Beautiful Faces. Magical Places.

I am eager for the lists that make their way out on sleepy Friday mornings. Today I am a rethinking some choices, feeling oh-so much, packing for a camping trip with my mom squad families -without Patrick (yikes), post panic attack chilling, bacon for breakfast and grateful for summer camp for two out of the three of the kiddos kind of mama.

These are my pay-it-forward lists.

This is the World Domination Summit version. My final post on an amazing weekend in Portland. I share so much of this with you because I am consumed with thinking about how we must create our own communities. We did that with Mamacoach Circle and I strive to do that here on Mama Space. But I want more. I have big dreams for inviting what I want to be surrounded by into my life. I want you to dream this way. Create what you long for. Thank you for being here and part of this community. My heart is so happy you are here.

I take terrible notes, luckily some people take beautiful ones. By the way Kate is actually more gorgeous in real life than online. Just so you know.

Look at those beautiful faces. In magical places. Right?

Being with people who make us feel loved, whole and beautiful is kind of exactly what I'm going for in this life of mine.

The post is awesome, but the way her site is looking is giving me so much inspiration for how we keep evolving. Liz, it is gorgeous.

This moment. Yes.

The most amazing thing is that we all have our own experience and I want to honor that it is different for each of us.

The hardest part of this conference for me was saying the name to other people who don't know what it is about. What she said.

Um, hell yes.

My dinner partner for many nights, she is filled with inspiration for all of us.

A highlight of my trip, finally got my Chris hug. So much of where I am I owe to this man.

And from the man where all of this came from, in his own words.

There were so many posts from the weekend, please share a link if you have one for all of us! xo

Those First Moments

The first moments alone I cried.

I needed to process the being alone part. In a gorgeous hotel, that I paid for from my business, allowing me to travel, dine, flow around at my will.

I feel different. For the last two years I've been trying to integrate that difference into how I feel when I'm at home, in my small space with noise levels that only three kids can make.

I stood up at my very first business/change your life conference two years ago, with tears in my eyes, and asked, "How do we integrate who we are in our work with who we are at home, because they feel like two very different people who are always mad at the other one."

What I didn't realize then was that this would become such a huge part of my work. My talks and emails with clients talking about how we often feel like fakes, as though what we talk and write about is off from how we live. Usually those of us with families, children or a whole lot of overwhelm.

Teach what you are learning, passionate about, heart soaring excited for.

I feel the most like myself when I'm writing, sitting and listening to someone, snuggled up with Patrick or reading quietly to one of my kids. I feel at peace and calm on the beach alone or with all the kids running loose. In the car driving, long and far, I connect to me. Skyping with a client or on the other end of Instagram. Cooking anything in a clean kitchen. Alone in my home. In the sun. My feet dirty in the garden. Here, writing. Surrounded by my favorite women.

I feel in the truth of how I need to be.

When I write, I forget about all else, I just let my feelings integrate onto paper. As close as I can figure, this is when I feel safe and calm.

But I get angry. I fight with Patrick, lose my patience 134 times a day with my kids, hold old baggage with family and friends that I'm learning to accept as simply part of being human.  I question if marriages really can last, if I'll ever be 130 pounds again or if anyone really likes me. My feelings get hurt and I have a hard time releasing it and moving back into a space where it feels safe to be there.

I get panicked when I think how much more I could be doing and all that I am doing. Those moments of not being present leading us into sabotage. I forget to tag my posts, have no clue about SEO and feel a deep desire to rebrand all of me.

I also look at all I'm doing and think, holy crap, look at all I'm doing. But not laundry.

Telling the truth is fucking hard. I rarely swear when I write but my three old uses the word damnit perfectly.

Walking into new places is one of my highest anxiety points and I'm afraid of how much I miss out on when I don't do because of it. Part of my beautiful work is learning ways to find the softness inside of that truth. Find a way to embrace the fear.

 And be so proud of all of this.

This beautiful woman whispered words into my ear that I'll keep in my heart, but remember always as why we take a chance on those first moments. For the connection, the deep gaze into someone's eyes, the way their hug feels, the door we walk through that changes our lives.

Those first moments, the kiss, the dance, the walk, the run, the breath, the song.

Those first moments: can I tell you what is in my heart? Those first moments: of truth. Those first moments: we need this.

He Marks Time

Eli turned 7. I started to blog when he turned 3.

I had intentions to write about it, share pictures of the day, I saw it all.

The day was rough, edges and middles. I asked for help. He ended the day saying it was one of the best birthdays ever.

And so he marks time for me. For the transition into the woman I am becoming, am, was.

I watch him grow, feel his need for my love above all else.

And I am simply struck by the passage of time. And where I stand. And what I see.

Instead of birthday candle pictures taken with me behind the camera saying, "get off the table, stop sticking out your tongue" and all the other things exhausted moms say, instead I made you a little gift.

