I Don't Promise

I don't promise

To always be there for you,

To care for you in illness,

Or pain,

To carry you in weakness,

To lift you up through doubt,

To hold your hand through trials,

To go with you where life leads.

I don't promise these things.

Because promises are things people break.

I sing these things.

They are the melody of my soul 

And I sing them

To the universe and all creation.

That is the only way I know how to tell you

That I will love you always. 

Promises alone shall never be enough,

Shall never truly express

This One Truth.

So I shall sing to you

The melody of my soul

That is completed in each moment 

By your love.

11/26 - Thankful

I am thankful for love -- all the forms of love in my life: dear friends all over the world, a family always by my side, the love and guidance of a merciful God, and the heart that holds my own.  I wept tears of overwhelmed joy today.  Life has always been moving forward and up, no matter when I thought it wasn't or that love in all of these ways was impossible for me.

No one is alone in this world.  There is love abounding, in any of these ways, just waiting to be discovered and cherished and rejoiced in.

I pray that we can all find it for ourselves and share it with the world that is so desperately in need for more.

11/22 - Enough

You are finished and complete.  You are enough.  You do not have to try to do more to be who you are, to express your heart to the world.  Simply allow the breath to begin and let the song come from your heart.

The Point of Everything

Love:

Give and receive it.

Celebrate and cherish it.

Share it freely.

Allow it to reach you.

Let it protect you.

Let it heal you.

Let it support and sustain you.

Let it move you.

Let it change you.

My Heart

My heart, to all things, but especially one thing, shouts an exuberant YES!

10/15 - Do What You Love

Do what you love and follow your heart.  It will lead to memorable moments, doing things you never thought you'd do, even on a very simple and small kind of scale.  When we come to the end of life, it will consist of what we did or did not do - I hope to look back on a life of choices guided by my truest self.

Okay

Okay, I'm sick,

But not very sick.

Okay, money's tight,

But not too tight.

Okay, we're apart,

But not forever apart.

Jobs

Beds

Education

Friends

Dreams

Hope

Okay, so life is 

Way better than okay.

:)

----------

Just feeling grateful for all of the goodness in life. 

Knowing

It's a soft warmth,

A glowing within;

A settling of nerves

And thoughts;

A release of breath

You didn't know you were holding;

The air brightens;

The birds sing,

And your heart with them.

This is the peace 

Of knowing.

Lessons from Dogs - 9/12

Live in the moment.
Give your full attention.
Once you've made a decision, enjoy it!
Rest when you're tired, without apologizing.
Love unabashedly.
Play!
Smile, with teeth.
Be persistent when you want something.
Be. Simply, be.

<3

Love of My Life

You are the love of my life.

What does this mean?

My traditional understanding: You give me the greatest earthly love I have ever known and ever will know.

A thought that is wonderful and true!

But it hit me this morning that it can mean more than that; it means that I have shared and will share every part of my life with you. I will not keep things from you, even when I am afraid or ashamed to admit them to you (and perhaps in doing so admit them to myself). I will give my life to you joyously, without apprehension or doubt. And I will do this because you are the love of my life - you love every part of who I have been, am, and shall become. Every aspect of my life is yours and you take it - me - with a full and open heart.

There is only one other love like this. May we always strive to be a reflection of such divine Love. For we are not two, but three - One has brought the other two together. 

Love of my life, I love you.

Chin Up -8/12

By the time I was at work this morning after my regular 30-minute commute, I was ready to write an entire post about my pet peeves, specifically bad, aggressive drivers. I grumbled getting out of the car and started my walk with my eyes down at the sidewalk. But my gaze was drawn to the sky and I stopped in my tracks.

"Chin up," said the voice in my heart. 

Look what I might have missed if I kept in my own head about how upset I was. There is so much glory and beauty in our surroundings, in the people we encounter. If we let the bad drivers bring us down, and believe me - my day was not done with its share of bad drivers - we'll miss the rays of sun breaking through overhead.

The Little I Know

I know very little in this ancient and vast world, full of diverse and complicated lives that collide with one another. But I am convinced that everything happens to us for a reason. Lines can be traced between our decisions, some big, some small, leading to where we are now. And many times when we are most questioning where life has led us, we are simply in the middle of one of those threads of decisions and we just need to keep holding on and pulling forward to find the end we were being led towards all along. 

And at the end of each of those lines is an answer we seek, about ourselves, our pasts, our futures - what to do, where to go, who to be and become. Each of those strings, those answers, over our time on earth, forms the grand tapestry of our life. And all of our individual stories weave together into the larger pattern of existence that is both flawed and beautiful.

There is purpose to your life; the answers will be there, even when it seems like they won't. Stay patient, strong, and true to yourself and surround yourself with people who will help you when you feel like you can't. We are all worthy of such love, for it is the love between us all that weaves our whole world together.

(The) Trouble (with) Sleeping

Had trouble sleeping --
Somehow awake in a dream,
A sweet dream of you.

Re

Recenter
Refocus
Refresh
Refill
Replenish

A Terrible and Awesome Responsibility

What a terrible and awesome responsibility it is to be alive - to live and continue living. We have so much power within us that can be used to ruin or build up the existence of all around us, including ourselves. This power is both outward - physical - and inward -emotional. How do we maintain the theoretical agreement with ourselves and one another that more comes from good than harm? Why do we maintain it? Why do some break it?

The many possible answers range from the biological to the spiritual and all of the subjects in-between, but the result is the same: we societally agree that we have a responsibility to honor this powerful, mysterious, and precious life that has been granted to us. It is both a frightening and marvelous thing to comprehend.

Jane Moments

More and more often I have moments where I feel overwhelmed with happiness.

To quote Jane Bennet (in the 2005 film at least), "Can you die of happiness?"

The Little Pieces

I don't know if all of the little pieces are falling into place, or if it simply seems this way because there is one, and only one, thing I need to know for things to feel right.  Life is not complete or perfect; to expect such a thing would place too much of a burden on myself, my life, and all of the people in it.  However, I have nothing to fear because I know that, even if everything else fell apart, that I can rely on love.

Cinema Paradiso

I am filled with a sweet melancholy, reminded of and warned about the passage of time, how change is inevitable and we never get all we hope for, that life's beauty is in its smallest moments, that love is more powerful than we can ever know, that true friendship defies all endings.

5/28/15 Friendship

I'm eternally grateful for the amazing friends in my life.  I am lucky to have people who are willing to move all of my crap down four flights of stairs for some mimosas, donuts, and strawberries, who are willing to wait patiently when most things don't go according to plan, who text and call me incessantly when wonderful things happen in my life, who insist on taking pictures, who get me out and about exploring the world around me, and who always, always, always make me laugh.  Times of change are difficult but they are also when the truest parts of friendship are depended upon, revealed, and celebrated.  Love to you all.

5/27/15 Pieces of Heaven

"It's a long and rugged road
And we don't know where we're headed,
But we know it's gonna get us where we're going.
And when we find what we're looking for,
We'll drop these bags and search no more
'Cause it's gonna feel like heaven when we're home."
~ "Heaven When We're Home" by The Wailin' Jennys



Life is not perfect.  It can't ever be.  But I'm beginning to find that perhaps it contains little pieces of heaven.  If we keep our hearts open to what our paths come across, we are able to discover more and more.  Maybe this is how true happiness is cultivated.

I am quite happy.