Inspired

A Door To My New Life

This is the door to my future.

The door to my new home…the door to a new chapter in my life.

When I step through this door I’m stepping into “yes”.

With this house I’ve embraced more…bright colours, new ideas, new materials and openness.

With this house I’ve embraced less…less space, less gardening, less to care for.

This house is the outer reflection of the inner changes in me.

Bright, bold, free, and open.

(this door is so new that the stickers are still on it…but soon, very soon we’ll be moving in!)

This post is this weeks contribution to the Lens Us Together project.  The theme is Windows and Doors: Portals of Transition and was suggested by Donna at A Life in Focus.

Everyday Peace

We still have yellow daisies bravely greeting us every day in a pot on the steps.  I’ve always loved the daisy for it’s cheerful simplicity. 

Everyday Peace.

This phrase has been rolling around in my head for awhile now. 

Everyday peace…peace every day…every day…peace. 

It’s like a mantra that repeats over and over, gently reminding me to choose peace.  Every moment of every day…choose peace.  I’ve been insanely busy for the past month or so, with the final running around for the house and having Shingles on top of not one, but two sore throats has all taken a toll.  It’s been important for me to stay balanced and in a place of peace and I’ve been breathing, deep breathing, a lot.  It brings everything back to center so quickly.  I’m currently doing an online energy course and deep breathing is a huge part of it. 

Did you know that:

…It’s impossible to be stressed while breathing deeply. 

…It’s impossible to worry when breathing deeply. 

…It’s impossible to stay angry when breathing deeply.

…It’s impossible to be anxious when breathing deeply.

It feels wonderful…so calming and peaceful.  It also reduces blood pressure, insomnia and pain.  It makes me wonder why I’ve resisted it for so long. 

As part of my commitment to a peaceful life…everyday peace and peace every day…as often as possible (hopefully every week but you know how it goes!) I plan to focus a post on peace.  It may just be a photograph and a quote but knowing me I usually have too much to say to leave it at a picture. 

So you’ll be seeing my peace posts popping up on a fairly regular basis.

Play well and be kind to one another...and thank you so much for visiting.

Tea in the Woods

The theme for this week’s Lens-Us-Together (which now has 68 creative souls participating) is Coffee and Tea and was suggested by Andie.

The tea cups in this photograph belonged to my mother and although they’re not often used used now, they’re filled with sweet memories.  Mom was of an era that actually held afternoon tea parties for her friends…complete with a gauzy, ruffled apron, finger sandwiches and delicate pastries.  In fact they were used frequently in our home, for friends as well as strangers were routinely urged to come in and have a cup of tea.  The kettle was put on to boil as soon as a live body came through the door! 

There’s something so universal about the hospitality of offering a guest a cup of coffee or tea.  It crosses barriers of both language and culture. It cover moments of awkwardness and offers condolences when words are inadequate. It honours old friendships and invites new ones.

It says; lets stop and share a moment together

So pull up a mossy log dear friend and I’ll pour the tea.  We’ll chat about the softness of the forest floor and the heady scent of ancient cedars.  Birds will scold us until we throw some crumbs their way and curious squirrels will scamper shyly up and down the trees.  As sunlight shines softly through filtered boughs, we’ll sip our tea and feel a bliss of sheer contentment.

And who knows…there may even be a fairy or two who will join us…just over there, hiding behind the maidenhair fern. 

Oh, I’m so glad you’re here!

…Play well and be kind to one another.

Lens Us Together – week 4: Orange

Life Ring for the Queen of Cumberland – BC Ferries

I’ve been away for awhile…south of the border in the US…and then home again, but just long enough to grab some clean clothes before taking an inter island ferry to visit with my dear friend “E” for a few days.  My friend was tackling the job of decluttering a lifetime’s worth of possessions.  It can help to have someone who’s not emotionally attached when you decide to purge not only your own accumulations, but also those you’ve inherited from parents and other relatives who have passed on.  It’s a difficult and painful task to decide what to keep and what to let go of when every object holds a beautiful and priceless memory and seems like the  last “tie” to those who are gone.  I went through some of this myself when I packed up my home last spring and I know there will be more of it happening soon when I unpack in a house that’s almost half the size of the one I left. 

The photograph above of the life ring was taken on the boat when we stopped to unload and reload at Galiano Island.  The bright orange colour is the international colour of safety and visibility so it fits in perfectly with this week’s orange theme.  I’ve always believed that safety is an “inside job” and if we don’t feel safe deep within ourselves, no amount of locks, chains, guards or bolts will ever make us feel safe.

"Safety does not lie in contraction. Something has gone awry because you have believed that contraction could make you safe. Now practice the opposite. Start believing that it is expansion that will make you safe, and then be the observer. You can find a hundred ways to expand every day. Just try it. In the midst of something that looks frightening, start expanding with your breath. The natural act of filling your lungs with air will straighten your spine and extend your chest. Then you will be 'leading with the heart.' And the heart is where you feel the love."

"When you wake up every morning, plant this statement deeply inside your awareness: "As much as I am able this day, I will go within, ask and listen; and I am going to trust and risk by doing what I feel to be true. Thus, I will follow the response rather than the safety of my habitual patterns".

From the Heart of a Gentle Brother – Mary Margaret Moore

For more Orange inspiration, check out other posts at Lens Us Together.

Play well and be kind to one another.

Lens.Us.Together - week 03: Who I See

 

He's the one who laughs (a lot!)

and makes me laugh too

(even when I swear I won't).

He's the one who found me a half a world away

and left home,

and country

to be with me.

He's the one who loves music and movies

and boats and water and travel and people

and oh so many other things.

He's the one who throws a ball

to our obsessive, ball chasing, hairy friend

and

I'm thrilled to say,

he's the one who loves me

as much as I love him!

This weeks topic at Lens-Us-Together is Who I See and was hosted by Dani.  The photograph above of my husband and our "obsessive, ball chasing, hairy friend", otherwise known as Molly...was taken today at Ocean Shores in Washington State.  We're away for some rest and relaxation and other than walking on the beach, we're doing a whole lot of nothing and loving it!

lens-us-together…week 02 – Abandoned

The theme for week 02 at lens-us-together is abandoned and was suggested by Beth at Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Taken.  I love Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s beautiful little book Gift From the Sea and it’s theme of ebb and flow…of life’s changes and fluctuations…which she herself came to terms with while spending a week on her own by the ocean, away from her husband and five children. 

The sea abandons the shore every day and then returns.  When we understand the natural rhythms of nature it's somehow easier to come to terms with loss, change and even abandonment in our own lives.

afternoon sunlight at the sea’s edge

"For relationships, too, must be like islands. One must accept them for what they are here and now,

within their limits - islands surrounded and interrupted by the sea,

continuously visited and abandoned by the tides.

One must accept the serenity of the winged life,

of ebb and flow, of intermittency.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh"

Gifts From the Sea

 

Play well and be kind to one another,

Kate

.

lens.us.together - Where I Live

I’ve joined a new group of online photographers here at Lens.Us.Together.  The project will last for 52 weeks and there are about thirty of us participating.  Our first prompt was “Where I Live”.

Where I live,

the water is our highway.

I live on Vancouver Island...a ferry ride

from the mainland of Canada's west coast.

The ocean impacts our lives in so many

ways and to some extent, defines who we are.  We're

islanders and life is a little slower here

and more laid back than on the mainlaned.

Sometimes we're called "tree huggers" and "granola crunchers"

but really, we're just passionate about our beautiful island

...and no, Birkenstocks (with or without socks) do not live in my closet!

My heart loves it here,

and that says it all!

 

 

Play well

and be kind to one another