Hidden treasure?

Macy took this picture last weekend at Old Man's Cave. Isn't it cool??

It is Mark walking through a tunnel.....Hope you are having a great day!!

Love, Michele

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

-JOSEPH CAMPBELL

May you feel loved

May you find serenity and tranquility
in a world you may not always understand.
May the pain you have known
and the conflict you have experienced
give you the strength to walk
through life facing each new situation
with courage and optimism.
Always know that there are those whose love
and understanding will always be there,
even when you feel most alone.
May you discover enough goodness in others to believe in a world of peace.
May a kind word, a reassuring touch, and a warm smile be yours every day of your life,
and may you give these gifts as well as receive them.
Remember the sunshine when the storm seems unending.
~unknown

Can you juggle???????

This is a picture of a man named Barla from Turkey. We met him on the OSU oval Monday evening. He was juggling and let us come watch. He let Marko try to juggle.
Barla can juggle up to 9 balls I think....He taught himself how to juggle....I think he said the most someone can juggle is 12 balls...I can't juggle more than one so even three is amazing to me.
Barla is at Ohio State working on his doctoral degree in engineering. Very nice guy......Thanks Barla....It was nice meeting and talking with you!!!- Michele

"We live in a world of theophanies.
Holiness comes wrapped in the 
ordinary.
There are burning bushes all around you.
Every tree is full of 
angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb.
Life wants to lead you 
from crumbs to angels,
but this can happen only if you are willing to 
unwrap the ordinary by staying
with it long enough to harvest its 
treasure."
-Macrina Wiederkehr

Baseball Season!

Marko's second baseball game this year.

Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game! ~A Cinderella Story

Love of Nature

Good day!!! Above are pictures from Old Man's Cave in Hocking Hills State Park. We went camping down there this past weekend and it is beautiful and refreshing down there. Have a great day!!!

Love, Michele

There’s a wooden plaque on my office door that reads: “Whatever we love becomes part of us.” What we love, and therefore honor, helps make us who we are now. We can’t ever let go of that, any more than a tree could let go of the sun, rain, earth, or wind
that nourished and grew it.

-Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.

Love all serve all

May you become transparent to the wholeness in you
so that it shines, and reminds people where their home is.
May you serve with everything you know and everything you are.
-Rachel Naomi Remen

an old healing prayer that comes from the Central American indigenous peoples:

Do all the good that you can,

In all the ways that you can,

By all the means that you can,

To all the people that you can,

In all the places that you can,

For as long as ever you can.

"The irony is this:
If you don't go in, you can't find out."
-Richard Stine

Are you ready to become a source of Peace???

I love the article. I hope you do too!! Makes me rethink a lot of things like being pro-peace and committing myself to peace instead of "Anti" anything............. Love, Michele
Inner Peace Philosophy
(How Deliberate Creators Propogate Peace)

1. You'll know that you are Deliberately Creating Peace when...
you feel guided to take your focus off the external world. Deliberate Creators know that we are, at all moments, creating our future. Some of us are doing this creating 'deliberately' while others, by getting caught up in the swirl of events that surround us, are doing this creation 'by default'.
Which do you choose: to create deliberately or by default?

2. You'll know that you are Deliberately Creating Peace when...
in relationship with others, you strive to bring the focus to areas of harmony and agreement instead of conflict and discord. Deliberate Creators appreciate that what we resist, persists and, therefore, make thoughtful determinations of where attention should be placed.

Which relationships in your life could benefit from a short time spent focusing on areas of agreement?


3. You'll know that you are Deliberately Creating Peace when...
you let go of the idea that you can only feel peaceful when everything around you is going a certain way and, instead, recognize that you have the power within you to choose to experience peace.

Who (or what) have you allowed to destroy your sense of peace - and how can you reclaim it?

4. You'll know that you are Deliberately Creating Peace when...
you notice that, when someone 'pushes your buttons', instead of expending your energy trying to get the other person to change, you search inside yourself and ask, 'what happened inside me that led me to react that way to you?' Whenever we feel a painful emotion (anger, resentment, jealousy, fear, depression, desire for vengeance, grief) this simply means that someone has activated one of our wounds and a powerful opportunity for healing lies right in front of us.

The next time you find that your 'buttons' have been pushed, where will you focus your attention -- inward or outward?


5. You'll know that you are Deliberately Creating Peace when...
you find yourself put off by anti-war demonstrations and the notion of judging and condemning the players in a dispute. Deliberate Creators understand that we cannot be engaged in a battle and be a source for peace at the same time.

Where are you investing your energy -- in a battle against war or in a commitment to peace?

6. You'll know that you are Deliberately Creating Peace when...
you find yourself focusing on what you are wanting instead of what you are not wanting. Deliberate Creators recognize that what we focus on expands and they give careful thought as to what they want to have expand in their lives.

