BREATHE and celebrate Life

Krishna: a celebration
watercolor on watercolor paper
11/2012

I celebrate and rejoice and enjoy my life.

My watercolor image is inspired by an image from the LA Yoga magazine.  I have fallen in love with the mandalas? I think they are called.  This is the first one I have interpreted.  Meaningful for me this auspicious day.

Love to all and all to love. 

Yesterday I remembered to take deep breaths and count to 10.  It felt good to feel my lungs just doing their job.

Blessings in disguise

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 ~

There are times when life throws us curve balls.

They come in the form of family members interested in dishing out pain. Blood work saying something has to change. Situations that challenge to the core of our very being.

It takes the life out of us.  I sometimes describe the pain in these ways: as having a knife put in my guts, the air knocked out of me, my joy being stolen.

I feel like I wander around in a daze, unable to put food in my mouth,

unable to move forward or crazed with anger, hurt and betrayal, I have difficulty drawing in my breath.

Somehow I survive these challenges.  I get to a place where my breathing is restored. My belief in myself and humanity are restored.

Through the grace, kindness and support of my friends I pull through the challenges that come my way.

A blessing in disguise is an experience of something we don’t like, and in order to move forward on our journey we have to make a change.  In eating, in relationships, in the way one does things.

A blessing in disguise is a positive way to look at a situation that appears bleak and without hope.  Something can be learned from this pain.

A blessing in disguise means the universe is giving me another chance to get it right.

Blessings in disguise help us grow, they make me let go of whatever crutches I was holding on to and walk…forward in life.

I am grateful and thankful for these experiences, not when they’re happening of course.  When in the process of having karma show me by example what’s not right in my life, just like anybody else, I don’t like it.  It means I am not regulating myself well.

Embarrassing. Painful.

Tree of Life
earth, air, water
watercolor on watercolor paper
11/2012

Framing challenges in a positive way helps me heal and move forward  on my path.

"Yesterday's the past and tomorrow's the future. 

Today is a gift - 

which is why they call it the present."     

 Bill Keane

Seven things I am digging right now…

Berries – berries are good for you and a low glycemic food.

Raspberries are delicious.

Using my son’s iphone as an ipod.  It just is too great to access all my music and I have a dock with speakers.  I use it in the car.  FM radio has gotten so commercial. I guess it Sirius next.

A hot bath with epsom’s salts.  Love the soak after a hard day.

Watching the final season of Gossip Girl and Fashion Police.  I am embarrassed to admit I watch such trashy TV, but I love the clothes and beautiful scenes of New York. Joan Rivers is so irreverent, she says stuff only she can say and get away with.

The crispness of the air, the beauty of the ocean.

Every time I see It, it takes my breath away.

Sweating in the gym. It means I am doing something.

Blogs about fashion and transitioning hair.  I love reading

Other peoples points of view.

The Joy of Posting a Blog entry...

Peace, Love
watercolor on watercolor paper
2011

I have decided I love blogging, I love my blog.  I love writing and expressing my ideas. I love making the art that I use for each post and searching for quotes that help express my point of view.

Clay, words on wood
mixed media

I didn’t know when I started this that I would enjoy it so much.  Sometimes I want to say poignant amazing things and sometimes I want to be silly.  But no one can sensor me.  I sensor myself, there are things that are too personal to directly put out into the world, but knowing I can frame experiences I have had that may help another person makes me feel happy.

I am trying to make it to 100 by January 2013.  So I have to get busy and have something to talk about.

Watercolor
watercolor paper

I love watching how the words appear on the page as I type them.

I love saving the words, searching through my iphoto library to find a painting or photograph that I took that matches my words, or not.

I love words.  I love words like whimsy, peace, love, caring, joy,

centeredness, mindfulness, humility, kindness, truth, believe, clarity, focus, discipline.  This is my short list.

I love Sanskrit words like Satya which means truth, Om which means the whole universe. 

I love symbols for words like chinese symbols for grace, joy, wealth.

I love mantra’s, I think they can get us through tough times.

I know there are bloggers that have thousands of followers and sometimes I am not even sure who reads the words I write, but I still love my little corner in the universe.

Symbols I love