Food Freedom!

Freedom is getting to eat what you want -
even if it's not so good for you!

Are You Feeling Freedom?

I don't know who took this picture, but I love the feeling it inspires.  And the feeling is the basis from which we all will build our lives from.

It's been a while since I've written anything on this blog besides a simple question or statement.  And the truth is, it doesn't matter if I do or don't - the world keeps spinning with or without my opinions or expressions.

But it is the feelings within that ask to find their expression and the written word is one of the best formats to do just that.  I've written about how art allows us to express what we feel and words are another form of art - be they written to share facts or feelings.

But the nature of a blog asks for consistency and repetition and continuity and neither art nor feelings fall well into those sets of rules.

So, I don't know what to do with this blog or with any expression these days - so I'm rambling as a way to find clarity...privacy in public in the form of this blog.

Regardless, the most important thing I want to offer is to find a way to feel your love and freedom - for when these passionate feelings are lost, so is our way in this world....and no amount of writing or reporting will bring them back.

Who can you hug?

To get love, you've got to give it - share a hug today!

What inspires you to feel freedom?

What inspires you to feel freedom?  If you don't
want to feel it, you aren't going to have it.

Love or Fear?

Are you ready to pull down your own wall of fear?

Where do you look for love?

I know they're mine - but who do you love at home?

What do you fear?

Freedom comes in the moments you face your fears!

What are you thinking right now?

Our mind reflects what we think to the world, like a lake reflects the sky - to have love and freedom,think it.

Roses Anyone?

Words are not needed to know beauty, freedom, and love.

Why judgment never helps?

Judgment of others is prison for your self.

Freedom for you?

Do you know this type of freedom in your life?

Why not?

Love?

Love unshared, isn't Love.

How important is freedom to you?

Have you ever asked yourself this question?  As our freedom's are now quickly being taken away by our government, soon it will be too late to ask because there will be none left to have.

Where is your beauty?

Beauty radiates Love and Freedom, today seek beauty in your world.

Where is your rainbow bridge?

The beauty of a rainbow lies in the rainbow itself, not where it begins or ends.

Have You Learned Anything New Today?

What have you learned that is new today?  Expanding our minds beyond what we think we know is true Freedom.

 

Freedom can only be received when it is given.

A jailer is as imprisoned as his inmate.

What Reminds You of Peace?

 

Every day we need to find things that remind us of Peace if we want to have peace...

you can't give what you don't have.

 

When is enough, enough?

Yesterday I was having an off day - girl related reasons if you get my drift.  Anyways, a small group of the lonely, single guys across the street were yet again gathered around the beer cans sunning themselves and this time as I had to walk by I didn't respond as favorably to their naked related comments like I normally do.

These few tend to make naked related comments every time I walk by - not just about me, but women in general.  My usual comebacks are sarcastic and made to just go along.  But there seems to be a theme developing - not just with the lonely, single guys, but with everyone I am meeting these days that is reflecting this idea that I don't know if I feel like going along anymore.

I've just finished writing a few emails that were a bit too honest most likely with very nice people - but with whom my relationships with are all about just going along and not about me being my authentic self.  The trouble I find is when I'm authentic I don't get along with almost anyone - so I've adapted to just doing what makes others happy....

That is until I am having an off day and stop - which is when all the problems seem to start.

As I wrote similar emails and am now writing this along the same theme - maybe the lesson I need to get is that it is okay to not just go along.  I'm not talking about saying things that hurt others intentionally - but rather to stop allowing myself be the one who gets hurt at the expense of another keeping their ego and illusion in check.

While I'm still learning how to not teach and preach (and no I'm not there yet!), I also am still trying to learn how to be authentic with my own life.  Harder than it should be really.

I heard a great quote from Ghandi the other day and while I don't remember the entire thing the gist was to stay with your own truth, even if you are the only one who hears it.  I'd like to add that I get that my truth is my own and I get that I don't need anyone else to agree with me.  What I want to really get is I also don't need live smaller so others can feel bigger.

Maybe enough is finally enough - time will tell.  We'll see how I do when I have to walk past the group of single, lonely guys later today....rumor has it they got pretty viscous yesterday after I left, ugh - just another reason I've had enough!

What's in a Dog's Day?

