Entries Tagged 'Hope' ↓
September 26th, 2008 — Fashion, Friendship, Hope, Inspiration and creativity, Inspirational, Just thinking, Nature, Opportunity, Perfumes, Relationships, Safety, Spirituality and God, Travel
Just when it seems like a bit of good news would be exceedingly welcomed, comes this true story (I’ve checked it with Snopes) about a woman hand feeding hummingbirds.
Isn’t it great that with the Internet we have a way to easily share these experiences that we might never hear about otherwise?!
Thanks to Cathy for sharing with me in the first place!
It’s a reminder to me that “God’s in his heaven; all’s right with the world.”
from “Pippa Passes”
The year’s at the spring
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearled
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in his Heaven -
All’s right with the world!
Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Is it possible that in these difficult times we could trust more deeply that God will feed and clothe us, as he does the birds and the lilies? Whether we are literally in need of food, shelter, clothing, water, health, employment or any of a myriad of other needs, the most basic need is for the ideas that will lead us in the right direction and out of limitation.
Ideas are always limitless! (This goes along with the short movie I posted earlier.)
Not too long ago while pondering how I should schedule my day, though my first inclination the night before had been to get on down the road and back home, I felt it was all right to meander a bit. In doing so, I had a number of interesting conversations with strangers, some welcome time with a friend, and a bit of fashion enjoyment, including some time with perfumes.
After I’d been back on the highway for a while, an electronic sign informed me of an accident 26 miles down the road. One lane was closed. (I learned later that it had only cleared about an hour before I got there.) If I had hurried my way home, I would have been stuck for hours while they cleared the road. I was able to get past it without any lost time.
Sometimes we do not know what we or others are protected from, but this time it was apparent. And it could have been far worse, but thankfully wasn’t. On this busy stretch of road, many more could have been involved in this accident but were not.
That’s just a small example of how ideas will clear our day for us. Expect ideas today and always that will help you!
Karin
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September 26th, 2008 — Friendship, Hope, Inspiration and creativity, Inspirational, Just thinking, Opportunity
Imagine the possibilities!
Here’s a 3 minute short movie on flying outside the box.
When we think we’ve run out of opportunities, we need to shake that box and see what else we can shake out!
Karin
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August 20th, 2008 — Books, Friendship, Grief, Hope, Opportunity, Romance
The Frog Prince is a modern day fairy tale. Because I liked Flirting with Forty so well, I had high expectations for this one.
In a mere 371 pages Holly goes from being a devastated, whiny, soon-to-be divorcee to a sense of personal empowerment. Shortly after Holly marries, she finds her husband evidently never loved her, but felt railroaded into marriage. And he chooses the venue of desire (or lack of) to make his point in a harsh way. Holly is unable to accept what a complete jerk he is. She calls him when she is low and demeans herself more than once, until he basically tells her not to get in touch with him again.
And she thought he was in love with her? I wondered if she was only a field for his homosexuality. She never considers that seriously. I would under the circumstances. Even though he ends up in another heterosexual relationship, I’m not convinced, and I think he would do something similar again with another woman. Not a good bet, for sure. OTOH, Holly was particularly needy. This would be an issue, except the new woman is even ‘needier’ and he is even more railroaded into marriage, though he is the one making the choice, evidently. Give me a break. He’s adult enough to say what he means without a sham marriage.
Meantime, Holly is challenged at work by her boss who ends up sabotaging her. But along the way Holly proves her meddle, makes modest friends, and determines that friendship might be better than having a lover.
In the end, she finds herself and gives a new definition to good girl. She’s good, but she’s no pushover. When she comes out on top, you think, ‘It’s about time!”
I’m not entirely sure that someone who is so far from being empowered could be empowered in a short period of time. Maybe. But in RL, it’s probably harder to move out beyond old habits.
It’s hard for me to relate to her, because I can’t imagine myself this whiny, though I have been devastated more than once in my life in other sorrows. Well, perhaps one person’s whine or rant is another’s deep sorrow. Maybe I was whiny too, but I doubt it. I was grieving, but so is she.
I give it a 2.5. It’s only fair to say there are a lot of positive comments about this book, but it seemed less adult to me than Flirting with Forty, not that I don’t like a good romp with the best of them. This tries to be serious, to have serious subjects, but the connecting points aren’t as well connected.
