Episode 404 What Love Does
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
On this week’s episode, I highlight what love does. Whether we pay attention with love, interact with love or infuse love into ourselves, into our plants, pets, people or the planet, love makes a positive impact. Using the simple examples of plants, I marvel at what love does to my relationship to these sentient beings. What love does!! Love reminds us that we have more love in us than we realize. Love stretches and expands our hearts. Love stimulates the giving and receiving partnership. Love generates more love. What love does is nourish us, heal us and helps us grow. May we all...
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Episode 403 Be Present
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
On this week’s episode, I share my experience of being present to two friends in hospice. Being present slows me down, drops me into a quieting center that allows me to align with the Divine. It is a deep honor to be invited into the dying process. I take that invitation very seriously and am grateful for the richness and blessings that unfold. I share two of the meditations that I say silently and aloud when gently massaging the feet of each of my friends. May we all allow ourselves to be a conduit of light, compassion, comfort and love. May we all know the power of being...
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Episode 402 Lynda Baldauf, Three Bluebirds
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
My guest today is Lynda Baldauf, co-founder of the Swedish dishcloth Three Bluebirds. With mindfulness, humility and an open heart, Lynda and her Finland-born husband Lasse, started their company in 2013. Their Eco-friendly cleaning cloth replaces paper towels, rags and sponges, absorbs 20 times its weight and lasts 6-9 months. The cloth is made in the US with sustainable wood pulp, certified organic cotton and water-based inks so they are 100% compost-able with zero waste. You never know what a chance meeting will offer. I’m grateful that the stars aligned for me to meet Lynda in a...
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Episode 401 Kindness Matters
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
On this week’s episode, I share a simple story that reminds us how much kindness matters. There is a powerful ripple effect in one small act of kindness. Genuine kindness aligns us with our true nature. It feels good to be both the giver and receiver of kindness. May this episode remind you that even in the midst of our chaotic current events, the simple act of kindness can move us to tears, water our souls, and help us be more fully present to what truly matters. Enjoy the podcast!
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Episode 400!!
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
On this week’s episode, we celebrate our 400th episode. I acknowledge the key role as producer that my husband Paul plays. I am so grateful for all he does to help me develop, support and sustain this podcast dream of mine. I also celebrate the growing grassroots movement that rallied over 8 million people to show up for No Kings 3 Protest on March 28th. I share some of the lyrics sung in the singing resistance groups all across the land. The words capture what shores me up in these troubling times. As we celebrate 400 episodes, may we all find small and large ways to stand in solidarity...
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Episode 399 Sheri Reuveni-Ulrich
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
My guest today is Sheri Reuveni-Ulrich. Sheri had been a speech therapist for nearly 25 years with special needs individuals, primarily on the autism spectrum. She also had a love for baking and often incorporated baking as an experiential activity for her students. Her “ah ha” moment occurred when she stepped back from the kitchen and witnessed her non-verbal students humming, laughing and finding their voices, while baking cookies. That ignited her desire to create a bakery, where she could provide meaningful employment to individuals on the spectrum. Rising Above Bakery, started...
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Episode 398 3.5%
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
On this week’s episode, I explain the importance of Saturday March 28th’s No Kings 3 Protest. Research says that if 3.5% of the population actively participate in sustained peaceful protest, the people can topple an authoritarian regime. And we have an authoritarian regime that desperately needs to be toppled! 3.5% of our country’s population would be 12 million people. Let’s show up and peacefully take to the streets and encourage everyone we know to come be a part of the 12 million people, gathering in solidarity to unite, resist, and restore our democracy. Check out the Show...
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Episode 397 Tenderness
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
On this week’s episode, I build on the poem I shared last week titled Because by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. The poem is about opening our hearts, even when the world around us temps us to close it or protect ourselves from all the anguish and pain. The poem encourages us to make love matter even when it is easy to fall into despair. I’ve let that poem seep into me and it inspired me to look up more pieces on heart centering and tenderness. May we sit at the altar of our heart. May we breathe deeply, listen compassionately. May we embrace the tenderness that tunes us into our truth, the...
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Episode 396 Love, As If It Matters
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
I share a deeply inspiring poem on this week’s episode. My niece shared the poem with me and her great-uncle shared it with her and he claims that the poem so beautifully captures his beloved wife who died last year. So this poem is charged with loving hands, open hearts and wisdom from this world and beyond. May we take love seriously. May we give love wildly. May we be gentle with our insufficiency. May we stay open in the face of indifference, anger, cruelty and fear. May we love as if love matters, as if the world depends on it. Enjoy the podcast! Links:
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Episode 395 Holding Onto Turquoise
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
On this week’s episode, I describe how soothed I was by the shades of turquoise in the Bahamas. For twelve days on a small island in the Bahamas, these gorgeous colors evoked mystery, boldness, vibrancy and calm. I can’t explain why, but turquoise nourished and healed my body, mind and spirit. May we hold onto to colors, images and words that calm our nervous system, quiet our minds and drop us more fully into the present moment. May we envision life as joy. May we see that life is service. May we behold that service is joy. Enjoy the podcast!
info_outline Two weeks after our 20-inch snow storm, the snow has been walked on, patted down, rained on, thawed and frozen over once again. My snowy path has transformed into an icy, crunchy, crusty, frozen path. Thank goodness for a pair of crampons a friend gave me about a month ago. It reminds me of putting on an old pair of galoshes, those rubber overshoes to protect our feet from rain. My new crampons have a rubber outline that fits over my boots, with spiked iron chains that cover the sole of my boot to prevent me from slipping on ice and snow. How appropriate for this week’s journaling from Layla Saad’s book “Me and White Supremacy” which focused on white apathy, white centering, tokenism, white savior-ism and optical allyship.
The work of anti-racism and these terms can be as precarious as the icy, crunchy, frozen path I traverse. We use excuses of tiredness, procrastination, overwhelm and fear to avoid engaging in anti-racism practices, like we use excuses to avoid walking in these winter conditions. We find ourselves numb from another black person murdered by police brutality, or opting out of doing the inner work because we are overly sensitive. Both the path of anti-racism and this frozen path are tricky and pull us out of our comfort zone, however each offers healing and beauty, we would otherwise miss out on. We can equip ourselves with resources, so please throw on your crampons, and take a winter walk with me! What we first deemed treacherous is now manageable and worth every step of the journey!
I am equipping myself with courage and crampons, for this frozen path has much to teach me. After all, beneath the layers of crusty, snow and ice, lies the promise of spring! Even though the thick layers of winter snow and ice prevent us from seeing all the seeds of spring that lay below the surface, may we trust in a world that will thaw and transform our racism. As the earth begins to warm up and everything begins to grow, may our hearts warm up so we can cultivate racial healing, equity and justice.
Check out the show notes for links to books and movies referenced.
Links:
“Me and White Supremacy” by Layla Saad
Good Ancestor Podcast
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem
How to Be an AntiRascist by Ibram X. Kendi
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
White Rage by Carol Anderson
Make Change by Shaun King
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
One Night in Miami
Judas and the Black Messiah
The 2 Killings of Sam Cooke