Just thought I would do a short update on Freedom here in the tiny trailer!  He's getting more confident - but he's also got a new friend that is helping him with that when we are out walking with loud noises and strong wind gusts (which by the way are getting really tiresome....)

Rosco and Freedom - I think the appeal is it's like looking in a mirror!

He's had a few digestive issues so this is what I swore I wouldn't do...cook chicken soup.  Trouble is the rice was more like popcorn flying out of the dish while he ate!  Good thing I put a towel down first!

The food was flying, but at least it stayed down and in until morning!

He and I could also use some dog advice - he is losing his hair along the back of his neck, but nowhere else.  Found some awesome stuff "Vetericyn" that kills everything in the world it seems - except stress so I'm leaning that way.  There doesn't seem to be much itching - any suggestions?

Can you read in reverse???

Other than that, life seems to be okay for us all!  My plans to head north aren't looking too good.  The next program I wanted to go to said no - after they read my website and watched my video's - I can only surmise as to why....

But I am trusting the right place at the right time will show up and when it does we'll head out...that is if we don't get blown away by this wind first - look out Dorothy, here we go to OZ again!!!

What is limiting your perspective?

One of the greatest things I've used the last few years to get me through the boring, but essential tasks of life, are podcasts.  I've never been much of a talk radio person, but I have fast become a talk podcast person!  The mechanics are it occupies enough of my distracting thoughts to allow me to get through things I don't really want to do - it's an ADHD trick really and luckily, it really works!

What I have observed over the years is how hard people work to put parameters around new ideas that fit into their comfort level of belief.  It is true in politics, religion, relationships, and just about anything or everything that people think about.  And then, after they've thought about what makes sense to them, they declare it is absolute for everyone else.

This is of course why there is conflict in the world and why we go to war.  We judge what another believes and because it is different than our own belief system, we think we must defend it.  However, the better question isn't who's right or wrong - it is "why is it important to you that you be right and they be wrong?"

I can give you the answer even if you don't like it...we need to feel right in order to maintain a sense of control of our world.  The more we need to be in control, the more tightly we hold to our beliefs on the subjects that threaten that control in our lives.

The more fear we have of the world outside us, the more we need to explain it in a way that makes sense to us that we feel in control of.  Those who truly search for "truth" will tell you - the more you think you know, the less you realize you know!

One of the best examples I found was trying to explain three dimensions to a two dimensional being.  If there is no concept of up or down as depth, but only width and length - how could you ever do that?  If you don't have the ability to comprehend everything within the limits of our tiny perspective - how can we ever really find the ultimate answers within it?

The more I observe others holding tight to their beliefs, the more I've had to be willing to look at my own. Clearly it can't be everyone but me!  And it is this tiny shift that has made the biggest difference in my life and own path - because it is the biggest thing that has limited me, that limits us all.

I like hearing others viewpoints because it allows me to question my own and decide what I want to keep and what is time to let go of.  An open mind is the key to freedom.  A closed mind the cell that is your prison.

When does the next transition begin?

The other day I was cleaning up - well reorganizing my mess would be better description - but I came across a notebook and inside I had written last July 2010 what I wanted my life to look like.  As I read it I was amazed at how it was describing my life exactly as it is now. 

This was all before I had bought my trailer but just after I had made the decision to let my California life go.  I knew my life would be changing, but I had no details other than the trailer as an option.  It is both gratifying and surprising to know I am in control of creating my life.  I just wish I paid attention more often to what it was I creating!

I am again at a similar point as I was that July.  I know that what I have created so far is about to change, but I have no idea but a vague feeling of what is coming next.  I'm old enough to have lots of information about what I don't want!  But I was again reminded that I still have lots to be opened to that I could want.

As I get older and with  more experience under my belt I have also come to realize that if I let go of more of the details and forms and just stick with the more abstract versions, what life delivers me is much better than what I could have imagined on my own.

I am happy to be happy - and does it matter why I'm happy or just that I am?

I am grateful to be safe and provided for - does it matter where, how, or why?

I am blessed to have the ability to love - does it matter who or what I get back?

Life is easier the more I let go of the reigns.  Peace Pilgrim is one of the women and teachers I love and who in my small way want to follow in her footsteps.  Though, I'm not yet ready to go so simple as just one outfit and a highway.

