for three minutes

For three minutes today, I stood at the kitchen table wearing my favorite apron, drinking a fizzy cherry coke, and gathering supplies for a new project that I can't wait to begin.

For three minutes, the windows were open and the sun was coming through them and ideas were buzzing about.

For three minutes, I was touching at the edge of getting into a flow while she napped.

Then, suddenly it became clear that she hadn't really fallen asleep and had no plans to.

So everything shifted.

Outside we went for sunshine and ball bouncing and snacking and that fizzy coke spilling all over my favorite apron and a quick change and more snacks and lots of seeing how fast she could run into one of mama's big hugs on repeat.

And really it was all just as it was supposed to be.

An invitation: Give yourself the gift of letting it be just as it's supposed to be today.

strawberries and soul mantras

new necklaces in the shop

Last Wednesday, I stood at the kitchen sink cutting strawberries while Ellie was eating them almost as fast as I could cut them for her. While getting into that rhythm of quartering them, I had a series of thoughts that went like this, “Maybe we could go to the Farmers’ Market Saturday. Wonder what they will have. Flowers! Maybe this could be the first Saturday in a long line of Saturdays that we get out and have this time as a family. She is so inquisitive. She will love picking out veggies and fruit this summer! And seeing the dogs…. Crap! I have so much to do this weekend. We can’t go to the Farmers’ Market. I have too many custom orders to make and emails to answer.”

And just like that, I dismissed my desire to live deeply and widely with my family.

I didn’t listen to this clear voice in my head telling me what I need and want and went back to the reality I was creating in that moment about not being in charge of my own business.

And then this weekend I spent an hour photographing some lockets + soul mantra pendants I have been meaning to put in the shop for weeks. These are the pieces I have been making alongside the many custom orders I’ve been doing over the last few months. These are the phrases and words that have literally whispered to me and insisted on being included in the batch I was working on. Phrases like: 

You Are Enough
Love Big
So I Fly
Each Day I Open Up More
I dance. I love big. I live.
Live It Baby Girl
Seek Joy
I choose love
Connect
Breathe
See Your Light
Trust
Here 

And as I opened each one, placed it on the rock I use as a prop, and snapped the photo of the mantra inside, I found myself saying the phrases aloud. And then nodding: yes yes yes.

This piece of realizing you have gotten a bit lost in the business of things and forgetten about the business of living – that is where I found myself as I took those photos.

I started thinking about how going to the Farmers’ Market (and all that it represents) is the most important thing a Saturday morning (and all that it represents) should hold. I know this. I would tell you this if you came to me with this as a piece of your story.

And now it is time to live it more often.

Things have been shifting with my business for almost a year now. I have owned my call to teach + write more and poetry is taking center stage again. I am listening to my desire to start adding mentoring sessions to my offerings (thank you for asking for this! more details soon!). And I am leaning into the truth that superwoman can do anything but she can’t do everything*.

Oh and I am realizing I don’t want to superwoman. 

The first step has been to change how I run the shop. I am not taking custom orders for the next few months. Probably until the holidays. The shop will still be filled with Soul Mantra jewelry, but they will almost all be ready to ship, “what you see in this photo is what will arrive in your mailbox,” items. They will be the phrases that are most insisting to be in this world, and I hope you will enjoy them!

Go see! I’ve already stocked the shop with several of these new pieces. 

Thanks for reading all of this today as I wanted to share these pieces of my story in case you have pieces of your story that need to shift. In case you want an invitation to shift your schedule to make more time for Farmers’ Markets and all that your heart is telling you it needs…

Big love,

Liz

PS If you or someone you know is a virtual assistant who works with Etsy shops, please email me. I am looking for someone with administrative experience supporting Etsy artists. Thanks!

*When I was little, this saying (superwoman can do anything but she can't do everything) was up in my house above my mom's desk. 

a girl and a remote

Sunday evening was one of those nothing is going right because i am almost two sort of evenings for Ellie Jane.

Until she befriended mama's camera remote.

Somewhere in in the midst of figuring out how to stand right in front of the camera and hit the button and "what is mama doing?" and "up up!," she found her giggle again.

(a big thank you to meredith and kristin and their now you workshop, which inspired me to take these photos today.)

a little sneak peek

So so excited to share this wee sneak peek of The Gift of This Moment!

I will be sharing more details soon, but I am so delighted by these postcards showing all the pieces of this project (which is really a home retreat kit) and simply had to share right now! Jen Lee is producing this project (and has gently held my ideas and hopes throughout this experience), and Liz Kalloch has made everything look so beautiful. 

I can't wait to hold all the pieces in my hands and share them with you. 

Over here: The Create Space classroom is ready, the students are gathering, and today I'm creating my personal altar I'll use and share during this session. Ellie Jane's new favorite game is asking me to put at least eight and sometimes twelve barrettes in her hair (and mine) at one time (evidence here). I'm planning to rest today as much as possible since a cold seems to have grabbed on to me during the trip home. Lots of mugs of tea in my future. I'm hoping a movie date might be part of our Sunday. (Seen any good ones?) The rhododendrons are in full bloom everywhere in our neighborhood (gosh how I LOVE them). I am filling a Smash journal with notes to myself (and using my new lovely Washi tape from Freckled Fawn and some fun designs I found from the Recollections collection at Michaels [can't find a link on Michael's site but found this great blog post about this new line of tape]). I am planning to begin The Best Day The Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon by Donald Hall while drinking the previously mentioned mugs of tea. And I know I will be soaking up the joy of hearing a little girl giggle as she dances with her daddy (life can be so so hard but joy still arrives when I choose to see it).

And what are you up to in your corner?

May your weekend be full of rest and joy and hopefully some time out in the sun...

Blessings and light,

Liz

here

here: a father and daughter giggle and chatter and dance to music he grew up on while i gather up the pieces of all that will be and choose to trust what i know.

yesterday: waiting between gates 12 and 14, she dances and giggles and bops her head while i sing more than 30 rounds of "old mcdonald" and think about how three generations really can travel across the country together very well as long as there is plenty of apple juice and singing.

the day before: alone in my eagle's nest home away from home, adele sings while i move across the floor with my arms raised and my voice loud and my feet turning in circles until the music until the movement until i rewrite the story i have been playing for much too long and find myself regrounded and renewed.

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.