Rumi poem

Rumi's The Guest House:

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.


For me this poem is a reason to live.
It tells you everything you need to know
for a happy life: Don't resist, flow. XOXO
P.S. I got this poem at Mermaid's blog
and she was happy to share :-).

Award time!

The lovely Dagny gave me this award ages ago and I am just

now getting to it.

My 5 Fabulous Addictions:

1. Art, in all forms. I love looking at it, making it and reading about it.

2. Reading. I mostly go for stellar fiction, I don't read junk. I also like

non fiction books on art and spirituality.

3. Movies, again it has to be a good film, I hate wasting 2 hours watching

crap.

4. Running. I hope I can run until I am dead :-).

5. Animals, all kinds, but mostly cats, dogs, horses and goats. Yes, goats, I love em to bits.

Here are the rules to receiving this award:1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as well. To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gidget.Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

Okay, here are my award winners:

1.The wonderful Sukipoet.

2.The delightful Pia.

3.My lovely friend M.Kate.

4.Robin, great photographer and writer!

5. And the amazing Melanie.

It was hard to pick just five, as I think you are all wonderful, so go ahead

and take this award if you so desire.

Happy day after Thanksgiving! I am cleaning house, how about you?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This will be me tomorrow evening after eating all day :-).

I know I am a day early, but I will be too busy cooking and

eating tomorrow to post. I have been a bad blogger and have not posted much

lately at all, I will do better next week and fill you in on what

I have been up too. Have a lovely Thanksgiving, if you live where

it is celebrated and if not Happy Thursday :-). XOXO

P.S.I almost forgot the most important part of tomorrow, gratitude! There is so much to

be grateful for. I have a huge list, but the most important part of that list, is family and friends and my

four animal boys. What are you grateful for today?

What do men want?

Men are all the time asking what women want,
I thought I would ask the same question of the men.
I know I don't have many male readers, but I expect to
hear from both of you :-). I have been thinking of this
for a long time.
I ask this because most (not all) of
the crazy, high maintenance women I know have men, and
the wonderful, sweet women I know don't (there are exceptions).
You know how men are all the time saying that woman like bad boys, well
I think it is true of men too, they like bad women.
I am pretty sure looks don't matter much in this equation, as most of
the women I know are all good looking. I lump myself in
with the wonderful, sweet women. I fail miserably at
relationship. I don't mind this so much because I am a loner,
but would like to one day have a mate :-). So, guys help me out.
What do you want your dream woman to be like? Since I have very
few male readers, any of you, male or female that has advice, please give it to me.
I probably should not post right before bed, I tend to ramble
and ask silly questions :-).
Sweet dreams. XOXO

Life is weird and crazy on top

A photo of my other three boys, Mr.B, Max and Spike

taking a snooze.

I don't have much to say tonight except that something

happened yesterday(too personal to share on my blog or

with most of my family and friends, so don't ask) that should

have left me feeling very sad, and it did for a few hours, but

the really weird thing is, I woke up this morning feeling very

light and free and happy. Sometimes what you think you want,

is not really what you want, you know what I mean? I basically

got a no from the Universe, and it turned out to be perfect.

I hope I am making sense, sometimes I can be too abstract :-).

Please share any stories about when you did not receive something

you wanted and realized you were happy about it, or when you got

what you wanted and did not like it? XOXO

Random thoughts...

This is a photo of my wonderful dog Zeus on the run :-).

I have a few things to report. First I had a couple of lovely, strange

things happen that I realized Coyote was alerting me to. Remember

the coyote story a few posts back? Whenever I see a coyote it means

that something extraordinary is about to happen, and this time was no

different. However I am sorry to say I cannot tell you about it as it involves

people who may read my blog and some parts of my life must stay private.

I just wanted you to now that I decoded the message :-).

As to other news: My Esty shop is not getting many visitors, any Esty shop

owners with any advice on how to get customers, please feel free

to pass it on to this beginner. I am not too upset by this lack of visitors, I realize

these things take time.

As of late I have been working with energy. We waste energy anytime we

judge or obsess on things like someone who did us wrong. I thought I was

pretty good about this stuff, but have noticed lately my poor attitude.

I took steps this week to change this around. Now an alarm goes off whenever

I find myself doing said behaviour. Wow. I found out I do it much more than

I am aware of. Imagine all the energy I will save! Perhaps I will gather enough

energy to make my dreams come true.

Life is too short to waste one minute on feeling blue. I confess I have been

blue for a couple weeks, but there has been a shift and I am glad I woke

up out of my stupor.

Happy Tuesday. XOXO

New cards and ornaments in my Esty shop

I finally got some new Holiday stuff put on my Esty shop.

Here is a small preview. Let me know what you think.

I just finished the last of my ornaments which will be fired

this week and hopefully on my Esty site by the end of Nov.

Next year I will start much earlier :-).

I am off to relax, read and play. Happy Sunday everyone.

