happy birthday

Happy Birthday to our Macer!!!! Have a great day Macy.
Love, Mom






May God bless and keep you always, May your wishes all come true, May you always do for others And let others do for you. May you build a ladder to the stars And climb on every rung, May you stay forever young, Forever young, forever young, May you stay forever young. May you grow up to be righteous, May you grow up to be true, May you always know the truth And see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous, Stand upright and be strong, May you stay forever young, Forever young, forever young, May you stay forever young. May your hands always be busy, May your feet always be swift, May you have a strong foundation When the winds of changes shift. May your heart always be joyful, May your song always be sung, May you stay forever young, Forever young, forever young, May you stay forever young.

- Bob Dylan

Dusty

Poor dusty hurt his paw and kept licking it.
We took him to the vet yesterday and he has an infection so he has to wear this.
He looks so pitiful....I think he is depressed......makes me sad too.
Love,
Michele

happiness

If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat,
writing a symphony, educating his son,
growing double dahlias in his garden.
He will not be searching for happiness
as if it were a collar button that has rolled under
the radiator.

-W. Beran Wolfe



This quote reminds me that it is not in the searching that I find that connection....it is in the being...in the now...in the serving...in the creating. I need reminders like these!
Love, Michele

mystery of grace

I do not understand the mystery of grace-- only that it meets us where we are, but does not leave us where it found us.

-Anne LaMott

Macy took this picture of this beautiful baby at Omega last summer. I saw another picture of this baby in the Omega catalog this year......Macy is in the catalog too.......with a dopey face looking through the "O" of the Omega sign.

It made me smile.

Have an awesome day.

Love,

Michele

One

Marko had to make sentences in school for each of his spelling words.
For the spelling word "number"
This was his sentence:
"One is the loneliest number."

It made me smile.
Read below.
Love,
Michele



Although we have been made to believe that if we let go we will end up with nothing, life itself reveals again and again the opposite: that letting go is the path to real freedom.
Just as when the waves lash at the shore, the rocks suffer no damage but are sculpted and eroded into beautiful shapes, so our characters can be molded and our rough edges worn smooth by changes. Through weathering changes, we can learn how to develop a gentle but unshakable composure. Our confidence in ourselves grows, and becomes so much greater that goodness and compassion begin naturally to radiate out from us and bring joy to others. That goodness is what survives death, a fundamental goodness that is in each and every one of us. The whole of our life is a teaching of how to uncover that strong goodness, and a training toward realizing it. - Sogyal Rinpoche

art's purpose

Marko made this picture....it is a picture of raggedy ann and raggedy andy...I used to have a raggedy ann doll.

I love Marko's art.......and the quote below.

...have a great day

Love,

Michele

The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.

-Glenn Gould

Born to Love!!

We believe we are hurt when we don't receive love.

But that is not what hurts us. Our pain comes when we do not give love.

We were born to love. You might say that we are divinely created love machines.

We function most powerfully when we are giving love.

The world has led us to believe that our wellbeing is dependent on other people loving us.

But this is the kind of upside down thinking that has caused so many of our problems.

The truth is our well being is dependent on our giving love.

It is not about what comes back; it is about what goes out!

-Alan Cohen

Love

We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love.
-Thich Nhat Hanh

Be the change you wish to see!

Great forces are directing you to conform to the patterns of your society. You have DNA that has been handed down from generation to generation, coding repeated behaviour patterns into your being. You have archetypal energies setting the standards for how you behave as a man or a woman, as husband or wife, as father or mother .... You are immersed in consensual reality, whereby the world around you reflects societal understanding of how life has been and is to be.

At the same time, you have an even greater force within you inspiring you to wake up and recognize the reality of who you are. This force, the creative power underlying the entire universe, is urging you to create brand new standards of reality.

The status quo is blind to our creative power. Create a brand new world for yourself, one that meets your deepest needs, and you will help raise the quality of consciousness of the entire world.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

- Gandhi

My Daily Prayer

MARKO MADE THIS POLAR BEAR....I THOUGHT IT WAS SWEET.
HAVE A GREAT DAY!!
P.S. HERE IS A LINK TO A REALLY COOL BLOG:
http://malamik.blogspot.com/
I AM SO GRATEFUL SHE CONNECTED WITH ME.
LOVE,
MICHELE

My Daily Prayer:

Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will someday be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject on every occasion. Release me from craving to straighten out everyone's affairs. Make me thoughtful, but not moody; helpful, but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing, and the love of rehearsing them is growing sweeter as the years go by. I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others' pains, but help me endure them with patience.

I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memory of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I can be wrong.

Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a saint - some of them are so hard to live with - but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil. Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places, and talents in unexpected people. And give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.

(17th century Nun's Prayer)

Live, Learn and Tell

Live, Learn and Tell

by K.S. Bhargava

At age 16, I learned that mothers always know best, and sometimes fathers know best, too.

At age 20, I learned that crime doesn't pay, even if it is done well.

At age 25, I learned that a new baby keeps the mother from from having an eight-hour day, and keeps the father from having an eight-hour night.

At age 30, I learned that strength is the charm of a man, and that charm is the strength of a woman.

At age 35, I learned that the future is not what you inherit, but what you create.

At age 40, I learned that the secret of happy living is not do what you like, but to like what you do.

At age 45, I learned that life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you respond to it.

At age 50, I learned that a dog is man's best friend, and man's dogma can be his worst enemy.

At age 55, I learned that little decisions should be made with my head, and big decisions with my heart.

At age 60, I learned that you can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.

At age 65, I learned that to enjoy a long life, one should eat what he wants after he has eaten what he should.

At age 70, I learned that life is not a matter of holding good cards, but playing a poor hand well.

At age 75, I learned that as long as you think you are green, you will continue to grow, and as soon as you think you are ripe, you are rotten.

At age 80, I learned that to love and be loved is the greatest joy in the world.

Zap!

artwork provided by Macy

You are a transformer. A human being is an entity incarnating in a corporeal primate body which is undergoing a state of continuous transformation from conception through birth, growth, aging and death.

We live in a state of continuous metamorphosis and that is great!
Not so great for an ego that would like to hold on to things, identify and resist change!
As a super complex process, human incarnation bifurcates into either a higher state of organization or a lower one.

As a Dylan lyric puts it, "He who's not busy being born, is busy dying."

Embrace transformation and ride the wave of metamorphosis.
Resist change and you will experience a drowning sensation as you get sucked downward by the undertow.

(Zap Oracle card) -Jonathan Zap

rest

artwork by Mira


"So often we try to gird ourselves to face a harsh and difficult world when we might instead gentle both ourselves and our world just by slowing down.
...We could take a cue from music here: 'Rest' is musical term for a pause between flurries of notes. Without that tiny pause, the torrent of notes can be overwhelming. Without a rest in our lives, the torrent of our lives can be the same"
~Julia Cameron

open arms

Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love
you will find that you are left holding only yourself.
-- Leo F. Buscaglia