Archive for the ‘True You’ Category
Today, as I sat outside reading a book that is three days overdue, I enjoyed the sounds all around me. Mr. Squirrel who is busy choosing acorns for his stash. The sounds of the waterfall from the pool. The birds chirping from the bush nearby. A steady hum of cars driving by at rush hour.
The stillness felt so good. The early fall temps equally as wonderful.
As I read my book, I reflected on the sidelines of my mind how my story has been so similar to the author’s. Experiences of talking to my inner child. Falling into my heart one night upon closing my eyes. A deep recognition of my inner wise woman, my moon maiden and mother. So many experiences I wonder how I would share all of this…and then right behind that wondering, the wondering of … is it even necessary to share?
The one that most speaks to me to share is entering the heart. As, this is where your desires, your connection to all is readily available.
One night, as I began to close my eyes, I suddenly found myself in a room (more like a large-ish closet) full of books. The books were not arranged on shelves like you might find in an organized and proper library, rather, they were in a heap in the middle of the floor!
I wondered, Where am I?
I heard, “Your heart.”
Oooooh, I need to do some MAJOR housekeeping! I became more concerned about the state of affairs in my heart than I was in the actual contents.
Many months later, I returned with more courage to actually look around and see what was available for me there. When I arrived this time, I saw an old-fashioned writing desk sitting in front of a bay window (kind of like the picture below, except the desk was much wider – taking up nearly the entire width of the small room). The light streaming through the bay window gave the room a glow of healthy creativity. I looked around and saw books on bookshelves, which flanked the room.
Well, at least they are more organized now! I wonder who did that? As the thought flowed through my mind, the memory of journaling one morning came to me. I had outlined 12 books that would be in nine different categories. Ah, I had organized my thoughts and my creations that morning – without even realizing it!
With the extra courage I brought for this journey, I had not a hope to be able to summon the boldness to read the books on the shelves…their spines glimmering from the gold letters etched in the leather. Deficient of this, I walked to the writing table where I saw many writing instruments. A ballpoint pen. A sharpened feather with ink well. A calligrapher’s set. A leather writing pad covered nearly the entire surface. I looked out the window, perhaps to escape the invitation, and saw wooded acreage stretched as far as I could see.
Where am I? I wondered.
Again, the answer, “In your heart.”
Why has my heart brought me here?
“To write.”
That seemed obvious, but had I made the conscious choice to do so? It didn’t seem like it. I certainly wasn’t acting like it. I had not even cracked my journal for weeks prior to this. And, though, I liked the idea of writing, I didn’t want to sit and actually do the writing. And, while I was curious which books lined the shelves, I certainly did not have the fortitude to go and read the creative works that my heart held.
Instead, I took a gift. The knowing that whatever we hold in our heart is ours to create – ours to choose to create. When, again our choice.
I drifted off to sleep without writing nor sneaking a peek of what was to come.
So many months later, I am back in my heart. This time to write… and ready to create it. 
What’s in your heart? Do you dare to sneak a peek?
How People Find Us.
- OPENED DOOR
- brick house clipart
- a dream house clipart
- Follow into your dream
- follow your dreams pictures
- yellow brick road free clipart
- images of open door on heart
- life coaching clip art
- open door to your heart
- road church clipart
I love when people are passionate about what they do and who they do it for. One of the most passionate people I know is Kathy Light. She has a book that helps people see why they rock, and she also facilitates loving, intimate retreats that hold women in the lap of love as they retrieve their true selves.
Kathy’s next retreat is coming up and will be held here in Texas just east of Dallas.
If you long to remember why you ROCK, take a chance to find out with Kathy at her upcoming retreat.
"Like many professional women my age, my time’s not usually my own. I’m up before dawn, taking care of business and family, working until very late, eating challenges like most people eat lunch. When I heard about Kathy Light’s Reasons Why YOU ROCK! Retreat last November, it seemed like just the thing — a weekend away to rest and relax and get away from work — just take it easy. I even invited a new friend to come along. I thought we’d have some time to visit.
I was right and wrong.
This past year, I’ve looked back on that weekend as a white space in my life. Not in a bad way–instead, it was much like defibrillation acts upon a heart that is fibrillating or quivering: it stops everything and lets a natural rhythm emerge. For the 40 hours of the retreat, I was–by choice–removed from the known, the familiar, the usual, and given time to think, to muse, to savor, to dream. I met a group of women who, like me, worked too much, cared for everyone else in our lives first, and didn’t take time to even consider why ‘we rocked.’ We talked about our reasons, opened our hearts, and told our stories. It wasn’t easy for me–not at all–but opening up that weekend reminded me that stopping for breath is what keeps us alive. Those women are still my friends, and talking with them or seeing them brings back that feeling of deep, deep breathing.
I think I cried the entire 40 hours we were there. Yes, it was emotional–all that savoring–but it was funny and touching and powerful in the simplicity of the idea: ‘You, Elizabeth–you rock.’ You’re special, and you do important and wonderful things, and you have reasons to stop and be still and enjoy where you are."
–Elizabeth Basden, Basden & Ivie, PC
If Elizabeth’s words have struck a chord with you, and if the weekend she describes sounds like just what you need, please join us for this year’s Reasons Why YOU ROCK! Retreat for women. We would love to have you there.
November 11 – 13 at the beautiful Crossroads Retreat Center in Lindale, Texas, just 80 miles from Dallas, between Canton and Tyler.
Click here for details and registration.
Early pricing applies through October 13th
Special discount for bringing one or more friends with you! Email for details info@kathylight.com.
Click here to register
How People Find Us.
- 52 reasons why you rock
Yesterday, as the sun went down, Mark and I sat in the back by the pool talking about his business, talking about my next project (at least one book about manifesting and the principles of creation), talking about marketing and what we see clients doing and also moving to a new house. The conversation was like many between long-time married couples who drift easily from subject to subject without transitions – a seeming long list of ‘to-dos’ that we will work together to create.
In the middle of the conversation, the subject of ‘we’ and ‘my’ came up. I tend to say ‘we’ for many things, and ‘my’ for ‘my projects.’ He always gives me a hrrrmph when I do that because he says it is ‘ours.’ This bone of contention ran through my business years, too, as he would say ‘our’ clients when ‘I’ was the one doing the work, ‘I’ was the one dealing with the personalities that came along with the work, ‘I’ was the one that was doing all of the administrivia and on and on. I didn’t feel that his occasional run to FedEx with me in tow at 9:45 PM to mail a client’s project ‘counted’ enough to be ‘partners’ and the business, as I saw it, certainly was not ‘ours’ though the money from it was shared willingly and freely for all those years I had it.
Yesterday, in the lap of our backyard with the blue pool at our feet, surrounded by the roses and holly berries with me maybe eight or so years wiser, I let my guard down around the subject and opened my mind to consider what he may be seeing or feeling.
I feel at ‘one’ in nearly every other area and expression in my life – Why not this one? Why is it that I feel the need to stake claim?
As we peeled back the layers, I finally said, “Well, I’m the author of this creation – that’s why it is mine.”
He replied, to what was already streaming through my mind, “Why is it that you are always fine with being about ‘oneness’ and it takes all of us to get to where we are going, and you TEACH this, but when it comes to your writing you act like it’s all yours?”
I have to admit…I didn’t know why. I just had this feeling in the pit of my stomach – a perceived truth to his words.
Then, he said, “You just don’t get it. Everything is all of ours.”
He began to give me a list of things he does to make my writing life possible. He listens. He responds to me when I ask, “Does this make sense to you?” He cooks my meals (and always has). He brings me coffee in the morning.
I can do all of those things for myself I reasoned. They are nice, but I don’t have to have them. But to write! There’s so much to do… listening and listening and gathering the drops as they come in, and the putting them on paper – actually getting them out of my consciousness and into this world! There’s work to do!
I jumped to something that came to me in my inner defense… “I have no need to claim anything you are working on. Your business is your business. I enjoy helping you and I don’t need to be considered a ‘part’ of it. I give freely.” There it was…separation. This time I couldn’t ignore it.
“Maybe that’s true, but you are. What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine.”
I bristled. “But you aren’t the one doing the work to write and to reflect and to collect all of these little messages that are coming in all day every day!” I exclaimed.
Then he said it. “Writing is easy for you. You write books like some people write articles. It just flows out of you like water.”
I swallowed hard because it was true – at least that part was true. And, somehow coming out of his mouth in actual words I felt like it discounted the process – the writing. That maybe it is too easy.
We drifted to another topic content to agree to somewhat disagree and somewhat to agree.
