Chicago was the first place I ever paid to travel too alone. After a messy break up I bought a ticket and went.
She was the city of many firsts. The first place I got drunk in. The first place I roamed aimlessly photographing for no reason other than the need to do it. The first place I tested my boundaries. I bought a kimono and cow boy boots and felt alive. Somehow in those streets I found a piece of me that I didn’t know was there. Bravery…
Many years later I am here with my love beginning a chapter in our lives I thought I would never be taking. But I am, oh so glad we are!
This place always buzzes with an energy I cannot explain, but I know others feel it too. There is something inexplicably beautiful about Chicago. I feel a rush of creative bliss flow out of me each time I set foot on her soil. It seems only right to begin our lives as a Navy couple here. With her snow covered grounds and her towering buildings, we embarked on the biggest decision of our lives. Ok maybe marriage was the biggest decision, but this is a very, VERY close second!
I flew in on Christmas Eve due to the most delightful plane ticket gifted to me by a cousin. She and her husband wanted my love and I to be able to spend Christmas day together! Which was the sort of magical day that words do not really capsulate, so I won’t begin to try. The next few days flew by in bursted blurs. Some moments being wildly fun and others inching by as we grew close to graduation… I sat waiting eagerly. Sight seeing, taxidermy and the most amazing food punctuated my days. Until, of course I was with him again. Because being with him usually trumps everything else. 10 days in this wintery city flew by faster than I thought possible. It already feels like the distant past.
This list was half way written back in August when I usually post them.
As life would have a few huge changes in store coming for us in the last few months it sat idle in my notebook. Here is the revised version for our new journey…
2) Print photos from our Honey Moon at Artifact Uprising!
3) Life hack our house especially the kitchen! Seriously so many ideas to make living much easier and organized! Which translates into a much more peaceful me.
4) Write Love Letters to people whom need them. You should too, click HERE to find out why and how!
5) Collage/write my heart… It’s time. I can feel the need to create about living in India and Nepal.
6) Stream line bills. Why? Because life is easier that way.
7) Learn how to make a Cyanotype which is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print! Uh, YES please!
8) Keep getting in shape. Right before turning 26 I decided it was high time to make working out a regular part of my life.
(Not an optional one.) I am dedicated to expanding what that looks like this year!
9) Drink champagne for the first time.
10) Make art with Orly Avineri.
11) Create a desk/workspace in our new home, where I can edit without being hunched over or burning my legs.
12) To that note I also want to freshin up our bedroom, wether that means a head board or new bed spread. It has been the least focused on room in the house.
13) Use milage for an airline ticket. Where too?
14) Get my very own sleeping bag, hiking backpack and boots! For real, I am an adult now, I need to invest in proper gear.
15) So I can hike and camp more. A goal we both equally desire.
16) Visit Asheville before leaving the east coast! Go to Double D’s and Biltmore Estate.
17) Read 12 books. Focusing on Travel and or Memoirs.
19) Learn how to re-wire a lamp. Seriously this has been on my to do list forever.
20) Go dancing with my husband.
21) Learn to make proper cocktails. You know for all those parties we throw.
22) Get a morning routine. Mine consisted of rolling out of bed, throwing on clothes and grabbing a coffee. 1o minutes flat and I was out the door. I would like a healthier version from now on. Eat protein upon waking, drink more water, take my vitamin d, moisturize my face before getting dressed and grabbing that coffee.
23) Take Nathaniel scuba diving.
24) Meet a National Geographic photographer. Shoot with them.
25) Make a list of things to do and love while living in Jacksonville. Oh and do them…
This last year has woven and unwoven many new layers within my soul. So much has happened… Our first year of marriage is nearly complete and in many ways it’s feels we have been together for much longer. We made some big leaps. I learned a lot about what is really nourishing to my body, soul and mind. This last year has been minimalistic in nearly every sense. This has aloud me the space to explore what I want out of this life… scratching the surface really. The below goals feel good to revisit, to see how much I have really been able to do and the things that I still get to do. Sure some of my creative and personal goals were not “met” however so much happened that I didn’t dream would evolve within this last year. Time shape shifts our wants, dreams and goals. THIS is ok. Good even. So here it is 25 things to do before turning 26 what was checked off and what will be carried over for another day. xoxo
1: Try a Bloody Mary.
