TEDx Realized

What an honor! So blessed! 

Thank you TEDx Ojai Women for inviting me to be part of such an amazing ensemble! 

Photo Credit: Ellen Johnson/Sound Visions Media © 2011

Photo Credit: Jodi Womack

Photo Credit: Ellen Johnson/Sound Visions Media © 2011

For a more in depth look at this delicious day - 

check out the blog review below! 

http://coachlisab.blogspot.com/2011/12/relating-to-audience-tedxwomen-style.html

42 RULES OF ABSURDITY:

1. There are no rules
2. Therefore, you will have to make your own
3. But
4. Even when you do
5. They will have to be undone
6. And when you do something once
7. It can never be done twice
8. In the same way
9. It was once done
10. Or undone
11. Absurdity
12. Is not a standard
13. And you won't receive a degree
14. To be measured
15. By anyone elses standard 
16. Of absurdity
17. My absurdity
18. Ritual
19. Usually begins 
20. With 50 ton bricks 
21. Weighting me to my bed
22. Dazed
23. Blah
24. But blah ferocious
25. Maybe I'll start singing
26. Or take off all my clothes
27. Or put on all my clothes
28. Or say something controversial
29. Out loud
30. Or peel things off my walls 
31. Or spill ink on my sheets 
32. Or pretend that I am still 5
33. Or 95
34. And that I don't really care
35. Anymore
36. About anyone else
37. Making me
38. More
39. Or
40. Less
41. Absurd
42. Ity

THE PURPOSE OF DOING SOMETHING >>>>> cha cha cha!

DOING SOMETHING - cha cha cha!

Is one way to not do nothing. 

Trading your nothing for a something, is the same as trading something for a nothing, unless your nothing is the something that you are trading nothing for. 

Oh shoot. What have I done?

I'm not sure what doing something means actually. Except that sometimes when I've been doing one thing one way for a very long while, I know that the only way to change the way I've been doing that one thing... (that has begun to feel like nothing) is by doing something that I have never done before. OR by doing something that I used to do a lot of - that I forgot about - that I really used to like. OR by doing something very, very different from the way I would normally do that something.

Which to be quite frank, often requires doing nothing. Even though nothing often requires some sort of something. But I've probably already said that.

Bottom line is this.

DO SOMETHING - cha cha cha!

DO NOTHING - cha cha cha! 

 

THE PURPOSE OF DOING NOTHING

THERE'S MORE TO IT THAN MEETS THE EYE...

Staring at walls

Walking up a small or large hill

Watching for rattlesnakes

Making a smoothie

Sitting there

Standing there

Laying around

Taking a nap

Taking one more nap for good measure

Um, doing computer stuff

Talking on the phone a lot

Sitting around with people

Making the bed

Unmaking the bed

Let's see...

Lying in the bed that is made or unmade

Learning rap moves

Making up nonexistent words

Drawing

Reading

Falling asleep while reading

Napping again (because of the falling asleep while reading situation)

Trying

Wondering

Wondering about trying

Un-trying  

Purposeful

Nothing.

And so on and so forth... 

LIFE EXPERIMENTS: Space Replacement Therapy

This is part of the LIFE EXPERIMENTS SERIES - a tribute to leaving my job to live my dream. To follow the journey, click HERE. Or on the LIFE EXPERIMENTS TAG at the bottom of this post. All related posts can be found under this category. 

Okay, where was I? 

Or am I? 

The journey-less-journey, but journey nonetheless. 

A funny thing happens when you make SPACE in your life... Leaving my job - opened up a giant chunk of it, followed by the compulsion to clear all physical obstructions as well. Everything that looked like clutter, or dust, or order that had no order, had to go. I burned some things and trashed some things, gave stuff away... 

But the "funny" part about open SPACE (and I'm not sure if this has to do with gravity or magnetics or what) is the refilling (of that SPACE) that arrives like a hungry dog after a free meal. I had to double check that I didn't leave a sign posted to my door - FREE EMPTY SPACE AVAILABLE - PLEASE FILL IN WITH ANYTHING.

Quite frankly, I was bombarded with offers of every shape and size. Social invitations and opportunities-knocking (invitations)... Do you want to go for a walk, or a drink, or be my friend, or try this job, or help me with this thing, or listen to my life story, or, or, or...?

YES! 

Of course I said, yes. 

My life, a blank canvas, 

An open slate, 

A sky-is-the-limit...

I am a whirling dervish, an aloha-surprise - of course I can do it ALL!

Naturally, I DID think I could do it all.

Well, I couldn't. WHAT WAS I THINKING?? I've never done that many things simultaneously in my whole life! Plus, would any of them get me any closer to my goal? Oh yeah...what was my goal?

