This topic is so rich and vital for me, that I intend to write an e-book summarizing the Happiness Research and the ancient indigenous wisdom that share many juicy, overlapping findings.

In the meantime, here’s a FREE DOWNLOAD of the awesome tool I developed to find more joy in my daily life.

Please let me know how you like it.

Much Joy to you!

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We made it, dear ones. And gratitude flows, right to the bottom of my calloused, middle-aged, ugly-toe feet.

A few weeks back I got a message from the Universe to take it easy. To stop all the moving and shaking and doing and makin’ it happen. To walk away from the imperative to be more, do more, create more, share more, tell more, write more.

I chose Less.

In our culture of plenty, in our constant hunger for fill-er-up, and being myself, a human machine who has been doing and proving herself her whole life by creating, right in the angst of deep creative desire, I chose Less.

And I loved it. Because it led to such a delicious awareness.

It’s all OK. I’m really ok, as I am. But not just me, y’all. You too. The world as it is, with all it’s screwed-up-ness. It’s really, deeply OK.

Ok, now! Go be ok.

The post Dec 21 2012: Alive with Ok-ness! appeared first on .

I can’t always execute all of my high-falutin’ aspirations. Like to make a video for 30 days leading up to Dec 21, 2012. Real life gets busy. Even if my Spark loves to create, to express.

That grand idea came from my PlateSpinner persona. He spins a bunch of plates in the air until he can’t do it anymore, then he drops them. He’s got the seductive smile of a TV game show host, he’s a showman, a performer and a multi-tasker. Thinks he can do it all.

I know him very well. But I don’t always have the wisdom to calm him down.

So the ongoing question to ask my Spark: how can I let him do his thing without running me ragged? How can I allow that creative impulse, without the grandiose schemes that sound good at the time, but are really too much to implement?

The bigger question: how to balance the needs of my Spark, which is simple (love, love, love) and all my inner characters (make money, keep things tidy, keep learning, make new friends and keep the old, do what I say I will do, go out exploring, tell stories, make visionary artwork, help others grow into themselves, go dancing, strut my stuff?)

What I need is an inner leader, a manager, a chairman of the board. Queen of my domain.

Someone I can trust to rule, not with an iron hand, as with steely discipline I’ve leaned on in the past, but to check in with. Someone I can ask, hey, is this something we can ALL agree to?

I know she’s in here, just waiting to be asked.

The post Day 14: PlateSpinner strikes again! appeared first on .

News Flash: I am human. I’m not perfect. In fact, I’m downright UGLY.

And I’m willing to share (a tiny percentage of my many, many) flaws with you, because it’s real. And that’s what matters most to me.

What I really love about people is not the perfection we strive to create. The image that we have it all together, flawless, but the realness. The actualness. The good, bad and the ugly.

So I had to get real with myself first. Scary! But that’s what my Spark wants of me today. To be real.

PS: YAY to my friend Jac McNeil making a commitment to her writing, with “30 days of Imperfection.” Showing up in the face of all-too-human imperfection. Now that’s what makes the Spark sing!

The post Day 6: I’m Ugly. appeared first on .

On Day 2 of this video series, Thanksgiving, I felt so in love with my life: my husband, the beauty of where we live, the woods, the mushrooms I harvested, even the weeds.

And then I woke up. To a pain in my ankle so sharp I could barely hobble home.

I sat on the couch icing my foot, realizing I’d left something out of the picture: the very real suffering in the world.

Pain is a great teacher. To be in the moment. To breathe. To appreciate what is.

If you’ve ever experienced pain, suffering, feeling loss or discouraged, there’s a spontaneous improv song here for you.

Love, love, love.

The post 30 Days of Spark: Day 3, A Song for the Suffering appeared first on .

Yesterday was November 22, 2012, Thanksgiving morning.

I woke up so in love with my husband that I went out to find some mushrooms for him to put in the stuffing, even though I don’t like mushrooms. At all.

While on this lovely walk through the woods, I tweaked an old ankle injury. Spent the rest of Thanksgiving with my foot high in the air, so couldn’t post this video on Day 2. That makes me smile, that the most sincere intentions get zapped by Real Life (more on Day 3 video).

