A few days ago one of my Facebook friends from high school updated her status with a comment about realizing she has to settle for her life the way it is, that certain things are just not going to happen for her. Comments made by others encouraged her to just accept that this is as good as it gets. Now, typically I'm a lurker. I use Facebook to market NativeDave.com, but in my personal realm I mostly use it to keep connected with family and close friends. I upload a lot of pics. Sure, everything I post is visible to my more distant friends and acquaintances, too. And I look through their pics and posts, but seldom comment. Back to the woman posting about it being time for her to "settle"...
I had to comment, I just had to. If you see a car accident happen, you can't just keep on driving. You owe it to those people to at least call 911. Better yet, pull over, get out, and offer help until emergency pros arrive. You see, Miss It's Time to Settle is not the settling type. She is a talented photographer, and her posts on Facebook are smart, sometimes sassy, but always intuitive. Entertaining and sometimes educational. She is a true artist, and artists trust their instincts, their dreams. They takes leaps of faith every time they create. Settling is for people who are not artists, who don't feel their hearts, minds and souls will erupt if they don't at least try to share their perspective with the world. It isn't all that important if The World, even one person, really "gets" your art. The fact that you put it out there at all, that you took the risk, is satisfying enough...most of the time.
Art is dreams made tangible. If an artist stops dreaming -- because she stops believing in her dreams or loses inspiration -- she becomes stagnant. If she becomes stagnant and stops creating, she stops living. She might have a pulse but she is definitely not living. I couldn't lose this patient on the table; I had to act. I had to remind my Facebook friend about the importance of dreams. Being thankful for the life you have, even if it isn't exactly what you had hoped for, is very very different from "settling." Settling connotes giving up, an exasperation with the rate at which Life unfurls. You can be thankful and still strive toward your dreams. But don't settle, don't ever ever give up on your dreams. You would be giving up on yourself...on Life.
In a later post this same woman announced she was considering entering a photo contest. I encouraged her to do it. It doesn't matter how your entries are judged, I coaxed. Just submit and see what happens. Worse case, you will get no response. But you will never know until you try, until you take that leap of faith.
Fine advice. So why don't I take it? It's so easy for me to see other people's path clearly, and to nurture them to follow it. It has taken me a long time to hop on my own trail. I knew where it was all along -- I could see it. Always, I have followed it, but from the other side of the greenbelt. Until now, I always found what I thought were valid reasons (they weren't) to postpone my journey. I'm on the path now, that's all that matters. Life's mysteries are unfurling as intended, and I'm dreaming more vividly. I trust them, I'm revving up for the next leap of faith. Now I can nurture others' dreams without sacrificing my own. My inner artist is emerging in every aspect of my life, and I'm listening closely to her. She has a lot to say, a lot of her soul to share with the world.
That seemed like a sensible ending to this post...until I looked down and noticed I'm wearing pajamas that read "Dream On." The irony, oh the irony...
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Feeling the need...
to edit.
Will go back and correct some spelling and grammatical mistakes. Sometimes I edit before I post, but a couple of times I've typed until my fingers nearly fell off, and published without editing. Read through the past week or so and you will figure out which is which. LOL.
Will go back and correct some spelling and grammatical mistakes. Sometimes I edit before I post, but a couple of times I've typed until my fingers nearly fell off, and published without editing. Read through the past week or so and you will figure out which is which. LOL.
My Simplicity
Yesterday I wrote about simplicity starting with Me. Of course I meant MY simplicity starts with Me, just as Yours begins with You. My path will not be the same as yours, but I hope it can inspire you. I've mentioned the book Simple Abundance a few times. Its daily meditations keep me focused so that I may discover my authentic self and the life I am intended to live. The exercises, too, reinforce my course. Using your hands to create a tangible version of your inner, authentic self, stamps on your memory a snapshot of your soul. This book is essential for Any Woman or Creative Man.
