Isn't that the truth???

Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected,
unplanned by me.
--Carl Sandburg

Happy Birthday!!!

Mr. Russell and me.

Today is Mr. Russell's birthday....he turned 62. He is an adopted family member of ours. Our family took him out to dinner at Applebees
to celebrate. They even brought him a sundae at the end and we sang to him.
He is such a sweet and gentle soul...and he puts up with the craziness of our family. I hope you enjoy the quote below.
love,
Michele


Love is the ultimate answer. Love is not an abstraction but an actual energy, or spectrum of energies, which you can "create" and maintain in your being. Just be loving. You are beginning to touch God within yourself. Feel loving. Express your love. Love dissolves fear. You cannot be afraid when you are feeling love. Since everything is energy, and love encompasses all energies, all is love. -from Messages from the Masters by Brian Weiss, MD.

Smile!!!

Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other -- it doesn't matter who it is -- and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.
--Mother Teresa

On being in a timeless state

a view from our back porch...I painted that picture up there....makes me want to get my
watercolors out....seems like I never make the time to paint anymore.....I can enter into a timeless state when I paint.
gotta do it!
love,
Michele

“Each state we encounter will succumb to the next. There is no way to avoid the transitions of our life. The chief means of entering them gracefully is to practice them mindfully over and over again. It is like learning to ride a horse: over and over again walking, trotting, cantering, over smooth and rough terrain, mounting and dismounting, starting and stopping, until it becomes possible for us to move through life in a graceful conscious way. In moving through the difficult stages of our lives, we can learn to trust our heart to these cycles and their unfolding as surely as we can trust roots to go down and leaves to push up through the earth in our garden We can trust each petal of a flower will open in the right order from outside to inside. We can trust that whatever calls our attention to practice – our body, our personal history, the community around us – in or out or retreat, it will bring to us what we need to live fully and genuinely in the timeless here and now."

Jack Kornfield

wage peace

a view from our kitchen......so many ways to say peace!!!
hope you enjoy the poem below.
Love,
Michele

Wage Peace

Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,

breathe out whole buildings

and flocks of redwing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children

and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen

and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening:

hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools:

flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,

imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty

or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.

Don't wait another minute.

Relationships

Marko and the vintage BilJac bus.....would love to take that bus
to a grateful dead show!!!
I was getting ready to go to work today
and Macy started saying "Help...I can't see anything....everything is black."
She almost passed out.....so I called off and we are gonna take it easy today.
I loved the words below and I hope you do too.
Namaste,
Michele

Every relationship is ultimately

a relationship with – Self.
Whether it is with a parent or a child,

a friend, a pet, or a business partner,
It is a sacred dream we dream up - a vision that

gives meaning to life.
This dream keeps unfolding and

constantly changing..
Our willingness to wake up and

out of ‘automatic pilot;
Read the signs and signals we are receiving;
Face the pain and grieve the changing

of the dream;
Communicate, accept,

and forgive failed expectations;
Breathe…and be compassionate for being human;
Let go of attachment to forms and the suffering

of the consequences;
Make adjustments, and continue to recreate it

- moment by moment,
Can turn the dream into a night-mere

or into a present.

----Samuel J. Kirschner

I hope you dance

Macy, Shannon and Alyssa....Mira took this one on her phone at Macy and Marko's
open house for their school the other night.
I love the lyrics below.
Love,
Michele

 I hope you never lose your sense of wonder You get your fill to eat But always keep that hunger May you never take one single breath
for granted God forbid love ever leave you
empty handed   I hope you still feel small, When you stand beside the ocean Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens Promise me that you'll give fate
the fighting chance And when you get the choice to
sit it out or dance   I hope you dance .... I hope you dance .... I hope you never fear those mountains
in the distance Never settle for the path
of least resistance Livin' might mean takin' chances,  but they're worth takin'   Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin'   Don't let some hell bent heart
leave you bitter When you come close to selling out,
reconsider Give the heavens above more than
just a passing glance And when you get the choice to
sit it out or dance     I hope you dance (Time is a wheel in constant motion) I hope you dance (Always rolling us along) I hope you dance (Tell me who) I hope you dance (Wants to look back on their
years and wonder)  I hope you dance (Where those years have gone)     I hope you still feel small, When you stand beside the ocean  Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opensPromise me that you'll give faith
a fighting chance And when you get the choice to
sit it out or dance   Dance .... I hope you dance
I hope you dance (Time is a wheel in constant motion) I hope you dance  (Always rolling us along) I hope you dance   (Tell me who) I hope you dance (Wants to look back on their years
and wonder) I hope you dance (Where those years have gone)  (Tell me who) (Wants to look back on their years
and wonder) (Where those years have gone)          ©(Lee Ann Womack featuring Sons Of The Desert) (Mark D. Sanders/Tia Sillers)  

On freedom

artwork by Mark




Some people fear seeing or feeling anything
about which there is no general agreement.
For others, it is thrilling to be aware of innuendo, shading, complexity.
-Deena Metzger

Patience and love

This is our flag that we have flying in front of our house.
hope you like the poem below.
namaste,
Michele




There are those who are trying to set fire to the world,
We are in danger. There is time only to work slowly,
There is no time not to love.
-Deena Metzger

Love

so many ways to say love!!!

below are some beautiful quotes on unconditional love:

One has to use love, not to bind or possess the world, but to free and widen one's own consciousness and the consciousness of the world.

Where there is oneness, it is all pure love.

He who does not love life, to him life is a taut and rigid grasp. He who loves life, to him life is a beautiful and powerful clasp.

You can easily tell whether your love is vital or pure. When your love is vital, there is a conscious demand, or at least an unconscious expectation from the love you offer to others. When your love is pure or spiritual, there is no demand, no expectation. There is only the sweetest feeling of spontaneous oneness with the human being or beings concerned.

---Sri Chinmoy

I love being alive!!

I love being alive. I really do.
And I think the way the world is going to transform
is by us getting back in touch
with the joy of being alive for its own sake.
--Matt Sanford

shattered into a million pieces

Mark accidentally shattered this glass table we had on Saturday.
He was trying to clean it and it broke into a million pieces.
All I could think of was what cool pieces of art!
He was mad at first, but he saved the pieces for art.....and I took some pictures of the glass. We are not a family made for a glass top table anyway.
above is one of pictures I took.....doesn't the glass look so cool???
I love, love, love the quote below.
Namaste,
Michele


Count no day lost in which you waited your turn, took only your share
and sought advantage
over no one.
--Robert Brault

on our jouney

my favorite Rumi quote!!
I made this years ago when I was painting outside with the kids.
For some reason...it is still hanging in our garage.
It reminds me to let go.
Namaste,
Michele

Mindfulness Meditation

a view from our back yard that I took Saturday.

Mindfulness is best described as moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is cultivated by paying attention to those aspects of our bodies, our minds, and our lives that we so take for granted - from our own breathing and body sensations to our perceptions, opinions, and emotions, and those of others. The practice of mindfulness can be profoundly transforming and healing, and makes it easier for us to experience the web of interconnectedness in which we live and work. It can give rise to greater insight and clarity, as well as greater empathy for oneself and others. Mindfulness can help us be more in touch with our deepest and most trustworthy moral and ethical instincts, reminding us and grounding us in what is most important in our own lives and in the life of those we most love and care for.
-Jon Kabat Zinn