Category: personal empowerment

The business of hope.

The business of hope.

by kimberly gruber ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I want to be in the business of hope. Building an empire of light within me is how I lay the groundwork for my business. As hope accrues, my eyes catch more light, more possibilities and different perspectives. It’s like seeing the entire rainbow and not just a single color. In hope, I witness every nuance in each color as it spills itself down from heaven. I store in my heart the magnificence of being witness to hope in the sky and know that light will show up again and again. It is up to me to gather this treasure and line the shelves of my spirit with these gems of hope. I’ll remember they’re free for the taking and on full display after a turbulent storm and act as a salve to my wounds. Hope drives me to remember light will follow a bumpy ride and all that is required is often a single, tiny beam to create a prism that screams out, “It will be okay.” Maybe even more than okay. Staying in the business of hope may even lead to big and beautiful things like a boom in the market of you.

If I’m in the business of hope, I’m grateful. I count every dot that connected in my past and stand in amazement over how things typically work out okay. I feel grateful that I was held and continue to be held by the universe and that my well-thought-out master plan followed the course of the Divine’s plan and not my own. In hope I trust love because we originate from love. I am grateful for all the reminders that love is present in the midst of struggle. Light always makes its way into darkness by way of nature, strangers and even animals when human travelers and tragedy let you down. In those moments, I am so grateful for the light that dances on my ceiling and my dog’s soft fur. I’m grateful for any reminder of miracles and mercy because that always leads me back to hope.

In the business of hope, I rely on things that really matter. They are the things that pretty much always give me a good return on my investment. Hope is the belief that light will prevail and has the ability to permeate even the murkiest of waters. Every hand on my back, every masterpiece created by nature, every time things “click” and every time I just know I can do the hardest of things, the light of hope is in the room. It is the Divine, nature, people, faith and my own spirit that deserve my time and investment. We come from the ultimate spirit of love and fostering that love in my spirit and sharing it with others, keeps us all tied to the Divine. And where there is love and connection, there is always hope. Stand up and defend those things that keep hope and love alive in you and others. Be sure to use and share the right tools that give everyone the opportunity to build their business of hope too.

I will stand in the hope line and always look around as I wait for my invaluable dole of the elixir that keeps me holding on. Sometimes the people standing with me will have to hold me up for a bit as I wait because their faith may be more abundant than mine. It’s okay, because I’m ready to hold them when I have hope to spare and will always be willing to share. I will try my best to stay out of the line filled with those souls who wait on not enough, apathy, negativity and hopelessness. It’s lonely in that line because I’ve been in it a time or two. There may be people willing to share in this line, but what they put out doesn’t bring more light. They don’t invest in what could be and have a very hard time seeing miracles and light. They’ll always be invited to cut in to the hope line but it’s up to them to switch lanes. So, the hopeful wait and stand in faith, love and gratitude knowing it’s not over. I will not hang the “Closed for Business” sign at least not for today. I’m “Open for Business” and will do my best to sell hope. I will stock my miracles, mercy and grace and try to give away my inventory for free. Investing in the light within me and sharing it with others will always bring it back to me in buckets. Staying in the business of hope is a worthy investment for me and other hope entrepreneurs brave enough to ride out life’s market of ups and downs. I want to be all in when it comes to hope. I hope you do too.

Questions/activities to ponder or good journal prompts!

  1. How can you build an “empire of light” within you to foster hope?
  2. How do you define “big and beautiful things”? Do you believe you are meant to do those things? Why/Why not?
  3. What miracles and mercy within your own life have led you to feel more hopeful and why?
  4. What does it feel like to be in the line of not enough, apathy, negativity and hopelessness? Why did you stay? Why did you switch lanes?
  5. Do you get a positive return when you invest in hope? Why so and/or why not?
Defining you.

Defining you.

by kimberly gruber ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

How do you define yourself? What is left when you scrape away all the words the world uses or you have used to describe who you are? Who are you beyond your job, your title or label? Close your eyes, take a deep breath and think. Start by tuning into your passions or art. Yes, you are an artist. There is something about you that makes the world a more beautiful place in some way. Isn’t that what artists do? Think about that “thing” that when you do it, you lose all track of time. Ponder those moments when you allow the creative current inside you to take over your mind and actions while you do that “thing” that just feels right. Creating your art doesn’t mean it won’t be hard sometimes. That’s why we have backspace keys, erasers and do-overs. But despite being hard, you push on because you must. It’s really all about honing in on the feeling of “I am exercising one of the truest parts of me while doing this thing!” and noticing what that is. So, start by defining yourself by your gifts or your passions and be creative when defining what they are. Every part of you matters which includes your “thing”. Decide that you are way more than any title or label the world may assign you because of the art you bring to this world. Truly, there are not enough words to describe all you are and all you are capable of achieving. Begin with the “thing” that puts you into your creative current and let go. It’s a good place to start so, just begin.

