Here we are at May 1st. It is surprising to me that we are now hearing that university students are finishing their semester, proms are done, and summer plans are being made. Wasn’t it just Valentine’s day?
May is the month we celebrate Mom’s. I want to give a shout-out to every mom I know. I value and respect your commitment to love and life. I appreciate the love you give to all the things you are nurturing. Whatever you are a mom to, I say thank you!
I want to give a special shout-out to Mothers of people! Whew! What a commitment to the unknown when you signed on.
* You surrender your body to the process of getting this being to the planet.
* You commit to this job without getting a Master Momma manual.
* You grow up while your little people grow up.
* There are no exchanges or returns and you don’t know what temperament your child will have.
* The bar is set very high for doing Mom-ing right.
I want to say THANK YOU for what you do. THANK YOU for your commitment to love, to support, and to listening to every up and down your child wants to share with you. THANK YOU!
I was very fortunate to have had a mom who was always (fact or fiction? Who knows? LOL!) happy to hear from me and to see me. She passed away in 2021 and there has not been a nighttime prayer that didn’t include a THANK YOU to her for loving me.
I wish you all a very Happy Mother’s Day. Your contribution to life is greatly appreciated.
Sending smiles,
Cherie
PS. This month I had the opportunity to travel to LaConner, WA. The extra good fortune for this trip was tulip season! You can’t imagine the brilliance of color when you stroll through acres and acres of tightly planted tulips. The energy in the fields almost vibrates!
Insider tip….if you’re ever in the area at this time, visit the fields at sunrise. The stillness, peace, and solitude is priceless!
How’s it going in your world? Have you got plans to explore new places this summer?
I just returned from my first visit to Terlingua, Texas. I wanted to see expansive natural space, and this is the perfect location. It’s hard to believe that Big Bend National Park in West Texas is 800,000 acres. The sheer expansiveness is hard to comprehend. The size of the park surprised me which sent me to Ms. Google to ask how many acres make up the King Ranch in South Texas. The King Ranch is even bigger! It is 825,000 acres. This world we live on is so big.
Along with visiting the park I ventured into the Terlingua Ghost Town’s historic cemetery. This cemetery was established in 1903. There we so many unique expressions of those who found their final resting place there. Here are just a couple gravesites I wanted to share with you. I love a gravesite that tells a story about the person’s life. These two definitely tell a story.
What destination is on your Bucket List? What do you want to see or experience? Where do you want to wander……for no good reason?
I encourage you to pick a date and a destination and go for it. Adventure expands your perception of reality!
Everything will soon be coming to life and blossoming. The creative energy that continues all life is gearing up to surprise you with the season of Spring. I don’t know anyone who is not energized by this universal movement of energy that reacquaints us with new beginnings.
In my own desire to invite and expand the presence of this energy, I’ve been setting an invitation to create something of beauty each day. I set this invitation first thing in the morning kind of like throwing open Tuscan window shutters to let in the sun announcing the arrival of a new day. It’s more of an invitation than an intention because I’m inviting this creative energy to show me fresh ways to create. Invitation feels much lighter to me than an intention. I can get real serious when I intend. LOL!
This practice has brought me some fresh inspirations I’m having a blast playing with….
Collecting pansies from my yard to bring color into my home. Well, the invitation sparked me to plant the pansies in the first place.
Taking an Artisan bread making class. This was a big surprise because I dislike cooking in the BIGGEST way. It was great fun. Now, I want to do a cooking class each month!
I signed up for private dance lessons. I love the Latin dances, but I don’t go out to dance. They start up when I’m heading to bed. I even bought professional looking practice shoes!
Collaging a wall gallery! Following renovation, I had boxes and stacks of artwork I have collected over decades of art markets and discovered artists. I had no desire to put them back where they used to live. For months I had no clue what to do with these goodies until 1 day. Bam! as Emeril would say, it occurred to me to bring them together. It will be my biggest collage to date.
The best part of the invitation to create something of beauty each day is the surprise of something new. I don’t know about you, but the feeling of ‘fresh’ fills me with renewed enthusiasm for life.
This creative energy is orienting me to what I’ve yet to experience. It points me to living life in real time, in this day, in this moment, while letting me step over the conclusions my mind has drawn about every aspect of me and every aspect of life.
It reminds me that we are living beings. The same creative energy that is bringing Spring blooms, sponsors your life.How do you want to co-create with it? What do you want to use your creative energy for? The best part? You get to choose!
