Yes to pleasure. Yes to love.

I love how my commitment to pleasure, to nourishing my body, heart, mind and spirit lead to such magic.

This morning I made up a grocery list for a german dinner I am pleasurably making my Dad in honor of his time in the military in Germany and because my mom and I traveled there last year and filled up his in box with food porn pictures. Schnitzel, spaetzle, fried potatoes and an apple tart.

Grocery list in hand, my Mom and I first went to get mani/pedis..something we've never done before and I thought would be pleasurable...so we are at the nail place- me getting some glittery red on my toes..Ina Garten, ala the Barefoot Contessa is on tv sharing her adventures of travel in London, which just reminds me how much i love to move through the world taking in the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touch. The beauty, the new experiences, meeting new people and being open to that.

I end up sitting across from a mother and daughter as my digits are drying, and mention the schnitzel, the woman across from me? Originally from Hungary so she gives me a bunch of tips. We end up talking about the Dalai Lama, motherhood, sisterhood, sacred sex, travels, reclamation. Her daughter is off the charts amazing: kind, aware, loving, creative. We talk of dating, of ending competitiveness with other women. Of how owning our individual light and turn on is so important- rather than the external that we were so taught to. We talk of my travels- inner and outer. She is so complimentary, she talks of writing a piece on me for the Huff Post (!), we share stories of coming back to nourishing ourselves, to following our pleasure as the thing that truly opens us up to the world. We swap info, hoping to get together for more conversation tomorrow and I want to set her up with a man I met in NYC who lives in San Fran. Pure pleasure and magic.

My mom and I grocery shop, hungry, so I rip open a bag of pop chips to calm our blood sugar down. Pleasure.

I want to buy a higher quality meat so we go to a butcher store and next door is a little taco place so my mom and I, who both love tacos and rarely ever do stuff like this together, pop in and get some little tacos with off the charts delicious, authentic salsas. Pleasure. We get my dad Coca Cola made in Mexico because he prefers those. Pleasure. Tony, a man she needed to talk with about the pool is there, so I get to meet him. We talk about tamales, the holidays. Mom gets to check something off her list while eating a chicken taco. Pleasure.

Now, a hot shower, starting to cook German food for the first time in a few moments probably with some pinot noir and xmas carols, happy, teary as I write this because its all so good. Because I made my pleasure my priority. Because I made my heart matter. Because I dove so deep into the darkness and chose Love again and again and again. Because yesterday, during my solstice ritual. That is what came to me. Every time I was most afraid to do something that was in my deepest, truest pleasure- thinking that somehow I would be unloved, rejected, abandoned, cut out of the family, of community...every time I muscled through and said YES to my pleasure- magic happened. More love. More truth. More beauty. More me. And now this year, this moment feels like the light of it all. This first day after solstice where there is more light coming into the world, feels like there is so much more light in my life already. Because I keep choosing pleasure, love, presence, Because I keep sharing, and writing, and laughing, and creating.

Because I keep loving.

This is all I truly know how to do and when I do it and stay true to it. 
Holy Schniztel life is amazing, easy, powerful, resonant, magical.

Thank you universe for this reminder, that magic happens everywhere: even in a strip mall nail salon in La Quinta, CA.

Yes to pleasure. Yes to Love.