Showing posts with label inner peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inner peace. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

A FURRY TEACHER AND INSPIRATION


Let me see, tonight a lot of things ran through my mind edging each other for attention wanting to see itself on print. But I hemmed and hawed .. even devised excuses, flimsy as it really were, not to write. To further escape the push I picked up the book (remember the one I bought last Friday? - The Art Of Thinking Clearly) and sat down on the bed to read it. Na-ah didn't work either. Because what I was reading even presented fantastic reasons to write! The book was that good that I wanted to share it with you but feeling unequal to the task I declined. (Well, sometimes I get that feeling or is it just a passing mood.) Yeah, another time perhaps, besides I'm not finished with the book yet. Why not paint? I asked myself. I have been trying to since last week but here's the truth, it takes more than just the desire to finally get out the colors and canvass to paint. And I wouldn't budge an inch in that direction either, so no go on that one.

So I decided to watch something on TV. Sat on the couch and turned on to different channels hoping that one would catch my eye. Finally..... saw Rachel Ray cooking up her 30-minute dish --- it looked simple and doable so I stayed and watched.

After a while a furry presence grazed my leg, slowly came up the couch, sat beside me so close that nothing could squeeze itself between us, and nudged her head to my side. I looked down at Maxie's pretty brown eyes. She gazed back at me softly and gently with a sparkle in her eye like she understood. And I believed she was telling me.....  'it's okay, you don't have to do anything today.... just relax, enjoy the moment.... just breathe...'  And my soul was restored .... and finally found serenity .. tranquility. Precious. I love my dog.


Had something like this before with

Buddy and Lucky - Golden Moments

..... and MY ALONE TIME

Thursday, February 20, 2014

GOD, TEACH ME




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When I saw this in my inbox this morning, I couldn't let it go. It's such a beautiful prayer. Such blessed comfort. Had to bring it here because I know that somebody somewhere today needs to see this too. Blessings to you all!
------------------------------------------------------------------------

God teach me to be patient, teach me to go slow,
Teach me how to wait on You when my way I do not know.

Teach me sweet forbearance when things do not go right
So I remain unruffled when others grow uptight.

Teach me how to quiet my racing, rising heart
So I might hear the answer You are trying to impart.

Teach me to let go, dear God, and pray undisturbed until
My heart is filled with inner peace and I learn  to know Your will

By Helen Steiner


(Thanks, Mr. Quote Man; it's appreciated. And thanks to the internet for such apt images.)


Tuesday, January 14, 2014

MUCH LEARNED FROM SOLITUDE




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This was written in the blog a long time ago. But I'm bringing it here as the perfect platform for my return to writing after a brief hiatus which, by the way, was certainly enjoyed much.

THE INDEPENDENCE OF SOLITUDE

The independence of solitude... ahhh that's a beautiful phrase and thought. And yes, it's perfectly sweet. Knowing where you are, knowing that things are temporary and will pass, knowing that people will come and go in anyone's life, and knowing that anything that happens will happen because they happen for a reason, including love. Everything has its own place, time, season, and reason. (Ecclesiastes from the Book) -- All these are better understood in the presence of solitude.

Never deprive a man of his solitude because there he grows in self with self. He learns well when left to his musings, reflections, and insights. There he is restored to his core and once again regains his balance and true perspective. There he comes to terms with his inner demons and learns to sift through the grain to find his true gold. There he will argue with his God and who in turn will show him where he is right or wrong. There he sees himself without sham or masks and exposes his weaknesses as well as his strengths. There after all the battles fought he will finally come to a rebirth of self -- a renewed creative shining powerful version of his old self.

The independence of solitude confirms and affirms the independence of that person not only for his good but hopefully for the greater good of which we all must serve.

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions;
it is easy in solitude to live after your own;
but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

-End-

Wish you all blessings for a lovely day!



Friday, December 6, 2013

SERENITY IS A RARE TREASURE






Sitting here by the window quietly by myself is a wonderful feel. It's that part of the day when everything has come to waking while some early-bird humans are already into the day with their hands filling up with to-do lists. Mine is just being still... just being... just being here. As mother nature carries on a conversation outside my window I watch and listen......... trees content swaying in the breeze, sun cheerily bouncing its warmth on the leaves of such great diversity of color shape and size... birds flitting here and there atop branches in the midst of a chirpy symphony praising the day... sky undecided if it should be clear or messed up with jolly clouds but finally deciding it doesn't matter at all.

Wonderful morning!

Such precious moment. Nothing to mess up your brain with nor something to crank up your heart with in weary toil. No tiny irritating odds and ends gnawing at your calm nor pressure villains telling you to do-this-or-else.

Peace. Content. Happy. Feeling closer to the Divine.