Absolutely freaking amazing!!!! My love took me to SUPPER a roof top restaurant, recently opened in our city, just to try one. Since that glorious night of falling in love, we make them all the time. Spicy bloody mary with okra in it = staple in our home!
2: Read a book a month. Any suggestions? I have 12 spots!
1) The War of Art: Break Through the Block and Win your Inner Creative Battles, By: Steven Pressfield
2) Four Hour Work Week, By: Tim Farris
3) Vagabonding: An uncommon guide to the art of long term travel, By: Rolf Potts
4) Rich Dad Poor Dad, By: Robert T. Kiyosaki
5) You Can Create an Exceptional Life, By: Louise Hay, Cheryl Richardson
6) The Lost City of Z, a tale of deadly obsession in the amazon, By: David Grann
7) The Power of Now, By: Eckhart Tolle
8) Mother Night, By: Clarissa Pinkola Estes
9) The Language of Archetypes, By: Caroline Myss
10) Writing Wild, By: Tina Welling
11) The Alchemist, By: Paulo Coelho
12) When Woman Were Birds, By: Terry Tempest Williams
13) The Power of Myth, By: Joseph Campbell
14) Wild, from lost to found on the pacific crest trail By: Cheryl Strayed
15) The Sacred Ego, By: Jalaja Bonheim, PHD
3: Organize all collage papers. WISH me luck!
We moved into our new home together just before christmas. As I unpacked I had this amazing rush of organizational energy. It felt good to get rid of a ton. I thought it would be a overwhelming venture…stream line and organize, but it was a sort of healing as we moved into a new season!!!
4: Collaborate with 6 artists. Any takers?!
1) Galia Alena created Camera Crafta wonderful course full of inspiration and a few really amazing creative contributors!
I had so many plans for creative collaboration but have found that it took much more energy and time than I imagined. Instead of stretching myself too thin, I focused most of my collaboration time on the INterview series, which has birthed some new dreams within. Follow the threads and trust where your intuition leads you!
5: Travel to Colorado. BE in AWE of it’s majesty.
I truly wish this last year included more travel. As we made some big decisions individually and as a couple, traveling took a pause. We took this time instead to really enjoy our moments here in Virginia with new eyes.
6: Snowboard or Ski with my love.
Check! Oh the truth, the REAL not fluffy truth is I hated it. I wanted to love it. Like really love it and have my husband all proud to be with the woman who can ski! Be in awe of it/me/us. But it was frustrating and it hurt so much! But what we took away from it was I tried it. And we figured out a bit more of how we travel together. I like to meander streets and soak in the culture. He likes the extreme sports. So we will probably trade off in the future. Set up the day with dropping me off in the hip part of town while he gets his thrills on the slopes.)
7: Travel to Bali. (Hold a monkey, explore it’s temples and feast on all the richness it’s markets have…)
On a beautiful April spring morning my love planted tomatoes, bell peppers, cinnamon basil, jalapeños and cucumbers. We made salsa’s, basil pesto, pickles and canned various peppers for hoagie spreads and chow chow!
9: Take my love to New York City. (Eat pretzels, ride the subways and hold each others hands A LOT.) One day!
10: Write my dearest Katariinaevery month. So didn’t do this. ;)
My love gifted:writing the womb, to me for christmas. A circle of woman dove into this electric writing course in the spring and it was Devine. As I was on the threshold of making many creative shifts this course aloud me the room and exploration to make clear conscious choices. I am always in awe of Isabel’s wisdom and gift of opening up voice.
14: Paint/Collage a large piece of art to hang in my new home with my love.
Nearly done, just as were about to leave this place we call home.
15: Lead 3 art work shops locally. (Inquire, I am dreaming up yummy connecting arty-ness. With tea and green houses and writing, it will be good.)
