Love For Your Messy Bits

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I should be packing.

Tomorrow morning I leave on a jet plane headed for Camano Island, Washington where I’ll be hosting my week long IGNITE In-Person Immersion in a remote retreat house with an intimate group of my beloved IGNITE graduates. I’m bringing with me a suitcase of art supplies, some warmer clothes, and my amazing chef of a husband who will be doing all of the cooking. Yes, I know — I’m a lucky gal!

The women who are making this pilgrimage are coming from all over the US, Canada, England, and even St. Lucia in the Caribbean. The IGNITE Immersion has been planned for almost a year now, so you can imagine how excited we are to finally gather together! I, personally feel so blessed to guide the lovely ladies deeper into the work we started in my IGNITE Online Intensive while we nourish our bodies, hearts, and creativity.

I even get a little choked up and teary eyed just writing about it.

As you might know, this past Monday I wrote this blog post that made me feel ridiculously vulnerable — so much so, I almost didn’t share it. You see, for the last few months I haven’t quite felt myself. I’ve been struggling with bouts of exhaustion and feeling sick on and off again and again and in usual Capricorn fashion, I just keep on trucking away.

Though after joyfully taking on the Art Journal Jams project with my sweet Tashie for a few weeks, I finally admitted to myself that it’s time to scale back and start listening to what my body really needs, thus why we’re quitting.

But you see, I feel so blessed to really know the women that are coming to the IGNITE Immersion next week. You can’t go through my year-long IGNITE Online Intensive lightly or at a distance — you need to really show up and be seen — including your messy bits.

The thing I love most about the women in my IGNITE program tends to be their messy bits. It’s through their messy bits that I can snuggle in close and get to know them better. I feel that their messy bits are simply the parts of themselves that are hungry for more love, attention, and are needing to know they matter — the parts of themselves that want to be seen.

And this week, after I bared my heart on my blog, I was met with such love, understanding and even praise that my weary heart felt coated in sweet honey. It’s funny how the one thing that felt so hard to do, actually was the medicine I needed most. Because of the warm response that I received my messy bits were able to lean back a bit more. To breathe in a bit deeper. To exhale a bit longer.

Because of it I can now go to the IGNITE Immersion and feel much more stronger and connected to do the same thing for the women who will be attending.

I’m totally smiling because I finally realized that the love, understanding, and attention that I so passionately give to the women I serve — is exactly what my messy bits require as well. It’s that one thing we all mentally know — right? We know on some cerebral level that it’s ok to be vulnerable, sick, less than what we think is perfect/acceptable. But not until our hearts crack open just enough, will we then start to believe it for ourselves.

Like the wise Halcyon always says: The world would rather hug you than hurt you.

So please know that you are so loved — ALL of you — even the messy bits. And you are loved in ways that you can’t even imagine and from people you don’t even know exist in a world that would rather hug you than hurt you — and most of all from me.

Once again I am beyond grateful for the Dirty Footprints Studio community and all that it brings into my life — and that includes you.

Now I’m going to get back to packing.

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