2022 Tiny-little-practices-that-make-a-difference — On rushing, and what did Da Vinci mean anyway?

Are you finding yourself rushing through things?

When I was a young mother, and my daughter Jaime was in kindergarten she observed me rush around most mornings; making breakfast, making lunch, trying to get the girls dressed, myself ready for work, and all of us out the door on time. I can assure you it wasn’t a pretty scene — lots of zigging and zagging, frustrations being expressed, and there were those outfit changes (theirs as well as mine).

One day, Jaime piped up. Clearly and quietly said, “You know mom, I’ve been noticing that when you rush around like that it actually makes things take longer.” She had been watching carefully and she hadn’t missed a thing! In her five year old wisdom, she had found the right time to make this observation such that I could hear it, and now 35 years later I still hold the impression of that moment of truth. Out of the mouths of babes . . .

So when I sat down to write this blog post, I noticed that I had a bit of a rush going. The thought was that it should be done already. The feeling tone was in the anxiety realm: with all the uncertainty in the world, what can I offer that is of real use? And underneath the desire to be of use, was even the call to offer something brilliant! It was Friday afternoon, the sensations in my body were a slightly speedy jumpiness that had me out ahead of myself that wasn’t allowing me to focus. My brow was furrowed with trying to figure out what to write about. I was rushing in that way that Jaime noticed makes things take longer.

So, I paused and made use of a practice for unresourceful rushing when approaching tasks that I’ve developed recently for clients. My definition of unresourceful is: Being rendered incapable of using what is at hand wisely or efficiently. As the rushing started to dissipate, I realized that I could offer it as the first of the tiny little practices for 2022. So here goes.

Leonardo Da Vinci was on to something when he said, “Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.” But how do we use it well when it feels as if it is slipping away too fast? How do we use it well when our insides feel like a rushing river in rapids? And what the hell did Leonardo mean any way?

Here is a tiny little practice to develop quietude in the midst of activity which can give rise to a deeper efficiency — perhaps even experience a glimpse of what Leonardo meant. :)

There are a number of elements that contribute to to unresourceful rushing. When we get future oriented and then stir in a little anxiety (like the pressure to be brilliant) we come up and out of our center and the pace at which our body operates picks up. Driven by this future orientation the Friday afternoon neuro-chemical cocktail of cortisol and adrenaline shifted me into rush mode. This rendered me less able to resourcefully respond to the task at hand — Any chance I had at brilliance was disintegrating like wet tissue paper.

In general, when you are rushing you are operating up and out of most of your body. Think back and notice where your attention and energy is at those times. Chances are that it is floating at shoulder level or above and distinctly forward. Are you even aware of your spine or the back of your head? Can you feel the region of your heart, your butt on the chair?

You can attend to this high up and forward orientation simply by shifting your weight back and settling down into your body. To assist with this, place the palm of your hand on your belly and take a few breaths where you are elongating the out-breath. Elongating the out-breath while inviting your attention down towards your belly decreases the levels of cortisol and adrenaline, naturally settling your nervous system. It is a subtle yet remarkable shift that gives you access to more of yourself, to quietude.

Then return to the activity at hand. Start by giving the activity a specific amount of focused time and attention, say 15-30 minutes to start. Set a timer for that amount of time. Then place your hand on your belly and take a few breaths calling your attention in on the in-breath and settle down into your belly on the out-breath. Then imagine putting a set of blinders on and give the task your full attention until it is done or the timer has chimed, whichever comes first. If the task isn’t complete yet then evaluate and set the timer again. Continue until you have reached completion or the sense of rushing has dissipated and you are feeling resourcefully engaged in the process.

When we are rushing we are not able to find or forge a sense of engagement. Research in physics and philosophy is unveiling the truth that mystics like Leonardo have known for centuries, that time is a construct that is rather elastic. This practice can open up your sense of time, presence the gift that the mystery is offering up in the very moment, and allow for focus. Your relationship with time will shift when you engage in an activity from an inner quietude.

Here is a poem by Chelan Harkin to support this practice. I hope you enjoy both as you meet the gorgeous ruckus that is life on this beautiful planet.

The Flower

The flower
never had a to-do list,
not one day of her life.
She just pointed her whole self
toward light.
The rest
took care of itself.

Lyedie Geer

Putney Vermont

Spring 2022

Turning Toward Next in the Midst of All This Uncertainty . . .

December 2021

Turning Towards Next in the Midst of All This Uncertainty

The year is turning again now. As promised, I’m posting my annual reflection practice. This practice offers a way to fully embrace all that this darkening-before-the-light time of year has to offer. To engage this practice, carve out a protected chunk of time to be still and listen to the voice in you that arises when you put pen to the page. Be willing to peer into the uncertainty of these times as they are playing out in your life. I trust that this practice will illuminate or clarify what is next for you and give you purchase on your path to fulfillment. Please feel free to share it!

The idea here is to take some time to close up the year and begin to turn towards next year. Part 1, the practice of closing up — your day, week, month, year — gives rise to good beginnings. The practice of turning towards what is next (Part 2) by listening for your emerging future, gives a very different flavor to our usual New Year's Resolutions. As my wing women have described, this practice is both gentle and powerful — there is both grace and grit here.

This practice will acquaint you with your inner Wisdom Council, which is a most wonderful and effective way to experience and get access to the fundamental capacities of grace and grit. The Wisdom Council is an archetypal ever-present inner "committee" that is always with you, and as you will discover, we all have one!

So, do you already have a practice or ritual way to close up the year and open to what is next? If not, I highly recommend it. If so, you already know how wonderful and beneficial it is and you might want to try this.

Part One - Closing Up the Year

Download the Wisdom Council inquiry questions and then carve out a little uninterrupted time (+/- 30 minutes) to cozy up with a cup of tea to really take stock with the first part of this practice. Give it your full attention to facilitate closure to the year in a very remarkable way. Have your journal handy, or just some paper and a pencil will do. Free write into these questions by putting your pencil to the page and just write whatever comes up for a few minutes without lifting the pencil. Remind yourself that your responses are for your eyes only, unless you want to share with a trusted friend, companion, or spouse.

