There is something to confession.
Whether it be to the wind, your journal, to your pet, or to another person.

There is something to clearing something off of your heart, just letting the words loose, and letting the fear fly with it.

When you air it out, somehow in the light of day it often looses its power.
And what you thought was so big, so meaningful, so looming,
often really isn't.

A Monday Musing...

There have been so many times this week that I have been brought to tears by beauty that is in my life (some of which I have shared here). People using their talents, following the urgings of their heart, who have found their calling, found their peace.. and moments later seeing those who are struggling to find a moment of peace and tranquility in the midst of the raging of life and their inner demons swirling around them.

And I take a moment now to sit with it.

To let it wash over me, the love, the pain, the hope, the beauty… life is so very full, so amazing, so fragile- yet stronger than anything I have ever known.

To feel the complexity of it all…
And yet, to know the simplicity of it…
LOVE is all that matters,
But I still struggle with the complexity of how that is lived out on a daily basis.

Sometimes the words that I struggle to string together don’t do it justice,
but I try anyway.

I show up and spill my heart on the page,
I share what has touched me,
I laugh with those who laugh,
I cry with those whose tears kiss their cheek and in turn touch my heart.

That is my Monday.

One of those days...

Today has been one of those days where every e-mail, every click I make I stumble upon something that feeds me, that is needed for someone else, that I am able to use to share this glorious life... I love days like that!

"Psychically, it is good to make a halfway place, a way station, a considered place in which to rest and mend after one escapes a famine. It is not too much to take one year, two years, to assess one's wounds, seek guidance, apply the medicines, consider the future. A year or two is scant time."
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves.

On the left hand side are notes from him, and then these hauntingly beautiful pictures…
http://www.dayswithmyfather.com

And this beautiful video
The Gift of An Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison
Katrina

Inspiration for my day...

It is Friday today, the sun is shining, the snow is melting, and in a tiny corner of my heart, I am finally hopeful that spring might show up!

Today I was inspired by two things... one is this video
Scroll down until you see Tish Jones and Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria
Performances by youthrive: LIVE! spokenword artists

And the other is this man's photography... he is the photographer for one of the programs that we work with and it is absolutely stunning...
Douglas Beasley

Beginning where you are...

I had not started a blog for a long time because I didn't know what to name it, I pondered that for months, what should be the topic, what do I need to focus on, what do I have to say?

And then I realized after being told time and time again that I needed to do this.

You start where you are.

You can always make it better, in fact it should just keep getting better. I won't be perfect at the beginning- but it will be something.

And something that I learned from my class I took recently at the Loft Literary Center-

Eat the Tots.
Write the book.

You can't call yourself a writer if you don't write.
So here goes... although it isn't a book- it is a glimpse into my eclectic life :).

So I will drop you right into today...
A rally at the State Capital held by the MN Coalition Against Sexual Assault, MN Coalition for Battered Women and others... Powerful, powerful time. And photos coming soon... but one of the poets there shared that he had created a video that I thought was worth sharing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNQAk58D9Vw

One of the consistent things that happens every day is I am amazed, awed and inspired by the people, places and love that surrounds us all.
Everything else... well it is pretty eclectic :).