Be who you are
Be what you are
Be when you are
Be where you are
Be why you are
Be how you are
Yourself
a valuable, unique person
existing in the now
celebrating your place in the world
just because you are
you
this one October 13, 2011
In Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon has doctor Claire, make the following observation,
“So many you can never touch, so many whose essence you can’t find, so many who slip through your fingers. But you can’t think about them. The only thing you can do—the only thing—is to try for the one who’s in front of you. Act as though this one patient is the only person in the world—because to do otherwise is to lose that one, too. One at a time, that’s all you can do. And you learn not to despair over all the ones you can’t help, but only to do what you can.” (p. 815)
This applies for teachers, social workers, and Rotarians as well. We can’t save everyone, but we can make a difference where we are. One by one.
yes October 9, 2011
I’ve given up on talking to him again today when I feel someone brush past me. At the same time. I hear a word so soft and quiet I wonder if he said it up on the hill and the wind has just now carried it down to me.
The word is yes.(Allie Conte in Matched. p. 115)
I read this over a couple of times when I came across it, just to savour it. All the potential and possibility of a lifetime is wrapped up in that word.
Did you hear the story of John Lennon at the Yoko Ono art exhibition? One piece was a ladder with a single word mounted on the ceiling. Lennon mounted the ladder to read the word, and when he saw that it said “yes,” it changed his life. (Eventually, at least).
Yes opens the door to so much.
Yes. I’ll take this course.
Yes. I’ll go out with you.
Yes. I’ll marry you.
Yes. I eat that.
Yes. I will spend the time to write.
Yes. We love your work.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Before any venture we have the opportunity to stick with the status quo, to continue to be what we’ve always been and to do what we’ve always done, or to say yes, and to step off into the unknown.
There is risk in the yes. There may be criticism. But so what? Yes opens doors to greater adventures, more possibilities, new opportunities.
Saying yes, embraces a new future.
Say yes.
the reader October 4, 2011
Lost wanderer,
head in clouds,
still travelling fictional roads
though the covers are closed.
Slowly moving through today,
heart heavy
from a world spun from words.
Fiction being truth,
when living between pages
for several days,
rousing reality
proves difficult.
.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
Do you ever find yourself feeling something akin to culture shock when you emerge from several days of reading- reading book after book from a single series until the fictional world in your head is more real than the world your body habitates?
As you try to pull your head back from where it is still lost between pages, does your heart ache to be back in that place? Even while you’re full of knowing that the place exists only in your imagination, crafted from the imagination of another, do you feel it is yours as much as the creators, because you’ve journeyed together?
I have the same feeling coming home after a time abroad. Finding myself takes time. Good thing there is a waiting list for the next book in Diana Gabaldon‘s Outlander series. After reading 2 books (1800 pages) over the last 4 days, I’m quite emotionally exhausted.
Love song October 2, 2011
Lying in the afterglow
Replete with loving,
My head dances with flutes and violins.
A happy haunting
of my own song,
a lullaby of love,
a token from then,
lulling me
as I’m full to bursting
with now.
.
Submitted to week 7 Poetry Picnic http://gooseberrygoespoetic.blogspot.com/. If you are visiting from the picnic, please include a link to your own submission with any comment. Thank you!
impression & memory September 30, 2011
I was watching the move The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the other day and was intrigued with this quote. Benjamin says of the lady who taught him to play piano:
It’s funny how sometimes the people we remember the least make the greatest impression on us.
For example, my grade three teacher at Sam Livingston Elementary in Calgary was Mrs. Thompson. I don’t remember anything about her, except her name and her face in the pink fortrel dress in my class photo. However, it was Mrs. Thompson who first encouraged me to write down my many stories, and first gave me an audience for them, as she had my share them regularly during show and tell. That encouragement was the first step on a long journey.
Who made a huge impact on your life, though you ‘remember least’ about them?
the patient September 29, 2011
He folds into the chair
with deliberate casualness.
He speaks routine phrases,
but his eyes dart.
like a cornered creature,
warily watching.
He throws his words
defensively
he defines his territory,
while we nod
and wonder
when
wellness
will conquer.
Submitted for the Gooseberry Patch Poetry sharing on a theme of love and loss. This one is about loss. Please leave a link to your own submission, if you leave a comment. Thanks!
ridiculous love September 22, 2011
“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.”
-Agatha Christie
This quote came through my newsfeed the other day, just as I was working on a scene in Grace Awakening Myth, when Grace is appearing quite ridiculous, and Ben is thinking how paralyzingly adorable she is to him. If you’ve missed it, the third and fourth books of Grace Awakening tell the same story as the first and second, only from Ben’s point of view. Because he is spending a lot of time in the mythical realm, it is quite a different story, and it explains a lot of the mysteries in Grace Awakening Dreams.
As you remember from Awakening Dreams, Grace spends a lot of time falling apart in front of Ben, while he smirks at her. Those are the moments he is finding her particularly adorable. This happens a lot in the first half of the book, of course.
I love those nerdy moments that happen in my household, that make me flood with affection for the nerdy people I love.
How about you? Are you frequently stricken with affection as you observe the ridiculous in action?
day of peace September 21, 2011
Today is International Day of Peace. Some people think that peace has to exist within the context of its contrast to war. Real peace goes beyond that. Nearly four hundred years ago the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza observed,
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
I like this concept. We work for peace in our world, by being peaceful with our family and our neighbours. We have to live peace in our daily relationships.
When challenged by those who are not inclined to peaceful existence, or whose boastful, aggressive ways deliberately obliterate peace wherever they are, we demonstrate either our mastery over this concept, or our struggles.
Peace is an attitude. Maintaining it can be a daily personal battle.
Imaginary friends September 19, 2011
Illusions are powerful people. They have no flaws.
(from Sabrina)
I love the movie Sabrina. It is one of my go-to movies when I’m sewing and want some noise in the basement. I love how Sabrina transforms herself through travel and new experience. I love how she breaks free of her obsession and finds true love that was under her nose the whole time.
The first time I heard this quote, it was a bit of a punch in the gut. It was extremely illuminating. The imaginary people we create may be based on real life people, but often our minds turn them into who we want them to be, and we don’t see what they are. We create imaginary friends. For looking back fondly, there is probably no real damage in that, but if they get in the way of real relationships for our future, it is. Keep your eyes open. If your other friends don’t see what you see, through your glowing eyes of love, perhaps it’s not really there?
Shawn L. Bird 