Meditative Creativity


STRESS! We know how unhealthy too much stress is. We know the financial impact it can have. We know it affects our job performance and our interactions at home. We KNOW this! The question is, do we know the ways to counteract this stress and its impacts?

Not all ways works for all people. Not everyone wants to do yoga. Some people find meditation counterproductive. Hikes in nature don't trip everyone's trigger. Yet each of us, as employees, friends and family members, has a responsibility to explore many ways of calming this stress. Finding more than one way and using it often changes how we show up in our relationships and how we perform at our jobs. 

Meditative Creativity is a way that many people have not explored to reduce their stress. I have been amazed over and over again at workshops that I've facilitated how quickly and seamlessly people can capture that calm and find their center. The majority of these people would say that they are not at all creative! That is because Meditative Creativity does not require any artistic skills or abilities at all. It is all about the process, and not the product. Right from the start, participants are eased into releasing expectations and letting go of barriers they have. That first drop of ink or splash of watercolor takes them out of their heads and into their calm. Sharing their experience with the process at the end cements in the learning of this new way to reduce stress. 

Reducing stress and adding more calm to your life. Maybe Meditative Creativity is an avenue for you. You never know until you know.


Least Common Denominator

What is the least common denominator that we share as human beings? I think it's the noise in our heads. The hamster wheel that races in our brain. The one that tells us we aren't good enough. That no matter how hard we try, someone else is better/smarter/thinner/richer/prettier/[insert your word]er. This noise can be so critical and harsh. It keeps us from loving as fully as we could. It detracts us from finding deep peace. It holds us back from living with unabashed joy and wonder. 

Even though it's the least common denominator, somehow we feel alone in the math. Like everyone else has it together. Like we're one of the few out there feeling these feelings. Being so hard on ourselves. Having so little compassion for ourselves. We often think we're one of the few who hasn't solved the equation. 

So the first step in moving away from the math is realizing IT'S ALL OF US! Everyone has their own private hamster wheel. 

Next is finding a way to quiet that wheel. In my work, I use creativity. Pick up a paintbrush and just paint. Or draw spirals until your mind quiets. Walking in nature. Yoga. Meditation. Prayer. Rationalizing with the noise does not work. Trying to talk your way out of the noise makes more noise. Creating stillness and quiet allows the space for your own wisdom to show up. Wisdom doesn't compare. Wisdom doesn't berate you. Wisdom whispers to you the ways that you are beautiful. Wisdom knows the next step you should take. Wisdom sees awe, feels peace and knows joy. 

Once you have experienced your own wisdom, you can feel the difference in your bones and in your being. Now it's turning whatever works for you into a practice, and creating habits of the head. Habits of quieting and calming instead of defaulting to the least common denominator. It's valuing the experience of awe and peace and joy enough that you make the time to do the practice. 

Imagine a world where the least common denominator is inner wisdom and peace. No really, imagine that. How healing. How powerful. 

We Live in a Bedazzled Age

We live in an age of free shipping and likes. A time when stuff and "friends" are easily obtainable, and yet so often we're left wanting more of both. Responses are instantaneous, and emotions are expressed in emoticons. We are producing, consuming and scheduling at rates that make us anxious, and somehow we feel like we're not keeping up. We are running out of breath. 

We are so far away from the magic that life is.

There is such a hunger for awe, soul connections, stillness. The invisible parts of our lives are going unnoticed, until we lift our heads up and pay attention to the quiet. Listen beyond the obvious. Look past the shiny. 

I believe in building bridges. Bridging the moment to the deeper moment. Bridging the small self to the Spacious Self that we all have inside us. Bridging the bedazzle to the awe.  

My oldest (11 years old) loves video games and youtube videos. True bedazzle. But when he comes back from skateboarding, that's when he discovers the awe and a connection to something greater. That's when he experiences his Spacious Self.

When I paint, or when I hike, I get out of my head and away from comparisons. That's where my awe and my a-ha moments exist. That is where my bridges get built, strengthened and repaired. 

Do you have a practice that takes you to awe? That connects you to your Spacious Self? How do you build your own bridges to deeper moments? 

Less Homework, More Cozy Blankets

Perfect frozen puddles with thin layers of ice. Every one I saw walking the dog this morning I crunched on top of. SO satisfying! Shattered glass. Sublime.

To me, that's being in the moment. 