Intuitive Painting is a process which helps you get out of your own way and let the creative energy move you. Let me know what you have chosen to use your creative energy for. I would love to hear what is coming to you!
What’s been going on? Have you put away all remnants of the holidays and looking forward to what’s coming your way? Have you reflected on what you want to come your way?
If so, check the direction of your view. Where are you looking? Another way to ask this question is, “Where are your thoughts hanging out?”
This topic has been popping up in many coaching conversations as this new year picks up speed. I think this is a question to get curious about: “Where are you looking?”
If you’re looking at your memories or personal history a lot of the time, where does that put your attention? Your attention is in your rear-view mirror. Are opportunities in your rear-view mirror or in front of you?
If you are looking to live in a fresh feeling of possibility, take notice where your head is hanging out. You have the option to bring that stubborn mind right back to the here and now. Please let me know what you notice.
Oh! I would love for you to join this Friday’s community event, Free Friday Webinar: Are You Hiding From Yourself? Free Friday webinars are live learning conversations where new friends come together to explore life-expanding topics. We come together via Zoom from around the world and leave the conversation as friends. Plan to come this Friday for the fun.
FYI: You will need to pre-register to receive the Zoom link. If you can’t make it live, I will send you the recording link following the conversation. Click the link in the next block to register.
If you are looking for support I would love to discuss working together. Reach out at Cherie@CherieRay.com and we can have an exploratory conversation.
How were your holidays? Did you get a chance to notice your thoughts, judgments, verdicts, pass through your mind? Hopefully, you saw them come and GO as easily as thoughts naturally come and go. Did you have fresh experiences this holiday season? Holiday Jeopardy is not just for holidays. LOL! Please drop me a line if you experienced the holidays with a fresh feeling. I would love to know.
Did you make new resolutions for 2025? Regardless, if you did or didn’t, what if you could ‘drop a pin’ for the direction you want to orient your life to? ‘Dropping a pin’ is defined as, you’re saving the GPS coordinates of that spot.
‘Dropping a pin’ requires no willpower or struggle like resolutions do. You don’t need discipline or good behavior, just a willingness to look in the direction of the pin. For instance, here is the location of my pin, Slow down, you’re already home.
This image found me on New Year’s morning as I was flipping through a travel book. When I saw it, the TRUTH of it rang like a bell for me. “Slow down, you’re already home.” I quickly removed the page, put it on my counter and dropped a pin into that statement.
The echo of this statement for me reminds me to slow down, stop striving, relax, enjoy more moments, choose what has the highest vibe for me, trust what’s easy, and by doing so, “It will ALL work out.” Why? Because it always does.
Let your pin find you. You will know it when you see because it comes with a feeling. A feeling you would like to experience more and more of as 2025 rolls along.
Let me know where you dropped your pin. I would love to support you in living in that direction, easily.
I have lots of opportunities to support you in moving towards your pin this year. There are upcoming workshops, a group mentoring program starting in March, and as always private coaching support. If you would like to know more about any of these options, let’s connect. We can connect by phone or set a time for a Zoom sit-and-sip.
My wish for your 2025 is for you to feel more alive, peaceful, and free.
I want to express my deep appreciation for all of the beautiful comments and connections from my ‘garage’ blog. For me, it’s always vulnerable to share some of the ‘wacky’ things my intuition encourages me to do. I have a warehouse full of them! LOL!
In the spirit of living fully expressed I wanted to share two pieces of creative expression with you. One is a collaboration between my treasured friend, Lorraine Weiss (lorraineweiss@earthlink.net) and Hakim Bellamy (beyondpoetryink.com). Hakim is the poet laureate of Albuquerque. Hakim also has videos on YouTube and many books available through Amazon.
In the collaborative music piece, Lorraine is playing while Hakim is speaking his words. It’s a poem he wrote using the words from the people around the table at an artist’s grant group.
The second piece is a film for the New Mexico Film Board with Hakim’s words. Mabel Dodge fans…..make sure you watch the film to the very end!
I wanted to share these pieces with you to encourage and inspire you to create. CREATE anything! When you allow yourself to create anything, anyway, any how, you are inviting your truest self to come forward into your current world. You will love the feeling this brings. You will love the feeling this brings, DOUBLE, when you don’t judge, critique or give yourself a report card on what you created. Don’t hold back. This is your time.
If you would like to launch or feed your creative process. Give me a shout or join one of the upcoming workshops, CherieRay.com.
