Saturday, November 26, 2016

Learning to Listen



"Fully absorbed, graciously witnessing, or open and spacious
—which of these lenses is the best way to practice awareness? 
Is there an optimal way to pay attention? The answer is 'all of the above.'" 
~ jack kornfield

While walking in the woods I gave way to the moment and opened up my mind and my heart to allow whatever wanted to come forward to do so. Can you tell I have been doing work with RECEIVING?

So what came darting into my focus? "MAGENTA!" No, I didn't see it. I felt it. I felt the idea of MAGENTA and all the ideas I hold around it. They zoomed like a swarm of kamikaze bumble bees into my awareness. It was not scary or painful, but it was fast, strong and immediate.

And as ribbons of fallen leaves crunched below my feet, it's deeper meaning elegantly began to unfold for me. 

I am a painter. MAGENTA is a color I make by mixing a fair amount of red with a tiny bit of a blue. It is also one of my two favorite colors (the other being orange, by which I was, incidentally, being engulfed in this autumnal wood.) And MAGENTA's components, red and blue, signify the root and third-eye in our energy-bodies. 

The ROOT Chakra is found at the base of the spine and there lives our subtle sense of well being. We feel grounded and safe when this energy is not shaken or blocked. It's vibration is slow and it's color is red. 

The THIRD EYE Chakra vibration is blue. It is located in the space between the eyebrows. It moves faster and is an aperture to a vast reservoir known as intuition or consciousness.

Gleaning all I know, which really is not a lot, I came to understand -  in an instant - to welcome change. All at once I felt relief. And I knew it was my Truth because I recall the lightness and warmth that attended this knowing.  I was completely joy-filled and my whole body smiled.

I am sure I am not alone in feeling knocked off center by change. But simultaneously, I understood that adding even just a little blue (consciousness) to new conditions will be enough to cause things to shift. I was being clearly informed that change expands us and is always a favorable thing. MAGENTA was my message to enjoy, like a favorite color, newness and to welcome it with wonder and without fear. 

These words, by the way, were not part of my original meditation. All these words are in the rearview mirror of that experience. I write these words now to remind myself and to make manifest more of the same good feelings of relief and excitement.

And perhaps they will remind you too? Perhaps you will feel invited to reach toward your own inner guidance system? Like mine, it is embedded within. But unlike mine, the way you access it will be of your own organic choosing. It is for sure just waiting for you. Waiting for you to decide 

to be silent,

to be open,

and to listen.

Are you ready to be more connected?

Tag. You're It!

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Powerful You



"Only one person can make your journey. No one person can impede your journey. Perhaps it is time to stop asking others to be responsible for our journey, and find that which is inside our own
Soul. We are the change. Do not give away your Power. Not today. And never again. The Power of which I speak is Love."

I have experienced the end of the world before. I imagine many more people than I can also say this. For me it was when my husband was diagnosed with an illness and died twenty two days later. It was then the ground melted out from under my feet and my ability to think and reason dissolved into thin air.

So if you are suddenly feeling blank, disheartened, or even worse - enveloped in fear... come along now and know it will be alright.

Please do recognize your feelings at this moment in time. Acknowledge what is. Then use this moment to change your inner world. You have the power to do this. Choose to make a shift from fear to self-soothing. You have all the power in the world to do this one thing. Become a little less afraid, shift consciously to taking good care of yourself in this moment. Make yourself shift your feelings toward love rather than fear. I promise if you take this little step you will begin to see a way through to the next moment and then to the next. 

The way was shown to me, down from the ledge, in my darkest hour by many who loved me. I was held in love by family, friends, neighbors, and counselors. And I learned to hold myself in love in a new and more radical way than I have ever experienced before.

So let me hold you in love in this  moment and say to you it will be alright. I love you. Be kind to yourself first RIGHT NOW. Give love for yourself and more love will follow easily when you do this one little thing.

Are you ready to be this kind of powerful?

 Tag. You're It!

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Ready to be Powerful?


"Time and space are not conditions of existence, time and space is a model for thinking." ~albert einstein


Looking forward to a new and rich life! Looking backward toward a deep and abiding Love. I am doing this hokey-pokey dance lately and I wanted to take this moment to recognize the importance of both and their impotence as well.

Future thinking, when enlived by positive emotions is called "visioning" and is empowering. Ruminating on negative future events is power depleting and sets a drag on creation and well being. Neither is a great place to hang out for long. It is here we can make a choice.