I lead one workshop this year. My first Online E-Course Sacred Vignettes (honoring your everyday Sacred), in July and it was a blast to see something I created from my belly, my bones, my heart, connect with others.
17: Outline “HOWL”. Stay posted I CANNOT wait until this baby is ready to come into the world!
I outlined what each month would offer and it felt really good to research this idea of mine. As I delved further in, the project shape shifted and due to this shape shifting I feel it is a project that will slow burn in me for a long time. It’s not ready… It’s inside but not ready.
18: BEgin tea rituals again. Idea from Lindsay Luna. Agony of Leaves was a very inspiring and healing journey for me and I intend to begin again.
I began each morning with freshly brewed coffee. Which isn’t quite as good for you as tea, however I focused the same intention and presence. I started everyday with bringing water to a boil and carefully enjoying the small moment of beginning a new day in that early morning glow.
19: (This one is a secrete, I will share when it is time.) ***QUIT***
A HOLY yes, on January 6th, 2015 I got to quit a job that was not feeding my soul and I am so glad I was able to do so. Since then I have been curating Interviews for A Global Walk, Photographing all sorts of Love, Writing for magazines and creating local workshops and online E-courses. It is the leap of leaps for me, it is a great accomplishment and I am so proud to say I am doing it!
20: Pursue publications.
I have really enjoyed writing and photographing for magazines and books this last year. It is something I will continue to pursue that fills me with a HUGE sense of creative fire and thankfulness. A few I have lovedA World of Artists Journal Pages,Bohemian collective, Artful Blogging.
21: Photograph some intimate shoots. Woman SHOULD feel sexy and seen. Get your lingerie ready or come without it.
It’s really amazing when woman show up fully embodied. I only did a few of these sessions, but truly they are some of my favorite. I love when woman feel sensually awakened. I love capturing a part of them they rarely see crystalized. I love showing them what their lover sees. I love “Love…”
22: Create a home with intention and attention. Photo’s to be shared when the home arrives to us!
One of my favorite parts about this past year was creating a home. My body takes in everything the world throws at me like a sponge. Most of the time I adore this sort of soaking up, but in an effort to balance this aspect about my body/spirit I keep my home pretty minimalistic. I stick to earthy tones and earthy materials. My body can relax here and not be over stimulated.
Wooden stumps from our wedding alter are our coffee tables. A crystal engineer print hangs above our fire place. A taxidermy fox given to me as a birthday present from a dear friends, prowls above my kitchen cabinents. Lots of antlers and large white pillar candles, everywhere!
23: ACTUALLY, FINALLY begin yoga. It has been calling me for what seems like forever. It is time to learn flexibility and breath through life.
Intention lead me to taking care of my body much more this year. Moving it outdoors and listening to it’s cues. I began a habit of working out every single day. But alas I did not practice yoga other than like twice. ;)
Jennifer Lee is the founder of Artizen Coaching and the author of Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way and the bestseller The Right-Brain Business Plan, which has helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs around the world launch their creative businesses.
After spending 10 years climbing the corporate ladder and getting tired of living her dream “on-the-side,” she took the leap to pursue her passions full-time. Jennifer has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, U.S. News & World Report, Whole Living, Family Circle, Cloth Paper Scissors Studios, and Choice.
She received her coaching certification and leadership training through the prestigious Coaches Training Institute. She is also a certified yoga instructor, a certified Expressive Arts Facilitator, and holds a B.A. in Communication Studies from UCLA and an M.A. in Communication Management from USC. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and sweet husky-lab mix.
How has your experience as an artist changed you? How has your personal vision for your life reflected through your business?
Being an artist helps me tap into my intuition and gives me an outlet for self-expression. Both of these things are key to how I live my life and run my business. My personal vision and values include creativity, authenticity, fun and play, connection, and self-care and all of these things and more show up in my work and my brand. My business is definitely a reflection of what’s important to me and what I’m passionate about.
When have you been unexpectedly vulnerable?
