FAITH and the way I see it

This week I pray for FAITH.

I just returned from Northern California.

It was not part of my planned trips for these last few months of 2014.  However, an email about studying with the elders, a retreat with the Sequoia Trees, showed up in my inbox.  I sent a Thank you email for the inspiration and please keep me posted for upcoming trips in 2015.  

I get a phone call Wednesday night telling me that there is space and what would it take to make this trip hahahappen and be in California on Friday.  I was going to say No.  I already had plans for the weekend (visions of pink and SisterGoddesses and South Beach).  And a flight less than 48 hours away?  Hahaha.

To tell you the truth, thinking of the trees brought me great pleasure - a warmth in my heart and a tingling of excitement in my body.  I  took a deep breath and had a good laugh.  I said YES let me see what I can find.  I got on the internet to check itineraries and prices.

For those of us who have booked last minute travel - especially from Florida to California - price of airfare can be pretty hefty.  Direct flights from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco were $1,200 pre tax.   I was about to give up a when a little pop-up for USAir showed up on my screen.  A non-direct flight through Charlotte with minimal layover time would have me arriving on time to San Francisco to meet the designated shuttle.   The flight price was a more reasonable $460.00 tax included.  Trying to book the flight online proved futile.  I picked up the phone and had a pleasant conversation with a young man named Josh.  He pushed some buttons and typed in code and all of a sudden for $400.00 and points, I was traveling first class to California and back.  My NO turned into an emphatic YES YES YES.

Once I had my tickets, I called to find out where exactly in California this retreat would occur.  Ben Lomond, the voice at the other end of the phone said.  Ben Lomond?  Of all the cities in California,  this is one I know quite well.   My cousins - Auntie Sylvia's niece and great niece and great great nephew hahahappen to live in Ben Lomond.  I've been blessed to be in Ben Lomond twice for weddings.

I could see Auntie Sylvia's hand, RIP, all over this trip.

Friday morning at 5:00 a.m., less than 24 hours after purchasing my ticket, I boarded my flight. I was beyond exhahahahausted.  Besides getting up at 3:00 a.m. to catch my flight, we had Auntie Sylvia's funeral the day before.  My emotions were a mess as was I.

I surrendered my fears and concerns and not knowing to the Universe and started my adventure.

The privilege of first class, it is quite nice.  You are the first to board the airplane, one of the first to deplane.  There is always space overhead for a carry on and there is no fee to check in a baggage. The seats are big enough to sit crisscross applesauce (once you take off your shoes).  Blankets are provided to ward off the chill and you are only a few rows from the bathroom up front.  You also get as much water, as often, as you want.   

Leaving Florida's warm and balmy 77 degrees - I encountered Charlotte's freezing and blistering winds and 34 degrees and then transitioned to the sunny and frigid skies of San Francisco registering at 54 degrees.   However, the landscape totally shifted as did my state of mind.  The 1 1/2 hour drive in the shuttle helped me loosen my layers.  I was finally able to release all the pressure and stress and tension that had been accumulating in my body.  As we climbed into the mountains and were surrounded by trees, I took a deep breath of the crisp air.

I had the pleasure of meeting a tribe of bee Goddesses - women who identify with bees as a busyness model - women who had heard the calling of the Trees and gathered in Ben Lomond at the Sequoia Retreat Center to be nestled in the Redwoods.   These Elders, Sequoias or California Redwoods are the tallest trees on earth.   They grow in a very narrow strip along the coast of California.

I came here to learn about being grounded and rooted into the Earth.  I found my way here to find my balance.  I was led here to remember my purpose.  I am here to release my stress and hahahand it to the Trees.    I am here now to be One with the Elders and uncover my bliss.

I am here hugging trees.  There is something so magical about connecting with a tree trunk and putting your arms around it. When I am still with the tree, I can feel energy coursing out of me and right through to the tree.  In return, I am filled with a sense of peace and comfort.

It has now been confirmed by science that hugging trees can beneficially affect human health by altering vibrational frequency.    Read More: HERE

I was under a lot of stress this past month.  Trying to cope with family illness and helping parents adjust to a new way of living and being an aunt and a domestic Goddess that maintains and runs my household - it's been a little overwhelming.  I kept on thinking I had to do it all.  I was taking life way too seriously and not having as much fun on this Heaven on Earth as I am entitled to enjoy.

