The Heat is in the Work

This Sunday I am excited to explore the idea that the heat is in the work.
That there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate gear.
Go on big adventures, but take a good guide.

My first Life Coach, the amazing Patt Osborne.
My out of this world amazeballs, mindful and adventurous sister Michy Lemay.

This Sunday I am thinking about the theme of being a good leader, mentor, boss, coach, teacher, student, learner and human deciding to consciously evolve on our planet. Cheers to the Mutants! (Here is a link to this joke).

Please watch the video above and then enjoy some additional thoughts below.

I find that making choices when it is hard, is HARD. The reason we struggle when we are struggling is that the struggle is real…or we wouldn’t be struggling.

What makes a great human in your life that helps you make progress on your next step? How do they help you move forward when no way forward seems possible?

I call that still, small voice- yearning to be heard, your impulse of evolution. I learned about this phrase from this amazing woman. She is one of my heroes. She has taught me, more than anyone, that that impulse matters and it needs to be listened to.

You see, I think that most of our depression, anxiety, addiction, and abuse, comes from us not listening to the needs of this impulse of evolution in each of us.

Getting help (a caring human to hold space for your evolution) is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.

Think for a moment about all the amazing souls that helped you along your path thus far.

I think about all my teachers and sports coaches. My supervisors and colleagues. My formal mentors and paid coaches. My healers. My husband. My friends. My siblings and parents. My children.

They have all seen a great deal of snot and tears…they still will if I am lucky.

I think my capacity to feel and be vulnerable has always been one of my strengths. I think that if you have seen me like this, you are a great person who has helped me grow.

I don't think I would have always said that. In fact, I was just about to apologize publically for my past and my emotions.

I don’t think I will do that anymore. I think instead I will just thank people for holding space for me. Because it is an honor when I am able to hold space for anyone that needs to cry and have snot come out of their nose in front of me.

I have grown more comfortable with advocating for my needs and I am working out more so I feel stable. When I am scared, when I feel hopeless or backed into a corner or straight out exhausted…that is when “I’m a little unsteady.”

On those days, I am so grateful for the folks that hold my hand and tell me, you are ok, you got this. Go ahead and breakdown. I can handle it.

So today, this week as I celebrate “Spinning into Stillness,” in my Club of Conscious Evolution/ Painting if the Month Club, I thank those that are able to watch me spin and hold space for me to still. I thank those that make sure I KEEP my power when I get a little wobbly.

Mantra for the week: I allow the stillness.

LINKS:
www.katelemay.com
The Monthly Club
Join the Journey, Email List
Facebook
Instagram
Stillness Painting

Dedicated to the Life and Legacy of Barbra Marx Hubbard

Living the Art of Conscious Evolution, says “I’m paying attention and making the most of each and every day on earth.”

It involves listening to your body. In order to do that, you must honor your body. Give it clean food and lots of water, movement and time in the outdoors. Let it play with friends and laugh and nurture gratitude.

If you commit to a life of Conscious Evolution, you really need to know the ship you are in. What makes it tick. What kind of gas it needs. How it recharges best. What checklists and systems keep it tuned up. What time it gets going and when it needs to be plugged in for the night.

If you see your life as Art, you understand that it is not a science. Science has rules. Art has intuition. Living life as an Art of Conscious Evolution is a combination of living parts of your life like science and parts like art.

For me, the parts that are like science are food, water, sleep, and movement. There is an art to each one of these areas, however. Like how large of a water container I need and the fact that I drink more water when I use a straw. I really like mineral water if I had a choice. For food, there is a science to the menu, but an art to planning, preparing and enjoying it. When I think about movement, my exercise of choice at the moment, it is yoga and spinning. The science is to plan ahead and stick to it. The art is the flow I choose or the type of class I participate in. Choosing these things is science. Enjoying them is art.

If I know I am doing what I can to keep my body clean and pure, then I know I can trust it when it is speaking to me. It is one thing to hear the needs of the physical body. It is another thing to hear the needs of the soul.

