24.12.10

happy merry

so many things to be thankful for this christmas eve. i am officially going to st lucia for my peace corps service. i look forward to finding out what organization i will be working with and what part of the island i will call home for the next two years. it has dawned upon me in the last few days that i will soon be saying good-bye to my friends and family for a while. certainly in a place so beautiful i will have enough visitors but there is no telling how long it will be until i see a familiar face again. it's at once incredibly exciting and kind of sad. i am grateful that i have spent my entire life moving around, seemingly in preparation for this part of my journey.

i am so grateful for the circle of support and love i have around me at this time in my life and could not be any more blessed or love than i am right now. i am grateful for the level of awareness i have and for the way the universe has supported and guided me. it's almost the beginning of a new year, and with it the beginning of an entirely new journey and new chapter. i look forward to spending as much of the next four weeks with friends and family as is possible before i take off to complete something i started 17 years ago.

18.12.10

validating inspiration to ignite my situation

the entire universe has conspired in my favor. i am going to the eastern caribbean for my peace corps service in a little more than a month. on january 28, 2011 i will be heading home. thank you universe for this vein of life i am about to tap into. i of course am going with a million ideas in my head of "ways in which" and am certain that once i get on island time i will settle a bit. as for right now i am working on five hours sleep and a head full of last night's dreams about the caribbean. i don't have specifics yet about which island i will call home for the next two years but i know my first stop will land me in st. lucia.

this entire experience has taught me something really valuable. be very conscientious about what you put out into the world, your wants, hopes, dreams, because the universe is paying attention and when it's time to deliver, it delivers big. every leg of this journey so far has been about patience and understanding. about employing the skills i try to teach on a daily level. be. here. now. what a perfect lesson to be showing up right before i head to a world where time exists of when it happens...that's when it was set to happen. i truly feel blessed to be chosen to step into such an incredible role and to live in a world that already feels so familiar to me.

for every time that i stumbled, thank you. for every time i failed, thank you. for every time i thought i can't, thank you. thank you for every single stumbling block and hurdle that made me who i am. i know those experiences and life lessons are going to come in quite handy over these next two years.

please, god, let me be an instrument of inspiration.

7.12.10

life

so the peace corps. i was chosen. i was chosen to serve. i was chosen to serve in another country based on my skills. i was chosen to serve in another country based on my skills and with the previous life i have lived. my entire life has existed so that this moment could happen. every twist, every turn, every choice that backfired in one hundred directions...they all existed so that i could be accepted to fulfill something that is so much bigger than i. i am being given the chance of a lifetime. to step into a world completely foreign to my own with the faith and trust of an entire group of people who don't even know me...with the expectation that i will be. that i will serve freely and connect deeply. i was chosen from an institution that i was once incarcerated by. if that is not some of the most profound shit you've ever seen or heard in your life then you might not be awake. or alive.
it's proof. i am living proof that if you listen, you trust, and you fulfill what you were here to do you will be seen, you will be tapped.

i have known without a shadow of a doubt, many moons ago, that i was here to serve. everything that i have done from a young age has been in the purpose of reaching out to and connecting with others. once i got out of the way of myself i started to see my truth. i started to breathe from my light. and that light has always tinted toward the special nature of me. whatever it is that i was supposed to do...whoever it is i was supposed to be has been lit in a way that has always guided me...even through the darkest nights. i have never in my life wanted something so deeply and gotten it. i have always wished...every wish that is given to me...for love. i never told anyone that because you aren't supposed to tell your wishes...and then right before the beginning of this year i found that love in a way and space i had never expected. open love. true love. one love. a love that lasts because it's eternal, universal, divine love. i went to school because i was good at it...because...what else would i do. i traveled because i was called to...because i was seeking. i got my masters because it was the next step. i applied to the peace corps because it's my essence. it's my soul's calling. service.

we look for validation around every corner. validation that we are loved. validation that we are seen. validation that we are heard. validation that we are beautiful, smart, talented. this validation...it's a validation of the universe. it's a validation of my soul's calling. and it's huge. this is the biggest thing i have ever longed for in my life and the universe has seen me. has entrusted in me the ability to step out into the world and connect with an entirely foreign culture and group of people with the faith that i can and will. and i believe this only comes from all of the side paths i chose along the way to get me here. i am living proof that you are not defined by the choices you make. that your life is always waiting for you to live it. that you are here for a purpose and no matter how many wrong turns you take, your life is always waiting for you to just turn that corner and see the light that has been lit...eternally.

i was chosen. i was chosen to serve. i was chosen because i chose to serve myself and in doing so learned the importance of sharing that wealth.