What in the world would you like to see expand?


7. You'll know that you are Deliberately Creating Peace when...
instead of praying for an outside force to bring peace to others, you commit to being one who radiates peace from within.

Are you ready to become a source of Peace?


by Elyse Hope Killoran

The Teacher inside you

The True Teacher Cannot Be Lost
  
  By Theresa Cordova
  .
It is the inevitable reminder that
no matter what the appearance of
loss, there is an Indweller lying in repose,
 waiting for us to connect and
beckoning us to come closer and closer.
 The invitation is for opening our
hearts and sometimes
 even allowing our hearts to break
in order to allow the
Light to come through,
cleansing our eyes
with tears of sadness and joy.
Then once again
 we can see clearly and experience
the truth that we are wondrously made.
We again remember to stop
and set a trap
for the perspective of the Indweller.
Within this perspective, we connect
 with the dragon of our feelings
as it transforms from
a monster to a mystical, magical being. 
It is this being that
guides us throughout the universe within,
where we go so that we never
have to go without.

grateful dead

Hey!!! All Grateful Dead music channel coming to Sirius Satellite Radio starting in August!!!!

can't wait!!!

Have a grateful day!!!

Love, Michele

NEW YORK, May 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) and the legendary Grateful Dead announced today a new radio channel dedicated to the music of Grateful Dead and its band members.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19991118/NYTH125 )

Grateful Dead Radio will be heard exclusively on SIRIUS and feature music spanning the band's long and storied career, live performances from the band's own archives, bootleg performances from fans, previously unreleased recordings, and even special shows hosted by members of the band. Grateful Dead Radio is expected to launch on SIRIUS this summer.

Into the eyes of nonjudgement

When we have for so long been judged by everyone we meet,

just to look into the eyes of another who does not judge us

can be extraordinarily healing.

— Jack Kornfield, A Path With Heart

May you be inspired today!!!!!

May you be inspired today.

May you be encouraged to travel your path
with sure feet, confident in your direction.

May you be spurred on to explore,
to face the challenge, to go to the next level.

May you experience many moments
when you want to stand up and shout, “Hazzah!
How grand this life is and I want more of it!”

May you fall asleep exhausted but giddy with anticipation for what is to come,
as though you cannot wait until the morning to continue the adventure,
to see what glorious miracles are going to occur.

And finally, may you realize your power to create such a day
and such a life for yourself for you truly do possess it.

Have an exciting day!




From the Book A Candle at Both Ends by Tiffany Prochera

Where do you live?

where Do You Live?
In the universe? On this planet?
In your country? In your state?
In your city? In your block?
In your house? In your body?
In our heart? Where?
- Richard Stine

The Power of One

The Power Of One
One song can spark a moment, One flower can wake the dream.
One tree can start a forest, One bird can herald spring.
One smile begins a friendship, One handclasp lifts a soul.
One star can guide a ship at sea, One word can frame the goal.
One vote can change a nation, One sunbeam lights a room.
One candle wipes out darkness, One laugh will conquer gloom.
One step must start each journey, One word must start each prayer.
One hope will raise our spirits, One touch can show you care.
One voice can speak with wisdom, One heart can know what's true.
One life can make the difference, You see, IT'S UP TO YOU!
~ Author Unknown~

Crippled inside

nice tie!!


I think John Lennon was such an old soul....and lived life deep.
Peace, Michele



Crippled Inside
by John Lennon

You can shine your shoes and wear a suit
You can comb your hair and look quite cute
You can hide your face behind a smile
One thing you can't hide
Is when you're crippled inside

You can wear a mask and paint your face
You can call yourself the human race
You can wear a collar and a tie
One thing you can't hide
Is when you're crippled inside

Well now you know that your
Cat has nine lives, yeah
Nine lives to itself
You only got one
And a dog's life ain't fun
Mamma, take a look outside

You can go to church and sing a hymn
You can judge me by the color of my skin
You can live a lie until you die
One thing you can't hide
Is when you're crippled inside

Well now you know that your
Cat has nine lives, yeah
Nine lives to itself
But you only got one
And a dog's life ain't fun
Mamma take a look outside

You can go to church and sing a hymn
Judge me by the color of my skin
You can live a lie until you die
One thing you can't hide
Is when you're crippled inside
One thing you can't hide
Is when you're crippled inside
One thing you can't hide
Is when you're crippled inside

GET A LIFE!!!!!

Mira took this picture....I love her pictures......that is why I borrow them!!