Yesterday someone was saying to me how they think the whole idea of being in the moment is so exhausting! Like an assignment. Like homework. A constant struggle of overcoming.  Fighting your brain to always try be IN THE MOMENT. Ack.

I had never thought of it that way. While stomping on ice puddles this morning I realized there are two scenarios where I find myself being in the moment. The first is like this morning. When things pop up in front of me, and I simply don't resist them. I fall into these moments. I set aside my hamster wheel in my head and experience whatever is in front of me. Ice puddles. Conversations. Sparkling eyes of my boys. Endless possibilities. The more I allow myself to sink into these moments, the more often things pop up in front of me. The more I cue into them.

The other is maybe less falling and more forcing. When I feel darkness driving its way inside me. Either frustration or anger or overwhelm. I KNOW that if I stop and look at that one moment, I head off the darkness. Or at least the intensity. "What is here in this exact moment?" 9 times out of 10 the moment itself is perfectly fine. I can choose to see something that is right in front of me that makes me smile or makes my heart relax. I still have to get back to the scary test results or the overdue bill, but now I can do it with more calmness and less darkness.

Life is hard enough. I certainly don't want mindfulness homework or being in the moment assignments. I don't want to fight my mind - I want to relieve my mind. I want to give it comfort and a cozy blanket as often as I can. 


Making Time Makes More Time

We've all experienced the difference between quick time and deep time. Quick time when time flies. There are too many tasks to finish, looming deadlines and there is never ever enough time. It's a race. 

Deep time when you are doing something and you don't even notice how much time passes. You are in flow. Time seems to slow down. The minutes are fat and full and luxurious. For me that is when I am creating. For some people it's when they do yoga or meditate or cook. 

"I don't have time for that! I'm too busy! There IS NO TIME for deep time!"

Right? But here's the magic. When you make time for creating that flow, you leave that deep time centered, grounded and with clarity. You move into your tasks and your deadlines and get more accomplished in a faster amount of time. It is as if you actually make more time. Less spinning your wheels. Less racing.

What do you do that provides deep time? Are you willing to experiment and see if you can make more time by making time?

The Beauty in the Details

I believe in art and the stories it can tell. The weekend before Thanksgiving, I stuck a canvas and some paint in the Perspectives Retreat booth that I shared with two good friends at the Women's Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. I wanted to see what art would be created if women each added their own color to the canvas. I started counting my blessings early this Thanksgiving! What an honor and privilege to experience these amazing women making their marks. Some people were tickled to be asked. Some less amused but still played along. Others stayed and chatted. Every single person who added their color became part of this art and this experience. 

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but the beauty of this painting is in the details and the stories they hold. Some are captured below. Countless more are on this canvas and in the hearts of the people who added to the art. Somewhere on the canvas is a grandmother's initials scraped on by a loving granddaughter. Another place has a patch of pink that a different grandmother insisted her daughter paint on for her premature but healthy granddaughter. So many women stood side by side with their mothers or sisters or friends and encouraged each other. So much laughter and joy just at being together. At lifting each other up. A lot of very real and honest conversations took place. A few tears were shed. Women from every walk of life, every race and culture, telling their stories together on this canvas.

The red line is half of a heart. Someone else painted the green heart on top without realizing. A heart on a heart - so much love expressed.

A woman scraped on the pretty purple paint. Her mom took the turquoise paint and ran it along the middle. "That's what moms do!" she said.

Three friends spending the day together painted their initials on the top of the canvas. 

Layers added on layers so that each person's story mixes with another person's to create an entirely new story.

It started as a heart. Someone else saw a rose. The rose changed throughout the day as strangers added to it and created together.

Where Does Confidence Come From?

I was having lunch with a friend yesterday. She mentioned how she has always had confidence. Even as a teenager. I nearly fell off my chair! That's a THING? Confidence as a teenage girl? I had barely a shred. That tiny shred, that was stuck somewhere between my massive shyness and boatload of inadequacy, very rarely appeared. Never for long.

Today is a much different story. More often than not my confidence hangs out with me. I wear it like I wear my boots. Strong. Tall. Kick butt. The shyness and inadequacy pop up like gopher heads in a gopher bopping game once in awhile. I've gotten good at bopping them back down.

I think there's a confidence epidemic. Over and over I see amazing women raising remarkable children and accomplishing feats and tasks with panache and skill. Yet once you scrape the panachy surface, they only have those tiny shreds of confidence. Buried. Only occasionally shining through. 

