Rae Jones's Blog, page 3

New Adventures and going legit.

My life is always full of adventure (remember that crazy time in Cambodia? And the motorcycles?) I’m lucky to be alive, but …. I believe…

It is truly the only way to live.

However, during my adventures, I kept finding myself being a “financial coach” to friends and family because of my long and varied background in finance. I wrote about it (twice), blogged about it, met people over beers about it, and lost sleep on it.

So, I’ve decided to go legit.

I’ve updated my LinkdIn page, I’m connecting all the little webs I’ve weaved over the years, I decided on a business name, I have a website (which is still being tweaked here and there), and very soon a logo (Thanks to Katie Davis), and a state business filing.

This is all very exciting.

Check it out!

Creative Financial Coaching

Follow the blog, leave feedback, ask questions, and let me know what you think.

xox

It wasn’t Cathartic.

It was traumatic.

It was beautiful.

It was a cardboard spaceship I pointed to the moon and only landed because of a strong whirlpool of talented artists who bled and sweat and built with me.

It was the memoir that I wrote. It took everything out of me, every ounce of soul-energy. Every drop of blood and ink went into these pages and I haven’t been able to really write anything since. It has left me in this constant state of gratuitous post-tramautic spinning. So, I’m breaking. Breaking as in, taking a break from writing for a while. I’ve spent the last six months *un-writing* to let the emotions and raw beauty settle into a form of some *thing*. Taking a step back from words to enjoy the paint of life.

Until I sit down again, I will always have the bound book to hug.

Do you have yours?

It is true. The pen IS mightier than the sword.

My pen dug deeper and sliced harder than any sword every could.

Light and Weight.

I woke up this morning to darkness. The sun having not yet crest over the horizon. My eyes adjusting to the next to zero light in the dark.

Does the darkness have desire? Does it need? Does it have the human-animalistic desires? What does the darkness want? Does it yearn? Maybe… maybe in the darkness there is still a need, a desire of creation in the void. A hope.

Light.

A person with light.

“Work the light”.

Work the light, bringing it to places in the dark, giving hope to the hopeless. Is a light-worker still working the light with all their joy and hope, when it never travels to the darkness. Is there an existence of a light-worker which is sheltered from the cruel and bad and dark of this world?

I woke this morning with these thoughts. I was laying in the darkness, eyes open and adjusting so I could see. Thinking about one thing…. my travels daily to the darkness. Not in some internal place, but amongst the people. I do my service on the streets and sometimes I am successful and sometimes I fail. I am still human. But yet, the fact remains, in my daily journey to and fro, on the bus and on the streets, most of the people I pass are homeless, high or need help.

I cannot help them all. The only thing I can do is sit there. But that is service in and of itself. The light I hold in my being (as dark as it may be), is still a bright sun, a beacon of hope to those I pass.

I know many people who pray, do ritual, meditate and do other things which feed their spiritual and/or religious growth. I see them becoming stronger. I see them grow. I watch them as they move from their house, to their car, to their work, to their friends all insulated from the darkness of the world.

Then I see a few, a few who venture out into the darkness with their little candle. They walk the alley’s and ride the buses. They create safe spaces and care for their fellow humans who thrash and rail and fight through life.

In a car you are isolated from everything around you. You are not touching the ground or smelling the air. You do not hear the wind or see the fine lines in the faces of the people who pass. A car isolates, a car insulates. If it truly is the journey and not the destination, then why are so many people in such a hurry to get somewhere.

Rituals, prayers and meditations are easy when they are held in a temple. They are easy when surrounded by holy relics and reverence. They are easy in the light of day, with candles and incense and all the regalia which goes with the holiness of any ritual.

But, they can be done, nay, they SHOULD be done in the darkness. The darkness is where the light is needed the most. The dark alley at midnight. The soft touch of love into the brutal bone-ridden slices of concrete within a city. The drug-gorged, rat-filled, garbage infested city veins. Unprotected, dangerous, and black as the night is long.

Bringing light to those places is the new level of service. A needed level. A thankless level.

It is by this measure our soul is weighed.

If society has a soul and it is measured by its weakest link, then the strongest should be helping, healing and repairing those who weigh the most.

TED Talks obsession

I have been on this kick lately. Every morning, with my cup of coffee, before doing anything else (check the news, facebook, shower, etc) I sit down and watch one TED Talk.