For me to hear the subtle parts, that still small voice, I must be connected to that which is bigger than me. If I am honoring my body, then I am able to connect much easier. Connecting can be writing, painting, practicing deep movement, meditating or doing anything with deep focus and concentration. My best work is done while I am connected. Connected feels plugged in. It feels unified with all. It feels like my mind, body and spirit are in harmony and out of my fingers or through my muscles things happen that blow my mind. It is one of my favorite feelings. The feeling of riding the waves of life. The feeling of co-creating with all that is.

The Art of Conscious Evolution is a daily, breath by breath practice of being present. In the moments of doing the dishes, getting the kids out the door, doing your expense report, folding the laundry and channeling all that is, through you into the world. You are right there. You are on the edge of evolution.

Being present with the connected self does not always feel the best. Sometimes it feels itchy. Sometimes it feels hot. Sometimes it is very uncomfortable. I call these “sensations.” Instead of saying “I am depressed” or “I am feeling anxious” I say, “I’m having a sensation.” I ask the sensation what it wants me to know. What is causing it in my body or mind or spirit? Where is the sensation hanging out in my body?

Sometimes it can take a day or two for the sensation to bubble up and out. It usually feels like weeks, but I am pretty sure it is only days…sometimes only hours. The process of actually feeling the feeling in my body usually only takes minutes but avoiding feeling that feeling is what drags it out.

I am now really onto this. The Art of Conscious Evolution means I live like a detective in my own skin.

What am I feeling? Where does it live in my body? What is it trying to tell me?

The clue for me, that I have really found the nugget inside my body that is causing the sensation is that my eyes begin to water. My eyes water when I open my heart. When my heart is open I know I am in the right frequency to feel what I need to feel.

When I started down this path of conscious evolution I was in my mid-twenties and I felt like I would never stop crying. Anytime I would hit anything “sacred” like my childhood church or a sacred circle, I would just weep almost the entire time.

I felt so broken. I felt so needy and alone. I felt so helpless.

But the funny thing was, I was getting stronger with each and every tear.

I am now 42. I still cry, but I am much more stable. I feel so comfortable in my own skin. It might be my age, or my hormones or my healer. It might be the art I created and then worked and worked for over a decade. It might be the care of my body, mind, and spirit. All I know is that I am so grateful.

I am grateful for every frigging tear. I am grateful for every human that listened to me in those moments where I was so deep down, I thought I would never come up. I am grateful for my commitment to the process because today, I feel so so so good (most days). And on the days where I do not feel so good, I am beyond grateful. I am grateful because I know that I am growing.

The harder days feel long. What makes them a gift these days is my awareness that each sensation that signals the elevator going down is a sign that I’m going in. I’m going deep and I will rise with incredible stories to share. It is that process of diving so deep that I am not sure if I will come back and then hitting some kind of bottom and doing a flip turn and pushing off strong and hard and knowing that I will rise. I will reach the surface. I will paint, write and tell stories about what I learned because I am an artist. I am an Artist of Conscious Evolution.

I hope this little set of words has given you something. If you have read this far, and you feel called, please let me a note about what you see in this that resonates with you.

If all the things we come in contact with shape us just a schooch, what will you take away from this? Leave a comment below, because your thoughts and words are a gift to us all.

XOXO,
Kate Lemay
Artist of Conscious Evolution

Website: www.katelemay.com
Art & Jewelry inspired by the journey of conscious evolution
“Wear on the OUTSIDE, what FUELS your INSIDE.”
Loving this stuff? Join the Conscious Evolution Club, a place to engage and own one piece of symbolic art and jewelry per month.
Up next- Vibration

I recently embarked on another journey. I packed no clothes. I have no itinerary. I have an open invitation to all my friends and family, and I have possibility sitting shotgun in the hardtop convertible car.

The tunes will start predictable, Mumford and Son’s, Alanis Morrissette, Coldplay, maybe some Krishna Das or Justin Timberlake to spice it up.

I am inviting you to join me.

There will be themes for each month. Themes based on bright vivid color and shapes and rich, luxurious paint. There might be spirit animals and howling at the moon. There could be campfires and playing in the snow, and laughter. There will definitely be laughter. There may be tears (I am sure there will be a few) and growing and solving problems and jumping, leaping and saying heck YES.

There will also be no thank yous and yes pleases and “pinch me” I can’t believe this is so good.

