creating space within

Sometimes you need to simply pause right here, find your breath, and remember the truth that rests inside you.

To pause and breathe and remember to trust what you know.

Today, through this video/guided mediation, I am inviting you to do just that.

***

If you feel called to continue the conversation about ways to create space within you and around you, come along to the next session of Create Space that begins next week. This will be the last time I am offering this class until next year (perhaps the last time in this form), so if you have been feeling called to join in, I hope you will. Learn more about Create Space and register here.

a week in the life

Ali's Week in the Life project makes me so happy every year. Last year was the first year I participated, and I did it by taking photos each day and sharing them on the blog. I think I am actually going to make a little book of them soon since I love all that was captured in that week last year (and how it represents so much of last summer).

This week, I thought I was going to be traveling home in the middle of the week, so I didn't plan to participate because I knew I would put too much pressure on myself to take photos during a time that would be stressful enough (i.e. traveling with a toddler). But then we stayed another week here at my mom's. But I spent most of the week working and didn't take too many photos that weren't self-portraits. BUT somewhere along the way I realized that what I was sharing on Instagram really was representative of our time here and it really made me happy. (Of course you will see that Ellie's grandparents are not in the photos above as I am respecting their privacy.)

So this is going to be the Week in the Life mosaic I add to Project Life when I catch up when we get home. Makes me smile so much.

And can I just tell you yet again how much I love Instagram? Seriously. It is beyond (BEYOND) my favorite social media site. I love seeing the photos that other's share, and I so appreciate the kind words and hearts people share with my glimpses from here. I love it. Like big. And it is an awesome way to keep up with my friends and kindreds and with people in the ecourses I am taking and teaching. (You can find me @lizelayne.)

I also really love sending postcards (to family and to myself) of my Instagram photos using Postagram. Are you using it yet? The quality is fantastic. And it is an easy quick way to send photos off to grandparents AND a fun size photo to add to Project Life or other journaling projects (as in they are finding there way into my Smash journals!). Just learned about their credits program because Sincerely (the parent company) sent me an email letting me know since I am buying so many. Love that kind of customer service.

Hope the sun is shining in your corner of the world...

Blessings,

Liz

joy seeker (april)

april 14, 2012

When I think about this day we had with Grandma and Grandpa on Lake Superior, I can still hear your laughter. Actually, you would probably be happy to play on this beach every day, learning more about the ways sand moves when you sink different rocks and sticks and other bits found on the beach into it. And then Grandma taught you how to throw rocks into the water. The look of absolute delight on your face each time you discovered something new was contagious. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much with Grandma. Thank you for sharing your joyful light with all of us. (I am so lucky to know you.)

***

the series "joy seeker" is one way i am documenting the "joy" superhero power that ellie jane has. i am gathering a photo + short story each month from her first to second birthday and sharing a few of them here on the blog. i plan put them all together and have them printed in a small book this summer.

a pocket poem + a thank you

a pocket-sized poem . an excerpt from "Our Grandmothers" by Maya Angelou

It's Poem In Your Pocket Day. 

Oh how this day makes me so darn happy! Throughout the day I saw a few poems pop up in Instagram and on Flickr and on Facebook. Love this! If you carried a poem around in your pocket, will you let me know which one you were called to today? And if you didn't carry one, think about carrying one tomorrow...or the day after that...or every day. It is some kind of magic to carry a poem.

***

I also want to say thank you for being out there in the world sharing pieces of yourself. I am so grateful for the ways this crazy internet world connects us. Thank you for taking the time to connect...to say "I see you"...to show up. The ripples of this are so much bigger than you will ever know. Yes.

there are things i want to tell you

little me, 2 years old

I want to tell you about the mushroom sauce my mother made tonight that I want to bottle and eat every single day. I want to tell you about how my whole body feels lighter each time Ellie communicates with more words. I want to tell you about how much Poem It Out is helping me focus on what I feel called to do in this world. I want to tell you about how being in community with people who love poetry is filling an empty place I didn't realize I had right in the middle of my body. I want to tell you about the glass of water I just drank and how it slipped across my tongue and slid down into my belly. I want to tell you about how I have stepped outside my internal perceptions about what I can do and have ended up cheering out loud. I want to tell you about how luxurious it feels to have someone else do my laundry. I want to tell you about how I didn't know I needed to let someone else do some things for a bit so I could come back to center. I want to tell you about how it really is okay to say yes and then no. I want to tell you about the sound of the rain pounding against the roof and how it somehow invites in a sense of calm. I want to tell you about the intense beauty of scanning old photos knowing I will always have them. I want to tell you about the peace I feel each time I look at this photo of the little girl me.