Karin
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February 22nd, 2008 — Hope, Inspiration and creativity, Just thinking
This is a good reminder for me. When I’m having a hard day, it is sometimes difficult to rise above it, but I never give in.
How about you, what do you do when a day is rough?
Karin
Here is your Friday story,
The Perspective Song
One day, not long ago, I decided to re-send the attitude-changing philosophy in “A Course in Miracles.” Three years before, in its simple to follow lesson-a-day, the Course had helped me cultivate new levels of inner peace. I figured I could use more of the same. Within the first few weeks, I came upon a lesson that showed me I’d figured well.
The lesson was: “There is another way of looking at this.” The idea is to apply the lesson as often as possible throughout the day, to whatever situation is before you.
Okay, I thought. Simple enough. I’ll go apply “There is another way of looking at this,” to my day. No problem.
The trouble with this was that every situation I faced that day was challenging. And there was not another darn way to look at things. Thank you very much.
From a crashed computer to people not being available on the phone, to running out of shampoo in the middle of a shower, my day was filled with frustrations. It held little, if any, opportunity for me to look at things anew. And no New Age self-help affirmation was going to convince me otherwise!
So I pulled on my panty hose, zipped up my dress, dried my un-shampooed wet hair, and left for an appointment that was only 20 minutes away. Or so I thought.
Okay, the traffic is always crazy at the end of a workday. But I did not expect a bumper-to-bumper gridlock in the middle of the afternoon. Sitting there in my car, I did my best to repeat the day’s lesson to myself, hoping that I could find “another way of looking at this” freeway parking lot.
After an eternity, I decided there was no way out and that I’d be better off letting go of my plans and forgetting about making the appointment on time. One cell phone call later, assuring my colleague that I’d meet her the following day instead, I sat back in the car to wait things out.
As I did, something caught my attention at the side of the road. Pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway was an old, yellow, Ford pickup truck. It was lopsided. When I looked closer, I could see that the front tire was as flat as the plains of Texas. Since I wasn’t moving anywhere, I had plenty of time to stare.
The driver of the truck was sitting on the rusted and beat up tailgate. He was a young man with a ponytail, wore well-splattered painter’s pants and a matching, torn t-shirt. While waiting for a tow truck, or perhaps some divine intervention, he had pulled out his guitar and looked to be moving his mouth as if in song.
I rolled down my window. He was singing at the top of his lungs. My mouth hung open as I saw the peace on his face.
He’d found “another way of looking at this.” His music made me smile. His attitude cleared the traffic jam in my head.
I think he understood the lesson for the day. And finally, so did I.
Erica Ross-Krieger
For more than 20 years, Erica Ross-Krieger has inspired people throughout the world to come to life more fully. She is an author, a successful entrepreneur and founder of several businesses. In her work and her writing, Erica teaches her clients and readers how to cultivate the attitudes that will lead them to live more joyful and meaningful lives. Visit her website at: www.EricaRossKrieger.com from Insight of the Day
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October 29th, 2007 — Age, Beauty, Hope, Inspiration and creativity
I only recently heard of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic 97 year old woman who rescued 2500 children in the Warsaw Ghetto from the gas chambers in 1942-3.
After getting the children out, she arranged ‘adoptions’ by non-Jewish families (I admire them too for the risks they took) to protect them, documenting their names in a jar which she buried, so that one day she could tell the children their real names.
She was captured and tortured, eventually escaping, but she did not betray what she had accomplished.
She was up for a Nobel Prize in 2007 which she did not win, but she won a far more nobler prize.
You can read more about her at this website.
Karin
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September 6th, 2007 — Books, Hope, Inspirational, Just thinking
The other day walking through the library quickly, several book titles leapt out at me. The author of this book shares out of his practice and his life. He was a psychologist, on the faculty of Harvard Medical School at the time of writing this book [1997].
The Power of Empathy : A Practical Guide to Creating Intimacy, Self-Understanding and Lasting Love
written by Arthur P Ciaramicoli, and Katherine Ketcham had a few gems of insight into ideas I like to learn more deeply about.
Here’s a smattering of quotes:
216 PRACTICING FAITH
217 Have Your Doubts
…with the goal of moving closer to what you are trying to understand rather than pushing it farther into the distance….with your mind opened to the possibility that you might be in for a surprise.
