The Art of Exercise

Artist Simon Beck must really love the cold weather! Along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France, he spends days plodding through the snow in raquettes (snowshoes), creating these sensational patterns of snow art. Working for 5-9 hours a day, each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields! The geometric forms range in mathematical patterns and shapes that create stunning, sometimes 3D, designs when viewed from higher levels. How long these magnificent geometric forms survive is completely dependent on the weather. Beck designs and redesigns the patterns as new snow falls, sometimes unable to finish a piece due to significant overnight accumulations. Interestingly enough, he said, 'The main reason for making them was because I can no longer run properly due to problems with my feet, so plodding about on level snow is the least painful way of getting exercise. Gradually, the reason has become photographing them, and I am considering buying a better camera.” Spectacular art for the sake of exercise!
 Simon Beck- Snow Art

"Art is both the taking and giving of beauty; the turning out to the light the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit. It is the recreation on another plane of the realities of the world; the tragic and wonderful realities of earth and men, and of all the inter-relations of these."

~Ansel Adams

LOVE

DO ALL THINGS

WITH  LOVE

Love yourself
Love others
Love without reservation
Love each moment


May you always remember that every moment presents an opportunity to love.

Journey for growth

"The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place."

 ~Barbara Deangelis

May you always remember that the opportunity for growth is now.

Appreciation

You Have Arrived

"For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin. Real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one. Happiness is a journey, not a destination."

~John Phillip Souza

Some people travel around the world looking for where they want to be...searching for happiness and fulfillment. It's not until they return, unfulfilled, that they realize they were there before they even left.

May you always be aware that you have already arrived.

"Caribbean Pink"

 "Well, I don't know. Some things in life, like the color of a house, don't really matter. But lifting someone's heart? Now, that matters."

-August Boatwright: from the novel - The Secret Life of Bees

 

In the book The Secret Life of Bee's August explains to Lily the reason their house is painted "Caribbean Pink" is that it made her sister May feel like dancing a Spanish Flamenco. And while August personally thought it was the tackiest color she had ever seen, if it could lift May's heart, it was good enough to live in.


When we come to any situation from a place of love, where kindness is Queen and lifting the heart of another is King. It is there that we can live strengthened by each other through simple acts of kindness and focus on what truly matters.

May lifting someone's heart, always matter more than what others think.

The Gift of Prayer

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. 

It is daily admission of one's weakness...

And so, it is better in prayer to have a heart

without words than words without a heart.

                                                         -Gandhi

This great spiritual teacher reminds us that prayer of the deepest kind is more a pledge of gratitude for what has already been received than a request or plea for something not yet experienced. Such an effort refreshes the soul.

Implicit in Gandhi's instruction is the need to surrender to our lives here on Earth. By admitting our weaknesses, we lay down all the masks we show the world and as we do so, what is holy floods in.

I once saw a blind man rocking endlessly in the sun, an unstoppable smile on his face. Not a word was uttered. To me, he was a priest, a shaman, and his whole being was praying and shouting in silence that the day, beyond his blindness, was happily enough.

This is what the heart knows beyond all words, if we can find a way to listen: that beyond our small sense of things a magnificent light surrounds us, more than anyone could ask for. This is what prayer as gratitude can open us to.

-Mark Nepo/The Book of Awakening

HOPE

True hope dwells on the possible, 

even when life seems to be a plot written by someone 

who wants to see how much adversity we can overcome.

True hope responds to the real world,

 to real life; it is an active effort. 

 -Walter Anderson

May you always be aware that HOPE comes when you least expect it...

HOPE comes in all forms...

HOPE can make the impossible...POSSIBLE.

Kindly Assume

"Happiness is really caring and being able to do something about the caring."

~Brian O'Connell                

Make the assumption that everyone you know, as well as any stranger you meet along the way, is in need of kindness. Odds are pretty good you'll be right. Your smile, your hug, your softly spoken word, gentleness, or pat on the shoulder may be just what they need and can only make them feel better about themselves, just as being treated kindly by others makes you feel better.

One of the worst mistakes you can ever make is to assume your acts of kindness are not necessary. Your random acts of kindness are crucial to the health and well-being of the entire planet and assuming they are not only serves to make you feel of less value than you really are. That's a self-pity trip that no one needs to embark upon. So send kindness forth instead. You'll feel better about yourself. And you'll feel better about your world.

~Kate Nowak

May you always make it a practice to practice kindness.

Today's Magic

"Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it."

                                                                      ~   Buddah   

 

       

When destiny comes calling, welcome it with open arms. And let the magic begin.

May you always remember there is magic in each day.

Just one Moment

"You must know that in any moment a decision you make can change the course of your life forever: the very next person stand behind in line or sit next to on an airplane, the very next phone call you make or receive, the very next movie you see or book you read or page you turn could be the one single thing that causes the floodgates to open, and all of the things that you’ve been waiting for to fall into place." – Anthony Robbins

In Phil Bolsta's book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, Wayne Dyer tells his St. Francis of Assisi Miracle Healing.

