Holy Moly Batschoolers! Do you know what I found, "on accident" (as the kids say)? I found a quote that describes my own personal little road to a handmade life. I am kind of blown away because this journey happened for me just like this:

"If you maintain a feeling of compassion, loving kindness, then something automatically opens your inner door. Through that, you can communicate more easily with other people. And that feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness. You'll find that all human beings are just like you, so you'll be able to relate to them more easily. That gives you a spirit of friendship. Then there's less need to hide things, and as a result, feelings of fear, self-doubt, and insecurity are automatically dispelled." ~His Holiness the Dalai Lama

And the real kicker is that I had to begin with myself. I had to start by maintaining that feeling of compassion and loving kindness for and towards myself. The love, the warmth, the increased feelings of security spiraled out from there. And I am discovering that the more I play with these ideas and feelings the better it all gets. And the more I see it all around me. And I see different folks getting down the same road in a different way, with other words. The more I tune into "loving kindness" as an experience instead of "loving kindness" as obvious words we have all heard 1000 times blah blah blah, the more this all is realised as an experiential thing that does not translate into words very well.

Uh oh. I am sounding like a freaky religious homeschooler. Trust me, I will not ever be standing in a denim jumper at a book fair trying to snark anyone to Jesus. But I can say my life is improving and I trace it all to the feet of loving kindness. In a very magic way that starts on the inside first. And I believe Jesus was just a man. I believe he wanted us all to believe we are all just people, just like him. I do not accept him as my savior and I don't think he ever intended me too. Dig it?

Mary Oliver describes all this a different way:

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles."Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.