Hi ya’ll.  Look at me…writing a post AFTER the 30-Day Love Affair is over!  It’s true.  I feel I have officially transformed my relationship with this lovely blog.  Dreading my “blog homework” has now been replaced by thoughts like, “Write a blog?  Sure. Totally.  Why not?  No big deal.  Sounds fun.”  So, that said, I’m officially popping in to say hello and to thank you for your ah-MAZE-ing comments in response to my last post about my name change.  If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend reading the comments—so moving and inspiring.  Reading your comments reminded me why…

It’s so important for us to share our stories!

It’s so easy to keep our stories to ourselves—to believe they are not important, not interesting, too personal or to believe that they might somehow burden other people.  I understand this—oh. so. well.  I understand this because I’ve been feeling all these things for years.  On that note, I gotta tell you that I seriously felt like I was going to puke after I hit the “publish” button on my name change blog.  After I posted the blog, I texted my friend Kelly Rae Roberts and said, “I just revealed a big deep part of my story on my blog.  Why do I feel like I’m going to throw up now?”  Her response was simple:

“Oh that’s a vulnerability hangover…you’ll be fine.”

Ha!  I loved that she was so blunt.  I loved that she didn’t give it any extra energy.  Why?  Because Kelly Rae knows a thing or two about vulnerability—she’s been at it for awhile now and I have a lot to learn from her.  A vulnerability hangover, ey?  I get it.  It’s the feeling we get after being really freaking honest, open and, well, vulnerable.  It leaves us feeling a little blown open and exposed in a way that “keeping it cool” does not.  But, you know what else comes with being blown open that does not come from keeping it cool?  An ability to be seen, to connect more deeply, to be held, to be loved and to be known for who we really are.  I think I’ll take that over “keeping it cool” any day.

Yes, last week was a big one for me.  Not only did I share new pieces of my story to thousands of people, but I also sent out a newsletter, finished my taxes (no small feat), embarked on a huge yard renovation, continued training my new assistant, tied up what felt like a million loose ends, got organized for my upcoming trip to Bali (I leave in six days) and finished seven new paintings for a show this week—ya know, no biggie 🙂  That said, I seriously needed a little vacation.

We have been having some insanely gorgeous weather here in Oregon, so I did what any smart gal would do headed for the beach with my crush! After two full days of walking in the sand, gazing at the waves, making fires on the beach, cuddling under the stars and soaking up the sun, I literally feel a new person.  Kelly Rae was right.  I’m just fine.  In fact, I’m pretty darn awesome.

Hope you are too!

xo flora