Which brings me to my question. Where does confidence come from? This is not a question I'm looking to answer with research or current thought leaders. It's something I want to ponder. Wrap around my finger a few different ways and see how it curls. 

Some people talk about confidence like it was a gift that God bestowed and somehow skipped them over. "Oh, my SISTER got the confidence." You got the freckles and she got the confidence. I don't buy that DNA version of confidence 

You hear about "finding confidence." Like it's been hidden in the couch cushions and now you found it next to the dirty pacifier and two quarters. I think anyone waiting to find their confidence is going to fall asleep on that couch and wake up realizing that life has passed them by.  Life takes confidence. A sensational, fascinating, luscious life takes confidence. 

I think confidence comes from digging, forgiving and loving. (Not necessarily in that order.) Digging to figure out who YOU really are. We are all lots of things. Parents, employees, children, siblings, friends, on and on and on. Those are all valid parts and pieces of what makes us up. Yet there is a core and a center that everything else comes from. Finding what makes up that foundational center helps stop all the poisonous comparing. Helps us find the amazing, solid, sensational parts of ourselves so that all the insignificant stuff can be insignificant. We start to realize that not only is it okay to shine, but that light inside of our core yearns to shine! It wants to add its brightness to the world. The beauty and brightness of your core was put there to add to the beauty and brightness of the world. And Lord knows this world needs your beauty and brightness. 

Forgiving ourselves. Forgiving the little girl who just couldn't find her voice. Forgiving the young woman who made so many mistakes because she didn't know even a tiny fraction of her brilliance. She couldn't see it. Forgiving choices and actions and self destruction. 

Finally loving. Loving who you are in the center of you. Loving the center, and in turn loving the packaging, because it houses your amazing center and your beautiful light.  Loving the choices and actions because you are basing them on what the YOU of you really believes in and values. 

I love seeing women I work with step out in the end with their kick butt confidence. Shining their beautiful lights out in the world. THAT'S the epidemic I'd like to see. 

Are You In a JAM?

Talking to a friend last week, she was remembering those days when she was suffering from being Just a Mom (JAM).  Wait, wait, wait! Being a mom can is amazing and wonderful and a blessing (and sucks sometimes, but that's a different post)! Being Just a Mom is when you don't even remember who you are outside of that one role. You don't know what you want to be when you grow up. You don't know what brings you joy beyond your kids. Your friends are exclusively the moms of your kids' friends, and you get together to give them time to play. Maybe to commiserate, but the conversations are child focused. Your hair is practical. Your clothes are comfortable. The You-ness of you has been swallowed up by the Mom-ness of you. 

I promised my husband I'd never find myself losing myself. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Maybe for me the roller coaster ride of fostering kids played into it. Maybe it was me trying to be the best mom I could be. Somewhere along the way - JAM! Big time. It took work to get back to my Me-ness. To make time for my passions, figure out my career path, and discover my joy outside of my kids. I definitely don't beat myself up for the JAM phase of my life. I think it served a purpose and, given a re-do, I don't think I'd do it any differently. Yet, my kids are reaping the rewards of me being more Me. They love to see me paint. They are proud that I'm a coach and making a difference in people's lives. They are happy for, and generally respect, the spaces that I have carved out. I am a better mom because I'm not being just a mom. (Just a quick note, I don't think JAM has anything to do with stay-at-home vs. working. I wish we could remove the "vs." from that conversation for once and for all. Again, a different post).

If JAM is where you find yourself right now, you are so not alone. If you are settled and feel like it's a time and space, and given a re-do you'd do it again, more power to you sister. If you are struggling. If you are feeling like the walls are closing in. If you feel like the You-ness of you has left on a bus to Cincinnati with a one-way ticket, please reach out. To me. To someone else. Find a way out of that JAM and get back to You. Your kids need the You-ness of you, and you do too.

Life is Messy

It's just an idea. A kind of crazy idea. But not. It's an idea that will either make your heart zing or make you shrug your shoulders and squint up your face. 

The idea is a Life Painting. 

A painting that you start today and you keep painting for the rest of your life. Layer on layer on layer on layer. You never finish. You never hang on your wall. You never share (unless you want to). You never judge. You never quantify as good or bad. You just paint.

