Welcome back to Picture Love, friends. You know, whether you have actually thought about the meaning of Picture Love or not, I know it's a phrase I use a lot, not just the name of my podcast and my community. But Picture Love is not just a mindset. It's intention, right? There's love in all of us, but when we pay attention to it, when we're mindful with it, when we're intentionally well-wishing somebody, or looking for a positive outcome, or picturing love into something in a situation, Picture Love becomes so much more powerful when it has a place to live and be experienced. So I wanna talk to you about some examples of that today, and, I got a couple stories for you too. And at the end, I'm going to give you a little taste of a practice that is going to be living in the new Picture Love community in our Patreon group. So do check out the links if that's something you are curious about. But when you think of situations or objects that contain potential, and maybe untapped potential when they have never been opened, like a book, a brand-new book, and you've never opened the cover, there's the potential for an adventure anywhere you open that cover and start to read the stories within the pages. That's a place I've found beautiful, restful adventures. Restful and adventurous could sound like a contradiction, but in the setting of a book, it makes perfect sense. Or what about the potential of an anchor stored on a boat, and that boat is docked, secured with ropes along other boats docked at a resting stage, not voyaging, not cruising, not sailing, but it's parked at its dock, and it doesn't need an anchor until it does. What about a sealed package of seeds? Whatever kind of seeds we're talking about, you know, there's the potential for growth to take place if they're given, if they're given the soil, if they're g- it's given the conditions to grow into something. And we can Picture Love into it by doing that. What about a new pair of shoes, walking shoes, still sitting in the box? Maybe there's tags on them still. There's so much potential in the places you can go and the, the activities you can experience in those shoes. Or what about a simple, simple genius glass of water? If it's sitting there untouched It stands holding potential, wouldn't you say? And it's not until it's actually experienced, sipped, that we get to embody the potential and experience it. So I would love t- to share a couple stories with you in ways that I am embodying and experiencing Picture Love, and one of them was a pair of shoes. They're not new, but I woke up this morning and I said, "My feet are and my ankles are a little achy, so instead of just walking barefoot downstairs to feed the pets, let me just give my feet a little extra love, put on my socks, put on my sneakers." And I felt immediately more supported. And our morning routine, as soon as we're all cleaned up from meals, is I take my dogs out for a walk. And I'm leaving the house saying, "Wow, I feel so much better equipped. This is gonna be a really great walk." The sun is out. It's a little hot, but there's a breeze, and I was just really in a place of gratitude. So I'm walking along, and next thing you know, my, my older dog decides to root her little bum down in the street. And I'm like, "Beasley, we can't stand here. We gotta, we gotta move over or keep moving. Something." And she saw something or she heard something, and just about a minute or two later of me patiently figuring out what she's waiting for, listening to, or smelling, a neighbor pops out and her dog comes running across the yard to greet us. So we backtrack a few steps and get to visit with them, and I'm standing there in so much comfort. My feet are all supported, and then all of a sudden my dogs flop in the tall grass 'cause their lawnmower broke. Unfortunate for them, but my dogs were so happy for the cushy bed of grass to lay down in. That was fun. And so we're just talking and everybody's vibing, and the next thing I know, another neighbor comes out walking her dog, and usually she's already been walked and back in to avoid the extreme heat. But all of us slept in today. And so it was this beautiful, uh, orchestration of synchronicity where we were all in the same place at the same time with our dogs, and the one behind the fence says, "Hold on, I'm gonna get a leash. I'll join you." And so we had a puppy party, I call it. Three ladies, four dogs walking down the street just catching up on life. I'm so grateful that I took the time to slow down and put my socks and shoes on and walk a little later than usual, because all of that was me picturing love into my day, and then all of a sudden Neighbors who resonated with that same-- They were picturing love in their own way, whether they call it that or not. We were drawn together. There was this magnetism. There is this beautiful, spontaneous combustion of community love and resonance and laughter and wags. I just felt so supported, all starting with putting my sneakers on in the morning. So that was more than potential and more than just experiencing a dog walk in my shoes. It opened the door for synchronicities. It just felt like the world was giving me things that reflected how I was feeling, you know? A-and people say things always happen in threes. Have you ever had that, um, you know, that experience where things are either really great or really not your-- the way you prefer, and however you're feeling, more things happen that evoke more of that same feeling? And it can make a really meh day into a ugh day, and it can make a, a good day into a great one because you're just riding the wave, the flow, following the flow of whatever that vibration is. So that was such a really joyful, embodied walk And you may have entertained some of my gardening stories in the past months and this past weekend, I thought I had a great inspiration by planting my new seedlings for the fall crop. 