How Do You Curate Beauty?

On March 13, 2020, in the early days of the covid-19 quarantine, I made a very simple post that said this,

“This is a corona-free zone. Don’t contribute to the chaos. Please. Do whatever is in your power to stay out of fear. Your anxiety, panic, hoarding mentality, and chaos contributes to the collective vibe. Energy... it’s a thing. Clean up your space by being positive, sharing your toilet paper😂, talking about your grandkids, your new projects and things you’re passionate about. Be kind. Have compassion. Tell some jokes. Eat healthy delicious food. 

If you’re going to tap into your fear.... maybe dig a lil deeper and see what it’s triggered within and what it’s really about. Do some work around it. It won’t be just about this dumb virus. There will be more. Learn to be the peace within which is your birthright. But it’s a practice, peeps. It requires some conscious effort like meditation, spending time in nature and silence. If you did any of that more than tapping into the crazy, you’d be good. Peace in Peeps.”🙏🏼💕🌙

Below it I’d taken a picture of me in that moment, legs crossed in my fave leggings, eating some delicious organic coconut yogurt with nuts and a bowl of berries on the side, I had a beautiful version of Hare Krishna by Wah! playing in the background. In the picture happened to be this huge book of Buddha in pinks and blues that perfectly matched the rug I’d intentionally placed it by. What you can’t see is that I’d just read a beautiful verse form the Rig Veda.  On the picture I wrote:

Relax People

Eat some healthy food

Read some uplifting books

Listen to some holy tunes

Make yourself a cup of tea and…

Breathe

I was surprised by how many shares and likes that simple post received. For me, it was just a very typical morning in my life of how I’ve started my day for years and similarly for decades. Carefully chosen organic healthy food, holy, inspiring music and texts, meditation and mindfulness. It has created a rock-solid foundation for me that keeps me grounded and at peace amidst all kinds of storms and chaos. 

I believe that what we seek, we will always find, whether it’s positive or negative. When I was a young teen, I had a poster I’d hung near my bed of some people hiking on a beautiful, sunny, autumn day. The quote on the poster was from the Bible Jeremiah 29:13 “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” I kept it for years, brought it to college with me and it gladdened my heart and inspired me so much. I was clear, that if I had a question, I would find the answer. 

I used to say I was a seeker of truth, reading all the holy books, venturing out to all the different churches, investing in a degree in theology from the Jesuits at Boston College. I was a serious seeker. What I’ve come to see is that I’ve concurrently been a seeker of beauty. In fact, I can hardly separate the two. I can so relate and feel straight to my bones the line from Keats poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn:

 "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

                Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Beauty—it’s one of my highest values. I see it everywhere and in everything. I find it in places that most wouldn’t, in my own heart-break and devastation, in the joyful faces of people in India living in abject poverty, at the end of fall, just before winter when everything is dead and colorless. I see beauty. I can’t not see it in literally everything. 

I create beauty in my surroundings, inside and out. I decorate my home not by anyone else’s standards, but by that which brings joy to my heart. The perfect whimsical pillows in just the right spot, the fuzzy rugs, and blankets, the holy statues gathered from around the world of Buddhas, goddesses, and planets. I have altars in various rooms and live plants and bonsais that become friends. I place bird feeders out every window and keep them filled to attract more friends that delight my 5-year-old-heart at every sighting. Outside I make every yard I live in better than when I found it, raking old leaves, gathering unwanted debris, planting herbs and flowers, putting up twinkly lights in all the right spots, setting up cozy sitting areas, fire-pits and hammocks. I create beauty.

I curate beauty by knowing who I am and what delights and inspires my Soul. I love this verb ‘to curate’. It means to collect, select and present information or items for people to use or enjoy, using your professional or expert knowledge. A curator is a keeper or custodian of a museum or other collection. A curator has expert knowledge and gathers that which is relevant. Become a ‘conscious curator’ of your Soul and surround yourself with all that brings you joy and nourish your mind, body, and spirit. Do you know what those things are? 

