On this celebrated day of love, I send you blessings.  May your heart be filled with the knowing that you are loved and appreciated for the beauty of who you truly are.  In all your strengths, in all your foibles, in all your delightful eccentricities; for how you navigate your world in all your good days and in all your bad ones; for how you shine and shimmer from your very core and send that beautiful energy outward.  You are loved.  And my heart is filled with gratitude and appreciation for the connection you have to my life, to my heart, to me.

I believe that when we see and truly appreciate the connections of those who circle in our world most closely, it becomes easier to extend that awareness and appreciation in ever-increasing circles outward.  And I think that’s what we’re all called to do – that that’s our not-so-secret mission for 2012 (and all the years beyond).

And so whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not, I invite you to consider how you might choose to live and be in a world that is is love-focused in every day.  What would that be like?  I love the proclamation e.e. cummings makes in this poem:

love is a place

& through this place of

love move

(with brightness of peace)

all places.

 

yes is a world

& in this world of

yes live

(skillfully curled)

all worlds

                         ~e e cummings

Beautiful isn’t it?  That’s my Valentine’s Day wish for us all!

Every year beginning January 30 many people participate in the practice of 64 Days – The Season for Peace and Nonviolence.  Arun Gandhi established this event as a way to honor and celebrate the philosophies and lives of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.  The “season” begins with the anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination and ends with the anniversary of King’s assassination.

Over the years many organizations and religious groups have put together curriculum with suggested daily things to think about and practice during this period.  And if you’re interested in exploring or participating in something like this you may want to head over to 64 Days.

Although I’m not inspired to follow any particular guided program, I am finding my thoughts regularly turning to the subject of peace and what it means.   I do think it’s important how we walk in this world, and every day we have the opportunity to choose our words and actions.  In the first week of the observation attention is often focused on being compassionate and peaceful with oneself, and that always seems like a lovely place to begin.  And this, the third day of the observation, is often focused on appreciation and gratitude.  I often talk about how I believe that a gratitude practice is one of the most profound gifts you can give yourself – it truly alters the perspective and helps keep you centered in your heart energy.

But the call is always there as well to bring that heart-centeredness into the world and make nonviolence and peace a tangible thing.  Today I was thinking about the national Department of Peace which we have not yet created, and I was inspired to do a little research about it.  And I have to say I was astonished at what I found.  As early as 1793, Benjamin Rush who signed the Declaration of Independence, proposed a Department of Peace for promoting and perpetuating peace in our country.  In 1925 Carrie Chapman Catt, the founder of the League of Women Voters, proposed a cabinet-level Department of Peace. In 1935 the first bill calling for a U.S. Department of Peace was introduced into the Senate; in 1943 there was another Senate call for the U.S. to become the first government in the world to have a secretary of peace.  In 2001 Representative Dennis Kucinich re-introduced a bill to create a U.S. Department of Peace, and this bill was reintroduced in each session of Congress from 2001 through 2009.   I find it disheartening that after 219 years of awareness in our national collective consciousness we haven’t yet established our Department of Peace.  Sigh.  I’m not naive enough to believe that the establishment of a Peace Department is a magic panacea, but honestly, wouldn’t you like to stand behind the precedent that we actually believe peace is important?

Still, we can carry the vision.  And we can allow ourselves to be inspired to do what our hearts call us to.  Here are some of my call-to-action suggestions:

• Contact your representatives regularly and encourage the investment in a Department of Peace
• Donate some time or money to your local domestic violence shelter
• Invest in non-competitive games for kids where cooperation rather than dominance is encouraged
• Practice and teach non-violent compassionate communication
• Sign up for snail mail on my website.  It’s my way of spreading a bit of love and peace via the mailstream.  You normally have to do a bit of serious poking around my website to find the link, because, well, I think that’s fun and gives you a chance to decide if my work and life philosophy resonates with you.  But you probably aren’t reading this blog post if you don’t already know that, so you get the shortcut – here’s the link to the page.  If you scroll to the bottom you’ll see a place to sign up for “Love Letters for You”.  If you sign up now I’ll drop some kind of peace message into the mail to you sometime during this 64-Day Season for Peace and Nonviolence.  I won’t say when because then it wouldn’t be a surprise.    (Note:  signing up for snail mail does not add you to my newsletter mailing list – this is just a bonus fun way to connect.)
• Leave a comment and tell me what peace practices you have, or what inspires you, or some peace resource to share.  Spread the love!

I have to say a week into the Dragon Year and I’m loving it.  I think I needed a little fiery dragon breath to stir things up.

