(Aside: Forgive yesterday’s post. Because I committed to blogging six days a week for one full year I sometimes let myself get away with the absolute minimum in order to meet the goal. Unfortunately that can mean asking you to accept slapdash inspiration on days when time is an issue!)

Yesterday as I was driving back from Keno City I hit a bird. Not a small bird but big, grouse-like creature. Big enough to make a sound when the impact hit. Big enough to feel.

Actually, I should say the grouse (or ptarmigan) hit me. It flew out from the side of the road and straight across into the truck. Wham! I looked into the rearview mirror and saw a poof of feathers fly up and then the body of the bird roll and bounce out from under the vehicle. Awful.

“What should I do?” I thought. “Stop?”

By the time I had answered that question I was a long way down the road. So obviously the answer was “no”. I didn’t stop. Was that callous of me? Some might say, “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s a bird.” Others might be horrified. “You could have at least pulled over and moved the poor thing to the ditch, Celia!”

Later on down the road a bunny rabbit ran out from the side of the road just as I passed it. There was another vehicle right behind me and the fast little thing made it to the other side just a hair (I couldn’t resist) ahead of the speeding wheels of the other car. There were no other vehicles on the road. Why had that rabbit chosen to go right then? When the risk was highest? Here come two cars in a row. Go now!

And why had the grouse flown into the truck?

This reminds me of the times in my own life when I’ve thrown myself into situations without thought or careful discernment. I’ll just fling myself into this thing right now because I just have to go now and SMACK!

Painful consequences. “Oh why did I have to do that?”

Much improvement has been made, believe me. I take ridiculous amounts of time to make decisions now. But that time-taking determination has been borne out of getting a whallop one too many times. Look before you cross the road. Look both ways. Now look again. All clear? Are you sure? Okay. You can go.

Who knows why animals feel compelled to throw themselves into oncoming traffic. I know why I’ve done it. Impatience. Fear of not getting what I want. Sometimes it is more compulsive. I’m driven by a self-destructive force and am powerless to make a healthy choice. Whatever the reason the outcome is never fun and there is rarely goodness to come from such behaviour.

How to trust that waiting is the right thing to do? How to trust that Higher Guidance?

Practice. Practice waiting and seeing. Practice allowing Higher Guidance to have the reins. Practice watching the unfoldment of events (in the situation you’ve let go of) and then bear witness to the results. When things work out better than we could have ever planned we will gain new trust in the Wisdom of Waiting.

Only then can we really fly.

Inspiring Message of the Day: Even though I want to fly NOW I will wait and see if the skies are clear before I take off. I will begin to trust that by doing so I will be given the wings to soar.

(By the way, tomorrow I will be leading a Cultivate Your Courage Teleclass and I hope that some of you will join me.)

The silver city nestled

in mountains jagged and round

carved up by miners and their reveries.

The highway stretching

back and forth

to that place

from this one

knows me

but not me alone.

All of us who’ve driven its curves

its flats

its scarred ridges and ruts

have a relationship with each unmistakable section

a familiar friend

a lover of sorts

always advancing

yet disappearing behind

creating a ribbon of ghosts

and calling us home.

Inspiring Message of the Day: Life inspires poetry. We must live it fully and write our own existence with beauty and attention to detail. Every minute counts.

A meeting I had scheduled for this morning got cancelled and I decided it would be a good opportunity instead to finish watching the last episode of Tess, a BBC mini-series version of Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. I downloaded the four episodes off iTunes last weekend and have been savouring each one slowly throughout the week, not wanting it to end.

One of the very last scenes in the movie takes place at Stonehenge. I haven’t read the book so I don’t know if the scene is true to Hardy or not but what hit me hardest was not the characters’ story so much as the monument itself. It got me thinking. What’s it all about?

According to the Wikipedia page I linked above, Stonehenge is a burial ground. Huh. But did the builders raise those stones to honour the dead or the living?

Imagine living back then. There are no distractions. It is 2500 BC! What do people think of themselves? What gives them purpose? Not jobs, although perhaps work. The work it takes to survive. There is nothing to take away from the sensation of being. In fact, be-ing is really all you’ve got.

We are alive. What is life? What is death? We do not know. Let us build something to honour Life.

I recently asked a man I know who is a self-professed atheist how he explains the nature of being. He said he’d get back to me. I haven’t heard from him yet!

There was a time when people erected seemingly impossible structures to express their wonder and their awe at the Great Mystery of Life. It’s still being done, yes, and yet I wonder has our intellect become the power to which we build our monuments today?

Sending my thoughts back in time this morning, imagining what it would be like to know nothing of what we know today and be wholly devoted to simply honouring Life each day because nothing else was as important as that action… well, it kind of landed me in a deeper place.  Call it True Awareness.

Call it thanks for cancelled meetings!

Inspiring Message of the Day: There is so much around us to distract our senses from Awe. Today I will find my way back there, like a child or like an ancestor, free of worldly concerns and devoted simply to the Wonder of Being.

Where does your dark side come out? In traffic? In supermarket line-ups? Mine is on the phone with “agents”. You know, “Okay, you’d like to speak to an agent. One moment while I transfer you.” That kind of agent.

