I Am Rich Beyond Measure

I am rich beyond measure, let me count the ways...

Today I celebrate the love of my life, Karl. I won the marriage lottery with him! I love you Sweetheart. You make everyday a day of loving, from when I wake in the morning until my head hits the pillow at night. Thank you my love. I celebrate our wonderful kids, Ryan and Krista. How can it be that I won the Mother lottery too! Wow. You guys amaze me. I stand in awe of you both. I couldn't ask for two more loving, kind, thoughtful, intelligent children. You three are the greatest blessings in my life. Karl, we did a pretty good job! Phew! Thank you. I celebrate Dakota for the blessing she is in Ry's life. You touch me. It is a special thing when a young woman falls in love with your son, I am blessed by you loving Ry. Thank you Sweet Dakota.

I celebrate my loving family of origin, and Karl's loving family of origin, including inlaw's, outlaws, nieces and nephews. Not everyone has such amazing grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents, brothers, sister's in law, and nieces and nephews, and cousins as we do. We are truly blessed by where we landed, warts and all. I wouldn't change a hair on anyone's head. I love you all, and I am grateful for you in our lives.

I celebrate and I am thankful for my dear friends. I was once told by a friend that one of the things she loved most about me is the amazing friends I surround myself with. She is a wise woman, and she is so right. That gift has served to make me aware of this precious gift of my friends, in all the places and spaces they have shown up in my life. I thank you again.

I am grateful for the dogs in our lives. They truly are the epitome of love, loyalty and devotion. Thank you our furry friends!

If you have found your way to my blog, and we have yet to lay eyes upon one another, I am grateful for you too.

So whether you live near or far, know you are always close to my heart!

Thank you one and thank you all for the tremendous gift of YOU in my life. I am rich beyond measure!

Celebrate and Spread Love and Gratitude today and everyday!

Spread the Love

Today, on the Eve of St. Valentine's it seems appropriate to talk about love. Who we love and how we love says so much about us. As I ponder that thought and consider who I love, I feel so blessed by the presence of dear friends and family in my life. I can think back on earlier times and remember spinning in circles in some relationships, trying to figure out who I was and how to move about in this world. I must be a slow learner, it took me some time to uncover the underlying conditions which were my boulder sized blocks to love. Not that I am done removing those blocks, but I have whittled some down in size.

Does that mean I didn't really love anyone until recently? No, of course not! Learning about love is messy, but it involves getting in there and figuring it out. It makes me infinitely more grateful for those friends and family members who have been there for the long haul. It seems to me that as we are working to heal ourselves and remove the blocks to love, most people are working in one of three areas: with our friendships, with our primary love relationship, or with our family of origin. We work in all three areas, but at any one time we are generally centered in one of these three. Perhaps knowing this you can identify which area you are currently working on the most.

My dear, sweet husband has loved me through many years of my stumbling and bumbling in all my relationships with friends and family. Our children and our families of origin and our friendships have all been part of the mixture to make our lives rich. Today we have settled into a gentle rhythm, without the drama, trauma and stress of out of balance relationships. It is a blessing to have a peace-filled life. It has been a gift we share and enjoy and which affects all aspects of our lives. It is the gift that keeps on giving. Actually, that is what love is. It gets recycled, and regifted and just keeps getting better with time.

This week as you contemplate love, stretching yourself and spreading your love, remember to take a second to thank all those you love and have loved along the way. Even silently thank those friends and family who are no longer in your circle, or who have moved on, physically or emotionally. They have helped to shape who you are today. Good, bad or indifferent, thanking them for their part in shaping you is another way to help remove the blocks to love.

Sending you Love and Blessings with Joy and Gratitude!

