Outstanding. That our greater Nevada City/Grass Valley area draws and supports such a spectacular array of fantastic women is somewhat mind-boggling.

I’m not the write-a-summary-review kind of girl. Hopefully, someone else will write something up. Hopefully, I’ll see it and will link to it here.

The talk in particular that lubricated my tear ducts, dug in to my psyche and brought me to the Land of the Gods was by Chameli Ardagh of Awakening Women.

She began by explaining that the Gods and Goddesses represent aspects of the human experience that we may have tucked away for whatever reason.

They represent the archetypal struggles that everyone who Seeks will encounter. There is no avoiding them. To be human is to challenge and overcome these energies in ourselves.

She brought forth the Hindu deities Kali and Shiva… and ahh, didn’t she bring a new perspective on my own struggle!

The short story is that Kali represents the fierce feminine. She conquers injustice, darkness, and ignorance–before breakfast. Well, any time of day–the point being, she’s relentless. She’s unstoppable.

The thing is, she needs her companion, Shiva, by her side or else she herself becomes destruction and blind with Rage. She gets to be the kind of diety who kills a mosquito with a bomb.

Shiva is Presence. With Shiva, Kali is a powerful crusader of Truth while (what I interpret as) holding awareness with Compassion.

Now I’ve certainly had my moments of rage and destruction over things as ridiculous as a disobedient printer. (Not one of my prouder moments.)

But I’ve also felt incredible outrage at the absurd violations of human dignity being foisted upon us by a fear-based paradigm. To wit, the new airport scanning methods that one must endure to get on an airplane.

Or intense anger at the mortgage industry that has left a glut of empty houses in the neighborhoods and homeless people on the street–the absurdity of this situation could only be the fallout of a mindless march of a bureaucratic nightmare. A beast so large that the individual organisms within it have zero control over it.

The List goes on. The List is the reason I rarely read the newspaper these days. Because I fill with anger at the ludicrous crack we have wedged ourselves into.

What Chameli so poetically illustrated last night was that the emotion that overtakes us, that we’ve been trained to contain and control, that we’ve learned to ignore and subdue in order to “play the game” and “run the race”–is to be welcomed. Perhaps “can” becomes “must” if we are going to make significant change in this world o’ ours, if we are to create a world where abuse in any form is unacceptable.

I’ve felt Kali’s energy coursing through me. It’s the energy that scorches away doubt. That leaves my conviction pure and clear. I Know why I’m a crusader for the Natural Professional.

Thank you, Chameli, for bringing forth and helping us give ourselves permission–nay, inviting the fierce feminine to come play in the field of our lives. For reminding us to remain sensitive to injustice and dedicated to truth. For encouraging us to stay present and aware of our emotions, that we may do our important work in the world with
Compassion,
Love, and
Understanding.

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Image from Chameli’s website: Awakening Women
She can also be found on Twitter @awakeningwomen

My sister sent me an article from the March 22, 2010 issue of the New Yorker called “Everybody Have Fun” by Elizabeth Kolbert.

Turns out that books, studies and research all conclusively lead to the “disturbing fact” that “escalating consumption has not brought Americans increased satisfaction.”

Frankly, I was disturbed by this conclusion. It reads more like an Onion piece or an April Fools joke. The New Yorker?

Haven’t we graduated from the belief that stuff, money and consumption are the causes of happiness sometime in the last Century?!?

Happiness isn’t about your car, clothes and quantity of Coca-cola in your fridge.

It’s about living in integrity with our values. It’s about feeling like our actions are meaningful. That what we do has a positive impact on our world.

It’s about a lovely day of sunshine and a gentle breeze at the park with a dear friend. It’s about taking photos for the sake of capturing a lovely shot. It’s about sharing a meal with loved ones.

It’s about doing something hard–from the heart.

For ex. My upcoming workshop is scary: what if no one signs up? How in the world am going to distill all this info into a course? What if I fall flat? That sure sounds like anything but happy-making.

And yet, deep down, I know that bringing this into the world will invite a satisfaction into my being that will blow the wind to carry the wings of happiness through my soul. And I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

How about some new studies, research and books? Why didn’t she cite Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project?

