Getting to the Truth

As we transition from one decade to another, from one era to another, as we move to full and equal human rights around the planet, as we move into the "angels of our better nature" I thought I would share a portion of one of my favorite speeches by a President, one given by Lyndon B. Johnson before a joint session of Congress on voting rights, one of our most basic tools of democracy. It is a speech to remember.

"In our time we have come to live with moments of great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues; issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression. Rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved Nation. The issue of equal rights."

Lyndon B. Johnson did not "win" the Presidency, he ascended to the office due to the horrific assassination of President Kennedy. Johnson understood that one man doesn't "make" human rights changes, he merely steps into the space of truth and offers it up for review, so the people, all the people, can move into a higher thought pattern, a space of humanity above the "battlefield" and petty tyrannies of fear.



Compassionate positioning means creating a stance where you are able to be in a space of compassion and Love and look into the eyes of those who are suffering and feel their suffering without losing your center.

Give Yourself Roses

In the last months of her life Audrey Hepburn speaking of her garden said "Few things are more dear to me than a full blown rose when it opens its heart.“ And I’m compelled to add - few things are more beautiful.

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage we did not take
Towards the door we never opened into the rose garden - TS Eliot

Roses have been described as enchanted, expressive, elementally elegant, unfaltering, unforgiving, devastatingly sophisticated, a symbol for strength and eternal charm. The rose is a powerful symbol. There is a deep meditative practice of imagining all of your strife, and troubles into the heart of a Rose; the energies being absorbed into it's heart center dissipating into the Rose's eternal charm.

LOVING THOUGHTS TO REMEMBER
Our founding father and gardening enthusiast Thomas Jefferson felt "Nature is imagination fully formed." Be willing to see things differently, soak in what's calling forth and know your open heart is beautiful indeed.

Gifts of the Moment.

The graciousness of giving is one of the main catalysts of change because grace is more than a feeling, it is a readiness to be open, an action and movement to be on top of your being, reaching out to others. Gandhi often said "the end is inherent in the means." Through giving and grace you begin to understand fully your means and the ending is written in gratitude. Let's take this day, to gift yourself. Gift yourself the grace of listening.

Jewish lyricist Yip Harburg once commented, “A song is the pulse of a nation’s heart, a fever chart of its health. Are we at peace? Are we in trouble? Do we feel beautiful? Are we violent? Listen to our songs.” It also relates to you, your pulse. What songs are you hearing now? What song is crying out to be heard?

When you start listening and step onto the path of uncovering your Soul's call you start hearing and articulating things you did not want to know, and it can be overwhelming. Let your song be your guide. The soul's siren song is always broadcasting and could care less about your plans. The soul doesn't make any distinctions between light and dark, doesn't care about pain or heartache, and absolutely doesn't want to hear what you think you should be doing.

Listen to the simple sounds of you.

Nothing complicated. There is no act required that is beyond your capabilities. There is only and always the simple principle, the simple sound of your Truth. Again, it might not be something you want to hear, you may have been tuning it out, but the journey lies in that Truth. How we choose our actions amplify the radical edge of the tune lifting ourselves beyond current circumstances, carrying us into the uplifting tides of tomorrow.

Give yourself, your partner, your family a gift. Focus on your song. In doing this you give the gift of letting them be different today than they were yesterday.

To give is to get, so in gifting yourself you get a new day where you are listening and allowing your endings to flourish.

Awaken

Gandhi Rules.

"Truth alone will endure; all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time."

Take the bridge to somewhere.
Let's make a commitment today to live in the truth.
No false idols. No judging. No fear.
Just the simple uncomplicated breath of now.

A Stick and a Fence

Like clock work on Christmas Day after the presents, toys and clothes have been opened and the annihilated wrapping paper is tucked away in a trash bag, one of my favorite Canadian eccentric friends makes an announcement, “when I was a kid, my mom gave me a stick and pointed to the fence and said "play." A stick and a fence. It may have been a stark recollection from childhood, but I always take his stick and fence statement as an inspirational proclamation. He had his imagination, he had his hands, he had a place to play and someone who cared. His cry was the cry of everyone who’s ever been to someone’s house and had to step over the x-box controller to get to the Wii paddles next to the laptop and heard the kids scream past saying “I need another iphone.”