Just one.

18 minutes of listening to some of the brightest minds in the world talk about things they are experts in.

All of these talks are on YouTube, and all of them are free to watch. FREE! It is a free education on anything **ANYTHING** in the world you want to learn about from some of the best speakers/teachers/business-people/lawyers/scientists/etc, etc, etc in the world.

Then, I get in the shower and I critically think about whatever the speaker was talking about and how to apply it in my life. I have only done this for 1 week, and I am already starting to see the positive results this is having in my life, my relationships, my business and my entire world.

This is by far the best 18 minute investment I have ever made to myself and I encourage you to try it out. HERE is the TEDTalks YouTube channel. Check it out.

This is the video I watched this morning. I love it. I have listened to this a few times on a few different mediums, and I still can’t get enough. I will beat this drum of a business model because I believe this is the new way of working.

Autonomy

Mastery

Purpose

Watch it. Live it. Love it.

Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation

Beauty.

Spring is almost here.

Bundled and beer drinking I spent the weekend laughing in the chilly spring sunshine.

Beautifully adorned in henna (thanks to Wendy at Roving Horse Henna) and enjoying the weekend in my favorite city in the world.

Portland.

Thanks to Micah Reese (and his lovely wife Bree) at DejaBlu Photo for the wonderful day and great pictures.

Stardust.

“The most astounding fact about the universe is the knowledge that, the atoms that comprise life on earth, the atoms that make up the human body, are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars, the high mass ones among them, went unstable in their later years. They collapsed and then exploded, scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy. Guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse and form the next generation of solar systems stars with orbiting planets and those planets have those ingredients of life itself.

When I look up at the night sky, and yes, we are a part of the universe and in this universe but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is us. When I reflect on that fact, I feel big. Because my atoms came from those stars. there is a level of connectivity.

That is what you want in life is you want to feel in life, you want to feel connected, you want to feel relevant, you want to feel as though you are participating in the goings on in the activities and events around you. That is what we do, exactly what we are, just by being alive.”

~astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson

Light and particle dust. Atoms and space sneeze. Millions and millions of years old. We are all a part of it. Call it the circle of life. Yet this is not Astrophysics, Physics or even Philosophy. It is not just science, religion or even spirituality. It is, in fact, all secrets. The secrets laid forth will connect you. Connect you to the light and with the energy. Activities for relevance. Exercises for participation. Things in which will present in front of you the light, energy and matter which has been continuously exploding in all directions from all space and time in the Universe.

It is the secret patterns for which those atoms can fall to create.

To live.

When looking deeper at what Dr Tyson has to say, you wonder if Hermes Trismeistus was right when he wrote in the Emerald Tablets “As Above, so Below”.

There it is.

There are 96 days left…. Do you need help?

A little over 13 weeks…. just 96 short days left until April 15th.

Yes… it’s that time again.

Taxes.



Do you need help?

Are you overwhelmed with the shoeboxes full of receipts that are stuffed in the back of your closet?

I’m here for you.

First – Take a deep breath. No… really – A DEEP breath, the kind that tickles your belly button and you can feel in your toes.

Second - Squish your shoulders up as high as they can go in your neck … tighter, tighter, tighter…. okay – RELEASE!

Finally - Make ten tiny circles with your wrists and ankles…. great! Now, change directions and do ten more tiny circles.

Feel better?

Good.

Here is the good news, tax season will be easier because:

1. You have started early! – Like now. It will give you three good solid months to gather, check, double check and triple your numbers before you have to send in your return.

2. You made a donation to something! – There have unfortunately been many disasters this last year, but the good news is you can claim any charitable contributions to disaster relief as deductions! And NO, contributions to your favorite political candidate (disaster or not), are NOT TAX DEDUCTIBLE. Only donations to federally recognized charities are deductible, here is a great IRS Charity Search Tool website to help if you have questions.

3. You made a major life change! – Get married? Move? Go back to school? Make energy saving improvements on your house? Start your own business? All of those events qualify for deductions! Yay!

4. You have investments! Don’t forget it when doing your returns, lots of good deductions. If you don’t currently have any investments, but are interested in how this could help, go here for more information, they are great, knowledgeable people ready to help you.