Why didn’t she look to studies on the happiness factor of people who consciously bring more gratitude into their lives?

Reading list

• Gratitude: A Key to Happiness, by William F. Doverspike, Ph.D. (Georgia Psychological Association)
• Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania (Martin E P Seligman, Ph.D.)
• Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier by Robert Emmons, Professor of Psychology at UC Davis and Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Positive Psychology (interview on SharpBrains and highlights from research project)
• The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin
• and my own post with several research sources from 2006: Happiness and Positive Psychology

OK. Signing off from rant. Time to go change clothes for a dance fest with the March Fourth Marching Band.

For the record, I plan on being Super Duper Ridiculously Happy dancing my booty off. =)

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Photo credit:
Good Morning Sunshine….

by law_keven

While tech toys aren’t required for a good time… oooh boy can they be fun!

And who knew that Lance’s Christmas in March column (in recent issue #100 of The Simplifier) would translate into a fun creativity outlet around here?

What’s it all mean? Well, friendly Santa Lance and his trusty canine reindeer sidekicks made a surprise visit here at HQ this evening. In his sac was a box with a “Bamboo Fun” writing tablet!

But “writing” is only the tip of the ice berg. Digital drawing, painting, and sketching are all in the future now. I’ve barely scratched the surface but one super cool feature is that the harder you press, the thicker the “ink flow” (which, of course, isn’t really ink). This is called pressure sensitivity.

Wow, a regular mouse is so last week!

I’m so stoked on this unexpected addition to the office. Talk about an incredibly thoughtful and relevant gift. Thank you, Lance!!

Painting by Douglass Truth

Let’s get merry, people. Actually, let’s make that a capital M for some major Merry making!

Friends and family are gathered, card games are being played, food is in the oven, truffles on the table, and shrimp dip is on the way (my favorite accompaniment to Ruffles and the one time a year I indulge). Oh, and the cat is crashed out on the couch.

It’s cold outside, frost dusting the lawn at 2pm in the afternoon. We are warm inside by the wood stove. It’s fairly quiet this year, no youngsters running around.

My heart is warm from gratitude. I’m here at my aunt and uncles outside Portland–safe, welcome and appreciated.

A wonderful juxtaposition to the unfriendly dorks who stole my purse yesterday while my friend Ellen and I were taking a walk.

Fascinating how someone else doing something immature and irresponsible can leave me feeling inadequate. “How stupid of me to leave my purse in the car!”

May they have a merry day as well. Watching the movie they rented on my credit card and eating the snacks they picked up at Safeway. Really now.

Did they get something for nothing? I think their conscience will catch up with them at some point. How can it not?

Wait! You got the wrong person!

At some point–unless they are 100% pure evil–which I doubt these guys are, they are going to want something a little better than what they have in the world, and that cannot be stolen.

It can, however, be lived. Lived in a way that blends harmoniously with others.

Being kind to others will invite more kindness into their own lives. Maybe they’ll make the connection between these, and maybe they won’t.

I, for one, am grateful that the damage was not greater and that I was with a wonderful friend who was able to take charge in the moment and keep her cheerful sense of humor. I’m grateful that while they may have taken my stuff, I recognize that I am not my stuff.

Religious and traditional I am not. When I offer the “Merry Christmas” I say so in this spirit: “May you be Merry. May you be grateful for all the gifts in your life, whatever form they come. May you revel in the love the world has for you that you may share it with others.”

All we really need is already here. Breathe it in. Remember your joy. Smile for no reason. Love the beacon of love that you are.

Merry. Merry to you, to them, to us.

While writing about organizing, simplifying and the Natural Professional is a given in my world, I’ve been feeling something has been missing.

What’s my unique slant on it all? I’m not talking about a marketing perspective, though it will help with that. I’m talking about my personal message for the world.

I believe everyone has a certain something to contribute, no matter if they are a dog groomer or a CEO. We all influence the world in some way.

There’s what we do, there’s how we do it, and then there’s what we say along the way. We each have something to express in some way. I’ve been slow to discover what mine is–some people have it dialed in early in life. In this way, I think we are all artists.

