Spirituality – A Beautiful Life Tapestry

Outrageous Goals…Now What?

#Inspiration, #life lessons, #life-and-living, Photography, Spirituality, Uncategorized

“Impossible is just a word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” — Muhammad Ali

“Shoot for the Moon…and even if you miss…you’ll land among the stars” ~Norman Vincent Peale

The goal of becoming a Master Photographer doesn’t seem impossible…but still difficult because it is not something to be accomplished in a year or two…that is really a medium goal that could be a steppingstone to even more outrageous lifetime goals…

My heart contribution for this life…to enable the building of creative skills to those who do not have a means of expression for their soul…creativity is often not given much priority…but critical in today’s world…”research shows that creativity isn’t just cool. It’s an essential human skill, perhaps even an evolutionary imperative in our technology-driven world.”…photography, writing and the graphic arts as a means of articulating emotions…telling their story and how they see their world...

“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” ― Louisa May Alcott

I am not quite sure the path to the “far-out” goal…I can decide the S.M.A.R.T. action plan for the first step…achieving my 3-star rating ⭐⭐⭐…

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”
— Pablo Picasso

I still need 12 Club Points to move into a 3 Star rating…that’s done by submitting great images for judging…each photo is judged by 3 judges…with 15 points by a judge as “very good” with a total of 39 points being awarded the “Certificate of Merit”…Bronze 21-26…Silver 27-32…Gold 33-38…I have not done too badly with only silver and gold awards…but only 1 COM when I was one star…time to up my game…

S.M.A.R.T. Goal for that achievement… “Get promoted to a 3-star rating within 6 months, by entering each monthly competition and salon entrance available while spending a minimum of an hour daily to increase my skills and abilities to show the world the beauty in life”

Specific: I will increase my rating to 3 star by spending 1 hour per day learning new skills

Measurable: I will achieve a 3-star rating by the end of end of year 2022

Achievable: In the next 6 months I will enter each monthly competition to achieve an additional 12 points…minimum 6 silver stars or 4 gold stars…2 COM+

Relevant: To achieve my goal of becoming the best photographer that I can be to inspire others through the beauty and character of the world…An inspiration that could lead to a change for the better…in a life…in the world..

Time-Bound: By December 31, 2022 I will be rated at 3 star…

Setting Goals is the First Step in turning the Invisible to the Visible ~Tony Robbins

Secret Ingredient: Passion…passion to sustain you through all the boredom and tedium of the 10,000 to 20,000 hours to become a Master…to persist in those moments the emotional commitment…the “soul”…your life’s mission …Robert Greene said in his book Mastery...”The key to high level achievement in any field is to connect with what I call the Life’s Task, our vocation, what we are meant to do in this short time we have to live.”

“You must understand the following: In order to master a field, you must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it. Your interest must transcend the field itself and border on the religious.” ~Robert Greene, Mastery

What did you come to this world to create…what is your life task…your passion❣

Finding the Way Forward…

#Inspiration, #life lessons, #life-and-living, Adventure, Nature, Photography, South Africa, Spirituality, Uncategorized

“You feel as if your Earthwalk is a mission of some sorts, but you can’t quite remember what that mission is, and whatever it is you don’t seem to be accomplishing it. In other words, you’re a little bit disheartened. And maybe a little touched.”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet – Searching for your Tribe

I love these images of our walk in Cape Saint Francis…it is where I captured the Textures of the windblown sand…

A feeling that the world feels now…vast loneliness and feeling lost in an environment that is new…left with to find our way without even the simplest of maps …left to our own devices…

Each one of us must make his own path through life. There are no self-help manuals, no formulas, no easy answers. The right road for one is the wrong road for another … The journey of life is not paved in blacktop; it is not brightly lit, and it has no road signs. It is a rocky path through the wilderness.
~ M. Scott Peck

Find Beauty in the Textures and Patterns of Life…the light and the shadows complement each other…for without the darkness…there would be no light…

“Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.”
– L.R. Knost

Others have walked Before Us…and others will come behind…let us walk bravely into the future and leave footprints for the children of the earth to follow courageously into their “Unknown”…

~

“What is required of us is that we love the difficult and learn to deal with it. In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us. Right in the difficult we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are.” Rainer Maria Rilke, Selected Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke (1960)

Keep Going…Don’t Stop…The View at the Top is Beautiful…

More Beautiful than Your Wildest Dreams…

You are Loved…Always and Forever…Sending Prayerful Thoughts to Assist in Your Journey❣

Looking for the Future…

#Inspiration, #life lessons, #life-and-living, Adventure, Spirituality, Uncategorized

“The fog of illusion, the fog of confusion is hanging all over the world.”
– Van Morrison.

Lost in the misty fog of life…that’s how I feel most of the time…unsure of where to head next…how to proceed forward into a place that I’ve never been before…I wish we were handed maps when we were born that would lead us directly to the path toward the purpose we were sent to fulfill…

I probably still would have tossed the map out the window…I have never liked being told what to do and imagine all the excitement that I would have missed…

“Sometimes when you lose your way in the fog, you end up in a beautiful place! Don’t be afraid of getting lost!” ~Mehmet Murat Ildan

Often when we feel lost…the mind and heart are not working in harmony…it does not mean that we’re doomed to wonder around in the cold misty gloom that blankets us…for often it is just a knocking at our heart… a call toward something better…if we were contented with the status quo…there would be no impetus to search for the warmth and light we yearn for…satisfaction of the soul…

It is good to feel lost…because it proves you have a navigational sense of where Home is. You know that a place feels like being found exists. And maybe your current location isn’t that place but, Hallelujah, that unsettled, uneasy feeling of lost-ness just brought you closer to it.”
~Erika Harris

Venturing into that grey unknown frontier is intimidating and downright scary…that cold tight knot in the pit of your stomach that never seems to go away…it’s really just butterflies waiting to be released to fly…leading you to an enchanting place of freedom and possibility…

It really is OK…

I promise…we all feel alone and lost at times…everybody…no matter how bleak the road appears you won’t feel that way forever…but how we travel through is important and can make the arrival time of our destination appear on the horizon more expeditiously…

“I give you this warning: your journeys will rarely go as you plan. You will make mistakes, and you will feel lost. Whenever that happens, look to the light and keep moving forward in faith.” ~Seth Adams Smith

I am not a doctor or a psychiatrist…and I don’t have a magical quick fix (my wand ran out of fuel and is in the shop)…but I humbly offer what works for me…

Sit with the feeling...The first step for me is just to sit with any turbulent and nightmarish emotions…just watching while they swirl and dance their crazy black tendrils…and not becoming overly attached or overanalyzing (which I do a lot)…knowing it will be ‘ok’…although it may take awhile…”Sitting with our emotions simply means allowing them, resisting the urge to get rid of the pain and not judging ourselves for having these emotions”…it is a lot more difficult than ignoring and/or dismissing them…it’s painful…often the first thing we do is to try and numb those feelings by a glass of wine or three…food…work or anything else to soothe the discomfort…the key is to ‘avoid’ those distractions…distractions that often just adds to our exhaustion…

Stay in the Present...it will help you get your bearings…figure out where you’re at… you have lost your compass…that vision of your life and the future..at the moment…wandering around aimlessly can be very dangerous…it’s a survival necessity to pause…like getting lost on a trail in the middle of the forest when the sun has descended…Stop, throw on an extra layer, relax, have a brew, and then pull out the map…often a sleep and a new day will bring new light…

Healthy Habits…Eating…this is critical for me...I crave carbs when I am stressed…it is a natural serotonin booster…and makes me feel better (for a little while until I crash…then crappy)…Exercising…A good cardio workout…Yoga is significant in unlocking of stuck energy for me…Meditation…doesn’t have to be traditional…just sitting in quiet…focusing on your breathe…reciting affirmations or scriptures….whatever makes you feel positive

Change Your Environment...Taking a walk in the fresh air and just concentrating on what’s around me changes my perspective…grounding or realigning your electrical energy by reconnecting yourself you to the earth…walking barefoot…lying on the ground… even swimming or wading in a lake or stream…sounds very woo-woo…I love this and is extremely calming…one central theory from one review study Trusted Source is that grounding affects the living matrix, which is the central connector between living cells…before you just throw the idea out…it wouldn’t hurt to try it…..

