Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A beautiful piece by Louie Schwartzberg- amazing photography, film, and wisdom.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a very inspiring four minutes, in which Charles Eistenstein offers a beautiful vision for a world that works for all:  a world of community, intimacy, meaning… a world of love and belonging.

List your blessings and you will walk through the gates of thanksgiving and into the fields of joy.
~Garrison Keillor

as quoted in LIVING IN GRATITUDE, A Journey That Will Change Your Life, by Angeles Arrien

I’ve compiled a few inspiring words for Thanksgiving, as well as a few templates for gratitude lists or thank you notes in a pdf for you here. Feel free to print these out and share them if you are longing for a few ways to bring deeper meaning to your holy day.
ThanksGiving PDF

I give thanks for these hands,
how they touch, heal, create.
I give thanks for this heart,
for compassion, love and awe.
I give thanks for these legs
and all the places that they journey.
I give thanks for this body,
its miracle feelings and doings.
I give thanks for this mind
and all its splendid rooms…
I give thanks for the Joy
that sustains my every moment.
And I give thanks for the beauty
that surrounds me all my days.

~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff, from The Joy Book

BLESSINGS OF THE SEASON TO YOU!

I’m an old fashioned girl.  I’ve always loved books.  My favorite dreams are those when I find myself in an old, dimly lit, dusty bookstore: an out-of-this-world bookstore brimming with books containing poetry, beauty, fantasy, art…the secrets of the world.  The other day my father-in-law sent a picture of an old book, saying “they don’t make them like this anymore.”

And I thought, Oh, but that’s just what I wanted the Joy Book to be- an exhilarating and sensual feast of words, pictures, poetry and inspiration.
I’ll still visit real live bookstores…I’ll still always seek those treasures to bring home.  And I also know that times are changing.  So I’ve created a digital download e-book version of The Joy Book for those of us who prefer to travel light.  It’s only $8, and you have it in less than five minutes.  A modern miracle, this old fashioned girl declares.

To Purchase an e-book Joy Book, Click Here

For and old fashioned, tangible hold-it-in-your-hands, curl up in your cozy nook, signed-by the author paperback or soulfully made hand-sewn with golden thread hardcover, Click Here.

“Let the beauty we love be what we do.” ~Rumi

I’ve been creating some beautiful paper earrings and tree ornaments for the Artisan’s Fair and Night Heron Gallery, and I thought- why not share them here on the website as well?!

Click here to see and purchase Earrings

And Click here to see and purchase ornaments

I’m in the thick of it: HOLIDAY PRODUCTION – creating beauty; assembling books and gifts for galleries and the Artisan shows.  At night, if we watch television, my stomach turns to see that the advertising campaigns have already begun- for all kinds of products that have nothing to do with love and spirit.  Sometimes I begin to worry that I am participating in the crass commercialization of the holidays, and must remind myself over and again that my books and gifts reflect love, light, tenderness, joy- all things we wish for each other.

I once brainstormed a list of wonderful intangibles called The Best Things in Life Aren’t Things.  Today I created a pdf poster for the fridge, the bulletin board- a jumping off place for people to remember their own forgotten treasures.  May it provide some harmony and inspiration in the season to come.

You can click here to get BEST THINGS

I’ve cleared a meditation corner in my office…
And pictured below is Michele’s prayer chair.We gather beauty all around us, for bringing the sacred home…

Dawn – is a photo of daybreak over
Oconomowoc Lake in WI, which I get to drive past and often stop and park at each
morning, after dropping my boys off at school.  This one spot changes each day
depending on the light.  Each day the beauty surprises me and nurtures me.  I
stop the racing in my mind of “to do’s” and just breath in the moment of
peace. ~Cristina

Angel, Lake Geneva – is a beautiful
fountain with an angel on top at Lake Geneva, WI.  It is only 45 minutes away
from me, and our family often takes day trips there on the week-end.  Without
fail, I take a new photograph of this angel each time we go.  I sit by the
fountain, close my eyes and give thanks for all of the blessings in my life.  My
boys also love the tradition of throwing a coin in the fountain and making a
wish.

