Deep Thoughts

We live in deeds, not years; 

 in thoughts, not breaths;

 in feelings, not in figures on a dial.

We should count time by heartthrobs.

He lives most who thinks most...

feels the noblest...

act the best.

                                                                 Philip James Bailey

Thinking Of My Dad

August is the month of my father's birth and death.  He died a few days before his birthday in 1977.  I was a daddy's girl who grieved and grieved---now in 2010, there's no sharp pain, but August will always be his month.  He was a civil engineer who served in the Navy Construction Battalion in WWII in the South Pacific.  He would never talk about it, but was deeply patriotic and emotionally connected to veterans.  I made this wall hanging of some of his SeeBee things for my son---who was born the same year Dad died.

"Meditate"

12  1/4"  x  31"

"Meditate"

Needing some peace today....not sure what that's all about, but I can feel some inner agitation and slightly faster breathing.  I have to sit and breathe more slowly and deeply, try to calm my body and my mind, be present in this very moment.

Pema Chodron, an American Buddhist teacher, says to "drop the storyline"....to pull back and reel in our crazy, spinning, wild thoughts that run away in a million different directions, taking us with them.  And nothing has even happened yet!

Breathe deeply....slow down....focus....center....All is well, at this moment, at this time....All is well.   

"Free At Last" (For Laura)

"Free At Last"  (12" x 17") was created for abused and hopeless women--to symbolize that their despair, deep and crippling as it is, doesn't have to keep them trapped.  While changing is potently difficult, painful, and frightening, we CAN change.  By continuing to put one foot in front of the other, by rising every time we fall, for holding on when nothing else is possible---we WILL break free, we will love ourselves.....I know.

Deep Thoughts

Gulistan

If of thy mortal goods

thou are bereft,

And from thy slender store two

loaves alone to thee are left,

Sell one, and with the dole

Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.

Mu-slih-uddin Sadi