The Pursuit of Expansiveness

Standing in the middle of Emancipation, expansive new Center opens.

You can see this Center cost more than the planned amount.
The ceremonial groundbreaking was itself a vast,
eccentric draped figure of space.

A towering model of Freedom stands ceremoniously
at the entrance to the Emancipation.
Everything seems oversized.

This has been the largest project in the long history of expansions,
many of which, under the direction of the Architect,
expect to increase.

Yesterday,9.10.07

Yesterday, 9.2.07

Seal of Approval

I’m into synchronicity. It’s like God’s radio signal pointed right at you transmitting personalized, super-soulful rays of insight. My colleague says it’s the universe’s way of saying “of course.” Recently I had such a moment during breakfast. It was a great breakfast – an omelet with red onion, wild salmon, kalamata olives & tomato all tucked into a whole grain tortilla with some mild salsa to amp up the flavor. While eating, I pulled out Ted Andrews’ book, Animal Speak, to see what he had to say about seals. I saw a seal on the sidewalk last week while walking to work and was curious about what it might have meant.



What I read made me feel like I’d gotten a big kiss from the universe:

Sea Lions and Seals
Keynote: Active Imagination, Creativity and Lucid Dreaming
Cycle of Power: Year Round

Now this seemed to me like the ultimate form of validation. I got chills for at least 10 seconds as I let the significance sink in. Seal is about creativity. That makes so much sense. After over a year of creative drought, the seal has arrived to bless a new fertile period in my life and offer valuable lessons to help me during this time.

As my body sparkled electric I realized that seals have actually been coming up a lot lately. In my last Reiki session, which was about letting go of judgment, I visualized a seal. A little after that I came upon a toy seal and put it on my altar even though I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant to me. I even saw a seal while watching a PBS documentary last week. It was an adorable little seal, only 3 weeks old.

I went on to read about how seals teach you to listen with your inner ear, because they have no external ears just small openings. This is very useful for someone like me who is utterly impressionable and always seeks to please. Seals also teach of balance by modeling that while it’s important to live in creativity (the water) one must rest on land (self care). Not to mention that they have a healthy does of blubber to keep them insulated from the external world. Certainly this weekend, when I’m struggling with some major self-judgment, insulation would be useful. Yes, the seal feels like a perfect gift - a reminder that my universe does speak to me. I don’t always hear it, but when I do it is a fabulous thing.

Yesterday, 9/1/07

Yesterday, 8.31.07

Internal Advertising

Sometimes I’ve got an attitude about life. I can’t help it. I fall squarely into Gen X so I’m officially entitled to being apathetic, disgruntled, annoyed, and depressed by life on at least a weekly basis – right? I do my fair share of wallowing, trust, but then it gets old. Life just isn’t as fun when I’m bummed. But once the mood hits it’s not that easy to change. That law of inertia is a tricky one. So I’ve developed a method for myself that I call Internal Advertising. Clearly I didn’t develop the concept - but I came up with the name and, for me, this spin makes all the difference. Rather than “positive affirmation” it’s Internal Advertising. Meaning rather than write, “I am a beautiful, creative spirit manifesting on my journey” across the bathroom mirror in red lipstick, I come up with a catchy advertising slogan that speaks to my current plight instead. It’s individualized cognitive therapy, it’s intra-personal marketing, and it’s FREE!

My current Internal Advertising campaign is I’m OK, It’s OK.


I’m OK, It’s OK has a simple premise that I’ve found to be very effective. The thought campaign can be used to decrease stress levels & regain perspective by tapping into a fundamental truth: that OK is a perfectly attainable and livable mental state. Just OK – not great, fantastic, unbelievable, or stupendous but OK. I know we hear all this hype about how being positive, radiant, and motivated is the only healthy way to be, but I believe that’s just not always a realistic goal. There are many periods where OK is a perfectly good standard. Certainly it has a leg up on some other less desirable states of being.

Internal Advertising is a fabulous way to reverse the negative impact of an overly saturated, utterly hypnotic, ridiculously superficial consumer culture by appropriating the tools of the devil and putting it to good use: personal growth. There’s a Jewish saying: you are where your thoughts are – Internal Advertising is like creating a personal shortcut to the parts of your mind you’d rather be inhabiting.