Joy Jam

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What were the 3-5 things that gave you joy this week?

1. Spring weather. Spring Break is next week at CSU and I have the fever because the weather has been so nice! The birds are everywhere, making all kinds of noise, and things are starting to green up. This is what the sky over my backyard looks like right now, (I just want to sit under it and stare):

2. Time spent with friends. I have some gems, seriously. This week it was coffee and life strategizing in the sun with one, an accidental lunch with another, and lunch and a movie with a friend who lives in Nashville, so I don’t get to see her as much as I’d like.

3. Superior ranking on my yearly evaluation. This isn’t about pride, ego, or needing external validation (much), but having my good work rewarded, (we are getting raises for the first time in a few years, and the higher your ranking, the more of a raise). It’s also a confirmation that I am doing what I “should,” and that it’s valued.

4. Fruit Salad. Luscious and juicy and sweet: yum.

5. Communally taught yoga class. The person who was supposed to teach this morning overslept and didn’t show up, so we led ourselves. One person started, and then we all jumped in at various times, adding a pose or series. It was awesome.

Bonus Joy: Blackout poetry on old business cards. These are one of the things I didn’t burn in a cleansing ceremony after leaving my old job (which technically is the same position I have now, just a slight shift in responsibilities–I’m now simply an Editor, and not for Writing@CSU), and I’ve always thought I would eventually do some sort of art project with them. This morning, I had two ideas, one being blackout poetry to cover over the old print. Here’s my first one (with an original card slid behind for comparison, to show you a bit of what is getting covered over):

Stay,
bringing attention

With time to consider,
recall vividly

We are all seeking the good life
Each of us calls it by some different name

Friend, call it
Know
Find out

Happy, happy Friday to you, dear reader!

Full Moon Dreamboard: The Full Worm Moon

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Jamie’s explanation for this Full Moon Dreamboard is:

…this March moon is when the earth starts to soften and the burrowers of her soil find their way to the surface…What if we took our cue from spring and allowed ourselves to soften? What if we let what’s within us find its way to the surface? What tender dreams would be revealed?

Under this Full Worm Moon, open your awareness. Pay attention to the the dreams that are wiggling their way to the surface. What wishes are asking for your attention? What is beginning to emerge?

I had a sense of what this dreamboard would include even before I started selecting images: self-love, self-care, space, stillness, simplicity, middle path, power, and freedom. These are the tender dreams beginning to emerge, asking for my attention.

The owl here represents wisdom. Both the stack and the circle of stones represent balance, a middle way, the path. Three of the images include natural bodies of water. The picture of Haystack Rock, on the Oregon Coast, with the person and the dog is the dream of summer, the freedom of that place, the stillness and spaciousness, contentment. There are bodies, both moving and still, in states of meditative practice and joy, and many statements of embodiment: opening to healing, healing through movement, embodying change, embodying breakthroughs, embracing uncertainty, eliciting change from within. There is power, even in this gentleness. There is the truth, the whole truth. Mother Nature, health and well-being.