Big magic comes from the littlest moments

I only wrote three posts last year.

Recently, I have been absorbing so much information but concurrently I've experienced a loss for words. I have been in different situations, studying a language and concepts that were previously foreign to me, and it has been so difficult to form eloquent sentences or even find the vocabulary to coherently convey what I'm thinking.

Two weeks is a long vacation from school. Yes, I enjoy sleeping in and am dreading the 6am alarm that will wake me up on Monday morning but, I could do without days on end of restless boredom. Fortunately, I found the key to a happier existence this week and even though I'll be wrapping up winter break with hours at work I feel better prepared for future holidays and virtually every day actually.

I started to read a book called Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of  Eat, Pray, Love. (Side Note: One of my very best friends picked up the audio version of the book and we had such an inspiring, connected conversation. It was so cool that she listened when I told her what I was reading and then joined the club. That is the good kind of surprise!) It is life changing. Along with my daily, at home yoga practice I think I've really unlocked a secret. Her whole book is about living a creative life. So, since I'm a doer I put that into practice and I kicked ass on Tuesday. I used my mundane tasks as canvases/challenges to see my world in a new way. I made my bed differently, hung a tapestry on one wall in our room, made lunch for the kids and used the antique red glass plates, wore my hair in two buns as opposed to one, took my time and had fun wrapping some belated Christmas gifts, and instead of yelling I yodeled to the 14-year-old. And you know what? I got a yodel back!

Then today Louie wanted to paint the top of the pineapple after I cut it all up. Sure why the hell not?! We were born to create things, beauty, joy. We were born to LIVE.

Over the past few months, I have been listening, eagerly for messages from the universe/God. (I like universe some of you may prefer God.) I have been open to finding answers about my future, career path, how to best parent our teens, what my talents are, how to live life to the fullest, what makes me happy, how to show love the way others want to be loved and all the other questions that float through my consciousness.

And I am getting answers every day in some of the most unusual ways. And the answers aren't: go back to church, search the scriptures, pray about it, pay your tithing, stop seeking secular knowledge. The answers are: keep doing yoga it's how your tummy will feel better, add coconut oil to your coffee, invite your son's boyfriend over, learn to organize the marginalized so they can empower themselves, add 1/2 a tsp of baking powder to the eggs to make the shells come off easily, go to Viewpoints on Saturday, tell your friends when they come up in your dreams, read more, learn more, do more of what feels good.

I absolutely love repetition. You know when you see something or learn something and then it reappears and you can say "Oh yes, I know about that" or when a coincidence happens and you feel like the universe is watching out for you because you hadn't told a single soul but somehow somebody knows anyway.

I feel like I'm living in a magical world. Because I am. We are- all of us.