Creative Living
Inspired & Home from New York (Pics)
It’s been three days since my return from an eye-opening weekend in New York. The memories continue to replay in my mind…the chemistry I felt with the city, with the women who surrounded me, the impact of the stories and knowledge shared by each speaker, and the guards let down and tears shed by various women of the audience at Rich Happy & Hot LIVE.
My second day back home, I shed some tears of my own as I spoke to a dear friend by phone and began to express my deep gratitude for our friendship and their continued unconditional love and support in my efforts to express The Convivial Woman and grow in the comfort of my writer’s skin. When someone believes in you and just loves you for all that you are and all that you’re not (yet), what a powerful force you can be in the world!
I love telling stories by way of the eye, and you’d better believe I snapped a good number of moments while in The Big Apple. So have yourself a look-see at my photojournalism skills! There will be plenty of time to share words, but for now, let this visit to Convivial Society be a visual experience to enjoy. Let me know if anything grabs you by the heart!
Click on the album to view and experience New York with me all over again:
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A Rich Happy & Hot LIVE Experience in NYC
The weekend has come and gone! Rich Happy & Hot is over and officially another unforgettable, incomparable experience under my belt.
Here I am sitting at LaGuardia waiting to board my flight and I could talk excitedly about how amazing and inspiring Marie Forleo is, how she’s the real deal when it comes to a business woman showing up 100% as herself, how I met so many amazing and inspiring women with some impressive businesses in the making, etc etc…all true details, but honestly, my emotions are still processing everything in it’s entirety that I experienced this weekend.
Something big definitely happened
at Rich Happy & Hot LIVE, because whenever something major is happening within or around me, I get quiet. Yes, me- a writer, and occasional loquacious convivial woman, has no words to describe my feeling yet. Powerful, mind-blowing, phenomenal sound weak. So how about I just say (more…)
TweetMy New York Minute: Day 2
In no particular order, this is how my second day went…
Do you know about the country of Ossetia? I didn’t before tonight’s bicycle taxi ride from Times Square!
I’ve never had such pleasant conversation with someone while they pedaled and maneuvered their way around traffic on a bicycle. Alan the rider was from the small Eastern European country called Ossetia.
He expressed his gratitude for the Southern kindness I showed him by not accepting my tip. I wish him well in life and love.
Coming to a new country, learning a new language, and creating a new life from scratch is one helluva risk to take on yourself. Where would America be without all the immigrants, all the risk-takers?
I was walking through the East Village, (more…)
TweetMy New York Minute: Day 1.5
I’m awake thanks to a phone call from an old friend, Lola getting in touch with me. She lives here in NYC and we now have plans to dine and maybe dance this Saturday night.
Let me tell you Miss Lola’s dancer name should be Rita, because those hips and feet of hers are dangerous on the dance floor.
I know Lola from growing up in Chicago and I never forget a woman who can twirl the way she does! I can’t wait to see what moves she’s got now.
The convivial mama slept well, but before knocking out, I had a guy outside my hotel window pacing back and forth, screaming into his phone calling someone a hoe repeatedly. He was enraged and I thought, how sad…and how New York.
Last night at the Brass Monkey (more…)
TweetMy New York Minute: Day One
I’ve stopped to take a break in the Financial District to rest a bit and write.
So, I’ve finally made it to New York. It’s big, it’s sweet, and I’m definitely gonna take a bite outta this Big Apple.
Day 1
Took an early flight. As the plane’s engine was revving up for take off, I peered out the window to see the airplane’s wings and thought, “Let’s do this!” Then…I fell asleep.
When the captain announced it would soon be time to land, I felt the plane start to descend, so I decided to open up my window pane and just as I did, my eyes were greeted by the beauty of (more…)
TweetA Rich Happy & Hot November (Audio File)
Get me a ticket for an airplane! Ain’t got time to take a fast train…lonely days are gone…I’m a comin’ up!
I’ll be trekking all the way from Texas to the Big Apple to attend the Business and Lifestyle event, Rich Happy & Hot LIVE with Marie Forleo!
I didn’t win the contest but I’m still going to be part of this amazing event. To get more details on how I went from dreaming about being there to making it a reality, check out the following convivial audio file!
LISTEN HERE
Cheers to going for what you want!
