We have two of our sons with us this weekend which “magically” coincided with some delivery of outdoor furniture that needs to be assembled. (ha!) Anyway, my attention is diverted this weekend, so for this day of poetry on the blog, I am going to share some lovely words of Walt Whitman’s, who is considered to be one of America’s greatest poets ever. Walt Whitman loved our country. He called America “a teeming nation of nations” and “A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother.” I wonder if he would question her sanity today? Today’s poem is an excerpt from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman:
“I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.
All seems beautiful to me.
Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me; Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me.”
Walt Whitman famously said this: “I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.”
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
In my morning readings, I just read the word idiosyncratic. I haven’t seen that word in a while, and I love it. Idiosyncratic is one of my favorite words. Idiosyncratic means peculiar or individual. It means having habits and actions that are individual to you. Your idiosyncrasies are what make you stand out from the crowd. These are the things that the people who love you will nod about and recognize and smile, when you are spoken about. At my mother-in-law’s funeral in December, my sister-in-law passed out green ink pens to everyone. My mother-in-law wrote all of her correspondence (cards and letters) in green ink only. It was one of her special idiosyncrasies.
What are your idiosyncrasies? List them. Love them. Discover yourself today. Be proud of what makes you interesting and unique. Don’t be ashamed of what makes you, you. Those who love you will find these idiosyncratic attributes of yours to be endearing and familiar and interesting and intriguing and amusing and sometimes at the very least, just forgivable. Those who find your idiosyncrasies odd or irritating do not matter. They are not “your people.”
“It is one of man’s curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them.” – Joseph de Maistre
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Hello!! Happy Friday!! On Fridays, I keep it on the surface and I discuss the stuff that I like. Fridays on the blog are all about my favorites. Please add your own favorites to my Comments. We all love the joy of finding new favorite things to help us to enjoy life on an everyday basis! It’s all about the little things, isn’t it?
Sadly, we don’t have a Trader Joe’s close to us, but we were visiting my daughter at her university last weekend and she and I could not resist a visit to one of our favorite shops. True to the season, Trader Joe’s is not immune to the pumpkin craze. There was pumpkin everything, everywhere you looked. So, my daughter and I loaded up the cart with pumpkin stuff (and even an actual, real pumpkin for her balcony). My favorite out of this lot (and my daughter’s, too) is Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Body Butter. Surprisingly, this body butter does not smell like pumpkin. In fact, it has very little scent. The secret ingredient, however is the pumpkin seed oil, on top of coconut oil and shea butter. These ingredients combined make this cream easily absorbable, long lasting, and particularly emollient. As usual when it comes to Trader Joe’s, this big jar is a bargain at only $4.99!
Have a great weekend! See you tomorrow!!
Credit: Courtney W. May, Pinterest
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Gregorio Catarino is a man on Twitter who posts wonderful pieces of art every single day. This artwork above is by Zlata Devic Salaj. They say that dogs and their humans often resemble each other. Clearly, these two beauties above would be happy to say that this is an absolutely true statement. I found this picture to be particularly captivating because it reminded me of this tall, elegant white-haired woman who would walk two stunning, dignified white Borzois around our neighborhood. I haven’t seen the three of them in a while, but I imagine that I was embarrassingly obvious about just gaping and staring at the group of them, when they sauntered on by. The woman and her canine companions looked like a walking portrait, coming right out of a fashion magazine.
Speaking of art, I attended my second Zen art class yesterday. My teacher, and my husband, and my friends are being so lovely and encouraging and complimentary. I haven’t taken a formal art class since college and I had forgotten how much I love to create art. My husband said to me the other day that he has always loved and admired my artistic side, and that made me happy and sad at the same time. I wish I hadn’t let my interest in art go dormant for this long. I find myself shocked and disappointed when the two hour class is over. I’ve decided that I may take an art class for the rest of my life, much like one of the students I met yesterday. Cheryl is 85 and an amazing artist who has sold many paintings. She told me that she realized her own affinity for art when her daughter was three. Her daughter was given one of those old fashioned tin watercolor paint sets for her birthday, and she didn’t know what to do with it. Cheryl decided to show her daughter how to paint, using a dandelion as her “model” in their yard. Cheryl fell in love with painting that very day. She told me that she still has her original dandelion painting. Cheryl also told me that she never plans to die. And I imagine that Cheryl won’t die. At the very least, her spirit will live on through her beautiful paintings.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
These are the quotes that stuck out for me today, in my morning readings. They speak for themselves:
“Your values become your destiny.” – Gandhi
“Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.” – Zadie Smith
And here is my own “feel good” story of the week:
As I mentioned in the blog, I started taking a Japanese Zen Art class last week at a local Fine Arts Center. Many Japanese calligraphers and artists use a red block stamp to mark their works, instead of signing them. I was excited to purchase my own soapstone stamp and red ink, to start making my mark on my own art. As I was searching for something unique and special (I’m not a lover of “practical and pedestrian”), I saw the unusual ink pad above up for auction on eBay. I put it on my watch list because I adored it. I sensed its special quality. Apparently, the turtle vermillion ink pad was made in Kyoto, Japan and it was sold to the seller in a specialized, traditional calligraphy shop there. The seller said that he was selling the ink pad because he no longer dabbles in calligraphy. He claims that the the turtle is considered to be an “auspicious” animal in Japan.
