Looking at it from this different lens, it's easy to see how anyone could read that and assume I'm only interested in working with people who have grand, audacious dreams: professional athlete, rock star, astronaut, tech scion… In the course of thinking about and working through this with a number of trusted people in my life this week, I came to realize I've only been thinking about this work from a shallow, surface-level place because it never dawned on me that anyone would believe they didn't have a spark.
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Something to puzzle over
Dr Marry and I did what so many of us do: we make a big declaration about something...anything in our lives. And we make a great big splash about it.
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So much already planned for 2023
Happy new year! I hope your 2023 is off and running. I’m using this post as an opportunity to share three offers I have created for the new year. Some of this can get confusing if you don’t live in my brain (be so happy about that, btw!), so I’ll try to explain as carefully as I can what each offer entails. I hope you’ll be as excited by one or more of them as I am. A FREE, virtual, 3-day (re)Discover Your Spark experience Tuesday, January 17—Thursday, January 19 over zoom from 11:45-12:45 CDT. In September, I held my first-ever, free opportunity for people to get a taste of…
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Facebook memories inspired my word for 2023!
It's amazing to realize that on this day, five years ago, I would have hesitated to say why the year had been difficult and heartbreaking. I would have stumbled over the truth behind what made it joyful, surprising and blessed because I wasn't yet, we weren't yet, ready to openly share our story. Perhaps we didn't yet trust that this new phase would last, given how relatively effortlessly the shift from utter despair to absolute joy had arrived at our doorstep. I also know that shame was still part of our lives. It might have downgraded to a baby elephant, but given that they weigh 200+ pounds at birth, that's…
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Out with one decade and in with the new
December 28, 2022 early am I’m up in the early, pitch dark silence of York, England, sitting in the living room of the beautiful AirBnB I rented nearly a year ago for just this occasion, the final day of my 5th decade. A number of people I love are asleep in this house with me: the incomparable Dr Marry, my spectacular mother, her partner Bob, my beloved Quinn and his girl Leona. All, and my brother Wes for part of it, have made the trek across the pond to celebrate this milestone birthday with me—something I have been planning since Dr Marry and I celebrated my 46th birthday in Yorkshire…
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Christmas memories from the “days of yore”
I immediately pulled out the cassette tapes of these albums my dad made for me in the 1980s. Incredibly, we still have a working tape player, and perhaps even more incredibly, the tapes are playing just fine. I've had them on pretty constant play ever since. Although I had forgotten that you have to physically turn cassette tapes over, which is kind of irritating compared to our modern streaming services, where all we have to do is tolerate a few ads or pay a monthly fee.
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A hodge podge of thoughts
What good habits might you begin incorporating into your life if getting started were that little? Lift one tinned can one time to start weight lifting? Eat one fewer potato chip? Leave one item in your shopping cart? Put one dollar into savings?
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Who are the banks of your river?
I'm in the midst of making big, life-altering decisions, and Dr Marry's opinion is the most important one to me now. Today, he listens, asks thoughtful questions and considers all the options before sharing his ideas. The banks he provides keep my water contained but moving forward in a dynamic, fluid, evolving direction. We are alongside each other, the water up against the bank, creating an equal push and pull. And we effortlessly transition back and forth between the two different roles depending on the needs of the other.
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Grant funded (re)Discover Your Spark virtual weekend retreat for ND-based artists & makers now available
Fargo-based arts leader welcomes North Dakota artists and makers to attend virtual retreat focused on personal exploration OCTOBER 20, 2022—Two years ago, a spark of inspiration ignited a shining new vision for The Arts Partnership President and CEO Dayna Del Val, one that has since helped her—and many others—rediscover passions, projects and purposes that have long since fallen into the shadows. But first, she had to walk into those shadows. Del Val recalls the moment the idea for (re)Discover Your Spark hit her where she needed to feel it the most: right in her head and her heart. “In September 2020, I was awarded a two-week Artist in Residence with…
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Be here. Now. Wait, what?
Stop examining your life and comparing it to what others say about theirs. If there are people who can clear their minds and sit in the empty vastness of the universe for minutes on end, good for them. That's not me. They have different gifts than I do. And you have different gifts, too. They might not look like anyone else's—isn't that a blessing? Isn't that what makes you YOU?
