Audacious Aliveness

“I study as if I am going to live to 120 and I live as if today is all I have.”

~Igo-sensei, elder Aikido Master, ikebana teacher (flower arranging), tea connoisseur

SNERDLE: to wrap up cozily beneath the covers and hold off the day for a little while longer, savoring warmth, comfort and the slow moments before stepping into the world.

What a perfect practice in Winter…to snerdle. My mind wants to take this all over the place like “let’s do some snerdling together”, “we have just snerdled and now are energized for the unfolding of the day”, “to snerdle is a meditation of self care” and so on…

It is from here we enter our day, though somewhat reluctantly at times, being offered the opportunity to return to who we really are….

…..which is who we were before we became afraid.

i had one of those moments the other day stepping outside from retrieving my mail at the post office and just before opening the car door, almost as an after thought, I looked up at the sky. Standing there in wonder feeling as if the sky, clouds and sun collaborated to create a unique art piece that literally took my breath away and drew me into the vortex.

Remembering that this snapshot of a moment will never be this way again. Even in the next moment as I gazed up it had changed configuration and the light and cloud formations shifted to other locations and shapes.

Weaverville, N. Carolina/January 2026/Photography by Gaye Abbott

This is our life too as we are in partnership and relationship with everything. Endless change and shifts, most beneath our radar but still continuous. Birth, death, re-creation, regeneration.

What language is the world using to teach us about how to navigate life without fear?

A book came into my life this week that speaks to “Kokoro” – heart mindfulness. Living from an intelligent heart and feeling mind. A bit of Japanese cultural wisdom to actively live within.

What I am also calling audacious aliveness – fearlessly free, courageous nourishment, embodied wildness, intimacy with nature, and at times daring to create our own language free of fear and anxiety, all while cultivating stillness even among great uncertainty.

The author of this book, Beth Kempton, shares this on living from Kokoro:

“To approach your day heart-mindfully is to walk with sensitivity to, and awareness of, the aliveness in everything around you, in the knowledge that nothing will last forever, and all will eventually fade. It is also to recognize the feelings that arise in you in response to the world, as you encounter it in every moment.” ~ Beth Kempton, from Kokoro, Japanese Wisdom for A Life Well Lived

What we say to ourselves and to each other is impactful in a myriad of ways. Words often define our lives in ways that can restrict and bind without our even being aware.

I have often found the definitions of words already in the English language disembodied (other languages having more feeling and layers to explore), and not particularly residing in heart mindfulness or mind feeling. They often feel sterile and without passion and life.

What would it be to step into a magical and creative world with words?

January New Year Practice (if you dare!)

Have you ever read a book and loved it so much you didn’t want it to end? I mention this here as this magical book speaks to the creation of a persons unique language. Perhaps it will instill in you a spark of interest to create at least one word of your own.

Here are some created words from, The Story She Left Behind, by Patti Callahan Henry:

Adorium: the kind of love that obliterates all sense and logic and has the world appearing just as it is – completely and utterly magical. This word is the knowing that all things are one and that we are connected to all things – the love that created you and the love from which we came and the love to which we shall someday return. The greatest love.

Enchantia: wild world experienced as bright birdsong on a windswept morning.

Arbormore: a tree that has a proper name but feels as if it is other worldly and should not be categorized. A tree that is portal to another world. A magical tree.

Talith: When the sky breaks open. Transformation that changes you into who you are meant to be, into your very essence.

Please leave a comment on this blog post if you create a word with a meaning and wish to share it. We would love to see it!

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The short video below is one I have watched at the beginning of every New Year for awhile now, to remind me that life is a gift and our moments are precious, especially as an elder.

Can you live as if this is the very first day of your life…and the very last?

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Gaye Abbott, Wildly Free Elder, 01/15/2026