Brave girl

Are you familiar with the Brave Girls Club?  It's a website of pure positive, it's support and encouragement for women and the tag line is Let's be good to each other. I don't visit the website often but I do receive daily emails from the group. The emails are accessible in their language and tone, conversational and uplifting. This isn't Dr. Phil stuff, it's the stuff of dialog between you and a good friend.

There has been an inner turmoil brewing in me for quite some time and while I created it, heard it, worked it over and over, I haven't moved it forward to any conclusion or action. Yesterday, I took a baby step of action. It was good and it felt good and right. And then this morning, I got this email from Brave Girls Club and hello? Exactly what I needed to read.

Dear Extraordinary Girl,

Something wonderful happens to us as we are paying more attention to our souls, and at first it might not seem like such a wonderful thing. It's the day that we get flat out, undeniably SICK AND TIRED of the way things are.

If you find yourself in this place, lovely friend, take heart and know that this is the catalyst for deep and meaningful change and for the resolve it will take to get from where you don't want to be to exactly where you want to be, and never go back.

There must come a day when ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, when all of the excuses finally lose their power. There must come a day when things are so far from the path that feels like yours that you will do anything to get on the right path. THIS is a very good day, a day that deserves a thankful heart and serious consideration, attention and some of your undivided time.

So if you are sick and tired of the way things are, this is the doorway to the way things are meant to be. We must step out of what we don't want to be able to step into what we do want. It is SO WORTH IT.

Keep going, beautiful girl. You are going to get there. You are going to be ok. Everything is going to work out and this will be worth every tear you cry, every mile you walk, every hurdle you overcome.

You are so very loved.
xoxo

Project Alison 2014 has begun.

Raindrops on Roses

On the first morning of the new year, I awoke early, brewed some strong coffee and set out for a walk with the dogs. I spent new years eve and the first two days of the year at our cabin near Matagorda, Texas. There's a certain peace and deep comfort that I experience there that I don't usually reach in other places. The winter months are my favorite. Bare tree limbs, crisp light, the chilly hum of the morning.

As we walked, geese flew overhead. Their honking and calling were distant at first, so slight on the air but enough for me to notice, to stop, to stand still with my eyes closed and listen to them, listen to this my favorite of all nature's sounds, as they grew louder, flying over us, and then weaker again as the geese flew beyond us.

I never saw them. The grey clouds were low and thick. But hearing them is so powerful and calming, simple and peaceful.

It was a great kick-off to the new year. Hot cup of coffee in hand, the dogs, the bare tree limbs, cold air, grey sky and the sound of the wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings.

Slow and easy. It's a prayer of sorts, to my heart. And a wide smile to my face.

 

 

Adios 2013

This is my 43rd post this year. That's two more than 2012 and a little less than half from 2011. Could it be I've run out of things to say? Could it be I've stopped noticing the world around me, stopped listening to the thoughts inside me? Surely I cannot have run out of things to say. That's too easy. I think it's that while I haven't stopped paying attention to the world around me, to the magic and beauty that is always there, I have somehow stopped exploring, stopped taking the time to let it all soak in. I don't like that realization, not one bit. It's about time, really, not about taking the time but about making the time. Observation must be a priority, a habit that takes root and becomes second nature. It used to be that way with me but I disconnected from that in 2013. I'm not sure why.

I seek to change that in 2014. Starting today, the last day of 2013.

I am heading to the cabin in a couple hours, going to spend the changing of the calendar in the place that I love, among the trees and the lazy moving river. Nature knows not of the calendar or the clock and I like that very much.

Have a safe and happy new year and, of course, all my best to you and yours.