The card I mentioned yesterday was purchased yesterday by the person who gave it a heart. She also thanked me and said the card inspired her!
"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." --Marcel Proust
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
New Card for Any 12 Step Program...or Just to Say Sorry...
Saturday, September 10, 2011
A quote by Anne Morrow Lindbergh..
"It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded."
We need to re-think the meaning of success as well. Basically, to be a success as a human being is to have lived your best possible life, meaning being the best possible human being you can be, given all of your gifts and unique challenges..
Too often we define success only in the marketplace...forgetting that "at the end of the day" what will count is our effect on other people and our relationships with them.
Effort put into love is never wasted, and successes are not always immediately visible. Patience...patience..
We need to re-think the meaning of success as well. Basically, to be a success as a human being is to have lived your best possible life, meaning being the best possible human being you can be, given all of your gifts and unique challenges..
Too often we define success only in the marketplace...forgetting that "at the end of the day" what will count is our effect on other people and our relationships with them.
Effort put into love is never wasted, and successes are not always immediately visible. Patience...patience..
Time To Revisit Gift From the Sea by A.M. Lindbergh
Taking out an older book to read it again was a good idea this time! The book, "Gift From the Sea" by Anne Morrow Lindbergh just seemed to jump off the shelf at me the other afternoon. It was too hot to sit outside to read so I just sat on my office chair with a cold drink and read it once again...
The author, who published the book in 1955, stresses how important it is for a woman to have time alone to find her center. She, like women today, found that women "spill themselves away", giving all they have to give to family, friends and community. So she decided to spend a couple of solitary weeks on an island, SIMPLIFY, and get to the center of who she was at that time.
As I read it, I felt I was there, on the island, connecting with the author's very soul. She says, " I believe that true identity is found in creative activity springing from within.It is found, paradoxically, when one loses oneself. One must lose one's life to find it. Woman can best befriend herself by losing herself in some kind of creative activity of her own. Here she will be able to refind her strength.."
She reminds us that we need to be alone, and quiet, to get to the core of who we are. We need to turn off all media, all distractions, and just "be" and "listen"...We need to "cut out distractions"...She says " One learns first of all in beach living the art of shedding; how little one can get along with, not how much..one needs less in the sun. But one needs less anyway, one finds suddenly.."
Please, dear reader, pick up this book and spend an afternoon digesting it. Eventhough it was written years ago, it is valid to tears for us today--now more than then, because of the overwhelming distractions of modern times! Read for yourself! If you don't buy a new book, get an older copy from a used book store.
The author, who published the book in 1955, stresses how important it is for a woman to have time alone to find her center. She, like women today, found that women "spill themselves away", giving all they have to give to family, friends and community. So she decided to spend a couple of solitary weeks on an island, SIMPLIFY, and get to the center of who she was at that time.
As I read it, I felt I was there, on the island, connecting with the author's very soul. She says, " I believe that true identity is found in creative activity springing from within.It is found, paradoxically, when one loses oneself. One must lose one's life to find it. Woman can best befriend herself by losing herself in some kind of creative activity of her own. Here she will be able to refind her strength.."
She reminds us that we need to be alone, and quiet, to get to the core of who we are. We need to turn off all media, all distractions, and just "be" and "listen"...We need to "cut out distractions"...She says " One learns first of all in beach living the art of shedding; how little one can get along with, not how much..one needs less in the sun. But one needs less anyway, one finds suddenly.."
Please, dear reader, pick up this book and spend an afternoon digesting it. Eventhough it was written years ago, it is valid to tears for us today--now more than then, because of the overwhelming distractions of modern times! Read for yourself! If you don't buy a new book, get an older copy from a used book store.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Approval and Acceptance...
"Do not look for approval
except
for the consciousness of doing your best."
_Bernard Baruch
Most of us look for acceptance and approval more than we look to the place where it should reside--within ourselves. Why is the other guy's opinion more valid than our own?
I watched the first couple of episodes about Fergie's struggle with herself and the acceptance and approval theme kept coming up. It was something most of us could relate to...royalty or not.
Others will not know we are insecure unless we tell them or show them. They are more worried about how we perceive them than about how they are perceiving us.