We then visited a castle in San Damiano just outside of Assisi—the home of the convent St. Francis had set up for St. Clare, the first female admitted into the Franciscan order. Our plan was to walk up to the third level to see the place where St. Clare had died. A young man named John Graybill was the first one up the stairs and I was right behind him. John was twenty-two years old and weighed nearly two hundred pounds with his leg braces on, which he wore because, as he said, his body—not he—had muscular dystrophy. When we got up eight or nine steps, the staircase started to narrow and John realized to his dismay that he couldn’t go any further—he couldn’t extend his legs to the left or to the right, which is the only way he could manage to climb a flight of stairs. He turned to me and said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t go back down the steps because of all the people in line and I can’t go up because I can’t move my legs.” I immediately said, “Why don’t you get on my back and I’ll carry you?”

But I had forgotten a couple of things—I forgot that I was sixty years old, and I also forgot that I had serious ligament and cartilage damage in my knees that required surgery. (I had run eight miles a day, every day, for twenty-two years and had also played a lot of tennis, so for the last several years, I had been forced to wear a brace while doing those activities.) After going up just a couple of steps with John on my back, I suddenly felt my knees starting to crumble. At that very moment, I had a vision of St. Francis, and suddenly my knees went from crumbling to becoming straight and erect and strong. I also had an incredible burst of energy like I’ve never had before in my entire life. I didn’t just walk up the rest of the stairs, I ran up the last two-and-a-half flights with John on my back!

When I got to the top, I wasn’t even winded. My wife was incredulous. She said, “How could you have carried him up like that? You were running but you still have all of this energy!” Everyone was shocked over what I had just done, including me. I went out on the balcony, put my hands together in prayer, and gave thanks to St. Francis for what seemed like a miraculous healing.

That run up the stairs with John on my back was one of the most miraculous and life-changing events in my life. It will be seven years this October and my knees are completely healed—I no longer have to wear braces to play tennis or to run. It’s clear to me that the divinely inspired energy of St. Francis is still at work today in that ancient castle.

Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything

May you always be aware that your "moment" could be just around the corner.

Flying Lessons

“Always seek less turbulent skies.
Hurt. Fly above it.
Betrayal. Fly above it.
Anger. Fly above it.

You are the one who is flying the plane.”

 

                                                 ~Marianne Williamson 

                                            
May you always be aware that you are in the captains seat.

Glass Houses

Tom Fruin

New York artist Tom Fruin’s outdoor sculpture Kolonihavehus in the plaza of the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen has the appearance of a friendly and colorful stained-glass house, yet it also evokes thoughts of churches and Charles Rennie Macintosh.

Dwell in Possibility

"I dwell in Possibility"

                                         -Emily Dickinson

Excelling in life, is not only about ability and discipline, it also a matter of willingness to achieve beyond and do more than others believe even possible. By succeeding beyond expectations, we not only establish a benchmark for others, we create new possibilities for ourselves.

May you always dwell in possibility.

Be Happy

Everyone Needs a Blessing

In the book "The Soul of Money" by Lynne twist, she describes a certain incident that took place when she achieved her life-long dream to meet with Mother Teresa at the Missionaries of Charity--Old Delhi Orphanage. Considering every moment she was given with the Mother to be precious, she felt instant irritation when their meeting was rudely interrupted by a well-to-do couple who barged in unannounced. "First I smelled them, then I heard them," she writes. "A middle -aged Indian couple, a man and woman, both very tall, very large, very heavily perfumed and clearly very rich. The woman came first, pushing ahead of  her husband, moving aggressively toward our small meeting table. She had diamond studs in her ears and one in her nose. Her arms were covered in lavish bangles, many laced with precious stones. She was heavily made up and was wearing a blue and white sari covered with opulent gold and silver brocade and embroidery. She was overweight and her flesh bulged through the open midsection of her taut sari.

"Her husband was bigger, wider, and flashier than she was. He wore a turban with a topaz set in the center just above his forehead, and a white brocade kurta. He had a ring on every finger of both hands. In the quiet of this hallway, they seemed to me like monsters as the barged into our tranquil and intimate scene.

"With no greeting at all either to me or to Mother Teresa, the large, loud woman shoved a camera into my hand as she and her husband pulled Mother Teresa from her chair and situated her against the wall between them. They pushed in like giant grotesque bookends on either side of Mother Teresa and demanded a photograph.

"'We didn't get a picture. We need to have a picture!' the woman complained loudly, and she motioned for me to snap a photo with her camera. I was livid. The beauty of my moment with Mother Teresa shattered in the rage I felt now at these rude and opulent intruders. As I snapped the photo, the tall woman fussed at Mother Teresa to look up toward her for a second shot. Mother Teresa was bent over at the neck from old age and osteoporosis, but without hesitating the woman put her hand under Mother Teresa's chin and forced it up. Shocked that anyone would treat Mother Teresa that way but wanting them gone, I snapped the second photo. The woman then snatched her camera and she and her husband, without so much as a 'thank you' to Mother Teresa or to me, disappeared in a noisy rush back down the hall and away.