There have been times during my Right-Brainers in Business Video Summit when I’ve been deeply moved in the moment and trust that people will benefit from an authentic and raw sharing from the heart. For example, one year my dog went missing during the summit. Through teary eyes and a shaky voice I explained how I was willing to look stupid and go way outside of my comfort zone to make sure we got her back safely (thankfully we did) because I really wanted people to know how crucial it is for them to do what it takes to go after what they really want.
How do you start your day?
I’m not a morning person so it definitely takes me awhile to get my day started. I usually like to wake up to my own internal clock rather than to a blaring alarm. Sometimes I’ll listen to a guided meditation to help me get grounded and/or I’ll do some journaling. A couple days a week I go to a morning Pilates class. If I’m feeling really healthy, I’ll whip up a green smoothie!
The lesson in my life that keeps repeating?
The lesson that keeps repeating in my life is to create more space and embrace ease. I tend to have an ambitious and competitive streak that can compel me to take on too much or set ridiculously high expectations for myself. I can only keep that pace for so long before I get burnt out, exhausted, or start to have health issues. So I constantly am finding the balance between going after my big visions and finding the ease, simplicity, and spaciousness to make the forward movement sustainable.
How do you make space for play? What is your favorite form of play?
Play is one of my top core values and I like to infuse it into my work whenever I can whether that be through using a colorful visual or creative metaphor to explain a business concept or just to make things more fun. Also, my dog is a fantastic teacher of play and I love how she encourages me to frolic around with her. I also love to play with paints at my studio. I create these huge intuitive paintings that give me permission to make a mess, make ugly art, and just enjoy the process.
What does being brave look and feel like?
To me being brave is when you feel the fear but choose to move forward anyway because something bigger is calling to you. As for how it feels for me, it’s the mix of excitement, anxiousness (the butterflies in the stomach and sweaty palms) that comes from taking a risk and a feeling of groundedness when I know that I am on the right track and am taking inspired action in alignment with my big vision. Some examples of when I have to conjure up bravery are when I am taking the stage, when I’m trying something totally new, or when I need to say no and hold firm to my boundaries.
What is pulling you forward? Your motivation for what you do? What do you wish everyone to know?
What pulls me forward and motivates me to do what I do is my passion for creative self-expression. I want people to know that you get to “Be Uniquely You!” in your life and your business.
Describe a time when you walked through the doors of passage? What helped with the mending? Or how did you navigate this passage?
Leaving my day job after 10 years of climbing the corporate ladder was definitely a major passage for me. I had a cushy salary and a prestigious role that I worked hard for but the work was sucking the life out of me. I had known for a few years that I would eventually take the leap, but it took me awhile to gain the confidence to step out on my own. A few of the things that helped me navigate through the transition included developing a support network of other creative entrepreneurs, working with coaches, and trying out new things to help me find my own voice.
What lights you up? Turns you on? Makes your heart quicken? What are you saying a big YES to these days?
Creativity, beauty, and spaciousness are my big yeses right now. More time to play in my studio and connect with my inner muse.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
Live life in full color as authentically and creatively as I can.
This is a sister -whom my soul must have known many times. I read her words and am emerged into raw-loving truth space. I know this space. I know her. Somehow. She is magic and medicine. She is spirit and ground. She is a wise wild woman who claimed her Sacred Regal Presence on this earth and just by showing up invites us to do the same. This is a woman I want to know.
Hillary Rain is the creator of Body Stories: The Embodied Alchemy of Breath + Bone (coming later in 2015), and the Soul Doula Sessions: intuitive holistic + spiritual mentorship for women guided by the wisdom of the body, heart, and spirit through sacred, creative arts. She is one-half of The Wild Mystics where she co-creates guided courses about spirituality and sensuality. Visit her at HillaryRain.com for gentle sermons on holistic living, sacred healing & spiritual awakening for writers, artists, & mystics.
Because I have to ask: What does regal presence really mean to you? Feel like? Taste like? Look like?
