Carry an abiding THANK YOU! in your Heart

 

What keeps gratitude at bay

Is our inability to see the good in what is

What has come forward

Withholding our appreciation for life

Until things go our way

Unfold as we believe they should

Closed off

Shut down

Fist clenched

Stubbornly locked

Allowing our idealism to hold us hostage

Instead of inspire a new vision for what is possible

While being present to what “is”

Letting it inform our lives

Shining a spotlight on what we need to let go of

In order to free us

So the more we long for can flow through

To want things to be different

Other than they are

Is natural

AND

To choose to find a way to let go

To accept what is

Releases the tension of the opposites

And this is divine

Tapping into our higher wisdom

Freeing us

Untethering us

Bringing us into present time

More alive

Through the integration

Of past, present and future

In the infinity of life

Carrying an abiding THANK YOU! in our heart

As we see clearly

It ALL led us here.

 

We are unaware, often unconscious of our resistance, our part in keeping the life we desire from coming to be.  Knowing this, we must have compassion for our Self and for others on this human journey.  Each of us knows what we know and our depth of knowing increases day by day until our last breath.  No one consciously chooses the shitty things that life brings and I believe with all of my heart that we can’t keep the pain of life away no matter how conscious we are.  Pain is as essential as joy.

All of us have had our asses handed to us in one way or another.  The betrayals and violations from the past threaten to hijack our now if we let them, if we don’t recognize that we need to acknowledge and grieve them in order to untether our Self and energy from them.  I have said for years that you have to start with Fu%# it! Fu#% this!  Fu#% that in order to get to Bless it! Bless this!  Bless that! So when I live with an abiding THANK YOU! in my heart now it has only been made possible through going there where I didn’t want to go and avoided for years.  This abiding thank you! has been birthed from allowing my Self to go into the raw, untamed, wild, not politically correct, truth of my emotions around events that have shattered me and broken my heart.  Pretending it’s all good! saying this or other platitudes while repressing and denying the wounds that bind us keeps the abundance, the pure goodness of life from flowing through us and manifesting in the material world. 

If we are less than grateful for the gift of this life, we must examine, shine a light on what beliefs, what attitudes, what things we have avoided that rob us from the aliveness available.  Each moment informs bringing opportunities to see how our choices, attitudes and beliefs create the life we live.  Staying tuned in, be willing to look at your part, own your choices without judgment as this will empower you to see that you are the captain of your ship and this is indeed your life.  You can navigate your life asleep at the wheel or with eyes wide open, navigating whatever comes, knowing you can find a way to get where you want to go.  You can lock life out, shutting off the flow, believing that you are a victim of life’s unfairness or you can become the victor, the hero in your own story.

The invitation this day is to pause and take inventory, appreciating your Self – all that you are and own the gift that is you.  Writing it out is a grounding practice and allows you to reread it sipping in all that you are and reading again and again when you forget.  From this place of thanksgiving, seeing how wonderful it is to be you and what a privilege it is to journey this life as you, you will appreciate others and life at a depth unparalleled.  You will carry an abiding thank you! in your heart not denying the crappy things or wallowing them rather accepting what comes and looking for what it has to show you and teach you in order to free more of you to come out and play.

Harvesting the Bounty

This day

24 hours

1440 minutes

86,400 seconds

Holds the Bounty

If we are willing to Harvest it

To accept ALL that is

 The joy

The fun

The goodness

The wonders

The magic

The laughter

That springs from connection

To our Self

And to others

In the play of life

With open hearts

Receiving gratefully the gifts

We are

Others are

Life is

Richness beyond measure lies in each moment

Echoes through each breath

And vibrates out into the cosmos

Waves of Truth

Waves of Beauty

Pure goodness.

 

I arrived at the houseboat yesterday afternoon.  As I left Nashville, it was already hot! In the 90’s so I consciously breathed in the hotness, the balmy thick air, choosing to harvest the bounty of this summer day.  With my sunroof open, I let the scorching rays burst through feeling them on my forehead and arms.  I delighted in this as my cats do lying in the windows of my condo.  I am aware that this season will soon pass and I want to soak it up while it’s here.

Unloading my supplies for the long weekend into a barrel, I walked the dock about a half mile out to my slip.  Everyone I met along the way sighed, grumbling about the heat but I stayed committed to harvesting the bounty, the beauty of the day offering my view:  Well, soon the waters and the air will chill, turn cold and we will long for this day so I am gonna’ bask in it all – all weekend long.  Some agreed.  Some still grumbled.  I let them be while I stayed in my lane, understanding fully that there will never be another day just like this one so I want to enjoy it.