It’s not pretty. I’ve worked on this, believe me. And then I’ve worked on it some more. And I continue to work on it, one call at a time.

Yesterday, someone gave me a new tool. She called it a Breath Prayer. On the inhalation, you summon whatever Force you choose to believe is spinning the planet, whatever Higher Guidance you entrust with your life, and on the out breath you say the thing that is going to ground you in that Power.

For example:

Inhale Higher Guidance.

Exhale Centre Me in Patience.

I love this. It’s easy. It doesn’t take any time at all. And I can do it anywhere.

Including on the phone with an (inhale, exhale) agent.

Inspiring Message of the Day: Today I will create a Breath Prayer that works for me. I will keep it simple and make it meaningful and I will practice it whenever I need Grace on my side.

This morning I allowed myself to sleep in until 9 a.m. Some of you might think, “Nine o’clock is sleeping in?” while others (if you’re like me) might think, “Half the day is gone!”

My body needed the sleep.  And yet it does throw the day off. I’m less inspired to blog when I sleep that late because I feel like it’s now taking away from the time I have to work. I often skip the yoga practice because, again, it would take me later and later into the day. So the lovely rest I acquired from the extra hours of sleep is now being eroded by the stress of thinking I’m behind.

As many of you know, I often use this blog as a forum for positive self-talk. I’m the one who actually needs to hear myself say, “It’s okay. You slept in. Good for you. Let go of the worry. Relax. Enjoy.” Positive self-talk is such an important tool in my life. The thinking-mind really can be our own worst enemy.

So despite the fact that intellectually I understand that I have done something good The Anxious Little Girl still needs reassuring. She needs to hear that she’s safe, that’s she’s being looked after, that she doesn’t have to worry. And by writing this out, and sharing it with you Lovely People, that Little Girl is breathing again and starting to smile.

Inspiring Message of the Day: Thanks, you guys. Sometimes you inspire me more than I ever could you.

“When a defining moment comes along, you define the moment, or the moment defines you.”

Who said that? Abe Lincoln? Barack Obama? Susan B. Anthony?

No, it was Kevin Costner, movie star.

I came across this quote while I was preparing to do a speech for Toastmasters and I like it. The meaning is rich and it speaks to the choice that we all have to see the glass half empty or the glass half full.

For example, Costner may be a multiple-Academy-Award-winning filmmaker but he’ll forever be remembered as the guy who made Waterworld. Does anyone remember that film as being anything other than a major bomb?

But how would the Man Who Dances with Wolves remember it? Kevin himself, if we are to believe that he truly walks his talk, would probably choose to define the moment rather than have it define him.

He might tell us that Waterworld made more than $242 million worldwide (and it “only” cost $175 million to make). He’d definitely tell us that it was nominated for multiple awards including an Oscar (okay, it was Best Sound but still…). By focusing on the positive, he would then be defining the moment rather than have it define him.

During the speech I gave I shared a few stories from my past that I consider to be defining moments. Not because they were particularly glorious but because the circumstances surrounding each of them could easily have defined me, if I had let them. Instead, in each scenario, I made a decision to turn the circumstances around. I chose to see the positive.

This kind of decision-making is being presented to all of us every day in myriad ways. It takes great courage to continue to define our moments rather than have them define us, to say “I did this” rather than “this happened to me.” Shifting our perception isn’t easy. We’re twisting the brain, so to speak. But by doing so we’re participating in our lives rather than passively going along for the ride.

Just like Kevin Costner, Hollywood success story.

Inspiring Message of the Day: How can I take a more active role in defining the big and small moments of my life? How can I see things in a more positive light? Today, rather than feeling like my moments are defining me, I will choose to define my moments by looking at the positive outcome rather than the negative.

Yesterday I attended a “Business After Hours” function hosted by our local Chamber of Commerce. I joined the Chamber last year in order to build the Inspiring Works business and broaden my reach as a speaker, workshop facilitator and coach. These after-work-meet-and-greets happen often but guess what? I have never gone.

Until yesterday. I decided I needed to walk through my fear and get out there with my business card. I put on my dress pants and the Spank heels from Vangroovy and plunged myself into unknown territory. Despite the fact that it felt extremely uncomfortable to get out of my comfort zone (funny that) I managed to chat with people easily and share with them what I am all about. Talk about Cultivating Your Courage!

There are two more Chamber functions this morning and when I was getting dressed a short while ago the thought of putting on those heels and those biz-casual slacks made me feel queasy. It’s just not me, folks. Sure, I can play the part. I’m a performer. But I’d rather feel like Celia than an actor playing her.

How can I dress appropriately and still feel like myself? I figured something out. I may not look like a business woman but I look like a woman who means business.

I look like who I really am.

Inspiring Message of the Day: We can try to be like other people but why bother? Our Authentic Self is vastly more interesting. Today I will be True to who I am. I will shine my Beautiful Light just as it is.

A couple of days ago I was invited to a friend’s house for a late afternoon chat about all things marvelous and magnificent. When I arrived at his place the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the birds were probably singing and upon seeing me he said, “Wonderful good afternoon!”

