Finishing the month laughing

Dear friends,

As November and the Thanksgiving holiday comes to a close I'm wrapping up a blogging challenge over at the Inspired Blogging Group hosted by Michele Bergh this month.



The challenge was to blog/post 20 times in the month of Nov. and this post makes 23 so Yahoo!

The past couple of days were filled with family and friends as we had some much needed time off for rest and relaxation.  

I realized today as I reflected that we had a blast playing games and laughing together.

We played Ellen's new game Head's Up which was hysterical!  We played it on Thanksgiving with new friends and several times just as a family - I highly recommend it!  One of the best parts is watching the videos of people doing charades - priceless!!

We also played Bananagrams!!!!  One of my all time favorites.  As a word girl and super nerd I LOVE this game.  It helps that I've played a lot and am super fast - It's scrabble on speed!

The dice game Farkle also had a turn :) 

But I have to say this holiday I think my favorite was Settlers of Catan!!!  We had a great time at a dear friend's house playing, noshing on yummy homemade eggplant dip and building stuff!!

  

What did you do this past week that made you laugh?

Do you love games?  What are you favorites?  I'd love to know.

Wrapping you around with infinite love and laughter,

Christine

Climbing a granite mountain today

Dear friends,

After reading Rebecca Metz blog:
Create a facebook image with a Thanksgiving message

I was inspired to play around with some photos I took  today.  Here is one result:

Today we hiked up to the top of Stone Mountain from the walk up trail with family and friends.  It was a beautiful day!

Some graffiti on the mountain

As we hiked I was thinking about this amazing mountain and how much granite we were walking on.  I was wondering about the "meaning" of granite so I looked it up at Spirit Journeys:

Granite:
 
Properties: The elemental powers of water and earth, ocean tumbled granite is a unique stone combining the elements of the sea with the deep rooted foundations of the earth! These stones are often full of shiny, light reflecting druses. This stone is a great balancer of water and earth (emotions and practicality). Earth helps water to keep its deep emotions in check. This incredible stone works on both the Base/Root and Sacral/Spleen Chakra as it grounds unstable or unsure emotions. Therefore, granite is wonderful for allowing for increased protection and abundance. This stone works well on skepticism. It allows for diplomacy, discretion, cooperativeness and negativity. Granite is a wonderful relationship balancer. Ocean tumbled granite in particular helps us to see and understand the big picture. So it shows us to look past the little puddles in our lives and focus on an ocean of opportunity and advancement!
Folk Remedies: Granite has been used to strengthen the hair and ailments associated with face and head.
Feng Shui: Granite is used in the Northeast area for self cultivation, in the Southwest area for partners and relationships and the Center area grounding, good health and for dispersing negative energy throughout the room.
History: Granite (SiO2) (Al2O3) is composed primarily of quartz and feldspar. It also may contain Orthoclase, which is a form of feldspar which can form in plate-like layers, short prismatic crystals and tabular inclusions. Granite is an igneous rock and is formed from magma. Granitic magma has many potential origins but it must intrude other rocks. Most granite intrusions are at depth within the crust. Granite has been honored by many cultures, particularly the Aboriginal and Mayan cultures, as a sacred and powerful stone. The Egyptians incorporated granite in many of their pyramids. The Red Pyramid of Egypt, named for the light blood red hue, has exposed granite on its surface. The Menkaure's Pyramid was constructed of limestone and granite blocks. The Great Pyramid of Giza contains a huge granite sarcophagus made of "Red Aswan Granite."

Atlanta from Stone Mountain :)

We arrived at the top and played with some Interplay forms in celebration of 25 years of Interplay this year!

It was a fun and adventurous day.


Wrapping you around in infinite love and nature,

Hand Dance at the top of Stone Mountain

Christine

Yay for Sisters!

Dear friends,  

Tonight I'm celebrating the arrival of my sister, Katie!  I have one sibling, Katie, who is 16 months younger than me.  

