Life is good

so i am waking up these days with some fresh perspective. i don't know how or why the universe chose me, but things seem to be converging in a way that wakes me up and brings me more fully into life.

maybe it's all the dreams i've been having--every night for the past week...
maybe it's letting go of some old stuff...
maybe it's coming out of a little slump...
maybe it's a new awareness of myself in life and love...
maybe it's a gorgeous sunrise this morning on my way to a 7:30 breakfast...
maybe it's the crisp fall air...
maybe it's the promise brought by tons of rain that it's gonna be a beautiful fall...

life just feels different somehow.
even my thinking seems to be clearer.
it's something i can sense, not something i can name (yet).
whatever's going on, i dig it.

which brings me to ask... how are you? what measures of wisdom, love and grace are converging in your life these days?

Quote for Wednesday

"Help" is a prayer that is always answered.
- Anne Lamott

The boy

When the bestest kid on the face of the planet lives six hours away, you leap for joy when his mommas send new photos!

This is my godchild, Arden Mel.

Quote for Monday

"Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage."

- Anais Nin

Aid me in the AIDS Walk

I am walking in the Louisville AIDS Walk this Sunday!

Would you please sponsor me?

Donations can be made online; our team name is Guys and Dolls.

I (and the groups that benefit) appreciate any amount you can give.

Thank you for your support!

Anne Lamott

Here's a shout out to Anne Lamott, one of my favorite writers. She speaks right to the heart, full of insight and humor and grace. She brings me to tears and makes me bust out laughing--and sometimes she has me doing both at the same time. Her perspective on life is usually exactly what I need to hear.

So here's a little quote from my gal:

"When God is going to do something wonderful, He or She always starts with a hardship;
when God is going to do something amazing, He or She starts with an impossibility."

Quote for Wednesday

When I dare to be powerful--to use my strength in the service of my vision--then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

- Audre Lorde

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

- Mary Oliver

(with thanks to Katie)

Jenny's favorite poem

A Noiseless, Patient Spider

A noiseless, patient spider,
I mark'd, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;
Mark'd how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;
Ever unreeling them--ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,--seeking the spheres, to connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form'd--till the ductile anchor hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.

-Walt Whitman

Where were you on this day five years ago?

i remember it so well
i was at work
in a meeting
peter arrived late
a plane had flown into the world trade center
what?
we tried to make sense
tried to find a radio
peter left
came back with more news
none of it good
we suspended
in search of tvs
people gathered
watched planes hitting buildings
chaos
destruction

i remember it so well
the eeriness
that although our brains could comprehend the images
(conditioned as they are)
what our brains
what our hearts
could not comprehend
was the fact that
this w a s a c t u a l l y r e a l

i remember it so well
the cacophony of reactions
with becca and others in the atrium
with colleagues upstairs
some left unable to watch
others transfixed
others hysterical trying to reach loved ones
i could not reach my best friend in brooklyn
her cell tower had been on top
of the twin towers
it was mayhem
there, here, inside, everywhere

i remember it so well
my primal need to
touch the ground
not the floor
but the actual ground
outside
the Earth
i needed to sit in the grass
with my palms on the ground
kathy and i sat
a long time

i remember it so well
the perfect blue of a beautiful september sky
bright and warm
and still
so still

everything
was so so
still
the Earth seemed to have stopped
everything still
except
the heartbeat of the Earth
pulsing up from the ground
except
the heartbeat inside my body
except
the heartbeat inside the people near me
heartbeats
all melding together
the pulse of life

and that is where
i found my faith
my survival
not in structures or systems or even places
(they fall)
but in the Earth itself
the big mound of dirt and all it holds
hurtling through the solar system
minute after minute
year after year
eon after eon

Watering the dry spells

As life goes, there are times you just don't write in your blog. Life gets busy, you're not in writing "space," whatever. So once in a while I'm going to try posting other people's words--quotes and such.

Here's a quote for today, compliments of Shekinah:

"Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
- T. S. Eliot

Feel free to send me your own words of wisdom or sayings that have meant something to you....