An Invitation To Do What You Love: Desire by Valarie Budayr

Desire is nothing more than that little voice which summons you to do what you love. It’s the little inkling that says,” I want to paint, write, play music, cook, help others, sculpt, garden, do yoga, create............all the time.”

So what’s stopping you?

I know, its easy to ask but difficult to answer. Over the past few months we’ve dealt with topics such as fear, procrastination, and the Enough Factor.  Another obstacle oftentimes in our way is called Forever Syndrome. If you can’t do what you love all day, every day, for the rest of your live long life, then it isn’t worth doing at all.  Or is it?

Living that creative life we all dream about is out in the future in a file labeled “One Day”,but truly finding your hearts desire is as easy as creating the moment you want to live in right now.

To be the best painter you can be, you have to paint and that happens right now. To be the best writer you can be you have to just write, show up daily or better yet right now.

In other words, Act Like It.

Whether you’re a musician, gardener, yoga instructor, personal coach, artist, cook, you just have to show up as who you are. By embracing the moment fully in your hearts desire, you are living the creative life you always dreamed of. How to build a life of forever doing your hearts desire?

One moment at a time.

Don’t wish for that moment to arrive when you get to be all that you want to be.

Claim It. You are Enough right now and perfect in your creative-self.

When you live in your desire, you can exercise the gifts you were given.

Be Happy In Your Desire

Valarie Budayr is the founder of Audrey Press and author of the book The Fox Diaries: The Year the Foxes Came to our Garden and soon to be released The Ultimate Guide to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She is passionate about making kid’s books come alive and you can find her doing that on her popular blog and website, Jump into a Book. When she isn’t being bookie, she is very happily the mother of three uber creative children, married to a wonderfully patient man who has come to love yarn, and caretaker of one adored cat. Other creative interests are music, travel, knitting (a bonafide yarn harlot), and gardening. She loves living a daily creative practice, where even a good cup of coffee is art.

In What Way Are You Trapped? by Aimee Cavenecia

 

There is a Whole Foods location in Manhattan that I have adopted. I go there to work several times a week. I basically have a breakfast or lunch there, & after the meal I pull out my laptop & get to work. Having a communal buzz around me while I work keeps me energized & focused. Plus, on every day that I work there, I have a least one person coming to meet me. Everyone needs support in getting things done & staying on purpose. Rubbing elbows & staying connected keeps people inspired.

For several months I have seen a bird in the Whole Foods cafeteria. I am usually pleased to catch a glimpse of it. Just seeing it for a few seconds brings me closer to nature & gives me an indescribable feeling of lightness. But on this day, I actually spent a bit of time observing it & watching it attentively. I watched it for 20 minutes, & during this time, all it did was attempt to fly through the various windowpanes -- ramming into one after the other. These are large floor-to-ceiling windows in a huge loft space. So this little bird could be easily 10 feet above every one's heads trying to escape for hours everyday, without anyone taking notice.

  

I spoke to a friend about this little bird & my concern for it. I told him that I would speak to the Whole Foods manager & do what I could to help it return to nature safely. I noticed how affected I was by this bird being trapped, & how desperately I wanted it to be free. Then I had to look at myself: Am I just as stuck as this bird? Where in my life do I keep hitting my head against the wall? Where is it that I feel trapped? What habits do I have that I can't seem to break? How have I ignored my own self-entrapment because I have been too busy to notice?

I pondered these questions as I looked around at the jam-packed cafeteria. Are the crowds at Whole Foods just as trapped as this bird? Hitting their heads against some sort of barrier to their own freedom? Yet they don't even know it? As I looked around, people were dressed similar. Most of them were office workers or students, eating lunch while monitoring the clock. Almost everyone appeared to be on autopilot.

"In what way are you trapped?" It's an interesting question. And it got me to think about my life. To think about it with the same attentiveness I had, as I closely observed the bird in its environment.

We are so distracted in this culture. Everything is largely centered around school (to find work), or work (to earn money), or entertainment (to escape monotony). To me all of them are a distraction. A very clever & carefully orchestrated distraction. It takes a lot of awareness to be able to see though all the busyness. To see through the game. To see through the absurdity. It also takes quite a bit of courage to face up to it. But it takes even more courage, much more, to go beyond it. That kind of courage is more like the French word: coeur. It is the same as cor in Latin. It means heart, which is the root of the word courage.

