Love beyond the Script

So....Valentines Day, hmmmmm.....I have to say, today is NOT what I would consider a REAL holiday. I agree with the slightly jaded sentiment that Valentine's Day often feels like a marketing campaign to separate you from your hard earned dollar in exchange for paper goods and corn syrup products. HOWEVER, any reason to evaluate love in your life is a good thing and today's slightly fabricated hoopla shouldn't get in the way of a very real opportunity to evaluate the love that is or isn't in your life. First of all, the very fact that you are here and alive is a sign that Love is invested in you. If you are reading this, its another sign that Love has blessed you with time and resources and education. If you just finished a conversation with someone or are about to speak with a friend then you are the beneficiary of Love's gift of community and sharing. The next time you feel the sun shine on your shoulder or feel the whisper of wind on your neck know you might notice that nature is another avenue of Love's revelation.  Love reveals itself in many different ways and it is constantly trying to show you that it is present, it is available, it is waiting for you to recognize it and embrace its power in your life.  Love aches for you to know that you are worthy, you are important, you are enough, in you lies the gift of which the world is in need. The presence of a boyfriend, girlfriend, or lover in your life is a rather short barometer by which to measure Love's presence or affirmation.  The middle school love script that we play in our heads about what love looks like is a detrimental habit. That "one boy + one girl = love" is a rather outdated and pubescent equation and one that ought to be re-evaluated. Because love is everywhere. It is in everyone. It is in everything. It defines every decision we make and the need for it is at the heart of every intention that rings true. Don't sell yourself short. Love is calling out your name and every day you awaken you have the opportunity to recognize how blessed you really are.  Every day is full of Love...and regardless of whether or not you are aware of its power doesn't change the reality that Love is available to you. And here is the amazing thing about Love...when you are ready to receive its transformational energy into your life it will be there to revolutionize your trajectory forever. Every day of your life can be full of Love if you only let it be. So, Hallmark cards aside, I wish you all the very sweetest day of Love today and forever after. Its yours for the taking.

5 senses for a Forever Love

I was having a moment yesterday, driving from one job to another job, sitting in traffic as so many of us Angelenos do, and I noticed a wonderful warmth caressing the side of my face and neck. The sun was covering me with a thousand sweet sparkling kisses as the horizons were shifting and I had not only a sense of gratitude but  was also overcome with a tear-inducing epiphany that I was being embraced by the Loving arms of God. I became suddenly aware that I had been given five incredibly different physical senses in order to experience the multi-dimensional  and incomprehensibly deep Love of my Creator. My thoughts progressed to the the state of the Earth and that although we as a human race have become so often distracted and disconnected to its heartbeat through industry, ego, self-preservaton, and sel-exultation that the call of Love still waves its banner and calls our names with deeply personal messages in a million moments of divine intervention, interception, and unique perception.  Gods Love reaches out to all of us all of the time and its colorful language, although expansive beyond  physical boundaries, is as diverse and intricate and detailed as our physical experiences through touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. What a gift and a what a love!!!! So many times we find ourselves searching for God with demands that He reveal Himself with jaw dropping miracles based upon our own determination of what or who we think He is. But what if He is really there all the time and its us who have lost touch with what the hand of God feels like? What if the next time you feel a cool breeze on a hot sweltering day or observe the delicate collection of a dewdrop on a petal you pause to say thank you and to tell your Maker that you love Him too? I wonder what miracles of the heart such a response might incline? I'll tell you what my ephiphany did for me...it granted me an internal harbor of peace in which no external storm could touch me last night. Because when you know that you are loved, when you feel that you are safe, the only response to life that you can instinctually give is love in return.  Love is all around. In fact, I bet its calling your name right now. I dare you to answer.

Embracing Fear

We've all felt it....that tingling tight sensation in the pit of your stomach, the twisting knot in your throat, the clammy sweat in your palms, that uncomfortable restriction that pains the senses, that makes clothes feel too tight, the air feel too thin, the internal red siren that demands immediate escape,...and although that sensation is often associated with  negative connotations I have become increasingly certain that the symptoms of fear are quite often more deserving the distinction of being considered growing pains then the usual dismissal with which we label them.  The birth of any new development into which time is worth delving is almost always announced by the painful passage of the awkward, the uncomfortable, the confusing, the scary, the ugly, and the unclear. Greatness is reserved for the courageous who dare to brave its painful arrival. I speak confidently of this because I am in the thick of such a transition...

