Playing Ten on Tuesday:

1. Field Center
2. My darling FC group.
3. My darling affiliate goddesses.
4. My kids and how they’re growing and learning
5. My husband the Sensei Chef (ssshhh … don’t tell him I used that term. He really really really doesn’t like it. But it’s true)
6. Eating so many lovely, delicious dishes.
7. Finding my way back to writing.
8. Finding my art again.
9. Finding a contractor and having the renovations start!
10. All the beautiful little glorious moments that make up my days - things like sipping coffee while nestled in the comfy armchair, sunlight splashing over me; hugs from Dylan; talking with Ward into the wee hours of the night; having wonderful, amazing conversations with Hayley and Sean; loving the colour of my manicure, of all things; emails from friends; and many, many more beautiful glorious little moments.

Tags: fun, gratitude, Spirit, Thoughts

Well, that’s rather an odd title, and I didn’t know I was going to write it until it popped out. Seriously, I was just sitting here thinking that I should work a bit more on my Art Every Day Month project and of course, I’m in NaPoBloMo so I need to write a post today.

Here’s a serious aside that totally takes away from what I’m going to write about in this post but it’s buzzing in my head so if I don’t get it out, it’s going to buzz around more and throw a wrench into the whole post-writing works: I can’t help wondering, why is it I don’t GET NaPloBloMo as an “url acronym”. I mean, I can never remember it the way I remember NaNoWriMo. I always want to say, “NaBloMo … um something”. The only reason why I get it right is because I check out my own links first, each and every time. Sheesh. You’d think I’d know it by now.

Okay, now that I have that out of my system, back to Staying in Love with Life. What I really wanted to say is that I’m having one of those gloriously beautiful moments when I realize how wonderful this life I’ve created is.

I love moments like this, because the bliss factor is just brilliant. I also love that I’m having this moment, when just four hours ago I was tackling a deadline for an assignment that I really really didn’t like. I was emailing friends and telling my family, look, next time something like this comes up, please, please, please REMIND me how much I hated it the last time, so I won’t take it on again.

Yet still, now that it’s over and done with, I am touching that bliss. There’s a consistency to the practice of Being who you choose to be, and this, I think, is what happens when you do practice this Being consistently, as consistently as possible. I’ve been doing that, or being aware of wanting to do that (two different things but still close enough in some ways, I think).

Dylan is all better now, by the way. He insisted I take this picture of him “doing ballet”:

Yes, that’s my kid. He loves trains, cars and trucks, princesses, dragons, playing the Wii, jumping on the trampoline, going to IKEA just to have their mac n cheese, ballet, his Trainz game on the computer, Thomas the Tank Engine, chess, drawing, singing and giving lots of hugs and kisses. We’ve been trying to find a ballet or dance class that he can take that isn’t all girls. I figure one will show up when the timing is right.

And right now, it feels so easy staying in love with life.

Tags: Family, I Am, Life, Spirit

What better day than today to play Three Beautiful Things?

1. The brilliance of the chance for change.

2. The power of this breath of hope.

3. The eloquence of a new day, birth to a new era.

Life truly is just so incredible, isn’t it?

Tags: 3BT, Life, Spirit

It’s a rainy Saturday morning here, which I rather like - it reminds me of Vancouver, where I grew up. I’m used to misty rainy gray days, where every moment contains a hint of dusk. To me, dusk is such a magical time, when I have a chance to just sit and enjoy it.

Decluttering … or Freeing Up Energy

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon cleaning my office. I work from home, and it was getting seriously painful looking at the stacks and stacks of books, papers and courier packages sitting on every available surface, plus portions of the floor. I somehow found room in my office bookshelves for the latest batches of books that I’ve bought recently. I also created a To Be Read corner, which helped a lot!

I stumbled on five filled notebooks - my Morning Pages from quite a few years back. It’s been a couple of years now since I’ve been doing Morning Pages, but back when I did them, I was very good about not reading them over. These scribblings definitely aren’t meant to be read over! So I had a good time tearing out all the pages, and then shredding them, although only half the pages are shredded - I burnt out the shredder! It’s fine today, and I’ll probably resume my shredding later on today.

So now I’m sitting here, at my clean desk, feeling very uncluttered. It’s remarkable how refreshing decluttering can be.

Immediately after I did my clean-up, I felt rejuvenated, as if I’d freed up some energy that had been trapped (as I’m sure it was). And I was able to write the final update on our Thanksgiving dinner at our food blog (considering our Thanksgiving here in Canada was last weekend, I definitely procrastinated on this one!): Our Bon Appetit 2008 Thanksgiving Dinner.

In addition to freeing up energy, it also felt like I’d freed up time, as well. I was able to start reading Kelly Rae’s Taking Flight, which I’ve had for a couple of weeks now. I’m not destined to really get into this book just yet, though: I put it down somewhere last night just before putting Dylan to bed, and I can’t find it anywhere now!

