Pamela Leavey

words and pictures....

Browsing:

Category: Merrimack River

Food For Thought: Find Joy

A short time after publishing my earlier post today, Live With Sorrow, I looked out of my desk window to check on my little yellow crocus that have been blooming sporadically for over a week now and found they had some companions… Some lovely white crocus had also bloomed.

As I hobbled down my driveway, camera in hand, I was filled with joy knowing that more of the crocus I had planted last fall were poking their pretty little petals out in the sun.

It’s true that the smallest and simplest things can fill our hearts with joy. For me flowers have always been a great source of joy. I spent 20 years working as a floral designer and although the long hours during the holiday seasons were rough, the work itself was always filled with joy. It never ceased to amaze me during those 20 years, that I could look at a bunch of white daises, or red roses, or pink carnations and find that one perfect flower that made me say, “wow.”

Joy is all around us… Even in times of deep sorrow, we must open our eyes to see, open our ears to hear and let it the joy flow into us every day.

(Photo: Crocus On The River ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

Related Images:


Food For Thought: Seduction

I ran across this yesterday on Facebook from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It’s a marvelous nibble of Food For Thought on the topic of seduction. Enjoy…

“If you’ve ever hung over the railing of a bridge looking down at the water passing, sometimes you feel a little vertigo as though you are being pulled to maybe jump in and be taken by the current. This is true of seduction also.

There can be a pull that is unexplainable, a desire to just fall forward, jump in for a fabulous destruction of self by which i mean a ‘take down’ of… the overly egotistical psyche. This positive deconstruction can be liberating for it shakes out all detritus and wholeness rises thus…

but there’s also detrimental destruction of self via seduction …by a blue bearded woman or a blue bearded man who claims they cannot do without… who whilst wheedling, wheeling and dealing, holds aces up the sleeve that you… do not know about. And you wonder why they always pull so compellingly on your tripes (gut) and you always seem to lose one more pound of flesh.

Make sure you know which kind of seduction you’re facing… within yourself, and with others. And if its the kind to throw you into a rapids you cannot survive… step away, step away from the railing… and walk to solid, non-moving ground. Find a tree. Lean forehead against it’s bark.” ~~ from The Contemplari manuscript, ©2000, by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, all rights reserved.

And heed the advice if need be… we can be seduced on so many levels by so many things. We live in a technological world that feeds our temptations everyday, with an explosion of images and words and things we feel we must have. It’s always so important to stand your ground, when something doesn’t feel right.

(Photo: Tree on the Merrimack River ~~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

Related Images:


On The River: Early Signs of Spring

We wait with anxious excitement as Winter wanes, for early signs of Spring.

This Winter has been so unseasonably warm and we’ve had no significant snow what-so-ever.

Today I discovered the first signs of early Spring in my front perrenial garden…

Three little newly sprouted yellow crocuses:

I could see signs of more crocuses sprouting through the garden, that sorely needs to be cleaned up… Keep sprouting little crocuses… I look forward to your purple friends to show their faces soon.

(Photo: Yellow Crocus on Point Shore in Amesbury, MA ~~ c. Pamela J. Leavey ~ February 19, 2012)

Related Images:


Food For Thought: Outward Things

A deep contemplation today from J. Krishnamurti…

Awareness of outward things

If you are aware of outward things—the curve of a road, the shape of a tree, the colour of another’s dress, the outline of the mountains against a blue sky, the delicacy of a flower, the pain on the face of a passerby, the ignorance, the envy, the jealousy of others, the beauty of the earth—then, seeing all these outward things without condemnation, without choice, you can ride on the tide of inner awareness. Then you will become aware of your own reactions, of your own pettiness, of your own jealousies. From the outward awareness, you come to the inward; but if you are not aware of the outer, you cannot possibly come to the inner… When there is inward awareness of every activity of your mind and your body; when you are aware of your thoughts, of your feelings, both secret and open, conscious and unconscious, then out of this awareness there comes a clarity that is not induced, not put together by the mind. ~~ J. Krishnamurti: The Collected Works vol XV p 243

What do you see when you look around you… And how do you feel when you see it… I believe that “ride on the tide of inner awareness” we must see everything with an open heart that radiates love.

(Photo: Young Mute Swans at the Artichoke River Reservior ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

Related Images:


Daily Affirmations

This seems so appropriate on this beautiful sunny day here on the river…

“Let us give thanks for this beautiful day. Let us give thanks for this life. Let us give thanks for the water without which life would not be possible. Let us give thanks for Grandmother Earth who protects and nourishes us.” ~~ Daily Prayer of the Lakota

Related Images:


Daily Affirmations: Strength

I am strong enough to get through whatever life throws at me. There is an inner strength that flows through me like a river that runs through the earth’s surface. ~~ Pamela J. Leavey

(Photo: Merrimack River at Point Shore, July 2011 ~~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2011)

 

Related Images: