Choose love

Love is a choice. Who do you love and who do you continue to love through thick and thin. Who listens to you ramble, who cares (or acts like they care) about what sits close to your heart, who cares about you, and cares that you care about them. Who wants you to love them, who wants to love you... Is it money? Is it social? Is it approval? It's just a choice to love and to love without conditions, letting go of all expectations for yourself and the other person. Relax and let.it.be. You be you, I'll be me and we can be in love, fly through this world like free birds to sing and dance and do as we please, in love. People come and go but it's up to you who's company you keep. You compliment each other, you take care of each other, by choice. You are two free birds destined to do great wonders in the world but who offer three times the weight if the world to the world because you have the support of each other. You have the joy and privilege to choose to love someone. To choose to nest each night, always safe, always happy, always joyful, in the wings of love. 

May 2013

What is it?

It's born wild and free, but little does it know the dangers in the world.  A humble adventurer comes along whisping it away into a life that to others may seem trapped, but from an insiders eye, encourages the upper % of survival. It is given education, nourishment, discipline, and love all while remembering its instincts. Things it will need to continue to survive. There are times for work and times for play, days of laughter and days trudging along on your belly to get the blasted thing back where it belongs... All sacrifices and times of great joy and triumph for the humble adventurer.

Then comes the day when it must be released, into the wild, putting itself to the test... It is gone, for days, the humble adventurer curious of its wellbeing as they have grown to have a respected bond with one another... Then, it returns, it's crop filled with joy and gratitude for the skills it instinctively knew but that have been taught to it with great intention. 

It flies away, knowing the humbled adventurer and his mate have given their all for its survival, and it has now returned to shine its gratitude upon them, and it flies back into its born environment. The new yet familiar environment, the wild, to explore and to see the places previously dreamt about from a rocking stoop.

The humbled adventurer hangs up his hat on this project, but does he really? The love of the adventure will always be with him and never will he truly be finished. It hopes he will continue his own adventuring for the sake of the world and for the sake of it who loves him and his mate ever so dearly... Loves them for choosing it as an adventure.

What is "it"?

For it is the families dear red tailed hawk of course.

You Better Belize It! Cahal Pech Experience

Belize, what a beautiful place and quite accessible from the states. A simple 3 hour flight from Charlotte and ta da you have arrived. A quick bus ride and hello San Ignacio, home to xunantunich ruins which are a great site and visited by an influx of tourists because you can see Guatemala from the top. It's beautiful really, but the ruins of Cahal Pech got my attention quite a bit more. Just a short walk up from San Ignacio city, up a brutal hill in the heat I might add, you find this ruin set back and not filled with hustle and bustle. 

Cahal Pech was a ruin that held quite a large public market, a priest, a private market and the rulers home and a back area set for servants... Typical, however, the energy of this place was amazing. I travel with a great friend who experienced this energy and can only explain it herself, but I witnessed the chill bumps on her skin and the sheer look in her eye that there was something disturbed by us being there. Not wanting to stir up any negative spirits we took a minute to talk out loud that we were simply there to explore, not to damage or disrespect the space in any way. The back quarters, the space where the servants would have lived was the strongest. There was ill will there. Moving through the ruins we took a photo in the rulers bedroom and an aura of mist surrounds my entire body, seen only through the camera lense and on the photograph itself, it's quite intriguing. 

Being able to experience this in a foreign land and in an ancient myan ruin was a privilege. Just imagining the different way of life during that time puts everything today into prospective. After our experience with these new feelings and intrigue, we spent some time in the meditation room (yes, in the ruins) and came out feeling cleansed and at peace. 

What decisions had been made in that room in the past, what decisions were left at the door to that room in the past... Rulers had great responsibility that they took very seriously, knowing that waging war could cost lives and they would have to live with those decisions... Those decisions that would result in death, that is heavy... Just like the energy of the space outside of this room.

