Wake Up! You're Alive

Losing a dear friend as spring blooms, plus a 5-minute practice to re-ignite your Spark of life 🌟

It’s Flourishing Friday, Brave Creatives. Happy Spring (in the northern hemisphere). Even as new life flowers, people die. Monkeys of worry, doubt, or enfrazzlement may try to steal your joy. May today’s 5-minute practice (jump to prompts) bring you back to what’s most alive in you. So you can shine that little light of yours ✨ bright and strong.

Our view toward Seattle, where our friend has just left. Forever.

Our dear friend Jussi died this morning.

As I wrote this post, a prompt to invigorate our sweet Spark of life, we got the phone call. It’s not a surprise. Jussi’s breaths and days had grown short since food and water ceased a week ago. We’ve been saying goodbye for several months since his cancer treatments ended. Still, it’s different. Final.

My throat chokes up with emotions. So many. Mostly, Love. Love for the man, love for all of us who mourn him. And love for life itself.

To honor Jussi, here are a few Sparks that brought him alive:

• Toasting his long, deep friendship with my husband by lifting a shot of Mezcal, which Jussi called “Mexican Whiskey.”

• The light in his kids and grandkid’s eyes. So glad Jussi’s family chose hospice care nearby (instead of his hermit-like home hours away) so they could stay close til the end.

• His Finnish roots, family, culture, and sauna traditions. So glad Jussi was able to introduce his beloved Finland to his daughter Kaisa and his sauna brothers last summer.

• His love of wild places: mountains, waters, forests, high desert. Jussi also loved all the ways he could access the wilderness: boats, motorcycles, and campers.

• Our rich, vibrant, multi-age community devoted to Earth-based spirituality. A dedicated introvert, Jussi crafted deep relationships among our chosen family, practicing ritual, myth, and initiation work with presence, creativity, and humorous reluctance.

• A good, hard, full-cackle belly laugh. Despite his Finnish reserve and philosophical leanings, Jussi lit a spark of humor everywhere.

How easily we forget that Spark of life.

My Monkeys put my panties in a twist over the dumbest little things. Meanwhile, I forget that Life is happening. Birds are singing. Right out my window, a huge magnolia tree bursts with pink blossoms. The Salish Sea sparkles and invites me to dip and sing with the seals and the seagulls. I’m privileged to live in this place that endlessly lights and re-lights my Spark. I’m privileged to create. I’m privileged to simply live.

What brings you alive? Try this Spark tool.

From my deck, “HeartsQuest: Creative Tools to Navigate Change”

May this 5-min. practice bring you some fresh, vital energy of aliveness. Follow in this video, featuring my alter-ego Queen Poopicina reading the ‘Holy Sh*t’ 💩 version of the tool (stay for a song about the little light inside). Or read the steps below.

The Spark. How do I reconnect with my own vitality?

• BREATHE deeply. Let out a big sigh: “ahhhh...”
• SEND your next breath down into your solar plexus, placing your hands on your belly.
• VISUALIZE this center of your body holds a glowing sphere of light. Notice its color and shape, and feel it expand as you breathe into it.
• IMAGINE that your Spark of life force energy becomes more activated, more fully alive, with what you love most.
• RECALL a moment of great love or excitement. Savor this memory. Does your Spark feel larger or glow brighter?
• REFLECT: “What makes me feel fully alive is…”

Make it Real: Feel the glow of aliveness

• EXPLORE: Write or share what your Spark loves.
• CREATE: Make a simple bit of art devoted to a memory that feels vital and alive.
• MANIFEST: This week, notice what makes you come more alive. If you forget how precious life is, breathe into your Spark. Seek what you love most.

---

🗣️ While you're alive, please drop a comment…

• Does springtime awaken a sense of aliveness for you?

• Have you lost a dear one lately? How did you honor their life and loves?

• What brings you most alive? Any creative projects or glimmers lift your heart?

• How does your Spark of life want to shine in the world today?

Thank you for feeling your Aliveness, the source of that little light that wants to shine bright. Jussi would want us to feel that way about living in a body. When you click that heart, comment, or share with someone who could use a Spark today, you help more of us be Brave in a world of fear. 🙏🏼💗🙌🏽 It means so much!

P.S. Death is so vital for the living. Here are a few ways this experience changed me: Dancing with Death (my first post) and Just Three Months to Live (an experiment in making choices)

More to come, with Big Love,

As Brave Creatives, we face Monkeys of Fear when we share our voices. 🙉🙊🙈 So let’s grow more courage, compassion, and connections here. My work has appeared in Time Magazine, feature films and television, newspapers, YA fantasy novels, and on stages. My creative tools are used in therapy offices and bathrooms across the USA 💩 More at HeartsQuest.com.💗