This journey has a destination of sorts, it does have an eventual end but it is long enough to go deep with a safe cocoon of humans that will make you braver, allow you to be bolder, that will cheer you on to be more you.

We are going to play with an ancient spiritual technology called the Chakra System. I will dive down deeper than I have before and I will watch and learn and share what I see. You will join me as a detective in this journey. You will be investigating the deepest cracks and crevices of you. What is your root? What makes you feel grounded and safe? What gives you joy? What helps you create? What helps you allow flow and feel pleasure? Where is your power? How do you charge up that power? How do you find your people? What will you call the friends that will help you birth your dreams? How will you invite them to play? Practice using your voice. Shout to the universe. Whisper your prayers. See it all. See clearly and with crisp certainty of each, step. Connect to all that is. Know who you really are. That is where we land in the first seven months. We will slowly and steadily LIBERTATE POSSIBILITY.

You see I have been on the craziest ride of my life. It has been, so frigging crazy. It is long and twisted and magical and so very real. But the WHOLE WAY I believed. I believed in this magical hardtop convertible car ride with you. I could see you sitting next to me, “Woooo Hooooing” with a big smile on your face and you are convincing me to listen to your favorite song. We listen together as you belt your heart out and I decide I love this new song and it will always remind me of you.

Later that day, in a quiet moment we walk by a beautiful river. Sitting on a huge rock, I ask you…what does possibility mean to you?

“What does possibility mean to you?”

You see I BELIEVE in possibility at the deepest part of my soul. I believe 100% in possibility.

I believe it is possible to solve big problems.
I believe it is possible to love more.
I believe it is possible to create a life of your dreams.
I believe it is possible to feel joy even after the deepest pain.
I believe it is possible to feel hope even in the darkest of days.
I believe in the possibility for art to heal you.
I believe in the possibility of art to change the world.
I believe in the possibility of your wildest dream coming true.

What do you believe is possible?

I am inviting you to ride shotgun with me in this car (OK, you can drive if you want), to discover what possibility you want to set free. To let it rip roar through time and space while you get a front row seat.

I’m telling you, this will be the best ride of your life. Because this is your life.

This is our LAUNCH month, the first one ever. This will never happen like this again.

If you feel the tug, get in the car (It is a fake car, but it might be real…I do have a hardtop convertible and if you are with me in real life, we can go for a ride as long as we can play your favorite song. I really do need to broaden my musical palette.)

Painting of the Month Club is the name of the journey.

It is January 18, 2019, 8:55 pm and I am so frigging pumped about all my YES journeyers. This group of humans is AMAZING.

We are about to get cooking, so please jump in if you feel called.

Thank you for reading my magical friend. Check out details about this magical journey here.

XOXO,
Kate

Today I crossed my legs, it was a huge deal. My hip has been all jacked up and hurt, I learned how to release the muscle today, it felt like a big win.

I am coming off of another amazing weekend. I am studying Yoga Teacher Training with the amazing Christina Alexa and her YTT Team. What a gift. Every weekend I am blown away by how much work can be done in 20 hours. We do practice, learn about postures and Sanskrit. We engage in meaningful conversation, learn anatomy and how to roll out facia. It is deep. It is real. It is amazing.

I love the humans I am playing with. They are incredible. It is like camp. We began as strangers and we will leave as life long friends.

Last June I was sitting in the lodge at Sandy Island at the end of the Live in Love Retreat and Christina was teaching and at the end of the workshop, my friend Lani mentioned Christina’s upcoming training. Immediately my heart leaped as I thought, you have always wanted to do that, you should say YES.

At the same moment, two of Lani’s other friends said “we are in,” and I then said, “me too.” It was not well thought out even though I had thought about it for years. It was a time commitment of 10 weekends for 20 hours each weekend. It was a financial commitment. It was a commitment to yoga and in the biggest way possible since I have given birth to my first child, it was a commitment to me.

All I can say, sitting 5 months in, this was one of the best decisions of my life. It was a heart yes. It was slightly impulsive. It was one of my many amazing decisions from 2018.

I am so grateful for that yes. So, so, so, so grateful.

I am growing so much and doing it with amazing people. I love this community and it is helping me to love myself and my connection with all that is in a deep and meaningful way.