Beware of Cynicism
Cynicism and doubt are not the same experience. Cynicism is a state of disbelief, an active act of not believing. Doubt raises questions, but it is not close-minded. Cynicism shuts off possibilities; doubt leaves room for hope. Cynicism leads to pessimism; doubt leaves room for optimism. Cynicism contracts; doubt expands.
Doubt confronts the world full throttle and dares faith: Go ahead, show me! Cynicism turns its back and slowly wanders away.
Don’t Be Afraid to Talk Back to God
218 [Mela Svoboda in her book Everyday Epiphanies chastised God for being too tenderhearted…All she heard God say was,] “You know, Honey, I really get a kick out of you!†[Which only proved her point.] [That made me laugh. Plus, I never had God call me 'honey' that I know of.]
220 EMPATHY’S DEFINITION OF HOPE
Hope is not the belief that everything will turn out all right, rather it is the conviction that even when things go wrong, as they inevitably will, somehow we will find our way through…[both] resilient and tenacious…Hope is a way of ‘taking heart’ – it means finding something to believe in and then resolutely working to make it happen…works to make things better day by day…full of purpose and direction…keeps us moving.
Hope is created through great effort, diligence, patience, and concentration. We earn hope by our commitment to keep putting one foot in front of the other…
225 PRACTICING HOPE
Argue with Yourself [don’t just accept every negative thought about yourself that drifts into consciousness]
228 One pathway to hope is to choose your memories very carefully….put a frame around them. So many hopeful things happen day in and day out, but we lose them if we don’t stop for a moment, think about them, and consciously frame them.
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September 6th, 2007 — Hope, Humor, Joy and happiness, Just thinking, Memory and forgetting, Quotations, Spirituality and God
Maybe, I put blinkers on, but I can’t remember any miserable times in my life. I see the present moment as a sacrament. It’s all about sacrament — eating, conversing, being with friends, telling a good joke and making people laugh. Sister Immaculata Knox
Seeing the human and divine coincidence in the particular, individual, mundane, even normal moments of our lives is a way of recognizing and appreciating the sacred in our days. Maybe if we connect the dots of these moments it is a help when we are going through rough waters.
Because you will forget your misery and remember it as waters that pass away [water under the bridge.] KJV Job 11:16 and commentary on NKJV
It is certainly something to hold onto and claim when things are tough. And when they are easy, it multiples the good in it to recognize it and to see God as the source of it.
Sometimes we go in the strength of our reserves. It’s a truism then that we better have some. Every time we see the present moment as a sacrament, I think we are adding to our reserves, then we have something to draw upon when needed. Other things that build reserves are getting enough rest; taking care of ourselves, not putting ourselves last; making sure we eat at regular times; being with those we love and who love us; laughter; growing spiritually; a little inspiration; reading a good book; listening to a mentor…
One pathway to hope is to choose your memories very carefully….put a frame around them. So many hopeful things happen day in and day out, but we lose them if we don’t stop for a moment, think about them, and consciously frame them. Arthur P Ciaramicoli
How do you build your reserves? Make it a priority.
Karin
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August 29th, 2007 — Age, Beauty, Cosmetics, Fashion, Hope, Just thinking
One of the things I like to do, though unconsciously, is people watch. Likely it is because I grew up in the fashion world, so I enjoy seeing what people wear and how they wear it. I am not critical, I am just looking with a critical eye to analyze, because I’ve been a buyer. At a young age I was buying not only for youth but for older men and women. I know too well the fleeting nature of fashion and of trying to stay ahead of the game to anticipate trends when shopping the markets to buy for the next season.
Stores in our area had a hard time sustaining themselves when they used northern buyers for our market. It just didn’t fly. Think hot, humid, and tropical and you would be right. What you’d wear in NYC or Chicago, you would likely not wear here. Also, the majority of us grew up somewhere else and came here for the space industry, so our fashion tends to be eclectic, but geared toward extreme heat.
The other day I was on a college campus with my 11 yo who had a function there. There were parents, as well as kids from 5th grade to 12th. Three college girls parted a swath amidst us. One was striking; one was average; one was OK. It was clear the striking one was leading the others and they deferred to her. They were an island to themselves. She was head of the pack, and she knew it. Confident. The rest of us of whatever age were invisible to them. I wondered what they would look like as parents. It was hard to imagine. But the day is coming whether they parent or not.
