Even war cannot take away their music
July 5, 2009
This documentary on the children of Uganda’s war zone is a testament to the human spirit, expressed in music and dance. It is unbelievable what these children have gone through and yet are able to feel and express their inner joy and powerful emotions. It’s heartwarming, and inspiring .
Gail Brokaw
http://www.embracethepossibility.org
http://www.facebook.com/gail.brokaw
How to Cook Your Life
February 22, 2009
The video, How to Cook Your Life is comtemplative and inspirational. I find myself wanting to make bread now and to slow my thinking down and let things rise from my mind as the bread dough rises after being fed with all the ingredients it needs to nourish our bodies.
Zen priest and chef, Edward Brown talks about life through food preparation. As with everything we do, we can look at the way we prepare our food and eat our food and compare our actions in the kitchen with the actions we usually take in our lives. This documentary visits Tassajara Zen Center, Green Gulch Zen Center, and the San Francisco Zen Center as it instructs and inspires us to live our lives consciously and with purpose.
Edward Brown looks at the metal tea pots with dents and creases and likens them to our lives with wrinkles and troubles. They are what makes us who we are and we continue to be useful with any and all of our dings and dents. That’s a good, good thought to keep in mind as I age! Sometimes I think I need to be that perfect shining tea pot that performs as if new all the time. I have to remember patience and forgiveness, mindfulness and appreciation as I move through my days. Oh yes, and don’t forget to breathe!
Sacred Life Sunday -What Now?
August 3, 2008
What's up Ahead?
I just finished reading “What Now?” by Ann Patchett. It is a small book based on her commencement speech given at Sarah Lawrence College and aimed at the question that comes to us throughout our lives. We all remember family and friends asking throughout our lives – - What now? when you graduate from high school, What now? when you graduate from college, What now? when you start job hunting, What now? When you are in a committed relationship. Everyone seems interested in the next step we will be taking and all along, we are also asking ourselves that same question. She includes photos of puzzle pieces, someone standing at a crossroad, someone standing in front of multiple doors, someone walking in circles; all demonstrating that feeling and thought process of What Now? I found myself thinking, What now? is a process, not a destination. Some of us think we know where we are going and some of us actually arrive at our predetermined destination, but I’ll bet most of us take this detour and that detour and end up somewhere quite unexpected. I think this is what makes life interesting. Have you thought of your life and realized because of one decision or another, this is how you ended up where you are right now?
Patchett says, “. . .see how all the dots in your life are connected, how one decision leads you to another, how one twist of fate, good or bad, brings you to a door that later takes you to another door, which, aided by several detours- long hallways and unforeseen stairwells – eventually puts you in the place you are now. Every choice lays down a trail of bread crumbs, so that when you look behind you there appears to be a very clear path that points straight to the place where you now stand. But when you look ahead there isn’t a bread crumb in sight -. . .so you stand there, sniffing at the wind, looking for directional clues . . .What Now?”
Sacred Life Sunday – Mother and daughters
July 21, 2008
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
July 13, 2008
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
My Garden
June 27, 2008
My grandmother had Hydrangea plants and I think of her every year when mine are blooming. She was a hard working woman who loved to garden and produced flowers, figs, tomatoes and berries in her little backyard. I remember she would pay my brother and me twenty-five cents to find and pick out tomato worms from her plants. Those horns on the worms grossed me out, so my brother earned more cash than I did with that proposition.
Now I find peace and contentment in my own little backyard. It’s small and simple and I creatively change it a little each year, adding birdhouses, new plants, or some treasured found object. The lawn is a little worse for wear due to our sweet little terrier but it’s worth the price having her around. Is my yard just an extension or representation of my life? I do creatively change my own life a little each year, adding new things, thinning out the old, and enjoying each season and the change it brings. Sometimes there is more mud and weeds than I’d like, but as I keep working on it, my life and my yard continue to bloom and grow. Here’s to many more seasons of growth.
Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are. –Alfred Austin
All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar. — Helen Hayes
A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself. –May Sarton
Gail Brokaw, MA, CC
Certified Life Coach
http://www.embracethepossibility.org
Discovering new paths
March 27, 2008
This last weekend I walked with a couple of friends in a beautiful wooded area near the local lake. I found an easy hike since we don’t do this regularly, and we headed out for a walk hoping to find sign posts along the way for direction. None of us knew where we were going. We dodged poison oak, enjoyed spring wildflowers, and made choices about the way to go as we approached a fork in the path with no clear direction. We hoped it would take us where we were heading. We found the lake, and along the way made friends with a woman and her dog, who was having a blast retrieving a stick from the lake over and over again. Such joy and energy! The temperature was just perfect to be out in nature, the quiet was refreshing and we actually saw some wild turkeys and heard a few birds singing above our heads. We had a great time visiting, talking about future vacations and just laughing. It was a great day. On our way back from the lake, we took a path that lead us to a different destination than the one we wanted. We received differing advice from fellow hikers about how to get to our destination. Of our choices, we decided to take the quicker but steeper path up the hill. I couldn’t help but see the similarities of our hike with the path we take during our lives. We start down our path with no specific map telling us which fork in the road to take along the way. We try to dodge things that are not good for us, find friends and happy experiences along the way, receive lots of suggestions from others telling us which way to go, and sometimes take the trail that involves a struggle but sure feels good when we’re successful. It helps to keep your wits about you, have friends and supporters close, and listen to the voice inside, telling you which path seems right for you. Enjoy the journey.
Gail Brokaw, Life Coach You CAN create the change you want in your life.
