INSPIRING AT 95

    On Valentine's day I helped celebrate the 95th birthday of a woman who is much loved at the church I attend. In her younger days she was a dancer and entertainer and has performed with Ginger Rogers and Florence Henderson and even dated Clark Gable (be still my heart). Someone had created a documentary of her life and we watched it as we ate birthday cake and drank root beer floats. Celebrating on Valentine's day was so appropriate, for her life is a love story. It is her love of life and love of self that are inspirations to me today and hopefully for years to come. In the documentary she recounted how, when she first moved to New York, she ate chocolate bars for every meal because they were cheap and she could not afford anything else. After hours and hours of grueling practice each day she would drop into bed exhausted and aching from her bloodied feet. But she never gave up and with patience and persistence became successful in her careers as a model, a dancer, an actress and a talk show host. The same experience that made her successful back then still exudes from her today and each time I find my patience and persistence waning towards my writing career I am reminded of her inspiring story. She was born on February 29th and she celebrates it throughout the month of February. So I say bravo to this extraordinary woman, for she continues to live her life to the fullest each day, and at the young age of 95 I want to have lived my life so fully that someone will write about me the way I write about her. Happy Birthday Maxine.

PERSPECTIVE

    Last night as I watched the Olympics a huge explosion split the air, frightening me. Then I remembered a story on the news a week earlier about people being startled by a sonic boom and I became ambivalent to the sound. But shouting outside my window brought my fear back so I looked out to make sure none of my neighbors were burning up and found that they were shouting because they did not know what the sound was either. Finally, I went back to watching the Olympics but continued to be curious and decided to watch the news to see if there had been an explosion nearby. It turned out to be the space shuttle, Endeavor, entering the atmosphere for its landing at the Kennedy Space Center. How awesome! Upon hearing this news I went from curiosity to joy in a matter of seconds for I had encountered another Florida perk, the space shuttle coming home.

    The whole experience reminded me of how often what we think is one thing usually is something all together different, especially when we look at it spiritually. Knowing that a sonic boom had occurred the week before quelled my fears last night. Similarly believing in a benevolent God quells my fears every day. For knowing that life is ultimately good helps me change my perspective about all my experiences. A great example is when my husband died. My first reaction was grief at losing him and the belief in its terrible tragedy. Then I remembered that God is always good and was reminded of how miserable my husband was the last few months of his life which changed my perspective to one of relief for him. Now, four and half years later I continue to change my perspective for as time passes I see the valuable lessons I have learned from his death and how much I love my new life. The key here is knowing life is always good, therefore, continuing to change my perspective to find those silver linings. As I look for the positives in everything situation, I enjoy my experiences more and more and know that in truth, there is meaning to everything. As with the shuttle experience last night I started with fright, moved to ambivalence, returned to fright, went on to curiosity before reaching the ultimate positive experience, joy. Ain't life grand!

OPINIONS

I love figure skating. Once every four years I am privileged to enjoy the viewing of the ultimate challenge in figure skating, the Olympics. Last night I watched some incredible men's skating, some not so incredible skating, and some endearing skating where the sheer tenacity of the skater to keep going was impressive. Then this morning I went out on Yahoo and saw this headline: The night they killed figure skating. In a column written by, Elvis Stojko, the former silver medalist rants and raves about how Evan Lysacek, who did not perform a quad jump, won the gold medal, and that Evgeni Plushenko, who performed a quad and a triple combination, won the silver medal. In his opinion, this was evidence that the whole program has gone backwards in time. I disagree and am happy to see the Olympic judges did too.

In my opinion figure skating went to seed many years back when the men started performing the quad jump. All of a sudden this beautiful sport became nothing more than a competition on who could jump the highest and skate the fastest. In my book figure skating was never meant to be just about endurance and jumping, there is an art to it as well. If it is just about endurance and jumping, why have music and why talk about lines and form and interpretation. If you want only the technical performance, take out the music and let the skaters enter the ice and spend the next four minutes and thirty seconds jumping then be done with it. But until that time comes, I'll take pleasure in the performances like the one last night where Evan Lysacek skated with poise, polish and beautiful lines (not to mention numerous triple jumps executed perfectly), for he was a true joy to watch. Evgeni Plushenko on the other hand looked like a whirling dervish moving from one jump to the next with little art in between and his program was over at three and a half minutes as he stopped jumping and spent the last minute bouncing around on the ice. But like Elvis Stojko, this is just my opinion and like a--holes, everyone has one, including me and the Olympic judges.

Oh, and one last opinion on my part. I was never that big a fan of Elvis Stojko either. He spent too much time jumping and not enough time perfecting the art of skating and when he had trouble with his jumps he had nothing else to give us.

TRANSITIONS

    Can you feel the energy pulsating through your body? I can, especially right now on the bottom of my feet, up my toes and around my arms. It is a reminder that we are only energy for nothing in the Universe is truly solid but is billions upon billions of tiny particles that are so attracted to each other they appear to be solid. So where does the energy come from that glues these particles together? The Source of all that is. Every person, every animal, every plant, and every object is a piece of the whole I call Source and we are all connected by the energy that runs through us.

