Pamela Leavey

words and pictures....

Food For Thought: The Life We Planned

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” ~ Joseph Campbell

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A long time ago I learned that life never quite goes according to plan. If it did, I know my life would such a different life than it is now. Plans change. Expectations fall to the wayside. The seeds from fallen dreams grow into trees with many branches reaching up to the sun longing to find fruition in leaf.

I planned to be a painter when I was young. I planned to be a dancer too. Those plans turned to fallen seeds that planted my talents in my heart and mind and I created new plans in the spring light.

Life is a long series of plans and dreams. Some bud and leaf, blossom and grow. Some fizzle out in the hot sun for many reasons we cannot control. The greatest lesson I have learned about plans that don’t come to fruition is that greater things oft turn out in their wake.

Photo: The Mother Tree at Maudslay State Park ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey

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Food For Thought: On Life Lessons

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Our path is always changing, as is the scenery. One day we find ourselves heading in a completely different direction then we had planned. What happened, we ask ourselves, how did my life change so suddenly without my approval of the plan? Lessons appear in our lives when we least expect them. These life lessons are our opportunities to rise above the adversities in our lives and become more than we were when the lessons presented themselves. How we handle those lessons determines whether we learn from the lessons or stay stuck, wallowing in despair.

Life can be harsh and life can be filled with wonder and joy. It is up to each of us to make the best of what we are presented with each and every day. Each day, I re-mind myself to find even the smallest sliver gratitude, joy and happiness. Even in the midst of the most profound grief and sorrow, we can all find something to be grateful for each day. Gratitude matters. When we strive to live in the moment we begin to transcend the difficulties placed in the midst of our path.

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Quote of the Day: Aldous Huxley

"Mentally and physically, man is the inhabitant, during the greatest part of his life, of a purely human and, so to say, homemade universe, scooped by himself out of the immense,  nonhuman cosmos which surrounds  it, and without which neither  it nor he could exist."   - Huxley and God - By Aldous Huxley

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Quote of the Day: from Thunder in the Sky

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“The wise do not have doubts about about events; the perceptive do not have doubts about people.” – Thunder In The Sky, translated by Thomas Cleary

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Quote of the Day: Sam Keen

“Understanding that the ordinary is the miracle changes our fundamental stance and disposition. Life is no longer a problem to be solved but a mystery in which we may participate fully.” – Sam Keen: Hymns to an Unknown God

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Quote of the Day: Pema Chodron

The honesty of precision and the goodheartedness of gentleness are qualities of making friends with yourself… As you work with being really faithful to the technique and being as precise as you can and simultaneously as kind as you can, the ability to let go seems to happen to you. The discovery of your ability to let go spontaneously arises; you don’t force it. You shouldn’t be forcing accuracy or gentleness either, but while you could make a project out of accuracy, you could make a project out of gentleness, it’s hard to make a project out of letting go. – Pema Chodron

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