To mark your time with simplicity, ritual and the joy of making space.

What matters most, is how we feel when we lay our heads down at the end of the day.

As I read the boys to sleep tonight, both snuggled up in one bed together, feet to feet, I knew that to be true.

In stillness (A peek into The Making Space Cleanse)

"Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself."- Hermann Hesse

Today during Summer Solstice we dance and play and welcome this night full of light and joy. At lunch time today I am going to play music and have the kids grab an instrument and dance and play in the yard.

After the dance and play I always crave stillness. I like to lie inside of soft space and feel, observe, be present.

As part of The Making Space Cleanse we will take our first day to observe stillness. To be present to our homes.

I'm sharing a piece of day 1 with you. My solstice gift to you.

After the dance and the celebration of light, allow yourself to start the preparation into cleansing your home, hearts and minds for the summer.

The days for those who join us on this journey will also include soulwork, videos, recipes and books that I love.

The video is a peek into our soulwork for Day 1.

Registration ends tomorrow, and there is a very special summer price this round. Check it all out over here...

Making Space Soulwork 1 from Hannah Marcotti on Vimeo.

The most important part of making more space in our life is to spend time in stillness. Meditation, soft space (time spent doing nothing but being) and daydreaming are ways of being still. For today I’d like for you to sit in stillness and observe. Look at the walls and windows of your home. Spend 5 minutes looking at the books on a book shelf that you see every day, without ever really seeing them at all. Watch a plant in its stillness as you sit and see the way the light shines off of it. Notice the textures of a pillow or the patterns on a rug.

Be still in your space in a new way. Sit somewhere new. Pull up a chair to a spot you’ve never spent time sitting and be still.

Tomorrow’s work will be based around what you observed today, so make some time to be still.

What are your first thoughts when I ask you to sit in stillness?

Does it sound too easy, or sound silly, or does stillness feel a bit scary or impossible to get to?

Be still.
Look at what you have chosen (or perhaps not) to be around in your space.
Just notice.
And really look.
Take the time to be present to lights, sounds, textures, colors.
Stillness.

Beautiful Faces. Magical Places.

I am eager for the lists that make their way out on sleepy Friday mornings. Today I am a scheduling this post on Thursday night because the big kids' first day of summer vacation is tomorrow and I'm kinda freaking out and I'm out of decaf for the morning bumming, but we are going strawberry picking with a picnic and I'll just do more work at night now and go find a coffee drive thru kind of mama.

These are my pay-it-forward lists.

My pleasure to announce to you that Jenn Gibson's Self- Love Warriors E-Course opens today. Today! I am proud to be a guide, but that is not why I want you to go check it out. This is heart centered work that will fill your soul, ease your fight and show you how loving up yourself will turn your whole life around. I adore this woman and her work with women that is life changing, no exaggeration.

Currently there are 118 comments on this post. Because telling the truth is so freaking beautiful and craved by our souls. Also, because Andrea is just that beautiful and loved.

I am an interview junkie. Amanda kindly fed my addiction.

From my sweet girl Rachel. And this simply gorgeous interview and words shared from both of them.

Moo Cards is having a free special on FB cards! I just connected my account and boom, the gorgeous timeline Michelle made is now part of my pocket cards for my conference!

Super cool, my sister has predicted this will be my next project...somewhere.

I will be seeing this in July in Portland, and they only have a small amount left to raise, crowd funding, community building...yes, yes, yes!

These two men are among my favorites and together, such shining! Bernardo's smile lights the screen.

So cute is my favorite, we also have honey fox that Lucas and I are sporting on our toes right now (pictured above both colors). But oh my, look at stoned! That is my new favorite!!!

I don't knit, thankfully Etsy people do. And my favorite color is gray! And mocha. I would like to knit someday.

The Making Space Cleanse starts June 21st, summer encore special price. Soulwork and recipes, making space in the body, mind and spirit!

Sexy Edges

This dream was an answered unasked question. Those questions we hold deep inside, too scared to know they are there.

This dream was of me, one year later.

This dream makes me realize what I am stepping into.

This dream tells me why I feel like a snake about to shed its skin.

This dream is about embracing, accepting, flourishing. And how gentle this can be.

This dream isn't about being bold or fearless.

This dream holds a softness, the truth.

This dream is of me.

This dream is of me one year later.

***

A client of mine said that when asked about her business (which is starting to ignite) from a friend, she shyly replied that it was doing OK. She didn't say that she couldn't believe herself how amazing things were starting to become. She didn't say that she was becoming aware of just how beautiful creating a soulful, heart-centered biz was. She didn't say that she was about to raise her rates, a lot, because of demand.

She didn't say those things because it feels to a sensitive soul so strange to talk about ourselves in that way. It makes us worry we are bragging or that as soon as we admit how great things are, they will swing the opposite way, and we'll start to fail. I can imagine her in one year, and what I see is a soft edge to her confidence.

