lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

“I dream too much, and I don’t write enough, and I’m trying to find God everywhere.”

— Anis Mojgai (via afrosandprose)

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

Self care:

Because you need to have something to come back to.

Like Sunrise and Sunset give us place while spinning through space. Mining through life feels so much more purposeful when you have a reference point. A place that you stash sweetness for yourself, returning as often as you need to. 5 minutes for meditation, morning sun salutations, lotioning after a shower, a midday piece of chocolate, turning off your phone 10 mins before bed time. Something. To come back to. So that there's some you left to come back to. Otherwise you will spin yourself-- spend yourself-- out of balance. Nobody feels good operating from a place of lack. Take stock of yourself daily. If you do not see any room for self care, find it. Or create it. Even if it is at your own expense. It will pay back in more ways than one. So set your alarm for a bit earlier in the morning than usual. Perhaps put your phone on the charger in another room so that it isn't within your reach. Remember that you are not making space for distraction but authentic recharging.

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

Two for One.

Shoutouts to using incidence to move you forward.

In life, things happen and we tend to perceive it as either bad or good. The key word is perceive. We tend to think that the things we perceive as negative are getting in the way of the positive. No one is sure if all things that happen are meant to happen or not, but the thing we can all be sure of is that what happens happens. Imagine if we used every single last one of our experiences to push us on; then no experience would be a hindrance. We would spend no energy or time on regret or remorse because every situation would be a win.

The middle between coincidence (believing things happen in the order that they do for a reason) and Incidence (believing things happen at random) is just that things happen.  As a rule of life, control lies in outlook. If you search for and extract a gain from every situation, you will be unstoppable. In every situation, even when it seems impossible, there is a gain to be found.

<~~~>

I realized that more often than not when on social media, I am mindlessly scrolling. Only some of the time am I genuinely interacting with and investing my attention into those within my community, as opposed to just browsing based on what is stimulating. This surprised me. As an Artist and Entrepreneur, that is unacceptable for me. I realized I needed to put all the energy that could found into supporting and interacting with those of us who are actively trying to do things. We need us. Of course I re-post, like, and comment sometimes, but I am referring to doing so more frequently and mindfully. Realizing how much space there was for me to do and be better blew my mind.  In truth, there is power in this online world and cyberspace, whether we are all willing to accept it or not. The power comes from us and it lies in our ability to connect with and encourage the efforts of those around us. Know what I mean?

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

but, nothing.

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

Reclaim Your Time

There are many paths that our lives could have taken.

There’s the sport we didn’t get to pursue, the school we wish we had gotten into, the relationship we feel we wasted our time on. We can sit in the bitter pit of what could have been-- for the rest of our lives. What a waste that would be! What a gross misuse of life regret and remorse are! There is something so much more powerful than the past that holds us back, and it is RIGHT NOW. Each moment is unprecedented and there is nothing more glorious than the path we are on right now. Why? Because it is all we have, and yes it includes all of the things that happened for us to get here. Whether those things are perceived as unsatisfactory, bad or indifferent thus far, they are essential to the life of our dreams. We have all come into this world with an assigned purpose, along with talents and innate abilities to help us reach our utmost potential; The Universe/Whatever God you believe in knew what it was doing. It is up to us to be figuring out how to be open to and embody just that.

For some time now I have been on this road to self-actualization and this morning I truly felt the progress profoundly. In visualizing my life the way I want it to be and taking actions towards that, there have been the inevitable longings for the things I seemingly missed in the past and had continued to long for. Wishing I had stuck with Basketball, the private prep school that I missed the application deadline for, a few lovers to date. But as of late, I have started to see so much fruit from the things that I thought I missed out on or that caused me strife. I am in a place where my love for numerous things(unrequited or otherwise)  has left me open and able to connect with people, gives me my knowledge base for connecting the dots of my own life and fosters the gratitude that pulls my prospects closer and closer to me. Note: this all started with convincing myself to not waste energy focusing on what I did not have and investing my focus on what I could do with what I did have.

I have not written this in the vein of false motivation, simply for the sake of writing or to blow hot steamy air. I have enlisted the help of these words because I so truly wish to share the joy that is coming forth with my growth. For me it started with pursuit of the question of ‘what is possible?’ from where I was. I urge you to consider what that means for you and to follow it. Your best life lays ahead of you regardless of who you have been, what you have been through and what surrounds you, and especially if all of those things are not in harmony with what you wish for your future. The paths are many but the past is fixed. Luckily so is the destination. MAKE your way.

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

Happiness.

No one else can create yours FOR you.

They can share in it, enhance it even, but only YOU have the control to make it just how you want it. Happiness is like that. Kind of like food! No one can make your signature dish like you and you KNOW it. Making your signature dish the way someone else makes theirs or even someone else using your recipe just won’t DO it for you. It may be good, may even be great. But it won’t be yours. It won’t be exactly the way you need it to be in order to be satisfying to you. Happiness is like that too. So often we let Society tell us what will make us happy, or look to those who surround us to make us happy, when really, you are the only one who could POSSIBLY know. Even if it seems that you don’t have a clue.

I recently realized that when I am starting a new habit or learning a new skill (which makes me happy :-P), I tend to Cocoon. I keep to myself like it’s going out of style.  I’m talking in-my-room-for-hours-at-a-time, waking early and sleeping early, with rare infrequent sightings going to the bathroom or grabbing a quick bite to eat. I know when I have started to feel confident in my new ability and its solidity because I get social again, able to work around distraction. It may not look exactly like this for you, but in order to truly create your happiness, you need time to yourself. Take it. For the sake of self commitment, for the sake of mental space, for the sake of all things sacred; do just that. No one is able to give that to you.

