Motivation - Inspiration

Years ago I had a natural weaving hung on my bedroom wall full of gathered wonders found on hikes taken with friends and family. When I moved, it was to fragile to take with me... four years later, I have another one ready for mother nature's treasures. It motivates and inspires me to get outside more and be present to all that surrounds me. 

To Dream...

"Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. " Mary Oliver 

Yesterday I realized I haven't been allowing myself to dream. I get stuck in my practical organizing everything, need to know ways and the open space for dreaming is full. And when the realization hits, I refer back to a poem that has always been relevant to my life called,

"Living The Questions"

"Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue, Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

Rainer Maria Rike"s July 16. 1003 letter to Franz Xaver Kappus is included as the fourth letter in "Letters to a Young Poet."

... so today I dream.

New Growth

 

When out for a walk the other day, I noticed "new growth" sprouted up all around. It got me to thinking (as nature often does) that, that's what new growth looks like on us. Beautiful, fresh, inspiring, and hopeful. Each present moment is a chance for new growth, new hope, new inspiration and to be beautiful. 

A reason to smile...

Image by Lenka Novotná

"https://pixabay.com/users/jplenio-7645255

Image by Cindy Lever

"Looking at beauty in the world is the first step of purifying the mind."

Amit Ray

As the world seems to be enveloped in the unknown, I find myself needing more reasons to reach for a smile. Nature always provides! Whether it's being outside and hugging a tree, observing from my window or looking at beautiful pictures from the internet. The beauty and wonder of nature never cease to amaze me. It's free and accessible to all. May you find what makes you smile today!

Music

https://pixabay.com/users/danielkirsch

"Everything in the Universe has a rhythm, everything dances."

Maya Angelou

When I was a teenager I use to play the guitar and write music. It was therapeutic for me during that time of my life. I haven't played in years and never really thought of myself as a music lover, but I think I am, more then I give myself credit for. Yesterday my daughter showed me how to make a playlist on YouTube and we had so much fun gathering old and new songs. I'm excited to have music at my fingertips and be able to sing and even dance if it moves me. So after being enveloped in music most of the day, I realized that it still has much to offer me. Providing good memories, creating new ones, a reason to smile and a reason to dance!

Winter to Spring

"I'm going to try and pay attention to the spring. I'm going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen."

Anne Lamont

Winter has much to offer if I pause long enough to see. To linger in appreciation at the hidden treasures now visible through the absence of distractions. As winter comes to say goodbye, spring knocks at the door to be welcomed. 

Today there was time to play, to plant and dig in the dirt. New growth is anticipated and a hunger for the freshness that a new season brings and a chance to see things differently.

A smile...

It has been two years since I've written on my blog and it always feels good to be back, no matter how long I've been gone. Within those two years LOTS has pass through my life and heart. Today there is a smile on my face. A smile that knows "all is well. A smile that radiates a knowing that I will not forsake or abandon myself for any reason. A smile that holds love for the people in my life that mean so much. A smile for my creativity that flows and a smile... just because I'm me!

It's in the Present Moments...

Today while my soul aches with grief, I sit outside among the trees, the warmth of the sun, the birds and mother nature. She gently reminds me to stay in the present moment and gather the smallest of moments that can drift by without notice and allow them to soften the sharp edges.

"My smallest of moments"...

A postcard of shared sorrow and hope

A friends shared tears and laughter

A small package of thoughtfulness

A meal offered and shared

A welcoming place to be

Animals with unconditional love

Quiet time with healing space

A car taken care of and safe to travel

Projects to work on, made with loving hands and heart 

Surrounded with art that speaks and soothes

and...human kindness that connects us all.

Fish out of water...

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."

Maya Angelou

As my search for my forever home continues, I've realized I'm feeling like a "fish out of water." I'm such a homebody and a home is a place of refuge and a place to recharge from the world for me. But I am forever grateful for the refuge I do have among people who have provided a safe and loving place to be while I turn the page of this new chapter in my and my children's lives. Today in this present moment I will breathe deeply and remember this quote...

"Home is where the heart is."

Collaging...

I have collaged on and off for years and there has never been a time when I haven't loved it, but I never knew why, not that there really was a reason to know, other then it makes me happy. But recently, as I'm in the space of working on it more, it finally came to me. Being a visually learner, collaging has been my visual affirmations and it is my place that has no right and wrong. It is my space to just be!