My clothes were soaked as I unloaded my stuff into the houseboat so I grabbed a bottle of water, put on my bikini, slathered tons of sunblock on my body and plunged into the lake.  Ahhhhh….this is heaven on earth.  The sun still intense, I swam the back channel playing mermaid tuning in to the waters, the skies, the trees, the rocks, the fish, the birds, the bounty that surrounded me.  My heart leapt giving thanks for the day, the moment knowing this is my life and the attitude I choose creates the miracles, the wonders, allowing me to harvest what is.  Moving from my core, my center, I felt my arms and fingers pull through the waters in connection with the force of my legs and feet fully engaged in the play of life.

A few hours later, my sister and her husband arrived with another couple so I headed over in the ski boat to pick them up.  They jumped right in the fun, feeling the magic of the day alive within each of us and collectively.  I told them that I was gonna’ enjoy every minute of the hot-ass weekend, every ounce of sweat dripping off my nose and into my eyes and intended to bake myself on the sundeck and let the waters cool me.  The laughter ensued and didn’t stop all evening until we called it a night exhausted from the pure goodness we squeezed out of every moment.

The invitation this day is harvest the bounty of life available to you!  This bounty is ever-present each moment if you choose to welcome it, allow it, see it, create it, enjoy it.  Like apples on a tree ripe for the pickin’, the bounty is here and now not someday, not when everything lines up perfectly or as you think it should.  Be present.  Connect with your Self so you can connect with others in this dance.  Choose the attitude of gratitude.  Take a bite of this juicy life bursting with sweetness that will feed and nourish you as nothing else can.       

The FLOW of Life...

Dreams hatching

Not knowing where they will lead us

But daring to set sail because we must

Into the great unknown voyage

The seas unpredictable

We face storms

We experience rest in a depth of calm

Graces veil us

Protect us from fears

That threaten to sabotage

Hold us back

Stop the flow of life

Stop the flow of this BIG LOVE

Pulsing

Pumping

Springing

Expressing through us

Tick…tick…tick…

The fleeting moments of our adventure here

We step into the now

Completely surrendered

Willing to accept the dance

Allowing the soul to be nourished

Quenching a thirst to fulfill our destiny

One with the love

One with the Great Creator

One with the Source

One with the soul force of the Universe

Feeling the Aliveness

Within us

Within all life

Announcing:  Here I am!

I am the abundance of Life FLOWING

JOY is mine.

 

When I speak, I tell the story of my Nanny, Mary McGinley McHugh.  She had dreams for her life that were not in line with the dreams her parents had for her.  They had arranged a marriage for her to a farmer who was a widower with 5 kids.  Listening to the call of her soul that knew pleasing her parents would create a life of misery for her, she set sail for America with a dream in her heart.  In order to stay and do what was expected of her by her family, she would have had to stop the flow of life – not being who she was and denying her dreams.  Her voyage into the unknown where she faced great storms and a depth of calm that comes from being alive, in the flow of life continues to inspire my own soul’s journey.

 

Recalling the moment of clarity that came when I walked into my home in Brownsburg, Indiana and knew the dream there had been lived, had been played out and if I stayed, I would wither in the comforts of that life.  It is time.  I was moving to Nashville, Tennessee because I simply had to and there was no way to explain this as there was nothing reasonable about this choice.  It was the call of my soul.  My soul is not wired to play it safe.  I am here to voyage into limitlessness, dipping my toe into new waters and plunging into waters to see where they lead.  This is who I am. 

Dreaming new dreams is letting life flow through me like the very breath I sip in without thought.  This is a natural state for all of us even though we have very different dreams and wants for our lives.  When we see the dreams of others realized, we can use their life as inspiration to know what is possible for us.  If we feel jealous or can’t be happy for others even judging their wants and desires, this comes from a place of lack within us.  We have stopped the flow of our own life, not allowing the love, the abundance that is to spring through us, hatching dreams, engaging us in this dance of life that enlivens and morphs and grows until our last breath.  When we are flowing with life, we embody this big love that cannot NOT be happy for others, wishing everyone pure goodness each day.

The invitation this day is to look at where you have closed yourself off to the flow of life through old beliefs and patterns, through being tethered to the past still stuck in guilt and shame as well as blame and bitterness.  Find a way to open, to flow again, moving with life here and now, where you can dream new dreams, create a life you love and give thanks for the gift you are and this life is. Breaking free from the self-imposed cages we unconsciously create, we soar to heights that shock the hell out of us and nourish our soul that longs to be fed through expressing as us in this lifetime.  Lucky us!   