Hello Friends! What’s new in your world? I hope you’re experiencing the freshness of fall with a big dose of inspiration.
Currently, I’m in a big wave of letting things GO!I have been riding this delicious wave of ease with a driving desire to purge the heck out of my life. It’s so interesting to me how you live amongst ‘stuff’ but never use it or notice it. Then one day, BAMM, it hits. I’ve removed shrubbery, clothes, the research documents for my graduate thesis (how did I let that sit in a box for so long?), loads of photos. So many photos of places with no people and duplicates and photos that don’t have any special meaning. Gone!
Except…. this photo. This is a very special remembrance of when I was introduced to Intuitive Painting. I don’t even remember taking this photo!
I don’t know if you can tell but this is the garage of the house I was living in when I first bumped into Intuitive Painting. I had wanted to explore something creative following the sale of my last business but hadn’t found the courage to walk into a class. I found a flier advertising a painting class where there were no comments or critiques. This intrigued me AND I didn’t believe you could have an art class without comments or critiques. I knew I had no painting skills, and I also knew I didn’t need to be reminded of my lack of skills by having my work compared to the others in a class.
Long story drastically shortened… I convince the Intuitive Painting facilitator to offer me a private class. It took her a while to consider offering it privately because it just wasn’t taught privately. Luckily, she did! In hindsight, I knew I was not willing to fail in front of a group.
During the 3-hour lesson she made a casual comment to me that “there are no mistakes in creativity.” Well, that comment irritated the dickens out of me and thoroughly ticked me off. It disturbed something very deep inside me. It felt blasphemous.
The weekend following the private Intuitive Painting lesson I was still stirred up. Fuming mad! So disturbed that I walked into my garage and saw some paint and foam brushes sitting on a shelf. My inner dialogue was ranting and raving, “if there’s no mistakes”, then I’m opening that gallon of paint and going for it. I shook the paint, grabbed those foam brushes, and started painting. I painted for 2 days only stopping for a few hours sleep. All the while daring the ‘powers that be’ that they were wrong.
Well, with all my temper tantrums, rebelling, and daring, I lost the argument! I still shake my head reflecting on how strongly my conditioned mind could not accept this TRUTH. By letting myself paint freely without a plan on my garage walls I discovered for myself that there are no mistakes in creativity. As TRUTH echoed through me, I discovered the reason for my mind’s stubborn argument. If there are no mistakes in creativity and I am a product of the highest intelligence of creativity, then I must not be a mistake. Up to that moment, my mind had convinced me that I was a mistake that couldn’t be fixed. My mind was so clever and quiet with its campaign that I didn’t realize how I lived under this lie.
Well, painting on those garage walls was over 20 years ago. In those 20 years the Intuitive Painting process has awakened me to so many untruths AND it continues to do so.
I’m very grateful for finding this photo which captures a pivotal moment in my life. I’m also grateful for the intelligence that offers up inspiration to let the old GO to allow the NEW in!
Are you feeling any new inspirations? I’d love to hear about them. Let’s connect!
A few weekends ago, I did a public yoga retreat at Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas. It was so much fun to be in a room with lots of yoginis and yogis, live and in-person; in a spacious room with beautiful views.
I appreciated Doug’s teaching style and philosophy. A teacher who promotes there should never be injuries in yoga is my kind of teacher. Here’s a link to his website if you’re interested: https://www.doyoga.com/index.html
Recently I visited a Presidential library where I watched an autobiographical movie about this president’s life. It played for about 30 minutes in a cool comfortable theater with velvety seats. In the movie this president spoke in the first person sharing what were his life’s passions. He credited his love of contribution and service to his parents, who were both very strong people with high integrity. He presented his parents as people who lived true to what mattered to them and that he had done the same.
As I watched this video, it struck me how this president shared who he was, in his own words, and from his own perceptions, about his time on this earth.This video plays on a loop all day long in the museum, every day the museum is open. So, for everyday it’s played, for all time, he controls the narrative of who he was. This struck a chord in me.
In politics – and in everyday life – there are so many stories being produced and shared. Rarely, if ever, do two people see someone the same. People argue for their perceptions and especially in politics, try to persuade you to see the story through their eyes, hoping to convince you their story is the accurate one.
I noticed how many people were sitting in this theater and how each person in the audience had their own production of who this man was in their minds. This production could be influenced by whether they wore a red or blue tie, did they know this person, how they knew this person; was he a friend, politician, lover, employer, etc.?
