I am blessed with the knowledge each day that happiness is my choice. I look around me and see joy in so many things and so many aspects of my life. Life is good… And I am blessed. ~~ Pamela J. Leavey

(Photo: Harrier Hawk at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

“Happiness is a choice, not a condition. I can choose to be happy, or I can choose otherwise. Truly, what choice is there to make, but that of happiness, when I know that happiness is God’s choice for me. If I am to wallow, than me wallow in joy and the knowledge that Heaven is here, now.” – Pamela J. Leavey

(Photo: Blue Hydrangea ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2011)

I am blessed with the knowledge each day, that my life is filled with love; that I have great love in my life. Like the new growth on trees in Spring, I am abundant in my love and in my life. I bless the love and the loved ones I have in my life, today and everyday.” – Pamela J. Leavey

(Photo: Spring Buds at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

“Love is acceptance. Love is compassion. Love is honesty. Love is the perfect Rose, that blooms in the sun’s warm glow. Love is the laughter and the smile of a child. Love is the knowledge that, all things are as God created them. When I accept that, I open my heart and soul, to ceaseless possibilities.” – Pamela J. Leavey

(Photo: Red Poppies ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2011)

Today is International Women’s Day:

I wrote Watch Us Stand Strong in 1994. I’ve shared it here before but felt today was a good day to share it again:

Watch Us Stand Strong

Long have we walked
Through the valley of our sadness,
Searching for a way
To end all the madness.
Long have we toiled,
Silent and unnoticed,
Suppressing our knowledge
And our gift to heal the world.
We are large by number,
We are small through the ages,
There are few that have spoken,
Few that dare to read
Our pages.
We are mothers,
We are daughters,
We are sisters,
We are friends;
We contain the lifeblood,
And the passion
Of all the universe
In our souls.
We are women,
Full of knowledge,
And beauty;
The Queens of our planet.
We are home now,
Watch us stand strong,
It is time to heal
Our world.

Check here for 10 Ways to Celebrate International Women’s Day. I spent a good part of International Women’s Day outside in my yard enjoying to 70 degree day here on the river. A little time communing with the Great Mother Goddess is always balm to the soul.

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)

J. Krishnamurti…

Now the question is: Is there an energy which is not within the field of thought, which is not the result of self-contradictory, compulsive energy, of self-fulfillment as frustration? You understand the question? I hope I am making myself clear. Because, unless we find the quality of that energy which is not merely the product of thought that bit by bit creates the energy but also is mechanical, action is destructive, whether we do social reform, write excellent books, be very clever in business, or create nationalistic divisions and take part in other political activities and so on. Now, the question is whether there is such an energy, not theoretically, because when we are confronted with facts, to introduce theories is infantile, immature. It is like the case of a man who has cancer and is to be operated upon; it is no good discussing what kinds of instruments are to be used and all the rest of it; you have to face the fact that he is to be operated upon. So, similarly, a mind has to penetrate or be in such a state when the mind is not a slave to thought. After all, all thought in time is invention; all the gadgets, jets, the refrigerators, the rockets, the exploration into the atom, space, they are all the result of knowledge, thought. All these are not creation; invention is not creation; capacity is not creation; thought can never be creative because thought is always conditioned and can never be free. It is only that energy which is not the product of thought that is creative. ~~ The Book of Life

Wealth is a river of love that runs through my heart. Abundance is soul full of care that asks “what can I do”. Prosperity is the knowledge that I have all that I need. ~~ Pamela J. Leavey

(Merrimack River, View from Point Shore, Amesbury, MA  - c. Pamela J. Leavey 2010)

Today is International Women’s Day. Given that, I wanted to share a poem I wrote in 1994:

Watch Us Stand Strong

 

Long have we walked 
Through the valley of our sadness, 
Searching for a way 
To end all the madness. 
Long have we toiled, 
Silent and unnoticed, 
Suppressing our knowledge 
And our gift to heal the world. 
We are large by number, 
We are small through the ages, 

There are few that have spoken, 
Few that dare to read 
Our pages. 
We are mothers, 
We are daughters, 
We are sisters, 
We are friends; 
We contain the lifeblood, 
And the passion 
Of all the universe 
In our souls. 
We are women, 
Full of knowledge, 
And beauty; 
The Queens of our planet. 
We are home now, 
Watch us stand strong, 
It is time to heal 
Our world.

c. Pamela J. Leavey 1994

“Today, I am grateful for the knowledge, that I can make a difference in the world. Today, I ask to be led, where would you have me go, what would you have me do, how can I make a difference. With open mind, and open heart, I give, that I may be an instrument for change.” – Pamela J. Leavey