 

 

Christine and Katie as little bits

Cheesing it up for the cameras

   

A couple of days ago she decided to make a quick trip to GA.  She knew her nieces were sad about not being with family over Thanksgiving and she hadn't had a chance to come see our new home.  So today she made it!  Celebrating relationships that last a lifetime :)   We had a great dinner and conversation. Now the crew is snuggled up watching Frozen a movie also about sisters. 

2013 family photos

We have already had some great laughs and we are looking forward to more over the next couple of days!  

When we were little we were best friends and sometimes worst enemies.  I'm lucky that as adults we have a strong friendship.  I'm hoping my girls are lucky enough to have the same as they grow.
 

Sisters :)

Who are your favorite relatives to hang out with?

Wrapping you around with infinite love and warm fuzzies,

Christine

Traditions

Dear friends,

I'm thinking about traditions tonight.

Usually my family and I are on a road trip this week making our way back home to Texas to see family and friends and attend a family reunion.

The tradition of taking bad pics of the Mighty Mississippi!

This year we decided to stay home in GA to finish unpacking our new home, set up some organizational systems that work and rest.  Geez grown up decisions are hard.


We have been getting lots of  stuff done including cleaning out the garage and making a dent in the boxes.  Not as much as I hoped.  Of course since I was raised on Samantha and I dream of Genie I think I tend to have some magical thinking about how long cleaning and organizing truly takes :)

I'd love to have her "organizing" nose!

                              
I realized the last day or two I've been a bit melancholy.   I'm missing our usual traditions associated with our road trip and the people we see.

The quilt at my Nanny's house that we usually sleep under

I talked to my Nanny on the phone today - we always stop at her house first when we get to TX.  You all met her in this blog: Creating a loving tribute.  I got a chance to catch up on family "news" and hear about her recent trip to CA and Mexico for my cousin's wedding.  

I will miss our traditional Canasta card game where Nanny usually wins.  I need to find two packs of cards so we can play at least one or two games this break.

After Nanny's we drive off to see more friends, Joe's family and end up at a family reunion celebrating my mother line.
 

I could go on about more traditions that include animal noises, tamales and polar plunges but I think I'll stop for now and ask about your traditions.

The "Turkey" I made last year

What are your favorite traditions around Thanksgiving?

Do you recreate traditions when you are separated from family?

Wrapping you around with infinite love and warmth,

Christine

Creating Gratitude

Dear friends,

I'm currently snuggled in on this Sunday morning as a soft gentle rain falls outside and a flickering fire whispers to me as I drink my tea and write.

Over at the Daily Creative Practice today marks the  start of our week of gratitude.  We will be creating something daily to celebrate.

Artwork by +Hallelujah Truth 

There are so many people, events and things in my life to be grateful for it would be impossible to put them all in one post.

Date night - where we met Elvis at Lionheart Theatre - grateful for new friends too!

This morning I am grateful for teamwork.  Yesterday Joe and I worked on the garage together for over six hours!  We laughed and joked that if was a good thing we celebrated 20 years of marriage this week and knew  our marriage was strong before we tackled this  project!  We are still in the process of unpacking and de-cluttering from our move this summer and yesterday was a big step in that process.  We rewarded ourselves with a date night and went to see a local theater production that several of our friends were in - super fun!

 

I am also grateful for the teamwork of my friend +Jennifer Denning.  This fall we've been traveling together early Friday mornings up to the Lee Arrendale State Prison and doing InterPlay with a group of @16 women.  It has been incredibly meaningful and an important step on my journey to combining my profession of Social Work and InterPlay.


Gratitudes of  course for my friend +Ruth Schowalter  who when we met well over a year ago she found out I had written a (as in one) blog and she asked me some awesome questions which prompted this blog: blogging for you-blogging for me
that has lead to over 230 blogs - wow!  We have also been a team of two leaders in training for InterPlay on a fun journey for over a year now!  We meet bi-weekly to study our Leader materials and practice our "play."

Grateful for nature & gardens too - Christine & Ruth at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens :)

 

 
I am so lucky that this list and blog could go on and on in gratitudes....

So what/or who are you grateful for today?