It is hard to hear your heart telling you exactly what WILL make you happy when you are distracted. It requires stillness. While you are concerned with or thinking about what ISN’T making you happy, your heart knows and is always whispering just below the cacophony.

Take time today to take a break from all the noise in your life and just listen.

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

This! XD <3

Weirdly anti-millennial articles have scraped the bottom of the barrel so hard that they are now two feet down into the topsoil

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

Gratitude and Joy

I just came back inside from walking the roads of St. Phillips for over an hour. In this neighborhood of Long Bay, I went house to house asking people to give items they can spare to donate to Antigua/Barbuda. I left out with two cans of tuna and a can of pineapples that I contributed and came back plus two cans of sardines and four rolls of tissue.

Let me go back. I woke up this morning feeling such gratitude. I did my morning Sun salutations (yoga) and tidied up my room. Every morning from sunrise (5:40) to around 9 AM, I spend time doing an variety of things I call religere (Latin meaning reconnect; the root of the word religion). This morning, it consisted of first continuing to read the book “The Secret”. I find that my intuition speaks to me better when I am in solitude. Upon reading a passage I, as usual, paused to allow the words to wash over me. Gratitude is the recurring theme of the book, but the paragraph that caused me to think was about Joy. It stated that “people are responsible for their own joy”1. I stopped to meditate on the things that bring me Joy. Dancing, creating my Jewelry, working with babies and families, outreach…  Outreach.

Over the weekend I wrote an article about Hurricane relief for the Caribbean, particularly Antigua/Barbuda. I am waiting for the article to be published, as well as waiting to hear back from the Red Cross of Barbados to go Volunteer. All of this waiting, there must be something that I can do now, I thought. And there it came. The idea to go door to door in a place away from home. At first, my rational resisted “well, maybe if this was New York”—it is the same action and intention no matter where. “But I am away from home”—You said you wanted to travel and have freedom. “I’m on my cycle”- endorphins relieve pain. “This sounds crazy”-The Warrior of the light knows that he is free to choose his desires with courage and just a touch of madness2. Well, after I left room for the infinite to knock down my Ego’s excuses, there stood one more. “What if no one gives and my efforts are wasted”—Try.

As simple as that. If you truly care- and you know you do- TRY.

And with that, I got up and prepared to go out.

Sometimes our actions are Intuition’s way of achieving something that we couldn’t foresee. Upon returning home, I saw that this was also an opportunity for me in building my courage and character to the person I know I am and need to be. Sometimes we sit around complaining about tragedy or our lack of joy, but what do to actively work on it is what matters most. I had to remind myself that even though I did not return with a truck load of goods, that I did what I intended to do and made a few friends along the way. That to me was a success, and I paused for a moment to the feel gratitude in that. Gratitude is the key.

I plan to go out in the opposite direction tomorrow and to the city later in the week to continue these efforts. Hopefully I will be contacted soon about travelling to Antigua to help physically, but for now I am finding my joy here in doing what I can with what I have. Gratefully so.

  PS I found the Ocean halfway through my walk—Divine.

(My background avatar)

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

Quid (no ) Quo

Who knew

Something

Would cost everything

and leave nothing

Or that

something 

would become everything

and then nothing at all...

All of me

just scraps left to prove that

something

once lived here

All of me

into effort to prove that

something

once loved here.

Something.

Some thing.

something

so thin.

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

No Man's Land

I... Marked my territory. The indelible mark of my love making Your left shoulder Mine forever. I take comfort in this epiphany That you probably think of me Each time you look in the mirror Maybe even see me... Maybe even relive the memory Of a scar once fresh And full of blood Full of Life Force Just a small reminder of the effect I used to have on you. You didn't know that it wouldn't go away And I couldn't have known that you'd leave to stay Forever. However. I relish the realization that She will never possess all of you Because before there was a she Before our union became history I... Marked my territory.

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

This creative thing that I do...

I am spending day in and day out working to build my brand. Give me hand, will ya?

IG: zenbaby

Facebook.com/ZenBabyCrochet

Etsy.com/shop/ZenBabyShop

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

An Arm's Reach

It is the moments that I remember how we were

that I want to reach out to you.

and I hope you hold on

through the moments I am not

to see the other side of my success

And I can see

myself in the future

sending you checks

because I will still feel the guilt of us

ending

in such a mess.

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

They take your innards and make you into a tragedy Hang you on the wall, stuffed, for all to see. Just so they can reminisce Speak of how much you touched them And how there hasn't been anyone since. A public condition -- they like their heroes dead. To Jean-Michel Basquiat and every other who delivered their gift and left

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

Speak.

" My role in society... is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel... as a reflection of us all.". John Lennon

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

Fundraising as a preliminary step to attaining my dance building! Winter is fast approaching and this Hooded Sweatshirt will make an EXCELLENT XMas present! https://www.booster.com/dancersneedspace

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

Check Me Out!!! Fundraising and all!!!

Rarely do I post vids of myself dancing, normally because of the quality of recording, but here you go. Show with the Imani Dancers in 12' I believe; I have on the red shorts! Enjoy and be sure to click my link to support my fundraising campaign!!! https://www.booster.com/dancersneedspace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZqQmjH16fM&list=UUZCRinYTdNixhUqMu1V28Yg

[lolavalentine-thedreamcatcher]

Check Out My Links!!!

https://www.facebook.com/lauren.a.jones.509

http://lolavalentinetm.wix.com/

www.linkedin.com/pub/lauren-jones/76/412/b70/

http://www.gofundme.com/am123s

https://www.booster.com/dancersneedspace