"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes our shadows are in our blind spots and we need other people to offer us some light.

Facebook update today:"Wendy Faith Levicoff  is in deep appreciation of the sweet serendipity of life... magic interwoven in our everyday existence... eyes & heart must merely remain open to receive and bear witness..."

I was thinking about how I wanted a quote on magic for this week and I stumbled upon the facebook update above.  If that's not serendipitous I don't know what is.  What is serendipity?  It's when things come into contact with each other by accident.....Isn't that magic?

Your task is not
to seek for love,
but merely to seek
and find
all the barriers
within yourself
that you have built against it.

- Rumi

Especially living in LA, many of us can get caught up in the concept of romantic love (the way the movies let us see it).  But love is anything that contributes to a softening or yielding feeling:  when you smell something cooking that makes you want to eat it, when you thank the breeze for brushing your skin on a hot day, when you smile back at someone.  That is love.  Love is accepting the pleasure in life. Love is ordinary.

"Discover the resistance that you hold in your body, mind, and heart... then lean into it". -unknown
Here's a lovely quote that supports just what an intention, that you start your practice out with, is meant for. 
Lean into those things that make you uncomfortable.
This is where you find your most potent potential for change and calm.