Sparks Flying...

Connect to OneSpark on FB!

I choose to spend my first night as a Jacksonvillian attending the One Spark Town Hall meeting. Seemed like a fitting way to jump into the fire and catch a spark of energy. Ya, being cliche, it's sorta fun to play with the fire metaphor, so I shall! And to be honest watching this lil spark working to create fire has been interesting to say the least.

I love to watch fires start and love to add fuel too. Knowing how and when to is the key. I hate to waste my energy, so I work hard to understand when my fuel is need or even wanted.

I attended some of the early meetings when it was called Epoch. Which were fun and highly conceptual. The team pulled together people and worked to create momentum. As it moved along, somehow the leadership team for it shifted and the name changed to One Spark. Still a bit of a mystery actually...

As the vision for the event evolved the team pulled together and began getting a bit more formal, which like all projects like this, is required so others can get on board. 

As I approached the always delightful Florida Theater, I could feel a bit of hopeful energy. It was fun to run in to a few friends who I would have imagined to be there. One of Jacksonsonville's fun creative couples Tiffany Manning and Ron Hubbard were as usual enjoying the air of inspiration. Al Leston creator of State of the ReUniion, with his delightful smiles and desire to add to the energy, spreading his good cheer via hugs! James Smith one of the Founders of the Kona School attended with his charming son Arthur. and the ever inspiring Wayne Wood. It was quite fun to see many of Jacksonville's creative class out and open to supporting this fun idea.

"We need you, the community, to help make this happen." Elton Rivas stated as he opened the session. The core team then shared status and then opened the floor to discussion and questions. The air in the room was a mix of excited, hopeful and a slight bit of hesitance. 

This is a big undertaking and I sense that the creative community that showed up to hear the status is in a bit of wait and see mode. Yet what the team really needs is to engage with us to get busy helping make it happen. I met the volunteer liason Melissa Adams, which was a delight! She has her work cut out for her!

As a creator, who has put my application in, I left with a bunch of questions in my mind as to the site match process as well as the process by which all that will happen. Yup this is the first time for this to be happening here in Jax, so yup lots of ambiguity to be dealt with. Ahh yess, part of the creative process. 

So I will stay tuned and figure out how to add my lil fuel to this fire that has HUGE potential!

My Peaceful Faith of Moving

A blessings jar full of FAITH.

Welcome to my new blog, I have committed to writing about my experieces of reDiscovering Jacksonville. My intent is to use this space to express my deep gratitude for the blessings that have been bestowed upon me as well as the fun adventures my life seems to take.

For the past few weeks, I have been focused on moving my life to Jacksonville. It has been a relatively complicated move. My current home, a new apartment, a storage unit and a new location for Character Counts! So to say the least, I have been tested in many ways. Focus, Acceptance. Trust. Tenacity. & FAITH.

This move marks the end of a period of time for me. Six and a half years ago I moved to Saint Augustine to heal from a very bad divorce. As I healed spiritually, my body decided it needed an over haul too. It got very physically sick too. I suffered from a neurological illness, which robbed me of my stability: physically, intellectually, emotionally, financially and spiritually. I was tested to my very core. The hardest and most enlightening aspect of the journey was a bout with suicidal depression. It was here that my FAITH found its match.

As the people around me loved me into loving myself again, I found a whole new face of the Divine. I began to see God in the smallest of moments & the smallest of gestures. I had spent almost two years in and out of bed. My whole sense of reality was shifted and I began to see and know things very differently. A simple walk in the sun with a friend holding me steady became a blessed experience. Having someone bring a pot of soup after answering the question of, "What have you eaten today?" with, "I have no Idea." was experienced as a ritual of love. Standing in the shower, enjoying the hot water steaming down upon me, while a friend sat on in the room, making sure I would not fall, became a baptism of my soul. I could continue on about how the simplest of experiences became magical adventures in the moment, yet what I know deeply in this moment and desire to express is that the Divine revealed itself in ways I had never experienced. I am anew in the realization of it.

It has taken me three long hard years to become stable. Yes! I am really STABLE.  In every aspect of my life. So many people have taken the ride along with me and found their own space of faith as well. It is these relationships that have taught me most about Divine Love. Divine Possibility and Divine Peace.

Today, as I tidy up the last of the details of my physical move to the next phase of my life in Jacksonville, I feel blessed beyond belief to be alive, healthy, loved, inspired and full of patient expectation for a rich and fruitful adventure. I look forward to sharing the journey and growing Divinely with you!