I needed to return to the trees to gain perspective and patience. I had to sit under the trees' shade and do some deep breathing and being.

Trees give me a reality check - they dwarf me until I remember that I am but a speck in this Universe. They reMIND me that all is well and this too shall pass.

I am humbled by my experience with these trees. Their size - their beauty - the energy of peace I feel when amongst these giants - it helps me laugh at my life.  It helps me laugh at the things I take so seriously and focus on what I take for granted in my life.  My faith is restored when walking amongst the Elders and kissing their sacred skin.

Mike Dooley, at www.tut.com, shahahares this story about Faith:

Yesterday I watched a small bird, flying very fast, disappear into the canopy of an oak tree. So dense were its leaves that it was impossible to see what happened next, though I can tell you it remained inside.

I wondered how the little bird found its opening through the leaves at such a speed, and then managed to gently align its fragile body on the branch it chose to land upon, all within a fraction of a second. Not to mention the impossible to imagine flying maneuvers required: the banking, the curling, the vertical and horizontal stabilizations, the deceleration and landing.

Memory? Calculation? Not in that tiny brain. Instinct? Maybe, but how does instinct know which way the branches of a tree have grown when no two are the same?

That little bird just knew. It had faith, in spite of not being able to see how things would work out, that if (and only if) it stayed the course the details would be taken care of; that an opening would appear and a twig would be found. In fact, had she slowed down enough to carefully and logically inspect the tree first, the prudent thing to do, she would have lost her lift and fallen to the ground.

Kind of like reaching for your dreams. Neither memory, nor calculating, nor instincts are the deciding factors, but faith coupled with action.
Tallyho,

The Universe

Here's a little bit more about Sequoia Trees and climbing them.   This is Richard Preston's Ted Talk on Climbing the World's Biggest Trees

P.S.  I did get to hahahang with my cousins in Ben Lomond and meet a whole new generation of cousins.  Auntie Sylvia and her sisters are laughing up there in heaven seeing that our family keeps on growing so beautifully, like these trees.

COMPASSION FOR WE

 This week I pray for COMPASSION.

WOW – Wise OMazing Women and Men of the HAHA Tribe – these last few weeks hahahahave been crazy busy with chahahange and chahahallenge and chahahamps.

                  

It’s like the lunar eclipse and the SuperRedMoon and the recent solar eclipse created a shift.  A NUDGE.  As the planets re-align, I am caught up in a powerful wave of energy.  My quiet and peaceful weekly routine gets ruptured with blessings of chaHAhaos.

For NoAHAhahaand I, experiences all ways hahahappen twice.  Of course, I married an ArkMan and know his story well.  It just catches me by surprise and wonder when it hahahappens again.   A deeper gratitude to feel and understand the importance of the MOMent.

This week, two OMazing peeps  - CHAhahamps - left their bodies here on Earth and passed on.  Both pioneers to laughter yoga, these were the oldest members of our HAHA tribe.  And both of them were related to your laughter leaders.   

For SisterGoddess Barbara and for me, these last few weeks have been about hospitals and LOVE and touching and laughing and crying and spitting and sweating and crying some more.  More touching and hugging and handholding and crying and laughing and letting go.

This week I got to hold my Auntie Sylvia.  

For the first time in 17 years , I got to hug her and hold her and kiss her in a way that has never before hahahappened.  I laid down next to her on the hospital bed.  I put my arms around her and cradled her head.  I touched her scalp with my fingertips and helped her release tightness in her cranium.   I put her cold hand into my hand and warmed her up.  I helped her laugh as best as we could without hurting her broken ribs.  And then when she was ready to let go, I sang to her and massaged her keppe. I held her hand until she was as warm as me.

This week I celebrated WSM Irving’s 92^nd birthday with SG Barbara.  I sat on his hospital bed and held his hand as he took phone calls from his family.  This man used to recite love poetry he wrote for his wife.  He lived to laugh and shahahare his words.  When the time came, he left. His big smile, twinkling eyes and chahaharming manner will always be remembered.

