Archive for March, 2010

Open Your Heart

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What’s the Occasion?

Last night, I made a Ricotta Orange Pound Cake with Strawberries courtesy of the recipe by Food Network star, Giada De Laurentiis. Eager to share this experience, I decided to invite my parents over to enjoy cake and ice cream with my family. Sounds like a party! Indeed, it was. So, what was the occasion? Life. Plain and simple, I had a craving for something sweet, had all the tools and ingredients to create it, along with the best of intentions and love, so I didn’t hesitate to get my hands a little dirty. I took my time, followed instructions, and had faith that my efforts would pay off. And they did! Something as basic as my desire to bake turned into a deeper desire to “break bread” with the people I love. Now, that is an occasion to live for and the very essence of convivial living. It’s merry-making, having a fondness of feasting, drinking, and good company. That was my intention, and therefore my experience last night with the two people who gave me life, as well as the man and two sons who I love and with whom I share every bit of my world. Life is meant to be a convivial occasion, so the next time you think you need a specific reason to have a good time, think again. The occasion is your life and everyone in it. That’s reason enough to put on your convivial party dress (or apron) and get convivial with it!

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What energy do you bring to the stage? Whether it’s family, friendships, professional or romantic…is it a convivial one?

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Give yourself a platform to stand on, something to call your own, a reason to stand firm and strong on your own two feet, in your own beautiful skin.

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Energy Emanates Essence

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A Woman of Valor

Twenty years ago, my father gave my mother a beautiful diamond ring for their 15 year wedding anniversary. I’ve always loved that ring and have felt deeply excited to inherit it from my mother. I was talking to my husband about it and how I adore the myriad ways my father has demonstrated his love for my mother. I wrote a quote in my journal at 16 that said, “The best thing a father can do for his children is love their mother,” and I am now remembering it, because my father has never failed to show me the love he has for his wife. This ring tops all the gifts I’ve seen him give my mother. Well, besides the pajama t-shirt he once gave her that had a big smiley face on it and said “Girlfriend.” It was the funniest gift he ever gave, because it coincided with his goofiness to always answer her phone calls and greet her by saying, “How you doin’ girlfriend?” as if they were a pair of girlfriends ready to get their gossip on. I still laugh about it to this day. So, I began to share the ring story with my husband and was expressing to him my desire for the same life long love affair in our marriage and on this particular day, my mother happened to be visiting. I asked her to take off the ring so I could show it to him. Of course, she could have modeled it herself, but I just HAD to wear it, needed to feel it against my own skin. As I placed this luscious multi-diamond ring on my finger, my mother said, “You’re wearing it upside down. It’s suppose to be worn the other way so it can be seen as the crown that it is.” This was news to me! All along I’d been thinking the ring was two leaves coming together, but then my mother enlightened me and hubby by taking us back to her anniversary day…My husband left this ring for me on our bedroom night stand with a note next to it. Along with his own message, he shared this biblical verse, “A woman of valor is the crown of her husband.” My husband said that the ring was a symbol of that truth for him; that I was his jeweled crown. Whoa! I was blown away. What strikes me as romantic, also strikes me as being profound, because here I am, years later, all grown up, and recently, a beautiful stranger came across my blog and shared this bit of powerful knowledge with me as she said it “fit well” with this Convivial Society for women:

From the inside emerges a story of men manipulated by potent women and nurtured with feminine values…a story that reveals the inner quality of womanhood that transcends the minds of men. The inner light of womanhood is of an essence-quality, of a place the mind cannot touch .This is the secret of the words of Solomon’s wisdom, “A woman of valor is the crown of her husband.” As a crown is above the head and beyond it, so the inner light of womanhood…of the most lofty, enlightened souls, many had wives greater than themselves…this is because these great men, in their personal lives, were already tasting of the World to Come…

Upon having a stranger turned spiritual friend share Solomon’s wisdom with me, I felt the instant connection and synchronicity of that convivial moment in time between two people in love, two people whose love gave me life, and its new connection to this Convivial Society. Perhaps it isn’t new; maybe it’s been something in the making all along…a full circle experience finally coming to fruition. I close by saying, Off with your heads! It’s all about the heart and what it moves you to do. Mine is luring me to go polish my inner crown. Gonna make it sparkle, make her shine, ever so bright.

For more reading on those lofty, enlightened men’s souls, go here.

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On Being Completely Transparent

While online this morning, I went to click out of a window my hubby had open and saw he’d been listening to yet another TED Talk. I didn’t catch the speaker’s name, but in that brief moment, I heard him say, “Be completely transparent…” I turned off the laptop and walked away hearing that line echo in my ear. I’ve since been contemplating it and what has come to mind is what Dr. Wayne Dyer once said, “We’re spiritual beings having a human experience.” I hear various truths floating around in my head that tell me I am already transparent, but have simply lost my way. I’ve followed one too many humans, have learned and lived their worldly ways, acquired their carnal thinking and eating patterns, and have taken a detour from my original, light-weight, naturally, transparent self. I’ve allowed negative thought patterns and experiences to weigh my spirit down, causing me to have a heavy heart and act out of nature. I am only reminded of my transparent self when I have practiced pure love and forgiveness. It is then that I feel light again, as if able to fly…then that I feel anything is possible, that nothing can stop me…penetrate me…a sense of invincibility…transparency. Sounds superhuman. Yes, that is my true nature. In one dimension or another, perhaps it is a form of flight, of floating, that much talked about, yet misunderstood “out of body” experience. What does that really mean, out of body? It’s the flight of spirit and witnessing it. Could it be like seeing God? What a feat! The spirit is formless, therefore non-conforming; it’s capable of going anywhere. Like vapor, like God. Our goal is to be like God, no? Uh oh, the conservative voices in my head are warning me about that sort of phrasing. Sounds blasphemous. Well, somewhere tucked away in this brain gem of mine, certain messages I heard growing up are starting to creep to the surface and make sense. Like the scripture I once heard that said God made man in his own image. What does that mean? It’s not for me to say, but I have faith in knowing that it’s a matter of linguistics and everything is open to one’s own interpretation. Back to being transparent- its original Latin translation keeps things simple- to show oneself. I see this word in a whole new light today. It’s about spirit…mine and yours. It’s about freedom, courage, liberty, to simply be as we were meant to be, how we were all born to be- vulnerable…open…unknowing…flexible…superfluous…enthusiastic…in spirit…completely transparent.

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