Tag: spring

Monday – Funday

Credit: Gregorio Catarino, Twitter

When our recent vacation came to its close, I was reminded of the Dr. Seuss phrase that my friend always uses at the endings of happy events and gatherings, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

On the other hand, when difficult things are happening, I often remind myself, and my family, and my friends, that our lives are really just the vast, blue sky and the clouds always, always pass. This visual always comforts me with its pure truth.

We brought our youngest child, our only daughter, home for the summer, from college yesterday. She successfully completed her freshman year. We enter a new passageway of being home together, when all of us are used to living our own individual lives. There is always an adjustment period during times like these, but I slept soundly and happily last night knowing that she was safely under our roof once again.

Today is May Day. For many cultures today marks the beginning of spring. Today, we enter yet another fresh new passageway into the journey of our lives. Smile for all the good times which lie behind you and that will always be a small part of you, hope for and excitedly anticipate all of the unknown adventures that lie ahead of you, and know that if you do hit a patch of black clouds, these clouds will pass. They always do.

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

Good Friday

Good morning, my beautiful friends and readers. Thank you for reading my blog. Thank you for “hearing” me. I love you. I started this blog in 2018, when my eldest of four children officially left the nest, by graduating from college and moving to a whole other city. And every year since then, I have written a blog post almost every single day. This blog is one of my own favorite things of all time. It has become my lifeline back to me. However, consistently, I have taken Easter weekend off from writing, since the day that I started the blog.

This is a holy time of year. Easter, Passover, Spring. This time of year is the biggest, most gapingly open portal to hope which we receive in any given year. It’s the perfect time to press the “reset” button. Whatever your spiritual beliefs are (or aren’t), you can’t help but to feel the renewal of life and hope all around you. This time of year, is the best time of year for me, to quiet my thoughts, and to let the good of life, just soak in. I hope that you are able to do the same.

Here are a couple of bonus favorites (for Favorite Things Friday), to tide you over. I hope that you are eager to come back to the blog on Monday. I know that I will be more than eager to write it.

L’Oréal Paris Age Perfect Satin Glide Eyeliner with Mineral Pigments – Oh my gosh. I can’t believe I forgot how much I love this eyeliner. I recently randomly pulled it out of a cup of eyeliner pencils that I keep by my bathroom sink, and then I instantly remembered how great it is, the minute I started putting it on. This pencil is so rich, so smooth, and so long-lasting. I love eyeliner, like Cleopatra loved eyeliner. I have a lot of eyeliner pencils. This one is the best!

Good & Gather Crushed Garlic Cubes and Crushed Ginger Cubes – I purchased these wonders at Target recently, and they have become flavor game changers. You keep them in your freezer (they look like small ice cube trays). Then, when you need to put something on the skillet, you just blop one of the frozen cubes on to the pan and it turns into the perfect mix of oil and flavor, to help to make whatever you are cooking, taste divine.

Have a wonderful weekend friends. I hope that the weekend ends with us all feeling refreshed, renewed, relieved, revived, rejuvenated and reoriented to living our lives with excitement, hope and energy. I will see you back here on Monday.

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

Elusive

****Happy Birthday, Big Red! (and little brown dog 😉 ) M, you were the first to make me realize the divine privilege and pleasure it is to be a mother. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I love you infinitely.****

So I have just spent over an hour trying to upload a picture that I took of Josie, our wonderful collie. I took the photograph this morning, through our sliding glass door, as I observed elegant Josie, out on our lanai, face towards the sun, standing calmly next to our abundant, bright pink, hibiscus blossoms. Josie, a full coated, tri-color collie, is total eye candy. She is truly a feast for the eyes. You’ll have to take my word for it. The best part of Josie is that she is a sweet, gentle dog. She has no idea how amazingly stunning she is, which makes her even more lovable and incredible.

We are enjoying a fabulous spring here which is making me take more pauses, during my days, to really soak in the beauty all around us. Our plants are having a particularly good blooming season, and it feels so good to marvel at the true beauty of the little piece of this amazing world which we live in. Last night, my husband and I sat in our tall, green, fragrant grass and we gazed at the almost full moon. I didn’t want to come in. I truly felt what it means to take a “moon bath.”

In my frustration with technology this morning, I have lost my focus on what to write about. Perhaps the lesson is to stop trying to explain (in the way of words), and to stop trying to capture (in the way of photographs), but really instead, just be completely one with the beauty of the moments. Perhaps the lesson is to feel the feeling of awe so immensely, that you almost lose the borders of your body and you forget that you are anything but awe. I think that this is what is happening to me this morning and this spring. Words and pictures can never fully and completely convey experience. Words and pictures become their own experience, while the actual sensory experiences can never be taken prisoner by time, or by words, or even by film. Our every moments are precious, elusive, fleeting gifts and our only requirement is to savor them as they happen.

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

Monday-Funday

The key words for spring are “new” and “fresh”, right? Happy Spring! Tomorrow is a new moon and the start of the astrological calendar. These next couple of days are the perfect time to decide what in your life needs some “new-ness” and some fresh energy breathed into it. What has become stale and frozen and motionless in your life? How can you add some vitality and brightness and vigor to your everyday routines? I read an article over the weekend that stated that we have a tendency to make major life decisions such as where we live, based on what we spend only 10-20 percent of our time doing. If we are honest with ourselves, 80-90 percent of the time in our lives is spent on work, errands, appointments, commutes, and everyday-functions. The smallest percentage of our time is spent on dinners out, and parties, and vacations. Yet we may choose to live by the mountains, or at the beach, or at the heart of a major city, at a sacrifice to what would make our everyday experience more calm, enjoyable, economical and pleasing. The key is to focus on making your 80-90 percent so wonderful that the 10-20 percent, almost doesn’t matter – it’s just the cherry on top. What are some little changes and shake-ups that you could make for yourself, at this fresh new start time of year, that could bring some sparkle and delight to your own everyday life? Spring forward. Spring into action. Spring to life!

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

Monday Fun-Day

Image

Who says that men age better than we do? Cher is about as ageless as they come. I remember watching the “Sonny & Cher” variety show with rapt attention, when I was a kid. Just typing that sentence, made me feel really, really old. But hey, Cher makes “old” look pretty damn good!

TOP 25 QUOTES BY CHER (of 137) | A-Z Quotes

Make up your mind to believe in yourself for the rest of this year, friends! Over this past weekend, we experienced the first day of spring. Astrologers believe that this is the true start of the year. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac. I love all of the redos and retakes we get at the beginning of the year. If you were a little foggy on January 1st, that’s okay because you could reset your intentions for the new year on February 12th, which marked the Chinese new year. And if you were particularly unfocused through the first couple months of the year, that’s not a problem because March 20th marked the first day of spring and the start of the astrological new year. Three times is the charm! Trying to pretend anything after this date, is the beginning of the new year, could be perceived as a stretch, but at the same token, it is never too late to start anything. It makes sense for spring to start the new year, I think. There’s so much hope, promise, and freshness in springtime. Miracles abound in spring. Happy New Year, friends! This is what I think this beautiful spirit of Spring of 2021 is confidently saying to us: “I got you, babe!! . . . . . I. Got. YOU. Babe!”

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