Part Two - Turning Towards the Next

Give yourself as much as a week, or as little as an hour, before picking up Part Two, wherein the Wisdom Council questions will have you look ahead with the clarity and compassion of the closure afforded you by of Part One.

Click here to download the questions in pdf format

Please feel free to be guided through the practice with the audio recordings below if you’d like.

(Be sure to Bookmark this page so that you can refer back to it easily later . . . )

Wisdom Council Reflection Questions - Part 1 (17 minutes)

Lyedie Geer

Wisdom Council Reflection Questions - Part 2 (23 minutes)

Lyedie Geer

Note: Wisdom Council inquiries are powerful stuff. Please let these questions, and your responses to them, penetrate your heart, mind, and will-to-act. Let them begin to do their work as the year turns and unfolds in the coming months.

I have found that the most resourceful decisions arise out of incubation in deep stillness. May you find some of that deep stillness as the year turns and may the year ahead astonish us with all its beauty, truth and goodness!

Warmly, Lyedie
December 2021
Putney, Vermont

May you grow still enough to hear the small noises earth makes in preparing for the long sleep of winter, so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within. 

May you grow still enough to hear the trickling of water seeping into the ground, so that your soul may be softened and healed, and guided in its flow.

May you grow still enough to hear the splintering of starlight in the winter sky and the roar at earth’s fiery core.

May you grow still enough to hear the stir of a single snowflake in the air, so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation. 

— Brother David Steindl-Rast

Photo credit: Elizabeth Ungerleider

Finding Beauty, Truth and Goodness in a Year of Grief

Good morning from my blue chair,

I’m writing to share an annual reflective writing practice again with you — Finding the Beauty, Truth and Goodness in the year.

Yesterday, the Gingko tree out in front of my office here in Putney was shining a brilliant yellow and this morning she shed all her leaves at once in a snow-like flurry. This is her autumnal habit, prompted by the first night that the temperature descends to precisely 29 degrees. My autumnal habit is to reflect back over the year as I collect the leaves from the ground. This has been a particularity exquisite year for me. Painful, beautiful, and heart opening, it has been both difficult and fulfilling. Just a few days after Thanksgiving 2020, my dear mum’s delicate heart gently gave up and she passed away peacefully. With a lot of good help and a measure of luck, we managed to care for her in her Florida home while navigating all the complexity of the pandemic. Today, I’m gently giving myself permission to relive her last weeks. Reliving the beauty, the hard truth, and the goodness of that time we had together tending to mum as she went out ahead of us.

For many, this has been a year full of loss. Working with grief is a capacity these times are calling forth in us. During these tumultuous times, loss is not only felt when we lose a loved one. Many of us are also grieving for a lost way of life, for relationships we thought we could depend on, and for the health of the planet, among other things. Dropping-in to the reflective writing practice I’m offering here may squeeze some necessary grief up onto the surface of your attention. If so, embrace it as best you can. Scroll down to the musings on grief that bubbled up for me, which I’m sharing in the hope it may be helpful somehow.

Here is the practice: Finding the Beauty, Truth and Goodness in the Year

Carve out some time to reflect on the last year in your journal. Pulling out your calendar to jog your memory might be helpful. Then I suggest just softening your gaze back over the past year and responding to the prompts below for each of the four seasons. The invitation here is to be responding to these six prompts four times, beginning with the winter a year ago. (Could take you as long as an hour or so to complete . . . . ) Significant milestones or intimate moments in your answers are all appropriate. I think you will find that specificity gives wonderful depth to the process.

For each of the seasons, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall:

Describe a time that you experienced beauty.
In what way(s) were you the cause of something beautiful?

In what way(s) was the truth revealed to you?
In what way(s) did you reveal or speak the truth?

In what way(s) were you on the receiving end of goodness?
In what way(s) were you the cause of goodness?

Upon completion, give yourself a little time to let your responses settle in you. I’ll be posting my annual year end practice in early December, which will give you an opportunity to look ahead and consider any reorientation, renewed commitments, or actions that all of this may inspire in you.

Enjoy this and all that you uncover as you put pen to page.

* * *

Selected Notes from my Beauty, Truth and Goodness journal writing session today:

This year, I have been learning to live without my mother here on the planet. That is the arc that stretches across my year long experience. Throughout this year I have been carrying a softness, a tenderness in the region of my heart that often wells up with a wavelike force and then subsides. Along with the tears that brimmed over in the grocery store aisles and at other surprising and inopportune times, a certain strength has emerged that perhaps I gained from having been with the truth of having witnessed her last breath. I don’t really know, though — the source of the strength remains a mystery to me.

This year I have been walking with grief and also joy. Held by the rhythms of life and the reliable embrace of gravity holding me onto this earth. Steadied by my work, good friends and family. Comforted by regular visits with the natural world. Cheered by the flurry of Gingko leaves.

Winter -

Beauty: Turning inward and tromping in the woods visiting old trees — oak, cherry, white pine, mulberry —

Goodness: Dear friends rallied around me with song and comfort food

Truth: Needing time alone - Daddy’s health faltered

Spring -

Beauty: Gloriously beautiful Sarasa chamber music concert at Brattleboro Music School in May

Goodness: Tentatively unfolding into reveling in the palest greens, spring breezes, and the company of loved ones. Spontaneous gifts left on my porch

Truth: That day I reminded myself that she isn’t there to answer the phone. Recognizing the need to pace myself

Summer -

Beauty: Feeling deeply filled up by being out on my paddle board on South Pond in the evenings

Goodness: Joy in spending time with my rowdy kindle of grandchildren — and then with a dear friend on the Vineyard for a few precious days

Truth: Feeling the impact of my family being so far flung - Portland OR, Colorado, Florida and Norway . . .

Fall -

Beauty: Returning to the hearth fire, collecting Ginkgo leaves

Goodness: Helping my dad travel for the first time in years. Remembering the last bowls of fruit my mother carefully prepared for us

Truth: This morning I spied an owl up in a now leafless tree at the edge of the field I walk past most mornings. Has it been there quietly all along? Onward we go . . .

Musings on grief:

How stunningly hard it is to live through grief. How deeply personal the experience is. How grief forges our hearts if we let it . . .

How grief is a many splendor ed thing — a direct result of love, a doorway to caring more about each other and this extraordinary planet that is our home.

