Franti tattoo and that last kilometre

Michael Franti, frontman for Spearhead has a tattoo on his left arm, Today I pray for followed by a line.

If we carried those words around on our own body, what would you fill in? Who do you think about everyday, who do you hold close to your heart or who do you need to release? Who has taught you a powerful lesson that you hold dear and who are you ready to set free?


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There's a wonderful hint that has helped many a weary walker/runner as they make their way to the Finish Line. Give each kilometre, the name of someone. Think about this person, of what they have given you or what they have taken away, enjoy the memory or leave it behind.

Dedicate each step to realizing this person's impact on You. Let it well up in side you, let it snake through and rattle you to your toes. You might shed a tear, howl in laughter or just shake your head. The time will pass, as it surely does, and you will get past that feeling, whatever it might be.

Because as we walk through Life, we are reminded that we are always walking towards and away from. You don't need to carry any extra weight.

It is what it is.

In Life, we are always walking towards and away from. (Click to Tweet)

Love - brown rice flour and cranberries

 For all of you couples out there who have dealt with "stuff" and have worked through it, for all of you waiting for the love of your life, and for those who have loved and lost.  A little story for you today.


She was thinking of brown rice flour and dried cranberries when her car hit the ice patch.

They had met at the advanced age of 55, ancient to some, but still young enough 

to fall in love. What followed was a lot of life crammed into those few years in-between. 

Years of discovering the world together and seeing it through each others eyes, 

of making meals together and talking, oh, the talking.

The recipe she had planned to make that evening was sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for her to return from work.

He left the recipe right where she'd left it that morning, day after day. He couldn't bear to put it away.

As the hours turned into days and those days into weeks, the cookbook waited on the counter.

He was terrified of putting it away, as if to say that he'd given up hope that she'd open her eyes again.

In her mind, she was in an eternal spin. Brown rice flour and dried cranberries over and over. Every once in a while the spinning stopped and there was the most perfect silence. Glaring light shone on her face like fast approaching headlights.


On day 68, the spinning stopped. She couldn't remember the words that had been her entire world. Ingredients to a recipe that she had to pick up on the way home she felt but the words were gone. Darn it! She'd forgotten her sticky note again, it was stuck to her cook book sitting on the kitchen counter.


Then, she smelled his presence and felt the steady tracing of his finger on the top of her right hand. He was holding it just like he had for the last 68 days. The headlights stopped and suddenly she knew.

On her hand, he had been tracing a heart.


Happy Valentine's Day Sweetie,  you were worth waiting for 55 years.

Giving the Gift of Love

Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.

Wayne Dyer
Author and Speaker

The short and the long of it

Whether you're in it for fun,

Orlando, Florida

or for the long haul.

Seattle, Washington

May your Valentine's Day be blessed with Love of the most special kind.

Clouded Poetry - 9

Flashback. She and Oliver had been good friends back in college. They exchanged quips, reading material and scribbled poems for the other's scrutiny,

The person she was dating, whom she eventually married and was unhappy with for a long period of time, went to another school. One day she had enthusiastically pulled out her latest poem for Oliver to read. So many decades ago and the image of it still vibrated in her head. He read quickly as was his style, each word floating across his face.

When he was finished he took her hand from across the table in the student lounge and said the words that had echoed and bumped around in her head all these years. He told her that the object of her affection was a rat!

Mr. Charming had been spotted on more than one occasion with another specific girl.

She had often wondered through the long painful years of the marriage and even since its end, how things could have been different if she had heeded Oliver's words.

Hearts Day

May the love you receive today comfort you when you need it, be gentle when you need a hug, be firm when you need a push.
May it give you coffee in the middle of the afternoon, and a foot rub at the end of the day.
May the love you receive today make you feel special every moment and know that there is a port in any storm.
May it be the love that you deserve and sometimes forget to give yourself.
Enjoy your today.

Eclipse

I choose to believe that
it is not without reason
that two souls should circle
and find each other
in this cosmic world.
Should fleet and dart
shadow
and come together
in unison
in trust
in caring
in belief
that all things are possible
within our lifetimes
which last just for a moment
but mean so much.

Year End 2011

It is with some difficulty that some of us turn this last page of the calendar. How could it have gone so fast,although some days seemed endless, while we waited for tomorrow to come.

How many things did we get to "check off" our lists and how many did we add? Yes, thank goodness that carry-overs are allowed!

How many special, dear people left our lives and how many wonderful, spectacular people added to our joy? Don't let us ever forget that every goodbye was once a hello.

How many headstands did we accomplish, mountains did we scale, books did we read, words did we pen? Most of us will not have won a Giller Prize, set a world record (in anything!) or made a medical discovery. But still all our "little things", each step we took to our half-marathon, each photograph we took, each thing we said "no" to, have made us the person we are today on December 31st 2011.

 Praise and celebrate each tear we've shed, each smile that lit our face, each lesson learned these last 365 days. We are today, because of them.