When life is dark and angry, because life is dark and angry sometimes, you get out the black and get your hands in there in smear that paint all over the canvas until you feel like you can breathe again. When the sky clears a bit and you feel an inkling of hope, you make a small beautiful dot of , what?, yellow. You SEE the inkling. Right there. You get the raise or your kid says you are the best or you step on the scale and feel proud, you paint rainbows and flowers. It's so not about the ability to paint rainbows and flowers - it's just putting it on that canvas. Putting what? Whatever needs to be there. Life is messy. Super extremely messy sometimes. This can be a way to release some of the mess by actually getting messy. 

Is your heart zinging? 

If it is, but that little voice is reminding you that you don't paint. That you're not creative. That you would feel silly. YOU - YOU!!! Listen to the zing. Go to the store and get that canvas, one brush, and three colors of acrylic paint that call to you, and do it! What have you got to lose? There are no rules. There's no right or wrong. No good or bad. Just a chance that getting brave and getting messy will be amazing. 

Please don't talk yourself out of it. Give yourself this gift of trying.

I'm tossing this idea out. I'd love to know where it lands. Are you going to get brave and messy?


Swerve Left, Truck

This is me right now. Part of me is soft, irresistible, lovely sand ready to be molded into amazing things that are only being imagined. The other part is plowed over by a big 'ole truck.

Tomorrow I launch my Inspiration Exchange Project. It's an idea that popped into my head that I couldn't shake. I tried to set it down and tiptoe away quietly, like I did with the babies years ago. But just like those babies, this idea would sense me inching away and demand my attention. 

I'm excited! One thing that goes into every business decision I make is that there has to be potential for moving even one person closer towards her/his best life. Check. My gut feeling, reinforced by people I've shared the project with, is it could really have an impact for both the giver and the receiver. It's putting my beliefs about creating right out there. It's ME stepping boldly one step closer to MY best life. 

It could totally flop. (Insert big truck headed straight for me). People could judge me for my ridiculous idea. I could lose some credibility. The little voice inside my head that says that I'm not good enough could throw a party and get really loud and obnoxious until I start to listen.

I'm going to do it. I'm going to launch this little baby project. I can't control what happens beyond throwing it out there and diligently managing it. What I can do is make the choice to focus on the soft sand. Make the choice to know although the tire tread is there and it would be easy to get caught up in worrying about the what if's, I'm not going to. I will make the choice to breathe, believe, connect, have fun. 


Sewing Buttons on Ice Cream

If Ice Cream Button Sewer were a job title, I would be highly qualified for the position. Sewing buttons on ice cream - doing things the same way over and over and expecting to see different results. Losing weight, improving relationships, increasing finances, gaining self confidence. You name it, so many of us are diligently sewing on those buttons. "THIS time it will work! THIS time it will be different." 

I was even sewing buttons when it came to figuring out what I wanted to do when I grew up. Yes, I was already well past "grown up" (the Big 4-0 had come and gone) and I was still sewing away. Not getting anywhere. When I stumbled on coaching, not only did I put down the drippy ice cream cone and dairy covered buttons on that one topic, I totally got on a deeper level. 

If what you're doing aint working, it aint gonna work. I know, elementary. Basic. Simple. Seriously though, so many of us keep doing what isn't working, hoping and praying that it will work. We are so feverishly trying that we don't see that simple logic. We just keep sewing away.

So often it takes looking through new glasses. Gaining a new perspective. Sometimes it's the subtlest of shifts that makes all the difference.  The real change starts with, "Oh, I never thought if it that way. I never tried that."  

Something to think about. Go put down your buttons. Go buy an ice cream cone and enjoy, but stop sewing.


What if that conversation is always taking place under the surface? The one between your rational mind and that flicker inside. For so many of us that conversation would sound something like, "Stop daydreaming! You need to pay the bills. Get a grip. You're not good enough, brave enough, smart enough, talented enough, (insert appropriate adjective) enough. "

What if tapping into creativity would get your mind to slow down? Would get you out of your spinning head and negative thoughts to a place where you could actually see that little flicker and feel the tiny bit of warmth it was giving off? Maybe it would be the soft blow to get the flicker to flame up.  

I'm all for getting the bills paid. At the same time, I think so many people are snuffing out the very flicker that makes them special. Living on autopilot because they think that's the best they can do. I think letting that part of you that needs to shine and soar come out doesn't always mean quitting your job and living off the land on a deserted island. I truly believe once people start listening to that flicker, stop being afraid of it, they find the ways to make conscious choices and take the plane off of autopilot. They start stepping into the very thing that makes them special, and that flares up someone else. 

