December 28, 2022 early am I’m up in the early, pitch dark silence of York, England, sitting in the living room of the beautiful AirBnB I rented nearly a year ago for just this occasion, the final day of my 5th decade. A number of people I love are asleep in this house with me: the incomparable Dr Marry, my spectacular mother, her partner Bob, my beloved Quinn and his girl Leona. All, and my brother Wes for part of it, have made the trek across the pond to celebrate this milestone birthday with me—something I have been planning since Dr Marry and I celebrated my 46th birthday in Yorkshire…
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Christmas memories from the “days of yore”
I immediately pulled out the cassette tapes of these albums my dad made for me in the 1980s. Incredibly, we still have a working tape player, and perhaps even more incredibly, the tapes are playing just fine. I've had them on pretty constant play ever since. Although I had forgotten that you have to physically turn cassette tapes over, which is kind of irritating compared to our modern streaming services, where all we have to do is tolerate a few ads or pay a monthly fee.
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A hodge podge of thoughts
What good habits might you begin incorporating into your life if getting started were that little? Lift one tinned can one time to start weight lifting? Eat one fewer potato chip? Leave one item in your shopping cart? Put one dollar into savings?
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Who are the banks of your river?
I'm in the midst of making big, life-altering decisions, and Dr Marry's opinion is the most important one to me now. Today, he listens, asks thoughtful questions and considers all the options before sharing his ideas. The banks he provides keep my water contained but moving forward in a dynamic, fluid, evolving direction. We are alongside each other, the water up against the bank, creating an equal push and pull. And we effortlessly transition back and forth between the two different roles depending on the needs of the other.
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Grant funded (re)Discover Your Spark virtual weekend retreat for ND-based artists & makers now available
Fargo-based arts leader welcomes North Dakota artists and makers to attend virtual retreat focused on personal exploration OCTOBER 20, 2022—Two years ago, a spark of inspiration ignited a shining new vision for The Arts Partnership President and CEO Dayna Del Val, one that has since helped her—and many others—rediscover passions, projects and purposes that have long since fallen into the shadows. But first, she had to walk into those shadows. Del Val recalls the moment the idea for (re)Discover Your Spark hit her where she needed to feel it the most: right in her head and her heart. “In September 2020, I was awarded a two-week Artist in Residence with…
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Be here. Now. Wait, what?
Stop examining your life and comparing it to what others say about theirs. If there are people who can clear their minds and sit in the empty vastness of the universe for minutes on end, good for them. That's not me. They have different gifts than I do. And you have different gifts, too. They might not look like anyone else's—isn't that a blessing? Isn't that what makes you YOU?
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Two+ years, five days, a full heart and an impatient mind
Two years and two weeks ago, the core of my (re)Discover Your Spark content was gifted to me by the Universe. Earlier this summer, I engaged two women to help me market this work to a larger audience. This time last week, I was waiting to launch my virtual, FREE 5-day (re)Discover Your Spark retreat, and now it’s all over. Isn’t time a funny thing? We spend so much of our lives waiting for something to start, the days and hours seeming to drag by. And then, when it finally happens, it flies by and is over in a flash. Let me share some of what I heard from people…
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UK spark lessons 🔥✨🔥
I was in the UK this past week with my dear friend Ellen, whom I met in one of the darkest moments of my life. We had planned this trip around a work event of hers in London. Of course, we had no way of knowing that the Queen would literally die the day I flew out or that we would be in Edinburgh and London on the same days that she was lying in state. That event certainly closed most of the streets but opened up doors to some incredibly interesting conversations with locals. In case you’re curious, Americans don’t have the market on feeling deeply and expressing loudly…
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Two parts of the same journey
We are here to create, to love, to learn, to grow, to share our gifts, and, very importantly, to experience joy. It’s not about getting to point B but “the journey,” as they say—and it sounds like a lie. But it is truer than we realize. What is point B anyway but number two in a long line of even more things? Yrsa Daley-Ward The How I’m a consistent re-reader of books that move me. I purposefully don’t have a lot of books in our home because I only keep those I know I’ll re-read multiple times. I have a system: I check out a book from the library, and…
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(re)Discover a candle to start an inferno
I looked around to take in the moment, to gather my wits about me and to recognize the enormity of what had just happened. I looked ahead to the field of trees that enclosed the beautiful French-style farmhouse where I was living, and I started moving toward it again.