Develop the story of who you are by the struggles you’ve faced. The mountains you’ve climbed and how you did it, are the stories that are most intriguing. The hard stuff you’ve overcome has built the house of you and who you are is why the house is still standing. You may have a world class title, but it doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t believe you’re capable of rebuilding or doing home repairs from time to time. You learn to believe in yourself when you climb out of the dark holes in your basement and move your body towards the upper floors where there’s more light. Remember and tell the story of how you scaled the walls of that hole and fell to the bottom a few times but still got back up to climb out. Because, when you remember that you can be gritty and persevere, you reinforce who you really are. You are a child of God that will fight to be here and live out your purpose because that is what you are meant to do. Your grit, your perseverance, your tears, your sweat and the way YOU find your own answers and figure things out detail who you are. The stuff inside you that pulls you towards the light is some of the most beautiful parts of you. Your story is much more amazing, suspenseful, intriguing and helpful to others than any title the world may assign you.

Define yourself by the things that matter. You have the ability to be kind, loving, understanding and compassionate. These parts of you may not hang out in a big way by your side all the time. But these things that matter are part of who you are whether you reveal them or not. Would you like to define yourself by the virtues that support more love? Start by figuring out what keeps you from exercising what is inside all of us and what keeps you from practicing these virtues more often. The keyword here is “practice”. If being understanding, compromising and expressing love is not a regular practice, then it may feel uncomfortable because you don’t do it enough. Being love is easy in some situations, but sometimes it is an act of courage. Loving and not getting it back takes some getting used to. Practice doing it anyway. It may look like diving in, backing off, letting go or baking a cake. Just be who you are by practicing what’s important, what matters. And whether you notice it or not, the parts of you that you send out into the world will find their way back to you. So, don’t be afraid of your love, practice it. Get comfortable showing the world the best part of you and keep your eyes and arms open so you can catch all the light that makes its way back to you.

Reinforce who you are by your actions and intentions. Look inside regularly to understand and get to know you. Do your thoughts and actions reinforce your value? As you grow and learn, the chapters of your life and who you are will grow too. Are you practicing enough self-love to reveal your shiny one-of-a-kind uniqueness? Buffing your cup of light to remove the world’s tarnish is essential for all of us to see how brightly you shine. Practicing self-love keeps you close to who you are and gives you the courage and energy to share that light with others. Are you kinder because you workout, meditate or spend time outdoors? Are you more understanding because you create, connect, take care of your body and take the time to belly laugh? Self-love fuels your spirit and drives your ability to live out the amazing parts of you. You are a human being doing the best you can, working with what you’ve got, to be all you were meant to be. Sometimes you crash and burn. But, who you are is the spirit of energy that helps you rise from the ashes. That’s the real, amazing you. Tell your story with honor, love and courage. Defining who you are may take a lifetime when the world only has a few minutes. That’s okay. Just try to share the true you with this world and learn and grow from the rest. It will make for a much more interesting conversation with all those lucky enough to know beautiful you.

Questions/activities to ponder or good journal prompts!

  1. What is that “thing” that you do where you lose all track of time doing it? What drives you to do that “thing” and how does it feel?
  2. Did you ever think of defining yourself by your struggles? Why or why not?
  3. Why is it hard to show love, understanding or compassion sometimes? Is your hesitation based in fear? If so, what are you afraid of?
  4. When you put out the spirit of love that is you, in what ways do you notice it making its way back to you?
  5. How does your practice of self-love help tune you in to who you are?

You matter.

You matter.

by kimberly gruber ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

You matter and that’s all that matters.  That may sound like a selfish sentiment, but it’s not.  Your effectiveness in this world and the amount of love you put out is dependent on you knowing your value.  What grows from feeling, seeing and knowing in your heart that you matter are miracles.  A seed planted in the ground breaks through soil and sometimes seeks out cracks in concrete to find its way to the sun.  This seedling will twist, turn and bend in search of sunlight to thrive and make more of itself because it knows what it is meant to do.  It is here to become part of an interdependent system that includes sharing its beauty and helping other species reveal their beauty as well.  That seedling sees its value in the garden of life from the moment it breaks out of its shell casing until the end of its time here on earth.  And even when it withers into the soil, it still leaves some of the best of itself around to help the next seedlings thrive.  Its life from beginning to end mattered.

You matter because you were created by the Divine.  The Divine poured love into your cup of light and handed it off to the angels who ushered you into this world.  The angels carried your love-filled spirit on their wings and followed the beacon of light emanating from the Divine and leading into the home of you.  Once they delivered your spirit, they danced, twirled and celebrated your spirit’s arrival into human flesh.  They partied because of all they know about what is possible within you.  They believe in miracles and your place in this magic.  These angels will always celebrate the majesty of you because you matter.  Even if the humans responsible for your care didn’t see the value of your light, the angels always will.  Every time you struggle to find your way, deal with pain and seek out why you matter, the Divine’s team will carry you when you are beaten down and care for you when you heal.  Look around you for what the angels have placed on your path to keep you going.  They are busy dropping hope packages in your space because you matter.  When you know that, you will fight for you, seek out why you are here and come in direct alignment with the gifts that were placed in your heart.  You will no longer always be traveling against a current and up a river that was never meant for you.  When you discover even a drop of your purpose, you will feel the ease of what it is like to flow with the current that is your life.  This current carries the treasure of you and leads you to the ocean of humanity filled with all the other brave souls living out their value, their purpose. This is how we create harmony and a world more like our original home.  You matter because creating a world with more love and modeled after heaven is the only thing that matters.

