The graceful art of listening.   

And the beautiful flight of a pair of geese as my messengers today (Tuesday, as I write). 

I love life stories.   I love to listen to them, write them, read them, reflect on the wisdom they hold, ponder the lessons they contain, relish the way they are filled with purpose, witness the perfection in how they have unfolded exactly as they have, coach and teach how to reframe them, weave them with visual metaphors, thread them with nature’s profoundness.  

I love to use words to inspire people to not give up, to see life is miraculously beautiful, to not fear life’s design that continually walks us up spiral staircases of transformation, to offer a legend for maps based on what I found helpful walking my own life trail.   On a daily basis I am wowed by messengers and synchronicity that has been so significant in me flowing with the river of life with greater ease, I yearn to pay it forward so that others can experience their own smoother flow no matter how turbulent the current comes to be. 

I love to hear and see people.   I love to hear and see people who are feeling unheard and unseen.  Who doubts they should be heard and seen.   Who perceives they should hide from being heard and seen.  Whose pain and grief are too hard to be heard and seen.   Like my yearning to teach the magical wows that life holds, so too, is my yearning to foster unconditional listening within and to each other. 

I love to create.   I love to gather ideas and experiment and implement steps towards a vision.   And multi-task and continually learn new things and discover and experience variety, simultaneously.   The gift of loving to create to fuel the loves mentioned above. 

The curse of loving to create to fuel the loves mentioned above is a little three letter gremlin that spells n.o.w.   Now!  (smile)

For several days now I have been listening to my body, particularly my shoulders (because yes, the graceful art of listening includes how the body speaks).    I have felt a slight tightening when thinking of what I would write for The Caterpillar, the Swan, and the Graceful Art of Listening.  

An inner whisper has been nudging the content isn’t aligned to the three days/ week cadence you are aspiring to achieve. 

An inner whisper has been nudging focus on completing your manuscripts; they need your writing energy. 

An inner whisper has been nudging, there is a legend to provide for that map, a “how-to” nibble out of the cocoon, how to begin pecking through the eggshell, the multitude of ways to listen, like you are doing now questioning what needs to change with “The Caterpillar, the Swan, and the Graceful Art of Listening”

As I went for a run in Nature (another way that I am able to best listen for affirmation or clarity – running and nature) I felt the inner whisper was trying to say once/ week not three.

After the run, as the girls and I were driving home, two geese were standing in the road.  As we neared, the rose and began flying, straight ahead of us in the lead.   Follow your true north, they messaged.   Follow your true north compass.  Follow what you are hearing in that nudging.  

They then banked left, dipped lower in flight, and then began to rise again before they were out of sight.  They had a plan to affirm I had heard them, though.   As we pulled into the driveway, they came circling over us and then flew away.    We had arrived home, and I could

Trust the home of your heart in what it is speaking.   It always knows true north. 

Follow the true north of your creativity through the dips, rises, circles, and seeking where you want to build your nest for growing new beginnings.  

The graceful art of listening.   

And the beautiful flight of a pair of geese as my messengers.

So, dear readers, you may not see The Caterpillar, the Swan, and the Graceful Art of Listening three times per week, but you will continue to receive inspiring words in navigating transformation and the art of listening every other week.   

Thank YOU for dipping, rising, and circling with me!

Once upon a time, a stone lay quietly in the dark.  Sometimes the darkness was damp, sometimes dry, sometimes unbelievably cold in a frozen tundra kind of sensation, and sometimes soothing in that perfect temperature for resting and relaxing kind of way.  

The stone could hear many noises as it lay still in the darkness day after day.   At least once a week it would proclaim to those surrounding it one day I am going to see what makes the sounds we hear.   The others would laugh and remind the stone it was being silly.  Don’t be ridiculous, your natural state is to be unmoving.   You aren’t able to rise up from where we are all laying.  

The stone somehow knew differently.  

Faithfully it lay in the dark as time passed.  And passed.

And passed more. 

Then one day, the dampness came but it brought something more shortly after arriving.   Soon dampness turned to sogginess.   Then sogginess turned to muddiness   Every stone near the stone started to get a little nervous.     Another stone swore it felt itself moving a little.   No one else laughed this time.    

Suddenly, there was a loud swwwoooosssshhhhhhh sound and the stone along with all the others felt themselves slipping and sliding.  First rather slowly, and then once gravity took hold, there was much rolling and tumbling.   The stone could see light as it felt itself doing somersaults.   Dark, roll, light, roll, dark, roll, light, roll.   

Light.   The stone was no longer moving.   It looked around and it was so bright everywhere.   The stone could hear one of the familiar noises it had heard in the dark.   A dripping sound.   And what was that?  It sounded like water being poured.  Continually.    It felt like it, too, against the stone as it lay in what was now light.  

