oh, for goodness sake...

if we're going to smile, how about trying it like this!

I smile like a flower not only with my lips

but with my whole being.

Rumi

note to self: the

'act as if', or

'fake it til you become it'

approach could come in handy here

we are...

Humankind has not woven the web of life.

We are but one thread within it.

Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.

All things are bound together.

All things connect.

~ Chief Seattle, 1854

♡

sea-ing

shortly before this, he was not too keen on playing in the water,

or on being apart from mommy...

amazing what we are capable of when given the space

to stretch the limits of our comfort zones,

and the gentle encouragement to try new experiences...

☀

we learn to tap into our true potential

and from that, infinite possibilities arise...

 uncle ray helped him to fly

an experience that is a little frightening, but thrilling at the same time
(fear and excitement bring about physiologically similar responses in our bodies)

conquering fear,

we feel good, feel accomplished.

  going a little too far is often how we find our edge.
finding our outer limits that each moment brings is the larger practice.
if we embrace these limits and *sea* them for what they are,
we allow our edges to become less solidified...

running in water is an adjustment
legs don't move as fast as they do on land but the first time we encounter this
it is natural for our mind to still think they will carry us in the same way...
we can only see that our legs didn't fail us, the sea is not a bad place,
when we give ourselves the space
to be imperfect
we are not meant to get things right on the first try, every time,
nor to be perfect...

 we can always just pause, shift gears, retreat for a while...
know that it is enough for now

and still feel good, feel accomplished.

like horses after an exciting experience, going back to grazing.
this is the part most of us are not trained to do in our culture,
we are not taught the value of grazing!
if we are constantly pushing ourselves, we are only learning to push more,
we are literally

~ training in never be-ing enough ~

*just be-ing*
is the only way true awareness and wisdom about our experiences arises.

(he embraced getting sandy which he also wasn't keen on at first!)

sharing what we have learned by helping others to also face their fears
we are marking our progress, building confidence
and reassuring loved ones that we are okay, we are learning, this is all a part of living.

mentors and teachers come in all sizes, even (especially) at a year and a half young...

this now 3 year-old continues to splash, and play, stumble, and graze

in a loving, supportive container

every day he is learning more about himself
and to trust his own experience with the world.

what's more important in life than that...

☀

may we all practice *sea-ing* the seeds of possibility

that have been planted in our own lives.

some may need more cultivation than others,

but trust that they are there...

☀☀☀

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.

~Isak Dinesen

☀☀☀☀☀☀

less is more

always in life
the moments that matter are where thought ends;
they appear in nonsense,
as lightning in sunlight,
as a burst of laughter over a cup of tea.
- christmas humphreys

buddhist compliment

yesterday, I had a chance encounter at a coffee shop with Boston Bill, and we ended up talking about the difficulties that come with attachment (one particular situation for him was obviously losing a limb, but we both related to the broad range of physical and non-physical attachments) to anything not functioning well...

it was not a heavy, deep conversation, but  in essence

lightness of our shared humanity over a cup of tea,

and I'd like you to meet this delightful fellow...

after our very uplifting and grounding chat (the refreshingly real kind with no elephants, like the kind you might/could have with a buddhist monk or a nun, no need to hide, you're already *seen* anyways), I was interested in learning more of the history of this traveler shining his light and living in possibility, and this article had a quote about how unexpectedly, not to mention at a personally uncomfortable time, the moment appeared when he simply had an opportunity to help someone else... which turned out to be transformative... reminded me how easy it is to be caught up in ourselves and our own situations that we miss these

small miracles waiting to happen...

'The other cyclists continued on their way, leaving the grumpy white-haired man with his bike, his shoes, his artificial leg and his fear of appearing helpless.'

a fuller story and powerful short documentary of this fated friendship is shared here...

Life is what happens while we are making other plans.
Think less.

Feel more.

See the miracles in your own life. They are there.

Let life happen through, rather than to you... 

et cetera, et cetera...

♥

and when you must think...

win win

i give it two (enthusiastic, heartfelt) thumbs up.

According to Matt Berninger, the band wrote this song after watching the film "Win Win" and becoming inspired by Tom McCarthy's themes of

"very normal and good people
trying to do their best
and the struggle to be good."

Lyrics:

I was drifting, crying
I was looking for an island
I was slipping under
I'll pull the devil down with me one way or another

I'm out of my mind; think you can wait?
I'm way off the line; think you can wait?