You matter because kindness and compassion matter.  You have the ability to change a moment for the better by exercising the best part of you.  Decide what keeps you from sharing kindness and compassion with others.  And think long and hard about what keeps you from being kind and compassionate with yourself.  When you know you matter, you feel ok about making mistakes and holding yourself accountable.  You recognize the human in you and the human in others.  You know that messing up, dusting off and making things right as best as you are able is a sign of courage and the only way to grow.  If you matter, the voice you create in your head will remind you of your worth, your bravery and all that you are capable of doing.  It will help move you along because staying in one place may feel safe or serve you in some way, but it’s not for those who want relationships that have meaning.  Kindness and compassion start with being kind and compassionate with yourself.  The bandages you place on your own broken heart teach you the importance of sharing those bandages with others.  Sharing love starts with having self-love.  Because you matter, you will choose to feed your light so you have enough to share with others.  Kindness has the ability to multiply.  If you have it to give, you have the ability to make a big difference.   You matter and sometimes that is all that really matters.

Questions/activities to ponder or good journal prompts!

  1. At this moment in time, do you feel as though you matter?  Why or why not?
  2. What does “flowing” mean to you as it relates to your purpose?
  3. How has the kindness or compassion of another affected you or made a difference in your life?
  4. How does accountability indicate that you matter?
  5. Do you see self-love as being selfish?  Why or why not?

Let go.

Let go.

by kimberly gruber ♥ 2 Comments

Seeing things in a new way requires letting go. If you wake up day after day with this nagging thought that begs to be recognized, letting go of something is usually involved. When your world is turned upside down through no plan of your own, letting go knocks hard. When you want a fresh start and you pledge to truly embrace your humanity, you pledge to loosen your grip on the rope that ties you to what was. Letting go means you jump and sometimes you just squeeze your eyes shut and rely whole-heartedly that your parachute will open as you soar to the earth. But, most of the time letting go takes some preparation, reparation and a look at your expectations before you take a step out into the sky. You check your parachute to make sure it is in working order, you make things right with those around you and scream on the way down if so moved. You pray that the hands of the Divine soften your landing and you try to keep your eyes open so you can see and feel how much you are loved for trusting yourself and the universe. Letting go is faith in action and faith never travels solo. Courage is its constant companion so make room for faith’s traveling buddy as you take your leap and let go.

Letting go means you’ve invited faith and courage to the table. When you want to make changes in your life, this is the team that is the hand on your back that nudges you out the plane. But preparing for your jump requires your participation too. Building something new means that some work needs to be done. A strong, healthy foundation is built using the right tools. For starters, tell yourself the truth. Negative voices that tear apart your spirit will never propel you forward because they are lies. The truth is that you are capable of amazing things and you are the only one who decides how truly heroic these feats really are. Become your own best friend and dive deeply into who you are, what you want, what you do well and what needs work. Seek out truth starting with yourself. Keep your expectations grounded in your humanity. And start with truth number one: You are worthy of love so let go of the things that tell you that you are not.

Expect your jump to be safe but not always the cleanest of landings. Because of this, let go of keeping it together all the time. Being stoic all the time is not part of being human. Scream if it hurts. Don’t let the world govern what your jump looks like or how you should react. The world’s standards or expectations are usually not based in reality or what is humanly impossible. You’ll do just fine. Be reminded that just fine looks like rest when you need it, connection with others who understand, creative contemplation and play. The things that keep you in the “just fine category” are the things that make you who you are and feed your faith and courage. These most important things come from you and your efforts, not the world.

Letting go may require you make things right as best as you can. Letting go of pride and fear is a must in these situations. Pack your faith and courage! You need them to have those tough conversations that create connection and put an end to isolation or loneliness. Grudges and years of not speaking come from one party or both not letting go. Someone has to let go of pride and fear to say what needs to be said even if it means creating a little chaos. Dust will settle and time will help with healing, but stuffing things down into the crevices of your being usually doesn’t end well. This stuff always finds its way out. Try your best to speak up, foster repair, be vulnerable and let go of all the things that stand in the way of creating a space for meaningful repair.

