There's no place like home. 

My parents died almost 20 years ago. I wasn't young per say, but I was too young. My kids never got to meet them so once in a while I'd share something or say "your grandpa would have..." and share some silly thing he would have done. And then I'd punctuate it with you would have loved him. It's true. They would have loved my dad's silliness and basked in my mom's love - often through baked goods. 

And the kids will never see home - my first home, where I grew up. A dusty, needs fixin' farm. 

But I believe, as souls, it was my parents' choice. And mine. Why would we choose that? Who knows? Well, our soul does if my theory is correct. And I suppose we'll learn it soon enough.

In the meantime, I've learned that home is where my heart feels safe. Home is laying in the hammock at the lake. Home is in my sister's garage, where she lays out snacks and baked goods just like my mom used to. Home is in a hug from my daughter or on a walk...

As we settle into a new year, there are numerous invitations to set goals, to choose a word or words for the year. 

And on the flip side, I see communication to not set goals, to live in the now. Those messages claim that goals don’t work. 

And I feel that like most things, there are truths in both and one can be true for me and another true for you. 

Setting goals can be an extremely useful tool to organize and to align your soul’s desires to offer the world your unique gifts and your ego/mind’s desire to get that work done. In other words, you are inspired to offer something to yourself or others and you break that down into to-do’s that become goals. Therefore, your heart and mind are working in collaboration. And that’s beautiful. 

You can also follow your heart in every moment and find you offer yourself or the world the same thing. Your heart and mind automatically work together because you are leading with your heart in every...

In a recent email to my subscribers, I talked a bit about being tired - soul tired. And being tired and overwhelmed right now makes sense. The world is heavy. You may feel divided from friends or family on issues that feel very close to your heart.

It's easy to restrict. We tighten up, physically and emotionally. Like we are drawing ourselves in. It's a protective measure. But it's also restrictive. It protects, keeping out pain (but does it?) and it also keeps out love and prevents connection. 

Does that serve us?

Can we open, expand our hearts and allow all of it to move through us? Can we be a willow moving with the wind? Or can we be water allowing ourselves to move with the landscape around us, flowing and giving? 

What does that look like? How do we stay open? 

It starts with intention. We might say...

Dear Spirit Team, Higher Self, Universe, God of my understanding, help me stay open today.

If we can stay open, trusting the guidance of our Higher Self, we can...

Did you know that on June 21st, it was National Yoga Day? I have to admit, I struggle with yoga. It’s slow, it requires flexibility and a quiet intention that I find challenging. 

I’m pretty sure if you ask my family and co-workers, flexible is not the first word they’d use to describe me. And I’m not talking about my yoga poses - although it’s funny how our bodies imitate our inner workings. 

If you’ve ever taken a yoga class, it can be very intimidating…until you get there. And if you listen to the instructor, it's not a competition nor a test, it's a practice - with yourself. It’s about being in the pose and meeting yourself wherever you are at. A yoga teacher might say the pose begins when you want to leave it. 

Beyond physical flexibility, how do we approach life? How often do we become inflexible to change, to opportunity. What thoughts, beliefs or fears keep us from allowing change. For example, do you believe...

On June 11th, it was #makelifebeautifulday (Make Life Beautiful Day) and on the 13th, it was  #childrensday (Children’s Day)

What I find so perfect about that is we can make life so beautiful when we remember to live a little more like a child. 

When you think back on your life as a child - the good memories - what comes to mind? Giggling? Running around being silly? 

Do you remember how you approached the world as a kid? 

As we navigate this world, can we be more intentional about play? 

And why does it matter? How does living more like a child relate to a heart-driven life?

Listen to my podcast Permission to Play to find out more. 

Take a deep breath, drop into your heart and give yourself some much deserved love and gratitude. If you can today, go out in nature and just take a moment to be grateful for all that is. 

There is a lot going on in the world, and it can cause fear and feelings of powerlessness. But you can't give from a place of fear or anger.  

And yes, you should feel those feelings, don't deny or push them down. But feel them and then release them and go back to what brings you to the present moment.

Being in the present moment is where your power is.  

There's a wonderful little book by Eckhart Tolle titled "Stillness Speaks". 

The book contains many short entries meant to lead you inward to your heart and soul. 

I'd like to share one entry in a section titled "Nature".

Here is how it goes:

"We depend on nature not only for our physical survival. We also need nature to show us the way home, the way out of the prison of our own minds. We get lost in doing,...

Here we are in February, still in a pandemic and the phrase radical self care has never resonated more with me. It's really something we can benefit from incorporating all year no matter what's going on, but especially in the dark, winter months.

 

How do we truly take care of ourselves? 

 

There are the usual things: drinking water, listening to uplifting music, going in nature, etc. 

 

But there are also other things not so obvious to all of us. And I've started to search for and find my way to some of those. I believe it helps to be intentional about adding healthy new experiences to our lives. 

 

So as I try new things, I'll tell you about my experience. 

 

First up - meditation and sound bath healing with Sheila Harris at Haute Yogis Studio in South Fargo.

 

 

The meditation was great, pretty much what you'd expect from a guided meditation. If you'd never tried one, they can be very powerful for clearing energy. At...

The other night, I woke up suddenly, my whole body tingled with fear and "what the hell". I thought oh my goodness, a lot of people bought my book. Now they'll probably read the damn thing. Why did I write that? Then, I managed to go back to sleep but the invitation was there. What invitation, you ask? The invitation to heal that part of me that still worries what others think of me. 

Writing a book or maybe more accurately, publishing a book might be the scariest thing I've done yet. And then when I try to think of the weirdest, craziest thing I wrote, I can't remember a word of it, nothing from the entire book. 

And then I find my way back into my heart, and I remember it's okay what you think of me. You get to think whatever you want. That's your deal. It's only important what I think of me. But we're taught to think something different aren't we? Our thought train can go off the tracks pretty quickly worrying about what other people think about us. And then we might...

Here’s to the enlightened ones, the ones who buy crystals and burn sage, who look down on the “unawakened”. You, responding to posts saying “oh yes, I sensed that, knew that, I dreamed about that or spoke to my guides about that.” 

Did you? I didn't. 

To those who speak fluently in spiritual bullshit but won’t deal with your own shit. For those who look the part but refuse to look within.

I've been looking within and I get it. It's a shit show. Who wants that? 

But are you brave enough to see you’re just another version of what you disdain. Do you have the courage to admit you’re playing another version of the same 3D conflict, the us versus them, good versus bad, separation. We’re enlightened but they’re not – you/me, us/them.

It’s all a ruse, a distraction to keep your ego/mind in control. You think because you manifested that new car, you are enlightened, awake, ascending. You follow some guru...