borrowed from the Dalai Lama.......

As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery.

We have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace.

The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as

anger and attachment, fear and suspicion,

while love and compassion, a sense of universal responsibility

are the sources of peace and happiness.

words of Buddha.......

Live In Joy

Live in joy, In love,
Even among those who hate.

Live in joy, In health,
Even among the afflicted.

Live in joy, In peace,
Even among the troubled.

Look within. Be still.
Free from fear and attachment,
Know the sweet joy of living in the way.

                     ~

There is no fire like greed,
No crime like hatred
No sorrow like separation,
No sickness like hunger of the heart,
And no joy like the joy of freedom.

Health, contentment and trust
are your greatest possessions,
And freedom your greatest joy.

Look within. Be still.
Free from fear and attachment,
Know the sweet joy of living in the way.

from the Dhammapada, Words of the Buddha

year round joy......

It seems that in the month of December we hear the word 'joy' alot. The 'joy' of Christmas, 'joy' to the world, the 'joy' of the season, and it goes on and on. Now I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing but it gave me cause to wonder as to why we hear it so much in December and yet barely an honorable mention the rest of the year. Well, it may be mentioned here and there, but certainly not the way it is exalted in December. The last month of the year is practically filled with joy and the rest of the year seems to go without. Hmmm.....why is that?

I looked up the definition of joy and it's said to mean "the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation". Ok, that sounds good to me. Makes alot of sense and I can say that December is often filled with much of what the definition states. So what happens the rest of the year? Is there no 'delight' or 'happiness' in the first eleven months of the year? I realize we won't be walking around filled with joy each and every moment of our life, but I think it can be present alot more than what it is. I just don't think we need to be joy-'less' from January til November.  There must be 'joyful' things in our lives in the first 11 months. I like joy. I like delight and happiness. It makes me feel good and who doesn't want to feel good?

I look around as I move through life and see alot of people that do not express happiness. Maybe they don't know for themselves what that looks like or are unable to realize it in their life because they really don't have an understanding that happiness can be afforded for them also. The prevalent feeling in the world these days is not joy. We are much more surrounded by misery and unhappiness than joy. This has become our norm and then leads us to minimize even the possibility of happiness or joy. Our thinking and believing has been turned around and held at bay because of how the world has shifted itself to live in unhappiness. How did we get so unhappy? That's a whole other blog post but I think you know what I'm getting at. I think this is more than likely a big part of the problem. It's not uncommon for people to be puzzled by another person's happiness or good mood. I have had people come up to me and ask me how I am and when I say I'm 'great' they respond by questioning that. For a moment they make me think I maybe shouldn't feel so great and that I should re-examine that. It's not the norm anymore to be happy or feel joy. So then is unhappiness the 'new normal'? Oh dear.....we have really messed this up, but like I said if you look around, alot of everything points toward non-happiness. So how do we begin to change this attitude...... because it is an 'attitude' and it can be changed. Somewhere back we chose misery and unhappiness and now we can choose something different. I know it's not as easy as waking up and just being happy but if we even have the understanding that we have a choice then it makes a difference. We can be in charge instead of letting others be in charge for us. The more that we collectively begin to make a change then we will see changes reaching farther and farther from us. It's the ripple effect and it will simply do what it does so beautifully and it all starts with us.

There will always be something, even if it's only one little thing, to be joyful about in life. It need not be big. Yes, we may be living in a world prevalent with misery and unhappiness but let's choose to turn that around and fill our lives with joy. Start with even a few moments of joy and you will find that it will change how you feel. Then increase the moments of joy and you will find that it feels a whole lot better than miserable. Hopefully the scale of happiness vs. unhappiness will tilt itself to a new normal for yourself and you will feel the effects of joy. It does make a difference. It will change your whole being because what we do and how we feel affects us as a whole person. 

Let's look for and experience joy all year round. Let's find joy in our daily life and then bring it to others by simply being who we are and living the life that we do.......