I am writing this today to lock in a couple of things.

1. If my heart says yes, I say yes and I figure out the details. The heart is SO smart.
2. I love and appreciate things that really help me grow and improve myself, my family life, my health, my finances, my commitment to fun, my flexibility, my strength, my capacity to love and be loved, and my freedom.
3. I LOVE communities of people that embrace me for being me and show up and I love them for being them.

This past year (2018) I said yes to a few amazing experiences. YTT was a big one. The altMBA was a big one. Women Inspiring Women mini group of master chicks has been a big one. A few amazing family vacations, time with my larger family at the ocean for my Mom’s 70th birthday, a sweet night with Alanis Morrisette and my first cruise with an amazing group of new and old friends.

I continue to say yes to the YMCA and Overnight Camping. Yes to building strong communities of campers with dedicated staff and volunteers, donors and alumni. My heart yes’ were around doing bigger projects and saying yes to impacting the lives of more campers. Wait until 2019 wraps up, my heart is already bursting with excitement for what is to come.

Thank you, heart, for being so smart. Thank you, rest of me, for listening…so good, so good, so good.

Listen for the jump in your heart. The leap of yes that comes from joy and love and possibility. YOU GET ONE LIFE and you have no idea how long you get. So, by all means, save your money, plan for the future. But also plan your today and maybe your month and year around a life that lights you up and makes your heart feel all the feels.

That is all for tonight. Thank you so much for reading this. I am grateful for you.

XOXO,
Kate

PS: If you want to play with possibility, I am doing something new that may speak to you. It is called the Painting of the Month Club.

I went to the University of New Hampshire to be a veterinarian. I have always loved animals. Three things derailed my drive to be a vet.

1. Organic Chemistry is hard to do well in if you do not study.
2. Dissecting a cat that looked like my cat was too much for me.
3. I was spending 4x more time on art homework than my pre-vet homework.

I had a drawing teacher who was in construction and one day after he saw my homework, he said: “I have never met anyone in all my years of teaching as passionate about art as you, you might want to change your major.”

I have no idea how long he was a teacher.
I do not remember his name.
He could see into the deepest part of me and he spoke up, and I heard him.
That day he changed my life.

I remember walking home from class thinking about his words and who I really was in my deepest core.

I was not a good artist. I did not draw well (I am horrible actually). I can’t sculpt, my photos were weak. I am not good at realistic anything, but the day I started painting I fell in love. I think it was something about the color and the magic of moving around the paint and creating line and shape from pigment. I was not good at it, but I LOVED doing it. Making art with paint was a home for my soul.

I remember one of my painting teachers in college said I should get a regular job, that painting was not going to be a good career choice for me. I knew she was right. I was not talented.

Out of college, I went to work as a waitress and then I sold things like pens and t-shirts and mugs (that taught me that I did not want to do that). I also had a stint as a crafter, making hand made pins. I loved that job making pins and I loved the people at the T-shirt shop, but I knew I wanted to do more with my life. It was a yearning for more and I fled and land in New Jersey at a YMCA Camp.

I was hired by a day camp to be the art teacher. I was 22 years old. I drove from Maine to New Jersey for the job interview, (this is not very normal). I have been in the camping world for 20 years and only a few folks have ever taken the time to meet with me (let alone travel for 6 hours) for a summer job interview. That YES to drive and meet with the camp administrators changed my life. I took a job working for YMCA of the Pines, and I stayed for 8 years.

One day, while working in New Jersey, I met a young girl that I do not remember details about. Her words, like the teacher from UNH, changed my life.

I was teaching art to some kids in the afterschool program one afternoon where a young girl told me that I was going to be a famous artist.

The way she said it felt so real to me. I agreed with her, and then watched in amusement at how my inside brain chatter began to dispel the idea.

Do you know how hard it is to make a living as an artist?
You are not good at art, what are you thinking?
Ha ha ha ha ha!

I went home that night and the words of this young girl became such an awareness tool. When did I stop believing in my dreams? A seven-year-old girl could see more in me then I could. I had given up on my deepest passion in life and that was very sad. I had given up hope and that broke my heart.