What if --when asked how our business is doing, we said, "There is an intense joy that designing your own beautiful work can bring. That is where I'm headed." Even if we are struggling. Even if we haven't yet made a dime.

Because if that can be true, if that intense joy in designing our own beautiful work can be true NOW, we can step into that confidence.

No one can give confidence to you. Living with confidence can be modeled and tools can be shared. The rest is up to you.

That is part of the work, not just creating and marketing, but confidence manifesting. It isn't that someone has a shinier website or more design knowledge, it is that they are cultivating their confidence, they are tending it softly, with truth. They take what you call risk, what they call a must-do.

A soft edge to confidence is pretty damn sexy.

In that dream I see how in this coming year I've settled into my new skin and this retreat into myself I've been on for a year has brought me such truth and joy.

I own my confidence, its softness is my glider.

I see in this dream where that has allowed me to go, and yes it is joyful.

***

Close your eyes. It is one year later. What do you see...

Prayer. Feet. And the beauty.

When things are turned upside down and my insides are confused, knotted, these feet seek out the sand. The grains of time that set my body clock ticking again. A sanctuary that means no fighting kids, no internet, no decisions. Picnic packed and sun hat blowing in the breeze. The roughness of my edges softened, if only for these few moments.

And the beauty.

Rocks stuffed in our pockets, sand dripping from our toes. The prayer of the ocean. Remembering for a moment... almost feeling the butterflies of the first time we kissed.

Under the sheet. The wait. The reason I miss most appointments and am kicked out of practices. Sitting there, half naked waiting for another person to walk in fully clothed and talk to you as though this is normal. My feet go numb. I twist them and lift them until the blood moves again, matching the blood pounding in my heart. I leave with a urethra sore and aching, tests that try to discover why this loved 37 year old body is incontinent and often full of pain. I can heal. I will heal. I am healing.

And the beauty.

Looking in the mirror, silently remembering the prayers and blessings sent from this gorgeous community to my bladder and my spirit. Forgiving myself the slight ache of seeing the scale higher than previous comfort zones allowed.

The meditation circle in my little backyard. Needs dirt. Plants. A statue. My summer altar to sit at and sip coffee or calm my body. An early birthday gift to myself. A place to think of others. To send silent blessings, yes, I'm talking to you. Living in 900 square feet with three children and a dog creates a most desired longing for warm months. To extend living space and in a sense, my spiritual space. And yes, I so want to rearrange my living room around, something new for the summer solstice.

And the beauty.

Each day I walk closer to my spirit's calling. Prayers found in tea bags. Rocks from those beaches, lined up outside of my little bungalow. An introverts words, steps, breaths, time, silence, meditations while holding steaming mugs with painted nails.

And the beauty under your feet? Where are your prayers found?

Beautiful Faces. Magical Places.

I am eager for the lists that make their way out on sleepy Friday mornings. Today I am a Decaf Coffee (not sure why I feel that must be capitalized), grilled cheese on millet bread for breakfast and they all ate it, no fighting morning -I swear it, holy moly do I need a shower and some yoga kind of mama.

These are my pay-it-forward lists.

Stacy has the most beautiful, helpful, clever opt-in offer on her site. This is how you do it.

Beautiful story from Bridget.

Have you met my newest online crush, Sunni? She wrote about surrender which means I'm loving her even more...

When you let your heart lead your truth, the outpouring of love that follows is amazing. Liz is a friend and I share her story in many ways. This truth is so powerful.

Amazing things going on...

A press release!!! Lori that is just so cooooool!

Wild Sister is out! I wrote about love, superheroes and soup.

Click here to visit Wild Sister

I love this idea for a course. (I think Nathan is offering a two for one deal for you all too!)

 Now I must, must, must go take that shower. And figure out summer camp for the kids. And get garbage bags and bird food. And make my to-do list for tomorrow's work day. Or just go sit in the sun while Lucas rides his bike!

Tattoos Kind of Like Babies

Three babies. Maybe three tattoos. We'll see. I've been playing around with a sharpie until I find just the right one.

I have three ideas in mind. They are permanent, yes. So are my babies, and I like them that way.

Here is a secret. I've tended to hide behind a fear of judgement. When my life rather abruptly looked me in the face a few years ago and I had to learn trust and faith, I got my nose pierced. I felt so brave and as though I was finally starting to become myself.

I had always wanted my nose pierced. Always.

I made a decision for myself without needing approval or being afraid of what anyone would say or think. That decision marked time for me. When I see my nose ring I think about that year of transformation which has led me to who I am now.

Last year was all about joy. I have been taking a journey through ritual, trust and magic and all along feathers have followed my journey. One of our beautiful joy up tribe members even sent me an envelope stuffed with feathers. I wore feather earrings, feathers in my hair. My mantra was I am love. My highly sensitive self is all about sharing that love and creating and working from a place of love.

