With my birthday yesterday, Valentine’s Day becomes the first day of my new year. What great symbols to begin a new venture. Flowers abound. Hearts are everywhere. Well wishes ring through phone and email. It’s such an auspicious day.
It tells me to be open and expecting of love this year. Having this many loving messages two days in a row is a great send off into the unknown.
I may think I know what’s coming. I can look at the night sky filled with planets, stars and omens. I can gauge where I’m at right now and where I think the year will take me. But I’m also open to surprises.
I know a new baby is coming, a new grandchild. I know my son will return from Kabul. Beyond that, I have no idea. I am stepping into the unknown with hearts and flowers at my back, and well wishes ringing in my ears, almost like the launching of a great ship on its maiden voyage. All I need is a large bottle of champagne broken across my bow, and the image would be complete. Bon Voyage!
Jyoti
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Writer's Digest Self-Publishing Contest
As a group, we entered our first book, A Week's Worth of Women, into the Writer's Digest Self-Publishing Contest last Fall...We each chipped in to make the $100. entry fee...two days ago we got a letter from them with the judges results...We didn't win first, or any of the ten placements, but it was nice to hear their thoughts...
On a scale of 1 to 5...1 being poor, 5 being excellent, we were given...
Structure and organization 4
Grammar 5
Cover design 4
Comments: Congratulations on writing and publishing this very unique anthology. What an interesting collection of voices and writing styles. You've created a very polished, professional book. Great job with grammar and proofreading as well.
On a scale of 1 to 5...1 being poor, 5 being excellent, we were given...
Structure and organization 4
Grammar 5
Cover design 4
Comments: Congratulations on writing and publishing this very unique anthology. What an interesting collection of voices and writing styles. You've created a very polished, professional book. Great job with grammar and proofreading as well.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Valentine’s Day ~ 2010
In the early morning light, still buried under the warmth of my down comforter, I looked out my west window. I have never noticed this before, but two “new growth” branches from a couple of mature Juniper trees, this day are reaching toward each other. They delicately arch and meet forming the top of a perfect “heart” shape. The traditional valentine icon was completed by the mature branches of the tree. Just as quickly as I locked in on the image, a strong wind which had blown in a dusting of snow overnight, shook the trees. The heart branches danced into other shapes, tormented by the storm, only to settle down again into the quiet picture of Love.
I was grateful to receive this valentine’s day gift from the trees. The transmuting image an easy metaphor for life: Love ~ to love in turmoil ~ to Love ~ to no longer looks or feels like love. And always in the peaceful quiet state settling back into the perfect image of LOVE.
In my day to day life I hold onto the image of a loving heart, but the reality is often not so pretty. In the past year, I have watched my career as an appraiser changed by new laws and it feels like my own sense of self-worth, respect, and ability to love myself is being ripped from me. Many dear friends around me are also having trouble holding the image of self love at this time. The stories vary: a romantic love lost, now sullied with feelings of guilt and failure; the stability of a decade long marriage shifting, like the Great Sand Dunes, and the disturbing unknowing-ness of what the future looks like; jobs lost or cut back and the wobbly self-image and stability fading with them, or the heart wrenching grief of watching our children leave the nest, letting go as they seek to find their way in life.
I have a saying on my wall that I know by heart, but still need to read every once in a while. “If you cannot find that which you seek inside yourself, you will never find it without.” Love? Security? Respect? Where do these reside inside of me? I catch glimpses now and then; acknowledge their presence and move forward, stronger.
On a lighter note, three years ago my cat and I decided that today, Valentine’s Day, would be her birthday. Magic came to me from a neighbor who found her abandoned. She is beautiful and such a marvelous friend and a loving presence in our little home. A pet psychic told me several years ago that she was four then, so today, she is six. I seriously doubt that she has any image problems, and I am happy to participate in her feline prophesy of self worth and priestess status. My heart is full and our homestead is held in love.
XXXX OOOO XXXX OOOO
* annette
I was grateful to receive this valentine’s day gift from the trees. The transmuting image an easy metaphor for life: Love ~ to love in turmoil ~ to Love ~ to no longer looks or feels like love. And always in the peaceful quiet state settling back into the perfect image of LOVE.
In my day to day life I hold onto the image of a loving heart, but the reality is often not so pretty. In the past year, I have watched my career as an appraiser changed by new laws and it feels like my own sense of self-worth, respect, and ability to love myself is being ripped from me. Many dear friends around me are also having trouble holding the image of self love at this time. The stories vary: a romantic love lost, now sullied with feelings of guilt and failure; the stability of a decade long marriage shifting, like the Great Sand Dunes, and the disturbing unknowing-ness of what the future looks like; jobs lost or cut back and the wobbly self-image and stability fading with them, or the heart wrenching grief of watching our children leave the nest, letting go as they seek to find their way in life.
I have a saying on my wall that I know by heart, but still need to read every once in a while. “If you cannot find that which you seek inside yourself, you will never find it without.” Love? Security? Respect? Where do these reside inside of me? I catch glimpses now and then; acknowledge their presence and move forward, stronger.
On a lighter note, three years ago my cat and I decided that today, Valentine’s Day, would be her birthday. Magic came to me from a neighbor who found her abandoned. She is beautiful and such a marvelous friend and a loving presence in our little home. A pet psychic told me several years ago that she was four then, so today, she is six. I seriously doubt that she has any image problems, and I am happy to participate in her feline prophesy of self worth and priestess status. My heart is full and our homestead is held in love.
