the dreaming Press.

stoke the fires of your *atlas* heart

A couple, {heck a few!} urgent things. I'll get to them most hurriedly, so you don't waste a single precious moment that you could be using to sign on for grand explorations and juicy adventures {that you so deserve}.

First, my friend Debbie wants to extend an invitation for you to go to INDIA.

Second,my beautiful blogging friend Lisa has a deadline to meet, so that she can go to MEXICO.

Third, my friend Tara is hostessing the best life-changing trip {trust me, I've done it}, to JORDAN.

Last,but certainly not least, I am taking a group of women through the Women's Travel Network to MOROCCO.

So, now with all of these updates your way...it's all up to you. Maybe it's time to pay it forward and give a little to see another realize the work of her dreams...or maybe it's that time to pack a suitcase with your camera, your journal and a couple of pairs of undies, sunscreen...and hit the road to realize your own sweeping and vast dreams.

I've prioritized the list according to time deadlines. Lisa will need your help within the next ten days. Debbie has room for you up until tomorrow only.

The other two are very important, but can be discussed in another upcoming post real soon. If I were you I'd head over to see the INDIA and MEXICO links first. Thanks friends, fellow adventurers and loving hearts. You are all cherished, deeply, each of you. xo

p.s. photo of the lovely blue doorway taken from a bumbling yet speeding van in the Middle East while driving along sharing cups of hot nuts and listening to this or something like it...in March 2010

Re-entry into the atmosphere.

Lilacs on the lunch table.

Summer started a day or two ago for me and just being outside with my daughter and my friend was enough. Isn't it all just enough? It ought to be. Simple. Simple pleasures are for the soul caged within the human machine.

A soul caged in order to operate simply and exquisitely, with it's carmine pump that keeps it powered up for naps 'neath oak trees in hammocks, for water journeys fevered with fish, for the bipedal quest up high on mountaintops where it places it's flag at the summit before prostrating itself in asanas of reverence that would make the crickets stop singing to witness in sheer astonishment. We are caged here to relish the minute and the miraculous, to revel in the dream and the pure abandonment of gazing out at a liquid plum wine sky speckled with cosmic gases that burn into infinity. For if not for said cages, why...we'd be off like a flash to the next thing and the next thing and {like a crow to tinfoil on a roadside} the next brilliantly shiny thing....

The lilacs on the lunch table don't need to know they smell heavenly, don't need that basic reassurance...they just go about their business {of being} colouring our world purple with the scent and the sound of a thousand breezes which rush past kissing lips. The entymological heat prickles the skin on the back of our necks as we sup frozen popsicles to heed to the flowance and ebbance of all that Is.

Liquid blue canopy is the dream sky; an ocean for birds who take for granted the fact that their cages come with a set of feathered wings. Tis they who are truly free. No toiling. No sweat beads on their tiny fluffed up foreheads when the nest rent-check is late. Just a chirpy song and a swan dive into the crystalline air that holds them aloft.

{Ah the spirit of summer as enjoyed from the soul within the cage.}

Go do some splendid things for simple and happy warm summer day; apply some sparkly eye makeup, listen to music on your iPod while walking briskly, do hot yoga, whip up your own fruit smoothie, or better yet...get this recipe and make some frozen hot chocolate~! Dance beside the campfire, wear a pretty dress, sing out loud and then collapse worn out to dream a little dream amidst crispy white line dried sheets.

xoxo

i love my freedom :: ~hello to YOU little blue India moth

 
Don't believe those who would hold you back.~Buddhist proverb

We often see others as we see ourselves.  Those caught up in deceit and posturing tend to mistrust even the well-meaning actions of others.  In contrast, a person of integrity tends to trust that others are the same, even when they are not. ~Buddhist proverb

It is alright not to like everyone.~Buddhist proverb

***

When the sun peeks out from the clouds mid-morning it can cast harsh tones that wash out even the most breathtaking colours of nature (sadly). I know this diminutive moth's wings are 'Blue India' {after my favourite nail polish colour} but really they are much closer in actuality to Pantone 2975. Yes get used to our modern world.  Colours are numbers now but I still love giving them my own names.  Colour is so very personal to me.