How when I feel my grief, when it visits me and I can allow it to well up, my mother as well as my late sister, Katie, come in closer in some inexplicable way. So, too does the natural world I find myself so deeply connected to.

Grief comes in waves. With mum I watched it come towards me for years. With the sudden death of my sister Katie, almost forty years ago, it came in rogue form, — out of nowhere, quick and devastating. Now they are both part of the ebbing and flowing ocean that is my grief.

Feeling held by life allows me the courage to feel grief and to let it wash through me. For that I’m deeply grateful.

* * *

Sending strength to your heart as I complete this post. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

Warmly, Lyedie
November 11th 2021
Putney, VT

Photo credit: Leslie Williams

Tiny-little-practices-that-make-a difference — Celebrating completion . . .

In my last post I ended with a promise to myself, that once I completed the blog I was writing to you, I would celebrate by heading to the beach to build sandcastles with my grandchildren. Done, and what fun we had!! I also promised that next in the series of tiny-little-practices-that-make-a difference would be on celebrating completion, so here it is.

When was the last time you finished a task and danced a little jig? Do you pause to fully appreciate endings? Have you noticed how quickly you move on to the next thing? Perhaps, you are off to the next thing even before you’ve completed the one you are in? Lately I’ve been noticing that most of us, myself included, neglect celebrating.

Forewarning: Celebrating is both practical and glorious. Completing things takes focus and seriousness. Celebration requires releasing into at least a little bit of silliness. :)

Pausing to celebrate even the tiny accomplishments gives rise to being able to enjoy steering a sequence of tasks to completion, the essence of successful project management. All the project management systems in the world won’t help you if you can’t wrestle the small tasks to completion and then celebrate. But beyond that, there is the glorious sense of peace and fulfillment that comes with being able to celebrate completions.

So here is a tiny little mid-summer practice to develop your celebration muscle.

Step 1: For the purpose of developing this as a practice, pick one area in your life to celebrate completing an accomplishment more consciously. Keep it small and simple, something you do regularly.

You could use the one f-ing thing from the tiny-little practice I posted in June. Perhaps it is in the realm of chores at home, or tasks related to work. For example: Completing doing the dishes, weeding the garden, answering all your emails, closing the books on the day, completing a painting or drawing, posting that blog . . .

Step 2: Decide specifically what it is that signals completion.

Specificity is your friend with this step. For example: With the dishes it might be that the counters are clear and clean, in the garden it might be weeding a specific row or bed, with emails it might be that you have answered all the flagged messages or your inbox is empty, with closing the books it might be the act of stapling those slips together or making the deposit, a painting or drawing might be completed with the flourish of your signature.

Step 3: Then choose a way to exaggerate the feeling of being complete. This should feel a little grand and verge on being embarrassing to do at first!

• Raise your hands above your head and shout, “Yes!”

• Dance a little jig

• Play a tune from a playlist of upbeat music that you absolutely love

• Tell a trusted friend, “Hey, I got it done!”

Step 4: Then pause. Pause and let the good feeling of completion reverberate down through you heart center before you move on to the next thing. A few slightly deeper breaths will help to metabolize the value of your completion. This step is important, so don’t rush through it.

Step 5: Once you have allowed for a true pause, move on while taking note of how this tiny practice contributes to enjoying a more substantial sense of self. My clients have found that it also contributes to getting stuff done . . .

Let me know how it goes if you are so inclined!

Now it is time for me to dance a little jig right here in my office . . . :)

Tiny-little-practices-that-make-a-difference — Choosing and then doing the one f*cking thing . . .

Here is a practice to develop your grit. I love this practice for getting engaged in what is meaningful, reducing brain fog, and wrestling effectively with the tyranny-of-the-lists. Choose the one fucking thing . . . and then hold yourself accountable to doing that thing—earlier is better than later. 

Yes, I’m swearing here to call in your warrior aspect. I revel in the way using this word can unleash a spurt of empowering anger, as long as it is not overused in our everyday language. (I used to say to my kids when they would start to sling swear words around willy-nilly, “Save the swear words for when you need the emphasis.”) The sword-like quality of good clean anger is a great ally when being decisive and getting things done is called for.

While sipping your morning coffee or tea, scan out across all the ways that your life is calling to you and then ask yourself, “If all else takes over and my day gets away from me, What is the one fucking thing I’m going to do today?” 

Criteria for determining your one fucking thing:

First and foremost — Make it small and doable. For the purposes of this practice, don’t choose a whole fucking project. Then fulfill two of the criteria below:

It falls into the important but not necessarily urgent category

It furthers something you care deeply about

Accomplishing it will give your spirits a lift

It will make things better later

Perhaps you have been avoiding it and therefore it is weighing you down

It is fun and you aren’t allowing it for yourself

A great addition to this practice is to find a trusted friend who will gently or fervently ask you, “What is your one fucking thing today?” This also makes it more fun!

If you are living under the tyranny-of-the-lists, and you’re up for a radical move, try tucking your list away for a few days or a week, and just focus on the one fucking thing. Once you get the hang of identifying your one fucking thing, you will most likely find that it has an almost magical quality. In systems theory it is referred to as a strange attractor, it generates engagement and a flow that will allow you to intuitively accomplish what you are using those lists to manage. Three things to do today and then the one fucking thing, is the task management system that has allowed me to enjoy being an entrepreneur, after years of living and working less successfully under the tyranny-of-the-lists.

My one fucking thing for today is to get this blog post completed. I plan to celebrate this accomplishment by taking my four fabulous grandchildren to build sandcastles at the beach. 

Oh and the next tiny little practice is celebration . . .

Wolf and Woman
- Nikita Gill

Some days
I am more wolf than woman
And I am still learning
how to stop apologizing
For my wild

Tiny-little-practices-that-make-a-difference — Fostering . . .

Here is the second in a series of tiny-little-practices-that-make-a-difference.

Now that things are opening up, what is it that you want to foster?

To Foster: Derived from the old English verb fōstrian meaning to nourish, the current dictionary definition reads: To promote the growth or development of; to further encourage and affirm.

