Give everything you are, knowing it is nothing.

It’s a beautiful morning! I love opening my window shades and seeing blue skies instead of clouds. (Hmm… maybe I won’t be as well-suited to living in Portland as I thought… ). When the sun’s out, I like to go meditate on the porch, get my10 minute dose of Vitamin D (who needs to spend money on supplements?!) and eat my breakfast (usually an apple from the Farmer’s Market and freshly ground almond butter from Whole Foods).

I also read a Rumi poem every morning. I’m trying to get better acquainted with his work. I especially liked this morning’s:

“Go forward, knowing the Path will vanish under you

Open your arms, knowing they will burn away

Give everything you are, knowing it is nothing.”

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi

And, despite my love/hate relationship with Facebook, I must admit it exposes me to many wonderful things.

For one, this song, shared by one of my favorite vocalists, jazzist José James (with the instructions, “You must have this EP in your life”:

And for two, some nuggets of truth shared by a nugget of a man, Sean Stephenson (he sits 3 feet tall but has lifetimes of soul):

“Nothing comes with ease except when we allow things to come with ease.”

“You are no good to others if you are no good to yourself.”

“Sheltering yourself ironically exposes you to the dangers in life.”

“Love is a boomerang.”

And for three, I get a “Note From the Universe” each morning, a tongue-in-cheek message from beyond that puts things in nice perspective:

“Life is where one goes, Michelle, to temporarily believe in death, fleetingly forget their power, and briefly have the Dickens scared out of them, voluntarily.

All in the name of adventure.

Kind of like jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, huh Michelle? Times a billion.

You’re bad,
The Universe”