So feathers and love and anchors and birds are visions dancing in my head. (You can go peek at my Pinterest board of Inspired Tats!) Maybe obvious, perhaps discreetly placed. Time will tell. No impulsive tattoos for me, I've been thinking and planning for a long time.

Each year I feel like I have stepped into my own skin that much more.

Wanna talk tattoos or the marking of time?

P.S. Surrender has begun with prep week, there is still time to join us! Would love to move through time with you.

No Longer Defined By His Curls

Let go mama. Let him spread his wings and fly. Allow him to discover who he is, without the weight of his curls, or his mistakes or his past story. At three and half he has a story and he wants more than anything to start writing his own chapters.

And so I surrendered.

Watched the curls fall. Cried at the thought, smiled in the moment.

Reminded myself he is a HSP too.

Remembered all the times I had long flowing blonde hair and when I felt defined by it, would cut it all off. Pixie cut.

When Chloe was four she also asked to shave her head and without any hesitation we let her. There is such freedom in being able to fly as yourself. Removed from definitions of beauty, you start to see your wings.

Yep, looking at those pictures from this morning and then seeing the now, there is my baby turning into a little boy.

Winners. Beauty. Gratitude.

Thank you to everyone for making Beauty Week so much fun and I am so inspired by all of the comments. I will try to highlight some in the next week. Here are our winners, let's do beauty week again soon!!!!

Monday with Lori Portka - AnaLisa Rutstein

Tuesday with Dyamond Robinson-Patlyek - Brandi Yee

Wednesday with me and Surrender - Lacey Wright and The Spot from our angel donor - Ruth Clark

Thursday with Jenn Gibson - Heather Day

Friday with Vapour Organic Beauty - Tahirih

Saturday with Chelsea Biggs - Geordan Montalvo

What is Beautiful Through Your Eyes?

(Visiting my beautiful friend and partner Michelle in Virginia.)

Winners for Beauty Week's giveaways will all be announced tomorrow on the blog. Thank you from my heart to yours for leaving such gorgeous comments all week. If you missed any of the posts, here they all are again:

Monday with Lori Portka

Tuesday with Dyamond Robinson-Patlyek

Wednesday with me and Surrender

Thursday with Jenn Gibson

Friday with Vapour Organic Beauty

Saturday with Chelsea Biggs

What is beautiful through your eyes?

Growing, birthing, and then watching my child bloom into an amazing little girl.  That's beauty to me.  Watching as my belly grew over 9 months, feeling her kicks and watching her squirm.  What joy.  Finding a power I never knew I had as I helped her make her transition from the darkness and comfort of my womb, out into the world so new.  Watching her yesterday, now 2, so eager to run and play with the ocean waves, as if they beckoned her to a place she already knows.  She is my beauty. ~ Xandra

The heart's ability to hurt and heal,
To forget and love,
To remember and trust,
To grow and stretch in places unknown and at once feel at home. ~ Stephanie

Beauty is the stillness that comes after walking through a storm. That's where the quiet wisdom emerges. ~ Britta

Willow trees... I can't explain it, but I can stop and stare at a willow tree for hours.~ Nicole

My 12 year old daughter who shares her secrets with me, for I know that all too soon I might no longer be the confidante of choice
My 92 year old grandmother, afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease, who showed me what pure, true, unconditional love looked like
Our aging dog who looks at me with such love and adoration in her eyes
My tribe of women
True and honest forgiveness
A heart full of gratitude
My ability to love deeply and really mean it ... Big, huge love I like to call it
Thunderstorms
Our garden, beginning to tease us with luscious, not quite ripe enough to pick fruit
The perfect green smoothie ~ Jenny.

For those of you who haven't met Jenny yet, she has graciously been helping me with the back end of my business. She takes care of my week, keeps me settled and calm and does a whole lot of busy work. If you've been in my tribe for a while, you already know and love this woman. She is beauty.

What is Beautiful Through Your Eyes? ~ Chelsea Biggs

This week on the blog I am hosting beauty week. What is beautiful through your eyes?

I want us to talk about beauty, to feel beauty, to be inspired by beauty. Beauty is something that we enjoy with all of our senses. With our hearts. I’ll be asking you to join the conversation over on FB and Twitter. I want to know what is beautiful through your eyes. Each day there will be a giveaway, simply leave a comment to enter to win.

Want to know two of the things that I think are most beautiful? Dreaming and action. Together they are secret sauce, butterfly magic, manifest beauty.

Dreaming felt impossible for me until I realized that my dreams were just that, my own to hold and cradle and nurture. Just like comparing my kids to yours, comparing my dreams to yours was the surest way to blow them out. Ignite and extinguish.