Past glories and loves and hurts and sorrows are almost of no use at all; except in how we allow them to shape us today. Where do we begin and end our personal narratives? Our life stories always seem to fit neatly between seminal moments in time. 

Is your present lived from immutable memories of childhood angst or high school glory days? Should we live into our future from these frames we placed around these segments of living from so long ago? It is here we can make a choice.

What if time shifted direction in your mind and you could jumble up events to suit yourself? What would right NOW look like if it were unshackled from the past and determined only by your imagined future? It is here we can make a choice. It is only in the Now that the power of choice exists. 

Can you sense the power in this simple shift in thinking about the direction of time? 

Are you ready to own your power?


Tag! You're it!

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Hurly Burly


When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.” 
Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living

If you think about, I mean really take the time to sit quietly, you come to the Truth of things. As you begin to reflect like this, you may feel an emotional wave rising within you. And if you allow it, you may begin to see differently. 

If you think about it, I mean really make the time to sit quietly and allow the emotional wave roiling up inside you, you may find it very intense at first. But then, if you allow it, something different happens. 

The thing that was big, uncomfortable, and scary changes. 

If you think about it, I mean really sit quietly and reflect and watch it, the energy that was your emotion becomes a new thing. A thing you had previously no ideas about. It becomes a guide to a place unknown. 

That's why it felt big. That's why it felt uncomfortable. That's why you were afraid.

And then something amazing may happen...if you think about it, if you really create the time to sit really quietly, and really allow, and really reflect, and really watch. This is where your Truth is. And once you divine your Truth you can then easily stand in it. This is a feeling of Confidence, but like never before. This is Confidence without Ego.

I know this Truth. I have found great comfort here. I wish you the same vast, wordless, bliss-filled space.

How do you comfort yourself?

Tag, You're It!

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Salvage Work


"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you." 
~Ralph Waldo Emerson.


Salvage work. Picking through the wreckage to save the good bits. I have been doing salvage work for the past 4 years. Now I look around to see the world in front of me because I know what is in front of me is what I am feasting upon. In the rawest part of my wrecked life I was not unlike a hawk using only my instincts to feast on the roadkill my life had become. At that time, right after my husband died, I did not have access to any other skills.  So I nourished myself this way as a pure act of survival. 

I am better now. I have become an artist. Now I enjoy making new things. Now I seek beauty out at every turn. I love to express myself. I am not always industrious and I have had to make peace with this. I am loving and I can be emotional. I have exercised that last skill quite often over these 4 years and have had to figure that one out too. Understanding I am NOT my emotions was the first step to my salvation. Separating my essential self from the passing energy of my feelings has raised the speed at which I have been able to heal.  
Did you know what you choose to make time for shows you what you deem important? And even if you do not think you have a choice, you are ALWAYS choosing. It cannot be otherwise. If you think it is...you are not looking closely enough. 

I used to make time for rummaging around the sad parts of being me. I used to make time for weeping uncontrollably because I knew this was healing energy at work. I used to make time for contacting all my friends and loved ones to make sure I was staying connected. I was choosing to heal.


I still do some of these things, but I am now making time for meditation. I am choosing to stay connected with that which is central to my being. It is here where peace lives. My new life craves this kind of peace. 

I am also making time to paint, to love myself by eating better, to design a new home, and to help others when and where I can. This 'paying it forward' is newly important.  There is much Joy for me in service. So I am making time for it. But, in this too, there must be balance. So sometimes I hang up my superhero cape and just make time for being me - to play. 

Do you see the pattern here? Just look at that for-which-you-make-time. Do you like what you see? What is fundamentally important to your being happy? If you look closely enough, you will begin to uncover the belief system on which you have built your life to date. All from just looking around at what is in front of you. 

So if you are not happy with what you see... I wonder if I even need to finish this sentence? 

I am grateful for these awarenesses, and I wish the same for you!


Tag! You're It! 

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Living a Successful Life: My Curriculum

"Samsara" watercolor, 8x10 by Lani Chaves

“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning."

~ Meister Eckhart

Imperfection, Life Balance, Impermanence, Curiosity, Empathy, Self-Motivation, The Present Moment, Positivity, Serenity, and Personal Boundaries. This self-designated curriculum includes these areas of study. I am actively working on understanding - on a deeper level - all of these ideas. 

Studying these things brings me great joy, but it is also hard work as I am often stretched beyond my comfort level - which NEVER feels good. Sometimes there is a pop-quiz which sometimes I pass and sometimes I don't. This serves to remind me I still have more to learn. And lately I feel as though I am being tested all the time!

So what is it I hope to gain once this course of study is completed? Well there's the rub. It is never complete. But there is a goal I have for myself. An overarching intention that has carved out this path in front of me. Moving forward I intend my life be lived experiencing as much Joy and Ease as possible. 

The biggest test lately is buying and renovating my new home. And so far I am being taught a lot about almost everything on the list! Much of what I am learning can be expressed this way...

I am not perfect.
I understand there exists a balance between work and play.
I see change as a welcome part of life.
I am curious about others.
I experience empathy.
I know my strengths, as well as my weaknesses.
I am self-motivated.
I do not live in the past.
I focus on the positive.
It is difficult to offend me.
I create and maintain boundaries.

And, to date, my studies have served me very well. But there is still soooo much to be learned!

I did not set out to create this curriculum. I mirely recognized it recently after encountering Daniel Goleman's ideas about emotional intelligence and it's impact on success. As I casually went down his list, I saw myself in it and saw very clearly my own journey retrospectivley. Thank you Daniel Goleman for your life's work has asissted me on recognizing my own!


Anything on this list strike you as worth knowing more about?

Tag. You're It!

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Right Work



"Your big opportunity may be right where you are now."

~Napoleon Hill

Finding right work is the task of a lifetime. This is NOT the task defined in my youth - as a job, employment, a thing you do to survive.

There is another kind of work, a more person-specific way to employ some of one's allotted hours. The work of self-making, self-recognizing, self loving, and self compassion. All of which leads naturally toward the Grace of Love and Compassion toward others - I call this right work.

When I was younger I was silently asked by my parents (and the world around me) to find right work, to take responsibility for myself, to choose a course of study to advance my progress in this world. How fortunate, when I chose to study art, nothing was said to me but, "Yes. OK, you go and do and we will support you in your endeavor. We know you will succeed." 

Not everyone experiences this kind of response and support.

I did wait tables and was a house painter and a bartender to earn my own way. But I am eternally grateful to have been sent to college by my parents.

For four years, there in art school, I was a wisp following her heart. I recall that time as a blurting out of myself in all kinds of directions as I made my way constructing (and deconstructing) a life. 

Over these last 30 years I have sold printing and furniture. I have taught teenagers and toddlers. And I have traveled the US performing comedy. But the most impactful job I had the privilege to hold was that of wife. My heart has lead the way in all these things and the Universe has replied in kind with loving support.

Just yesterday I was reminded of all the love and support guiding my healing heart after my husband died. How fortunate to live amongst such loving people. How fortunate my heart was broken wide open which allowed me to receive their many healing gifts. 

Not everyone gets to experience that kind of response and support. And not everyone is able to accept the gift of healing when it first arrives.

And now today, I am experiencing the same Loving Universe at work - again unfolding in my favor as I churn the meaning of HOME from one place to another. Capturing glimpses beyond my 5 senses, I am more able than ever to see with my heart. This way of seeing, this frame which graces my vision fills every cell in my body with gratitude. I am grateful for this awareness and for the journey - ALL of it!

All I want now is to experience this overflowing gratitude as giving back. I am looking forward to what shape this intention will take. I know not the details, but I know it is already done. I am doing the inner work to make this happen…and I am seeing this shift taking place in time and space.

This is my right work. 

Not everyone gets to experience that kind of response or support. And not everyone is able to accept the gift of healing when it first arrives. And not everyone gets to experience transcending their sense of a daily life, to begin to see with their heart. 

…oh, but how I wish we all could!


What does your heart see? What is your right work?

Tag. You're It!

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Friendships


"There are different wells within your heart. 
Some fill with each good rain, 
Others are far too deep for that." 
~hafiz


This evening, as the cool gray dusk silently deepens to a navy blue night I find myself feeling happy, peaceful, and more healed than ever. Good memories of Carlton's warm morning marigold egg yolks in their terra-cotta shells waiting to be tapped and peeled away make me happy. And I am made peaceful by memories of olive dark water, shared with Sarah, as it went rushing white frothily rejoining the celery blue river past potato shaped rocks. These are the thoughts of a watercolor artist as she has been taught to be.  

I am rejoicing in receiving and in remembering but will soon be resuming my regularly scheduled life. More than this place or this time, I will take with me the people. The beautiful people I will now always cherish and be glad to have had their adventures coincide with my own.

