On Emptying: Part Two

From the emptied me of 2023, I’m beginning to fill myself back up - curating carefully.

If you are just joining me in this conversation, you can find Part One of this piece here, which I shared as I found my final resting place for the year at the end of 2023.

The space of me feels a bit more precious when there is more of it. And, I’ve been noticing the shift from stillness, emptying and emptied…with a stall here and a bit of resistance to (ever) move beyond this (like, I have a fantasy of staying in this emptied place forrrrever), to feeling inspired and divinely guided to begin filling myself with intention.

I know when Spirit is working because things flow in very easily and fully and there is quality of clarity that feels rich, and deep: I’ve been deliciously in THIS place for the first ten days of the new year.

And I’m ready to share the first list, in hopes that it inspires you to make your own list of beautiful things that you feel joy about, that bring you into a deeper existence, that are all heart and filled with a light-ness. (Not to be confused with that big list of intentions, or that board filled with visions, or any forecasting or strategy with your work…or dare I say, any resolutions.)

All of these things have their place, in the space of you perhaps, but they feel different than the list I’ve made of things I’d like to “fill myself with” this year.

12 Solo Podcast Episodes

I’ve been shying away, for all of the conveniently wrong reasons, from recording and sharing a series of solo podcast episodes that I have felt have been living deeply within me since I began my podcast last year. This series is underway, and it is filling me with so much joy to remember these stories and hone the craft of storytelling in this way as I record each one. The first one will be shared in February, these will be sprinkled in-between shared episodes and I cannot wait for you to have them.

Hire a New Mentor

I spent 2023 with Gillian Pothier in her All For Love and FEM spaces, on a deeper journey of decent into my heart, into the feminine, and into feminine mastery. I have admired and resonated with Gillian for years, in the last year she has become a teacher that I greatly honor and respect. For 2024, I’m moving more deeply into the heart of my faith, into the heart of stillness, into the heart of attention, into the heart of softening…and into the heart of Elena Brower. Her book Softening Times, a book of poetry landed in my lap last year after many years of falling away from her work. (I first discovered Elena years ago during my yoga teacher training days.) I quickly remembered why I love her so much, and I have been feeling a deep resonance with all that she shares: in her writing and poetry, in her practices, in her faith, and in her art. She embodies the grace of aging, and of softening that I admire so much…and I have gifted myself a year of Engaged Mentorship with her for 2024. (I’m also happily continuing to share space with Meggan Watterson and Birjiwan, two dear teachers of the heart that I cannot imagine my life without.)

Write + Share a Weekly Substack

Well, here we are! The very first blog I created (in the 90’s when blogging was the new thing) was called “Love Lust Butterflies,” and it was such a labor of love for me! As you may or may not know, I also have a formal background in writing in an academic sense, I received my B.S. in Secondary Education: English from Indiana University and taught High School English for eight years. I was a writing teacher. (As I type this I’m adding: “share the story of how you taught “how to write a paragraph” wearing a hamburger costume once” to my solo pod ideas list!) I love to write. I write to heal. I published my poetry book These Words in 2017, and I became a luxury travel writer for The Fit Traveller during the same time. Substack is the newest home for my words, and I’m promising myself that I will write here at least once per week.

Create a Collection of Art

When this one dropped in I literally squealed, and then cried promptly after, because it feels so right and I feel so ready to sit in front of a canvas again. Along with that B.S. in Secondary Education at Indiana University, I followed my heart and studied for a minor in Art. While I found myself in a lot of ways in the literature classes on that campus, I have the fondest memories of the art that I created there. And, the truth is that I’ve been creating ever since: in so many beautiful ways. 2024 is the year that I will remember that I am an artist, and I will create my newest collection of mixed media art on canvas (mostly) which I hope will convey with lots of passion and beauty a culmination of the seasons I’ve lived since I last had a paint brush in my hand. I feel deeply that this collection will be shared in an official vernissage (art opening) in Paris before the end of the year.

Create a Bhakti Sangha in Paris

This should say, “create my Bhakti Sangha in Paris,” because it will not be the first and/or only one in Paris. My beloved Bhakti family at Jivamukti in Paris is where I go to infuse my heart with kirtan and sangha. I am returning to answering the call and stepping into my dharma by teaching Bhakti yoga in person again beginning in February. The story of how I came to be a yoga teacher teaching yoga is in the upcoming solo pod series, stepping into this role in the yoga community of San Francisco isn’t for the faint at heart and I got my start as a result of someone seeing me and believing in me in a way that I couldn’t see or believe for myself. It’s time to serve again, it’s time to sing together again (and I have a back-up drummer I cannot wait for you to meet), it’s time to move our bodies into stillness and to breath in a collective space, and I cannot wait. I will be teaching a Sunday Bhakti All Levels Vinyasa Flow class, with a heart-forward Sangha element (kirtan and stillness and devotion) beginning Sunday, February 11th from 2-3:30pm in a private studio in the Marais. (Updated on January 16th with the brand-new link to register for these classes.)

Daily Sadhana + Private Altar Sessions

Something magical happened to me last May during a 20-day cacao training that I was participating in with the Mayan Wisdom Project. (You can count on many more detailed pieces here, sharing about my altar experiences and practices: and I’m also calling in 3 new private altar session clients in Paris, but for now I will simply share that my altar practice has changed my life in profound ways.) I had my first altar as a child, and I’ve been talking to God since “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret…” so the idea of a daily sadhana or altar practice is not new. A new magical portal was unlocked in May, with the Mayan energy I welcomed in…likely part of a ‘perfect storm’ and the type of divine intervention that leads us to sit so presently and receive so fully in the exact ‘right’ moment. This happened for me in 2023, and I’m committed to a daily sadhana practice at my altar for 2024. (It helps that the newest altar for this item on my list was made by the hands of my beloved and gilded in gold…more on that soon.)

The space is filling as I type and share this list, the space of me…thoughtfully being filled with intentional, heart-forward, joy-filled, love and goodness. What a way to begin my 53rd year in this body.

Thank you for being here with me, it means the world to me.

Happy, Happy New Year!