What a wonderful fall! Thought I’d give you a taste of the heart opening sights that have surrounded me as I explored nature in my neck of the woods!
xo
Photos by Jessica Sackett
Love, love, love this video! Two things I love — art and flowers. Thank you Helen Dealtry for adding this beauty to the world. Thank you to The Little Flower School for sharing it.
Enjoy!
xo
Still Life via The Little Flower School
Video by Helen Dealtry
Thank you to all of you kind followers of my blog. Today I reached 200 followers! What a delight!
I created this blog out of love and a great need to express my wisdom and creativity. The unexpected bonus is seeing the connection created around the world. I enjoy looking at the WordPress map for my blog posts each day and seeing where you all are. And when you connect with me through the comment box, well that touches me deeply!
They are two small words — thank you — but filled with big gratitude, sent from my heart to yours.
Image found on Pinterest
Saved from Design*Sponge
I’m so pleased to be launching a fresh, new and beautiful creation with my dear friend, Michelle Moran! We are both so excited to be playing with one of our deep and abiding passions — flowers!
I have so much heartfelt appreciation for this glorious community that has blossomed from my blogging, I felt compelled to share this wonderful news with you all! If you choose to, I’d love for you to add your Light and any good wishes to our creative endeavor and grand new potentials. Take a look at experienceflowersinthewild.wordpress.com. Many blessings!
xo,
Floral arrangement, floral crown and photos by the beautifully creative, Michelle Moran
I just stumbled across a beautiful video this morning. It speaks with the language of the world I choose to create. The world where self love, self compassion, the honoring and valuing of the intangible bits rises to meet up with the world that is. I’m not saying one is wrong and one is right. I’m saying we’ve been out of balance to one side for so long. I’m saying my heart aches for the whole world and everyone in it to find their balance, find their own peace. I’m saying I’m committed to radiating, allowing, inviting, encouraging the invisible things like love, compassion, feeling and sensing, intuiting, imagining…being. Always coming back to the deep, conscious breath. I’m saying I’m interested in a gentle, richer, fuller, deeper, more joyful, more meaningful experience. Creating a world where softness is valued, too. One where time and resources are alotted for quiet, for self reflection, awareness. Sweet, intimate moments together, sharing love, sharing of self. Where ease and grace are applauded. One that does not revere busy for the sake of busy.
I know it’s possible because it lives inside of me. I have worked intentionally, diligently, passionately to create my life around these powerful, important yet intangible, unseen things. Fiercely going beyond what is, what has been, out of love for self, desire born out of knowing there’s more, knowing I am more. Moving in a place of knowing that the Universe is not singular. If one can do it, it can be repeated by many. Just think of the ripples. Simply awesome.
There is information at the end of the video. I didn’t explore that. I’m not promoting that. I am offering this video for its beauty, gentleness, kindness and quiet fierceness. These beautiful women beautifully naming and claiming beingness. It felt so resonant to me, I just had to share it. Many blessings.
Here’s the video: Being.
xo
Image found on Pinterest
Stephanotis (Stephanotis floribunda), photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD © Cindy Dyer.
RIP Dr. Oliver Sacks.
What a deeply empathic man.
I will miss your compassion, brilliance, authenticity, curiosity, humor, gentleness and desire to expand consciousness.
Radiolab on NPR produced one of my favorite interviews with him. I was in tears as he shared some of the heartache from his own life. Thank you for all you offered humanity.
You will be greatly missed, Dr. Sacks.
Image of Dr. Sacks found on Radiolab
Photo credit: Andy Mills
Dear one,
Hear the sure and true whispering in your ear. Feel the deep compelling. Sparking you. Lighting the passion in you.
You calling you.
Begin.
Open your eyes. Listen to your heart. Relax your mind.
Feel.
Take a sweet, deep breath. Fill up from the wellspring within. Let your cup overflow.
Know thy self.
Trust thy self.
Accept thy self.
Love they self.
Pick up your power. Claim your sovereignty. Radiate. Take a seat on your throne.
So beautiful.
I recently wrote a note to a friend going through a significant transition in her life. Reading it back to myself before sealing the envelope, I had the distinct impression that the grandest part of me, my soul, was saying the same thing to me. It felt so loving. It felt so compassion. So, of course, I want to share it with you! Maybe your soul wants to share words of love with you, too.
