The Sweeping of More… Abundance… More or Less
MORE or LESS & ABUNDANCE: The epidemic of overwhelm and anxiety that MORE can sweep up the very soul of us into worldly weather patterns of not enough and constantly needing more. Marketing has become part of our social fabric. It’s influencing us from every direction. Screens pushing out more and more — bits of information and data — influencing and pushing behaviors is now the world we live in.
Claiming Worthiness
Life and circumstances rarely unfold in a straight chronological line exactly the way we want. It doesn’t matter who you are; we will all have those moments where we have to choose to honor true happiness, the happiness that is born of honoring and respecting our true sense of self-love and worthiness. Over eleven years ago, my life spiraled into a frenzy of complication. My life was on full throttle of doing more and more to make it right. Running on a ton of “effort-ing” to get a feeling I could never quite arrive at. My husband and I were married for ten years before we started having children. At one point, all the people around us thought we were this inspiring amazing couple to look up to and emulate. And the truth of the matter is, for the level of maturity we had at that point of our lives, maybe we were. However, when we started having children, the stakes of life changed. There was a little human being who was watching our lives now, getting all the hard wiring and foundation of how to navigate the world. I found that my personal fantasy of what a family “should be” was running and ruling me. When I was not treated with respect, I shoved it down in the name of keeping the family peace. I lived in how I imagined a family was ‘supposed’ to be. It was when I was pregnant with my second child, I realized how much my life energy was spent nurturing others, including my husband, my son, and now this new baby growing inside of...
My Family’s Story on Death, Loss and Grief
My Family’s Story on Death and Loss… May 6th was his birthday. This was a date my mom always acknowledged every year as I was growing up. This is the only whole family photo we have. It was an unplanned family photo and quickly taken one day. (That’s me next to my baby brother on the right!) That sunny August midwestern day, I remember the air was heavy. The humidity was sweltering as my dad placed in my little seven-year-old hands a big pair of scissors. He told me to go outside to the flower beds and cut fresh flowers. I don’t remember the other flowers that surrounded the grand, gigantic green fountain; I just remember the snapdragons. Yes, the snapdragons. The name itself “snapdragons” seemed so magical to me. I remember loving the bursting color gradients, I cut heaping handfuls in every color combination. Hours later that same day, I stood shoulder to shoulder with my three brothers and little sister in front of our baby brother’s casket. I remember fighting my tears and how badly I wanted to cry. This was my first funeral. I didn’t know if I was supposed to cry. Just the day before, life was an ordinary day as my youngest brother, a year and half old, woke up bright and happy for life in our shared bedroom. No one knew by the end of the night, life in our family would forever be changed when he accidentally drowned in our family pool. I remember he looked like a statue of an angel lying in his casket as each of us placed our fresh...
What’s Your Growing Edge?
“This is part of your growing edge”, she said. The words casually passed from a beloved friend to me for comfort and encouragement as I was navigating a new, life-stretching situation. The words began looping in mind like a song lyric on repeat. More and more, I found myself taking in the words with an affirming yes. “This is part of my growing edge.” I haven’t stopped reflecting on that statement since that day. And even better, I can see it everywhere bubbling to the surface.
This growing edge doesn’t belong only to “them”, “him” and “her”. It belongs to all of us in some capacity in our own way. Now more than ever, each of us, are being invited to look deeper into the thresholds we need to cross individually and collectively. The powerful gift the growing edge offers is a shift of
Before After The Magical Messy Middle
A picture is worth a 1000 words. It’s true. The classic storyline of the “before and after”. The brain processes imagery at an exceptional speed.