6.12.10

new moon, new beginnings

05-12-2010. new moon. new beginnings. spent the night with my girls getting rid of all the old that i no longer need to hold onto and making space for the new. 9 a.m. phone call with the peace corps recruiter for the youth development programs. 9.45 a.m. new beginning. i have officially been accepted into the peace corps.
no wait....maybe you didn't hear me...
i am a peace corps volunteer!!!! my letter is in the mail with my send off date and location. so now i wait a little longer but with the knowledge that i am in fact going. i have new letters to add to the end of my name.
sarah bert templeton. m.a., pcv. i like it. a lot.
the next two years are going to completely change my life. and it has already started.

2.12.10

2-12-2010

second day of the last month of this year. it's hard to believe it's gone by so quickly. to think of all the life changing and affirming situations and realizations that have occurred this year is almost overwhelming. all of the awarenesses, untapped resources, unknown depths. 29 more days until a new year begins. a new year of limitless possibilities. typically when something is close to the end i find myself looking back and thinking...wow...i wish i would have done this or that. i still haven't accomplished that thing. this year has been ripe. full of life and light and goodness and love. love in all forms and all ways. which is exactly what i set out to experience at the end of last year.

last year. december 30. i was sitting on a balcony overlooking laguna de apoyo in nicaragua. the moon was high in the sky and was igniting this foreign fire within me. something deep within. i remember sitting and thinking about new year's resolutions when i had this overwhelming sense of love. love as purpose. love as the direction for the upcoming year. typically...because i am a woman...this leads into romantic ideas of love. partnerships...marriage...families. this was different. this was love as an all encompassing experience. love as purity. love as truth. no boundaries. no definitions. no expectations. loving from that place of honesty and integrity. god love. the kind that fills your soul every minute of the day and is seen in everyone you come in contact with because simply being here is quite the miracle. and so it was.

a year of love. i hadn't really thought about this until i sat down at this moment to write but i have felt and been shown love in a myriad of forms throughout this year. i have softened and opened in new directions. i have seen the beauty in the most hideous of things and have found simplicity as the sole direction to living. love. all. ways. for the first time in my life i have handed my heart out unapologetically to nearly everyone i have come in contact with. i have mended the pieces that were tattered by ego or other's words. i have trusted on a level that i had never known before. i have divulged my deepest fears and wants and dreams to the most incredibly supportive and amazing group of women i have ever known. i have seen glimpses of my light and i have fallen in love with myself and my purpose here on earth. i have been directed by my deepest self. the one who keeps telling me to quiet down. listen more. be less aggressive. be softer. be. love.

in this year i have earned an M.A. in psychology. i have applied to the peace corps. i have finished an internship. i have reignited my love of massage. i have traveled to nicaragua. i have learned how to sail and sailed the british virgin islands with my girlfriends. i have gotten rid of nearly everything i once owned. i have celebrated mother's day, father's day, family birthday's with my entire family present. i have learned the significance and importance of patience. i have learned to trust. i have learned to hustle again in order to make things happen. i have opened my heart a million times without expectation or want of reward. and yet...

all i can think about is building on that sense of love. that unconditional positive regard as rogers would say. seeing all beings and creatures from their essence, their light. living from my essence, my light. there are 29 more days left in this year. 29 days to see, to think, to feel, to love. before this year is over i will have a new path, a new destination, a new direction. and i know without a doubt that course will be guided by pure, true, love.

all. ways.