I AM ME and I AM OKAY

Last week I went to a used book sale at the public library in my neighborhood.  There was an older gentleman straightening the piles of books.  As he worked he was steadily talking to himself.  When he noticed me standing near by, he looked embarrassed and apologized.  He said, "I guess if I am not answering myself, I am okay."  I laughed and reassured him there was not need to apologize.  I talk to myself all the time and I do answer myself.   I also started reading Patti Digh's book Creativity is a Verb last week.  At the end of the first chapter she asks the reader to answer this question:  I am creative because .......  As I pondered this question I thought of the gentleman from the library.  I am creative because I need an outlet for all the stuff that is bouncing around in my head.  You see, I don't just talk to myself.  I have long involved philosophical debates in my head.  I obsess and over think everything.  Sometimes I feel like my head and my heart are going to explode.  Sometimes I drive myself  a little crazy.  Art journaling and writing slow the thoughts down and give me a way to share some of what I am thinking and feeling.  My introverted, intuitive, feeling way of being sometimes makes self expression challenging.   In fact, it sometimes makes me feel a little like an alien; but, I am trying to recognize the benefits and accept that who I am is a good thing.  I like what Virginia Satir has to say about this subject in this little essay:                  "I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it -- I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know -- but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me. However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. I am me, and I am Okay.”

Lesson from a Two Year Old

Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. 

When you do a thing, do it with all your might. 

Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. 

Be active, be energetic and faithful,

 and you will accomplish your object. 

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a small airport close to our home.  It has a playground, 

a restaurant and an observation area where you can sit and watch the planes landing and taking off.  It is one of our grandson Jackson's favorite places.  He loves airplanes and has since he was a baby.  Long before he could talk he would point to the sky anytime he could hear the sound of an aircraft overhead.  He quickly learned to differentiate the type of aircraft by the sound; and, airplane, helicopter, and jumbo jet airplane were early additions to his vocabulary.  His favorite toys include Jeremy the jumbo jet airplane and Harold the helicopter from the Thomas the Tank Engine series of toys.  

You could say that Jackson is passionate about airplanes.  Recently, his father took him to an air show and shot this video.  I love it!  There is no one better than a two and a half year old to show you how to live.

It is a shame that this enthusiastic, exuberant way of being that is so naturally a part of each of us is, so often, socialized out of us before we leave grade school.  We learn to be quiet, not make a fuss, and to color inside the lines.  

I love watching Jackson.  He is fully present in every experience.  His complete range of emotions is  available and fully expressed, be it joy, excitement, sadness, anger, frustration or anxiety.  This beautiful little boy is such a gift.  He knows how to live out loud and by example challenges all those who love him to live their lives to the fullest as well.  Thank you sweet boy for all the wonder you bring into our lives every day.  

Gather Joy

There is so much in the world  for us all if we only have the eyes to see it, and the heart to love it, and the hand to gather it to ourselves.  ~L.M. Montgomery

I love this quote.  I truly believe this.  The world around us is full of amazing things for us if we will allow ourselves to be aware and to receive.  So many of the things that have the potential to give us joy are little things, little things that we can miss unless we awake up and notice.  All that is required is openness.  Look around and find the beauty – the joy.  Open our arms and receive.  Allow our hands and our hearts to be filled to overflowing.

Today, these are some of the things, some of the joy, I have gathered into my hands and heart:





 

This weekends wildflower Whorled Loosestrife                                                              



























The contrast of fragile flower 
         against stone

                 
                                        


                   The blue of  Morning Glories       




                                                                                                                                                






                                                                                                        






Red Geraniums
















  And the curve in the road to my home that reminds me to trust that my journey continues even though I can’t see around the bend,
                                                                    

What joy did you gather today?

Weekend Walk Arounds

This is one of my favorite times of the year.  In the mountains of North Georgia the mornings and evenings are cool enough for a fire in the fireplace on the porch; but, the warmth of the days has awakened the flowers in the garden and the wild flowers in the woods.

                                       

     On my weekend walks 

       over the last few weeks,  

       I have seen:

            and the hillsides are 
     painted  with cascades of pink 
               Rhododendron and 
                   Mountain Laurel.

The peace and beauty of these woods fills me with  a sense of wonder and gratitude; and, I am renewed by the vibrant energy of life displayed here.