Giving Thanks

Give thanks for my hip and all the steps I’ve ever taken.

Give thanks for my heart and all the love I’ve ever received or given.

Stop for a moment and appreciate all of the love in my life from…

my mother and father,

sisters and brothers,

husband and children,

friends and relatives.

Stop for a moment and acknowledge these loves

and all the love I’ve ever had,

have today and

may have tomorrow.

Be thankful

Give thanks for my brain and all the happy thoughts

and fantasies I’ve ever had.

Give thanks for all helpful ideas and clarity of my thoughts

Give thanks to my higher power and my ability to believe

in one love for all and all the love for one.

Open to all the positive energy around me.

43002

Nucleus

This morning the waters danced around me.

I am the nucleus of peace and joy

                                          112001

Sacred

     All grounds are sacred

                  012501

Daisies and Tulips

The daisies and tulips sang to me as each note floated up into an endless blue morning sky bathed in crisp, clear air while I opened my meditative gate door. The flowers parted creating a spiral path ultimately leading me to a beautiful, translucent pond. I dove in feeling the bubbles surround me and with an arched back I rose to the surface and floated. A light sun shower passed by and I opened my mouth swallowing a few droplets as I drifted to the embankment, stood and returned to my flower path. As I departed through my meditative gate door the flowers hugged my ankles and bid goodbye.

103000

Blue Sky

The Blue Sky said

to my heart,
"Never forget to look up"

31006

One Step

I stand by my stream in Brunswick Acres ready to meditate and envision not a meditative paradise or fantasy, but just a step…one step that would be the only difference, making that one change. The air would be the same, the temperature the same, the same familiar scents, the trees still in full bloom, the water flowing all the same but for me, I will be standing from a new vantage point.

        61300

The Meditative Fountain

Set against a bluish-gray day, the air around me is warm yet there is a refreshing coolness as it enters my body. There is a stone fountain in front of me surrounded by ivy.  It has been flowing for hundreds of years with waters pure, crystal clear and inviting, molding the rock smooth with a never-ending grace. As I sip from these waters, I feeling greater invigoration and joy but most of all complete rejuvenation.

10500

Spring Awakening

               I meditate on the sweet smells of spring’s first flowers

               and oh how they sway on their gentle stems.

               Their aroma fills me with joy, hope and elation.

               The sun is shining and I feel myself smiling.

               The music rises from my heart, “Spring, oh spring is here.”

                                     4502

Dreams

                           My dreams are so crystal clear with clarity…they are my reality.

                           My waking times are but mere moments dressed in a dream

                           Come sleep with me

                                                  4-01

Proud Feeling

                              It’s a proud feeling to follow in your own footsteps

                              Hold your own hand

                              Find your own connection to the earth around you

                              I stand at the vantage point of the four winds

                              They greet me and guide me

                              So the sun may shine upon me today

                                                         1901

G-d's Ear

                            Giving thanks for g-d’s ear.

                            May I always have something to say in praise or quest.

                            May it always be open to a kind and gentle word.

                            May my message always go to your source.

                            And may I feel your answer with clarity.

                                               1-2001

Ella: A Story of Many Endings

Ella was a very large worm. After last night’s heavy rain she had to come up for air. She left the comfort of her mud tunnels and made her way to the surface.  The sun greeted her. The grass tickled her underbelly, yet in search of something better than home, some place she could breathe again, she made her way creep by creep by creep onto the black top.  It was easier to move now.

She slithered ahead. It was a wide driveway. She started feeling warmer and warmer... then dryer and dryer and thinner and thinner. It was hot! She gazed ahead, then to the blacktop behind. Ella pondered, “I may be big and strong but I am just a worm and this is not a place for a worm.”

She began to long for the special comforts of her home. “Ella,” she heard her family and friends calling “Come on let’s play.”

“It’s time to get tucked in for bed”

She paused looking both ahead and behind. “Do I really want to go to the great beyond?” she began to question.

It may be wet and soggy there but spending these last few minutes outside, Ella had come to realize that this worm belongs home. She make a J turning around and facing her home she straightened out and slithered back to her high grass and mud. The soil was beginning to dry out, again. “Ahhhhh home” Ella hummed as she make her way back to the comforts of old familiar wormhole.

Or…

She decided to go to the great beyond and it was a difficult dry journey and as soon as she could take no more she reached the “Fertile Crescent” on the other side.

Or…

And the other side was even a soggier land.

Or…

She reached the other side which was a land just like the other side but she left behind her family or friends.

Or…

She made it to a land of happy and healthy worms still leaving behind her family and friends.

Or…

She couldn’t make it back or to the other side and dried out by the burning sun.

Or…

I saw her in the driveway thirsting for life. Since I couldn’t help all of the worms there, I randomly reached for her, bent down, picked her up and threw her into a grassy knoll hoping that she would survive. I felt good. 

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Who Am I

                             Who am I?

                             An observer, caretaker for my family

                             Who am I?

                             A full-time homemaker, freelance writer, an artist,

                             person who cares about the environment

                             and acts upon her concerns

                             Who am I?

                             A meditation instructor, an environmental educational

                             coordinator, a photographer, poet

                            

                             Who am I?

                             A person who does what she feels is most important

                                                  103000

To Dance

I leapt into the air and pirouettes followed. There was no ground just air and I danced and danced hearing the wind’s lively music while feeling the joy and freedom in this moment. I knew I was smiling for my body is a feather in the wind and my heart a ray of light. My soul sings as I continued the dance.

10-00

Our Laughter

                                   Our laughter has become 

                                   a flower with many tight knit petals 

                                   growing together enhancing the whole 

                                   with an aroma sweet yet wild....thriving.