These two OMazing people played big roles in our lives and were the first of the laughter ambassadors created here in Broward County.  They were also the first members of our family who showed up to support us and laugh with us.

They understood our purpose to bring laughter to the world.  Having witnessed so much chahahange in their lives, they understood that by laughing you could chahahange your perspective as well as your world.

I feel so blessed to have these two OMazing peeps in my life.

Funny how life has compassion on us.  She makes us laugh when we need to cry.  She helps us open up to the flood of emotions – gratitude, sadness, love.  She lets the memories seep through until all is the left is the essence of the experience.

Here is some extra footage of the phenomenal woman I knew as my Great Auntie Sylvia and the memories that I will cherish in my heart.

INTEGRITY

This week I pray for integrity.

This week I made choices that were so totally freeing to my soul and yet  contradictory to my family’s tradition and culture.

This weekend was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year.  According to Chabad.org, it is the "day on which we are closest to G-d and to the quintessence of our own souls.  It is the Day of Atonement.  For nearly twenty six hours, practicing Jews abstain from food and drink, washing their bodies and sex.   They pray indoors, in a synagogue, in a type of religious fervor until the end of the Fast when they share food together.

This tradition no longer felt right for me.   On so many different levels, I was seeking a more spiritual experience of connecting with my divinity.    Friday night, after sitting with my parents for their Friday night meal (cooked by LoverBoy – woohoo), I took myself to Raja Yoga at Anuttara Yoga Shala.

This Friday, our class was smaller and more intimate.  I had the opportunity to practice right next to my yoga teacher, Philip, and right in front of a mirror.  The music embraced me while the heat in the room allowed me to release the tension in my muscles and access a deeper layer of myself.

 

This form of practice tranquilizes the mind while energizing the body and soothing the soul.  For me, it is an opportunity to open my body and heart and empty my mind.  My teacher, Philip has a peaceful engaging voice which keeps me present and focused in my body – melting into my bones while my connective tissue expands and my hips open.

As I listened to his gentle voice guide my body, his truthful words were punctuated by powerful thunder that matched the electromagnetic energy we were creating in the room.  A bolt of lightning illuminated the top windows in the Tapas Hall and lit up the statues of Shiva Shakti and made my experience even more mystical. 

Philip reminded us of the sacredness of our practice as it was also the 9^th day of the Navaratri holiday – a Hindu holiday that honors Shakti (the Divine Feminine/Mother) and looks to her for spiritual cleansing, guidance, and enlightenment.    With sweat pouring out of my cells, my body felt limber and my mind was at peace.  I knew I was in the right place, at the right time.

I prayed during my practice for my forgiveness and asked for more compassion and patience with myself.  I prayed for more listening to the guidance from within.  I prayed to the inner child that I honor her and laugh with her and put her first.

Even though this is not how many Jews practice this High HolyDay, this is how this recovering Jew became in integrity with her spirit.    

For me, integrity is finding my way into the world truthfully – not because my parents said so, or religion dictates or this is how everybody does it but rather because it resonates within.  It creates an inner experience that radiates my light into the world.

And so, I laugh at loud and follow my own path, knowing that this is my way of bringing peace into this world and chahahanging history to herstory.

Nico & Vinz sing it like it is.  Enjoy!!!

CONSISTENCY is KEY

This week I pray for CONSISTENCY.  

Over the years - I have added so many new hahahabits in my life.  The only way I know how to do this is to show up and take a baby step in a new direction and then repeat and repeat and repeat.

I did the same thing when I wanted to lose weight.  I started walking.  Walking out the door of my house and walking to the end of the block and then back home again.  At first, I would go towards the right when I walked out my door.  I would walk past 4 houses to the stop sign and then turn back and walk home.  I did this consistently every day (thahahahank you Susan Powter and Stop the Insanity) for a week.   The following day, I turned left and walked past 6 houses to get to another stop sign.  I did this consistently for a week.   Those were my first two weeks of walking.   Daily - short and sweet - action steps.  By the end of week 2, I was feeling really good.   And my pants were looser.