Take Action...Read…Listen to Podcasts or whatever presents itself in your search for self development and understanding…Seek and the teacher will come…Journal a lot…writing helps me to put all the jumble on paper and often I can sort through the threads that need to be thrown away and those I need to continue to follow… Deliberately be grateful…even if it’s just for your gift of that moments breath…

Go out and do things that make your life feel full of purpose and meaning. Identify what it is that you love doing (Not your mother, sister, husband or friend…especially society and social media), what brings you joy and get out and do more of it. Remember, nothing changes if nothing changes…do things to create meaning and purpose…

And never ever be afraid about Asking for Help…Friends…coaches…doctors…you are a valuable part of this world…very important to those around you..so many people care and would love to support you…they’ve been there…

**“Light is coming to give back everything the darkness stole” @Naijamisfit**

Love💓, laughter🤣 and magic🦄 for your day…

Is Art A Spiritual Practice…

#Inspiration, #life lessons, #life-and-living, Photography, Spirituality, Uncategorized

What do you get when you shake and stir the emotions of feeling selfish, silly and way too old…a painful anxiety of unmasking my soul to critics…fearful that if I expose that creative dream to the light…”poof” like dandelion fuzz it would disintegrate again…worrying that it is an egotistical pursuit…sprinkle that with the musing with that following my joy might divert me from my mission in this life…hmmm…crazy exhausted with the overwhelming smell of burning rubber in the background…(which comes from stepping on the brakes and gas at the same time)…

Every artist dips his brush in his soul and paints his own nature into pictures.
Henry Ward Beecher

My lifelong personal mission statement has always been to be a conduit of God’s love to this world…and it feels less than noble to be so excited about sharing my photographs and words…receiving wonderful support from those who view my work…isn’t the spiritual life meant to be hard and painful…

Wrestling with the dilemma has been a hellacious struggle…the creative dream and growth in writing and photography fills my life with happiness and joy…so I prayed…begged for guidance…as always, when it’s time…the teacher will come…not in my desired timing…of course…but when I was ready…it did…

Two books…one that I held for a while…but never read…The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and a lesser known book called The Soul of Art by Alfred J. Garrotto…both very supportive of the idea that creativity and spirituality are intrinsically linked…

“The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union; the heart of the mystical union is an experience of creativity…” The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron

Last week I entered 8 photos into the PSSA(the Photographic Society of South Africa)…it was my first time for National entries…and only the second time for entering my photographs…I was fortunate to be able to enter free of charge because I am a newbie here…a level 1…but then everyone has to start somewhere…these are the ones that I submitted..my first entries were given gold and even better a certificate of merit…so now the question definitely needed answering…

Each photograph was taken with love and appreciation…some with exquisite joy in the beauty…some with pain…to be reminded of the poverty of the world…physically, emotionally, and morally…

It is said that, before being born, each soul is kissed by God. Then it goes through life always, in some dark way, remembering that kiss. The soul measures every experience in relation to that original sweetness . . . . To be in touch with your heart is to be in touch with this primordial kiss, both its preciousness and its meaning.
The Restless Heart Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, OMI

“As an artist, we are channels of the divine, fingers pointing heaven-ward. We are not the source of our gifts. We are individual points of light among the billions of stars that Creator-Spirit has splashed across multiple universes.”