It's simple. Two words. Need less. Getting to the core of what is important isn’t complicated. It involves making a choice to need less, understanding how little we need to be and getting rid of what bogs our space down.

You can’t get bare and grab at the earth’s resources like there is no tomorrow. You can’t oversell fear and not pump anxiety levels to all time highs. You can’t go for the short term anything with no respect for your environment. You can’t be what you need to be for your community, your family, yourself if you don’t know what is important. Needing less clutter, chaos, storage, stuff means steering the course of your own ship without being blind to your surroundings. It is being scared and tired of missing your stuff or missing out and making the choice to clear it out anyway. It is getting to the core invisible foundation that can support growth and the rebirth of new ideas and thinking. It is getting out of our patterned behavior. It is being able to listen and hear someone else’s point of view. It is so many things that commitment and compassion can bring.

I get fired up when talking about needing less. We have so many gifts, we have so much intelligence, we have so many brave and selfless souls; what if brain power and energy was spent in doing the right thing, diffusing a symptom and not the result, fixing a problem, cleaning up our messes. Just imagine preventing and not reacting.

Rolling up the sleeves and confronting tough subjects creates a wedge of possibility instead of a morass of indifference. It's not waiting, it's taking action. Now. Needing less isn’t having nothing. It is being happier, more content and appreciative. In taking care of what you need to be clear, nourishing yourself, allowing yourself to enjoy the elegance of spirit and lightness and freedom of being the world opens up in ways you can't even begin to anticipate. "The trick" as Don Quixote said, "is not to see life as it is but as it ought to be" and live in that higher place, taking others with you by the sheer example of your action.

There is a power within your imagination to transform and transcend the feelings and circumstances of your life. Use it. And not only that. Take care and be aware of how your actions, how the process of lightening up and letting go impact those around you. Be the beacon for others to follow. Clear it out. Do whatever it takes to expand your perspective. If you are still struggling with this, go somewhere where people have less. Where the smallest connection makes the greatest difference. It is possible to turn it all around. It is possible to live your life on the other side in a place of gratitude. It is possible to let go of someone else's idea of what should be. It takes awareness and it takes making the commitment to say. “Hey. Things have been tough. But. Man am I grateful that I can wake up and try again.”

Brought to you by The Bare Melcessities.

FREE YOURSELF FROM JUDGMENT

Make the choice to accept your mistakes, to revel in your failures, to remove judgment from your vocabulary and watch everything get very simple.

With this one action you are removing drama and "issues" from your daily thoughts. You are focusing on the journey and living in the adventure of each day. With this one shift you are cheering for yourself, living in forgiveness and any perceived mistakes only become information. That's all... Information for you to consider in your next steps forward.

Yes. It's tough to own perceived mistakes or failures. It will bring up everything about how you are not good enough, how your way of being isn't okay. Do it anyway. A mistake is just that a missed take.

Surrounding yourself with love and support become the order of your new day. Giving you the opportunity to become centered in a nourishing pattern. We're done with the self abusive, self loathing beat downs. If you are over feeling a certain way. It needs to go. Change your thinking. Let it go.

Okay. It's going to be challenging. But anything that doesn’t feed you, needs to be weeded out. Letting go is the process. As Tallulah Bankhead said, “if I had my life to live again. I’d make the same mistakes only sooner.”

Conviction is the army of truth free from the blindfold of judgment.

PEACE. JOY. LOVE. BABY JESUS.

KA-CHINGLE! MINE THE MAGIC.

Ho. Ho. Ho. Let's go. Day Four. It's Christmas Day. (Yah!) In our 10 Days. All Love. Getting Bare. Love Fest. Today represents a deepening of the Divine Loving experience, an opportunity to cleanse the past and an embracing of a new loving, powerful, radiant being.

"If you want to sing out sing out. If you want to be free. be free." Cat Stevens.

Little kids sing their hearts out and are so proud to be on stage. As Maya Angelou says "a bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."



From Harold and Maude... by Cat Stevens.

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

Chorus:
You can do what you want
The opportunity's on
And if you find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo
you see ah ah ah
its easy ah ah ah
You only need to know

Well if you want to say yes, say yes
And if you want to say no, say no
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

And if you want to be me, be me
And if you want to be you, be you
'Cause there's a million things to do
You know that there are

Chorus

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are

Divine Love

We are witnessing a great struggle. A struggle that is externalizing all of our inner conflicts. A struggle over whether we will know peace or suffer needlessly at our own hand. A struggle over whether we will be loving or whether we will be fearful.