There’s no guarantee that letting go will mean things will always work out just the way you planned. Either way, letting go lets you practice having hard conversations, model bravery, get answers, see the light and maybe even move on. Practicing uncomfortable is the only way through many of life’s challenges so it helps to be well-versed in what it takes to jump into midair. Letting go allows you to be you despite what you’ve been taught, seen or heard from the world. Living out your truth gives you the opportunity to practice being human and develop self-compassion so you have it for others. So, let go, hold hands with your supporters when needed, feel, have faith, stay courageous and cling to your parachute of truth. Letting go will always lighten your load, free you to travel more lightly and get you to jump more often. Be brave, let go and jump. You’ve got this.

Questions/activities to ponder or good journal prompts!

  1. Are there any “nagging” issues that visit your head from time to time? How does “letting go” come into play when addressing that issue?
  2. Have you ever jumped without much prep? How did that go? What worked well and what did not go well?
  3. What is your truth? What do you know for sure about yourself, the world and the Divine?
  4. Is it difficult to let go of your pride? Why/why not?
  5. What jump will you take next?
An important trio.

An important trio.

by kimberly gruber ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Do everything possible to try and stay positive. This often involves looking at things in a new way. While we can be comforted by tradition and allow that to be our safety net at times, we need to look around for other nets when the one that held us before starts to develop some holes. Things change and life has a way of reminding us that we can make the most of a bad situation or cover up and burrow. Doing everything possible to remain in the light may cause you to squint, but it’s in this light that you see things in a new way. It’s new, it could be uncomfortable, but you’re also given the option of seeing things you’ve never seen before. You can visit a whole new place in a familiar space by just choosing to look around and notice. Dust dancing on a beam of light can be beautiful to watch or can become a reminder that it’s time to pick up the dust rag. Cleaning doesn’t usually bring about a sense of wonder. But finding beauty in an unlikely place does. Slip into being positive every now and again. It’s not a denial of reality, it’s a respite from it when reality gets too hard to hold.

Do everything possible to try and stay hopeful. There is a place inside your head that dreams and imagines. It cannot be contained if you allow it to flow. It will approach a situation with an openness and a belief that something might work. Hold onto those pictures inside your head and tuck them away for safekeeping. These are your seeds of hope. Not everything that happens to you is a result of purely external forces you cannot control. What you tell yourself about the world and all that’s possible is within your control and drives you to take action or not. Your hope and belief that the stars do align sometimes when you put yourself out into the world with a hope and a prayer is what moves you to hold on. Believe, remain hopeful and work hard. Hope cannot work without your active participation. It has to be nurtured and protected from all the negative chatter be it from inside or outside your own head. Hope also requires action, movement and a ton of courage. Work with hope tucked in your pocket trusting that the dots will connect and the trajectory towards your dreams will never be a straight line. Slip into feeling hopeful and let the next thing you do, or say, or think indicate that things will be more than okay.

Do everything possible to try and stay grateful. It’s easy to fall into the trap of dwelling on a single negative event even when you are surrounded by good things too. Fight to forge a new path. Picture your many thoughts as branches of a huge tree. You certainly could cling to that single branch and park yourself in a spot that offers a single, terrible view. Or…you could continue to climb off in another direction and take in the view from another angle. Now you’re moving! You can choose to be grateful for the new perspective, your movement, your courage, possibilities and all the loving creatures who support you as you climb and meander. Being grateful for every step you take and never minimizing all the good things that happen everyday, will keep you from hanging out on a branch to nowhere. Slip into feeling grateful for all that you are and all the beauty you bring to this world. You have the courage to scale new branches and see all that is working and all that is beautiful and how you fit into that magic. It’s all because you took notice and slipped on the coat of positivity, hope and gratitude. Wear it proudly and keep on climbing.

Questions/activities to ponder or good journal prompts!

  1. What destroys your ability to stay positive?
  2. Look around your space and notice something different. Are you able to find a path towards wonder?
  3. Hope doesn’t come fully alive without your active participation. What can you do to keep your hope alive?
  4. Can you get focused on what you lack as opposed to what you have? Why or why not?
  5. What new path are you dreaming of forging? How will positivity, hopefulness and gratitude support you on your quest?
Active hibernation.

Active hibernation.

by kimberly gruber ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The natural world will reveal what you need to do to heal, live a life of purpose, of meaning and miracles. This includes bears. There’s something to be said for having moments of isolation and hibernation. Cozy inside their dens, bears remain physically still and fall into a deep sleep to protect themselves from those things that use up a lot of their energy like the cold and searching for food that is in short supply. Bears adapt to the harsh elements of the winter season by slowing everything down. Hibernation is essential for preservation and repair, but it’s not meant to be long and drawn out beyond what is really needed. Bears always wake up and emerge from the shadows of their den. They instinctively know life requires they enter their den to survive just as they instinctively know they have to leave it to survive too. Bears emerge into the light of spring groggy but shiny and new. They are tender but their voracious appetite for the good stuff after a time of fasting must be satisfied to sustain life and their species. They have to move and forage for those things that will nourish them with just what they need to be the best bear they can be.