Artistic imagination fills that void, showering us and our planet with wonder and hope. Artists’ message to our audiences is, “There’s more” . . . more than what we see and feel, more than the sum of our daily anxieties and fears. The Soul of Art, By Alfred J. Garrotto

I have done nothing to deserve these gifts and I am not worthy…any talent that I may have is unearned and unmerited…truly a gift of grace…to an imperfect human from a perfect God…to honor the gifts that I have been given, I still must do my part to cultivate and use them to make the world better…to share with an open and joyful heart…not as an egotistical pursuit or for personal accolades…it can easy to do…

All of us in the arts need to hone our craft through dedicated study, rehearsal, repetition, practice—even when we don’t feel like doing it and especially when we think we’ve maxed out our potential. How can any of us know that we do not have one more, or multiple, works within us that may exceed anything we have yet produced? Am I too old to keep going? Too sick? Or just too wearied by past failures?
https://www.scribd.com/read/336109402/The-Soul-of-Art#

Perfecting the crafts of writing and photography will be a delightful lifelong challenge…I must put in the work that the gift requires to be more effective in touching lives…not allowing self-doubt and the fear of failure and criticism to bury my gift that may be used to return beauty, joy or inspiration…to lift humanity from its daily muck and mire of routine…causing someone to stop and breathe…if only for a moment…

May my heart always be filled with compassion to share a journey of hope and vision in a world of hopelessness and seen in all it’s ugliness…may I be given the virtue of humility realizing where my gifts come from to make the world a better place to live, joyfully sharing my gift with an open heart…for I have done nothing to deserve any gift that I have been given

I am only the “pointer” to the one that is the originator and creator of gifts…I am only the steward…a guidepost…so to speak…along this journey of life to the compassionate presence of a loving God..

I am only a conduit of God’s peace and love…allowing God’s love to flow through me...my service to others is my artists’ purpose…may my gifts to the world be wings that lift those that experience my words or images to be lifted out of the routines of the day to day and remind them that there is more…to discover within themselves their magic…their passion and joy…their own art and what is best within themselves…

Artists channel Creator-Spirit’s beauty, compassion, and love. Our mission and call is to bring some-thing into being where before there was no-thing. Our ultimate gift is that, like Creator-Spirit, we do not hoard our transcendent experience and its fruits. Art is our “voice.” We cannot, we must not, remain silent. If we engage in the arts merely for our own gratification, we risk forfeiting our claim to be artists. Recall that art, like love, requires that it be given away. ~Alfred J. Garrotto

Any talent that I have is God’s gift to me, and my gift to Him is what I do with it…

I am a humble artist molding my earthly clod, adding my labor to nature’s, simply assisting God. Not that my labor is needed, yet somehow I understand, my Maker has deemed it that I too should have unmolded clay in my hand.
Piet Hein

Dedicated to the love of my life Mr. P…who pushed me to fly and is the “wind beneath my wings” every day…and the support and encouragement of all my friends and family💓...I could not walk this path without them

Sent with prayers for Love, laughter and magic in your day

The View at the Top

#cancer, #Inspiration, #life lessons, #life-and-living, Photography, South Africa, Spirituality, Uncategorized

As a writer, I often muse about what I have learned in my life and would want to leave that if people heard with their heart would make a difference to their lives…it would be…

NEVER, NEVER, EVER GIVE UP…ON YOUR GOALS, DREAMS, VISIONS AND ESPECIALLY YOURSELF..❣

No matter how many times you failed, no matter how dire the circumstances seem…or how long the fight…how much you feel like quitting

No matter how tired…rest awhile and get back up…just get back up

I have read so many articles and books…listened to every available video and program that I could get my hands on after my dissolution of an 18 year marriage in my mid-30’s…I had to walk away with nothing to my name…I had no means to keep my children…one child that really needed my help…the other opting to stay with his father because I did not have the money to give him the things his father promised to give to him…living in a car…and on and on…the knock downs and knock outs kept coming..

