Intentions...and Reality!!

My intention is to write on the Photoschmoozer blog daily - but we know what often happens to intentions...reality sets in - or a different kind of seeing.  When I drive to the pool for warm water exercise ( a perfect event in itself) I pass a big pond and there is a fake swan and a fountain oh and a rowboat on the shore.  The other day, I noticed the pond was full of lily pads.  I never quite noticed them before so I made plans to stop by.  I finally did and just got lost in the stillness of the environment (even though I was right next to the busy road!)  Often makes me wonder why people don't just stop and see - they are too busy getting somewhere?!? for something 'important'.   Hey I am retired - whatever that means - and as I say, this state of being is somewhat like a permanent vacation.  The lily pads and the yellow buds make me relate that to life.  They hang out, look pretty, and float along with the currents.  Not too shabby huh??  Now if we could only be more like the lily pads, the water and the blossoms.  BUT for so many of us (me often included) we want to KNOW what is going on. We want to know what we are MEANT to do - and we forget that a big piece of us is MEANT TO BE!!   It's a BE STILL thing, friends - we have to be quiet and go within to find out what is to be...all of the answers are within us - it's just tough to believe in and trust that!!

   Recently, related to life and relationships, I have tried to look at the days and people differently.  For me it is all about EXPECTATIONS - and the possibilities.  I just said to someone that if I could pick a middle name, it would be Possibility!!  I dream about the what ifs and that brings me joy.  The challenge with that is that when my expectations are not fulfilled and reality sets in, I become disappointed and even though Don Miguel Ruiz tells us in The Four Agreements not to take it personally, well...another of life's learning lessons.  What is wrong with me - what did I do wrong - that responsibility comes from the oldest child and needing to make things 'right'!   So many challenges and lessons to be learned and don't you know, we get those lessons OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAINI til maybe, just maybe one day, the aha will really come and wisdom will be achieved.  To be wished! 

Then the other day, I got drawn into this beauty in our garden!  We visited and I was still with her...and she shared her splendor.  Friends, IF I had worried about the technicalities of the camera and photography, I would not have been still enough to see the magnificence of this gift.  HEY - a thought just crossed my mind...all related to the BE STILL and SEE stuff.  Isn't life the same way.  I just shared with a friend that we can't seek the answers/solutions from anywhere but the stillness within us.  So life...my photography...learning...they are all intertined...there are only synchronicities, lessons and possibilities!  We have to be still and NOT seek  out answers in a determined, planned way.  Just brings so much more peace when we can BE!  So today, I am taking a friend to the doctor's in Philadephia and we are meeting early and heading to the city just to BE and SEE!  Hmmm wonder what is across the bridge for us?!?!?