As you blaze a trail and your heart does tremble,

Be aware.

In what pursuit are you engaged?  What path have you chosen to take?

Illuminate.  Appreciate.  Celebrate.

Let your light ~ your soul ~ your self shine bright

As you pursue lasting happiness, profound peace and unconditional love.

Worry is fear manifested.
Fear is the opposite of love.
Love more.
Fear less.
Worry not.
Be the great I AM.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

~ 1 Peter 5:7

It is important not to waste our time in fruitless worry. Rather, it is far wiser to spend our time educating ourselves

~ Buddhist Wisdom

Karma?

..  Energy ..

Loving or otherwise

We reap as we sow

Know

Each moment is an opportunity

To increase the world’s wonder

For you

For them

We reap as we sow

Awareness of conduct

Respectful

Foreknow

Choose your own consequence

Reap as you sow

The warmth of peace-glow

Or not…

“I feel that you are justified in looking into the future with true assurance, because you have a mode of living in which we find the joy of life and the joy of work harmoniously combined. Added to this is the spirit of ambition which pervades your very being, and seems to make the day’s work like a happy child at play.”          ~Albert Einstein

In the mundane

In the arcane

In the everyday events

There is Joy.

From the morning

To the evening

And in moments in between

There is Joy.

In the loving

In the fearing

In emotions kept unseen

There is Joy.

Our responsibility?

Recognize

Realize

That which is always there.

Joy.

Yesterday The Good Husband and I spent hours in the garden cleaning, preening, trimming and skimming. We wore our swimsuits and hopped in the pool to cool. Gentle breezes rustled mesquite beans from their branches and clouds spread themselves thinly between the bright desert sun and us. Rain would come. Lovely!

In the Mission Garden I ate several late strawberries, trimmed back the mint (I have more than a dozen varieties), and harvested a lovely cache of figs. FIGS! Now there’s a fruit that’s inspired lots of love. And is it ever revered. Historically, the fig tree’s been considered sacred in all parts of Southwestern Asia, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. And now, of course, in Tucson.

Pliny The Elder, the noted Roman writer and natural philosopher, said “Figs are restorative. They increase the strength of young people, preserve the elderly in better health and make them look younger with fewer wrinkles.”

Bring on the figs!

Figs symbolize abundance, fertility, sweetness. Like a ripe and ready, fecund woman. The most mentioned fruits in the bible, figs also played key roles in ancient tales of love and seduction. Not surprising. Figs are sexy. Consider the words used to describe figs… Fleshy, Luscious, Rosy, Satiny, Smooth, Succulent. You get the picture.

Figs. I love them. Have I made you think twice? If so, take a look at some of mine:

Inspiration:

The Fig

by Gabriela Mistral, as translated from the Spanish by Maria Jacketti

Touch me: it is softness of good satin, and when you open me, what an unexpected rose! Do you not remember some king’s black cloak under which a redness burned?

I bloom inside myself to enjoy myself with an inward gaze, scarcely for a week.

Afterward, the satin opens generously in a great fold of Congolese laughter.

Poets have not know the color of night, nor the figs of Palestine. We are both the most ancient blue, a passionate blue, richly concentrating itself because of its ardor.

I spill my pressed flowers into your hand. I create a deaf meadow for your pleasure. I shower you with the meadow’s bouquet until covering your feet. No. I keep the flowers tied – they make me itch; the resting rose also knows this sensation.

I am also the pulp of the Rose-of-Sharon, bruised.

Allow my praise to be made: I nourished the Greeks, and they have praised me less than Juno, who gave them nothing.

I AM  Loving, Strong, Smart, Creative, Honest, Contented, Serene (most of the time ;-) )

What wonders reside within you?

Let me know!

“Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it.” ~ Ella  Wheeler Wilcox, American Author & Poet

~ ω ~

I’ll take my bitter

In the form of bitter herbs

Soothe me, treat me;

My distress, curb.

Chamomile, arugula, wormwood, mint.

Each a cure,

Sublimely sent.

In a drink, yes, I think

Bitter can be grand.

Salty gin, tonic, lime~

Never bland.

I’ll take my bitter with a little dash of sweet.

Combined with love and honey, a real treat.

Grapefruit, lemon, sour grape, wine.

Divine

But I won’t take your bitter, spewed and splattered all about.

If you so choose to live,

Then you

I’ll live without.

And love from a distance.

 ”I wake up every morning with a great desire to live joyfully.” ~ Anna Howard Shaw, American Physician & Suffragette

 JOY

In this day,

Hour,

Moment,

JOY is attainable.

Retainable.

Yours to have, to hold.

Be BOLD!

Reach out. Take hold

Of Joy.

See it.

Believe it.

Seize it.

Breathe it.

Take it in. Send it out.

Receive it, replenish.

It is your right,

Obligation,

Fate.

Lacking joy?

STOP!

See. Believe. Seize. Breathe.

Repeat.

When I first met The Good Husband nearly thirty-five years ago, I sensed something special.  Yeah, yeah, there was pure teenage attraction and unrestrained passion, but it was more than that.

As a 17-year old, he exuded an aura of calm and inner connection that I wanted to better understand. It took another year before we began dating and I had the opportunity to figure out how this guy ticked. Within a few months, after seeing him function  in the world and in his family home, I knew that the secret was integrity. The man has impeccable integrity, as did his father before him. Integrity is the essence that guides his every act, and has as long as I’ve known him.

Like many others over the years, I saw in this man, felt in his presence, a sense of wonder and possibility. I recognized an option to be a better version of myself. I wanted to learn that, be that, so that I could walk a similar path and emit that kind of light. It took some time, but for the most part, I succeeded.

Not long ago, I came across a related quote and am compelled to share it. It is, quite simply, an essential truth. It’s part of a philosophy, an outlook, and a lifestyle that can lead to only good things. And it correlates beautifully with another of my favorite quotes, gifted by Ghandi: “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

Have a read, then let me know what you think: 

“People of integrity seem to have a kind of built-in ability to handle whatever comes up as they go toward success. You see, when you act from integrity, you don’t lie. When you don’t lie, you have no need to remember. When you don’t have anything to remember, you don’t have to save your energy for protection, in fear of being found out; then you have access to all your energy in the present. When you have your energy present, here and now, you are in a better position to handle whatever comes up. If you do that often enough, you’ll gain an enormous amount of self-confidence, a belief in yourself based on empirical evidence — your life.

When you live a life of integrity, your success may very well manifest as wealth in friendships, trust, admiration, respect, and the ability to inspire others.”

- John-Roger, American Author & Spiritual Leader

“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.”

~Ashley Montague

…

Sunrise on a summer morn.

The moment each of my children was born.

Seeing him cross a crowded room.

Witnessing someone I care for bloom.

Weddings when the match is right.

Achieving the goal that took all one’s might.

A simple meal, a glass of wine.

Knowing, regardless, that all will be fine.

Because I let happiness seize me.