In the years in between…everything I tried to accomplish failed…the dreams I held in my heart and would not leave me alone…all shattered…there were successes…but there always seemed to be more failures and falling short of the cherished desires that I held unto tightly…wrapped in dirty discarded disappointments…

But I couldn’t give up…there was always a spark hidden underneath all the ashes of my life…I would read something that came my way…and the dying ember was fanned into a small fire and the rekindling of hope keep me hanging on through the years…

Recently I woke up on a quiet morning and realized that many of my dreams/wishes had manifested…I had been given the gifts that I had asked for on my “Christmas” list…not in all the exact physical detail that I thought I wanted…but definitely the “feeling” that I wanted in my life…

After my divorce, I made a list of the attributes of a partner that I felt would be a “soul mate”…someone that would be a yin to my yang…I spent years…literally😣 on dating sites searching for the “one”…there are definitely plenty of fish in the pond…over the years I went through over a thousand profiles…hundreds of online conversations…a few I thought might be compatible…but no one fit…and I felt I was too old and maybe just a friendship would be satisfying…

Then one day in 2018..26 years later…I received a pen pal request from a man halfway across the world in South Africa…a nice gentleman who offered to help me turn my profile photo right side up…we shared a love for photography, traveling and the same spiritual beliefs…he was intelligent, well read, gentle and kind…although an engineer is about as opposite to a creative personality…but yet the same…enjoyed music and art…he had even taken dance classes…

We wrote, and messaged daily for months…it was easy being open and free to express myself to someone that I shared so much with and was thousand’s of miles away…and would probably never meet in person…he was easy and gentle…very accepting and I felt that I could be supportive with some experiences that he was dealing with at the time…I had been there and done that…

There was no way that I could ever have come up with the way that this part of my life unfolded…a definite surprise package…now living in beautiful South Africa with a man that has made my life so incredibly magical every day…

Although life hasn’t all been wine & roses…especially when his cancer diagnosis was said out loud…just a little over a year after I arrived…9 months later after surgery and heart rending chemo side effects…we reached the other side…Mr. P rang the bell after his last chemo treatment was a few weeks ago and he has been given wonderful news that his stats are normal…full of gratitude and would not change one second…

I had several businesses that I had to abandon or didn’t get off the ground for one reason or another…one wish I have always had was to be able to leave a business for my children…a few days ago one of my children asked about helping with a business idea…how awesome is that…

I wanted to travel…see the world…and now our plans include Turkey and France…🤞 this year

I had lost a photography business when my divorce occurred…now I have photographed some of the most exquisite beauty in nature…

I carried a story around with me or some years and now I am writing a fantasy novel…which may take me awhile, but is so much fun…

I do think that maybe there are things I could have done to expedite the expression of my desires…I think there were times I was stepping on the brakes at the same time I was stepping on the gas…but I believe a large part is that is that I just wasn’t at the place I needed to be to or it wasn’t the right time…

And there are still things in my life that are waiting to be realized…but you have to ask and believe…trust and hope…God said, “Ask and ye shall receive”…He will give you the desires of your heart as you wait and trust in Him…and believe me, there will be things that you don’t receive that later on you will be glad that you didn’t get…

Never ever give up and enjoy the journey and if you are in a place where that seems impossible…sit with gratitude in nature…keep the flame burning in your heart…if all these things have been “gifted” to me…a simple girl born in the cold snowy winter of a small farming town with one stop sign…then it will happen for you…

With much love and magic for your day…

Renée🦋

The Balancing Act

#Inspiration, #life lessons, #life-and-living, Love, Nature, Photography, South Africa, Spirituality, Uncategorized

What started out to to be a slightly anxiety producing event morphed into an exceptionally magnificent morning…

Mr. P and I had been tossing the idea of taking a whale and dolphin watching cruise since I arrived…well…even before…since my son-in-law showed me the videos of the jackass penguins and their true-to-life sound of a braying donkeyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVF9F28SY4c…so belly laughing hilarious🤣to watch…

In an effort to keep my social skills from totally atrophying I joined a photographic club…this happened to be their first ‘outing’ that I decided to join…Mr. P became a member too…on account that I haven’t learned to drive on the left side of the road with a left-handed stick shift… and sharing the road with crazy drivers and he makes me feel safer…my own personal bodyguard😎…seriously, it was more about being to be able to share the things that we both enjoy…

