Just wishing it were so...

 

Seriously now!

 

Joy

 ¨There is an ancient and well-kept secret to happiness which the Great Ones have known for centuries. They rarely speak of it, but they use it all the time, and it is fundamental to good mental health. This secret is called The Fine Art of Not Being Offended. In order to truly be a master of this art, one must be able to see that every statement, action and reaction of another human being is the sum result of their total life experience to date.

In other words, the majority of people in our world say and do what they do from their own set of fears, conclusions, defences and attempts to survive. Most of it, even when aimed directly at us, has nothing to do with us. Usually, it has more to do with all the other times, and in particular the first few times, that this person experienced a similar situation, usually when they were young.¨

From 2018 Girl God Books out of Norway on FaceBook

Link here: Uplift

I share from the "Uplift:"

3 Ways to Activate and Experience More Joy Every Day

1. Make a list of things you know you enjoy and love to do. Be imaginative and uncensored. Write it down.  And then do these things, at least one or two every day. Notice what it feels like just to start thinking about all the things you enjoy, and how you will make this happen. 

2.Find what you feel genuinely joyful about in the present moment, throughout the day, no matter what is happening, or what you’re doing,  There are always things to feel joyful about.

3. Take 5-7 minutes every morning, and before you go to sleep, to simply feel joy within you, by bringing to mind things that feel joyful to you, and focusing on the feelings and vibrations of joy in your body and heart.

Being open to new things

 I used to be a person who would turn a cold shoulder on a stranger...especially a man, except maybe one in a wheel chair.

I sat down to wait for my friend at a small coffee shop early Monday morning, while my car was being given some TLC. Then the man who had been sitting in a corner while I ordered my coffee wheeled himself into the same area I was sitting, with my back halfway to him.

I'd mentioned to the barista that it was also St. Gertrude's Day, the Saint of travelers and cats...as well as St. Patrick's day! He asked me as I turned away with my coffee and scone, what was the name? I misspoke and said St. Agnes...and later said I had trouble with names.

So here he wheeled himself halfway toward me, and mentioned, "can I tell you a little something I learned?" 

"OK," I said.

"When you say you have trouble remembering names, I've learned that you are reinforcing your not remembering them. I've learned that to imagine seeing the names written helps me to remember them," he said.

"I also remember better from visual cues," I replied.

He then introduced himself. I kept putting my coffee's sweetener in and stirring it...and listening to him, and when he said his name was Ray "Sunshine" I replied that in my 30s I'd gone by Barbara Sunshine because I was an artist who signed her work Sunshine.

He then tried to tell me how he received the name Sunshine, coming from a Shoshone Indian, but he seemed to forget part of his story. And that's when my friend arrived with her tea. I said thanks for visiting as Ray wheeled away. Later I saw him through the window walking his wheelchair across the 5 lane highway to the other side, where most of the businesses were still closed from hurricane damage. We wondered where he was going, and if maybe he lived in one of the nearby recently opened low-income apartments.

I finished my scone, still not tasting it much, and my coffee, same flavorless warm stuff. Even though the scone said cinnamon nut, I didn't have any taste of cinnamon this morning. I sure hope this goes away soon! Then called the car place, where she told me my inspection, air filters and rotating the tires would be $181.

"Geese," I said to my friend, who drove me next door to get my car. "That's a lot, I would have expected maybe $100!"

But we went through the ticket, and it showed all the expenses, as well as a note that I needed to get new brakes on the front wheels. I asked what that would cost, and said I'd be back as soon as I saved enough money for it...asking how long I could wait. If I hadn't said I use the brakes more than the accelerator it would have been a few months...but that told him I should be back in a month.

So then I came home, (no parking place so just pulled over to the side of the parking lot) and am here happily full of scone and coffee, and a bit more broke than I started out this morning! And it's only 10:45!

Moments Cafe

Spring and mountain thoughts

 

Coming of Spring - Artist~ Alexander Volkov

Looking out my window is similar...though without the forsythia! I should have clipped some branches when  I saw some about to open the other day. But it was on the town property so who knows what might have happened had I done so!