January has been such an intereting month energetically for me, and apparently for lots of folks I’ve recently been talking with.  In my case, for much of the month I’ve felt like I’ve been on pause, in limbo; which has been unsettling and uncomfortable.

The thing is I had clear guidance that this was a rest and regrouping period.  In fact the image given was being in a base camp on the trek up a mountain.  If I looked up the mountain I could see it was shrouded in fog, and I knew I needed to wait for clarity before moving on.  But of course, it’s not always the easiest thing to act on guidance.  It seemed to me everyone around me was forging ahead, shooting out the gate of the new year with enthusiastic PLANS and brilliant clarity, taking action, moving forward.  And I wanted that too.  And in fact, the more it seemed people were moving on, the more judgmental I got about myself.  I keep insisting I needed to press on as well.  Sigh.  Sometimes we are indeed are own worst enemies!

In some instances when I wrestled myself into action because I felt I SHOULD be doing so, I’m finding I now need to back track and start again.  Case in point – my guide word for the year.  I knew it needed percolating, that it was still in the embryonic soup stage, but I pushed.  I laid claim to something that wasn’t really mine; and of course, that’s not really the point of something meant to guide and inspire.

But earlier this week my guiding star arrived.  And thanks to Rachelle Mee-Chapman, aka Magpie Girl, brilliant founder and tender of the Flock community, for the term Guiding Star.  Perfect, perfect, perfect!

the stars, like candles
thrust at us from behind blue veils,
and as if to make the invisible plain…

– Rumi

So tada…I’m unveiling my Guiding Star.  It’s five-pointed, as I have 5 energies I feel called to work with this year.

Intention – Expansion – Connection – Circulation – Harmony

There’s a flow to them and I’m looking forward to see how they pull at me, inspire me, encourage, and inform my being and my year.  And that’s exactly what a Guiding Star should do, so hooray!

I was a bit surprised to have it show up as five-pointed, but 5 seems to be a theme that’s appearing for me this year as well.  Numerologically speaking my personal year is 5; and I’m also devoting energy this year to exploring the 5-Element system with Megan Potter through her Full Circle: The Elemental Way to Wholeness program.  I’m excited about that.  And I’m also curious to see how other fives show up this year for me as well.

And what about you?  Have you found you needed to change or tweak your Guiding Star for the year?  Have some themes started to show up?  Are you being inspired with a little Dragon fire?  I’d love to hear.

And now let us welcome the new year,  full of things that have never been.    ~Rainer Maria Rilke

For so many people I’ve been talking to, entry into this New Year has been a bit unusual.  For me it felt like an extra period of pausing – sort of like standing around in the foyer waiting for the door to the New Year to open.  It’ll be interesting to see if the energy of the year continues to unfold like that.  I suspect it might, with periods of intensity followed by times when things feel more at a standstill.  Where it almost we’re waiting for various bits and pieces to catch up and get in sync before the next wave of forward movement.

But in any case, here we are with a full week of 2012 under our belts.  So how’s it going?  What have you been up to?

I always find it delightful to participate in Waverly Fitzgerald’s classes and this latest session Turning the Year was no exception.  The invitation is to do a formal review of the past year.  I find that in itself always incredibly useful and interesting, but once that’s done there’s the additional invitation to create some sort of reminder of the year.  In the past I’ve made jewelry and done mixed media pieces.  This year I was inspired to put together a book using Blurb.com’s BookSmart.  I’m loving playing around with this software, and I’ve already got lots of other ideas percolating for future projects.  I keep all my yearly “touchstones” in a corner on one of my altars.  It feels right to honor all the passages which have brought me to exactly to who I am in this moment.

Another fun tradition for the start of the year is choosing a color.   Bridget Pilloud has made this a yearly practice, and invites people to post their colors and then offers a brief interpretation of the meaning.  Fun!  While it’s too late to submit your color – she amazingly kept submissions open for 50 people! – do go over to her blog and check out it out.  It’s fascinating reading and fun to see what colors people have chosen.  The color I’ve picked for 2012 is Gold – antique-y textured gold, like what appears in photo of  the Buddha above.

And of course, I love choosing a guide word each year.  This year my word is Intentionality.  That’s how I want to walk through this year  -  with joyful and sacred Intentionality.

I’d love to hear how you’re approaching 2012.  Do you have a word?  A color?  Something to summarize the 2011?  Please leave a comment.

 Blessings of Light, Love, Joy and Peace as we transition into a new season and get ready to usher in a  new year. 

My wish for you, on this, the longest night of the year, as you pause to reflect,  remember the words of Mary Oliver:

Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it.

