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I look to nature to find my lessons on how to grow. Presently in nature, we are in a liminal place, a place in between two other places. We are in between the Yuletide and the season of Imbolc which marks the beginning of Spring. We are talking very early Spring here. Imbolc is usually marked by catkins and blooming snowdrops. This is a fertile time for many of us, a time to dream a new seed into our future.
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I like to honor the dreaming time. Dreaming, goal setting is a process to be valued, not to be cheated upon by moving through it too quickly or carelessly. It’s important to take time to examine your dreams, to research them, both outwardly in terms of practical application but also inwardly. How does your dream measure against your own inner compass? How does it measure against your values? Does your vision bring you joy? If it doesn’t bring you joy, you will be more likely to abandon it. It will feel hard to stay motivated. If you can find joy in thinking about it, you will more likely pursue it. With joy, even when things get hard, you keep going because it has meaning and passion for you. You really want to achieve your desired result. Joy is like a fire in the burner of your heart that keeps you going. 
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“I’m working my happiness like a full time job.”
                                               - Gabrielle Bernstein
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What if, for the entire year of 2019, you pursued Joy? What if you started noticing where you find joy each day? And what if seeking and finding joy was enough? What would happen if you collected a little treasure box of joy in your heart? And every day you kept adding to it? You might find yourself smiling incessantly. People might start wanting to hang out with you because you are so happy. You might find that you are less stressed out. You might find that suddenly, questions about your life are being answered because you are spending more time with joy and joy IS the answer. 

​I will leave you with the charming words of my friend and tarot reader Arwen Lynch Poe:
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The Yuletide holiday is filled with joy; the joy of shopping, homemade cookies, parties, trees, lights and gifts. There is a lot of joy to entertain. And where is the comfort? Do you even seek comfort? I’m a big fan of comfort and I pursue this holiday as quietly, as minimally as I can. I look for something different in this holiday. I look for the quiet.
 
Recently, I was sitting on the red couch in my kitchen daydreaming, as I stared out the large windows into our backyard. Our backyard is full of garden spaces and those spaces are currently full of leaves to keep the beds warm and fed with rotting compost before the next growing season. But what caught my eye this day was the filbert tree. There it stands, on the edge of one of the beds, barren of leaves in the cold, gray winter. And I got it. I understood the lesson I heard often in my seasonal courses. Winter is the time when the energy of nature is drawn within. I could see how the tree was drawing energy into its sap, into its roots. I find that meaningful. This is nature’s time of quiet and calm, of nurturing its essence so that it will be ready for the hysterical fullness of spring, summer and harvest. The tree has lots of work to do ahead in the seasons to come. But right now it works at nurturing essence, sap, roots. I want to approach this time of year more like the filbert tree. I want to nurture my essence, create rest and comfort, so that I can be ready for the fullness of summer and harvest as it shows up in my life, business, creativity, household, etc.
 
The word Comfort means:

• a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint,
• the easing or alleviation of a person's feelings of grief or distress,
• prosperity and the pleasant lifestyle secured by it,

 
Comfort is an important word for me, an important strategy I bring to my coaching clients. It is easier to bring about change in life when one is feeling grounded, centered in one’s body, and at comfort with one’s self. Knowing how to provide comfort for one's self is an important skill no matter what time of year it is. And, it is at this time of year that we can learn from nature. 

For my health and well being, I have made a commitment this season to get out and walk in the fresh air and the neighborhood at least once a day and in the morning. But I also, have made a commitment to explore a path in the forest once a week. Nature is my chapel. Nature provides me with comfort, deep comfort, Soul comfort.
 
I invite you this Holiday Season, to notice if you need to take time out for yourself, to provide yourself with some sweet comfort of life that will nurture your spirit, your essence, your Soul. What does that look like for you? Providing yourself with comfort and rest will fortify you so you may rally on in this holiday season and beyond that, into and through the New Year.
 
Happy Holy Days!
 
Janhavi
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​Dear Friend,
I thought I would share with you today the magic of my art process. The pie pictured above was the result of working in my sketch book. Sometimes the art work I do looks like what you see in the picture below on the left. In fact, on that day, there were nine other pictures like that one, one right after another. And then suddenly the balloon people showed up  revealing their joy in dancing for pie. The happy picture of that session. I took it as a message. I got up and made pie. And truly, that day, making art and making that pie did restore my Soul. 

What restores your soul?

What beauty do you make in the world around you?

By the way, smiling counts as an act of beauty.

Smiling,
Janhavi

Writing, as a habit, opens up the treasure chest 
of your heart and your Soul. 

By writing you come to know yourself.
By writing you come to love yourself. 
It takes time. It takes writing.

If you want to know your mind, write.
If you want to go beyond your mind, write.
If you want to create inner quiet, write. 

We spend time with our spouses, our children, our friends.
But what about spending time with one’s self? 
Writing carves out time for you to make friends with yourself.

Writing shows you your pain, your confusion.
Writing solves problems, creates confidence.

As we witness the turmoil of our lives and our minds
upon the written page,
we develop compassion for ourselves
which in turn develops compassion for others.