I think about her when I'm rearranging my mess and reading all the details of what I think I need to have and how to be happy.  And I would be fooling myself if I wasn't very excited to see what my life will be like two years from now as I remember writing this and can then look at what I created from it!

If You Could Choose Your Neighbors, Who Would They Be?

Yesterday was a really fun day!  I went to Hillsboro, New Mexico and met with Mackie Redd (mackieredd.com/) and his wife Kathy to make the next Jill's Journal video - which I'll share in the next week.  I didn't have much interaction with either Mackie or Kathy before I went, so I wasn't expecting anything, just trusting the day would take care of itsself, and it did!

It started with me getting lost (though I didn't know it at the time) on a dirt road in which I was standing with my dog who got a little stressed and needed a roadside break.  A car passed me, stopped and asked "Are You Jill?"  Why yes I am!  Good thing for me Kathy stopped because I passed my destination and with all the mountains around me doubted any cell phone coverage was an option!

The middle part of the day I'll be showing you soon - but as I left feeling really happy I had met these two very nice and genuine people I had the thought, I would really like them as my neighbors!  Now my idea of neighbors means walking not seeing distance - but that's never too much of a problem in the wilds of New Mexico!

There is such a difference in the sense of community as I travel.  The smaller towns just seem to ooze it - so far I've really felt welcomed and included and safe.  California was never like that - it was mostly about what someone could do for you and if there was nothing, well, why talk to that person?  Everyone was always so busy with something that you never really had time to just sit and chat and enjoy that simple version - not the scheduled two weeks in advance between other engagements.

But the other thing I am finding is that this type of world and life is what I am looking for.  There is the beginning of a sense of finally feeling like I am finding my real home.  California never felt that way.  It was a place to be until I could figure out where to go - that was part of the reason it was okay to walk away from everything I had there. 

I think our neighbors are a good way of symbolizing what we want out of life and are we getting it.  It's not about judging who is right or wrong, better or worse, but rather a way of seeing your self and the life you have created by paying attention to who is around you.

Being out of California I am finding there is much less of that feeling of someone wanting something from me or me from them and more of just deciding who I like being around not really wanting anything.  There is a belief that if we are not striving for something, we are not successful.  But who made that rule to be true?  When did chasing what we do not have become more important than appreciating what we do have?

Often we must lose what we think we want to find what we do.  I am lucky though, all I lost were burdens that I didn't want to find the freedom to find the blessings and the life I do want.

Meeting others who are happy with their lives as they are now, are just the kind of people I want to surround my self with.  Not the sad or sick or angry or victimized waiting for a future that will never make them happy - but the folks who love their lives as they are, now.

Thank You Mackie and Kathy for inviting me to glimpse just a bit of your wonderful life!!!

Why Do We Share More Bad News Than Good?

As part of the challenge in creating a new job definition for myself, I am having to reach out and ask others to share my videos.  While no logic is there in why this is SOOO hard for me, I am also finding a different kind of wall that I am hitting - that we are quick to share the negative, but not so much of the positive.

If you look at top news stories, the most viral of videos, and other fast moving ideas that are shared so easily now around the internet - what do they mostly consist of?  Humor (though it is often humiliating for the main target), Humiliation for the latest celebrity, or Gossip - sharing others pain to avoid our own.

While you will see the passing around of heartfelt videos and stories, they just don't have the same long term traction that the other kind of stories hold.  When on the phone what has more drama and excitement to share than why Whitney Houston died yesterday vs. a new discovery that will help a stranger you will never meet heal?

It must take an intentional action to share what is good and there is a very important reason why - because what we share we make more of.  Share another's pain and you've just invited more into your own life.  Judge another's mistakes and you've just invited that judgment into your life also.

But share love, joy, happiness, freedom - all that is good and yes, the same principle works, you've just invited more of that into your life!  No, it's not as fun as talking about the humiliation of another, but what joy do you have in someone else discussing YOUR humiliating moment?

It isn't hard to share what is good, but it is hard to remember to share what is good.  Like any habit we are trying to break, it requires a purposeful decision to choose to do the new and not the old.  What can you share today that will bring more joy into your life and into the world?

How do you know you're on the right path?

