I am the Moose Whisperer

a tidbit about me I forgot until today:

much to the dismay of everyone around me

I once stopped a moose cow bounding out of the forest (after a lightning bolt spooked it) in a dead run towards a large group of visitors at Yellowstone, by running ahead of the group, standing in front of the moose's charge and wildly throwing my arms about, and yelling at it to stop. She finally stopped a few feet from my hands, and we had a little bit of a moment of staring before she looked around at all the people, and finally walked off.

To my friend who triggered this long-forgotten memory (because I was telling them about moose in my dream last night) I am now the moose whisperer.

and that makes me happy

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My Ministry

I thought recently that maybe I should tell the story of my ministry.

 

I've always been intrigued by religion, but that wasn't what motivated me to become a minister.

In fact, I kindof became a minister by accident.

A few years after grad school, I was working at an architecture firm renown for their religious design, when I lived in Virginia. Our boss recommended that we study whatever religion we were... with a real commitment to coming to understand their design sensibilities, even encouraging us to look at seminary. Being a Unitarian, I got super involved with my church's lay ministry and ended up doing about 200 hours of training, including leading my own classes in Finding your Spiritual Voice.

 

At around the same time, it was legal, and still may be, for any person who wasn't a licensed minister to marry one couple each year in Virginia. A couple of friends wanted to get married and they asked me if I would perform the wedding, since I was "their most spiritual friend". I thought that was kindof awesome, and I was intrigued by pulling off a at-home wedding as they were, so I said yes and helped them pull off what I thought to be an incredibly rad day.

Guests at the wedding asked if I would do their wedding too, but it wasn't legal for me to do weddings without a license, so I got one.
And from there, it grew and grew. By word of mouth, mostly. I never advertised, though I did have a website when I was doing weddings in Vail.

 

Some of my couples and their families are still my dear friends and I relish the fact that I got to be there to stand witness for them. Some have divorced, and some have had babies, and some have lost loved ones, had surgeries... all the things a minister witnesses for any family. And I am still there cheering them on, through whatever comes.

It's a fabulous blessing, this life. I'm glad I got to do that.
And I'm glad knowing I'll do it again. ; )

 

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What it looks like when I read a book. #HotMessofInspiration

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Laughing at myself... oh oh.

My boss in Vail once looked at me, exasperated, after a meeting with a client and his construction team. He says to me "you really need to make a list of the things you've done so I don't nearly {something to the effect of... fall out of my chair} when you shock us with another one."

So, now that I've healed from the damage that did to my heart. Because... hello, fear?!?!
I thought I'd take a little while to finally address that request, as a means of celebrating the things I did well and hopefully (someday) laugh at the harder lessons in my life.

Here are things I've done and strange facts about me that might surprise you:

I cannot stand manilla folders.

I only use mechanical pencils.
On that note, if I hear a pencil being sharpened by hand I will have to will myself not to scream bloody murder.
Same with a cardboard box.
Or any paper tearing noise.

I cry at round dance songs. No idea why. 
I also cry for mariachis. 
and Hallmark commercials. 
I have nearly 100% capability of suspension of disbelief.  For about 11 minutes. Longer if the story is great. Because of this I am an "ideal viewer" in television terms. I cry when you want me to and I laugh when you want me to.  

I went to military school. My boyfriend was the Battalion Commander and I was the military ball queen. It was the closest I ever came to a normal life and I still love my classmates, even the ones I don't like. (two of the faves, after 20 years, evidently hold "lifetime crush status" for me.)

I thought I would be a backseater (radar intercept officer) in F-14s. Never got the chance though I was ready willing and able to go to Annapolis. My bad eyes won that battle.


I used to break into my dad's closet and get his unloaded 45 and wear it around the house protecting us from the spies. 
I did the same with his real samurai swords. 

As an adult, I've practiced 4 different Japanese martial arts and one beauty art: kendo, iaido, aikido, judo, and ikebana. All the martials used swords. I love wearing hakama and would every day if I could get away with it. 

My fantasy self is an all white samurai.
Oh, and I have white hair.

I got struck by lightning driving my Jeep from Longmont to Cheyenne. FREAKED ME OUT. never been the same. 
I wished and wished for a white streak in my hair as a gift from the experience but, no such luck. 
I've always wanted white hair. When I was 13 I started frosting my hair ever closer to platinum white, despite my mother's horror.

I was in a sorority. One of my pledge sisters stalked me. CREEPY
I'm still BFFs with the best friend that saved me from it all.

Almost all of my favorite women friends are over 60.

I have had three boyfriends tell me I "fight like a black girl". It makes me smile.
My mom was partly raised by a black woman. It was Alabama. My great grandparents were sharecroppers, children of probably second sons who came over as indentured servants. When the slaves were freed, there was nowhere to go. So everybody stayed.  
I am not ashamed to be from the South and it WAS about States Rights for my people. We were too stupid then to know it would demote poor white people.
I LOVE boiled peanuts. And Alabama cornbread. Which is actually Cherokee cornbread, but my grandmother doesn't regard DNA evidence.


