The Pivotal Point

There comes a point in every life, I hope, when the reasons and excuses and fears to hold back wilt in the mind. There comes a point when it is suddenly pointless to remain in the shadows, to deny dreams and to keep the lid on creative forces that can change your world for the better. There comes a point when you must simply bloom.

Pain and grief and exhaustion often bring the reasons for self denial into the grimy, filmy light. You look at them and think, "what in God's name am I waiting for"? "Who the hell cares anymore for opinions and consequences? It's my life, dammit, I can do what I want and be who I want".

The pivotal point in a life can come at 16, at 29, at 43, at 60, at 81 and a half. It does not matter when it comes, just as long as it arrives before your last breath shudders out of your lungs. Because freedom rides on the petals as they fall open in bloom. Freedom rides the thoughts and actions that burst the bonds of self-restraint and self-imprisonment. Freedom lies in your choice to live the life you deserve. And you deserve the taste of freedom.

So get married. Write the cookbook. Get the loan. Walk away from toxic people. Learn to sail. Finish the degree. Open your heart and so what if gets trampled. Open it again. Make this moment or the next moment or 14,532 moments from now the point that pivots your dreams into reality.

Do not hold back forever. You don't have forever.

Bloom soon. Bloom now.

Copyright 2008, Graciel at Evenstar Art

What Do You Love?

Today, I want you to quiet your monkey-mind. The part of your mind that swings wildly from one illusion to another. From one worry to another. From one judgement to another. I want you to practice focusing the part of your mind that leads you into made-up trouble on something positive. Practice focusing for one minute. Yes, just one minute. I want you to think about what you love. Not who you love. That's another minute. This minute, I want you to think about what you love. Because it takes a bit of concentration and the monkey-mind must come to a rest while thinking positive thoughts.

While you're contemplating, I'll share with you what I love:

*The first scent of apple blossoms in May

*Orange roses

*The laughter of the red-bellied woodpecker

*Cats

*Stained glass windows

*Lancet arches

*Trees

*The color cerulean blue

*Rose petal tea

*European chocolate

*Hiking along a creek

*Autumn leaves

*Butterflies

*Every single bird

*Skeleton keys

*The poetry of Pablo Neruda

*Carousels

*Elephants

*Hot wine soup

*Moonlight on snow

*Kissing

*Red shoes

Like me, you will find that one minute is highly insufficient for focusing on things you love. One minute could easily turn into hours. And those pleasant hours will seem like minutes.

You see, love is the secret to making everything more positive. Focus on love and illusion retreats. Focus on love and worries abate. Next time your monkey-mind is swinging out of control, take a deep breath and focus on anything you love. Keep a list handy of your personal, positive loves and refer to it in times of need. Add to your list on a daily basis.

When you turn your thoughts to something highly personal and highly positive, blood pressure drops. Tears dry up. Shoulders relax. Give your mind a needed rest. Focus on what you love.

Copyright (c) Graciel of Evenstar Art

Beautiful Disaster

Where there is pain, there is comfort. Where something shatters, something forms. Where darkness presses down, light rises. You, in your great despair, take notice. While you are plummeting, Angelic forces are lifting you up. While in the midst of turmoil, out of the corner of your awareness, you will see and feel and sense the beauty in your disaster.

Nothing is ever completely bad or wrong or more than you can handle. Signs and omens of utter goodness abound in the center of a whirlwind, in the center of a life in transition. In a torrent of tears and confusion, keep one eye open and half an ear tuned. A savior will call on the phone, a bird of exquisite color will alight outside your window, money will suddenly manifest in your washing machine. Signs of grace and truth and mercy will shower themselves upon you in your darkest moments, shower you until you notice even one of them.

If you lose something, you will always gain something, though it be in a form too subtle to see through your tears. Keep crying. Keep cleansing your vision and one powerful moment between sobs, the light of mercy will shine through and you will know. You will know that nothing painful is as it appears to be. You will know that the lessons being learned through the grief and the sorrow will shape you into a more eloquent human being. A more capable human being. A human being who knows that love is ever present for everyone. That love is always the beauty in the disaster.