Opportunity presented itself to me recently and my first reaction was to say no as I felt my throat tightening and the backs of my knees getting sweaty. I was presented with an opportunity to step into an arena of new responsibility, creativity, leadership, and administration and my first inclination was to run the other way. I looked for all the reasons why I should say no, why I should maintain my current status as a follower and not a leader in this part of my life and then a very wise friend spoke to me some jewels of truth. They reminded me that I would never regret trying something new but I might regret not giving the situation a chance. I knew they were right and when I allowed myself to reposition my minds perspective I realized a glaringly obvious truth. By allowing myself to consider the possibility of saying yes I recognized that all of my fears and reasons for wanting to retreat were really the excuses of someone who was just nervous about how it would feel to have to experience the gangly awkward developmental stages of growing into success. All my reservations were really just the excited marks of a recognition that I was about to jump into another level of awareness, success, influence, and persuasion and that I was going to have to raise my personal bar and accountability to myself and to others. A scary and exciting and inspiring crossroads, indeed! Because once you have become the biggest fish in your pond it is quite easy to want to maintain the status quo and to resist swimming upstream to join the bigger schools of life. But who is going to finish their journey here and be grateful that they played it safe? Who is going to be glad that they didn't risk big, didn't reach for their dreams, didn't give every opportunity its fair shake?

One of my favorite mantras is to, "Take no prisoner, Leave no regrets, Take everyone along for the ride" and I am confidently living with integrity in that philosophy because I said yes to that opportunity a few weeks ago. I can honestly say I am reaching another level of living within my passions and hence my purpose. I find myself exhausted and yet constantly re-energized by what I am doing. My days are long but my mind is constantly racing towards the next challenge facing me in this new chapter of my adventure here and I am so grateful for every day, every obstacle, every moment. I am blessed because I am doing what I was designed to do and I am confident that beyond the initial fears I held I am in the process of spreading new wings capable of carrying me and so many others to greater heights. I am grateful for the fear that let me know that I was, I am, and I will do a great many things through the power of He who is my strength. Because what is interpreted as fear is very often just the telling symptoms of a life of courage that is in the process of doing the very thing at which lesser men scoff.

Wanting what you Have to Get what you Want

"You have to want what you have before you get what you want"...do you believe that? The more I marinate in that idea the more I am convinced that it is true. When you learn to be grateful for the blessings already present in your life you treat them, and yourself, with greater levels of respect and accountability. And the respect and good stewardship that you invest in your life will naturally begin to be matched by the people around you. Treat yourself with respect and you will garner respect. Take pride in your work and more work will be given to you. Bless yourself with love and gratitude and you will receive the same measure multiplied back into your life. Its the principle of seedtime and harvest. You reap what you sow. As simple a thought as that is, it is a stark truth that somehow continues to be dismissed.  Whatever energy, positive or negative, that you are putting into your life, your relationships, your work, your talents, and your own dreams will be returned to you. So if you are spending time complaining, comparing, despairing, and wallowing in self-pity and the morose contemplatation of lack then that is the same place in which you will remain. But if you take stock of your situation, realize your blessings, assess your growth opportunities, and take steps big and small to show respect and love for the beauty that is already in your sphere of control then you will be amazed at the changes that begin to occur. Your life is a direct product of your investments and awareness. Today I aim to be aware of the blessings in and around my life and i aim to invest love, respect, passion, and gratitude into my every moment. I hope you will join me because your life is a miracle and the gifts of Love are bursting at the seams to be embraced by you. Lets really live, my friends. Lets really enjoy, participate, and discover the power of living within gratitude. Every day can start with a "Thank you" to the Creator because you are a masterpiece of a creation.

2012 is here, are you?

