April 20

‎"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose." ~ Dr. Seuss ~

April 9

I am told that it has been a month since I last blogged, and so it has!  I've been occupied with all the joys of the changing season... and of reading fiction and living a pleasantly joyful life.  So I suppose that is good news.

I have been rolling around another famous quote in my head, credited to Mahatma Gandhi, "Be the change that you want to see in the world".  Seems that is exactly what I am working towards and am feeling really good about it.

I've been eating more healthfully, exercising more often, playing games more with the children, and paying more attention to what is important to say 'yes' to and what is important to say 'no' to.  I am learning that simple choices are often the most important....

Aloha,
Emily

March 6

I'm starting to think that quotes about change are attracting to me;)

This one that I picked up from Facebook fits the current theme.



So I am blogging today and checking my negative attitude... and being more forgiving and less demanding... and thinking about the reasons for making some significant life changes so that I can live a life reflective of love and not oppression.

I just finished reading the Hunger Games Trilogy for a little fun, but interestingly enough, it fits with this theme too... about how human beings are capable of dominating and oppressing one another through fear and privilege... and about how human beings are equally capable of rejecting such a reality....

Aloha for now,
Emily

March 3rd

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Talk about smart people.  Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. 

What do you care about? 

My sister posted a quote for me recently that the only poverty is the absence of love. Could we really prevent people from suffering, from starving, from dying - with love? I believe that Mother Theresa has proved that you can.  

I'd like to prove it too. 

I may be just one person - and you may be just one person - but if we ACT on our care, things will get better.  I care, and things are getting better.

OK - so I had actually posted this blog and then read this from the Center for Action and Contemplation <cac@cacradicalgrace.org>:

DISCERNING OUR COMPLICITY

We are all complicit in and benefitting from what Dorothy Day called “the dirty rotten system.” That’s not condemning anybody; it’s condemning everybody because we are all complicit and enjoying the fruits of domination and injustice. (Where were your shirts and underwear made?) Usually the only way to be really non-complicit in the system is to choose to live a very simple life. That’s the only way out of the system!  Thus most of the great wisdom teachers like Gandhi, Saints Francis and Clare, Simone Weil, Dorothy Day, Jesus and Buddha—lived voluntarily simple lives. That’s almost the only way to stop bending the knee before the system. This is a truly transfigured life in cultures which are always based on climbing, consumption, and competition (1 John 2:15-17). Once we idealize social climbing, domination of others, status symbols, power, prestige and possessions, we are part of a never ending game that is almost impossible to escape. It has its own inner logic that is self-maintaining, self-perpetuating, and self-congratulating as well as elitist and exclusionary. It will never create a just or happy world, yet most Christians never call it into question. Jesus came to free us from this lie which will never make us happy anyway, because it’s never enough, and we never completely win. Adapted from The Spiral of Violence: The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (CD/MP3) Prayer: Hold me accountable to Love. Well... that leaves something new to think about eh?

Aloha, 

Emily

February 26

"Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned."

Not sure who said this... but boy were they s-m-r-t:)

I'm tired tonight and ready for bed... but feeling reflective nonetheless.

I think many people are too quick to judge themselves, to blame themselves, to accept guilt, or frustration or defeat.... especially when they do not feel that they have lived up to great expectations - or "great deeds planned". Worse yet, is to feel that one has not lived up to who they were meant to BE, let alone, what one was meant to achieve.....

One small deed at a time... I do believe this is how we change our hearts... and how we change the world.

Aloha,
Emily

February 23

Another one of those slightly embarrassing, long gaps between posts.  I wish I was more faithful, but the reality is  that sometimes I am just busy and tired.

I really do have some amazing things to share.... I spent a week in Maui, and got to live "aloha" and loved it.  I may just pursue real estate there one day:) At least honorary citizenship??

I celebrated the 6th birthday of my son, who is now already counting down to when he turns 7.  I recently read something, "I shouldn't wish my life away, but....".... if only children understood that.  I have decided never to wish my life away and to treasure the moments here and now.  The here and now is fertile ground for love.  Love doesn't seem to grow in "yesterday" or "tomorrow". It might be there... but it is not growing there.

I celebrated the life and death of my grandmother... and mourned.  And still mourn.... but the unmistakable touch of love has been in my life over and over again throughout the process.  In the minutes after I learned that grandma had gone, I stood in my shower and wept until a prayer and a blessing came to my heart.  I know it in a musical rendition, and sang it over and over again until there was just peace left.

I can't find the version that I know on YouTube, but the lyrics are simple: "The Lord bless you and keep you.  The Lord make His face shine upon you, and bring you peace. Amen."

I found myself crying again last night, and these words comforted me again.  And then something else, magical, mystical, the unmistakable touch of the Lord? I returned to work today, and there was a card and a gift from the staff in my office.  I opened the gift and literally stopped breathing.  This is what was inside.



It's a little hard to tell from this photo... but it is a caramel-haired girl, with a pink conch shell pressed tightly to her ear.

The friend who bought this for me had no idea that, as a caramel-haired child, I spent countless hours sitting on my grandmother's plush pink bathmat with the pearlescent pink conch shell that she had collected from the beaches of Barbados pressed against my ear listening for the sound of the ocean.  That conch shell was an icon of my grandparent's home, and of their lives.  In the deepest parts of us, aren't we all drawn to a moment's solitude, listening for the echo of the ocean's waves?

This was not just a gift.... it was a message, an inspiration, a blessing.  And I am blessed to have people in my life who are receptive to the leading of "God" or "the Universe" of whatever you want to call it... There is something DEEPLY affirming about the feeling that God sees me... that He knows me... that He moves in mysterious ways to demonstrate His unending love for me.  Forget roses on Valentines Day... they are nothing compared to that love that God is capable of expressing through one of His children to another.

Mahalo (thank you) MJ for ALL the gifts you gave me in this one simple figure.

Aloha,
Emily

February 2

Tomorrow my son turns six, and tonight he was literally buzzing with the excitement.... "mommy, aren't you so excited??? Tomorrow is my birthday!! Tomorrow I turn six!!"....

Tonight, I cradled my dying grandmother in my arms and felt so totally at peace.  So grateful that her whole entire life will end in the arms of loved ones.

Tonight, I laughed with my sisters over the madness of my week.

I'm setting fire to the rain.... listening over and over to the popular song by Adele that just moves my spirit so high....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlsBObg-1BQ

And I am embracing "joie de vivre"....


Joie de vivre (French pronunciation: [ʒwa də vivʁ], joy of living) is a French phrase often used in English to express a cheerful enjoyment of life; an exultation of spirit. Joie de vivre "can be a joy of conversation, joy of eating, joy of anything one might do… And joie de vivre may be seen as a joy of everything, a comprehensive joy, a philosophy of life, a Weltanschauung. Robert's Dictionnaire says joie is sentiment exaltant ressenti par toute la conscience, that is, involves one's whole being."[1]

This week... I have laughed and I have sobbed... and become even more convinced that there is nothing in this world that matters more than love.  No money, no things, no rain, no distance, no pain, no resentment, no loneliness, nothing matters more than love.  May love set fire to my life.... may a wildfire spread throughout the world.... may love set fire to the rain.....

I'm crying too hard to see the screen anymore...

Aloha, 

Emily