Text copyright (c) 2008 Graciel

Link Call: My Favorite Post

Our Friendly World

By, Graciel © 2008

The world is populated by wonderful people. Kind people. Loving people. In every corner, in every climate, in every culture. Do not listen to the fickle, fan-flaming media and grandiose governments who wish us to live in fear of each other. Listen instead to the heartbeat of the collective human subconscious that knows unequivocally there is more positive energy than negative. More good stories than bad. More triumph than failure. More similarities than differences. More peace than war.

Every culture breeds fabulous human beings. Every culture harbors more friends than we can possibly enjoy in one lifetime. The glory of our shrinking world is the unlimited opportunities that now exist to share wonder and kindness and love with people who live beyond our own borders and people who move from other parts of the world to within our own borders. It is up to us to take the opportunities. To be open and willing and reciprocal with potential friends from afar. To embrace the swift river of love that flows around the world.

There are dynamic women in England. Helpful men in France. Gracious women in Australia. Intelligent men in Canada. Pick a location, pick a culture, there will be people worth knowing and befriending. French Polynesia, Sweden, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Algeria. Each brimming with big hearts and fast smiles, waiting to be discovered.

The more curious we become about each other, the more time we take to learn from each other, the more we take each other into our hearts, the less illusionary sway will be felt from institutions-of-influence behaving badly. The less we will be inclined to numbly wage war for false reasons. The more we will insist on policies of peace in our cultures, peace in our religions, peace in our corners of the world.

Because friends honor friends and love honors love.The more comfortable we become with the wonderful people of the world, the more friends we will have, the more love we will have, and the more balance we will instill in the soul of our species.

{My blog, http://www.evenstar-art.blogspot.com/, is my small attempt to add positive energy and the vibration of love into whatever corner of the world it is read. Thank you for the invitation to add this post!}

Do Not Be Afraid

Do not be afraid to open your heart. Do not be afraid to give generously. Do not be afraid to go against the grain, live with abandon and march to your own drummer, even if it makes others uncomfortable. Their discomfort is not your responsibility. Nor is it yours to soothe by plucking the wings that seek to lift your heart into its own wild spaces.

Do not be afraid to live as God made you. You are sacred in Its eyes. You are perfect in Its heart. You are Its hoped for and longed for answer to Love. Love expressed without reservation. Love expressed with gust and glory and glee. Do not hold back. Do not shrink before opportunity.

Breathe, center and walk boldly into your wild spaces. Fill them up with your one-and-onlyness. Share them with those able and willing to see clearly your truth and your shimmer. Encourage others to find their own wildness, their own open and generous love.The world is waiting for you. God is supporting you. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid.

Text copyright (c) 2008 Graciel

Kindness

There is no such thing as a small act of kindness. Each act of kindness that flows through the heart, hand and mind of a human being, birthing itself into the world, is a miracle. Is a gift. Is a pebble dropped in the center of a pond. An act of kindness is an opportunity for more light and goodness and love to be showered on the world, even a tiny corner of it. This is no small thing.

An act of kindness can change the life of the recipient. It can bring hope into despair, light into darkness. It can shift and open the mind of the recipient in ways that are unknowable prior to the act. It can be the long-awaited seed that nestles in the soil of a barren heart and gently coaxes a life into bloom.

An act of kindness can be as simple as listening to someone who is usually overlooked. As simple as making eye contact and smiling. As simple as a sincere compliment. It can be a plate full of homemade cookies or a warm hand placed on a spine. Whatever the chosen act of kindness, it is a statement that honors the value and inherent worthiness of the recipient. It affirms and confirms the they are deserving of peace and joy, love and help. It is a tip-of-the-hat to the God-essence within them.

Vow to be a bringer of miracles into the world. Vow to give more gifts that money can't buy. Vow to drop more pebbles into more ponds. Vow to be kind at every possible turn. To yourself, to your loved ones, to your neighbors, to the woman who passes you on the down escalator as you are riding up. There are no small acts of kindness. And there is no small need for more of them.

Words and photograph copyright(c) 2007 Graciel www.evenstar-art.blogspot.com

Thank you for the gracious invitation to join this blog. The honor is mine.