Tag Archives: Inspiration

Full Moon Dreamboard: Full Cold Moon

7 Replies

Last night was a full, bright moon. It was so light and white out that when Sam went to go potty before bed, he had a shadow that followed him around our snowy backyard.

Full Moon Dreamboards: This is another practice offered by Jamie Ridler. She describes it this way,

Dreamboards are fun and powerful creative tools. Using words and images, they express our desires and dreams, making them easier for both us and the Universe to see. Engaging in a regular process of dreamboarding can inspire, increase self-awareness and help you manifest your dreams. And to infuse this creating with even more energy, we harness the power of the moon by making or sharing these boards when she is full.

This is my first Full Moon Dreamboard, Full Cold Moon, (you can click on the image to see a larger version). This moon’s question:

“What comforts are you dreaming of?”

Some of the themes and elements that came up for me as I worked on this:

The ocean. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, only a few hours from the ocean.  Living with the sun and mountains of Colorado is home, but so is being near the Pacific. And even though I miss it every day, I still feel so connected to it.  Every other summer, Eric and I rent a house in Waldport, Oregon and spend a month hiking, eating seafood, reading, taking naps, and walking up and down the beach. This coming summer is the year we get to go, so I am dreaming of the comfort that place gives me.

Balance. Practice and study, but also stillness and rest, a blend of comfort and craft.

Connecting to center, the heart of wisdom and compassion. A return and rest in stillness and simplicity, mindfulness and meditation, the seat of power and love.

Blue. The water, the sky, the Medicine Buddha, (the doctor who cures suffering using the medicine of his teachings).

A return, a connection to what is simple and true. That which is never faded or broken or lost. Freedom from attachment to external things, a settling in to being, here and now.

Gifts. Connected, centered in self-love, self-care, and self-knowledge, I can simply be. The magic of an open heart and a still & skillful mind is that I also generate enough to share. I hum with power, and my superpowers are gentleness and mindfulness. I open my heart and give away what I don’t need. “Give, look, love.”

Last Day of Class, and P.S. I Love You

Leave a reply

I just got back from the last session of my Writing for the Web class at CSU and I am completely exhausted, but I have committed to posting every day this month, so what I’ll do is share with you some of what I shared with them as part of my “good-bye speech,” (it is very important to acknowledge endings, to say good-bye). On our course blog, I posted this:

It is the last day, the final class session!!!

Congratulations! You were awesome!

I was watching this video yesterday, and it made me think of what I would want to tell you on the last day, what I would want you to take away from this class.

Dallas Clayton is a person who wrote a book for his kid, and it ended up starting a revolution of sorts, certainly led to a career where he got to work doing what he loved. He says, in an interview with Brene’ Brown (the same place I got the above picture of awesome kids):

“Do what makes you happy. Use that to make other people happy.”

And when she asks him “Do you have a mantra or manifesto for living and loving with your whole heart?,” his response is “We’re all going to die.”

This is similar to the message of Chris Guillebeau, who wrote the book “The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World“: make your life better by doing what you love and in turn make the life of others better as well, and don’t wait, start now!

And then there’s Austin Kleon’s “How to Steal Like an Artist,” where he reminds us:

  1. Steal like an artist.
  2. Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.
  3. Write the book you want to read.
  4. Use your hands.
  5. Side projects and hobbies are important.
  6. The secret: do good work and share it with people.
  7. Geography is no longer our master.
  8. Be nice. (The world is a small town.)
  9. Be boring. (It’s the only way to get work done.)
  10. Creativity is subtraction.

So what I would want you to take away from this class, take into your life:

  • Trust yourself
  • Take care of yourself
  • BE yourself
  • Get to know what things make you happy
  • Pay attention
  • Notice the little things because they might turn out to be what’s important
  • Expect to work hard at what you love
  • Be nice, or in other words, don’t be a jerk

I told them that magic happens to people when they do what interests them, what they love, and even if they don’t end up getting paid for it, it will make them a happy life. And every once in a while, some people do get lucky and get paid for the thing they love, and they are having a blast, so there’s always the chance that the next one will be you.

I told them to trust themselves, and even if other people didn’t understand, to do what felt right to them. If something doesn’t feel right, trust yourself. Have faith in your gut instinct, your intuition, your basic wisdom. Follow your own heart, even if no one else seems to be going that way.

I told them that you can’t always plan how your life will go. I’m a great example: it took 12 years and three different colleges to finish my degree, and what led to where I am now isn’t so much my education as the fact that every time I got the opportunity to do something that sounded interesting or fun, I said “yes,” and looking back, it might make sense how I got here, but there’s no way I could have planned it. As Dallas Clayton would say:

art by Dallas Clayton

I told them that so many people’s big idea, great work, came out of something that they didn’t think was important or that big of a deal at the time. Artists who thought they were only doodling, writers who were just writing a book for their own kid, people helping out on a project or playing around and it sparked an idea that led to their life’s work that turned out to be totally unrelated to their degree or any dream they’d ever had for themselves.

I told them that when they are doing what they love, they will happily work hard, that on the weekends, I can easily work 10-12 hour days, and the only reason I stop is because I physically can’t do more.  If my body would let me, I’d keep going.

I told them that none of this necessarily had anything to do with writing for the web, but it was what I wanted them to know.