"Mother Teresa returned to her chair by the table and continued as if nothing had happened finishing her thought on the topic of our earlier conversation," Twist added, "But I could hardly hear her, I was so full of anger and outrage toward this couple." Later that evening as she replayed the incident in her mind again and again, the author poured her heart out in a letter to Mother Teresa confessing her feelings of rage and asking forgiveness for her prejudice and lack of compassion.

Several weeks later Mother Teresa responded by letter, admonishing Twist for her lack of compassion and reminded her that all are in need of love and understanding. "The vicious cycle of poverty, she said, has been clearly articulated and is widely known. What is less obvious and goes almost completely unacknowledged is the vicious cycle of wealth. There is no recognition of the trap that wealth, so ofter is, and of the suffering of the wealthy; the loneliness, the isolation, the hardening of the heart, the hunger and poverty of the soul that can come with the burden of wealth. She said that I had extended little or no compassion to the strong, the powerful, and the wealthy, while they need as much compassion as anyone else on earth.

"'You must open your heart to them and become their student and their teacher,' she said in her letter. 'Open your compassion and include them. This is an important part of your life's work. Do not shut them out. They also are your work.'"

Everyone we meet comes to us for a purpose. They will either serve as our teachers or allow us to serve as theirs. Everyone we meet, no matter what the circumstance, no matter what their rank or status, is worthy of and in need of our love and appreciation.

Everyone needs our blessing. No one is exempt.

~Kate Nowak/Better to Bless

Share your Talent

When I stand

before God at the 

end of my life,

I would hope that

I would not have

a single bit of

talent left, and

could say, "I used

everything you

gave me."

-Erma Bombeck 

We each have them... talents that are uniquely ours to use and express as we see fit. They are the gifts that come naturally and we shine when they are in use. These talents should not be taken for granted, instead they should be used to their fullest to enrich our lives and the lives of others. What better way to thank Him for this beautiful life.

May you always be aware that you are a beautifully talented human being.

Shining Star

"You can come out of the furnace of trouble two ways: if you let it consume you, you come out a cinder; but there is a kind of metal which refuses to be consumed, and comes out a star."

~Jean Church

The next time you feel overwhelmed, think of it as an opportunity to be stronger than your fears. Believe in yourself and the knowledge that what is happening right now is the perfect chance to step forward and shine.

May your light always shine brightly and may you find the strength that comes from within.

Happiness is in the journey

You can't enjoy the ride of where you're going if you're solely focused on the destination. With each journey there are bumps, mishaps and often drama along the way.  However, it is in the beauty of the scenery, the triumph of the climb, and the laughter of making it through the difficult situations that make the journey far more memorable than just arriving at the destination.

May you always remember that the journey is best part of arriving at your destination.

The power of words

"There was once a man who loved to gossip. He loved the attention it brought him, and could not stop himself from speaking about others, sometimes sharing the good they did, but most often sharing the mistakes they made.

"In time, however, he realized the harm his speech was causing and he sought to make amends. He went to his rabbi and explained the situation, and asked how he could make amends.

"The rabbi thought for a moment and instructed the man to go to the marketplace and purchase two of the finest feather fillows he could find. He should then take the pillows to the top of the mountain overlooking the village, tear them open, and spill the feathers into the wind.

"The man was surprised and pleased at the rabbi's advice. He thought repentance would be much harder than this. So he ran to the marketplace, purchased his pillows, and within an hour had scattered their feathers to the wind.

"He returned to the rabbi all aglow. He was ready to be forgiven for his gossiping. Not just yet, the rabbi told him. There was one more thing to do. He had to return to the mountain and repack the pillows with the feathers that he had scattered.

"But that's impossible, the man said. Those feathers have gone everywhere, there is no way I can take them back now."

"The rabbi nodded solemnly and said, 'What is true of the feathers is true of the words. Once spoke they can never be retrieved. The harm caused by gossip cannot be undone."

~Rabbi Rami Shapiro

from The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness

I remember growing up and my parents expressing time and time again, "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." This was typically directed towards the ugly words I reserved just for my sister. However, the way we speak of and to others, whether we build them up or tear them down, makes a lasting impact. As I raise my own children I am reminded that the words I speak  are equally powerful and I don't always get to choose the message they hold onto. More often than I care to admit, they are not the jewels of wisdom that I want to impart, but the sad words of frustration that escape my mouth. Imagine how much better our homes and our world would be when we commit ourselves to speaking only words that come from a place of love.

May you always remember the power behind your words and may they always reflect the best in you.

With age comes wisdom

"Young cat, if you keep your eyes open enough, oh, the stuff you would learn! The most wonderful stuff!"

-Dr. Seuss 

May you always be willing to embrace the wisdom of your elders.

Love is always the Answer

"Let us keep this truth before us. You say you have not faith? Love - and faith will come. You say you are sad? Love - and joy will come. You say you are alone? Love - and you will break out of your solitude. You say you are in hell? Love - and you will find yourself in heaven. Heaven is love."

-Carlo Correntto,

from In search of the Beyond

Whatever the obstacle, whatever the concern, love is the answer. Every single time.

May you always let love be the answer.