Casa De Los Olivos

This beautiful and enchanting place is where we stayed in San Miguel De Allende. Its called Casa De Los Olivos and comes highly recommended! I mean, just look at how beautiful it is!

We pulled up in the dark of night to the non-descript entrance on the cobblestone street; I worried half the night about being able to find it again once we went out exploring in the daytime. It opens, like so many of the places there do, onto an open-air courtyard. The rooms - all four of them - feed into the courtyard where we ate breakfast ever morning.

It's like no place we've ever stayed before. It is lovely and old, and nothing like I had imagined our stay to be.

The wooden shutters on the windows seemed to be origional, or close to it - they smelled like two hundred year old wood. In the shower there was a cutout for the window which puts the walls around a foot and a half thick.

Bernardo, our "host," explained that the walls are purposely thick so that they retain the coolness of the night during the heat of the day, and the warmth of the day into the chill of the evening. The influence of the environment was all around us; even the architecture reflected the realities of the climate and worked effortlessly to make the best of them.

I love places like that; I love people like that too. People who recognize the reality that life has limitations and just adapt to them, working to make the best of them.

Author Jennifer Louden says in The Comfort Queen's Guide to Life that it is our limitations that define us. I love the majority of my limitations because if I really had to embrace every possibility in the whole wide world I'd never move from overwhelm!

Some days its enough to walk down a cobblestone street, turn around at the public square and walk right back to the hotel, knowing that being able to find it again (and quell those fears from the night before) is the exact perfect thing. There is always another journey in a few minutes, to broaden the horizons and find that neat little cafe you saw in the guidebook just in time for lunch!

What in your environment influences who you are? What limitations define who you are in a good way?

Our room door - on the night of the eclipse we left the door wide open and ran out every 20 minutes to stand in the street and see how the shadow was progressing! Our hosts came out too and we'd stop people on the street and point out the wonder of this half shadowed moon in a brilliantly clear night sky.

This is the four poster bed in the master bedroom - a soft and squishy place that the kids had a ball on, running from their room and launching themselves onto it. Up above are natural wood beams, partially hidden behind linen draperies. Absolutely beautiful!

The kids each had a day bed to themselves. The nightly ritual involved setting them up in just the right way, with the proper placement of pillows, individually chosen for personal preference, of course! Years from now I bet that's what they'll remember of Mexico - those really cool beds. *sigh* Hot springs , old haciendas and all kids really need is a daybed and pillows for a memorable trip - the irony of modern day parenthood.

Hacienda Las Trancas

Hacienda Las Trancas, originally uploaded by BillieS.

The family and I have just gotten back from Mexico, where I performed my second ever wedding ceremony, and the entire experience was absolutely magnificent! There is so much to tell about it I hardly know where to begin!

Above is a picture of the Hacienda where the bride and groom chose to get married. Imagine it candle lit with orange and purple streamers and flowers to match. That's how we spent this weekend.

The art of hospitality is as much a spiritual practice as prayer or meditation. The ability to make people feel at home someplace that isn't home to them is truly a blessing. Kelley and her husband and staff offer that blessing to those that visit, going to great lengths to keep everything flowing smoothly. Even the mariachis that played as I finished the final blessing, a quote from Robert Fulgham:

“May God bless you and keep you;
May the sun of many days and years shine upon you;
May the love you have for one another grow and hold you close;
May the good true light within you guide your way on together;
And long, long years from now, may you look at one another and be able to say,
'Because of you, I have lived the life I have always wanted to live –
Because of you I have become the person I longed to be.'
God bless, God bless, God bless.
Let the music and feasting and dancing begin!”

Where does the art of hospitality come into your life?

Hacienda Las Trancas, originally uploaded by BillieS.

Fight Club

Brad Pitt in GQ 06/2005, originally uploaded by Miss Peach.

The pile of laundry has once again grown to over four feet and so I'm folding away with Fight Club on in the background. Watching movies makes a boring job palatable, and the folding leaves room to ruminate over the movie I've chosen.

And so, today's thoughts hover around men's spirituality. Not so very long ago I was very distressed at being a girl. Most of my friends during my senior year of high school were guys. I didn't understand other women.

I grew up and entered into a commited relationship with The Hubby and most of my guy friendships fell away. There was only so long I was willing to put up with lonliness before I realized I had to "come to terms with" my femininity. I succeeded beyond the wildest imagings of the lost young woman crying on a winter beach that I was 12 years ago.

In return though, I have lost track of masculinity, and more specifically, male spirituality. Maybe it isn't so different from the woman's spirituality I practice but I can't shake the feeling that it is a lot different.

I met a really nice guy yesterday at the reiki circle that I went to. He was a gentleman and gave each of us ladies a velvet rose. He was a real person with a slightly snarky sense of humor, which I love. But how he related to being a reiki practioner/master I just couldn't wrap my head around. What made his soul tick?

And then there's Fight Club. Is it spirituality? Could it be? If spirituality is, at least in part, about finding out about yourself and That Which Is Bigger than yourself, then by all means the points that the movie makes are spirituality. I don't know if it'd play out that way in real life, but it's fascinating to ruminate on (especially while folding laundry.)

I suppose the part of this that most applies is that spirituality needn't always be about the soft side of things. I think a lot of people lose spirituality and a sense of a higher power because they assume that its all gratitude journals, and peaceful thoughts, and the like. Life isn't all positive and a true spiritual practice, one that hopes to be lasting, needs to acknowledge the negativity, making room for it and figuring out a way to hold both the yin and the yang.