Time is never wasted during hibernation. Slowing down to be still and meditate on your life teaches you about you. You can take inventory of all your capabilities and decide how you might adapt when things get tricky. Sometimes female bears even give birth during this time. I imagine these aren’t the most restful moments of isolation for mama bears. During a time of slowing down what you learn, discover or give birth to may require some work. What drove you into your den that needed to be looked at, untangled and sorted? What happened that led you to slow down your breathing and conserve energy to protect yourself from the elements of this life? Knowing and understanding these things is important, but when the sorting is through, you’ve got to get moving. When you crawl out of your den, you’re going to need to hold on tightly to the seedlings of wisdom and strength you grew while in your hibernation to make things happen. You may feel like you haven’t stored up enough grit in your time of solitude because the idea of movement or change is too much for you now. Trust that you have what it takes. Move slowly at first being deliberate, determined and exercising all the self-compassion you can muster. Spring will arrive and so will the bounty of newness you’ve been waiting for.

Bears and their human counterparts both need to physically move from their space to sustain life. But the untangling, tunneling and swirling that occurs inside your mind and guided by your spirit is a different type of movement. It’s an internal shift that moves you to travel towards new ideas and new ways of thinking. It helps you glean what matters. Rest and slow down just enough so you can choose to really analyze what feeds you love, belonging and light so you can forage for it in times of scarcity. Your mind has the ability to give birth to new ideas and in hibernation you can hone in on the obstacles in your path and devise plans to break them down. Sometimes you’ll see that the biggest obstacle to movement is you and the thoughts that keep you frozen in place. Flow with the new mindsets you’ve spent time thinking about and stay persistent and true to what you want and how you want to live. Lead with your gifts, name them, share them and be grateful for the time you spent digging for them. Stretch, yawn and reach towards the light as you emerge from your slumber. Start to dance with the vibrational hum of all the activity inside you. It is alive and calls you to join in and bravely move to the front of the line in your own life. Wake up, emerge and connect with all the other bears that have chosen to let the light swirl, shift thinking and move them too.

Questions to ponder or good journal prompts!

  1. What leads you to seek out stillness and isolation?
  2. What have you learned about yourself or others when you slow down, meditate and reflect?
  3. Have you experienced major shifts or movement in your thinking before? How has it affected your life?
  4. Is it hard for you to leave “your den”? Why or why not?
  5. What does “wake up” mean to you?
Be a sunrise.

Be a sunrise.

by kimberly gruber ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Where are you in your own life? What part are you playing because you have been hurt, taken advantage of or told you are not enough? What will it take to remind yourself that you do have choices, you do have the ability to think outside of the prison walls in your own mind? Whether you put up the walls because of hurt inflicted upon you or by choice, there’s a reason these walls exist. Exploration of why these walls were built is important, but so is knowing that these walls can be scaled, climbed or chipped away piece by piece because you have made the choice to do so. You start by deciding to be an active participant in your own life by noticing every choice you make. Picking up the rope and pic ax to break down what keeps you captive may feel excruciatingly difficult, but it’s where you start and starting is a choice. With every decision you make you are exercising your power and how you will bring about change in your own life. When someone has taken away a choice of yours, that doesn’t mean they’ve taken away all of you, all of your choices. It means that for a moment in time, a decision was made for you that you never agreed upon. That decision that someone made for you changed your life, but cannot take away your ability to choose how you move forward from that moment and how you choose to navigate the world around you. It can be hard to remember that when you are scared, pissed, frozen, regretful, anxiety-ridden, deeply sorrowful and in a heap of madness on the shower floor. It’s hard to feel that you have any choice and any power. But you chose to get up and get in the shower and that is how you start. You start by noticing and moving.

So where is your power, your balm and your healing? It’s in you. This trio of inner strength is made up of your body, your mind and your spirit. They are your people, your power and there to love you, help you heal and grow. That trio is always whispering to you when a whisper is all you can take. When you’re ready, the trio will shout at you sometimes too. Getting into the flow that your trio offers may be tough. It requires stepping up and out. The key is to not feel defeated by whatever the trio calls you to do before the event even begins. Your role is to flow down the river they set forth and believe that it will take you to a place where you will begin to feel safe again. The trio is asking you to surrender to your body’s reactions, your mind’s recall and the emotional release of all you are holding. They are asking you to trust in a process that hurts like hell, feels scary and out of control at a time in your life when it’s hard to trust in yourself and your own ability to breathe without pain. Believe, hold on and know this is part of your healing. Your body, mind and spirit knows that healing begins with trusting yourself first before you take the leap and trust others again. When you come out the other side of facing your pain and the emotional release that must ensue, you discover that you have the ability to heal by relying on your choices and the sacred temple that houses your mind and light. You have the power to heal and be healed even when the pain leads you to believe otherwise.