For starters, I buy the healthiest, most delicious organic food that my budget allows. I prefer to mindfully prepare my food to going out to dinners, or take-out. I enjoy infusing my food with love for those I have the privilege to share it with. I surround mySelf with the most inspiring, high calibrating books and refer to them often and share what I’ve found with those around me. I like to buy things that have spiritual meaning and significance to me to place around my home to inspire. I only buy clothes that I absolutely love, in fabrics and colors that I find nurturing and comfortable to be myself in.

It makes sense that I’d also curate my friends and the people I spend time with. I’ve let go of many that drained my energy and vitality with negativity and victim mentality. I hold close to those that are authentic, can tell me like it is, and that feel good to my heart. It’s a much smaller circle, but what it lacks in breadth it more than makes up for in depth, sincerity, and warmth. 

In these more quiet times of quarantine and social distancing, use your time wisely. Remember that old saying, “cleanliness is next to godliness.” I hated it as a messy kid, now however, I totally get it. Messes and disorganization distract us, it’s like background noise you don’t like.  A friend of mine calls it psychic drag. Go through your home, if you don’t love something, give it away or repurpose it. Clean up the piles, manage the paper, hang up your clothes, and organize all your stuff. Now everything you did externally, go within and do some spring-cleaning of your Soul. Let go, forgive, move on, quit your addictions, write the letter, send the text, make the phone call. Integrate, purge, embody, transform. 

Any area of your life you’ve declared a disaster zone, clean it up, fix it or let it go. How can you make these areas more beautiful? First, you can inject love. Love is always the answer, no matter the question, a wise lil owl once told me. Second, you can change your perspective about the situation, by seeing the 10,000-foot view. What’s good about the situation, or what could be good about it? How could you re-frame things to write a better story that is more in alignment with the truth you want to live? 

You have been gifted some much-needed down-time. Ask yourSelf the big questions like who am I, what do a really want and what is my purpose here?  If you find it difficult to just rest in the quiet and be with yourself without turning on the tv, or incessant social media, ask yourself why. What are you avoiding? What don’t you want to see? Survey all areas of your life for what’s authentic and what isn’t. What areas light you up and make your heart smile and which areas feel heavy, no fun and out-worn? Where do you see beauty and where does your life deserve an overhaul? 

The things that are true for you, that are genuine and authentic, will always be beautiful. They will energize and enliven you. The things that are fake and false, that insult your soul, are not for you and will never be sustainable. When you try to be that which you are not, it is life-draining. When you try to fit in at a job you hate, with friends that don’t share your values, or do things just because everybody else is or you feel it’s what’s expected of you, it will always feel heavy. Fake, false and inauthentic equals life-suck and soul-less.  Authentic, true and genuine equals beauty and soul-full.  

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." Choose beauty. Choose truth. Choose you. It’s all you need to know. #ISEEBEAUTY

“I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of heart’s affections and the truth of imagination. What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth whether it existed before or not. For I have the same idea of all our passions as of love, they are all in their sublime, creative of essential beauty….”~John Keats in his letter to Amy Lowell

I Need Your Trust...Is That True?

I need you to trust me…is that true?  I need to trust you…is that true?  Do I really need to trust my boyfriend/spouse, children or business partner(s)?

Ultimately, I trust the universe. I don’t ‘need’ to trust  you.  You can do whatever you are going to do.  I believe that life is always unfolding for my highest good.  If you betray that trust, there may be consequences…oh well.  

I deserve to trust mySELF.  I deserve to trust mySelf to make wise choices and to exercise discernment.  I deserve to trust mySelf to choose people that contribute to my life and not suck/drain away from it.  I deserve to trust mySelf to let go of toxic people, food, environments and relationships.  I deserve to trust myself to let go of of unhealthy and non-nourishing behaviors in favor of their healthy/nourishing counter-parts.  