Transitioning into a new normal is an opportunity to be conscious about where we put our attention and energy. Fostering is a remarkably powerful human activity that we invest wisely, or otherwise, depending on how intentional we are. Fostering is at the heart of mentoring, teaching, parenting, creative endeavors, and any good leadership. (There are times that we might catch ourselves fostering a negativity in our lives that is giving rise to hardship and struggle . . .)

Here are some reflection questions to consider:

What is it that you are fostering these days? 

To what do I give encouragement through my actions?

To whom do I give encouragement and affirmation? 

Looking over your responses to these last two questions . . .

How in alignment with my deepest longings is my fostering activity?

Are there any energy leaks or distractions I feel the need to address?

Are there any shifts or changes I would like to make in my fostering activities? 

Daily questions to carry forward:

What would I like to foster or encourage today? What simple action might this require?

Who needs my affirmation and encouragement? In what way can I offer it?

Where can I go for the affirmation and encouragement I need to stay connected to the golden threads in the tapestry of my life? 

And here is a poem that I hope will offer encouragement as you pick up this tiny little practice . . .

It Is I Who Must Begin
- Václav Havel

It is I who must begin.
Once I begin, once I try —
here and now,
right where I am,
not excusing myself
by saying things
would be easier elsewhere,
without grand speeches and
ostentatious gestures,
but all the more persistently
— to live in harmony
with the "voice of Being," as I
understand it within myself
— as soon as I begin that,
I suddenly discover,
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one,
nor the first,
nor the most important one
to have set out
upon that road.

Whether all is really lost
or not depends entirely on
whether or not I am lost.

Tiny-little-practices-that-make-a-difference — Greeting the day . . .

Here is the first in a series of tiny-little-practices-that-make-a-difference.

The liminal space between sleep and waking is a fertile place for writers and artists, anyone engaged in creative endeavors, really. Here is a way to attend to the awakening you experience every day . . .

Pay close attention to the moment you become aware that you are coming awake. 

What is coming through from the dream time into the waking time? 

What sensations do you feel as you pick up your body? 

As the particulars of life come tumbling in, how are you feeling? 

How much of a ‘yes’ can you greet the day with this morning? 

Before you make that first big move of the day, before you put your feet on the floor and rise up out of bed. . . Place your hands gently on either side of your very own face. Tune into the miracle of touch as your fingers make contact with your cheeks. Holding your face in your hands as if you were an infant, whisper to yourself, “Good morning, glory.”

Note: If by chance there is a loved one beside you, turning to them and repeating some version of this gesture is a lovely addition to the practice. Finding your children, and adjusting the practice for age appropriateness is a great way to remind yourself and them of their glory. My experience is you that cannot avoid being an embarrassment to teenagers, but their take on direct gestures of appreciation will evolve over time . . .

And finally, here is a poem some dear friends shared with me the other day.

LIGHT
~ Bernadette Miller

I want to write of the light
but I do not know
whether words can illuminate
the way it hangs
upon branches and bird wings
and broken things
returning beings to beauty.
Can words spin substance
from sunshine and decay?
Can words cajole
celebration from night-weary
birds?
Can words warm surfaces
of stones and sorrows?
Can words reveal richness
in mundane
and battered
things?
I do not know.
But if we would write
a tomorrow
which is wider than wounds
we have worn,
we might wield words
like benedictions
and remember
blessings
within brokenness,
beginnings
within endings,
and beauty
within all things.

Celery juice, egg white facials and managing too-muchness, even when it is a good thing . . .

March 2021

On this morning in early March, I got my car thoroughly stuck in the mud and managed to keep my sense of humor. I sat there enjoying the sun’s warmth — the mud-lusciousness it calls forth from the ground and the melting in my body, mind, spirit while waiting for the tow truck.

I just completed a 4-day intensive Zoom gathering with my coaching colleagues from many corners of the planet. It was inspiring and wonderful, and a bit of a gusher! We delved into ways to work effectively with the collective trauma that is part of our human inheritance at this time in history with Thomas Hübl. We explored the personal and collective grief that is arising in the face of the pandemic and climate change with Philip Shepherd. Building resilience and agility individually and collectively with Peter Moreno. Making decisions and crafting interventions in everyday family and work life through retraining our body-minds to work collaboratively by attuning to the patterns in nature with Nora Bateson. How indigenous ways of sensing can support our knowledge of systems theory with Tyson Yunkaporta. Finally, with Beena Sharma, Gregory Thomas and a little help from Wynton Marsalis we explored the polarity of innovation / preservation and the parallels between the workings of our democracy and a jazz band. So much learning, connection, new uses of technology, new ideas . . . As you might imagine, my brain is full along with a serious case of Zoom fatigue!

Despite the hour I lost with wheels spinning in the mud, this day offered me a patch of time to breathe a little deeper, rest and putter. I’m finding sweet relief in being held by the container of home as I integrate all that is becoming relevant and practical from that gathering. This morning I’m finding comfort in my silverware drawer. I’m getting a boost from the daffodils on the windowsill above my kitchen sink. 

With the spaciousness of this morning, I turned to a self care / beauty practice that I naturally take up this time of year when I can. So I thought I’d share:

First, I put together a refreshing and cleansing spring smoothie:
-1 cup of sap from a maple tree (Fresh water or chilled green tea will suffice)
- 3 stalks of organic celery
- ½ an apple
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
All spizzed up in a blender or Nutri-Bullet.

Next, I painted my face and my wrinkly neck with this whisked mixture: 
- 1 egg white
- ½ teaspoon of white vinegar
- ½ teaspoon water

Then, I wandered around the house sipping the celery apple juice until the egg whites have gone brittle and cracked all across my skin— revealing what I will probably look like when I’m 90, if I have the privilege of getting that far! Jumping into the shower and washing off the dried-up albumin, my skin feels new. I am hatched! Onward I go into the glory of the day. 

Now it is the afternoon, and as I write this blog, my heart longs for you to have the luxury of the few hours required to play in a practice like this. . . . Or for you to make it possible for someone who is swimming in too-muchness and who would find pleasure and nourishment from it. It works wonders for integrating new learnings and gathering your forces in general.

My guiding star intention is to distill all this new knowledge into wonderfully effective practices for my clients in the coming months.

Warmly yours, 

Lyedie

Please note: Remember to make breakfast, make love, and make trouble on behalf of beauty, truth and goodness!