Isn't it worth trying to start that conversation just in case?

Art + Soul Connection

I am immersed right now in figuring out my perspective on how art and the soul are connected. I know they are. I've seen people time and time again connect to something deeper in themselves when they paint or create. I want to figure out for myself where the magic lies. I'm taking a class, teaching a class, researching and playing. Soaking it all in. Finding my own magic and asking people about theirs.

Yesterday I talked to someone who decided to pull out a piece of paper and draw in an effort to prepare himself for a big day coming up. This is not something he would normally do. (My playing is rubbing off on others. People see it's fun!) 

I asked him what that did for him.  "I was learning to be brave and let go. I was making something not BE something." I think the idea of creating something from nothing takes bravery and release. Coming to a blank canvas or a blank journal can be super intimidating. Add to that, in our real lives we're supposed to have a result at the end. ROI, baby. The painting or page or mandala being made, if the goal is going deeper and connect to the soul, is a process rather than a product. Letting go. Letting it be. Hmmmm.

He went on to explain what happened for him. "It was like stepping into a very dusty closet. The light didn't turn on, but there was a flicker of a candle. I just wanted to go in the closet and see what would happen. The closet will reveal itself to be a portal to another place. Maybe a 3-season porch. Maybe a field. Maybe a dark tunnel." 

I love going into my paint splattered, scrips and scraps littering the floor "closet." Many people have not painted or created in their adult lives. Their creative closets are dusty and scary. A place they avoid, often by saying, "Oh, I'm not creative!" Insert click of the closet being locked. I know for a fact (no research needed, but plenty to support it) that EVERYONE is creative. Ev-er-y-one. When people get brave, gingerly step into that creative closet, start pushing away the dust and looking around, magic happens. They surprise themselves. They get out of their heads and into their hearts. They connect with the people around them. 

Getting brave and getting out of your head. Powerful. Magic.




Perfectly Imperfect

The women were strangers when they sat down at my table for a workshop. Slightly uncomfortable laughter and surface chitchat gave way to bursts of sharing deep introspection and pregnant pauses as everyone took in what was happening. Nothing forced. Nothing expected. Just women finding a place to feel safe to show themselves, and feeling strength in the connections that grew in that space. Tears accompanied the phrase, "That's it! That's who I am. Perfectly imperfect." The sighs from the rest of us were a hug. An agreement. An understanding that there is power in allowing ourselves to say that out loud and to feel that in the depths of our selves. Perfectly imperfect becomes the stamp and the seal that allows us to forgive ourselves. Not the excuse to try less than our best. Because we are trying so hard! Trying to raise our children and feeling like we are messing up horribly. Trying to be wonderful daughters and wives and friends, and falling short so often. Trying not to let ourselves down, and yet still letting. ourselves. down. 

Perfectly imperfect.

It lets us raise our heads up and know that the TRYING is what matters. That we can replace the striving for perfection and know that the striving alone is enough. It lets us grab on to that phrase, "I am enough," and instead of stamping it on a greeting card or t-shirt, etching it on our hearts. 

Be Where Your Feet Are

I remember my mom telling me, "Don't dream your life away." Daydreaming was my lifeline growing up. Boredom buster. Loneliness escape. Knowing that my life was going to be exciting and marvelous at some point. I just could not be where my feet were. My feet wanted to get going. Get on with it. 

My life now is exciting and marvelous, and I still love my daydreams. In fact, I've managed to incorporate them into my career! I dream up workshops and talks that I want to give. My daydreaming fuels my job.

Yet. I still have a hard time being where my feet are. I still almost always feel like I should be two paces ahead of where I'm at. "Hurry up so we can get to the park." "C'mon, let's go home. I want to xyz." Not being fully present at the park. Not being with my boys and savoring the moments.

"That talk was so thrilling and fulfilling, but I don't have any more lined up." "I am so glad that people responded to my workshop, but I haven't got the next one set up yet. I have to hurry!" Not sitting in the thrilling and fulfilling, or the positive responses. Not letting myself get filled up before I move on.

Then there's the whole thinking about work when I'm with my boys, and being distracted by menu planning and dirty toilets when I'm working.