I learned that it didn't matter how long I walked each day RATHER that I walked daily.  Once I became consistent with my walking everything else fell into place.  Like increasing my capacity to breathe and stamina.  On week 3, I went past the stop sign and continued up the block.  Crossing the street and walking by 7 more houses.  Now, all these years later, I've upped my game.  I no longer count houses.   I measure miles.  I've also lost 80 pounds and went from big boned to petite.

This is how I learn to do things.   I decide to try something.  I show up.  I do it once.  I do it again.  I do it a third time and I start to build muscle memory.  It gets easier to do.   Over the years, this CONSISTENCY formula has served me well.    It's how I became hooked on Pilates.  It's how I began to meditate.    It's how I became a yogini.

 

This is how our Laughter Yoga started.  I showed up once and then again and then again and here we are seven years later - going strong and with a powerful haha muscle.   

What I've noticed over the years are these 3 STEPS to making CONSISTENCY work:

1.    THINK IT - set my mind to something 

2.    DO IT - just do it - whatever I committed to in my mind, I apply into my life - for 5-15 minutes

3.    REPEAT - woohoo - done it once, now do it again

These 3 steps move me into ACTION where my thoughts become my new reality.

This week, I pray for CONSISTENCY in other areas of my life - relationships with people, art and creativity.  I pray for the COMMITMENT to make these priorities and to follow through until the muscle memory builds and makes it easy.  

Attitude of Gratitude

Gratitude is a powerful transformative practice.  It creates all sorts of abundance and hahahappiness in my life.  It also shifts my energy in subtle, and OMazing ways.  

Psychologists Robert Emmons of U.C. Davis and Michael McCullough of the University of Miami found that practicing gratitude can actually improve our emotional and physical well-being.

Their ongoing Research Project on Gratitude and Thankfulness found that people who keep weekly gratitude journals had fewer physical symptoms, exercised more, had a better outlook on life and were more likely to reach their goals.

Truth:    WHAT WE FOCUS ON, WE GET MORE OF
It’s true.  I have been practicing gratitude since I first heard Oprah share her practice of writing down 5 things every day.  This daily practice has helped me shift my focus to what is really good in my life. 

In the beginning, I started small.  Grateful for my breath.  Grateful for my legs that walk me to the bathroom.  Grateful for my bowels that release and empty.  Grateful for this new day and whatever gifts it brings.

It helped me shift my perspective. I used to notice the clouds first before seeing the vast blue sky.

I notice that when I take a few moments to remember and record my gratitude, it gives me the opportunity to digest and appreciate my life.

Gratitude creates changes at the emotional and mental levels, and also changes my body at a cellular level.  

Truth:  GRATITUDE IS A MULTI SENSORY EXPERIENCE
Gratitude is more than just something I write down or say.  It’s something I feel.  It’s a sensation of joy and awe that I get deep within whey I see the sunrise and paint her colors across the sky.  It’s a feeling of happiness that washes through me when the wind blows and a fresh breeze cools the sweat on my brow.  It’s the fabulous smell of a fresh peeled orange in the morning that makes my nose wrinkle with delight.  It’s the pleasure I get from wrapping soft cotton modal fabric onto my.  It’s how my heart softens as I touch my cat’s fur and hear her purr.

Using my senses to experience gratitude heightens the experience.  It fills my reservoir of delightful and delicious experiences I can draw upon in my memory bank.

Gratitude opens the gates of tenderness - and lets my heart feel even deeper.  Each day that I practice gratitude, I feel connected to the Earth, to people I meet, and to the flow of life.

Truth:  GRATITUDE IS A MUSCLE
Gratitude - saying thank you on the INside and out - to each and every thing that comes my way, no matter what it looks like when I receive it.  

When I get lost in my thoughts or lose my focus, I stop and breathe and go into gratitude - counting my blessings and thanking the Universe for all the chaHAhallenges and opportunities in my life to love.  

The Universe works in mysterious ways and what I see is not always what is.   Being in gratitude allows me to chaHAhange my perspective - see things differently or just be in appreciation for my life right now.