Opt out of the struggle. It's Christmas for Christ's sake. It's a time where we remember Peace is available on Earth. Now. Paraphrasing a country song "all the reason's we're here, we know by heart." You can live in the fiction of the struggle. Or you can revel in the truth. The truth exactly as it is. No fooling. No despair. No hope. Just a knowing that everything is what it is.

The fantasy of wanting anything to be different than it is, keeps us stuck in the fiction and falsehoods, cause never more so... do the words of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life spring out... "Each life touches so many others..." Let's remind ourselves to remember, what we do matters. The choices we make, no matter how small. MATTER.

Choose wisely. And take care of your own 10 cubic feet. Let's make this the Eve of something amazing. We've all been given so many gifts.

it's time. to use them.

Photography by: The Franklin Files.

Keep Christmas Well.

MAY YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you



When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

In talking to reporters when Walt Disney opened Disney Land he shared, "It's something that will never be finished, something I can keep developing and adding to. It will get more beautiful every year. And it will get better as I find out what the public likes." The happiest place on earth was built on the spirit of work in progress where adventure unfolded and imagination flourished and the never ending process was cherished.

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true

Today's Get Bare Tip

What is waiting to be born?

Turn off the people pleasing voice in your head and every last "should" that floods into your brain for the next 24 hours and Listen.



LOVING THOUGHTS TO REMEMBER

Be incredibly gentle with yourself.
Starting or stopping anything takes courage.
Knowing your truth makes everything easier.
Listening to your 'still small voice' makes it possible.

Brought to you by Melanie Lutz's THE BARE MELCESSITIES.

Ingredients for Life - Get Bare Tip #36

My tiny powerhouse cherub faced Italian grandmother used to say when asked what went into her heavenly lasagna “here’s the recipe” handing it over with a smile on her face and a crack of kensho in her heart “but, it’s not going to taste the same.” Off the puzzled faces that stared back at her ... “it’s up to you to experiment with ingredients, add new ones, make your own lasagna.”

It is amazing how far we’ll go to stick with something that isn’t working to try to make it work. How often we don’t even recognize it’s grown as bland as cardboard institutional food. Have no memory of what bold and lively tastes like, so lost in the routine we don’t remember we’re not adding anything new to the equation.

Burning any tired recipe or introducing something new to the brew brings the cheers and applause of the heavenly choir and for me that one voice of my slightly off key Grandmother chuckling through song with a huge prideful grin on her face. Contented.

Resolve to release any recipe that doesn’t thrill and create a new one. Head into the pantry, open your eyes and try something new. Whatever it takes. Experiment with a different way of being. Right now. Every time you do, the mind is expanded, new worlds open up and your intuition gets to frolic.

On the road to a delight filled life may your recipes expand and grow, may you wake to try new things and may your days surprise, and I hope your lasagna is heaven on earth.

Be Aware.

Expand and breathe.



If you listen you can hear the angels wings.
Up above our heads so near
They are hovering

"The anger that you feel goes on and on..."

That is not enough to know that I love you still
So I'll take my heart and go for I've had my fill

WOUNDED HEART

(written by Jude Johnstone)

Wounded heart
I cannot save you from yourself
Though I wanted to be brave
It never helps
Cause your trouble's like a flood
Raging through your veins
And no amount of love's enough
To end the pain

Tenderness and time can heal
A right gone wrong
But the anger that you feel
Goes on and on
And it's not enough to know
That I love you still
So I'll take my heart and go
For I've had my fill

If you listen you can hear
The angels' wings
Up above our heads so near
They are hovering
Waiting to reach out for love
When it falls apart
When it cannot rise above
A wounded heart

LIVE LIFE IN LOVE!

MAKE PEACE AND JOY YOUR FRIENDS

To any problem perceived or otherwise
Love remains the answer.

Imagine being Loving when Jerk Town moves into the neighborhood, or crushes in front of you in traffic, or negative Nina wants to drop a “load off” and corners you at work. Imagine being Loving. All the time.

Last year at Christmas I resolved to spend the year Loving Everyone. Like setting in motion the first words of a grand drama that by its sheer depth of adventure rumbles forth taking on a life of its own to become an Oscar winning best picture. That's how The Year Without Judgment: How I Learned to Stop Hating Myself and Love Everyone, took flight.

