come alive : marte from le voyage creatif

i'm so over-the-moon-ecstatic to introduce you to my incredibly creative norwegian friend, marte

{i call her marie, since my norwegian accent is, well, terrible}

she has been an incredibly refreshing and inspiring woman to have as a friend.

she makes jewelry that makes me feel both classy and earthy.

{which has made its way to stores in LA, south africa, and online here}

she tromps around her primitive cabin wearing wellies and cooking up classic norwegian cuisine.

she makes cheese. yes, you heard me. she makes cheese!

and if that doesn't make you swoon, this just might:

she travels the world over and over again. lately she's been posting about her travels

to malta, ireland, and {my very favorite place} the utah desert.

it just gets better: she owns and manages a travel concierge.

that's right. she's been everywhere. and she can tell you where you can find

the perfect little bookshop or the best place to taste the local cheese and the prettiest

little b&b you've ever set eyes on next time you travel, well, just about anywhere.

this talk about marte is making me desperate to make a visit out to norway just to stop in for a cup of tea with her.

so onward to marte's "come alive" list:

To come alive is a process I think truly kick-starts the day we realize we’re not fully alive, that we have more potential than we could ever hope for, and our desire to let our voice be heard begins to overcome us with great desire.

During life I’ve definitely felt both being whole, fearless and happy, and the feeling of fear. Fear of expressing my personality and talents, even doubting that I have any and hoping I could slip out the door with the cat without anyone noticing.

I believe every single woman has more beautiful gems hidden within them than we dare believe, and that the time to sing out loud, to give, share and blossom has oftentimes been postponed too long. The day to come alive is today;)

Here’s my little list of things that helps me come alive:

My beloved mother is a master at creating and spotting small happinesses, as she calls them, the perhaps cliché things that we can easily miss or forget to take time to notice or do.

Eating dessert first, walking without an umbrella in the rain, giving hugs unexpected and often to the people you love, eating chocolate on a mere Wednesday, walking barefoot on green soft grass, watching the sun rise or set, taking one day at the time and singing in the shower.

Be gentle on yourself!

Too often we women tend to be so hard on ourselves, me included. But talking down on ourselves will prohibit us from feeling joy for what we’ve actually created, accomplished or participated in.

One day I told my beloved mother on the phone that my boyfriend’s mother had asked him what I’d done with my life, as I’ve definitely not followed a traditional path to becoming an adult.

My mother and I talked a little bit on the phone about it, and one week later a handwritten letter came in the mail that opened with these words:

‘If anyone asks what you’ve done with your life here’s a list of all the wonderful things you’ve accomplished…’

Needless to say I shed a tear or two ;)

Learn from the past, plan the future but live the present. These are wise words that I’m sure we’ve all seen on a cheesy poster in some dull dentist waiting room.

My older brother wrote them down on a piece of paper, gave it to me and told me this would help me find happiness in life.

I took those words to heart at an age of 17, however, it took me another 14 years before I managed to start living by them more deliberately.

Learning from the past obviously means dodging some mistakes that could be lurking in our path, and planning the future will help ease our worrisome hearts and direct our steps.

But the biggest part of this quote to me is learning to live in the present. To really stop the clock, hop off the train, lower our gaze to see the ground we’re waking on and to avoid having our nose in the future. To smell the present is the only valid currency, it’s the only certain moment we have to come alive. This is the moment we’re given to blossom and to take deliberate deep breaths of life!

Share!

I know I need to learn to share more of my time, love and talents with other people. It’s amazing how much joy and love we can feel when we take the time to do something for others. After all we’re on this big world together and if we reach out to each other, not only do we become more alive, but we help others be able to come alive and blossom too.

One of the biggest changes in my life that has made me come more alive than ever, happened when I let go of what I thought I ought to do and started doing what I was passionate about. It has been a long process, learning, living and finding out what I love and who I am.

Quite recently I quit something I thought I had to do and wrote down on a piece of paper three things I was passionate about. In my case the note read: Food, travel and design.

Then I set off to pursue my passions and letting go of all the voices in my head that in a million creative ways told me how I wasn’t good enough and how it wouldn’t work etc. In ways I can’t really explain windows and doors started to unexpectedly open.

Hitting rock bottom can sadly be one of the best ways for us to awaken and help us come alive again.

The list could continue for a long time with things that have helped me come more alive, but I’ll end with this: Love.

Dare to love, completely, open and with no fear.

I can’t think of anything more important than love. As we learn to become more open, believe more in our talents and abilities it becomes easier to love others, because coming alive, to me, can in no way happen if I step on others or don't include others.