I love this commencement speech. I wish I would have been told this when I graduated.....but I doubt I would have listened.
Anyway, it is a beautiful speech....and makes me think how many times I am on "cruise control"
and missing the beauty of the here and now.
Have a great day.
love,
Michele


Commencement Speech
--Anna Quindlen

So here's what I wanted to tell you today: get a life.
A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion,
the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Do you think you'd care so very much about those things
if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast?
Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water
pushing itself on a breeze over Seaside Heights,
a life in which you stop and watch how a red tailed hawk circles over the water gap
or the way a baby scowls with concentration
when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger.
Get a life in which you are not alone.
Find people you love, and who love you.

And remember that love is not leisure, it is work.
Each time you look at your diploma, remember that you are still a student,
still learning how to best treasure your connection to others.
Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail.
Write a letter. Kiss your Mom. Hug your Dad.

Get a life in which you are generous.
Look around at the azaleas in the suburban neighborhood where you grew up;
look at a full moon hanging silver in a black, black sky on a cold night.
And realize that life is the best thing ever,
and that you have no business taking it for granted.
Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around.
Take money you would have spent on beers and give it to charity.
Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister.
All of you want to do well.

But if you do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough.
It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes.
It is so easy to take for granted the color of the azaleas,
the sheen of the limestone on Fifth Avenue,
the color of our kid's eyes,
the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and
rises again.
It is so easy to exist instead of live.
-- Anna Quindlen's Commencement address to class of 1999 at Villanova

Relationships

Relationships--of all kinds--are like sand held in your hand.
Held loosely, with an open hand the sand remains where it is.
The minute you close your hand and squeeze tightly to hold on,
the sand trickles through your fingers.
You may hold onto some of it, but mostly it will be spilled.
A relationships is like that.
Held loosely, with respect and freedom for the other person,
it is likely to remain intact. But hold too tightly, too possessively,
and the relationship slips away and is lost.
--Kahlil Jamison

Inspiring Quotes

I hope you enjoy the below quotes as much as I do.....I need daily reminders to slow down and be real!!! Love, Michele

Quotes by Margot Silk Forrest

If you wait to be invited, you might never get to go anywhere interesting.

What if we decided to love each other with the same speed at which we decide to hate each other?

There’s a spiral in the healing process. Some of the things you deal with early on and you think you have laid them to rest, but as you grow and your life changes, they come around again and you get to heal them on a much higher level. This used to really frustrate me, but now I see it is part of the process.

Are we ever done with healing? I reframe this question to, are we ever done with growing? For me, the answer is I hope not. I hope I grow until the day I die.

We can’t force a flower to open or a carrot to grow. Nor can we force our own process nor make it go faster.

The real crime of the heart is never to reveal it.

I know it sounds absurd

Hello!! below is one of my favorite songs from like the late 70's.
click below to see the video. I love the lyrics........I think it is about loosing your innocence as you grow up in the physical world and learn to play the game.
have a great day!!! Love, Michele

http://tinyurl.com/2n5w8m

The Logical Song
by Supertramp


When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
oh joyfully, oh playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
logical, oh responsible, practical.
And then they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
oh clinical, oh intellectual, cynical.

There are times when all the world's asleep,
the questions run too deep
for such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
but please tell me who I am
Now watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical,
a liberal, oh fanatical, criminal.
Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're
acceptable, respectable, oh presentable, a vegetable!

But at night, when all the world's asleep,
the questions run so deep
for such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
but please tell me who I am,
Who I am, Who I am, Who I am

a vow to all my relations...old, new and even the ones I haven't met yet.

“I honor your Gods.

I drink from your well.

I bring an unprotected heart to our meeting place.

I hold no cherished outcome.

I will not negotiate by withholding.

I am not subject to disappointment.”

—Druid vow of friendship

This is my guide to all of my relations.

Respect. Connect. Release attachment to results.

Please remind me of this when I forget cuz I often need reminders!!!

have a great day!!!

Love,

Michele

Here's to the crazy ones

Carlos with cup
this is a picture of one of the most fun friends I know. His name is Carlos. I met him my freshman year at Ohio State.
He was in the boys dorm, Park hall 7th floor and I was in the girls dorm, Stradley hall 7th floor.
He is like my brother that I never had.....he was in our wedding and is someone I still just love to be around. What do I adore about him???? well it is his Humor!!!! His energy changes the mood in the room.....he can make anyone laugh....Now .....He is a cop for the LAPD and he has been there about 11 years. He still calls on all the holidays and at various times during the year. Our kids love him.....Marko thinks he is a big kid.
so here's to you Carlos....the below quote is for you!!!! Love, Michele



Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
- Apple Computer Advertisement

Being the change....breaking out of the daily grind

http://tinyurl.com/ysevty
Click above to see this awesome video.....I find it so cool how these guys turn all of these people on in the Paris Subway. People riding the subway just doing their daily grind and along come these guys sharing their joy and connecting others with their gift......and raising everyone's serotonin levels or vibrations or feeling of connectedness. Enjoy!!!
Love, Michele