I flex and strengthen this muscle daily.  I stretch the muscle by writing in my journal.  I work it out by putting my gratitude on paper and writing thank you notes or doing a Act of Random Kindness (ARK).   I expand my muscle by knocking on a neighbor's door to sit and chat or calling a friend and just listening.  I cultivate gratitude by sitting in the grass and taking in the nature that surrounds me - hugging a tree and being One with my surroundings.

Here are 3 ways to build this GRATITUDE muscle:

1. Practice even when you don't feel like it. 

"One of the mistakes people often make in our culture is thinking you have to feel grateful to practice gratitude," says psychologist Miriam Greenspan, author of Healing Through the Dark Emotions: The Wisdom of Grief, Fear, and Despair.  

Whatever we can find to focus on as a prayer of gratitude – I’m still breathing, I have a roof over my head, I have friends I can reach out to, the sun is shining – shifts our body’s experience to the light, where LOVE resides.

A Gratitude Practice rewires our brain to look for good things.  The body remembers the sensation of searching for blessings and the feeling of joy and peace it brings.  Doing the same practice day after day hardwires the experience into long term muscle memory.  It becomes something you choose to do to start your day in a positive way

2. Thank you. 

Bless everything and everyone you see.  No matter what it seems like on the surface.  The simple practice of saying these two words – under my breath or out loud – has a way of chahahanging a situation and bringing LOVE into the picture.   These two simple words – saying them, thinking them, feeling them – raises our Abundance Consciousness. 

3. Imagine what life would be like WITHOUT a certain blessing in our life.

Imagine not having hands or eyes or the use of our feet.  Sometimes, I take for granted that which most needs to be appreciated.  I forget about the blessings of living in Florida and the wonderful weather we experience.  I forget about the OMazing trees in my neighborhood and the wildlife that inhabits it.

For me, I am blessed to have my parents still living and in my life.  I am blessed to be able to breathe with my own two lungs.   I am blessed to be typing this right now so I can shahahare with you what I know to be true for me.

Gratitude reminds me that we are all One - spiritual beings having a human experience on this Heaven on Earth right here right now.

All is very good, very good, yay – as I pray for Gratitude, my Attitude gains Altitude.

                      

Art of Doing NO Thing

 

  

Rest and laughter are the most 

spiritual and subversive acts of all.    

Laugh, rest, slow down.

                             

 -  Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

I've spent years perfecting the Art of Doing No Thing - one of the most difficult things I've ever had to learn to be.

First, I thought doing no thing was taking a day off work and lounging around the house - watching TV, reading a book, catching up on household chores.... I realized I was still doing something.   

I incorporated napping into my schedule.  I would lay there on my bed and while my body was at rest, my mind was running thousands of miles an hour.  Feeling guilty for all the things I should be doing. Not giving myself permission to just be.

I incorporated guided meditations during naptime - listening to someone's voice take me on a journey of the inner recesses of my mind - focusing on a mantra and tuning into the musical soundwaves.  Gradually, my mind slowed down.  Emptied out a little bit.  I realized that I didn't need to sleep.  I just needed to be still.

My dog encouraged me to go outside.  We would sit on the grass doing no thing - listening to the wind blow.  Feet naked in the ground - watching the tree branches sway.  When thoughts would come up, I would watch them and bid them peace and farewell.  Taking a deep breath and focusing on my environment - the luscious grass, the cool earth, the trees providing me with shade.

Laying back on the ground, watching the clouds dance.  Turning over on my stomach, observing the ants marching up and down grass stalks. A whole ecosystem below me - holding me up and providing me comfort.  Connecting my nature to Mother Nature.  It felt so peaceful and energizing.

I realized that slowing down and resting gave me more energy and stamina when I shifted into being a human doing again.

I began to seek other ways to find this delicious peace of resting - this pleasureful sensation of feeling loose and present in my body - relaxed yet aware.

I found it in laughter.   When I have a good laugh, it's like I shaHAhake all my cells up and down.  Everything jiggle and joggles and gets moved about.   A delicious chaHAhaos of breath erupts resulting in peace and pandemonium within.   

