Yes means Everything

So I was trying to come up with a mantra for 2014 as the New Year rang in, and I wanted to keep it succinct.  I spent the last full moon of 2013 at a lovely ritual burning all of my 2013 resolutions, wishes, to-do lists, to-find partners, to-heal wounds, to-fix character defects, the lists went on for….well, the whole year.  I am a doer.  A seeker.  A self-help junkie.  Or I guess I should say I was.  Because this year, the lists are not just out the door, they don’t even get to come IN the door in the first place.

I am going for simple this year.  And yes is as simple as I can get.  So that’s my mantra for the year.  A resoundingly full yes.  And yes means everything.  Yes means listening.  Fully listening.  And THEN deciding.  Yes means opening.  Fully opening. And THEN deciding.  Yes means trusting.  Fully trusting.  And then deciding.  As long as I begin with a yes, anything can happen.  Because my yes means fully holding space for myself AND others.  It leaves room for infinite potentials to be born.  Even if those potentials mean no.

For a better understanding of my myriad ways to say yes, look to these examples below….

A sporadic and involuntary yes….. Wake up feeling fly. Full of gratitude, warm and fuzzy all over, nothing could be better than this moment.  This kind of yes just seems to come out of nowhere, and I will take it! YES!

A Comforting Yes….Wake up feeling MEH. Tired, cold, unhappy and heavy heart for who knows why or what?  I say yes to this moment. To my tiredness, my heavy heart.  And I hold myself.  This yes helps me know I am ok, even if I am not feeling ok.

The Gold Medal YES….I get an opportunity to go on a date with a really rad person.  I am almost too scared to say yes.  So many doubts show up.  What if it sucks?  What if they hate me?  What if I fall in love? What if I hate them?  I say yes anyway.  Just saying yes in and of itself makes me feel like I won the gold medal, regardless of the outcome.

The trusting YES…. It seems like the best plan ever, logically.  But it just doesn’t feel right to me for some reason. So I decline.  That is me saying yes to my intuition, even if it means saying no to something that seems “good.”  And it always ends up revealing to me why I had to say YES to my NO later on.

There are so many ways to say yes.  I am going to find a million more ways all year.

Sí              Yes         Eya         Oui               да              Jincuyi         그렇습니다          Xée         Ino           Uwu         Hey

Hongu        Ya          Yutua               Oo               Na                 Da           Kuké          Aha          Ebo       éhé         Ano           jo 

はい      E!            Ja            Haen         Ha        Ji           是              Tak      יאָ                  نعم               այո ayo           Da            Sì

हां  (hāṁ)     Bai           Olo          Jis         Aw          是的 (Shì de)            ஆம்  (ām)           ใช่ (chı̀)        Chapla        Usi      Ce tede

Arra                  He                 Hahan                   Kajamu                Bai                     Hou’ke                Inde            Yenh

the list goes on forever. For more ways to say yes go here…..
And for another favorite of mine……here is just a clip of a poem that I love…..

say yes quickly ~Rumi

Forget your life. Say God is Great. Get up.
You think you know what time it is. It’s time to pray.
You’ve carved so many little figurines, too many.
Don’t knock on any random door like a beggar.
Reach your long hand out to another door, beyond where
you go on the street, the street
where everyone says, “How are you?”
and no one says How aren’t you?

Tomorrow you’ll see what you’ve broken and torn tonight
thrashing in the dark. Inside you
there’s an artist you don’t know about.
He’s not interested in how different things look in moonlight.

If you are here unfaithfully with us,
you’re causing terrible damage.
If you’ve opened your loving to God’s love
you’re helping people you don’t know and have never seen.

Is what I say true? Say yes quickly,
if you know, you’ve known it
from the beginning of the universe.

~Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks

And here is some organic raw chocolate that I made and then shaped into a triangle with gemstones. who wouldn’t say yes to this?  Get in my body. YES!  Want some. Click here and scroll down thru the magic til you find the CHOCOLATES!

Blessed Be!

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