The next day I stood in a long line at the post office. Two young girls were in the front, one might have been an exchange student. One wore a dress; one wore shorts and a T. Both were modest and circumspect in their clothing. In front of me were two women older than I am. They both were invisible, in their demeanor and in their clothing. Behind me were women, invisible, looking hot and tired, none young. More or less patient in the line. I tried to imagine them the age of the young girls and failed. I tried to imagine what the young girls would look like at the age of these women or of me, or the ones behind me, how they might dress, and it was near impossible. I wondered what the hopes and dreams of the older women had been, and if they had achieved them. I wondered if the young girls would achieve theirs.
Next came me, fading into invisibility, maybe, wearing my uniform for the heat: shorts and a T. And don’t forget I wore a lot of bracelets before they came back in style. Or I set the style, LOL. I am fashionable, but not a fashion plate. And I’m recycling things I loved from years gone by.
It reminded me of Dylan Thomas:
Do not go gentle into that good night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Or Robert Frost’s
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
I don’t think of myself as old, though to some I might be, and there are moments when I definitely look older than I would like to. I don’t intend to go quietly. I hope never to be invisible. I’ve got a long ways to go before I end up there. Maybe I’ll be like the 107 yo woman blogger and still be blogging. That would be something! But I hope it is an interesting ride. And she is clearly not invisible.
Someone I know once said to me that she couldn’t wait until she was old enough not to care what she looked like. How old is that, pray tell? I’ll never forget the striking much older woman on the arm of a younger man in Paris, her head scarf twisted into a flower by her ear. High heels and tasteful makeup. I have something to aim for, but skip the heels!
How about you? do you think of yourself as invisible, or do you know better?
Karin
Here it is in full:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Poem lyrics of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there’s some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
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August 4th, 2007 — Anger, Forgiveness, Friendship, Hope, Just thinking, Parenting, Spirituality and God
I learned through years of parenting that usually there is one of three things behind a child’s tantrum: either they need food, they need sleep or they need love.
That’s such a truism for life, really. When I have a hard day, it’s generally because I need some rest, but the other two factor in also.
It reminds me of the time Elijah was under the juniper tree. He’d just fled for his life after a seeming spiritual victory (but you note God didn’t tell him to do what he did). And there he was, exhausted, asking God to take away his life, he wasn’t any different than the others.
Did God do it?
Nope. First he had him sleep. Then he fed him. Then he appeared as the still, small voice and re-energized him. And he gave him a friend in the work, Elisha.
These three things are almost a spiritual law, and I bet the rabbis had a word for it.
What is there about food that represents all the good in life. Is it because it is such a basic need?
Not too long ago I watched a friend invite another to come over. I’ll fix you breakfast, she offered. In that simple offering was all the power of providing a few wings in a free fall.
The next time you have a hard day, ask yourself if you are missing one or all of these elements, then try to consciously give them to yourself.
And if you are dealing with a recalcitrant child or some other in your life, you’ll find these help also.
I laugh when I think of the truism: the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. There’s a reason for that adage, and it applies to more than men.
I think there’s something about food disorders that gets back to the base line of love. If you struggle with this, know that you are loved and that you can love. You can rest in that.
Karin
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July 13th, 2007 — Books, Guest writer, Hope, Quotations
I’m currently reading Fire in the Soul: A New Psychology of Spiritual optimism
. Again, I got this from the library until I knew if I would like to own it. (I’m currently reading several of her books, serially.) Much of the book has illustrations of various types of new-agey helps that she investigates and actually found help in, at this point in her life.
I found the chapter on Hope and Surrender, p 153-157, fascinating. I’m always on the lookout for more about hope. Maybe you are too? Have you read any of her books? Have you read this one?
What are you currently reading? My sister brought me a book to read, but I need to finish these heavy-duty ones first.