Synchronicity

 

Meaningful coincidences

Beyond cause and effect

Events unfold without effort

The graces of the heavens at play

Orchestrating our lives

Dancing us here and there and everywhere

Leading us to where we need to be

Connecting us to those we are destined to meet

Leaving us in awe

Embracing this wondrous life

AND

Scratching our heads wondering: WTF!?!

Trying to put on the brakes or figure out

The mystery of these happenings

But when we find our way to surrender

Where we can simply be with what has come forward

Meeting life on life’s terms

Giving thanks for what “is”

We open wider than we knew was possible

We step into limitlessness

Trusting life profoundly

Bowing to perfect timing

KNOWING:

We are guided by forces of Soul

The same forces that break the day

Making the sunrise

That end the day

Making the sunset

Ever-connected

Welcome this day with arms wide

Receiving the abundance that “is”.

 

Out of nowhere, I began to think of building a new houseboat which surprised the hell out of me because my practical nature knows the one I have is more than sufficient.  But the dream of this took off as I began to think of a new name:  Pure Goodness for the boat with Port of Nashville, Tennessee painted on the back with more earthy colors inside that reflect me and black and red striping on the outside because I have always loved that color combination.  It was delightful to allow these visions to come and I even wrote out details – things that I would want to add that my current boat doesn’t have.  It is so fun to dream and imagine!

Then, I ran into friends on the dock who had just found out through other friends that I had written a book.  They asked me where they could buy it and I told them I would sign one and bring it down to them.  This couple had just built a new houseboat, explaining that her cancer diagnosis sped up their “retirement boat” that they had been dreaming about for years.  The name of their boat was:  Synchronicity and when I read that word etched on the front glass, I felt energy rush through me creating an expansion within me, an opening of inner doors.  I walked in the boat and the colors and details she had chosen were exactly what I had had in mind.  All the trimmings on the outside were things I had listed.  And I knew that there was something bigger at play than me delivering a book and them giving me a tour.

I have no immediate plans to build a new houseboat, but I am open to the possibility.  The gift of the exchange, being led here and there was the reminder:  ANYTHING is truly possible when you dream and no dream is too big for the universe to unfold through us and our lives.  It was a moment of total clarity to examine any limitations I have imposed on my Self and my life; and what is the root of these limitations.  Why would I not want a new houseboat?  Why would I not want to write a New York Times Bestseller?  Why would I not want to speak all over the world?  The threads from these questions loosened and unbound parts of me that were locked into unconscious patterns that didn’t recognize the abundance that is, that exists within me and within all life.

The invitation this day is to look at the graces of the heavens at play in your life, taking you beyond where you knew you could go, leading you to the people you needed to meet or inspiring an idea that hatched into a new adventure.  Our lives are indeed orchestrated in ways that we recognize and ways we don’t.  Trust the timing.  Know that being present to the moments of your life is everything as there is information around thoughts and beliefs that need to be dismantled in order to free you.  Stay open to the possibilities and examine where you have closed yourself off.  Ask yourself Why? And Where does this come from?  Remember:  Life is rich in expressing our Self and this expression morphs and grows and blossoms until our last breath if we choose to let go in order to reach for more.

You Made My Day!!!!

 

It is proof

That the seemingly “little” things

In life

Are actually BIG

As they leave us

BURSTING

With Joy

With Excitement

With Wonderment

With Gratitude

With Love

With Hope

With Connection

And not to dismiss the BIG moments

Wedding days

Promotions

Buying a home

Moving day

Buying a car

Graduating

Opening day at the ball park

Starting a new venture

And so on

But the moments of each day

Hold the possibilities

For BIGness

Where just by being who we are

We make the day of another

And hearing them say:

YOU MADE MY DAY!

Or reading it on a card

Or receiving it via text or email

MAKES OUR DAY

As we feel a sense of our truest purpose

Which is to give our Self away generously

Sharing our Self

And to receive what others offer

Allowing the exchange of life

It is in giving that we receive

And in receiving that we give

Both are essential

Withholding love

Withholding appreciation

Withholding our Self

Disconnects us from others and life

GIVING…GIVING…GIVING

And

RECEVING…RECEIVING…RECEIVING

This is a Sacred Dance

That makes each day and all life Holy

Go ahead:

MAKE someone’s day

And

FEEL your day blossom

Go ahead:

Allow someone to make your day

And

FEEL your heart sing.

