the strongest thing i've ever known

so soft
i hold my finger against my
upper lip and can barely feel it
even then

even then
it carries the weight
of a whisper, and it is
the strongest thing i've ever known
gently reminding me that when

it leaves
i am
no more




image by Linde M on flickr

i've never met a violin . . .

today i had the joy of combining two of my favorite things: yoga & poetry. the beautiful Raquel Bueno--yoga instructor and friend--invited me to share poetry during her Yoga Gives donation-based class. we decided to focus the practice around voice. she lead a practice primarily focused on the fifth chakra, communication and self-expression. then i closed the practice with this poem during savasana:

i've never met a violin who refused to sing
never seen a bow glide across a perfectly
taut string and mute its deepest vibrations

now i have heard the screeching
five-year-old violinist voice
unafraid to shout out that
slow stuttered Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

i've heard the ding of dimes
and quarters falling into a hat
of the subway musician letting
his instrument speak

i've heard applause stampede through the hall
after the second movement
of Rachmaninov's 3rd symphony

i suppose it could choose
to refuse the melodies and harmonies
to play it small
and deny its voice
to hold its breath
and cease to breathe

but i've never met a violin who decided
not to sing
and if i could gift all the passion
inside of us with any one thing
i'd resin up my bow
and tune our heart strings to the
freedom of voice, the ease of being
the indelible choice
to always keep singing

it was a beautiful practice, and i'm grateful to be able to share in it on the mat and with my words. may we each find our voice and let it flow.

image by lanecia a. rouse

Read this powerful story about voice.

clearing: silencing the inner editor

I've developed a beautiful rhythm to my weeks, devoting different days to clearing, dreaming and doing. It's a lovely rhythm that I shall write more about and introduce fully when I launch athingofwonder.com in the coming months!

You've heard quite a bit about my physical clearings in my latest posts (and I'm finishing my 20 this week today, so look for that post later!). I've also set intentional time for emotional clearing as I've tackled removing these objects from my life.

One emotional clearing I'd like to share is related to developing Do The Crazy Thing . . . I am launching Do The Crazy Thing into a lifestyle brand that creates opportunities for people to live inspired lives and impact the world by loving and living their dreams. I want the world to be wonder-filled, and I believe I can help play a role in helping people tap into their thing of wonder!

But just as much as I feel boldly like I'm ready to launch this and take this giant leap, I also wrestle with the inner editor who often talks a lot of us out of doing our crazy things! So as I build this and get it launched, I want to be real with you and with myself about this pesky little voice. We all have it. And it has the potential to keep all of us stagnant and lackluster even though we were created to be much, much greater! And there's something freeing about clearing this voice out loud. It loses its power when I share it with others.

So I've written a letter and invite you to read it here: Letter to the Editor. Join me on this clearing journey. What's your editor/gremlin/nagging inner voice/whatever you call it saying? Write it a letter. And feel free to post it on the Facebook page.

May we all hear this voice clearly . . . and then tell it to just shut up.

clearing . . . 36 things!

It's my clearing day!

It's been a great one! For starters, I trashed or donated 36 things! I also found $65 worth of fido gift cards that I had somehow completely neglected for about 3-4 years . . . and they still work! This meant that after the clearing, I was able to treat myself to a deja vu salad, a cup o' chocolat chaud (with whipped topping and marshmallows) and quiet time to finally read my friend's short story. Clearing . . . it's like having another birthday!

I've also challenged myself to consider clearing something emotional as I work on the physical/spacial clearing. It seems only natural. And this addition has been so beautiful. I will unpack and write about this more at another date.