Oh and finally — In memory of my mom, I’d like to share one of her favorite poems. She recited it to us often when we were children. It is at its best when read aloud, so I made you a little recording.

[in Just-] by e.e. cummings

in Just-

spring      when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles      far      and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far      and         wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan      whistles

far

and

wee

By e.e. cummings

Reaching deep to find our very human strength

Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness. — Anne Frank

Winter Solstice 2020

This tumultuous year has called us all to recognize how closely connected we are. This tiny little virus whose unruly glitter-like nature is illuminating how every decision we make has an impact on others. The default position of, “Everyone has to make their own decisions,” has fallen rather flat since round about March 10th. Politics just cannot be ignored. Mother Nature may be preparing to shrug us all off the planet for our lack of reverence and reciprocity.

In my personal life I have experienced missing my loved ones oh so deeply — my family is far flung and for the most part we have refrained from travel. Yet in the first week of November, I took exception to my practice of staying put, and I traveled to Florida to help care for my mother who had been living with a very weak heart for over a decade. In the wee hours of November 30th my dear mom left this life and crossed over into the great beyond. Being there with her was beautiful, sad, and hard. Now my family moves on into living here on the planet without her gracious presence. I’m feeling appropriately wobbly as I turn towards the light in accord with the cycles of life and the celestial cycles while allowing for all the mysteries that grief provides.

And along with the wobbliness is a sense of awe at what life gives us with each breath. So, in the spirit of full participation in life on this beautiful orb that spins in space, I just want to encourage you to pause to celebrate and to register this tiny unmistakable turning that occurs at this auspicious time. This year we also have the magnificent alignment of Jupiter and Saturn to further astonish our psyches. Civilizations have built monuments to capture and magnify this annual momentous occasion. (The Passage Tomb at New Grange in Ireland, The Karnak Temple at Luxor, Egypt, The Standing Stones of Stonehenge, to name a few.) But, if we sharpen our attention, we can attune to this moment with our very selves as instrument.

Here is what I’m learning to look for as I attune to the great turning and to register it in my self as instrument:

• A subtle but remarkable lightening of my spirit

• An increase in energy

• A lift in my feeling state

• A softening in the regions of my heart

• A tiny beam of inspiration

• A trickle of forgiveness

• A clear yes, or a clear no

Catch this moment while it is here. It is as subtle as finding the bottom or the top of your breath. Easy to miss in the midst of the shit show of these times.

Join with the natural world in whatever way you can and let it help you to reach deep into your very human strength. Take heart from the resilience of an oak, soften into the flow of a river, lean into the dependability of the rising and setting sun . . .

Thank you for taking the time to read this. May your holiday include a pause that renews your faith in life itself.

Warmly, Lyedie
December 22nd 2020

And a poem . . .

Let the Darkness be a Bell Tower

Listen
Quiet friend who has come so far,

feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.

And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.

by Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Joanna Macy

(My thanks to my friend Ines Zeller Bass for sharing Anne Frank’s words with me)

Wherever you are on this beautiful planet . . .

December 21, 2019

Perhaps, like me, you have been in semi-hibernation these last few weeks — scurrying home as early as you possibly can to slip into your jammies to read or watch Netflix. I’ve been surrendering to this impulse, as I find when I do that it doesn’t translate as feeling down or depressed. I do long for those summer evenings when I’m out on my paddle-board until well after nine. They seem so far away and unimaginable to me now, with the sun setting at 4:18 and the darkness bearing down on the day.

So, in the spirit of full participation in life on this beautiful orb that spins in space, I invite you to pause to celebrate and to register this tiny but unmistakable turning into increased light that occurs on this auspicious day.  Civilizations have built monuments to capture and magnify this annual momentous occasion. (The Passage Tomb at New Grange in Ireland, The Karnak Temple at Luxor, Egypt, The Standing Stones of  Stonehenge, to name a few) But, if we sharpen our attention, we can attune to this moment with our very selves as instrument.  

Farmers’ Almanac, “Winter Solstice 2019: When Is It, And What Is It?”

The exact timing depends on where you stand on this magnificent planet. According to the Farmers’ Almanac, 11:19 PM here on the east coast of the US is the moment in clock time.  It is great to know the exact timing, but you may feel it it any point in the next few days. 

Working with the cycles of life is an important element of finding and forging fulfillment, rather than settling for success. Here is what I’m learning to look for as I attune to the great turning and to register it in my self as instrument: 

A subtle but remarkable lightening of my spirit
An increase in energy
A lift in my feeling state
A softening in the regions of my heart
A tiny beam of inspiration
A trickle of forgiveness 
A clear yes, or a clear no 

Join with the natural world and catch this moment while it is here. It is as subtle as finding the bottom or the top of your breath. And it is easy to miss in all the hubbub . . . 

I hope that you have fun with this, and may your holiday include a pause that renews your faith in life itself. 

Warmly, Lyedie

Putney, Vermont

Faith

I want to write about faith,
about the way the moon rises
over cold snow, night after night,

faithful even as it fades from fullness,
slowly becoming that last curving and impossible
sliver of light before the final darkness.

But I have no faith myself
I refuse it even the smallest entry.

Let this then, my small poem,
like a new moon, slender and barely open,
be the first prayer that opens me to faith.

By David Whyte
From Where Many Rivers Meet

Turning Toward Next in the Midst of all this Tumult

December 2019

The year is turning again now. As promised, I’m posting my annual reflection practice to assist you with fully embracing all that this darkening-before-the-light time of year has to offer. I’ve been developing this practice for a number of years now and last year was the first year that I shared it far and wide. In the last twelve months, a number of people have stopped me in the street and in the grocery store to thank me for sharing it. I have to admit, I had to expand my “receiving muscle” to take it in and I’m so grateful for these precious moments of appreciation and validation. So, I trust that you will enjoy this practice and that it will give you purchase on your path to fulfillment. Please feel free to share it!

The idea here is to take some time to close up the year and begin to turn towards next year. Part 1, the practice of closing up — your day, week, month, year — gives rise to good beginnings. The practice of turning towards what is next (Part 2) by listening for your emerging future, gives a very different flavor to our usual New Year's Resolutions. As my wing women have described, this practice is both gentle and powerful — there is both grace and grit here.

