– Priorities

"Come and fill my days with dreams.Empty me of all the empty things that I hold onto.Come and fill my heart with You."~Grant Cunningham & Matt Huesmann
Lyrics from "Come And Fill My Heart" as sung by Jason Warner from his CD "In The Waiting."

Today's Affirmation
Love is my priority, my purpose and my path

Today's Meditation

Dear God,Help us to open our eyes and remain awake to Your truth.There is so much fluff and stuff floating around us, filling our thoughts and taking our time.Help us not be distracted by empty things.Release us from our tendency to major in the minors.May Your will for our lives be our priority and our passion.May Your purpose be evident in all of our actions.May our dreams and our days be filled with Love.So it is!

I think I need to take better pictures of this. These did not turn out so well. You can not get the whole idea.
Anyway, this is what we did on Saturday, then we had torrential rain showers and wind storms. It was crazy...

Mostly worked in our yard yesterday, memorial day, and planted more of my garden. Weeded a bunch and clipped back all the crazy out of control hops plants. They grow approx 5 inches a day and take over everything. I need to move them.

I should have worked on my pages for the Portland Art and Soul Fat book but I didn't. Not even one page. I walked by and looked at them a few times but I was so tired and sore from working on the one job, I could barely think straight. Plus, I think I was really stressed out about how the guy would feel after he saw it. I still don't know, I have to go over there after work today and talk to him. I am kind of scared.

More later

before and after my first real landscape job

friend

Thank you for all the kind thoughts. The surgery went well, and she is home recovering. Probably around 6 months of Chemo. So, we will be sending all our love and good thoughts out for as long as it takes and then some.

GOOD THOUGHTS TODAY

Today I would like if everyone could put forth good thoughts out for my friend. She is having a double mastectomy today, she has cancer in both breasts. I know that she is very scared. So, please take a moment today and send her a prayer, a thought, a smile or what ever positive vibe you have.
I know it can help.

WOMEN

WOMEN

Woman is more fitted than man to make exploration and take bolder action in nonviolence.

There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to man.

Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacity.

If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior.

If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with women.

Woman, I hold, is the personification of self-sacrifice, but unfortunately today she does not realize what tremendous advantage she has over man.

-Ghandi

MEME

Here is a meme for the day from Karen B. The idea is to list fifteen things - good or bad - you would like to tell fifteen people without naming names. As the instructions on her blog state: “The responses may not make sense to the readers but the therapy is valuable.” So… fifteen. I think I could have done better if I had taken the time, but here you go…

1. No, I don’t know what’s for dinner
2. What you did was really dishonest and unethical I am finding it really hard to forgive.
3. I have never met someone so negative, you really drag me down and it is hard to be around you at times.
4. Why are you always so angry at everyone, it doesn’t matter what they do, it has no bearing on your life.
5. You are seriously funny and you remind me a lot of myself
6. Those are the ugliest shoes I have ever seen, but I love you anyway.
7. Could you please stop staring and asking me what I am eating every time I eat lunch.
8. I wish that you two would just get a long, it would make it so much easier for everyone.
9. Life is way too short to complain, think about how lucky you are.
10. I am so happy to have met you
11. You are one of the rudest people that I have ever met, I wish that you would not talk to me.
12. Thank you so much for all your kind words, everything I learned and for making me laugh
13. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING
14. This has been really fun getting to know you.
15. I wish I could be better.

WEEKEND

This weekend I got myself a side job landscaping the front of an office building.
I just decided to call some of the realtors here and ask if they new of any one who needed landscaping, yard maintenance etc.

So with in the first hour I go probably six prospects. I rode my bike down town to meet one person and he gave me the job. I will totally redo the front of his office building. I plan on designing a ‘woodland’ type garden. It is fairly shady and under a big maple tree.

Now, I am a bit nervous since I have never done this on a professional level. But, I am sure I can handle it and make it look lovely. I start on Saturday. So, please wish me luck on my first step.

I will take before and after pictures for next time.

This weekend we showed movies outside on the side of the house. We had the neighbors and some of Emmy’s friends come over. We sat out on the patio with blankets and pillows and watched Talladega nights. We had to vote on a movie that everyone would want to watch.
It was really fun; it was like the old drive in movies.

