Daily Affirmations: Beauty

By: Pamela Leavey On: March 9, 2012 at 7:20 am

Today I remind myself that there is beauty in everything I see. The old red barn slated to be torn down… beautiful. The spring flowers, bursting their way through winter’s muted palette… beautiful. Take the time to stop, look and listen. Love and life and all around me. ~ Pamela J. Leavey

(Photo: Red Barn Doors on Point SHore in Amesbury, MA ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

Reflections: Live With Sorrow

By: Pamela Leavey On: February 28, 2012 at 12:04 pm

I’ve reflected here, sometimes on a very personal level, in recent weeks some of what I have been going through in my life. There’s been a a lot of change, an injury that has kept me mostly house-bound for over 7 weeks and when I lump all the stuff that has happened together, I find my self at times slipping into sorrow.

The quote below from the great spiritual master J. Krishnamurti eloquently expresses how to… Live with sorrow:

We all have sorrow. Don’t you have sorrow in one form or another? And do you want to know about it? If you do, you can analyze it and explain why you suffer. You can read books on the subject, or go to the church, and you will soon know something about sorrow. But I am not talking about that; I am talking about the ending of sorrow. Knowledge does not end sorrow. The ending of sorrow begins with the facing of psychological facts within oneself and being totally aware of all the implications of those facts from moment to moment. This means never escaping from the fact that one is in sorrow, never rationalizing it, never offering an opinion about it, but living with that fact completely.

You know, to live with the beauty of those mountains and not get accustomed to it is very difficult. You have beheld those mountains, heard the stream, and seen the shadows creep across the valley, day after day; and have you not noticed how easily you get used to it all? You say, ‘Yes, it is quite beautiful,’ and you pass by. To live with beauty, or to live with an ugly thing, and not become habituated to it requires enormous energy,an awareness that does not allow your mind to grow dull. In the same way, sorrow dulls the mind if you merely get used to it,and most of us do get used to it. But you need not get used to sorrow. You can live with sorrow, understand it, go into it -but not in order to know about it. You know that sorrow is there; it is a fact, and there is nothing more to know. You have to live. ~~ J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

The great lesson in living with sorrow, is that yes, “you have to live.” You must carry on… And learn to live your life through the suffering and sorrow…

(Photo: Two Swans at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey)

Food For Thought

By: Pamela Leavey On: September 13, 2011 at 8:41 am

Beauty is complete order. But most of us have not that sense of beauty in our lives. We may be great artists, great painters, expert in various things, but in our own daily life, with all the anxieties and miseries, we live, unfortunately, a very disordered life. It is a fact. You may a great scientist, you may be a great expert in a subject, but you have your own problems, struggles, pain, anxieties and the rest of it. We are asking, is it possible to live in complete order within, not impose discipline, control, but to inquire into the nature of this disorder, what are the causes, and to dispel, move away, wash away the cause. Then there is a living order in the universe. ~~ J. Krishnamurti

The Beauty Of Summer

By: Pamela Leavey On: July 21, 2011 at 1:19 pm

I’ve had great success this summer with my first perennial garden as I mentioned in a post below. Yesterday I spent time weeding, dead heading and watering in preparation for the heat wave heading our way. I’m so happy to live in apartment with a lovely yard that I can garden in…

During my 19 years living in Los Angeles I was limited to potted plants outside of my apartment door on the walkway. Although they were all beautiful, it just wasn’t the same as creating a little garden paradise that is lush with the beauty of summer…

(Photo: Blackeyed Susans ~~ © Pamela J. Leavey 2011)

The Beauty of Summer

By: Pamela Leavey On: July 15, 2011 at 1:48 pm

Day lillies…

Photo: Red Day Lily ~~ © Pamela J. Leavey 2011

Food For Thought: Beauty Beyond Feeling

By: Pamela Leavey On: June 15, 2011 at 7:10 am

J. Krishnamurti…

Without passion how can there be beauty? I do not mean the beauty of pictures, buildings, painted women, and all the rest of it. They have their own forms of beauty. A thing put together by man, like a cathedral, a temple, a picture, a poem, or a statue may or may not be beautiful. But there is a beauty which is beyond feeling and thought and which cannot be realized, understood, or known if there is not passion. So do not misunderstand the word passion. It is not an ugly word; it is not a thing you can buy in the market or talk about romantically. It has nothing whatever to do with emotion, feeling. It is not a respectable thing; it is a flame that destroys anything that is false. And we are always so afraid to allow that flame to devour the things that we hold dear, the things that we call important.  ~~ The Book of Life