Anticipating workers being here all day to work on our pool cage while attempting to calm and corral our three boisterous dogs, means that I will need some big laughs today. Luckily, I found them. I can’t stop watching and laughing at the video below. “Sag-Who-Tarrius! That’s MY sign! YESSS! Look at me! I’m Fire! Sagittarius #1!”
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Good morning. Yesterday we launched another baby into the big, bad world. Our youngest son moved out of the house, and he starts his first “real” job on Monday, since graduating from college. Our youngest son has epilepsy, and he has experienced a lot of ups and downs throughout his young life, until we figured out a combination of medications that work to keep him seizure free. Readers, please let’s agree to keep all of our beautiful children in our shared nightly good thoughts and prayers. That thought gives me a great deal of comfort. Our children and grandchildren are the future. Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog. Here is my poem for today:
Moon’s in Sagittarius
Last night was our shared full moon,
my blue-eyed baby with your angel kiss.
It filled the dark skies with thrill for June,
And hopefully many more months of bliss.
You are ready. Launch your arrows into the sky.
I can’t wait to see where they may land.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Just try. Just fly.
And when you feel unsure, know my heart’s in your hand.
You are raised. You are a man. You’re up to the task.
You’ve overcome so much in your young life already.
So, in the light of these triumphs, remember to bask.
Stay focused, stay true, stay strong, and stay steady.
When you look at the night sky and peer at the moon,
Remember that we both gaze at the same one,
Take it day by day, while humming to your own tune,
I love you and I’m proud of you, my dear blue-eyed son.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
“The basic needs of life are often taken for granted. Not by you. Your life is good because you don’t wait for a loss to appreciate the miracle of such things as breath, water, food and a safe place to enjoy them.” – Holiday Mathis
” . . . . .don’t waste time on things you don’t need to invest yourself in.”-yourtango
” . . . your allies might be feeling a bit neglected considering how much energy you’ve invested in dealing with the haters. Go out of your way to express your gratitude and love for their presence in your life.” – Astrotwins
“A tug-of-war could go on forever, so let go of your end.” – Christopher Renstrom
I am a Sagittarius and these lines above, are from my daily horoscopes from websites I check out regularly. Whether you believe that astrology is true, or just for fun, or it’s all really just phooey, (and those are my individual and collected beliefs, on any particular day, in any particular mood), I enjoy reading my daily horoscopes, and starting my day, gleaning some inner wisdom from them. Clearly, today has a pronounced prominent theme. The theme is – “Let go of the negativity, and focus on all of the positives that I have going on, in my one, quickly moving, amazing, interesting, blessed life.”
I have to say when I read the Astrotwins line about “allies”, you – my loyal, devoted readers, were among the first to come to mind. I am so grateful for your presence in my life. I do not take you for granted. I savor my mornings writing to you, versus writing to some empty void. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time and for your attention. Time is your most precious resource, and your time is appreciated by me, more than you know. I love you, my allies.
Today, no matter what your astrological sign is, let’s just take the advice for Sagittarians. Be thankful for your food, your home, your clothes and your breath. Realize the miracle in all of these things. Don’t get mired in the drama that detracts from your one precious life. Show gratitude and love for your “allies” (taken from a post I wrote last week, where the colonel asks his Soldiers these questions, in order to understand them better and to gain their trust: “Who do you call when you have some good news? Who do you call when you have some bad news? Who do you call when you want to laugh/cry? Who loves you back home?”) Friends, it doesn’t matter what “title” these people hold in relation to you, whomever is the answer to the questions above, these are the people who are YOUR allies. Stop taking your allies for granted. Stop assuming that they know how much they mean to you. Don’t neglect your allies. And finally, whatever you are struggling with, let go of your side of the rope. There is no game, when you refuse to play. Surrender. Trust the Universe with your fracas. Just for today, let it go. Let it be.
Have a great day. Today you are all centaurs with me. The stars are aligned for it to be a wonderful, fabulous day filled with gratitude and love for our food, for our shelter, for our allies, for our ability to let things go. Today, if nothing else, let’s spend it being thankful for our miraculous ability to just breathe.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
What is the perfect age? “Well, it’s the age where I finally understand my freedom, and I finally understand that I am free to create, and it’s the age that I am at my most beautiful.” And we say, by whose standards? In other words, who gets to decide the perfect age? And we say, rather than determining what the perfect age is, why not decide what the perfect state of being is—and then discover that you can find the perfect state of being at any age. – Esther Hicks
“All my days I have longed equally to travel the right road and to take my own errant path.” – Norwegian-Danish novelist Sigrid Undset, who won the Noble Prize for Literature
December is my birthday month and despite all of the distractions of the holidays, I have always liked having a December birthday. One, I like being a Sagittarius. I think that we are a real fun, interesting bunch. Two, all of this personal life reflection that seems to come around one’s birthday, is a perfect way to reflectively end one year, and to expectantly and excitedly start a new one.
