Summer, Is That Really You?

While everyone was complaining about the lack of sun, I was right there

with them. Normally I am the one who reminds everyone that we live

in a rainforest. To think that our summer has been shortened only gives

me hope that our fall will be long and hot.

Just incase you have not heard, it will be an El Nina winter. Lots of snow early and long snowy ski days that will do the spirit good. That fact gives me hope and keeps me excited despite the recent rainy days.

Although many of our summer plans have not come to fruition, many of them have and the summer in our homestead has been awesome. I have been practicing new boundries in all aspects of my life and that has allowed for an incredible string of adventures.

We have been kite boarding in Nitinaht.Camping in the grand U.S. of A, and have spent nice lazy days by the lake. Our family time has been awesome. In order to keep the balance I have had to say no to the invitation we received to The Emmy Awards. (Brad & George will have to wait for another year for me) We are honoured by the invite but delighted to decline the pressures and time away from my family that these honours bring. It isn't all glitz and glam, it is hard work and hard time. Maroon 5 once sang...

"it's not rainbows & butterflies, it's comprimise." That is the real picture.

A few weeks until the school year starts and my lovelies are back on someone elses schedule. I appreciate these freedoms of loving my kids on their time rather than the school systems. That said, I welcome the routine and the promise of rituals that we enter knowingly.

Ahhh, summer. You have been a fickle bird this year... figure it out for next year Yo!

Love & Light,

t.

The Law Of Attraction:

If there is one thing I know for sure, it is that when you let go and relax, amazing things can happen. Over the past several summer weeks I have been away from home quite a bit. There have been several of my friends that I have been wanting to connect with and despite great efforts it has just not happened.

Yesterday I was meant to head up to the Coast for a little R & R on an early ferry but decided that the kids would enjoy some tennis at the Odlem Brown Tennis Tournament. After they played we headed down for a snack and who was there but two of my dear friends that I had been texting for 2 days trying to make time to see one another. As soon as I surrendered to the fact that it would have to wait yet another week I was gifted with the opportunity to hug them both!

One of my friends has spent her summer on her boat with her family. When she is home I am away and vice versa. Today I had to drive down to the local store on the wharf to get some juice and who do I hear greeting me across the store was the other dear friend that should have been way up Desolation Sound by this point, but there she was... arms open and another hug to get us until we can have a girls date on her boat on Bowen. Dreamy.

Recently a few months back, my dear friend Carmen put me onto a website that is called Abraham Hicks. I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for a postive message that relates to your daily life, then this is something you may want to search on Youtube.

I have turned a few friends on to the site and I have watched their lives shift. Not always a massive dramatic shift, but a fluid continual renewal in their life's purpose realized. I myself have undergone a life changing shift which has allowed me to really look inside and 'refind' myself. My road was more dramatic, but fascinating and challenging in a way that has brought me to a place of authenticity that I didn't even know of.

The law of attraction is a powerful tool. The Dalali Lama says "If you want to know what your future holds, look at what your mind is doing right now." If you can think it, you can be it. If you can imagine having it, you can have it. You need to feel what it is like to have what you want. The universe is ready to provide what you are prepared to endure. The good and the bad.

If you ever take my word for something, take it on this one... Abraham Hicks is a game changer.

Love & Light,

t.

" When Someone Shows You Who They Really Are, Believe Them." - Maya Angelou

I use this quote often. I have a few people have asked me what it means.

Well, when I went to see Dr. Angelou speak, she explained the quote as meaning

that when you have known someone for years and years, decades or just days, regardless, when the shiny situations fade and the rust begins to show and someone has the chance to react to something gracefully or react with jealousy or ill intention, believe that is who they are. People are only good as the worst that they treat you personally.

She also goes on to say that when you have rough patch in your life which we all go through or you face a crisis, you are meant to notice who shows up and who doesn't.

Life is full of opportunities to show people who you really are. We are all human, we all make mistakes and miss opportunities, but who is routinely, constantly missing the boat. Are you always missing the boat for certain people, then this means that you are not truly keeping their best interests in your heart.

