Tag Archives: Danielle Ate the Sandwich

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.

Joy Jam

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

1. Kickstarter: I gave to two Kickstarter campaigns this week. One was:

Another is a book project, “Realizing Empathy: an Inquiry into the Meaning of Making.” It made me happy to give, made me feel like an old timey benefactor. It gives me joy to be able to help an artist do good work, and happy to know that if I come up with a good project that needs funding, this is available to me.

Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. Every week, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields…Each and every project is the independent creation of someone like you. Projects are big and small, serious and whimsical, traditional and experimental. They’re inspiring, entertaining and unbelievably diverse.

2. Payday: (This is related to being able to give to Kickstarter campaigns). I don’t always love my job. A lot of the time, it gets in the way of how I would prefer to spend my time, the work I’d rather be paid for, the life I’d rather live, but the satisfaction of being able to do work I can feel good about most of the time, pay my bills, give to worthy causes, spend a little and save a little makes me happy, gives me joy.

3. Good News: I won’t share what it is exactly, because it’s someone else’s personal business, but I’d been worried and the news means there’s nothing to worry about (at least for now, and until the next thing). Even if the relief is temporary or short-lived (because the reality is things are always changing and the nature of life is suffering), it is nice to get good news, and to feel grateful for it, to sit for just a minute with the idea that for now, everything is okay.

4. Sleeping: I had a moment last night when I woke up and felt so happy about my bed, my sheets, my pillows and blankets, my three sleeping boys–and the fact that I was comfortable and relaxed and would be falling back to sleep soon.

5. Epiphany: Both of these were unknowingly facilitated by friends. It reminded me that you can’t really ever know what word or action (or even silence, non-action) will be the one that really makes a difference for someone. I don’t think either friend had any idea that that one idea was the one out of everything else that caused a shift, was the exact thing I needed to hear.

For now, I’ll just give you a taste of what I realized with their help (I’ll post something more about it later): you might get more out of sinking more deeply into “this” than taking on something else/more, and sometimes discursive mind is a sign that something needs to be heard, given your attention.

Bonus moment of joy: I had breakfast this morning with a friend and her little girl. At first, the little one was so shy, she didn’t even want to sit across the table from me, needed to be in Mom’s lap. By the end of our meal, she had softened, and on the way out, she asked me to hold her hand and then blew me a kiss. *heart melting*