Pamela Leavey

words and pictures....

Browsing:

Tag: Food For Thought

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: The Courage To Wait

Great advice and fabulous Food For Thought…

THE COURAGE TO WAIT

“When you’re like a keg of dynamite about to go off, patience means just slowing down at that point—just pausing—instead of immediately acting on your usual, habitual response. You refrain from acting, you stop talking to yourself, and then you connect with the soft spot. But at the same time you are completely and totally honest with yourself about what you are feeling. You’re not suppressing anything; patience has nothing to do with suppression. In fact, it has everything to do with a gentle, honest relationship with yourself.” ~~ Pema Chodron:  Practicing Peace in Times of War

It’s so important to remember in frustrating times to step back and find your balance or “soft spot” before reacting.

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:


Food For Thought: Life As You Wish

There is such truth in this, but sometimes it can be so difficult to break through our own difficulties…

In almost every case, nothing is stopping you, nothing is holding you back but your own thoughts about yourself and about “how life is.” Your personal freedom to experience yourself and life as you wish is not being limited. ~~ Neale Donald Walsch

No matter what holds you back, continue to push through and fly free…

(c. Photo: Little Yellow Plane ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

Related Images:


Food For Thought: Choice

We always have a choice… always:

The statement “I have no choice” is a lie. Be honest with yourself as to why you are choosing to do a particular thing. Then, do it gladly, knowing that you are always getting to do what you want. You can choose. Isn’t that power? ~~ Neale Donald Walsch

Related Images:


Clapton & Company: Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad

There’s a fabulous line up of great musicians (including Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II) on the stage with Eric Clapton for this version of “Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad” from the Crossroads 2007 Benefit:

It’s the perrenial question isn’t it, when the heart gets broken.

Food For Thought… On this Valentine’s Eve, there are people asking this question… May they all be blessed with the light of love tomorrow.

Related Images: