Peace, love and acceptance. The environment, the animals, the people. You, me, us.
Re-membering.

Living doing loving exploring trying adventuring Being giving receiving breathing stretching everything

Fun

A beauuuutiful gift

Hanging with my west coast girlfriends.

Sunshine and (swimming in) the ocean.

The "ability" to Be in the present moment more than I am not, and the peace, enjoyment and presence that comes with Being present in everything I do.

Globally

Change. Connectedness. Togetherness. Re-Membering. Peace. Acceptance. Awakening. Opening.

Self & others

Letting go. Trusting and Surrendering. Consciousness.

Being present more of the time. Fun, laughter, more dance, more yoga, travel, more nieces and nephews, more family time. Loving. Adventure. Swimming.

Writing. Sharing. Experience. Confidence.

LIVING.

Wealth and abundance.

And where I live, snow, snow and more snow lol!

Many of us feel as if we are not creative or that we do not create however I feel that we are creating in every moment. We create an outfit when we get dressed. We create a meal when we cook. We create conversation when we speak with others. We create relationship when we relate with others. We create community when we do this too.

We create when we sing, dance, talk, walk, breathe.

We create when we decorate our apartments, offices and homes.

We create moments, events, our lives.

We create suffering and joy.

I feel that creation or creativity is an expression of ourselves and that we choose to express ourselves in different ways. And I believe that we are all inherently creative, but that some of us struggle with being fully self expressed or honouring that part of ourselves due to fear, or not feeling "good enough," or judgement.

With respect to artistic creativity, I am just learning and realizing that creating is not about how good it looks or if it is nice art but about how I feel when creating something and being fulling self expressed and enjoying the creative process. Enjoying letting out or releasing or expressing what we have to express, what is inside, what we may want to say or explore or know. It'shonouring a gift which dwells within waiting to be discovered, shared, released.

I believe we create our lives day to day moment to moment and how the world relates to us and us to the world by our thoughts and beliefs - whether conscious or unconscious and that the more conscious or aware we become (of who we truly are and the core "beliefs" preventing us from Being & loving ourSelves) the more our lives will "look" like we want them to, like we wish they were and then one day we realize that we are living, creating, the life we want to live and Being who we truly are.

OK well that just came out lol!

Only two eh...let's see...
Yoga & travel = teach & attend retreats
Yoga & photography = beautiful, stock photos, calendars etc.
Yoga, travel & photography = dreamy & possible
Yoga, dance, travel & photography + also possible
Yoga, dance, travel & photography & sunshine & ocean = :)))

And music - music must be in here too! Perhaps traveling the world studying drumming and dance, photographing and writing and submitting  photos and articles to various publications/media outlets and teaching yoga along the way...

I have to list three to date:

1. The first, longest and largest being an online sex, spirituality and lifestyle magazine launched in 2000 called BlissForWomen.com. It was fun, sassy and informative and featured stories and interviews with celebrities & people in our community about sex and sexuality and healthy attitudes towards our bodies, sex and intimacy. The cover issue featured The Barenaked Ladies in nothing but their socks - it was a riot to photograph them and to see the response to the issue!

It no longer exists however it took 6 months to conceive and develop and was a full time voluntary job on top of a full time job for over a year after launch. I thought it up when on a plane coming back from SXSW (a music conference in Austin,TX) and came home and called the girls and boys together and away we went.

It was hugely successful in terms of visitors and media attention however we couldn't keep up with content demands and I hadn't prepared a proper business plan, RISK assessment in case of success or partner agreement and had to shut it down for numerous reasons. I am very proud of what we accomplished and I learned alot of lessons about myself, others and business through the experience.

2. The second would be fulfilling the dream of directing a festival which I did as Director of the New Forms Festival 2002  in Vancouver, BC. http://2007.newformsfestival.com/  The festival and promotes Canadian Artists in collaboration with the international arts and technology world and "facilitates multimodal art works and engages in discussion on their role in our cultural environment."

