Leap into Life

Along the Path

Today’s photo is of wildflowers that forged their way into life through a crack in the pavement next to a wall. Maybe they “leaped into life.”

It seems that today, since it’s Leap Day, would be a good day to describe my leap into life.

It’s my personal belief that I chose to incarnate at this time and this place … Earth.  I came here to love, be loved and to contribute my God-given gifts to the world.  We all have them. And we all have egos.  It’s the ego that tells us we’re separate from our creator and each other.  Am I susceptible to the ego?  Sure am.

Back to my leap. Why else am I here?  I wrote a poem many years ago that answers that question for me.  The inspiration and words came directly from Spirit. It’s just that actually living by these words every day is the challenge my ego presents.  Egos aren’t all bad, though. They’re also in place to help us recognize and make choices about our personal baggage.  This leap year is a good time to dump that old baggage, yes?  I’m working on it.  And I think that’s good enough.  I have to keep telling myself that it’s good enough for right now in this moment, as long as I make conscious choices … and as long as my intentions are for the highest and best of all concerned.

AS YOU LIVE

Give something away every day …
Smiles, blessings, hugs … someone else needs them and you’ll get them back tenfold.

Expect goodness …
People usually live up to what you expect of them.

Learn all you can about nature in all its radiance …
You are part of it; spend some time in it every day.

Laughter is good for the soul …
Find something to laugh about or someone to laugh with at least once a day.

Receive all that is yours by Divine right with grace and gratitude …
God still holds you in the palm of His hand.

Be yourself …
You are like no other and possess great gifts to share with the world.

Love yourself first …
You can’t truly love another until you do.

Speak your truth …
Walk your talk.

Forgive yourself and others …
Growth is alive in the act of forgiving.

Bless your children …
Teach them love, not fear.

Live your wisdom …
The rewards will be great.

Know that you are loved and never alone …
Your Creator and His emmissaries of Light are always with you.

Namaste.

©2012ReginaArnold

I Wish I Had Some Grass

From Foxy's Perspective

This life of being a desert dog is extremely hard sometimes.  I imagine dogs that live in places with lawns don’t know how good they have it … really!  I wish I had some grass.  You know, the kind that gets watered regularly and is soft and cool on the pads of my paws. Running on it would feel so good right now.  My buddy, Daisy, would like it, too, because she’s a border collie (and some kind of spaniel???) who probably could learn how to catch that Frisbee if she didn’t have to do it on rocks.

I guess I’ll just lay here and look out the gate for now.  Hmmm … no grass out there.  The dog park doesn’t have anything even close to looking or feeling like real grass.  It’s that Arizona rye grass – dry and hard and doesn’t feel very good either.  Oh well, I guess it’s one of those days … maybe I’ll get up and go beg my humans for a treat.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.  See ‘ya later.

As my human Mom would say … namaste.

My Version of Windows

Before I get into today’s post and photo, I’d like to ask all of my readers to send some extra special love and light to the victims and families of today’s high school shooting in Ohio.  I can only imagine how much they need our collective good thoughts and prayers. There’s one student dead and four wounded.  The shooter is in custody. I just don’t understand this kind of behavior or what motivates someone to take anothers life.  All relationships are holy ground. Maybe this will be the year, 2012, when we all get it . . . when we all can understand that each of us is an individual expression of one Universal Mind and what we do to another, we do to ourselves.  What we do to ourselves, we do to another.  I believe it works both ways.

©imagesbyregina

OK, don’t let the title fool ‘ya.  This photo is one that I’ve always wanted to stop and photograph but usually there are a zillion cars behind me and it’s too hard to pull over.  So this morning when I saw no cars, I thought “now’s my chance.”

It’s a gate that really leads to nowhere (which could translate to now here, right?)  There was supposed to be a subdivision built there but it hasn’t materialized.  I just like the look of the gates with the Catalina mountains in the background.

Namaste.

The Twins – Circa 1944

The Twins - circa 1944

Today’s image is of a photo collage I created for my husband and his twin sister, born twenty minutes apart.  They look like little angels, holding hands and all.

All of the photos were taken around 1944 (we think) and I just added a touch of whimsy by embellishing with hats and a bow-tie as I arranged the photos.  Some of the original images were a bit faded but the twins were pleased with the results.  Click to enlarge if you’d like to see their cute little faces up close.  As for me, I think they’re both still pretty cute 🙂  Love you guys!

(It’s difficult to take a picture of a framed picture without some glare.  Ugh!)

Namaste.

 

A Little Levity (If You Please)

Tired of trying to lose those extra pounds and inches?  Sick of those “diets of the stars” guaranteed to have you looking anorexic like them in no time?   All you need is this … just spray it on your body … (no ironing needed) and it even has a light fragrance.  OK, just had to throw in a little levity today.  With all that’s going on in the world, wouldn’t you agree that we need some fun? 🙂

Don’t we wish we really could have magic sizing in a can for our bodies?  Wow!  If somebody invents that, I might have to kiss their feet.  Maybe not.  Eeeeeewwwww!

Namaste.

We’ll Miss You

 

Well, the truth is, our tree is going fast.  A few posts back I showed how one side of this lovely tree was dying and the other side was still green.  Sorry to say I don’t see the slightest hint of green anymore.  The photo on the right shows the “sad eye.”  Can you see it?  Click to enlarge.