5. You can always contact me! – I am here for you. Even if I have to come to your house and sort through the receipts myself, I will help you through the process.

THEN

Breathe – In through the nose, slowly, deeply, and out through the mouth. Close your eyes and do it again. Scrunch your toes up when you breathe in, and relax when you breath out. In and out. Repeat

NOW.

Get up and go for a walk – Lift your arms over your head and swing them around. Walk and stretch and swing for at least 10 minutes, and tell yourself:

“I can do anything. I am amazing.”

Because you are.

Find more stress-busting tips HERE

And don’t make next year as difficult, manage your money better by following a budget. Need help with that? Check this out.

I’m obsessed with France.

Lately, I have become obsessed with France.

Perhaps because I have never been.

French food, french wine, french snark, and most recently Viva’ France in the form of Le Mis (along with sixty-billion-other-Christmas-movie-going-people).

Today in fact, I watched my favorite Al Pacino movie (Scent of a Woman) in French (it was dubbed), Amelie is next on the que.

2013 seems like a lucky year to have an obsession like this.

So, today, on this New Years Eve of 2013, I am declaring my 13 expectations for this coming year:

1.) I expect to travel to France.

2.) I expect to receive more money.

3.) I expect to continue to create more beautiful art.

4.) I expect to relearn how to play the piano.

5.) I expect to become more active in my lifestyle.

6.) I expect to continue to live a life completely full of love.

7.) I expect to travel to visit long-distance friends.

8.) I expect to do at least 4 book-signings/readings.

9.) I expect to travel somewhere tropical.

10.) I expect to learn basic conversational French (for/during my trip to France).

11.) I expect to learn conversational Spanish (for perhaps a little stop-over in Spain after I am done visiting France).

12.) I expect to continue to share delicious and healthy meals with loved ones which will nourish the soul as well as the body.

13.) I expect to smile and laugh every. single. day.

In summery, 2013 is full of happiness, travel, art, love, passion, great food and great friends. It is starting to sound like the perfect year!!  What do you expect to happen in 2013?

Because expectations are the better part of resolutions.

Dear 2013, Manifest-This!

Every year people make resolutions they don’t keep.

This year, I’d like to try something different. I”m not going to make any resolutions, I’m going to make EXPECTATIONS.  Let me explain.  A few years ago, three of my friends and I got together and created this “Manifestress” group which was the perfect excuse to meet for tea/coffee once a week.  But here was the catch, on the first meeting, each of us described – with CLARITY what we wanted our life to look like.  It could be ANYTHING your heart desired.  There were no limitations.

Then, every week after that first week when we met, everyone in the group spoke to each other AS IF THAT “WISH” WAS OUR REAL LIFE. It was immensely powerful and amazingly transformational, and I think we only met for about a month to a month and a half.

Since that meeting, EVERY SINGLE ONE of us manifested/created what we spoke about in those coffee dates.  One friend got a book publishing contract with an option for a second book, the second just recently returned from Europe where she recorded a new album and performed and the third is working her dream job in a city she loves.

This weekly coffee date was immensely powerful and changed all of our lives.

I want to do that again!

So, I am.

With 2013.

ONLINE!

And anyone can participate (the beauty of doing this online!)

We share what we EXPECT to happen in 2013, then keep each other updated as if those things have already happened (or are already happening), and watch the magic. It’s super easy!

Wanna Do it?

Shoot me a note!

The keys to the Universe, for 12/12/12 at 12:12

Happy beginning of the end of the end of the beginning.  Today is kind of a big day if you didn’t already notice. It’s 12/12/12 – check your Facebook, I’m sure everyone is posting about it.  Enjoy it, make a wish, do a prayer, meditate, drum, dance and do whatever it is you do to make the most of it.

On this most auspicious day, I give you 12 keys to the Universe which WILL make your life better.  Because…. I love you.

*  Make Friends

*  Find Love

*  Discover your purpose

*  Shine your light

*  Take Action

*  Show up

*  Lean into it

*  Start Anywhere

*  Keep Busy

*  Ask for Help

*  Give more Hugs

*  Don’t stop.  Ever.

 

I have found in my many travels that people everywhere want just a few things:

Love, appreciation, gratitude and respect.

As we are in full-swing of the holiday season, please keep these things in mind. Especially considering you can not find a single one of these for sale in any store.

xoxo