Reach for the stars!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I see
A little bit of stardust
Was given to you and me
And everywhere I shall go
You shall surely be
A little poem by Athey Thompson
Art by S. Hee
Stardust ⭐
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Tag Archives: inspiration
Thoughts and Feelings
Some Wednesday wisdom.
“Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.” Eckhart Tolle
Born in Germany and educated in the UK, Tolle’s teachings focus on the power of present moment awareness, which he believes is key to achieving a sense of inner peace and fulfillment. Tolle encourages us to focus on the present moment and to let go of negative thoughts and emotions, in order to experience a deeper sense of self-awareness and connection to the world.
Glimmers of Joy and Bliss
What are glimmers?
Glimmers are small moments that spark joy or peace, which can help cue our nervous system to feel safe or calm. I’ve become fascinated with finding, paying attention to, and appreciating these small joys.
We all know what triggers are…those sensory reminders that cause painful memories or certain symptoms to resurface. If you experienced a traumatic event, you most likely remember certain sounds, smells, or sights related to that experience. but few people know about their opposite: glimmers.
Experts say this mindset shift can make a positive impact on our mental health. The term was first coined by Deb Dana, a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in complex trauma.
In her 2018 book, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, “glimmers” refers to small moments when our biology is in a place of connection or regulation, which cues our nervous system to feel safe or calm.
This isn’t about big, expansive experiences of joy or safety or connection. These are micro moments that begin to shape our system in very gentle ways.
🌟 Being in nature
🌟 Wrapping our bodies in a big blanket
🌟 Interaction with our furbabies
🌟 Gardening
🌟 Freshly baked bread
🌟 Sharing a smile with a stranger
🌟 Hearing your favorite song
Here are just a few of my small and simple joys:
🌠 The sound of two little voices calling “Grandmagrandmagrandma!”
🌠 Hearing a hawk or coyote
🌠 Finding a hawk or owl feather
🌠 My crow family
🌠 Noticing a beautiful flower or moon or sunset or sunrise
🌠 Smelling the ocean or coffee brewing first thing in the morning
🌠 My garden
🌠 Butterflies
🌠 Wind through the trees
🌠 Of course seashells, rocks, and beach glass!
What are your glimmers?
And One Day
And, one day
We shall look back and see
It was always those little moments
That mattered the most
Those little fleeting moments
Of innocence
Of happiness
Of laughter and dance.
A little poem written by Athey Thompson
Miles To Go…
From the deepest, darkest part of the ocean to where I feel more at home, following a path on terra firma…
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening — Robert Frost
Artist Micell A. via Pinterest
A Simple Reminder
May the shells on the beach remind you that treasures arrive every day in the form of simple things.
Bloom Where You’re Planted
Just like this happy purple pansy I found glowing and growing in a sidewalk crack.
Against all odds, alive and thriving…
(Did you know that pansy came from the French word “pensee …remembrance or thought?)
2023 : Thoughts, Inspiration, and a Mantra
As 2022 winds down, I started to think about what a strange year it was.
For me at least. it seemed like I was enveloped in a mantle of fog. On a fundamental level, I acknowledge the passage of time and seasons, but I’m not exactly sure how January 2022 metamorphosed into where we are now, at the end of another year. Sometimes time moved too swiftly, other times it seems as if the tick of the clock too slowly moved to the next minute.
I’m not smart enough to explain all of that, but I’ve learned to radically accept things as they are. At the end of the day, at the end of this odd year, the only constant is love; to love and be loved. Despite the inexorable and merciless movement of time, I’m bound by that belief.
Do you make resolutions? I don’t — too much pressure — instead I like the idea of manifesting a happy and healthy new year.
“You have to breathe through the heart. And once you’re in that space – and it’s a very big space – once you’re in there, you’re in a completely different space. You’re in the space that can heal anything.” Dolores Cannon
From His Holiness the Dalai Lama (whom I had the incredible honor of meeting and speaking with a couple years ago…)
“As you breathe in, cherish yourself. As you breathe out, cherish all beings.”
In my opinion, this is still the best and most relevant mantra, again from the Dalai Lama:
Om Mani Padme Hum
He says this mantra has the power to…“transform your impure body, speech and mind into the pure body, speech and mind of a Buddha.”
Tibetan culture tells us that to deeply know this phrase — to bring it into the very depths of one’s being — is to attain enlightenment.
Here’s what each syllable means:
Om
The first, Om is composed of three letters. A, U, and M. These symbolize the practitioner’s impure body, speech, and mind; they also symbolize the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.
