A Magnet In Your Heart

"There is a magnet in your heart
that will attract true friends.
That magnet is unselfishness,
thinking of others first.
When you learn to live for others, they will live for you."
Paramahansa Yogananda

Home, after several straight days of work. I am exhausted, looking at three days off (I hope). The sunset welcomes me home. The world is beautiful.

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

America Is Good

 

"America is great because America is good,
and if America ever ceases to be good,
America will cease to be great."
Alexis De Tocqueville

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

The Mystery Of Our Own Being

 

"Every advance in knowledge
brings us face to face
with the mystery of our own being."

Max Planck

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Our Soul In Things

 

"We are all visionaries, and what we see is our soul in things."

Henri-Frédéric Amiel

My soul is the sun,

higher than Haleakalā

shining bright, quiet light

beyond the sky of my ancestors,

resilient comfort

of rising setting fierceness.

I am alive.

Colors mix my tears

like waterfalls in the ridges 

waves of grief, meeting the shoreline's anuʻu:

Hope.

Acceptance.

Transformation.

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

Our Best Selves

Birmingham, Alabama

"Courage, true courage, derives from that sense of who we are,
what are our best selves,
what are our most important commitments,
and the belief that we can dig deep
and do hard things for the enduring benefit of others."

Barack Obama

Being brave requires faith and the certainty that in giving 100%, all those things you need will help you get to where you need to go. If not, others will help. People always help.

Does it take confidence to be brave? Perhaps. I prefer believing bravery needs authenticity, honesty. And this personal truth--Can I face myself if I don't take the action I know that I must?

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

Colorful Silence

Five Points South, Birmingham, Alabama

"What keeps my heart awake is colorful silence."

Claude Monet

Where You Stand

Birmingham, Alabama

"Every sunset is also a sunrise. 

It all depends on where you stand."

Karl Schmidt

Miraculous Ways

"Trust who and what you are, 

and the universe will support you
in miraculous ways."

Alan Cohen

Ordinary Moments

Five Points South, Birmingham, Alabama

"There are no ordinary moments."

Dan Millman

Sweetly soaking the colors of the sunset.

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

Where You've Come From

Five Points South, Birmingham, Alabama

"There is an old saying
that seasoned voyagers share
as they prepare to head out to sea:
 'You don’t know where you are
unless you know where you’ve come from.'"
~ Lehua Kamalu

Create Again and Again

Five Points South, Birmingham, Alabama

"Curving back within myself I create again and again."

 (Sanskrit: prakṛtim svām avastabhya
visrjami punaḥ punaḥ)

the Bhagavad Gita

Saturday Morning and I am again listening to the birds outside my balcony this morning. Their oak tree song fills me with hope and peace. I have just finished sharing Aloha with text messages to my friends and on Twitter, reminding myself that today, no matter what the challenges that come, I will try to keep this beauty I feel alive with connection and kindness. 

Sunlight and the Oak Tree Bird Songs

I am heading to work shortly and our Alabama Nursing Home is still Covid19-free. We are working hard to keep it this way.

"Use your inner strength to meet whatever is coming today.
Strength is the foundation of passion
and you are designed to thrive,
no matter how life unfolds."

Deepak Chopra

Inspirational Source: Daily Breath with Deepak Chopra

A Poem Is A Meteor

"A poem is a meteor."

Wallace Stevens

Oh, separation

sirens cutting the matterless night.

This Loneliness 

caring stillness
the hardness, the loss
sorrow, continuing.

Broken dreams

deeper than death
falling
cracking
dissolving

tenderness to pain.

what matters, dear one? 
Intimacy,
the unmasked smile,
the moreness of this moment,
our honest connection. 
shared goodness,
no masked smile.

From Pain To Change

Five Points South, Birmingham, Alabama

"Passion is the bridge 
that takes you from pain to change."
Frida Kahlo

I was able to stroll outside and soak in the beautiful day. The spring greens are intoxicating and the sounds of nature are everywhere. As I walked, I smelled magnolia blossoms and heard the songs of birds. Time cradled me and I seemed to be one with the sky, trees, and sun, at peace with life.

In the midst of uncertainty, the light through the trees was a miraculous moment of love and connection, beyond description. I felt comfort, I felt hope.

Here is a photo that I took of the sun through the trees. Sending good wishes your way. 

I made a new friend...

There are discoveries, everywhere...

Our Real Blessings

Asheville, North Carolina

"Our real blessings often appear to us
in the shape of pains, losses, and disappointments;
but let us have patience,
and we soon shall see them
 in their proper figures."

Joseph Addison

The world spins, we will survive. I will keep hope alive. Now is a good time for me to invest in myself.

At the Other Side

"Your way begins at the other side. 

Become the sky."

~ Jalaluddin Rumi

That Golden Moment when the sun crests, everything is awash with a sheen of light and grace.

❥ Ka oli o Kumu John Keola Lake

E Ala E

E ala e, ka lā i ka hikina,

Awaken/Arise, the sun in the east,

I ka moana, ka moana hohonu,

From the ocean, the deep ocean,

Pi‘i ka lewa, ka lewa nu‘u,

Climbing to heaven, the highest heaven,

I ka hikina, aia ka lā, e ala e!

In the east, there is the sun, arise!

By Thinking

Birmingham, Alabama

"How does one grow up? I asked a friend. She answered, By thinking!" 