It felt so good to notice blessings all around, from the colorful weeds to the edible treasures I found in the deep dark woods. I noticed that My Spark – that chunk of the divine that’s in everyone – helps me to stay connected to what really matters in each moment.

Every day for the month leading up to Dec 21, 2012, me and my Spark will make a short video about what’s happening Right Here and Right Now.

I hope you’ll join me. If inspired, please subscribe to the YouTube channel, or enter your name and email in the subscribe box upper right of this page.

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I believe we all have a Spark of the divine that lives somewhere near our heart. The Spark’s theme song is Love, Love, Love, and it’s connected to everything. Because it’s tapped into a larger source than my little human brain, I listen as often as possible. If I can remember to clear out the noise in my head and tune in, I usually receive spot-on guidance on all questions, small and large.

To stay with the Spark for this crucial time of evolution, each day until December 21, 2012, I’ll tune in and ask, “What do we need to know now?” and make a short video of the messages that come.

Join me! To inspire your Spark, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe via email at upper right.

The post 30 Days of Spark appeared first on .

This tale is a map to the many doors that have opened in me, gradually, graciously allowing me to become fully myself. The story is as sweet as a fairy that leads you with her glowing light into the forest. And it’s as scary as that 9-headed monster you don’t want to meet there in the dark. It’s hopping with goofy gremlins of all shades and colors in between.

I’m not yet 100% clear on the shape this story will take. A graphic memoir? An animation? A performance? A series of blog posts or videos? Every day in November (I’m calling it Devotional Project Month, or DevoProMo) I spend from 1 to 3 hours writing, singing, drawing, filming, or just exploring this story. My intention is to utterly follow an inner compass, my Spark.

So far my mind and heart has overflowed with ideas, generating a mountain of words. That is part of the process, to allow what comes. But my ego wanted a flashlight and a shovel so I could see the path ahead. My Spark said: Ask Grandpa.

My grandfather, Dr. Norman Frank Thorpe, was a master teacher and storyteller. With a twinkle in his sea-blue eyes, he charmed and inspired and warmed the hearts of everyone around him. This superpower, along with his insightful intelligence, led to a position of honor as a dean at the University of Nebraska.

Grandpa Gumpy died when I was 16. At that time I was cut off from myself, pursuing pleasure in any form I could get, seeking to change my unhappy consciousness through many dangerous adventures on the wild road.

Among the elders who expressed concern my 15th summer, Grandpa truly saw me. With his presence, his body, his hands, and that mystery sauce that emanates from a loving heart, he showed me how much he cared for me. Perhaps it made a difference; perhaps that love created a force field that helped me survive several brushes with death.

38 years later, I still need his love. And his help. I lit a candle and settled into the big comfy chair he would have chosen. I remembered details that brought him to life again: running my hand across his silver flattop, bristle-stiff yet deliciously bendable. His leathery skin, dark tan from many hours in the sun golfing or fishing, his great passions. The scent of his favorite pipe tobacco.

I thanked him for his love, and for showing me how to hook a worm that long quiet afternoon at Butternut Point, Minnesota, when I was about 7. Sharing a small boat with Grampa Gumpy, watching the ripples move across the lake, with a backdrop of buzzing insects, I imagined the world below the surface. Would a fish swim up to take a bite of that worm?

My book – or whatever it is – is like the elusive sunfish. My ego wants to catch it, but it’s still swimming in the land of mystery.

I asked out loud, “Grandpa, what can you tell me about storytelling?”

His words came up from my heart, from the wisdom that reaches beyond time and space and death and life. His voice was clear, and it had a twinkle. Always a twinkle.

“The real essence of story comes from not only from what you think you have to say, but from the magical space between you and your audience.

First, put your awareness in the audience. Imagine that you are among them. Imagine their concerns, their needs and wants. Once you can really feel them, then you are ready to step into the space between.

