Friday, January 30, 2015

Appreciation in Many Different Ways

I am receiving return appreciation on things I had put out in the public without any expectation of a response.

Actually, I am receiving appreciation in multiple ways on multiple things I have put out into the public.

As I have become confident in what I want to express, I have been expressing it just in order to contribute to society and civilization in the little ways that I can right now at my fingertips.

And it is being seen.

The little ripples I have sent out are creating slightly larger ripples and are apparently, hitting the edge of the pond and rippling back.

I am so grateful.

It makes me happy.

What I have to offer is being seen and appreciated.

Inspiration and self-motivation are good things.

Finding recognition outside of oneself and in one’s circle is another good thing.

I am grateful for inner growth and outer recognition.


© 2015 Kathryn Hardage
www.InspiredPractices.com


Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Revamping From the Inside

After a thorough inventory of what was not working and a rigorous and desperate search to correct that, I have a whole new set of skills and a self-image to go with it.

It has changed my life.

Redesigning an entire internal network has taken some time, but as the foundations are more secure now, an entirely different set of experiences is emerging.

There are new connections.

There is appreciation.

By starting with recognition and appreciation for what is authentically me, there is no longer this huge gap of trying to establish a non-existent connection since what I was doing had nothing whatsoever to do with my values, my desires, my joys.

Now that I am moving in the direction of what I value and love, the connections are becoming easier and more frequent and more uplifting.

I feel validated and happy and fulfilled, instead of deflated, disappointed and frustrated even though I was excellent at what I did.

It was really confusing, I can tell you.

The inside remodel has a much better outlook.

Now that I have discovered the process, I am enjoying the results.


© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Monday, January 26, 2015

How I Make Sure

The ways that I am learning to make sure that I love, cherish, and adore myself is to honor my preferences.

For so long, I overrode everything.

It was how I was raised.

To be correct.

So I was.

But the gap kept getting wider and wider between being correct to other people’s standards and preferences and not being even remotely true to myself, whoever that was.

As the gap got wider and wider, I got sicker and sicker.

Anxiety, which had been a part of my life since I was born, developed into more and more severe physical symptoms until I was bleeding internally.

That was when I began looking around at my life.

I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but it wasn’t working for me.

So I quit everything I was doing, just I could listen.

And what I heard was very surprising to me.

It was the story of my heart.

Of what I truly loved.

And I hadn’t been doing any of it.

As I listened, I began noticing things that I loved, things I had tucked into the corners of my life, and I began doing them.

They were not monumental.

They were just simple things.

But it made such a difference to me.

I could give myself permission to be involved in simple things that gave me pleasure and enjoyment.

What a revelation.

And so, that is what I do now.

I am engaged in wonderful and simple things which I enjoy.

And my body has calmed down.

And I live much better nowadays.


© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Friday, January 23, 2015

Endurance

Today, my honey-man and I complete twenty-eight years of marriage.

We both agree, it has “got bett’a”.

Certain years were really challenging, but we have made it to now.

Lots of growth we neither anticipated, nor desired.

But necessary, and far reaching.

What we have now is good, rock solid, and tested, yes, many, many times.

We each have an amazing companion, intelligent, fun, and…high maintenance.

Lots of love.


© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Nurturing

Nurturing an idea is a special kind of stewardship.

It is intimate and sacred.

It has a role to play, and you are the messenger, you are the caretaker.

As you receive each idea and let it bless you, even as you bless the fact that it has entered your life, you are nurturing your ability to receive ideas.

This is your source of supply, life, nourishment.

Your inspiration becomes your source of supply.

You live by your acceptance of the inspired ideas, and you let them manifest as you pay attention and take action.

You prosper as you give the ideas you receive loving and tender attention.

A calm settles into your life.

A sense of trust about the way you live replaces the frantic rushing, doubt and fear.

You are nourished by the ideas you receive and your nourish them with your attention to their needs.

© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Monday, January 19, 2015

Love and Appreciation

I am in a new place because of the disturbances in my old path.

I could see where it was taking me, and I knew I had to find another way to guide my life.

The cost has been immense, but there is a reward.

I have greater peace of mind.

I know that further growth will reveal solutions even for events and circumstances that appear unresolved as of yet.

I am astounded to come to that conclusion and feel very supported that I can do so.

I have discovered a strength, a warmth, a conviction of love that communicates Itself to me like no other message or presence before.

It is part of my new path.

It has certainly always been there.

I could never have survived without it.

I am grateful for the soul-growth that is revealing It to me.


© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

Friday, January 16, 2015

Suffering

I am reading The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav.

On page 182, he discusses the difference between our ability to explore the personality through psychology and our need to understand the purpose of the soul.

On page 183, he says, “Pain by itself is merely pain, but the experience of pain coupled with an understanding that the pain serves a worthy purpose is suffering.  Suffering is meaningful.  Suffering can be endured because there is a reason for it that is worth the effort.”

What is worth this effort?  

“What is more worthy of your pain than the evolution of your soul?”

I am grateful for the author’s discussion and insights all the way through this book.  His language leads to a deeper contemplation than has been available to me through the vocabulary which I had to this point.

Most valuable from the beginning has been his contrast between the five-sensory personality and the multi-sensory soul.

As we discover the difference between external power, that which is visible to the five senses, and internal power, that which is available to the multi-sensory soul, we become more attuned to intuition and other effects.

This defines some of the consciousness raising that is challenging and and energizing so much of the conflict and contrast of our times.

As a world, we are becoming more aware of other countries and the people in them, and by and large, we want a good life for everyone.