“Love is the language in which God speaks. For when we listen with Love, it is the heart that hears.” From Ralph H. Blum in his introduction to The Healing Runes.

Loving everyone was one of the biggest challenges I've ever undertaken. Letting my heart hear the truth in every situation was near impossible at first. Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King took the Buddhist principles and made it a way of being, and in my own way. So could I.

Some of you have already rolled your eyes. The ways of the world are counter intuitive to the simple truth that Love is all there is. It seems as though there is so much fear and judgment there is no way we can meet each other in Love. I wholeheartedly disagree. With time and space as Einstein said being “illusions of consciousness,” there is no doubt any false fear and figmented hurt can be transcended by Love. It's wholly a matter of consciousness. This language of the heart is something we all share, it crosses all barriers and is always available.

Loving everyone is not some passive deal, it is a steely strength, one of the most powerful stances of being in the world. It's not a secret my year of Loving everyone meant walking out of a business relationship that wasn't working, leaving my home and going gypsy (again), standing up to and for things and people that scared me, and releasing a book that shared my inner thinking about myself to find the freedom to be myself. It meant standing up for what I believed in and it meant sharing the truth even though it would have been easier to stay silent.

By allowing everything that naturally comes up in a Loving embrace to wash through and connect to that language beyond words, to take that beat of Love, everything becomes lighter; the challenges, the tests and the traumas, our perceived differentness melts away past the wounds. Building a Love arsenal. An active and valiant tool chest of openness and vulnerability takes work and patience and courage and becomes the building blocks in training yourself to stay present in the seat of Love, belted in when necessary, remembering the truth.

V'ahavta I'rayakha - and you shall have Love in your heart,
V'ahavta kamokha - for yourself and your friends,
V'ahavta ani hashem - to create a world of hope and peace,

Each of us finds our own way on the path of the peaceful spiritual warrior in Love, as my favorite Rabbi shares "capable of wrestling with life without being defeated by living." Each of us finds our own way to express this language of the heart and live in our joy.

This past year I have been the beneficiary of a huge mitzvah. The mitzvah of learning how to Love myself by Loving everyone. And that's a Gift that keeps on giving.

When you can Love everyone (including yourself) there is nothing that is not possible.

Join Me. Make this upcoming year a practice. A practice of being Loving. Everyday. In everyway.

Brought to you by Melanie Lutz's The Bare Melcessiites.

Poetry Party!

Forget the past, and open up to different thinking, where Monster's aren't what you think and fear is your friend.

FROM MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN

I Shall.

“I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited." Embarking on “an expedition of discovery up a native river.” “Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come?”

-- The Monster



Brought to you by The Bare Melcessities.

We're Getting Bare and throwing a Love Fest!

Set the stage for LOVING yourself into the next decade.

Join Melanie Lutz
in a powerhouse 10 days. All Love.

Our Gift to you!

Get the support you need over the holidays.

December 22 through December 31st

We will send you LOVE via your inbox...
To break through any funky feelings
Clear out the past
and enlighten and uplift your spirit
so you can
Be All of Who You Are.

10 days of Love. 10 days of Wisdom. 10 days of Being.

As Joseph Campbell said "the privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." I add to that "the privilege of a lifetime is being who you are" in Love!

with gratitude for all you've taught me.

Lots of love,

Melanie

brought to you by TheBareMelcessities.com and a Band of Angels.

The Perfect Gift ... from the heart.

Gift yourself peace and clarity and love for the holidays.

End the decade with a POWER SHOT of LOVING yourself.

Melanie Lutz is hosting a GETTING BARE end of decade practice... 10 days. All Love. Delivered every morning to your inbox.

From 12/22 through 12/31 you will get daily love infused hits and media designed to break through past thinking and patterns and offer loving support through the holidays.

Think of it as a mini radical loving yourself fest offered to uplift and inspire.

Let the end of the year be filled with possibility, to dance to the beat of your truest self, illuminating the steps forward in your soul's evolution, expanding your purpose and passion into the next 10 years.

In Love.

All you need is an email and an open heart.

Be. Love. Repeat.

lots of love,

Melanie

brought to you by TheBareMelcessities.com and a Band of Angels.

A SPECIAL HOLIDAY EVENT

Melanie Lutz talks THE BARE MELCESSITIES

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20th AT 3PM

AT


Join us for Tea and Crumpets and tons of Holiday LOVE.