 

I have a card sitting on my counter that simply says:  You made my day. Just reading those words lights me up with a flow of energy that is pure goodness, excitement, wonderment, gratitude and awe.  It is evidence that the seemingly “little” things in life are so damn big.  Whatever I did that compelled the person to send the card, I assure you I have received it back tenfold.  This was not my intention when I showed up in a moment offering my Self whether it was a kind word or something I wrote or did – it matters not.  I was just being me and in that exchange, I made someone’s day.  Now, that is the power that lies in each of us when we share our Self generously for the sheer joy in doing so.  And it isn’t possible to give and not receive as we are infused with a deep sense of our truest purpose which is to connect with our Self so we can connect with others.

Last week, I texted a friend after viewing a masterpiece he had created, standing in front of it, soaking it up and being touched by the soul expressing through him and his art.  I was inspired and just had to let him know.  In the middle of a busy morning, I stopped and took a few minutes to type a message thanking him for his work, acknowledging that I see him and how lucky I feel to know him and share this journey with him.  He immediately texted back:  You made my day!!!!  This reminded me that no matter how accomplished we are in life, no matter how old we are, we all want to be seen and known.  I didn’t expect the enthusiastic response I received but it made my day blossom as I felt my heart sing that comes from a depth of connection to my Self and others.

The invitation this day is to be who you are, sharing your Self generously and observe how you make someone’s day.  And stay open, receiving the generosity that others bestow on you making your day.  The movie:  It’s a Wonderful Life is one of my favorites of all times because it reveals the invisible connection that is and how our lives intertwine in ways we don’t recognize.  But to pause and recognize that you have the power to make someone’s day and others have the power to make your day is to see the sacredness of your life and all life.  We are holy.  We are vessels of hope, love, peace, joy, abundance, grace and all the miraculous energies that blow through our being.  You make the day of others – I assure you this is true even when it goes unsaid.  Stop to appreciate all those who make your day and give thanks, letting them know:  You made my day!!!!.  Let their generosity inspire your life!  

The BIGness of This Day, This Life!

May the BIGness

Of this Day

Of this Life

Of YOUR life

Echo through YOU

Breath by sacred breath

With both feet planted

And your heart raised to the Skies

Welcome ALL that you are

To dance

To sing

To play

To express in ways that surprise & delight YOU

This is YOUR life

Dream Big

Love Big

Dream new dreams

Live your way to your fullest expression

Love the unfolding

The challenges

The detours

The twists & turns

The victories

The summits

The miracles & graces

There is nothing small about you

Other than your misperception

That you are anything less than MAGNIFICENT

Dare to believe in the beauty you are

Dare to love the imperfections

Dare to be vulnerable enough to invite honest moments

Where you look at your Self

Here and now

Stripped of imprints written on you in the past

Knowing your Self

Remembering the song in your heart

Bowing to the beauty and truth

Nothing to seek

As it is ALL right here

Within you

Touch this sweetness

Connect to the essence of YOU

Be free

LIVE this dream AWAKE!

 

It is through the living of our lives that we are rich: present to the joy, present to the pain, being with it all breath by sacred breath.  Living this dream awake, conscious of the gift we have been given no matter what challenges, detours, twist or turns come our way – no matter what victories, summits, miracles and graces blow through our days.  Everything comes to pass but the one constant is the BIGness that is this day, this life, YOUR life.   

When we let the BIGness echo through us with both feet planted and our hearts raised to the skies, we welcome all that we are, allowing new dreams, new possibilities to express through us.  We allow the surprise of life to reveal more than we alone could ever have imagined.  There is nothing small about you only the misperception that you are anything less than magnificent.  Dare to be free of the imprints throughout your history that others have written on you and accept the truth and beauty of who you truly are.  There is nothing to seek.  Touch this sweetness that lies within you.  You are holy.  Listen to the song in your heart and let it sing through the living of your dream awake.

I awakened this day feeling the BIGness of this life, my life, your life and asked for the words to remind you of the beauty of your life; the passion that lies within you capable of fueling new dreams, a life so bountiful you will be nourished in a way you never believed was possible.  The enormity, the vastness, the limitless that exists within us and within all life is a vitality that springs forth, never ceasing, ever-present even in the seemingly ordinary moments; but this day, this life, your life is absolutely extraordinary simply because it is.

This invitation this day and every day is to welcome the BIGness that is this life, your life.  Acknowledge this truth.  Play BIG. Let it free you from the fear that holds your hopes and your dreams hostage.  Dream new dreams.  Dare to believe in what others would say is impossible.  Let nothing keep you from a life you love and feel lucky every single day to get to live.  Dream BIG.  Love BIG.  Live BIG.  Don’t hold back.  No one can keep you from the summits you long to reach except YOU.  The world needs your BIG joy in expressing YOU!