Ah, one of my core desired feelings! I combined these two words to encompass worlds upon worlds, these rich layers of an intricate life. Regal presence means empowerment, abundance, and holding my head high with deep, quiet faith. It means that I am here, I am home, that I am, I am, I am. Regal presence means living a sacred life grounded in truth and trust, rooted and rising, knowing that I am blessed with divine authority and wisdom; that I am loved, that I am love.
It feels like sultry vibrations of tibetan singing bowls in my root chakra, deep-toned and resonant. It feels like anointing oil on my skin, fragrant and warm. It feels like a pure no and a sacred, joyful yes. In fact, it tastes like yes in my mouth, like laughter, like honey on my lips, like salted caramel kisses and rich black coffee with lush swirls of cream. It tastes like joy even when I pant with want. It looks like strength and smiles and watchfulness, like queenly radiance, like compassion, like hands reaching out.
Body, embodied, sanctuary- all glory- all holy hallelujah! You are my Sacred Temple. How do you worship? Dear one tell me what your breath would say in prayer?
My prayers go through seasons like I do: verdant and decadent, with poetry and rapture and ritual … followed by cracked-lipped whispers in the desert, one salty syllable at a time, or mostly silent. But I am most alive during what I call whole body prayer—reverent invocation through dance, through compassion, through breath, through passionate confessions and tearful nights when I clutch my own face because I am desperate to reach God. I say please and please and please and thank you, like all well-taught girls do, and I scream WHY a lot, enraged and entitled, and I grasp (and gasp!) for wisdom like I’m starved and alone. We are passionate ones, the Divine and me. And I worship through questions, dwelling in the liminal space between breaths, worshiping through this earthen body for I, too, am word made flesh. These bones of mine are secret passageways for deep calling deep at the sound of river-falls. My worship looks like my life, made of mystery, communion, and holy longing intermingled with raw, sweet grace. I call it bohemian spirituality; it is made of an unconventional faith—making peace with mystery.
What does Sacred mean to you? Where is your Sacred place and why? Tell me how you rise up in fullness?
I consider Sacred anything indwelt with Spirit. The Sacred reflects eternal love. Whatever becomes sanctuary for all the tender things—birth and death and love, trembling, anything liminal—is holy. We (be)(hold) it and it is thus alchemized. This means that anywhere I am becomes sacred.
I also find that sacred spaces are story-keepers. Ancient landmarks witnessing the wild history of our lives on earth—a ley-line, a wise grandmother tree, or a vast hill. The quiet, nourishing witness of a soul doula. A glimmering blank page or one blessed with ink and tears. My own flesh, which holds every story I’ve ever lived and all the seeds for new ones. This is my embodiment, my fullness rising, my sacred space. Ironically, only empty things can fill, and so I become a space for rhythm and years, flowing in and emptying myself to fill once more.
How do spirituality and sexuality relate for you?
They are both deeply sacred to me. I am spiritual. I am sexual. I express both fully, with great passion and joy. I hold their presence within me, without duality. Imagine two vast oceans meeting, crashing into each other with arms open, entangling, embracing, creating a rich and luminous depth. I am ravished in that space between. I make love. I make art. I make tenderness.
What supports the true expression of your authentic self?
I give myself permission to wander (and wonder) freely. I write. I taste life. Tears fall; I fall, sometimes hard. I soften. I gather feathers and moonstone. I allow the both-and of my mystical approach to spirituality to be the field I dwell in, pressing bare feet to wild earth as I delight in this land of enchantment. I plant gardens here. I hang windchimes in the trees and sing loud and messy. I meet sojourners making their own wild way and we witness one another’s bravery. I gather stories on my skin. I drink deep from wells of mercy. Here I am naked and unashamed, returned to Eden, held. Always held.
What are you bow down kiss the ground grateful for?
My soul circle—the mad artists, the healers, the lovers who make their lives a work of art, who understand my gentle-stormy-self and provide sweet and spacious sanctuary. The ones who invite me to their rustic table, who don’t flinch at my mascara-stained cheeks but look at me and see art, see beauty. My husband, who grounds me when I’m off happily encircling the stars, who doesn’t always understand my bohemian ways, but keeps his arms warm and open—my home, my heart, my harbor. Beauty. Healing. Mercy.
