Author Archives: michelle

Renewing Vows to Family

The other day as Nolan and I were filling the honey jar with with our intentions for how we want to continue stepping into our relationship, one that is changing rapidly, I realized something.

As I was mid sentence writing “..supporting each other as we each continue to grow and change”, it struck me that we (society) talk so much about our kids changing and growing (we plan for it, pay for it, expect it and comment on it all the time), that we hardly acknowledge the fact that, we too, are changing or that we’d *like* to change/learn more or be different/evolve — in essence, not be the same we were yesterday. 

We also hardly acknowledge how much we can actually do something different with our kids than what was done with us and share (more) with them around how we, too, wish to shed a skin, learn, attempt, try…growwww (in July after my vision quest, Nolan saying, “Mama, over the last year, I’ve realized that you’re more than my mama” was a big realization of all of the above for me). That, in addition to other things, it’s invaluable to share and keep sharing!

I am you. You are me.

We are a family of humans figuring it out and on that note we are not ever just one thing or one title. 

Yes, as older or taller humans, we are still students, just as they are but we don’t act like it (we don’t act like students or share these student thoughts with them) very often, at least not so they can really hear or see.

In addition to being the one with more life experience and showing them the ropes or how to solve problems…

Let them see and hear you! 

Tell them you’re not sure!

Remind them they’re not the only one who is nervous!

Share genuinely when you feel you need support or how you, too, doubt or don’t have the words…

Today as compared to yesterday, for example, we may be the “same”, as in that someone with similar values to the previous self (or similar values, but, maybe, more deeply rooted now), but we are not the exact same in all the other ways there are to be a whole person. 

I am not the same person I was in this photo. Though the woman standing here, who renewed her vows to both husband and son (and son also read his “vows” to us, OMG ,so sweet) had very similar family values and a spiritual connection, much has shifted, cleared, been understood and NOT been understood…yet (-;.

As families, we should expect, talk about and make room for the entire family’s evolution and feel more connected as a result of leveling the playing/living field. 

May we, as parents, resist the urge to focus so much, too much and/or *only* on the child changing to having more conversations about how the entire family is changing because individually each person is wanting to do so and, also, without “trying” also naturally doing so…and yeay! Yeay that we are all similar in that way ~ that we are all making movement… 

Don’t leave yourself out of the change equation. We can help steward our kid’s growth by, yes, growing ourselves, but by also letting them see and hear us do it. 

How do you want to change or better yourself? What do you want to make a deeper commitment to learning? What is still part of the unknown for you? What more can you share about it all?

[Machu Picchu, 2014]

Make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

 

 

 

Michelle Ghilotti
Success Designer, Brand Activator & Social Entrepreneur

 

My Thoughts About Parenthood (teenagehood! ❤️)

I looked over at him in the passenger seat 40 minutes ago and thought who is this young man coming to my house??

A couple weeks ago, Josh and I cleaned out the garage and put aside some of the most memorable young Nolan clothes and shoes in a box for him for when he’s older (we had originally saved even more for potentially another young someone, however, I knew early on that I felt complete with this guy).

I hadn’t shown Nolan these little adidas until we got home from school today (after having my ‘boy are things changing fast, HE is changing fast’ moment). He didn’t remember wearing them, of course, but he loved them and definitely wanted to save them. 💙

In other news, there really is something to what you start in their formative years sticking, specifically what you start or say or do with them consistently throughout years 0-7.

Last week, he didn’t blink an eye when I invited him to sage the funky energy in the room where he and I had just had a chat or when I told him about the gorgeous honey jar idea Deborah Harlow shared with a group of us at Zsuzsa’s…he was also game. 

He and I sat on the ground and wrote out our intentions for how we’d like to continue our close, yet naturally evolving relationship, then filled the jar with flowers and honey. Candle wax was next to seal in the sweetness of the relationship…of the relating ship. 🚢

Wherever this ship or train is going in the next three to four years before he leaves home and however much more he changes, I’m all in. I love this young man SO very much!

High school might be a learning curve for him, but boy is it also one for me. There’s this funny thing in parenthood…we get fooled at times in thinking that we are teaching them a thing or two, but, they, oh *they* are our teachers! 

#runandkeepup

Make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

 

 

 

Michelle Ghilotti
Success Designer, Brand Activator & Social Entrepreneur 

Your High Calling (listen to this whisper)

Whatever it is that you do for work in this world, awesome, it’s so good *and* if something else is genuinely calling you to learn about or spend a significant time on, even if it feels outside of your industry, do it. 

It’s likely you’re attracted to it because the times are asking for it — plus, learning from (growing from) distinct industries isss part of what helps us uniquely grow personally or professionally. 

It’s called listening to the whisper, to purposeful learning or straight up purpose or the high call or calling. 

Anything that moves your heart and is “keeping up” with the times in terms of the emotional and spiritual needs of the human will not only make you better at what you do, but will likely help you understand humans and be a better one.

We need that (need you). 

That’s the high call for us all, really, to better ourselves.

Make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

 

 

 

Michelle Ghilotti
Success Designer, Brand Activator & Social Entrepreneur 

Skinny Dipping 💦

Josh landed an hour ago and I’m taking off in an hour (drove to the airport, pulled up to Alaska departures level with four minutes to kiss and say hi)…⁣

I love this time of prep to leave for another ecopsychology apprenticeship weekend because I get to completely take off the make up, the “working“ clothes, the cell phone, computer etc, stripping down both physically and emotionally.⁣

This is one of the things I love most about being in nature, in general, and that I’ve loved of the trek trips I’ve done with Josh over the last 20 years. I take the make up off and most times don’t change clothes, yet feel completely beautified. ⁣

Like I said weeks ago, don’t be fooled ~ just because some of us (many of us) wear the heels or the make up, doesn’t mean that’s all we are or that it best expresses who we are — or that we‘d prefer it…⁣

In fact, what we would prefer, is that exact stripping down of exactly what we look like when we wake UP, because it exposes or matches/aligns with more of our who we are reallllly emotionally or spiritually. So many of us, woman or man, are hungry for that exposure, that honesty or realness.⁣

It’s this real self, the one who comparison, social media, smoothing or thinning filters, magazines or weight scales try to say isn’t good enough (or that we take that way).⁣

So many of us are more comfortable without the pretty powder (unless it’s the dusty kind that gets hands appropriately dirty). ⁣

I, for one, love my natural manicures, those that include dirt inside the nails, specifically (I’ll never forget the first day of vision quest before we went on our solo journeys telling one of the others exactly that, and immediately putting my hands on the ground and moving them all around)…⁣

I’ll be guiding solo journeys and one full day with participants tomorrow to do a little bit or a lot of the above, to strip down.  ⁣

There’s no skinny-dipping involved this time (though it was on vision quest 😉) unless you call looking inwardly as far and as honestly as possible, exactly that.⁣

And it kind of is —

#visionquester⁣
#creativeheroine⁣
#brandofwoman⁣

Latest quest video ~ http://bit.ly/32kTWHa

Make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

 

 

 

Michelle Ghilotti
Success Designer, Brand Activator & Social Entrepreneur