  

If we want to go beyond the false & illusory reality around us, that we have all irresponsibly co-created & entrapped ourselves with -- it takes tremendous heart. It also takes constant awareness and commitment to live up to a higher truth. I think this awareness is the first step. After this first step, we must bravely walk forward & not look back. Fearlessly walk into the unknown & trust where it leads us. I think it's wiser to trust one's intuition, & to allow follow one's feet -- allowing their greater awareness to guide them -- than to blindly follow the masses.

It is always good to check-in with ourselves. To turn our concerns or questions back on ourselves, examining how we could be more aware or responsible. It's very easy to fall into comfortable patterns, and then wonder why we have stationary complaints that never fully leave us. We are the only ones that can set ourselves free. But, in order to have the courage to make the necessary changes, we must first have the heart.

Aimee Cavenecia (also known as AimeeLovesYou) is an author & activist who is currently igniting a Bliss & Self-Mastery revolution through her weekly blog Sunday Is For Lovers. Aimee's life-work is to share her insights on Seeing, Loving & Being (SLB), as well teaching meditation to people globally via the internet.

Enjoy the Moment by Ginny Lennox

                                                        
                                       In seed time learn,
                                     in harvest time teach,
                                    in winter enjoy.   William Blake

Yesterday when we got to the lake I walked just a little bit by myself.  As I stood on the bank, I looked to my left and there stood a beautiful white duck.  I thought she would immediately move or swim away but to my surprise she stood quietly watching the water.  I was able to take quite a few pictures and I really enjoyed the moment. 

I have been taking lots of classes and workshops to become a better artist, a better photographer, or a better writer.  I am sure they all prepared me for this special experience.  But in the moment yesterday, the thing that I was most grateful for was that I happened upon this spot at just the right time with my camera ready to capture the beauty that was in front of me.  Just as Blake said, there is a time to learn, a time to teach, and a time to enjoy.  Yesterday was a time to enjoy.  I hope that your life will be filled with many unexpected moments that you will take the time to enjoy!

Ginny believes that each and every day is filled with special moments to be enjoyed and treasured.  On her blog, Special Moments in Time she encourages everyone to recognize and celebrate their own special moments each day.

Desire - A Rewrite by Angel Young

This is my second attempt at this post - the computer having eaten my first. So I'm following the universe's requirement for a rewrite. It's not, in truth, ideal circumstances as I'm typing this on my smartphone too, really late at night, in my pjs!

But getting back to it ....

What do we really want? It can be a tough question to answer. Strangely my first draft (which was quite different in form) helped me understand that question better in myself.

In this first, lost, draft I was trying to weigh up desires versus the oh so limiting world of "common sense", realising a different logic applies to our heart longings and that can sit uncomfortably in the mainstream world. I'd like to think I had some worthwhile things to say.

But as I wrote out my own conundrum, the need to explain to someone else, to you the unknown reader, some kind of alchemy occurred. I gained a new perspective on my old question.

So I encourage you to do the same. Pick up your pen, phone, pad whatever ... and explain to us what it is that you desire most. Give us details. Let the pen flow with your own heart's truth. What is there, deep in the core of you, that is trying to emerge into the world? Post it here if you need it to be seen and heard. Or just write as if you are going to, so you can tune in to your own voice. Maybe that one pace of separation is enough to hear yourself more clearly, to know the path to take, to step forward to meet your own desires. And the universe is waiting for that expression. How cool is that! Please step forward  - each step aligns you with your own possibility.

Angel lives in the UK and is trying to step forward too!

My Heart's Desire by Alli Vainshtein

My Heart's Desire

I desire to be with you
every day
every night
for the rest of my life.
My soulmate.
You are everything to me.
I dream of you
I wake up and it feels like a miracle
to see you next to me.
You share amazing ideas with me
and listen to my ideas
together we can solve anything
with your support
I know I can succeed.
And I will support you
through anything.
I love you unconditionally.
No matter what
I will be there for you
and I know
you will be there for me.
Always and forever
my desire is for you.
I love you.

Alli Vainshtein lives in tropical southern Minnesota with her husband and a feline dictator, Pooh. She loves to teach, write, draw, and learn new things. Her goal in life is to make the world a better place.

