I try to pay attention to signs.
Not just stop signs, and yield signs, and "Ice Cream Cones Available Here" signs, but the less-overt signs of our lives.
The kind of signs that tap you on the shoulder repeatedly in what feels like 1) somewhat magical ways or 2) "why the hell does this keep showing up?" ways.
For years after my grandmother — a collector of bird figurines and funny little decorative plates and the like — died, I saw feathered creatures everywhere. Bluebird paperweights, and Tweety stickers, and woodpeckers knocking on the side of my house. I journeyed with a shaman and my spirit guide was an owl. I'd dream often of flying, soaring, diving. I'm sure it was her way of staying present in my life.
Over the past few months, I've found myself in situations saying out loud:
I love making connections.
Usually the phrase comes out of my mouth after I introduce two individuals in a social situation. (Side note: I absolutely adore this piece in Storyline on a better way to introduce your friends at parties. Give it a read, and try it out?) Sometimes it's simply e-connecting two folks who I think might benefit from knowing one another for personal or professional reasons.
Most recently, this happened in Denver at a 10 Letters Project event run by the amazing Jen Lee, which I attended with up-until-then-online-only-friend Jill of A Thousand Shades of Gray. (Meeting peeps who you've communicated with only online for months or years in person still blows my mind a little.)
I was giddy with the opportunity at Jen's event to introduce two friends I'd nudged into coming: photographer and designer Rebecca (who took the photos of me on this site) and film director Zach. They're creatives who do stunning work, both of whom I'd met originally in my hometown of Colorado Springs, but whose lives had never intersected (and who had both moved to Denver in recent years).
I introduced them. We all chatted. There were laughs. And smiles. I said out loud:
I love making connections.
And this time I felt something in my skin. An electricity. An embodied giddiness.
A physical sign, of something that, if I'm honest with myself, I've been dancing with for years.
I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want this blog to evolve into. Who I want to evolve into. What I will enjoy doing and what will benefit you, my readers, the most.
I know at its core, it has to be about making connections. Awakening connections. Even though I don't know exactly what that means yet. Or how to build a business/career/life out of that, if it's even possible.
I do know, however, that it's not just a person to person thing for me. When I think about connections more broadly, I know that I also love helping people connect to a greater sense of self — whether through teaching restorative yoga or recommending books, or through posts like Sunday sadhana. I also thrive on helping people connect to the larger world around them, through storytelling here on the blog and in other venues, in particular about my travels or social issues.
In the weeks to come, I'm planning for some new blog series. I'm also dropping a number of the affiliate programs I've been a part of over the past year or so that I don't feel are a fit anymore.
I'm still working out the details, but I'm excited to see what unfolds. I hope you'll join me for the journey, and let me know not only what you think, but tell me: What signs have you been noticing in your life? And have you made any shifts as a result?