This is an article written by Randy Siegel I found absolutely perfect to pass along to you. Very inspiring.

Looking into her face as she shared her story I faced my greatest fear. My friend had lost everything: her marriage, home, and almost all her savings. “I’m starting over,” she said matter-of-factly, “and that’s not so bad.” Not so bad! I thought. It’s the worst thing that could happen.

The supports holding up her life were being cut out from underneath her, yet she was still standing. She was standing even taller than before.

Less than one month ago, another friend was sharing a similar story. He was on the verge of bankruptcy. His income source had dried up, and his life savings were quickly dwindling. His beautiful house was on the market, and he was desperately trying to sell his beloved grand piano.

While my two friends’ situations are similar, the way each is dealing with them is not. One is racked with anxiety; the other is calm, almost serene. What appears to be a closed door to one is a swinging door to the other. Walking through it, she is entering a new life and a new way of being.

Originally, she came to me for advice, but I became the student. In sharing her life, my friend was teaching me how to face turmoil with grace. As she talked, three strategies for coping with crisis emerged.

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To give you a little background, in case you haven’t read the “about/bio” page of this site, I am publishing the “about/bio” here within the blog.

At the beginning of 2008, I made a resolution to do sirsasana (yoga headstand) by the end of the year. Knowing that meant I needed to amp up my practice, that led me to find a yoga studio that offers a kind of “all you can practice” monthly fee. The studio I found was also in need of a website (work I do). We made a deal to do the work that included a barter and voila! Yoga teacher training…which I completed as a summer intensive. I received my certification August 17.

As I began preparation for the yoga teacher training, I wondered if this meant the end of Verbal Remedies, which I had been writing and illustrating for more than 10 years. I decided the first morning of training that I was willing to let it go. It didn’t seem like there was any energy behind it anymore. I hadn’t drawn Lorelie (the featured character seen to the right basking in the sun in Sydney, Australia courtesy of Pripo and Rainbow Teplitsky) in at least 6 months. And…the work never amounted to enough money to make a living doing it.  Being a single and a 50 something year old woman, it seemed the prudent thing to do was put my attention to work that monetarily supports me.

Much to the chagrin of my children many times,

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War is Over…Video of John and Yoko

What would you do,
If you had a year to love?
Would you gather around all of your friends and family
And hug them over and over again
Telling them how much they mean to you,
Reminding them of the moments you have shared?

Would you cook warm meals and linger in conversation,
With wine and wisdom and laughter?
Would you take walks, take chances, take a hike, take time . . .
Make time for the small and simple things that bring you happiness?
Like a hot tub on a chilly night, or a dog in your lap, a campfire, a kiss, grape popsicles at midnight?

Would you seek out beauty in everything you do?
The beauty of a child’s dark skin, the light reflecting on water, moonlight behind a mountain, a wildflower, a rainbow or a wild, wild night spent in the wilderness?

Would you say no to the uncomfortable times, or would you embrace these as your teachers and follow the lessons right down to the gut of your being?  Would you risk?  Put one hand, one foot ahead of the other as you climb?

Would you be the thread that holds another’s heart?  Would you know how to test the line and keep tension when needed, let out slack when you see her soar?  Keeping watch, keeping safe, grounded by the many connections you share, the chance to be there for another?

Would you sing and dance, bake pie and play pat-a-cake?  Would you create and belly laugh and cry, cry, cry until you have no more tears left?  Would you want to deny any single part of the love and loss and deep sense of belonging to the human animal species?  Would you love until your heart fills and breaks for the joy of filling?
Would you ever say no to love?  Would you?

Would you pray
for Peace
on Earth?

by Terry Deal, Solstice Poem, December 22, 2008

Happy New Year, peaceful and loving 2009…Immediately what comes to mind is how is this year going to be peaceful and loving with all the stuff going on that is going on? Easy answer. We get to choose how we view it all. Throughout the late summer and fall, I made a conscious choice that I am seeing my world through the eyes of gratitude and love.

At the end of the summer after completing a yoga teacher certification, I felt as though at last I had found my track, my groove. I took 2 weeks off to visit my family out west, sampling a few yoga studios along the way. I came back ready to “take it on!” and I was back long enough to show my teacher the posture I had at last become strong and balanced enough to do. That was on Friday. On Monday I broke my arm doing too many things while riding my bike.

I’d never broken any bones before. My first and obvious thought was my yoga practice. I’d worked so hard and was it going to go away? After the shock wore off I made a decision that, though it may slow my practice a bit, it would continue and in fact I would use what I’d learned to help my arm to heal. I chose to look at it from a positive viewpoint. And I gotta tell ya, looking at the accident as a blessing rather than a disaster became part of my yoga teaching, my practice. There were times, even to this moment, that it wasn’t so easy. I had look outside myself and see that things could be much worse and find the gratitude for my life as it was rather than how I had hoped it would be. Purposeful action. One step at a time, one day at a time.

And now I find myself looking into a new year. What do I want to accomplish this year? What do I want to do with this valuable time? I’m pretty sure I know though before I write it here, I am going to sit with it and come back to you with what I come up with as an answer.

What about you? What if you only had this year? No guarantees for another? What would you do? Write and tell me what you choose. We’ll use this blog to take the walk thru the year together.

Wishing you a very peaceful, loving and joyfilled year…Breah