I'm not colorblind. I celebrate differences. That's what 'm supposed to do. My gift. I own it. You don't have to like it. It's how I learn.
I'm a badass at learning. Though I won't retain much of anything. Don't ask me for facts! I only see connections between objects and events. I get "the way its woven together."
It's a gift if you know how to use me.
It's is a result of going thru a car windshield when I was 19 in a wreck with my mom.
I lost most of my short term memory.
As a side effect, I remember everything everyone has ever said to me as if I experienced it myself. I cannot tell the difference between what of it was yours and what was mine.
Thusly, if you don't have something worth remembering for me to latch onto, I will tune you out. 
It's involuntary. But it makes me kick ass at keeping secrets, and guarantees I'm always coming to you with fresh ideas.

I am not entirely sure I can live without a to-do list. Same as my mom.


I've sat at the feet of many masters.
I've studied every religion. 
I believe architecture, as with life, has lost its Sacred.

I'm blind in my right eye. I could easily lose sight in the other one too.
That makes me work harder.

I've read probably over 1000 books since graduating college.
I've rated nearly 2k movies on Netflix.

I am more obsessed with fashion and art than you might realize considering I wear 5 outfits at all.

I'm involuntarily becoming a vegetarian. Just like my bio mom did at my age. I didn't know anything about her til 2013.

I feel Called. But I don't know what that means exactly.

(this list will constantly evolve)

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I guess I knew more about my value(s) than I thought I did. Thx! @DanielleLaPorte

Written in an email this morning:

I've been trying to figure out who I am now.
Why everything I worked for no longer suits me.
How doors opened that grew me despite myself.
And the only thing I know for sure anymore is...

My purpose in this world is to use what I know about architecture and design to empower people so they can make changes to make their lives better.

And, now... I'm doing it through storytelling. I've done two TEDx talks. Two Pecha Kucha talks. 40 plus others. Interviewed in radio, tv, articles, documentaries... I've even been written about in three books on confidence and leadership. I have my own tv show in the works and hope to have finished by the end of the year. My first documentary is in editing right now. I'm hosting an international sustainability institute in two weeks! Front and center on the stage for 4 days! I'm not afraid of being in the spotlight. Or, rather, I am {terrified}, but I DO IT ANYWAY!

I KNOW that what I know can help people create a space around them that they love to be in. I know I can help them wake up every day happier and go to work every day and feel more capable.
I can save them money on bills and I can help them grow their own food. I can put the power to do those things in their hands and give them tips and tricks to make it easier and more affordable and less scary and more empowering.

I can help people dream their ideal lives into being
through helping them create spaces they love to grow in.

I have a plan. A Big Audacious plan! Two books in the works, the tv show to finish... and this is just local and for the next little bit. Then I want to do other regions, and then... other countries and every continent! it's a BIG plan!

I want to be a modern day super cool Martha Stewart who talks about doable, radical sustainability and beauty, and have lots of income streams that stem from great ideas and strategic partnering, and that help people feel AWESOME about themselves so they can shine.

I have fashion lines (for real gals) I want to do. Housewares. Furnishings. Jewelry. I want to partner with the biggest and baddest designers around and grow all of our ideas. I love to collaborate! And I'm not as attached to being right as to growing.

********************

Well, now isn't that a great place to start?!?!

What do you want to do? What is your heart's desire?

I found mine through working The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte. Maybe you can start there too. 

Love, R

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Note to Self:

I am but one voice. Of many.

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FeatheryFriends

A couple year's worth of finds and gifts. ; )

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My Influences - Studying how I came to be Me

I've been spending a lot of time thinking lately about how I came into being the person I am. That led me to examine parts of my life that I have found to have been influential.  I thought maybe I should catalog some of it, since maybe it would help me to ground some of those lessons, and reconnect to some of the things that matter to me.

I think one of the most important aspects of who I am has been my walk as a spiritual seeker. Not that I am aiming to FIND anything, but I am absolutely curious about the world, and I collect experiences the way some people collect snowglobes. So I've been a seeker of connections. (Not a seeker of any faith. My faith is true and clear to me, and I don't need anyone to explain it to me. But...) I love meeting interesting people that challenge and expand my paradigms, and I have found them in the most exciting, and sometimes, surprising... places.

In my spiritual path, I've studied: Christianity, Gnosticism, Sufism, Tantra, Kaballah, Hinduism, and mythology (religion before it became cool to be monotheistic)...

and I've sat in circle, or at the feet of, elders and shamen from many of the world's indigenous groups, including: Quechua (Peru and Bolivian), Zapotec, Huichol, Mayan, Aztec, (Mexico and Guatamala), Mi'kmaq (Canada), Tibetan, Tiwa (Taos Pueblo), Mescalero Apache, various Aboriginal (Australian), various Polynesian (Hawaii and Tahiti), Maori, Inuit, Dine' (Navaho), Lakota/Sioux, Cherokee, various African, hoodoo (Cuba, Caribbean, and New Orleans groups), European pagans of all ilk, various Russian indigenous groups, and Indian gurus and tantriki. <These are just the ones I remember.>

Some of my most powerful spiritual experiences have come from sitting with some of the most widely-known women in the world, including: The Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, Vandada Shiva, the Indian saint Amma, and Flordemayo.

So it's not entirely surprising why I get along with many types of people, and especially the ones that tend towards the earth-centered and community-centered traditions.
You can't be in heart-centered circles with someone, and not see eye-to-eye.
And for that, I am grateful.

Note to self:
These things are what make me the best of who I am.
I need to cultivate more of this experience on a regular basis, so I can keep growing!!

♥

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