Healing a deep wound requires you make the choice to move and live your life no matter how messy and hard that can be. It’s ok to choose to stay behind your walls sometimes as long as it’s not the only thing you do. Your body, mind and spirit will support you in your healing, but the trio requires your choice to participate. It is a choice to believe, dive in, let go, trust, surrender, walk, run, shower and work towards healing. This may feel impossible, but that is the trio’s specialty – helping you do the unthinkable, the impossible and the unimaginable. Your body, mind and spirit will always guide you to notice your power, pain and the choices you have to deal with whatever you are carrying. Healing and re-birth is a miracle and you have the opportunity to be a witness to that in your own life. Breathe deeply and move so you can get back on stage and assume the main role in your life’s story. Your body, mind and spirit will love you, heal you and carry you if you listen to what it calls you to do. Try to marvel at all the wisdom contained in you. You have more choice, power and strength then you ever could have imagined. These are things that can never be taken from you. Ever.

Love is an act of will, a choice, a movement. True living is too. It’s no coincidence to me that sometimes when I intend on typing the word “love”, I accidentally hit the letter “i” instead of the letter “o” and end up with the word “live” in my writing. The letter “i” is right next to the letter “o” on our keyboards and I’m glad they’re neighbors. Live and love are kind of interchangeable. The word “live” and “love” are similar in nature in that both involve your active participation. If I choose to really live my life, it is an act of will, a choice, a movement just like love. Real living requires I try my best to make a conscious effort to do the things that really matter and that always involves love – love of others, the Divine, passions, self and nature as a start. Real living means I will have pain but it also means I will have more love. I have to believe in life and love to fully participate in the miracle of my own healing and to support others in their healing as well. I can courageously choose to rely on my body, mind and spirit as given to me by the Divine, to build a life from the ashes, start over and live again.

Live, breathe and keep it moving the best you can in a direction that will create more love and more self-compassion. Your world may have stopped, become painful and feel out of control. Life and love is here to remind you that is for now, not forever. Despite how broken we feel, we witness the sun coming up every morning as a reminder that it’s possible to begin again and that the darkness will eventually fade away. Moving upward into the sky takes some serious work, but you can become a miraculous living, loving sunrise too. You will shine again.

Questions/activities to ponder or good journal prompts!

  1. Have you built walls as a form of self-protection? What are you hiding and/or protecting and why?
  2. What are your thoughts about the trio inside you? (Body/Mind/Spirit) Do you rely on this trio day-to-day? Why/why not?
  3. Rising from the ashes may feel impossible. Have you done so before? If yes, how? What gave you the strength to rebuild?
  4. Take the time to think about all the choice you have versus the choices you did not or cannot choose. How does that affect your sense of power or the agency you have in your own life?
  5. The word “live” and “love” are similar in nature in that both involve your active participation. Expand on this idea.
A million canaries.

A million canaries.

by kimberly gruber ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Every part of your life matters. Every moment of your existence is meaningful. Every opportunity you work so hard for and every opportunity that falls into your lap is a chance to do something wonderful or learn a hard lesson. Your life is made up of pages that will become the book about you. It will contain all that you’ve learned as you make your way in this place. The spirits that ushered you from heaven to earth nudged you to begin chapter one upon your arrival. The first page is a story of celebration and how nature and all its creatures danced and rejoiced when you made your grand entrance. It’s a party like none other meant to leave an impression on your heart so you never stop writing your story. All this day one hoopla is there to help you remember how much the Divine loves every part of who you are so chapter one is pretty important. It’s there for you to read again and again when you fall or when this world hurts you. You’ll always be worth more than all the stars in the universe. It’s all there on page one! It can never be censored, edited or crossed out by you, anyone or anything in this world.

Life’s journey is about remembering and recording the pages of your life. The details matter, your relationships matter, your struggles and triumphs matter, the process of your life matters. These are the things you collect in your book that teach you how to handle what comes next or to help you support those experiencing writer’s block and stumbling to move on. Reflecting on each page in your life and learning from your experiences is what makes us wise. If we get stuck in a particular chapter, it usually means we could use some help from other authors or we need to put down our pen, rest and think for a while. It could mean that we’re writing our book based on what others tell us should be on each page. Gather your own moments and be on the look out for what makes your book beautiful. Don’t rely on the world to tell your story. If you do so, your chapters will be superficial, anxiety ridden, boring, chronically sad and empty in spirit. Tear those pages up. Do your research and dig deeply for the real you, the beautiful you, the you that has a true story to tell. The you that arrived on a party bus! Every lesson you’ve learned, every chance you took, every collapse to the floor and every time you shared your light and held another will be written on your heart. Your book will become a marvelous story filled with relationships, love, miracles, challenges, successes and failures. The beautiful story you compose will make for a fantastic, one-of-a-kind read. It will teach and influence everyone you meet if it tells the story of who you really are. That’s how you pass on wisdom to those caught in dark chapters or how you help yourself recover when words cannot be found.