Your path will begin with "gratitude." After evaluating yourself -- who you are, what you like, etc. -- you are asked to list up to five things you are grateful for today. I started doing this in November 2009, about a month before I received the Simple Abundance book as a birthday gift. My daily gratitude list has been key to coping with external stresses in my life. The list shifts my focus from the negative influences I can't control to the positive aspects I can appreciate. This mood and tone of my mind, then, begins each day with thankfulness and optimism. Not a bad way to kick off the morning, eh?
It isn't enough for me to simply feel grateful. I want to share my gratitude with others. Recently I thanked my parents for moving us to Plano during my 6th-grade year. At the time, I was miserable because I had left all that was familiar to me: friends, neighborhood, school, dance studio. All people and places I had always known. We moved to a place that was different in every way from what I had always known. It was a difficult place to fit in, and for nearly three years I begged them to move us back "home." Eventually, though, I found my niche. Today I have a massive network of friends from childhood, friends from work, and scores of friends and acquaintances I have made through building NativeDave.com. Growing up in a suburb renown for its intensity and pressure on students to excel has offered opportunities not available to me in Nashville. Although initially I resisted Plano, as an adult I am grateful I survived it. Living there inspired me to aim high, to set impossible goals, and to pursue them despite any obstacles that might appear on my path. I will keep striving for my version of success. Thank you, Mom and Dad. I love you both very much.
Your path will begin with "gratitude." After evaluating yourself -- who you are, what you like, etc. -- you are asked to list up to five things you are grateful for today. I started doing this in November 2009, about a month before I received the Simple Abundance book as a birthday gift. My daily gratitude list has been key to coping with external stresses in my life. The list shifts my focus from the negative influences I can't control to the positive aspects I can appreciate. This mood and tone of my mind, then, begins each day with thankfulness and optimism. Not a bad way to kick off the morning, eh?
It isn't enough for me to simply feel grateful. I want to share my gratitude with others. Recently I thanked my parents for moving us to Plano during my 6th-grade year. At the time, I was miserable because I had left all that was familiar to me: friends, neighborhood, school, dance studio. All people and places I had always known. We moved to a place that was different in every way from what I had always known. It was a difficult place to fit in, and for nearly three years I begged them to move us back "home." Eventually, though, I found my niche. Today I have a massive network of friends from childhood, friends from work, and scores of friends and acquaintances I have made through building NativeDave.com. Growing up in a suburb renown for its intensity and pressure on students to excel has offered opportunities not available to me in Nashville. Although initially I resisted Plano, as an adult I am grateful I survived it. Living there inspired me to aim high, to set impossible goals, and to pursue them despite any obstacles that might appear on my path. I will keep striving for my version of success. Thank you, Mom and Dad. I love you both very much.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Simplicity starts with Me
So many thoughts compete for my attention when I run. Imagine what the floor of the New York Stock Exchange must sound like. That's sort-of what goes on in my brain while my legs force my body forward.
Today I thought about my brief tryst with raw food and realized I was (and many ways, still am) so excited about the concept because it seems it would simplify mealtimes for us. In fact, it seems that I'm always looking for ways to "simplify, simplify", as Thoreau writes. For a very long time now I have removed clutter from my home and mind...but I still have a long way to go. We all do. Well, almost all of us do. I get it and I think I can help others, too. Maybe that's my next career: simplicity coach.
The most important first step in pursuing simplicity is to take an honest look at yourself. A thorough examination, an assessment of who you are, what you do, what you like and what you wish you could change about yourself. There are no right or wrong answers, only honest ones. Sounds easy, right? For most of us, the truth hurts. We might not be all that thrilled to be the age that we are, or living in this house or married to that person. We might wish we had waited to have children, or had them sooner. We might be afraid of spiders or Terrorists or 2012. So many pieces of the truth pie, and they fit together perfectly to make up one unique recipe: YOU.
I thought I knew myself. I guess I always have, but until a few days ago, there were still some core truths about me I had not discovered. I was writing in my personal journal and it happened...a personal epiphany...the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth about ME. Everything came together on paper like a mental thunderclap -- I was free! Liberated from my own self-imposed limitations. The words flowed, effortlessly. I know, cliche. But that's exactly the way it happened. From my brain down my arm and launching from my pen were all the answers to all my questions about Me. Everything, good and bad. I felt lighter and happier than ever.
