Deep In The Forrest

The following quote, which I first ran across some time ago is one that merits daily reminder, but we get so caught up in our day-to-day grind and are so busy 'white knuckle gripping' the things we are so hellbent on worrying and stressing over that we allow it to fall to the wayside. "Until Further Notice... Celebrate Everything!" Now I am not certain the origin of this quote, though I have seen it repeated many places, and also seen it as the title of published materials. No matter, the concept is one of the best pieces of advice we could receive. As most of us have experienced, or will realize soon enough in life, nothing is certain, nothing lasts forever, time flies and as Stephen King said it best in his novel '11/22/63' (which I highly recommend reading, by the way), "Life turns on a dime. Sometimes towards us, but more often it spins away, flirting and flashing as it goes: so long, honey, it was good while it lasted, wasn’t it?" So ce...

Dear Me Living in 2016,  Felt some sort of an S.O.S. call, and it took me a minute to figure out which one of us was in need of our support. Turns out that it is you, so I hope this does not arrive to you too late. After realizing that our birthday was here (YESTERDAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME!!), it all came to me. Yes, I know that you probably don't think that your 16 year old self could be of much wisdom or assistance in crises of 'adult affairs', but I think you will remember that our highest self is pretty much one in the same, so while I might not yet know everything I need to know, I guess I am being used to convey what is needed (don't shoot the messenger)!!! (You love exclamation points, remember?) Okay, so I wasn't told the exact circumstances or events or dates of things that have happened in your life. I haven't been told "TMI" ha-ha!! (Too Much Information) because of the affect it might have on me, but I was just told you needed a word from...

Joyful as the thought may be of having all of the answers to everything, how much fun would that truly be? As painful as some of our lessons in life are, if you knew the end result of any given experience the odds are that you would avoid many endeavors that otherwise gave you a lot of joy, love and pleasure. You'd really miss a lot of those 'in between gifts'. So all's well that ends, well, even not-so-well. Forty-two is just about as good an answer to the question of life as any I can think of, so you will just have to accept that and continue licking your wounds, and continue experiencing things that are not always joyful, magical or fairy tale endings. You'll thank me as well as yourself later for allowing yourself to live life. Move forward, unafraid, knowing that in times of trouble you're equipped with an armor far tougher than you realized and bear a strength that has saved itself for this very moment. Remember, "Change is neither good nor bad. It j...

Simple thoughts I would like to share today in the words of good ol' Mother Teresa (even though I am not Catholic or anything), I think these words are quite effective... Enjoy! Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is bliss, taste it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it. Mother Teresa While I'm at it, why not a couple more? Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your wo...

YOU are psychic! I bet you had no idea that it could be this easy, but it is. All you have to do is relax and listen closely, and raise your awareness. Find moments of quiet throughout each day to sit by yourself and just "BE". Have faith in yourself and your intuition. You hold every answer, all you have to do is apply within. Today I merely offer you this wonderful "Quote of the Day", if you had any doubts to your own potential: "The best way to predict the future is to create it." It's Right There In Your Hands! ;)

It is so easy, it seems, to hate the bad weather, thunderstorms, rainy days. But for me, there has always been something about the storms that calmed and relaxed my inner beast. Think of it, the rain cleanses our souls and cools the burn of the hot sun. The lightening reminds us that there are things out there way more amazing and powerful than us, keeping our egos in check, and the thunder, well it sings us to sleep. I remember even back to rainy days, Mom driving me to Elementary School, and I got such a cozy, relaxed feeling. The classroom was darker, calmer. I could look out and see the rain drizzling against the windows... deep sighs of tranquility . Rainbows Are Worth The Wait! Yeah, the rain cleanses... it heals. It gives us a dark before the dawn. Without our "storms", we could never truly appreciate the "beautiful" ones. Have you ever payed attention, actually 'seen' a vivid sunrise after a good heavy rain? It's like a blinding vision of Heaven...

Occasionally, I run across a quote, a photo or some bit of inspiration that really drives home a thought to the point I have to present it. One of those I am presenting today. There certainly appears to be (at least to me) a great deal of ignorance in this world... Various topics and various symptoms that need to be treated, but what can we do? I was introduced to this innovative photographer, "Dustin Diaz" by my coworker who is a photographer also. He was impressed by the project this guy was working on, which is called "Project 365" (wherein he puts up 1 picture a day). These are done, mostly it seems nighttime shots, using nothing but strobe lighting. I thought it was very unique and I like the slogans and headlines he uses for the photos. Hope you enjoyed as much as I did... File this one under Heroes of the unwritten word. (For the photography) The quotation, of course written. If ignorance is bliss , why aren't more people jumping up and down for joy? ~ ...