Writing our book is a process and the process matters. How are you learning, growing and finding a way to love every piece of your life that makes up the whole of your story? What are you noticing, who are you spending time with, how are you holding on, climbing up and doing the best you can to live a life worth living? Each piece of the puzzle and how all these pieces fit together define who we are, what we’ve learned and how we’ve loved or backed away from love. We don’t arrive, we keep moving, keep growing and as we do, our life becomes more interesting even when we put down the pen and run. Spectrums of light and darkness making up the pages of our book keep us engaged and wanting to know more about the wonder of who we are and the wonder of all living creatures that make up the whole.

How we grow, adapt and learn requires taking one step at a time and each step matters. It’s how we eventually learn to crawl, walk, run and feel so much joy we dance by ourselves under the stars at night. Every experience you have grows into the story of you like a single grain of sand that is part of a beautiful beach or a single leaf that makes up a majestic tree. Each element, piece, fragment and thread matters to the beauty of the whole. We are a speck; we are the whole world. Our story is comprised of each letter and the whole book. We are a single canary loved just for being and loved for the part we play in the flock of flying color. Re-read the first page in your book when the journey gets tough. It will remind you that no matter where you are in your story, you will always matter to the One who sent you. Write that all over your heart so you live a life that exemplifies your true worth and are an active participant in the moment-by- moment creation of you. Share some lessons and love too. This way, your story will never end.

Questions/activities to ponder or good journal prompts!

  1. Close your eyes and breathe in and out. Now imagine heaven and nature celebrating the arrival of you. What does it look like? What does it feel like?
  2. The Divine expressed a deep, deep love for a single canary and loves you even more than a million canaries. How might you connect with that love? Maybe start by noticing all the feathers you find if you stay open to seeing them.
  3. How does it come to be that we allow others to write our story? What does that feel like? What does it feel like to take back our own pen?
  4. There’s opportunity found in the simplest of moments and wisdom is gathered when we reflect on each step of our journey. Do you focus more on the process or just the end result? Why/why not?
  5. You are a speck or the whole world, a grain of sand or the beach, a leaf or the tree, a single letter or a book. What does this idea of being a piece of a beautiful whole mean to you?

Pursue the now.

Pursue the now.

by kimberly gruber ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I try my best to stay in the now. It can be challenging sometimes but I know if I do so, I’ll notice more. If I slow down my brain just enough to take in slivers of the present moment, that’s a start. What I see in each moment may bring me pleasure or pain, but it is my space in time and I can be there or not. If I’m in the moment, I can allow it to fill my cup with light, drink it in and really see all that God places at my feet every day. When I’m preoccupied with getting and putting my attention on what I lack, I never notice how much I have. My business here is to live, love and grow and not stay in a place where nothing can be changed or controlled. That’s just living in the land of guilt, worry and regret which never produces anything or anything worthy of noticing. I can’t take stock of the things I do well if I allow the world or my fears to keep me chained to the past or I’m living in the hurricane of worry obsessing over the future. My life requires my full attention in the now and to make that easier to do, I need to work on putting things aside that keep me out of my own life.

I’m in a good place when I’m doing something and lose all track of time. That’s a clue that I’m on the right track and practicing staying present. I’m not thinking about anything else other than what’s right in front of me in the now. No regrets plague my head space. No worries build upon more worries in my mind using up my energy or space. Times like these are freeing and come bearing gifts. These lose-all-track-of time moments are telling me that these are the things I am meant to do and it’s up to me to pick apart why. I need to ask myself how I might align these moments with my purpose. What is that moment teaching me about me? What is my intention in that moment whether I was conscious of it or not? If I take the time to think and dig deeply enough, I can learn so much about myself while living in the now. And that lesson on self, is the most important lesson of all. Our lives become so much richer and more layered when we know ourselves, our purpose and how we can share those things with the world. I want to know the real me and the world needs to know the real you.

Sometimes it’s a battle to stay in the right here because it hurts too much or the fear and worry become too great. I’m not a fan of holding onto pain. While in that moment it’s hard to glean much too. I just know that it’s good to let my body do what it does to help me bear the sorrow. It could be sleep, wailing, waiting, cursing, weeping and falling into the mercy of God and others. Being present in my pain and allowing myself to fall is part of the healing. Being present in a moment like this gives me the opportunity to notice what shows up to pour love on me. It’s often my dog. In my pain I stroke her head, notice the softness of her fur and look into her eyes and see compassion. If I’m not in the now, I miss that. And if I miss that, that’s one less moment of relief from my pain, worry or fear. In moments of worry when my head gets too heavy I let it tumble into my hands. I have the ability to notice the warmth of my hands holding my head, covering my eyes, cradling my face and be reminded that I can self comfort too. Staying present in these moments reminds me of the miracle of how we were designed to comfort ourselves when alone in our time of grief. I can give the gift of presence to others while they struggle, but it’s equally important to give myself the gift of being there for me too. Self-love is not selfish. I pursue the now to stay awake and not miss out on what repairs me and feeds my deflated soul so I can get back into the world and do my thing again and again.

