2019 aspirations

Optimism: hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something.

Forever Young....

Balance.....

Do Be Do Be Do Be Do Be

Way of Be-ing...

maybe

we never know the consequences

..... of 'good' or 'bad' fortune:

_________________________________

From "The Path (What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life)"
by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, pp 79-80:

🙏🏼 here's to cultivating our inner farmer

It matters.

THE POET 

moves forward
to that edge

but lives sensibly,

through the senses
not because of them.

Above all he watches
where he steps,
as if it matters

where he leaves his prints.

The senses overwhelm him
at his peril.

Though he must be taken
by something greater.
That is what he uses
senses to perceive.
....

~ David Whyte

Is

 

As She Is

To live in this world
you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

~Mary Oliver, In Blackwater Woods
Painting: Henri Matisse

Never Eat Soggy Waffles

north
east
south
west

this cute little acronym speaks to me
in a directional and a food-related sense today...

I have heeded a tenacious call to study

holistic nutrition.

how not only the what, but

how.when.why.where, etc.

we nourish ourselves with
affects us overall
in body, spirit, mind, and
creativity.

the hitch in my giddyup has been simply coming to terms with the unknown nature of what to 'do' with such information once I invest in obtaining it; yet this is the next step in the natural progression of my journey toward healthifying my own relationship with how I

nourish my self on all levels.

i am and will allways be my first and a lifelong client.
food is a passion. and my connection to all things in nature, including my fellow human beings.
now I feel the time is showing itself to enter the marketplace, so to speak.
with open hands.
and a play-in-progress 'tude.

direct the mind, drive the hind...

drive the hind, and the mind will follow...

yee-haw!

(isn't she lovely? a dear friend sent this to me recently, it's an 8x10 that will soon be framed and displayed on the wall.)

Are you curious about exploring the role nutrition plays in your own life and health? Find the food industry a bit overwhelming and want some help sifting through the information to make well-informed, conscious choices? Do you deal with a particular condition or dis-ease that you would like to treat holistically, or in a way that works with a western medicine approach? Do you simply have the sense that you could be feeling better than you do, or that you could use some support in obtaining a greater state of vitality through individualized diet/lifestyle/cleansing suggestions?

I will be seeking people for case studies.
Would you like to be a volunteer client?

Through opening up about your health (your personal identity shared only as initials or a substitute name), I am excited to see what we can learn together, and hopefully you will walk away with a new lease on life.
Or at the very least the inspiration to whip up some hearty un-soggy waffles.

♥

Let medicine be thy food,

and food be thy medicine.

~Hippocrates

Music is a lady that I still love because she gives me the air that I breathe. We need all sorts of nourishment. And music satisfies and nourishes the hunger within ourselves for connection and harmony.
~Cat Stevens

Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that.
~James Brown

oh twelve

budding flower

It's so clear that you have to cherish everyone.

I think that's what I get from these older black women,

that every soul is to be cherished,

that every flower Is to bloom.
~Alice Walker

 

sand... close up

Be master of your petty annoyances

and conserve your energies

for the big, worthwhile things.

It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out,

it's the grain of sand in your shoe.
~Robert Service

♥

thirty-nine

I think I'll embrace

turning thirty-nine

in equine fashion

and proclaim that

I am now

"in my fortieth year"

instead of waiting

a whole year to

feel

and allow

the  

excitement and

anticipation

of this

milestone

to come

alive

in my being,

embodying

more fully

who I am.

today.

mindful that

life is a garden

not a road

leading somewhere.

somewhere is now.

♥

gorillas in our midst

spoiler alert! 

If you have not watched the short video from my previous post, do that first before reading on. 

If you are as fascinated as I am about totally missing the gorilla (or if you did see it, how about the one player leaving, or the background colors changing?), they call it

Inattentional Blindness:

 When we're not paying attention to something,

it is as though we are blind to it...

The Illusion of Attention:

 The belief in my head that I see and notice much more of what's going on in the world than I actually do.

Where this brought me is to the awareness that I have a choice. If I choose to

soften my gaze,

I can become more

present

with what is happening in my midst.

"We don't live with the way the world is,

we live with the way we receive the world."

-Dr. Douglas Brooks, addressing the quality of your gaze to create more conscious receptivity.

I found this 5-minute video to be a lovely way to relax my entire body through relaxing my eyes...

For more on The Invisible Gorilla, you can watch

this video 

from one of the creators of this experiment...

 se détendre et être patient

(relax and be patient)

conviction of the heart

Yogi Bhajan brought Kundalini Yoga (Yoga of Awareness) to the West in the '60s. He went to an LA auditorium to speak to anyone interested in learning about it. No one showed up. He spoke anyway, to an empty auditorium, so strong was the conviction in his heart of what he must do.

