loving

Cirese LaBerge: The Power of Choices

April 26, 2018 By Arminda

Wow. I loved this conversation.

Today’s guest is Cirese LaBerge, who served 20+ years in the California prison system before being released on parole on March 3, 2015.

During today’s episode, Cirese and I talk about the power of our choices: how we always have a choice, even if we may not prefer or like the consequences.

I am so inspired by the question Cirese regularly asks herself because she feels it is her duty to live in her loving:

Would I rather be loving or would I rather be right?

What if we each started asking that same question to ourselves? What might be different? What outcomes might you experience? How might you experience yourself differently?

Thank you, Cirese, for living in your loving and for showing me how beautiful that life is.

Cirese LaBerge Bio

After serving over 20 years in prison starting at age 18, Cirese LaBerge has become an example of how to live in healing. She works in conjunction with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, #Cut50 and the Freedom to Choose Project, among others, bringing a connection of humanity to people across the state of California, going into the prisons she lived in to help inspire and provide hope for people currently serving a life sentence, speaking to students, from junior high to college, about the power of choices, and inspiring many to work alongside her in helping to change a broken system of “justice.”

015: Marylou Falstreau on Loving Yourself

February 23, 2016 By Arminda

Marylou Falstreau Interview on Loving Yourself

The All Arminda Show

Marylou and I met on Twitter and I’m so incredibly delighted I reached out to her and even more delighted that she agreed to speak with me! May your experience of her work be similar to my “heart response” when I saw her art.

During this episode, Marylou and I talk about the significant work she’s doing impacting women’s lives through the visual medium of her art and why she started the Women and the Hourglass series of paintings that resonate so powerfully with women.

Each message, each woman, is pointing her finger at me and saying, ‘Wake up, Marylou! Make a different choice! Make a different decision!’

Addiction has been part of Marylou’s family story and her personal journey and learning about addiction led us into a deeper discussion around what it means to love ourselves and what practices we can implement to remove the foreign concept of love into a practical application and a regular practice for ourselves.

Marylou is most interested in living a life of truth telling, allowing others to tell their stories, their heartaches, to talk about getting better, learning more, waking up and being in conversation about that from an authentic point of view.

Marylou’s Excellent Advice

Be real.
Be honest.
Tell the truth.
Love ourselves so we can love others.

Be sure and look at Marylou’s gorgeous artwork on her website.

Safe Spaces

December 21, 2015 By Arminda

Life (and jobs and assignments and relationships and health and family and college acceptances and the weather and deadlines and cab drivers and uneven sidewalks and flight delays and . . . .) is full of unknowns and “I didn’t see that coming” moments.

Sometimes those life moments are yours to experience and sometimes those life moments are yours to witness. And whether you’re experiencing life from the “is this really happening to me?” seat, or from the observation deck, there are choices you get to make about how you show up.

If you’re in the moment, look for safe spaces (literal and figurative) in your world and be willing to ask for help — even if from complete strangers, who aren’t so strange when you get closer.

If you’re on the observation deck, look for opportunities to be the safe space for others — even for complete strangers, who aren’t so strange when they get closer.

I recently saw a phrase that struck me profoundly:

If the path ahead of you seems clear, you’re not on your path.

Each of us is progressing at our own pace, doing the best we can with what we have, and when those moments happen — either to you or in front of you — choose to connect with others and not to go it alone or to leave others alone while they are in their own moments.

We are together here on this planet for a reason; connecting illuminates our similarities, strengths and our natural ability to love one another, no matter what.

Ask for help. Connect. Serve. Love.

Look for and be a safe space wherever you are on your journey.

My gratitude to Eddy and John of Boston Fire Department Engine 8 for being just such a safe space for me.