Later that night, I realized the writing IS easy for me…like breathing. I listen and follow. The structural part is more challenging. Putting myself out there even more so. The facing the business aspect from my true core as a creative soul has been the greatest challenge – even though I know what to do! I know how to run a business. I know how to grow businesses, but when I’m in my creative heart, I tend to be like other creative souls.
Our conversation simmered in the back of my mind. Something Mark said to me, “At the end of the day, Tina, you can’t be like everyone else. You can’t just forget that you have a business mind in there somewhere. That’s what makes you different, and what won’t allow you to just let things go.”
I wondered, Is that true? I remembered the feeling when he said it – solid as a rock. True.
This morning, as I ready myself to write. I see now what is at the core of all of this. Magically, it’s what is at the core of everything else around me right now, too. It’s about work. Who does the work?
Whomever does the work is the one that owns something. The belief that has been the fly in the ointment for far too long.
Wow, what an outdated notion. Puritanical for sure. A rush of thoughts comes to mind in this moment. I used to argue that an executive’s wife deserved as much out of a relationship because the person behind that person contributed as much to the creation as the one who actually goes out in the world and ‘does the work.’ So Mark is right…about me.
Funny how beliefs work. We can consciously think one thing and be running and living another.
I do believe in oneness… this is how I write – in response to what others are asking for. Yes, I’m the messenger, but the message is not mine. Like a baker who bakes a cake with flour and eggs and milk…the farmer, the land and many sun-filled days brought the flour, the chicken sent the eggs and cows lent the milk. Even those who ensured the chickens ate everyday contributed, the delivery people who took these to market… and every step in between… who sent water to the field? Who ensured the water pipes were laid? On and on and on in an infinite circle of creation… and, with me? If there were no questions for others, no desires for what I am writing… well, I would be a messenger without a message to deliver. 
I remembered how when I first started writing – back in elementary – I used to think, Is this writing? I’m just listening and writing down what comes to me. Is this cheating?
This has affected me my entire life, but until today I didn’t know why. It doesn’t ‘seem’ like work, and true to this belief that has been driving this part of me (the one who does the work owns it), how could I lay ‘claim’ to something if it wasn’t ‘work’ if ‘work’ is the only thing valued? I would, based on this belief, create more ‘work’ – ouch!
Time to let this one go.
Wow. I feel free.
How People Find Us.
- graffiti angel
- santas reel housse and work chop
- graffiti angels
- live and work in lap of nature
- reel graffiti
- ornament crown findings
- letting go of someone whos not coming
- graffiti words tina
- graffiti saying friendship
- graffiti journal
As many of you know, I quit eating sugar back in June. Since then, I’ve blogged about how amazing I feel and my belly ‘fluff’ is melting away. I feel awesome and have been sharing this with everyone. I literally feel like I am experiencing life at a whole new level.
When Hay House asked me if I wanted to share with you a new book by Jorge Cruise. Of course, I wanted to because of his passion and commitment to helping others, but also because of my own experiences of how eating certain foods really makes a difference in this area.
His latest book is all about cutting the sugars and other carbs that add unsightly ‘belly fat’ as he calls it. What I have always admired about Jorge is his passion for helping others live vital, physically-optimal lives. This latest book is a simplified eat this, not that formula for cutting down the belly fat.
If you have ended the summer vowing not to go through another summer without loving your body and looking your best, then I urge you to START TODAY to BEGIN to have an experience with your body that will ensure NEXT SUMMER (and every day until and after) you are fit, trim and vitally healthy. Just imagine what a few pounds a month will turn into by next June.
It really is that easy. Make a decision. Commit today!
If Jorge’s book feels like a fit for you, go to: http://promos.hayhouse.com/bfcfasttrack/
As always, in addition to Jorge’s book, there are 23 gifts you’ll receive from other thought-leaders as well. Plus, there are many other gifts you could win in other drawings!
Here’s to you being all YOU are meant to be!
It’s my birthday, and with finishing my dissertation, I’m taking some much-needed time off. It’s hotter than h-e-double hockey sticks down here – many, many days of 100+ degree weather has sucked the moistness out of nature and the life out of summer.
So, I’m going fishin’…taking a blog vacation. I’ll talk to you each week on my show.
Have a happy summer! Stay cool!
Love,
Tina
