In the middle of April 2020, I said that if I came out of this reading as much as I once did *and* writing Nolan the book I had thought about for a long, long time, it would have been a worthwhile season…
I have made time for more reading and Josh and I also wrote the book pictured here —
We wrote it in ‘She Said, He Said’ format, each of us finishing what the other had started inside each new chapter and gave it to Nolan on his 15th birthday while in a motorhome in Utah in July.
The chapters: 1) Why We Write This for Your 15th Birthday 2) Bucket List/Explore the World 3) Creativity 4) Romantic Relationships 5) Hard Times 6) Good, Old-Fashioned Advice 7) Doing the Work 8) Closing Thoughts As You Turn 15
It didn’t just feel like time well-spent, it was exactly that.
What would YOU like create or begin to birth during this time?
(He told us a few nights ago he’s on Chapter Three — going slow in anticipation for Chapter Four or are they just slowww topics? ; )
Let’s make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…
One of the things I loved most about living in Amsterdam and Guadalajara was being anonymous.
In other words, how did I want to reinvent? What kind of life did I want to reset to? “Have it!” Life said, “it’s a new place and so, too, a new you if you want to take her…”
It took seven or so months of the experience inside the pandemic for my husband and I to finally really understand or remember that, truly, we have never had anything ‘tying us down’ and that we can do anything and go anywhere at any time (tragedy, grief and multiple job losses have taught us the act of the newly-decided, yet you forget).
It’s something we’ve always known, but the winding paths of routine and responsibilities and even what you might consider empowered personal goals are cheeky (goals, too, can turn into expectations, especially when the man or woman who originally chose them has outgrown them, but hasn’t had the time to check in long enough to realize it).
Routine, responsibilities and goals can get you and keep you on the people mover of lots of doing without much of the being that helps you actually register that you are indeed ALIVE.
What is clear ~> our deep values don’t change, they only get louder a.k.a what you appreciate only appreciates (especially during challenge) —
And it’s this that I also appreciated about the Dutch and the people in Mexico — the value system for most of work to live, not live to work…you could feel it in every hello walking down the street (people had and *made* the time to talk to you in the neighborhood).
Cut to everything breaking lose in the world and country you live in WHILE also being given a reflective pause this grand for almost eight months (busy with work, but with much time for family time and reflection)…
…the shackles loosen, your mind, though at times challenged and tired, starts to think clearly, your heart starts to beat less fast (the go of car culture has about seized for many of us in LA, for example, which helps) and you begin to feel what the rhythm of your own drum IS and has always been.
The drum has ached for the warmth felt when you play it…
You hit it once, twice each morning, as if testing if you remember the practice of self-tuning, making a ritual of not just attempting to begin playing it first thing, but allowing it to play and guide *you* through the best of soon-to-be-lived dreams not just at night…
#lifequest #thequestinme #creativeheroine
Let’s make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…
The last 7+ months have shown me many things…it’s confirmed what I believe and what I’m willing to fight for, it’s confirmed the healing and lifting power in supporting others (what some of us call business, yet is much more) and it’s confirmed or continued to increase a gratitude felt for the capacity built (through my own tough times) to be able to park my sh*t to be able still share kindness with others…
It’s been a time of remembrance.
Really though, it feels like it’s the first time I’ve ever *really* known it ~> it’s the simplest things and ways of BEing that make a day, friendship or my romantic relationship, for example, feel great and, in turn, makes us feel great, too…
Right now it’s our relationships we need to continue to pour our hearts into ~ especially the relationships that give back to us, lifting us vs. depleting us (p.s. note this and know it’s ok to say goodbye or I can’t right now to the ones that deplete).
Relationships — what we can control — are what makes the ‘uncontrollable’ in our country or world, feel even a smidge better. And it’s these created moments that eventually give us the stamina to get back out…
We all still have work to do to that end, of course, but we’re more able to affect the greater good when we focus, too, on creating inside of our homes what we want to see outside of them.
This egg is one of two I made for Josh with his avocado toast.
Truly, for all the complexity we make of life, returning to the basics of cooking with a slowness and with love (goodness, I love it), writing notes, sending cards, taking daily walks, kissing Nolan and Josh on the head, forehead or cheek multiple times a day as I walk by their “offices” returns life to its most connected and peaceful form.
It returns us to the energy we feel has, maybe, been sucked out of our souls lately.
In essence, returning to the “egg” or to that simplicity — the first domino in the chain — of focusing on home life. A life, maybe, that we might have forgotten much about because it was all moving too fast before, feels the start of something…it feels like and IS creation.
Let us do our part outside our front doors (always) — VOTE — and right now and today, love up on your people, your friends, and your family, in ways that bring *you* joy.
Consider what they love, absolutely, but don’t forget yourself in the process: do [more of] what you love in loving them, too, so you do double the good.
Love them up so simply and may the same be cooked up for you in the process, as well as many times in return…
Let’s make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…
When we think, speak and act in line with what we truly want many times we get it…
Now, I’m not talking about material things, but more about those things in life that have to do with our creative pursuits, our passion projects and our businesses-turned movements.
Is what you’re thinking, talking about and currently have on your to-do list what you most want to “get”?
Here’s a mantra or intention for you to repeat and remember:
“I am highly intentional about where I put my time.”
Feel free to repeat the above statement a few times quietly to yourself…
And ask…
What am I spending most of my time thinking about?
What do I spend most of my time talking about?
What am I do-ing day in and day out?
Sometimes all it takes is asking ourselves these questions more often to make the shifts needed to create what we most want to be part of…
Let’s make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…