We were anticipating a distraction from the current situation that we are experiencing at the moment…although surgery had gone well…the previous day’s appointment to the oncologist was difficult for me…a reminder of the anguish inflicted on the the lives of 46 family members who had fought the same darkness and the few who survived it’s aggressive assault on their lives…and the special one❤ who lives with the presence of the gene that she carries with her every day of her life…

It started the night before…the combination of a glass of wine and seasick pills laid me out me out quicker than Tyson’s 90 second knockout…I could not keep my eyes open for anything…and at 8:30 gave it up…Mr. P did promise not to tell the kids that I wasted the night sleeping😂…

The morning dawned and set off early…the early night definitely helped to being “bright-eyed and bushy tailed”…with slight apprehensions about being accepted into the group…being the new kid on the block and an American to-boot…we set out to expand my knowledge of the marine life here in Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth…it still feels so unbelievable to live so close to all of this miraculous splendor of nature…

The sea was flat and calm after a few days of winds…yet trying to walk gracefully on a narrow floating pontoon bridge was not an easy feat for me…like navigating life (particularly in our now)…finding balance is most important…

Balancing Family Life Through Uncertainty | Resilient Educator — Dr. Seuss said it best…

By the time I got to the boat, evidently I still hadn’t found my balance…Lost my sandal climbing up the boxes to get into the boat…I tried so hard to look like I knew what I was doing…to be elegant and graceful…put the camera bag on the seat…gave my hand to the owner of the boat and most gracefully lifted my leg over the side and promptly my sandal flew off and landed on the floor of the boat…

“It’s about finding that balance where you have one foot in the familiar, one foot in the unfamiliar.
If you have two feet in the unfamiliar it’s overwhelming….

― Humble the Poet

oh, well…I was too excited to dwell on it for long…living in the moment…not the past or the imagined future is a critical component to balancing the good and bad in life for us right now…

… this day was going to be a positive memory in our lives…

And it was/and is…the postcard perfect day… weather was cooperating fully…acres of bright blue canvas of sky with puffs of white magic…blown with playful gentle breezes…what more could I ask for…

…but it was just the beginning…I became lost in the enchantment of the sea…

“The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too” ~Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
…and so are our lives

Such a incredible day…warm ocean painted memories to cherish and hold within my heart❤

I’m sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Watchin’ the tide, roll away
I’m sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Wastin’ time ~Otis Redding

..the white heaven bound birds reminding my soul to glide freely from the fear and a wave of sweet earthly joy and hope for the future began to dance…

…with all my love and wishes for magic🎈 and laughter in your life

~Renée

*Special shout-out to Raggy Charters for this beautiful cruise experience

The Dark Path…

#Inspiration, #life lessons, #life-and-living, Spirituality, Uncategorized

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

…the sun still rises…the birds still sing their sweetest of songs.. my chest still rises and falls with every breath…even as the dark emotional pain assaults and then shatters even my willingness to walk another step on the path called “life”…my insides wet with all the unshed tears that drown my soul…

Yet…the threads of fear, pain and heartbreak are threaded throughout the history of the world and connects us with the whole of humanity…

…A friend who was unable to be with her husband during his heart surgery and now works 16 hour days at a fire camp to support for wildland firefighters…an young and gifted Zimbabwean who lives in a sanctioned country trying to find a way out…another gifted young man who writes deeply thought-provoking philosophical essays and worries about the cost of the future…a retired couple walking into the unknown adventures of finding work in another country…

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams” ~Edgar Allen Poe

Our humanness is so limiting…this era that we live in so often tries to foster self-reliance…believing that we are the masters of our own destinies…yet part of being a “mere mortal” means that we will not miss facing adversity…challenges and troubles…Life is so often rich with it’s deep and dark experiences…

