I’m sure I have written about this before. But today I am called to share it again. I have a new routine in my life, going on about two months, where I wake up between 4 and 5 am. In this space each morning I get more into my life, that feeds my soul, then I used to get in a week.
With the space today, I am watching Oprah’s video about her new book. The Path Made Clear.
Oprah and her show Super Soul Sunday, bring me such joy. Oprah has a child-like curiosity, authentic joy and lust for life that make me lean in. In most of her interviews, she is mostly listening to a book curated by her is a way for her to speak. I’d listen to anything she has to share.
I had the pleasure of going on a cruise this past February with Oprah and a few of her closest friends (I think about 2,400). It was an amazing experience to be so close to this divine woman and her best friend Gayle and a whole bunch of women (and a few brave men) that are close to her. They are all beautiful humans. She has great taste in people. What I know for sure is that she is a very good person. I would follow her anywhere.
Her gift of curiosity to live her most full, purpose-filled life has positively impacted the planet. Thank you, Oprah.
This show, that talks about her new book A Path Made Clear is the journey of the chakras, up the current of liberation and down the current of manifestation.
It is permission to heed the call.
It is a nudge to listen to the whisper.
It is trust in the process.
It is dreaming big AND enjoying the journey.
For me, in my life, the whisper in my head has moved to my heart. The framework for my dreams is grounding. I have had just a couple of really big dreams in my life. So big that I put them on a shelf for the last decade. I have been living the most complete and full life. It has beautiful children, a loving, patient husband, a caring compassionate community, a meaningful career, and a blessed nuclear family.
I write this at 5:22 am, already marinated in an hour of Oprah. And I say amen, thank you.
This year kicked off with an idea that came to me like a freight train. The newest gift from the universe. My painting and jewelry program called Painting of the Month Club. I have 23 stunning souls along for the ride and the insights from this group and from my own subtle energetic awareness have been nothing short of a daily miracle.
You see my dreams are FREAKING HUGE. Seriously big. The kind that changes the way the YMCA works with the world. An idea that funds all the YMCA Camp art programs and helps our country get back to supporting artists at the most grassroots level. That is an event in every state (at a YMCA Camp) that brings together visual art and music and dance and writing with yoga and ritual and mindfulness, at the same time, on the same weekend. Its certainly Good Morning America worthy.
The dream is over 20 years old. So old I need to look up the date of when I had this dream. I do remember the day the dream came to me.
I was in the US Virgin Islands, on St. John at an eco-resort called Maho Bay.
I was with a sacred group of humans led by my life coach Patt Osborne.
We had been given an assignment. We traced our bodies (life-size) on a large piece of paper and sent back to our cabins to create. The cabins were 100% screens with canvas shades you could roll down for privacy. Everything was made of wood because it is a tropical climate. Everything about this place was in harmony with living simply with the plant. Solar everything, cold pull cord showers to preserve water. There was electricity in the cabin but you had to fill a jug to have water and there was a little propane burner. My biggest cooking adventure involved boiling water for tea. The view was nature, surrounding you. Rich green trees and pops of teal, from the pristine ocean of the islands. I loved that place.
The night of our “assignment” from my coach Patt, I listened to Alanis Morissette all night long. I transcribed Alanis’ words onto my paper body, filling in the spaces with all of her ideas. The words and music vibrated through all of my cells. Something about making art on my body with her words in this eco cabin in the Caribbean stirred something deep in my soul.
I painted those words until my hand could not hold a brush. I painted until I crashed on my bed, the best kind of exhausted and spent.
I laid down to enjoy my much earned rest but my mind was so awake, sleep was not an option.
I was called to grab my coaching workbook. Another part of our homework. Our homework was to fill in this paper body and work in our notebook.
A funny thing happens when you actually do the workbook :)
The workbook had questions. Question about the call, purpose, joy heart filled spaces (you know the type of questions). The kind we usually skip because we are tired or have done these twenty times before…
I think it was about 3 in the morning and my hand was whipping through that book like I was dictating from the smartest person I have ever heard speak. It came fast and furious and I was chasing the tail of each sentence.
It was words about how to empower artists.
Words that could ignite souls and activate communities.
It was almost an instruction manual to living a full life.
So that was the night the idea was seeded in my reality. It was a magical night. I eventually fell asleep after laying awake for a bit longer bathing in the moonlight and this new gift of an idea.
Life made sense, at least for this moment.
I woke the next morning very excited to share my new art and idea with this group. Feeling “too much” and “too big” and 100% like me.
The path to today has been full of twists and turns and dips and climbs. I would not change a thing and am grateful for every part. I honor my process because in doing so I am deeply allowing the transformation necessary for me to keep going on this path.
If you enjoyed reading this and think it would be something helpful for anyone you know that is chasing a big dream and enjoying the journey, please give this a thumb, a share, and a tag.
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I know I have said this 100 times, but not with such clarity. Not with such a framework of grounded scaffolding. Things are about to get real my friends. The dream is coming into focus and I will need all the help I can get.
So if you are interested in playing, please opt-in.
Thank you, Oprah, for this morning’s inspiration. I’m headed back to finish the show now.
XOXOXO,
Kate