Letting go of the old and.....

...Welcoming in the NEW.
I don't know about you but I always appreciate a fresh start. Doesn't matter what the situation is I am simply inspired by the idea that I can learn from the past and create a new more empowering future, no matter what.
So, what are you letting go of as 2009 comes to an end? My husband and I always take the time to list what our accomplishments of the year that is ending were, what were the top stories, what were our big lessons? Then we create what we see as being the Headlines for the coming year, like the front page of a paper. It is great fun, we laugh, we cry, we so enjoy the opportunity.
I invite you to try it.
When we create the Headlines for the coming year we are actually creating a context, a topic for the year that will help support our commitments and passions.
Thank you for a great year, Happy New Year!
Love, Terces

Living by Faith

I was thinking the other day how often I find myself living by evidence, even when I realize it I can't always intervene in my evidence way of life. Yet, I know, deep down inside myself that life lived by faith is what really calls to me. I have actually had lots of experiences in my life where I made choices and stepped out of my comfort zone living completely by faith and ALWAYS the outcome was MIRACULOUS. Yet still, here I am looking for evidence anyway.
What it takes for me to live by faith is simply trusting, keeping my attention on the perfection of everything and letting go of any and all expectations I might have.
One of the ways I interrupt my search for evidence is shifting my attention to all I have to be grateful for. I am always amazed at how quickly I return to the present moment and once again begin to notice who beautifully and perfectly I am provided for. I often find myself wondering .... what more evidence do I need?

Love, Terces

Trust and Surrender

December is here, we even have snow on the ground at the farm, not a normal occurrence. A couple of our farm family members have NEVER seen snow, certainly gets me present to the beauty of it. Amazing how I can fall asleep to the miracles all around me. Great to have a wake up call!
We are deep in the process of "birthing" Gracias Madre, what an exercise in trust and surrender I find ourselves in. While the process has required more money and more time than we could have imagined, and while I know it will be a beautiful expression of our celebration of the unconditional love that mothering is, I am challenged daily to let go and trust.
Where are you holding on? Where are you pushing for an outcome and not trusting the process you are in?
Great questions especially when I am so committed that we be our word with all the vendors, new employees and all those involved throughout our company, and yet, I can do and say all there is to do and say, I can support and encourage and ultimately what there is to do is trust and let go, knowing that this too is in God's hands, that this too is a perfect expression of the Divine.
Where can you let go today and invite yourself to trust more fully and surrender more deeply?
I love you.
Terces

Giving Thanks

This is it, the week of Thanksgiving.
So instead of the usual grocery shopping (purchasing more than normal), how about coming by any of our Cafe Gratitude Cafe and letting us serve you a Thanksgiving meal (free of charge) and then how about you serving someone else?
In every Cafe (except the one inside of Whole Foods in Oakland) we serve a free meal to anyone who joins us from 11am - 3pm and everyone donates their time. This is my favorite day, favorite celebration, it is such a heartwarming, heart opening celebration of giving Thanks. Everyone shares what they are grateful for and the long community tables are filled with people from everywhere. The servers and bartenders and kitchen folks are all volunteering their time, they are serving simply because they want to give.
Come on by, eat, serve, remember the real source of gratitude is giving to others, others before self!
It is a day you will remember, promise.
We would love to serve you!
Happy Thanksgiving.

What are you grateful for?

Love, Terces

Surprise and delight

Wow here it is, the season to give. What if it is always the season to give?
What I mean by that is notice how you feel when you do something kind, thoughtful, generous for someone else? Feels pretty good, huh? Well consider that whenever you feel stuck, stopped, worried, anxious, selfish, separate.... you get the idea? .... you gave.
That is how our I Am Grateful Bowl came into existence. We were experiencing a slow down in business, a block in the flow... so we said, "How can we give more?" and the idea of a bowl of delicious organic food paid by donation, based on what someone could afford to give, or someone might choose to purchase for someone else in advance, came into existence.
So look and see, where can you give today, who can you surprise and delight? This is such a great exercise to take on, in all seasons, each and every day.
Love, Terces

Creating a context for your life

What is the context for your life? What gets you up in the morning inspired to face your day?
I was on the farm the other morning doing my chores while listening to the birds sing. I started thinking about how grateful I am that my day to day life requires that I get up, carry water, rake, clean, wash, shovel, cook, build a fire.... you get the idea. I remembered how growing up I was actually afraid of a life that would have me come home at the end of my work day and sit and watch television! When people come to the farm the sometimes ask me, "do you like living this simply?" It's funny but I never think of it that way, I actually think when we are gathered around a campfire in the evening, "what was it that sent us all in doors?", "what were we thinking?"
The context for our lives is one of empowering the future generations, so living close to the earth, growing our own food, creating a more sustainable and local existence gets us up each day. We say that the universities of the future may well be small family farms.
I encourage you to create a context that not only inspires you but has you stretch into making the difference you are committed to making.
Love, Terces

Sharing

We are quickly coming upon the Holiday season when sharing is a common theme. I was thinking just the other day how much of a gift sharing really is. When we share with others we let them into our life, we open our hearts to them and often they in return open their hearts and lives to us. By sharing I mean really digging deeply into your experience of life and sharing from your most passionate place.
Last night we were guests at a dinner in Oakland where 10 others had earned the opportunity to be there via a raffle that was part of a fund raiser for the East Bay Waldorf School. We all gathered and then shared in a conversation, that we started, about gratitude and abundance.
It wasn't long before people were sharing about their challenges of being parents of young children and their deepest wishes for the quality of life they wanted for their families. Or how judgmental they sometimes are of others and how separate they feel. How much they long for community and a sense of belonging. There was such deep sharing that in less than one hour this table of mostly strangers was connected with the warmth of love. We could all actually feel it.
I invite all of us to take on a new level of sharing this Holiday season. Not just in gifts and parties, but that deep sense of truly connecting with those we love as well as those we wish we knew better. Reach out to one another, share from your heart.
That is the gift I want to give and the one I want to receive as well.

Love, Terces