The festival, in its second year at that time, was a resounding success with respect to the caliber of artists involved, the attendance, media coverage and it broke even! It was a pleasure to work with the young founders of the festival and the dedicated volunteers who made it happen.

3. The third and most recent accomplishment was my participation in Team Diabetes http://www.teamdiabetes.ca/. I raised over $6000 for the Canadian Diabetes Association and trained and ran a half marathon in Rio de Janeiro as part of my commitment to those affected by Diabetes and my sponsors and donors.

It was a challenging 6 months -  I held 5 fundraising events as well as personal solicitation of donations and trained for the first half marathon of my life.

This was a HUGE accomplishment on many levels - I helped others, achieved a personal goal and traveled to Rio to visit a friend and her country.(with my partner who celebrated turning 40 while we were there). I am honoured to have been a part of Team Diabetes and have begun to think about joining again, this time to raise even more funds and to train for a full marathon...perhaps in 2009. www.planetranger.com/runfordiabetes

4. Yet to come....

When I think of what has been constant in my life I can't say there has been much. Being nomadic, going with the flow, changing, shifting. Yeah, change really has been a constant for me. But is it the most important?

I guess breath would have to be. Breathing is the thing I have done the longest and most consistently and is very important. At all times.

I guess I am also a most important constant in my life.

"Should" this be friends or family...? Perhaps. If so I'd have to say my dad.

Good question.

Why don't we just love? Or why can't we just love? How do we tame/work with/dissolve ego on a grander scale? (I know, one person at a time and we are working on it.)

Mother Nature
On a West Coast ocean kayak trip in 1992 we encountered a storm which made a short crossing several hours. The waves were so high that when I was in the valley of them I couldn't understand how I was alive and that they weren't toppling over me.  Each time the ocean swelled and I was swept up atop a wave I looked around to see where my fellow kayakers were only to see that we were spread across the ocean like marbles that had been tossed across the playground. I could not stop paddling or I would flip over and so spend hours paddling and bracing just to stay afloat. At one point I almost gave up - my arms could not take it anymore and I prayed for the strength to go on. I started singing the soundtrack to "Grease" and continued to do so until I finally reached shore.
One by one we came into shore, nobody talking as we were in shock and exhausted. I broke the silence a while later as we sat around the camp fire and shared our stories of fear, physical struggle and of facing death. It was one of my most memorable experiences and one from which I grew on many levels. (The reason we hit the storm was that the guide did not check the radio before the crossing and so was unaware it was approaching. I never  kayaked with that company again.)

Personal
About 6 or so years back I prayed to God to send me a relationship that would kick my butt (into deeper awareness and self reflection) - and the prayer was answered. The next year was the most challenging ever of my life.  SO much ego emerged and hurt and anger bubbled to the surface - for both of us. We were mirrors for each other and days were filled with blame and projection and just plain not wanting to "own" our crap.

At first I had no idea what to do with it or how to responsibly deal with the fear and hurt and feelings of abandonment but then I met a great teacher, Phil Teertha Mistlberger ( http://www.graallight.com/ ) who guided me through, sharing about the Perennial wisdoms and providing me with tools to work through what was up and in a very short time I came through the other side trusting, feeling safe no matter what, grounded in mySelf, open and vulnerable, softened and very aware of ego and how to notice and work with triggers and more.

I left the relationship when I knew I had learned all I was to learn and despite the "story" within the relationship and the fact that it would not be healthy or necessary to remain in contact with my partner (in growth), I was able to let go of my partner with loving kindness and compassion.

Since then my relationships have been very different - more honest and real and responsible and deep and meaningful (because I came to be this way with mySelf). I feel like I literally lived through hell for one year, all the while knowing that there was a reason that I had to go through that to get where I am now and am very grateful that I did. I know that I chose a very "intensive" path to healing and letting go of the past and at times many worried about me, but I KNEW this was how it was to be. After all, I HAD asked for it lol!

That it will mend and that if I stay open to love and life I am able to give and recieve and love more deeply the next time and the next time and the next time. It's always an opportunity for expansion. And I am safe.