Tag Archives | opening

Vulnerability is the Path to Being Alive

Nature has always been my guide. Springtime is my reminder to be vulnerable.

Like the new leaves unfurling themselves. Flowers bursting forth. Seeds opening to their inner guidance.

Vulnerability. It’s like a dirty word to many of us humans. Nature does it effortlessly.

Consciously and unconsciously we tend to avoid it at all costs. Showing our underbelly. Soft spot. Raw place. Pain. Hurt.

I thought I always had to be tough. Not show any sign of weakness. I couldn’t let anyone know how I really felt about anything. It was way too dangerous. They might not like me. They might outright reject me. Abandon me. Hurt me.

Years ago a friend invited me to speak my truth. I don’t remember the particulars. What I do remember is that when I finally got honest, he could feel me more. I was still alive. He was still there.

He commented on how much more strength in me he could feel then. How it takes more courage to be honest. In my truth. My real.

As I felt more deeply into this place, I could sense it too. It required way more courage for me to be vulnerable than to fake being strong when I really wasn’t.

He could feel me more. He also liked what he felt in me more than when I was pretending. Staying shallow. Aloof. Fake.

I could feel me more too. I felt exposed. Tender. Expanded. Cautious. Open.

I can still remember the exact moment it dropped in that I could also be strong and courageous being vulnerable. It still feels amazing every time I remember.

It’s that same kind of strength and courage I see everyday as the new little flowers push themselves up out of the ground. That determination to reach the light. That fragile tender shoot bursting upward.

Risking everything to be exactly what it is. Alive. Rich. Beautiful. Following its own inner knowing to be exactly what it has come to be in the world.

Vulnerability is the path to being truly alive.

Are you willing to live life? Live Love? Fiercely?

I am.

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Risking to Speak Words of Kindness

When I was at the checkout counter in a local store this week, I overheard a grocery bagger suggest to his co-worker that she go and take her break. She could have been his mother or aunt and was a bit resistant to begin with, maybe feeling in the flow of what she had been doing or a bit resistant to being told what to do by this younger checker.

He sensed her resistance and said to her, “Go on now. You deserve it.”

She looked up at him, smiled and walked away to take her break.

I commented to him how good it felt to hear him acknowledge to her that she really did deserve to go have her break now. I continued by saying that it has got to feel so good to everyone to have someone say “You deserve to have something that feels good.”

He responded with a smile saying that she is his favorite colleague so it was easy to say.

He continued and finished bagging my groceries.

I thanked him as I turned to leave and he said,  “You’re welcome.  Have a great day.  You deserve it.”

I turned with a huge smile on my face and my heart open and warmed by his words. I thanked him again and felt the pleasure of being told by a stranger that I deserved to have a great day.

I walked out of the store and to my car beaming with pleasure and feeling such incredible warmth in my heart. I felt open and ready for anything.

The awareness of what I had witnessed taking place in front of me coupled with my own courage to reflect back my observation to this stranger who no longer felt like a stranger started a ripple of kindness and warmth that I took immense pleasure in being a part of.

I had glimpsed a sensitive part of this man who had dared to acknowledge the deservingness of his friend at work. Who knows how that affected the remainder of his own day?

It reminds me how simple and easy it can be to brighten and lighten someone’s day. And how powerful kindness can be anywhere and anytime.

Spontaneous words of kindness are like the pebble in a pond creating endless ripples of joy.

Mmmm, who’s next?

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Risk to Live Fiercely Today

These days I find that I long for simple, short and sweet.

Direct. To the point. Clear.

Love is all there is.

I now know this to be true. I feel it in the cells of my being. Head to toe.

I’ve waited over five decades to experience this. It is worth the wait.

In a circle of open hearted, loving brothers and sisters completing our facilitator training, I risked it all to show up. To open. To reveal my truth. To explore my truth.

I felt the safety and permission needed for me to actually go deep. To feel deep. To express deeply. To connect deeply.

All I needed was the courage to take the risk. To step out of familiar into excitement. Into willingness to show all of me. Trusting that I would be held. Loved. Accepted.

Exactly how I showed up. Tears. Fears. Anger. Resistance. Playful. Open. Flowing.

I felt all. I gave all. I was met with all.

I was matched with such love and acceptance. Complete. Full. Cleansed. Opened up wide. To myself. In relation with others.

Separate. Yet connected.

Me. One with all.

I got it all. I’m blissed out in gratitude for life and living. I feel good in my skin. Luscious. In my skin. Ahhhhh.

Live Fiercely today and always….

ps  please share how you are living fiercely this month so we can support one another in our daringness and stretches! I love you!

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photo by Gail Hull

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Opening Up to Receive Life

You know how there is so much focus on ‘letting go’ these days?

Everywhere I’ve turned for the last few years, all I’ve heard is that all I have to do is to let go of the past, let go of the pain, let go of the expectations, let go of the control……   I thought that I’d be fine and everything would sort out if I let go of old beliefs, old wounds, old pain and anything from the past that has been stopping me from being in the present moment.

And in fact I’ve focused on it lots in my sessions with clients. I’ve been inviting and holding space for others to being willing to let go of that which no longer serves us.  Which is totally awesome and necessary in so many ways.  And I’ve discovered the next huge piece.

I recently had the pleasure and gift of attending a Five Rhythms Dance Workshop where I finally was able to experience in my body the magic of truly Moving the Energy.

I can now feel and know within me that it is necessary and essential to have a continual flow of energy going out and…….. coming in. I have been able to experience how to access and activate an opening within to allow the energy of life and living to come in and move through me, and then to let it go. It is both.

Opening to receive the gift of life in all the ways it is being offered to me is such a rich and fulfilling way to live life. I’m still figuring it out in some ways and yet I can feel the potential.

It is so amazing to me how I have finally been able to bring this knowing in at a brand new and very deep cellular level.  It’s not like I didn’t know it in my head and mind. It is that I hadn’t been able to bring it into my heart and body at this depth until now.

The more I am open to receive the more I am open to more fully release and to give to everyone and everything around me.

It is an equal exchange, just like breathing. They must go together. The inhale and the exhale equally balanced.

When I feel stuck now, I have a bigger game to play.

Where am I holding on so tight?  Am I able to open to receive the gifts of life all around me? Am I able to release that which no longer serves me?

Are there ways that you can open up more to receive?  How would that look for you?  Most importantly, how would it feel for you?

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