Writing cultivates peace, inner peace.
As peace grows inside our hearts and minds
it then radiates outwards.
That’s the way it works.

Writing creates a home in the heart,
a home in the body. 
We discover that we live with 
       A cranky voice
       A complaining voice
       A worried voice
       An anxious voice
       A sorrowful voice
       A confused voice
       A critical voice.
And as we give all these parts of ourselves a place
in our written journal, in our awareness,
they calm down. 
These parts of ourselves just need space to speak,
space to be heard, loved and accepted 
by you.

When we accept all the parts of ourselves as we are
then it becomes a little bit easier to accept others.
We don’t need to talk so much.
We become better at listening. 

I write to listen. The more I listen to me,
the better I get at listening to you. 

Write. Every day write. 
Become your own companion.

I can't promise days without pain,
laughter without tears,
nor sun without rain.
What I can promise is strength for the day,
comfort for the tears,
and light for the day.

- author unknown

A person comes to coaching because something is not working in their life. They aren’t happy. Something needs to change. As a life coach, when I am presented with this, I wonder “What would bring them joy?” Finding joy sounds so simple. I wish it were. For some people, finding their joy is easy. They know what they want to do and they do it. They are on their path and never get off. How lucky. But for many, creating a happy life is more of a challenge.

Finding real joy is a treasure hunt. I’m not talking about the joy we get from grabbing a cappuccino or having a laugh over a good movie. I’m talking about the joy that comes from waking up each day and knowing what we need to do that makes us feel whole and happy. Does that sound like a tall order? It can be and we shouldn’t settle for anything less.

When seeking the happiness that is true for us alone, we are looking for the treasure that will make our heart sing, that will make our lives “feel right” to us.
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In her book “Big Magic” Elizabeth Gilbert says:

“We are all walking repositories of buried treasure.” I love that. It is the map for finding our personal gifts, skills, and interests. It’s about finding our personal joy. The treasures that will bring us joy are inside us. It’s like each of us have been given a gift, a treasure that is uniquely ours. As we find our expression through our uniqueness we feel whole, we feel joy, we live a creative life.

Elizabeth Gilbert illustrates this point with a true story about a man who made his made his living as a common worker and who wrote poetry. His poems were published. He was honored with fame and public acclaim. And he turned his back on all that. He found it boring. He went off to live a simple life in Europe and continued to write his poems. After awhile, he published another book with the same appreciative response from the public audience. After this success, he agreed to teach at the University of Tennessee.

His students described him as “not quite of this world.” He would teach them “why” to write instead of “how” to write. He encouraged them to write from delight and gladness. Once while conversing with a young, aspiring student who expressed her desire to become a writer, he counseled “Do you have the courage? Do you have the courage to bring forth this work? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes.”

How about you? Do you have the guts, the strength, the fearlessness to turn your attention to uncovering your treasures, that which wants to be expressed from within you?
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I hope so. When we commit to making our life right, happiness and many other good things follow. When we make our lives right, we make our little corner of the world right. Making our lives right is a gift to ourselves, our community, and to the world.

​I went on a visit today. My path led to a nursing home, a modern construction, designed to be airy and breezy, pleasing to the eyes and senses. One might have thought I stepped into a motel chain. As I sat with my friend. her body and face spoke of the grim journey she’s been on.
 
She looked like a scare crow. She was skin and bones. Except for the incision which was pink and swollen. She still radiated the happy openness of a hippie flower child. But her face had aged with pain and disease.
 
She told me the story of her collapse on the side walk in the parking lot. In her semi-conscious state, she could hear and see (?) the tap tapping of her friend’s pink stiletto heels as her friend left her job at the nearby bank and rushed to her side. And then she felt the hands that picked up her head and placed it into the lap of a little pink skirt that went with the pick stiletto heels. The voice wearing pink told someone “Call 9-1-1.”
 
My friend had just vomited blood that was a bright, vibrant red. A voice in the ambulance asked her questions.  She was weak and could barely talk. But the gruff voice said ”I can’t hear you. Louder. Louder.” He was fighting to keep her conscious. He was fighting to keep her alive.
 
Later, a surgeon removed one whole organ and pieces of four others, touting success at removing the cancer she never invited to live with her. The cancer that grew despite the chemo. The cancer the oncologist said was inoperable.
 
My friend, led by her disease, walked though hell. And my friend is fighting to take back her life. As we sat together, she talked about traveling to Hawaii, camping and walking in the forest along the river. I believe in Miracles. I find myself wondering and arguing with myself; do her present, hopeful thoughts feed her cells providing an instruction guide for how she wants them to evolve? But her cells became cancerous. She had never provided them with that instruction.
 
She is home now and on the long road of healing and returning to Life. Her painful journey, her brush with death reminds me that Life is way too short. And we should use our time to Love. Love each other. Love Life. Love our selves. We live on this beautiful planet and every day we live, death comes a little bit closer. Pursue Love, my friends. Appreciate every day, every moment of your life. It’s just too damn short.