One of the reasons I chose this lifestyle for this part of my journey was so that I would have flexibility to make changes along the way.  If I had to start my life over, I wanted to make the process easier and not get invested so heavily with leases, jobs, and stuff.  I wanted the freedom to say this isn't working and just pick up and try somewhere else.

As I go and meet more folks, I am aware that even within this type of lifestyle there are a lot of different choices to make and paths to follow.  The time is coming for me to take my next steps so I've been paying attention to the steps others are taking to try and get the most information with the least amount of mistakes!

As with any decision making process, there comes a time when we start asking ourselves if we are on the right path or are we making a mistake and headed down a path that isn't really what we want.  But there in lies the biggest clue - what do each of us want?  What do I want?

I know I am ready for a home base, but listening to others share their adventures makes me question that choice.  I know I like to hide out and listening to others make plans to buy land and start building makes me question that choice.  These have all been options I've considered and hearing others live them out makes me wonder if I want the same thing?

But here is the lesson I'm trying to learn through all of this - what do I want and what path will then unfold to allow that to be?  So often we choose the form before the content.  Or, we decide we want Mr. X no matter what rather than decide what we even want from a relationship first - he may or may not be a good fit.

The same is true for where and how to live. What do I want for my life needs to come before where I and how I will live it.  What I want out of life needs to come before the how - and then I just need to trust what I can't see to unfold to support it.

Fear drives us to try and control the outcomes first to guarantee the process, but life doesn't work that way and this journey is no different.  It's fun to hear about others adventures, but hard to remember to stay focused on the bigger picture to allow the best path to unfold...at least that is what I am trying to remember for today!  Who knows what tomorrow will bring!!!

What is Life Really Like in a Tiny Trailer?

Before, during, and I imagine long after people have told me about their dreams of a what their life would be like traveling in a trailer.  Granted, I'm not doing much traveling, but I am officially living like I do - so that counts!  Women everywhere have always just understood when I have talked about the "running away" fantasy.  They always agree, yes, they've had that one too.  Almost every man I've ever made this comment to just looks at me like he doesn't understand...

Lately I've been thinking things like if  you only knew....yes, the freedom is AWESOME!  I won't deny I love knowing I can pick up and go if I want to.  I love that I am contained and mobile.  I love that my life is very simple.  I love that I never know who I am going to meet each day and what new adventure or gift that will bring.  I really LOVE that part.

But then there are days.....like every one for the past 75+ in which I just don't want to be cold any more!  The realization that no one is going to fit in this trailer but me - made even more clear when Freedom came to live and brought his stinky gas with him....no way I'm letting a man do that in here!

Then there's me hoping that someone other than the 9 single and lonely men living across the street would move there - and just when there was hope, a woman my own age on the same journey, she never came out of her trailer....partly because of the cluster of 9 single and lonely men who sit outside all day around her, but such a bummer!

But then again, as I was out walking this morning getting ready to climb up the tiny hill to let Freedom run free, I heard a noise I didn't recognize and when I looked up, coming over the bluff was the  most spectacular formation of ducks - they were flying so low they looked more like they were floating over my head.  I couldn't take my eyes off them - all the while hoping they wouldn't poop in my eyes too!

There is much  more good than bad, but sometimes you've just got to be honest and honestly there are days I just want to turn on water that is already hot, have a bathroom that is inside my house, and not have a floor that shakes and scares the only male that's ever going to live in this tiny box with me!

When is Life, Art?

Ghandi once said his life was his message.  I would also like to add that our life is our art.  True artists don't paint to sell, they paint to express what they feel.  True writers don't write for any reason except the words are asking to be expressed.  Or, at least that is what my heart would say to my spirit.

The battle I have noticed within myself these last years as I try and find my way to express my art as my life is that "outcomes" seem to get in the way.  What will people think?  How am I changing things to get sales?  When am I doing less than my vision to make others comfortable?  When do I compromise my vision for another persons concerns?

Art, like life, goes through stages.  In our innocence we do what we feel.  But life often shows us that the external world doesn't always reward or accept that version.  So we compromise.  When art must lead to money, we are faced with an even bigger dilemma - which is more important, our art or our income?

It is easy for those who don't have to consider children, mortgages, and all the responsibilities of most of our lives to just create art for the sake of creating.  But when we can't do that, what is life then really?  Isn't the whole point of life to live as creatively as an artist does in their own medium?