In the beginning, to have a good laugh laugh, I watched funny movies or listened to a comedian.  While that helped, it kept my mind going with all sorts of stimuli.   Laughter Yoga - laughing for no reason - brought me the stillness of mind I was seeking.  Engaging my body to function in a way that was pleasure-full to my soul. Creating a sensation of mirth within that would overflow outside of me and make a wonderful sound.

We live in a culture where we are taught to do, do, do - rest is seen as being lazy.  We live in a world of seriousness and stress.  Laughter is not the norm.  Both of these birthrights - Rest and Laughter - taken away as we grow up to fit into our society.

Yet - we seek it.  We crave it.   The pleasure of stillness - of being, resting, laughing.  When we hear it and experience it, it lightens up our soul.   Yes, Anne Lamott, I am a subversive, a pleasure Revolutionary to my core.   Woohoo!!!

OUR STORY - PATIENCE

I love praying and setting my intention for what I desire in my life.  Last week's JOY prayer was a powerful request to the Universe to amp up the volume and make me an instrument of shahaharing.    Which makes me a A LOVECat as defined by Tim Sanders, a people-centric business expert.

What is a LOVECat?  A person who shahahares their INtangibles - knowledge, network and compassion.   By shahaharing my joy this week, my energy level increases.  My stress diminishes.  My body relaxs and I feel peaceFULL.  I shahahare what I know  - I contribute what makes me hahahappy - I cheer what brings joy. I am I am a LOVECat.

Today, as I celebrate Loverboy's birthday, I feel blessed to be his wife and part of his life.  I feel blessed for this computer which allows me the freedom to express myself and the electricity that runs this device and the wires that connect me to friends and family all over the world.

This week I pray for PATIENCE with myself.  This week I pray for PATIENCE with my process as I shift from what I do to who I be.  

Last week I prayed for JOY and what I got was a week full of opportunities to be joyFULL.  Monday morning, I visited with my SoulMama and practiced yoga.  I got a Thai Massage (also known as yoga for lazy people) by MamaGoddess Kan. To perfect the trifecta of women, I met SisterGoddess Barbara for a swim and laugh in the ocean.  I got to stretch and laugh and hug some OMazing women.

On Tuesday,  I laughed under the trees with Loverboy and his father and some Wild Succulent Men who held the space sacred for the HAHA.   Blessed to be in the presence of my OMazing trainer DonnaMadonna, I worked out twice.  I kicked, I punched, I crunched, I danced.  I sweat out my toxins and felt my cells jump for joy.  I connected with two OMazing healers via telephone  Brother from Another Mother Ubi and SisterGoddess Mary(my fertility coach) helped me clear my thoughts and focus on my path.  I laughed, I cried and I sweat with some OMazing peeps.

On Wednesday, I spent time in the park under trees with GingerMama.  I hugged my laughing peeps and then whisked myself and SisterCroneGoddess Margo to the FontaineBleau for some pleasure research.  I laughed, I hugged and I relaxed in OMazing company.

On Thursday, GingerMama and I walked 5 miles in the early morning.  We laughed with our peeps by the ocean and came home just in time for a fabulous sunset walk with the GingerMama. In the presence of dog/God energy and laughter - what a day!!!

On Friday, it was time with my Sisters of Light as we prepared and created sacred space and an agenda for our Goddess Circle.  A dip in the ocean and a nap and a sing along at my neighbor's to prep me for date night with LoverBoy.  Singing and dancing with my Sisters and my Elders and in the Sea.

Saturday Gentle Yoga with SisterGoddess Yolanda and a drive to Coconut Grove with LoverBoy for some raw food goodies.  Birthday dinner for LoverBoy with his parents.   What a gentle loving day with OMazing Goddesses and family.

Sunday swim at the ocean with SisterGoddess Camille and SisterGoddess Barbara, produce shopping at the Farmer's Market, Dance Church with SisterCroneGoddess Margo, and then a Goddess Circle with SisterGoddess Zayna and SisterGoddess Carole and 12 other SisterGoddesses - woohoo.

This is my life.  It is simple and delicious.  Exercise, fun, beach, nap, girlfriends and family.  Yum.   I am so grateful for these opportunities to play and heal my body.  I am so grateful for all the hands that touch me or ears that hear me.  I am so grateful for LoverBoy and our families.  I am so grateful for the women in my life who help me love me more.  The deeper I delve into my gratitude, the more I receive. 

