Stillness

"If waters are placid, the moon will be mirrored perfectly... 

There is no effort that we can make to still ourselves. True stillness comes naturally from moments of solitude where we allow our minds to settle."  ~ Deng Ming-Dao

Breathe...

Breathing in, my breath grows deep.

Breathing out, my breath goes slowly.

Breathing in, I feel calm.

Breathing out, I feel ease.

Breathing in, I smile.

Breathing out, I release.

Breathing in, I dwell in the present moment

Breathing out, I know it is a wonderful moment.

~ from "How to Sit" by Thich Nhat Hanh

Concerning Feet

 Walking on the beach today, feet kept capturing themselves in my camera lens somehow, so here they are!

"May your feet take you where your heart wants to go."

A Reminder

"How precious is Your steadfast love, O G-d! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of Your wings." ~David

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." ~Yeshua

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; 

it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; 

it is not irritable or resentful;  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  

Love bears all things, believes all things, 

hopes all things, endures all things.  

Love never ends." ~Paul

A reminder to me...

Thoughts Worth Thinking

"He who would be useful, strong, and happy must cease to be a passive receptacle for the negative, beggarly, and impure streams of thought; and as a wise householder commands his servants and invites his guests, so must he learn to command his desires and to say, with authority, what thoughts he shall admit into the mansion of his soul." ~James Allen 

" The inner speech, your thoughts, can cause you to be rich or poor, loved or unloved, happy or unhappy, attractive or unattractive, powerful or weak."     ~Ralph Charell

My Goal:  I will not allow negative thoughts, thoughts that make me feel inferior or less than who my Maker created me, to be to govern my mind any longer.  

Solitude

A Little Randomness...

He leads me beside still waters...

... and restoreth my soul.

"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?"

In His Presence...

There come times when I have nothing more to tell God.  If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said.  At such times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in Thy presence, Lord?  I have nothing more to say to Thee, but I do love to be in Thy presence."  ~O. Hallesby

That's all I want... to be in His presence - to totally surrender myself, put aside my own stilted perspective, to set aside what I want, to look beyond my circumstances... it's not about me.  It's about Him, giving Him the praise and worship that is His due.

I am grateful beyond measure for the unconditional love and favor He shows me, the unprecedented, undeserved forgiveness He grants me every day.

Baruch atah, Adonai,
Eloheinu...

Photo of the Day

“Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee.” ~ Mr. Emerson

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”    ~ Helen Keller

Fluff

“I think my work has to do with a sense that we are attempting, all the time, to create a logical, rational path through the day. To the left and right there are an amazing set of distractions that we usually can't afford to follow. But the poet is willing to stop anywhere. . . . And it's that willingness to slow down and examine the mysterious bits of fluff in our lives that is the poet's interest.” ~William Collins

*dedicated to the poets in my life...

Winter Gardening...

Just a few favorites from our outing to Watson's Greenhouse & Nursery yesterday:


Clay:

“Afflictions sent by providence

melt the constancy 

of the noble minded, 

but confirm 

the obduracy of the vile, 

as the same furnace 

that liquefies the gold, 

hardens the clay” 

~Charles Caleb Colton

"But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand."~Isaiah 64:8

Frogs:

"I've got a dream, too, but it's about singing and dancing and making people happy.  That's the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with."  

~Kermit

An 'army' of frogs

We think too small,
like the frog at the
bottom of the well.
He thinks the sky is only
as big as the top of the well.
If he surfaced,
he would have
an entirely different view.
~Mao Tse-Tung

Oh, yeah, flowers, too!

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mr. Emerson On Nature

Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent God bursts through everywhere.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Racing Towards the Sunset...

... with a few stops on the way.  Decided to take the scenic route to town this afternoon along with my camera. 

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” ~Thomas Merton

“On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels . . .” ~Charles Dickens 

“Words are also seeds, and when dropped into the invisible spiritual substance, they grow and bring forth after their kind.” ~Charles Fillmore

On the way home it was a race against time to get to just the right spot to catch the sunset...

“When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator” ~Ghandi

The End of Another Year

So begins a new year... which means I've been looking back at the past year... It's been a year of:

~ emotional pain - both for myself and those I love dearly.
~ beach time and mountain time.
~ relational ups and downs, oh so very down at times...
~ much laughter, amazingly.
~ ripping away and bringing together.
~ celebrating the Festivals by the grace of G-d.
~ claiming my identity for my very own.
~ capturing moments in time with my camera.
~ travel time - never enough.
~ learning to utterly depend on the Most Holy G-d in ALL things.
~ forming deepening relationships in ways I never imagined - for these I am so, so thankful...

