Giving birth to ourselves

"He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves."

(Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera)

Druid Vow of Friendship

I honor your path.
I drink from your well.
I bring an unprotected heart to our meeting place.
I hold no cherished outcome.
I will not negotiate by witholding.
I am not subject to disappointment.

The Next Step

Below extract from "A Deep Breath of Life" by Alan Cohen:

I have a formula for knowing if a next step is the right one for you. If you feel both excited and scared, that is it. If you're just excited and not afraid, there is no challenge, no stretching, no initiation; you are still in your safe zone, and growth is unavailable. If you're just afraid, there is no positive motivation. Why walk through a fear unless there is something you are walking toward? But if you are simultaneously turned on and frightened, do it and watch your growth skyrocket.

True Happiness

This is Life's promise to me .. picked out of a jar at a friend's party last night
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(A friend sent this to me this morning):

The Universe has three answers to your requests...

1. Yes

2. Yes but not yet

3. No because something better is coming along

Connect with your purpose

Connect with your purpose. How do you know what is important to you? You feel it. Notice the small voice or sense of knowing inside when something is attracting you. Your body alerts you to what is dangerous or attractive long before your mind can explain why. Pay attention to those cues. This is your intuition, or sixth sense. Your deepest values and purpose are not in your head, but in your heart. What does your heart respond to; what touches your spirit? Purpose is the force that energizes. It inspires you to get up in the morning. What excites your passion for life?

Why it works ~ When your inner promptings guide you, you cannot make a mistake. These are signs that lead to your truest desires and lasting happiness. Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist says, "Follow your bliss". When you follow your true path or calling, you are invigorated rather than stressed.

(Tip #3 from this source)

Granted

God & Goddess grant me:

The power of Water, to accept with ease and grace what I cannot change

The power of Fire, for the energy and courage to change the things I can

The power of Air, for the ability to know the difference

And the power of Earth, for the strength to continue my path.

- Anonymous -

Untitled

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.

- Florence Whittemore -

The PAW Process

Englishman's Bay, Tobago (October 2008)
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(Excerpt #1): By setting an outcome we become aware of the difference between what we have and what we want. The difference is the 'problem'. When you have set an outcome and are clear about your desired state, then you can plan to make the journey from one to the other. You become proactive, you take ownership of the problem and start to move towards a solution.

(Excerpt #2):
You need to believe three things about your outcomes:

It is possible to achieve them
You are able to achieve them
You deserve to achieve them

Possibility, Ability and Worthiness are the three keys to achievement. Remember them as the PAW process.

(Excerpts from NLP Workbook - Joseph O'Connor)

Everything you seek

Everything you are seeking is seeking you in return. Therefore, everything you want is already yours. So you don't have to get anything; it is simply a matter of becoming more aware of what you already possess.

You were Born Rich

Open Door

Seek that door and find it. But before you try to open it, remind yourself no one can fail who seeks to reach the truth. And it is this request you make today. Nothing but this has any meaning now; no other goal is valued now nor sought, nothing before this door you really want, and only what lies past it do you seek.

Put out your hand, and see how easily the door swings open with your one intent to go beyond it. Angels light the way, so that all darkness vanishes, and you are standing in a light so bright and clear that you can understand all things you see.

A Course in Miracles

Love & Light

Love & Light
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Art may not change anything ... but the ideas we have about ourselves we project into the world ... Negative images have a way of coming alive just as positive images have. If we project images of beauty, hope, healing, courage, survival, co-operation, interrelatedness, serenity, imagination and harmony, this will have a positive effect. Imagine what artists could do if they became committed to the long-term good of the planet. The possibilities are beyond imagination. If all artists would ever pull together for the survival of humankind, it would be a power such as the world has never known.

Ciel Bergman

Fruits of Stillness and Peace

Pippa: "Yawn ... We dogs aren't into fruits."
(... after a trip to the market when I had first 'gone raw' in May)
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This morning I felt like eating watermelon so I went to the market to get some. It was early and the vendors were now setting up. The only stall with watermelon laid out was one that I enjoy going to because of its energy. It is run by an Indian woman and her adolescent daughter. I first came across them one morning as I walked by their stall and noticed, propped up against each pile of their fruits (bananas and watermelons), little pieces of cardboard with quotes written on them in red marker.

I had stopped, absorbed, reading the quotes. Each one resonated and spoke so directly to me that I said aloud: "Wow!" Not only because they felt true, but because they were special and humble. Someone had made them with love and a sense of dedication and a desire to share and extend their essence. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the market, that little stall with its simple yet deep quotes (from some major thinkers and spiritual masters), felt like an oasis of stillness and peace.

When the woman heard me say Wow she smiled: "Dat's my daughter," she said proudly, indicating the shy adolescent perched on a table behind her. "She does like to write. She have a book she does write poems in all de time."

I told her daughter that it was so great seeing the quotes next to the bananas and watermelons and that it made me want to buy from them. Great messages for everyone. Giving so much more than just 'fruits'. Giving something to everyone who passed by, whether they stopped to read or not.

This morning when I bought the watermelon, the mother was now setting up the stall and hadn't yet put out the quotes. I wonder what they would have said today ...

The daughter wasn't there. Perhaps she only goes on weekends when she doesn't have school.
Maybe this weekend when I go, I will speak with her and with the old woman.

Wonder

People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.

- St. Augustine -

Yes

Another Balandra full moon shot

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All night I could not sleep
Because of the moonlight on my bed
I kept on hearing a voice calling:
Out of Nowhere, Nothing answered "yes."


- Zi Ye, translated by Arthur Waley, *A Hundred and Seventy Chinese
Poems*

Source: Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter

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This is a scheduled post. It will automatically be posted while I'm away.

Destination

What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt. It is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn't want to go anywhere else.

Hal Boyle

In between

Photo taken with my Pentax 35mm, on Bulb setting (2003)

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In between birth and death, you have time to emit light so you leave behind a legacy.

Yogi Bhajan