I’m currently reading Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally by the brilliant Patti Digh. In it she shares this poem which went straight to my heart. I hope it speaks to you to0 – and that you hear a “Yes”.

“God Says Yes to Me”

by Kaylin Haught
from The Palm of Your Hand

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don’t paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I’m telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

Creativity heightens your senses. It amps up your awareness. It tunes you in.

As a blogger, I’m always pulling out my camera to capture a moment. On the podcast, I’m listening with my audience’s ears and drinking in the beauty of my guest. For Wishcasting, I get really still and listen for the wishes that are waiting to be set free. And as a writer and a thinker, my radar is set for inspiration, for the next adventure, the next discovery.

The invitation can come from anywhere.

For example, recently CBC music columnist Errol Nazereth featured a collection from Mowest, a subsidiary of Motown. One of the songs was called “Our Lives are Shaped by What We Love.”

I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Our lives are shaped by what we love. Is that true? My instincts say yes. In what ways is it true? How has it been true for me? What if we don’t admit what we love? What if we do? So many questions to explore from one little sentence.

Our lives are shaped by what we love.

Let me offer this up as a journal prompt for you today: How has your life been shaped by what you love? How might it be?

(And btw, you should be able to catch a glimpse of me in this video!)

Sometimes you need to dance, listen to a pop song and stand a little taller.

Well, this may well be the longest adventure yet! In 2010 the Next Chapter Book Blogging Group tried our first ever mail-around! Together we set out to explore The Happy Book by Meg Leder and Rachel Kempster, both of whom encouraged us with enthusiasm. (You can hear my interview with these lovely ladies here.) The Happy Book is an interactive delight, full of prompts to share pictures, drawings, poems, memories and reminders of where we find joy. What a perfect book to share.

Interest was so high that I created four mailing circles with participants in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany and the Philippines. With loving care, my friend Danette even followed up on the book, checking to see where it had arrived, ensuring the receiver knew here it was supposed to go next. (See, I’ve seen quite a few mail-arounds that… um… well, never made the “around” part.) Eventually it became clear that the plan was really ambitious and that life, well, life has its own plans.

But even so, through all the distance, through all of the challenges, through all the things life threw our way…

One book made it home!

Thank you to everyone who added their joy to the adventure, whether it was in this book or in one that is still roaming or whether you joined in for our Friday happy check-ins. It really is true what they say: shared joy is doubled joy. Thank you for all the smiles.

The other day I stepped into the kitchen to get something and flicked on the radio, as I always do, and was literally stopped in my tracks by this song. I hope it moves you as much as it moves me.

When you need to find the right words, have a listen. Trust yourself.