 

I walked my dog up the path to the forest entrance.  I noticed a small cracked egg, as tiny as my thumbnail.  Jade and verdant grass danced in tufts cheerfully.  I gently stepped on them as I lingered with my eyes cast upward to the blue blue sky and the flock of starlings passing overhead. {Oh do you hear the sounds of the moments of spring as I do; each cricket's  deep black chirp-song, all the winds agust & brooks gurgling with bubbling gratitude?} An abandoned robin's nest constructed with such magical architectural capability-one blade of grass and beak-full of mud at a time...

 

An angel reading last week during our Thursday meditation class was breathtakingly positive, as were everyone's messages.  You see we each have two angels assigned to us at birth, and if we are open to that divine possibility we can connect with them and live up to our greatest human potential.  My message was that I'm free (yes! I am and I love that about me!) and I'm to pay attention to a leather book.  I know what the book is so when I received my message I was aghast with delighted surprise. 

Tonight is art journalling, sandalwood candles, crisp fresh laundry & organizing the office.  Yes, the now moments exist in every now. Paying a bill can be every bit as enlightening as a nap under an apple tree. 

Don't pull your energy out of your immediate space as often happens when you r e a c h into the future...or stay stuck in the past. Each time your focus drifts away from the blue India moth at your feet you are not in your best space.

Now.  Go BE where you are.

xoxo

*Today's picture goes with the 52 Photos Project; i found it on the ground

**Oh and what I said up there about it being ok to not like everyone, don't take it personally (everything I say and post is about ME.  see?) xo

{Unearthing} the essence of all wild things...

 
...found in the practice of prayer...

 
...residing in pure confidence...

 
...dancing like no one is watching.

{Wild place archeology-soul excavations found here.}

xo

grace & beauty; celebrate the person you have become!

 
 
In a blink it's funny how fast you can tell yourself a little white lie, and how in that same blink of an eye that little white lie can grow-depending on how much you feed it.  It's not that we particularly want to believe it, but maybe it is a nature-derived or inherent quality that drives us to strive for more in the end.  The built-in contrast that serves us in order for us to know our truth.

Have you ever felt low, down on yourself?  Despite really knowing you work hard, you play fair, you send out love, you really try? I think it is human nature to feel disheartened at times.  I really do.  We can be cruelest to ourselves unknowingly.  Judging ourselves, the negative self-talk, or even just adopting habits that are no good for us.   Lately as in the last few days, I've felt just that way.  As if no milestone ever reached mattered, as if no friend who loved me was justified in feeling that way, as if my  opinion or words or thoughts didn't matter.  I guess I was feeding those lies.  Subtly, unkindly towards myself.  I do know that isn't true.  I know I have friends that care for me.  I know I've been a good parent to my children.  A wise business woman.  A fair judge of character.  For every negative I know in my heart there is a strong positive BUT.  I needed to hear it.  I needed those words to be spoken loud and clear.  I really needed a good old fashioned ego-stroking.  I couldn't help that, I'm only human.

While working at home tonight {and no disrespect intended but I think some people believe that spa ownership is all butterflies and whale song, that we just float into work and float home again at closing time} I came across a book my mother bought me.  Over the years she has given me a lot of books, as a child she encouraged me to read as much as humanly possible. She has also encouraged me with love that I took for granted at times...sending me cards to lift my spirits when they were sagging, instead of lecturing me about my mistakes at times she would just put her arms around me and take my side even if I was wrong about whatever-it-was.  Well tonight right when I needed to hear it....out popped an old affirmation card she gave me years and years and years ago. 

It reads;

grace

&

beauty;

celebrate the person you have become

Okay.  I shall.  I raise my glass of Persian tea to me! To *tink* my own cup and wish myself many more successes, more rich friendships, more love, more experiences and then I'll congratulate myself on a job well done.  Because I truly needed to hear these words the Universe obliged and held my hand using my mother as an instrument of message delivery.

There are NO coincidences.  I was meant to find that card tonight. Has this ever happened to you? Ever go looking through books and find an old card tucked inside with a very timely message? Isn't that the coolest thing?

xo

{thanks, I love you}