Pamela Leavey

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Category: Musings

Reflections: Progress

After 11 weeks in some sort of a cast on my right foot, I am finally free. Free!

What a relief… But now the work begins. I got the okay to not sue my air cast any longer on Monday and yesterday I jumped right into PT. I’m done with laying and sitting around and ready to be outdoors walking and enjoying Mother Nature.

Right before I fell, I had been walking 3 – 4 days a week, mostly on the trails at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, and I am itching to get back on those trails.

Years ago I walked 4 – 5 days week, when my daughter was young and it was so healing for me: body, mind and soul. I was just starting to feel the endorphins kick in after about 3 – 4 weeks of walking when I fell.

My physical therapist asked what my goals were yesterday and I told her walking. As we talked more, I explained to her that I have a dream in the back of my mind that I would like to see come to fruition in the next couple of years and that is to walk The Camino.

I explained that I had recently watched The Way, and it renewed my desire to make the trek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f4f_CzD5-o

One day at a time for now… slowly, steadily building up strength, flexibility, balance and agility. Walking The Camino is no walk in the park, it is in fact a pilgrimage or spiritual adventure, depending on your religious views or lack there of.

I can honestly say now that I am starting to build up my strength again, the past 11 weeks were truly a very difficult time in my life. I am grateful to have had a really good orthopedic doctor who immediately recognized my injury as a Lisfranc sprain. it’s a complicated injury, that will takes weeks of PT to finish my recovery.

And then… Well, there’s trails at Parker River, Maudslay and elsewhere where I can make a type of daily pilgrimage to feed my body, mind and soul with the healing, loving nature of the Mother.

And so… the Mid-Life Crisis Adventure continues…

(Photo: Hellcat Swamp Trail ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

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Food For Thought: Relationships

When we give our heart to someone, we never expect it to get trounced on.

Marianne Williamson says in A Return To Love:

“Love is a participatory emotion.”

It takes two people to participate however… and if one isn’t showing up in that relationship… Well, it wasn’t love to begin with, was it?

(Photo: Osprey’s Nesting at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

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Daily Affirmations: Beauty

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)

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Chris Isaak Performs Blue Spanish Sky

Chris Isaak in a 1991 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno sitting in for Johnny Carson.  Doc Severinsen is featured on trumpet for this live performance of Blue Spanish Sky:

One of my favorite Chris Isaak songs… I must admit to being a big fan of Chris Isaak for many years, always making a point of catching one of his performances in L.A. year after year.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Chris perform at what was then the Universal Amphitheater (now the Gibson), the audience was filled with a lot of 30-something year old women all swooning over him… self included. That show was probably around the same time as this performance was filmed.

Enjoy…

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Reflections: Nothing In Life Is Ever Permanent

It’s a grey day here on the river today, with snow falling for the past 24 hours now. I have been reflecting today on losing something you think you found but really didn’t. In the blink of an eye, the sun shone through the clouds and lifted my heart up into the heavens, and I basked it’s warm and comfortable embrace…

And then it slipped away, back through the clouds and left me bereft of understanding as to where it went. But, alas, I do know that nothing in life is ever permanent. We struggle with loss and grief, and naturally we should. We learn from loss and grief, and naturally we should. And then, we move on.

Life is the grand hall of learning. It shapes who we are, and leaves us all with indelible impressions, called memories, that give us pause to reflect. We can reflect on the sadness, but we must always remember the joy.

(Photo: Parker River National Wildlife Refuge Afternoon ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2011)

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Reflections: Seeing Rainbows

When I look to the skies, I often see very magical formations in clouds like the one below that looks a bit like a rainbow colored lightening bolt seen through the the bare trees:

When I see rainbows, my heart lifts up to the heavens in a sort of communion with the universe that fills me with joy.

It’s so important to find joy in the little things in life, as I have noted here in my Daily Affirmation today, and my Food For Thought post yesterday.

We go through life sometimes in a very numb state of mind, in that we forgot to look to the skies for rainbows or stop and smell the flowers.

I learned a long time ago that in being in the moment, you place your heart and soul in alignment with the opportunity to experience and feel joy. To be in the moment takes constant work and practice on living with an open mind and an open heart.

Awakening to joy, seeing rainbows is a great balm to the soul when we learn to look to even the littlest things to fill our hearts and minds with love and gratitude.

(Photo: Rainbow Bolt Through the Trees ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

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