You Can Do Anything and….

Flow state with my guitar, the space we meet within, as I am always playing for the intrinsic value of it. For so many years I have held her, strummed her, written melodies and words to harmonize with her vibrations. Never considering a note to be taken beyond my own house walls.

One Sunday morning, the realization comes through, like a sliver of sun falling across my lap as I sit upon my Midwest porch swing, playing tunes, waking up slowly. I find myself reflecting upon the way I raise my daughter to believe that she can do anything she wants.

And also, if she enjoys playing her ukulele, she may continue to do so, for the raw intrinsic nature of its importance. She can just play ukulele, take piano lessons and rock out her life. Everything that she tries does not have to become a sensation, a job identity, a goal for stardom or an exercise in overachievement.

Even as a lifelong performing artist in other modalities, I never thought to take guitar on stage. Playing music holds a self-serving purpose. Sounds wild to admit out loud, as with most everything I do, I tend to offer it up, for the healing and peace of all.

For the greatest good.

Holding sacred space for myself and music is a prayer with me included.

For at least two decades now, you could find me in the corner of my porch, strumming and singing beneath the trees. Songs that have captivated me. Heard once and my soul became aflame and then, I must get to know this. Feel it in my bones. Hum inside of its grasp of words that are written so perfectly, human emotion is transmitted as a real, lived energy.

Yes, it tends to most often be the lyrics that capture me first. Learning the chords, the rhythm and the way I will so authentically butcher it into my own rendition, this comes as the next part of the process.

The words. The storytelling. The aches, joy and inspiration abound here. I am smitten.

In this way, I have always been a writer. Along with essays, poetry and now a book, I’ve written my own songs on the guitar for twenty years. No albums or recordings in sight. Simply because when the notes burst forth, the words come along to dance upon them and it all pours out like rain. A storm and I cannot stop it. And with the current frenzy of a burning earth, I would never hold it back.

May the great glory of art unleash itself through me infinitely.

And may it ring out across the continents as prayer through breath, light, the elements and love.

(There will likely be no photo proof…)

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My thoughts on this particular Sunday morning, coffee steaming and the lake a’ buzz with August awakenings, my thoughts collect into a point. The irony.

Here I am publishing my first book while claiming I am no author. Yet, I have written the words of my life inside my heart, across the sky and underwater more times than not. I’ve placed them upon paper, inscribed them upon stone. I have sat with them in the damp dark basement of grief, as well as held them up as a kaleidoscope of me, twirling the colors and shapes this way and that to realize how much glory there is in just being in awe of the life I have. And the inevitability of presence arriving when we have the courage to stay.

Of course, I have always been a writer. I have stayed inside my experience for eons. To write.

I don’t need to believe that I just woke up and decided to write a book, as if it were some far off dream or coming from another planet, or worse, from somewhere inauthentic. These words came from the depths of me. And there is a choice in putting it out there, to be witnessed.

During the process of writing, it was for no one else. The energy collected itself into words for only me, first. The moments of life that most etched themselves into my bones. I did not share them as they resurfaced. The unresolved pain, too deep, too intense and in need of time to find resolution in my aching heart first.

I stay present with my stories, all of their spectrums. Snapshots of agony, beauty, and all that breathes between, we have every right to decide when to open the doorway and allow others to see. I have held my own funerals and celebrations long before deciding to share them.

I want to remember that true beauty lives in the moment itself, captured first by breath and only later, perhaps, by words. The song is sung because the soul would combust if it was not given a sweet release.

My morning melody and these rambling thoughts remind me how deeply I cherish the quiet pieces of starshine each day can bring when I sit and allow creation for the sake of love. Art is valuable simply because it exists. Its roots are found in a heart that could not beat another moment without allowing its expression to come forth.

Plain and simple.

The whole point.

If tomorrow my daughter awoke and decided to write a book, I would believe in her every step of the way. If she decided to go on stage with her ukulele and become a sensation, great! She knows we support any dream, and we have modeled that it is all possible and can require focus, work, taking leaps into the unknown and making strategic moves all in balance.

This is how we live. Our life looks like a miracle from the outside. The inside of us knows what it takes to follow the dream of the heart, no matter what. And we are not selling it on instagram. Yet, I would claim, we are a sensation.

We also choose to just create a life that is right for us, our rhythm and enjoy our own dreams, from the inside out. We have surrounded ourselves with real, radiant people with genuine hobbies, who truly live in their values – most often involving nature, art, family and travel.

People who genuinely walk through the trees without a need to bring a camera or a phone or whatever else. A friend, a breath, a dog and a water bottle suits us just right.

We consciously commit not to forget our life holds deep intrinsic value. Some things may be cherished for the sheer sake of it setting the heart aflame. An incredible resource for the inner world, the be in presence, to hold the moment as it is stored into the body’s cellular memory evermore.

We collect beauty around us constantly. While it is a wonderful thing to share the actual moment/photo/video itself, I wonder –

How might I share the essence of what it brings to me?

When a moment of the sunset offers me deep peace and presence, I hold that in my body. I become that vibration. I may walk out into the world and offer this sense of harmony that I carry. No striving or doing or standing on a soapbox shouting about it.

I can just be the sunset. In the way I make others feel.

Inevitably, all experience we collect will be that which we share. Whether we take a photo or not. Within that moment of awe, the ultimate gift is captivated within our bodies. This, we genuinely carry forth. Gripping presence (fueled by awe or grief), such a superpower is to be revered. I want that light to orbit within me just a little longer, at least at first.

There is only right now, this guitar and my hands. This composition that I’ve written. This song, this voice that needs to ring out. This regulates my whirling soul, intrinsically.

And for me, regulation is not merely calmness. It’s joy and happiness. It’s giggling. It’s hanging upside down. It’s diving off the dock. It’s knowing that I am safe no matter how I want to express myself and that it doesn’t need to have anyone else’s consideration to be important.

Being witnessed is another type of medicine, of course, and I believe in this as well. I am a dancer by trade. We get onstage and share everything. Another irony in my declaration of greatness for revering the intrinsic value of what we love.

My truth is here, sitting on my porch with my guitar. If tomorrow I decide to try to be a singer, it is an illusion, the trying to become. Because, am I not already one?

I have always sung. I have always written. I have always had a song in my heart and the accompanying notes in my soul.

A sort of holiness comes in when we realize that a dream is already so. When just the corner of the porch has the first shot of sunlight dancing across a beautiful swinging chair, I am willing to sit quietly with my soul and feel everything. Allow the song of that moment to come out without any audience.

I am willing to fall like a tree in the forest, believing I have intrinsic sound.

Do we even know?

Let’s leave some questions unanswered because the mystery of life is too vast to comprehend all at once. As well as too much overwhelm to see each other doing every single thing, every second.

I wish this for my daughter. I wish this for my own soul.

I am enjoying my intrinsic life.

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Stay in touch! We are building bridges of community connection across towns, states, and countries. The Rebel Heart Revolution holds love as the highest frequency and the greatest rebellion of all. We are committed to learning the ways of mastering our own energy, processing our shit, and living a freedom filled life from the inside out.

We can love a new world into being. A sacred rebellion begins within.

Heart first, here we go!