"...because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Yeshua and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the G-d of our Lord Yeshua haMeshiach, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him..." ~Paul to the Ephesians

This is my wish for you, my friends, in the coming year:

"Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life."

Thinkin' Out Loud...

"We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future. Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come."

These words jumped out at me this morning as I read this blog post.  Life has been so difficult the last couple of years - so much heartache and despair... such a dark time.  Yet I know - yes, I know deep down that the LORD has things well in hand.  Somehow all those dark times will work into something beautiful, something that glorifies the Holy One.

I know others going through similar circumstances have been helped by what we've gone through - even people we don't know.  I mean, look at the beautiful expression HERE.  I'm positive that some have been encouraged by those words.  Sure is hard to keep it all in perspective some days, though...

Enough of that - so, what does the future hold?  Where and how will we be able to serve?  I have no idea.  What I do know, though, is that there is a future coming.  Surely we wouldn't be left in limbo forever...

Hanukkah 5772 (2011)

"And (we thank You) for the miracles, and for the salvation, and for the mighty deeds, and for the victories, and for the battles which You performed for our forefathers in those days, at this time." ~The Al HaNisim

This year marks our 13th year of celebrating Hanukkah in our family.  This year marks our second year celebrating outside a community of faith.  This year, I want to take time to really think about our traditions - passed down from one who taught me well and through the centuries since the events of the Maccabees.  True, it's not one commanded in the Scriptures, but it is one that has become a welcome commemoration each year.

Each night, we light the candles in our hanukkiah and recite the verses chosen to fit along with the traditional blessings.  We eat latkes, sufganiot (jelly donuts), and other delectable treats all for the purpose of remembering what our G-d did for our people so long ago.  A few brave Israelis overcame thousands of foes cleansing the Temple of the desecrations and rededicating it to the Holy One of Israel.  That's the pattern of our people - overcoming the enemy against all odds.  Of course, we did not do it on our own strength but by the power of our Most Holy G-d.

So, as we say at all these kinds of celebrations:  They tried to kill us.  We won.  Let's eat!

Hanukkah circa 2000

Redemption Against All Odds. Throughout the ages, Chanukah has signified the miraculous triumph of the weak over the strong, the pure over the impure, the righteous over the wicked. No matter how dark the night, the Chanukah lights proclaim with confidence that the dawn of deliverance is near.  ~Anshe emes

Some thoughts I found worth pondering from Rabbi David Schuck:

The light of the candles can also illuminate within us things that we carry around, hidden from ourselves and others. Things like jealousy, cruelty, insensitivity, and insecurity. They are difficult to see so we prefer to keep them anonymous, in the darkness of the deep wells of our soul, unseen and invisible. This is a way of denying their very existence. It can be terrifying to see these things because we become overwhelmed with the feeling that we will not have the power to change them, or even scarier, that we will not have the compassion to accept that they are a part of who we are. But if we keep them in the dark, they fester and grow and begin to take up too much room in our hearts and souls, pushing more and more light out.

circa 2004

"We thank Thee for the miracles, the redemption, and the triumphant victories, and liberation which Thou hast wrought for our fathers in days of old at this season."

Chag Sameach, my friends!

for more worthwhile thoughts on the festival, click HERE.

Frosty Morning

“Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.” ~Soren Kierkegaard

“Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity."

“How like a winter hath my absence been. From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen, What old December's bareness everywhere!” ~Shakespeare

Random Thoughts...

Love builds up the broken wall
and straightens the crooked path.
Love keeps the stars in the firmament
and imposes rhythm on the ocean tides
each of us is created of it
and I suspect
each of us was created for it.”
~Maya Angelou

"A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching." ~Sivananda

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." ~Emerson

The Call of the Sea...

I could never stay long enough on the shore, the tang of the untainted, fresh and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought.  ~Helen Keller

This past weekend, I had the privilege to spend time at the beach with the Chaverim - Liz graciously provided her condo where we spent time enjoying liturgy, worship, and study together as well as some quality time walking... just walking, breathing in the sea air, trying to work through and wash away pain of the past, pain that refuses to give rest.  

We poked around some of the little shops sharing our running commentary on some of the items we found to the amusement of clerks and other customers.  Beach treasures found their way into pockets, cameras captured moments in time, music wound itself around our conversations and prayers, sand leaked from shoe soles, and memories worked their way in and out of our minds...

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.  ~Albert Schweitzer

If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. ~Psalm 139: 9-10

Relaxing...

I was so relaxed at the beach yesterday that these are the only pics I took that are worth posting.  Actually, I only took nine total...  

"At the beach, life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides and follow the sun."

“Our best built certainties are but sand-houses and subject to damage from any wind of doubt that blows.” ~ Mark Twain

"Happiness is a summer breeze, sand between your toes, and your best friend by your side."