Even For A Little While

I know it's Monday; the beginning of the week when most everyone is gearing up. But I'm thinking about what a friend said to me on Friday.


"Sometimes you need to treat yourself like a sick person. You know, allow yourself to do a little, then rest. Maybe sit in the sun. Have a cup of tea. Then do a little bit more. Then rest. Slow things way down. It helps to do that, even for a little while."


Yesterday I did some weeding in the scraggly garden and tossed the frisbee for Chewy. But for a good part of the afternoon, I stretched out in the lounge chair with eyes closed. When I felt the air cooling, I'd get up and pull the chair into another sun spot, then settle down again. No book, no journal, no nothing. 


Curled up in the sun...


Like my cat. 


Claire stacked the wood pile without being asked. Michael waved at me while he was tinkering on the lawn mower and said, Stay right where you are, honey. 


So I did.

That Holds The Whole World

Take a very deep breath in
and a very slow breath out


Sit up very straight
Notice that as your spine lengthens,
your heart opens.


Now breathe into the space
of an open heart - feel into the
space of an open heart.


A heart that is empty, a heart
that holds the whole world.


Feel into a heart that 
can hold the whole world.


Breathe into the sweetness of this moment.
Allow yourself to be whole-heartedly
alive and well in the life you have, now.


-Rolf Gates


This Being Alive is going to slip away for a long weekend.

I'll be back on Monday...

With love and gratitude for your shiny selves.

 xo b

Tell A New One

"Print out your manuscript, let someone else read it."
"Good idea," I said.
"Then you can start a new story," she said.


We'd been talking about how we keep telling the same stories to ourselves and others. 


How we hold onto the same story. but it's MINE!!!


How it's really our call to let go and tell a new one. 


Maybe not latch onto any story. WHAT?!


But who would we be without our stories.


Old stories are so reliable, familiar, comfy.


So what if they skip like a broken record. 


this happened then this happened then this happened then this happened...


Just for today, I could tell myself a new story.


You could too.

I Don't Know About That

[another gem from the *When I Grow Up series...]

When I Grow Up  #4


When I grow up I will drive. I will not get married. I will have a house in the city. It will be in Bayonne or Charlotte. I will have a good life in Charlotte or Bayonne. I can stay out as long as my heart desires. I won't smoke. I might use a knife, I don't know about that. I might play for the Packers. I don't know maybe I will live longer than most people. I guess that I will go to Charlotte in a car but I will let Jordan drive. 


I will have a dog too.


By Mike Gallagher
         1995


Read: "A Life Of My Own"
           "And I Will Still Read To Myself"
           "When I Grow Up #3"

thank you

"To those who feel that they have no choice 


but to create, 


thank you."

-Seth Godin

Fallen Angels

Things to Think

Think in ways you’ve never thought before

If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message

Larger than anything you’ve ever heard,

Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.

Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,

Maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose

Has risen out of the lake, and he’s carrying on his antlers

A child of your own whom you’ve never seen.

When someone knocks on the door, think that he’s about

To give you something large: tell you you’re forgiven,

Or that it’s not necessary to work all the time, or that it’s

Been decided that if you lie down no one will die.

-Robert Bly

in memory of fallen angels 

Springing Up

"Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world. The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same. Every wonderful sight will vanish; every sweet word will fade, but do not be disheartened, The source they come from is eternal, growing, branching out, giving new life and new joy. Why do you weep? The source is within you and this whole world is springing up from it." 


- Rumi

Peace to you on this September Saturday ~