Talk about a journey to figure out what that thing is! Mamma Mia!!! We, (speak for yourself, kiddo) OK, I have been through all kinds of weirdness in the search of finding my voice. It just so happens that it involves speaking, but I use “voice” here liberally–whatever your form of expression is, painting, drawing, digital rendition, poetry, doodling on napkins, arranging leaves on a fall day, whatev, that’s your voice.

Like I said, I’ve known the parameters of my voice for about five years now, but that certain message, the part that comes straight from my soul to connect with others, that special ingredient that will keep all this fresh for years to come… what was it?

This morning found my mind rearranging the parts to paint a slightly different picture. The short answer is Love, or the heart more precisely. The heart as the new reference point.

It’s time to stop thinking so much with our heads and listen to our hearts.

Respect and appreciation are the new ways of doing business; appreciation is a heart tool.

We add richness to the mundane in our life through gratitude–another heart tool.

I had been hesitant to talk too much about the heart, love and all that ooey gooey stuff because, I know, you’ve got businesses to run and things to do. We can’t all sit around and chant peace, love and happiness.

My challenge (in all the best possible ways) is to weave the heart into the productivity work in a way that you just can’t deny it.

Who wants to work in the flow of their authentic self? Who wants life to be meaningful? Who wants to feel satisfied in their work?

Guess where the reference point is for all of these? Right there in your heart!

XO

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Photo credit:
heart texture
Originally uploaded by stevefaeembra

I knew they weren’t around. I figured they were on vacation or something fun like that. Maybe they were off on a romping-good food-time across the countryside of Italy.

Or maybe they were off trying a meditation retreat in India, or learning to climb overhangs in Argentina, or something fun like that.

I never thought to look for them in the Lost and Found.

But there they were. Upon waking this morning, I found myself at the L & F desk–I’d tell you where it is if I could. It’s one of those Kafka-esque places where you realize where you are without any idea of the path you took to get there.

So there I am at at the desk having a pleasant exchange with the attendant who had clearly been taking very good care of them in my absence. They were happy to see me and seemed to harbor no resentment for having been left to their own devices for the last month.

They hopped in the body mobile and we came straight here, to the keyboard. They were rather excited at first. They had a hard time organizing themselves into coherent sentences and kept rushing out in misspelled order.

I suppose that’s to be expected. When you haven’t done your bloggy thing for a full month, you’re bound to need a little re-acclimation time, n’est-ce pas?

When I asked why they hadn’t called to let me know where they were and that they were OK, they said they were wanting to leave their options open. Just in case they wanted their little reprieve from work to be permanent.

By the time they were ready to blog again, they were so far gone they couldn’t find their way back. Then when they noticed I wasn’t even looking for them, well, you can guess that they felt rather unappreciated.

Thank goodness they don’t hold grudges, because ours is a co-creative relationship. They have no voice without me and I have nothing to say with out them. When they are quiet, my fingers are still. When they are excited, I am out of sorts until they hit the screen.

Hmmm, maybe I was needing a short break from their beck and call, too.

Well, we all got some time off and I am thrilled to be back at the keyboard, relaying their ideas on life, comments on anything, and celebrations of anything that hits their fancy.

Welcome home, my friends.

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The image was created by Wordle, a site that takes a bunch of text and creates a word cloud out of it based on the frequency of words used. Wordle appears to be a project of Jonathan Feinberg, a super smarty-pants guy who also created a haiku finder. Thank you, Jonathon for this most entertaining project!! Who knew one could have such good clean fun at 8am in the morning? It’s borderline illegal.

Lance turned up this online article from USA Today called Happiness: Staying positive in negative territory by Sharon Jayson.

Take a read through and you’ll see all kinds of similarities to what we’ve been talking about in our newsletter for quite some time, namely, it’s all you being in charge of your life.

Some psychologists argue that real happiness is more a function of your social interactions and activities than your material wealth.

The author includes some quotes from Carla White who created iPhone apps for a Gratitude Journal as well as a Vision Board. Those can be found at HappyTapper.com.

My super-duper brief wrap up is that while money is important for daily living, it’s not the source of your happiness. You have control over the activities you engage in, the people you hang out with, and the thoughts in your head that gravitate towards dwelling on what you don’t have OR, a really big OR here, focusing on all the great things that you have in your life (a gratitude practice).

