Reading books and watching movies.....respect for creators.

One of my primary joys and means of resting is reading.  I LOVE READING!!!    I have read some really good books lately....one of them being:

This came from the library in the Highly Recommended section but the subject matter was slavery.  Not a light fluffy holiday read, I thought.  The skill of Andrea Levy was to immediately suck me into her story with such intimacy, I felt like it was being told to me over a cup of tea.  It was like watching a movie written and acted with such skill that I felt like a privileged bystander to the unfolding story; a witness to someone's inner world, thoughts and feelings whilst the tale of slavery told in the background of her emotional response.  I was captivated til the end.

Serendipitously, I watch 12 Years Slave the day before I started reading The Long Song.  Set 10 years apart, it tells of similar circumstances in America. Superbly acted it too sucked me into its world. 

Great acting and an incredible story.  Worth the watch and the heartache just to have that insight.  Such skill and passion and talent and human heart.  And it sparked a heart-felt discussion with my 14 year old son who initiated us watching the movie together.  That is the power of a story well told.  Expansion of the heart and mind.  I am so grateful for the creators among us....for their power to facilitate connection to our own hearts first and then to others across time and space....and disconnection.  Reconnection is the key to feeling Alive! As terrifyingly beautiful that can be.

Vacated / Vacation

I have not blogged for a long while again....I am starting to notice a pattern....this seems to be an annual thing.  I have been dormant in the blogaspere but my life has been anything but.

Hi.  My name is Donna and I am addicted to busyness.  Life has been on HUGE wave of late.  And I volunteered to ride it.  The busyness keeps me from really showing up and doing the big scarey things in my life that are truthful expressions of me.  I am basically afraid to be me.  Afraid to be the fully expressed version of myself.  I joke with my special friends that I vacate my body on a regular basis and the shell of me remains to be shared in a half-hearted way in my life.  It looks like I am there because I am busy doing many things and juggling many balls.

BUT, and it is a big but, I have vacated.

To be fully present and feeling ALIVE! I must first show up.  And then express myself.  Even when its scarey...and probably BECAUSE I am scared its even more important that I am present and fully express myself.  Brene Brown said that courage feels like you are brave and afraid at the same time.

I am afraid to take myself to the next level of expression AND I am afraid to be fully seen.  By new people.  I feel safe within the community of safe people.  People that know and love me as I am.

So as my first act of showing up and being seen....here I am posting my first blog in a while....in an attempt to express myself.  To come back from my VACATION....so to speak!