Dave and I watched Pan’s Labyrinth, which I thought was good, kind of scary but I really liked it.

Then on Sunday we went to watch Emmy and her Violin group have a fiddle contest, that was also fun.

Anyway, That was my weekend…I can not wait to start my new project this coming weekend.

Woman, I hold, is the personification of self-sacrifice, but unfortunately today she does not realize what tremendous advantage she has over man.

love

It is at the edge of a petal that love waits.
- William Carlos Williams

Feeling Sad

Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad”

Victor Hugo

This is how I feel today. Having a bit of a bad day nothing that I can not get over. Just need to feel it for awhile.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will."

~George Bernard Shaw

Today's Affirmation

I allow my imagination to roam free and unbridled.

Today's Meditation

Dear God, Lead my imagination beyond what is familiar and known to me. new pictures in my mind and a new context for my thoughts. Lift me above my too familiar patterns and routine responses.Spark my creativity with Your fire and passion.Help me see all creation through Your eyes and heart.

.And so it is.

Caring Rose Day

Rose! Thou art the sweetest flower that ever drank the amber shower: Even the Gods, who walk the sky, are amourous of thy scented sigh." ~ Thomas Moore

MOTHER'S DAY

So, since it is mother’s day this weekend I decided to go ahead and re-post the poem I wrote about being a mom.
So, you will have to suffer through it if you already saw it last year. (which I highly doubt, since I think I only have about five readers)…

I am 45 feeling 25 and still thinking I am pretty cool, and I see that a lot of my friends feel the same way. It's just our kids that don't.

Anyhow, Happy Mothers Day to you all. And this is how I feel most of the time!!

MOM's

you shave your legs
you cut your hair
you wax your lip
but you still aren't there

you pierce your ears
and then your navel
there are other places
but you just aren't able

you can't find your keys
where are your glasses
is that all you get
as the time passes

you're not ready for purple
the red hat is a sin
you've got to be kidding
is that a third chin
you accept the wrinkle
put the bronzer away
you look at your daughter
today is her day

Denise Marley 2006

Each flower is a soul opening out to nature.- Gerald De Nerval

Finally

In the cherry blossom's shade there's no such thing as a stranger.- Issa

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family:Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.

-Jane Howard:

IDEALS

"Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny." ~Carl Schurz

Today's Affirmation

I am guided by the ideal that Love transforms everything.

Today's Meditation

Dear God, I am still reaching into myself for the highest of which I am capable. The more I have experienced, the more I know that there is more to me. You are the essence and substance of which I am made. In this moment, I embrace a bigger vision of life. Thank You for challenging me to grow.

OPEN YOUR HEART

This came to me today in my email and it is exactly what I have been trying to learn. I have said several times that I have changed this year by learning to open my heart to all situations. It is truly amazing how light you feel when you think with your heart.

Thursday, May 3, 2007 – Compassion
"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive." ~The Dalai Lama

Today's Affirmation
My heart is open and compassionate.

Today's Meditation

Dear God, Sometimes, it seems like it would be easier to close my eyes and heart
to the people and situations around me.The non-stop barrage of news reports provide vivid details of ways
we are not loving each other. In the midst of all of this, You call me to remain awake. You remind me that a closed heart cannot receive or share love. Instead of shutting down, I choose to be open and loving. When situations arise that challenge me, I choose the path of love. Through prayer and meditation, I give my frustrations and hurts to You; and I receive healing, strength and courage.Reveal what I can do today to open more space in me for love. May Your will be my will. Thank You.

If you don't want to be there--don't go there!"
~Sallye Taylor


I choose my thoughts and attitudes carefully.
Today's Meditation

Dear God,

We intentionally select thoughts and feelings of love and harmony.
If other matters and attitudes sneak into our minds,
we turn within to Your presence and align ourselves with Your power.
We realize that what we dwell upon, becomes our experience.
Therefore, we think thoughts of love, joy, peace and abundance.
May all the world be blessed by our collective meditation.
Fill our minds with Your truth and our hearts with
Your song of endless love.
Thank You very much!

BOOK DONATION

I would like to have all the books shipped by May 15. That way I can package up and send all together in one shipment. Thank you karen for all your input and help.

HAPPY MAY DAY

The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.- Edwin Way Teale