It is raining this morning. Cool, soothing moisture falling from the sky. “The angels are crying,” I used to tell my daughters when they were little. And when the angels cry, we must dance in the rain to bring out their sunshiney smiles again!

Have you danced in the rain lately? Have you danced?

I found a new blogger this morning — aren’t you in awe of how much amazing goodness there is to read on the web? — Thanks to my friend Diana Schwenk (again) who lead me to Joanna at Momentum of Joy and her blog today, In the Mirror. A delightful ode to not ‘feeling’ old or having to act your age, Joanna encourages all of us to bring out the child within and play with her/him today.

It’s raining this morning. A perfect morning to dance.

Dancing is powerful. There is no destination in the dance. No need to get from point A to B. It’s always about the rhythm, the motion, the emotion of finding the beat and being one with its call to set free, let go, let loose the constraints of the daily grind to grind it out through the rhythm of your heart beating in time.

To dance freely is to not hear the music but to feel it. To let it move you from the inside out. To not be in tune with the notes, but to get between the notes and your thinking mind and fall into step with not being in step with the world but at one with your being present in the world.

I heard a man interviewed on CBC radio yesterday — or a snippet of an interview before I had to get out of the car as I’d reached my destination and needed to be on time for a meeting. He was talking about silence.

“There is no such thing as silence,” he said. “The world vibrates at a certain frequency and because it is always vibrating, there is no such thing as silence. Vibration by its very nature produces sound.”

Can you hear it? The earth’s vibrational hum? Perhaps that is what we do when we move into stillness, into meditation. We still the noise outside to hear the vibrations within. And in our deepened place of hearing, we attune our hearts and bodies with the earth’s pulse and become centered on our natural rhythm within, without being drawn by gravitational pulls into discord and unease.

It is what happens for me when I dance. I let go of thinking I know the beat, and let my body guide me into finding its own rhythm within and between each note. In Gabriel Roth’s five rhythms work, the final aspect of ‘the wave’ is ‘Silence’. You dance freely, moving through Flowing, the feminine energy into Staccato. Sharp, angular motions that rise the crest of the wave into Chaos where the feminine and masculine duke it out in the discordance of letting your body fall through each note. Exhausted, you naturally descend into Lyrical, that place where all is in balance, in the flow, in harmony as your pulse quiets and you find yourself sinking into the gift of Silence.

In Silence, you seek nothing, want nothing, need nothing. In Silence, you simply rest as the body calls you to be present to the space between the notes.

Ah yes. It is raining today.

Time to let go and be childlike in my wonder of life. In my awe of this beautiful, precious gift of my life and your life and life all around me teeming with energy and noise and beauty and harmony and discord and joy and sorrow and all the rainbow of emotions that swirl around and in and under and out and through me. Always.

It is raining today.

Time to dance!

And… this blog is inspired by my friend Glynn at Faith. Fiction. Friends. who irregularly shares his Pleasantly Disturbed Fridays which was inspired by Duane Scott who appears to be on holidays, somewhere… 🙂

See — all things are connected. One idea sparks another and a thought is born and spreads out to become something of wonder to witness and savour and share!  What we think and share makes a difference. Thanks Glynn!

There is a sound to peace rising. It hums sweetly, a gentle murmur of assent as hearts align and spirits take flight to places never before imagined.

There is a feel to peace descending. Buttery softness melting into a river of calm, it flows through and around, over and under, drawing me ever closer to that place where I become One with the Oneness of my being all that I am meant to be in this world of wonder.

I read on a comment at the amazing Julie Goyders, “Wings and Things” blog this morning that set my mind a-wondering….  Victoria wrote in response to Julie’s post, Blogging is writing, “I wonder if the internet will yet become the way to peace between different religions & races.”

What a powerful thought. To use this medium to create more of what we all need in this world. Peace. Love. Harmony and joy.

To use this billions upon billions of bits and bytes of data floating around in cyberspace to create a web of peace that cannot be broken. Cannot be undone. Cannot be destroyed.

Imagine. A world of peace.

Imagine. Peace all around.

Imagine. Peace  In your heart. Your hearth. Your world.

Last night I got inspired once again by our capacity to create what we imagine. Our band of ‘peace angels’ met to talk about upcoming events in Summer of Peace Calgary. Once again, Judy Atkinson of Circles of Rhythm has stepped into the light of bringing peace to the banks of the Bow River. Saturday will be her third annual Drumming on the Bow — and while I can’t be there in the afternoon (we are celebrating my mother’s 90th birthday!), my spirit will be peaceful knowing, the beat of peace is reverberating along the river, out into the streets and homes of everyone in this city.

