The Voice

I was watching The Voice tonight and I thought, ‘who would I want sitting in those chairs.  What would I be performing/doing to get them to turn for me?’ and say…

“I want you on my TEAM!! I see this spark in you, I hear/feel your passion. I want to help you get closer to who you really are. I want to coach you so you can share your gifts with the world!!”

Here’s who I’d LOVE to be sitting in those chairs – wishing there was six but I’m  sticking with four- although one chair has two women!

Eve Ensler, activist, writer

Sheila Kelley, creatrix of S-Factor, actress

Anne LaMott, writer

Marianne Williamson/Elizabeth Lesser: writers, activites, humanitarians, Elizabeth is the founder of the Omega Institute 

I would want to learn from Eve about her activism, her world view, her vision for the world and to be a part of raising awareness/ending violence towards women around the world. I would want to dance with her on VDay, travel with her around the word, seeing, honoring women and sharing their stories and their spirit.  How do you create the global campaigns? Distribute the funds? Create community while traveling the world?  To me, she is one of the most incredible women alive right now. Her books are grace, genius and heart. And her bravery in telling her story moves me deeply and inspires me.

Sheila would see that one of my divine forms of communication is dance. She would rave about how she wanted to get her hands on my body and loosen it up, get me back into living in my body, being in body bliss. Getting me connected to all the power, wisdom and truth that is in my body. She would talk about the music that resonated with me, about how she saw all that was bottled up inside ready to come out and be expressed and the way to do that was through dance.   There would be opportunities to share my dance with the world, to express all that I feel so deeply in my body, my soul and having a place to express it.  Sheila is all about sensuality too. So good. So much to learn!

Marianne Williamson/Elizabeth Lesser: These two women are all about heart and LOVE. To learn about this, to be in their presence, to see how they walk through the world, how they see the world, to be in the conversations these women are having. Their luminaries, the possibilities of what is. To have my compassionate, open-heart seen by these women and nurtured, expanded upon and have an outlet for- wow. I can’t even imagine this.

Oh Anne LaMott- how you make me laugh, ease my worry and tell it like it is!  I am in the midst of writing…trying to write my story, my soul story. Sharing my life to help others.  To be vulnerable, honest and human. Being a groomed good girl I can get caught up in perfectionism, mask wearing and patriarchal shoulds.  I feel that in my writing sometimes.  With Anne’s coaching I can imagine busting through that. Getting her help for me to write from my soul, my heart rather than my culturally trained head. I think she would break me open and get stories, feelings, connections that I’m not even aware of- I think it would be a time of rich discovery and a greater variety of words to share.  She would push me to dig deeper, to share more, and to be totally human and flawed in the process. Amazing.  And if we got to go to her church – incredible!

I’d like Amma to be offstage ready to give me a big hug before and after! And Ellen DeGeneres would be the MC.  Fun, gregarious, kind, loving and so excited to help these dreams come true.  Rooting with my tribe in the viewing room offstage. And yes, I would probably cry during the pre-taped interview segment.

Who would you want in those chairs?

Whose energy, time and coaching would get you to be on stage hoping they would press that button and say “I see you. I want you.”  

Love

I believe that as we take responsibility for truly deeply madly loving ourselves we have: less fear, less judgment, less disapproval, less abuse, more compassion, more trust, more joy, more delight, more space, more possibilities, more common ground, more jobs, more healing, more flow, more health, more integrity, more support, more transparency, more fun, more connection, more happiness, more smiles, more laughter, more good feelings for everyone. and frankly I think our world could use all of this.

Celebrating and Creating Beauty in our World

I'm here to spread and honor beauty in the world. I finally get that and now it's time to own it. In some ways I don't feel I have a say in the matter. It's my truth, my calling, my purpose...it's been a long journey to this: embracing it, accepting it. For years I did personal work with the belief that once I felt whole, once I no longer felt like a misfit, I would finally get that job at Microsoft or Starbucks...because I was finally good enough, smart enough. Well now I get that I am good enough, I am smart enough and I always have been. It's been a long and winding path of healing -  filled with lots of tears, realizations, rationalizations, revelations and now it's time to celebrate! Me, life, and beauty. Yes, beauty. The beauty of friendship, a joke that brings you laughter, blueberries in season, Modern Family, Pride and Prejudice, earrings, comfy socks...there is so much beauty in the world and I desire to bring a spotlight on it. The people, businesses and nature creating it. The hope of it, the possibility of more beauty in our world. More love. More pleasure. More please. 

Savoring and Gratitude

To me, beauty is all about savoring the moment; a bite of food, a sip of wine, my 7 year-old goddaughters soccer game where the girls are all chasing the ball and the goalie is inside the goal box so everytime she gets the ball, the other team scores...Beautiful! It's about slowing down to see the beauty in our world and being present to what's happening around us and within us. Farmer's Markets, fall leaves, grey hairs, a good cry, LOST's season finale, Volunteer Park Cafe's Chocolate Chip Toffee cookie.  It's about changing what we believe or what we've been told is ugly or not good enough;  curvy thighs, aging, difference of opinions, brown velour jumpsuits.

And it's about having gratitude for the people who create beauty in our world- parents, architects, artists, farmers, builders, cooks, retail store owners, writers, mother nature...the list is endless. Each day I'll honor someone who I'm grateful for bringing beauty into our world and I'll be sending them a card to say 'thanks' as well. Who would you send a card to today? Or call. Go ahead. Spread beauty in our world...you'll start noticing a difference in how you live your life, how you look at things. Possibilities bubble up, life expands and with that comes more joy, happiness and laughter. It's a pretty fantastic lense to use to walk through the world.  

Permission

I've been thinking about and researching permission quite a bit lately. Permission to nap, permission to end a sentence in 'to', permission to love people.com, permission to be perfectly-imperfect, permission to be sensitive, emotional, nurturing.

I like it.

Giving myself permission keeps me out of the trap of perfectionism, shoulds, and the tiny box of appropriate I was trying to live in for oh-so-very long which sapped my energy, fried my adrenals and was also pretty limiting, not to mention boring.  I was an expert at judgment. Permission led to compassion, which led to honesty and authenticity. It led to singing on ski slopes, dancing in restaurants, riding on the back of a scooter through Rome at 1am, and lots of lots of pleasurable naps enjoyed with relish.  It was and is the road to acceptance, gentleness, expansion and frankly, a lot more fun.

When I created my original profile on Linked In I  gave myself the title of Chief Permission Giver and Pleasure Revolutionary for my 'company.'    Be your own Chief/High Priestess of Permission. What permission will you research today?  What are you doing/thinking out of a sense of appropriateness?   Research giving yourself permission to be exactly who you are.  Have fun and keep me posted on your adventures!