What makes your soul tick? How is it different from the opposite sex? Is it?

Valentine's Day

Sea otters, originally uploaded by Wiggum03.

What a wonderful day, and I'm not a big one for Valentine's Day, generally speaking. But today was a day of full-hearted gratitude.

Today started with my first ever Reiki circle. Although I was certified in Reiki nearly six years ago, today was a first. My new friend Jenn invited me and I said YES! How wonderful it was to experience four people giving me reiki at once and then to reciprocate. I left feeling light and clear.

From there I had my weekly coaching group. Things were feeling shaky yesterday but today, through open communication and holding the space we managed to not only clear the air but come away feeling empowered and jazzed.

When Laura asked what we were taking away from the call I thought I knew the answer, but something wholely different came out. I realized that right now, it matters far less that my company is struggling to break even and infinitely more important that because of Story-Beads I have opportunities like this morning's Reiki circle and the honor of holding the space for all these wonderful beautiful women in my coaching group (and YES, I do mean you, Maria and Denise!) I feel more comfortable in social situations than I have before. Story-Beads acts as a scaffold to support me out there in the big wide world.

Feeling this way it becomes infinitely easier to attempt new things - like using Flickr (like the sea otters?) and searching out people and places to host the Story-Beads workshop that I offer.

So, why the sea otters? In the Medicine Cards that I use from Jamie Sams, the sea otter is female spirituality. To me that means the togetherness of the circles that I am so blessed to be a part of. After years of searching for a sense of belonging, I am finding it. That makes for a Happy Valentine's Day, indeed!

Who or what scaffolds you?

Bravery Without Judgement

The last time I tried to post to Wikipedia I didn't follow protocol quite right and they removed my posting and blocked my account. It was very (read "irrationally") upsetting. It's taken me all this time, and the support of my coaching group, to try it again. Tonight I did!

I know what I'm talking about when it comes to non-denominational prayer beads. It isn't just that I've built a business around them -- I feel called to do this work. Spiritual practices - Story-Beads and other non-denominational prayer beads among them - are my area of expertise. I won't let something like a little fear stand in the way of living that truth.

What fear could you lock in the closet long enough to achieve something that scares the pants off of ya?

"Newbies"

May I introduce you to the Mitten Twins, Miss M's latest creatures. I was told that they were the newbies and all newbies get to sleep in her bed their first night. So while the other sock creatures wandered over into the fairy fort, the newbies settled in next to her pillow.

Here are her creations, chilling in her fairy tree fort. There are, of course, story lines that go along with all of them. That's Soot, her first creation, on top resting with his one-eyed girlfriend Polly. Down below is Polly's goth friend (ironically) named Rose - note the shock of red hair. There are others whose stories are not so clear but I'm sure she is intimate with them.

To this collection she adds the Mitten Twins and a beaded fellow she's named Dwallin, after one of the dwarves in The Hobbit. (He was missing in action when everyone else went to bed in the tree fort.) Now she's had an offer from our friend who owns Babbo's Bookstore to try her hand at selling some of her creations. We're all curious to see what comes.

Once again a day late for Sacred Life Sunday my sacred life this week turns to Miss M's creativity. Watching her creativity blossom and her self-assurance grow, I feel so blessed to have this particular little creature in my life. Miss M, my sacred one.

(Soot and Polly)

(Rose, the goth chic who hates her hair and her name)

(Milo investigates the sleeping creatures - this is a good shot of Rudy, the one asleep under his book in the hammock in the center of the shot. He was one of my creations.)

Who blesses your life with creativity and growth?

Imbolc

A little history. Imbolc is the ritual that falls between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. It is the celebration of the noticeable lengthening of the days. In ancient times the festival came when the ewe’s gave milk since the lambs were (apparently) born at this time. Imbolc translates somehow into “ewe’s milk.” (Sorry, I’m a little rusty on my ancient languages!) (No doubt if its important to someone they'll correct me!)

To celebrate we’ll be taking a ritual from a little further north. The Norsemen, of Norway and that area, would wile away their dark nights with a “boast,” which was basically a ritualized drinking game. It is held in three (and sometimes four) rounds, as follows:

Round 1: A boast to a God or Goddess. Pick one that you like, from Jesus to Freya to Thor to the Triple Goddess… anyone! Keep in mind that this is a BOAST, and true to its name we are supposed to talk up the God or Goddess of our choosing. In days of old you were looking to curry favor so, if you’re feeling uninspired think about what you’re trying to bring into your life and find a god or goddess who stands for that. Sports event you’re looking to win – try a god of war. Looking for love? There’s always Aphrodite.

Round 2: A boast to a personal hero/heroine. Living or dead; fictional, literary, mythical, historical – anyone goes on this one. Who has inspired you?

Round 3: (The hard one for some) A personal boast. Something YOU have done that you are proud of. Now is not the time to be bashful. Lock that low self-esteem away in a closet for the duration of this round and boast yourself proudly!!

Round 4: (optional) A promise, declared in circle, to achieve something. A promise of something you’ll do, in theory, to boast about the next time. I’m guessing here is where the Norsemen of old would swear to kill a dragon or sack x-number of villages in a month. We're a bit more modern, so what would you like to fulfill before next we meet? (Time limit optional, as is the slaying of dragons…)

What do you have to boast?