What are you saying YES to these days?
These days find me saying yes to the unknown, for staying present in the tension of it when I’d rather numb myself to this existential ache. I’m saying “yes, okay!” to reinvention, to ever-expanding circles, to curiosity and delight. I am saying yes to soft spaces and looking at things from a freshly-washed inner gaze. I say yes to all the ways I can’t say yes. It’s harder than you’d think.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?
This answer is pouring out quite unexpectedly. I am surprised to say this, but I am all planned out. I am dream-weary. I have dream fatigue. Don’t misunderstand; I have an insatiable, wanton hunger to drink every sweet juicy drop life has to offer. I ache to soak up so much living that my skin smells like cardamom from Marrakesh and my hips serpentine-sway along the corridors of India and my lips kiss the bourbon off her moonlit mouth. I want to love wild and gather sacred experiences like mystical treasures in my gypsy bag. I am a wanderess. Magic is my middle name. I want to move others with beauty and fire and be a healing river of love wherever I go. I want to transform, transcend, and burn with feverish purpose.
But it’s almost too much. When is there ever enough? There will always be a new adventure, a fresh desire, an unrequited love. There will always be a new, life-changing social media status, a riveting new movie, a sensational new dish to savor. A fascinating artist to adore. A beautiful photo on Instagram where the light falls just so and I find myself weeping for the beauty of it. Sometimes life feels like an endless scrolling channel of everything ever and it’s all so amazing and wonderfully exotic, and think of all the stories waiting to be told and the luminous souls waiting to be loved! And each day brings a new ache, a new delight, a new discovery, a new must-see-before-I-die. (Did you know there is such a thing as singing rocks? On this magical mountain? You hit them with a hammer and they ring out, each with a different bell-like tone, and mysteriously, if you remove them from this place they no longer sing. Must. Visit. Singing. Rocks. With. Hammer.)
There will always be more. And in this always-moreness I become keenly aware of a lingering, haunting never-enoughness.
In the meantime, life quietly flows on, steady, present, here. My heart thrums her faithful, steady song. Inhale, exhale goes the breath. My husband just looked over at me and smiled. Lightning shivers outside my window and rain makes the glass sparkle like a cascade of polished diamonds. Tomorrow I will have a conversation with one of the people I love most in this world. I spooned up a creamy, organic vanilla yogurt this evening and it felt so smooth and delicious in my mouth. Candlelight dances on the stove. My favorite essential oils soak my skin. I got a surprise, happy text today that made me cry. I looked at my body naked in the mirror and I didn’t hate myself. In fact, I kind of liked what I saw. There are things that make my heart feel heavy and things that make me want to burst with joy and living and light. I have stories brewing inside of me. I have work to do.
This is my life. It is sacred. It is mundane. It is ravishing.
I want to love it—fully.
I want to honor life by bringing my whole-holy self to it.
I want to be true. Humble. Here. I want to bless with it. Make art with it. Make beauty with it that is so otherworldly and transcendent that the only proper response is the river language of worship, of silence, of deep-calling-deep, of whole-body prayer.
Beginning July 26th, this six week eCourse takes the natural pulse and rhythm that speaks to the wild rise and fall of sexuality for the blushing wild enchantress. Each week the lacy strap that sits upon her shoulder will slip a little further down her arm. Daily artful prompts and erotica fortunes will bring some enticement and synchronicity to the sultry exploration, and guest enchantresses will daringly expose their own blushing wild with us. Peeks into different mediums of erotica will stimulate the creative juices as we explore our psyches and ourSelves through soul work and chakras, erotic poetry and succulent rituals, meaningful movement and provocative stories. Weekly practices will invite you into your own hot skin and fan the flame of your own fiery life. Vulnerability never looked so good on you. Welcome to the blush! Read more and register at TheWildMystics.com
I put an audiobook on, brewed coffee then I dyed.
