are you happy?
who do you think is responsible for your happiness?
recently i was engaged in a conversation when the topic of life priorities came up.
i said one of mine was “to make sure my two kids are happy.”
well, i suppose as a mom i will always feel that way.
do you ever turn to chocolate cake when you want to shut out the world and forget all of your problems?
do you ever hibernate under the covers with a bag of cheetos when you have reached your limit with everything and everyone?
SHADOW: an area that direct light cannot reach due to some type of obstruction; darkness.
LIGHT: something that makes things visible or affords illumination; awareness, enlightenment.
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”
-Walt Whitman
“To contemplate is to look at shadows.”
-Victor Hugo
“Fear no shadows, least of all in that great spectre of personal unhappiness which binds half the world to orthodoxy.”
-Thomas Huxley
“Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow.”
-T.S.
Today . . .
Simply observe what’s going on around you. Be fully aware of your senses in each moment.
[are you rolling your eyes and screaming “OF COURSE!!” at me?]
okay, i know you’ve been under stress before.
maybe you are under stress right now.
perhaps it’s an ongoing way of life for you.
on monday morning there was a brief snowstorm.
big fluffy flakes were coming down,
transforming the landscape.
and then the sun came out,
melting all of the pretty white snow off the streets.
and, as the day progressed, the sun kept teasing.
i have always attracted people’s stories.
strangers especially have responded to my apparent openness.
from passengers on a city bus to shoppers in a grocery store.
they seem to want to share their unique tales of life with me.
and i have been fascinated and honored to listen.
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
-Anais Nin
Do not allow your EMOTIONS to frighten you. Practice curiosity, and let them guide you instead.
stifle:
“to experience difficulty in breathing, to smother, to suffocate.”
“to crush by force, to suppress or withhold.”
congest:
“to fill to excess, to clog.”
“to overburden.”
breathe:
“to take air into the lungs and expel it.”
“to pause, to live, to exist.”
defined literally.