So that night I vowed that I was going to say yes, all in yes, to pursue my dreams of being an artist. I paralleled that idea with staying in the YMCA as a place to share the best of me with the world. As a place to create spaces for kids and young adult (and now adult) staff. A place of creative expansion. A place of hopes and dreams. A place of nature and community. A place where we see our individual strengths and use them for the good of the whole.

I stay in the Y, in overnight camping, to serve as hard as I can. I use art as a place where I recharge and regroup and see and feel so that I can take on the biggest challenges I possibly can. I make art so I can take 100% full responsibility for everything, 100%. I must make art so I can be the mom my kids deserve and the wife my husband deserves and the sister and daughter and friend and a me that these humans in my life deserve.

You see, art is no joke.

If you are called to make music or sing or dance or paint or make pottery or bread or improve the health care industry or discover a new way to make plastic so it does not pollute the oceans…that is a still small voice calling you to say YES to you.

The way you find it is to listen to the world around you. It might come from a teacher you will not remember and a young girl who has no name, but the voices are yours. You are listening to the reaction you have to the rubbing up next to others. That is why we live in a world of others, we need it to see.

So I write this to invite you to listen and then say yes to your need to create something. I don’t know what it is for you, but you do. And we need it. Our planet needs it. Your family and friends need it. You need it. You really need it. It will give you balance and strength and a feeling of purpose that wakes you from slumber and makes you feel the most alive, like you and the source of all that is are working together to evolve the world we live in today, and it knows we can make it better. #toomuch? #nevertoomuch.

If you have read this far and something teenie tiny, or loud and boisterous is speaking to you. It is talking about that thing it wants you to spend more time doing, please listen to what is it saying. If you are all the way here in this little bit of words, why? What kept you going? Maybe give that a moment and then be brave and write it in the comments so others can see your brave. I am cheering you on so hard.

As always, thank you for reading my fellow human journeying on planet earth.

XOXOXO,
Kate

PS: Please say something if you see the spark in your fellow earth travelers, it might just be the words they need to hear to say yes to that voice. You could be the 7 yr old girl, you could be the art teacher.

“Do practice while you can. You’ll need it when you can’t.” -Krishna Das

I just finished Danielle Laporte’s book White Hot Truth and got out of bed (it’s 11 pm) to get out some thoughts because this book was that good. That is where the quote from Krishna Das comes from.

Bravo Danielle.

I read books that dance with themes and ideas of spirituality and this one spoke to me in a deep way. It might have been the timing or my headspace when I read it, but man did it speak to me.

Especially at the end.

When she talks about drugs and sex and things that most spiritual books do not talk about.

She talks about these things mixed with Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, Jr.

As I was reading the words I was saying out loud (in my head) holy crap, that is a brave thing to just put out there. Good for you.

When I read that quote by Krishna Das I was so pumped. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Do practice while you can. You’ll need it when you can’t.
-Krishna Das

I work in the not for profit summer camp world and each season, for the last 20 years I finish up the summer with no gas, leaving it all on the field, spent. Last summer may have been the best summer I have ever had as a leader. Not too many 911 calls, not too many crisis moments. The staff were rock stars and most folks behaved and gave their best efforts to our campers. I could not ask for more, but I was ripped at the end. Even with a great summer, the sprint is no joke. No joke at all. There are probably so many jobs that work three months straight managing a team of teenagers with very little work experience and your team changes almost completely with new players in new jobs every year. Where you are always raising money and being your best self the best you can all the time. I’m not the best at this, but man do I try to give my best. And so far even with everything I could ever know about pace and self-care, this gig does a number on me.

I say this, and I say this- I have the best job in the world. I am a team leader of three amazing, very loved, amazing to the core summer camps. I work with passionate young people and families that have been part of these special places for in some cases multiple generations. It is humbling and an honor to serve the people of this community. I LOVE MY JOB.

Do practice while you can. You’ll need it when you can’t.
-Krishna Das

Which brings me back to this statement and what had me jump out of bed to write.

My seasons and cycles are very defined in my work. I love the sprint (camp season that is my favorite), then I do a sprint reflection process with our community leaders and finish the budget process in late October, then its wrap up fundraising season until the end of the year and then it’s vision and plan and build time and then the hard push to set up and the go go go in May.