Wisdom Council / Your Inner Committee

This practice will acquaint you with your inner Wisdom Council, which is a most wonderful and effective way to experience and get access to the fundamental capacities of grace and grit. The Wisdom Council is an archetypal ever-present inner "committee" that is always with you, and as you will discover, we all have one!

So, do you already have a practice or ritual way to close up the year and open to what is next? If not, I highly recommend it. If so, you already know how wonderful and beneficial it is and you might want to try this.

Part One - Closing Up the Year

Download the Wisdom Council inquiry questions and then carve out a little uninterrupted time (+/- 30 minutes) to cozy up with a cup of tea to really take stock with the first part of this practice. Give it your full attention to facilitate closure to the year in a very remarkable way. Have your journal handy, or just some paper and a pencil will do. Free write into these questions by putting your pencil to the page and just write whatever comes up for a few minutes without lifting the pencil. Remind yourself that your responses are for your eyes only, unless you want to share with a trusted friend, companion, or spouse.

Part Two - Turning Towards the Next

Give yourself as much as a week, or as little as an hour, before picking up Part Two, wherein the Wisdom Council questions will have you look ahead with the clarity and compassion of the closure afforded you by of Part One.

Click here to download the questions in pdf format

Please feel free to be guided through the practice with the audio recordings below if you’d like.

(Be sure to Bookmark this page so that you can refer back to it easily later . . . )

Guided Wisdom Council Reflection Questions-Part 1 (17 minutes)

Lyedie Geer

Guided Wisdom Council Reflection Questions - Part 2 (23 minutes)

Lyedie Geer

Note: Wisdom Council inquiries are powerful stuff. Please let these questions, and your responses to them, penetrate your heart, mind, and will-to-act. Let them begin to do their work as the year turns and unfolds in the coming months.

No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. - Epictetus

May the year ahead astonish us with all its beauty, truth and goodness!

Warmly, Lyedie
Putney, Vermont

Where was the Beauty, Truth and Goodness in 2019?

Good morning from my blue chair,

I’ve been scanning back over the year in recent days with my practice development hat on. Yesterday I dropped in to an approach to reflecting on the year 2019 through the lenses of beauty, truth and goodness. I found that writing my way into the questions below shone light on this year for me. So, I’m sharing it here in the hope that it will contribute to the waking up and growing up that we all need to do in these wonderful and terrifyingly tumultuous times.

Carve out some time to reflect on the year 2019. Pull out your calendar to jog your memory if need be. Respond to the prompts below for each month in your journal. So, you will be responding to 6 prompts for each month. (Could take you as long as an hour or so to complete . . . . ) Grandness or intimacy in your answers are all appropriate. I think you will find that specificity gives wonderful depth to the process.

In the month of_________: (You could also take it season by season . . . . )

In what way(s) were you the cause of something beautiful?

Describe a time that you experienced beauty?

In what way(s) did you reveal or speak the truth?

In what way(s) was the truth revealed to you?

In what way(s) were you the cause of goodness?

In what way(s) were you on the receiving end of goodness?

Upon completion, give yourself a little time to let your responses settle. The year end practice I’ll be posting in early December will give you an opportunity to consider any action that all of this may inspire in you.

I hope and trust that you will have as much fun with this one as I have!

Warmly, Lyedie
November, 2019
Putney, VT

Photo credit: Leslie Williams

So . . . How do we do this? How do we keep up the good work?

So . . . How do we do this? How do we keep up the good work?

Out in the middle of South Pond last week, I was paddling with my dear friend, Helaine, and I found myself saying, I know I’m not alone in this — I just find I need to say it out loud; I’m feeling the uncertainty of these times and the warming of the planet in my very being so deeply . . . It is taking effort to keep my heart open and my energy up and resourceful. Helaine listened and concurred. Helaine is a good listener.

The pair of Loons that I’ve been communing with in the last few months were swimming nearby, and just then the one chick they have been fiercely protecting all summer dove below the surface of the water. I’ve been observing this little one — first riding on her parents’ back with her two siblings, then swimming alongside them solo, and now we saw that she had just learned to dive into the deep!

Often these days my heart feels as if it is dropping out of my chest (Do you know what I mean?) and then something I love, something pin feathered and brave, brings support back up under my breast bone once again. The practices in the Daily Activists’ Log are some of what helps me to keep showing up enough to be out there communing with the loons, while staying engaged with what the world seems to need from me now.

I’m also hearing words from people like Toni Morrison, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, and Martin Shaw that call me into my staying power.

If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then you need to empower somebody else. Toni Morrison

* * *

My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times . . . Clarissa Pinkola Estes

* * *

The nightworld is where we are. I say it. I say it till we may hear it.
And in that darkness, we remember what we love the most.
That itself is the candle. Martin Shaw

So on behalf finding the candle by remembering what we love the most, the Daily Activist’s Log, which I first published in 2016, is my mid-summer offering. May it support you to make your contribution and to keeping up your resolve in these tumultuous times. Love, after all, is a verb.

Click here to access the original post and to download the Daily Activists’ Log.

Warmly, Lyedie

Final note: Remember to keep making breakfast, making love, and making some trouble on behalf of beauty truth and goodness . . .

Attuning to the Gorgeous Ruckus of Summer

Mary Oliver’s last book, Upstream, is here at the top of the pile by my Blue Chair. Have you read it yet? I’m inspired by the declaration that she placed carefully on Page 8, “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” That placement was clearly very intentional on Mary’s part, so I sat up and took notice when I read it. I’ve thought a lot about attention over the years, and I feel the intensity of her writerly gaze leap up from the page there, for I have never thought of attention as devotion before. So holding the idea that attention is the beginning of devotion, I turned towards what has captured my attention of late. Summer, in all its warmth and glory has expanded my heart. The cycles inherent in life have been on my mind. I’m starting to see clearly that our very well-being is dependent on our developing effective ways to attune-to and work-actively-with the cyclical nature of the gorgeous raucous. Yes, and attuning is a sensitive activity. It is a series of often small, responsive moves that generate a life enhancing coherence. I dare say, it is the feminine in devoted action.