If I have a need to trust you, it’s probably because I don’t already.  If you have a need to trust somebody, I believe that comes from your own insecurities, your own desires to control people, situations and events.  If  you have a strong need to trust someone, it’s because you are suspicious, you are worried, you have concerns, you believe that person isn’t trustworthy.  If that is the case, then you must not trust yourself to make wise decisions, or you wouldn’t have that person in your space in the first place. You don’t trust yourSelf…OR—

You believe the Universe is unfolding perfectly.  You offer your trust freely to those you have deemed trustworthy and you don’t even think about it again.  If someone you feel betrays you or does you wrong in someway, you have a choice to make.  You can’t control people into trustworthy behavior.  Your partner is going to cheat on you if he wants to, wether you deem him trustworthy or not.  Your kids are going to have sex and smoke weed, wether you trust them or don’t.  Relax.  Life is going to keep life-ing.  You can’t control EVERYTHING. 

Your best hope is to trust yourSelf, be in alignment with your own Truth.  People will reveal themselves in time.  If you are trustworthy, you will attract trustworthy people.  If you are a suspicious mother-fucker, the kind and benevolent Universe, will give you all kinds of reasons, situations and people to be suspicious of and not trust.  If I am one of those people, then I will constantly be on the look out for reasons not to trust anyone or anything in my space, and that, my friends, will eat up a shit-ton of my vitality and energy, something I choose not to do.  AND—I will inevitably find what I’m looking for!! And my boobie-prize is…..I get to be RIGHT!!! 

Let’s define the verb ‘trust’: to believe that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc.: To have confidence in (someone or something).  I need you to trust me.  Is that true? Nope.  I don’t need you to think anything of me.  I will be trustworthy or I won’t.  No amount of what you think of me will make it so or not.  And your interpretation or perception of me is just that—YOURS.  It is not my business.  

Some people will trust you and some won’t.  So what.  What they think of you is not your concern.  What YOU think of YOU is.  Can you trust yourSelf? If your answer is ‘no’, don’t be pissed if others don’t trust you either.  If your answer is ‘yes’, good for you! Who gives a shit what somebody else thinks?!?  You just keep proving yourself trustworthy to YOU!! When you do that, and you know the truth of YOU, then it won’t matter.  If someone can’t see the truth of you, that is their problem.  

There are some people I am just going to choose to trust, there are others that feel unsafe for me to extend that courtesy to, so I love them, I bless them and I release them from my inner circle.  Those in that inner-circle, I have no expectations of, I know their character, I don’t have to ask if they’d have my back, I don’t have to trust and hope that they will—i just KNOW.  I also know that we all have our moments of feeling out of alignment with our own truth.  And in those moments that someone else chooses something that hurts my lil feelings, or makes a choice that I don’t like, I get to be ok, to just trust that they are doing what is best for them.  Then I get to make a choice about what is in my best interest —sans drama.   I trust myself to be ok with whatever happens in my life, loss, pain, or otherwise.  I also trust that I will be conscious enough to ask mySelf why I am attracting such people, circumstances and events into my life and be courageous enough to look within mySelf to acknowledge my own similar shortcomings and self-correct.  

I need to trust mySelf—is that true? I’m not sure it’s true or if it isn’t, but what I do know is, that it sure makes life much easier.  Choices are more freely made without major deliberation, there is a greater sense of stability and grounded-ness,  fears of the future dissipate, a certain inner calmness and peace reside in your being, and there is a feeling of self-respect and unconditional friendliness with one’s Self that seems to arise.  I trust mySelf and it feels good. It also feels good that I don’t need to trust you or have you trust me. My happiness is not dependent on that which is outside of mySelf.

How you go about trusting yourSelf is material for another blog entirely.  Wishing you many blessings on your personal journey inward.  May you fall in love with the brilliance of your own Soul.

In Praise of The Divine Masculine

I’ve never been a man-hater or basher, in spite of my mother’s influential training and example.  Perhaps because I came into this world with a very clear memory of my last lifetime as a man.  When I was two years old, my mother dressed me up in a beautiful white, ruffly dress to go to a birthday party—apparently I sat sulking and embarrassed in a corner the whole time saying that I was a boy and should not be dressed this way. I remember as old as five walking around the neighborhood sans bikini-top so people would “get” that I wasn’t a girl!! I guess I was unconscious that the obviously feminine, floral bottom wasn’t fooling anybody. 