May your day be joyful .........

Namaste

christmas parade 'after party' photos..............

This year was the first year for the Christmas parade 'after party'! I thought it would be a fun time to have everyone back to the house for some hot chocolate and cookies to warm up with after standing out in the cold watching the parade. And I also gave Brody his advent calendar this night so that he can start counting down the days to Christmas soon! This year the weather wasn't too cold but the wind was wild! We almost got blown away! All was well though and we had a fun time especially with Brody watching this year and being able to take it in a little bit more.

Our table was set with yummy cookies all ready for eating. My 'melt in your mouth' butter crescents looked like they had snow drifted on them :)

Hot chocolate was ready for all to enjoy too! Brody loved the marshmallows!

My pretty girl Brianne enjoying some hot chocolate!

Here's my little Brody enjoying his 'warm' chocolate and cookies too!

Megan, Wil and Brody enjoying family time together.

We all had a great time and I look forward to next years Christmas parade 'after party'! Another family tradition for all to enjoy! May your family or friend traditions rise up to meet you and bring you joy now and all year long!

Blessings............

children going hungry.....still in 2011

I watched a tv program yesterday and the host had two persons on who are involved in an organization that helps to feed children. It was called "Blessings In A Backpack". I know we have 'healthy breakfast' programs in many of our schools but this was a program that fills backpacks with food so that the children can take them home and help to feed their families on the weekend. They return the backpack on the Monday and the following Friday the backpack is filled again. I am not naive by any means but this program and the fact that we need something like this made me sad. Some of the children that were recieving these backpacks were on the show and they said that it made them feel good about themselves to be able to contribute to their family being able to eat. I could see their pride in this but I wish that children didn't need to concern themselves with where their dinner is coming from.

I realize that not unlike many nations we continue to have a 'hungry' population even in our own country of Canada. I'm not talking about Third World Nations here......this is right in our own backyard. I struggle to understand how this still happens and exists in 2011. We are a very powerful and strong nation and yet we cannot feed our own children and families. We seem to have placed our responsibilities in areas that don't include one of the basics of life. Maslow's heirarchy of needs includes food at the bottom of the pyramid as one of the 'most' basic of needs. If children especially are not recieving proper nutrition in the way of food then how is it possible for the next levels of Maslow's heirarchy to bode well in their lives. Nutrition is just too important for us to have children or adults going without food. There is just something about all of this that makes me very sad. I know that I will be making a contribution and that it will then allow for a child to take a backpack home and help to feed his or her family. Let's all do what we can to make a difference. Check out their website @ Blessings In a Backpack

Blessings to all............

made with love .....

My recent project was an advent calendar for my grandson Brody. All lovingly handmade one stitch at a time.............the results were wonderful! I loved how it turned out!

numbers and pockets all hand sewn and snowflakes too!

the rooftop.....

the best part ever :)

Traditions........

I've been working on a project for the last several weeks that has been very special to me. It was a hand crafted Christmas advent calender for my grandson Brody. It's not so much the project that is important, but rather what the project means to me and hopefully to him and even his family as he grows older and the tradition it will bring to each Christmas observed.

I need to start out by saying that I have a very small immediate family. It consists of only myself and my three children. Add to that my partner Jim and my daughter's fiance and we number 6 people. And don't get me wrong, I'm not longing for a big family or anything of that nature because I love my little family just the way it is. I'm not sure I could adequately express in words just how much they all mean to me. So as a way of expressing my love for them I truly enjoy our times together and try to make any occasion special. It is twofold in essence because I want to create these experiences for all of them to enjoy and remember and yet all the joy that it brings returns itself to me. A little selfish maybe but it's ok I think.