There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there, too … And that is all we can manage these days and also all that really matters: that we safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves. —Etty Hillesum, Westerbork transit camp

We live stitch by stitch in these uncertain times…often fixating on the whole tapestry…only see the knots and mishmash of threads…the stitching seems crude and often feels like it is completely unraveling…forgetting the Master Weaver sees the completed Masterpiece that He is creating…

My experiences have given me roots of strength in knowledge that I am strong and the my God is stronger…yet still…doubt sows its seeds in the fertile soil of my mind and burrows deep…the dread of the unknown blossoming like pernicious dandelions that stubbornly refused to be alleviated…endlessly looping…tenaciously intruding

The Grace of Endurance is the at Work of God in Our Lives…may I live to leave distinctive footprints of tenacity…bravery and fortitude for those that follow…

I find that along these paths of darkness there is always light waiting to be seen by our daunted hearts…

In this darkness there are moments of beauty in the most unexpected ways…take the joy you find in the day…carry them in your memories…the nights the fire sang in the depth of all it’s colors…enchanting and mesmerizing with it’s unchoreographed fiery dancing…finger’s intertwined in love…

“One word
Frees us of all the weight and pain of life:
That word is love.”
― Sophocles

Be kind to those you meet today…spread the light of love and care…for if not today…one day you will need that same light to shine for you❣

Much love for your journey…dusted with laughter and a little magic…xxx

Day 121…Blooming

#Inspiration, adventure, Expatriate, South Africa, Spirituality

It does not matter if you are a rose or a lotus or a marigold. What matters is that you are flowering…Rajneesh

https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/marigolds.html

Hard to believe that it has been 4 months since I have arrived here in Port Elizabeth…so much has transpired…

Most of all…coming to terms with retirement…a major life change…for me, it came with a sense of loss of purpose…my work defined my life…and even worse…a loss of identity… I was good at what I did…people depended on me…needed me…

Don’t get me wrong…it was incredibly stressful and so unhealthy for me…there is now this incredible feeling of relief and freedom..the demands and responsibilities are gone…I can breathe again…

21 Insightful Quotes About Embracing Change

I am finding my way…slowly…learning to slow down and breathe…to heal…and enjoy the wonderful and myriad blessings that I have been given…here and now…

I think for me…that has been important part of this process…breathing…being in the moment…enjoying what is…right here and right now…not needing to figure everything out…RIGHT NOW (that is definitely been a challenge for this Control Freak)…

I am learning embrace each and every breath that I am blessed to be given…To celebrate my life…to live my life fully and passionately…for by being fully present in the here and now…the light of my current joy, peace and happiness will light the path in it’s perfect time…

…Sharing my life with indomitable Mr. P definitely adds so much flavor and makes life so much more delicious…and often desire to find the path becomes less needful..and I become more content and at peace with just blooming…in the here and now…and that may be all I need to do…

“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

Day 53…The Beautiful

#Inspiration, adventure, Expatriate, Photography, South Africa, Spirituality

There is a beautiful quote by Helen Keller that I love…but, then again, her perspective was different that most of ours…

“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” ~Helen Keller

It has been a little while since I have published…and there has been such sublime and delightful colors that have been interwoven in my life tapestry since arriving here in South Africa…but still there are the intermittant darker colors that contribute to the breathtaking exquisitness of my life…

Without the dark threads…the colors would not be so vibrant…and I think…maybe as noticable…the loss of seeing my children every day reminds me to let them know often that they are missed and loved…and that I am so blessed to have such “beauties” in my life…such memories…

The dark thread of the knowledge of the fragility of life…how transient and fleeting…brings such deliciousness to each kiss…to each cuddle…to each morning warm carress of the sun…teaching me to remember to embrace each moment…for life scurries so frantically away…

If I could send a message that would be heard and understood in the heart…it would be that…LOVE LIFE…be fully present in each moment… full of purpose and passion…each gut-wrenching…tearful…laughter…dreamy…euphoric filled moment…for each breathe that we take is full of magic and miracles…