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.--Buddha

Freedom

Freedom means not being owned, not occupied, not bought.
Freedom means finding the place in me that connects with every person I meet rather than thinking of myself as different, better or on top.
It means opening my heart to my granddaughter’s little perfect fingers, taking in the fragility, the tenderness there, the potential loss.
It means feeling what the suicide bombers must have been feeling at the same moment I am grieving those who died in the bombing.
Believing there is a power determining everything at the same moment I know there is absolutely no one in charge.
Feeling angry at my teenage son for doing the opposite of what I suggested at the same moment I marvel at his independence.
Freedom is not knowing where you are but being deeply there.
Not waiting for someone to save or rescue you or heal your terrible past but doing that for yourself.
Not putting your flag in the ground.
Being willing to get lost.
Living without borders and passports.
Evolving.
Becoming.
Freedom is about being vulnerable to one another, realizing that our ability to connect is more important than feeling secure, in control and alone.
-Eve Ensler

If everyone cared

This is a picture of two of my very dearest friends in the world, Diann and Sue.
They are always there for me and are two of the most loving and kind people I know. The below song reminds me of what they are all about.

http://tinyurl.com/2owz3d
click above to see an inspiring video.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
below are some of the lyrics.
Love,
Michele


"If Everyone Cared"


If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died
When nobody died...

Connection

mark in our art studio...hard at work.


Only in the intimacy of the timeless present can we awaken. This intimacy connects us to one another, allows us to belong, and in this belonging, we experience love. In this way we move beyond our separateness, our contaction, our limited sense of ourselves.
- Jack Kornfield

trusting the universe to unfold

We made this picture after cutting up all of our credit cards...the kids helped us....It is called Debt Free.....unfortunately, we still aren't debt free, but we do have less credit cards!!
have a great day! Love, Michele


"The courage to trust process means believing in magic, having a vision and following it, letting the imagination play, letting go of the controls."
-Claudia Bepko and Jo-Ann Kreston
from Singing at the Top of Our Lungs

Inside you

Don’t go outside your house to see flowers.

My friend, don’t bother with that excursion.

Inside your body there are flowers. One flower has a thousand petals.

That will do for a place to sit.

Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty inside the body and out of it,

before gardens and after gardens.

The Kabir Book

Robert Bly version

Loving all that is

I took a watercolor class at Omega a few years ago.....no I did not paint this there...I think I made this one when I was messing around with the kids one day.
Anyway, at Omega, the teacher, Ann, gave us the below quote. It has been something I go back to often...it is a good metaphor for being an artist..but it is also a metaphor I use for my life......I am trying to learn to trust my intuition...and allow things to just unfold....not needing to know why.....just falling into the unknowingness. Love, Michele



After all, we can not know what we are going to express.
What is really creative is bound to be a surprise because it is something we couldn't have thought of.

This is the thing we resist the most.
We want to know where we are going, why we are doing it, and
what it is going to give us.
We want to know it all.
To be creative means becoming more familiar with being a little lost.
If we are always full of what we want to do, there is no room for the new.
-Michell Cassou, Artist

Allowing

In avoiding all pain and seeking comfort at all costs,

we may be left without intimacy or compassion;

in rejecting change and risk we often cheat ourselves of the quest;

in denying our suffering,

we may never know our strength or our greatness.

~ Rachel Naomi Remen

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
~ Mother Teresa

Real Security

Real security means contemplating death, not pretending it doesn’t exist.
It means not running from loss, but feeling it, surrendering to sorrow, entering grief.
Real security is not knowing something when you don’t know it.
Real security cannot be bought or arranged or accomplished with bombs.
It is deeper. It is a process.
It is the acute awareness that we are all utterly interdependent
and that one action by one being in one town has consequences everywhere.
Real security is the ability to tolerate mystery, complexity, ambiguity—
indeed hungering for these things.
-Eva Ensler

Strange Design

(No explanation.....just Kuhar decor)


Perhaps life is a spiral of time rather than a circle,
for as we move through each cycle and season,
we are at a different place than we were at the beginning.......
and in this cycle and season, at once familiar and ever new,
may you know your LIFE to be your true vocation,
and may you live it wide and deep in LOVE
-Burkhardt and Nagai-Jacobson

On being vulnerable

Freedom is about being vulnerable to one another, realizing that our ability to connect is more important than feeling secure, in control and alone.- Eve Ensler

Being here now

For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life, but there was always some in the way, something to be gotten though first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happy is the way, so treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one.
~ Senza

forever young

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever.
Never let the brain idle. " An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name
is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6.The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on.. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county,to a foreign country,
but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

-George Carlin

Butterfly

Happiness is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder.
- Henry David Thoreau