Katy’s Nook
This is a picture of my cozy nook, where I start
every morning with a cup of tea, inspirational reading (including some choice
tastes from the Joy Book), and meditation. I love being surrounded by the
luscious plants and beautiful colors and textures, sinking into the cushy couch
with a heating pad at my back and a soft throw on my legs. Depending on what
time I’m sitting there, the sunlight comes through the windows onto my face. I
always feel held, comforted, and able to rest when I give myself the gift of
this soul-tending time. Blessings, Katy Taylor

Anonymous sent this stunning picture and these thoughtful words:

I sit in a sunny window to meditate/pray.  My practice is often to use the Lord’s Prayer,usually not getting past “Our Father/Mother, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.  THY KINGDOM COME….”

The infinite goodness
has such wide arms
that it takes whoever turns to it.
~ Dante

The other day Jonah and I were discussing the benefits of meditation.  He has recently introduced a time for quiet stillness into the beginning of his high-school social studies classes.  The kids now request it, as they have begun to feel the sense of calm and clarity they gain from it.  He senses it makes them more compassionate with each other as well.

I mentioned to him a product that I’ve been receiving email adds about- recorded technology that promises to have you meditating like a monk in no time.  The heavy handed promotion for this product offended me at first, as they described point by point all the advantages one would receive from meditation: creative insights, abundant cash flow and mind blowing sex, among them.  After some reflection, I realized that their claims were commercial, manipulative to the ego, yet somewhat true: when I pause for stillness, I often do receive a creative insight, a bit of wisdom, a creative idea.  I often feel increased energy, and an expansive sense of love and abundance through my connection to All That Is.

This poem captures the essence of a day in which I have remembered to meditate in the morning.  When I begin my day with a practice of stillness, I am often able to draw down and ground myself in an energy of love, clarity, generosity, and optimistic openness- grace.  This is the basis of a beautiful day.

First, stillness.
I center my waking
in remembrance of You.
Breathing in the moment,
inhaling Your warm friendship.
A light and a softness filters in.
Then, in the arms of
Your presence,
the laundry; the sewing;
the cobbling together a living.
You give me such joy.
Everywhere I go,
I bring my love for You.

~From the book, Moonlight and Remembrance
Mystic Love poems by Ingrid Goff-Maidoff

There are other mornings, often, when the day begins in forgetfulness with awful news on the radio at breakfast, checking emails, and darting frazzled and spinning into the work of production.  When and if I let myself go for too long without the daily discipline of meditating,  my days begin to feel as though they are driven by my inner accountant/ inner critic, and inner bishop.  I lose my sense of love and balance, and an element of survival, stress , struggle and strife can come seeping in.  I find that it’s in those days, when I need it the most, that I often fail to give myself a necessary break.

Sometimes just getting started is the most difficult aspect of meditation.  One suggestion is to use a timer and set it for five to twenty minutes, so you get a chance to let go of watching the clock and slip into a pocket of eternity.  As Rumi said, “Come out of the circle of time and into the circle of love.”

I have a kitchen timer which is a plastic bauble of a mouse hovering over a piece of cheese.  It’s very noisy and I have to keep it in another room, but it works.  Someday I would like to have a new-age sexy timer that strikes a gong or rings church bells, but for now, this timer keeps me humble and able to laugh at myself.  It reminds me that I don’t meditate to acquire the cheese of better sex, money, fortune, fame.  I meditate to drop my ambitious striving and anything else that comes between me and feeling at one with the world.

