Joy Showers

I’d just walked off the sky bridge and saw him sitting alone by the big front windows.  We talked about the deep blue of the Texas sky and how much we both enjoyed the gardens surrounding MD Anderson.  Like me, he is a fourth stage cancer survivor, and he pointed to the bandage on his neck, his third metastasis.  But we didn’t linger on our cancers; but talked instead about family and the approaching holiday season.  As he talked about family holiday traditions, his smile grew and I was blessed with a joy shower.  Share a smile today and give someone a joy shower. 

All Over Again

Some nights I sleep in the past, maybe it’s an old habit hard to break from when I lived on morphine as I lay in the hospital in the late 70s with a broken back.  The morphine affected my eyesight, so I couldn’t read or watch TV.  So for six months, I relived my 27 years, and the high and low points brought too many tears, but also the gift of getting to do all over again.  Lost life moments filled with life’s passion flowed within me each night energizing my soul.  Some nights we sleep in the past, working hard at remembering those times we want to forget – life lessons that energize the “be” within us. 

Dance with the Solitude of Your Soul

Some Fridays, I crave the solitude of my inner space, and lean on my reflective practices to gain a few moments of peace away from the outside world.  Today I worked on an old poem and practiced dancing with the solitude of my soul.  // Most of my poems / Are written inside out / They are tiny windows into my soul / Sentence fragments never spoken / Words linked in odd ways / Reflections of feelings and emotions / Imprints of memories long forgot / Who I am when I am not / A dance with the solitude of my soul

Impermanence in Being You

Watching the rose colored sunset spread across the tree tops reminded me of my impermanence.  One of my favorite morning rituals is to look in the bathroom mirror, see my dad in my face, and share heart-to-heart dad / son talks.  What’s neat about this ritual is that many times we are talking about things I am having a hard time addressing in my normal self-talk.  Why am I having these deep conversations with my dad?  There is something about us now being the same age, sharing similar life experience, or maybe it’s just more years of feeling his love.  Enjoy your impermanence today as you practice being you. 

Morning Monet Thoughts

The morning sun had risen, but my morning thoughts were still softly wrapping around my soul with deep colors as the cool breeze swept across our lake.  I watched a Monet painting come to life and my thoughts went to his life, and how after his wife’s death he created some of his best paintings.  Life’s difficulties have a way of bringing out the best in us if we allow ourselves the patience to heal, and the courage to redefine who we will be.  Tiptoe through your morning thoughts today as they lightly touch your soul and appreciate how awesome it is to be alive. 

Camellia Memories

She seemed to blush as I walked by, so I finally stopped and took a picture of the camellia bloom on the bush by our front door.   My mother fell in love with camellias when we lived in Japan and planted bushes in our yard in Baton Rouge.  We would visit Mr. Burbank who lived several streets away, and they would sit for hours drinking coffee and enjoying the smells and colors of his camellia filled backyard.  In her final fight with her cancer, Mr. Burbank brought her a bowl of camellias each day till she died.  Camellias might not have cured her cancer, but I watched his gift soothe her soul.  Consider the gifts you give others today. 

Thanksgiving 2014

MaryBeth, Mary (Marybeth’s mom) and I spent Thanksgiving holiday at our lake house that sits on Lake Mt. Pleasant in the middle of Sam Houston National Forest.  The forest is covered with pines of winter green, and hardwoods dressed in burnt orange and yellows.  I woke up early Thanksgiving morn and watched the rising sun burn the mist off the water, and realized this day we would celebrate “what’s not wrong”.  Tears rolled down my face as I felt love from family, friends and a world filled with so much untapped healing energy. Be mindful of what’s not wrong and tap into a life energy filled with joy and peace.