photo credit: fab­bio

“You your­self, as much as any­body in the entire uni­verse, deserve your love and affec­tion.” ~ Buddha

photo credit: Denis Col­lette…!!!

Will You

Will you go with the flow

Giv­ing the love that is in your heart

So that oth­ers may be car­ried in its cur­rent

~

Will you honor a dream

By tak­ing a leap towards it

Clos­ing the dis­tance with bold action and intent

~

Will you meet hap­pi­ness where it lives

Accept­ing only the present moment as real

And know­ing all you need for con­tent­ment resides there

~

Will you accept your own love

And care for your­self in a way that reflects that

By nur­tur­ing your spirit from an end­less source of respect

~

Will you let it slide

The imag­ined slight, the minor irri­ta­tion

And trade it for the peace that comes from a mind at ease

~

Will you give back

For no other rea­son than

It is sim­ply the per­son you choose to be

~

Will you walk in faith

Know­ing All That Is lives inside you

And it is incon­ceiv­able to think you are ever alone

~

Will you dwell in pos­si­bil­ity

Where imag­i­na­tion takes over

And doors open before you even knock

~

Will you breathe from your belly

Fill­ing your­self with a deep inhale

And releas­ing what no longer serves you

~

Will you allow today to unfold before you

By let­ting each moment be what it is

With­out hav­ing the need to change or con­trol it

~

Will you?

~ words writ­ten by Emma, of Grace­ful Balance

photo credit: 27147

“I believe that this way of liv­ing, this focus on the present, the daily, the tan­gi­ble, this intense con­cen­tra­tion not on the news head­lines but on the flow­ers grow­ing in your own gar­den, the chil­dren grow­ing in your own home, this way of liv­ing has the poten­tial to open up the heav­ens, to yield a glit­ter­ing hand­ful of dia­monds where a sec­ond ago there was coal. This way of liv­ing and notic­ing and build­ing and craft­ing can crack through the movie sets and sound­tracks that keep us wait­ing for our own life sto­ries to begin, and set us free to observe the lives we have been cre­at­ing all along with­out even real­iz­ing it”

~ “Cold Tan­ger­ines” by Shauna Niequist

photo credit: Natasha­la­trasha

“The ques­tion is not what you look at, but what you see.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

“What you do for your­self — any ges­ture of kind­ness, any ges­ture of gen­tle­ness, any ges­ture of hon­esty and clear see­ing toward your­self — will affect how you expe­ri­ence your world. In fact, it will trans­form how you expe­ri­ence the world. What you do for your­self you’re doing for oth­ers, and what you do for oth­ers, you’re doing for your­self.” ~ Pema Chödrön

photo credit: John Brown­low

“And when he came to the place where the wild things are, they roared their ter­ri­ble roars and gnashed their ter­ri­ble teeth and rolled their ter­ri­ble eyes and showed their ter­ri­ble claws—till Max said “BE STILL!” and tamed them with a magic trick of star­ing into their yel­low eyes with­out blink­ing once, and they were fright­ened and called him the most wild thing of all and made him king of all wild things.”

~ “Where The Wild Things Are” by Mau­rice Sendak

~ Com­ments Closed ~

photo credit: kafkan

~ Com­ments Closed ~

photo credit: oranges and lemons

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morn­ing a new arrival.

A joy, a depres­sion, a mean­ness,
some momen­tary aware­ness comes
as an unex­pected visitor.

Wel­come and enter­tain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sor­rows,
who vio­lently sweep your house
empty of its fur­ni­ture,
still, treat each guest hon­or­ably.
He may be clear­ing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the mal­ice,
meet them at the door laugh­ing,
and invite them in.

Be grate­ful for who­ever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~ Rumi

.    ~ Com­ments closed ~

photo credit: Bare­footAdri­anne

“The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. No, not at all. Fences have noth­ing to do with it. The grass is green­est where it is watered. When cross­ing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wher­ever you may be.” ~ Robert Fulghum

~ Com­ments closed ~

photo credit: Matthew Fang

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intel­li­gent peo­ple and the affec­tion of chil­dren … to leave the world a bet­ter place … to know even one life has breathed eas­ier because you have lived.  This is to have suc­ceeded.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

~ Com­ments closed ~