It is a new year, my friends, and I'm sure that with all of the new years resolutions we have made or have thought about making or have contemplated and then decided to not risk failing and so have not made that we can agree that with every new years mark we are hopeful for a better year in the future. But along with that hope and excitement we all have some decisions to make. First of all, and I'm sure many of you have heard a version of this before, but the only way to see  change happen in our world is to start by changing ourselves. A little less global version of that idea reminds us that it is the crazy person who would repeat the same action and hope for a different result. I would like to think that I'm not crazy but I have to ask myself....how many times, seasons, periods of my life have I been miserable or discontent with my situation but have allowed myself to keep wallowing in the vacillation of depression and blame? More simply put, why have I allowed myself to ever blame other people for my current state of affairs? If when I look at my life I don't like what I see I really have no right to accuse other people for putting me there. I am so blessed at this point in my life and am truly able to say that I am in a state of abundance but you know what?, I don't know how long this season will last. It may last a year, ten years, ten days, ten more minutes, but I had better be ready for the winds to change (because they will) and I had better be ready to approach life,myself, and others with the same gratitude and compassion and energy that comes so easily today. Because in a new year we start out with high hopes. But those high hopes are only valuable if they are accompanied with a high output of directed energy and passion as well. Don't just hope for change. That's what victims do. Make the changes in your life, however small or big, that you know are necessary for you to experience the changes and growth that you are desperate and eager for. Take the time. Look within. Then look around. And take a chance. Risk big. We are never promised more than today. So give this day everything within you. And don't hold back from seizing opportunities, challenging yourself, putting yourself in awkward situations that demand that you expand and redefine the lines that confine you. Life is short and we all will come to our own finish line. When you look back, its not about how long it took you get there but its how you ran the race that will bring you peace or discontent. And here's the thing, we get a new chance ever 24 hours, every 7 days, every month, every year, even every minute and second to make another decision about how we will approach our lives. Passion. Love. Compassion. Grace. Kindness. Patience. Diligence. Vision. Lets open our eyes to the areas in our lives in which we desire change and growth and lets attack 2012 with action and passion together. Happy New Year, everyone. Lets do this.

20,000 Breaths, 20,000 Choices

Did you know that you take, on average, over 20,000 breaths a day? I'm willing to bet that most of us go through most days without thinking about how we are going to breathe, if the next breath will be there when we need it, and how we will have enough breath to get through  today and the next day. Most of us do not live in fear of not having the ability to breathe nor do we fear that our breath will run out. We trust, most of us without any anatomical knowledge of physiology, that our lungs have, do, and will  function without wavering. This is a faith we carry although most of us have never seen our own lungs with our own two eyes. Isn't that nutty? Aren't the workings of your heartbeat and lungs and other vital organs such a mystery? How life begins and how it ends are such wonders that I cannot comprehend them but I can marvel and be grateful....but back to the topic of breath.  I bring up the thought of breath because, as a Pilates instructor and life long student, I see the internal stress that people carry within them so heavily tied to their ability, or lack of ability, to breathe. Neck tension, small nervous tiny specks of a breath, shoulders held close to the ears as if to protect the mind, these are some of the tell tale signs of a person in dire need of finding their true ability to breathe. The worries of life choke out peoples capacity to take a full breath.  Full active breathing requires  not only a physical shift in approach but also a decision to let go of some sense of control, to push boundaries, to open the body and the mind to something larger, to recognize and release the stiffiling aspects of ones own psyche and persona.  When you take a full breath you connect to yourself and to the wonders of a  larger scenario on a wider scope.  And when you make a daily habit out of conscious active breathing you may find yourself starting to connect to people and situations and to the turmoil of life with a little bit more grace because you have begun to sense that everything and nothing is connected to the truth of who you are and that you are a marvel of your own. Your spirit is your true self and by the grace of God you are enough.  Everything else, even your body, will, at the end of your days, go back in the box. So why not allow yourself to enjoy more of your 20,000 breaths today with a sense of realization that marvelous and wonderful miracles are happening all around you and in you every second of every day and that the stresses of life are a burden we can adopt or deny because we have the power. We have the ability to change the way we breathe, we have the ability to change the way we live.

My Christmas Presents

So  yesterday was Christmas day, and I have got to say how lovely it was to focus on people and friendships and family instead of battling the distracting stress of the gnawing knowledge that I have spent too much money on too many presents that nobody really needed and that i couldn't really afford.  It might have been in part because of the economy that the gift exchanges in my circles were few and simple but I think that the simplicity of everything waswhat made it so special. It was deeply meaningful to be with my family in a time when i know many people are lonely or are missing loved ones who have passed on or who are battling illness in their lives. It reminded me of how fragile all of our connections to each other really are and how blessed we are for every day in which we are granted opportunity to relate to each other and to show love and support towards each other. My sweet boyfriend, my lovely sister, my older/younger brother, my momma bird, my dear dad, my boyfriends generous sister and his strong mother...these exquisite souls gave me such a gift yesterday. They gave me themselves. And it was wonderful.