The rest of the evening was spent watching Die Hard (the first one) with Ward and my son Sean. Sean’s doing his individual study unit on Die Hard for his Film Studies class (all I can say is, I definitely would have enjoyed Film Studies in high school, if it had been offered!). Ward threw together some lovely appetizers for the movie, including a Tilapia Po’Boy that was just amazing, and some seared rare beef slices.

All in all, yesterday was a Very Good Day.

The Big Draw

Looking back on this week, I see that I’m behind on a few things - mainly: blogging here daily, and the Big Draw. Dylan, of course, has been far more diligent than I have been when it comes to drawing daily. He always seems to have his markers out and about, and even with days filled with games, computer time, reading, trains, playing, jumping in the leaves, eating his favorite foods, library time, clay time - he still has time to draw. He truly is an artist.

Car and Driver. Crayola markers.

Valentine Heart for Mommy. Crayola markers.

Boat. Crayola markers.

Mail. Crayola marker.

On Inspiration

I’ve been discovering something about myself (self-discoveries are always so wonderful, and it’s just amazing how there’s always more and more to discover, no matter how old you are).

Inspiration ebbs and flows for me. I recently was talking with some dear friends about this, and bringing a great deal of self-judgment into this discovery. They each nudged me back into alignment, an acceptance of all of who I am. So today, I’m at peace with the ebb and flow of inspiration in my life, and can now truly see that the down time of withdrawal is something as precious as the passionate flow of inspiration on fire.

Which, by the way, is one reason why my blogging here ebbs and flows, too!

Writing

I’ve been in prep mode for NaNoWriMo, which is coming up very soon. Since I signed up, I’ve decided on the idea that I’ll be turning into a novel. This was actually looking like quite a tough decision, as I have several gems on hand, some of which I’ve carried with me and developed for years. But interestingly enough, choosing the idea was easy. I discovered there was one idea I have, for a mainstream mystery, that just kept nagging at me. Basically, it was jumping up and down saying “pick me! pick me!”. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

So this past week, I’ve been playing around with my characters. I’ve created various mindmaps for my major characters, and I’m currently reading James Frey’s How to Write a Damn Good Mystery, which is both funny and has some good tips. I will likely begin writing my character profiles this week, and by November 1 I should be good to go for NaNoWriMo.

Bliss

This coming week, my intention is to live blissfully, in the midst of the seeming chaos of life, family and deadlines.

Tags: Art, inspired, NaNoWriMo, Spirit, the big draw, Thoughts, Writing

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada! We have had two days of festivities - we went to my sister’s house for a family Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and today we had a small feast of our own.

Which unfortunately left me very little time for other things, like drawing! So The Big Draw will be on hold until tomorrow. (Dylan, on the other hand, did his drawings both yesterday and today!)

Both dinners were a lot of fun; we took a ton of pictures so I’ll be sorting through those. Sitting down today, both Ward and I talked about how much we have in our lives to appreciate, how blessed we are.

And most of all, today I’ve been thinking about a quote that my friend Bethie sent me:

“… you do live in an environment of absolute grace. And the more you practice thoughts of that and watch for evidence of that and speak it, you beat the drum of it whenever you see it.”

- Abraham-Hicks

And that’s my intention - Absolute Grace. And as I sit here reflecting on all that’s good in my life, and my gratitude and appreciation of all of it, it does indeed feel like I’m surrounded by absolute grace.

Tags: Family, grace, Spirit

Dagwa Rose. Credit: Michael Lorenzo

Two weeks ago, I went beyond my normal desires and decided on the kind of life I want to live: a magical, spontaneous life, filled to the brim with synchronicity and gorgeous surprises. In forming this intention, I began the process of letting go of a lot of old beliefs about who I am, beliefs which served me well way back when, but which are no longer in alignment with who I’m choosing to be.

This morning, as I sit here at my computer looking out the window, I am filled with such gratitude. As I open myself to the spontaneous life, my life has been unfolding in such a fluid and organic way. Each day comes with such beautiful surprises - in a Field training analogy, I’ve opened that window, and people walking by are throwing those roses to me.

I’ve fallen back into a fully creative life, one which I had let go of, for reasons I can’t fully remember: I vaguely recall feeling busy, the harried busy-ness of a new mother. And then life changed, shifted, and I began to find time, time to explore my inner life, to come to know my inner self and fall in love with her all over again. And now, the missing piece has come back to me - my creativity, a creativity that’s beyond my writing, and in going beyond my writing, it’s inspiring my writing to depths I have never before felt.

This gorgeous world of art and creativity, helped in no small part by my decision to blog here as authentically as I can … this gorgeous world inspires me on a daily basis, in ways I had never dreamed of before. And my outer world has been shifting, fluidly and gently, to come into alignment with who I am inside.

