Handwritten Love Letters

 

Handwritten Love letters

When was the last time you got one?

In an age of texts, Instagram, facebook, chat, Snapchat, and email, handwritten love letters may seem like relics of the past.

February is the month of love. Why not write a love letter or poem to a beloved? To be loved and nurtured is a universal need. Being loved creates feelings of acceptance and harmony.

My talented daughter in law has home schooled her children for years. Included in her lessons are Mail Mondays. As a benefit, I often am the recipient of love letters written by hand, usually on stationary the grandchildren have made as an art project. What a joy it is on those days I am met at the mailbox with a treasured surprise!

Love is an emotion that we seem to have little control over. It is either there or it is not. Yet love is perhaps the most profound, wondrous, and complex word in the human language suggesting desire and interconnectedness. Love and compassion are at the heart of the world’s great spiritual traditions. Love is often said to be synonymous with the divine essence of existence and the wellspring of all life.

Happy Valentines Day

Let Love be your highest power!

Life is Great!

 Life is Great!

I like to start my day in appreciation for all things wonderful and free.

Let's play the Great Game!

Isn’t it great that the sun comes up every morning by the grace of a creative Genius and all knowing power many of us call God?

Isn’t it great that this Creator gives us all kinds of growing things to look at once we open our eyes to the great outdoors?

Isn’t it great that we are not in charge of the grass that grows, the trees that stand tall, the birds that perch in the trees, the turkeys and deer that roam the woods?

Isn’t it great that we don’t have the job of putting the planets in order? Isn’t it great that the oceans are filled with fish and mammals that are pushed and pulled lazily by the tides of the moon?

Isn’t it great that we have domestic animals that keep us company on the most primal level? The cats and dogs and horses and cows and the wild ones that roam free like butterflies who cross our paths majestically in the course of an ordinary day?

These are the blessed thoughts I wish to wake up with setting the course for a brand new day. Appreciate every opportunity to find and practice good feelings. 

Outside my window this morning is a Filbert nut tree. A scraggly branch has lost all its leaves in the course of winter except for one.

It's a great day when there is one leaf wagging its tail in the wind like a happy puppy.

Life is great!

Celebrate Every Day!

 Celebrate Every Day

Really think about this…

When I hear the word celebrate I think of a planned activity where festivities are offered. A birthday party, a wedding or anniversary, a homecoming or a vacation. Even a Celebration of Life…

What if we were to have the same sense of celebration about an ordinary day? 

I appreciate being greeted every morning by daylight. Would you agree that it is magnificent we get to walk in the light, even if it is cloudy or stormy? Isn’t it wonderful for those of us who celebrate eyesight to take in the comforts of home, the scent of percolating coffee, the hum of the refrigerator that keeps our food cold? Fresh food is something to celebrate!

Think of the comfortable temperature the heat provides to ward off the chill of a January morning. Celebrate the soft feel of the sheets on your bed, the fluffy pillow that cradles your head, and the weight of the blankets that keep you cozy. Are these not things to be grateful for each and every day?

Life is to be loved. Life is to be celebrated in every cherished moment.

Celebrate the clothes in your closet. Celebrate the children in your ife. Celebrate peace and quiet and solitude as much as you celebrate activities such as the ability to exercise, or walk in nature. Celebrate the friendships you have with your relatives and family. Celebrate your beautiful body and its capacity to fill your lungs with air and pump blood to your heart and absorb calcium that supports your bones. Celebrate mobility and cognitive essences and the power to live with an infinite power that grows your fingernails and hair.

Celebrate every day! It’s a fun and magical experience!

Awakening in the Midst of Crisis

 The Dimension of Awakening

When a person experiences a crisis, such as the loss of a beloved, what you once considered “ordinary”  becomes  a sense of gratitude and appreciation for what you considered “loss”. We grieve the should haves, the could haves and what we might have done differently. When a person awakens, the world around them becomes more real, attractive, fresher, vivid, and alive. Things once considered to be “ordinary” become more beautiful and fascinating. Sharing a meal, taking a walk together, enjoying a sunset…It's as if a veil falls away, and suddenly, an extra dimension of reality is added to the world.

What comes to mind when you hear "spiritual awakening" or "enlightenment'? The first thing that came to my mind was a  picture of Buddhist monks with shaved heads or Indian gurus with long beards and flowing robes. You might assume that the state of awakening is very rare, only attainable after decades of meditation and harsh spiritual discipline, away from the ordinary human world. 

Awakening is much more common than you might think. It doesn't just happen to monks and mystics but to—seemingly—ordinary people like you and me amid everyday life. It even expands to those who don't know anything about traditional spirituality.

We travel deeper into ourselves, becoming aware of potentials and energies we didn't sense before.We feel an intense sense of empathy and a strong feeling of compassion for others. This is why awakening is associated with warm heartedness and unselfishness.

Let us create a kinship with all other human beings despite our differences. It's an ongoing process of becoming aware of one’s connection to the infinite and becoming mindful of one’s spiritual nature.