I ask.  It arrives.  I set forth an intention.  I create a reality.

All these opportunities to connect and be and play and appreciate what is my reality - this Heaven on Earth right here right now.

Meditating with Oprah and Deepak, I feel this need for PATIENCE.  The Universe is asking me to take a gentle PAUSE.  To GO SLOW.  To BREATHE and LEAN INTO my life.  Feel more.  Be more.  Do less.   Take the time to do the things I do well and master what I do. That is how I have excelled at my marriage, 16 years of love and laughter with LoverBoy.  

PATIENCE is also about seeing the big picture.  It is not all ways apparent - in fact, sometimes we only get what we need to proceed and take a baby step forward.  More is revealed as we put in the time and effort to ease in.

This week, I pray we have the PATIENCE- an expectant gratitude for what is about to be.

I pray we have the PATIENCE to explore our lives with compassion -  blessing our hahahabits and behaviors for getting us where we are right now.

I pray we have the PATIENCE to celebrate who we have BEcome.

I pray we have the PATIENCE to laugh at our lives and takes ourselves lightly and enjoy the process.

Because it's all about the Bass....

JOY TO THE FISHES & THE DEEP BLUE SEA

"Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves

 to recognize how good things really are."

Marianne Williamson

I have a gift  - a talent - something I took for granted for so long because I thought it came easy peasy to every body.

I know how to access my JOY.  I know what it feels like in my bones - I know how it feels to open my heart.   I know how to shahahare it and spread it so others feel it too.  

It's something I practice daily.  I jump for joy.  I dance.  I sing.   I laugh in the sea.  I lay back in the water and let her hold me gently.  I open my mouth and make a sound - hahaha.   I hear it with my ears submerged under the water.  Feeling vibrations in the waves as I flow.

I didn't realize that peeps have become disconnected with their joy.  Misery does love company and peeps love to complain and focus on the one gray cloud in the sky rather than the vastness of  blue and the occasional white cloud ballet.

Most people think that JOY is something outside of us - to be found or acquired.  Actually, it's an energy we knew how to access as children and over the years, we forgot.

JOY is a fire from within. An energy of HAhaHAppy that gets ignited by touch, smell, sound and memory. It's a feeling - a birthright - that we get from the simplest of things.

JOY is about finding the pleasure right NOW. Accepting ALL that is in our lives with grace. Surrendering to the circumstances with gratitude.   For me, this means focusing with an attitude of gratitude on everything that is within and surrounds me. Enthusiasm for my time RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW on this heaven on Earth. Joy at the simple pleasure of being alive and breathing.  Joy at the freedom I have to rise and stretch.  Joy at putting my fingers in paint and plastering a piece of paper with color.  Joy at the opportunity to sing with the birds in the early hours of dawn.  Joy to move and shake and dance - woohoo.

I've spent the last ten years of my life remembering how to shift my focus from outside of me to within. Learning to redirect my energy and attention to a vibration of gratefulness for all the abundance I am blessed with.  Doing this with kindness and compassion for me as I delve deeper into the OMazing miracle of life.

This last week, on Day 12 of Oprah & Deepak's 21 Day Meditation - the theme was Living Laughter.  Deepak shared that: "pure, innocent laughter is the most obvious sign of the joy we feel in our hearts. It is also a powerful and instant way of spreading that joy all around you."  

This gift is so easy and yet so difficult to achieve.   It is so much easier to complain and stay in the negativity. It takes work to shift this mindset and raise our altitude.  It takes just a MOMent to open the heart and share our true nature.   There is no other way to the LOVE that we are.

This spiritual discipline of HAhaHAppy - LAUGHTER - keeps me in the flow of bliss.  I connected to this truth years ago.  I saw people's eyes light up with laughter and I wanted this magic in my life.  I wanted the lightheartedness of spirit that I felt and the energy of ecstasy that I witnessed.   As I let go of things that no longer served me and became a Master at the Art of Doing Nothing, I built my laughter muscle.  I remember recapturing the feeling of childhood and expressing my joy through laughter. It felt so good to relax muscles and organs and just be free to express my heart's haHAhappiness.  Today, the joy i feel in my heart shows up as laughter on my lips - a deep appreciation for all that I have and am in this moment.