Wrapping you around with infinite love and gratitude,

Christine

Dragon Fly Medicine

Dear friends,

I've always loved Dragonflies.  Today I revisited a picture I took earlier this year on a Girl Scout Camp out.  So I looked into the totem/medicine meeting today on the Spirit Animal website:

The dragonfly totem carries the wisdom of transformation and adaptability in life. As spirit animal, the dragonfly is connected to the symbolism of change and light. When the dragonfly shows up in your life, it may remind you to bring a bit more lightness and joy into your life. Those who have this animal as totem may be inclined to delve deep into their emotions and shine their true colors.

---

 Dragonfly Meaning

The dragonfly is generally associated with the symbolic meaning of transformation. Here are common meanings for this animal totem:

• Change and transformation
• Adaptability
• Joy, lightness of being
• Symbol of the realm of emotions, invitation to dive deeper into your feeling
• Being on the lookout for illusions and deceits, whether are external or personal
• Connection with nature’s spirits, fairies realm  
•  
•  
• Wrapping you around with infinite love and transformation,
• Christine

Creating Art for Therapy

Dear friends,

Today over at the Daily Creative Practice (DCP for short) we started Week #1 of Art Therapy Thursday.

The idea was born from a Huff post article 10 easy art therapy techniques to help you de-stress.

Today's assignment for week #1 was - 

Design a Postcard You Don't Intend to Send. 


From DCP's FB page:


Have fun designing a postcard; however you want to make it. Then write something, anything...."Whether it's a love note to someone you're not ready to confess your feelings to, or an angry rant you know is better left unsaid, sometimes enumerating all the details helps deflate the issue at hand. While writing the text can be therapeutic in its own right, designing the postcard gives even more value to the object. It also allows you to activate different portions of your brain while relaxing in a manner similar to coloring in a coloring book. Once you toss that signed and sealed letter in the trash (or tuck it away in a drawer), you'll find its message has lost some of its power."

Here is my postcard:
 

I loved this assignment and it really got me thinking and feeling.  I have another post card to make on the road to forgiveness of an issue I've been holding onto too long.  I'm not sure when or how it will emerge.  I do know that it was personal enough and still painful enough that it wasn't up for public, Face book posting; However, this per-curser postcard (I do love alliteration)  brought to my awareness the tender spot I still have.

Is there a postcard you need to create?

Have you done art therapy before?

Wrapping you around with infinite love and healing,

Christine

P.s. 

Day 18

Manifesting Through Grace

CENTERING THOUGHT

I am grateful for divine manifestations.

SANSKRIT MANTRA

Hoom Namah
My divine nature reveals itself as it awakens.

 

Celebrating 20 years

Dear friends,

20 years ago today Joe and I officially danced our first dance and Mr. and Mrs. Gautreaux.  This morning we danced in our kitchen to George Strait's "I cross my heart."  A quick celebration of 20 amazing years.  How to sum it up in one post...

Joe & Christine

We've conquered many things in 20 years

We've had many adventures

We love to dress up

and have fun together!

So we celebrate 20 years of dancing together
and we look forward to many many more!

Wrapping you around with infinite love and celebration,

Christine

SoulPrint Players

Dear friends,

Sunday night I had the privilege of performing with InterPlay Atlanta's SoulPrint players.  It was our first official performance and the theme was Gratitude.  Our troupe was directed by Jennifer Denning (also the regional director of InterPlay Atlanta and a dear friend).  

Silly SoulPrint Players after the performance - photo by Dean Hess

Here is her blog on the performance that I hope you can check out:  Atlanta InterPlay Blog on Being Seen.

My friend, Ruth Showalter, compiled pictures taken by Dean Hess and put them to music by Karen Drucker (one of my FAVORITES) to create this amazing video of our performance:

I love the transposed images.  I'm on the left with the glasses :)

So much fun to be a part of this event.  My first foray into performance happened back in June at the First Congregational Church in downtown Atlanta "I See You Free" conference with a few InterPlay friends - Check out the blog I wrote about it:  Creating Day 8 - I see you free.