In the United States, our current government is eroding many of the historic protections and provisions which used to take care of more of us.

The reaction and awakening to this and the desire to take care of all of us extends to everyone in the whole world.

We are all precious.  We are beginning to realize this on a larger and more expansive scale.

It is a good problem to work through.

The foundation has been laid through many previous generations to prepare us for this advance of the soul.


© 2015 Kathryn Hardage
www.InspiredPractices.com


Thursday, January 15, 2015

New Ways

A talk by Dr. Joe Dispenza reminded me how he creates his day.

He originally talked about this in the movie “What the Bleep?”

In the youtube audio I listened to, 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOnJ8FPNpm8, he discussed his interest in people who have had instantaneous healings.

Since they came from very different backgrounds, religions, cultures and races, he found only three things they had in common.

One thing was their belief that they could find a solution.

Another was that they were responsible for their condition.

A third was that they were willing to practice redirecting their thinking consistently for as long as it might take.

Dr. Dispenza reminded me that we all have millions and billions of thoughts every day and that they all create tiny connections in the brain.

It gave me a boost about giving myself something new to think about so that I could have different results in my life.

Since I have made significant progress in other ways, I have decided to give this a try.

I am looking forward to the differences it will make.


© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Beautiful Time

In this time of new year and new beginnings, I feel myself moving towards my goals, but also remembering past obstacles.

I have learned to spend my time where I want to see  myself, but it is still a new habit.

As I continue to see myself fulfilling my purpose, I am coming into contact with people who are ready to receive what I have to offer.  

Even though I am not sure how these steps will pan out, as they are certainly new to me, I can feel that they are a part of who I am becoming.

I have been faithful and persistent about creating what I love to do and what I feel is valuable to society.

The Universe is bringing more and more opportunities to me to define my purpose and to express it creatively.


© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Taken Care Of

I felt so taken care of this morning when I went to pick up my co-p box of fruits and vegetables.

The woman who helps organize the co-op has that wonderful quality of being able to recognize members even if we don’t order regularly.

She has the kind of mind that remembers orders and groups them together conveniently, and today, she also helped me carry my order to my car.

I was so happy I had made some grocery bags which I repurposed from fifty lb. onion bags, so  that I could give her one that she chose for herself.  She volunteered to save empties for me when there are onion or potato orders in the future.

Someone else who is taking care of me is a local deli which is saving empty five gallon food grade pickle buckets.  I am repurposing them into container gardens.

I usually go by every couple of days, generally calling ahead of time so I don’t waste a trip.  I went by the day after Christmas, and then did not check in for a week.

When I went by the day after New Year’s they had saved ten buckets.  I usually get one or two at a time from them.  It was fantastic.  They are really working to support me.

And then the young man who brought them out insisted on carrying them to the car.

I have been living a persistent idea of “giving more”.  

That is the idea which came to me when I hit a crisis to figure out why I am here and what it is that I have to offer.

I am choosing to share ideas which come to me in various ways.  

Some ideas are teaching ideas, inspirational ideas, practical ideas.

Some have a price, some are free.

But releasing them where they can be useful is the main key for me.

I am “releasing the hidden splendor” of the ideas which come to me.  (From a Robert Browning poem.)


Doing so enriches me and it also enriches the receiver.

And doing so allows me to be cared for.

The idea of doing things in order to “give more” comes back in so many ways.


© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

Friday, January 2, 2015

Create Beauty First


Beauty First

I have come to the conclusion that I have to take the time to create something beautiful for as long as I want to work on it before I return to my food preservation and pressure canning adventure.

As much as I have been enjoying working with food, it is actually not my first choice.  One of the reasons that I love preparing meals ahead of time is so that I can work uninterruptedly on projects which I love.

I just realized that my time has gotten upside down with respect to my priorities.  So I will return to making journal covers and the play of fabric colors and textures which feels so good to me.

Then, when I am full and overflowing with the happiness of creating beauty, I will be able to return to what we generally term “practical” work.

But why not think of creating beauty as practical?

We don’t really live our lives only in terms of necessity.

There are many more dimensions to life than just the necessity of providing for ourselves.

The article by Jeremy Rifkin, about the “radical new economic system” which will “emerge from the collapse of capitalism”, gives us many more options for living sustainably and satisfyingly.  http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/nov/07/radical-new-economic-system-will-emerge-from-collapse-of-capitalism

Buckminster Fuller also talks about the advantages of life today that do not require people to labor full-time and overtime.  http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/133403

My own sense is that the human mind likes to solve puzzles, and that we have now put ourselves in the position where we have to figure out an entirely new system which takes care of all of us.

Creating beauty is one of the ways in which we take care of ourselves.  We can also celebrate artists, musicians, dancers, and writers instead of penalizing them subject to a money-making quantity measurement.

How much joy and inspiration and appreciation and happiness and reflection do they provide and how do you put a price tag on that?

I offer another quote, this time from Neil Gaiman, that whatever else is happening, good or bad, “Make good art”.  https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/20415110-make-good-art


© 2015 Kathryn Hardage


Thursday, January 1, 2015

We Made It

We launched ourselves into a new year.

It was more than surviving.

It had many elements of thriving.

In the wee hours of pre-dawn, it is easy to hear the quiet messages.

Good progress.

A stronger foundation.

Validation and expansion of ideas.

Self-respect.

Dignity.

More outreach.

A confirming sense of purpose.

Baby steps taken and new ground explored.

It is safe.

It is embracing.

It is deep celebration.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com