The original idea was to quit my job to finish the book of poetry I've been dreaming on and toying with for way-too-long. Beefing out the website and blog, doing live poetry and a little freelance copywriting. So...

NO! I had to say no to the other things. Despite their seductive call and my easy-go-lucky attitude. I had to say NO.

By the way, it totally stressed me out to say NO -  in case any of you who I said NO to happen to be reading this right now. But then to tell the ABSOLUTE TRUTH, it did get easier every time, and a little bit more fun too. 

What I'm really trying to say is this: 

THERE IS ALWAYS A CHOICE. 

It's not that I don't get to say YES to some things, but I do get to choose which ones are right and at the right time. I did not walk away from a workplace that gave me at least a small sense of security, only to refill my life with incidental and temporary senses of security. 

Great opportunities are always available to me. (This has become my mantra). Saying NO now, does not mean that the great thing, or something like it, or something better, will never come back again. OF COURSE IT WILL. 

OF COURSE IT WILL - has also become my new mantra. 

 

To be continued...

LIFE EXPERIMENTS SERIES: The Urge to Purge

[This post is part of the LIFE EXPERIMENTS SERIES - a tribute to leaving my job, to live my dream. To follow the journey click HERE, or on the LIFE EXPERIMENTS tag at the bottom of this post... all related postings can be found under this category.]

  It began with a purge, a need to rid my life of all excesses. 

  After giving notice at work, I would have guessed my energy might naturally turn toward scratching up alternate sources of income. No. All I could think about was how many ways to clear my life of all things that no longer made sense. Most immediately, STUFF. Physical, actual, hard with edges, lumpy, bumpy, cut & dry, crumple it up and throw it out - STUFF. By no means have I finished this compulsive sorting...I get distracted by nearly everything and likewise, nothing. There is an interesting momentum that takes grip when you say no to less than you were meant to be and yes to what you know you came here to be. 

  There's also a fear that comes knocking. Oh SHIT! What the hell have I done?! What was I thinking? I'll probably die. 

  Well, exactly. I will absolutely die. Someday. And therefore the fear gets overwritten with the ire to dissolve anything or anyone attempting to interfere with the uncanny force field I've resolved to water and prune everyday. Every minute really. 

  Interference is very sneaky... but more on that next time. 

  Stay tuned.

LIFE EXPERIMENTS SERIES: Let Me Back Up

Dear Reader, 

Recently I quit my perfectly wonderful, comfortable job of 6 years in order to live fully my poetic dreams. What can I say? I felt like gambling. To be honest, it was more than gambling... it was a necessary response to the obnoxious clickety-clack in every cell stored in my being - a call to make more room, grow, challenge my fear of "going without," challenge my vulnerability.

Vulnerability. Many might think I'm crazy being a single income, single mom type. But my suspicions suggest it might be a favorable time for crazy. The world seems to be in a very dynamic all-at-once, now or never, pow-pow, jump or die or perhaps jump and die (but at least you died trying) kind of way. Sounds dramatic I know, but I can be a little dramatic, so my actions or perceptions tend to match.

Vulnerability. What I really wanted to say in the previous paragraph is that this experiment has so far, been full of surprises. Sweet insightful surprises, some very subtle, others quite pronounced. It's only been two weeks since I left the workplace, but already I've experienced a full range of emotions and responses to my new world - a world I am creating everyday. 

In the coming days, perhaps weeks... I will share glimpses of this joyful ride through writings, poetry and images on this blog and my Facebook page. To follow this thread (as I may bounce around some) click the LIFE EXPERIMENTS tag found at the bottom of this post or in the SORTING IT OUT section in the right hand column. 

Thank you for sharing this journey with me your presence is a great inspiration. 

Much LOVE, 

akka b.

LIFE EXPERIMENTS: CUT IT OUT

First one must cut out everything to have everything

First one must cut out everything to have everything

 One must make space

 Open closets

 Strip old paint

 Throw stupid shoes out the window

  

 First one must cut out everything to have everything

 First one must stop doing anything to be anything

 First one must stop being anything to do anything

 First one must cut out everything to have everything

  

One must burn degrees 

 Empty drawers

 Mop the floors

 Relieve the trunk 

  

 First one must cut out everything to have everything

     

 One must forget one's name

 One's talent

 Forget one's dreams

 The klutzy past

  

 First one must forget everything to remember everything

 First one must forget everything to remember everything

 In the absence of place there exists a space; an emptiness

  

 And a choice

 To change is to choose

 To choose is to change

  

 But, first

   

 One must...



[This post is part of the LIFE EXPERIMENTS SERIES - a tribute to leaving my job to live my dream. To follow this journey click on the LIFE EXPERIMENTS tag at the bottom of this post... all related postings can be readily found there.]