But Sometimes

but sometimes when i’m standing
at the kitchen counter after dinner
and i look out the window at the dark
thinking of nothing,
something swims up.
tonight this:
your laughing into my mouth
as you were trying
to kiss me.

~~ Deborah Garrison ~~

*artwork by Jane Ray

The Art Of Disappearing

When they say ‘Don’t I know you?’ say no.

When they invite you to the party remember what parties are like before answering. Someone telling you in a loud voice they once wrote a poem. Greasy sausage balls on a paper plate. Then reply.

If they say ‘We should get together.’ say why? It’s not that you don’t love them anymore. You’re trying to remember something too important to forget. Trees. The monastery bell at twilight. Tell them you have a new project. It will never be finished.

When someone recognizes you in a grocery store nod briefly and become a cabbage. When someone you haven’t seen in ten years appears at the door, don’t start singing him all your new songs. You will never catch up.

Walk around feeling like a leaf. Know you could tumble any second. Then decide what to do with your time.

~~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~~

*artwork by Renee Nault

Follow

Follow truthfulness even if you think it may harm you, for truthfulness never harms but instead saves. Do not lie even if you think it will protect you. Lying never protects, it only destroys.

~~ the Hadith ~~

*artwork by Melody Sage

The Miracle

Our true home is in the present moment. To live in the present moment is a miracle. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.

Peace is all around us, in the world, and in nature, and within us, in our bodies and spirits.

Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed. It is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of practice.

If your cup is small, a little bit of salt will make the water salty. If your heart is small, then a little bit of pain can make you suffer. Your heart must be large.

~~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~~

A Spoonful Of Dream Honey

My sweet Allegra (Smith) replied to my Soundless Saturday post on ‘truth’ something so amazingly beautiful that I felt that it needed to be shared as a post. I hope that it lifts those of you that need it as much as it did me.

‘I just as well take truth with a spoonful of dream honey, hope sugar and a drop of disbelief.’

‘In my opinion it is best served as tea, with serenity petit fours, cakes of understanding, tolerance liqueur and plenty of disregard napkins.’

‘Depending upon the cook it may be served hot, and then the flavor is bitter or cold and then one doesn’t know what to do with it. Who would have thought that truth could complicate life when coming uninvited and unexpected?’

‘From life to life. Forever.’

Yes dear friend; from life to life, forever. Feel well soon.

To Live

To live content with small means,
To seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion,
To be worthy, not respectable,
And wealthy, not rich,
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly,
To listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart,
To bear all cheerfully, do all bravely,
Await occasions, hurry never,
In a word to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
Grow up through the common; this is to be my symphony.

~~ by William Henry Channing ~~

Happy Halloween

500th Post Giveaway No. 2

Now who would have ever guessed that you would want every single person to win?

As we head into the biggest season of giving let us all recall that there are other children in other places that need our love and cuddles and signs of affection too. Whether that be in Swaziland or in our own backyards it doesn’t matter; it just matters that we all care.

And the people who have won (I happen to love every single one of them.):

Wahid picked Sweetmango

Angelique picked Mim

Nadalene picked Madtexter

Nathan picked A Spoonful of Sugar

Please give me your email and home address in my comment box and I will make sure not to post that information. As well, please have another peek at Tessa’s lovely prints and state which one you would like. I will then forward the information on to Tessa who will forward on to you the print you have chosen.

I want to especially thank my dear friend Tessa for joining with me in making this giveaway possible. Tessa you are one of the kindest and funniest and most full of life friends and it is my great pleasure to have you in my life.

Thank you everyone and may good fortune follow you all the days of your life.

*artwork by my fearless friend Tessa Edwards

500th Post Giveaway

I have been thinking for a little while about what I could give back to all of you who give so much to me.

What could I give? What could I do? How could any of it have more meaning than just the here and now?

I know a young Australian doctor named Maithri (My3) Goonetilleke and he has a dream. He has a dream that I believe in. His dream is for the people of Swaziland to have running water and food to eat; a dream where children can actually survive childhood.

Maithri is instrumental in the group ‘Possible Dreams International’ and their website is http://possibledreamsinternational.org/ . Maithri’s blog is ‘The Soaring Impulse’ and his website is http://www.soaringimpulse.com/ . If you have not visited him yet, you really are missing out on an important young man.

My dear friend Tessa has been selling her prints and donating 100% of the proceeds to help save the lives of children in Swaziland. Tessa’s blog, where you can see her prints is at http://aerialarmadillo.blogspot.com/ . The paintings are beautiful and the prints are wonderful, I know, as I am lucky enough to own two of them myself.

Maithri wrote once “And yet, somewhere in our collective imagination, we have created worlds within worlds. Third worlds and first worlds. Worlds where it is not ok for even one child to die and other worlds where a child dies every 3 seconds and no one blinks an eyelid. I hear of words like ‘compassion fatigue’ …And I have to tell you that the concept nauseates me. That we who have so much can even contemplate tiring of reaching out to those of our human family who have absolutely nothing, is absolutely incomprehensible to my little brain.”

I have talked to Tessa about purchasing three of her prints for my giveaway and Tessa has generously offered to throw in a fourth so that we can have not one, not two, not three, but four lucky winners.

So on to the giveaway and how it works. Simple really….

Think positive thoughts and send them out to the world and then leave a comment with the name of the print that you would love to have from Tessa’s site and by next Tuesday, the 27th of October I will post the winners.

