Nourish.

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Lisa

Nourish to me is nourishing food, nourishing your family, nourishing your life. ~Jamie Oliver

Today’s black beans came from a farm.

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The farm seems like a sacred place. It’s at once quiet and active, the green growth visible, the tomatoes and peppers widening as you watch them in the sun. Behold the artichoke.

Artichoke

Thinking about it reminds me of summer and life and the twists and turns that led me here. In the green, in the shadows, in the dirt. Always with the sun.

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Broken and flourishing all at once. Nourished.

 

{Check out Oles Farm and its Promised Land CSA}

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The how was not my job.

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Lisa

When you are brave enough to sink into your deepest longing, you will move through the fear and discomfort of not knowing “how,” of not believing it’s possible, to understanding why you want what you want. And then. . . you will make choices. You will make big moves. I dare you to move. ~Melissa Mulligan

Sometimes it’s right there. In front of your face. Outside your back door. In your neighborhood. In your blood.

Present in your long-ago visions.

Visioning

And yet you doubt it, wondering ceaselessly about the how. Obsessing over considering the consequences, the challenges, the inevitable hurdles.

But then you think about it again, and your heart sings.

P9175929And you know, deep down, the rightness of it all.

The integrity that spills over, carving a swath wide and long. The creativity. The light.

Humor and spreadsheets and shovels and sun shine. Grace and pickups and relationships and mulch.

Being the guide. Accepting guidance.

Spring is right around the corner.

 

 

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What I know. . .

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Lisa

“Write about what you know.”   ~Cathy Zielske

What I know becomes different the moment I write about it. It becomes real. Tangible. I can feel it in the shivers.

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Last week, I wrote ::

For me, visioning has opened up the Universe. When I look back at the pages I created just a year ago, I find myself staring at my current life. At the dreams. 

The ones that I created.

How does “real” become real-er? I don’t know the answer, but I know it happens. It’s as tangible as the wind whipping around the windows, the towering snow piles obscuring my view, the thanks of a woman outside the coffee shop, the bulbs that are ready to burst.

There is such beauty in this knowing. The warm shower of inspiration. The pouring of the toast.

As real as it gets.

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Go ahead. Take the shot.

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Lisa

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” ~Wayne Gretzky

I happened on this quote recently. It reminded me of my dawn, where everything is new. And isn’t that exactly the point?

I loved being a litigator, something I left behind – at least for a bit – more than a quarter of a year ago. When I think about this dawn, the newness of it all, I know that it’s the fresh morning air, the feeling of promise, and the delicious uncertainty of it all.

That’s where the energy exists.

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There’s promise. And there’s delight. When you think about it, isn’t everything in life simply about taking the shot? Going for it?

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I’m no hockey player and I’m not much of a fan either, but I do know about taking shots. There’s sizing up the situation. Strategy coming into play. There’s adrenaline….. and then there’s just what’s meant to be.

Momentum. Unstoppable motion. Speed.

What I mean is that sometimes it’s a flyer. Sometimes it’s intuition, a gut feel, that out of nowhere message heard in the silence. The almost-breath on a shoulder. It’s there, but just barely. We’ve got to know to listen for it.

What it tells us is that we must take that shot. Even when we don’t know the outcome.

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I can see it so clearly now.

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Lisa

You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you. ~Joseph Campbell

It was magical.

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Meeting up with eight soul sisters in a house on a beach in perhaps what was the very farthest corner of the country from my home. A trains-planes-and-automobiles destination (well, two of the three for sure). Pulling cards. Seeing feathers. Drinking red wine. Beautiful fruit dipped in dark chocolate.

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Each came with an offering, a gift of herself to guide, share, inspire. Coming from wildly different circumstances: parts of the country, families, careers, backgrounds and upbringing, we gathered.

We’ve spent some time together before, these soul sisters of mine. Each time I come away with a fresh perspective, a well of gratitude, and a deep knowing that I am exactly where I’m meant to be in this world.

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And there was time, a huge expanse of it, on Sunday morning.

Vision-away-the-day time.

Making pages. Finding secret messages just for me. Pure magic.

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For me, visioning has opened up the Universe. When I look back at the pages I created just a year ago, I find myself staring at my current life. At the dreams. The ones that I created.

Find the magic of your visions. Manifest your own truth, your knowing.

Join us each month to vision and gather. Next workshop is February 25th.

 

 

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A year in the books…

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Lisa

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when we look back everything is different.”  ~ C.S. Lewis

It’s been a year. Today. Last year on this day, and this evening, I was a patient in a hospital. It’s a fabulous place, but it’s a hospital nonetheless. I had undergone a double mastectomy earlier in the day, and by early evening I was sorta-kinda awake and pretty uncomfortable.

But it’s been a year. A whole 365 days of cancer freedom. Of being cured (yes, they used that word). A year of tumult and turmoil, of introspection and decision-making, of disappointment and desire, of deep pleasure and wild happiness.

And sometimes it feels like yesterday. Not often, but as I look back, as I consider the months and seasons that followed, it happened in a flash. A sometimes awesome flash and a sometimes painful one.

Life, right?

So today, I do the normal, regular things of life, hauling out a shedding Christmas tree, preparing dinner, droping-off and picking-up from basketball practice, shopping at Barnes & Noble. Each time today as I live my blessedly-uneventful life, I can’t help but reflect back. With deep gratitude. And with eyes cast up and outward.

The best is yet to come.

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Showing up.

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Lisa

“Keep showing up. Keep showing up to your canvas, to your novel, to your memoir, to your guitar, to your yoga mat, to the dance floor, to the floor of your closet, to the forest, to your bike, to your running shoes. Keep showing up to your craft – whatever it is – keep showing up.”   ~Tanya Lee Markul

Recently, I was encircled by the spirit that is known as Serendipity by the Sea.

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Part workshop, part art class, part gastronomic extravaganza, and part slumber party, Serendipity’s co-creators bring together women from all over the U.S. and Canada for four full days of wonderment.

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Spending time in the glorious Outer Banks during the off-season, when the sun is bright and the air is mild, is like medicine from the Universe.

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Learning from some of the country’s most profound and creative women is a gift.

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And having the opportunity to meet and get to know gorgeous spirits whose paths never otherwise would have crossed mine is like a super-extra-special package tied with a sparkly ribbon.

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It’s showing up and being nourished in every way. Nourishment for the soul.

 

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