The space between you and them is where the fire is, the ancient storytelling fire. Men and women have crouched and told stories around this fire for the millennia. That space between is where the magic happens: it whispers to you what is needed. If you remember that space and the fire, your stories will connect.”

I sat in awe of this nugget, sensing that shifting from Me to You to the Space Between will help with all communication, not just this project. It’s another way to speak of the resonant field, created with our energy.

Grandpa spoke of many things, of becoming an elder, of authenticity. He also said that my book is not one big story, but many little ones. Just like the fish in the lake. We want to catch a Big Fish, but most of the joy and pleasure of fishing is in the feel of the sun and the shadows swimming under the boat.

Do you have a relationship with your ancestors? Tell me a story…

The post Grandpa Gumpy’s wisdom: Story and the Space Between appeared first on .

I want to sing “Hallelujah! Amen!” because this bit of dialogue says everything I believe about healing yourself. It says everything that’s happened to me, how I feel about myself and others.

It says it all! In a simple, heartful, ordinary way. How true change happens from the inside out. Check it out.

“But how did you change? What happened? What made you different?”…

“Little by little, I don’t know, what was eating me up went away.”

“But how did it go away? What did you do?”

“Like, at the beginning. I felt sorry for myself, I guess. Not like, you know, pity or anything. But then one day I stopped being so angry. ‘You’re just a little girl,’ I said to myself. ‘It’s not your fault your parents died. It’s okay you messed up. It’s okay to be angry about your face and hate everyone. You’re just a little girl. I forgive you, little girl, for all the bad things you did.’ Like that. It’s crazy isn’t it? To have one part of yourself be nice to another part. Like the nice part of my face saying nice things to the ugly part. After a while, the nice part and the ugly part stopped hating each other. There was peace inside of me, like the different parts disappeared and there was only one me. After that, I saw how the other girls were like me, and I started doing the same thing with them. I saw their ugly parts – and around here that’s not too hard, believe me – and I tried to be nice to their ugly parts.”

Then it comes to me. It cannot be that this is the first time I realized this, but it is. We all have ugly parts. I think of the time in the cafeteria when Jasmine asked me what the girl in the picture was asking me. How do we live with all the suffering? We see our ugly parts, and then we are able to forgive, love kindness, walk humbly.

“We all have ugly parts,” I say to myself…

—
As a person who writes fiction, I am humbled by this beauty. Filled with joy that young people will read this. Grateful that my husband knows how it thrums with me.

Then another part whispers, “See! Why did you stop writing fiction? Stories are the best way to deliver these messages. Why don’t you release your writing? You write every day. Why did you stop blogging?”

Then I take a breath of forgiveness. I give my darling ego a heart hug and say, “Yes. I know you want me to do more, be more, accomplish more. But all is well. All is deeply ok. I will publish, blog, sing, speak, teach, as the time moves in me. Trust it. Know it.”

Have you befriended those parts that are not your very favorite? Do you chat with them? You are not alone, my dear.

Loving all,
Christine

The post The nice part and the ugly part appeared first on .

All are driven to make a difference. To transform despair into positive action. To change the world. (yes, it was a tad intimidating!)

What’s the common denominator? What skills do visionaries use and teach, again and again? What do young people need in order to make a future they can fall in love with?

Creativity and collaboration.

All of us are inherently creative. We all yearn for connection and collaboration. But not all of us give our lives to a cause.

How can you help shape the future, even if you are not a born activist?

1. Follow your Spark. It’ll tell you what needs to come alive, for community, culture & the world to be re-made.

2. Give your time & energy to the young. One afternoon I made friends with the lovely girls in the photo above, and helped them finish their mermaid scupture. Here’s a few tips on working with teens and young adults:

• Lighten up on all things agenda. Be willing to just hang out.
• Ask about their ideas. Listen.
• Be real & authentic, open & curious, wacky & playful.
• Teach them what they want to know. Explore side-by-side. 
• Learn from them. 

In July, I got to do all that with 6 beautiful young ladies at our first SummerSpark! Day Camp for Girls & Teens. < see photos & video we made.

We’re doing it again next week. Please pass this on or share our Facebook event. Thanks!

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