It was, as it always is, an inspiring evening of connecting into a circle that has one intention — to create peace where ever, however possible. To make peace, in our hearts, our minds, our families, our homes we must first accept — Peace is possible. Peace is within us to create, to be, to live.

There is always peace. It is a choice we make with every act, every word, every thought. It is a question we can ask with all our intention focused on peace in every circumstance in our life — Will this create harmony or discord?

And if the answer is ‘discord’, we get to choose to do otherwise. To take a different path. To drop the angry response. To let go of our weapons of self-defense and move into that place where peace reigns within our hearts so that we can radiate peace with every breath.

Peace is possible. It’s believing it is that makes the difference between accepting what is as what must always be, or knowing, what is, is not forever when we choose to walk away from discord and flow into the peace our hearts yearn to know.

Blessings and peace on your day.

Namaste.

Ellie’s new spot in the garden

Ellie is an attention hog. Okay, I mean pooch, but she is happiest when there are many people in the house, giving her pets and pats and loads of love. Oh, and if you happen to drop a cracker or a piece of cheese…. Bonus!

Last night Ellie got her fill. From my sister and her husband dropping by in the late afternoon, to the five ladies who gathered on the deck for an evening of conversation, Ellie was in the centre of it all. And while I may pretend that’s why I invite people over, the truth is, I love to entertain, to connect with people over a glass of wine, a shared meal and laughter.

It was a spontaneous decision — to invite women over for an evening on the patio. I’d spent the weekend painting an old wicker love seat and two bamboo chairs that had lost any appeal. They’d moved far beyond the ‘distressed look’ into ‘headed for the dump heap despair’ when I decided to give them one last kick at life. Six cans of black spray paint later, and they are good for another season in the garden.

It was a great lesson. In the act of refreshing furniture, I got to sink into the joy of the moment of creation. To simply be present in the act of washing and sanding and painting. No agenda. No need to be anywhere other than right there, in the backyard creating value in something that had appeared to have lost all its purpose.

And in that moment of being present, I discovered something true for me — I had intended to paint all weekend. But, it was so beautiful outside, I didn’t want to spend my time indoors. Hauling all my paints outside was an option — but I had plans for Saturday night and wasn’t inspired to set-up outside, tear down and start all over again on Sunday. Instead, I decided to paint the wicker love seat. It was still painting just not as free-form as on a canvas. That’s when I discovered the joy of simply being in the act of creation. It didn’t matter what I was painting. What mattered was that I was painting. I was putting my body into motion.

In the act of creating, my mind stilled into that quiet place where the world recedes and I am simply in the moment, right where I’m at. Consciously being present to the completeness of the experience, without seeking perfection anywhere other than what was happening all around and within me.

In a monthly newsletter I receive from Laura Day, author of The Circle, she wrote recently, “The idea is not to have a perfect experience when you embody and join energy, it is to have a complete one.”

I had a complete experience yesterday. Alone in the garden with Ellie lying on the grass, I painted and fussed over pillow placement and angles of furniture, seeking to ‘get it just right’. I love that feeling of a ‘job well done’ when completed, my heart sighs with contentment.

Later, when it was time to get ready for my friends, I spent time in the kitchen creating food to share with friends, making sure colours and textures and tastes complemented each other on plates and platters that enhanced the food through their beauty.

My heart was happy. As evening settled into dark, we sat in the glow of candles flickering all around, laughing and sharing stories, and being part of the wonder that happens when women connect in a circle of friendship.

In the completeness of that circle of friends, I experienced perfection. And in that perfection, the difference I felt was in the lightness of my heart imbued with the joy of knowing, I am connected to a world of beauty all around.

Her email was one of those delightful, welcome messages in my Inbox. She had taken my Right Your Heart Out: Making Peace with your Inner Muse course at the Peace Academy and contacted to ask me to let her know of any other courses I was teaching. “I awoke at 2am after going to bed that night of the course and started writing. I couldn’t stop,” she wrote. Music to my ears! I love to know I’ve played a part in inspiring people.

No courses planned, I wrote back, but I’d be open to meeting for coffee.

We met and spent a delightful hour and a half talking about life and courage and moving on and into living our best lives yet. I was in awe. Here was this 60+woman who had the courage to sell everything and take off to explore the world. Talk about leaps of faith!

She inspires me.

“I want to write my life story,” she said.

“Then begin here,” I replied. And asked if she would write a guest blog. In her courageous and forthright style, she relied, yes!

Welcome Andrea Steell. A courageous woman whose smile infects the world with laughter and whose courage to not only make a difference, but to live her difference in the world, ignites mine.

