30x30 Nature Challenge

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In honor of Earth Day, an organization in Canada is hosting a 30x30 Nature Challenge starting today. For the month of May, people will join in to see the difference that spending 30 minutes outside each day can do for their health and happiness. 

I don't want to miss out on this. 

Getting outside is not a forte for me. I'm of the breed that's most comfortable on a couch with a book and some tea. But why can't I do that outside? Thankfully I have people in my life that help get me outside more, but I think its time I see if I can shift this block. 

Yesterday I did a "trial run" of what 30 minutes outside would be like. I went out into the backyard and then after just walking around enjoying the plants, I started to sweep off the back deck that until yesterday, you wouldn't even know it was there. I'm now half-way to uncovering the foundation of a sanctuary. 

But the best part was, I felt super great. I could hear the birds singing and remembered how great it feels to get a little sunlight on my skin. I forget what a wonderful little patch of land I have behind the house.

Often when I go out there I see all these things that need to be done. I see all the work that needs to be done. What was different this time was that I started sweeping because I wanted to, rather than feeling like I have to.

Here's to being out in Nature!

Photography :: Garden Reflections

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I've been taking some of my own photos for stock images. Its been a particularly fulfilling creative act.  For a while now I've been relying on stock images or photos taken by others. Though both of those have their own benefits, I'm really enjoying a new approach to increasing my image database.

The reflection ball in the garden at mom's.

My Brand

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I've thought a lot about the brand of my business, Upward Spiral, and recently about my mom's business, Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy. But I've also wanted to work on my personal brand, what I'm creating here. 

The reason I'm sharing this is because I want to be transparent in my journey to create successful businesses, one's that embody the things I truly believe in (positive change, transformation, learning to be who we really are, to name a few...). Since I have many projects, it makes since to also cultivate a personal brand. 

And as always, there's a lot of fear and resistance to putting myself out there.

So I figured, I'd start by sharing that struggle. Hopefully, I'm moving swiftly beyond that but we will see as time unfolds. 

If you are also working to put yourself out there and are finding it challenging, know that you are not alone. 

 

 

Sustaining

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That's one of the hard things for me. Sustaining something...

I have lots of ideas of what I'd like to write on this blog, all the stories I'd like to share, insights that I think will be interesting to other people than just me, but all those are almost useless if they just stay in embryonic form in my head. 

So but life is all a practice and here is me starting back up again. 

Hello World.

Poetry :: Reinventing Valentine

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Reinventing Valentine

 

I thought my heart

was something

I’d have to stuff

through a straw.

 

With fists

clenched

to my lips,

my breath

 

projects this wad

past air like an arrow,

 

clean and deadly.

 

But  my heart is

actually

in my hands:

 

a thousand paper

petals waiting

to be released

 

into the sun.

 

What a delicate,

dry trickle,

 

I think,

     admiring

each

      tiny

            dance

 

how beautiful,

            how alive

 

 

Nyssa  Rhiannon Hanger, As Light Ascends, Beauty is Beauty Press, 2012

Poetry :: The Journey

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The Journey

One day you finally knew 
what you had to do, and began, 
though the voices around you 
kept shouting 
their bad advice-
though the whole house 
began to tremble 
and you felt the old tug 
at your ankles. 
"Mend my life!" 
each voice cried. 
But you didn't stop. 
You knew what you had to do, 
though the wind pried 
with its stiff fingers 
at the very foundations, though their melancholy 
was terrible. 
It was already late 
enough, and a wild night, 
and the road full of fallen branches and stones. 
but little by little, 
as you left their voices behind, 
the stars began to burn 
through the sheets of clouds, 
and there was a new voice 
which you slowly 
recognized as your own, 
that kept you company 
as you strode deeper and deeper 
into the world, 
determined to do 
the only thing you could do-
determined to save 
the only life you could save.

Mary Oliver, Dream Work, Grove Atlantic Inc., 1986 & New and Selected Poems, Beacon Press, 1992.

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Beginning at Home

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Its always easy to begin something; its quite another to finish it.  

I find that the space around me has a large effect on my productivity. So I've been doing some rearranging at the house. I'm just about ready to do some rearranging online as well. 

I've been working hard on a new website to debut my new business venture, The Upward Spiral Center.  Its building on the work I've already created with Upward Spiral Therapy, but I'm ready to grow and become all that I dreamed. 

So that means really committing to an online presence.  I tend to shy way from such things due to anxiety over my own persona and fear that it will all feed my ego. But I also believe I can approach it in a way that helps me learn about and from my ego. 

Here we go!

 

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