I have envied the crazy artists who have a cadre of caretakers attending to food, cleaning, the basics of the business of life.  They have been men mostly.  As women, it's hard to choose creation over the roles we have assumed to be responsible for - and it is not wrong to do so, someone has to:)

Art is really only the creative expression of our inner vision.  It is our imagination which is really what creates the world and the Universe around us.  So I do believe our life is our art.  The problem isn't naming it, it's living it. 

Simplifying my life was meant to allow more time for living my life as I wanted to and in many ways it has - I have no idea how I ever held a full time job, took care of a house and all the extra stuff that went with it - and even less idea how those who raise families do it all.  But they don't really, do they.

But most of us don't.  Even with so very much less to do, there's still too much to do that I don't really want to and there are still expenses to meet that are asking me to compromise in ways I don't know if I can any more.  I still yearn for more freedom, even though I have more than I ever have had before.

The truest expression of my life as art also requires the truest expression of freedom.  I can FEEL this, but I'm still trying to BE this.  In a world that asks us all to DO more, all I can feel is I want to do less so that I can BE more - that is the artistic expression of the freedom I desire.  I'm still working towards it, but today I'm naming it - again....

What is Love?

I am writing this because it seems this is a question that is still being asked by others, even though they don't really know they are asking it.  Defining love is not something that is easy to do, but describing what it is not is much easier to do.

Once when walking in the park with my first dog Freedom a man was sitting on a bench asking his small white dog to come to him.  His commands to the little dog were getting louder and more insistent and the little dog was more and more hesitant to obey....crouching low on the ground, slowly moving forward.  He wanted to please his owner, but the tone of the owners voice was clearly one in which he was not pleased.

Eventually the dog got close enough for the owner to grab him and then he started hitting him.  I yelled - anger and outrage were my obvious response - but in walking away I had to ask myself, why come closer when all you are going to do is get hit?

In my human relationships something similar has happened.  I haven't been hit, but I have been asked to offer my friendship and love, but as I try and get closer I get hit - mostly with judgment and criticism, but it feels like an emotional slap all the same.

This is something we humans just don't seem to get - I'm as guilty as the rest.  So what is love?  Surely it can't hurt because I think that defies the entire purpose of what love it!  But why try and get close to that which only wants to change you, judge you, and point out what is wrong with you?

Ironically, those who have tried to tell me I push away love are the same people who are doing the pushing.  They say they want closeness, but yet what they give doesn't feel very good when you do get close - is it really any surprise I want to stay away from that?

I'm adding this link to a video of just pictures of dogs and people.  But if you watch it, pay attention to how your FEEL seeing the images.  It doesn't feel like judgment, it feels like what love is supposed to be, a safe place to lay your head down.

They video is here:  http://youtu.be/0B-pm_JZw8Y


Humans have a lot to learn about what love and relationship is really all about.  We need to focus less on the form and getting others to do what we think they need to do and more on just accepting the other as they are - no strings attached.


The Universe and its Creator only respond to what the truth of our intention and vibration is - whether we are focused on a person, a plant, an animal, or a piece of art.  And the big secret as TRUTH is there are not different kinds of love, there is only love and not love.  You get to choose.  I know I have.

What is Your Idea of a Great Day?

Seems no one was facing me when the pics got taken today!

Sunday was just that for me - a great day!  I would have shared all this yesterday, but my internet was out so better late than never!  Why was Sunday good?  Because I had an adventure, I shared it with my new friend Freedom, met a lot of new friends at the Spirit Ranch, and got to know a woman named Gypsy, but goes by Ann,  who has had a lifetime of adventures she shared with me!  Getting lost on the way home was the only part I would say wasn't great!




After driving to Las Cruces, New Mexico to the Spirit Ranch, I started out by meeting one of the therapy horses.

I think this is Star - but he's a mini therapy horse!

After lots of talking and a little video recording....we went to town to eat at a dog friendly eatery where I was so pleased to see Freedom do so well!  She also has a new rescue dog who also did spectacularly well in a public place - though Freedom got quite a bit of chicken that Mattie didn't...bribery works wonders!

Here's the sign outside - awesome food, fabulous owner!

