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ACS is DBDC

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Dear Friends,

As many of you have realized over the last couple of weeks, I’m making the big move over to a new comprehensive site, called Diana Baur Dot Com.  The reasons are simple.  It’s there that I can house my entire on line world — from writing to coaching (yes!) to art to blogging.  My blog, in essence, is going to continue, but under the new name, because frankly, I need to be able to keep up with my activities in a way that makes both organizational and financial sense.

A Certain Simplicity has developed over 24 months into so much more than a blog about keeping things simple.

It’s funny.  This is the third major change I am making to my blog name.  I started out as At Home in Piemonte, moved to Creative Structures as the blog became more about my creative adventures and then finally, after life-altering change had hit me like a cement block coming from out of space, A Certain Simplicity emerged, giving voice to the part of my life that cried out for paring down to the essential.

It’s part of that process, paring down to the essential, that has me moving the blog to my main website.  The subject matter of the blog will continue to evolve as I receive your comments and questions.  Most of all, the blog will continue to be about change in all of its facets, from psychological to lifestyle, from emotional to spiritual, from professional to personal.  Art and beauty will abound, as it always has here, and because I live in Italy, I could never separate beauty and grace from the things that move me.

As my friend Michelle Fabio so eloquently wrote in this amazing blog post  , losing subscribers sometimes goes with the territory when you blog professionally.  But I hope you choose to be part of the new website, to speak to me through your comments.  I promise to work hard at giving you new sources of inspiration to help you integrate change and its consequences into your life.

For now, though, thank you, every one of you, for having accompanied me on this part of the journey.   I’ll be pulling this site down in September and invite you to join me at my new digs.

Diana

 

 

 

 

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your intuition and embracing your work

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What is your work?  Do you know? Of course you do.  It might seem like you don’t really know so much about it, or that you know exactly what it is and can’t get there,  or you might actually be doing your work and finding that it’s evolving and morphing into something different than you thought.  Whatever stage you’ve reached on your path, you are set to have a collision – a collision with who you really are and what you really want to be doing. If you don’t notice it, or don’t heed it, it’s because fear is getting in the way. Before you go throwing up walls and altering your course to make sure this doesn’t happen, hear me out. Fear and anxiety, even among the most intelligent and well developed people, often dress themselves as rationality and practicality.  Sometimes we won’t move forward if  there are a thousand rational reasons not to do so. There are bills to pay, children to be raise, parents to take care of.  Coming face to face with my true work means I’m an egotist.  I’d rather be selfless, living where I don’t want to live and bored at my job, convinced [...] Read more »

change: inertia and the power of baby steps

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“What in the world are you doing?” She stopped short at the door of my studio where I was covered from head to toe with glaze dust. This is a normal scenario for me. Whenever I’m looking my absolute worst, people get the most interested in what I’m making. She was a lawyer from California and been a guest at our inn before, but had somehow missed this glamorous step in the pottery production process. I swiped my hand on my sweatpants and beckoned her in.   She looked doubtful “I don’t know. I don’t think I belong in here.” Half-cough half-laugh. I assured her it was not sacred ground, only a creative disaster space. She looked at the jars of chemicals lined up on the shelf. Titanium dioxide. Zirconium. Kaolin. “Was it scary?” she asked. “Scary making the change and coming here?” I assured her it was scary as hell.  She thought about this.  ”So why did you do it if it pushed you back so hard?”  I could see wheels turning inside her head. I laughed.”Well, once you start checking in on exactly what it is that’s going to make you happy, and you make baby steps in that direction, you end [...] Read more »

Jonathan Fields, Dan Ariely, and the power of forced change

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Change can be something we manifest; it can also be something that is thrust upon us without a second’s notice, uprooting our entire life and forcing us to redefine how we take in our world from that point forward. If you’re tuned in to the subject of change, and all of the related outgrowths that change manifests, then you probably are familiar with the life work of Jonathan Fields. I’ve been a fan of Jonathan’s for, oh, just about forever, it seems.  He’s an attorney, entrepreneur, and in my mind, one of the change masters of our generation.  He invites people at to start thinking, at soul level, about embracing not only the process, but also the consequence of change, in ways that can change your attitude, your circumstance, and eventually your life.  I can only recommend you take a good look at his latest book Uncertainty to understand and learn from his thinking process. Jonathan has recently introduced a new project, The Good Life Project, where he conducts in-depth interviews with opinion makers, thought leaders, artists and entrepreneurs.  The first, with psychologist, professor and economist Dan Ariely, goes straight to the gut with this man’s unimaginable story:  having been burned [...] Read more »