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Photo credit:
Duck
Originally uploaded by fmc.nikon.d40

How do we love all children of all species for all time?

This was on of the early slides in William McDonough‘s talk, author of Cradle to Cradle, at UC Santa Barbara last evening. (Yes, I got to go!) While it was a very similar talk to the one I heard (and posted on in April) on the mp3 player while pulling copious quantities of weeds last month or two, my mind got to wander in a way that it wouldn’t have if I was following all he said for the first time.

I love the man’s mind and sensibility. I mean Wow. So completely dedicated to good design. He’s probably got some flaws here and there like eating copious amounts of tortilla chips when stressed, but hey, no one wrote a manual for this time around, he’s contributed tons of great stuff to the betterment of our world and societies, and besides, who’s looking?

I had one conceptual and one technological revolution. (I’d call that a successful evening!)

conceptual revolution
This one had to do with the use of a triangular diagram. Below is a recreation done quickly in Photoshop. Pretend all sides are equilateral, eh?

In each corner is an important aspect to consider (in this case, when approaching design). The three he used were: economy, equity, ecology. The closer you get to a mini-triangle in the corner, the more heavily weighted it is to that concept.

For example, a project that is all about maximizing monetary profit while ignoring its ecological effect + benefits some people while taking advantage of others, will be weighted toward the economy corner.

In the middle is, what I’ll call, the sweet spot. This would represent a design that is equally weighted among the three aspects.

Well, I had a little light bulb pop on in the context of my business concepts. Here’s mine:

The three considerations are $, personal satisfaction, and quality of life (for current and future generations of all species). The sweet spot represents the Natural Professional (I love it!!)

Natural Professional love what they do, make a positive contribution to the world, and are financially supported. Sweet!

technological revolution
The other thing that got me all excited was the technology he used. I’ve been pondering the use of PowerPoint and have been super resistant. Merlin Mann, for example, did a great job with his Inbox Zero presentation as it uses mostly images and not much text.

But still, I feel like it’s a static technology that, sure, helps the presenter stay on track, provides visual interest for the audience, and augments the talk with powerful images but it also keeps things fairly linear. And if not done well, well, “lame” is one word that comes to mind.

What McDonough used was a combination PowerPoint and write board. On the screen he started with a slide or a blank screen and then could write on it like the old overhead transparency technology. I dug it! Some of you may say, “geez, Shawn, that’s been around for eons, get with the program!” OK! I’m on board! Except that I still don’t know what it is. I’ll look around online and then ask him if I don’t find it. Or maybe someone will graciously leave a big fat hint in the comments section below…

I’m thinking about how it could be used to gather ideas, to watch something build step by step based on audience input, basically, showing a more spontaneous, audience participation creation of thought rather than what just what I, as the presenter, had come up with.

His talk is inspiring. I strongly recommend giving it a listen (I have a link to the talk I previously listened to here).

Thank you, William McDonough, for bringing such great ideas to the table, showing that these ideas are realistic and absolutely doable, and the inspiration to do what you believe in!

Community is the theme that’s popping up around here: Community garden, Nevada City Farmers Market, Sustainability and education center, Alliance for Post Petroleum Local Economy, Community Congress … a lot of people are supporting these projects.

Whether supporters are looking for camaraderie in an unstable time (which is better than closing off into hermit-land), or just plain tired of years of do-it-myself hardship, people are taking action.

It’s definitely worth noting, though, that there is one person who provided the seed and starter fluid for each of the above projects, Reinette Senum.

(Readers may remember that I was on her campaign team last year for her successful run for City Council.)

Which leads me to wonder how our collective perspective will continue to change to support someone like this who has Nevada City fast on the track to becoming a model community. She’s not independently wealthy, she barely squeaks by on her rent some months. Her focus lacks self-service more than probably anyone I’ve ever met.

If what she does best is bring the right people together, add ideas and inspiration, stir and then Voila! another project for people to take off running with, how does she get compensated for her contribution to our community?

I’m wondering what other communities do to support their visionaries. I know that our town is way better off for her dedicating her energies toward bettering it. And I’d like to see her continue doing what she does best which is find resources and connect people.