Staying present is a practice. I’m not always going to stay out of the past or stop worrying about the future. I accept that I am fallible and a human doing the best I can. But this life requires that I keep attentive if I want it to be full of learning, healthy relationships, curiosity and love. If I pursue the now with vigor, I can keep focused on solving only those things that are solvable instead of being in my head trying to fix things that cannot be fixed or controlled. Take a walk and notice a flower and marvel at how God is the only who could mix that amazing color. Tie your sneakers and think about how cool it is to do so. Who is thinking about anything other than joy when in the presence of giggling baby? Sit on your steps, look up and be drawn to the heavenly bodies that surround you and the spirits that embrace you. Hold a friend in pain and wrap yourself in your own blanket of compassion when you hurt too. The more you practice staying right here, right now, the more miraculous life will become. Don’t take yourself too seriously – take each gift of the moment seriously. Just do your best to stay in wonder and awake.

Questions/activities to ponder or good journal prompts!

  1. What is it like for you to be in the present moment?
  2. What keeps you out of the now? Are they thoughts, feelings and/or things?
  3. Think of an activity in which you lose all track of time? What is it? Why are you doing it? What does it say about who you are?
  4. How do you self-comfort? How did you learn about what repairs you?
  5. Create a list of strategies you will try to help you stay present. Practice, practice and practice more.
Take a chance.

Take a chance.

by kimberly gruber ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

“Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.” – Voltaire

We are not here to play it safe. If there are things that you’ve been meaning to do and you haven’t done them, ask yourself why. After all, you were born with a spirit of love and adventure. On your birthday, you were ready and equipped to get out there and live. You looked directly into the faces of those around you and searched for connection because that is what you were born to do. On a day when you were feeling especially brave, you stood upright, took a step or two and did not obsess over falling. You did it anyway. Remembering all this, it makes sense to ask right now, “What keeps me from taking chances now?” You did it as a baby and eventually ended up running and it changed everything. It gave you opportunity. It opened up the world to you.

We usually invite change and take chances when we’re itching for something different or are feeling uncomfortable. When we’re in that space of “Shit’s just not right”, that’s life telling us it’s time to look at things. Again. It means, we’re alive because accepting change and taking chances is what all living creatures must do to survive. Life will always push us to adapt and grow so we end up with a life well-lived. If we don’t take chances it’s impossible to get wiser, help others, collect an abundance of love and experience the world. Only through a leap of faith do new paths and opportunities present themselves. Doors will never open if you do not knock. Get brave and knock. You’ll be able to handle whatever’s on the other side. There’s a good chance it could be amazing.

When we don’t accept the challenge or take a chance we wilt like plants without light or water. We were not meant to remain indoors, safe and out of the elements. We have imagination and the ability to think outside the box for a reason. We have to get uncomfortable sometimes, look at things differently, figure stuff out while keeping our eyes on the light so we remain fed and steadfast. Taking chances means we jump, so strap on a parachute called trust. Scream if it’s required. The parachute of trust will guide you through your fall and the process of change until you land safely and find balance again. Wherever you end up, be open to opportunity and the options to grow and get stronger in a different way, in a different place. The more you practice taking a chance and trying something new, the richer the story of your life will become.

Walk – no, no, no – Run! What would you like to try, to change, to conquer? What would you do if you had no fear? What keeps you from leaving the “safety” of familiarity filled with things that will never take you to that next place. It’s possible that you could get hurt, lose something or just plain fall. But then you’ll never experience true love, expand your world, develop meaningful relationships and grow into your full potential. You will not develop into all that you were born to be scrolling through your phone for hours on end. It just will not happen. That’s playing it safe.

Start by taking baby steps. You knew what you were doing as a toddler, just do it again. Do one thing outside of your comfort zone. Just one thing. Believe that many amazing things will happen when you take a chance. If things don’t go as well as expected, you did not make a mistake. You practiced taking chances. You didn’t play it safe, you trusted yourself, you trusted in others and in the Divine. You grew, expanded your world, your perspective and probably experienced some pain too. You started a new journey that just had a slow start. You believed in you. The world is full of brave people that believed in themselves and didn’t allow hard times to rob them of all they wanted to do. They just believed. When you take a chance, you become a card-carrying member of this club. The brave, the scared, the rumpled, imperfect, world-changing lovers of life. Strap on the parachute and jump.

Questions/activities to ponder or good journal prompts!

  1. Do you ever feel in touch with your spirit of adventure? If so, what does it feel like and what does it nudge you to do? If it’s difficult to find this part of you, why is it hard to do so?
  2. What keeps you from taking chances now? How can you work with the obstacles before you?
  3. Are you in that space of not feeling content or unhappy? Why or why not? Have you been there before? What did you do about it?
  4. How can you step out of your comfort zone in a small way? How might you do so in a big way?
  5. Taking chances invites more experience and love into your life story. Connect some dots. What opportunities came about because you knocked?