I believe that what he was practicing was his own mastery, and so it didn't matter who was listening at the time... fifty years later, I sit here still trying to absorb the message.

"If you want to learn a thing, read that.
If you want to know a thing, write that.
If you want to master a thing, teach that."
~ Yogi Bhajan

Several years ago I took a 3 hour Kundalini class, and one powerful message I recall often when I am taking my body image too seriously is the teacher cooing 'loooooooove your belllly'. Still makes me smile!

Listen to and practice really receiving this blessing into your heart...
only then can it radiate out to others...

May the longtime sun shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on

Namaste.

it's alive!

our first tray of wheatgrass, flourishing!

If planted, all living foods would sprout and grow. ~Ann Wigmore

d. w. t. l.

"I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life, and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I've wanted to do."
Georgia O'Keefe


d. w. t. l.
sounds like... dawdle... to waste time.

don't...

wait...

to...

live...

depending where you are coming from, the phrase 'wasting time' can have different connotations. here in the west many of us might hear that and feel pressure coming from somewhere to do something. accomplish something. maybe without real-lies'ing it.
not that there's anything wrong with do-ing things... in theory...

don't just do something,
sit there...

Bertrand Russell said 'the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time',
and this speaks to my heart in a deep and poetic way
as does his summary of his work and his life, at the age of 84, in
WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR:

"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair (...) and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me."

(click here if you'd like to read the entire prologue to his autobiography in 1967)

As this chapter melts into the next one, I am humbled and grateful to stop in this moment to gaze toward the east and know that I am moving in the direction that allows me to shed a bit more of the clutter and simply live closer to nature....
beside my beloved kindred spirit...
in a place that nourishes my soul...

these are the days...

I never saw the morning 'til I stayed up all night
I never saw the sunshine 'til you turned out the light
I never saw my hometown until I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody, until I needed a song.

I never saw the white line, 'til I was leaving you behind
I never knew I needed you 'til I was caught up in a bind
I never spoke 'I love you' 'til I cursed you in vain,
I never felt my heartstrings until I nearly went insane.

I never saw the east coast 'til I move to the west
I never saw the moonlight until it shone off your breast
I never saw your heart 'til someone tried to steal,
Tried to steal it away
I never saw your tears until they rolled down your face.

San Diego Serenade
Tom Waits

Simplici-Tea

Even though the dictionary lists easy as a synonym of simple, in my experience,

when it comes to living simply,

that has generally not been easy.

Yet at times I find I have that lurking belief that simplifying should be an easy process.

Now, cultivating simplicity....

that is a labor of love.

Still not easy,
but a more enjoyable approach
and purpose-oriented direction I am much more in tune with.

to cultivate:

to improve and prepare; to loosen or dig soil around...

to promote the growth of....

to nurture....

to form and refine...

to seek the acquaintance or goodwill of; make friends with...

...simply empowering ourselves to loosen or dig the soil around beliefs, in order to make room for improvements!

What do you think... Does one aspire to live simply, or is that an oxymoron?

2009, etc...

This past year has been filled with powerful learnings around

Trust, Detachment, Inner Peace...

Joy, Curiosity, Listening, Awareness...

Communication, Observation, Acceptance, Action...

For it all, Blessed and Grateful am I.

~        ~        ~

if you're not having fun, why do it.

life is hard. once you accept that, it ceases to be so.

(m. scott peck)

you don't do yoga to get a better body.

you do yoga to learn to love the body you have.

(eddie, yoga soup)

try to marry inner peace with creating a soulful world.

(joan chittister)

~        ~        ~

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough

To hear in the distance the laughter of God.

(from A Blessing For Equilibrium, by John O’Donohue)

~        ~        ~

A few reminders about friendship from a wise,

spirit-filled young woman I know...

be the friend you'd want them to be.

it’s better to be disliked or made fun of for who you really are than

to be loved for who you aren’t.

your friends encourage you to be a better person, not cause you to be a worse one.

~        ~        ~

I want my life to be one of love, not rage

Kindness, not contempt

Joy, not suffering

I want to be alive and present in this moment,

not lost in thought and delusion.

- Zen poem

~        ~        ~

Beginnings

Creativity

they say we are powerful creators

and that we create our own reality

the question on my mind this fine day in April

is whether I can form my intention

for living

around this so that I can free or enhance my

creative expression; that is

simply, but not easily, the expression of

who I am

truth is, the ability to do this comes and goes

however, what I can keep constant is

the decision to practice living that intention

in each moment

and within each moment this can be renewed

now to trust that

I am not my abilities

_________________________________________________________

Which leads me to... who am I without my story?
My story has and does continue to shape me... my work is in honoring it but not letting it

define who I am...

I enjoy contemplating this from the perspective of being just the narrator of the story of my life... anything to help me lighten up and not take it all so seriously!