My Spirit Loves

"With love, with patience and with faith, she'll make her way."-Natalie Merchant, Wonder.

I was driving in the car yesterday listening to Coffee House on my XM radio when Natalie Merchant’s song Wonder came on. On the Coffee House station they play a lot of acoustic versions to familiar songs so I felt as if I were hearing this song for the first time.

“Laughed as my body she lifted.

Know this child will be gifted.

With love and patience and with faith

She’ll make her way.”

I was just driving down the street minding my own business listening to the radio and the lyrics of this song moved me to tears thinking about my three daughters. One graduating from college next month, one going on to be a senior in high school and one entering ninth grade in the fall. All of them at pivotal moments in time.

As I drove thinking of them with heartfelt emotion my phone buzzed. Two daughters texting and one calling simultaneously. (Why couldn’t I have had this heartfelt emotion thinking about the mega jackpot??)

How amazing is that? My spirit was speaking to theirs and they picked up on it and contacted me. Kind of like how life was before cell phones. When we would be at a concert at the Garden knowing another group of friend's were also there. No doubt in your mind you would see them and of course you always would.

What does your spirit love? I mean really love? What makes your eyes twinkle when you talk about it or think about it? I remember back when I came home with my kindergarten school picture, my Dad said, “I love this picture because you are smiling with your eyes.” I thought for years as a kid that meant I was squinting or something. Smile with your eyes? Whatever dad. But now I know when I am truly happy and laughing that twinkle is my spirit talking. I am looking at crows feet with a new found love. These lines mean I have felt and heard my spirit A LOT!

What does my spirit love? My spirit loves my children and my husband and my family and my little dog. My spirit loves to laugh with friends and to nurture people, to share a meal, to be in esthetically pleasing environments. My spirit loves a great playlist and the feeling you get after a hard workout. My spirit loves to dance. My spirit loves adventure, travel and change. My spirit loves to write. My spirit loves to talk to open minded people. My spirit loves the ocean and good food and coffee and wine and books and clean sheets from the dryer.

If you are in any kind of transition period or if you are figuring out what it is that you truly would love to do with your life. (Either the second part or the first.) Go for a walk, or a run and breathe deeply and evenly and don’t think about anything but the sound of your own breath moving in and out. After awhile ask the question. What does my spirit love? The very first thing that comes to mind is what is true. After that first one you might have to say it out loud to see if it feels and sounds true to your own ears. (If you really want to know say it to the mirror. Can you look yourself in the eye and say what your spirit loves? Then it’s the truth.)

Then when you get home write it all down. My spirit loves…..

Look back at what my own spirit loves. Taking all of those loves you basically have the description of what I do and who I am. It took me almost 40 years because I wasn’t listening for a long time but I am completely happy and accepting of who and where I am in life. I have a great family, I teach, I write, I laugh, I change things up, I listen to my spirit and I give my spirit what it loves and my spirit rewards me. I think about my daughters with heartfelt emotion and they call me.

We all have this ability within us it is just a matter of tapping into it and letting it work for you.

It doesn’t work if you look in the mirror and say, “My spirit loves money.” But what you can say is, “My spirit loves being good at what I do.”  Think about a wedding, everyone celebrating love by laughing and singing and dancing. Sending that couple out in the world with collective heartfelt emotion. Then they have that “honeymoon period.” Not because they go to Hawaii but because they are still living on high from all of that energy being sent their way. Why is Ellen DeGeneres such a tremendous hit right now? She is true to herself because she listens to her spirit, she sings, dances and laughs everyday and she helps as many people as she possibly can along the way. She is in that upward spiral of listening to what her spirit loves and she is rewarded in turn.

I am going to go out for walk with my friend now. An open-minded person who makes me laugh. I wonder what amazing things will happen today? My spirit loves, my spirit loves.