As I watch and guide women around me to start to dream and move, move, move, I know that I have found my beautiful work.

Today Chelsea Biggs from The Utopian Collection shares beauty through her eyes. Chelsea and I met at a party. I was drawn to her first from her immense beauty (this girl shines) and then from the way she talked about her business. I could talk about new businesses for hours. It took us about a year to finally meet for dinner!

Chelsea is multi-passionate. Not quite sure what she can't do. For the last 102ish days she has made a bag a day. I'm completely in awe of this. From the dream to the action. This is how you rock beautiful work. Surrendering to the dream and making it happen.

What is beautiful through your eyes?

Through my eyes beauty is confidence
to be who you are and where you are today

Beauty is compassion for those you love
for all those who you pass in your day

Beauty is the simple things
a piece of a robin's egg on a walk
a smile from your lover
flower petals in the streets
a morning storm

Beauty is not something to strive for
it is a state of mind.

Live in Beauty.
You are Beautiful.

Chelsea is offering one beautiful person a gorgeous feather hair clip. I have two, no three, of these. Sometimes we just have to wear a feather in our hair. To enter to win, simply leave a comment below with an answer to this question:

How do you make space to dream your beautiful dreams?

(Winners from the week will be announced on Monday 5-21-2012!)

What is Beautiful Through Your Eyes? ~ Vapour Organic Beauty

This week on the blog I am hosting beauty week. What is beautiful through your eyes?

I want us to talk about beauty, to feel beauty, to be inspired by beauty. Beauty is something that we enjoy with all of our senses. With our hearts. I’ll be asking you to join the conversation over on FB and Twitter. I want to know what is beautiful through your eyes. Each day there will be a giveaway, simply leave a comment to enter to win.

I discovered Vapour and fell happily for every product they have. Gluten-free and cruelty free, so no worries about safety. My dog ate my favorite product from them and he seemed to want more.

I feel beautiful in make-up and I feel beautiful without it. I have found that if I do my hair and put on make-up I am more productive. I say nicer things to myself in my chattering mind. I feel like being seen.

Our outside reflects what is happening on the inside. Ever see a women who has gone through a break up go out and cut all her hair off? Or watch as someone becomes crazy joyful and they start to drop weight and dress with a tad of sparkle? Do you notice that on days you wear jewelry that you carry yourself in a more beautiful fashion?

Beauty is in our soul, our spirit and our physical world. I give you permission to want to look and feel beautifully and dress in a way that shows it off.

If you were part of the summer Joy Up you'll remember one day's soulwork was all about reconnecting to the person you used to be. The one that wore red cowgirl boots or feathers in her hair. The girl who used to put scarves around her neck and collected big earrings. The red lipstick wearing woman who traded her color for chapstick in her diaper bag.

Beauty feels good. When we wear beauty on the outside it transforms our insides.

So if you haven't put on lipstick for a while, hear is a dare to go out and find an outrageously lovely color and smear it on. And take a picture. And love yourself up a bit. Yes, mamas and friends, you are hot!!!!

What is beautiful through your eyes? (from comments on the blog or FB page)

Foggy days, love them! - Liz

The world around me when I am laying in my hammock. - Michelle

Sunlight streaming in the windows and lighting up the fur flying about. - Melissa

Everything I see right now...I can't choose one. My daughter howling and laughing with her monster movie. My houseplants soaking up the last bits of indirect sunlight. The contrast of the tree leaves against the blue blue sky interspersed with cotton clouds. The love and fox bracelets on my wrists, which I've always been fond of. The kindergarten writing on the chalkboard. The table full of family things. The clean kitchen, which I'm about to go cook in. And how GOOD it feels to sit here in this space that reflects me back to me and soak it all in. - Anna

Today beauty is coming across photos of myself from two years ago, taken by someone I don’t know, and thinking, “Oh. Hey. I look beautiful.” I could not have seen that back then. Today is knowing I recognize both my inner AND outer beauty. - Jennifer

today beauty through my eyes is the shit path. the muck and the poo and the dank and dark places. seeing them now, as i am able, from this side of peace, joy, more clarity and love than i’ve ever known, they now possess a certain beauty to me. one wrapped up in surrender. as once i did, surrender that is, it seemed to begin clearing away. - Latisha

For me… today, in this moment… beauty is allowing myself to admit that I’ve lost the beauty I used to find in myself and allowing myself to begin the search for her again. - Amber

Today's giveaway is two shades of lipstick from Vapour Organic Beauty. Thank you Vapour! Hint and Restraint. I love how smooth and silky the lipstick is. It might make giving out a few kisses today much more fun.To enter to win, simply leave a comment below with an answer to this question:

What do you feel called to do to reconnect with the sparkly real-you?

(Winners from the week will be announced on Monday 5-21-2012!)

