Live What You Know

I adore the view from my morning reading chair!

I am so grateful for the ritual that begins the gift called today each weekday in our house. On this day, I felt the warm embrace of a loving universe as I read with my two little ones reading nearby. So good for the soul…my babies happily enjoying literature as a daily habit, my puppy content in my lap, a sweet phone call from my dear husband wishing me a happy day right in the middle of the experience and so many great lessons in literature for me to devour and contemplate. There I sit with a heart full of gratitude as I thoroughly enjoy every minute of it.

The words, images and messages on my chosen cups this day provide a wonderful balanced blessing. I love dreaming big. I have many more things I can easily see myself doing and truly feel called to accomplish in the years to come. Sometimes I get impatient with myself and dream of doing more now or feeling as though I must push harder to make things happen sooner. But, the truth about dreams is that I am already living many big ones now. I must feel what is around me now as deeply as I feel the urge to lay the foundation to create future dreams to come.

A morning reading ritual doesn’t just happen, it is the fruit of many of my dreams that have already come true. Some dreams I had since I was a little girl and some I didn’t even know I wanted until I was in the middle of creating them in unknown territories completely out of my comfort zone. Co-creating these so-called circumstances I find myself in now was no coincidence; they didn’t just happen to me. We can always look around us and be sure that whatever Life we see and feel we are living—we made it so. We create our reality. From the largest to the tiniest detail, we co-created it all and we decide how long we keep the dream alive and/or when we create new ones…big and small. We truly live all that we know and can only dream up that which we truly believe and are ready to receive.

So, the other day I was making the kids’ sandwiches while they finished their morning studies. I had just completed another module in the course I’m taking about creating a conscious business or igniting my visionary ignition switch. All the wonderful information I had just been given about publishing, self-publishing, building a platform and much more was swirling around in my head. I am really enjoying the course and feeling very inspired by it. I also feel a bit pressured by it at times or in need of reminding myself that there is plenty of time and not to worry about it or let it stress me out (the course teachers do a great job of reminding us about this too). It is all wonderful information that will be there for me when I’m ready to use it. A good friend once shared a daily mantra she uses to calm herself. She simply says, “I have plenty of time. I have all the time I need.” I like this mantra. I’ve been pulling it out and using it again lately. Thank you Jennifer.

Anyway, I had a distinct moment while spreading Vegenaise on the kids’ sandwiches. I sort of snapped out of the swirling head stuff. It was interesting because I was truly inspired and feeling quite grateful for the discussion about my passions I had just enjoyed listening to. I know I am meant to hear this great information and I know it will bless me in many ways over the years to come as I navigate my journey through all the things I feel called to do. But, as I looked down at the kids’ four pieces of bread, it hit me how truly great it is to make their sandwiches. I was overtaken with gratitude that they were there in the next room and would enjoy lunchtime with me very soon. I loved thinking of our morning studies and the writing workshop we would do together in the afternoon.

It occurred to me that I could put lots of pressure on myself to get a platform built, get a brand going, figure out how I want to publish, find ways to reach more people, etc. and be sorry if I don’t balance it just right. I could spend the next few years really focusing on that and making it happen. It may keep me so busy that I forget to enjoy making the sandwiches. Then, in a few years when the kids may not be around as much, I could have all those things necessary to pursue my dreams, but I would really really miss making their sandwiches. I may long for the days when I used to do that if I’m not truly present and really indulge in it now. Being here now and somewhere else later is always the way. I just need to balance living the dream and creating the new ones. I have to believe it can be done. I can do it well in peace with Divine guidance and timing if I listen well from my heart. Not from my head.

I remembered with love the days when the kids were learning to write the alphabet. They would sit at the kitchen counter waiting for their sandwiches and I would write letters in mustard on their bread for them to guess. Oh, how that seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago at the same time. When was the last day we did that? How did it stop? Oh, how fun that was! They even asked for that recently and I think I was “too busy” to do it just then. Argh!

Anyway, there is no answer to the exact formula for following dreams. Our soul knows why we’re here and if we let our soul drive our life more than our head, it will work out just fine. All things can and do happen at the perfect time. Of course, balance, trust and listening to the Divine is the answer to everything. So, I finished up making lunch and allowed a space in my experience there in the kitchen where I felt thrilled by the memories of mustard letters, gratitude for the experience of making sandwiches the kids still love to eat with me on this day and comforted by the dreams that live and grow in my heart and the code of my soul each day to keep me inspired through many more versions of me and my day-to-day life to come.

The image above of Snoopy and Woodstock (or Wubberbock as my son called him for years and we still fondly say today) dreaming together is such a thing of beauty. Two unlikely friends, dreamed up and shared from one man’s imagination with so many…what a gift! I see love and acceptance shining all around them, blue skies and possibility everywhere, what a wonderful world this can be and so much more. I love how Snoopy and Wubberbock just go about their business doing what feels good to them at that moment in time. Perhaps that is where the balance finds us.

The beautiful words that held my coffee this day remind me of how our soul might advise us if it could gently remind us where we come from, who we are and why we are really here. May we feel the blessing of truly being here and feeling the miracle that it really is.

May we dream big…while we dwell in a state of awakened
realization of the dreams we’ve already created.
We can balance both.
Love will show us how!

Sending you love and joy on this day and all the days to come!