surprise, surprise

Today was Mr. Russell's surprise birthday party. He is a very special person that we adopted into our family. He said it was one of the best birthdays that he has ever had.
hope you like the quote below!!!
Namaste,
Michele

I'll lean on you and you lean on me and we'll be okay. --Dave Matthews Band

creating our own reality

Is willing to accept that she creates her own reality
except for some of the parts where she can't help but wonder
what the hell she was thinking.
Brian Andreas

Lebron!!!

Mark took Marko to the batting cages tonight.......and guess who was there........
Lebron James!!!!!!
He was in the batting cages and Mark told him not to mess up his shoulder because we needed him. He told Mark, "I'm not going to mess up anything."
I hope you like the quote below.....it helps me deal with a change that I think we soon will be facing.
Namaste,
Michele

The only quality of character that will guide you reliably through the many changes happening in and around you, is realness. Trust who and what you are, and the universe will support you in miraculous ways. The world is being transformed through people like you, who love themselves enough to trust their inner guidance, and relax enough to let the universe take care of the means.
Alan Cohen

Love

This is a creature on fire with love,
but it's still scary
since most people think
love only looks like one thing, instead of the whole world.
-Brian Andreas

transformation

Lucky Mira!! She got to go to a concert last night. My friend, Traci and I dropped them off then came back around 10pm and waited outside the Ampitheater for like an hour for them. I can tell you that Fall Out Boy (the last band to play) is no Grateful Dead, but Mira had a blast and that is what counts. :) Hope you like the quote below.
Namaste,
Michele

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.
--Hermann Hesse

The great dance of life

this came via email today.
I thought it was beautiful!!!

What do you love about life? Serve that.

What fills you with joy? Serve that.

There isn’t enough love and joy
in the world, but those are the
spiritual and soul forces that nurture life.

In celebration of the Great Dance of Life,

Roderick W. MacIver

our task here

Our friend, Logan took this picture. I thought it looked really cool.
Happy Mother's Day to all the awesome Mamas out there!!!
Love,
Michele




No one on the planet will ever have exactly the mix of the people in their lives that you do. No one else has the assignment to touch those particular people with love. You have been given a divine purpose that no one else can fulfill. We can do a hundred other things but if we don't do this one thing, at the end, it will be as if we have done nothing at all.

Mary Manin Morrissey

letting go

Dusty got tired!!



The void is where God is. Empty places, empty moments are not really empty; they're pregnant. God is the potential fullness gushing out from every empty space, the ever-present possibility of a magic moment or miraculous thought. Off the blank page jumps a cosmic summons to write your own names. Out of that silence came the opening chords of Beethoven's Fifth. We try to consume the external, to give us a feeling of internal satisfaction. And yet we cannot satisfy that yearning, because nothing outside of us is the stuff for which we hunger. The more we grab, the less centered we are. And so we disintegrate; we do not grow. We take on the characteristics of neurotic, needy people, for that is who we decide to be when we look to the world for what the word cannot give us.
Marianne Williamson

Not Needing to Know

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:

How are you?

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:

What is God?

If you think that the Truth can be known
From words,

If you think that the Sun and the Ocean

Can pass through that tiny opening
Called the mouth,

O someone should start laughing!

Someone should start wildly Laughing –
Now!

~Hafiz~

I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy
Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

Paradise

Paradise is not a place where we are going.
It is a place where we are from.
We can go there at any time.
It is our beliefs that lock us in our hell.
It is the sacredness of this moment that is the key to freedom.
—John Squadra, from This Ecstasy

In the end, only kindness matters

above is a picture of my friend Charlotte that her mom,Leslie (one of my lifelong friends) took.
I love this picture.
I hope you enjoy the lyrics below.
Namaste,
Michele



Hands
by Jewel

If I could tell the world just one thing
It would be that we're all ok
And not to worry
because worry is wasteful and useless in times like these
I will not be made useless
I won't be idled with despair
I will gather myself around my faith
for light does the darkness most fear
My hands are small, I know,
but they're not yours they are my own
but they're not yours they are my own
and I am never broken
Poverty stole your golden shoes
but it didn't steal your laughter
And heartache came to visit me
but i knew it wasn't ever after
We will fight, not out of spite
for someone must stand up for what's right
cause where there's a man who has no voice
there ours shall go singing

In the end only kindness matters
In the end only kindness matters
I will get down on my knees and I will pray
I will get down on my knees and I will pray
I will get down on my knees and I will pray
My hands are small, I know,
but they're not yours they are my own
but they're not yours they are my own
and I am never broken

My hands are small, i know, but they're not yours
they are my own but they're not yours they are my own
and I am never broken
We are never broken
We are God's eyes
God's hands God's mind
We are God's eyes
God's hands God's heart
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's eyes
God's hands
We are God's hands
God's hands
We are God's hands

Being in the Now

My friend Nikki sent this to me in a text this morning.
Beautiful picture....and very fitting b/c it is my 20th wedding anniversary.
We celebrated it by going to see the Grateful Dead in Buffalo.
hope you like the words below.
Namaste,
Michele

"It is impossible for man to look straight at the present, because he is too
terrified by it. We stand on the stern of the ship looking at the wake and
saying, 'We're in very troubled waters.'"

- Marshall McLuhan

Surrender

Macy and Mira were outside messing around the other day...taking pictures of flowers and stuff. Macy took this picture then.
I was taking Mira to dance today and she was noticing the blooming trees and said "I wanted to get out there and get some pictures of the trees." Sometimes I need my kids to remind me about what is important in life!!!!
...kinda like the poem below.
Have a great day.
Namaste,
Michele

We have not come here to take prisoners,
But to surrender ever more deeply
To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world
To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear,
From anything
That may not strengthen
Your precious budding wings.

Run like hell my dear,
From anyone likely
To put a sharp knife
Into the sacred, tender vision
Of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend
Those aspects of obedience
That stand outside of our house
And shout to our reason
“O please, O please,
Come out and play.”

For we have not come here to take prisoners
Or to confine our wondrous spirits,

But to experience ever and ever more deeply
Our divine courage, freedom and
Light!
~ Hafiz
The Gift-Versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

Lost and Found

Pictures by the amazing photographer, Matt Platz


above are pictures from my friend, Kate's book signing last week.
She is an amazing person!!!!!
Enjoy the words below.
Love,
Michele



when you look into a mirror and realize that you are looking into the eyes of god enjoy the goosebumps Lonnie lockett Thoughts Across the Light Fence