XXXX OOOO XXXX OOOO
* annette
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Women Aging Young
What a concept! This title came from a friend’s blogspot. I just got together with my friend after twenty years of not seeing one another. She had moved to Bayfield, Co. to be part of a co-housing community. It sounds like a wondrous gathering of people with a huge organic garden feeding seventy people, rarely having to go to the grocery store. They have goat’s milk for all these people, and other blessings of the earth.
Back to women aging young, this new possibility. My mother is an example of this. Almost ninety-three years of age, she’s a good representative of this, and still going strong. Of course she isn’t thinking women aging young. My mom grew up on a farm and worked extremely hard all her life. Her motto is, she doesn’t stop, she stays young by not stopping. She gets her rest most days, but has no intention of sitting down. She has the motivation to keep moving.
The beauty of my mom is she wants to keep moving. She is definitely a woman aging young and is a great influence for all of us.
Patricia
Back to women aging young, this new possibility. My mother is an example of this. Almost ninety-three years of age, she’s a good representative of this, and still going strong. Of course she isn’t thinking women aging young. My mom grew up on a farm and worked extremely hard all her life. Her motto is, she doesn’t stop, she stays young by not stopping. She gets her rest most days, but has no intention of sitting down. She has the motivation to keep moving.
The beauty of my mom is she wants to keep moving. She is definitely a woman aging young and is a great influence for all of us.
Patricia
Monday, February 15, 2010
My Dear Friend, J.
How does one become friends with a woman who has advanced Alzheimer’s? I first met J. when I worked in the Reserve, a locked ward for people with dementia so far gone that they can do very little in the world. J. spends most of her time in her single room, in bed. She still can walk, unlike most in the Reserve, but seems to have no reason to leave the quiet of her room, except when fetched for meals and her weekly shower.
When I became a Hospice volunteer, she became the one I visited for an hour each week. But she didn’t die, so after a year, Hospice had to cut her from the program. Her family hired me then to continue my visits with her since she enjoyed my touch and smile, bringing some more humanity into her little room.
When I first met J., she would whisper on and on about matters usually known only to her. Almost two years later, she now speaks only sporadically. Up until the last month, she would say “Thank You” while I gave her a comfort touch session. And she would say “I love you” sometimes when we sat gazing in each others’ eyes. But now such verbosity has dwindled away.
Some visits we still gaze into each others’ eyes and we share a wordless love, so totally pure and without complications for either of us. This is a special friend that I am so glad to know.
--Terra Rafael
When I became a Hospice volunteer, she became the one I visited for an hour each week. But she didn’t die, so after a year, Hospice had to cut her from the program. Her family hired me then to continue my visits with her since she enjoyed my touch and smile, bringing some more humanity into her little room.
When I first met J., she would whisper on and on about matters usually known only to her. Almost two years later, she now speaks only sporadically. Up until the last month, she would say “Thank You” while I gave her a comfort touch session. And she would say “I love you” sometimes when we sat gazing in each others’ eyes. But now such verbosity has dwindled away.
Some visits we still gaze into each others’ eyes and we share a wordless love, so totally pure and without complications for either of us. This is a special friend that I am so glad to know.
--Terra Rafael
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Day of Love
May this day be one where our hearts
Open wide enough to encompass
All the beings on the planet.
May our minds be focused
So precisely that each
Expression of the creative force
Be filled with our heart’s energy.
Love is the word of the day,
But let us expand that day
To encompass all the days of our lives.
How sad it would be to only love
One day of the year.
Let this be the beginning swell
That rolls over our sands of discontent
So all becomes engulfed in this wave
Of Love.
Prema Rose
Valentine’s Day
Open wide enough to encompass
All the beings on the planet.
May our minds be focused
So precisely that each
Expression of the creative force
Be filled with our heart’s energy.
Love is the word of the day,
But let us expand that day
To encompass all the days of our lives.
How sad it would be to only love
One day of the year.
Let this be the beginning swell
That rolls over our sands of discontent
So all becomes engulfed in this wave
Of Love.
Prema Rose
Valentine’s Day
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Offering It Up
There are so many deaths in life. We die to where we were before birth to come here and live in a physical body.
We die to our individuality when we birth children and become mothers.
Along the way, we die many deaths as we leave behind a way of life, a way of being, to step into something else.
There’s an image in metaphysics that could be called the 6th stage, relative to the 6th chakra.
The picture goes like this: We are about to achieve enlightenment, freedom from the wheel of death and rebirth. We see others coming behind us, seeking that same goal. Do we take it and leave them behind, or do we offer them a foot up, that boost that allows them to go free…and our turn comes at the end, then.
It the Boddhi Satva Vow: I will stay and work until all beings are free.
How do we practice for a role like that in ordinary life? How do we give a leg up to those around us, to those coming up behind us, to our children when it’s time to set them free.
What a joy it is to give others that opportunity to have their own freedom and success.
Achieving it oneself is one thing. To open the door and enable someone else to have that is an even greater experience.
Jyoti
We die to our individuality when we birth children and become mothers.
Along the way, we die many deaths as we leave behind a way of life, a way of being, to step into something else.
There’s an image in metaphysics that could be called the 6th stage, relative to the 6th chakra.
The picture goes like this: We are about to achieve enlightenment, freedom from the wheel of death and rebirth. We see others coming behind us, seeking that same goal. Do we take it and leave them behind, or do we offer them a foot up, that boost that allows them to go free…and our turn comes at the end, then.
It the Boddhi Satva Vow: I will stay and work until all beings are free.
How do we practice for a role like that in ordinary life? How do we give a leg up to those around us, to those coming up behind us, to our children when it’s time to set them free.
What a joy it is to give others that opportunity to have their own freedom and success.
Achieving it oneself is one thing. To open the door and enable someone else to have that is an even greater experience.
Jyoti
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