Now the truth is, my second Zen Art class is already this afternoon, and I am not a patient gal. I wanted my stamp, and my Asian red ink for today. I had already done a “Buy It Now” on an interesting stone stamp and I didn’t want to wait around for an auction to end on the ink pad above, so instead, I purchased a more “practical and pedestrian” ink pad from Amazon, and that was that. Truthfully, I had forgotten all about the turtle ink pad on eBay.
Last night, I was having trouble falling asleep. My husband and our three dogs were snoring away in chorus, as I tossed and I turned. Finally, I picked up my phone and I played around with it, and then I looked at my email. There was an automated email from eBay saying that the turtle ink pad auction was about to end and there were no bids on it. Eleven minutes from ending, I placed my bid. What did I have to lose? I played a couple of games and when I came back to my email, it turns out that I had won the auction. The adorable turtle ink pad is mine!! I paid the seller and then I finally fell into a deep sleep.
Almost every morning, my husband arises at the ungodly hour of 4:45 to go to the gym. I sleep. Around 6 o’clock this morning, I hear the buzzing of texts going off on my phone. I look at my texts and I see that the Family Chat was full of texts. I could start feeling my heart beating out of my chest, but then I calmed myself, reminding myself that if there were a real emergency, there would have been an actual phone call from someone. I quickly looked at the texts. They started with my husband texting that he saw a strange little white thing moving erratically on our street this morning when he came home from the gym and he wanted to see what it was, so he got closer and this is what he found:
The little turtle’s bright white egg was hanging by a thread on its back. My husband gingerly scooped up the precious little hatchling, and he brought it to safety, by taking the newborn baby turtle off of the road and placing it on a rock, by the small lake in our backyard.
When I excitedly told my husband about purchasing the turtle inkwell last night, after hearing the wonderful story about him saving the hatchling this morning, I smiled the biggest smile (inside and out). These happenings are so “auspicious”, for all of us (the baby turtle included). I am not a believer in coincidence. Coincidence is always Spirit being anonymous and deliciously mysterious.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
“That of which we are not aware, owns us.” – James Hollis
James Hollis is a psychoanalyst, author (19 books) and public speaker whose main area of study is middle age in humans (in other words, us). He’s a difficult read. He says it like it is, and it’s not all “warm and fuzzy.” Still, his work is yet another reminder that we are the stewards of our own ships. Use James Hollis’ quote above to do a little soul searching of your own. Make a list of repeating patterns in your life – patterns that you like and patterns that you don’t like. Now, observe closely and really take ownership of your own part in each of these patterns. It doesn’t feel good to do this, especially with the negative patterns. We are a culture that likes to place blame elsewhere, but when we place the blame entirely on someone or something else, we lose agency. We may not be aware of it, but when we place all of the blame on entities outside of us, we are the ones putting our own selves in the ugly, hard, little victim seat in the corner, with nowhere else to go, but to sit and to pout.
Don’t be owned by the “unknown” parts of yourself. Be brave. Explore. You still have a good chunk of your life left to live. Do you want to keep continuing with unconscious patterns that are taking you to the same frustrations and toxicity, again and again? What about all of the good patterns in your life? Explore those, too. Become aware of the thoughts, habits, beliefs and actions that are bringing you to your highest level of living. Freedom is not being owned by anyone or anything. With full conscious awareness, you become free.