This greeting reminded me of a fellow on the ashram who used to say, “Wonderful good morning,” when greeting people at the start of the day. It always made me smile.

As greetings go, nothing can beat Charlotte’s first hello to Wilbur the Pig. “Salutations!” she says to him. What a great way to teach a kid a big word. I’ve never forgotten it.

Then there is the Good Morning Good Morning song by The Beatles that repeats the line three or four times in a row with ramped-up energy and verve. Love that, too. It never fails to get the juices flowing.

Why all this focus on greetings and salutations this morning? Because I’m feeling a lot of gratitude and humility today. A heart full of gladness and willingness to be of service. I have a life beyond my wildest dreams and I’m sharin’ the Love, people.

Here’s hoping that “after a while you start to smile…”

Inspiring Message of the Day: Salutations! Wonderful good morning! Good morning good morning good morning good morning ah! May those of us who are feeling joyful today inspire the ones who are struggling with a smile and an ebullient greeting.

Those of you who have participated in the Cultivate Your Courage workshop I lead on occasion will know that one of the tools I use to walk through fear is to first admit that I have it. After spending most of my life acting as if I was afraid of nothing and therefore being afraid of everything I finally realized the ruse wasn’t working for me. Like, at all.

Paradoxically, I discovered that when I admit I am afraid the fear lessens, often disappearing altogether. This method has now become a regular personal practice, which I do my best to share with whomever cares to listen.

Recently I was speaking with someone who had never actually heard of this concept let alone imagined that it could work. He, like me, had believed that if he denied his fear he would overcome it. What he had discovered (the same way I did) is that his fear had, in fact, gained power over him and was now running his life. By pretending he wasn’t afraid he had unwittingly been giving his fear permission to grow.

(Gentle aside to all of us who think we are: We are not alone.)

I’ll never forget the day I put up my hand and said, “I am a fear-based person!” No one else was in the room with me but I swear to you I heard an arena-sized cheer erupting around me. It was so freeing! My whole life I’d been saying, “I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid,” while the fear churned sickeningly inside of me. Now, by simply saying, “I am afraid, yes. I really am,” I suddenly felt more peaceful. The raging waters of terror stilled and the calmness of Truth prevailed.

This discovery changed my life. And I invite you to allow it to change yours, too. I will be leading a Cultivate Your Courage Teleclass in September during which we will be exploring this and other tools to overcome the fear that robs us of joy and personal freedom. The first class is free and I’ll be using it to describe what we will be exploring in the following three classes.

We’re all in this together, folks. Please join me.

Inspiring Message of the Day: If I deny the fear I cannot defy it. Yes, I am afraid. Now open the door.

Good news! I am now blogging from a brand-new (used) 13″ MacBook and she’s an absolutely lovely little thing. The brilliant team at Meadia Solutions also managed to recover the contents of the hard drive off the iBook I lost last week.

All together now: Hallelujah!

This means that the 16 pages of GITA that I had painstakingly excavated from the Ether is intact. I don’t have to start from scratch. I was prepared to do that. I knew the chances of recovery were slim and that I may well have had to go back to the beginning. I was steeling myself for the results of the “operation” with a combination of gritted teeth and total surrender.

The surrendered part of me even began to be excited by the idea of having to start all over again. It felt like an opportunity to free fall. The gritted-teeth part of me, however, was not so excited about beginning anew. This idea felt more like having to climb Mount Everest. So you can imagine how thankful I am that those 16 pages are still in existence.

It was interesting to see the different reactions in people to the dilemma. One guy, a journalist friend, said, “Hey, I’ve lost stuff and the new draft was actually way better. A clean slate can do wonders for the piece.” His reaction helped bring on the excitement.

But another guy, a computer technician, grabbed his heart and practically fainted. He understands the importance of backing things up and for him it meant a monumental loss. His mock-heart-attack made me very glad I got the work back.

Last week, when I was in no man’s land, waiting for clarity on how to proceed after the laptop got cooked, I had tea with a fellow artist. During our discussion we spoke of all the challenges and the joys of creating and striving and persevering in our craft. When we parted she said something to me that hit me with such a weight that I had to write it down.

From my little notebook I now give you her gem:

“Let’s get together again and share about the desperately courageous act of trying to create.”

Whump. I don’t know where that hits you but if you’re an artist (or if you avoiding being an artist) it will hit you between the eyes, in the heart, the gut and the groin. Why? Because she nailed it.

It takes courage, desperate courage to create art. Creating is an act of trust. Something is going to come. Moving into that place of trust is often glorious, seldom easy and mostly terrifying. What keeps me going is believing deeply in that old adage about the artist being the instrument. It’s not about me.

So today I will get back to the writing of GITA and I will do so with 16 pages of a draft to support me. But if I didn’t have those 16 pages I would still summon that courage, that desperate courage, and I would begin anew, trusting that the ideas, the characters, the story would be there.

BTW, thanks be to the God of Hard Drives.

Inspiring Message of the Day: Today, despite the terror of beginning anew, I will jump in to the act of creation with Courage and Trust.