The way I see community.

Four years ago I was a stay at home mama, pregnant with my third baby, wondering what more there was for me. I felt lost. I knew that I had something special to give this world. I had tried so many careers and I couldn't make anything stick. What I felt deep down was that I wanted something that was mine, that I could control, design, create, develop.

I wanted to tap into my gifts, my light.

Four years later I have a business that is flowing in abundance, beauty and grace. I also have a new budding business with a most amazing woman and a circle of women who believe in each other. I haven't been 'lucky' (though I'll take any luck that wants to flow my way). I've been working hard, doing the beautiful work; creating connection, building community and trying to show up with a combination of truth and grace.

Somewhere along the line I fell in love with the joy of building community around my work. Partly it came intuitively for me and the rest I had to learn. I combined reading, studying and a whole lot of playing around to see what worked and what didn't work.

Our community is not me talking/writing and you just listening. It is also me listening and hearing you back. It is the flow of our energy and the sharing of our gifts together. I set the table and you bring the wine. Community is shared purpose, goals and explorations. The communities I am part of are warm and cozy, sunshine through the windows warming us when we need it most, lifting and truth telling. Lots of truth telling.

Community Grace is a way to play with community building and creating connections to bring energy behind your words and offerings. Gathering those around you that you want to talk and share with and those that you learn from and could listen to for hours as they share their stories or guidance with you.

What I know is that our words are powerful, our story is where we connect. We make choices in how to use our words to connect, to grow, to show up. There is no formula and once you realize that you can fully step into your light and start to use your words to gather energy around you and your work.

Your community is forming, they are a vibrant gorgeous community, ready to spread out the picnic blanket, uncork the wine, serve the food while the music is played and come together inside of your own special magic.

What will you bring? How will you share? What passion do you bring to this community table? How do you show up as you, in your truth and flowing with your passions?

Gathering is ceremony, celebration. Knowing your own special gift, voice and compassion and setting them free sets you free.

We all have a story to be told. We have a community to gather with. We have joy unfolding before us, compassion spilling.

And so we continue. We build. We play.

***

Learn more about Community Grace, my group program for November.

Food Love Notes

I don't say enough how blessed I am to be able to stay home with my kids and do work I love from my couch, my bed, my table, my mini-van, my attic, my backyard or my favorite coffee shop. Yes, it can be tough stuff on the days when I feel a bit unappreciated or the kids are screaming, but I am so grateful to have a partner who loves the work I do and believes in me, sometimes more than I am able to.

The other day I said something about February not being a month of much income but having so much to do. He said, "Awesome, then you can spend more time creating." That my friends is love.

Patrick does not have a job that he finds terribly fulfilling, and I know that one thing at the end of a long day that he loves is the moment he comes up our front stairs and smells dinner. The meals are my food love notes.

Food can be presented in and with love. Not when we are stuffing ourselves or our kids as a way to fill up, but when we take our time and plan and prepare and infuse the food we make with our love. Fresh ingredients. Spices like notes from a song. Fragrances we want to dance in. Love notes.

I was in a crazy cook everything in the house mood the other day and I roasted a butternut squash. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I made a pie. This is a food love note. Use what you have in the house, that is how I put it together, a little of this, a dash of that.

Butternut Squash Pie, with dark chocolate...oh my!

Pie Crust:

1 cup almond meal
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 Tb olive oil
1 Tb honey
2 Tb dark chocolate chips

Combine meal, salt, baking soda, oil and honey together. Oil a 9 ½ inch pie plate. Press the crust in the bottom, but not up the sides. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 and let cool. When cool sprinkle the dark chocolate evenly on the crust.

Filling:

3 cups of pureed roasted squash, I actually just mashed mine until it was somewhat smooth (this was about 2 small butternut squash)
2 eggs
½ cup coconut milk
¼ cup maple syrup
2 Tb coconut palm sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 Tb vanilla
pinch sea salt

With an electric mixer combine ingredients well. Pour into prepared crust. Bake at 350 for about an hour or a bit longer. Mine went for 70 minutes. The pie will set as it cools. This is best to put in the fridge once cooled before cutting.

Enjoy your love note!

Build Your Tribe Tuesday - Do it with joy

I was at a marketing conference once with some big names and a woman with a very large tribe and successful business stood up. She admitted she didn't love her work, it didn't bring her joy, light her up.

Yes, she built her tribe. She was making money, well known, and not loving any of it. But she was so good at what she did.

Are you building your tribe around something that does not light you up? Close your eyes. When you stand in the center of your tribe, and feel why they are gathered around you, does it bring you joy? Are you doing it because you can or you can't not?

This is your business, your choice, your chance at connecting with passion. Build your tribe around that. When you start to shift away from that, close your eyes again. Feel your tribe around you. Ask them how you can serve them through your joy?

Then listen.

A Free Ebook About Space

22 letters from me to you.

Sparking joy, inspiration, passion.

The words you need, on just that day.

Devour them all or read one a day.

Share them with your soul sisters when they need gentle words. Or a lift up.

Know that you are not alone.

Make space in your life for you.

With all my gratitude,

 

 

Get your copy of Making Space - letters from me to you

Perfectly Passionate

 

 Perfect - Excellent beyond improvement. Without flaws or shortcomings.

When I was young, I wanted everything to be perfect. I was your classic perfectionist child. I remember my science projects, book reports, and bird drawings would have so much time and attention poured into them. I thought about them, practiced, planned, wanted to go beyond.

And then there was ballet class and I kind of sucked. Kind of is being gentle. There was no perfectionism there, I had no passion around it to want to strive for perfect. My body didn't move that way. It was frustrating and I was not going to be able to practice my perfectionism there. I liked dancing in my living room to Copacabana and acting out the entire drama in costume. "Who shot who?" There were few flaws in my productions.

While as a child I felt bad that I couldn't do what the other girls could do, somewhere deep inside I knew that it wasn't where I was supposed to be. I wanted to spend time in the things that I could be perfect doing, I always wanted to be inside of my passions, looking towards perfect, feeling that it all could be.

We all get to dream of and define our passion. We choose its excellence. Flaws, what flaws, it is your passion. You should want perfect.

You want to call yourself or your work flawed, imperfect? I want to call myself and my work flowing, emerging, loving, perfect unfolding.

Perfect is always unfolding in your passion. The label of perfectionism in your long list of reasons why you can't, can disappear.

So now create, step into your power, be gorgeous. If you are willing to define and feel and dream that passion, every bit of perfectionism is your gift.