[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.98″ custom_padding=”7px|0px|20px|0px|false|false”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”27px|0px|0|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.19.13″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.19.13″ text_font_size=”18px” link_option_url_new_window=”on”]<\/p>\n
When I write, I think of all of you who send messages to me and share your experiences, your challenges, your struggles, and graces. Through these, we connect – and right now, that is a huge gift.<\/span><\/p>\n Please know that, with each message I read, I send you prayers of love, healing, peace, and grace – even if I don\u2019t get to reply to you right away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today, I wanted to share many moments I experienced this past week – like taking a short trip to Asheville, NC with my friend Kim and enjoying the mountains and fall colors, and laying on the grass at the Biltmore Estate, watching the clouds roll by and time stands still (we were both quiet, and relaxed, fully present, and it was just magical<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n I find that moments like those contain the mystery of life and love and joy and peace and Divine presence.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I listen to my heart that guides me to the stories (they always begin in my heart as a notion, form themselves into sentences in my brain, and then type themselves out through moving my fingers over the computer keyboard).<\/span><\/p>\n The practical voice in my head interrupts with thoughts like \u201cBut it\u2019s Halloween, and a Blue Moon, and the weekend before elections, and daylight savings time ending, and All Saints Day, and All Souls Day and Dia de Los Muertos\u2026 you should write about…\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And then it gets quiet. It realizes that the mystery of life, love, peace, and Divine presence pretty much covers all of that \ud83d\ude42\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n For the past few months, I\u2019ve been immersed in writing my memoir.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m due to finish the first (very rough) draft on November 9th, so this past week I announced to my family that I\u2019d pretty much disappeared into a black hole of the creative process.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a big, huge project: I\u2019m not just writing. I\u2019m reading my journals and reflecting on the 42 years of moments and events (I started journaling when I was 8).\u00a0I re-live them again and find something else beautiful, hard, puzzling, embarrassing, fun, and heartbreaking<\/strong>\u00a0– all the stuff our lives are made of, whether you are a singer, or a cobbler, single or married.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I came across a moment in which I was holding my father\u2019s hand in his hospital room. I really didn\u2019t want to be there. I was uncomfortable to face all that pain and fear (and guilt of moving to America,\u00a0far away from him and my mama, missing out on so many family dinners, gatherings, and everyday coffees).<\/span><\/p>\n But I knew I didn\u2019t have much time left with him, and so I worked through the uncomfortable part.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019d like to run away from it all, and live somewhere so far away – where memories either don\u2019t exist or are healed.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>I wrote in my journal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Each of those minutes that I stayed – with all the pain and anxiety – was also full of the mystery of life, love, peace, and Divine presence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As I would tell my kids when they were little, and as I wrote in my book\u00a0(un)Broken<\/em>:\u00a0pain is there to remind us how much we love and are loved.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So, as we step into the next few days – carving pumpkins and roasting pumpkin seeds (give the candy away, eat the seeds :)), look up to admire the full moon, light the candles for those who have passed away\u00a0but will never be forgotten.\u00a0Take each moment in, knowing that they are always sacred and beautiful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And then, go vote on Tuesday (if you haven’t already) and\u00a0bring your whole heart with you<\/strong>\u00a0– your compassion, your love, your pain, your caring spirit. And bring the fear with you if she shows up – just don\u2019t let her cast the vote instead of you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Keep your heart present and feed your soul – and your mind – with poetry, music, and stories of hope.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here are a few pieces that showed up for me and inspired me this week:<\/span><\/p>\n I found this in one of my diaries:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What is life?<\/span> – Chief Crowfoot<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n If you haven\u2019t seen the movie \u201cPay it Forward\u201d, now is a good time to do that.<\/span><\/p>\n This is the title song<\/span> \u201cCalling All Angels<\/a>\u201d (the lyrics are<\/span>\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n My friend Kim has been playing this song in our book study group and I find it incredibly powerful – so full of life\u2019s pain,\u00a0beauty, love, peace, and Divine presence (you get the theme here ;))…<\/span><\/p>\nStory<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
\nIt is the flash of a firefly in the night.<\/span>
\nIt is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.<\/span>
\nIt is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.<\/span><\/p>\nMusic<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n