Solutions Come From Quiet Thoughts

When I give myself the gift of sitting still - being quiet and reflecting - allowing my mind to clear and just drift along with the clouds - it's funny how possibilities arise.  I don't question that I love to BE STILL and SEE and really explore the openness of everything...and nothing.  What happens is that I listen to others - listen to what society says we must do to be 'right' and hang with those thoughts that are definitely holdovers from a previous time in my very own lifetime - maybe even back through other lifetimes!!

So discoveries...thoughts...open to ideas...just because 'photographers' take their pictures and then frame them and put them in galleries for sale, and I feel a need to be 'like them'...is that the truth?  I am rich on compliments but as friend Bob says, "Photography doesn't sell!"  Well some does but it is in the eyes of the buyer and can't really be predicted.  I have hung pictures in a gallery show with 21 other artists.  Can I go into the comparison of me with them?!?  NO NO NO...doesn't society often put us there??  I love what I do and will do more for me...to learn and grow in my own creative expression...
   For years I have been training individuals to know that the PROCESS is way more important than the PRODUCT!!  Hey Photoschmoozer...listen to your own words and enjoy the process.  Isn't that what learning and discovery is really all about?  Going within and seeing what your heart sees.  Taking your own journey and laughing and dancing with every step along the way!!
It's a journey...my journey...not to be shared.  Each of us has our own...yeah team!!

Each of us t

Each of takes the steps on our journey one step at a time.  See the steps are crooked, straights, higher, lower, simpler, more difficult...in the end we arrive where we need to be in each moment of each day!!

FULL MOON /Blue Moon Power

Grandmother Moon is powerful!  Last night ten amazing women sat in a circle in our living room - the South Jersey Peer Group for the Transition Network.  We come together monthly to honor, celebrate and explore our creative selves.  A few months ago, I put out the request that we open to further exploration and share what mattered to each of us.  You know the expression - Be careful what you ask for.  One of the women said, "Martie, why don't you be first to host this?"  My bold, daring and wonderful self said "SURE!"  Then my other self - the one that is uncertain and doesn't think she knows enough said, "What have you done?  How will you make this happen?  The pressure is on!!"
   It happened and I did it!  We started with a Mindfulness exercise - visualizing that we are the flower opening and closing to discover our inner beauty.  After some lively sharing, this activity stilled us to move on.
   Acknowledging the Full Moon and her power as a time to let go of what no longer serves us so we can bring in the new or grow with our strengths, we each wrote something on a paper - set it aflame and quietly sat to watch it burn.  I did one...tonight I am going to do another - alone and reflective.  I am wishing for relationships built on looking for the best in one another - affirming who each of us is...acknowledging and recognizing how wonderful that is to knowing one another and building strengths.  As I wrote in the last blog - when that doesn't happen in your own life, it can be very sad.  When there are beautiful ways to acknowledge and you hear what is wrong - well, sadness came set in and one has to learn to let go of that.
    Life is short and tenuous - life is filled with wonderful people and insights - life is meant to be shared... people are meant to be acknowledged and celebrated with joy.
   For all who are important and valuable in my life, I celebrate you.  For all who cause challenges, I still celebrate your wonder and aliveness.  As we say in Mindfulness/Metta Meditation:  May you be safe; May you be happy; May you be healthy; May you have peace of mind and ease of wellbeing.  May you be at peace.

And may I add the same peaceful message to all in my world - may you go deep into your heart as I have gazed at the essence of this flower and found calm - and may it bring you stillness and peace - today and always

Addendum to this blog:  I wrote the whole thing and published it and forgot to mention that the DRUMS came out and we drummed!  What fun...what inspiration...and we indeed were what Christine Stevens calls in Drumming Diva a TOWER OF STRENGTH!!.

Make a Wish: Life is Tenuous!!

Life is full of beauty and the wonder of creations if we take the time to really be still and look.  Now I have to add another behavior to this - LISTEN, really LISTEN.  My friend Allison talks about 'perception check' and oh is she right on target.  I am seeing more and more signs of people not slowing down, perceiving something from their perspective(OK that's what perption is) and then NOT following through for clarification.  Two cases in point:  I have been having blood work and other tests done for ???  The other day, I talked to the doctor and asked what he was looking for since I can't go and see him for a few weeks.  "Oh it looks like you could have lupus. Go and see a rheumatologist".  Please send me the blood test results.  OK.  Then I get them and they are not the ones from the latest tests.  Since Bill's prostate surgery last year, my word that guides life is VIGILANT.  If I must pay attention to the beauty that surrounds me, I must also pay attention to caring for myself and questioning those who are my 'partners'??

   Then I was excited that I had plans to go walking in the woods with a friend on Sunday.  To my surprise, I got an email this morning saying that since I didn't sound definite, she made other plans!  Here is my point about perceptions.  I was looking forward to the time together!!  My question - and then I need to let this go, is WHY did she not ask me for clarification and to see if I was definite before she made an assumption?  Sometimes I get accused of asking too many questions, but CLARIFICATION makes for effective communications.  Wonder if I will ever get over being disappointed in the actions and behaviors of others.  How can I ever get to a simple acceptance and have no expectations??  Sorry folks, that would not be ME!!  Fall is beautiful and I will take the time to go walking in a woods with my guy - we work on communications and relationships - still can be a challange after all of these years, but we still grow together!!