All Buddhas are cases of beings who were like ourselves and then in dependence on the path became enlightened; Buddhism does not assert that there is anyone who from the beginning is free from faults and possesses all good qualities. The development of pure body, speech, and mind comes from gradually leaving the impure states and their being transformed into the pure.
Mani
Mani, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factors of method—the altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love.
Just as a jewel is capable of removing poverty, so the altruistic mind of enlightenment is capable of removing the poverty, or difficulties, of cyclic existence and of solitary peace.
Similarly, just as a jewel fulfills the wishes of sentient beings, so the altruistic intention to become enlightened fulfills the wishes of sentient beings.
Padme
The two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom, just as a lotus grows forth from mud but is not sullied by the faults of mud, so wisdom is capable of putting you in a situation of non-contradiction whereas there would be contradiction if you did not have wisdom.
There is wisdom realizing impermanence, wisdom realizing that persons are empty of being self-sufficient or substantially existent, wisdom that realizes the emptiness of duality—that is to say, of difference of entity between subject an object—and wisdom that realizes the emptiness of inherent existence.
Though there are many different types of wisdom, the main of all these is the wisdom realizing emptiness.
Hum
Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility. According to the sutra system, this indivisibility of method and wisdom refers to wisdom affected by method and method affected by wisdom.
In the mantra or tantric, vehicle, it refers to one consciousness in which there is the full form of both wisdom and method as one undifferentiable entity.
In terms of the seed syllables of the five Conqueror Buddhas, hum is the seed syllable of Akshobhya—the immovable, the unfluctuating, that which cannot be disturbed by anything.
The six syllables, om mani padme hum mean that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is considered the foremost Buddhist leader of our time. The exiled spiritual head of the Tibetan people, a Nobel Peace Laureate, Congressional Gold Medal recipient, and a remarkable teacher and scholar who has authored over one hundred books. https://www.shambhala.com/snowlion_articles/om-mani-padme-hum-dalai-lama/
To See the Good
I parked my car (and made sure I knew where it was this time hahahaha). As I was gathering my shopping bags, I overheard a young-ish man with a baby sitting in a shopping cart as he was talking to his significant other.
He asked her if she needed any snacks, sweet or savory, and told her he loved her at least half a dozen times during the short walk to the grocery store, as we were headed in the same direction. The last thing he said was, “We’ll be home soon.”
I gathered from that brief exchange that she was probably pregnant and suffering from first trimester morning sickness. He was genuine, sweet, kind, obviously empathetic and caring.
I grabbed a cart as he stopped to disinfect his; the little girl caught my eye and said, “Hi!” I responded back to her, “Hello, sweetie!” She pointed to my mask (def wearing everywhere as I’m still recovering from pneumonia) and I nodded, “Yes, I’m wearing a mask.”
Her dad reiterated, “Yes, she is wearing a mask, my love.”
That’s exactly how I refer to the Angels, so I told him he was a great dad; more dads should be like him. He thanked me and kissed his baby girl. She waved to me and we continued on our individual shopping journeys.
There are still good people in this world and that warms my heart.
Every Little Thing
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Brault
Although I never before knew who originally created this quote, I always KNEW — deep in my heart — that a rainbow or a sunset or a whale, a Monarch butterfly, the sighting of a coyote or a bobcat, my hawks — the discovery of a rock or achingly perfect seashell — brings joy as much as a new Chanel or a stunningly crafted pair of heels.
The night when I was genuinely poorly, when I ALMOST thought I’d have to go to the ER, I was awakened by the conversational hooting of a couple of Great Horned Owls and felt comforted by their voices. In my feverish delirium, I believed they were telling me to hang on, it’ll be OK.
Thank goodness, they told the truth. As much as antibiotics bring their own set of issues with my little body (don’t ask), I’m on the road to recovery, as my RN mom would say.
This morning I have SUCH a strong desire for vegan hot chocolate, it made me think of her and start laughing. Simple joys, right?
When I was sick, as soon as I had a craving for anything chocolate, my mom said her nursey training told her all she needed to know to stop worrying about me.
I fully earned the title of Princess because I used to make her wear her nursey cap and drape her stethoscope around her neck when she answered the bell that was on my nightstand. And she happily complied while carrying a tray with ice chips, fresh flowers, and tea in the special antique porcelain tea pot.
At the end of the day, little things are undeniably all there is. Those of us who understand this surely are the lucky ones.
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 