Here’s the latest Kniss Connection video. “Praying rain” is manifestation. What will you manifest in your life this week?
Category: People
This is a great compilation of interviews with Will Smith. I didn’t know much about his philosophy apart from a few soundbites I’d heard around the time The Pursuit of Happyness came out, but check out what he’s got to say. His passion and his message provide a crucial voice for today’s world, where people often believe they are the victim of circumstances outside of their control (the economy, the government, et cetera). Will offers a different, and refreshing, perspective:
Greatness exists in all of us.
Lay one brick at a time.
Focus on making a difference.
Represent an idea.
You have to believe.
Nothing is unrealistic.
Be willing to die for the Truth.
Protect your dream.
And one of my favorite quotes: “Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.”
This week’s Kniss Connection video: Do One Thing That Scares You… Stepping toward success in spite of fear.
I met my friend Sean Stephenson at his office today and couldn’t resist giving him a hard time about being a Sox fan. I grew up on the north side of Chicago, so my allegiance remains with the Cubs, even though I haven’t followed baseball in years. Throughout our conversation Sean, being Sean, asked some super in depth questions and, while they weren’t unexpected, they still tapped into a place in me that felt fragile. He reminded me of the normalcy of “being human.” Apparently, it is all too easy for me to forget…
Hence the topic of this week’s Kniss Connection video:
I am most grateful for the people in my life whose faith in me supports, uplifts, and transcends the faith I have in myself…
When YOU believe in me, it reminds me that there is a little more I can give, a deeper place I can go, some incredible potential to be actualized… YOU inspire me to lift my chin, look my fear in the face and step forward.
I step forward choosing love, and it is your love that lends its strength, helping me to once again discover that strength within myself.
Thank YOU for believing in me.
from Gwen Bell’s Best of 2009 Blog Challenge
The Question: Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?
There were probably a few nights, now melded in memory, from my last residency at Pacific in June. There was the uncontrollable laughter–the kind that you’re almost concerned about whether or not you’ll be able to take another breath, but the thought of losing consciousness owing to oxygen shortage makes everything even funnier… the kind that makes your obliques hurt more than they have from abdominal crunches.
When I laugh that hard tears stream down my cheeks.
There was that time when Aaron raised his hand, and we just lost it. There were homemade brownies. There was red wine in real wine glasses thanks to Eric. There was that all night conversation… To say that that night, or nights, rocked my world, would be vastly understated.
Pictured here with my fiction writing friends, Jason Sandefur and Alissa Nielsen.
I love this.
It’s from Danielle LaPorte, rockin’ conscious business mentor and creator of White Hot Truth.
I had the awesome opportunity to work with her, and our conversation was the catalyst for so much good and growth for my company. Read her stuff and be inspired.
For Keith Nelson and Joan Jones,
on their wedding day, November 21, 2009
It was an honor to write this for my friends and share it at their ceremony.
perspective at dawn
shut your eyes and take love by the hand,
a petal in your open palm,
fingers splayed to the horizon,
with gentle and deliberate grace
so as not to crush its intricate allure,
its infinite artistry.
celebrate and dance and play in the vibrance of love’s
two dreams grafted, growing, becoming one.
energy unbounded,
love reborn.
look on love’s face and notice, not only
the glint in the eye,
the seduction of the brow,
the curve of the lip,
but note too the lines etched from smile,
the lifeblood in the cheek,
the subtle hunger that draws you close,
the breath that feeds the cells of lung and heart and heat.
let your voice, your word and the spirit of your song
be your compass
as you venture into uncharted waters,
beyond the map’s edge
and let love rain joydrops to nourish your landscape.
through the tempest, when darkness settles,
risk all for love’s unfolding.
and when dawn pours forth each morning,
renewed and sacred,
it presents a novel perspective of light and life,
an invitation to awaken.
Seriously?? Life is so frickin’ weird. Hilarious actually… like I can’t stop laughing. As Sean Stephenson says in his kick ass book, Get Off Your “But,” “I’ve learned to focus my focus on one solitary question: What’s funny about this? This puts all my conscious awareness on seeing the comical side of any situation and the resulting laughter takes care of the stress.”
Two weeks ago this guy is serenading me with gorgeous songs and a guitar on his front porch in SE Portland, asking about dating me, and today he’s joined a Franciscan monastery. Awesome…
The guy I swore I would not date has won my heart and the one I thought I would date shrouds himself in tortured unavailability.
Funny stuff.
I am thinking about the power of our souls to pull exactly what we need out of this life experience. And from this perspective, all I can do is chuckle.
There is harmony in the flow of the universe… If we allow ourselves to relax into it, to become one with the music. There is only the current, the pouring out of love and the experience we came here to partake of. In that, there can only be gratitude… and laughter.
If I believed in luck, I would say that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. Take the last month for example… I have had the most incredible people show up in my life. I’m standing in my living room tonight, practically in tears, totally overwhelmed by the greatness of this journey.
I love James Ray’s acronym for LUCK: Living Under Certain Knowledge. Knowledge of how the universe works, that is. I know the law of attraction is a reality, for I see it played out in my life every single day. Knowing something is stronger than “believing in” it. To think that I am able to attract such awesome people and occurrences into my life is truly beautiful, a reflection of myself, which I am prone to forget is also beautiful.
I am so grateful for you for showing up, entering into the sacred dance with me in whatever form our souls mutually agreed upon: Caitlyn, Mandy, Frank, Jason, Jessica, Deb, Donnita & Wayne, Sheila, Tom, Danielle, Sandy, Kevin & Rupal, Jeff, Michele, Leona, Kim & John, Jerry, Kevin, Rosa, Diane, Marie, Mari Carmen, Frankie, Darren, Jodi, Richard, Carol, Teddy, Marta, Michelle… Thank you for challenging me, enlightening me, and celebrating with me. Namaste to you all.
