Come Back To YOU!

Today I encourage you to do one very brief but substantial experiment:

Stand in your bare feet in a place you love and close your eyes.  Now count the things you love about the place including texture of sound, place, how you resonate with the place, what elements make you happy, can you imagine the place in your head while you are there and note the things you love there?

Note: If you don't have a current place you love, maybe go to a park or 

somewhere that reminds you of your favorite place.   Might I suggest you think about your life and 

begin inviting your life to shift in a way that you have 

so many favorite places you have a difficult time 

choosing which one is your most favorite!

Now open your eyes and take in all the things that make you happy there.  Note every crevice and plane of each contributing element to that space.  To embrace your moment of gratitude, choose one thing to go to and place your hand on it while thinking about how you love this place.  

Moments of gratitude remind us of the millions of things to be grateful for in our hectic lives.  Taking the time to be grateful every day will make your life better because you remember every day what a great life you have!

Now go and enjoy your Sunday! 

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin

Romance is NOT Dead!

There are times when I just don't have the words to tell my honey how much I love him.  So I turn to the people who have made words their life: poets.  Pablo Neruda is a personal favorite.    

Neruda's book of 100 Love Sonnets is one of my "go to" romance books...

I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair

DON'T GO FAR OFF, NOT EVEN FOR A DAY
Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

~Pablo Neruda 

See what I mean?  *sigh*  Plus, in 100 Love Sonnets, the sonnets appear both in Spanish (how Neruda wrote them) as well as their delicious translation in English.  

Send your love (whether you have met him/her yet or not) a sonnet today!

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin

 

Imaginairy Friend

Are there times when you feel like you're not alone?  When you were a kid, did you have an imaginary friend or spirit or something that you knew was there, but you didn't have words for it?  Do you feel like you have entities around you every now and then?  If you do, you're not alone - (forgive the double meaning) many people have this sensation.

Some people feel like a loved one who is no longer in our physical world shows up every now and then.  Some people feel like God or Jesus walk with them.  Some people feel like ancestors visit with them.  And some people are simply creeped out that they feel like someone's there but not in a physical form.

I can only tell you that when I was in college my grandmother passed away.  She lived one block from me my whole life when I was growing up, so she was always around.  She wore a charm bracelet that made a tinckling sound that I loved!  She also wore a perfume that was totally her.  One day walking back to my soroity in college, I heard that bracelet and smelled her perfume.  It filled me with joy and I talked to her.  I couldn't hear anything she said (if she spoke), but I could most certainly feel her presence.

That is not the singular experience I've had along those lines, but it is one of the strongest I recall.  I don't know what I believe about after-life or heaven or hell or angels or whatnot, but I can tell you that when my loved ones visit, they seem happy and their visit thrills me.

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin

College Bound? What are some great questions to ponder?

I recently met with a young woman who is contemplating which college would be the best fit for her.  Considerations are always resources: funds vs. tuition, room and board, books, quality of school, elements of education including peers and professors and how prepared the aspiring student feels to conquer undergraduate work.  I'm not naming all of the challenges, but you get the picture.

Other than rankings like those listed on U.S. News and World Reports top 100 colleges (tuition is also listed), thoughts to consider:

• Do you thrive in an intimate classroom where you're one of 16 rather than one of 500?
• Do you prefer interactive learning where the professor asks you direct questions and challenges you personally or do you prefer listening to lectures and taking tests?  You may want to visit this learning styles website to help determine how you best learn.  This will help you apply this information when interviewing schools because you can ask about teacher student ratio.  Plus, when determining your major, you can ask those professors how they teach.
• Are you easily swayed by others to procrastinate?  If you are, going to a school that's rural or removed from a city might be a better choice to limit distractions.  If you are driven and require distractions to function better, going to a school in a city might be ideal.
• Do you want a private school or public?  The major difference is usually the school's affiliation to a religion.  If your beliefs are strong, you'll find your religious community wherever you land, and having the community already built in the school and curriculum can be wonderful.
• Visit the school.  Ask yourself if these people seem to be the type of people (students and teachers) who will inspire you to become who you want to be.  If you don't feel excited by the people, check in with yourself to see if it's fear of success or really just not liking the people.  Go with your gut.
• College is the place where you will form friendships with people who will help you succeed the rest of your life.  If you don't think these people will do that, you may not be a fit for that college.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. 

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler."

~Henry David Thoreau

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin

Need A Good Cry?

There are times when I just want to watch a movie or play and be moved.  As an actor, the layers of the performance and my belief in the actors' portrayal of the story both have to combine to move me.

My top 9 list of movies that will move you:

1. Color Purple 
2. Cranford
3. Finding Nemo
4. Sense and Sensibility
5. The Carol Burnett Show(laugh and cry)
6. It's A Wonderful Life
7. Lars and The Real Girl
8. Good Will Hunting 
9. Rudy

Some of these performances touch me more deeply than others, but all have amazing relationships in them that break my heart or make me guffaw.

Get your popcorn ready and cozy up on your couch.  It's going to be a great movie night!!!

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin