Sacred Sunday – What were we thinking?

Need a new fence

Saturday we trucked down to Lowes and bought materials to put in new fencing in the back yard.  We stacked the boards and started tearing out the old sections.  Our back neighbors moved out so we could get into that side with no hassle.  We thought “we can do this ourselves!”,  but by Saturday night, exhausted with the heat and physical exertion of digging into dirt that is mostly rock , Kelly said, “What were we thinking when we thought we could do this ourselves?”  We still have twenty-three more sections to go!   So Sunday we finished cleaning things up and made a call to our local landscaper asking for help with a big H E L P!  Lucky for us he can come by later this week and will have all three sides done in two days.  We would have taken weeks, (months?) if we hadn’t hurt ourselves in the meantime.  Thank goodness for those folks who do this for a living.  But it did provide a great opportunity to get in behind the lemon tree and rose bush to do some pruning and cleaning up in areas that were hard to reach with a fence in the way.
It’s so exciting to be getting this done.  We’ll be all new and fresh and our backyard will look great! 
I’m grateful for landscapers and the ability to pay them to do the work I can no longer manage. 

Gail

www.embracethepossibility.org

Oh Happy Day!

How can you not feel good when you listen to this group sing?  Enjoy a happy day of your own!

 Gail
http://www.embracethepossibility.org  

Sacred Life Sunday – Mother and daughters

Precious Time Together

Today I am bouncing back and forth between two books and finding similarities in both, written by women of two different ages.  One writer is in her thirties (like my daughters) , the other in her sixties (like me), and both are trying to regain balance and meaning in their lives.  I’m finding more similarities between these two time periods in a woman’s life than I had previously thought.  It seems many women in their thirties are beginning to look at their lives from a new vantage point and wondering if they are on the right path.  Some are wondering how they can redesign their current life to ensure they have enough time and energy left over for that which is most important to them.  It seems to be a time of reexamining everything they have believed in and realizing that time is not infinite.  If they want to arrive at their targeted destination, they’d better make a plan and get going.  Then again in our sixties, I hear many women, including myself, wanting to reexamine our expectations for our life and take time to recreate the life we want in the time we have left.  We both want to continue to experience growth, creativity, relationships, and a sense of contributing, as well as making time for reflection and rejuvenation.  Both the thirties and the sixties are a time for questioning, reviewing and committing to making changes that will serve us best in the years to come.  Mothers and daughters in these age ranges are really not so different; we just have different time lines and energy levels.  (Amen to that one!)  We both want meaningful, successful (however each individual defines that for themselves), and happy years to look forward to, as well as to look back on.

I have had a couple of great days spending time with my two daughters.  We three don’t get to be together at the same time nearly enough.  Heather lives in Maryland and Julia and I in California two hours apart.  I love the precious time I have with the two of them separate and together.  Heather was here in California for a conference in San Francisco.  She is a Speech-Language Pathologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and a mother of three little ones.  She and her husband do a great job of juggling work and family.  I’m constantly amazed and I know it isn’t easy.   Julia is a singer songwriter and marketing consultant.  She and her partner live in a quiet community in Sonoma County and are involved in music and the theater. I am so proud of all of them.  And I am so thankful for such talented souls in my family that contribute in such a positive way to this world. (And did I mention my grandson, 5 years old, wants to be heart surgeon?  And my granddaughters, age 4, a pony doctor and ballerina?  Look out world, more good stuff coming your way!) 

My daughters and I spent a day together at the beach this week.  We had a picnic of smoked salmon and tuna, cheese, french bread, raw veggies and wine.  What a life!  That kind of food on a sunny, breezy day at the beach with my daughters is the best!  The sea air, the sounds of seagulls and children at the beach in the background made a wonderful backdrop for our conversations.  I wish you all the same kind of day with your someone special.

Gail Brokaw
http://www.embracethepossibility.org
You CAN create the change you want in your life!

Sacred Life Sunday

Scarlet Ribbons, Norwich Terrier, 2 years old

3:53 a.m. Sunday, July 13, 2008       A wet kiss wakes me.  I stagger to the alarm system, turn it off and open the back door for Scarlet to go potty.  Good girl!  (Better than the alternative of finding a wet spot on the carpet in the morning.)    She seems so energized!       What’s up?         OK, OK, good girl, now back to bed. . .  She tries to settle down but acts likes it 6 p.m. and she’s ready for a walk!  We can hear her getting into things on the floor of the bedroom and in the closet.  Maybe she needs a snack. . .there you go. . .no, that didn’t do it.  Finally after a few minutes we gave up and decided to join the Joy Club.  Let’s just not fight it anymore.  So we threw back our covers, ran around the house a few times, roughed Scarlet up and played for a few minutes to tire her out.  Usually I would not be up for this at 3 something in the morning, but today was different and I decided I’d let the present moment happen, have a burst of fun and then head back to bed.  That was all it took for Scarlet.  After a few minutes of play and a snack she was ready to settle in again.  This is mildly reminiscent of my daughters and grandchildren as babies with night feedings and “talking” to each other until sleep won us over.  Precious moments.  There is something special about the middle of the night.  It’s quiet and the night air has a special quality.  We could even see the stars which have been hard to see lately due to the smoke from all the fires in California.  So, thank you Scarlet for a taste of night air and stars, and a little middle-of-the-night joy.  Sleep tight!

“The dog was created specially for children.  He is the god of frolic.”  ~Henry Ward Beecher

Gail Brokaw                 You CAN create the change you want in your life!
Certified Life Coach
http://www.embracethepossibility.org

Dreams

Emerging From the Fire

Several years ago I took a pottery class and from a basic assignment, this piece emerged from my clay; a waking dream of sorts.  At first I was bothered by what I had created but later realized that it was my subconsious giving form to my rebirth as a woman in my 30’s.  Being born the first time is hard labor for both mother and baby, but as we rebirth ourselves throughout our life it tends to be more of a spiritual and emotional experience.  It can be exciting, difficult, easy, educational, empowering and humbling.  But, it’s all good as we dream, change, and grow. 

One of the feelings I’m experiencing lately is to get back to my creative outlets whether it be pottery, painting, drawing or quilting.  I think I’ll meditate on that one and create more time for myself to let the unconscious speak to me again.

                                            How about you? 

Gail Brokaw, MA, CC

Certified Life Coach

http://www.embracethepossibility.org