Thank you Bill and Sarah (and now Lois too) for your constant care, your gentle manner, and your complete passion for what you each do. Seems when passions collide 'Heaven' is formed.

And thank you all, Charlotte, Peggy, Anna and Diane, and Loretta, Amanda, Penny, and Sue. Your warm hearts shown so brightly above your painterly talents. And oh the conversations, laughter, and the joy.

This trip has a few more days to go. There are monasteries and mountains to see, but I am ever mindful of the good graces in which I am living. And the miracle, for me, is as this moment continues to roll into the next, I can actually feel my broken heart mend even more than it already has. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For all of you I am truly grateful. I am missing you already.

Do you ever rejoice while taking stock of your day? Of your life? It truly is the best medicine.

Tag. You're it!


Friday, June 10, 2016

Florence, Italy


"...keep your mind and heart open. Growth occurs most readily when you are willing to RECEIVE." ~ Vedic text

I am all packed up! Been saying 
good-bye to Florence all day!

"The Duomo" Photographed lovingly at dawn.

Tomorrow I begin the Pisa portion of this potential adventure! I spent 5 hours in the Uffizi today! It was a magical time. 


This is a mythical character painting entitled, "Fortune." Oil on wooden panel cir. 1504 by Giovanni de Lorenzo Larciani. "Depicted is Fortune being lead across the sea by a dolphin, a symbol of rapidity and instability, while clutching a sail unfurling in the wind, an allusion to the voluble and uncertain nature of her path." Ain't she wild? Just one of the hundreds of treasures I discovered at this world class museum.

Sending everyone love from across the pond...

Lani (de Lorenzo) Chaves

PS - Today would have been my 16th wedding anniversary. Was a lovely way to celebrate! 

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Excited by Abundance



"It's opener there, in the wide open air." ~Dr. Seuss


When I ruminate on how many possibilities exist for this day or this life - my senses are no longer dulled. The longer I sit and quietly embody POSSIBILITY the more I cannot wait to see how this life will unfold. 

The vastness of trust that "all truly is well" wells up inside of me, makes my body tingle with excitement, and I have not even moved a muscle! 

I am vibrating forward from a NOW I am happy to KNOW. And I am moving easily toward a place I know I must go...

...wherever that may be.


What excites you?
Tag! You're It!

Saturday, May 28, 2016

With Disorder Comes Grace


Strength comes from struggle. 
When you learn to see your struggles as opportunities to become stronger, better, wiser, then your thinking shifts from "I can't do this" too "I must do this."
~toni sorenson


I am seeing ahead of me another tumultuous time of change in this life of mine. "Tumult" is defined as "a time of confusion or disorder." And as I am more certain than ever that this is of my own making... here is what I am learning about tumult.

One can survive well and move with ease and with joy during tumultuous times.

Old friends are indispensable during tumultuous circumstances.

New friends abound during a tumultuous time. But you have to allow this.

It is not only possible for love to expand exponentially during tumultuous times, it is very often probable.  

Extra body/self care is needed, no matter how well you are supported through your own times of disorder because tumult is physically exhausting.

A tumultuous event may occur over a period of time or only within an instant. Either way, it's ripples will always be felt flowing outward as it dissolves. So becoming more kind and patient are the constant gifts of a tumult as it moves toward completion. The question is will you accept these gifts into your life?

And lastly, I have learned that within the greater scheme of things these times of confusion or disorder are only momentary and the larger Truth is All is Well.

So these are my new rules of engagement as I sit here amongst the growing manifestation I called into being - which appears as disorder, but I KNOW IS REALLY IN DIVINE RIGHT ORDER.


How do you handle confusion and disorder?

Tag! You're It!

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Creating Freedom


"The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It cannot be organized or regulated. It isn't true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth." ~ram dass

I am involved in Trusting. 

This idea, Trusting that things are unfolding for the highest good of myself and others, requires my active participation. Especially when my thoughts and feelings start to try and bend my attention in another direction.

Trusting is a practice. Trust requires a willingness to open my heart wider. Trust requires letting go of the past and of judgments. Trust requires a deeper look into circumstances that arise, at my own inner workings, and my perceptions about it all. Trust requires questioning what is really True. Do these ideas, or Trust for that matter, create great difficulty for you?

If you grew up, like me, in an environment that pushed more toward chaos than order, or if you have had the very human experience of being greatly disappointed - Trust may be the very last thing with which you are willing to be involved! 