"Joy to the World, all the boys and GIRLs.

Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea,

Joy to you and me."

- thahahank you Three Dog Night (see video below)

Sustainability is Key

On Friday, flying home from Germany, I had the opportunity to watch Happy Feet.  Again.  I forgot what a great little movie this was.  A penguin using his dancing feet to create movement that causes chahahange. Mumbles the penguin remained true to himself and found that people responded to his passion.  Here was a penguin who believed he would find answers and help his tribe thrive by being himself.

Germany was a culmination of seeds planted long ago by who I was then and am still becoming.   After hearing the Dalai Lama live in Fort Lauderdale in 2004, I walked out of there with his words on my mind.  He asked the audience how can we have peace in the world when we do not have peace within our families?

At the time, neither of my parents were talking to their siblings and I had peeps in my family that I knew by title but not by person.  For example, my aunt.  She and my Mom, her sister, were barely talking - thinking they had nothing in common.  I found that what they had in common was me.  I called my aunt - told her I wanted to get to know her better, and flew out to Germany to do just that.

I ended up working in her new restaurant and sharing the couch with my new cousin, Blitz, a black Doberman.  I got to know my aunt as an adult and peer - as a friend and a niece.  I worked hard - listened to stories - shared moments.  The past came to meet us in the present where we could shine the light of love and make a change.   After 11 days, we definitely respected one another and found out that we truly liked each other as well.

First reunion in Germany - Mom, Auntie K and me

One seed planted and sustained with love and phone calls and emails.  Soon, another seed was planted.  I called my Mom on my birthday and thanked her for giving birth to me.  I invited her to Romania so we could visit my grandmother, my mama's mama.  Before leaving Europe, we stopped in Germany so the sisters could meet again.  And talk about the mother that they were estranged from.  Another seed was planted.

My aunt made the trek to Florida.  She came to enjoy the beach and the fabulous biking weather.  She came to know me and LoverBoy a little better.  She was even blessed to be here to witness and experience Hurricane Katrina.  More love, phone calls, time together and faith.  More seeds planted.

Me in Romania with my Grandma and her girlfriends

Two years later, Mom and I rented an apartment in Romania.  My grandmother joins us as does my Aunt.  It is a trip down memory lane - seeing places of their childhood and listening to their mother tongue.  We took a little excursion into the mountains to get a new sense of this place, these women and their experiences.  We spent two days in a old chalet - talking and eating - sharing stories and secrets - listening to details that had been missed and filling in the blanks that our bodies created to protect us.  A huge healing occurs - a shift - a peaceful surrendering to a new way of life.  

Two years later, the women agreed to meet in Vienna, Austria.  The matriarch of our family, my Mamama and her two daughters (my Mom and Aunt) and I rented an apartment for a week of family fun in Vienna. Again, we shared stories, we laughed, we cooked together and we mended part of the past.

The Sisters and Doggess Goddess Debby

Going to Germany this week was the blossoming of all the seeds of love planted in this family and getting to know the newest member of our family, Miss Debby.  Again, pieces of the puzzle were discovered as we weaved the fabric of our family lives and saw how each generation had left its mark on the next.  For me, I deeply desired this feminine healing of the family - this ability to connect and know we lived common history and are creating herstory.

What I've learned to be true is that seeds sprout in their own time. For me, sustainability of these seeds required discipline and focus. I found patience - a knowing or grace that things hahahappen in their own time instead of mine.  I found love - an open heart to however things appear on the surface.  I found faith - all the juicy stuff hangs out just below the surface enticing me to be in it for the long haul.

This week I felt a shift in the feminine in my family.  A beautiful chahahange of vibration as we let go of the past with compassion and accepted the present for what it is and opened ourselves up to the possibilities of the future.  We did this by laughing and crying and sharing and listening and eating, of course.  Yummy eating at my Aunt and Uncle's Restaurant, Wildhof, in the middle of a forest, about 15 minutes from Frankfurt.