“The time best spent is the time spent helping others.”
Blog
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Today’s Shot 41
Bare-Rock Growth
Moss Thoughts…
Sometimes the landscape around us can seem like bare stone. It seems like the type of material where nothing can grow. And yet, it’s the perfect landscape for certain kinds of growth. It offers the kind of growth that is resilient and finds its own way where other plants would perish. It may not be in the preferred garden of fertile soil, but it is it’s own fertile soil of strength and tenacity. This is where the bare rock is not shunned but embraced and the things which have seemed like deficits are grown into beauty.
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I Love You
I never thought of the phrase, “Love You” as a danger phrase. I only knew that it didn’t feel the same as the whole phrase, “I Love You!”
Why does it feel different? The words that we speak to others have a direct biochemical affect on them. When we say “love you”, there’s very little biochemical affect. However, using the whole phrase, even a quick, “I love you!” has a significant biochemical affect upon the person to whom you say it.
We all have the opportunity to use the full phrase and give this gift to our loved ones as often as possible!
Resource: Online Communication Skills Training
Cover photo by Ali Yahya
Article photo by Elly Johnson
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Today’s Shot 40
The Cabin in the Clearing
I like to think that it was a cabin much like this one that Benjamin S. Parker (Benjamin Strattan) wrote of in his poem titled, “The Cabin in the Clearing”. The image of this cabin reminds me of his words:
Of the cabin in the clearing, My soul reclines once more.
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Piece by Piece
by Beth Haley
Puzzles are like Life
Christmas Puzzle 2019
Potential
How do you pick the puzzle? You probably liked something about the picture on the box, and then you open it – and it’s a mess. It’s just a chaos of jumbled pieces. It’s not the pretty picture… not yet. At that moment, it’s potential. You know what it can become.
Organizing Chaos
Have you ever had a strong vision for a project or for your life as a whole? And, what does it look like? You may see the full picture down the line of time. Yet in this moment, it may just be pieces of ideas, thoughts, or hopes. So, where do you start? Do you start with the details in the center, or the foundation and framework around the edges?
Out of the mess, you notice certain colors. Those can be grouped together, like supporting ideas.
With the straight edges, an outline of becoming can be built. Piece by piece, you build the foundation, but the whole picture is not there yet, even though you know the picture well.
The foundation of a home may hold it up, but without building the details of the home on it, it is not yet a home. It is the blueprint, the outline and the forming of order from the pile of pieces or ideas.
The Process
Some say the edge pieces are the easy part of the puzzle. That’s where you begin to make sense of all the mess. From the edge (the foundation and outline), the details of the picture begin to evolve.
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If you can’t see the full picture of your dreams, take some time to really visualize what you want or need:
See it. It looks like sunshine on a glorious day!
Taste it. It tastes like sweetness. It tastes like milk and honey.
Smell it. It smells fresh and clean: like the smell of damp earth after the rain. Is that incense? What kind?
Hear it. It sounds like laughter and communion. It also sounds quiet and peaceful. It sounds like birds singing in the woods and the trickle of the stream.
Experience it in full. It feels like joy. It feels like easy flow. It feels like happiness and fulfillment in the art of creating. It feels abundant. It feels like goodness and kindness. It feels like warmth. It feels like success. It feels like rest of body, mind and spirit – and like action as well – the right action at the right time. It feels like home. If feels like a warm fire on a cold night and the relief of shade on a hot day. If feels like safe travel for the journey. It feels like the life I’ll never want a vacation from!
The full vision is in both the foundational pieces, and in the details we build from it, on it, and around it.
Missing Pieces
Sometimes you can almost have the complete picture and find that there are missing pieces. If you know what you’re looking for, the chances of finding it or re-creating (creating) it, are much higher.
A Helping Hand
Thank you to the brave soul who stuck their arm down the heater vent to fish the fallen piece of the puzzle out. If it had been up to me, this picture would have just remained as is, with one piece missing.
Sometimes, we just need a helping hand on the journey 😊
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A New Year
Sometimes there are so many items on my to-do list that it can be hard to know where to start. Not to mention, I can feel overwhelmed. For the first week in January, I’ve made a list of seven things I have been putting off: one simple task for each day. I wanted to start the first week off with positive accomplishments! The more success we have in reaching simple goals, the more we learn that we really can do anything!
Accomplish the small things and start reaching for the big ones!
Happy New Year! I wish you success with all your dreams and goals.
Cover photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters. Article photo by Social.Cut
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Today’s Shot 37
Carved in Stone
Seeing Time
Time has left its marks.
Water passing and flowing.
Wind carving and shaping.
How much time is in this rugged face?
The old wizard in the stone,
He looks out with a wizened gaze.
He knows how much pressure he can take.
And, taking all he can,
He morphs and changes with the weight of life.
Within the cracks and crevices of wounds,
He shares the stories of standing firm.
And, of the wisdom within those scars,
Are lessons I can learn.
© 2019 Thela 🦊 Foxgood
To seeing beauty within the scars and lessons of life: turn them into art! Happy New Year!
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Today’s Shot 36
Moss Forest
A World within a World
A small patch of moss nestled on rocks by the little stream, takes on new character close up. It has its own landscape of mountains, river, and taller trees reaching up through the mossy forest below. Perhaps a small fairy lives here who has tamed the frog croaking nearby.
We never did find Jeremiah, but he called to us all the same. 🐸
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Today’s Shot 34
Winter Rose 2
Hope
Winter comes – yet hope remains strong, and sun’s warmth returns.
Pilgrimage Studio 