Welcome to your audio LoveGram!

Today I send you tall pines — steady, solid, and majestic.

I send you the lens to see those trees as if this is the very first or very last time you will ever do so.

I send you spaciousness. I send you breadth and depth and the whisperings of your sweet soul.

I send you a good friend with whom you can admit when you are lost. And who celebrates all of the many kinds of getting found again.

I send you your own horizon, filled with new ways to love, new paths to explore, new songs, new flavors, new colors — all the possibilities that have yet to carry you over your next threshold.

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Today, my LoveGram is about one of my favorite topics: creating space for ourselves to listen to what matters most.  And someone to listen with — and alongside.

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I’m here near Lake Tahoe, CA with my dear friend Tricia, whom I have been friends with for more than thirty years.

Tricia has been by my side for many ups and downs. She’s explored life’s big questions with me. She’s cried with me, laughed with me, and given me a hand many times when I’ve been stuck in the mud.

We meet weekly by phone for what we call “powerful conversations,” about who we are, the work we do, our dreams, and our intentions. Twice a year we take ourselves away to someplace beautiful for a few days of concentrated dream time. Today is day two of a five-day retreat.

In the spirit of spaciousness and staying connected to our retreat, I am giving myself a break today from creating a new audio to send with my LoveGram.

However, I’m sending a link to an audio Tricia and I created last year when we were on retreat.

Listen here!

I just listened to it and it brought tears to my eyes.

It speaks to exactly the same thing I want to talk to you about right now: the gift of space, the gift of wide expanses of time, the gift of seeing with new eyes, the gift of deepening friendships, the gift of honoring our inner selves.

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This audio starts out with Tricia sharing a story about us spending a couple hours talking about our dreams (sleeping dreams, I mean!) and the metaphors and symbols that slowly emerged and revealed a lot to us.

That same thing happened this morning! We both brought these snippets of last night’s dreams, which at first felt unimportant and almost silly. We could easily have cast them off as just mind clutter. But because we have this spaciousness of time and focus, we allowed ourselves to swim around in the images and to let life speak to us on its own terms.

THIS is one of the gifts of spaciousness.

Life’s wisdom often doesn’t want to be hurried. It doesn’t want to have to be a soundbite. It doesn’t want to squeeze in between this and that errand.

I realize I harp on this a lot with you.

It is because it is so important.

If we want to feel more meaning in our lives, if we want to connect to people more deeply, if we want to HEAR the whispers of truth, we MUST slow down.

***

I just finished re-listening to this audio and I want to encourage you to not listen to the Squawky Polly mind that might say, “Oh, it is a repeat. No need to listen. I’ve heard this before.”

Personally, I heard so many things in this that I didn’t get when we created it or the other times I’ve listened to it.

Part of slowing down in life and opening up to wisdom is also the understanding that everything doesn’t have to be brand spankin’ new to move, impact, or transform us.

WE are what’s new.

The me listening to the recording from last year is different and she hears different things.

***

I also want to invite you to watch a short, nine-minute video that Trish and I created last year at the end of our retreat. It is called “The necessity of personal retreat” and it speaks to some of the reasons it is essential to give ourselves space and time free from everyday routines and obligations.

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I hope you will listen to the audio and watch the video. When you are doing do, pay extra close extra special attention to ideas that drop in for you.

What wants to be said to you?

Perhaps these questions will help spark ideas:

  • How can I create more space for myself to listen to what matters most?
  • How can I find time to notice the spiritual breadcrumbs life is constantly dropping for me?  (How do I pay attention to the symbols and metaphors from dreams, poems, conversations, or visuals around me?)
  • How can I  start bringing my inner life to life with more intention?
  • Is there someone in my life with whom I would like to make a deeper connection — a friend who could also become a mastermind or dream partner — someone who helps me live into who I most want to be?

***

Thank you for listening, today.

Thank you for being you.

I encourage you to remind yourself often that you deserve a rich life, filled with connection and meaning.

Seek celebration —even in dark corners,

xo Sherry

 

P.S. This week’s challenge is to consider someone in your life with whom you might want to create a more intentional connection. Someone whom you can help connect to herself and her dreams/intentions —  and vice versa? Will you set up a call, an afternoon, or a weekend to spend with this friend and commit to an exploration of what’s calling to you in your life, who/how you want to be, and what support you need? You could plan to hike, cook, do art projects, read, play music — anything that invites you more deeply into your life.

P.P.S. Here’s the link to my Kind Over Matter article about Living with Intention. I talk about the importance of time away to reflect and dream.

P.P.P.S. Here are links to two previous LoveGrams with Tricia as my special guest. In June, 2020, we talked about Make an Honest Stand. In February, 2021, we talked about Getting Lost and Found. Even if you heard these when they were first posted, they are worth another listen!

P.P.P.P.S Don’t forget, even creating the space of just one hour for yourself — an empty space to dream or read poetry or play music—  can open the door to listening in a new way. You deserve this!