Putting on events, launching new programs, starting a business...taking whatever leap you're considering taking is never easy, but regardless the work it requires, you better be able to say it was fun to do or what in the world is the point?
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This little kitchen in Burnham, England, Spark and 16 years ❤️
That little house brought us back together, slowly but surely, as we carefully danced around and with each other, mending the hurts and traumas of the past years; its small doorways and rooms gently forcing us to reach toward each other versus apart until we’d (re)discovered and built upon our initial attraction to create an abiding love.
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Embrace change: Work toward your Spark in May
2016 Dayna Del Val would ruefully laugh in your face if you showed her this blog post. That year, only months before Mazz got sober, I was, again, contemplating how to leave him, how to walk away from what felt like an endless, slow, sad spiral to a bottom I couldn't see and didn't understand. There was no indication that anything was going to get better or ever be different.
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Birthing your dream
My carefully constructed blueprint might not have all the details I will discover or dream up. Plans I'm sure will work now might prove to be unusable when tasked with carrying this memoir from start to finish. Hopefully I'll conceive of ideas that are more valuable than anything I've yet imagined at this early juncture.
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Join the Spark movement: Let’s collaborate and grow together
For close to four years, I've been offering various opportunities for people to say yes to Spark work. I've loved the hundreds of people I've worked with in all these many ways we've engaged in this joyful work together, but it's time for me to change it up.
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The beauty of saying yes
Spontaneity is an under-valued trait. There's a lot of upside to not knowing how something's going to go and saying yes anyway. I'm not saying to be insane—there are certainly places to stop, take a breath and consider the options, weigh the pros and cons and seek advice from others. But mostly, saying yes is about trusting your own instincts, getting quiet and listening to that inner voice that's guiding you, trying to help direct your inner traffic if you'll only stop and pay attention.
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Embrace Easter: Find Resurrection in Personal Renewal
Consider how feminine the sunrise is. The colors, pale pink, yellow, orange, purple and blue slowly emerge and give birth to the glorious orb that appears as if from nowhere. Where there was dark, there is now light. When the sun breaks the horizon line, it’s as if the entire Earth takes a collective inhale and light and life begins again. Rebirth. Resurrection. Its Latin root, surgere, means “to rise.”
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Syncing with the seasons: a mindful approach to life, work and personal growth
Rest is vital for everything in nature. Whether that's hibernation, shedding leaves, low tide or early sunsets, nature understands that immense value of taking a break, slowing down, getting quiet and preparing to gear back up again.
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Navigating a silent battle: chronicling the creative journey
How do ideas and Sparks appear to you? I get asked often where all the words live in me. Truthfully, I don't know. They make themselves known to me, most often as a quiet but serious voice inside, and almost always from seemingly out of nowhere. My entire life, all my best writing has arrived like this and fallen out of me, like cool, clear water from a simple glass pitcher. Because I don't really think it comes from me. It's much more accurate to say my writing comes through me.
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Shame and isolation be damned
Shame at what's weighing you down breeds an almost frenzied desire to isolate. Mustn’t be discovered by everyone else, by anyone else–no one will understand what you’re going through; shame convinces you that you are the only person who has “failed” in this way, fallen down or been dragged down by someone else. Isolation, in turn, feeds fully off the stories you continue telling yourself as the shame piles higher and higher, burying you under its massive, crushing layers.