Cheers for a wonderful New Year's evening. Be well, be safe.

Transparent Houses - 5

Grace was disappointed that the film presentation she had been looking forward to all week had been postponed. Had the film not arrived? Had the gallery's technology broken down? Was there a copyright law that had not been adhered to? What would she do with this "extra" time until her next appointment?

As an apology, the gallery had handed out small gift bags with (of course!) advertising material. However, hanging from the rope handle was a small ornament. Grace exclaimed at the ornament and was told that it came from the shop next door.

She side-stepped around a woman who was standing intently looking at the shop window and was almost run over by a man in jeans. He was wielding what appeared to be a cast iron obelisk through the doorway. How brave he was, taking such a weighty object into a space with such fragile things. Grace moved the gift bag to her other hand and held the door as he squeezed by. All she noticed was the size of his hands.

Once inside she was halted in awe by what she saw. How fortunate that she had stopped inside this shop that she had never ventured in before. What delight to see the array of colours, matte and shiny, in a variety of styles and shapes tucked into every available nook and cranny that could be found.  Looking upwards, Grace felt euphorically light-headed seeing the reflections of everything that dangled.

As Grace faced in each direction, she felt like she had as a small child in her Grandfather's house. How the mosaic floor, could make you giddy when you twirled yourself at high speed. A childhood prelude to having "one too many" in later youthful experiences with cheap red wine. As she faced the front window, she saw that the woman was still there. Like she herself, had stopped time in a bottle.

There was one instant when the sun shone through and lit on the same star hanging in the window that Grace had been given with her gift bag. The woman outside was transfixed, and a slow tear stopped on her cheek and her face broke into a dawning smile. She had received an answer.

Merrick left behind his newest creation for consignment with the staff and scooped the star ornament in his paw. His niece would like this. Now, he was done his shopping.

She was still there, like she herself had stopped time in a bottle. (Click to Tweet)

For the rest of The Little Story, read here. 

Blessings to All and to All a Goodnight

In the next few days, there will be a lot happening at your local church. For those who attend regularly, the familiar will call you back. The soft light, the smell of candles, greens and flowers and the music always speak to us. 

There will also be infrequent visitors, those who will be there to honour someone who has recently left their life (“Mum would have loved this”) or because of someone who has entered it. We will step into something new and make it our own because of love. We will marvel at how our lives have melded and meshed in seamless unison.

We will pull out our traditions like tangled garland and lights and enjoy them because they are ours. We will smile in realizing the good things and weep at our memories of last Christmas, of what has sadly changed, and for what hasn’t, sadly.

We will immerse ourselves in the way “we have always done things” and relax into its comfortable arms, like a heartfelt hug that we have been waiting for all day. We will pull out old dishes and cook meals that we grew up with and once again exclaim at how wonderful they are or how we have improved them!

When the 25^th is at our doorstep, you might worship within four enclosed walls or choose to worship in wide-open spaces. But we ALL have huge wishes and tantalizing dreams even though we may hide them daily in quite efficient ways.

This Christmas, set your wishes free and let the Season be a magical time for you, never forgetting and with gratitude the amazing things that have transpired during this year.

Whoever you are and wherever you are – may you be blessed by the God you know, may you feel the calm and abundance that your heart craves, may you be surrounded by those you love and those that say they "love you more”.

I wish for you a heart that is open to all the joy and wonder of this Christmas Season.

Dandelion Bouquet

When lilacs bloomed a plenty
And daisies waved above
A little girl came skipping
To pick a handful of love.

She grasped so tightly fisted
And went to share her prize
Of her multi-stemmed handful
That she blew with squinted eyes.

The magic went a floating
To lands so far unknown
An itsy bitsy surprise
to spaces where they'd blown.

Crossroads and 4-way Intersections

We all come to these spots in time, whether it involves decision making on paint-chips or on deeper life values. My changed route to a new work location makes its way through a few 4-ways and round-abouts. I watch as each car approaches and how we each choose to navigate these slow downs.

There are certainly many who have no clue about the rules! "Do you see me?" I want to yell out my window, will you outrun me to the finish line or will we meet again at the next 4-way stop.I am well-aware that there's a difference between being rash and in taking advantage of our momentum. We all need to know OUR rule to fine tune our pathway in life through the seeming curves in the road.

You are there and I am here. How are we both going to get across safely?

We each have our own "default". My experience says that sometimes this built-in compass is exactly what needs to be tweaked so we don't go astray. We are all either too kind, too grumpy, too forgiving, expect too much or not enough, depending on our needs in that moment.Recognizing when we need to adjust could save our life.

And whether we were raised in Saskatchewan and have flat, wide spaces wired into our DNA, the shadow of a tall mountain might still prove to be inspiring.

Whatever your default, let's all learn to "think beyond", for beyond the rule of the 4-way stop or the round-about, despite our rush or hesitation, we all want to get there, safely and holding the hand of someone we love.