The good news is that there are signs of Spring everywhere.

Namaste.

Backlit and Bounced

IF WE COULD SEE THE MIRACLE OF A SINGLE FLOWER CLEARLY, OUR WHOLE LIFE WOULD CHANGE ~Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta

Today’s photo is a combination of back lighting and bounce flash.  It’s also the last of my roses.  This one just didn’t open up fully, so I put it into a bud vase by itself.  The other 11 have all died. The thing about flowers is that they bring such joy, even if they don’t last a long time.

Time is irrelevant anyway. Namaste.

The Neti Pot

My Remedies

I’ve got a nasty cold and almost didn’t post today, but then realized that unless I’m not in close proximity to my camera and computer, I made a commitment that I have to keep.  A picture a day for all of 2012.

Today’s picture is of some of the things I use to fight a cold.  Sleep is one of the main ingredients, but I haven’t yet figured out how to capture it (of myself ) digitally anyway.

Back to these items, they’re all pretty self-explanatory:

• Vitamin C packets – with added electrolytes, B vitamins, etc.  Really good stuff!
• Water – plenty of water
• Lemon – to use in the water (I like it that way; some don’t)
• Ibuprofen – for the aches and pains.  Thank you, God!!!!
• NyQuil – to get some sleep at night.
• Neti Pot – a sinus/nasal rinse designed to unclog what’s clogging up your head.  If you have sinus problems or allergies, it works!  But if one isn’t careful, and you don’t tilt your head just right, you could swallow that saline solution and believe me, it’s not that much fun.  And then of course there’s the gross factor.  People say, “You’re going to tilt your head over the sink and do what with saline solution???????”

Just sayin’ … it’s all working for me.  Namaste.

 

Even As It Fades

Contrast

Another victim of our big freeze last year, this poor old tree is dying by degrees.  The right side is clearly drying up while the left is still trying to survive.   Nature knows best but I have to say that I’ll miss the afternoon shade it gave us when the Arizona days become unbearably hot.  Even as it fades, it’s beautiful and I’m grateful for the shade it’s still able to give.

 

Ode to Jeanne and Her Boat Shoes

My Boat Shoes

Many years ago when I lived in northern CA, I managed a temp service, putting people to work on various assignments.   Sometimes that meant answering the phones, cleaning up, interviewing temporary employees, etc., whatever needed to be done.  One day the incoming lines were ringing non-stop because we had run an ad and were getting a huge response.  I answered one of the lines and there was this very upbeat, vivacious voice on the other end.  She said, “My name is Jeanne. Your ex-husband recommended that I call you.  I just got here from New Jersey, don’t know anyone and I need a job.  Can you help me?”

As it turned out, she had driven alone from New Jersey to California for a brand new start on life after surviving breast cancer. I will spare the details of all she told me during the subsequent weeks, months and years that we knew each other.  Actually, we didn’t just know each other – we became the best of friends.

Back to my story … I did find a temporary job for Jeanne that turned into a permanent one, but until she got hired on at that company on a permanent basis, she stayed with me and my teenage daughter, Michele … and we were glad to have her.  She was a wonderful cook, had a fabulous sense of humor, became a bright light in our lives, and she loved to grind coffee beans early in the morning so we’d have fresh coffee.  That habit used to make Michele groan. “Jeanne,” she would say,  “do you have to do that so early in the morning?”  Jeanne’s reply was, “Yes, and it’s time to get your butt out of bed.  There’s a day out there just waiting to be lived.”

We went to San Francisco quite often in those early days of our friendship just to hang out at Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39, eating and drinking our way through restaurants up and down the wharf.  We didn’t have much money but would find what we liked best, usually some kind of seafood, and splurge on that.  Jeanne liked good wine and good food.  So did I. Seafood, wine and cheesecake … we were in heaven.

Among the many things I learned from Jeanne was her belief that we get what we focus on.  And that we should expect the best.  One example of that was her desire to live in a house close to the Pacific Ocean.  So we went to a house that was for sale, walked around it and took pictures.  She asked me to snap one of her on the deck of the house looking out at the ocean.  She had it developed, posted it on my refrigerator, looked at it every day and told us that she would live in that house.  Within a few weeks she met a real estate agent who mentioned to her that the bank had foreclosed on a house out by the ocean and needed someone to live in it while it had some slight renovations done. I guess I don’t need to tell you about the goose bumps we had when we drove out to the house … the very same house that was on my fridge! And guess who got to live there for the next six months?  Jeanne.

Fast forward to now.  I learned just last week that Jeanne passed away in 2007.  I had searched for her for a number of years and never found her. Her son just happened to be on Facebook, told my daughter, and now I know for sure that Jeanne is “sparkling” somewhere … everywhere.

So what does the picture of the shoes have to do with Jeanne?  She loved boat shoes and when she got her first paycheck from that job I got her years ago, she bought me a pair.  I fell in love with them, too, but haven’t had any in a long time until last week.  There I was shopping and saw these shoes.  Jeanne spoke to me.  “Buy the shoes, Gina.”

Everything is synchronized … on this side of the veil as well as the other.  Every time I wear these shoes now, I smile.

Namaste.