Desire is How Your Soul Speaks to You by Andrea Schroeder

Last month Desire was the theme of the month for my Advanced Creative Dreaming group.

Today I want to share with you the video I made for them - explaining how important desire is. It truly is how your soul speaks to you and guides you along the path to your purpose.

Working on your relationship with desire is kind of like a shortcut to your dreams.

  

With a paintbrush in one hand & a glitter-gun in the other, Andrea Schroeder lovingly mentors men & women who want to lead creatively abundant lives — and do ‘impossible’ things, with ease & joy. Express the greatest parts of who YOU are, at www.CreativeMagicAcademy.com.

The Joy of Doing by Valarie Budayr

Since he was about 18 months old he has loved to beat and drum on things. As a very small boy he would toddle around the house taking all of my plastic containers out of the cupboard. With a wooden spoon he would spend long spells just singing and drumming himself tired.

Two years ago, his sister bought him a drum set as she was heading off to college. They love to play drum duets, or "Playing Stomp in the Basement" as they call it.

Often times friends come over to play "band" and hours of musical talent is enjoyed. It's been wonderful seeing all of them grow as musicians. And me, I have the best view of them all, ....the fly on the wall. They completely forget I'm there.

How thrilling it is to just watch him doing what he loves to do best.......play. There's been no lessons, no performances, just jamming. Playing to the music of all his favorite bands, Coldplay, Queen, Led Zepplin. Ok maybe some of those are my favorite bands, but he likes them too. 

Last week a major milestone passed as "O" played drums with Travis Patton and the Maryville Middle School Orchestra. It was also the first time "O" had ever played his drums anywhere but in 
our basement.

The thrill of hearing the warm-up at the sound-check and watching my boy more than hold his own. He my mind I always thought of him as our resident violinist but after having the experience of his joy in drumming. I will always think of him as my little drummer boy. 

There is such ease when one gets in the zone and just lives in the joy of doing.

Valarie Budayr is the founder of Audrey Press and author of the book The Fox Diaries: The Year the Foxes Came to our Garden and soon to be released The Ultimate Guide to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She is passionate about making kid’s books come alive and you can find her doing that on her popular blog and website, Jump into a Book. When she isn’t being bookie, she is very happily the mother of three uber creative children, married to a wonderfully patient man who has come to love yarn, and caretaker of one adored cat. Other creative interests are music, travel, knitting (a bonafide yarn harlot), and gardening. She loves living a daily creative practice, where even a good cup of coffee is art.

A Date with Desire by Helen Yee

There’s something magical about the first warm days, when people cast off their jackets and sweaters to soak in the warm energy of late spring and the primal energies are palpable. It feels almost as if our animal selves and desires stir, loudly enough to enter our consciousness. What happens when we notice those stirrings and pay attention to them?

I wrote this poem more than ten years ago, and looking at it now I see something beyond a poem about flirtation.

Stir

Warm spring night, with that scent in the air
spread over sidewalks, hanging in doorways
not the sweet scent of flowers
something else.

Two guys walking
eyes catching something,
two girls walking
but who’s counting?

Upstairs, in cool grey domes, no accountants
take up sharp no. 2 pencils to enter figures
in a tidy ledger.
But all eyes clickclick,
an abacus betraying surging signals
from somewhere farther south,
and in the deep, warm jungle a cat makes a move.
He leaps to touch a restaurant awning,
a muscular flash of shoulders and forearms
stretching toward the winking arch of sky.
The girls pretend not to notice
as their accountants finally take up pencils and laugh.

With our own creative desires, it can feel like a dance of courtship between the animal self and the rational self. The point isn’t to only hear our inner desires, only to sit down and rationalize them away. The magic of our desires can only come to life once the jungle cat and the accountant go on a date together. Here’s a fanciful reminder to you (and to myself, since I keep learning and forgetting): notice what jungle cats are leaping into your consciousness, and try inviting them out to tea. It can be a wild ride, but we’re worth it.

Helen Yee is an improvising violinist, multi-instrumentalist and composer. Currently violinist for the eclectic string trio, Trio Tritticali she also performs on yangqin with Music From China. She considers the practice of improvisation in all its forms a profound teacher in art and in life.