MOVE

MOVE

Your address, your bed, your body, your bookshelf. Take a walk,
take a hike, take a step away from stagnating jobs, relationships and
life patterns. Change perspective. Move closer to people who meet you
with authenticity and nourish your wildest dreams. You don't have
to move mountains, shifting a single pebble can work wonders.

TOUCH

Touch the part of your own body that you love. Embrace in the
bakery, in the parking lot, in the doorways all over town. Kiss people on
the cheek. Stroke your cat more, pet your dog more. Savor the
sensation of a silky scarf, of a well-sanded piece of wood, of the triad of
textures in an Almond Joy. Moss, bark, rocks and the water work,
too. The more you do it, the less you bump up against the "ouch"
in touch.

LISTEN

Sit in silence and see how much there is to hear. Listen to
people. What are they really saying? Listen to the very last notes of
every song. Listen to your own inner voice - the one you hear only when
the dim of every day is diminished. Hear the rustle of a leaf, the
call of a bullfrog, the pop and crackle of your wood stove. Listen
with your toes, listen with your heart and always listen to that
which is never spoken.

FEEL

Feel the pain, feel the joy, until you feel you'll surely
evaporate. Stop holding back from laughing with your belly, loving from the
deepest places of your heart, swooning with the sensuality of life
itself. When another's disregard or arrogance enrages you, feel
the anger rise up and roar! If you're not truly feeling, you're not
truly alive - you're just going through the motions.

TRUST

Stop second-guessing yourself. You know what you know, you know?
That inner tickling is your highest truth. It will serve you well; the
backfire comes when you deny or discount it. Take in information,
from all sides, yet trust, in the end, that you - and you alone -
know what's best for you. If all day you pine to paint, then that
is what you must do. If you ache to walk beside the ocean, find a way
to get there. Without complete trust, you are left only to rust.

GATHER

Gather together with women and men you love. Sip tea together,
walk in the woods together, talk and talk and talk, read aloud to each
other, do absolutely nothing together. Revel in how your hair and
your skin and your bodies and your stories are so different - and
so utterly alike. Cook and eat together, stand beside the washing
machine and cry and hug and wail together. And most assuredly,
laugh together until your sides ache.

RECEIVE

For once, stop giving, giving, giving to everyone but yourself.
Accept a compliment with grace. Voice what you need - be it a hug,
a moment of talk, food for your table, a loan of money - and know
that it will be provided. Loosen your white-knuckled, stressed-out
grasp on life, and then let the palms of your hands fill to overflowing.
Know that you deserve all you receive, and remember to show your
gratitude for the sheer magnificence of a life lived well.

~Rachel Snyder~