Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Stillness


Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen -
that stillness becomes a radiance.
Morgan Freeman

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Contentment


Leave everything behind.

Feel absolute peace and
tranquility and a deep sense
of resolution called contentment.

Content with where you are,
with who you are, content with
what is from moment to moment.

Amrit Desai

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Memorial Day


A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.
Joseph Campbell

Monday, May 11, 2009

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Laughter


We shake with joy, we shake with grief.
What a time they have, these two
housed as they are in the same body.

Mary Oliver


Thursday, April 2, 2009

Now I Can See the Moon



Barn’s burnt down —
Now I can see the moon.
Masahide (17th-century Japanese poet)

I discovered a great site where you can make your own books. It's not a self-publishing company; it's a company that lets you use their software to create and maintain ownership over your own projects. The photo above is on the cover of my book I've titled Receive Inspiration. In it I have my photographs matched with quotes, just like on this blog. I ordered a couple in hardback with a dust jacket and the quality is amazing.

Anyway, have fun making your own books. And here is the link where you can find mine. If you click on the cover, you will be able to preview the first fifteen pages. Here is the link.
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/category/Self-Improvement

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Inner Peace




You may have heard of Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained brain scientist. She became especially well known when her lecture about the stroke she suffered in 1996 was posted on the internet. I just finished reading her amazing account in her book, My Stroke of Insight. What particularly struck me was how she described the feeling of deep inner peace as being located in the neurological circuitry of the right brain.

I have been writing about receptivity – receiving – as being an experience of the present rather than the suffering past or fantasy future, a bonded pair that operates as a team.

Dr. Taylor describes the feeling of peace as being in the present moment rather than something we bring from the past or project into the future and as coming from an actual location in the brain.

I love this quote from her, “Step one to experiencing inner peace is the willingness to be present in the right here, right now.” If you want to experience peace, she says, “Step to the right,” meaning the right hemisphere of your brain.

There are so many ways to describe, to explain, to illustrate the freedom of peace. Check out My Stoke of Insight for a very understandable description for the layperson about how the brain “speaks” and how you can talk to your brain.


Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Gratitude



For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.
Dag Hammarskjold

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Slow Down



Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast -- you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. Eddie Cantor


Monday, February 9, 2009

Attraction


You are a living magnet.
What you attract into your life is in harmony with your dominant thoughts.
Brian Tracy




Tuesday, January 20, 2009

A New Day





On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear,
unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

Barack Obama on January 20, 2009

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!


You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Jim Rohn

Interesting quote. I saw it somewhere recently and thought about the motto I created when I moved to Arizona almost two years ago. I used this motto Match Me or Raise Me as a reminder to be mindful about who I chose to spend my time with. Match Me or Raise Me just means meet me where I am or inspire me by who you are or by your accomplishments to reach higher, to do better, to excel.

Sometimes we don't fully receive the effect that people have on us or realize the consequences of time spent with those who detract in some way instead of add to our lives.

When I began this blog last January, my first entries were mostly narrative as I wrote about various topics about receiving. (You can look back by going to the menu of months on the right). Over time I added poems and quotes. I was thinking about this blog today and what I wanted to write on this first day of the new year.

In my years of exploring different facets of and deepening my understanding of receiving, I have come to understand that when I am fully present (truly a receptive state), I make better choices. And those choices reflect in how and with whom I spend my time.

As I reflect back on the last year and make plans for the year ahead, I am very happy with my top five people! I hope you are, too.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New Year's resolutions


May my feet rest firmly on the ground
May my head touch the sky
May I see clearly
May I have the capacity to listen
May I be free to touch
May my words be true
May my heart and mind be open
May my hands be empty to fill the need
May my arms be open to others
May my gifts be revealed to me
So that I may return that which has been given.

The Terma Collective

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Love


Love rests on no foundation.
It is an endless ocean,
with no beginning or end.
Rumi


Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Success


Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs times of advancement are preceded by times of disorder.
Success comes to those who can weather the storm.
The I Ching

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Cheerfulness


Resistance drains energy
Acceptance saves energy
Cheerfulness sustains energy
Amrit Desai


For more Amrit Desai quotes go to www.yogisays.com and click on the little yogi.


Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Night Sky


You'll have to click on the photo to read the quote.

The recent Moon, Venus, Jupiter conjunction is shown here. Actually, I took this photograph in the evening of December 1st when the Moon had passed Venus and Jupiter.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Mystery


Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust - we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.
Albert Einstein


Friday, November 14, 2008

Time



Time on my side, a stowaway in the slipstream...
Jackson Browne

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

I have a dream



I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Quiet


Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. Hans Margolius


Sunday, October 5, 2008

Hummingbird


From scarlet to powdered gold,
to blazing yellow,to the rare
ashen emerald,
to the orange and black velvet
of your shimmering corselet,
out to the tip
that like
an amber thorn
begins you,
small, superlative being,
you are a miracle,
and you blaze

From Ode to the Hummingbird
Pablo Neruda


Hummingbirds are everywhere here. I see them flitting outside among the butterflies all day long out in the patio garden. I took this photo though at the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, and now that I am learning how to use Photoshop from Kristina, I am having fun working with my photographs. Check out her photos. She is a great teacher and an amazing photographer. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristinabrendel/

Friday, October 3, 2008

Stillness



Wherever you go in the midst of movement and activity, carry your stillness within you. Then the chaotic movement around you will never overshadow your access to the reservoir of creativity, the field of pure potentiality. Deepak Chopra

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Sedona


You cannot manifest that which you cannot conceive.
Dattatreya Siva Baba

I am finally learning something about photoshop. This is one of my first attempts.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Journey



It took me years to see
That I was but the river’s bend
The current flowing over me.
Bob Smith

Monday, September 8, 2008

Monday, September 1, 2008

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Patience


A waiting person is a patient person.
The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the fullest in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.
Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there.
Waiting, then, is not passive. It involves nurturing the moment, as a mother nurtures the child that is growing within her.
from Watch for the Light

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Spacious Skies



The desert sometimes issues its own invitation. ‘Come! Enter into my silence, my uncluttered solitude, my stark beauty, and I will show you the depths of your own soul you never knew you had. Elizabeth J. Canham