Kid appropriate so stop on by and bask in the sunny Sunday glow.

10604 Riverside Boulevard, North Hollywood, California

818.506.5456


Melanie Lutz In Store




www.thebaremelcessities.com

Body and Soul

Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.



Beautiful.

Man of Myth and The Great Mystery.

"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." Joseph Campbell

The goal of the hero trip down to the jewel point is to find those levels in the psyche that open open open and finally open to the mystery of yourself...

Being Buddha consciousness

That's the journey.

Enough said.

MEL-ISM: Be unwilling to settle for less than ALL of you.

as David Whyte writes in his poem Sweet Darkness “Anyone or anything that does not bring you alive is too small for you.”

one more time...

Be UNWILLING to settle for less than ALL of you.

Your Soul's Bumping Out Your Song.

Start listening.

When you step onto the path of uncovering your Soul's call, you start hearing and articulating things you did not want to know, and it can be overwhelming.

Don't get thrown. The soul's siren song is always broadcasting and could care less about your plans, the soul doesn't make any distinctions between light and dark, doesn't care about pain or heartache, and absolutely doesn't want to hear what you think you should be doing.

It worries not over failure, or success.

These first lines of a Pablo Narudo poem written near the end of his career looking back at his beginnings brings the feeling to life in the poetic language...

"Something ignited in my soul, fever or unremembered wings, and I went my own way deciphering that burning fire."

The heart and soul only cares that you do it your way.

"Something ignited in my soul"

Give this all the oxygen it needs.

"I went my own way deciphering that burning fire."

Listen to what is being called for.

Take the next step even though it is scary.


LA POESIA by Pablo Neruda

...And something ignited my soul,
fever or unremembered wings,
and i went my own way,
deciphering
that burning fire
and i wrote the first bare line,
bare, without substance, pure
foolishness,
pure wisdom
of one who knows nothing,
and suddenly i saw
the heaven
unfastened
and open.

GETTING BARE. DAY BY DAY. by Melanie Lutz

Brought to you by: TheBareMel.com Photography by Melanie Lutz

10 DAYS OF GETTING BARE

BUY NOW


MEL'S END OF DECADE

10 DAYS OF GETTING BARE

EMBRACE YOUR SACRED SELF

Starting December 22nd through December 31st

Get the support you need.


BUY NOW

May your days be filled with joy and your tears find acceptance for the healing they offer!

Retro - Music Fest

Today's the day to express yourself. Loud. and Proud!



You can have it all!

Take your passion and make it happen.

From the movie FLASHDANCE...

Sung by Irene Cara, launching Jennifer Beals, produced by Simpson/Bruckheimer.

Song written by
Giorgio Moroder (music)
Keith Forsey (lyrics)
Irene Cara (lyrics)

"What a Feeling" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1984.

Getting Bare Love Fest Kicks Off December 22nd.

ORDER NOW and once you're signed up, no need to do anything, just sit back, and soak up Ten days of digital Love.




Thank you for allowing us into your mailbox, your computer, and your hearts. It's an honor to be of service, because everyone at Mobile Mel feels that being loving and living in the truth is a terrific way to spend the day at the office!

Snow Miser!

Thanks to the work of Rankin/Bass Productions and their use of "Animagic" (a stop motion animation process using figurines)

Heat miser was my favorite...



Heat or Snow... it's all good.

Jesus Loves The Bare Mel

Jesus Loves The Bare Mel
Originally uploaded by Love Everyone

It's a Sign!
Thanks to the kids of St. Augustine By the Sea in Santa Monica.

Great event!

To each man his kingdom is home

It’s often easy to forget.
But in remembering we bring right
that which has gone off course.

Photograph: Franklin Canyon Hike in Beverly Hills.

Wake Up.

Art necessitates trying and failing. Great art necessitates "dying daily" as Emmet Fox and others have shared.

Experiment. Fail. Celebrate. and Don't Forget to Shine. Brightly.

Always Alice Goes Facebook...

“There is no use trying,” said Alice, “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

-- Lewis Carroll



350 Million people plus one Production Company!

Always Alice is a production company founded by Melanie Lutz dedicated to creating inspiring and uplifting projects filled with passion and purpose.

We embrace remembering and recovering what unites us, and celebrate our evolution into the future. A future rich in possibilities.

