BEAUTY

Beauty, they  say
is in the eye of the beholder
But it is so much more.
Beauty is like a food.
It fills one’s spirit.
It helps us see things,
feel things,
understand things,
see things,
and experience things
in a way that
surpasses understanding.

Beauty
is healing.
nurturing,
transformative,
and evidence of the
Divine.

Beauty is
about you and me
and the way we see
ourselves and each other.
When we look for it,
we will see it all around us.
The more we look for it
the more it will surround us.

Beauty
will keep you warm on cold winter days
cool in the summers,
birthing newness in the spring,
and being colorful and transforming
in the fall.
Beauty is
what you as an artist
create in yourself
with every stroke of your brush.

CARING FOR MY HEART

Go to the gym
because your body needs
exercise.
Eat healthy.
All things in moderation.
These are a few of the things
I hear about caring for my body.

My heart needs more than
a cardio workout.
It needs love.
It needs to be touched,
caressed,
molded,
educated, and
refined.

It needs words,
actions,
feelings,
sounds,
images,
scents,
and ideas
which reach in and
caress my heart.

It comes to me through prayer,
meditation,
music.
art,
poetry,
and the whispers from above.

Sometimes it is the
creations of others
and sometimes it is the
conversations of my soul.
My poetry is
one way I speak
to my heart
and hopefully
to the hearts of others.

THE WORK BEGINS

The work is not in my reading.
The work begins when
I am done.
When I sit with the ideas,
reflect on them,
decide on whether or not
to let them in my heart
and nurture me

The work begins when
I put the book down.
When I reflect on the ideas,
the teachings,
the gifts,
and the inspiration.

It doesn’t matter if it is
fiction or non fiction,
sacred or secular,
academic or non-academic,
there is something for me
to think about
and thus the work begins
when my eyes are done.

That is when my heart works.
Sometimes it is about what grade
most reflects what my student
attempted to show me.
Sometimes the work is for me;
it is about me releasing a belief,
changing a behavior,
being willing to grow and evolve.
Even as I read my own work,
the work begins
when my eyes are done
and I open my heart
and continue the journey.

SABBATH

Take some downtime
Take a day off
Words I hear from
Those who love me.

Not everyone has a life
which allows them take
A one day sabbath,
so we improvise
and find the sabbath moments
in everyday life.

Sitting in the shower
Time in the waiting room
time being transported to and from
time when I can’t do anything
so I sit and be still
and listen
to the voice from within

Then I write.
I write prose
poems
ideas,
Thoughts,
words that came to me in the silence

Sabbath
isn’t always a day
sometimes it is those moments
the use of your downtime
To replenish your soul

YEARNING FOR BOUNTIFUL

As I have been thinking about yearning the last week, I have come to the realization that this is not about renouncing or pursuing our desires, that which we yearn for in our lives. Rather, it is about understanding our yearnings and the lessons behind it. As I did, I was reminded of a film I saw almost 30 years ago now, called The Trip to Bountiful.

In this film, Mrs. Watts, a sensitive old woman living in the city with her son and his wife, develops a yearning to visit her family home, now long abandoned, in Bountiful, Texas. Her daughter-in-law interprets this wish as sentimental senility, and she convinces her husband to thwart the old lady's attempts to take a train or bus to visit her long-abandoned homestead. Mrs. Watts expresses the elemental nature of her longing plainly: 'I haven't had my hands in dirt in twenty years. My hands feel the need of dirt.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What are you nurturing in your life?

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

May we nurture those around us so we can stop the abuse in the world, especially for our children

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What are you doing to nurture the youth in our world?

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Who are you painting?

MY DO FOR ME LIST

Dear Sharon,

Yeah I am writing this one to you. Gurl, all month long you have been writing about nurturing, but seriously what have you done to nurture yourself this month. Not enough. So slow down and let’s take some time to smell the roses. Here are a list of things you love doing and have not done for a while. So even though we are moving to a new spiritual practice in October, let’s work on being open to being more nurturing of your own self so you can continue to be nurturing to others.

©      Buy yourself a bunch of fresh flowers and display them where you'll see them often. Allow yourself to stop and admire them. Do not look at the price, you are worthy.

©      Sit in the warm sunshine and read a good book or magazine.

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Song of the Week

This song by N Sync reminds me how God's love nurtures me and what it would be like if I did not know that the Divine is there to comfort me in every moment of my life.

https://youtu.be/e3pzIzlcCMs?list=PLyYJor04rQkI3axLWFOHydOIvHJT79de1

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What are you doing to make your environment nurturing for yourself and others?

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

How big is your heart?

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

If you are nurturing yourself, then you are not abusing yourself.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What are you doing today to nourish your gifts?

SONG OF THE WEEK

Love yourself for who youare! Your worth is not measured by the external, but by the way you nurture and live your life.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=Mq86e4Fhja0

Inspiritual: A space for spiritual evolution and transformation

NURTURING ROMANCE

This month we have been looking at various ways of nurturing ourselves and others.  Recently, I began thinking about the importance of nurturing my relationship with my wife. It is so easy for life to take over and displace the deeper purpose of the relationships. There is always something to do around the house. There is always something that needs to be managed, bills to pay, chores to be done, etc. All of that is important. At the same time, it is important that we nurture the loving nature of the relationship we have with our spouse to keep it alive and growing. How do we keep the romance alive?

Romance is more than just dinner by candle light, soft music and flowers. It is about the attention and feeling we create in the relationship and bring to each other. It is about what we do to affirm our love and gratitude for the person who has come to share our life with us. Romance is about the intentional time we take away from all the things we have to do in life, to just spend quality time with the one we love. It is a time where we get to focus on each other without all the interruptions of daily life, the computer beeping, the phone ringing, etc

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Take today to unplug from technology and plug into direct contact with others.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What do your actions say about you?

NURTURING SPACES

Where do you go that nurtures you?