I just wanted to share the "Elder's Meditation of the Day" today, I thought it was a good one. Elder's Meditation of the Day - June 17 "Your power comes from the songs." --Ethel Wilson, COWICHAN If you do not know any of the songs, ask an Elder to teach you. Get yourself a drum. When you sing a song and play the drum, you'll be surprised how your mind, body, and spirit will react. Everything becomes calm and joyful. Our bodies love the songs. The songs allow us to touch the hand of the Creator. When we sing and touch the Great Spirit's hand, He gives us power. Songs are another way to pray. ...

These prompts come from something called The Simple Woman’s Daybook that I first saw over on Janet ’s blog. I didn't study up on it too hard, or research what it was all about admittedly, but I just thought I'd put it up and share it for fun... No tags, just thoughts. It's Good Friday so I hope yours is good. :) 1. Outside my window… I see an empty street and impending rain. 2. I am thinking… I wish I could be more motivated and accomplished. I'm bored right now. 3. I am thankful for… My family, and all times when things end up ok after I worried I wouldn't get through them. 4. From the kitchen… I run screaming from the cluttered table and dirty dishes! 5. I am wearing… 2 day worn work pants and a slouchy t-shirt, what a bum. :( 6. I am creating… even more negativity if I don't change my thought patterns right now! 7. I am going… to a birthday dinner tonight and then Mom's house tomorrow evening... I'm going to start accomplishing more ...

Dear Friends and Loved Ones, At first, today, I was driven on blogging about "love letter" in the spirit of NaBloPoMo, and in having some fun talking about the love letters that I have received in my life (which there weren't many), and then asking you all to share your favorite or most meaningful love letter(s) with me. However, I procrastinated (or actually was busy), so I waited until later to put my thoughts up for your perusal. It's uncanny that I did, as more things were brought to my attention today, things I was moved to share that might still merit love letters, or have a lot to do with love, as well as life, and death. These thoughts preoccupy us all at some point in our lives, thoughts about what we will do when we lose a love or loved one because of life changes, or lose someone because of death (even our pets, our very special loved ones). I have to pose a question, "Do you really ever lose someone?" My answer is "No.", yours might be ...

I'm feeling so serious today, and I don't like it. I am of the ambition to never take myself or anything to seriously, and usually I do alright. But for today, I'm not sure what's gotten into me. I've been overly worried about things I have no control over, and letting things bother me that shouldn't. Things that are going to happen no matter what, and the thing for me to do is to learn the lessons from it, and to endure. Worrying isn't going to help, or get anything accomplished except for aging and stress. The best thing to do when we feel these bouts of worry coming on is to make some time for yourself to do things that bring you ultimate joy, whatever that is. For me, it's music and art, although I find it challenging to relax, calm down or meditate long enough to get into this, with so much "busyness" buzzing through my head. In thinking on that, I happened upon my Horoscope for today. "Instead of concentrating on your desire for pe...

Here I am, one amazing woman, still carrying on the tradition of apples... Here is mine, a little knowledge I'm passing you from my own tree of knowledge and life too. I felt in an open mood today, and I thought I would contemplate some of the insights that our great friend, Pablo Picasso left us. The bold are a few quotations by Picasso, and I will attempt to expand on his words with my very own grey matter. Everything you can imagine is real. Just look around you at the world you have created... It's beautiful, it's dangerous, it's joyful, it's insane, it's nirvana, It's ugly, it's serene, it's an Armageddon. You're all such talented artists and geniuses yourselves, every move you make is a brush stroke on an ever-growing mad masterpiece... the art of Life... Never stop imagining, lest you cease creating... and you are capable of anything... limited only by You. Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. Think about that for a mome...

Don't ya just love weddings?? Although my mother has always scorned me for never having an "official" goo-goo gah-gah wedding, I remain glad in a way that I never put myself through all of that. Weddings are the kind of places that you get stupid memories like this (above). A groom being so nervous that he can't blow out the unity candle, or someone getting blitzed at the reception and doing something crazy. So maybe I should have had a real wedding... who knows. Richie and I just got up one day, threw on jeans and sweaters and headed down to the Courts, got the only JP that wasn't out for the holiday (being December 28) and got hitched! Then he was so freaked out and frozen over the whole deal and the fact that we'd actually gone through with it, even though he was the one who brought the whole thing up in the beginning, that we never really went on an Official "Honeymoon". That kind of sucks. I never get to travel to many places, and I always wish...

This is something I thought was worth sharing, it is taken from an art newsletter that I receive from "Robert Genn", author of The Painter's Keys which is a great publication for artistic inspiration. I thought that today's newsletter had a lot of good things to say. It's about Climaxes--and yes, I know some of you might have different ideas about what you want that to be about today... and all Climaxes in life are good... I think this little excerpt will remind you of some things that keep life sweet... no matter who you are, artist, musician or just one who admires beauty and art from afar... On climaxing February 20, 2007 Dear Jacqueline, Symphonies, movies, plays, novels, songs--all tend to have a climax. Life and love have climaxes. Climax is one of the essential life experiences. Without climax, nothing seems to get anywhere. Climax represents the successful completion of the story, the denouement of the plot, the reason for all the effort, the snapshot at ...