I’m sending so much love to you along with blessings, in support of your soul’s passion and your heart’s every desire. I’m thinking of you as you step into this new adventure, whatever it may be. Your worth is secure as it has nothing to do with anything but your divine existence. There’s nothing missing and there’s nothing wrong. All is truly well in all of Creation…including with you. Even if the chatter of your mind monkeys is trying to convince you otherwise, of anything different. All that matters now is:
What do you truly want? How do you want to live your life? How can you allow yourself to be who you are every day of the rest of your life? How do you want to express your soul’s passion? What do you want to create?
However it unfolds, feel my hand at your back, see my smile beaming brightly at you and know that I am with you in spirit.
Blessings and love to you, my friend.
Images found on Pinterest
Found on bellebrocante.typepad.com
Found on katska.vsco.co
I just heard this Carrie Underwood song so beautifully sung by one of the characters in one of the episodes of Smash. It just gutted me. My heart is so full of love and compassion for all of us brave enough to take this journey.
Here’s to you. Here’s to me. Here’s to us.
Hold on.
Keep breathing.
Keep dreaming.
“Crazy Dreams”
Written by Troy Verges, Barry George Dean and Carrie Underwood
Here’s to you long shots
You dark horse runners
Hairbrush singers, and dashboard drummers
Here’s to you wild magnolias
Just waiting to bloom
There’s a little bit of all that inside of me and you
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
Yeah
Today love gushes so much it wins in a landmark way!
In my personal life, this has been an amazing week of belonging, love and inclusion. People showing me their true colors and appreciating mine in ways like never before. And if that were not enough, today we gain huge ground for HUMAN rights! This is the world I choose to live in!
I am a gay woman who came out fairly late in life. Since I made my spiritual journey the priority, I felt strongly that I be alone to do that. Today, I am no only thrilled by the implications of this decision by SCOTUS for humanity…but for me personally!
There is much to look at on the rainbow-heavy internet today. A few things stood out for me and drew a few sweet tears:
An article on Slate.com…
The Beautiful Closing Paragraph of Justice Kennedy’s Gay Marriage Ruling
By Jordan Weissmann
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who authored today’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the United States, is sometimes made fun of for his notoriously purple prose. But today he managed to close his opinion with one of the most beautiful passages you’ll likely read in a court case. I teared up. So did a few other Slate staffers.
Huffington Post’s Sam Stein caught a picture of an actual rainbow over the White House post-ruling.
And a friend pointed me to this letter from Jim Obergefell, one of the plaintiffs in the case decided today by the U.S. Supreme Court. It certainly brings this down to (or up to may be the better way to say it) the human level.
Jim Obergefell is one of the plaintiffs in the case decided today by the U.S. Supreme Court that held that, for the first time, any couple — straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender — can obtain a marriage license and make their commitment public and legal in all 50 states.
We reached out to him to ask for his thoughts on this historic occasion, and this is the open letter he wanted us to share with you.
My husband John died 20 months ago, so we’re unable to celebrate together the Supreme Court’s decision on the case that bears my name, Obergefell v. Hodges.
Today, for the first time, any couple — straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender — may obtain a marriage license and make their commitments public and legal in all 50 states. America has taken one more step toward the promise of equality enshrined in our Constitution, and I’m humbled to be part of that.
John and I started our fight for a simple reason: We wanted the State of Ohio to recognize our lawful Maryland marriage on John’s impending death certificate. We wanted respect and dignity for our 20-year relationship, and as he lay dying of ALS, John had the right to know his last official record as a person would be accurate. We wanted to live up to the promises we made to love, honor, and protect each other as a committed and lawfully married couple.
Couples across America may now wed and have their marriage recognized and respected no matter what state they call home. No other person will learn at the most painful moment of married life, the death of a spouse, that their lawful marriage will be disregarded by the state. No married couple who moves will suddenly become two single persons because their new state ignores their lawful marriage.
Ethan and Andrew can marry in Cincinnati instead of being forced to travel to another state.
A girl named Ruby can have an accurate birth certificate listing her parents Kelly and Kelly.
Pam and Nicole never again have to fear for Grayden and Orion’s lives in a medical emergency because, in their panic, they forgot legal documents that prove both mothers have the right to approve care.
Cooper can grow into a man knowing Joe and Rob are his parents in all ways emotional and legal.
I can finally relax knowing that Ohio can never erase our marriage from John’s death certificate, and my husband can now truly rest in peace.
Marriage is about promises and commitments made legal and binding under the law, and those laws must apply equally to each and every American.
Today is a momentous day in our history. It’s a day when the Supreme Court of the United States lived up to the words inscribed above the front entrance of the courthouse:
Equal Justice Under Law.
Thank you,
Jim
The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111