XO Cheryl Chavarria XO
TweetWords of Wisdom from America’s Sweetheart
My boyfriend keeps telling me I’ve got to own things. So, first I bought this car. And then he told me I oughta get a house. ‘Why a house?’ ‘Well, you gotta have a place to park the car.’ -Julia Roberts.
OWN YOUR LIFE.
It belongs to you first. Then whoever you wish to share it with & however you want to live it…well, that’s still a choice you own.
Tweet
Self-Definition: Choose Your Mirrors Wisely
An excerpt taken from Walking In This World by Julia Cameron:
“All of us are creative. Some of us get the mirroring to know we are creative, but few of us get the mirroring to know how creative. What most of us get is the worried advice that if we are thinking about a life in the arts, we’d better plan to have “something to fall back on.” Would they tell us that if we expressed an interest in banking?
It could be argued that as people and as artists, we are what we are- however, we also become ourselves, all of ourselves, by having our largeness mirrored back to us.
I think of a scene from the Disney version of Cinderella, when the heroine sees herself in the dress for the first time and realizes she is a beauty…There is a magical “click” of recognition when the looking glass says back,
Yes, we are what we dream.
Too often we lack such mirrors and such transforming moments. No magic wand taps our life to make us into what we dream. Like Rumpelstiltskin, the artist most frequently has to name himself.
“I am an artist”- a filmmaker, a composer, a painter, a sculptor, an actor, or something {a convivial woman}- something the outer world has yet to acknowledge.”
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Rich Happy & Enough
Today I tested out a revolutionary idea…the idea that I am enough.
It all started with my desire to win a ticket to attend Marie Forleo’s Rich Happy & Hot LIVE. It’s a business and lifestyle event for women entrepreneurs being held at Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Center in New York City November 12 – 14th, 2010.
I checked out the information a couple weeks ago and thought, Uhh, heck yeah this is where I need to be! So I clicked for more details on registration and cost and was stopped in my tracks when I saw that it costs $1497 to attend! (my wallet’s hearing alarm sirens go off) It didn’t take me long to click out of that box…sadly!
I’d be willing to charge it to my credit card, but I’ve been a good girl lately by not spending frivolously, and this certainly wouldn’t be careless to spend on, because the way I see this is like education. I mean, how much did I spend in college on freaking calculus and I don’t use a damn thing of anything that I learned there. But I just can’t do it right now.
THEN, Marie sends me an email inviting me to come to New York for the weekend (more…)
TweetMy Shedventure to the Mexican town of San Miguel de Allende
I was graciously asked to be a guest writer by Bindu Wiles for The Shed Project, an 8-week adventure in letting go that she launched in early September. The project is about coming together as an online community, to support each other in letting go of excess baggage, of whatever is weighing you down. It could be your need to let go of material goods, negative thought patterns, a job, a lifestyle, etc. It’s still going on, so if you haven’t joined in, learn more here.
So, here’s my story about a time when I let go of all that was comfortable, of a life I was no longer happy living, and the details of the results yielded from taking a risk and following my heart’s desire…
Every act of creation starts with a feeling.
TweetThe Seed is Planted
Tomorrow, my guest post for The Shed Project will appear on Bindu Wiles site, as well as here, so I thought it would be ideal to share this photo I snapped of one of my journal inscriptions in 2004- the year I made the decision to pursue a feeling of bliss and let myself go where my heart led me.
The piece I am sharing for The Shed Project will elaborate MUCH MORE and share the full story with you, but I simply wanted you to see where the seed was planted. The story on Bindu’s site is the full-fledged blossoming of what happened when I let myself go…
Guest Post by One of My All-Time Favorite Friends
Is it time for you to go from What Happened? to What’s Next?
I’d like to share these words of wisdom one of my all-time best friends, Juan Carlos Bernal recently shared with me.
Carlos (as I know him) has been very encouraging and supportive of my efforts and message at Convivial Society and I couldn’t be more grateful to have someone like him in my corner.
It’s certain that neither him nor I ever imagined he’d be making an appearance here since my site targets women and he’s a MAN MAN, but his words struck me as being pretty powerful and I felt it would be selfish on my part to keep them all to myself. I’m sure we can all benefit from some tough talk and love every now and then, so with his permission, here they are…
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