I believe the more I love, the more I dare to love however hard, painful or easy it may be, it helps me understand others, forgive and forget and hopefully in doing so, I'll learn to do the same for myself.

At the end of the day learning to love makes hearts come alive, and without a heart of love we cannot find true happiness and thus not truly be alive.

thank you so much, marte marie, for sharing with us such words that will inspire us to come alive for the months and years ahead! don't you just wish we could all spend a weekend with marte at her norwegian cabin? if we're lucky, maybe she'll invite all of us in...and i think she just might one of these days.

{all photos from marte herself...she just also happens to be a genius photographer}

introducing a mini-series : "come alive"

"don't ask what the world needs.

ask what makes you come alive,

and go do it.

because what the world needs is people

who have come alive."

-howard thurman

this is a series that will highlight what makes people come alive:

what they're doing now, and what they want to do in the near future.

what a great way to start out summer officially, yes?

i do believe that this world needs people who are actually alive

and doing what they love, sharing their inspiration with those around them.

throughout the week, and possibly running into next week, i am thrilled

to be able to share with you some inspiration from other fantastically alive bloggers.

i made my own list, and will share that with you today.

also, i would love to hear what makes all of you come alive

so please email me your list lady.of.lorien9{at}gmail{dot}com

and i will highlight your lists next week.

as i put my own "come alive" list together i realized that feeling "alive"

for me is synonymous with feeling "awe." i've had a quote in my sidebar

for quite some time, and i just wanted to highlight it here:

"awe is the most reverent of feelings.

you feel, when you are in awe,

that you are human,

that your mind is dwarfed by what it confronts...

that you had best keep your mouth closed

and your mind open

while awaiting further disclosure."

-paul woodruff

outside. i feel most alive when i am outside. i want to study and remember every detail: which way the wind is blowing, how a bird tilts her head, how the clouds slide across the sky, and i especially love experiencing the ecosystem that is a tree. i constantly desire to be in a forest, at the sea, or at least sitting in my back yard. i watch storms as if a great deep, dark secret is about to be revealed: how the earth came to be.

stories. i feel a need to tell lots of stories. stories that have been told for thousands of years as well as stories that pop into my own head and heart. i feel alive when i can tell stories through photography, writing, face-to-face, and through music. i get giddy when i read or hear a story that takes over every living bit of my body.

music. i can't even tell you how much music makes me feel alive. i want to have all of you over on a sunday evening: i'd turn out the lights and leave just one candle burning so we could listen to violins, cellos, organs, and pianos. and we'd definitely listen to this genius. i love the way a violin can cry or carry my soul to a vast place of imagination and reality.

poetry. i must read poetry. i must read about mystery from women and men who possess(ed) a "negative capability." i must read poetry out loud because i believe that words are music and can drastically change us. i believe in the "poet physician"...that poetry can heal us on a physical level as well as on an emotional and spiritual level. i must live in poetry. i have to feel it, luxuriate in it. poetry makes me come alive because it delves into paradox: joy & deep sorrow. it pricks my heart. it breaks my heart. it inspires my heart. poetry is awe with every word i read or utter. now, i must write it more...i started last summer and left it for a time. now it is time to start again.

academia. i love it and i can hate it at times. but i always end up loving it. i leave for oxford in less than two weeks, and i've been reading every book i can get on politics, religion, and literature in england from 1540-1675. i read about donne, shakespeare, and milton and i simply want to melt in my chair with pure bliss. the ideas that were swimming around in such heads so long ago are leaving me utterly speechless...this is when i am alive, when i can contemplate life and death, joy and suffering...it makes me feel connected to all humans everywhere at all times and to this earth and all that lives within. i must study the mysteries and the realities of this earth. my curiosity is always on.

silence. i often try to sit and do nothing and just let my mind wander as my eyes encounter visions of this tangible world. i listen to my breath and watch my entire body inhale and exhale. i try to capture silence in my writing and in my music as well--something that seemed impossible at first, but the more i study about silence the more i feel like it is indeed possible, though it will be a struggle in the first degree.

writing. when i write, when i really write, i write by hand. i experience a very "in-the-body" moment every time my pen first hits a blank page and doesn't stop for hours on end. i love watching my hand take over my mind and watch the ink form on the page as words spill out so wonderfully.

ceej. having ceej in my life has literally catapulted me into this living world. my heart finds calm every time he holds my hand or holds me entirely as we lay on the couch at the end of the day.

these are the things that make me come alive. and now i will go embrace them.