And then a really strange thing happened...the glow of absolute confidence. All of my memories filed themselves away in proper order in the past. My recent "reliving" of my personal history gave me insight and perspective, and an abundant gratitude for the opportunity to choose my own path. To choose the path that led me to Today. By putting away the past I was able to free up space in my soul to allow my dreams to grow. Dreams for the future -- but not so much room that I forget to enjoy today.
Today is all I have. I can't change the past nor predict the future; all I can do, really, is relish Today. The simple pleasures that Today offers me each day. Sage's giggle, her quirky sense of humor. Time spent coloring or working on other art projects with her. Writing in my journal. Listening to 70s music (is that "Convoy" I hear???) while we play, or classical while I write, or folk or jazz or blues or Southern Rock while I run. Listening to the birds as they fly over our house from the beach en route to the Laguna Madre for evening feedings. Petting my dog Folsom. Each day brings a flood of magical moments, simple truths about Life. If I'm keen to pay attention, higher powers are offering them to me.
Today the waves nudged the dunes, completely erasing the beach and leaving me nowhere to run but the deep, soft dunes. Um, really difficult to say the least. I smiled at the waves, as if I were thanking them for presenting me with this challenge. My feet sunk with every step but I trudged along. Finally I reached the park road toward the pier and turned off. I had to leap over a small but steady stream of water rushing from the dune back toward the Gulf; my toes got only a little wet. Since there was no beach to run on, I took a rare detour along the road that runs behind the dunes. On my iPod I listened to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue -- my favorite soundtrack for drizzly days. I couldn't find my stopwatch today so I have no idea how fast I ran my route today. Funny, so very funny. It wasn't that long ago that these little diversions from my charted path would stress me out. But today...I embraced the changes. Much can be learned by taking a different path home.
A few days ago I looked in the mirror and saw Me as I really am. I put away my memories, for now. Today I celebrated today, simply. Tomorrow -- who knows what tomorrow will be? Not I. I do know, however, that I will be ready for whatever gifts it presents me. And one of these tomorrows I will discover the next step I should take toward achieving simplicity. Something outside of myself.
Today I thought about my brief tryst with raw food and realized I was (and many ways, still am) so excited about the concept because it seems it would simplify mealtimes for us. In fact, it seems that I'm always looking for ways to "simplify, simplify", as Thoreau writes. For a very long time now I have removed clutter from my home and mind...but I still have a long way to go. We all do. Well, almost all of us do. I get it and I think I can help others, too. Maybe that's my next career: simplicity coach.
The most important first step in pursuing simplicity is to take an honest look at yourself. A thorough examination, an assessment of who you are, what you do, what you like and what you wish you could change about yourself. There are no right or wrong answers, only honest ones. Sounds easy, right? For most of us, the truth hurts. We might not be all that thrilled to be the age that we are, or living in this house or married to that person. We might wish we had waited to have children, or had them sooner. We might be afraid of spiders or Terrorists or 2012. So many pieces of the truth pie, and they fit together perfectly to make up one unique recipe: YOU.
I thought I knew myself. I guess I always have, but until a few days ago, there were still some core truths about me I had not discovered. I was writing in my personal journal and it happened...a personal epiphany...the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth about ME. Everything came together on paper like a mental thunderclap -- I was free! Liberated from my own self-imposed limitations. The words flowed, effortlessly. I know, cliche. But that's exactly the way it happened. From my brain down my arm and launching from my pen were all the answers to all my questions about Me. Everything, good and bad. I felt lighter and happier than ever.
And then a really strange thing happened...the glow of absolute confidence. All of my memories filed themselves away in proper order in the past. My recent "reliving" of my personal history gave me insight and perspective, and an abundant gratitude for the opportunity to choose my own path. To choose the path that led me to Today. By putting away the past I was able to free up space in my soul to allow my dreams to grow. Dreams for the future -- but not so much room that I forget to enjoy today.
