"We all know the drill on the plane...'In case of an emergency, masks will drop from the ceiling.  Before helping other passengers, please put on your mask first.'  Because that's what it's all about.

We can't save others if we don't save ourselves.  In order to fully show up for everyone in our lives, it starts with showing up for us.  Are there times when we'll have to put others first?  Hell yeah.  And then the work becomes filling our cup back up.  

We must choose to invest in ourselves.  To eat healthy, to read books, to workout.  To take walks, hikes and meditate.  And it's OUR RESPONSIBILITY to live these habits and create boundaries and expectations about the things that our oxygen to our self worth.  

We must love ourselves so much that when people appear in our lives who don't meet the standard we set for how we love and live, then they won't fit.  And we won't tolerate their BS...because we'll know what it means to live a life that is close to our hearts.  

And even better...when someone shows up and respects that we are choosing us and ​makes it imperative that our individuality be maintained...those are the people that we keep.  Because they're not intimidated by our lives...they're turned on by it.  And we'll be turned on by their independence too."

​~Mark Groves founder of Create the Love

Happy Tuesday beautiful hearts!  Here's one of my favorite talks by Wayne Dyer.  Cheers to manifesting more abundance in your life.  Come to the source by being abundant!  Continually show your gratitude.  

May You Sweetly Seek:)
In Gratitude, 
​Sarah 

"Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day, set aside to decorate the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers.

On the first Decoration Day in 1868, Gen. James Garfield spoke at Arlington National Cemetery where some 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were buried. Garfield said they “summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtue of men and citizens.”
​
Red poppies are often worn on Memorial Day as a symbol of remembrance and to honor those who died in war.

Since the late 1950s, soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, the oldest active-duty infantry unit in the Army, have placed small American flags at each of the over 260,000 gravestones in Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, a practice that continues to this day.

For those who have flags at home, remember this Memorial Day custom: The American flag should be hung at half-staff until noon, and then raised to the top of the staff."
~Lee Edwards of the Daily Signal

Happy Friday beautiful hearts!  Today I want to talk about the watery emotions that sometimes spill from our beloved eyes.  This outpouring of emotion might express the grandest joy, or the deepest sorrow.  At some point in my life, I made the conclusion that tears weren't for me.  It was often reinforced that they didn't show one's strength, rather they paraded around one's Achilles heel.  Rather than emoting, I held them in and instead of cascading like a waterfall they damned up like a tired old  river.  Over the course of the past several years, I have dismantled this self imposed damn and have let the tears flow.  

I sit today listening to the rain pouring outside the window and am reminded of the beautiful cleansing energy of tears.  The raindrops falling so sweetly as they nourish the thirsty Earth.  I am transported back to a reading from a dear friend.  

"My dear Sarah, its time for you to perceive your tears as being precious.  They are watering the tender shoots of new life coming up all around you.  Your tears have delivered you to know what love is, and what love is not."  

Her words reverberated throughout my entire being.  I felt the tears slide down my cheeks and drop onto my shirt.  So many years I fought this natural reaction because of other's comments to me, but in this moment I felt the preciousness of my tears and I welcomed this old friend.  I deleted these old stories and received the gift.  

My beautiful friends, how are your tears watering the tender shoots of new life?  When was the last time you cried for joy, or sobbed in sorrow?  We are tender and strong, glorious and in progress, full and empty, heavenly and earthly.  When we allow ourselves to be present to the magnificence of life, we open ourselves up to a range of emotions.  A wise friend often shares, "If you can't feel it, you can't heal it."

May You Sweetly Seek:)
In Gratitude, 
​Sarah 

Happy Thursday beautiful hearts!  As I sit to write this post, I had a whole post written out that disappeared, and I have to chuckle now as I feel the Universe urging me to start again.   I labored intently over my last post, and now this one just seems to be flowing.  

When I look up 'labor' in the dictionary, it means to engage in a productive activity, or a job or task that must be done.   I recently attended a Pre-Natal Yoga Training and since that training have found myself smitten with the idea of 'birthing' and 'laboring.'  I'm not a mother, but I am a woman who is passionate about living and creating.  When I bring the concept of birthing into my own life, I truly feel we all have within us the power to 'give birth' to an idea, a new thought, a new way of being, or to bring forth a gift that we have yet to share with the world.  

I can only image what the experience of 'labor' is like for a mother.  I have heard multiple women's experiences, and as I gaze into my own life, I feel like I have been laboring in many ways myself.  How about you?  It seems to me that living life is labor intensive because we are engaging in a productive activity.   We are busy building dreams.  Loving partners.  Birthing babies.  Envisioning empires.  Crafting professions.  Quieting our minds.  Becoming one with nature.  Moving through the stages of labor isn't limited to motherhood.  Male or female, we all have the divine feminine living inside us.  The part of us that nurtures and fosters love.   

In the midst of labor I think we must also acknowledge that there is a death  occurring.  To not acknowledge this death would be to dismiss life. This simultaneous process is making way for something new.  A death of our old ways of being, a death of outdated beliefs, and a death of our identity.  When we can hold these two stories with equal amounts of compassion, I feel that we will move heaven and Earth.  Laboring invokes a sense of profound respect for the body and spirit.  

​Shift into the 'labor' intensive areas of your life...I invite you to sit with this question, "What would be different in your life if, 1 year from today, if your life was exactly like you would like it to be?" We must have a willingness to bring the unseen into the seen, to share our hearts, and to honor the precious gift of our lives.  

May You Sweetly Seek:)
In Gratitude, 
​Sarah 

As I soak in the words of Thoreau, I feel this wilderness inside my heart.  There is an ache to explore and a desire to climb.  There is an unfathomable curiosity that crests on the horizon.  I pause underneath an old Sycamore tree as I allow my heart to synch up to the pulse of Mother Earth.  I feel the sensations of life beneath the soil.  I hear the birds chanting praise.  The sounds of everyday life hum all around, while the unsurveyed landscape inside trembles in anticipation.  

My beautiful friends, we have a wilderness of opportunity living within us.   Each step affirms the directionality of our life.  Nature is there supporting us.  The seasons create a sense of reverence and bounty.  We have within many flavorful seasons.  Seasons of loss.  Seasons of love.  Seasons of grace.  Seasons of change.  Seasons of mystery.  

Gazing into the wilderness of your heart, what season are you currently in?  How are you living in harmony with the landscape of your dreams and desires?  Have you the courage to live more fully into this season?  Thoreau's prose reminds us to return again and again to nature.  It is here that perhaps we simplify the complexities of a tamed mind. 

May You Sweetly Seek:)
In Gratitude, 
​Sarah 

I was driving down a beautiful country road yesterday, with my windows rolled down and music blaring.  There's something about sunshine that makes a car solo sound much better than normal singing:).  As I bellowed out some Trevor Hall, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as I took in the environment around me.  I was driving down a dirt road at that point and if it weren't for my navigation on my phone, I would have not had a clue where I was.  

Somewhere in my drive I received a call and it clicked my navigation off, so I began questioning what road to take.  I pulled up my maps again and clicked the address and the navigation system began again.  As I approached a stop sign the navigation lady told me to turn left in her sweet British accent.  But then another voice appeared in the background and she told me to turn right.  When it comes to directions it doesn't take much to confuse me, so sitting at the stop sign, I was thoroughly confused.  I looked down at my phone and the direction I had just received didn't match the map on my phone.  

​I pulled over to the side of the road and then it hit me,  I had two systems running and it must have happened when I received the phone call.  I sat there laughing as it seemed like a wonderful Universal teaching moment.  

How many times in our lives are we running an old set of directions all the while trying to make it to a new destination?  Perhaps we assume the stance of muscling through, knowing that we are right.  Or maybe we become so dependent on another to tell us where to go that we forgot about our own inner knowing.  Or maybe we get so distracted by the last thing we were doing that we forget to update our location. 

When was the last time you updated your intention?  As Rumi so beautifully shares, "Respond to ever call that excites your spirit."  As you gaze into your life, how are you crafting a navigational template for your intentions and desires?   Remember to update your internal systems so that you can navigate your most extraordinary life.  Travel well my friends!

May You Sweetly Seek:)
In Gratitude, 
​Sarah 

THE GUEST HOUSE
​This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
~Jalaluddin Rumi

Happy Monday beautiful hearts!  These words by Rumi echo off the walls of my heart.  As we begin the week, perhaps we find the arrival of a new visitor.  And as we move towards this new visitor perhaps we take the stance that Rumi suggests.  It is here that transformation and magic can occur as we await them clearing us out for some new delight.

I just love every line, the shape of every word, the echo of every promise in this prose.  As we move through the landscape of our lives, we have the choice to treat each guest honorably.  For in essence, this guest is a part of the 'Self.'  We can rant and rave, or we can slide into the sweet spot of surrender and assume the position of gratitude. 

I was listening to a Wayne Dyer video the other day and he said as soon as we begin to judge ourselves, our feelings, and our lives, we create separation.  And when we are separate, we live a smaller life than we would live if we felt how amazingly connected we are.  

May you welcome the visitors from beyond and move through your day with a sense of deep connection and grace.  

May You Sweetly Seek:)
In gratitude, 
​Sarah 

“We all begin the process before we are ready, before we are strong enough, before we know enough; we begin a dialogue with thoughts and feelings that both tickle and thunder within us. We respond before we know how to speak the language, before we know all the answers, and before we know exactly to whom we are speaking.” 
― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women who Run With the Wolves

Happy Thursday beautiful hearts!  As you peer into your life, did you know that it could look like this?  One of my teachers shared that our 'YES' and 'NO' moments shape our lives in amazing ways.  I want to share a 'YES' moment that has forever changed my life...one that I am totally thankful for.  

Once upon a time I completed my Yoga certification and was eagerly searching for a community to connect with.  And every day it would be my intention to somehow plug into a group who was eager to share in the transforming power of the practice of Yoga.  And then one day I got a call to visit a tax office to help them during busy season.  It was only to be for three months tops.  And because of that, I met a group of hearts that I will always call my tribe.  And because of that this tribe became like my 'baby.'  We were learning together, on the mat and off the mat.  We shared laughter, life, and the tender moments of living.  We created community through our practices and through the ritual of connecting over a good meal.  Until one day we said goodbye to the ways in which we had always known each other.  Ever since then we have been connecting in new ways.  And because of that, my life is so full of gratitude!   

I never knew that saying 'YES' to this opportunity would collect such a dear group of souls in my life.  These hearts have allowed me to share my passion for Yoga and for life.  As we reminisced last night, one of my favorite experiences with this group has been the ability to remain a student.  I might appear to be leading the Yoga class, but I am informed and guided by my students who are my ultimate teachers.  

YES to living your passions.
YES to being surrounded by a tribe of like minded hearts.
YES to having the courage to evolve.
YES to love...on the mat and off the mat!
I just love these hearts!!!

May you connect with your tribe and celebrate saying YES!

May You Sweetly Seek:)
In Gratitude, 
​Sarah