Words and Self Forgiveness...

"She could never go back and make some of the details pretty. All she could do was move forward and make the whole beautiful."

Terri St. Cloud

Talking with a friend the other day reminded me again how words can be destructive and hurtful or loving and kind.  Like a mirror held up to my soul I saw these destructive and hurtful words about people that haven't even been in my life for a very long time as something more. Those words were really directed at me and had nothing to really do with them. It shined a light on a place within me that is still in need of self-forgiveness. So today I will pick up this present moment and carry with me kinder more loving words for those around me and myself.

Give Sorrow Words... ~ Macbeth, William Shakespeare

Today - My grief swells like the wave that swells and collects all that lay beneath, then scatters it upon the sand, exposed and raw. Today - I find comfort in others words, words that express more then my soul is able to say.

~Sometimes the purpose of the day is to merely feel our sadness, knowing that as we do, we allow whole layers of grief, like old skin cells to drop off us. ~ Marianne Williamson

~"Ah, I smiled. I'm not really here to keep you from freaking out. I'm here to be with you while you freak out, or grieve, or laugh, or suffer, or sing. It is a ministry of presence. It is showing up with a loving heart." ~Kate Braestrup, Here If You Need Me: A True Story 

~Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical, and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve. ~ Earl Grollman

~"Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot ever imagine you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope." ~Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

~Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand. ~ Patti Smith

The Wishies...

As I was out quieting my mind this morning, I noticed the dandelion seeds, which I have always called "wishies" and are definitely on my favorite things list, floating across the sky and how they will land somewhere and something will grow. It got me to thinking about how when I put my loving thoughts out into the universe you never know what good or loving things will grow from them. And even when I extend those same thoughts for myself how much better I flourish and feel about each present moment I am in. So today I send the seeds of, PEACE, LOVE and JOY to grow and spread upon all those in need. Take what you like and spread the rest!

The Roller Coaster Ride...

Roller coasters are on my "least favorite things" list, but that is what my life is right now and I am trying to figure out how to "enjoy the ride" with the least resistance. I felt better yesterday, but today I let one little potential setback throw me on the downward spiral and I don't want to go there. If this is my life right now then I have to go with all the ups and downs with grace, patience and love for myself that I can muster. Its hard trusting the outcome, even when you have a plan, things shift, change and that doesn't always mean for the worse. I can expect more then I could have ever imagined for myself and my children and I may have to take a different route and head a different direction. And for those who know me well, know driving and going places unknown is on the top of my "least favorite list!" So this roller coaster ride is quit the challenge for me.

What i need from You...

Today was a dark day of not being able to see the forest for the trees. Of hope lost and answers to questions that rang hollow in my soul. I need you to hold the space for me. To hold hope, encouragement, kindness and love to see me through when I am lost. I know this too shall pass, but when your sitting in the dark looking for light, and you see non - it gets scary. Your what I hold onto when I forge ahead blindly, that kind word, that small gesture, these are the moments of brightness I use until my strength returns but until then... this is what I need from you.

Thank You

Reconstructing A Life...

My life goes on... driving, cleaning, cooking, shopping, making phone calls, talking with friends, watering plants, getting dressed... but in the shadow, lingers grief and an unsettled unknowing of how to "reconstruct a new life." The people that surround me have not changed, mother nature provides her constant  beauty that is unwavering, and my children remain ever present and close. These are the things I hold onto as I stumble along, looking for refuge, while newness comes each day asking for my assistance.
I'm reminded that reconstruction comes with time... one step at a time. What was. is gone, you sift through the rubble and hold on to the good, while letting go of all that no longer serves you. You listen closer, now that the noise of the past is silent...and you begin!

Like an old friend...

I've had this blog for about 7 years, and it feels like an old friend. I've used it to muse my thoughts, to cheer myself on, and to share as a cooperative blog. My life is "floating" between seasons right now ( this is the reference where " floating between seasons comes from -  http://robbell.podbean.com/e/episode-115-seasons/   and I felt the calling to write again. So welcome old friend, I am ready to catch up and share.

Friday Photo...

I nursed it back to health from a small infant... now look at it!!!

Friday Photo

Kitties loving the windows open... me too!

Friday Photo

Taking time to stop and smell the roses!