A Night At The Ocean.

Windy and beautiful in Redondo Beach.

Get Bare Tips -- Coming Soon.

Bare for the holidays
Originally uploaded by Love Everyone

We're taking the Holidays by storm!

Kristin Rocks!

Sometimes you just have to say it. Kristin Chenoweth's doing a Lifetime Movie airing this weekend, Twelve Men of Christmas... pulled this By Request performance of Stephen Schwartz's For Good from Wicked to honor her vocal talents and wonder out loud.... When are we going to figure out how to develop something that encompasses all of her many talents?!



If you didn't catch her her on The View... Kristin Chenoweth on The View promoting Lifetime's Twelve men of Christmas

The movie airs Saturday night at 9pm,,,

Check out the trailer and get more information here.

Pull a Hero Move.

Take a look around your life. Pick an area that has been causing you trouble.

When you have the area in your mind.

Clear out your thoughts and enter into a softer focus.

Ask yourself with an open heart, which one action would make the most impact?

It might come up, "Do nothing." It might come up, "Clean house." Who knows.

Trust your instincts and intuition. Go with your gut.

Be a hero in your own life and venture forth into a new story.


---

We'll be opening up the conversation to tips on Getting Bare. Keep an eye out for our Get Bare Tips.

Email us if you have any questions or suggestions. info@thebaremel.com

The Hills Are Alive

Melanie Lutz talks THE BARE MELCESSITIES on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.



Had so much fun hanging on Rodeo Drive... It's truly a magical spot to shop and get inspired!

Thanks to everyone who made it so special and to the valet parking guys who helped a sister out!!

Pictures and Prose - excerpt from Melanie Lutz's THE BARE MELCESSITIES

"I was missing something. Missing something very dearly, and I became curious and excited by ideas of what would nourish me.

An acquaintance of mine shared a story and led me in a new direction on nourishment. She felt that her family had never accepted her chosen path in life, didn't encourage her on any level. She sought comfort in therapy only to be derided by family members with their chorus of "Are you still in therapy?" Her translation... "Are you still fucked up?"

The time came when she was starring in Tennessee Williams, The Rose Tattoo, and she knew what she needed, and she finally asked for it. In a polite note to her family, she requested they send flowers opening night and for the run of the show. Every day flowers showed up at the theater with a note that said, "We are proud of you." The flowers fed her, nourished the dream she held for so long, night after night, the flowers told the story of acceptance. She related how nourished she felt by the very sight of the flowers. When the show closed, for the first time in her life she felt full.

Note to Mel: Revelation.

Nourishment could mean many different things. Food wasn't the only item that could be nourishing. Nourishment could be applied to self, needs, desires, feelings, wants, ideas, you name it. This concept blipped so strongly on my radar, the signal growing stronger and stronger with each passing second. Beckoning long forgotten parts of myself. "Nourish yourself. Do it. Now."

Excerpt from Melanie Lutz's THE BARE MELCESSITIES: Walking Out. Waking Up. Getting Bare Nourishment chapter available at Amazon.

Get the support you need to go deeper.

Check out the website www.thebaremelcessities.com

Photography by Louise Lutz

Divine Gypsy

Comfort is the warm inner glow of peace exhaled in symphony with the moment.

Excerpted from Melanie Lutz's work in progress Divine Gypsy.

Comfort has different meanings for different people but the warm inner glow is universal.

To order an advance copy email info@alwaysalice.com

Photography by Louise Lutz

Scroogenomics - Indiebound Idea Sharing.

"An orgy of value destruction and misallocated resources."

Fascinating and funny.

Wharton School Professor of Economics Joel Waldfogel new book.

Econo-geeks talk Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holiday.

Spiritual Teachers to Explore

There are many doors to the same place. Wanted to offer up a few of the open doors I walked through that helped me answer some of my souls questions.

David Whyte~ Poetry of the Soul

James Twyman ~ Peace Troubadour

Jack Kornfield ~ Buddhist Teachings

Joel Goldsmith ~ Practical Mysticism

Carolyn Myss ~ Sacred Healing

Debbie Ford ~ Shadow Work

Marianne Williamson ~ Love & Prayer

Like Goldilocks you'll know when it feels "just right" i.e. warm and friendly and expanding; or not. And keep in mind what speaks to one person isn't what speaks to someone else.

Let me know who your favorites are.

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