Today is all I have. I can't change the past nor predict the future; all I can do, really, is relish Today. The simple pleasures that Today offers me each day. Sage's giggle, her quirky sense of humor. Time spent coloring or working on other art projects with her. Writing in my journal. Listening to 70s music (is that "Convoy" I hear???) while we play, or classical while I write, or folk or jazz or blues or Southern Rock while I run. Listening to the birds as they fly over our house from the beach en route to the Laguna Madre for evening feedings. Petting my dog Folsom. Each day brings a flood of magical moments, simple truths about Life. If I'm keen to pay attention, higher powers are offering them to me.
Today the waves nudged the dunes, completely erasing the beach and leaving me nowhere to run but the deep, soft dunes. Um, really difficult to say the least. I smiled at the waves, as if I were thanking them for presenting me with this challenge. My feet sunk with every step but I trudged along. Finally I reached the park road toward the pier and turned off. I had to leap over a small but steady stream of water rushing from the dune back toward the Gulf; my toes got only a little wet. Since there was no beach to run on, I took a rare detour along the road that runs behind the dunes. On my iPod I listened to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue -- my favorite soundtrack for drizzly days. I couldn't find my stopwatch today so I have no idea how fast I ran my route today. Funny, so very funny. It wasn't that long ago that these little diversions from my charted path would stress me out. But today...I embraced the changes. Much can be learned by taking a different path home.
A few days ago I looked in the mirror and saw Me as I really am. I put away my memories, for now. Today I celebrated today, simply. Tomorrow -- who knows what tomorrow will be? Not I. I do know, however, that I will be ready for whatever gifts it presents me. And one of these tomorrows I will discover the next step I should take toward achieving simplicity. Something outside of myself.
50% is fine
What was I thinking? I'm not ready for a 100% raw. Not now, maybe never. Some of the dishes I tried were fabulous, some were bland. Or worse. The experience was not a total loss, however. I learned a lot, such as:
- People wanting to lose a lot of weight but not wanting to exercise, or are unable to exercise, will lose a lot of weight, fast, eating a 100% raw food diet.
- People suffering from diseases from the more serious diabetes or multiple sclerosis to the more minor skin blemishes will notice an easing of their symptoms by eating 100% raw. In many cases, they can cure themselves entirely of these maladies in just weeks.
- I don't need to lose any weight nor do I need to cure myself of any diseases.
- I'm not willing to give up coffee or my one cooked meal at night.
- I'm comfortable eating a 50-75% raw diet.
- I'm not sedentary. I run and really enjoy it.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Day Two of Raw: Clear Ideas
Yesterday went fine except that I was cold all day -- chilled, really -- and had a major headache. Couldn't tell if it was from lack of sleep or lack of coffee. Either way, I was in pain. Too much pain to talk on the phone, actually. I woke up this morning with only slight residual pain. And gave in to the urge for coffee...:)
Let me backtrack for a moment. Call me a quitter but I'm just not ready, may never be ready, to give up coffee. Really, why should I? I only drink about a cup a day, two on a particularly groggy day.
I woke up from a dream that made me sort-of angry. Details are boring, really, so I'll just describe the gist. A large group of people were being unfairly critical of me. At first, I listened to their brazen comments to glean some constructive elements. Eventually, I realized they were just being mean. I didn't run away and hide so I could cry. I didn't get falsely angry and storm out, never to return. I listened, but then I stood up to defend myself. Calmly and logically, I poked holes in their claims. But nobody was interested in logic, or reaching a compromise. They just wanted a whipping girl to absorb all their anger and discontentment with their own lives.
As I lay in bed analyzing my dream, I realized this was an important moment. I had learned something about myself and the way I interact with others. I had learned to have confidence in myself even when others seek to beat me down. This will come in handy as I continue on my writing path.
Then I started thinking about the raw challenge. My head throbbing, I decided I would have coffee today, after all. Maybe again tomorrow. Hell, I might never give it up. Clearly, the 30-day challenge is great for people wanting (and needing) to make drastic changes in their lifestyle. Overweight or suffering from debilitating disease, these folks benefit from a crash course in detoxification. But someone like me, who really has no weight to lose and is generally healthy? I already eat raw all day -- why give up my one cooked meal? Or coffee? What will I gain from this experience, really?