What is Beautiful Through Your Eyes ~ Jenn Gibson

This week on the blog I am hosting beauty week. What is beautiful through your eyes?

I want us to talk about beauty, to feel beauty, to be inspired by beauty. Beauty is something that we enjoy with all of our senses. With our hearts. I’ll be asking you to join the conversation over on FB and Twitter. I want to know what is beautiful through your eyes. Each day there will be a giveaway, simply leave a comment to enter to win.

Beauty is often elusive to us because our minds are so busy. Busy can include comparisons and trying to keep up with what we think we should be doing and how we think we should be looking. The ever fascinating loop of I am not good enough.

In stillness we learn love and compassion, we quiet our racing competitive minds. Beauty is everywhere inside of stillness.

Jenn Gibson from the popular and adored site Roots of She shares beauty through her eyes today. She is love, love, love.

Her site is sacred space shared by women everywhere. It is my favorite place to go and read and let myself be lost in words and thoughts and prompts. Recently Jenn became a life coach and is feeling the joy and beauty of that expansion into deeper purpose.

Watching her grow into her truth, guided by her mission --which is for you to know you are never alone, reminds us that we are all here for a unique and beautiful purpose.

What is beautiful through your eyes?

Beauty looks like wrinkled hands, bifocal glasses and white hair. Beauty looks like a momma nursing her child, and the wonder in a child's eyes.

Beauty looks like the sunrise and sunset and the knowledge that the moon will be rising soon, that the stars are about to come out and play.

Beauty looks like tears and bravery and surrender and joy and reveling in the sacredness that is you.

What I know to be true about beauty is this: We are all beautiful.

With our scars or hair that's growing out, with our round bellies or knobby knees, we are beautiful. With our vulnerable eyes and heart, with our hope and beliefs and dreams, we are beautiful.

Because it's our hearts and minds, our souls and dreams, our desires and hopes that makes us beautiful. It's when we are living our Truths, sinking deep into our integrity and values, acknowledging that yes, we are not only worth this, but so much more.

Jenn is offering one beautiful person a copy of her Metta in Mantras kit: a guided meditation kit includes a 20 minute meditation, a 15 page mini e-book filled with tips and hints on starting out with guided meditation and a set of six printable affirmations. To enter to win, simply leave a comment below with an answer to this question:

How do you find sacred space?

(Winners from the week will be announced on Monday 5-21-2012!)

What is Beautiful Through Your Eyes? ~ Surrendering

This week on the blog I am hosting beauty week. What is beautiful through your eyes?

I want us to talk about beauty, to feel beauty, to be inspired by beauty. Beauty is something that we enjoy with all of our senses. With our hearts. I’ll be asking you to join the conversation over on FB and Twitter. I want to know what is beautiful through your eyes. Each day there will be a giveaway, simply leave a comment to enter to win.

I wondered, would anyone answer yesterday's question (What is beautiful about you?) with a physical attribute?  And some of you did. I felt blissed out about that!

I had a realization last year, that I continue to have about once a week about my belly. When I get dressed I look at my belly. Does the shirt cling and show my wiggly middle? Should I put a scarf or sweater on to hide it?

I never, ever looked at my face. Shirt on --belly. Pants on --belly. Makeup on --belly. (Yes, I could even pull that one off, does this mascara make my belly look big?)

So I started to look at my face. And my legs. And my butt. And my arms. And my ears. I moved my gaze around my entire self. I started to wear bigger earrings and necklaces so I would focus my eyes up around my face. I found shoes I loved so as to glance at my feet.

I surrendered to a new way of viewing beauty. Beauty is not based on my stomach. I repeat, my beauty is not based on my stomach.

Fighting with my body is exhausting. I was doing it for so many years, years where there was very little to actually fight over!

I surrender to my beauty. Yes, my beauty.

Can you imagine your world if you did the same, let your beauty lead you, speak for you, let you be seen? No fight, just pure love.

Surrendering.

What is beautiful through my eyes?

Today beauty looked like my six year old making me tea.

My new striped skirt and tunic with a hot pink, sparkly necklace...beauty!

It looked like a face without makeup.

A moment of remembering my feet in the sand as I look at the gorgeous beach rocks we carried home with us.

It was words from others filling me with love. Wrapping me in love.

Today beauty was sitting in a chair at my Dr.'s and knowing that I was not alone.

Beauty was the way the strawberries sunk into my white sour yogurt.

Watching my little fall to sleep next to me, his chest rising and falling under the cozy blanket.

Drops falling on the roses, this was beauty.

Beauty was peeling off my clothes at the end of the day and breathing into the places where I feel judgement for my body.

Beauty. Yes, I surrender to beauty. The beauty I am. The beauty around me. The beauty I dream of. The beauty yet to come.

