Tuesday, March 22, 2011

What You Can Do When You're Feeling Scared


1. Trust your intuition
2. Sing this song, or this one, or this one... or this one
3. Ask yourself what's really important
4. Ask yourself when you lie to yourself
5. Walk barefoot in the grass
6. Cry and tell stories and laugh and drink water
7. Call on help from people who are scared too
8. Be brave together
9. Because everything feels easier in courageous company
10. Whisper the truth
11. Then write it in big letters
12. Then paste it to your forehead and have everyone you walk past read it to you
13. Do the impossible
14. Jump off the roof
15. Onto a trampoline
16. Roll over laughing at the silliness of it all
17. Declare the truth
18. Let out a big "hip hip HOORAY!" like they taught you in grade school
19. Breathe deeply
20. Be right here...right here, right now
21. Aaahhhh, yes

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Here. Now. Happy.


I spent this morning with my two best friends. Judy laid on her bed as we held up her clothes one by one. "Yes." "No." "Ummm, nah." We tossed the future into different piles, letting keepers tell the story of who we're becoming: a tall tree grounded to the beauty of existence; slender power revolving into an indistinguishable knowing; puddling eyes drizzled with sunlit freedom.

Bri & I are down to two weeks until departure for our grand bicycle adventure. My dresser was sold for $20 on Craig's List and the little clothing I kept is resting on Brian's recently cleared bookshelf. In boxes by the door, my art supplies wait their turn. New seeds are being born under florescent lights on the stove. There's a clearing here. There's room for new life.

I pick up my ukulele and play the song that Jodi and I wrote about the comfy red couch, about the coffee from the local shop, about choosing to be together. I walk barefoot through the front yard garden, watching the wine glass path glisten in the sun. I breathe in pollen and car exhaust and sky blue spring time and songs sung by birds.



I read my twitter feed and give all the attention in my bones to the truth of what's happening in the world. I look up and give all the attention in my bones to the truth of what's happening in this room. I pick up my new iPhone and smile at pictures of a long-held dream made manifest; the movements spreading with fiery force.


This is where the stories meet, I think.
This is where everything exists together.
This is where I get down on my knees and kiss the earth and choke up in gratitude and silently scream with my tears.
This is where I am.
Exactly where I want to be.