Hey Friends and Listeners!
We just got back from our travels in Montana on Friday where the evening temperatures were 24 degrees. We were in our “tour bus” (trailer) and had to drain the water so it would not freeze the pipes. Only to come home to nearly 100 degrees on Sat. and play in the baking sun for 2 hours at Art in the Park here in Boise! Wow! What a shift! Needless to say, we sweat our butts off! Summer is here one day then leaves the next, then it’s Fall then it’s Summer…welcome back to Idaho!
We had a terrific time in Big Sky Montana! What an epic place. So vast and big and beautiful! The people were amazing and I’m pretty sure we will have some block bookings locked in to play at the ski resort this winter! Yippie! I’m dreaming about snowboarding those slopes! While we were there we met with inspirational giants such as Mary Morrissey , Jean Houston, and Karen Drucker. We also had the chance to sing “Life is Beautiful” for 250 new listeners and be in a choir lead by the awesome Michael Gott and Karen Drucker. Wow! It was a life changing phenomenal event.
During one of Mary Morrissey’s talks, she asked us, “When was the last time you did something for the first time?” Well, it just so happens that there was a trampoline outside of the hotel with bungee cords on it. It’s the kind of thing they strap you into, the bungee bands get cinched into the harness and you start bouncing. Well, you bounce and get tossed like a sling shot up in the air! It feels like 20 feet that your body lifts off the ground from your weight and momentum on the trampoline! AMAZING! EXILLARATING and EXHAUSTING all at the same time! Talk about a workout! My lungs felt like they exploded and I swear it literally MOVED MY HEART! My heart is sitting in a different spot than it was before I got on that thing!
One bounce sent me high in the air and coming down was such a rush! Mo was a natural. She bounced around and trusted the “rubber bands”. Doing back flips and forward flips while cracking up. Me however, I was more reticent about the thrashing of my body up and down with gravity. First of all…I was not sure my bra would hold upha ha! I mean, let’s face it girls, that is something to consider! AND there a people watching you! It’s funny how Mo and I can roll reversal at any given moment. We even surprise ourselves! So we did it and had a ball. We both loved the back flips. My first flip was not so graceful. I made it harder than it had to be (hmmm…? No psycho-analysis there) and about landed on my face.
I DO have to say, that two days later, we hit it again…and: I was a champ! I was back flipping a lot! I got the hang of it and fear wasn’t operating me any longer. Hmmm…make the life parallel there will we?! The next day after our trampoline experience I decided to push the envelope and do the “GIANT SWING”. What is THAT you ask? Well, you climb up a 20ft. ladder while wearing a harness. The guy clicks you in to a 5 point system. You hold a rope, that keeps you from falling (WTH?!!) They machine crank you up, it feels like 40 ft. and THENget this…THEN…you are suppose to LET GO of the rope! WHAAAAATTT!!!!??? I got cranked to the top and almost cried! Ha! I literally had fear gripping the life out of me! Terrified to let go I’m looking down at tiny little Mo and the guide all shouting at me to “let go…let go” and I was seriously in a panic. I started to get embarrassed that I was such a wuss and in the middle of explaining it to them and myself I just let go. In the middle, as if to surprise myself, my fingers just let go of this piece of rope that was holding me 40 feet up!
And then…I screamed bloody Mary and swung nearly a football fields worth of distance. It was quite a rush. Wow, a bit of self torture, but freeing too! Ugh! It’s that, “not knowing what to expect” feeling. Wow! And I use to be a dare devil in my youth. I used to ride motorcycles and jump over things with them all the time. Wow! I have really gotten away from the risky thrill seeking activities. Whew! Mo, of course, “monkey Mo” let go with such ease and grace and trusted. Ha! She even hung upside down and let her hands go. I had NO idea I was such a control freak! I tease her about being a control freak from time to time. She likes to have a plan and be in the “know” and I can ride by the seat of my pants just fine…but hang me from high heights and I lose it! Ha! But I did it! I over came some fear there. I feared for my life that I was going to die some crazy death, but instead…I flew! And it was amazing!
Mo coming out of her beautiful back flip!!!
high in the sky, the rock behind me has nothing to do with the picture
Imagine what could happen if you JUST LET GO! Isn’t that the truth? I know you’ve heard this before, but if you KNEW you weren’t going to go SPLAT…what would you do? If you knew you couldn’t fail? We spent last week expanding our own minds at the Big Sky Retreat. I listened to some of the most magnificent speakers and hung out with some amazing, loving powerful women that I now call friends. But that little voice that “dared me” to go on the trampoline and giant swing sealed the deal. Everything the speakers talked about I put into practice by letting go of that rope, of letting go and bouncing to the stars!
Contemplating the drop from below
Mo getting cinched up
Since coming home, I’ve been on a cleaning spree. Old drawers are getting purged and I am ridding myself of old stuff. It feels wonderful and productive. I was also struck with a novel concept on Face Book. One of my friends posted something like, “Teachers and parents don’t teach our children that they must be extraordinary, instead teach them to find value in the ordinary”…that way their lives can be fulfilling no matter WHAT the circumstances are. I’m paraphrasing here, but this hit me because I think I’m from that generation that we simply believe, “we are not enough”, “we must DO more”. And I am making my way to re-invent myself as being enough and enjoying the ordinary, the “Simple Things”. And yes, my heart is definitely in a different, more centered place than it was before going to Montana!
I hope my words in this newsletter and our music we play can literally “move your heart” more to center and you grow and stretch and enjoy every blessed day you are here on Earth! Thanks for reading about our journey.
I will be posting our video of our “wild ride” on the trampoline and giant swing on our VIP page for those of you who are on it…AND those of you who would like to join…go here http://blazeandkelly.com/vip-corner/ and catch up on what you’ve been missing!
Much love and many thanks to you all!
Niccole & Mo