Last night as I was standing outside in the frosty evening looking at the Full Snow Moon I felt something pop in me.  These past couple weeks, the period bridging the new moon solar eclipse and yesterday’s full moon lunar eclipse, have felt like a real place of suspension for me.  Almost like I was on sabbatical from myself and my life.  But last night I felt like the cocooning bubble burst, and I’m feeling entirely energized, inspired and creative.  Yay! 

I’m always an advocate for paying attention to the things that bring joy in your life, and after having just such a conversation with a friend last night, I found a blog post by Tanya Geisler about “Things I Love in 4oo Words”.  And so I accept the challenge, and here’s my list in 400 words…

I love holey stones and heart-shaped stones, and triple points for holey heart stones; natural perfumers including Katlyn of Mermade Magical Arts and Roxana of Illuminated Perfume; my posse of gal pal soul sisters who provide long-distance doses of love, support, laughter and sanity preservation; cryptic crosswords; blitz kuchen; gingko leaves; the scent of crayons; hot cocoa after shoveling snow; my weekly CSA delivery of local organic goodness; saying hello to the moon; finding surprises in my mailbox; fat bumblebees; lilies-of-the-valley & bleeding hearts & lilacs that remind me of my grandmother’s garden; waterfalls; how extraordinarily blessed I am to have such wonderful, talented, generous, loving friends in my life; Japanese paper wallets; blooming tea; the perfect truffle; handmade paper; fabulously eccentric hats; Chinese wedding baskets; sitting by the lake with my husband dreaming; windy days where it feels like if I simply spread my arms I could fly; mehndi-adorned hands and feet; potato pancakes; creation myths; apothecary drawers; the kind heart of my brother; the magical Route 1 in CA; finding surprise little groupings of mushrooms; the Joseph Cornell boxes at the Art Institute; artisan soaps; red shoes; my nightly dream theatre; rainbows and falling stars; mystery marathons on PBS; We’Moon calendar/datebooks; misting my bedlinens with some wonderful potion before settling in; Ancient Egyptian artifacts; snuggling with kitties and a good book on a winter day; Charles de Lint’s Crow Girls; polka dot china; the luminous color of leaves in the Spring; my collection of vintage anthropomorphic fruit and veggie salt shakers; old family photographs; wicker suitcases; cinnamon toast; puzzle boxes; my Tibetan singing bowl; being gifted with feathers; handmade books and journals; caterpillars; zines; reading poetry in the tub; examining tree bark; fortune cookies; living in a quirky old house; wrapping packages; my Humpty Dumpty cast iron bank on my prosperity altar; the secret decoder badge my husband gave me; my tiny often messy studio that is in serious need of destashing; my current fave color combo of deep turquoise, ruby red, and bright shiny gold; making scented herbal beads; spinach ravioli with wild mushroom Burgandy sauce; florist shops; USPS package pick up; claymation; libraries; hanging things on all the doorknobs in my home; frilly peonies; the beautiful grace of Esther Hicks  sharing her feelings and experiences with the crossing of her beloved partner Jerry; vintage animation Hardrock and Coco and Joe; my beautiful divinely-guided business; and you!

That was fun.  And kind of hard to stop at 400 words, so I may need to do it again another time. 

I invite you to play along as well.  If you put up a post of your own, drop a link as a comment so we can all take a peek.  Or just leave a note with one or two things that you’re loving at the moment.  That’d be lovely as well.

I am so grateful for all the love and support in my life – for all the abundances and blessings – for all the treasures and beauty.  I am surrounded by family and friends who hold me with love in their hearts, who wish only the best for me; who delight in my successes and console me in my sadnesses.  I am grateful to be here, now, in this exciting life adventure with the opportunity every moment to realize I am part of all that is, just as everything else is as well.  Sometimes the bigness of that awareness overwhelms my heart and in those moments I feel even more grateful.  Life is precious and we have the opportunity to hold mirrors up for each other so we can all see how beautiful we are. 

Today especially I love this poem Messenger by the extraordinary wisewoman Mary Oliver.

 Messenger
Mary Oliver

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

 

Know that I am grateful for each one of you reading this blog post, and that I extend love to you and wish you endless blessings always.

I’m so lucky.  I have the love and support of a beautiful circle of friends who surround me when things are hard and my heart is tender, and who also celebrate me and cheer me on and make me laugh.  I am indeed blessed and grateful.

One of these friends, Jo Anna, of the Receiving Project, is such a beautiful light.  She’s a creative dynamo, and I’m always inspired by how she can decide something and then just do whatever she needs to to make it happen.  She thinks big, she acts with her heart, and the world is definitely a better place with her in it.  (And she has the best giggle ever!)

