Life

Life - without it, nothing else matters.

Continued prayers for Damar Hamlin. 

Click here for ESPN's "Damar Hamlin showing 'signs of improvement' Buffalo Bills say"

Amazing things happen when we all come together in prayer. 

Blessed be...

Love,

T

Shine Time

 The time to shine is now.

Photo by: Joseph Gray

This past Saturday I was honored to be one of the judges for the finale of "Connecticut's Got Talent." The level of love and appreciation for all of the participants and producers is hard for me to express. I'm reminded of my entire journey and all of its twists and turns, trials and joys. I'm truly warmed by all those who are on a path to inspire others. 

Every single contestant and participant in the production was inspiring. Everyone brought something very special to contribute - something to appreciate and treasure. Competitions are funny. While there is one declared "winner," it is also true that anyone deciding to "win" can do so. What I mean is that we can be at very different stages in our respective development, while shining just as bright.

Click here to see finale of "Connecticut's Got Talent" from Talent Recap on Youtube

I wish us all the ability to be grateful and kind, and share our unique gifts no matter where we are on the road to our ultimate hopes and dreams. We really are all in this together. We all have something to share and something to learn.

Wishing us all a Blessed holiday - and health, happiness and peace of heart in the new year...

Love,

T

To Act

Honestly, the days keep rushing past in a blur and I'm hardly able to remember what I had for breakfast, let alone the entire week's worth of happenings. Most of the time though, something stands out. Some thought or memory bubbles up through the murky fog and lingers on my mind. This week, it was a passage read at church. I believe it was James 2:14-26. I hope that you'll appreciate the point, even if your Spiritual practice differs. It's all about faith and action (works). 

"My friends, what good is it to say you have faith, when you don't do anything to show that you really do have faith? Can that kind of faith save you? If you know someone who doesn't have any clothes or food, you shouldn't just say, "I hope all goes well for you. I hope you will be warm and have plenty to eat." What good is it to say this, unless you do something to help? Faith that doesn't lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!"- James 2:14-17 (Contemporary English Version)

How many times do we wish others well and even pray for them as indicated by our emojis online? How many stories or posts do we "like" or "care" about? Then what do we actually DO to ease someone's suffering? Obviously we have a limited amount of time and resources, but I'm challenging myself to commit to more action than a simple click. 

We don't have to make a spectacle of it to be effective. Maybe we can make a small donation to a cause. Maybe we can make a phone call. Maybe we can take a little time to learn about the subject of interest. We can DO something. We can help someone.

Here's wishing us all an opportunity seized! Here's hoping we all are able to feel good about an action we take, to make someone else's world a little brighter.

Blessed Be!

Love,

T

Bleeding Heart

This past week, a sermon I had recently heard seemed to align with life in real time after I happened across this cute little flower, which I learned is called a "Bleeding Heart." It's so interesting to me when that kind of thing happens. The priest had been talking about an experiment with trees, and how we need to experience adversity or challenges in order to grow and become stronger. Apparently trees that were grown in a perfectly controlled environment were becoming weak and breaking because of an absence of wind. They needed to bend and respond to resistance in order to become strong. Like the trees, we all need to experience some level of stress for growth, and might come to appreciate the challenges that make us stronger. 

A "Bleeding Heart" seemed like a fairly obvious and straightforward parallel meaning. When I looked up the plant though, another layer of message came into focus. One of the main search results was "Bleeding Heart Care - How to Grow Bleeding Hearts." There's an actual "how to" instruction. It includes water and nutrient information but also: "Do not remove the foliage before it turns yellow or brown; this is the time when your bleeding heart plant is storing food reserves for next year’s growing bleeding hearts."

Fascinating. 

Click here for: article on gardeningknowhow.com

Maybe we could go a step beyond gratitude for the experiences that help us grow and even purposely allow a bit of stress, knowing that we will be better prepared next year for having gone through it. 

Keeping the faith...

Love,

T

Embracing Change

Spring. Changes. Nature.

Passover.

Palm Sunday.

Sometimes it takes so much for us to change. Can't we do better? Change can be so beautiful. 

Let's do it. Let's change something - all on our own and just for the sake of improving ourselves. We don't have to wait until we are forced to. What if we found something - one little thing - that inspires us enough to step out of that comfort zone we love so much.

Blessed week...

Love,

T

Bright and Sunshiny

We thought Mom and Dad G. could use a snowman.

So, over the river and through the woods...

There was a little rough patch.

But we got through it.

We think a good time was had by all...

and it turned out to be a bright, sunshiny day.

Sure beats the slush.

Here's wishing you all a bright and sunshiny week...