Summer is the fullest expression of the gorgeous ruckus. Especially, here at the 45th Parallel North, we look forward to it all year and — just like with lottery winnings or rainbow money — we spend it many times over in our imaginations. The abundant apex of daylight hours that nature tenders to us all on the Summer Solstice (15 hours and 37 minutes) has a demanding invitation in it. “Grab hold of this! Enjoy this! Use it well!” The natural world splendidly orients toward responding to this invitation. In the clock-time trance of our linear calendars, the comfort of climate controlled four walls, and the tyranny of our checklists; we humans leave a lot of that warmth and sunshine out of consideration. This constitutes is a lack of attunement.

So as you hone your summer plans here a few questions to devote some attention to if you would like to attune to the gorgeous ruckus:

• Is there a seed-longing that I’m harboring that requires the warmth and sunshine of summer?

• Is there an opportunity I’d like to seize?

• Is there a new rhythm, ritual, or routine that I’d like to put in place with the buoyancy that summer affords?

• Is there a “cat” I’d like to be sure hang out with in the sun?

• What did I most enjoy about summer as a child, and how might I dip back into those experiences somehow this summer?

• When the autumnal equinox rolls around — when the daylight hours have waned back to 12 hours and 7 minutes and the air has gone crisp — what might I regret about how I spent the summer that could be attended to now with a little planning and intentionality?

Looking back over my responses to the questions above , in what way can I attune my plans for the coming months to the invitation of summer?

The summer invites us to slow down and to seize the day all at once. It requires holding the exquisite polarity of claiming life and releasing our grip on it.

Devote yourself to splendid. You might find it will require being fierce about freeing your attention from the linear trance to whatever degree you can. In the gorgeous raucous splendid is splendid, however small or grand.

Please be brave enough to tune in to your deepest longings . . . And remember to make breakfast. Make love. Make some trouble on behalf of beauty, truth, and goodness.

And thank you for the precious attention you gave to reading this post! Lyedie

Turning Toward Next With Grace and Grit

The year is turning now. As promised, I added the second part of a two part reflection practice to assist you with fully embracing all that this darkening-before-the-light has to offer.

The idea here is to take some time to close up what for many of us has been a crazy year, and begin to turn towards next year with grace and grit. The practice of closing up — your day, week, month, year — gives rise to good beginnings. The practice of turning towards what is next by listening for your emerging future gives a very different flavor to our usual New Year's Resolutions. I’m confident that you will love this practice as much as I do. My wing women describe it as both gentle and powerful — there is both grace and grit here.

May the year ahead astonish us all with its beauty, truth, and goodness.

This practice will acquaint you with your inner Wisdom Council, which is a most wonderful and effective way to experience and get access to the fundamental capacities of grace and grit. The Wisdom Council is an archetypal ever-present inner "committee" that is always with you, and as you will discover when you engage these practices I’m sharing with you today, we all have one! (I can feel myself squirm a bit as I write these words for fear of sounding too woo woo, but please bear with me. What I’m offering here is a kick ass form of woo woo, and I don’t want you to miss out on account of that little niggledy voice of judgement in me.)

So, do you already have a practice or ritual way to close up the year and open to what is next? If not, I highly recommend it. If so, you already know how wonderful and beneficial it is, and you might want to try this.

Part One - Closing Up the Year

Download the Wisdom Council inquiry questions and then carve out a little uninterrupted time (+/- 30 minutes) to cozy up with a cup of tea to really take stock with the first part of this practice. Give it your full attention to facilitate closure to the year in a very remarkable way. Have your journal handy, or just some paper and a pencil will do. Free write into these questions by putting your pencil to the page and just write whatever comes up for a few minutes without lifting the pencil. Remind yourself that your responses are for your eyes only, unless you want to share with a trusted friend, companion, or spouse.

Part Two - Turning Towards the Next

Give yourself as much as a week, or as little as an hour, before picking up Part Two, wherein the Wisdom Council questions will have you look ahead with the clarity and compassion of the closure afforded you by of Part One.

Click here to download the questions in pdf format

Please feel free to be guided through the practice with the audio recordings below if you’d like.

(Be sure to Bookmark this page so that you can refer back to it easily later . . .)

Guided Wisdom Council Reflection Questions-Part 1 (17 minutes)

Lyedie Geer

Guided Wisdom Council Reflection Questions - Part 2 (23 minutes)

Lyedie Geer

Note: Wisdom Council inquiries are powerful stuff. Please let these questions, and your responses to them, penetrate your heart, mind, and will-to-act. Let them begin to do their work as the year turns and unfolds in the coming months.

No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. - Epictetus

May the year ahead astonish us with all its beauty, truth and goodness!

Warmly, Lyedie
Putney, Vermont

Have you found the potent magic of mid-life?

Here is a 90-second audio recording, where I talk about the health, radiance, and vitality that is available to women in our mid-century years.

Lyedie on answering the call of mid-life

If this sparks your interest, click here to learn more.

Starting your day with a potent pause . . .

It's up!! The Fulfillment Journal is now freely available to you as you start your day!

These are crazy times we are living in. Normalcy has been pitched out of our political system. People are describing to me how they are reeling from the effects of disruptive uncertainty and paralyzed by the hungry ghosts in the relentless news feed. Daring greatly is called for now, and our deepest longings and callings can seem audacious. With the Fulfillment Journal I offer you a practice that is simple and sustainable. Working with it for 10 minutes each morning will help you keep replenishing your resolve to fulfill your longing, to make your contribution, and to enjoy the gift of living on this beautiful planet.

Click here to download this basic version of my Fulfillment Journal to help you start your day with what deeply matters to you. I'm a big believer in starting with a pause to connect, reflect, replenish, and then set a trajectory for your day. Begin to develop the habit of dropping in with this page on a daily basis . . . but if you find yourself struggling to forge that discipline, don't worry—many have reported that it provides a significant uplift when they are feeling un-tethered or discouraged, however often they remember to make use of it.

This is a potent practice:

3/1/2017 Dear Lyedie, I have been using your 10 minute practice for several weeks now,
and have found it immensely, wonderfully inspiring :)

3/27/2018 - Dear Lyedie, Now looking back over the year I can see that your 10 minute practice is what got me started with finding this dream job overseas and getting started on this new project.