“In the second half of life, the questions become: ‘Who, apart from the roles you play, are you? What does the soul ask of you? Do you have the wherewithal to shift course, to deconstruct your painfully achieved identity, risking failure, marginalization and loss of collective approval?’ No small task.” – James Hollis
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Okay, this meme really resonated, especially for me on a Monday morning (okay, truthfully this resonates for me, during most of my mornings, but especially on Monday mornings). My brain cells do not seem to be allowing the coffee to permeate. And I’ve already watched a video of a quokka kissing Robert Irwin, made half of my bed, and put part of the laundry into the washer. Now, I guess I’ll circle around and finish up all of the tasks which I have half-started.
Have a great week!! Oh, and did you know that quokkas are considered the happiest animals on the planet?
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Welcome to poetry day on the blog. Plato said that “Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.” Nietzsche said “Poets are shameless with their experiences: They exploit them.” T. S. Eliot said “It is a test that genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” What is your truth? How can you exploit what you have experienced into a form of poetry? What are you struggling to understand? Write a poem. You might find an answer. Here is my poem for today:
“The Quest for Knowledge”
We are visiting you at your esteemed institution of learning,
My brilliant, driven, ambitious, beautiful daughter.
There are buildings, and books, and the bustle of ceaseless curiosity,
surrounding us everywhere in this oasis of youth and possibility.
Where will this erudition take you towards your lofty dreams?
I study you closely, pondering these things, quietly to myself.
But then I look up at your carefully crafted picture wall . . .
Beautiful pictures of beautiful people and precious pets,
Your family and your friends all glowing with mutual love and admiration,
The most interesting picture is placed in the center, simple framed words:
“I’ve learned that it’s not what I have in my life, but who I have in my life that counts.”
And this is when I serenely smile to myself, gratefully understanding
that you already know everything that you will ever need to know.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
I love reading articles by Karen Nimmo. She’s a writer and a sports psychologist from New Zealand. She’s practical, sensible, no-nonsense, yet kind and humorous, as well. She says that when people come to her for issues in their lives, she’s noticed six universal cravings that almost all of us human beings seem to have, in order to create satisfactory lives. Karen Nimmo says that these are the six things that people crave the most:
To Be Happy
A Quiet, Calm Mind
More Excitement
More “me time”
To Contribute to the Greater Good
To be Loved
Do these resonate with you? Do you know what makes you happy? Do you know what calms you? What excites you? What would you do with more “me time” if you had it? What is your gift(s) that you bring to your communities and our world? Do you know just how deeply you are loved by many people?
These are good notions to ponder over the weekend. A new moon was just a couple of days ago. New moons are great times for fresh starts. What could you do to give yourself more of anything from the list above?
I will end with this:
Kia ora kou tou!! (this is a greeting that Karen Nimmo uses a lot. It is spoken by the Maori tribe in New Zealand and it is roughly translated as “Have Life! Be Healthy!”) Today Alan Cohen asked the question in his daily inspiration, “Are you letting lifelove you?” If you want to feel grateful, think of all of the times that life loved you, and took care of you, and made things alright, even at those times that you didn’t feel particularly lovable or worthy of love. Have Life! Be Healthy! Let life love you.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Good morning! Happy Friday!! I’ve already been to the vet and back for Ralphie’s annual physical. That’s never fun for neither he nor me. A 99-pound (yes, he has to go on a diet again), nervous, energetic, drooling labrador retriever does not make for the best car partner. If you ever want to make sure that your adult kids are still alive, just text them something about the family pets. You’ll hear from them all immediately. When I texted Ralphie’s exam report, our three sons made fun of his weight gain, and our daughter texted a sentimental picture of Ralphie and my husband in a creek, looking like the cover of a Cabela’s catalog. Speaking of sentimental, you may have already watched my favorite for today. The commercial above is a commercial by Publix, which is our local grocery store chain. I don’t think that I have ever watched any Publix commercials without at least choking up. (the Thanksgiving ones are killers) And I think that the commercial above has to be one of Publix’s best. This commercial is my favorite thing, this Favorite Things Friday on the blog. We don’t have any step-parents in our family or in our extended family, but as a mother of four, I have witnessed many kind and wonderful step-parents of my kids’ friends and I am in awe of them. It is often a thankless position. Watching a good step-parent in action is a real witness of unconditional love, without expecting anything in return. If you are a loving step-parent, bless you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You make the world a better place.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