A few hours later it was dark again, but the dark was different.   For one, it was continually wet where stone lay.    And stone could look up and see dots of light instead of pure darkness.   The stone lay there taking in the new surroundings.  It called out to the other stones it had been in the dark with before finding itself in this new place.    The stone heard a mixture of reactions.  Some were concerned.  Others nervously laughing.   No one seemed to be hurt, though.   Just uncertain, questioning if anyone would be returning to the darkness.  Or if this was now home.  

Time passed.   And passed.

And passed more.

The stone lay there observing the light and the dark with scattered light and it continually lay in the wet.  Over time, the stone started to feel different.   Before coming to this new place stone had some jaggedness to its body.   “A little rough around the edges” was the phrase the elder stones like to use to describe stone.   As the stone felt itself altering, it also started to sense change was coming.   That it had a purpose it was going to be fulfilling that would mean it wouldn’t always be lying in this wet space. 

The stone would say one day I will be doing something very meaningful besides laying here where it is always wet and light for part of the day and dark and light for the other half.   The other stones around it would laugh and say Don’t be ridiculous, your natural state is to be unmoving.   You aren’t able to swim away. 

The stone somehow knew differently.

Faithfully it lay in the dark as time passed.  And passed.

And passed more.

And then one day the stone felt itself rising up with the help of something soft that seemed to cradle the stone with long pillars of some kind.  The stone felt itself being touched and the stone burst out laughing when one of the pillars rubbed the stone’s sides, feet, and top of the head.   Stone heard perfect as it felt itself being set on top of other stones in some kind of contraption on a single wheel. 

Then the stone felt itself slightly scraping against the other stones as it bounced and jostled along.   Then the bouncing stopped, and the stone felt itself rising again with the pillars gently cradling its body.  

Then the familiar feeling of dampness against the stone’s back but the light was still above the stone.  The stone was not submerged back in complete dampness and dark.   And it wasn’t continually wet, the sound of pouring water gone. 

After a few hours of darkness with dots of light familiar to the stone from the last place the stone had been, and a couple of hours of pure light, the stone heard the sound of joyous laughter and then a beautiful voice singing.   Then that same beautiful voice said this cobblestone path is perfect weaving through our flower beds.   

And the stone knew it had, at long last, reached where it was meant to be.  

The currents do flow as easily as this recent moment in the river of life.

I have a dessert I planned to make today for an event tomorrow.    A special recipe at that, for it is one my grandma passed on to me.   When I make it, I not only feel my grandma with me in the kitchen.    I feel myself paying forward her joy and love of baking and then serving that joy and love to the recipients through a delicious, sweet treat.  

I needed to purchase some of the ingredients and typically I get those ingredients at a larger supermarket because the smaller stores where I shop do not carry one of the ingredients.   Or so I thought.   

I didn’t have a need to go to the larger market, and so I found myself setting out for grocery shopping wishing I could find this ingredient at one of the other two stores.  A subconscious intention I tossed into the river flow. 

Enter first store.   And affirmation they don’t stock the item I was looking for as an everyday staple.  

Enter second store.   Complete items into cart from grocery list.  Listen to that inner whisper that nudges check out the freeze, because the ingredient I needed is a freezer item.   And wa-la, there it is!   What I needed was in the smaller store after all!

The currents do flow as easily as this recent serendipitous moment, in that nothing is really coincidence, magical way that the river flows.   If we choose to hear and see.   

And what I’ve started to discover is that the more we listen and observe, the more easily the river flows without our frenzied paddling. 

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience – Eleanor Roosevelt

Ok, let me see a show of hands for those of you who generate a checklist of to-dos or tasks because even more than that happy feeling of being organized is that joyful sense of accomplishment in check-marking what you completed.  

I like my lists.   Historically, I have also been one to generate a list that exceeded the time available in a day.   (Did I just see you re-raise your hand?)  Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t intentional, or at least not consciously intentional.   I didn’t have an inner voice shouting come on, that list is too short.  You aren’t exceeding twenty-four hours yet.    But I did have a noisy voice within that was overriding my soul’s desire to feel the experiences of the day.   That noisy voice was wanting me to do all day. 

I am going to give you this challenge.   I share it on behalf of two visitors that stopped outside my window yesterday reminding me I have time as their symbolism of longevity graced my day at that exact moment I was feeling myself begin to dance with “not enough time” as my thoughts went through the checklist of things on my Monday list.    

When you wake up to start your Thursday (or whatever day you wish to pick), think of three things you most want to achieve in your day.    What three things matter most?   Listen to your body react and respond when you think of what those three things are.    Is your body tensing up because you are hearing someone else’s voice or expectations, but it isn’t necessarily what is most meaningful to you?   Or does your body feel an exhilaration, an excitement, when you think of one of the three things?     

