Ireland – unabashedly female

December 15, 2010

2010 in Five Mintues

Reverb10 Day 15
Prompt: 5 minutes. Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010. (by Patti Digh)

Okay. Timer set. Ready. Set. Go!

Rockin’ trip to Ireland where I fell in love with the land and the people, and felt something new wake up inside me.

Hearing live Irish music.

Going deep into the womb of NewGrange in Ireland.

My grandchildren’s birthday parties: Jamison – 1; Aveline, 2; Lucas, 9 (and many other simple moments with them)

Finding out my daughter is expecting again.

Powerful and beautiful calls with coaching clients..

New look for Unabashedly Female (shout-out to Amanda Farough!).

The amazing experience of being photographed by Siddiqi Ray.

Many, many rocking Sweats on Sunday Mornings.

Moving my father into his new home where he seems to be happy and settled. Peace.

Moments of tenderness and playfullness with Jeff.

Danielle LaPorte Lighting a megafire under my fanny.

Mark Silver teaching me that my business is an expression of my love for the One.

Mastermind moments with Emma and Mandy.

Blogging for the GirlEffect with Tara Sophia Mohr.

Voice Dialogue training.

Awakening Coaching training.

Giants winning the World Series. How did this not come up sooner?

Watching Buster Posey make his debut at the park.

Moving into our new house, and getting organized and cozy in my new office.

Rewarding time teaching Stanford CS, Creativity and Leadership.

Filibernie.

So many little moments of complete and utter peace and joy.

So many little moments of angst, fear, feeling unsettled.

Deciding to be the President of SF Coaches for 2011.

yes, yes, I did skip days 12-14. I may do them, I may not. We’ll see.

December 10, 2010February 21, 2012

Wiser and Softer

Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. ~ Rumi

Reverb10 Day 10 Prompt:
Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

My wisest decision this year was to travel to Ireland. My decision to go was based solely on intuition and trust. I trusted something felt, something unseen. Something deep inside called me there.

Jeff wanted to go to Maui. We’d had a very foggy summer and he was ready for warm sun and water. I went there last year and loved it. And, even though the moist land of Hana called to me, Ireland called to me in way I couldn’t analyze or understand. I just knew I had to go, and Jeff willingly agreed.

We saw much of the Republic of Ireland during the two weeks we were there. The land was enchanting. The people were some of the friendliest I have ever encountered in my travels. We saw many sites of the Sacred Feminine and soaked up the Land of the Goddess.

There, in this lush, wild land, the earth welcomed me home.

It is wise land. It felt as if it held a wisdom ripened over thousands of years. It affected me in countless ways – some seen and obvious, and some unseen and mystical.

The land of the Goddess seeped into my cells. That’s the only way I can describe it. Even now, months later, sitting in my home in California, I can feel her in me: the peat of Connemara, the rockiness of the Burren, and the wild heather of Glendalough.

Ireland was a great teacher. She polished my heart and taught me to trust in that which can’t be seen. She taught me to trust in that which is felt and known, yet can’t be explained in any logical way. She taught me to know that her wildness is my wildness, her beauty is my beauty, her sensuality is my sensuality.

I became wiser and softer in her care.

September 18, 2010September 18, 2010

Magic, Music and a Woman’s Heart

The two weeks I spent in Ireland were magical. It’s a magical land.

This picture was taken on the beach of Strandhill, a small area near the city of Sligo, and very close to Queen Medb’s (Maeve) cairn (tomb) on the top of Knocknarea Mountain. Maeve was the warrior Queen of Connacht in Celtic mythology.

On Knocknarea, at the foot of Medb's Cairn

We climbed to the top of the mountain to see the cairn. The feeling at the top at the foot of this tomb is ancient, powerful and quite mystical.

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One of the things I most enjoyed was hearing live traditional Irish music. My paternal grandfather, Thomas McDonnell Sr. was Irish-American. His two grandfathers came from Ireland in the mid-1860’s. One, Bryan McDonnell, embarked from Dublin and the other, Timothy Driscoll, from Cobh.

My grandfather and grandmother raised a musical family. I remember one time we visited them when I was very young. My father’s brothers and sister were there, too, and the whole family came together to sing and play a variety of instruments: guitar, ukelele, banjo, piano. I loved it. It’s one of my strongest and fondest memories of that side of my family.

So when I was in Ireland, I was particularly taken with the live traditional music in places like Dublin, Dingle, Cobh and Glendalouch. In Dingle, we just happened into a pub on a Sunday afternoon as this group of musicians were playing the kind of music I hoped I would hear in Ireland. Listening to this music brought back the wonderful memories of my father’s family, the ‘Irish side’.

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The next day, we ducked into a Dingle music shop to find some good Irish music to take home with us. We found the most recent CD by Lumiere, a musical group consisting of two women, Pauline Scanlon and Eilis Kennedy. One song in particular, Fair and Tender Ladies, is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. Lo and behold, that night Pauline Scanlon was performing in a Dingle pub. We were lucky to sit and listen to her ethereal voice just fifteen feet away from her.

