What love is...

Nearing the conclusion of this fine year, 2009, I come back to the original intention/theme that kicked it off to such a grand start, love. It seems as an all too well suited theme, given that Jan 2009 began with a brand new marriage. Several years back I decided rather than setting New Years Resolutions, to set an intention/theme for the year, allowing me to be less attached to results and more interested in the journey. 2007-Living the dream, 2008-Balance, 2009-Love.

So how did it go? Well, 2007 & 2008 I wrote in my journal diligently each day, I read books on the topics, searched for mentors, and made many decisions to bring my intention into harmony. This year didn't bring any of that, there was no daily journaling, no searching the globe for examples, and no reading pop psychology to understand it better. I suppose you could say, this year, I just wanted to experience it, in the most natural way possible. Several months out of this year I wondered if I was even honoring my intention, but as I began to doubt, the truth of experience came back with a vengeance to let me know I had.

What I have learned has been far different than what I could have possible expected, and the only way to have learned it, experience. Most of these understandings have come just in the last week of this year, not throughout as I may have hoped, rather like many things in life, clarity dominates in those final sweet moments. The last few days of 2009 have been full of insight, perspective, understanding, and most of all love. To best communicate my journey this year let me share what I have learned love to be, as well as, what love is not. As you read the list I invite you to stop and ponder as you go, if something hits home stop and ask yourself why. Relish in truth of what love is to you, and dig deep into what brings love into your life, as well as what pushes it away. And most of all, love, love god, love others, love yourself, and love for no reason at all.

What love is:

Love is knowing the sun will rise, each brand new day.

Love is a tender words of encouragement.

Love is honesty.

Love is knowledge.

Love is more than knowing the right thing to do, its doing the right thing despite opposition.

Love is looking past weaknesses.

Love is communication.

Love is listening.

Love is intimate.

Love is universal.

Love is peaceful.

Love is content.

Love is an inner manifestation.

Love is real.

Love is the greatest motivator.

Love is God.

Love if living life to its fullest.

Love is family.

Love is kindness.

Love is consistency.

Love is preparation.

Love is work.

Love is commitment.

Love is compromise.

Love is diligent.

Love is giving without thought of return.

Love is the past, the present, and the future.

Love is the greatest journey that exists.

Love is tender moments, big and small.

Love is discipline.

Love is respect.

Love is setting and honoring boundaries with others and ourselves.

Love is in all, above all, and underneath all.

Love is the greatest gift.

Love is everything.

Love is not...

Love is not fear.

Love is not doubt.

Love is not selfishness.

Love is not proud.

Love is not always fair.

Love is not manipulative.

Love is not deceptive.

Love is not greedy.

Love is not alone, sad, or boring.

Love is not apathetic.

Love is not complacency.

Love is not angry.

Love is not fake.

Love is not short tempered.

Love is not impatient.

Love is not the easiest route.

Love is not always being right.

Love is not rude or hurtful.

Love is not demeaning.

Love is not demanding beyond our abilities.

Love is not a way of understanding only those closest to you.

Love is not only for you and me.

Love is intimate.

Love is universal.

Stepping Back to move forward

In the practice of yoga, we often back off of things prior to proceeding. For example, I lower down on my belly, before rising up in a backbend. The sun salutation, is a series 9-17 postures, one in which there is closing in, followed by a rising up. I am certain the opening posture could not happen if it did not follow a closing in posture. This closing in and opening up is a theme that weaves through the entirety of the practice, after all it is a balance. A fine balance, effort and ease in perfect tandem.

As it becomes more natural on the mat, the challenge comes in applying this principle to off the mat. I often have a desire to race through my day completing all the tasks that require energy up front. While this has the underpinnings of a successful practice, the problem exists when the determination takes over to complete EVERYTHING, before allowing a sweet surrender to enter in. Going and going with fierce determination seems to set in, and letting go becomes only a very small exonerated portion of the day that happens before bedtime. This does seem to work on some level, but too much determination certainly makes it challenging to let go when the time comes. Many worship vacations and time off work, to relax and step back, I think it is a daily practice, that enhances our every day experience. By taking the time to step back each day, I reconnect with my breath, I acknowledge divinity, and I remember how sweet it is to simply be still. The allows me to approach the day with a new sense of well being and wholeness, able to, well, move forward.

Sacred Space

The kitchen to me is a sacred space. Albeit ours is small and humble, it is to me the landscape of creation. In the sacred walls of the kitchen, the combination of heavenly ingredients intermingle in a most melodic formula to produce an amazing end result. The fusion of life's offsprings creates new life.

But, come on Connie, it's just a cookie. No, it's so much more, its Cookie Paradise.

I clean my kitchen insidiously, almost to the point of compulsively, because to me the vessel in which creation comes must be completely pure. I would hate for any morsel of toxicity to enter into a new unblemished creation. This simply seems wrong. Any of those that know me, and as my husband will attest, it is a painstaking process to make certain these creations are developed in a pure environment, brought to life in the exact timing of their oven, and then carefully packaged and presented to their new home. It is a labor of love, that seems often to go far beyond the call of duty, but I can't help it. It seems a part of my nature as the creator to give an inordinate amount of love and attention to each cookie creation, letting each one be personally touched, shaped, packaged, and offered to a worthy partaker. It's in my blood to create more than just a cookie, indeed, in my kitchen it falls nothing short of cookie paradise.

Our Christmas Prescription

There is no denying it's the holiday season. Our Christmas wish to you this year:

And just by way of clearing up any confusion. No, I was not really in the hospital.

I wasn't even trying to capture a kodak moment

It just happened. Apparently, Bear likes to knit as much as I do.