                                                                            4700

Oneness Meditation

As I glide through the tall grass, the soft blue sky and warm sun rays guide me.

I breathe the clean air confidently.

Reaching a pond still as glass, I float on the waters but do not swim. 

I become the pond---calm, relaxed and serene.

I am the pond.

Feel your gentle water and drift (pause for 10 sec.).

I feel the banks of the pond and the ground surrounding me.

I am the ground---comforting, secure and warm.

I am the air above---light and free, well traveled. 

The sky, the sun, the waters and the air---we are one.

I see myself standing on the ground with my eyes closed and fingers touching together in a yoga meditation form.  

I step up three steps.

I see myself and feel the calmness of the waters, the comfort of the earth and the freedom of the air within and around me. 

We are one.

I open my eyes.

 9-00

My Secrets

                     Secret of happiness is to let myself enjoy

                     Secret of good health is to be in tune with my body and relax

                     Secret of making a relationship work is patience, compassion

                     and perseverance

                                              61200

Mom’s Yahrzeit

That song keeps going thru my head “Take me as I am… you don’t understand….”  It could have been our new song. 

Let her yortzeit candle remind me of only our good times together. I thought of the time when mom brought Rachel, my youngest sister, home from the hospital and I got to hold her that first time. Now, I’m thinking of our numerous hikes, cooking franks and beans in those little pots, stuffing artichokes and making stuffed cabbage. I’ll never forget her backrubs, her cups of tea with wine, lemon and honey to sooth as well as to socialize, and when she taught me the waltz, jitterbug and the cha-cha.

“Take me as I am”

 Today is the day to think of mom… the way she lived, not the way she died.

“Appreciate people when they are alive, not just when they are dead” she would always say.

Take this day to rejoice life… she would have wanted it that way.

4199

The Mask

 

At 13 I put the mask on…just to see if it would fit.

At 18 It started to adhere to my skin. I couldn’t control it. There was madness.

At 21 I forgot it was on.

At 30 I realized I was wearing it but chose to ignore it.

At 35 The mask kept falling off.

At 40 I looked at the remnants of myself and felt like the diver I saw in the aquarium. He was swimming in his “water world” with mask, tank and fins. I stood on the other side with my hands against the glass unable to touch or be touched.

I feel more isolated everyday. Sometimes the air doesn’t even want to go into my lungs.

It was not my strength that kept me there, it was my weakness.

Now, it is not my weakness that keeps me here, it is all of my strength.

3800

Gifts

                                   Each walk I take is a gift

                                      Each step is a gift

                                         Each breath is a gift

                                                                   3500

Lessons of the Land

On my walks I am taught the lessons of the land

The flower that stands alone

attracts the most attention

Yet a field of flowers

shares the comfort of one another

10-00

Waiting

A car or jeep has been cutting through my meditation spot illegally and it has been going over my stream chopping away at its calm, peace and beauty.

One day it’ll get caught in the mud that it has created but in the mean time it is sad, and all I can do is wait until it stops destroying this natural beauty.

1199

Strive*

                           There are times when it’s hard to tell what’s wrong or right.

                           Go with what’s in your heart and strive.

                                                33199

World Of Colors

I think I understand it now

I was on another plane

It was one deeper than normal, where colors with no special meaning stand for things

Red and black were protection  

Pink was love

Blue for belief

Purple for royalty

Green for all growing things and peace as well as the opposite--sickness and envy,a very complex color

Yellow and orange for intensity

Brown for the earth, the soil, the toil

The world of the colors

But I only desire to be part of the plane of substance and reality

Grounded 

32999 

Ways To Get To the Other Side*

                      

                       Go around

                       Wait till it freezes and walk gently on it

                       Align myself with highest branch and fly over

                       Just go straight through

                       Tell myself I am there

                       Make a bridge

                       Make a tunnel

                       Or

                       Change my mind and say I never wanted to get there

                       Have faith

                       Stand still peacefully and let the path find you

                                        32299

A New Chapter

 Everything in our life which has brought us to where we are today, we should be thankful for it all--- the good and the bad. It is what has defined us and we are surviving and at times thriving from all of the strengths which have gotten us this far.

It is the challenges that help mold, define and strengthen us. Even though we may feel weak, we survive it with the skills we have created and developed. We have survived them all. That is monumental.  

I think of all of the people surviving wars, depressions, disasters but we also must survive loneliness, emptiness--ourselves. Today is the last day of carefree days with my daughter, Hannah. Nursery school is over. Soon she’ll be 9-3:30… home, homework, dinner, bath, bedtime--- the grind. She’ll be part of it.  I’ll miss her. I’ll be lonely. My baby is growing up. I feel happiness and sadness. A new chapter is ready to begin.

61300

Love Doesn’t Stop Today*



Love doesn’t stop today

No matter where you are or how you feel right now

more love is still around the corner

4311

Land of Two Suns*

“Tell me mommy, when we gaze upon the earth from billions of miles away why do we see two suns?” 

All of us know of Earth’s one sun.  It shines golden and pure in the eastern sky each morning. It appears to descend every evening as a florescent gift to our west.

“Yes, we know the midnight sky is the living history of our ancestors’ shining points, so crystal and pure. But while standing upon the earth, one can only see a single sun. Yet, from Alpha Centauri two burn bright: the one above and one within. The hearts of all of earth’s inhabitants beat as one and in that we can see our second sun."

121601

Old Neighborhood

What I miss most

about my old neighborhood

is

that the trees dominated the houses

In my new one

the houses dominate the trees

 41200