For me, Thanksgiving until Christmas is rest, rejuvenate and reflect time. Then from Christmas to New Years, I feel this surge. A surge to create and deliver an idea.

Do practice while you can. You’ll need it when you can’t.
-Krishna Das

I do this because to birth my big ideas, I have to commit and see a vision in this single week of the year. Today is January 4th and I am already falling asleep at 7 pm. This is because with my renewed commitment to my own physical health and being more present as a mom and wife, and skiing and yoga and japa and spinning and cooking and doing the most focused and productive work I could possibly do for this amazing place that I serve, I am tuckered by 7 pm. No energy to make art, no energy to bring my big bold creative dreams to life. But I did, for a few days between Christmas and New Years launch an idea. The idea is a 49 MONTH vision. It is HUGE. My biggest practice plan yet. The great part is that because it is 49 months I can create a structure and system that will FEED my practice, for 49 months, almost 4 years. Like a college degree or raising children or a true career, you can sink in and really find joy and deep gifts in the process and the journey.

I created a club where I will mail my art (painting and a necklace) with a mantra card and a custom letter each month to all the amazing souls that have said yes to my little burst of passion, that have said yes to playing with me for 7 of the 49 months. The commitment from me is to create, pack up and share my work with the world. Thank god…a reason to keep at my art.

Do practice while you can. You’ll need it when you can’t.
-Krishna Das

My REAL practice is making art. That is why I spin and do yoga and meditate, so I can hear. So I can see. So that I can touch that which I have no words for. So I can dive as deep as I possibly can and come up with stories to share. So that when I really need it, I have the most solid foundation in the world to stand on. It is faith. It is love. It is a connection to the whole and I am so so so so grateful for this part of my life.

Do practice while you can. You’ll need it when you can’t.
-Krishna Das

When I committed to making the Free Time Project It was so that I could feel my most healthy while serving a community. Now that I serve three communities, it has taken me four years to get back to a place where I could prioritize an action a physical plan for an art practice that is bigger than me and will last for four years so that I stay in personal practice while continuing the gift of serving others.

So thank you for putting up with my bursts of creation and sharing about my creative process. I do it to remind me of my journey and if it provides you anything I am so incredibly grateful for that. I am so grateful for you reading this far and seeing me (or at least this part of me). You’ll see my evolution of this project over the next few years, feel free to jump in anytime if you feel called. I keep saying the investment will be worth it someday. The art market is like betting on a horse…art for the win…and we all win. A true win-win-win-win-win. Now you just have to define what a win is for you.

See you on the magical yacht with cafe lights, under the stars with Motor Booty playing live as we sail under the night sky. It is going to be one heck of a ride.

XO My friend XO,
Kate

I hope this note finds you doing great and excited for the New Year!

I wanted to share a new idea that has bubbled up from deep in my soul, it is all about YOU and the discovery, clarity and the magic that is always all around you.

It is called the Painting of the Month Club or the (POTMC). I’d like to invite you to this co-creation process that is the next iteration of my big art project that I have been plugging away on since November of 2011 (and really you could say December of 1999). That is almost 20 years. I feel so blessed and grateful for this journey and I have seriously loved every min.

This next chapter (POTMC) is art meets camp. It is creativity meets science. It is a ticket to play and to own your life more than you have ever played and owned it before.

What I can see is a group (virtual, on Facebook in a private channel) that keeps all of us inspired to dream big and do bigger. To do this with love and joy and gratitude and wonder and awe. To bring our biggest boldest dreams for our life into reality so we manifest the liberated ideas of the soul. (It this too much?) #nevertoomuch.