my garden of acceptance

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A mini break! After our guests checked out yesterday, we fell into a long, early summer slumber that took us most of the afternoon to wake up from.  A strong breeze was in the crisp, dry air. I was too tired to think, to move, really.  All I could do was let the relaxation take over. But deep inside I’m on the move, just about bubbling over with new ideas.  After my nap yesterday I outlined two potential books that I want to write (this is why napping is so important.  Let that brain rest a little and then watch out!), staked eighteen tomato plants, and sat in a field of clover. Yes, a field of clover. I planted one in the spring and it’s beautiful and full. I sprinkled wildflower seeds all over it and now there are poppies and daisies and other things I can’t identify coming up all over the place.  It’s beautiful. Being out in that field with my camera made me realize that living without  nature is out of the question for me.  Wherever we’ve lived, we’ve always had a bit of outside space, whether it was a postage-stamp balcony with four basil plants or [...] Read more »

your beautiful sacred voice

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I have a sacred voice and so do you. One of my favorite things about the beautiful, peaceful place I live is that in the mornings, I can wake up, walk outside while the sun’s coming up, hear only birds singing, catch the dewy scent of the air and breath in.  The rest of humanity is busy elsewhere.  Here, it’s like a small paradise, one that fills me up as I stretch my arms up to the sky and release.  After that, I’m ready to walk to the kitchen and start kneading the bread dough and slicing fruit.  Those few peaceful moments in the morning, when I’m alone, set my state of balance for the day.  I listen to myself during those moments, what my body is telling me, if I’ll need to rest later on, if it might be a good day to write or make glazes or paint, or maybe handle the paperwork that tends to accumulate in a little basket next to my work table. I love the peace so much that I put a chair in my kitchen garden where I can sit for short periods during the day and renew my energy. I spent years, [...] Read more »

guidance: go f yourself

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Hello, my friends.  What’s growing in your garden this week? Italy is a stellar place to take on all kinds of personal development.  I notice that when people arrive here, they’ll dive into conversations about ten times deeper than the ones they might have elsewhere.  There’s something about here that helps people let go. It’s such a great thing to watch people let the worries of everyday life fall off their shoulders for a few days as they breathe in the air in the hills and let themselves relax, maybe for the first time in months, or even years.  It’s quite a lovely thing to be the facilitator of relaxation, and to be able to give people that space. I know that the sense of deep relaxation is something that comes from Italian energy, the Italian way of life. I once read that Italy is the land of old souls – that reincarnated souls come back here again and again to work in the vineyards, the connection with nature bringing the soul’s development further each time. Life led us here to do this kind of work for a reason. The longing for Italy and its beautiful energy is something we [...] Read more »

dive in

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  Life has so many opportunities that we can embrace.  They’re hidden behind our interactions with people, in our daily routines, waiting for us to take notice.  To notice opportunities, we have to be aware of their existence, and be ready to embrace them. Embracing opportunities also means embracing change.  And change is the thing about opportunities that can redefine us as people. Being in-between who you were and who you will become lies change.  Change that will move you, stretch you, ground you to a pulp at times but leave enough of you there that you will be resilient enough to pick up and keep going.  I’ve often thought of life change as having a backpack full of building blocks.  One day, you spill them out onto the floor and realize you don’t even recognize the pieces.  But then you decide to pick them up, one by one and put them back in the backpack…until they are all in there… but in a different order than when you started.   We are a confused, muddled, exquisite puzzle, and we’re left to our own devices to see exactly what it is we’re capable of. But we don’t truly know until [...] Read more »

your truth the ebook

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The most profound change you’ll ever make is the first step you consciously take in the direction of your soul.   The most important thing we can do for ourselves professionally, personally, emotionally, and psychologically is get clear on who we really are.  It’s only then that we have a base to start from.  When we get out of our own way and see ourselves for the amazing, brilliant, loving creatures we actually are, we can become the creative artists of our own lives.  We are the canvass.  And we determine the colors and textures and subject matter.   Risk… brings rewards.  Conflicts.  Change.  Unexpected results.  Risk tests us, draws us out of our set paradigms and forces us to see that we not only don’t have all the answers, but we might not even have an idea about the right questions.  The second we step into risk and decide to break our own mold, we hurl ourselves forward.   Trust… has to begin with ourselves.  We can’t even begin to trust anyone else until we grasp that we have ourselves before we have anyone else.  Trusting gut instincts, knowing intrinsically what right and good for us, and being able [...] Read more »

the ebook is coming, the ebook is coming….

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Remember a while back when I promised you that I would be working hard on an ebook for you to peruse before my published book hit Amazon?   Well, it’s almost here. I’ve just received the proof copy of the introduction and first two chapters which will be available as a free download here on my blog. When I first committed to writing this ebook, I had a clear vision of the direction I wanted it to take.  And like all works of art and passion, it’s changed, developed, morphed and grown in ways that I never imagined as I sat, those long winter months, and pounded out the first few chapters. This ebook is entitled Your Truth. And in order for me to reach my hand across cyberspace and offer you a nudge in the direction of finding your own truth, I need to do some digging on my own.   I found myself rereading the works of Malcom Gladwell, Pema Chodron, Brene Brown and so many more just to be able to cope with the ideas that I was discovering.  My reading and my writing led to moments of clarity and wonder that started to come through my [...] Read more »