    In death the majority of the energy we define as our individual selves leaves our body. Where it goes I don't know but a small bit of it stays behind and slowly, over time, dissipates until all that is left is the dust the bible so poetically describes. So why am I thinking about death today? Because I heard the news that a friend's ex-husband died last Friday. The energy that we called Dan decided to leave the body and go somewhere else and has transitioned to wherever humans go when they die. But die sounds so final, and in fact, it is really a transformation of energy with a little bit left behind. For although it has been many years since I have seen Dan, memories of him in our younger days will stay in my mind until I too transition. So today I say Bon Voyage, Dan. I hope your new journey is filled with love, happiness and peace.

LOVE CONTINUES......

Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is. Gary Zukov

 

I am a true believer that love is all there is. The Source energy that courses through all of us is pure, unconditional love. So as I continue my quest for love I present to you more beautiful words on love.

A poem by Robert Ingersoll

Love is the only bow on life's dark cloud.
It is the Morning and the Evening Star.
It shines upon the cradle of the babe,
and sheds its radiance upon the quiet tomb.
It is the mother of Art,
inspirer of poet, patriot, and philosopher.
It is the air and light of every heart, builder of every home,
kindler of every fire on every hearth.
It was the first to dream of immortality.
It fills the world with melody,
for Music is the voice of Love.
Love is the magician, the enchanter,
that changes worthless things to joy,
and makes right royal kings and queens of common clay.
It is the perfume of the wondrous flower -- the heart
and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon,
we are less than beasts;
but with it, earth is heaven
and we are gods.

 

More words of wisdom from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

 

And more......

Where there is love there is life. Mohanda Gandi

Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go. Mother Teresa

Life is the flower for which love is the honey. Victor Huga

From my heart to yours, I hope you have a loved filled St. Valentine's Day!

LOVE

This is the week of the feast of Saint Valentine. The actual Saint Valentine has come in question over the years because there is no true historical data on this person. As a matter of fact there is a possibility that the burial place of this person is actually the burial place of numerous martyrs. But iIt is still a delicious holiday created by Chaucer and expounded by Hallmark and the candy companies to sell cards, candy, flowers and romance. I have had some fabulous holidays with the ones I love and some very lonely ones. Somewhere a few years back I decided to allow the holiday to be a reminder to me of what true love is all about. So below are some wonderful words of wisdom written by some of my favorit prophets and masters on the wisdom of Love.

1st Corinthians 13 verses 4-13: 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

"What is love? Take a look at a rose. Is it possible for the rose to say, 'I shall offer my fragrance to good people and withhold it from bad people?' Or can you imagine a lamp that withholds its rays from a wicked person who seeks to walk in its light? It could only do that by ceasing to be a lamp. And observe how helplessly and indiscriminately a tree gives its shade to everyone, good and bad, young and old, high and low; to animals and humans and every living creature -- even the one who seeks to cut it down. So this is the first quality of love: its indiscriminate character.

~ Anthony DeMello

Looking at my life
I see that only Love
Has been my soul's companion
From deep inside
My soul cries out:
Do not wait, surrender
For the sake of Love.

Rumi

Below is an excerpt from Kahlil Gibran on Love

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

At the end of the week I will provide you with a few more poets, prophets and wise people who have lived and written about love.

TRUST

    I have a habit of living in the future. It is a habit that does not serve me well most of the time. When my mind is focused on the future it more often focuses on what can go wrong rather than on what can go well. So I'm better off staying in the present moments, where I can determine without a shadow of a doubt whether something is going well or not so well. So I have a few tricks in my bag to get me back to the present. The easiest one is to pay attention to my emotions. If I'm feeling a negative emotion, especially worry or fear, then most likely I'm out in the future somewhere (unless there is a tiger right in front of me that is about to eat me). As soon as I recognize the negative emotion I ask myself what is going on right now and is there a reason, right in this moment to worry or fear. 99% of the time the answer is no. Lately I've also been using the mantra technique. My favorite mantra these days is Trust. As soon as I recognize I'm in the future or I'm feeling a negative emotion then I say the word, "Trust." Amazingly it thrusts me back into the present and reminds me that I have very little control over the future. I can dream about it, plan for it, and step towards it, but when all is said and done, the Source of all there is will decide where my future lies and I believe Source has only good in store for me. So today, I send my dreams out into the Universe, take my baby steps towards them and trust that all will be well. My future probably won't turn out exactly as I dreamed it, often it turns out way better, and when I trust it always turns out to be the best for everyone concerned.

SERENDIPITY OR MEANT TO BE

    Is it serendipity or meant to be? Last week I let go of the angst about finding a place to live in Florida. I decided to trust that the perfect place would reveal itself to me. Today I looked at a condo here on Ft. Myers Beach. It had just been reduced $20K so was now in my price range. it was perfect and the exact condo I've been looking for the last month and best of all it is 3 blocks from the beach. As a matter of fact, when I was living in the condo I rented when I first arrived in December I used to walk past these complexes and wish that I could afford to live in one of them. They are at the end of the island so have less traffic, are close to a wonderful shopping center, are close to the beach, and are on a canal with the lanai overlooking the water. Plus best of all, since I do not want to live in it until I return next October and the current owners do, I can lease it back to them with a reduction in asking price and they pay the association fees and utilities until they move out. It is a corner unit so it has lots of wonderful light and the windows either look out on the canal or the golf course across the street. There is even a bit of a view of the bay from the little dinette area behind the kitchen. And best of all, it has a heated pool. I believe this condo has my name written all over it. So was it serendipitous or meant to be? You decide.