Tuesday’s Tidbits

+ We have an adorable little plant and bookstore near us that states this mantra: “Support your body. Manage your mind. Expand your spirit.” It’s a great mantra. It’s a good mission statement. It’s a simple and all-inclusive formula to the best way to go about living a life.

+ I read this in one of Haemin Sunim‘s excellent books (it reminds me of two of my favorite axims in life – 1. Tears are our body’s God-made release valves and 2. Our lives are the clear, blue skies. The clouds always, always pass.):

“Clouds release their sadness by crying until they can cry no more. When they have no tears left to cry, they feel a great weight has been lifted, as heavy as all the tears they have shed. We can release our sadness into the sky within us. When we feel sad, it’s okay to cry like the clouds.”

After quite a dry spell, the clouds over us here in Florida have been crying a lot. In fact, they’ve had many stormy tantrums. And afterwards, everything feels so cleansed and refreshed and robust and healthy for it.

+ I have four adult children. I’ve noticed that my kids (particularly my youngest two) seem to believe that I have extra powers in my prayers. When they really want something to happen they often ask for my prayerful intercession with the Powers that Be, my “magic”, my mommy ju-ju. It feeds my ego to be “needed” but I know that their prayers are heard just as loudly and faithfully, and their intuitive guidance is every bit as strong and connected as mine. And so when they ask for my prayers, my prayer is that my children find this strong connection of their own, and that they surrender to it, and it boldly sustains them for the rest of their lives. I often tell my family this: Let Life Love You.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2458. On a scale of 1-10, how funny would you say you are?

Two Nags

I have two situations in my life which are driving me nuts right now. For the sake of mystery and privacy, I will keep the particulars to myself. These experiences are nothing major. I have been through much worse in my life, but they have been persistent, aggravating, longtime nags that show no sign of leaving anytime soon, despite my best efforts to liberate myself of them. I have this overall sense that if I could just rid myself of these irritations, I could finally open this new empty nest chapter of my life, with a clear, clean slate. (I fully understand that new problems always crop up soon after old problems resolve, but honestly, I am ready for some novelty, even in the way of issues to solve.) So dear readers, I could use your positive energy, prayers, juju, whatnot to ask the benevolent forces that be (whatever your beliefs are) to help me to clear these botherations off of my plate, or at the very least, to help me to stop giving attention and focus to them. If you choose to add your own situations to my Comments section (with or without details), I promise to add you, and your concerns to my prayer list, too. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And for my fellow nature lovers, last weekend my husband and I were sitting in our garage, talking, as my husband was cooling off from his biking trek, when a visitor appeared by my magnolia tree right outside of the garage.

It appeared to want to check out my “artwork”, my outdoor gallery that started out as a small melange of broken jewelry, ornaments, and garden trinkets that I just didn’t have the heart to get rid of, and then, as seems to be the way with me, it soon took on a life of its own.

This beautiful, ethereal, majestic creature is welcome to visit my yard whenever he or she feels the urge to do it. Its appearance made my day!! And if you feel an affinity for hawks (perhaps maybe even consider hawk to be a “spirit animal”), consider this the sign that you were looking for . . . .

And now, for my final thought for the day, if Al Capone called John Gotti a mobster, he would be correct. But that doesn’t negate the fact that Al Capone is (was) also a mobster. “Pot calling the kettle black.” It’s all over society/organizations/leadership these days, and yet many things of magnaminty still aren’t getting solved . . . . sigh.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Prayers for Peace

My prayers are for the Ukrainian people, particularly the children. May their fears be snuffed out by the peace of a strong faith and the perseverance of endless hope. My prayers are for our world leaders. May these leaders only hear and react to the quiet wisdom and guidance that is imparted to all of us by the Divine, for the highest good of us all. May peace reign.

Gandhi quote "The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace"

“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” – Malcom X

“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.” – Black Elk

“I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.” – Helen Keller

“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations… entangling alliances with none.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Mankind must remember that peace is not God’s gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each other.” – Elie Wiesel

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.