TO LIVE TODAY - TODAY!

May your life be like a
     wildflower,
growing freely in the
     beauty
and joy of each day.
     - Native American Proverb   

Live in simple faith ...

Just as this

trusting cheery

flowers, fades and falls.

- ISSA

Tis this one hour that God has given;

His now we must obey;

And it will make our earth a heaven

to live today - today.

- LYDIA AVERY COONLEY WARD

Today was a beautiful day ~ the sun shining and the leaves tossing their faces around 

gently in a soft breeze waltzing upon a bright blue sky. 

It was such a delight to greet a day such as this ...

and yet, once I became buried in work in my office ...

I completely forgot the wonder of this day ...

until, I spent an hour talking heart to heart with a young woman.

There, in that interaction, I also found the beauty.

The beauty of life is certainly in all...

i just have to open my eyes,

and my heart!

Cate

Great Spirit of Surprise

Oh Great Spirit of Surprise,
   dazzle us with a day full of amazing embraces,
      capricious, uncalculated caring,
      great hearts, kind souls and doers of
          good deeds.   
                  - MOLLY FUMIA

It's a beautiful world to see,

or it's dismal in every zone,

The thing it must be in its gloom or its gleam

Depends on yourself alone.

- Anonymous

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening

that is translated through you into action and because

there is only one of you in all time, this expression is

unique.  And if you block it, it will never exist through

any other medium and be lost, the world will not have

it."  So said dancer Martha Graham.  Tonight we pray

that each of us find our unique life force and express it

as fully as we possibly can.

This sounds so simple, and while it is simple, it certainly is no easy.

It has taken me years of practice to really begin to 'get it' 

that I can be as happy as I make up my mind to be ...

no matter what my present circumstances.

I did a lot of ziffing (acting as if)

and listening and receiving the wisdom of others

as they pointed out different ways I could

see any particular situation ~

always in faith and gratitude!

What a difference this makes!!!

I have been given a new view,

and it is the greatest gift!!!

be peace, cate

May We Nourish Life

Earth Water Air and Fire combined to
     make this food.
Numberless beings gave their lives and labor that
     we may eat.
May we be nourished that we may nourish life.
                           - Joan Halifax

Once the guest had eaten and drunk at your table, the

guest becomes kin ... beggar or enemy, friend or chief,

if they knock on your door, it will open; if they seek

your shelter, it will be given, and if they ask for

hospitality, give them your bread and wine.

... for who  knows when you may need the help of a

fellow human?               -Keri Hume     

click link below for song 

THE SERVANT SONG

This Saturday our local postal workers will be collecting food items from our mailboxes to donate to local food pantries.  While none of can invite all of the hungry people who live in our communities to join us at out tables ... this is one simple thing we can do! 

I realize as I sit with these readings today that my prayer before a meal does not extend far enough,

I  have forgotten to include prayer for the many people who are so hungry.

I can't change this awful situation .... but I can remember!!!  

I can pray,

I can donate,

I can live in awareness!

cate

May I become ...

May I become a medicine for the sick and their physician,
their support until sickness
     come not again.
May I become a unfailing store for  the wretched, and
be first to supply them with their needs.
My own self and my pleasures, my righteousness past,
present and future, may I sacrifice without regard, in
order to achieve the welfare of beings.
                                     -Santidiva

Oh God

help me

to believe

the truth about myself

no matter

how beautiful it is!

-Macrina Wiederkehr

 I believe we are all called to be healers to each other ... in our presence we can become the arms of God ... God with skin for each other.  None of of have a higher  calling that that!!


It is life on life's terms that has given me my deepest lessons, my greatest growth, my most profound  surrenders.  I heard it said yesterday that we can choose to look at life as what life does to us or what life does for us!  When we look at life being FOR us, we look  with the realization that everything is a gift, and  in each gift offers us the opportunity to grow spiritually and to become more and more our authentic selves, our particular gift to this world!  Wow ... what a difference that one little word makes!


May I grow each day towards becoming an authentic healer ...
May I live life with the knowledge that all is a gift FOR me ...
and may you too receive these gifts!                                                    cate

LET US GIVE THANKS

Let us give thanks

for the food we are about to eat.

May there be food for all,

abundant and healthful.

Let us have the wisdom to choose to eat only that

which enhances precious energy

and sustains us through our labors an rest.

- adapted from AN HAGGADAH OF LIBERATION

It is my experience that I give thanks and use moderation

best regarding my body when I am fully focused on nurturing 

and caring for my soul!!  It took me many years to realize that

i can not feed my soul through my body ... and that my soul 

is the most important part of my Being and call for care.

When I take good care of my soul first, I can take good care of

all of me, and I can be there for others.

Like the lovely AA slogan ...

First Things First!

So simple

So true

Thank You!!

Cate

Nature ~ the ART of GOD

Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers and sisters,
with the power of your virtue.  Let your gift-giving love
and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth.
Thus I beg and beseech you.  Do not let them fly away
from earthly things and beat their wings against
eternal walls.  Alas, there has always been so much 
virtue that has flown away ... back to the body, back to life,
that it may give the earth a meaning...
     Verily, the earth shall yet become a site of recovery.
And even now a new fragrance surrounds it, bringing
salvation - and a new hope.
                                      - FREDRICH NIETZSCHE

It's a beautiful world to see,

Or it's dismal in every zone,

The thing it must be in its gloom or its gleam

Depends on yourself alone.

- ANONYMOUS

This is the night of the super full moon! 

Whether it be as super as a moon, or as simple as a lady bug,
nature brings me so close to the creator!!

I won't waste any of our time on words tonight ...

lets go out and drink on the spiritual wonder of

that super moon!!!!!

Enjoy ~

cate

hOLY IN aLL

Holy be the white head of a negro,
Sacred be the black flax of a black child.
Holy be the golden down
That will stream in the waves of the wind
and will thin like a dispersing cloud.
Holy be the heads of Chinese hair,
Sea calm, sea impersonal
Deep flowering of the mellow and traditional.
Heads of people fair
Bright shimmering from the riches of their species;
Heads of Indians
with feeling of distance and space and dusk;
Heads of wheaten gold,
Heads of peoples dark
So strong, so original,
All of the earth and the sun.
                   - GEORGE CAMPBELL, CONTEMPORARY JAMAICAN POET

There is holiness in all ... no more no less in one or the other ...
this is the Oneness .. we are not separate and apart except in our
comparing and judging minds.
           That is easy to remember in moments of meditative clarity or when                   
           experiencing the world of a far away family through the shelter of
          flat screen tv.
                    I am challenged to remember this as I walk through the moments
                    of my days when the moments invite categorization or labeling.
                              Lord, may my meditation take skin and live action during all
                              moments of my days.                        cate