The first time I created  a separate space for meditation was when the children were very young and it became clear to me that I needed to set aside time for grounding and reflection if I was going to keep a loving household.  I cleared out a small closet in our bedroom which had a shelf and a tiny window.  I would retreat in there at least once a day, to close the door and give myself, as I explained to the girls, a time out.  This felt at the time like less of a gift to myself and more a coping strategy.   I used this especially on rainy days or if the weather was too cold for a solitary walk along the shore.  It was my intention to go into the closet when I  felt frazzled, sit, breathe, lean into love, and come out realigned with patience and generosity.   I retreated there fairly often, less to anchor and ground myself in a morning practice (which would have been beneficial) and more to regain some composure throughout the day.  It was a bit comical, and shortly into this practice I had an epiphanal realization that it must be working when Bella turned to me, no more than three years old, eyed me up and down as I was trying to keep it all together, and announced, “it’s time for mommy to go into the closet.”

In my heart there’s a peaceful island,
surrounded by oceans of You.
I like to string my hammock
and rest there idle and free.
When I return, my loved ones
snuggle in close,
just to get a whiff of you ~
to feel some of Your blessings~
to catch some of Your rays.

~From the book, Moonlight and Remembrance
Mystic love poems by Ingrid Goff-Maidoff

We live in a new house now, the girls are quite grown, and I’ve cleared a little corner in my office for sitting in stillness.   I  view meditation as a gift I give myself, and as a spiritual practice or discipline- it is all these things.  Meditation helps me become aware of the many voices strategizing for survival in my head- and to look upon them with sympathy and compassion, even patience and humor.  I may not sit for long enough, and I may not always “do it right”, but when I sit with the intention to ground myself in simply being, to reconnect with the deepest essence of who I really am, I often re-emerge  restored to ease, clarity, and with a nourishing  and joyful infusion of energy, oneness, and love.

Is meditation a gift you give yourself?  Do you find benefit from it?

I wish I could gift a book to everyone who wanted one!  I wish I could write all day and live on air!  Thank you everyone who entered the raffle for my Love and Joy books give away.  I drew dove numbers 8,11, and 18-  so Katy Taylor, Irene T and Amer are the winners.  I appreciate all of the loving words and delightful comments.  Thank you!  Your energy and beauty inspire me every day.

If you would like to purchase a Joy Book, click here.  I will add some delightful surprises… I have a few more Love books… and other gifts up my sleeve… until they run out…

Here is a link to two gifts for you- a pdf excerpt from the Joy Book on creating space for joy, and a pdf of my card, “May you never ever forget how beautiful you are.”

Love is the greatest fortune.
You will not amass it.
You are it.
~Ingrid

“The moment you have  in your heart this extraordinary thing  called love
and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it,
you will discover that for you the world is transformed.”
~Krishnamurti

Love Your Life

And a voice will come from the stillness
to give these words: Love your life.
You will know from its deep urging
to let go the well-worn list
of all you thought you first needed.
Begin here, freely,
from this muddy place.
It doesn’t matter if you are broken,
empty-handed, shabby.
Go now, into the day:
the open fields, markets,
the long trail to the sea.
Find all the ways
a lover loves the Beloved:
each hidden bloom, unspoken wound,
vagary of heart.
Become a brave and willing traveler
in a wild, forgotten terrain ~
a world of intimate tender relating,
infinite mystery, un-tethered joy.
Now, moving in this world, you know
that love is the greatest fortune.
Only, you will not amass it:
you are it.

~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff

(Often, when I am still enough, I feel words dropped into my being that are messages to ponder.  The other day I received the words, “Love your Life,” and felt quite instantly that this didn’t mean I was meant to list with gratitude everything I felt was going rightly for me, or, conversely, to list everything I still felt was necessary before I could love my life, but that I was being asked to love my life as if it were my beloved.  I was being urged to love my life as a lover would love- not as an end-point receiver of all good things, but as an intimate partner, a loving participant.  I was being asked to approach my life with curiosity, pleasure, appreciation, forgiveness, compassion, playfulness, awe- to love as a lover in the deepest sense of the word. I realize that to receive this guidance is one thing- to live by it is a lifetime of practice, remembrance, forgetting…. remembrance… forgetting…and remembering!)