'Cause the weather forecast was cloudy, and I thought, "Oh, they'll get nice and situated before the hot sun." And of course, moments later, the hot sun was blazing, so I scrambled and made some shade out of burlap so that filtered sun could still come through, but not quite as intense. And next thing you know, the, the wind started to kick it up, and they were just a hot mess everywhere. So I found myself troubleshooting by running to the store and getting some clothes pins and pinning it, pinning the lengths of burlap on these arches that I had put inside my raised beds. And by the time I'd finished, wrestling them down and clipping the heck out of them, all of a sudden I had these beautiful structures. And I left it alone. I left it alone, and I just trusted the plants to do their thing. And I experienced you know, degrees of troubleshooting and then degrees of just giving it some faith. I loved on them, and I left them, and I woke up this morning, and they look fantastic. The plants look so happy. The shades actually stayed in place with our gusty winds, which is wonderful. I think we're off to a good start. My little seedlings, they're no more, no more than three inches high, are going to be yielding quite the fall harvest. I'm so excited. But this, this comes back to I started these from seed. I gave them time, and I experienced the joy, the creative cooperation between me and nature. And whether you plan to grow your own crops or if you just like to experience growing something easy like a sunflower, I highly encourage that. It's-- there's nothing more satisfying than seeing the fruits of your labor and experiencing the joy in your heart from the process, and that's definitely a plant reflecting back the love it's given, not just the growing conditions. So Picture Love in my garden continues to be an unfolding. Picture Love has found a place to live in my garden, and I am joyfully experiencing it. And every time something goes wrong or something yellows and dies or shrivels up because it didn't get as much water as I thought it had, I look at it as practice. The experience of, of embodying Picture Love through walking, through gardening, through interactions with you, it, it really makes life worth living, and I'm so grateful if you're still listening to this 'cause I have just one more story, and if you remember, I mentioned an anchor on a boat. So if I'm rewinding time about forty years, I grew up in, uh, the Hudson Valley in New York. And my dad for many of my teenage years and young adult life years, he had a boat on the Hudson River. About forty years ago, I, I guess I was a young teenager, and Hurricane David came through, and I always thought that was so weird to hear a hurricane named after my dad. My dad is a David too, and he's the one with... You know, he's-- The, the boat was his toy. It was his baby, and we all had really wonderful family memories on it. But when Hurricane David came through, we weren't in a fearful state or anything like that. You know, I'm just a kid, and there's a storm, and, you know, there's potential of maybe missing some school. And we did a little bit, and so when my dad went down to check on the boat, uh, it was, he-- everybody had gone to the boat club to secure their boats, whether it was to pull them out and get them on the land or, you know, extra reinforcements. Well, nobody expected Hurricane David to rip the docks off of land. And there was a section of boats that was found down the river, all still safely tied up to the dock, but the dock got ripped away. And so in that circumstance, all of these boats were secured according to good nautical practices, and yet the hurricane had other plans, and none of those boats were anchored because they were tied to a dock, but the dock was ripped off. And, I do know that one boat had been capsized, and others had some bumps and bruises, so to speak. And, and my young teenage mind was terrified of the idea. I was mortified that boats could be ripped away by a storm. That was my young, mind processing the power of a hurricane coming through. And so all the, the guys at the boat club, all the boat, the boat dads, and there was a occasional woman too, uh, you know, they rallied. They had this beautiful community where they helped each other, and one would take a... You know, there were several who hopped in their motorboats and drove the owners a- to go collect their boats, and there was a coordinated effort to tow the drifting dock back in addition to recovering the boats. And