So...be as calm as possible. Speak your own truth from your core values and don't compromise who you are. And that is what people will feel and see...
except
for the consciousness of doing your best."
_Bernard Baruch
Most of us look for acceptance and approval more than we look to the place where it should reside--within ourselves. Why is the other guy's opinion more valid than our own?
I watched the first couple of episodes about Fergie's struggle with herself and the acceptance and approval theme kept coming up. It was something most of us could relate to...royalty or not.
Others will not know we are insecure unless we tell them or show them. They are more worried about how we perceive them than about how they are perceiving us.
So...be as calm as possible. Speak your own truth from your core values and don't compromise who you are. And that is what people will feel and see...
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Tracks and those who follow your tracks...
"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."~Native American proverb
Walking along the dirt road I see the tracks of other walkers. I notice the tracks of dogs beside a few.. Some tracks are large, others petite...All are walking for a reason: To exercise something--sometimes the brain, the body, the dog, the heart, and even the soul. Even tears have tracks--the ones they leave on the face and in the heart.
I wonder who left the tracks on the road and wonder about their owners. I wonder if they wonder about my own tracks...
There is one figure who follows me and who leaves no tracks. I will post a picture. She changes with the seasons. Sometimes she looks sporty, and sometimes she looks ominous. Sometimes she seems to be a muse for me, sometimes she chastises me. I hope she is not the grim reaper.....because I cannot stop for that!
Walking the road is giving me a perspective that is different than I had before. I believe it is making me more sensitive to nature, birds and animals, and to myself...
Walking along the dirt road I see the tracks of other walkers. I notice the tracks of dogs beside a few.. Some tracks are large, others petite...All are walking for a reason: To exercise something--sometimes the brain, the body, the dog, the heart, and even the soul. Even tears have tracks--the ones they leave on the face and in the heart.
I wonder who left the tracks on the road and wonder about their owners. I wonder if they wonder about my own tracks...
Walking the road is giving me a perspective that is different than I had before. I believe it is making me more sensitive to nature, birds and animals, and to myself...
Saturday, July 9, 2011
The Blessing of Giving More Than Expected...
Sometimes I am asked why I am doing what I am doing - and especially since it has not been a money maker....
There is a part of my soul that yearns for expression and sharing. I created 6 milagro bracelets for a bride recently and went to very much extra work creating special cards for their presentation. I will share with you what she wrote to me:
" The items I received were so far beyond what I expected...I ordered the milagros for my bridesmaids and not only were they even more perfect in person, she made me beautiful cards to give my girls and even included a bracelet for me as a gift for my wedding. I was literally brought to tears when I opened my package."
For me this was well worth it on so many levels! No, I don't know this lady and likely never will. But to make someone happy like that and know that she connected with what I am trying to do gives me something money can't!
There is a quote I want to share:
"We are all God's instruments who do our little bit and pass by. I believe that the way in which an act of kindness is done is as important as the action itself." ~ Mother Teresa
I am no Mother Teresa by any stretch, but I have known, really known, the joy of giving more than expected. Sometimes it can seem thankless, but in that case it gives one a chance to remember why you are doing a thing - not for reward, but for the intrinsic blessing of it.
There is a part of my soul that yearns for expression and sharing. I created 6 milagro bracelets for a bride recently and went to very much extra work creating special cards for their presentation. I will share with you what she wrote to me:
" The items I received were so far beyond what I expected...I ordered the milagros for my bridesmaids and not only were they even more perfect in person, she made me beautiful cards to give my girls and even included a bracelet for me as a gift for my wedding. I was literally brought to tears when I opened my package."
For me this was well worth it on so many levels! No, I don't know this lady and likely never will. But to make someone happy like that and know that she connected with what I am trying to do gives me something money can't!
There is a quote I want to share:
"We are all God's instruments who do our little bit and pass by. I believe that the way in which an act of kindness is done is as important as the action itself." ~ Mother Teresa
I am no Mother Teresa by any stretch, but I have known, really known, the joy of giving more than expected. Sometimes it can seem thankless, but in that case it gives one a chance to remember why you are doing a thing - not for reward, but for the intrinsic blessing of it.
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