But what if, instead of creeping slowly toward a small amount of maybe trusting again, you started with a big fat notion of TRUST? Not a naive blanket of trust in all people. But a larger Trust - part of a larger vision - that the Wheel of Fortune spins in just one direction.  And that direction is entirely in your favor. What if you leaned into the idea of looking for the smallest kernel of a lesson in a disruptive, disquieting, or painful situation as an active choice? This is the way it started for me. 

Somewhere between the totally unexpected death of my husband and the healing of my wounded heart I decided to refute what appeared to be happening and began to hold space for the idea that all experiences had one single purpose - to help me grow in awareness.

And with each successive experiment in active-say-it-out-loud-to-remind-myself-to-do-it-Trusting I created "nowness and newness." And from that came aha moments and loads of gratitude. I hope these words offer some guidance so others do not have to rely on personal trauma or loss to get to these places within. 

I hope a path can begin to be struck where it is OK to let go of what is familiar. I hope you too can begin to embolden the curious child inside - the one that wonders about things instead of judging them. 

As I become more of a witness to events rather than the center of them I find my perceptions stretching farther than ever before into unknown territory. This is where I unhitch the trailer of my past and find freedom to move more freely forward.

Mine eyes are opener as my heart claims a bigger role in seeing what I am experiencing. And this in turn is transforming my world. 

I am not great at this all the time. But leaning into and learning to Trust has given me a way to negotiate life's ups and downs with more steadiness, confidence, and grace. Strange as it may sound - I feel more grounded and connected to the world and my place in it by letting go and Trusting that "All is truly well."

I am not sure about the specific ramifications of how getting involved with Trust might serve you. It is a huge issue for so many people. But I am sure it is worth doing the work!

Since I have begun to play with these ideas in my own life, organically in my own way, I am amazed at the surprising outcomes life is actually able to provide me! And I TRUST life still has much to offer you as well...

What are thoughts around Trust?

Tag! You're It!

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Inner Wisdom

"My energy today, and every day, is favorable for letting go of what no longer serves and embarking on new and exciting journeys. And all I have to do is decide." ~lani chaves

So funny to quote myself, I know. Me, a budding painter now wants to he a budding writer. I want my passion to be creative to be of some use to others. But I have no idea what that looks like. I do not know how to begin, and I haven't a clue what I have that others may want. 

So I am submitting the most specific question I can think up to help move me along on my path...

"What is mine to do, be or say today that will bring me great joy and also serve well myself and others?

I now let this well considered question go - knowing that by merely asking this well considered question mindfully and with an open heart, the answer is on it's way to me. 

This asking well considered questions and easily receiving answers, has become part of a practice of living a life of JOY & EASE. For I have discovered we all have exceptionally easy access to our own questions. And within every well formed question, asked with an open and receptive heart, exists hidden within it an answer perfectly taloired to our specific need!


What is your well considered question, the answer to which will change your life forever for the better?

Tag. You're It!

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Energy Work

"Even after all this time, the Sun never says to the Earth,"You owe me." Look what happens with a love like that, it lights up the whole sky." ~ Hafiz

Energy. 

Can you feel it inside you? It is always there, usually very subtle, but always there. I am feeling great gobs of it right now because big changes are happening all around me! 

Tuning into your own energy has got to be a good thing. Awareness of any kind is a good thing, but energy awareness is really a good thing.  It is not your mind. It is you in a purer form. It is one of the most subtle forms of communication. It is a very real, deep, and wordless thing. I was never taught this. It was not an option growing up. But I know it now and it helps to guide me.

Energy has no words, but it communicates just the same. When I tune in, sit quiet and still, I am practicing the art of feeling the flow of energy. A natural river inside me, it connects me to energy all around me. The more I consciously make time to practice, do energy awareness work, the easier it becomes. 

I am not going to say what it means or how it works or why it is, or where it comes from. It has no words - remember! But I have found that because of my work - my energy awareness work - when I am not practicing, just living my daily life, I pick up quicker on things important to me because I am so much more closer to the surface of my authentic life. I love this accessibility! I trust it. It grounds me. It informs me…all without words. 

Energy has become a silent place inside me that feels like home. For this ever deepening awareness of my own inner compass I am so grateful.


Could you use an artisanal compass personally crafted by time, energy, and awareness? Isn't this work worth doing?

Tag. You're It.