Anyway . . . in total, 94 items lighter, 946 to go!

may we all choose life-giving goodness.

clearing out the closets . . . 22 things

i'm still clearing.

yay.

and i can see clearly that i have enough things i don't need that i may may need to clear 20 items DAILY. i'm afraid i'll barely make a dent in my stuff at 20/week. but i'm also more aware of how sentimental i am. i haven't even opened or ever used a particular gift in the several years i've owned it. but i originally passed it because i really like the person who gave it to me. finally resolving that i'd still stay fond of the person after i let go of the item since, after all, i have been fond of this person all along, i placed it in the goodwill basket. to be delivered tomorrow morning.

a declaration i've committed to follow: all items shall be thrown away, sold or delivered to goodwill within 24 hours. woo hoo!!

thanks for your support! and for those keeping tally, 58 items released, 982 to go!

may we all refrain from attaching ourselves to things. let go.

peace.

crazy things are on the way!

watch this space because crazy things are on the way . . . i'll keep you posted as they develop.

:)

it's been a lovely journey since lululemon athletica posted my poem "do the crazy thing" on their blog.

curious about the story behind the words? check it out here.

may your day be filled with sunshine and daisies and just enough rain for a rainbow and oodles and oodles of gratitudles!

peace.

Ciona

cleaning out my closets . . .

i have more stuff than i ever use. more than i ever will use.

in fact, i'm certain i have well over 1000 things in my house that i just don't need or use. at least.

some of these things are meaningful and have served a beautiful purpose in my life. so my tendency is to hold onto such things. and i'm amazing at the excuses. i may need this later, after all. or maybe one day someone will find this artifact that witnesses to the beauty of the life i've lived. or my dear friend made it for me, and i just love it so, and i'll regret not having it when she/he dies.

but the weight of holding on to things has proven burdensome.

and in a world where people have needs galore, i don't need to hold onto things i don't need.

so i set an intention today to release 20 things each week. in a year, i'll be just over a thousand things lighter. and i will post about it here because, honestly, i have habitually declared things and forgotten about them. and i would LOVE for someone to ask me why i didn't post about my 20 things one week if i somehow don't peel through this particular layer of habit.

this week:

ok. books alone, i've cleared more than 20 this week, but i couldn't stop once I got started with the books. of course, the first day is probably easiest when it comes to letting go, although i made myself include one somewhat sentimental item. so, 36 items down, 1004 to go.

welcome to my clearing journey. may we all learn to gracefully and intentionally let go.

famous.

while sitting at bongo java roasting co. on the east side of nashville yesterday, a tall silver-haired man in black walks up to me.

"are you a famous musician?" he asks.

dead serious.

i laugh. "no, sir, i'm not."

"well, you look like a musician or songwriter or something," he says to me. "and you look like a writer working on a great novel or something," he directs at the young lady with hipster hair, wearing huge headphones and a short pencil skirt at the table next to me. she stops typing on her laptop and frees her ears.

"well, i am a writer," she says. "but not working on my novel right now."

"i'm a writer, too!" i say.

"well, of course you're a writer!" says the man in black to me. "that's just wonderful! what do you write?"

"well, i write poetry and several other things, depending on the day and the assignment"

"oh wow! you're a poet!" he exclaims, as the woman he was with walks over to the table. "carolanne, you've gotta meet her! she's a famous poet!"

dead serious. again.

"oh my! what's your name?" she asks, extending her hand to shake mine.

i laugh again and squirm and stumble to introduce myself. "well, i'm not . . . uhhh . . . famous, errr, i'm . . . uhhh . . . ciona. my name is ciona."

so we all chat for a bit, and i finally ask the man in black his name and if he's a musician.

"oh, my name is scott, and i'm a famous photographer, actually."

and as we continue to chat the kind of chat of four mostly strangers, scott whips out his famous camera and starts taking photographs of me.

and i decide right then that i love this moment. it's taken me so long to even say, "i'm a poet." and while the goal of being well known and admired isn't a driving force in the soft focus of my future desires, i decide that i love not only being a poet but being an amazing poet in that moment. and i love that scott, who may have spent his life flying around the world and sharing work in galleries and books or taking snapshots of strangers in coffee shops, claims his art in a grandiose way. and i love that none of us asked each other what we had published or where our photographs were seen; we were just famous. as simple as that.

may you all love your art, your work, your life in a grand way today! go ahead, be famous.