And Then She Moves

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peonies

“Let me open like a flower”, she says.

“Just breathe, and I will open.”

“Let me stretch and yawn. Allow me to soften, soften, soften.”

I feel her words in my flesh, echoing in the chambers of my heart.

In response to her voice, I try to soften. I discover that trying to soften actually isn’t softening. The trying causes even the slightest tensing up of muscles. I can feel this. I can feel that I do not ‘know’ how to soften. And with this, I relax and breath. I breathe into the place that feels hard, the place that is tight and constricting. My breath knows how to soften flesh, and even how to soften my mind.

I do not have to ‘know’ how; my body naturally wants to soften. When it isn’t believing the tight thoughts I tell it, its natural state is soft. Mary Oliver knew this well. The animal of my being is soft. She has a soft animal body – except when she believes my thoughts – old, outdated thoughts that are really about the past or the future.

My soft animal body lives here, now, in the soil of life. She doesn’t like it much when she gets yanked around across time that doesn’t exist except in a mind that’s forgotten its part of an animal (a naturally soft animal at that) and part of life.

When it feels separate from flesh, my mind tries really hard. A really deep rut was created in my mind when I was young. The rut was thinking I had to try hard to be understood, to find the right way to do something, to make sure it was ‘the right way’ to do it. And, then, to put a bunch of effort into it. Lots of effort. Tight stomach effort. Clenched jaw and neck effort. Determined thinking effort.

When I feel separate from my flesh, flesh that hasn’t forgotten she’s a part of this earthly life, I harden with a sense of not belonging, a sense of having to protect myself from something unknown yet seemingly real.

But the soft animal? That’s not her way. She likes to lounge and from her soft body do what is in front of her. She likes to take in the world around her, to breath in the beauty of flowers and taste their fragrance. She loves to feel and then out of feeling do what she needs to do.

She likes to lick her paws, slowly, rhythmically, with great satisfaction. And then she moves.

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In the Flesh

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Happy Monday!

It’s sunny and warm (70+) in San Francisco, today! Strange weather for a San Francisco July day.

It’s a busy day here. I’d love to share a few things that I feel may be fun and of value to you. When I looked to see something they have in common, one thing is the word flesh… In the flesh, flesh to flesh, flesh upon flesh.

Just last weekend, I got to spend some sweet time in the flesh with my two sisters, and lots and lots of cousins. We were in the Chicago area for a family wedding. My sisters and I decided to get a mani-pedi together, and decided on the same color polish. It was wonderful to be together. We don’t spend enough time together, so taking time to do some simply things with them made me very happy!

Why flesh? Because the wisdom of the flesh is where we discover the sacredness of this human journey. The wisdom of the bones, the body, the breath is where we discover the roots of our humanity.

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The Feminine Face of Leadership

Join me tonight for a free call on this very important topic. Wendy Rue, of Studio 1010, and I will spend some time conversing on what it means to be a feminine leader during these times of great change, and well as sharing details about our upcoming workshop in Anacortes, Washington.

I met Wendy in the flesh earlier in the year as we began to plan our weekend workshop. She is a smart and savvy woman who is bringing some amazing programming to her studio in Anacortes.

I’m so looking forward to this weekend, because I love to teach in the flesh and just haven’t done enough of it lately. I’d LOVE to have you join us. We’ll dive deep into our bodies in service to you discovering the truth of your being and what leadership and creativity means for your soul.

Details are here or here

And if you miss the call, I’ll post the recording to the event page on Tuesday, July 31st.

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Are you looking to drop into the sweet flesh of your body?

If so, I’m guest posting over at Lisa Rough’s Sacred Circle. Writing this post caused an ‘all-body’ smile in me!

As I ponder, a parade of images moves through my mind’s eye; images of the body, movement, glistening sweat, the sweetness of deep darkness, the sensual abandon of flesh upon flesh, and the earthy smell of forest groves. Being alive in the body is how I return to me, where me is the deep-hearted and deep-bellied consciousness that points to the depth of the feminine soul.”

Continue reading... 

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We are being called to show up in person, flesh to flesh, to see each other in our imperfect humanity. 

When I met Lynn Baldwin-Rhoades of the uber-popular women’s site, Power Chicks International, I immediately felt comfortable in her warm presence. Her smile lights up the room and her warm heart invite you in. No wonder she is so good at what she does…in her words, “Community builder, champion of women and lover of dreaming – and achieving – crazy-big stuff.”

So it was a delight to be interviewed by Lynn for her Wholehearted Women series. I share a lot about myself that I haven’t shared yet online.

One of the ways we are re-discovering the true power of the feminine is by living the truth of ourselves – this is what being vulnerable is all about – not hiding ourselves. Yet, I still hide. There are places that feel just so painful to reveal, so in this process it is also important to know that, to acknowledge it and to, with compassion, ask myself to go further into it.

I certainly don’t do any of this right. I make a ton of mistakes. Yet, and its taken me soooo long to get this, that this is when people actually find me the most attractive…in my deepest humanity.”

I hope you enjoy it.

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I’d love to know what you’re wanting more of…what would you find valuable as you awaken to being Unabashedly Female? Feel free to share in the comments.

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