Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Love

Carving a pumpkin at Nana & Papa's
Halloween 06
Tommy as a member of the
Black Parade (My Chemical Romance)

I swear with all my heart, this little boy is all that I know to be true
The sweetest day of all for me was when I first laid eyes on you
I believed in a higher power for I was holding his finest hour
And my first prayer was, may you find your way.

And I was always someone every time I stood by your side
With a heart about to break with all the love I held inside
To put it simply, life’s very essence was
Always found when I was in your presence
And my every pray is, may you find your way.”

Tony Arata, "May You Find Your Way"

Friday, October 27, 2006

Warm Hollow-A Reminder To Myself

Whenever we have an opportunity to get away from our normal setting and experience the diversity that is nature it's always nice to discover our newness with loved ones sharing in the experience. When we return back to our respective homes it seems all too soon we miss the newness, the experiences and the company of those we love most.

All of the adventure, the love of newness, beauty and sharing doesn't have to stop because we find ourselves back into our routine...there must be a way to find this same joy and love here, now.

I believe what seems to be missing isn't really missing at all- it's found in our hearts and is always waiting for us to rediscover, over and over again. Each of us is the unfolding of a great Love story and perhaps we should stop and consider how much we are loved by others and the deep capacity we possess to love in return.

It is all we ever really have- our ability to love one another, to share this love. Sometimes we forget, very often it seems, who we really are and what we are capable of.

We are love itself, unfolding and always already complete.

"Realize what is present here and now."
Ramana

View from atop Max Patch


Warm Hollow Reflection

Cathy & Tommy on Max Patch

Warm Hollow near Spring Creek, NC

Smokey Mountains from Max Patch

Carolina Blue Skies

All photos by James Berry, my brother-in-law

More photos coming as soon as Blogger stops acting up!

Monday, October 16, 2006

Holiday


Leaving on Wednesday for Hot Springs, NC and Warm Hollow. Looking forward to rafting down the French Broad on Thursday morning, sleeping by the water's edge that night and discovering the new get- away; a country home in Warm Hollow we have rented where the rest of our family will be joining us on Friday.

Until then-

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Intention & Manifesting

Are you still interested in Alaska?” Her voice was sweet, not a typical sales pitch on the other end of my mobile phone (where did she get my number)?

“Is it free?” I jokingly replied.

“Well, no…but it’s at a very attractive price,” she said.

“You must want my father,” I said to her. “He’s been doing some traveling lately and planning for more, let me give you his number.”

Call it a case of synchronicity slightly a whack because I was just thinking about Ireland and a trip we want to take next summer when the telemarketer called. I had also just finished reading a really great article at Religion and Spirituality.com about a women, Arianne, who completely manifested her new love (right down to his first name) and how their life together became an adventure instead of…well, what most relationships turn into.

I was thinking how it is time to dig deeper into intending and manifesting what I desire in my life, in my relationships and in pursuit of my bliss. I am a firm, albeit lazy believer in the power of Intention and in manifesting: we get what we desire and manifest, or we get what happens to us.

“If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice,” as the saying goes and we manifest “happenings”; dull, lifeless, trivial, “things” that just happen to us. Choosing to decide, through intending and witnessing and we co-create our destiny; an adventurous, love-filled, enchanting reality (umm...had some, have some... want more)!

I want to manifest more (higher) through Intention (have been all along- it’s just a matter of awareness and “what have I been doing with my life?”) but it takes work. A lot. It takes “the vision thing” and it takes honesty, two qualities I know I need to focus on intensely and nurture so they may grow further in every dimension of my being. It takes work and then it takes relaxing- honest relaxing into the arms of what is- through dancing a most unusual and awkward ballet of perseverance and yet surrender too.

“What do I want?” What a powerful, invigorating question!

Arianne, the enchantress from the article at Religion & Spirituality began her manifesting by becoming clear on what she wanted. She became still (through deep reflection or meditation), began a fast (of one day) and decided to ‘create’ her manifestation on poster board, cutting out pictures and images carefully thought over of what she intended for herself.

She then created a collage of her intended future, even choosing a picture of Jean-Claude Killy, a French skier to represent the man of her dreams. The man she eventually met and married two months later was named Jean-Claude Gerard Coven (Jean-Claude Coven wrote about the experience at Religion & Spirituality.com).

She then placed the poster board so it would be the first thing she saw upon rising and the last before she closed her eyes for the night.

So, I guess it’s Arts & Crafts time… time to clearly be still, imagine, intend and manifest.

Call it silly, I believe in things like this. I believe.

Intention Graphic by Tribal Harmonix Music

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Autumn

My friend Ethan took this picture and I have to say....it captures the essence of Fall. The temperature fell into the high 50's this morning here in the South Carolina Lowcountry- a welcome change.

Can you feel the magic in the air?

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Daring Authenticity


Excerpts from The Exquisite Risk
By Mark Nepo

In the 1600s, the Japanese master Basho spoke profoundly to his student Kikakou:

We shouldn’t abuse God’s creatures.
You must reverse your haiku, not:

a dragonfly;
remove its wings-
pepper tree.

But:

a pepper tree;
add wings to it-
dragonfly.

The destruction or healing of the world hinges on how this thought unfolds. Whether we pull things apart or put things together makes all the difference.

The question put to our daily lives is: In love, in friendship, in seeking to learn and grow, in trying to understand ourselves, how often do we, like Kikakou, remove the wings of the thing before it has a chance to free us?

If you don’t know the kind of person I am
And I don’t know the kind of person you are
A pattern that others made may prevail in the world
And following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
William Stafford

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

13 Years




Happy Anniversary Baby! 13 years ago today... and you're still my main squeeze.
Dreaming of the day we'll sit on the front porch in our rockers asking the grandkids to turn up the Pink Floyd and RUSH.
They won't know what to think of us.

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