Saturday, May 4, 2013

MAKE TODAY COUNT



One day I woke up in the morning with this strange feeling of....    Ohhhh there's so much to do.... What am I doing! I should be doing this (or that) ..... Time flies; gotta hurry or I'll be running out of time ..... Nothing's happening - can you believe that?! Nothing's happening! .... This doesn't seem to work; so what will??!! .....

When I told my best friend about this on the phone, she simply brushed it aside in one clean sweep with this quote...........

"Think not of the amount to be accomplished, the difficulties to be overcome, but set earnestly at the little task near your elbow, letting that be sufficient for the day;  for surely our plain duty is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand." ----- Lifted from  'A Way Of Life'. Sir William Osler's speech to the students of Yale University

But what put me back safe and sane on the ground once more was this precious wisdom I remembered from the Book.............

Jesus said...

"So don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough worries of its own."  ----- Matthew 6:34

So, people, the next time you get into this same kind of frenzy look into the mirror, take a deep breath, and say... 'Today is what you have...  tomorrow has yet to come. Make TODAY count.'   And swiftly shall  peace, love, and happiness be restored in your spirit.

Okay, folks, be seeing you around;  got this something to do in a bit. Small stuff but I think it would be great to do it. Bye for now. Blessings!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

HAVE YOU TRIED ALONE TIME?

Tell you something, for one full hour today I just did nothing. N-o-t-h-i-n-g. Didn't play music, didn't do the usual things I love doing ... researching - writing - painting - morning walk .... Just stayed still ... with myself.

So what was my point?
...
My point is this... that a person needs to have alone time. One has to tear down the curtain of the noise and bustle of daily living and of this crazy world we're in. I felt like I was being boxed in by the cares of the day and of life in general, that things were making my world smaller as it tried to squeeze me from all sides. I was losing control. So before it could come to that point I had to do something.... and something like cold turkey. Meaning just do nothing and be still.

So I just sat there on the couch... with all my senses awake... taking stock of my surroundings... feeling the moment.... but not reacting to it. Just sat there very still. Maxie my darling house dog got up on the couch and sat beside me as she always did but I ignored her. I simply looked at her and she looked back at me quite puzzled sensing something different in the moment. Then she shifted her position bringing her head closer to me, looked up at me again... still I did not respond. A few seconds passed then she placed her head on my lap and kept still... just like me.

Yeah, nothing earth shaking in that moment but there it was --- my lesson in peace and calm. Felt every knot in my tense muscles, stress and anxiety in my nerves, clouded brain cells --- all drain away just like waves that rush up to the shore and wash away the sand back to the sea.

Alone time -- that's what it does to a person. It unties the knots, clears the cobwebs in the brain, energizes, recharges, restores, heals ... and gives you the chance to pet a lovely dog whose pretty dog eyes tell you that she loves you!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

CALM SPIRIT


Have you had this kind of day when everything seems to turn upside down, when every nook and cranny of your day spells doom and gloom? Oh maybe that’s an exaggeration but it does happen. I know because I have had that kind of day or days when nothing seems to work and anything that I try to do falls flat on my face. And I rush here and there frantic to find a solution. It’s crazy. It gets me huffin’ and puffin’ like the big bad wolf in that nursery rhyme but the problems just won’t go away. So it leaves me with frazzled nerves and holding a bucketful of odds and ends that don’t fit. And then I lose my composure, my calm, my peace.


So where do I go from there?


Slow down. That’s what Mom would always tell me. “Slow down, child. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day.” But I paid no attention. I never really appreciated what that meant. Because I saw slowing down as a big waste on my time. So I plodded on with my usual so-called brilliant maneuvers to sort things out. Don’t we always smugly think that we have all the answers?!! Yet it didn’t work out, things just got more messed up in the rush and flurry maze I got myself into.


That afternoon sitting at my desk I felt the world tumble down on me, felt like everything I did suddenly were falling apart or have already. I pushed my chair away from the desk angry at myself, stood up and walked to the window. Nope, I didn’t find any answers there – not in an empty lifeless street, not on that old man idly standing on the corner seemingly enjoying his cigarette, not on that street dog lazily curled up sleeping on the sidewalk content and uncaring, not in the boring sky with an equally boring spread of boringly white clouds above. In fact, the scene before me seemed to have been frozen in time – no movement, no action, just very still.


Slow down, Mom said.


That empty lifeless street in a few minutes will come alive with people and vehicles passing to and fro going about their day’s usual business. That old man after finishing off his cigarette will probably head back home and carry on with his tasks as father and grandfather of the house. That lazy street dog when he wakes up will resume his barking at anything that catches his fancy or threatens his turf. And that boring sky will change from sunny to gray, from sunrise to sunset and will move all of life along with it.


But they all stood briefly for one moment to simply slow down.


"Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset." --Saint Francis de Sales