Today two spots in Making Space for Surrender are being offered. One from me, one from an angel who is sponsoring one beautiful woman to take the course. To enter to win, simply leave a comment below with an answer to this question, and if your name is drawn and you already paid for the course you will be reimbursed:

 

Do you hear an echo of surrender?

(Winners from the week will be announced on Monday 5-21-2012!)

What is Beautiful Through Your Eyes? ~ Dyamond Robinson-Patlyek

This week on the blog I am hosting beauty week. What is beautiful through your eyes?

I want us to talk about beauty, to feel beauty, to be inspired by beauty. Beauty is something that we enjoy with all of our senses. With our hearts. I’ll be asking you to join the conversation over on FB and Twitter. I want to know what is beautiful through your eyes. Each day there will be a giveaway, simply leave a comment to enter to win.

I am surrounded by beautiful women, some who know their beauty, others just discovering it. My community is rich and layered.

On days when I feel blah, less than, all I need to do is look out to my community, the one that exists with the women who live around me and to my virtual community.

I need to get dressed, out of pajamas and into clothes that make my body feel beautiful. I've been known to wear yoga pants with an outrageously beautiful necklace and a face painted softly with organic make-up.

I need to move, to flow inside of yoga and then sit in the stillness of meditation, my Mala in hand.

The beauty of community is that we are never alone, even when we are by ourselves.

We are supported and held.

Dyamond makes Malas and jewelry for rebellious yogis and spiritual rockstars and they are beauty. She is beauty. Honest, real, vulnerable and strong. Dyamond is part of the loving online community that I am a part of.  I am grateful for her presence.

I was on Dyamond's FB page the other day and she had posted this, just one of the reasons being part of a beautiful community who lifts you up is vital.

A Hugging Meditation Practice
by Thich Nhat Hanh

When we hug, our hearts connect and we know that we are not separate beings. Hugging with mindfulness and concentration can bring reconciliation, healing, understanding, and much happiness.

You can practice hugging meditation with a friend, a child, your parents, or even a tree. To practice, first bow to each other and recognize each other's presence. Then, enjoy three deep, conscious breaths to bring yourself fully into the present moment. Next, open your arms and begin hugging, holding each other for three in-and-out-breaths.

With the first breath, become aware that you are present in this very moment and feel happy. With the second breath, become aware that the other person is present in this moment and feel happy as well. With the third breath, become aware that you are here together, right now on this Earth. We can feel deep gratitude and happiness for our togetherness. Finally, release the other person and bow to each other to show your thanks.

What is beautiful through your eyes?

Slender hairy legs and curvy thighs.

Beautiful sunrises and cloudy thundery nights.

The wail of a confused child and joyfully contagious laughter.

 

The smell of fresh oolong leaves, and week old leftovers. 

 

Heartache and newfound love. 

 

The ebb and flow of the universe.

 

The roller coaster of life. 

 

Beauty, is beauty, just because it exists as part of the whole. 

 

I try to see things as part of the natural rhythms of our source. 

 

And when I view the world through this lens, all things are beautiful because there is-

 

Synchronicity.

 

Unity.

 

Oneness.

 

And endless wave of love and emotion. 

 

Those qualities are in all things, we just have to stop looking so hard.

 

Dyamond is giving away a gorgeous Mala to one beautiful person. Oh yes, you will feel so loved in this. To enter to win, simply leave a comment below with an answer to this question:

 

What is beautiful about you?

(Winners from the week will be announced on Monday 5-21-2012!)

What is Beautiful Through Your Eyes? ~ Lori Portka

This week on the blog I am hosting beauty week. What is beautiful through your eyes?

I want us to talk about beauty, to feel beauty, to be inspired by beauty. Beauty is something that we enjoy with all of our senses. With our hearts. I'll be asking you to join the conversation over on FB and Twitter. I want to know what is beautiful through your eyes. Each day there will be a giveaway, simply leave a comment to enter to win.

Lori, my soul-sister is joining us today. Lori has spent the last year working on A Hundred Thank-Yous. When I think of beauty my mind wanders in so many directions. From the smooth glossy surface of my decaf coffee to the new shade of nail polish I found at Anthropologie. And I think about beautiful work. This project, this gift of beauty and gratitude that Lori has created is magic. It has changed her life and if we all pay attention to this, if we let ourselves understand the depth of what gratitude allows, our lives too will be changed.

I will be a guest at Lori's exhibition and I am filled with joy. Beauty. Beautiful work. Beautiful living. Beautiful Lori.

What is beautiful through your eyes?

Beauty looks like forgiveness, kisses on the forehead, Anthropologie dresses, bright colors, green buds after winter.  

Beauty is what makes me tear up with emotion, what touches my heart and brings me into the moment, grateful and happy.

Lori is giving away to one beautiful person, her prayer flags. To enter to win, simply leave a comment below with an answer to this question:

What word will you whisper today in prayer, stillness or meditation?