The Ranch and all it's guests will be featured in an upcoming Journal episode - I'm headed back down on Friday to get all the footage I didn't record since we were so busy talking....but am looking forward to sharing this special place with you soon!

Here's Freedom on the porch being very patient - he wouldn't look my way either!

Every day can be a great day if we decide to make it so - so what would make this day great for you?

How Can Art Change the World?

It's a new day and a beautiful one at that!  I wanted to share the rock art I found yesterday and see if the person had added to my message yesterday!  It didn't look like anything new was put on the ground, but the message that I wanted to share is still there!

Where I am living right now is filled with artists and healers.  Most have their creative expressions displayed in workshops, studio's and storefronts.  But the tourist traffic here is tiny and while I don't know the specifics, business is not what it could be from days gone past.

But one of the thoughts that has come to me here is that while art sold commercially to just look at may be losing its market, the idea of creativity and beauty could not be more needed or necessary in our world today!

Creativity and beauty and personal expression has been lost in our everyday lives.  Most of what we buy is no longer hand crafted with love and skill but manufactured in pieces by many living in poverty and slavery to produce it for the industrial world.

As I went to go look this morning to see if there had been any changes in the art on the ground, it also came to me that art is a form of communication - not just from the artist to the one looking or listening - but as a way of interacting.  You start, I add, the next person keeps it going.  What the outcome is not as important as the experience - and that is what life really is, one moment to be experienced at a time.

Not rocket science, but just a thought inspired by rocks on my morning walk!  Have your self a great weekend and see you soon!  This Sunday I'm headed south to a equine therapy center - very excited to show your more soon!

Jill

Do You Want More Love in Your Life?

 

            Well, this post was supposed to start out in a light and loving way, but I have just witnessed something a few minutes ago that is SO upsetting and SO important in how it relates to this question that I've got to start where I am right now and not where I was an hour ago.

            The specifics are not as important as what I'm feeling because I've just been witness to an act of immeasurable assault and violence and all I want to do is cry and throw up.  It takes me back to my own past that I no longer want to be a part of.  It takes me to what kind of future I do want to be a part of.

            The bottom line?  If we want more love in our lives and in our world, it's what we have got to give and be in our lives and our world.  Not just a random thought about how it makes sense and then a return to whatever issue or concern is facing us in the next moment - but a sustained effort we hold all day, every day.

            We have to talk about love.  We have to listen to loving words and watch loving and empowering images.  We have got to feel loving.  We have got to act loving.  We have got to create lovingly.

            We spend an incredible amount of time viewing violence on our televisions, movies, and computers - as I just did that is both real and imagined.  But here is the key - the imagined is as powerful as the real - because they both come from the same place and they both create the same future.

            This young boy who was just violated deserves my love.  But so does the man who just perpetrated the violence against him.  Hate never creates love.  Feeling hate only creates more of the same - hate and all its effects of violence, rage, pain, and suffering.

           

            It is no accident that earlier this morning I was listening to an interview where a man was describing this same event in his life - and then he kept using the word penetration over and over in different contexts, but always that same word.  This is how we create the world around us.  We believe our words and our stories don't matter - but they do. 

            I was not careful in guarding my own thoughts as I listened to him.  I was not purposeful to shift the images he was sharing and to reframe his words in a way that created harmony and love within me and not sadness and suffering.

            Earlier on my walk I came across a rock arrangement someone had done artistically along the path. It was a circle and inside were two stones balancing one upon the other.  I then took some rocks and added three lines within the circle to make it a peace sign.  It lifted my heart as I joined with the person before me in a message of love and peace.  It was cool.  I thought it was fun.  I hoped they would see it and add to it, but even if they didn't they would feel the connection in our shared spirit.

            Everything affects everything.  Be it love or hate.  All forms of life want more love in their lives, but as humans we are lazy and choose just about everything else but love to focus on first.

      Writing this in this moment is my way of breaking the cycle that began this morning - of replacing images of hate with love, feelings of pain with feelings of love, and of letting the past go so that a future I do want can emerge in this moment - not the someday we all hold on to with hope that is unsupported by our actions.

            The Law of Love is that you will receive what you give to your brother and sister.  Give hate and you get hate.  Give Love and you will receive Love - not the romantic illusionary kind, but the real kind that is the true power in this Universe.