so that was an example of, you know, when a crisis of one kind or another brings out that community support. And I was so amazed by how quickly they recovered and how quickly the repairs were done, and everybody pitched in, and, uh, everybody was so thankful that their homes were not destroyed or damaged, but they were able to just recover their boats. And so in that circumstance, you know, those anchors were, were untapped potential. They were not in use because it wasn't time to use them. But something else was supposed to anchor them, and when that anchor got torn away, AKA the dock There was a new experience, right? But having Like, when we, when Dad would take us out on the river, that's where I learned to water-ski, on the Hudson. It was such a, a wonderful, wonderful memory, and we'd either go tubing or, or just bring lunch out on the boat and just throw the anchor and dock and swim off the boat. And even when my kids were little, we had memories of a later version of that boat in the river. It was just such a wonderful experience to, to have that, those childhood memories. And that anchor really served us. It let us pause, and not float adrift like a boat in a storm. And I don't think that's very different from our bodies. You know, life right now is a little crazy. We've got a metaphorical hurricane in every, any direction you go, and hopefully your mind isn't buried too much in the bad news. I can't call it news anymore. It's just bad news. But we need to allow ourselves to Picture Love by anchoring into what really matters, right? And anchoring into our bodies and being present so that we can not only function as individuals, but that we get to help our communities sustain each other, sustain ourselves so we can sustain each other. And that leads me... Where's my sound? And that leads me into the guided practice I wanted to share with you today. And if you would like to physically participate, it's just a f- couple minutes long. And for you to really experience it, you just need to get yourself a glass of water. All right? Now, I would love for you to think of this practice as your own energetic or emotional physical anchor, something that can help you steady, ground, and just momentarily pause so that we can Come back to ourselves, recharge, fill your own glass, so to speak, metaphorically and literally, and be better equipped to continue with our day, or maybe to finish your day, or maybe to start your day, whatever that may be. I hope that this guided exercise not only anchors you into the good, that it helps you create patterns of picturing love for yourself and therefore for those that you influence. And if you didn't notice the many threads of community throughout this, I would love for you to imagine that you're in a group right now when you participate. You're in a group in your most comfortable setting, wherever that may be, and everybody's experiencing their anchoring and witnessing each other. That we are all grounding into our own love, our own truths, our own bodies, our own balance and peace, and doing it in community for the sake of all of us. That none of us needs to pour from an empty glass. That all of us can not only have our cups filled to the fullest, that we can be outrageously generous by giving through the overflow. I hope that those thoughts support you today, and stick around for just three or four more minutes, and grab your glass if you're going to participate, or just listen along, hear what it's all about, and then you can practice it on your own later on. And if you'd like to do more of this, of course, check the show notes for the links, and you can join us inside of our community. But I'm going to sign off right now and begin the exercise so that you can carry on as you need to, to Picture Love for yourself. Enjoy! Go grab a glass of water. Let's take a timeout for a little mindfulness exercise Friend, we no longer need to pour from an empty glass. We get to remember the joy of abundance and pouring into others from our overflow. We get to live from wholeness with the pleasure of having more than we could ever need, enough to be wildly generous without abandoning or depleting ourselves. So as you hold this glass of water, take a look at it with gratitude. Notice the crystal clear light that comes through it, and take a sip with the intention to remember the abundance that's rightfully yours May every sip be a remembrance that abundance doesn't need to be defended. Take another sip, and this one is for remembering, remembering the abundance that's yours, that's mine, that belongs to each one of us. And as you continue to enjoy each sip, this is a remembrance that our glass can remain full, and you can still be replenished by your own glass. And when it runs over, we pour into others with love and gratitude So take a few sips and with each one remember, remember to be thankful. There is so much to be thankful for And you are worthy of every nourishing, replenishing sip. You are worthy of each nourishing, replenishing breath Breathe. Remember. Smile and enjoy as more and more thoughts of gratitude fill your mind. Keep picturing love, friend, and never forget yourself. May your glass always be replenished first