Today I will be where my feet are. I will savor and sit in the thrilling and fulfilling. I will find contentment right where I'm at right now.



Bust Out the Balloons

I always read the last page of a magazine first. Always. Even (especially) at the doctor's office. Today the December issue of BRAVA appeared in my mailbox and I am on the last page! Ok, not me, but a vision board that I made for personal use and to advertise a workshop. A blurb about me as well as my website address are included. Seriously, how great is that?

My husband asked how I was going to celebrate. Huh? Celebrate? If my fourth grader wins the spelling bee, you know we'll be celebrating. Even if he doesn't win, participation celebration. We'll celebrate people cleaning their rooms without being asked. In our house you get a trophy when you turn five. My youngest doesn't have to accomplish a thing other than making it to April intact and he gets a TROPHY. We are a celebrating family. 

So. Why do I find it uncomfortable to even entertain the thought of celebrating myself? Truthfully, it hadn't even occurred to me. Never crossed my mind. My mind was too busy thinking, "Great, but you didn't accomplish XYZ yet." Not that I think I would have celebrated XYZ either. 

I'm sure I'm not alone. We who take care of everyone else. Who fret about the self esteem of our little (or not so little) ones. Who find a lot of our value in the successes of those we are raising. We who do SO MUCH worthy of celebration. Not going ballistic at our kid throwing a temper tantrum at Costco - Celebrate! Patiently changing the sheets of the second boy in the same night to pee his bed - Celebrate! Figuring out the third method of multiplication (Good Lord, three? That seems so convoluted and unnecessary.) - Celebrate!

Most especially when we step out of that role. When we have successes big or little, stand alone kind or ones on the road to something bigger, we deserve to celebrate. We NEED to celebrate. We need to stop where are feet are (instead of where we want them to be later on down the road), stand right in the middle of that success, and celebrate!

Going to go put on a little Kool & the Gang now and celebrate good times. (Youtube it if you're too young to get the reference. You'll be glad you did). 




Wake up!


I can strongly remember when I was a child watching TV and the commercials would come on. Somewhere around the second commercial I would think, "Wait. What show am I watching?" For the life of me I wouldn't remember. 

At times my life has felt that way. Chugging along, tasking, checking boxes, doing the dailies. Then thinking, "Wait! What am I doing? What's the point of all of this?" 


Waking up for me is getting really clear on what my purpose is in this life. Not my generic, I'm a human being on this planet purpose. What is the specific purpose for Theresa Kim, one individual out of billions of individuals, each with their specific purpose in this life? What am I here for?

Once that purpose (actually purposes) got crystal clear for me, a waterfall of potential came rushing down. I can do this! I can do this! Or this! All aligned with my purpose. All having the effect of cold, invigorating waterfall water waking me up. 

I don't think wide awake is the easy way to live. Easy is autopilot. Sleepwalking through life. Going through life tv coma style. Waking up means realizing that you those potentials may be huger than you were ready for. Waking up means being brave. Brave is not always easy. 

Here's the thing. At the end of the day, at the end of all of my days, I will lay my head down knowing that I really tried. I really tried to accomplish what I was meant to accomplish. In the trying, I am finding so much joy, energy, fear, hope, peace. Totally alive. Fully awake. 


Teeny Tiny Tightrope

This is a picture yanked out of a magazine that I painted and played with. Sometimes following my biggest, boldest, wildest ideas feels like walking on a teeny tiny tightrope. The thing is, I'M OUT THERE! Out there on my tightrope. I could be still waiting on the side of that beautiful lake sipping a cold drink and admiring all the people out there on their own tightropes. Living their large dreams and putting themselves in peril. It's so easy, right? Dream but not do. 

Except, I would be so antsy over there. Knowing there was a yearning in my heart. A sparkle inside of me that could no longer be contained. I simply had to take the first step, and then the second step, and then get right out in the deepest part of the lake on my tiny rope.

Now that I'm out there, I want to keep taking one step after another step. Feeling the breeze. Smelling the fresh outdoorsness. Fully electrified by this absolutely amazing journey that I'm on. 

My hope is that others sitting on the side of the lake drinking their cold drinks will look over the tops of their sunglasses and decide to get up out of their folding lawn chairs. Pick up their dreams, their sparkles, their yearnings and take one step and then another step. That they will discover their own amazing journeys on teeny tiny tightropes.