Love,

T

Changing Leaves

It all started with "suppression." I was thinking of how we suppress ourselves. 

We do it. Yes we do (arguing with myself). We are all capable of infinite improvement, yet we hang on to our old ideas like our life depends on them. Why don't we just let go?

Leaves fall away and brand new growth emerges. That could be us. We don't need to keep doing things the same old way. We don't need to keep the same habits. We are fully capable of change for the good of our own selves. 

"Progress is impossible without change, 

and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

- George Bernard Shaw

Uncertainty forces us to either fear, or trust. Let's trust. Let's believe.

Here's wishing you all a safe and healthy holiday season, regardless of how different it is this year.

Love,

T

Vote

 Vote.

Period.

Love,

T

Skyways

 When the world goes all sideways, there are still some things you can count on.

The sky.

Miracles happen. Scary things can produce sweet things.

You can always look up.

When the world seems like an untamed jungle, without a clear path...

Some things remain.

The wind itself can carry seeds of change.

#faith

Blessed week!

Love,

T

The Angel

The Angel in my room, the one that lights up, twinkles, and sends dancing patches of light around the walls every night has stopped.

I could take this as an ominous sign: The Angel has left, its light extinguished.

Then again, its absence of light can serve as an example of faith: We must believe even when our path is not lit. The Angel is clearly still there. Its lack of illumination only indicates that we must believe in what we can not see, have faith through the darkness.

Then there's the reality that I am just out of C batteries. As soon as I put the new ones in, it will light up again.

What's really real is that I can put C batteries on the grocery list, but that light will not go on until I actually put them in and flip the switch. It's on me.

Blessed week...

Love,
T

Where to Start

My morning run is often the only time I have to myself, to let my thoughts flow. I had just been thinking about how, despite all of the most recent changes in the world, we have the ability to continue being our unique selves when I noticed the pavement looking back up at me.

I stopped to take a picture. It's not often I jog by what looks like a giant pastel eyeball.

Returning to my thoughts, it occurred to me that while we may need to get creative about how we are able to express our individual talents and abilities, it's been positively heartwarming to see people doing what they do and being who they are. Whether it's being helpful by delivering food to those in need, making people laugh, mobilizing teams to raise money, organizing community services, doing yoga, dancing, teaching, cooking, nursing, writing, etc., people all over the world are finding ways to help each other (and the world itself) with a sense of purpose as never before.

We all go at our own pace. We might each, in our own time, stop and evaluate our path deciding how best to proceed. As we are forced to adapt we might temporarily be in what I call a blind spot - that place we find ourselves when we can't yet see our own future. Faith is necessary. Hope is necessary. Even when these are in short supply, we can keep going. Even when we can not see what is ahead, we can continue our journey with deliberate intention. We might take a new direction. When we don't know where to start, we can just start somewhere - anywhere.

As I put my phone away to continue my run, there was another sign...

I love when the pavement speaks! Who knows where our journey will lead? I ran along the chalk outline until the numbers faded away and finally disappeared completely, but by then I was running again so I just kept going.

Have a beautiful week.

Love,
T

Harvest Time

I took him out to the farm to pick apples. He loved it so much he wanted to go back the next day.

It didn't hurt that there were tractors, a playground and a petting zoo involved.

Then I found this great song:

"Harvest Song"

and it occurred to me that we can't always see what's straight ahead of us,

but a slight change of perception could make all the difference.

#Believe #SayYeah - Amen!

Enjoy your Blessings! They're coming.

And Shana Tovah!

Love,
T

Unexpected Inspiration

An old friend inspired me this past week. He reminded me how important it is to be there for each other. Forget old wounds as quickly as you can. Life is too short.

I'm so grateful for quality time with friends. Remembering the good ol' days was the unexpected highlight this week. Love and the warmth of smiles and laughter transcend all challenges, obstacles and divisions. Love remains.

Blessed week everyone...

Love,

T

Fear Knocked

Best fortune ever:

BOOM!

'Nuff said.

Namaste,

T

#WhatFear ?

Working Angel

Halloween was a riot!

I was really getting weary and worn out this week though. FOR THE RECORD: I still looked like THIS while blogging.

Not at ALL like this:

Again - to be clear, THIS is what I look like blogging:

NOT this:

Sometimes I have a little help and things get easier - like when someone offers to vacuum...

or cook me dinner.

Sometimes I ask for a sign.

One pretty cool thing that happened this week was that my Angel started working again.

I thought it had stopped. I went so far as to get new batteries, but I hadn't put them in yet when I noticed it running. Maybe it never really stopped. Perhaps I just couldn't see it for a while. Maybe it was always just trying to get through to me. ;)

Namaste,
T