We will anchor together over art and color and line and paint. We use tools of remembering (an original painting and necklace) because with everything going on around us (ding, ping, bong, boing) we all need help XOXO. Each month a beautiful package will arrive at your door. The package contains an original matted and framed painting (It has already been made, you are not being asked to make art- but you can!) and a colorful sterling silver necklace. You will hang the painting on your wall or put it by your desk or any place that you will see each day early in the morning and you will remind yourself of the simple game you are playing. You also have a necklace you can wear every day to continue to anchor in the feeling, emotion, vision, and questions you have about how this little idea is here to teach and serve you. I have been playing with these images and ideas for 6 years. I believe that this little game will help you craft a life beyond your wildest dreams. (Maybe too much???) #nevertoomuch

We are kicking off in January with ROOT. The painting I have titled Root was in my first set, from the first painting I ever made when I started the Free Time Project. You can learn more about the Free Time Project in these three videos.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

I have a friend named Lani (you may know her) and each time we start to dream too big or say things that may be too far out and seriously might be seen as crazy, at that moment one of us will learn over and look into each other’s eyes and whisper (Too Much?) and the other will stare right back and say in a whisper back (#nevertoomuch) (Hashtag included). I invite you to play with the idea that you are never too much. In fact, we need all that big, bold, out of this world stuff coming out of you, please. Rule #6 my friends, don’t take yourself so frigging seriously, it might just be the key to that next door.

Let us:
Dream Big
Live in Love
Create Conscious Communities
Go all the way, and
Leave this World a better place

Give yourself a great adventure. Come play with me. Say YES and explore that rich deep world of you. Give yourself the gift of focus and clarity through fun and colorful abstract art.

Interested in playing, check out details here.

Each month for 7 months (or longer, but the commitment is for a start of 7 months), you will get an original painting and a 100% sterling necklace, and an invitation into the private virtual community to really play with this unique piece of art, to invite in the co-creation process. No worries if you do not wear necklaces, give it to a loved one…they are very pretty.

Got questions??? Please ask :)
Kate@katelemay.com

Details and information can be found here, Painting of the Month Club
Let’s make something magical out of 2019, shall we???

XOXO,

Kate

What a privilege it has been to follow along with you these past four weeks. To witness the beginning, your big YES to this mysterious journey.

We all watched your commitment to show up each day in generosity, service and curiosity for yourself and your peers. Bravo, you did it! I am so proud of you! I’m also over the moon excited for you, because this really is just the beginning.

My first wish for you dear friends is MORE YESes to the important stuff and more no’s to the stuff that steels energy from the important stuff.

I watched you embrace the tension, wrestle with the hard stuff, trust strangers, make friends. I watched you get tired and keep going. I watched you find your wings and soar. I watched your leaps. I watched those tenative first steps. I watched, just today, your commitment to a different way forward.

My wish for you is to feel the resistance and keep going.

Keep going when it feels hard. Trust that you can make a differnce and that showing up with empathy and kindness and your whole-self IS what you need most and the world needs most from you. Trust the process. Trust that you are enough.

My wish for you is that you know how great you ALREADY really are. That you are more than enough and that today is the best day to start.

We just did something amazing together. We created a community. YOU and you your personality, your “Already have an “A” self,” you and all of us, we made the best place on the internet together. Don’t forget that. That is in you. You can do it everywhere you go. You are enough, you have all the tools you need and you now have more questions, a deeper way of seeing and a more authentic way of hearing. You can’t undo what you just saw and played with, and you helped to make it what it is.

My wish for you is that you share what you are with the world in the biggest way you can AND you show up for yourself each day, modeling what that looks like for YOU.

YOU have something very important to do in this world and only you can create it.

So my last wish for you today is to be brave, have confidence in your abilities and GO MAKE A RUCKUS!

So much gratitude to you for being you and showing up here for the last month. Thank you for your trust. Please stay in touch and share your journey! If I can ever be of any assistance, you can find me all over the internet and in the altMBA alumni group.

XO,
Kate

As I am writing this my eyes are a little blurry. I just spent a weekend in a dark room with 200 humans, it was mostly women between the ages of 25–65, I cried a wee bit- hence the foggy eyes.

I attended the Ignite your Soul Summit with Amber Lilystrom and her soul-filled sisters (and a few rocking men). I attended because my friend and I love the work of Karen Kenney. I showed up with ZERO expectations. Zero.

I booked this weekend jaunt last October. I was super excited for the two days with my dear friend, the event was in Portsmouth, NH — I LOVE PORTSMOUTH. It was going to be a great weekend no matter what.

