....breathe

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air,

 is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies. 

~Erich Fromm 

What a weekend it was...snow, rain, hail, gale force winds, downed trees and 18 hours without power, which here means no water.  

But yesterday I stepped outside and noticed that like magic these lovely dandelions had appeared...

Have you ever had dandelion wine?

It is spring, and today is as lovely as yesterday..

.and when I step into the sun and look at the land turning green

 after such a long dry, very, very cold winter 

I feel like I can breathe again.  

I feel like the things that have held me in such deep doubt

 about the future are going to clear away. 

 Dreams will materialize or become something new.  

On this day I am reminded to breathe. 

 To stop holding my breathe...holding the stuff in....

Breathe...inhale the new, new hope for you, me, and the world...

Exhale all the thoughts and feelings and wants that no longer serve...

Breathe

Breathe in blessing that abound 

Exhale thoughts of lack or fear, thoughts that restrict...

I will breathe.

Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?

 ~Mary Oliver  

Smile, breathe and go slowly. ~Thich Nhat Hanh 

Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God. 

 ~Krishnamacharya

If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance. 

 ~Andrea Boydston

A man who has to be convinced to act before he acts is not a man of action.  

You must act as you breathe.

~George Clemenceau

There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. 

Then, there's another way: a breath of love that takes you all the way to infinity. 

~Rumi

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit. ~John Updike  

On the table...

Angels are all around us, all the time, in the very air we breathe. 

~Eileen Elias Freeman,

 

I want to give you this gift...a blog
Shine the Divine, Creativity is a Spiritual Practice..

It is a place I can't describe to you in words 

that will do the woman who shares her life with us  justice....

she is courage, heart and inspiration personified.

I hope you will go and read what she shares..

http://www.shinethedivinecreativityisaspiritualpractice.com/ 

.....love is in the air

Spring is here!

This is a lilac bush/tree that Daughter #2 and I planted 15 years or so ago as a memorial to my mother who loved lilacs.

In all those years it has only grown to little over 2 feet tall and this is the first Spring it has bloomed.
I'll admit to not having a green thumb but I have loved and pampered this little bush for a very long time and I was beginning to feel a little like something was seriously wrong in the world because it wouldn't bloom.

But here it is...blooming!
And it smells so good!
And it reminds me of my mother....
I miss her everyday.

Spring is my favorite time of year...there is something about it that is almost like falling in love. Only the Earth is my lover...bringing color to my world.
The springtime sun instead of teasing as it does in the winter, or burning as it does in summer, becomes a lovers warm and sensuous touch.
It makes me want to lay down in the sweet green grasses, closer to the smell of new life and watch the clouds go by....
allowing my imagination to paint me other worlds in the sky.

Love for a specific person is radiant when it arises in Emptiness.
It is still love, it is still intensely personal, it is still very specific;
but it is a wave that arises from an ocean of infinity.
It is as if a great sea of love brings forth a wave, and that wave carries the force and thrill of the entire sea in its every breaking crest.
The sensation is like watching an early morning sunrise in the desert: a vast open clear blue spaciousness, within which there arises, on the horizon, an intense red-yellow fire.
You are the infinite sky of Love,
in which a particular fire-ball of personal love arises....

Ken Wilber...embracing you true nature

These are my children.....
Amazing Daughters #2 and #1, the gifted young man who has been part of all our family gatherings for 10 years, and Beautiful Grandson...
They come to me with all the good and the bad that they experience and they fill me with love. I saw them all yesterday and that makes for an extra good day.
I'm a very blessed woman.
I have love in my life...
I know someone who feels she has none...
and the saddest thing is she may be right
I think lack of love and the human touch could make a person go insane.
Can you imagine?
No love...

Love...

Love as a work of art...

"There are all kinds of artists. A group we should celebrate more are artists of life itself who use their tools to express the inexpressible. Without a bursh, they depict life with bright colors. Without a knife, they sculpt the magic of being . Without a scale, they create music for us all. Without choreography, they engage in the dance of life.

When we are born, we are each given tools to create a life of beauty. These same tools can be used to perpetuate ugliness and destruction. Hopefully we will understand at some point in our lives that we can decide to reflect beauty. tangible works of art fade with time, chip from walls, and may be discredited by passing trends. But a life of love lasts forever...."
from Born for Love by Leo Buscaglia

Love for a specific person is radiant

....listening is love in action.

Life is our greatest possession and love it's greatest affirmation.

...It is only when we have experienced love
that we truly realize what would be lost by missing it.

Love is not about opening old wounds, it's about healing them....

...Love is far less concerned with what's past than with what's next.

The life and love we create is the life and love we live.

Any act that inhibits is not love. Love is only love when it liberates.

As long as one can admire and love, then one is young forever...

Various Authors

Have a lovely day!!!!
love, love

...a good day

It is soooo beautiful in the Sierra Foothills today! Blue sky, nice little gusts of a windy day, sun out, a few white clouds, wildflowers, and the grasses are really spring green...
so I made a little alter
and thanked Gaia, Mother, God, Goddess for giving me this moment in time.
I've only been back in the house for a few minutes and it has turned
dark outside.and the wind chimes are really chiming...
a little storm maybe.
We REALLY need the rain here in California...My mother and my two daughters, and me, used to go up on the hill and do a rain dance when the girls where little and my mother was living here..
.cool memory..
I love it here this time of year.
I love to lay down in the grass and just be still...daydream.
I try to do it often because summer here turns
hot and brown.
While I was watching the clouds go by just a bit ago, I wished that we all had mental telepathy...
so the people I care about would know how often I think of them..
I'm really bad about keeping in touch.
Especially if I'm in the creative flow
or
have a looming deadline
or
like today when I just want to do nothing but hang out
or
if I'm being forced to deal with the
TAX MAN
But I love my friends and family and think of them often.
I haven't forgotten about Sacred Sunday posts...
and I have something I want to share, just not right now.
enjoy this day
hug, hug