shout out to shouting out your dreams and goals

My daughter Grace (along with a soccer teammate in both club and high school) was featured today on the front page of the sports section of our local paper. The article addressed Grace heading off to college a semester early and forgoing her senior year of high school soccer. This quote taken from the article explains why Grace made this decision:

"I have huge goals as a collegiate player and two of them are to be on the national team and to become an All-American as a freshman," Cutler said. "These are goals that I will have to work very hard for, and starting training early will give me a better chance to achieve them.”

When I read this quote, I observed fear arise in me. Grace has lofty goals for her soccer career that we talk about often among the “safety” of our own family, but she basically proclaimed to the world what her aspirations are. My ego took over and I worried about the criticism and pessimism of others. I observed my own judgment that if now she doesn’t accomplish these goals, then in the public’s eye she will be considered a failure. Wow.

I have watched my kids set grand goals, and pursue them. I have supported my children in every way possible in pursuit of their dreams and have always reinforced that they have no limits or boundaries to their dreams and creations. Most meaningfully, I have had the profound pleasure of witnessing my children on their journeys fulfilling their dreams.

I never played team sports growing up so I have never had the experience of setting goals for a game, a season, or even a career. It is a common experience for teams and individual athletes to set goals, and then for those goals to not be met. Yet, setting goals is a significant motivation and it provides direction and focus for the path to be taken. It is a bold statement to the Universe that this is where I desire to go and is an essential tool of creation. 

I learn so much from my children and I am grateful to them for their inspiration. Now that my role as stay-at-home mom is coming to an end and the next phase of life is quickly approaching, I intend to follow my children’s lead and dream big with grand and bold specifics!  What do I want to pursue and accomplish? Hmmm. 

happy 21st birthday son

Happy Birthday dear Son

You are finally 21!

21 years ago this day

1993, the 13th of May

You blessed me as your mother

Thanks for not choosing another

From the moment we heard “It’s a boy!”

Your presence has brought sheer joy

From newborn to man has been swift

Every moment with you, a gift

You’re intelligent, sensitive, a renaissance man

Funny, open hearted, my Mason-man

You’re an earth roamer

To all, a soul brother

To me, a kindred soul

Every color of the rainbow

You are YOU

Tried-and-true

Complex and simple

A divine temple

You are an angel on earth!

You have been since birth

So Happy Birthday dear Son

May you be blessed with many more to come

I love, love, love you

For always and forever

Mom

a perfect may 10th celebration

This time in May is full of celebration for our family:

Mother’s Day is today (and it is dumping snow!). 

Mason’s 21st birthday is on Tuesday.

And, yesterday (May 10th) was the 18th anniversary of the momentous spiritual shift in our lives, when Christ Consciousness blessed me with the direct, out-of-body meeting with Him in the light realm. 

May 10th is meaningful to only Trey and me, as Connor and Mason were young, and Gracie was not yet even conceived. Yet, this day changed our kid’s lives too because Trey and I were so profoundly transformed.

Trey and I spent a peaceful day in nature fly fishing for our first time, in the Big Thompson River in Estes Park. I hooked and released five trout, and Trey three. Our guide gave thanks to each trout as he released them back into the tumbling river. Elk were all around and I even saw two bighorn sheep on the canyon cliffs as we drove home. I cannot imagine a more perfect way to celebrate May 10th than our day communing with nature and wildlife in the majestic mountains of Colorado. Halleluja!