Dream

I don't write about my dreams much because
I think you won't be interested, but this dream
has a message for us all. In my dream an angel
appeared in the form of a black woman in dreadlocks.
She smiled and twirled around with her arms outstretched
and said to me "Do what brings you joy and happiness,
do what you love".
This past two weeks I have been working on photos of
new work for the shop, but I have done no art, none!
I think this was a message to get to it :-).
I am still working on coyote's message, but I think
it has something to do with hope, and love.
Happy weekend everyone. XOXO

Coyote

This photo taken by Geraint Smith.

I saw a coyote while running this morning. It has been at

least a year and a half since I last saw my old friend.

I never told you all the story about how a coyote came in

to the gallery where I worked a couple years ago. It was afternoon

around four o'clock on a late Summer's day. I was sitting at the

computer in the office and I heard the ringer go off to alert me

that someone was there. A few seconds later a coyote stood

staring at me. Now the really amazing thing is that this coyote,

not only had to come to town to see me, he had to go through a

closed in courtyard and through two rooms with small doors.

I talked to a man who knows a lot about coyotes and he said a

coyote would never enter a space like that, well mine did :-).

Coyotes have always brought me messages by their appearances.

Sometimes I get the message, sometimes I don't. I have been thinking

hard about what that coyote was trying to tell me this morning.

It feels important is all I know for sure.

Snow!

This is what I woke up to yesterday morning. It was a shock.

I always feel like it is Christmas when it snows. I love snow

even though I hate driving in it. It has all melted already

and all is clear today. The picture is so dark because it was

6 in the morning when I took it. I am off on a run so I have

to keep this post short. I will be posting photos of ornaments soon.

I finally have a few completed :-). Have a great Tuesday.

What I love today...

I love these little dead flowers I snapped a photo of yesterday

on my run.

I love my little snap and shoot camera.

I love my four animal boys.

I love my new, bigger work room.

I love "Iron Man" the movie, I watched Friday night.

I love the book "Water for Elephants", I started reading

in bed this morning.

I love reading in my cozy bed with my animal boys huddled

around me.

I love that Forrest is home.

I love that Obama is our new president!

I love my family and friends.

I love blogging.

I love you all. Happy Sunday. What do you love today?

Living in the moment

Beautiful photo of the buddha taken by Geraint Smith.

There has been so much on my mind and in my life that

everyday I have to remind myself to slow down and stay

in the moment. When I get going and my mind is racing,

I think, how will I pay my bills, how will I afford to go home

(Portland Oregon) for Christmas, I need to sell some art...

In the mist of this mind storm I remember, oh yeah, I need

to stay in the now. I take a deep breath. Then, I ask myself

how things are in the moment, and I realize, things are great.

Plenty of money and a lovely trip home in the planning

stages. I have all I need. Nothing is wrong :-). I then

remind myself to trust where I am, love where I am, and

trust that the future is taken care of, I don't have to worry or

toil. What a relief :-). There is so much freedom in trust.

My wish is that I could stay in this state always, but life

is after all imperfect and that is also a joy. How boring if it

were perfect. Please share any tales about trust.

Happy Thursday everyone. XOXO

Bright, Happy Day!

I cried last night when I heard that Obama won.
This is a happy day indeed. It is a new world.
I am filled with hope for the future :-).
We should all be so proud :-).
XOXO

And the winner is...

No, silly, not the winner of the election, the winner
of my Anniversary give away. I put all your names in
a bag and em is the winner!!! I don't even know what
the prize will be yet, but it will include something I made.
em congratulations, it could not happen to a better blogger
:-). This is fun, I may make it a regular thing around here, if
I can afford the postage :-). Happy election day all. XOXO

HOPE

Tomorrow is the big day. I have not said anything
about this election because I am not a very political
person. I have a hard time getting worked up about
any of it, but I am going to say a little bit here in honor
of a man I believe is our best hope. I won't tell you I
think you should vote, or who to vote for, but I will
tell you that I think Obama is the only choice. This
is what I believe with my heart and my mind.
When I was very young (and this will really age me :-),
I loved Bobby Kennedy and the day he was shot was
very dark. I lost hope then in the political system.
Obama has brought back just a glimmer of that hope.
For me, today, he is the only choice.
Blessings on him and may the Gods smile on him tomorrow
and on us all :-).

1st Blogging Anniversary

I realized with a shock that today is my blogging anniversary.

One year ago, today I started this adventure and it has truly been

a wonderful one. To celebrate I want to have a little give away.

I will make it a surprise. All the names of everyone who leaves a

comment will go into a hat and the name I draw will receive

a surprise from me within the next 2 months :-). I will announce

the winner on Tuesday evening, so you have until then to comment.

I want to thank you all for your support and love in the last year,

it has meant a lot as I have been through a sea of changes.

When this blog started I was madly in love with an old flame and

planning on a move to LA to be with him, sadly that did not work out.

I also quit my job and did the Be Brave project. My world has done

a spin in the last year and I got to take you with me, thanks for

being there. XOXOXOXO

P.S. I took this photo of Taos mountain on my run, special for Suki :-).