Connected and Committed

earths, spinning round

 

If you are observant in a grocery kind of way, you might be able to discern inside which retailer this photo was taken.

I have had some interesting interactions recently with people who work in retail establishments when I whip out my camera. I don't agree with their stances on whether or not my photographing something in the store they work for has the potential to harm the corporate interests they so faithfully defend, but they get to say what happens there.

So today I was quite forthright and asked the head dude, before I whipped out my camera, if it was alright with him if I did in fact take a picture of these cool beach balls.

Because of the inherant personality of this place, I enjoyed that interaction immensely, and was given tacit approval for said action.

And then when I got to the check-out, head dude helped bag my purchases.

I don't know why these beach balls are hanging from the ceiling, but I am really glad they are there.

the enmeshed lineup of the nomadic jeans

 

It's a process.

Take, for instance, the pair of jeans I put on a few night's ago that I hadn't worn since last spring.

I loved those jeans. They were my constant companion while the temperatures were below 60 degrees. Even though I'd never been a jeans kinda gal, for some reason I started wearing these and wondered what the heck I'd been thinking all those decades.

But when I put them on after a few seasons of disuse, they felt funny because, see, I'd gotten another pair a few months ago that had taken over the number one spot without me really realizing what was going on.

The new ones felt so good and fit so well that I just kept reaching for them in my closet, ignoring the older pair.

So when I finally consciously chose the old reliables again, the difference in how they made me feel was a bit of a shock.

I really wore these, all the time?

Really?

They just didn't fit me anymore, if they ever did. They must have at one time, but not now.

I remember feeling good about them, having fun in them, thinking that I would wear them until they were threadbare.

Kinda like the thoughts we entertain, swirling around in our heads.

Many of them have choreographed the essence of your days for years, showing up by seniority and not necessarily merit.

Thoughts about the products you buy, the television shows you watch, the people you do or don't like, the belief system you hold near and dear to your heart (or not), The Thing That Happened yesterday or years ago.

You might be surprised at how tenaciously you hold on to any one or all of those thoughts, having bought into the assumption that they are true and time-tested and perennially accurate.

Unfortunately, we don't usually get the opportunity of a natural hiatus from those thoughts that would allow us to re-examine them from time to time for worn spots and facets in need of replacement or repair.

Mostly it's circumstances and events that feel like they are from out of the blue, like a punishment from god, like a cross to bear, that contain the grain of sand that irritates the oyster of your heart that produces the pearl that entirely turns your life around in a way you could never orchestrate yourself.

No way.

Go, try on your jeans and see if they still fit you the way you think they do.

 

 

purge in the inbox and the stream

 

Liberation is the theme today.

I unsubscribed to the emails that I am no longer interested in receiving, and I declared my Facebook stream a positive/feels-good-to-me/resonating zone.

And already cyber space is a much more pleasant place.

You get to decide what enters your personal and psychic real estate boundaries.

Even when you don't decide, that's deciding.

Making it a more conscious choice is a baby step in the direction of taking your power back.

Social media is many things, and one of them is a time and energy suck. Being vigilant about the your requirements is takoing your power back, and showing yourself that you keep your promises to yourself.

Those baby steps do accumulate into the critical mass of a shift in your vibe, which means that you're hanging out in a new place on the emotional scale more and more of the time.

Which means new thoughts are becoming available to you, which means you'll start seeing different people and circumstances showing, even if they have the same faces and addresses.

"How does it feel?" - the most effective metrics in the universe one can apply.

And no one knows but you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

end of the season

The leaves are all crunchy, dry and scattered. There is no more color to wow and soothe.

The coming months loom like thunderclouds on the horizen.

For some people.

For me, they open up with opportunity, fire, coffee, wine, movies, home, friends, family, bread, happiness.

I don't recall ever embracing a winter as much as this one, if ever.

Call me crazy.

I don't mind.

I don't hear you.

I hear winter.

those voices in my head

My day-to-day has changed in many ways over the last few weeks. One of them is that I've stopped listening to particular types of chatter in my head, and not because I've discovered some miraculous method of shutting them up.

They've just quietly, nearly, disappeared.

When you live your life the way you want to live it, shifts like that can happen.

The ammunition that the "shoulds" and "need tos" that run us usually load into their arsenal just don't pack the same punch anymore.

I watch as I don't listen to their fading criticisms and manufactured emergencies, and I marvel as my focus simply goes elsewhere.

Not buying into artificial imperatives is immensely satisfying.

Take believing that I should be doing something else right now, for instance.

I feel the notion triggering some vague irritation and fear, and then it dissipates from not letting it go any further than that. It has no place to take hold.

Absence of reactivity creates so much more room for other kinds of engagement that feed our souls rather than fragment it.

Giving ourselves permission to be who we really are on a daily basis is a radical practice.

Recognizing layers of conditioning and then learning to ignore them rather than to keep investing in their power is revolutionary.

Until it begins to feel like normal.

Just like anything else that is practiced into a habit.

Like those "shoulds" and "have tos".

They originally got practiced over time, once they were introduced to us by the adults around us, into their seemingly unquestionable state.

Fortunately, it's easy to question them once you get a foothold into taking your power back, which can come about from many points on the continuum.

Discovering your own truth on a topic unlocks the floodgates of inquiry.

What doesn't make sense anymore slides off like so much primordial ooze.

And what's revealed is breathtakingly amazing.

The perceived rule-breaking and boat rocking is so worth it.

After awhile, you aren't breaking any rules or rocking any boats anyway.

You're just being what and who you were meant to be, more accessible at certain times than others.

And the world benefits.

If you're in the market for a reason that will compel you to cross that line in your head, use "contributing to world peace" in this regard.

People who are comfortable in their own skins don't feel the need to invade other countries or the personal space of another human being in some nefarious way.

That would be going the other way on the emotional scale, reaching for relief from despair and powerlessness.

Content people reach for more joy.

Have you noticed?

 

no "musts," "stop," or "need to's" in sight

I love this t-shirt.

It doesn't rely on hype or pushing-against to get its message across.

The woman wearing this is a mom of two little ones. I love that she is setting a great example by wearing it around them.

Less is more.

Weekend

It's a damn fantastic day out there. I hope you are able to be otuside to enjoy the fine fall regalia that mother nature choreographed in my part of the world today.

Yesterday I drove 12 hours to spend the weekend with my son. There's a small-town festival on the agenda, a bonfire, and lots of stuff in between to do and be.

And some doing nothing, too.

You rock. remember that.

 

It all depends on your point of view

Looking out at life through this window changed my perspective.

I felt alive and invigorated.

There are colors, line and texture here that make my heart sing, not to mention the mountains in the background and the handmade olive oil soap inside the store from which this photo was taken.

Some new joy pullers for me. French decorating accents haven't done it for me in the past, but at this juncture and on this day, they did.

I'm changing.

The place I wake up in, the thoughts I think, the body I currently inhabit, the people I encounter, the food I eat, the music I listen to, it's all changing, right now.

Endless unfamiliarity, and I've never been happier in my life.

Going through this much modification to one's daily round could drive a person batty, but I am reveling in the effects and the results.

I've experienced change from two ends of the spectrum.

One end contained big new bold steps that just didn't feel like they belonged to me.

And the other end contains big new bold steps that feel like my name is engraved on them.

When it's a maybe, or a no, the feel is off, and you might as well pack up and start over or hunker down until things shift.

When it's a Yes!, grab the gusto with everything you've got.

It all depends on your point of view.