Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu

Those who know do not talk.
Those who talk do not know.

Keep your mouth closed.
Guard your senses.
Temper your sharpness.
Simplify your problems.
Mask your brightness.
Be at one with the dust of the earth.
This is primal union.

He who has achieved this state
Is unconcerned with friends and enemies,
With good and harm, with honor and disgrace.
This therefore is the highest state of man.

Advice to Myself

Advice to Myself

by Louise Erdrich

Leave the dishes. Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic—decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in through the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.

Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond

Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond  

-Mary Oliver from Owls and Other Fantasies

As for life

I'm humbled,

I'm without words 

sufficient to say

how it has been hard as flint, 

and soft as a spring pond

both of these

and over and over,

and long pale afternoons besides,

and so many mysteries

beautiful as eggs in a nest,

still unhatched

though warm and watched over

by something I have never seen—

a tree angel, perhaps,

or a ghost of holiness.

Every day I walk out into the world

to be dazzled, then to be reflective.

It suffices, it is all comfort—

along with human love,

dog love, water love, little-serpent love,

sunburst love, or love for that smallest of birds

flying among the scarlet flowers.

There is hardly time to think about

stopping, and lying down at last

to the long afterlife, to the tenderness

yet to come, when 

time will brim over the singular pond, and become forever,

and we will pretend to melt away into the leaves. 

As for death,

I can't wait to be the hummingbird,

can you?

True Joy

"The true joy and wonder of life can only be yours if you follow your own intuition aiming to schieve your bliss"

The seed remains.....

~ "Oh heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains" ~

Chakra Garden of Jewels

Chakra Garden of Jewels 

Don’t go outside your house to search for jewels.
Don’t even bother with that excursion, my friend.
There are jewels inside yourself.
Precious, profound and ready to be discovered.

These jewels are just like flowers.

Some are taking root.  They are in the process of being fertilized and getting ready to sprout.
Others are growing and budding , preparing to flower.
There are also beautiful blooms inside, brimming with fragrance and lively vitality.
Others are in stages of decline, getting ready to retreat, recycle themselves,
and naturally cycle back to the beginning.

Like a bouquet of flowers, there are jewels within you.

There is a sparkling ruby red jewel and it’s so stabilizing and protective.
There is an orange carnelian jewel too.  It lights up your senses, creativity and ability to feel.
There is a beautiful amber jewel, radiating confidence, inner strength and courage.
There is an emerald jewel too.  The glowing emerald green jewel is loving, forgiving and kind.
There is a bright sapphire blue jewel shining with truth and sparks your creativity.
There is an amethyst glowing inside that awakens your intuition and shows you the big picture.
There is a crystal clear diamond, shining with spirit, connecting the Holy Ones with you.

Don’t go outside your house to search for jewels.
Don’t bother with that excursion, my friend.
There are jewels inside yourself,
waiting to be discovered, polished and ready to beam beautifully.

~ Julie Lusk with inspiration from Kabir

Surround Yourself

Surround Yourself 

Surround yourself with what you love, whether it’s family, pets, music, plants, hobbies or whatever. Allow your home to be your refuge -

create a special place within it that is your sanctuary.

Appreciate your health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip into the garden, a trip into the country, enjoy being surrounded by Nature. But not to where guilt is.

Tell people you love that you love them - at every opportunity.

And always remember - life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.