So what I’m trying to say is that I have always had an affinity towards and an understanding of men, which is why I’m compelled to write today. I believe that for some in the new age community, there is a misconception that I would like to clarify. 

I’d like to address the biggest topic on the current new age agenda: the much talked about and fast approaching “shift in consciousness,” as represented by December 21, 2012. This date is supposed to signify the birth of a new era—the age of aquarius and an age of enlightenment. We usually hear of it talked about as a shift from a negative patriarchal society evidenced by separation from mother earth, from each other, and from ourSelves (which NO question all deserve to shift, if not received a good boot out of the galaxy), as well as war, superiority, competition, etc. This 'shift' is supposed to be towards what is being called the Divine Feminine—a more loving, nurturing, inclusive, and compassionate consciousness. 

As much as we all tout Oneness and Unity Consciousness, if feels like all the talk of moving away from the masculine and patriarchy towards the feminine was creating an “Us vs. Them” situation, thus creating more SEPARATION. There is this idea that the feminine qualities are more important to our evolution than the masculine. I must confess, I fell into the trap of feeling like i was finally the right sex—that somehow women were finally being acknowledge for being the superior gender and we would soon be ruling the world once again.

Because the negative attributes that we wish to move away from are traditionally Masculine traits, we lay blame at the feet of MEN for the problems in the world that come from those traits. Further still, since the wonderful and beautiful traits we wish to embrace and move towards are Feminine, we tend to attribute to WOMEN all that is good in the world. 

I have a problem with this. 

The fact is that women have an equal number of negative traits: being catty, whiny, weak, bitchy, etc. To name a very few. And our male counterparts have as many beautiful qualities that speak to the Divine Masculine which is why we love them in the first place, ladies.

So before we (women) get on our high horses, telling our men that they need to be more like us, we would do well to ignite our own divine masculine traits  such as strength, courage, independence and be more like them. 

The TRUTH of what deserves to occur to move forward in this age of enlightenment, as I see it, is DIVINE INTEGRATION of BOTH the masculine and the feminine. A Divine Wholeness if you will, with neither sex leaving the other behind.  Hell, we just came from the space of separation and lack of unity, right?  Something different is now required.

The Divine Feminine is rising in ALL of us—men and women alike.  The feminine qualities are transcending gender and integrating with those of the masculine to create wholeness, heart-based living and unity consciousness. Just as women give birth to both genders, we can liken the rise of the Divine Feminine as birthing the consciousness of our whole, integrated Selves. Hand in hand we walk, re-aligned and complete into a new dawn. The highest state of spiritual evolution is androgyny—let our spirits unfold all the highest powers represented by the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine.

In our heart-based living our integrated Selves can express love that is more harmoniously balanced. In this space there is unconditional acceptance and non-judgement.  We are open to new experiences, and courageous and optimistic and in tune with our soul purpose. 

We are NOT abandoning all things male in this new era—we are gentling the masculine, empowering the feminine and INTEGRATING all the magnificent traits that make us divine. What we are leaving behind is the inherent separation that men AND women create with our own smallness.  We are leaving behind elitism of all forms—one gender is not better than another, nor is one race, culture or religion, better than any other.  We are embracing unconditional love, unity consciousness, oneness with gaia, our friends, lovers and families—integration and wholeness at its very best and most divine.  We are embodying benevolence, joy, peace, harmony and freedom.

As we get closer to fully integrating our divine feminine and our divine masculine, we are no longer at war with ourSelves—we experience unity and harmony within our own beings.  We are capable of connection and unity, because we have found it inside of ourselves.

In this Golden Age of Enlightenment, let us be One.  One integrated, whole being within ourSelves first of all—embodying the best of both the divine masculine and feminine qualities. And One not only with other races, religions and cultures, but One with the opposite gender. 

Peace and unity consciousness begins within each individual soul, may we seek to BE this first.  May we love our brothers, fathers, husbands, partners unconditionally.  May we recognize and acknowledge their strengths and contribution, as every bit as important and necessary as our own.  May we honor, cherish and respect their magnificence and empower, support and encourage them as they transition into their own Divine truth, as we graciously and humbly do the same.