Many of my elders and many older movie stars who have been interviewed, often say that despite their changing bodies and their evolving appearances that comes with aging, they have always felt like the same person inside, no matter what age they are, at any particular time. And that is because, at the deepest most eternal level of any of us, our forever souls are changeless and ageless. If you move past the crusty old body surface (which changes with aging), and you get past the personality and ego layers (which often have the tendency to change with experience and growth), you finally get to the peaceful center of anybody (which is eternal and never changes). And that tranquil, undisturbed center, which is in of all of us, is just lovingly and curiously and agelessly staying aware, without judgment, as it is experiencing life as a human being.
In short, there is nothing outside of us to search for in this life. “The perfect state of being” exists in all of us, and at any age, if you are willing to dig deep down past all of the other “stuff” – the layers of body and personality and ego. Our “perfect state of being” was always there and it will always be there. Birthday parties are amusing to our “perfect state of being”. Our “perfect state of being” likes to notice the sensations of excitement and anticipation that comes with birthdays and parties and celebrations, but in reality, our “perfect state of being/souls” are ageless and timeless and at perfect peace at all times.
Forgive me, readers. I do have a tendency to get deep around my birthday. Deep thinking and writing about my deep thinking is one of my greatest joys in life. Doing the things that I love to do, is when I feel most connected to the deepest, most centered part of myself. Staying connected to my “perfect state of being” makes me feel connected to eternity. How many candles do you put on a cake for an eternal soul?
“We know more about the surface of the sun than the deep earth,” says Rich Muller of the Lab’s Physics Division, a professor of physics at UC Berkeley.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
“Before you say it, Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” – Bernard Meltzer
I used to espouse the above quotation to my children so much that my youngest son took it and ran with it. He said it so much and so loudly in school, that his second grade teacher made a giant poster board of those three questions and credited it to my son. For the record, my son is not Bernard Meltzer.
In all fairness, this was more of a “do as I say, not as I do” teaching. It is something to strive for every day, but I admittedly fall short. I have a tendency to be blunt. I also have a tendency to blame my bluntness on the fact that I’m a Sagittarius. (As if a pseudoscience based on the alignment of planets excuses me for being an ass, but hell, taking accountability is a work in progress, too.)
We’ve all heard the saying that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason, but in a loud world filled with so much information, it sometimes feels like we need to shout to be heard. And quickly. The trick is to stop and to think and to ponder before shouting, I guess. There is a Latin saying that when translated goes something like this, “Truth speaks for itself, if we let it speak.”
I have learned from experts that there are 5 simple rules for good communication. The first rule is to be in a place of empathy and compassion. The second rule is to stay calm and try not to speak from an angry place. The third rule is to use “I” statements instead of “you” statements to avoid blaming and shaming. The 4th rule is to ask questions instead of lecturing. “How do you think this situation makes me feel?” is a good question to ask another person for getting them to see things from your perspective. And the 5th rule is to make an agreement about things going forward and to forgive the past. Of course, these rules work best if you are superhuman, or the emotionless Mr. Spock or the incredibly kind Dalai Lama, but nevertheless, they are something to strive for in our every day relationships.
There is a neat tee shirt company called Om + Ah London. One of their best selling tees says this: Be the reason someone believes in the goodness of people. I imagine that being a thoughtful communicator would go a long way in achieving this goal. The quote is certainly a worthwhile goal to strive for and possibly might be worth putting on a giant poster board right beside my desk.
I’m taking my daughter to the Taylor Swift concert tonight. She and one of my best friends from college are going together. We got the idea from two other best friends from college who recently did the same thing in another city. I’m so excited!
This will be my daughter’s first time at a music concert ever. I’m so honored and pleased to share that moment with her. I’ll never forget my first music concert. It was Olivia Newton John’s Physical concert. My awesome, hip, glamorous Aunt Beth took my sister and I to it. She bought us the big fancy concert magazine. I held on to the magazine for years until it got tattered. However, the fond memory of being at the concert will last a lifetime.
I don’t know a whole lot about Taylor Swift, but from what I have seen and heard, I like. She’s obviously extremely talented and a wonderful businesswoman. From all reports, Taylor puts on a fabulous show for her fans who she seemingly truly appreciates. She is charitable and classy. I think what I like best though is that Taylor Swift seems to be so unapologetically herself. The older I get, the more I appreciate authenticity. It’s a rare quality. It seems Taylor Swift is authentic. Oh, and she’s a Sagittarius and I’m a Sagittarius, so there you have it. Icing on the cake!
I think this will be a great first concert experience for my daughter. I think this will be a great memory for all of us. Mostly though, I hope that my daughter will take this Taylor Swift quote to heart and be true to it the rest of her life: Just be yourself, there is no one better.
