Monday Inspiration Celebration: abbridged version

This day I am short on time and words, but full of inspiration and ideas. Here, in no particular order, is what has been rocking my world these past chilly, windy days. Keeping me grounded, excited and enthused.

I am loving my daily practice for THIS Moment:






For some reason, when I am making art, I cannot spell! And the teacher in me now sees - and cringes - Breathe when I meant Breath. Still breathing and embracing my imperfections :) I'd rather be making mistakes and risking insight than staying still and staying safe.


My polaroid muse has to be Cowgirl:










At $3 a picture, each one has to count and she matters most of all.


Making art postcards AND sending mail. Double pleasure for me. I love the ladies at the post office where I buy my stamps.






Cowgirl's explosive learning curve; she really gets the concept of sounding out the letters to read the words and every night she reads out loud to us. She is so proud of her achievement and I am thrilled for her to experience what is one of my longest passions: reading books. And now writing! She comes home with papers filled with her words and now is leaving notes for the fairies and this note which was placed by our house gnome, Fred:





It reads (translated, of course): Fred here is a piece of paper you can make a picture.



And today my copy of Brené Brown's new book The Gifts of Imperfection arrived and it is exactly what I need to be reading right now:

"How much we know and understand ourselves is critically important, but there is something that is even more essential to living a Wholehearted life: loving ourselves."

And then this kicker: "We cannot give our children what we don't have. Where we are on our journey of living and loving with our whole hearts is a much stronger indicator of parenting success than anything we can learn from how-to books." (from the preface of The Gifts of Imperfection)

Gulp. Strong incentive to keep on this path. Dr. Brown's words (listen to her podcasts, she is a great speaker and really brings to life the concepts she writes about) have set off many little earthquakes in my soul and this definition of love from her blog is pasted into my journal for quick reference:

from www.ordinarycourage.com

"We can only love others as much as we love ourselves." I must acknowledge then a deep love for myself, as oceans of love have sprung up in my heart these past 4 years. In loving my Cowgirl, I have come to love myself. Or perhaps being loved by her has shown me the way to loving myself?








This song says it best:




How was your Monday?