We've been running a sleepless run
Been away from the baby way too long
We've been holding a good night gone
We've been losing our exits one by one

I'm out of my mind; think you can wait?
I'm way off the line; think you can wait?

Did I?
(all I have is all)
Think you can wait?
Did I?
(all I have is all)
Think you can wait?

What I'm thinking is simple
I'll sell apples and ice water at the temple
I won't make trouble
I'll pull the devil down with me one way or another

We've been running a sleepless run
Been away from the baby way too long
We've been holding a good night gone
We've been losing our exits one by one

I'll try.
I'll try, but I couldn't be better.
(all I have is all)
I'll try, but I couldn't be better.
(all I have is all)
I'll try, but I couldn't be better.
(all I have is all)

playful

freeform haiku

emerge nonfiction

the bliss of discovering

which book will find me

~mh

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.

♥

full moon mood

Slow down, you're movin' too fast
You gotta make the mornin' last
Just kickin' down the cobblestones
Lookin' for fun and
Feelin' groovy

Hello lampost
Whatcha knowin?
I've come to watch your flowers growin'
Ain'tcha got no rhymes for me?
Doo Bee Doo Doo,
Feelin' groovy

Got no deeds to do
No promises to keep
I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep
Let the morningtime drop all its petals on me...
Life, I love you,
All is groovy

Happy Merry!

The charming boys I am blessed to spend this Christmas with ...

Written on Christmas Eve, 1513

I salute you.  I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. 

There is nothing I can give you which you have not.  But there is much,

very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take.  No heaven can

come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.  Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.

Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow.  Behind it, yet within

our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. 

And to see, we have only to look.  I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver.  But we, judging its gifts by their covering,

cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard.  Remove the covering, and you

will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you.

Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there.

The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence.  Your joys, too,

be not content with them as joys.  They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering,

that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.  Courage then to claim it; that is all!

But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together,

wending through unknown country home.

And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings,
but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and
forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away.

~ Fra Giovanni ~

topaz ~ wisdom courage serenity

 

What the Day Gives

 

Suddenly, sun. Over my shoulder
in the middle of gray November
what I hoped to do comes back,
asking.

 

Across the street the fiery trees
hold onto their leaves,
red and gold in the final months
of this unfinished year,
they offer blazing riddles.

 

In the frozen fields of my life
there are no shortcuts to spring, 
but stories of great birds in migration
carrying small ones on their backs,
predators flying next to warblers
they would, in a different season, eat.

 

Stunned by the astonishing mix in this uneasy world
that plunges in a single day from despair
to hope and back again, I commend my life
to Ruskin's difficult duty of delight,
and to that most beautiful form of courage,
to be happy.

 

~ Jeanne Lohmann ~

 

(The Light of Invisible Bodies)

 

How Fascinating!

The joy of living... joie de vivre "can be a joy of conversation, joy of eating, joy of anything one might do... And joie de vivre may be seen as a joy of everything, a comprehensive joy, a philosophy of life, a Weltanschauung (wide world perception). Robert's Dictionnaire says joie is sentiment exaltant ressenti par toute la conscience, that is, involves one's whole being."

Sometimes I get so tired of hearing myself say 'how inspiring', and then seemingly changing nothing in my life because I was so inspired... well, today I was reminded how sometimes the action comes when you least expect it. Inspiration works in this mysterious way. Hmmmm, who decides whether to let it out or not, and to allow the inspiration to move me into action?

Today when I did something stupid because I was all wrapped up in my pain-body (Eckhart Tolle term) and as a result had actual physical pain in my body when I tripped and fell on my ass. After a few &*#s, I remembered to stand back up and throw my hands in the air and say 'How fascinating!'... And it did help for a little while, until my ego realized how I had tricked it!

What triggered my pain-body does need to be dealt with, Ben Franklin was right on when he said 'the only things certain in life are death and taxes', and de Nile isn't just a river in Egypt, but I am so excited to have been shaken out of needing to do it all right now. Sometimes you need all your energy to just handle what you're actually doing right now so that there is the possibility of finding some joy in the moment of now.

'Nothing happens next. Everything happens now' ~ Cheri Huber

This video is still inspiring to me, it's just not easy to live this way. But God willing I'd like to keep trying to not live in downward spirals... and instead to live in a world of POSSIBILITY...