This leads me to tradition.....family traditions. 'Tradition' is described as 'a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past'. The word 'tradition' is derived from the Latin tradere or traderer , literally meaning to hand over, to transmit or to give for safe-keeping. Traditions are most often carried forward from many generations past and are present in families today and move forward from there again. It's a bit different for my family in terms of the fact that I am the one creating these traditions for all of us and with that I feel somewhat a sense of responsibility as the matriarch of the family.......a good responsibility though. For me it is a wonderful gift that I can give to my family and have them take these traditions into their future lives.

We are social beings who all want to feel a sense of 'belonging' and 'connection' in a world where there is such a huge level of disconnect from others. With traditions we can come together as a group where there is a common element and it bonds us together even for a short period of time. Imagine for a minute that something gets in the way of a family tradition. It can create a sense of loss and disappointment and it could feel like something is missing. There is not a whole lot left in life that can be considered a constant. Traditions can be that way though. At least that's what I think. For myself I believe our traditions as a family keep us together and make us stronger.

My hope is that my calendar for Brody will bring with it a tradition that he and his family will look forward to each and every year. It is my gift to them.

My hope is that you have traditions in your life that you look forward to and can carry them in your heart with love and remember them for years to come.

Blessings to all...........

Happy for real............

When I look around me I see alot of unhappy people. It makes me think in terms of how 'happiness' seems to be what we are all looking for in some form, but is it eluding us or are we just not letting it into our lives? I think it might be the latter. I know for myself I seemed to make choices for many years that when it came to the big picture I was certainly not allowing it, happiness, to show itself to me. Oh, little moments of happiness maybe were there but the BIG happy was not for sure. I watch people move through life and wonder now if unconsciously we block happiness or maybe we are buying into a watered down version of it. Alot of what we do to find happiness is external. We look outside of ourselves and seek out things or maybe persons that will make us happy. Now don't get me wrong, I can readily admit that there are 'things' that make me happy and yet I'm well aware that this is not the long lasting and fulfilling happiness that fills my soul. But if a person isn't aware that this version of happiness is limited it can create a life of constant external happiness seeking. And if it's 'things' that you are after to make you happy it can break your budget and that never leads to happiness. You can fill your days with this seeking behavior and end up being years into it and still be no further ahead. Aaahhhh.......elusive happiness. Is it designed that way so that you never really get there? Does the external attempt keep you wanting for more and therein lies the message. The whisper that is telling you that you're not understanding the true path to happiness? How long does your 'happiness' last? Do you go to bed happy and wake up still feeling it? I believe at least for myself and possibly many others that this is a choice. I can choose to be miserable or I can choose to be happy. People might argue that circumstances block or get in the way of our happiness and this in fact can be true to a point, but there is always a way of changing how you look at things and realizing that it can be different and therefore be better understood. Maybe it's easier to be miserable? I don't even like to think that but it may in fact be true for many. It's what they know and anything else would feel uncomfortable. So maybe then being happy in small doses is an approach to altering that? Small steps towards change. Changing our perspectives and then changing how we feel. Of course we are not going to be happy all the time, but we can decide how long we want to have it exist to the left or the right of us. I like mine in the center of myself and when it is shifted because of circumstance it's never far away and can quickly be returned to its heart home. I decided that I could be in charge of my happiness personally and from within and when I made that shift my happiness quotient increased dramatically and it lasted alot longer. I make the choice every day. I favor it as the best option for me. I know it's the healthier choice in all facets for myself also. It increases my emotional, physical and spiritual well-being and any choice that does all of that is well worth my efforts.

Sometimes we need to 'weed' through our life and decide what is going to go and what is going to stay. Let the energy draining things go and bring in more of the positives that will bring happiness along with it as a bonus. Being happy isn't a 'thing'. It's a side effect of how we live our lives and the choices we make. I like my happy life much better than the one of the past.

Have a 'happy' day!

Breaking my cycle......