Now, I understand that in a given day there are many more than three things to accomplish.   And I also understand that there are some things we need to do that are not necessarily our greatest joys to do.   And yet, on the other hand, with only 86,400 moments in each day, and in that given day we will only get done what we can in that 86,400 moments, how do you want to fill that time?   And in filling it, what will leave you with the best feelings from the experiences?    Because it is in how we feel the experiences of the day that leave us with the memories of how we spent those moments.  Not the check marks we placed next to the number of “done”s.  

As part of my daily rituals, when the girls and I go for our run or hike, I will ask the Universe* to keep us safe, to help guide me to being fully present with the girls and the day, and then I also speak single words that I most want to experience for the day.   An intention setting rhythm and way of anchoring my attention ritual.   

Words may include joyfully, creatively, trustingly, playfully, receiving-ly, wisely, contentedly, gently, patiently, excitedly, compassionately.   Oh, so many more I can list, but I think you now realize the idea.     (Smile). 

In the few moments of reflecting on my day ahead that I know it will bring or that it needs to include (scheduled meetings, list of to-do’s, challenging projects, much multi-tasking, planned get-to-gethers, cooking a meal) I find that bringing awareness to one, three or five at most essential ways of BE-ing with the day establishes a groundedness within me and brings me into a presence with how I experience the rest of the day.    

Yes, exactly!  If you read Magnetize this is another way of drawing to you what you most want to experience in the 86,400 moments we are given each day.  And if you are now wondering what happens to these intention attention words when life brings the unplanned to our day?   Ah, I will say from experience, all the more reason to have these anchors.   The Universe has this magical way of bringing to us where these words can best apply themselves.   It’s rather amazing when I say “patiently” how I have at least one moment in the day when I am given the opportunity to burst out laughing – after the fact- when I was impatient about something and then heard remember you desired to know the essence of “patiently” today! (Laugh, wink, smile) 

Tomorrow when your day begins, give it a try.   Think of a word you want to experience in your day.  Then keep that word in your awareness and observe.  I welcome hearing how you lived your word out loud in your day!  

*Note:  Universe for me is defined as a very large TEAM that supports and surrounds me comprised of this Earth and not of this Earth, animal, human, guides, keepers, ancestors, spirits, Nature, Spirit, and the Sun, Moon, and stars, too.    

Let’s explore, discover, and have fun with the five senses today.   

Sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.  Mmm, wait, let’s have fun with the six senses!   Include your intuition, too.  That “gut” instinct.    The joy of acting on that inner whisper and experiencing a synchronous magical moment.  

Ok, sight.    As you read this, I would like you to pause, stand up from where you are sitting, and look straight ahead and around as far as you can without turning your body at the waist.   Think of it as if you are facing east.   What do you see that you haven’t looked at lately?   Truly looked at even if you’ve noticed it or your eyes have glanced at it every day?  

 Now, wait.   Don’t sit yet.   Now turn 45 degrees left or right, as if a compass now facing north or south depending on which direction you turned.   Repeat the same observing, the same sense of sight.   What do you see that you haven’t lately?    Let your mind drift with the memory of why you set what you now see where you did.   Why it matters to you.   Touch the meaning of what you are looking at.    Let the feeling of what you are seeing gently put its hand against your heart. 

Now turn another 45 degrees to the “west”. (Maybe you aren’t literally facing west, but I know you get the idea.){smile}    Repeat.  What do you see?   Maybe your view now includes looking outside.   What is looking back at you from outside or inside?  Listen.   To what you are thinking as you look at the sights in front of you.  Listen to your body as you feel in response to what you are looking at.    What are you hearing that is in partnership with what you are seeing?  

I know you know what’s next (smile, wink).    Ok, now you are facing your last direction.   Directly north or south depending on which way you turned from east in the beginning.    What are you seeing you haven’t noticed lately?   What do you smell at this moment? 

Are you seeing something that stirs a memory?   Associated with what you are looking at?  Or a seemingly random memory, though since I don’t believe anything is a coincidence, I might be inclined to say that “random” memory is offering you a message to hear.   To touch.     What about taste?   Just by reading that question asking you about taste as you face north or south, what are you now craving or hungry for? (Smile, grin).    What memory can you now see related to something you were tasting?  

Ok, now turn and find yourself full circle back to the East.     Back to the direction in which the sun rises.   A new day.   New beginnings.   Seeing in new ways.  

Have you explored and re-discovered something you had forgotten.   Did you discover gratitude or joy seeing something you hadn’t noticed lately?   What about the thoughts that came?  Did any of them offer a planted seed of something to do?   I haven’t talked with so-and-so in a few weeks.   I should text (or call or write.   Now you’ve tapped into your sixth sense!  That intuition.  Gut!  That inner whisper.     And what makes this so magical is you may just find when you send that message you receive it’s so funny you called.   I was just thinking about you.  

Happy senses day!