Hoping you take a moment just to swing!

Here we are in the middle of the week, with folks running here, doing this doing that and thinking this and thinking that. So for the moment and just in this day, I'm hoping with this picture you can just sit yourself in that swing and take a breath, push back with your feet and swing gently; close your eyes and take relax if only for a moment. It's just for the moments we have that we create for self; that someone gently or with a bit of fierceness maybe reminds us of the importance of stopping the madness for a moment! Sit for a moment and just breathe. Here's your swing, waiting for you to just take that moment and have a sit down for a moment or more and feel the quiet from all that is going on with you and those around you. Just let your feet push into the earth and propel the swing gently back and forth as you lift your face to the sky and feel the wind touch your face; the energy of the Creator fill you up once again as you breathe into it and exhale all that is built up and not serving you well as you enjoying the sway. Maybe your song will even come from those lips and heart of yours as you take some time for you along the busy highway of life for just a few minutes or after a day in your life of doing, being, rushing and running if out there doing your thing or in your homes with this photo of peace and that inviting swing beckoning you to come and sit a bit.  Funny how so many can make time for machines, for 4 leggeds, winged ones and swimmers and crawlers; for causes, for electronics and for others at times, yet fail to take the time for self for quiet times and for refilling the very source of all that they manage to do. Even in short times of stillness and times of grand silliness we recharge and refuel. Times of swinging, if only in our minds; times of looking deeply into the eyes of flowers and of bark of a tree or the very roots that go deeply into the soil that hold trees upright, if only we take the time to see and to feel the strength of all.

Can you imagine the beatings and the surf, the tangles of roots that allow this to continue to turn green against the salt water, the shells and geodes that live beneath the surface of wonder and beauty? The very visual of all that we walk with at times, beneath the surface it seems, yet seldom to we take the time to honor, to feed to realize that we are walking without looking and knowing all that we and others sustain in wind and storms yet weather during it all. We have to look with both eyes, remembering Creator gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason!
Perhaps it was to listen and look more and to speak less?  
The wonders of our lives that serve as reminders for us to walk softly and to pay attention to all the many paths of healing from within that are ours if we but take the time, a little time in our busy days to replenish, to restore, to heal and to experience joy.
And to see beauty through all seasons and in all reasons and days, nights and thoughts.

To gaze, to touch, to wonder at the resiliency that is around us, in beauty, in amazement and then to remember our very bodies, our lives and the precious gifts we have been given in the blessings we receive and the unanswered prayers ... each of us with the ability to touch, feel and take a moment or many moments in our day to look, to breathe into it and exhale each and every negative or painful thing to the Universe and to let it be taken and turned around by Creator. We can dig a hole, scream our angst into it, plant something there and allow it to grow into something beautiful while ridding ourselves at the same time of that which has built within and does not serve us well.  We are only limited by our imagination. Yet we must look within, look around, look down. And look up!
It is truly outstanding the things and the discoveries we will find.

This lovely home was found by looking up this week, and its home owners must have been out for the day, but the nest was built in a lamp over a porch! Ah the wonders of the world...

Wishing you a day of swings, of water, of wonder.
May you soar as this Pelican did over the Gulf of Mexico just having a grand time!

25 years ago, my little cousin Todd was laid to rest after a successful suicide. I had talked to him days before as we talked of our upcoming birthdays and hoping to surprise Granny with a visit together. He showed no signs of distress or angst. He still shows up in my memory yet he shows up as the little three year old cute as he can be boy!
 He was born on my birthday and I was presented with a "birthday present" by his birth and his life. "gone too soon" tragically and so quickly. He is with many of our family all this time, yet remains with us in our hearts and we remember.
....

5 Years ago, yesterday, Dot/Mom/Cob was here when she received a phone call 15 minutes after speaking with her best friend of life and soul mate to be informed that he had just had a major heart attack and had died sitting on a swing at her beloved cabin. She took the phone as she wept hysterically and walked fully dressed into the cold pool here. Life was changed forever by that phone call and she and many miss him and have spent a long time reconciling that sudden loss. May they all soar with the Eagles as they rejoice with so many that they now are rejoined with on the other side.

Many years ago, as I was walking out the door for my birthday celebration, I received a phone call from Dot/Mom/Cob to let me know that my grandfather had died. It was on my birthday. An Elder, my Grandfather, one who taught me, who loved me, on my night of celebration crossed to the other side, now there with so many loved ones... Love is eternal and in hearts always the lessons learned well.
...
Just last week, Dottie Arnold was there for her beloved Aunt as her niece died from Cancer, an only child buried in WVA, now mourning greatly in WVA, with Dottie at her side. Grief can rear ugly heads within families and greed along with regret, remorse and family dynamics can make for combustion and add to angst while pure hearts wrap around survivors of such pain in loving ways  while hoping that is enough yet smart enough to know that the loss of a child no matter the age is a heart ache that is hard to grasp and everything in terms of ugliness is more than enough to make you shake your head aghast at what others say or do in comparison. Dottie may you find the strength as one who has survived Cancer and also walked through the horror of burying your child to be what is needed for your beloved Aunt now remembering to take best care of you along this journey. YOU are loved dearheart.
... 
October is a month that has always been my favorite, it is my birth month, a month of change, of splendor
a month of color.
....
It is also and has been a month of tragedy, of losses and of remembering.
YET
it is my month, my month of remembering, of celebrations and of LIFE
and life is for the living
and as I remember the above and those who have suffered great and significant loss in this month of October
I am also celebrating LIFe
....
Please,
do not extend sympathies for me, do not weep for me,
celebrate the joys of this day, this month
and rejoice that you are alive... with passion
that is the greatest thing YOU can do for you and for all who gather here!

May this day be beautiful wherever you are and whatever you are doing as you take a moment or many for YOU. Grab your passion, your wind and sail into the wonderment of you on this lovely October day dearhearts!

Walk in Beauty
DRSES