As I enter these spaces as 42 yr old Kate, they are much different than 22 year old Kate. 22 year old Kate was unsteady and shaky and up and down, and deep deep deep. Oh how deep my feelings felt. These days things are more steady, more balanced. The highs are less high and the lows are less low and in general things just feel good. Don’t get me wrong, I still have ups and downs but they are not so extreme. When I walked into the space for the summit I felt steady and ready and happy. In fact I was wondering if I would really be able to feel anything at all. I did.

I felt it all.

I felt happy, I laughed. I felt sad, I cried. I felt moved, I shouted “Amen”. It FELT GOOD. If you are reading this Amber, THANK YOU for putting your time and energy into creating and event for all of us to join a journey together. It was divine.

The environment was dark and artsy and cozy. The people were WARM and LIGHT and LOVING. The music was jamming. The speakers were live, in-person, passionate, living breathing stories of hope, courage, persistence, hard work and most of all- they were showing up as the biggest-baddest versions of themselves. As we sat and listened we felt moved as an audience. Like a good concert or performance, we were moved as a group together through an experience that was designed to Ignite Our Soul. My soul spoke. I was able to hear it. It made me think about what it takes for me to allow my self to show up and what that means to me.

On most normal days we arrive into the world and we go through our life motions. Wake up, pee, drink water, make coffee, drink more water, drink coffee, think about meditating or journaling, kids wake up, snuggle with kids, put down the journal, plan your day, brush teeth, exercise, shower, kiss kids bye…you get the point. Your day will be different but mostly that day is the same…maybe.

For me it’s pretty consistent. It has variations. But mostly days look the same, and I think I like it that way. Things come in and out of our lives and we adjust and we get new normals…the days have rhythm to them. Days build weeks, weeks build months and months build our years.

I am a firm believer in taking a few time outs in each year (ideally quarterly) to check in with the direction of the ship. The high airplane view. How are we doing my friend? How am I showing up in each day, each hour, each minute?

An event like the Ignite your Soul Summit or the Live in Love Retreat are just the thing that help you along with that airplane view so you can course correct at the ground level. It is hard to see the well worn path of our choices and stories and the bags we carry, the impact we are having when it all feels like Ground Hog Day while we are doing the wonderful job of living life.

But here’s the rub. Even with a great retreat, you still have to show up, or you won’t get the magic juice. For me, showing up is FEELING the FEELINGS. You have to let yourself feel. And for some people that is a very very very hard thing to let yourself do. Not too long ago, I was a feeling machine, it was too much. I cried easy and often or like I said before the roller coaster of emotions were wide and deep. I’m not sure if it’s age, or the amount of retreats or work I have done with my feelings, or exercise or...or…or…but I don’t “feel” as much anymore.

I swell with tears sometimes when I think of things that open my heart (I am so grateful for these feelings). But mostly I’m pretty non-emotional these days. It fits better with my job and is easier to manage my energy.

I am grateful for the steady times. The balance. The feeling of being good.

But today and yesterday, I said yes to the feelings. It was hard at first. When my heart opens, water ALWAYS comes out of my eyes. Always. As the event got rocking, and I began to feel that tug, I pushed it down. “I’m good. No need to cry today.” But then something happened, I think it was seeing a group of beautiful teenagers sing on stage. They were vulnerable and courageous and I saw my awkward acne faced, glasses wearing teenage-self standing on stage. They sang “Brave” and that was it. My heart opened, tears came out and I was feeling…love, loss, fear, courage, pain, healing…I was feeling it all. It was a warm sensation that rose from my heart, to my cheeks and the tears began. I surrendered and just rolled with it. Who cares. No one cares. Relax.

So what does it take for you to show up? For you to feel? What does it take for you to show up for your life? To decide to show up and feel…even if just for a moment?

For me its permission, its safety, its connecting with open, vulnerable, honest, beautiful people.

I’ll sleep well tonight. My heart is more open. I hugged my husband and children longer today when I got home, I let their warm loving bodies linger a little longer near my heart. I was able to be more in love when I arrived home, I had opened just a bit more. So grateful.

Thank you for reading this.

XOXOX,
Kate

See me being Brave…this is me being Brave.
I see so many brave people everyday. You help me be brave too. Please keep showing up.

My Wuzzle Life:
www.katelemay.com
www.bostonycamps.org
www.liveinloveretreat.com