Pretty, Shiny, Twinkling Possibilities

This evening it is quiet. I am home all alone right now, and our dogs are sleeping. The gentle rumble of their synchronized breathing has put me in a cozy lull. This week has me buzzing with blessings. I have been connecting with friends, old and new, seeing some possibilities for what may be coming down the pike for me. Several possibilities are twinkling at me. They look so pretty and shiny! I can feel the excitement tingling through my body as I ponder these. Things are shifting and changing so quickly, it feels like this will be the case this year. For many of us this will be a time of releasing the "old" (those things things which no longer serve us), and preparing the fertile, fresh turned soil for what is coming next. Don't be concerned about releasing those things which no longer serve you, let them go with joy and gratitude for what they have brought into your life and allow them to float away from you with joy. Every person, situation, job or circumstance either feeds us or takes away from us. It is not about releasing every area we "give" in. Of course not, we would no longer choose to be mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, employees, friends and many other roles and relations. What we want to release are those things, people and obligations in which we feel we give ever so much more than we could ever hope to be repaid. We usually know where to make these releases, but what we can't see are the amazing benefits and gifts which come from creating the space in our lives for the possibility of what is to come. So this evening as I ponder the possibilities, and I feel the excitement around what is yet to be, maybe you want to ponder your own possibilities.

I am filled with gratitude for those dear friends and family in my life, for all the gifts and blessings in my life, and for the pretty, shiny possibilities twinkling about, dancing like sugarplums around in my head.

I am grateful to you, for reading these musings. I would love to hear what possibilities are tickling your fancy, so we might share on this journey together.

Trying to Find the Balance

There have been times in my life when I did too much. When I packed my plate so full of doings that if one meeting or errand ran late, my whole day was off track, with little or no hope of recovering. My kids were little, and I was running the household, but also volunteering at their school in the classrooms, PTA meetings, and on the board of several non profit organizations. I was really in my doing. It took me some time to realize how out of balance I was. Most of the activities I was doing were worthwhile, but not all of them all at once. Clearing my schedule was a process. It took me time to release some projects and responsibilities, but release them I did. I began learning about me. Taking workshops, classes and seminars in areas that spoke to me. All of this has been rewarding and has enriched my life and allowed for more spiritual and emotional growth and development. I began moving forward from the inside out. At times I wonder if I have pared down too much, if I am erring on the side of too little to do, which sounds strange, but it feels important for me to have some extra space, some wiggle room. On weeks like this one coming up I am booked by my new standards. And yet, there is down time. There is time to be with friends and with family. I have set aside time to connect with friends who live away, and some friends who are here in town. I will be present and available for my family, get my "chores" done, and still have time for me.

That all sounds great, wonderful, so together of me. Oh I am so impressed! Well then why is it that with all this extra available time I am barely able to get anything done? I find myself keeping the house tidy, and doing the general "to do's", but I am having a hard time getting the extras done. Those niggling tasks like cleaning out my closet (I can do that next week), going through those papers accumulating on my desk (next week, I'll get through those next week). What about the freezer? I have so been meaning to clean that out, as well as the junk drawer in the kitchen, the 'gift and wrapping closet', the pantry could stand a more thorough top to bottom cleaning (next week, next week....oh shoot it's getting busy next week, what about the week after?). And so it goes. Somehow when I was crazy busy I could get a zillion things done, and even get a few more things done in my nonexistent spare time. So why is it that I have more free time and I get so much less done? I don't want to go back to the way things were. I wouldn't trade the improvement in the quality of my life. There is no doubt that I have been able to spend much more time with connections. Connections with family members, friends, connecting to my own path and purpose, connecting to The Divine. All these benefits are immeasurable. They are what makes my life rich. I like who I am so much more today than who I was when I was on the go, go, go. I have been able to be a more patient and present wife, mother, daughter, sister, seeker and friend. I can't put a price on that. But that doesn't mean I let the extra jobs keep piling up.

So I am looking to find this balance. I don't want to be back on the human hamster wheel. I do want to tap more into the doing energy, without going overboard. I do want to keep the quality of life I have found, the benefits that come from being fully present in the moment, of just Being with myself, my family, my friends. This is one of the areas I am looking to find balance in my life. Perhaps when I get through these current transitions, I'll have more time, attention and energy for these extras. Hmmm, that sounds a whole lot like, "I'll get to that next week."

I will keep working on this end. Perhaps you have some ideas or suggestions for me? For now I will keep on moving in this general direction.