There is a lot to be said for the adage of 'leave it at the foot of the cross' whatever that means for you, leave the world at the door and check in with you, enter the meditation room with just yourself, baggage at the door, find a clear state of mind, for when you go out into the world again things will still be there, but you will have a clear head and a nourished body and soul. You will be prepared to face your day, take a breath, make the right decisions for you and yours, jump in and watch your manifestations unfold.

Authentic

What does it mean to be authentic? Being true to your inner self? What happens when you get off of your authentic train and meet people who you deem to be authentic but at the end of the day you realize they have tossed you off of your own authentic train? It's not for me to decide whether they are authentic to themselves or not, I can only be responsible for me and the authentic train that I am on. I find it interesting to sit back and observe though... people who drive their parents car and spend their parents money and spend all night at the bar drinking wine and indulging in life...junior league, clothes that cost more than they are worth and will only be worn once or twice, no perception of what really goes on with all of humanity. Are they really happy? Maybe it is authentic for some people to simply not have a perception of humanity? 

#eyestosee #earstohear 

Will Power?

Saw a commercial this morning where a little girl walks up to this ladies door and is offering doughnuts for sale. The lady slams the door in the girls face and says, "you're cute". The logo for Kellogs pops up and the word Willpower and a little tidbit about their new protein bar.

In tradition of Chakras we talk about the 3rd energetic space, that of will power. Manipura, the city of jewels, that place where we as individuals find our own space of following our will. Can this space have a duality of "no you cannot have a doughnut" but also that of "do what you will" all found in the belly-ironically enough- this conflict between the yin and the yang, the black and the white in this chakra, in my opinion finds a beautiful shade of gray. 

 

What is our society telling us, and is anyone else out there seeing it? 

It's okay go against what you may want, and lets call it willpower...

What happened to all things in moderation? Be mindful of your choices, knowing that those choices have a direction but regardless follow your will-follow your gut and there you will find strength.

Doodle Notes

Ever take a piece of paper, or like me, take 3 pieces of paper, and just start to doodle. See what words come out, what phrases are sitting on your heart... just let go, move the pen however it wants to move. Make l's that look like t's and vice versa, there are no rules... but you may be surprised what shows up on your piece(s) of paper!

Settled... woah! That one hassnt popped up in a while, but there it is, staring me in the face. Settled. 

i'm feeling a bit...

          settled...

               and i kinda like it...

I'm sorry what?! Needless to say this took me by surprise. As I began to let my pen do the talking, quite a few things came up.

I need structure. Direction. What is it? Why do I feel like I need it? Can I let someone else guide me and still honor myself?-Yes I can. Can I accept help? Am I so stubborn like the sea goat that I am to push it away? I am a stubborn sea goat but I can humble my horns and accept love and compliment. 

I give myself permission to find some structure, to find settlement, to bow my stubborn horns and love this moment. No expectations, just this place where I am right now. Not where I was two months ago, Not where I was 6 months ago, Not where I was a year ago... the Right Here. the Right Now.

Let the pen do the talking, the heart has things to say... 

Finding some beauty in the colors of fall... for where one leaf falls, another, maybe even two, will grow strong and beautiful and That is something to smile about!

Behind the Leaves

Being aware is somethings we often talk about in yoga class. Being aware of your breath, your body and other places you need to check in. While this is great and a vital part of knowing your self, I think there is more to it. Sometimes you have to step back and be aware of life. Situations that arise, some of which simply slide on by, but then those situations that keep tending to come up... those are the big ones, the ones that show up over and over and over again.
I recognized one of those situations today, every fall it tends to come up, and every fall I wonder what I can do about it and think that there is not a lot I can do but apparently there is. I don't know what it is yet but finding out is part of the process.

As the leaves change and fall, take a moment to notice what they reveal, not only about yourself but about those who you love. Once the leaves fall, the sun will shine through the branches and encourage the roots, your roots, to grow strong.