Archives

i found magic

Finding Magic

July 27, 2016

 
This morning I woke up surly and out-of-sorts, so I went outside to find me some magic. In fact, I asked for it. And (of course) it came. A hummingbird with a beak longer than its body flew up and had a good look at me before having a drink. I laughed, said thank you, and in that moment, my feelings shifted to wonder and gratitude.

A little sad that I had been too slow to catch a picture of the hummingbird, I stopped to take a picture of a beautiful flower. It was only after I took the picture that I saw the spirit of the bird right there in front of me.

Magic: a shift into connection and wonder and gratitude.

It seems a very little thing, but I know now that very little things, added together, are what actually make the biggest difference.

And I got a nudge – no – I got a huge push to share it with you. So right now, imagine me winking at you and smiling, beckoning you with my index finger and whispering, “Come and play with me?”

And our treehouse clubhouse can be social media until we find a way to do this in person ~

How can you participate?

  1. When you find something that gives you that moment of connection between you and the Mystery – that gasp of delight that brings you right out of fumbling stumbling disconnection and into the present moment (because truly that is where the magic happens): share it. Use #ifoundmagic and tag me if you like, because I would love to share that magic with you!
  2. If you haven’t already, please sign up for my newsletter. Many newsletters bore me – even my own! So from now on every single one is going to be full of magic. I’m on a mission to find it and to share it with you. It’ll be full of book recommendations, journal and Instagram prompts, quotes, pictures, links, recipes, any and everything that connects me – and hopefully you – to the most divine aspects of ourselves.

That’s it. No charge. No fee. No agenda. Just a widening community of people joining together to find, spread, and share Magic.

Why? Because I believe that a group of people finding, sharing and spreading magic will create miracles.

I really hope that you will join me.

gratitude

Just Do Your Thing

June 17, 2016
“Why they always look so serious in Yoga? You make serious face like this, you scare away good energy. To meditate, only you must smile. Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy. Even smile in your liver. Practice tonight at hotel. Not to hurry, not to try too hard. Too serious, you make you sick. You can calling the good energy with a smile.” – Ketut Liyer, the Balinese healer, via Elizabeth Gilbert

 

At lunch yesterday, I was talking to a new friend about how we can make a difference in the world. Both of us have, in our own way, changed our lives completely. We’ve gotten rid of the stuff, bought the tickets, and begun creating a life of magic here in Costa Rica.

But no matter where you live, you can’t escape how desperate the world is becoming for real change; for awake and compassionate and loving people. And if you are one of those people who feels things deeply, you can’t help but feel some guilt that you are not somehow doing more.

But how do you influence change or help save the world from a tiny place in the middle of anywhere?

Ketut Liyer passed away just over a week ago. I’d never met him. I’d never been to see him or even set foot in his home country of Bali, but when I heard that he had died, I put my hand on my heart and said a gentle prayer of gratitude and love for the things that I had learned from him.

If you’ve not heard of him before, Ketut Liyer was a medicine man. What made him special? He met people. He healed people. He talked to people. He did his thing, his way, in his place. Nothing more, nothing less.

But one of the people who met him happened to be a writer, and she happened to listen to and be changed by him, and she happened to write an incredible book in which (among lots of other things) she shared her experiences with Ketut with her – ready for it? – more than 10 million readers.

In her tribute to him, Elizabeth Gilbert said: “He was a healer, a mystic, a time-traveler, a world-bender, a mind-shaper, a compassion-expert, a flirt, a comedian, a bozo, a hustler, a magician, a trickster, and a fully ascended spiritual master.”

A man, living in the jungle, managed to touch millions of lives. Because he was totally committed to doing his thing.

If there a better example for you just never know, I haven’t heard it. By doing your thing, totally, authentically, and whole-heartedly, I believe you send out a particular kind of signal to the universe. Then allies and friends and teammates and angels are attracted to the total you-ness. And then magic happens.

Do your thing. Be totally you. Love. Laugh. Heal. Believe. If enough of us just do that, the world will change. I know it.

 

And thank you Ketut and Liz for being such an inspiration.

xo

spirituality

My Religion is Wonder

June 1, 2016
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. ~ W.B. Yeats

 

You know how there are some places that just fill up your senses; places that manage to feel completely magical and totally familiar at the same time? Siena was one of those places for me. I had never even heard of it before I went there, but it absolutely had me at hello.

For some, the overt Catholicism of Italy can be a bit much, but for me, the unabashed glory was soul-filling. Yes, you can tell me All Of The Things about religion and church and I will agree with you on lots of them – but I will still stand still in the middle of a cathedral as ridiculously decorated as the one in Siena and I will hold my breath in awe.

And I will wonder.

I do the same thing as I stand amongst trees or flowers or see beautiful art or eat delicious food or admire beauty or ingenuity or feel connection or notice kindness or talent or magic of any kind.

I do the same thing when I see something that makes me really laugh, like this clothesline of tights (I don’t know if they have a technical name) hanging on a clothesline outside of another church in Siena. The sheer every-day-ness of the laundry coupled with the shrine to the Holy Mother filled my soul with just as much delight as any painting.

I know I should go all Dalai Lama on you and agree that my religion is kindness, but for me it is not. My religion is the moments that make me stop and wonder. My religious practice consists of existing as much as possible in that state of true connection; in those moments that pull me out of my head and put me right into a state of gratitude.

Of wonder.

I believe that in those moments, I am as close to God/ the goddess/ the Universe/ the Mystery/ (choose your own word) as it is possible for me to be.

And I am looking to spend as much of my time there as possible.

xo

 

 

Newsletter

New here?

Legal Stuff

PRIVACY AND COOKIE POLICIES please click here.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS please

click here.
All uncredited writing and images are my own. If you are interested in using any of my work, please contact me.
LINKwithlove