What impacted me was the simple reality that each of us has the right and the option to produce our own story and live in it.
Often, I hear the stories my clients are living under. These self-told stories are mental disfigurements carried forward in the storage spaces of their minds.
I know for too many decades, I carried stories about myself as well. I lived under these stories that weren’t consciously created by me. I didn’t know that being human came with idiosyncrasies. We all have them, and they are not imperfections to overcome. They are just part of being human.
My story suggested I was inherently flawed, when in reality, I was inherently human.
I think part of ‘waking up’ in our spiritual lives is ‘waking up’ to the falsities we’ve innocently believed about ourselves. The freedom we seek is not from outside sources but from the mental bondage we’ve innocently put ourselves in.
My invitation to you is to consciously produce who you are and then live in it. You know your heart. Live in it. Rest in it. Love from it.
I love a good bottom line. So, what’s my point? Well, there’s a few:
The production you live in dictates your behaviors.
This production is between you and YOU.
The story we produce about ourselves, in our minds, is completely subjective.
Your story is up for grabs, if you don’t produce it, others will.
Live your story of choice. NOT what you were told or carried in your mind up to this point.
The past is past. Leave it there.
You were born whole and complete. Bring that version of you into today’s version of you, settle for nothing less.
I wish I had seen this TRUTH decades ago. I would have loved nothing more than to lighten my load of not-enoughness a long time ago. I lived way too long in a story I didn’t consciously create or produce. Guess what? Not any more!
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I hope you’re having a wonderful summer! It is plenty toasty in Houston, Texas these days. Could we share some of it with you? LOL! Stay cool out there. I have lots of fun things for you to enjoy from the comfort of your own air-conditioned home! I hope you’ll join in.
The pace of this new year is offering many opportunities to reflect on how you’re spending your time, along with the opportunity to reflect on what you want to give your energy to. Taking stock – or checking in on – how I’m spending my time and discerning what I give my energy to, is on the forefront of my mind.
This gift of time and energy is one of the richest commodities we have to offer to the world and the ones we love. It’s so clear now, that I have a choice to move with what has the highest resonance. For me, it’s a tool for waking up to old habits or ways of doing things that previously had looked as if they were required by life. How funny is that? My mind had cleverly convinced me how life works, which is laughable. It doesn’t know what’s going to happen in the next moment or the next year!
Now, it’s so simple. In a new moment there’s a new opportunity. I can check in to see: Is this a conscious choice or am I moving with a habit? Easy-peasy. Moving with what has the highest energy moves your life in a fresh way. The struggle falls away. You show up with a fresh presence and full heart. The people around you will feel it.
What do we want for ourselves and others?
To feel satisfied and happy in life.
I hope this summer offers you many opportunities to move in the direction of what resonates with you. It’s a fun game to play!
I love supporting my clients, individually or in workshops, in eliminating struggle and opening to life. I’d love to share time with you. I have great workshops coming up at the Jung Center of Houston and from my own studio.
In a time when people seem to be more polarized and non-caring, with more bad news than good news reported, something like this happens.
Steve Hartman is a journalist with CBS news. He travels across the country meeting people and telling their stories. His stories are guaranteed to plump your heart and fill your eyes with tears of awe.
If he knew of this story, he’d be sharing it , just like me.
My mother passed away last year, and while clearing out her belongings, my sister and I came across her wedding dress. The dress was worn in 1950 and the years had made changes to the fabric. At this stage of packing up someone’s life, emotions are right at the surface and every item is precious.
We both looked at each other with eyes wide open asking, “What do we do with this?”
After a few moments, my sister had a flash of an idea. She recalled a woman in a town nearby who makes gowns from vintage wedding dresses for “babies born sleeping” for their funerals. Always prone to immediate action, she tracks the woman down and offers her the dress. The woman was delighted at the offer and we were relieved as she accepted our heirloom (in less than perfect condition) for her cause.
Fast forward to the present. The gown maker, Verna, reaches out to my sister and has something she wants to give us. Perplexed, my sister meets up with Verna to see what it could possibly be.
Verna shared that she was inspired to make Christmas ornaments from some of the fabric of the dress.
Now, this is something she had never done and had no clue how to do it. So, what did Verna do? Like the rest of us, she went to YouTube! She washed the discolored satin gown in her washing machine and….
It came through the wash perfectly!
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought the dress would survive a machine wash much less look as good as new! She used some of the fabric, the buttons, and the beading, to create these pieces:
I’m in awe!