Sending you blessings and love for today and everyday.

Transitions II

I've heard so much feedback this last week about transitions. We all move through transition times many times in our lives. It seems many are in their own transitions right now, it seems to be " up" for many of us.

As part of these transition times, it seems many of us are experiencing changes with some people around us. Some of us are finding ourselves disappointed in teachers or leaders we have looked up to. Some of us are finding that we are moving on and leaving some relationships behind, or at least we are experiencing great changes in some of our relationships. How do we proceed? What are we meant to do? We might have to revise some of our relationships. It feels like we are getting reminded to follow our own hearts and Knowingness, to be our own teachers and leaders, instead of giving our power away to someone else. We are seeing our relationships with new eyes and being challenged to meet our own needs, to take care of ourselves, rather than leaning on others or having expectations of others. We are getting ourselves in a better position to hear the whispers of our own Guidance and even more prepared to be of assistance to others.

One of the goals during these times is for all of us to follow our hearts, to follow our passion. If we are putting too much importance on what someone else thinks is right for us right now, or are spending too much time squandering our energy, we are going to be reminded to take a look at this.

For me, I find the more I listen to Guidance, the more smoothly my life runs. The easier each day unfolds. The dance of giving my power away is surely present, perhaps it always will be. For me right now I find myself scrutinizing all relationships. How does this relationship make me feel? Does my heart smile when I think of that person? Well, that is a good sign, and it is pretty easy to figure out how to proceed then. The more complicated relationships for me right now are those which I feel strongly that I am meant to be in the relationship, I love the person, and yet something is changing. We are redefining, renegotiating our relationship. For some reason there is something crying out for shift and change. In these cases, it is more challenging to know how to proceed. I am flying by the seat of my pants in these areas. I don't have a model to follow, I just have to wing it, and see what happens from there. If I don't like the outcome, choose again! That is one of the great gifts of this experience. We have free will. We can choose again, and again, and again, until we get it right. When I find myself in these types of positions, wondering how to proceed, these are the most important times for me to remember the most important relationship of all. My connection to Spirit, God, Goddess, The Great Mystery, whatever works for you. These are the times when calling on Help, asking for Divine Assistance on how to proceed makes me most effective. These relationships are changing too. Trust what you get.

I look forward to hearing how these times affect you and your relationships. I am sharing this, indeed all these postings I share in the hopes that you will see a bit of yourself here. To further recognize that we all experience some similar things as part of the human condition. We are doing our best to make our way. As we work though our situations and are open about the process, then maybe as we help ourselves, we might assist another, just a little bit. It feels like that is at least part of what we are here to do together.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Lately the song "Where do we go from here", from The Alan Parsons Project keeps running around in my head. The same few words,

"Where do we go from here now that all of the children have grown up?"

I guess this is a reminder that it is getting to be that time. All of the children are growing up, my baby is 18. She is headed off to college in the fall, our son is on the far side of his Sophomore year in college, and has made the shift to feeling more at 'home' when he is away at school.

So what does it mean? What will I be filling my days with, now that the bulk of my job is ending. My job, being Mom, has been the most important and rewarding work of my life. We have raised two great people. I look forward to seeing where their lives take them. It is their time now, they are taking the reigns.

I am not imagining I am done being Mom, I am saying most of the hours the job requires have gone down, way down. I am headed into a time of great transition. I am looking forward to this time, and I have been preparing for it, as best I can. How do you prepare for the unknown? I don't know! I laugh as I say that, but that is the truth, and becoming comfortable with not knowing is the best thing I can do. If I thought I knew what to do, I might feel more relaxed, but that doesn't seem right. It feels like it is important to keep myself flexible even though as I say that it feels a bit scary, but in a good way. I am going to try to keep myself open to the possibilities. To keep suiting up and showing up, to keep paying attention wherever my heart leads me, and to be careful not to fall into the trap of getting too comfortable, and not doing enough stretching. It would be easy to do. Now it feels like I have permission to coast a bit, and I will and yet, now I can spread my wings to the world of possibilities. I am looking forward to playing more, more drawing, more writing, more dabbling in the healing arts, and who knows what else. I am keeping some room open on my tray of life. If I know what all I will be doing, I am filling up all the nooks and crannies, then there will not be room for The Unknown, for Divine Magic to happen. I am keeping some space available for that. It is a bit uncomfortable, I am getting used to that.

