially saying “wait” or even “no” to something else, maybe what we’ve already committed to, what we’ve already found, who we already are.

We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips that we lay on ourselves—the heavy-duty fearing that we’re bad and hoping that we’re good, the identities that we so dearly cling to, the rage, the jealousy and the addictions of all kinds—never touch our basic wealth. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake. ~Pema Chödrön

I was rereading the above quote, and realized I should try and memorize it, make it a true mantra–anytime I feel the pull to try something new, to push myself, anytime I feel like I am not good enough, anytime I am beating myself up for some supposed failure or mistake, every time I wish I were something other than I am, somewhere or sometime other than right where I am, I could repeat it to myself, remind myself.

Or maybe the simple, gentle reminder to relax is enough?

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

~ Mary Oliver