(Winners from the week will be announced on Monday 5-21-2012!)

Mom Enough

Let's not let a magazine pull us apart -- as though we must take sides as mothers. Let's celebrate Mother's Day in unity, knowing that in our love and the safety we bring to our children that we are mom enough. Getting lost in the details serves no one. We have an opportunity to use social media, our blogs, our words for healing ourselves and our planet. I am mom enough to do all I can to be part of that.

***

I am mom enough to be myself.

I am mom enough to be fearful that I'm screwing up, doing it wrong.

I am mom enough to believe in my choices without making you feel less than about yours.

I am mom enough to love, with my whole heart.

I am mom enough to say "I'm sorry" when I've hurt you.

I am mom enough to cry when I feel like it is all falling apart.

I am mom enough to sometimes let it all fall apart.

I am mom enough to gently pick up the pieces.

I am mom enough to know when I need help.

I am mom enough to protect you with the fierceness of mama bear.

I am mom enough to allow you to fly with the wisdom of mama owl.

I am mom enough to embrace the shifts that come, each year, month, day, hour, moment.

I am mom enough to play in yoga pants and heels.

I am mom enough to hold your hair when you are sick, laugh at your jokes and say no when you really want to hear yes.

I am mom enough to move past judgements.

I am mom enough to claim my path.

I am mom enough to let you walk yours.

I am mom enough.

I am enough.

I am.

Faith Without Definition

The beautiful and spiritual coach Jennifer Wells-McCullough asked me to share a story about faith as she is launching TODAY a most enchanting ebook about the F- word. I have so many stories I could share but this was a turning point. While I don't share how I got to the place of knowing my abundance, the year of work and chaos that led me to understand it intimately, I hope the story will resonate within you and allow you to remember when Faith has showed up for you, or perhaps it was there all along.

***

Faith showed up on the day we had $18 in the bank. There were no credit cards, we had let go of them as they had given us a false sense of living and safety and we were drowning in debt. There had been weeks of filling up my gas tank with only $5 at a time because that is all I had. Like being a college student, yet with 3 kids and debt, debt, debt.

When we gave up credit cards everything shifted. It is one of the decisions that saved my marriage. Truth heals us. We had to face all the decisions we had ever made around money and some of those decisions were powerfully raw. To pay off the $15,000 in hospital bills for my first miscarriage, we had put it on a credit card. That was the beginning. Looking at the old story meant going back and seeing all the places where together, Patrick and I had started to disconnect. Our marriage became stronger but not before a whole lot of freaking hard work and super-shitty times!

Money is a mirror of where you are and how you are choosing your moments. Money is energy and credit is most often a negative energy, it pulls from you and rarely makes a return. How we feel about money, treat it, look at it, use it, accept it --this is our mirror.

We had been living by making a payment to the credit cards each month and then using the credit cards for things like gas and groceries and lots of things we surely didn’t need. Each month the cycle would repeat. When the credit cards were gone, so was the safety net. We were leaping with no idea if we would make it to the other side or free fall. We owned a house that was bought before the market collapsed. Savings did not exist. My business was just starting the energy exchange of money being made.

$18.00 in the bank. I remember tears on that day that fell from fear, faith and freedom. I was scared about feeding my family, but the fear had changed. I knew that the fear was my old story. The one of lack and disconnect and not understanding how to truly live in abundance. All the work I had been doing for the past year had been about transforming the fear into abundance, loving the life I had, now. And a gift showed up to test that work. $18.00 in the bank. The beautiful work of learning to feel so grateful for now was about to be tested, again.

I looked around and saw all there was. I felt abundant in what already was in my home, of what was just waiting to be transformed into nourishment for us. The most divine feeling of gratitude washed over me for that $18.00 knowing how much abundance each penny truly held.

Magic. Faith. Something much larger than myself wrapped around me and I knew that this $18.00 was going to be transformed into my new understanding of abundance. The phone rang. My aunt offered to send my kids to camp. The mail came. A check from my grandfather with a note, “I remember how expensive raising three kids can be.” An email, my first paid writing gig. All of this moments after this message of faith and truth came to me.
I still get shivers when I think about it. We happen to be so abundant now the oil company keeps sending us a reminder that we have a credit with them. Oh we still have debt. We still have family who offer us breathing space with extra support. We are still ‘under’ when it comes to our house. But we have no lack. Faith didn’t remove the fear, it allowed us to learn from it, to access its message. That fear, oh it had so much to say and so many lessons for us to learn. We let go of so much, and still are. Yes, surrendering to faith without definition or proof.

Now we make decisions that come from abundance, not lack. Faith brought us there. Faith that believing in the powers of the Universe, God, Magic --whatever you call it-- could turn our entire world around. Faith that when you can feel abundant with so little, you realize you have love and joy and peace, as my children would say, ‘times infinity!’