I am so thankful for this amazing group of friends and performers.  Feeling super lucky to be a part of this community.

I'm hoping you'll be able to join us for an InterPlay second Saturday play date soon - I'm leading the one in December - squeeeee!

Wrapping you around with infinite love and play,

Christine

Butterflies and Poetry

Dear Friends,

As the cold winds blow and winter winds roll into GA I'm actually thinking of butterflies tonight and transformation.  I was looking through old pictures and came across a few pics I took this year of these beautiful creatures.  In the spirit of Daily Creative Practice and my friend Janice I decided to create some Haiku poems to go with them...
 

 

Hello beautiful.

Dropping by to visit me,

Transforming my life.

 

 

 Old caterpillar,

transformed matter, showing us

 change is beautiful.

 Seeking sweet nectar,

flitting to stunning places

spreading grace and joy.

Here is a picture I took then my DCP friend

Janice Lynch Schuster  added her Haiku and created cards :)

Wrapping you around with infinite love and creativity,

Christine

Celebrating Mother Nature's Fall Apparel

Dear friends,

Loving the fall colors in Georgia

Taken on a walk this week

Some of the last jewels as the weather turns cold

Japanese Maple in a friend's beautiful backyard

So thankful for the beauty that surrounds me!

  
Wrapping you around with infinite love and nature,

Christine

 

Free Falling Fall

Dear friends,

Japanese Maple Tree Fall 2014 - Peachtree Corners, GA

Here is a spoken word poem I wrote and have performed live once.  Due to the season it's been calling my name and it wants to be heard again :)    

Fall

by Christine Gautreaux

18

and falling out of the sky from 12,500 ft in my first free-fall sky dive over the Majave Desert in Ca.

Wind whipping by

feeling weightless until the ripcord pulls,

the shoot opens jerking you up

and then utter silence…

It’s me & God

Silence so profound it opens up places inside of you, you didn’t know existed.

Sliding in for my first landing thanks to a last minute wind shift…

Bruising my tailbone…

But Oh what a rush!  Falling, Rising, Floating – Yes!

It reminds me of falling in love for the first time.

College boy more interested in what he could get than what he could give.

He dedicated Tom Petty’s “Free Falling” as our break up song.

And YES that landing bruised me too.

But did I jump again?

Yes!  Yes I did.

The thrill, the rush the pure pleasure of adrenaline that occurs in love and in adventure unmatched by the everyday

I met my true love in the Fall.

Five years later we began to date as the leaves turned and the air chilled. 

A county fair – one of our first official dates…

A moment in the parking lot where he set an extra coke can down & kept walking…

I stopped and declared, “I don’t date litterbugs!”

He never littered again. (but he still sucks at recycling)

On top of the Ferris wheel that night we began the gentle fall towards love.  The sparkling lights that covered the everyday grime making the evening all that more enchanting.

Falling every so slightly like in the steps of a Waltz.

Falling asleep snuggled into each others arms wrapped so tightly together we breath in warmth and out unity.

I HAVE fallen down & fallen hard & risen time and time again.

As a mother, as a wife, as a woman and as a friend.

My tears have fallen in sadness and in joy showing both my strength and softness at the same time.  Like jewel toned leaves racing towards the ground.

Fall creates a masterpiece of beauty – natural art that changes daily as our lives do even after 20 years together.

Why yes, Fall is my favorite time of year.  Listening to the wind sing it’s song & the leaves dancing and glowing  with color on their last journey.

I love the crispness in the air.  The flavor of campfire smoke and the holidays teasing my senses.

Most of all

I love the moment

when the possibilities of life unfold before you as you gently let go

like the leaf

and opening like a life saving parachute

It’s you & God

As you gently ride the air currents home. 

Wrapping you around with infinite love and fall favorites,

Christine

Day 11

The Matrix of Manifestation: Flexible Consciousness

CENTERING THOUGHT

My awareness is infinitely adaptable.

SANSKRIT MANTRA

Yoyatah Hum
My awareness is infinitely flexible and fluid.