Karin
Hope is a term usually applied to the future…This kind of hope is directive, willful…Like spiritual courage, spiritual hope is most likely to emerge when we let go of will and open ourselves to trust…
“Some people imagine that hope is the highest degree of optimism, a kind of super-optimism…A far more accurate picture would be that hope happens when the bottom drops out of our pessimism. We have nowhere to fall but into the ultimate reality of God’s motherly caring.†Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness
by Brother David Steindl-Rast, Benedictine monk, p 136
Steindl-Rast points out that the ordeals we suffer purge us of unfounded optimism. When the ‘bottom drops out of our pessimism’ we are forced to let go of the idea that we are ‘doers’ who can conquer life by the application of our individual will…We might apply this attitude of surrender to any area of life in which we have struggled fruitlessly to change [as in the first step of a 12 step program.]
…hope and surrender may seem to be strange bedfellows. But when, as Steindl-Rast says, we ‘fall into the ultimate reality of God’s motherly caring,’ we find that we have landed in the lap of hope itself. Hope, he asserts, is a patient waiting for God, a stillness that allows us to hear the inner voice of guidance…
“As long as we wait for an improvement of the situation our desires will make a great deal of noise. And if we wait for a deterioration of the situation, our fears will be noisy. The stillness that waits for the Lord’s coming in any situation – that is the stillness of Biblical hope. Not only is that stillness compatible with strenuous effort to change the situation, if that is our God-given task. It is only in that stillness that we shall clearly hear what our task is… The stillness of hope is the expression of a perfect focusing of energy on the task at hand. The stillness of hope is…the stillness of integrity. Hope integrates. It makes whole. Pp 138-139 [italics added by JB]
Buddhists have a similar approach to finding hope in times of adversity and behaving in what they would call ‘right action.’ Rather than specifying to the universe what the situation means and what is required for it to be fixed, the Buddhist approach is one of openness, an attitude of ‘don’t know.’ “Don’t know†allows for stillness, and stillness for wisdom. From this perspective, hope is not at all a future wish, but a depth of understanding [sic] that can transform past and future as well as lead to conscious action that helps to shape future events.
…hope is really a matter of perspective…from Latin root perspicere, meaning ‘to look through.’…with the courage that comes from seeing clearly. In discouragement, the opposite pertains…vision is clouded…
Madame Aboulker-Muscat [psychotherapist with international ability to heal people physically and emotionally through the creative engagement of their imagination] told Epstein [psychiatrist Gerald Epstein tells this in his book Healing Visualizations] that Freud likened psychoanalysis to a train. Looking out at the passing landscape, patients would describe what they saw to the analyst sitting in the next seat. Turning to Epstein, she suddenly demanded of him, “In what direction does the train go?†[He indicated horizontally.] [She] suddenly changed Epstein’s perspective by moving her hand upward, “Well, what if the direction were changed to this axis?â€
“It was an epiphany…seemed to lift me from the horizontal hold of the given, the ordinary patterns of everyday cause and effect. I leapt into freedom, and I saw the task of therapy – the task of being human – was to help realize freedom, to go beyond the given, to the newness that we all are capable of, and to our capacity to renew and re-create 9p 126)â€
Hope is the ability…to renew and recreate….The lens of hope through which past, present and future can assume new meanings… [Harris Dientsfrey quotes Epstein’s story in Where the Mind Meets the Body - The Search for the Mind's Effects on Physical Health
and says that from the air all are present, a single vision.]
[Joan looked at her teenage son with hopeful eyes, looking for the best in him.]
“Hope looks at all things the way a mother looks at her child with a passion for the possible. More than that, the eyes of hope look through all imperfections to the heart of all things and find it perfect; [JB added italics] GTHoP p 142 Steindl-Rast]â€
Put this way, hope is really a form of blessing. To bless is to increase, to allow something to unfold to its fullness. To hope is to create a sacred space, a space of possibility, in which the goodness of the Universe can express itself. The stance we adopt in that sacred space is one of readiness, openness and non-attachment to a particular outcome.
“Hope…is neither passive waiting nor is it unrealistic forcing of circumstances that cannot occur. It is like the crouched tiger, which will jump oly when the moment for jumping has come…To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.†Erich Fromm p 9 The Revolution of Hope, Toward a Humanized Technology.
…[chapters that follow discuss] meditation, contemplation and prayer, whose practice fosters hope: the willingness to listen patiently for the inner voice that will bring us to the path of freedom, and courage – opening the eyes of the heart that most clearly see the way.
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