It takes a lot of people to make something happen. One person spouting brilliant ideas will get nowhere if no one is listening. But on the flip side, this group of people was going no where without a leader.

There is a lot we can be doing to secure a safe and healthy future for ourselves. For most of us, this means being flexible and making significant changes in our lives. Rather than this be a daunting prospect, we can let it be an adventure. We are so much more powerful and creative, we have so much more fun. . . when we do it together.

Who are the visionaries in your area? How can you get involved? How can you support them? How can they support you?

Thank you, Reinette, for your tireless energy and dedication. You are an inspiration!

[insert photo of luscious piece of chocolate cake here. or imagine it.]

Of course, practice, practice, practice is the main vehicle to get there. I’m throwing a few tricks into the mix to really jump start the flow and give it all the help I can get. Hence, for the next indeterminate while, there may be some letters to my sister showing up here in the posts. This one will explain why:

Hi Rinee,

Congratulations! You’ve won! Or at least you’ve been an absentee volunteer to be the recipient of my words. Just like when it’s time to elect officers for an organization and the one person who isn’t there gets elected as President, or worse in my opinion, Secretary (transcribing notes ranks just above extracting slivers that have been deeply embedded in the palm of my hand as things I enjoy doing).

You may be wondering what you’ve been elected for, I mean, you already hold the prestigious title of the world’s most awesome sister. That one isn’t an absentee vote, either. That title follows years of good listening, doubled-over laughter, and willing collaboration of parental gift giving. Yes, that one is well deserved. This new one however….

What is it, already! OK. For some time now I’ve been feeling like something’s been missing from the website and blog. A richness that pops up every once in a while when I type for the blog, but more frequently when handwriting in my journal or writing an email to a friend or occasionally a client. But when I sit down to write for an “audience” some pre-conceived notion kicks in that squeezes out the fun stuff, the stream of consciousness wanderings, the naturally occurring associations…

Basically, I want to be writing from the heart. The naturally flowing words that weave and dance into images and forms that is one of my unique contributions to the world. Instead, there’s a self-conscious observer standing sternly watching over my shoulder, “don’t offend the reader” and “no one will get that” and “how is that supposed to be ‘professional’?” Yeah, yeah, those are all good to keep in mind as a final filter—but it’s no good when it filters out the creative process.

I can feel the difference when I write. When it’s from the heart, I feel joy. I laugh at what comes out. I delight in the associations that seem to spontaneously pop into existence. But when that stern cop is standing over my shoulder, I feel stiffer, more aware of my head and thought process, my attention seems to hover a word or two in front of me. It’s not so fun. I’m flipping between the two writing this letter to you.

I had a session with Colleen the Communicatrix yesterday. One of the first things out of her mouth was a verification of my perceived identity split. You know, confirmation can be a really a good thing. What I mean by that in this case is that when she said that she saw a significant disparity between the personality she’d experienced through my communications with her and what she read on my site, I felt like her acknowledgment (as consultant, she’s the “authority”) gave me permission to see this as an issue to be resolved. And since I don’t like focusing on “problems” I immediately switch to what are some solutions?

Happily, thought of one on the spot and then this letter represents the second. The first is since I’m comfortable handwriting, do it. If I haven’t made the transition from handwriting to typing for the writing style I want to cultivate, then stop thinking it’s going to happen in this current pattern. Thus, handwrite and transcribe. Takes more time and hopefully won’t need to be forever, but for now, suck it up and…have fun writing!

Colleen also suggested writing to a (singular) person. Immediately I thought “I’ve done this and it doesn’t work.” Later I thought, maybe I was trying to write to the wrong person! I was trying to write to one of my favorite clients—but with clients, my professional filter is higher than when engaging the creative writing process. So DUH! Who in the world do I have the most fun talking with, who I can say anything to, who encourages my truth, who has been one of my biggest supporters, who brings tears to my eyes just writing this? You, the most awesome sister in the world.

So I’ve absentee elected you to be the recipient of my musings as I get better at weaving them gracefully with the thoughts I want share. Thank you so much for all the support you’ve given so generously in all it’s different forms. I am so grateful, lucky, appreciative… All of it. I love you so much.

XO
S