Maya Angelou is such an eloquent speaker. Her words are gospel to me and her delivery is like poetry in motion. My favorite work of hers is "Phenomenal Woman." I encourage you all to google that!

Love & Light,

t.

What Goes Up, Must Come Down

Approaching August has brought a whole lot of learning and understanding. While many of you who follow my blog know, I spent much of the beginning of 2011 riding a super high while preparing for the 2o11 Academy Awards. (see previous posts for more info if you need) The high was extreme and it was a wild and wonderful ride which has allowed me to receive invitations to the 2011 Emmy Awards, 2012 Grammy Awards, 2011 Billboard Awards & the 2012 Oscars. All of these invites have been received with a humble heart and with a cautious mind now that I have learned first hand that what goes up comes down equally far. At this point I should mention that blogspot's format is not allowing me to leave space between paragraphs. If you have any insight please let me know as it is more annoying to me than it is to you! Sorry. January, February & March were as I mentioned, wildly wonderfully but also wickedly wearing. I worked fast and hard for 3 months outside my comfort zone. I am not complaining I am just saying it was fast and furious and I have huge respect for what it has done for my business and myself; however, it also made for a few months of personal growth that was not for seen. March came and I was tired and overwhelmed. It took me through April, May, and June to recover from the highs and I even found myself in some shadowy lows. It was hard for me to recognize and make the connection between the hype of my business and the emotional exhaustion I was feeling but with the help of my Silver Fox and some peeps 'in the know', I was able to piece it all together and learn a whole lot about myself. Looking in the mirror and the rear view mirror can give someone a great deal of confidence and a whole pile of self realization. I have begun to realize that my life is much more enjoyable when I place boundaries on myself and others. I have said it before and it holds as true as ever that I am best when I only try two cross two things of my to-do list in a day. I am no super woman or 'supah mama' nor do I desire to rise to societies demands that achieve accolades. I am a one woman show with human abilities. I am beginning to find out what I am made of and it is solid, earthy wares that have allowed me to arrive at this place of absolution. I absolutely am not one who likes to feel the pressure of other people's expectations. Rule number one and the newest and most prized realization... I am not responsible for anyone else accept those whom I brought into the world. For them I gladly take ownership. All others must make themselves happy. Wow, sounds simple but certainly took me awhile to grasp this concept. Love & Light, t.

The Lotus Is Stunning- Despite Growing In The Mud.

If you follow my blog you will know that I have used a similar title before. I have recently spent a great deal of time reading up and learning about the lotus flower and I have been amazed at just how spectacularly beautiful they are despite growing from the thickest mud around. Not only do they grow in mud but they are so beautiful and healthy because they grow in mud. I have spent my fair share of time in hospitals, whether it has been from visiting them personally or visiting other patients or from my time spent volunteering. I have seen some incredibly beautiful things in that time. I have seen some breathtaking moments that would have not otherwise happened had it not been for the often unfortunate reason for being at the hospital. (New Babies are exempt in from this example!) Even in the darkest of places where the shadows reside, they are not powerful enough to keep the light out. In some of the darkest situations I have witnessed such pure beauty that it actually defies the laws of darkness. It is such a beautiful reminder that it is absolutely true, the Lotus grows so beautifully because of that deep, thick, black mud, not just despite it. I have been candid in my blog posts and I am happy to put myself out there in a way that makes people think and question their own self truths. I have told you about my childhood, my teens and early twenties. I did well on my own despite the situations. I trusted myself and I counted on myself in a way that never caused anyone to ever 'worry' about me. I have somehow in life equated other people 'worrying' about me as some sort of personal failure. I have unfortunately taken that trait and brought it into my adulthood and allowed it to flourish. I recently learned that it is okay to 'worry' about each other, meaning that it is okay to have friends 'worry' about me. It may sound like a small, insignificant realization but it is actually monumental. It actually is a door to healing apart of myself that has been put away and hidden as a weakness when really the only weakness in that is the one that takes away the opportunity for friends to support you/me and the gift that is in that giving. I have been known to be of a very generous nature but have recently been outed as a 'greedy giver', meaning that I don't allow others to easily give to me. My lesson for June 2011 is to allow others to be there for me and to allow them to gift me with their worry and love. It is my lesson to learn to accept without discrediting their gift by feeling guilty for it. I wonder how many of my readers have the same issue... the greedy givers... I would love to hear from you and hear how you deal with it. This month marks a new chapter in my life. Life before June 2011 and life after. I will go into more detail as the journey unfolds. For now I will sign off and remind you to look around you and reach out to those friends you haven't heard from in a while. Go knock on their door... you never know how bright you can make someone's day and how your gift of presence is a bigger gift than you might imagine. Love & Light, t. ps- we were invited to do the 63rd Emmy Award Gift Bags yesterday!!!!