****************

The Courage to Change

by Andrea Steell

I met Louise for coffee this week  and was asked to contribute as a guest blogger. Well never having blogged before this was quite a gift.

It is Saturday, the day I pause, take a deep refereshing breath of the wonder and beauty all around me to celebrate heroes in our midst.

Earlier this year, Linda MacLean, took over as the Executive Director of the Accessible Housing Society in Calgary. Their mandate: to create opportunities for safe, affordable, barrier-free housing for persons with mobility issues. And they are doing just that. Linda is a vision. Her tireless commitment to helping people find housing that meets their specific needs, and to helping people stay housed is changing the world for many people.

Linda and her team at Accessible Housing are heroes.

Her twitter profile says it all — Champion for ending exploitation of women, warrior against homelessness & oppression, relentless optimist & innovator! And it’s true. Marina Giacomin, Executive Director at Servants Anonymous Society is fighting to ensure women involved in the sex trade find a path to dignity, hope and life beyond the streets. She never ceases to inspire me with her dedication and fearlessness. Along with all the staff and volunteers at Servants Anonymous, they have given thousands of women the opportunity to reclaim their lives.

Marina and all the staff, volunteers and supporters of SAS are heroes.

So… this is far off the path of serving people with disabilities and disadvantages, but…  Jesse Willis and his business partner, Jeff Jamieson are serving society in a different way. By bringing the simple joy of wine and spirits to life in their delightful store Vine Arts. This is a dream come true for Jess and Jeff, a store of their own where they can educate and share their love of all things grape off the vine. A visit to their store is a treat of the senses and the mind. Their knowledge and willingness to share is outstanding!

Jeff and Jesse and everyone at Vine Arts are heroes!

Caitria and Morgan O’Neill did not set out to become ‘disaster response experts’ but, when a tornado unexpectedly hit their town in Massacheusetts (which does not get tornadoes) they knew they had to do something. At 20 and 24 year old University students stepped up to take charge, with the aid of technology. Their inspiring TEDxBoston talk will tell you all about their ‘recovery in a box’ planning kit. We can all make a difference. Caitria and Morgan definitely are!

It was an interesting question. “Don’t you think that in saying how you’re making a difference, you negate the difference?” I was asked.

No. I replied. Because it’s not about ‘how’ I’m making a difference. It’s about ‘making a difference’. It’s about inspiring others to see the difference they make is in their very presence. The very essence of their being their most magnificent self, right now.

“Oh. So it’s about giving purpose to this meaningless life,” they replied.

And that would be true, except, I don’t experience this life as meaningless. In fact, I think there is great meaning in every life. Great import and significance.As Marianne Williamson writes in A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I believe we all want to make a difference. That inherent in our nature is the drive to make the world a better place, to cast light in the darkest corners, to shine hope in the deepest night of our souls.

I believe that within each of us is the spark of brilliance that can/must ignite change in the world — it’s just we’ve forgotten how to live its beauty. In the journey into being who we are today, we’ve forgotten the truth of who we are — beautiful. magnificent. radiant. miraculous.

We are all magnificent. Miracles of life.

In our birth the world was made different. Our becoming human form changed the world forever. And in our birth, our magnificence came into being through the unique DNA we each carry into the world.

In the journey through life, we have forgotten this. We have forgotten that we are each and every one of us precious, unique beings of life. We each have gifts to share, stories of wonder to tell, miracles to unfold. We are each different and in that difference is the difference we make in the world.

Making a difference isn’t about the things I do to create change in the world. It is all about how I am being my most incredible self through living my difference to its fullest. It’s about living up to my most brilliant dreams come true so that I can be of service to the world and bring out the best of life all around me.

It’s about stepping out of the shadows of fear into the light of being all that I am meant to be when I let go of believing, I don’t make a difference.

We all make a difference.

For today, let your difference be the brilliant spark of your magnificence enlightening the world with all the beauty, joy and Love in your heart. Let your difference be felt in the simple acts of kindness you share through loving acts of grace.

**********************

today’s Peace Poem:  Peace all Around  

Morning light in the park

I have been feeling out of sorts this week. Nothing identifiable. In fact, it is its  ‘unidentifiable nature’ that has made this out of sorts so irritating. Like an archeologist, I have been sifting through the dirt of the past few days/weeks looking for clues to what happened that might have triggered my ennui. I’ve come up with shards of ideas that may or may not be the source. I’ve dug into them, turning over every stone, checking for mildew or parasites, washing off accumulated dirt, polishing up facets of my being that I have let rust — and it didn’t seem to matter. The ennui remained and I felt the tiredness of broken sleep and fractured dreams that kept trying to break through to my awareness.

