SpaceClear Reflections

Setting Free the Stuff: Sara’s Transformation

Posted on02. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

I was inspired by this post, so I asked the author if I could share it with you all. Here’s Sara’s story of making friends with clutter and clearing:
Space Clearing, The Last Frontier
by Sara Beatty
No, I’m not talking about vacuuming up space litter (although that’s a terrific idea.) For me, this path started in [...]

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Loving Up the Gulf

Posted on15. Jun, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

As I see it, there are two ways to go about clearing the disturbing effects of a major ecological disaster:

Clearing from a place of fear, judgment, and blame.
Clearing from a place of deep compassion, gratitude, and love.

Which approach do you think might lead to a more successful outcome?
If it resonates you might consider this email [...]

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Love, Earth

Posted on22. Apr, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist with a beautiful, if quirky message. I subscribe to his daily cartoon blog: Gapingvoid.
Below is his message for today. Happy Earth Day everyone!
“Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanic Eruptions, She may not be happy right now, but she’s all we’ve got.
Let’s take care of her.”
–From Gapingvoid
Cartoon image: “Love Earth” by Hugh MacLeod, available for [...]

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Lost and Found in Letting Go

Posted on06. Apr, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“An organized clutter of thoughts consumed me – pulled me through the fog of grief that had settled….and then the memorial was done.  There was nothing left to organize, nothing left to do…” –Reflections from a reader
Recently I was invited to guest-blog for a week on DrGreene.com. As part of my series on “cultivating spacious detachment,” [...]

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A Clean House

Posted on09. Feb, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

How important is it to have a clean house? How do you juggle a demanding job and a family and still have the time for basic chores like cleaning? My sister Martha, a hospice nurse and mom to a possé of adorable dogs and cats weighs in:
I used to clean my house as a way [...]

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New Day, New Year, Anything is Possible

Posted on01. Jan, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

January 1. 2010. Ten minutes past midnight.
New Year’s Resolutions are not really my thing. My style is more like that of painter: broader brushstrokes, organic and impressionistic. I love to daydream; to imagine and feel down to my bones – in the BIGGEST way possible – what I most hope and desire. Here’s is [...]

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Ease

Posted on16. Dec, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

If ease does not come easily to you (and even if it does), you might appreciate this short piece by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. I discovered it in a free e-book compiled by Seth Godin called What Matters Now.
Enjoy.

Ease
“We are the strivingest people who have ever lived. We are ambitious, [...]

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Harvest Praise

Posted on20. Nov, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

The late fall colors may be more muted in tone right now, but the stark intensity of exposed branches takes my breath away. You gotta love a season that produces such a splendid array of  gnarly and stringy root vegetables! Some of them look downright creepy. Have you seen hairy celeriac? It’s insane!
I wrote a piece [...]

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Are You Feeling Heard?

Posted on13. Nov, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

If you want to press my button, just start zoning out while I’m bearing my soul. Or interrupt me with Call Waiting while I’m sharing the best part of my story.
This is not just a pet peeve that I’m disclosing. It hits at the core of something much deeper. Like my self-worth; the feeling of [...]

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Cultivating Simplicity

Posted on06. Nov, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Here’s something I don’t understand: Seeing a drainer full of dry dishes getting piled onto by a layer of wet ones because nobody bothers to put away the original set. Am I the only one who feels this way?
This is not about blame. I’m sure I have my own share of unconscious behaviors that drive [...]

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Gathering Our Self

Posted on27. Oct, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

I love the simplicity of venturing out every week to the local CSA farm where we get our produce.
Tromping through the fields to gather fresh flowers, pick raspberries (which never make it past the car ride home), feel the smooth, shiny skins of the chili peppers, allow the wafting scents of cilantro to transport me. [...]

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Reduce Inflammation, Feel Lighter

Posted on20. Oct, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

I don’t know about you, but one longing glance at a potato chip or a kiddie-size cone seems to automatically add a pound on my scale the next morning. It’s a bummer too. When I was younger I used to get away with murder. I could eat just about anything in any quantity and, save [...]

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Reinventing Ourselves: From Feeling Blue to Being New

Posted on09. Oct, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

The blues went away when I began to honor my long-postponed dream/desire/obsession with going back to school to finish an interrupted bachelor’s degree. Thirty some years later I enrolled in college [again], and simultaneously finished a two-year coaching program. Amongst the “doing” I came across ideas, concepts, traditions, and ground-breaking news in various fields that [...]

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Depressed, or Deep Rest?

Posted on06. Oct, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Thank you all who read and responded with your  stories, thoughts, and “spacious” wisdom to my last post: Ladies: Are You Feeling the Blues?
It’s been my vision to use this blog in part as a platform for us (women and men) to feel safe enough to tell our stories – sharing both the triumphs and [...]

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Minding the Chatter Clears Clutter

Posted on11. Sep, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“There is nothing either good nor bad,
but thinking makes it so.”
–Shakespeare, Hamlet
Have you ever stopped whatever you were doing to simply observe your thoughts? Yes, to do nothing else but watch the nonstop activity of the mind without doing anything to fix or change what’s going on in there?
If you took that experience and multiplied [...]

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Packing: How Much Stuff is Too Much?

Posted on01. Sep, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“I had no idea that lots of things housed in a tiny space could result in space feeling clear.”–sbv
I received an email query from a friend the other day, who, like me, is sending her daughter off to college for the first time. She was responding to these messages I posted on my Twitter and Facebook [...]

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To Laugh or To Cry

Posted on28. Aug, 2009 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Sometimes life delivers a perfect storm of disasters that are so bad they’re funny. It’s almost like the Universe is doing a koochie-koo to get us to take ourselves less seriously.
My latest comedy of errors was no tragedy in the greater scheme of things.
My husband and I were staying at a nice Bed and Breakfast, [...]

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