She’s put together an amazing project – her goal is to raise $5000 for the LA Food Bank by November 25th.  I absolutely encourage you to donate if you can – there’s no doubt it’s a worthy cause.   But because FUN is also a big part of everything Jo Anna does, she’s also running a raffle and there’s a chance to win some wonderful prizes.  I’ve donated a channeling session with The Sacred Rose Council, and also a Gratitude Kit.  Who knows maybe you could be a winner of any one of dozens of really neat things.  And while that would be icing on the cake, the real win is the feel good sense of knowing you’re making a contribution to help people in need.  We can all be part of circles of support for both our friends and for those we might not know but who need a dose of love as well.

Check out The Service Project here. 

Clearly I didn’t spend enough time playing dress up as a child.  How else do you explain my fascination with all manner of wonderful adornments?

Yesterday the always delightful Jo Anna Rothman noted in her Daily Gift post that it was Mad Hatter day.  While the stated function of the day is to celebrate the silly, I honed right in on the chapeau part.  Millinery may not be part of my skill set, but it is part of my bloodline – my mother was a milliner at one time.  Luckily the mercury poisoning that caused “hatters” to become mad isn’t an occupational hazard anymore.  All the more reason in my opinion for hats, more hats, and even more hats.    

Aren’t these Erratica Hats by Jean Hicks wonderful?  (The images rotate so be a bit patient).  It’s clear to me that every single circumstance in life would be improved exponentially with the wearing of one of these creations. 

But if you feel the need to have a special event to wear a hat, consider that St. Catherine’s Day Fete is celebrated on November 25th.  This festival has been celebrated (originally in France) since the 14th century.  With Catherine of Alexandria considered the patron saint of hatmaters (and originally all young girls), this day is traditionally considered a celebration for unmarried women, under the age of 25.  The original premise of the custom is somewhat appalling from this side of the timeline.  Unmarried women would pray for husbands on St. Catherine’s Day, and the day was also to honor and pray for those who’d reached the age of 25 but hadn’t married. Those women were called Catherinettes, and St. Catherine was asked to intercede in finding husbands so spinsterhood could be avoided.  Eventually the custom grew to these Catherinettes attending a ball on St. Catherine’s Day bedecked in specially designed hats for the occasion.  And nowadays milliner groups often celebrate the day with shows and “walks of the Catherinettes” which are fashion shows of fabulous hats.

Of course what constitutes glorious head adornment depends on one’s culture and society as well as personal taste.  And I have to say the Omo people, from the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan, win hands-down as my favorite inspiration.  I literally swoon when I look at the photographs done by Hans Silvester.   Do, do, do take a look at this video and see if you don’t swoon as well. 

 Beauty indeed surrounds us.   And I’m feeling the urge to put something on my head.

Today hundreds of bloggers are writing about the “Girl Effect” and I want to add my voice as well.  If you haven’t already seen this video “The Clock is Ticking” please take a look now – it’s only 3 minutes and it’s a powerful message.

 The issue is heart-breaking isn’t it?  50 million 12-year-old girls live in poverty, and are facing discouraging odds of having lives that resemble anything we’d like to see for them.  50 MILLION.  It can be easy to get overwhelmed – the problem is huge, and it’s hard to know what one person can do.  It can be tempting to turn away, to pretend not to have seen.  But these are the very situations that call us to step into our power to make a difference.  It’s a call to find creative solutions, a call to open to inspiration, a call to make some contribution to shifting the world into one where things are better, safer, kinder, more sovereign for each and every girl.

 Focusing efforts on interrupting a downward spiral cycle, and creating opportunities to raise the standard of living for girls is what girleffect.org is all about.  They identify the critical pieces of the equation:  education, adequate health care, freedom to marry when she chooses, and the support to raise a healthy family of her own. 

And while I whole-heartedly endorse contributing to girleffect.org, I think we can take this both further and closer as well.  Each one of us has the opportunity to change individual lives as well, and sometimes the action is nothing more than a moment of compassion, a moment of support, a moment of upholding a higher vision for someone struggling too hard to see it themselves.  I believe in people and I believe in the power of action, and I believe that each one of us contributes to the collective whole. 

I look back on my childhood and see clearly how there was such great help and support in shaping who I’ve become, and how much it arrived wrapped in unexpected packages of brief encounters with people who only momentarily touched my life.  I am one of the blessed lucky girls who got an education, had adequate health care, got to choose when and who to marry.  I want that for all girls.  And so today, in addition to opening my checkbook to help in a physical way, I’m opening my heart and looking for a way to help in a less linear way. 

Today I am inspired by this quote from Marian Wright Edelman:

Service is the rent we pay to be living. It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time.

I’d love to hear any inspirations you’re harboring – please share.