When I returned home, I found this video of Pauline and Eilis singing Fair and Tender Ladies. Please stop, become still, drop into your heart and listen with your whole being.

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I love hearing these two women harmonize and sing of women taking care of their hearts.

The inner realm of a woman’s heart is sacred and wise. I have come to know just how tender and vulnerable this woman’s heart is. I know the pain of trampling through this heart, allowing the dictates of the mind to override the heart’s needs.

During my time in Ireland, over and over again, my heart opened to the beauty, magic and music of this place. Something woke up in my cells. Something ancient. Something earthly. Something I’ve known, yet pushed away. Over time, this new awareness is deepening within. When the time is right, I’ll share what I can put into words, here with you.

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And, you?

What might it take to sit down with your heart, to hear what it’s needing, to tenderly begin to inquire?

September 7, 2010

Voluptuous and Delicious

â€œGod is voluptuous and delicious.” Meister Eckhart

On my recent trip to Ireland, this understanding became more and more clear…that God is indeed voluptuous, delicious, fertile, fecund, and oh so full.

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The beauty of Connemara brought me to tears. The skies are wide open. The colors of the land entranced me. The sheer magnitude of the spirit of creation seeped into my cells, showing me the sheer magnitude of what I really am.

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The Burren is stark land, and yet in its own way, also delicious. God and Goddess do not discriminate in their fullness.

The ephemeral grows alongside the enduring.

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Look at these ancient symbols of the Goddess we saw at the Celtic and Prehistoric Museum on the Dingle Peninsula. This museum was amazing in the artifacts it houses, as well as the sheer humor and delight of the owner, Harris Moore. He dated these artifacts at around 6,000 years old.

The Goddess, according to some, was the way for ancient people to have some kind of understanding of this fecund, voluptuous nature of the creation they lived in.

Many of us learned of God as something more severe, judging and stern. Open your eyes to the voluptuousness of God and Goddess. You don’t have to be in the wild western land of Ireland to experience this aspect of the Divine.

You are this voluptuousness, this deliciousness, this divinity, living and breathing in your female body.

August 27, 2010

The Land of the Goddess

As you may have noticed, I’ve been absent from posting here. I’ve been on a journey, exploring the wild land and sacred sites of Ireland.

In my readings of Ireland, I discovered that many speak of Ireland as the Land of the Goddess. I’m discovering what that means. It seems to me that the earth itself is the land of the goddess, but we’ve been visiting the land to come to know it.

My intention was to post here when I arrived, and throughout my trip. For one reason, then another, each time I attempted to post from my new iPhone 4 and wireless keyboard, something has gotten in the way of my posts finally making it to publication. I’ve just let this be, as it seemed too much to fight what seemed to be asking me to simply let go of work and surrender to simply being in, and with, this beautiful country and countryside.

The night before last, we drove into Lisdoonvarna, a small town in the western part of County Clare, a place that is also a gateway to the Burren.

Connemara and Croagh Patrick

We then drove through Connemara, amazing countryside, the beauty of which brought tears to my eyes. We arrived in Westport last night, prepared to hike up the sacred mountain today, Croagh Patrick.

This mountain is dedicated to St. Patrick, and many climb to the top as a pilgrimage to this holy Saint.

I have read that, prior to Christianity coming to Ireland, this mountain was considered to be the mountain of the Great Mother. I’m looking forward to climbing it and experiencing what’s there.

St. Brigid

We’ve seen so many beautiful and ancient, sacred sites. One place in particular, really moved me… the town of Kildare, which is home to the Cathedral of St. Brigid and the flame that was kept alive for hundreds and hundreds of years by women dedicated to what St. Brigid held dear and dedicated her life to.

The woman who now keeps the flame burning is Sister Mary. We had the opportunity to call on her, in her home that is an open home, dedicated to spreading St. Brigid’s work. It was an honor to meet Sister Mary and to be in the presence of the flame of St. Brigid.

The presence there was beautifully palpable with a sense of healing and nourishment. I felt ‘full’ when I left, full in a way that is hard to describe. I felt no more wanting nor needing to find that which will fill me up.

After Kildare, we drove to Cobh, where one of my great, great grandfathers left for America. Unexpectedbly, I was moved to tears when I arrived there. I felt a connection to generations past, and felt a sense of what it must have been like to leave his homeland and come to a place so big and vast, so foreign.

We’ve been in the eastern, southern, and now the western parts of Ireland. I have many stories to share with you, which I’ll do in the coming weeks and months, for I know what I’m experiencing bere will only deepen within me.

If you’re interested in seeing pictures, join me on Facebook (Juliemdaley) or Twitter (juliedaley), to enjoy some of these postings.

With great love,

Julie