May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude

Your Own Truth

Birmingham, Alabama

"The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal.
It can't be organized or regulated.
It isn't true that everybody should follow one path.
Listen to your own truth."
Ram Dass

Change One Thing And Everything Will Change

Daily Sunrise: Change One Thing

"If you can change one thing--
everything will change."

George A. Romero 

American filmmaker George A. Romero (1940-2017) specialized in the zombie apocalypse with his iconic film, Night of the Living Dead (1968). 

Who better to be inspired by Today's Quote and Today's Sunrise about change? If you saw the flick, you know the zombies just wanted to live and the humans did not want to die. 

Whether zombie or human, one change, even a small change, would have affected everything, in the film and in life.

What Would You Change?

As this video shows, there are some things you can't change--like your height or your eye color. But we know that true power is within and there are bad habits we can change.

4 Ways to Change A Small Habit

1. Choose your small habit to change.
2. Come up with a plan: How, when, where to make this change?
3. Stay focused on your goal.
4. Celebrate after you've made the change!

My Change? Eat Less Sugar

I have a sweet tooth and have been trying to eat less sugar. I finally committed to the change.
First, I thought about it and realized I'm sugar vulnerable at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. 

Second, knowing this, whether at work or at home, I removed all sugar temptations. 

Third, the plan was not easy at first, but I tried to focus on the goal. Don't give up. Research shows it takes anywhere from 18-254 days to change a habit, but the average is 66 days.

Finally, after about a month, I zapped the daily sugar habit. Hallelujah! Now I choose when to enjoy a brownie. And somehow, when I do eat a brownie, it tastes even better than before!

Today's Lesson -- Change One Thing And You Change EverythingI can make a change with awareness, time, and commitment. When one thing changes,  everything changes. And the next change will be easier.

Death Will Tremble

Asheville, North Carolina

"We are here to laugh at the odds
and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us." 

Charles Bukowski

Inspiration and freezing joy: I had an idea to take a selfie with the bright light, cresting with me... 

Me and My Sunrise

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

Within A Dream

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."

Edgar Allan Poe

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Accept Things

"Our vision becomes very narrow when we need things to be a certain way and cannot accept things the way they actually are."
Sharon Salzberg

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

Hoped For

Birmingham, Alabama Sunset

"Do not spoil what you have 

by desiring what you have not; 

remember that what you now 

have was once among the things 

you only hoped for."

Epicurus

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

An Abstract Noun

“Love is an abstract noun, something nebulous.
 And yet love turns out to be
the only part of us that is solid,
as the world turns upside down
and the screen goes black.” 

~ Martin Amis

Capable Of Living

"There is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

Nelson Mandela

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

The Hugest Gift

"It’s such a gift for someone to tell you the truth,
and it’s such a gift for someone to create art
with the mess and the chaos and the despair of life,
to have turned it into a song,
a poem,
a novel.
It’s the hugest gift we have
to offer one another."

~ Anne Lamott

My art for sale:

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

Creative Minds

"Creative minds are rarely tidy."

~ Abbey Plaque

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Pillars Of Learning

 "Seeing much, suffering much
and studying much,
are the three pillars of learning."

~ Benjamin Disraeli 

I am reaching out to a wonderful Birmingham sunset... What a deep connection, So close to the horizon, it sets so quickly. Delight! I must pause, settle down, watch. Or I'll miss it.

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

Important Things

"A shaft of sunlight at the end of a dark afternoon, a note in music, and the way the back of a baby’s neck smells if its mother keeps it tidy… Those are the important things."

~ E. B. White 

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

Wake Up

"Wake up… Your ultimate purpose in life is to awaken."

~ Eckhart Tolle

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A Living Prayer

Outside, Birmingham

"When you live with constant gratitude, 

your life will become a living prayer."

~ Barbara De Angelis

Inside

Happiness Is Contagious

"Happiness is contagious. Be a carrier!"
~ Robert Orben

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

Participating in Divinity

"When before the beauty of a sunset or a mountain you pause and exclaim, 'Ah,' you are participating in divinity."
~ Joseph Campbell

Sitting at my desk, screen open, my flowers and I are soaking in this afternoon's red-orange sun.

♥ My Society6 Art Gallery \(‾◡◝ )/ 

Is the World

"Is the world a problem?

Is the world an opportunity?
Is this challenge a crisis?
Or is this challenge an opportunity?"

~ Deepak Chopra

Rejoicing In Ordinary Things

"Rejoicing in ordinary things
is not sentimental or trite.
It actually takes guts."

~ Pema Chödrön

Beyond the sounds of the city, I am listening deeply to the sky. So many birds, singing as if just for me. Sweet, light, deep, steady. A concerto. An invitation. 

A celebration.

The Creative Power

"Odd how the creative power at once 

brings the whole universe to order."

~ Virginia Woolf

Finally home from work. A wonderful, full 15,000-step day. Letting the setting sun massage my feet and happy to just soak in the beauty of the dwindling day. Oh, how grateful I am to be alive.

Rose Again

"Courage is not defined by those
who fought and did not fall, 

but by those who fought, fell, and rose again."

~ Adrienne Rich

Delighted by the setting sun, hitting the horizon, and the sky, ablaze with color and courage. Birmingham, Alabama, I am enthralled, grateful, and falling in love with your beauty.