Today, I wear the tutu.
A spontaneous choice. It’s the long pale-pink one that is mystically adorned with greyish-purple stars, crimson and turquoise snakes, and heavy-lidded smiling suns. It’s the tutu from Miami, from the South Beach boutique run by Italians. A cherished keepsake. It’s the love-at-first-sight tutu. Spotted her on the mannequin as I strolled by the shop window. And then along the lively walk bustling with tourists and restaurants, after a few steps, I raced back, hollering for my sister to stop and shop along with me.
Yes, today I wear that pale-pink sweep of tulle from Miami.
And I pair it with a graphic tee that exclaims JOY - donning gold and new tennis shoes that are stylishly streaked with that alluring pale-pink. I’m on a mission to break these shoes in, before I leave for my European adventure next week.
So yes, today I wear the tutu and the JOY lit graphic tee and the new tennis shoes.
It’s a Tuesday and there are appointments to run, errands to do, little things to take care of before I embark off to Ireland, and I’m multitasking by specifically getting acquainted with these shoes.
And this is enough. If all I do is show up on time to my hair appointment while taking mindful steps in these tennis shoes, then that’s enough.
I am choosing ease.
I am choosing to be over-flowing in nourishment and embodied wellbeing before I leave.
I have a tendency, and the energy!, to over-do, to over-schedule … to pack-ALL-the-things in before I hop off to the next. I am a time optimist. I am optimistic about what I can accomplish … but these days, I am becoming aware of and softening into a new narrative.
A new way of being.
I want to be a woman who knows her ease, who chooses her ease, who adorns herself in ease.
This is the change I wish to be in the world. The woman who can relax, who replenishes her family and her community because she can soften, she can receive, and she can enjoy life as it comes, as it shows up, in all its perfected messy glory.
Ease.
Less going and more spaciousness for doing things well, with presence, with intentionality, with beauty.
And beauty by … wearing the tutu on a Tuesday because life is precious, and when I die, I know my soul will be content because I wore this tutu on a Tuesday, and re-scheduling the hair appointment because I can, and the re-schedule creates breathing room in my body, and there’s no need to have a slammed Monday. Tuesday is happy and free to take on the hair appointment. There. Settled. Ease.
An ease-nurtured departure.
Because an adventure beckons. I am off to the UK for a month or so, maybe longer or maybe shorter. I know for certain this … I am off to a friend’s Irish wedding. A two-day affair. The dancing begins at 10pm and doesn’t end till 2am, and the wedding cake is sliced for a midnight snack. I’ll wear these shoes to dance and celebrate … yes, they’ll go with another tutu I intend to take! There will be a breakfast that follows and a dinner later on the second day.
Then I journey to Scotland and England for theatre festivals and Shakespeare intensives. It’s been a long-held dream. I adore Shakespeare, and I love the theatre. It’s a heart-quickening and ease-rippling type of love. A knowing. A spirited excitement that flows all throughout my body.
That’s my August. Or that’s the outline for August.
I’ve been rather focused on cultivating ease in my day-to-day routine. Noticing where I can add in beauty or gift myself beauty.
Coffee in the teacup.
Leisurely resting on pillows and reading, and reading like I’m drinking water, those words are just hydrating my soul.
Granting myself grace, and in that self-giving act, showing up with even more present.
These days, my morning meditation concludes with the Buddhist lovingkindness prayer, the Metta Bhavana.
May I … be happy, be healthy, be free from mental anxiety. May I live in peace. May my life be blessed in ease.
May You (and with a sweet flash of insight, I’ll direct the prayer to a loved one, my family, someone who might need a lil extra blessing or just a group of people dear to me) … be happy, be healthy, be free from mental anxiety. May you live in peace. May your life be blessed in ease.
May We (the earth, the waters, the animals, the air, all peoples everywhere) … be happy, be healthy, be free from mental anxiety. May we live in peace. May our lives be blessed in ease.
All encompassing.
When I reflect on the change I wish to see in the world, I am brought home to ask how can I embody it?
Let’s start with ease. Let’s start by deepening into my inner soul, a woman who lives in harmony within her cyclical nature, a woman who is making peace and sporting the graphic tee with JOY.
I want to express to you, yes you!, how humbled and thankful that I am … that you choose to read these words, that you choose to journey along with me. It’s a gift. This is part of creative expression. We give and we receive. It’s a complete cycle.
I’ll be twirling off to that perfectly timed rescheduled hair appointment soon.
And tonight there is a full moon, a supermoon. A time for celebration, for gathering, or maybe just gathering all aspects of ourselves, tidy and messy, and recognizing our wholeness. This is what I like about the moon. The phases are just a trick of the eye, we are always whole as we flow through our phases.
And these past few years, my … they have been a phase. A phase of deep, winter-like introspection, a blooming of creative ideas, and maybe the full moon before my trip is an invitation … to wear the tutu, to sway in those new tennis shoes, and with breath-giving ease notice and celebrate the journey that has been, creating space for the present to give way to what will be.
I hope you’ll join me … just by softening, drinking in the August air, and letting the space that surrounds you support you. And if you feel inspired, wear the tutu, or that fun outfit on a Tuesday … because … it will enliven ease into the flow of your day.