Sometimes making a list is the best gift you can give yourself.

::this is me::

here (photo inspired by this week's now you workshops prompt)

This is me. Me weaving words and chocolate mint ice cream and striped socks and long oh-my-god-i-am-finally-alone showers into a life. This is me. Me gathering plastic zoo animals and fruit loops and suddenly the gentlest words I could ever hope to hear and tucking them into the pockets hidden under my skin. This is me. Me pushing myself to sift through what was and hold what might be in softly cupped hands. This is me. Me choosing trust in this second and the next and the one after that. This is me. Me hearing their laughter and looking down to find another stitch sewn into my heart. This is me. Me finding my way to rest and relearning and listening.

This is me choosing to open myself to all of it again and again.

*****

Sometimes sitting in the quiet and giving myself the space to just let the words tumble out of me reminds me that I am not alone. If you are looking to create space to pause and listen to the words you most need to hear (to listen to your own words), consider coming along for the next session of Create Space that begins May 6. In this class, we explore creating sacred space in our homes, in our days, and within us using the tools of writing and poetry, photography, and be present practices that invite you to be right here in this moment to notice what you need. Learn more and register here. 

a little more about my business coach Nona Jordan

a photo because oh my goodness look at all those shades of blue . lake superior

Since we started working together almost a year ago, I have mentioned my business coach Nona Jordan a few times here on the blog. Simply put, working with her has pushed me to own that I really am making it happen over here when it comes to running my business and growing it beyond what I imagined while working from home and taking care of Ellie.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that Nona has pushed me to own that I am a warrior when it comes to all the roles I play in my life.

One big piece of this has been talking about money. (Oh how I did not want to talk about money.) Through our conversations, I moved from saying, “Well, I have this little creative business…” to sitting at my computer after adding up all the money that came into my business in 2011 (which was the first year my income came solely from my own business and not in addition to my “before Ellie arrived” full-time editing job or any freelance editing) and saying, “Every cent that came into my bank account was from someone who believed that what I am sharing with the world was worthy of being part of their story.”

Wow.

And here is where it gets even crazier.

I was excited to pay taxes.

Nona has taught me to see taxes as evidence that my business is growing. And owning that felt freeing because paying taxes didn’t come from a place of fear but instead from a place of believing in myself and what I have to share with the world through my work. So I was actually smiling when I wrote the check. I was also smiling because it was a bit less than my guesstimating math had thought it would be. Still, seeing taxes as evidence of my business' growth was an entirely new way of thinking for me. (It feels like I am rewriting my money story over here.)

And she has taught me that a piece of all of this is having clear conversations with people in my life when it comes to money and boundaries about money or the role I will play in collaborations etc. Two pieces of this have been:

1)  Noticing the areas of my life where I have “fuzzy boundaries” and calling me out on it.

AND

2) Asking me my favorite question “Liz, whose yoga mat are you standing on?” when I start saying the reasons why I don’t want to make an idea a reality or not charge as much as I think something is worth and so on. This question is her gentle but firm way of reminding me to let go of the “Who do you think you are?” gremlins that plague me sometimes and let other people take care of their feelings and assumptions.

Big stuff. Good stuff.

In a couple of weeks, Nona will be guiding a small group of women through her incredible program “Get Right with Money.” It is all about knowing you are worthy, investigating your mindset around money, and one of my favorite tools she has taught me, “to know what you truly want financially and learn how to get there.” She is also incorporating some tools around having bare conversations in this curriculum, and shares her first-hand experience with one of her own conversations in this incredibly honest blog post.

She is a good egg, this one. And she is someone I think you should have on your radar if you are thinking about or already running your own business. Learn more about Nona’s Get Right with Money program and her one-on-one coaching services over on her site.

an invitation to trust...