And then, this morning as I took my vitamins and drank my greens I realized what had happened. I had forgotten to take my morning ‘shaker uppers’ as I call them, yesterday, the day before and, in fact, tracing it back, I have not taken them since Friday morning.

My body was sending me a message and I had fallen asleep at the wheel.

My body is my GPS. It informs me constantly about my environment, my well-being, my reactions and responses to what is happening in the world around me. And my body was working without the fuel it needed. My body was operating without gas, and my mind was on auto-pilot searching for answers to what was happening now in places it didn’t need to go in the past and was missing the message about what was going on now.

No wonder I was feeling tired. Not only was I lacking the vitamins and nutrients that balance my internal systems, my mind was digging into areas looking for truth in the darkness where in truth, the light no longer needed to shine.

Sometimes, in my gut reaction to make things more complicated than they need to be by looking for connections to what’s happening in the present in the past, I miss the obvious in the here and now.

Lack of essential vitamins and nutrients = Lack of energy and well-being.

And I breathe. And I laugh. And sing a song of joy!

Think I’ll go do a happy dance too!

It’s all good.  Laughter, song and dance are the only way to heal shame. And according to Dr. Brene Brown, whom my eldest daughter recently heard speak — and she was, as Alexis described her, WOW!  shame is one of human nature’s most debilitating forces.

Laughing, singing and dancing now too!  Because, seriously. My week could have been so different if I’d remembered to take my vitamins. What a shame I forgot!

And now that I’ve remembered, it’s smooth sailing into this moment of being alive in the rapture of now!

PS. There was still good info in my digging into the dirt of my psyche. I learned a thing or two about myself and how I am in the world that will nourish my growth as I move with grace and ease into the exquisite beauty of my day unfolding in wonder.

***************************************************

Today’s Peace Poem:  In All The World

At the Peace Academy last night, Jane Warren and Bob Ward of Passionate Me. Vibrant We, shared directions for the path to Peace Between Us. How do we create peace in all our relations? How do we let go of the stories we tell about another, and ourselves, to create openings for truth, honesty and Love to shine?

One of the exercises they lead was to pair everyone up with someone they didn’t know and then to pair the pairs and to invite each person to tell their small group all about the person they didn’t know and had just met. No truth needed. Just make the person you’re introducing exciting and interesting and fascinating were the only instructions.

We’re always making up stories about what and why the people we love do the things they do, say the things they say, said Bob. Rather than make it a story about how ‘wrong’ they are, or stupid, or little, or just plain inconsiderate, why not make it a story of their greatness?

Good question. Why not?

We are all human. And, when we feel hurt or slighted by another, we often justify our feelings by the stories we tell on the other who created the hurt in our life.

Take when C.C. and I have a disagreement. In the throes of claiming my position versus his, I don’t check out how he is feeling, where he’s coming from, or even what’s the learning for me in the circumstances of our disagreement. I don’t focus on his strengths and gifts. I go for the jugular. That sensitive place in him where I know if I protect myself fiercely against whatever is going down, I won’t be hurt, slighted, confused, or any other feeling I am desperately trying to avoid. In my defensive mode, I list off the litany of his ‘sins’ and forget to celebrate all the reasons why I cherish and love him.

It isn’t until after the dust has settled that I come to that place of getting up close and personal with what my role was in creating the discord. And even then, it is hard sometimes to still not make it — all about him.  🙂  I too like to be right — and we all know — men always want to be right!  Just kidding. Not all men, just 99.9% of men. Okay. Okay. Maybe not that high a percentage.

See. I’ll go to great lengths to be right just to prove I’m not wrong.

So often, we focus on the ‘wrongs’ of the other. We fixate on how and why they don’t do the things we want, say the things we want to hear. We tell ourselves the stories of why they’re ‘wrong’ and forget to keep track of all the ways they make us feel special, loved, creative, cared for.

In six months of writing C.C. a poem a day, I have come to truly appreciate the gift of celebrating the other every day.

Sure, we still have our differences, and we still get into those sticky moments where ‘the other’ is from a far away planet where they see the world every other way but my way. But the power of celebrating love every day through a photo and a poem quickly carries me through those sticky moments back to the heart of where I want to live, every moment of every day. In love with me, my life and everyone in it.

We’re always telling stories about other people, just for today, make every story you tell a story of their greatness. Try it on. Make it fit, just for today and spread sunshine where ever you go!

*************************

Thank you Jane and Bob, and thank you Howard for your Hopeful Notes from Howie J yesterday — you inspired me!

And…. my Peace Poem today:   Peace In The Uncommon Ground