Yes! This is the small stuff that reverberates . . . builds on itself  . . . and generates transformation.

Please be brave enough to tune in to your deepest longings . . . And always remember to make breakfast. Make love. Make some trouble on behalf of beauty, truth, and goodness.

Thank you for everything you do to keep putting power in the hands of love.

Warmly, Lyedie

I hope you have found this helpful in some way. If you are looking to make a shift in your approach to life — to developing your resilience and to getting on to fulfilling  those longings, click here to learn more about working with me. Or click here to schedule a free 20 minute discovery session with me.

Getting behind the younger generation this week

Lyedie here, From my blue chair.

Are you getting behind the younger generation this week?

They are speaking up. They are rising up. They are transforming their grief into activism. They need and deserve our steadfast support.

I thought I was going to take the Daily Activist’s Log down today, but I can’t bring myself to do it. The timing is all wrong. Strengthening our activism is more important than ever and the voices of students in Parkland, Florida have sparked my activism this week.

Reading the news, my resolve has kindled up once again — inflamed by the oxygen in the voices of:

• Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky and Sam Zeif demanding the right to be safe in school.

• Chase’s teacher who is carefully tracking who is falling through the cracks in her class’s social life and then working to break the code of disconnection early and often.

• Heather Sher boldly describing the damage an AR -15 does to the human body.

• Arthur Brooks naming contempt as a problem in American politics.

• Michael Ian Black identifying the emotional suffering of boys in our culture.

In the last 10 days each of these people took up a role in repairing and strengthening the cloth of our democracy, the democracy that we grew lazy about protecting.

Whose voices kindled your resolve this week? What is your thread in the cloth of being a citizen in our democracy? However small or grand your thread might be, make it stronger, more effective, more beautiful.

My thread is delicate and strong and expresses itself in this blog and in the way I get behind my clients in my coaching work every day. This spring I will put the Fulfillment Journal up alongside the Daily Activists Log. My guiding star for this week is activism on behalf of fulfillment.

Please keep strengthening the muscle of your activism. And always remember to make breakfast. Make love. Make some trouble on behalf of beauty, truth, and goodness.

Thank you for everything you do to keep putting power in the hands of love.

Blessings, Lyedie

Why I've been quiet about MeToo and Time's Up

Truth is, I've been quiet about the MeToo and Time’s Up movements only because they strike so deeply into the heart of my life's path.

For many years now I have been traveling from survivor to thriver — My Guiding Star has been to be strong so that I can be soft. I would even whisper those words to myself on occasion, ‘I have to be strong so that I can be soft’ as I endeavored to be brave on behalf of tenderness. What is your Guiding Star?  I hope that you have one . . .

Last winter, I published the Daily Activist’s Log as a way to contribute to the activism that was stirring in all of us. It is a “morning page” created to strengthen our individual and collective resolve. After all, great rivers are made up of tiny drops of water as they make their way to the ocean. And with that in mind, I had the idea that if many of us start our day this way, we will make progress for ourselves and for humanity. It continues to surprise me, and strengthens my heart, to know that thousands of women (and men) downloaded the Daily Activist’s Log from my website and now begin their day with this powerful pause. Many of you are among them. Thank you.

These days I’m turning my attention towards thriving. And so, in honor of the activism that has risen up in all of us, I'm offering up the Daily Activist's Log for just one more week. I'll be archiving it on February 22 to make room for a new morning page I’m calling the Fulfillment Journal.

Please keep strengthening the muscle of your activism.

And always remember to make breakfast. Make love. Make some trouble on behalf of beauty, truth, and goodness.

Thank you for everything you do to keep putting power in the hands of love.

Blessings, Lyedie

To whomever deserves credit for the photo in this blog . . . This image enchanted me and I have no idea where I got it from, so if you are the artist, please contact me so I can give you credit. Thanks!

Your Greatest Resource is . . .Your Attention

Your attention itself is essentially your greatest resource. As I see it, managing your attention well is a key to fulfillment and to developing the resilience we all need in these times. Lyedie
 
It is mid-January. The frenzy of resolution-making is settling down, and I find this to be a good time to hunker down into the basics so as to set a solid trajectory for the year. So please bear with me, and consider your attention itself as a resource — I'm defining attention here as being the flow of the most essential energy particles that you direct (consciously and/or unconsciously) as you move through life. Within this definition, thoughts and feelings are forms of attention.
 
Here are a few questions to help you explore and assess how resourcefully you are working with the essential currency of your own attention. 

1. Locating your attention: Where has your attention been in the last hour? Has it been out the window, on your best friend in high school or, deep in the project you've been working on? Has it been in the past (remembering), the present (now), or in the future (planning)? Have you been directing it, or has it been commandeered somehow?
 
Here is a surprisingly beneficial little practice: Stop yourself a few times a day and just notice where your attention is located. Setting a timer on your smartphone to prompt yourself to take note of this will gently help you awaken to your attention. After all, where your attention is is where you are. Choosing to notice, in and of itself, is an act of taking control and directing your attention.
 
2. Then there is the quality of your attention: What is the quality of attention you are giving to this moment?  Is it focused and penetrating, or is it diffuse and receptive? As you consider these words is your brow slightly furrowed as you engage your focused attention in an effort to understand, or is your brow soft indicating that your quality of attention may be more receptive? What kind of attention you give to what, and when, can make a big difference in the quality of your experience and the quality of what you produce.
 
3. And how do you decide?  How aware are you of your default priorities? Do you tend to put attention on making progress or tending to things?  Do you approach challenges by springing in to action, seeking perspective, fostering others, or nourishing yourself? Which of these areas do you privilege in your approach to life?
 
Getting back to the basics of working with our attention and energy provides foundational support to working effectively with the balance of work - rest - play - collapse that is critical to developing resilience. This can allow for making good contact with the ache of our longings, and then to getting around to fulfilling them. As the prima ballerina, Maria Tallchief, so aptly revealed to to me many years ago, “My favorite class is still Ballet I.”
 
I hope you have found this helpful in some way. If you are looking to make a shift in your approach to life — to developing your resilience and to getting on to fulfilling those longings, click here to learn more about working with me. Or go ahead and just schedule a discovery session with me.
 
Warmly, Lyedie