Spring is much celebrated in my life these days. When I worked, raised a family, and spent my 8-5 hours inside and my home hours either feeding, laundering, cleaning house, sleeping and maybe having some entertainment, it was only on weekends and holidays, vacations too, when I could get into my source of spiritual connection - nature. 

My view March 15 at 10:45 am

The window view does help. I see how weather changes, light from sunshine makes different colors (unfortunately not while I write this). The ever present mountain above the other side of the valley...saying stability in earth...ancient movements and gradual changes have created this form that I see.

I look at videos of Kilauea with it's current eruption and am amazed that lava is coming up from the center of the earth (or somewhere down there.) The same forces that made these mountains, where my footsteps are so miniscule in comparison to it's stability. One mountain just gradually wears down with rain and wind, another spews forth molten rock and gases. All on this same earth!

It's amazing.

The living is easy

 I read somewhere, and quickly passed on by, that those who have a firm belief system  have less worries. That struck me as probably the basis of the many Christians - those are people I am familiar with, but I imagine Hindus, Muslims, Jews, and others have a similar system. They know their superior force, their faith in that force, and their living in a certain proscribed way will take care of things. No matter what.

So I imagine they have an easy way of life.

I keep saying they, because my continued interest in differing structures of ideas that explain the universe of all ideas leaves me with questions. I don't wake up and go to sleep with a prayer to a deity to save my soul and the world. and the surety that that someone out there is taking care of things.

I wake up with expectation that this day will bring new ideas to me. That the dog people who just had such fun meeting each other by the lake this noon will give me joy to hear their enjoyment of each other and their pooches...and I can get into the same feeling just by saying "I love how dog people can interact with others so easily!:

See by saying that I acknowledge them, but don't exactly say I'm a dog person,  I'll get to pet their pooch if it's so inclined, and sometimes get a photo or two. I'm really a cat person in disguise. Nobody is out walking cats, so it's a bit harder to find other cat persons...usually friends I visit in their homes.

I digress from the spirituality of my message...but there are definitely some connections to belief systems by the kinds of pets people have. Ha ha...maybe just a jest. I'm of course open to considering it however.

So if all those with a set of rules of beliefs and behaviors have an easier life, is mine necessarily harder?

No. It's just more up to me. I have more choices. Today do I feel vegetarian? Or do I want to read all the alternative newsletters that I have in my in-box? Or is it get fit and do exercise day?

I kind of like all the choices I have. But I do admit a bit of envy for those who lie back in the great white father's lap and let him take care of their lives. Nah, not for a moment!

I learned in psychology that the belief in a great external other that takes care of you is considered external-locus-of-control. And if you believe in your own way of approaching problems, that's called internal-locus-of-control.

The undercurrents and updrafts

 There are always a few who get at and feel the undercurrent, and these simply use the surface appearances selecting them and using them as tools to express the undercurrent, the real life.

If I cannot feel an undercurrent then I see only a series of things.  They may be attractive and novel at first but soon grow tiresome.

      - Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

I watched a big bird (vulture maybe) flying as a sailor along the air currents yesterday...never flipping a wing feather that I could see, but she just coasted from here to there on these invisible warm updrafts. She somehow could feel her way forward on them, never doubting their reality. Updrafts and soaring birds happen a lot where the land crinkles with mountains and valleys. I wonder how they happen in the flatlands, but won't pursue that question today. These birds know that warm air rises, and thus certain times of day they will expect that to happen from the edges of cliffs...and can be photographed as they are seen by humans. My big bird yesterday was enjoying a free ride with just the valley floor below her, perhaps warmed by the two major highways that stream along it's sides, and probably not from the little river which flooded 5 months ago, for now it isn't big enough to offer much difference in air quality. I do wonder how an updraft happened in mid day for her to enjoy...but she knows these things, and I don't.

Invisible currents...in air and water. What are these forces saying to me? They are movements of an element, which can be felt, but not easily observed. A rip current comes to mind, or an airplane hitting a sudden "air pocket" or downdraft perhaps, where a plane suddenly looses altitude while flying steadily forward. Disturbances in the natural flow are they?