Good luck to all of you and please sit and watch this video and be as thrilled as I am about the good work that some good people are doing in our world today. People, hopefully like you and I that don’t suffer from compassion fatigue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiYhEpMnfDg&feature=player_embedded

Love Renee xoxoxo

*artwork by my very dear friend Tessa Edwards

No Reason

A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, ‘Why is there so much suffering?’

Suzuki Roshi replied “No reason.”

Grateful No. 3

Well you will all be happy to know that I have dumped guilt. We started dating last week and he was a fucking leech around my neck. I have never known him before and for a few minutes he felt good. Here is hoping to God that I never see him again.

Life is strange isn’t it? I am finding that more and more it is hard to understand what happens in a life. As much as I try to untangle things more knots get added to the rope.

One day I may have time to untangle these knots and be able to look at the rope laid out in a perfect line in front of me, maybe one day. Maybe one day I will make sense of what is going on. And then again maybe I won’t.

How tired I was when I wrote my last post. How sorry I felt for myself. How warped my thoughts were and how I see so differently in just a few days. Since telling Angelique that I was dropping that leech off of my neck by the end of Monday and making sure that I did just that. Well the light in the room is so different.

Nobody knows what life will bring and nobody can stop bad things happening to good people. What I need to remember is that good things will happen too. I need to remember that bad things do not need to cancel out good things. They can if we let them, but they certainly don’t need too.

Thanks for the love everyone. I am glad to know that you all inhabit this space with me.

Love Renee xoxoxo

*artwork by Kelly Vivanco

At First

The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream.

The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg;
and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs.

Dreams are the seedlings of realities.

~~ written by James Allen ~~

Grateful No. 2

Thank you all for your love and compassion. Thank you all for your words. I am grateful now and I always will be.

The following was written by A. Powell Davies:

When sorrow comes, let us accept it simply, as a part of life.
Let the heart be open to pain; let it be stretched by it.
All the evidence we have says that this is the better way.
An open heart never grows bitter.
Or if it does, it cannot remain so.

In the desolate hour, there is an outcry; a clenching of the hands upon emptiness; a burning pain of bereavement; a weary ache of loss.

But anguish, like ecstasy, is not forever.
There comes a gentleness, a returning quietness, a restoring stillness.
This, too, is a door to life.

Here, also, is a deepening of meaning – and it can lead to dedication; a going forward to the triumph of the soul, the conquering of the wilderness. And in the process will come a deepening inward knowledge that in the final reckoning, all is well.

Wherever

Wherever
God lays Her glance
life starts clapping. The myriad
creatures grab their instruments and join
the song. Whenever love makes itself
known against another body,
the jewel in the eye
starts to
dance.

Written by Hafiz

9 3/4 Blogland Lane

Welcome all who are pure of heart and have loving intentions.



















My home is like my heart. It is ever expanding.














Let's say grace. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Thank you our Lord for these thy gifts which we are about to receive from the bounty of Christ our Lord Amen. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.















Josephine and Domenic it is time for your afternoon naps.



















Up the down staircase.


















The teapot is never empty.



















There are many doorways leading in and out of my house; feel free to enter or leave. No one is hostage here.



















Stay the night if you wish.













The priest is serving appetizers in the back.



















The door to the fairies at the back of the house can only be opened if the child in you lives. (The image of the bas-relief doorway is taken from the Baptistry in the Florence Duomo, one of my dearest Lola's favorite churches.)



















Choose the room you feel most comfortable in; know that everything is touchable.



















Soup is always on.















All children are welcome. All children know the way to get in.













You will be heard here.



















Abuse of any kind will not be tolerated here.

I Am

‘I am very discouraged. What should I do?’

“Encourage others.”

Soen Nakagwa was a Japanese teacher of Zen Buddhism; above is a conversation with one of his students.

*artwork by my very dear friend Bella Sinclair

Grateful

I want all of you to know that the hope, compassion, prayers, powerful energy, and downright loving thoughts that you have been sending to me and my family especially my Mom, Jacquie, and Sheldon is truly amazing and absolutely appreciated.

My very dear friend Karin did this painting for me in her journal on July 23rd, which was the day of Jacquie and Sheldon’s surgery and she described the image to me.

“I know you are each standing in the flames, but I also know you are each surrounded by each other and rings of others, who see you in light and love, who are praying for you and holding you in strength.”

I have had many dear friends mention on their blogs what has been happening in my life and asking for further prayers or loving energy. I have had more paintings done and poems written and I want you all to know I will never forget this.

I want to repeat the sentiments my dear Allegra wrote.

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart. The kindness of strangers is truly the milk of human kindness, and we all know, myself in particular, what a restoring force that can be when everything around seems to be turning against us.”

I am forever grateful to each and every one of you for the support that you have shown to me.

Love Renee xoxoxo

*artwork by Karin Bartimole

I Find

A woman approached the great Indian saint, Ramakrishna, and said: ‘I find that I do not love God. The concept does not move me.’ He asked her “Is there nothing in the world that you do love?” And she said ‘Yes, I love my little nephew.’ Ramakrishna replied “There He is.”

~~ Unknown ~~

I Sang To The Stars

My dear friend Bella lost her husband on Saturday. My thoughts are with you Bella.

Last night as I sang to the stars,
I realized they may be the souls of
former friends or of future children.

So, I sang louder and louder
and I thanked them for listening.

I heard their applause
and they thanked me for coming.
At the same time we both said
our ‘Your Welcomes,’

And as I watched them twinkle,
They watched me Shine…

~~ A Ship of Broken Hearts by Laura Duksta ~~

Begin It Well

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities crept-in forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it well and serenely; and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old mistakes and nonsense.

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~