Neil Pasricha: The 3 A's of awesome | Video on TED.com

Neil Pasricha: The 3 A's of awesome | Video on TED.com

Balance...

To know me is to know that I live a life surrounded by love, while loving the things that surround me. Life is so interesting in so many ways. With so much love there had to be Balance along the way.My life is full of gifts and blessings are boundless and of course with them come the lessons that make us grow. I wish I could say that they were painless but today I can tell you that they are not always. It is so hard to find something, an outlet whether it be creative or otherwise that inspires you, drives you or reminds you of who you are or who you are capable of being. It is more difficult when you have to let it go. Whether it be a drumming circle you love to be apart of, yet your back cannot handle the weight of the drum, whether it be a friend that invokes a part of your spirit that is unavailable, or whether it be an experience which you cannot afford or whether it is knowing that someone you love is ill and the remedy seems unattainable. It doesn't matter the circumstance, rather, it is the feeling of letting go something that had once made you dream. On this dreary Vancouver day, the exact kind of day that usually inspires me to dance naked in the rain, I am in a place of contemplation. Giving thanks for all, grieving the things that weren't meant to be, and wrestling with the things that I wish I could control. After spending yesterday on such a high, surrounded by people who are battling cancer and those who have survived, I spend today humbled by their spirit and courage, and feel shameful for feeling anything but gratitude for the blessings in my life. Tears have been my constant companion today- this year has brought me so much beauty and I am overwhelmed in away that finds my cheeks soaked as I type. With everything there is Balance, and today is the day where the shadows have creeped in and I only have energy to welcome them. Balance. The shadows arrive so that we may remember how glorious the light feels when it finds us. Today is a day of reckoning. A day of remembering who we are, who we want to be, and what we are modeling for our children. It can be so difficult to remember that when we choose these roles as friends, mothers, wives, daughters and mavericks. When we sign on to take these roles we are committing to sacrifice what is necessary for the greater good of those roles in our life. It is one of those small details that can smack you in the face when you find yourself on a path that you have arrived upon too soon in your journey or on a path that was never meant for you. Having to turn around and navigate back to your authentic self's path can be staggering, confusing and a real exercise in blind faith in our karmic belief of our destiny. This journey we so often talk about is the grandest display of Balance that we could possibly ask for. So many of my beloveds are facing real life issues right now, everything from cancer, divorce, unemployment, deaths, breakdowns and more. On the flip side, I have beloveds expecting babies, getting promotions, building new houses, planning weddings and having life changing breakthroughs. There is that word again, Balance. Our journeys may seem so different yet there really aren't. We just take turns exploring the peaks and valleys of this life. I have said that we come into this world alone, and we leave the same way. I take it back. I have seen and felt things in people that I cannot explain yet they have made me believe that we are never alone. Some kindred spirits find us again- remind us that they are here in our hearts and before we know it they are gone again- though their presence may be brief it is there long enough to remind us in this lifetime that we are not without them and vise versa. Letting go would be intolerable without this gift of remembering. On days where the tears just won't dry, at some point you just have to welcome them and let them cleanse your spirit. Let them wash away any misguided regret and allow these moments to be the ones where you reground yourself and rest so that you may wake up tomorrow able to brush yourself off and start fresh with the promise that each new day offers. Today is one of those days I find comfort in tragic beauty. The video I have attached is one of those tragically beautiful songs, where most of the words speak to my spirit and speak of good byes my spirit cannot say. Never say good bye, just say until we meet again. xo t.