No answers yet, just questions. And coffee. Definitely coffee.
Let me backtrack for a moment. Call me a quitter but I'm just not ready, may never be ready, to give up coffee. Really, why should I? I only drink about a cup a day, two on a particularly groggy day.
I woke up from a dream that made me sort-of angry. Details are boring, really, so I'll just describe the gist. A large group of people were being unfairly critical of me. At first, I listened to their brazen comments to glean some constructive elements. Eventually, I realized they were just being mean. I didn't run away and hide so I could cry. I didn't get falsely angry and storm out, never to return. I listened, but then I stood up to defend myself. Calmly and logically, I poked holes in their claims. But nobody was interested in logic, or reaching a compromise. They just wanted a whipping girl to absorb all their anger and discontentment with their own lives.
As I lay in bed analyzing my dream, I realized this was an important moment. I had learned something about myself and the way I interact with others. I had learned to have confidence in myself even when others seek to beat me down. This will come in handy as I continue on my writing path.
Then I started thinking about the raw challenge. My head throbbing, I decided I would have coffee today, after all. Maybe again tomorrow. Hell, I might never give it up. Clearly, the 30-day challenge is great for people wanting (and needing) to make drastic changes in their lifestyle. Overweight or suffering from debilitating disease, these folks benefit from a crash course in detoxification. But someone like me, who really has no weight to lose and is generally healthy? I already eat raw all day -- why give up my one cooked meal? Or coffee? What will I gain from this experience, really?
No answers yet, just questions. And coffee. Definitely coffee.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Raw Day One: Ready, Steady, GO
Today we began our 30 days of raw and living foods program. When I say "we", I mean my husband and me, not our daughter. She eats plenty of fresh fruit and raw nuts, and drinks smoothies and fresh juices daily. But she eats a cooked meal at night, and I will continue her diet as-is...at least for now. I had thought I would miss my morning coffee but I was satisfied with a substitute: a juice concoction made with apple, carrot and ginger root. Great "alive" pick-me-up. The only thing missing, really, was the heat. Today it's rainy and cold -- perfect day for coffee and Miles Davis. It is lunchtime and I am beginning to feel a bit hungry. Maybe some raw fettucini alfredo? I tried it last night...AMAZING. The noodles are shredded zucchini and summer squash. The sauce consists of a variety of raw (yes, unsalted and unroasted) nuts, garlic, lemon, water and Bragg's Liquid Aminos. So far, we have eaten (or drunk, depending on how you look at it ;-):
2 glasses smoothie (4 bananas, 1/2 c. blueberries, 2 c. water, 2 c. ice, blended on high until smooth)
1 glass carrot, apple and ginger root juice
2 glasses cucumber, red bell pepper, carrot and apple juice
handful of blueberries
1/2 pear
Ordinarily I would also have a plate of strawberries, more blueberries, and a bowl of grapes. I'm a grazer by nature, so throughout the morning little nibbles here and there add up. For that reason alone I have to keep fresh fruit, cleaned and plated, within reach.
So far, today feels pretty status quo. I feel groggy, but that is probably due to the weather and lack of sleep. Tomorrow, after a good night's rest, I should feel much better. Maybe I'll go take a nap with Sage...
2 glasses smoothie (4 bananas, 1/2 c. blueberries, 2 c. water, 2 c. ice, blended on high until smooth)
1 glass carrot, apple and ginger root juice
2 glasses cucumber, red bell pepper, carrot and apple juice
handful of blueberries
1/2 pear
Ordinarily I would also have a plate of strawberries, more blueberries, and a bowl of grapes. I'm a grazer by nature, so throughout the morning little nibbles here and there add up. For that reason alone I have to keep fresh fruit, cleaned and plated, within reach.
So far, today feels pretty status quo. I feel groggy, but that is probably due to the weather and lack of sleep. Tomorrow, after a good night's rest, I should feel much better. Maybe I'll go take a nap with Sage...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)