This morning, my heart spills over with gratitude for this spontaneous life.

Tags: creativity, I Am, Spirit, spontaneity

Autumn Moon. Credit: Lynne Lancaster

This evening’s been one of those evenings where I’m finding grace everywhere. It’s funny how one doesn’t necessarily even get a hint of all of this wonder that’s to come. But grace did come, from all around me:

1. The beauty of the rain, drizzling down unusually, reminding me of Vancouver. Not at all like Toronto’s normal version of rain, which can really only be described as “downpour”.

2. The leaves caught beneath my windshield wipers, gloriously gorgeous and vibrant. I read somewhere that trees don’t have to give us the breathtaking colors of fall, that it takes a lot of their energy to present their dazzling show of reds and oranges - and they get nothing from it. They don’t need to do it. They could just cut off the chlorophyll and turn those green leaves brown. But they don’t, and instead choose to give us such beauty during this spectacular season.

Thank you, trees.

3. The candles nestled in the glass vases at the yoga studio. It made a lovely experience even more beautiful.

4. The sweetness and flow of my yoga instructor’s voice. We went into our poses while outside day turned into night.

5. The evening sky, not yet fully dark, gently colored a gorgeous orange by the street lights. I’d never noticed before that our street lights give off this beautiful orange-red color.

6. The feel of the drizzling rain on my face.

7. Coming home to laughter, Thomas train tracks laid out in the living room, Jamie Oliver’s cod and potato stew being prepared.

Tonight was a wonderful reminder to me that grace is everywhere. And I know I named this post “Finding Grace”, but grace is always here. What I really mean is, “opening my eyes to grace”.

Tags: grace, I Am, Spirit

Three beautiful things today:

1. After dinner conversation with my oldest son, loving so much who he is, how he’s growing and thinking, the person he’s becoming.

2. A gourmet meal on a Monday night, lovingly prepared by my darling husband.

3. Laughing and joking with my daughter, adoring who she is.

Tags: 3BT, Family, Spirit

It’s been a beautiful Sunday, the end of a perfect weekend. What a wonderful time to post Three Beautiful Things:

1. Ward’s home, back from his karate seminar in New York. He was away for four days, and we missed him a lot! It’s great to have him home tonight - he’s behind me right now, sitting at his computer catching up on episodes of the Japanese shows he’s missed while he was away. (No, he’s not Japanese. But he loves the Japanese shows that my daughter Hayley introduced him to - they have subtitles!)

2. The kids are home. My two oldest kids spent the weekend at their dad’s this weekend - they go every other weekend - and as always, the house feels so much brighter on those Sunday nights when I hear them come through the front door, chattering with each other and then racing into the office to see us.

3. My mom is upstairs, sleeping in Dylan’s room. I know I’m a grown-up now, with kids of my own (two teenagers, even!), but whenever she comes and stays over, I always feel so good. It’s like slipping back into childhood for a day or so.

Tags: 3BT, Spirit

Getting to draw today was a bit tougher - my mom is over for a visit, so we were kind of occupied for most of the afternoon. But we did sit down to draw (just not together).

Dylan’s Big Draw Day 4 Drawing

Dylan chose to draw an every day thing: a cup. Very simple, but I love the confidence of his line!

Cup. Crayola marker.

Belle’s Big Draw Day 4 Drawing

I did several drawings again. Quite a few faces, and I’m happy to say that sometimes I got the nose right, and sometimes I got the lips right (I almost always get the eyes right) but what I was looking for was a drawing in which the eyes, nose, lips and shape of face were all right or close to right (yes, I’d be quite happy with “close to”!), and I kept just missing it. It’s coming along, though!

I also drew some very simple things: a Coca Cola bottle, a cup and saucer, a lamp. The Coca Cola bottle wins (you can see the faint outline of the cup and saucer behind it):

Coca Cola bottle. Pen.

I have a book of fairy motifs, and I’m thinking I might try drawing from that. One thing that’s always eluded me in the past is drawing from my imagination. I’ve been loving all the beautiful and whimsical drawings and paintings I’ve been seeing online, and it would be so nice to be able to draw like that.

This is all so very good for me - with each day I’m gaining more confidence. That’s the way it works, right?

Three Beautiful Things

I also discovered Three Beautiful Things today, and it seems like such a beautiful way to end the day.

1. The strands of electric stars that serve as my office window “curtain”. We bought them one year from IKEA for Christmas, and when Christmas was over, we decided to just keep them up.

2. The view through the bedroom window. Right now the trees are showing all their beautiful colors, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. Come winter, it will be another kind of beauty, a cold beauty but wonderful still.

3. The flavors of shrimp, cod and haddock puttanesca; leftovers of a dish that Ward cooked last weekend which we froze so that I could have a nice dinner while he’s away.

Tags: 3BT, Art, Spirit, the big draw