Slow down, let go, ease up, sit back, breathe, relax..........all of these things remind me of what I need to do to make my life one that when I awaken in the morning I will look forward to my day with positivity. I have had all those years of stress and strife and have ultimately come to the point where I can see that much of that came from choices I made and the results spoke for themselves. It's taken me a long time but it has been my personal journey so it unfolded as it was supposed to and many lessons were learned along the way and some lessons I have just realized recently. I believe that each day has a lesson wrapped inside of it if we just take the time to look hard enough to find it. For years it was as if my eyes had a veil over them and I could only see so much and that only allowed me to live a limited life. But then maybe I was only able to handle just that at the time. I know there are things that I can only understand now and I believe that is much due to the fact that I 'get it' because I am looking at it with more maturity than when I was 20, 30 or possibly even 40 and have a multitude of life experiences to draw on. And the irony when I look back is that I thought that I "got it" at all of those ages and was moving through life pretty well. I really never knew there was a better way until I felt such unrest in my life and wasn't going to accept any more of it. I knew that there could be something better and it started a few years ago when I just wanted (and needed) life to be simple. I had managed to complicate it to the point that my health was now not only suffering but on the threshold of chronic illness. If I had continued with the lifestyle that I had chosen the door would open itself and I would have walked into my future of ill health. That was my wake-up call. It was time to step back and take a long, hard look at what I wanted my life to look like. But hadn't I already and for many years known what I wanted my life to look like? I had been saying it to myself for years inside of my head. I just wanted a "peaceful and quiet" life. Nothing big. Just a 'little' life. It was like a mantra in my head all the time. But I wasn't living it or choosing it and now I had been pushed to the edge and it was time to again make a choice.  I was addicted to my own stress and all that went along with it. It was as if  'busyness' was my middle name. How much could I heap on my plate and still perform? When my plate was full I just kept getting a bigger plate. That's easy enough! Little did I know that this was going to catch up to me. But I kept moving forward in this way and I knew nothing else. If felt as though I was at my best living like this and it was my familiarity. I was doing everything within my power to sabotage the existence of my peaceful and quiet life. I was living the exact opposite of what I was repeating in my head. People tried to tell me that I was doing too much and that I needed to slow down but inside I secretly felt proud. My ego was saying that I was going to be different than everyone else and would be able to handle it. I was going to show them all that I could sustain this crazy pace and be just fine. After all we live in a society that applauds extreme productivity and performance. So I figured that the more I could juggle the better I would be and I would be seen as extremely productive and then measure up to something that society decided was acceptable. I have come to understand now that we are actually damaging ourselves with these choices. I know this firsthand......I suffered inside of what I thought was a good thing. I was living a lie. A lie that I had in my head that did stem from my upbringing where only productivity was applauded and I was also told that I would not amount to anything valuable in life. And being a child I could only agree to what I was being presented with because they were in charge and I looked up to them. I carried this into my adult life even when they were no longer in charge of my thoughts and choices. As an adult I interpreted value as 'doing' as much as I could in life at one time and I would be rewarded with acclaim. My lesson to understand this differently has been a long time in coming but I am so thankful that now I truly 'get it'. It took ill health and near chronicity to have me finally understand all of this. I didn't listen to the whispers and then the yelling started. It turned into screaming coming from my body and then I finally listened. I really 'get it' now. Having this understanding has not necessarily meant that I awoke one day and it was all easier and simple. No, it has been a very difficult shift for me. My mind and body were addicted to the pace that is was used to. It had a set point that was very high. Slowly that set point is coming down and it is getting easier though. I am able to catch myself more quickly now when I feel myself sliding back into those bad habits. It is a daily task for me to remember to live life more in an 'easy' way. Life is no longer the emergency that I was letting it be. I now know how 'peace and quiet' feels and I will admit that sometimes it still feels uncomfortable because I was addicted to a hectic lifestyle for so many years. I sometimes have to give myself permission to relax and live easily. I'm getting there though. Living my life the way I had been in the past was very hard work and it felt heavy. Now that weight is gone. I'm so grateful that I learned this lesson when I did. I still have many years ahead of me to enjoy the quiet and peaceful life that I now choose......

Namaste