Always Do Your Best: today's agreement for our California jewelry journey

Always Do Your Best The Four Agreements

Christy and I made the Reminder Bracelets in part so that we could wear them ourselves and that would help us live the wisdom from the book The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Each day one of the agreements seems to jump out more than the others, and it is constantly changing and evolving, just as our own journeys change and evolve.

The Four Agreements

Right now we are in the midst of a three-week soul-journey for our business.  We are making a lot of sacrifices to be on this trip, and it seems the greater our sacrifices, the greater the depth of the experiences and opportunities we are having.  Sometimes running your own business is incredible and expansive, and some days it can feel difficult like it is crushing you.  When you are creating something from nothing, you have to wear a lot of hats and the process can be like a juggling act.  Throw in life on top of that and mix it in with the unpredictability of every day and outside forces, and the journey can seem a lot like a roller coaster.  

Not so long ago I wasn't sure if I could keep juggling it all.  And I asked the question, "How do you know when to keep going, to push a little harder and farther, and when to just stop and walk away?"  It was not an easy question to ask.  And the answer?  "Are you passionate about what you are doing?  Do you love it?  If yes, then keep pushing.  If no, then stop and walk away."  

Don Miguel Ruiz The Four Agreements

I do love what we do, and I love what we create.  Christy and I are using jewelry as our medium to reach the world and spread our messages.  Our messages are our truths... sharing how we see the world.  We are on a creative journey of expression and exploration on how to achieve our own body-mind-spirit balance.  As we search we share our findings through our jewelry.  We share our stories through what we create. 

Often we find ourselves in Bali behind a sketchbook and a table full of gemstones for days on end and then switching to sitting behind a computer screen for weeks on end.  When we look up from our designing dream, however, we see the world around us busy and evolving at stunning speeds.  And then we start to wonder...are we moving fast enough?

Nea, Christy, and Don Miguel Ruiz

We are nature girls at heart, so flying to the United States and starting off our trip in a concrete parking garage outside the San Francisco airport made us feel a bit out of our element.  Lately I have taken to wearing nothing but flip-flops in Bali and some days I leave the house with nothing on at all.  We both do.  There is something about putting your feet on the bare earth and letting the energy of mother nature ground you down that helps me get through the days without feeling overwhelmed or out of control.  These days with technology changing life so fast, I feel like I can hardly keep up.  Dropping into the United States after being in Bali drives that home.  I feel like I blink and there are new updates that I need to figure out how to install on my phone, then I blink again and realize my device seems like an antique.  I have an Iphone 4.  I'm wondering if I should be putting that into a museum and joining 2016 with an upgrade.  Then I look down and realize I have forgotten my flipflops at the last restaurant I went into and don't even have shoes on...

But I don't feel bad about that.  I don't even feel like I really need to catch up all that much.  I believe I am taking care of a lot of the important things in life and when I let go and surrender to the fact that I just might not be as fast as the rest of the technological whirlwind spinning around me, I feel good.  Because I know that I cannot measure myself against others to ascertain my own self-worth.  To feel good, I just have to be me, and Always Do My Best.

And I am.  We are.  

When I acknowledge that, I feel centered.

It's like the real me is at the center of a tornado.  I am that calm clear center, I belong to nothing, and nothing belongs to me.  All of the labels, the things, the colors of life that make up who I appear to be externally are whirring around in the winds all around me.  

My power is not in the winds that surround me, but within the true me at the center.  There, when I connect to mother earth, to father sky, when I connect to source...creativity flows like a river.  And when it flows, it speaks my truth.  

And today, as we connected to nature, barefoot on the beach in California, we knew it.  Today we are doing our best.  We expect that much of ourselves in this journey, and today we are doing it, no matter the speed we are going.  

The Four Agreements Reminder Bracelets


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