’m in awe of the kindness that resides in Verna’s heart and her willingness to follow her inspiration when moved to do something she’s never done before.
I believe in the center of every human heart there is a space of warmth, kindness, and a desire to contribute. I’m incredibly grateful to be the recipient of Verna’s inspiration and generous heart. We will treasure these gifts that are symbols of the union we came from.
How would you like to offer your talents to the world?
What’s been on my mind lately isnoticing how the world keeps changing and noticing how my mind reacts to these changes. It’s as simple a fact of life that the sky is habitually blue that change is a constant in life. We hear it, we read it, we experience it, but all the while it’s a known fact, our minds still react to change. The reaction might be anxiety, agitation, overwhelm, excitement, disappointment,
agreement, disagreement, or any other mental assessment of what’s happening right in front of us.
If we fully accept that change is going to happen, how can we live more peacefully with this fundamental truth?
The obvious first step is realizing the mind is going to have a judgment about change, so what? Human minds are going to have an opinion on everything. Have you noticed it’s always offering you a report card on how you’re measuring up, in its opinion?
Another option is realizing you have choice. Choice to keep your attention on these judgments/assessments or let it/them go by. Not always easy, but each time you let an assessment go by, you strengthen your ability to let them move on through. You also have a choice to react or not react, to take action or take a breath, to the mind’s assessment. Woohoo! How liberating is that?You don’t have to follow where the mind is trying to send you. It’s rarely a pleasant adventure. Typically, into fear-land.
Becoming acquainted with these options helps you to see new possibilities. Your relationship to change will start to take on a smoother ride. Each time you notice you have a choice, you will definitely start to live in less anxiety, agitation, and overwhelm.
Next stop? Taking it all in stride…
I would love to hear how this lands with you. Drop me a line. I would l enjoy connecting with you.
Living INSPIRED! If you’re in my circle of newsletter connections, you know I’m all about living an inspired and free life.
This week I had the opportunity to work with a client who is a professional performer. They came to see me because they had lost their mojo. They wanted to live in inspiration and create new material from a full tank. None of that was happening.
As we explored more, inside them existed a full tank of grief, heart break, and loss. There was no available space for inspiration to move in.
Fast forward to this Sunday’s CBS Sunday Morning show. In this week’s show they interviewed Jon Baptiste and his wife, Suleika Jaouad. In this interview, Jon and Suleika articulate many points they came up in my client’s session earlier this week.
● Find your way
● To express the unendurable
● Triumph over adversity
● Turn on the Light
● Focus on the Light
In my opinion creativity is life and creative expression is the verb of creativity, creating. Both are essential to living an inspired life.
● Everyone needs to exercise and experience free creative expression
● Allowing this movement of energy, which needs an outlet, a vehicle to carry the expression. Creative expression allows it to move through, not settle in and make camp!
● To express beyond the mind’s definition of what needs to be expressed, free of interpretation.
● The healing/gifts are in the act of creating, not in the production of a product.
This doesn’t occur by painting well; it occurs by painting (or whatever you are drawn to do).
If you’re a living human being, you have been presented with many uninvited pains. What are you going to do with yours? Let them silently kill the spark in your life? I surely hope not. I invite you to “find your way” to make creative expression a conscious part of your life. If you need support, contact me. I’ll be your tour guide to living fully expressed and free.
Here we are in the full swing of Summer 2022. I hope you are full of enthusiasm for how you will spend your time.
I just returned from facilitating an Intuitive Painting workshop at Esalen Institute (esalen.org) in Big Sur, CA. Esalen has a very long history for supporting holistic education. We had a group of 36 people who took time off to explore what Intuitive Painting has to offer. The people who participated walked into the workshop from around the globe! This included people from the Netherlands to Massachusetts, from all professions. As the workshop was ending, we loaded all of the pages of paintings (26”x30”) on 2 tables for sorting. There were over 400 sheets of paper where these wonderful people explored the limitless nature of creating and the limited nature of their mind-set. What I saw on their faces at the end of the workshop was a fresh brightness.
I credit their bright faces to the experience of having a richer connection to their true self and a spaciousness they are taking into their lives to live more authentically and freely. Thank you to everyone who came.
Share the spaciousness and freedom (a real friends with benefits moment of these participants) and embrace your summer. I have several fun events available for you this summer. I hope you will join in! They are listed below on this email and a complete list can be found on my website, Cherieray.com.
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