So the song says, "Where do we go from here?" I don't know. I just don't know, and that is okay. More Alan Parsons Project, "If I promised you the moon and stars would you believe it?" Let's open our hearts and leap into the next phase of our lives. Whatever is going on in your life, we are all heading into new times. Do you have room for The Unknown, what about the moon and stars? Breathe, get centered. Let's go.

Sending you Blessings and Love for a wonderful day today and every day.

The Power of Words

"A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day" Emily Dickinson

That is one of my Mother's favorite quotes. She would often recite it to us, to help us understand the power of words, ours and those of other people. Words. They have power. Today is a Holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and it seems appropriate that this is the day I feel compelled to write about the power of our words. Certainly Dr. King lives on, in part by the power of words.

I was watching Maya Angelou recently and I was reminded of how beautifully she uses written and spoken words. Her poetry, her story, it is all about the power of words, and she is a master. As I discussed this today with a dear friend, we were talking about the work of Dr. Masuru Emoto, the Japanese author and scientist who has studied the effects of words, written and spoken upon water. In a nutshell, he has taken samples of water and frozen them, shaved off slivers of the ice and looked at them under a microscope to see the crystal patterns in the water. He has samples from all over the world. Different waters display different crystals. That's interesting, but there's more. If the water has been prayed over, or stored in a container with a word on it, a different crystal forms. If a "beautiful" word is used, like Love, Forgiveness, Peace, the crystals are beautiful snowflake like patterns. If an "ugly" word is used, the crystals are fractured and messy. Okay, fine, that's all well and good, but if you begin to think that as human beings we are made up of 80% or so water, then 80% of your body is affected by the words that are being thought and spoken around you, perhaps that is something worth monitoring. Maybe his work is actual proof of the impact of words {if you are interested in learning more about Dr. Emoto's work, I encourage you to read any of his books, "The Message in Water" for one, or his most recent book, "Love Thyself, The Message in Water"}.

Last night my daughter and I witnessed a woman get angry and frustrated with a server at a restaurant. The manager came over, and after repeatedly trying to soothe the woman, finally, he offered her some compensation. Until she left he continued to try to soothe her. Finally this grown man said to her, "I feel so bad. I want to just go crawl in the bushes over there". I think he was reflecting to her just how badly her words were making him feel. Let me say the service was terrible, but for us it was a good night. Of course we did wait a LOOOONG time for dinner, just as our neighbor had. Actually, it was as though were were having two different experiences. We were having a pleasant mother and daughter bonding time and our neighbor was seething. We didn't complain to the manager, we didn't complain to the server, we smiled and made conversation about how busy they were and how challenging that can be. I don't know what they gave to the woman who was so unhappy, but they gave us a free dinner. We had a wonderfully relaxing, enjoyable evening and were tickled by the bonus of a free dinner. The words of the manager, wanting to crawl into the bushes, and the crumpled face of our server, as she nearly cried from the stress continue to remind me of the power of words. I am not judging or faulting the unhappy diner next to us. I think we have all been in her shoes, and I confess, I have even gotten angry with someone who was just doing their job. I can't change that. What I can do, is weild the power of words responsibly, lovingly even. So how do you want to weild the power of words? What if we are not talking about a restaurant, but at our own home with those we love? What do we want our legacy to be?

Let's begin to pay closer attention to our words. If you catch yourself using words in a negative way, complaining or grumbling you can undo it. Replace the thought or word with a new one, a better one. It is a step in the right direction of making the world a better place, one word at a time. One moment at a time. From the inside out, beginning with you and me. In our hearts, in our minds and coming out of our mouths. Let's spread the words...love, peace, grace, gratitude, joy... you get the idea.

Oh, and let me know how it goes! I would love to hear!

Thank you for reading! I am great-full for you!

Sending you Love and Blessings, Kim