Archives

Somewhere the sun is shining through a silver lining

Jul29

“Hey, little girl, come to your window And hear the music sing you a sweet song Don’t let the rain make you unhappy In just a moment we’re going to be walking in the sun Little gray clouds will cheer up They’re going to smile and clear up When they hear those rainy day bells Pitter-patter, rain day bells”

Today was a glorious rainy day & tonight is wonderfully rainy!! So in honor of this lovely pleasant surprise, here are a few of my rainy pics! And a sweet rainy song!!
.Rainy Day Bells – the – Globetrotters
-mobile

Rainy Day Bells – desktop

These photos were taken with my new Marshmallow phone and edited with  Snapseed.

This rainbow appeared right on the counter at work! How magical! Lol j/k! I put a bokeh effect on the pic! 😉


😀


I hope you are having a beautiful day or night wherever in the world you are;! 😀

Much love,

Xoxo Kim

Stillness ❤

Jul28

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Sailing – Christopher Cross- mobile

Sailing – desktop

“Well, it’s not far down to paradise, at least it’s not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility
Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see” 💝

Stillness is a beautiful place we can all discover deep within. It doesn’t matter what is going on outside, how calm or chaotic. There are a multitude of ways to tap into that place. It can be through meditation, some activity like walking, sailing, listening to music, coloring…

I think it’s important each day, at least once, to engage in the thing/s that are avenues to stillness, whatever it may be for us.

I find walking in a light rainy mist, certain songs, meditation, listening to the sound of rain, reading certain quotes and things are all great ways to tap into that place of stillness within me. Also, just sitting and intentionally stilling my mind, focusing on each breath in & out is a great way to find stillness. Distractions are OK, loud noises, phones ringing, yelling and talking going on outside…are all great opportunities to practice focusing the mind within, even with chaos or distractions going on in our physical environment.

My city, Philadelphia, is a busy city. It is alive at night and full of people laughing, yelling, arguing, chatting, sometimes playing instruments, cars screeching and beeping, lights, police cars and ambulances, construction work, protests and awareness walks…and meditation classes I attend some Thursday nights and on the weekends are in Center City Philadelphia where lots of action and noises take place. We are encouraged to silence our cellphones and keep quiet as possible during class but that doesn’t stop the clatter and drama and noise outside. But I see the outside distractions tempting us to lose focus on our inner world, as an amazing opportunity to truly strengthen our practice of maintaining inner stillness.

It’s like the saying “no one ever learns to be a great driver by driving along a perfectly straight road.”

If things outside are always quiet and peaceful our practice may not be as strong. In this life, no matter how peaceful our outter environment generally is, most of us will still experience occasional annoyances, something that disturbs our composure at one point, losses, possibly trauma of some sort, some kind of pain, …anything that potentially provokes unsettling emotions in us.

When we practice generally keeping our minds still, we will be equipped with the necessary skills to handle life’s ups and downs in a healthy manner.

Distractions, loud noises, people acting in a rude manner…are all gifts that we can use to our advantage, to be great for others as well as our own self. When we are calm and loving, our energy is peaceful and touches others for the better. 

Just taking a few minutes each day at home, work, walking…and focusing on the breath can do wonders for us. The results are amazing. It takes some practice and self discipline to develop the habit but is very well worth it.

We do not need some big, deep, time consuming meditation practice (although if we have one, that is wonderful!) To find stillness. Any activity we find calming that generates inner peace is great. And techniques can be incorporated into our mundane experiences in creative ways, brushing our teeth, showering, cleaning, eating…all are activities we have to each day that we can also use to practice calming techniques like breathing mindfully or other mindfulness activities, such as truly experiencing each sensation, the feel of the water on our skin, the bristles of our toothbrush in the mouth, the taste of our food, the texture…

I hope you have or soon find that thing or things that set you free no matter what is going on around you.

Much love, light, & stillness to you, always! 😀

Xoxo Kim ❤

Thoughts unguarded

Jul26

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“Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.”

This is a great reminder  that our own thinking is what makes or breaks us, not what someone else does or thinks. It’s all up to us. We cannot always choose our emotions immediately but we can choose to practice or strengthen positive thinking. We hurt our own selves more than anyone else can, by allowing toxic energy to affect us.

No matter what anyone else  does, thinks, or says, as long as we don’t let it drag us down, they are not getting over on us even if we choose to just let it go and not confront it. It may seem like being too passive or a pushover but it’s not as long as our mind is peaceful. 

This isn’t to say not to address problems, just that as long as our mind is still, peaceful, calm, it’s all that matters.

This is a verse out of a translation of the Dhammapada that I have. I made this thing with a free app. It’s the perfect background image for this quote!

Much love,

Xoxo Kim

Beautiful and stupid❤

Jul25

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I don’t have very many pics on my kindle, which is what im using here, so heres me for now!

“When you are intelligent and beautiful you face a lot of problems. If you are beautiful and stupid then it’s easy”

Attributed to Nawal El Saadawi

This quote gives me a good chuckle! Lol! 😝

Being beautiful & stupid is fantastic! 💝

I am beautiful, it’s true, not completely stupid but certainly no genius!

😀

Today I wasn’t supposed to have work until tonight but I got woken up and asked to work another ten hour shift because there was a death in my boss & manager’s family. 💔

Being ripped out of my sleep and being told someone died gave me a kind of dull headache. But it’s much better since earlier.

Today I was going to catch up on reading blogs and answering comments, some of which are a few months old! 😱😨

I  will respond soon now! Better late than never!

I’m extremely thankful for every comment I receive and every person who reads, likes, shares….my content!!

 

Thank you!! 😍💖💝

Much love,

Kim

Heaven on Earth 💖

Jul25

 

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(Not my photo)

Heaven is a place on Earth – mobile

Heaven is a place on Earth – desktop ❤

“They say in Heaven, love comes first
We’ll make Heaven a place on Earth
Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth” — Belinda Carlisle 💗💖💝

Love can be romantic love, platonic love, universal love(love for all sentient beings, wishing everyone the best, inner peace ❤ 👪 all encompassing love 💞😘), self love, love for a thing, place, activity, love for life itself, love as a state of being with no specific target….anything! Any love is good love!!

Let’s put more love out into the world! 

Let’s make  Heaven a place on Earth! 💖

💘💏💑😘😍💕💞

Much love &  light to you always,

Xoxo  Kim 😀

Promote what you love 

Jul22

This isn’t my photo but it’s one of my favorite quotes. I love the concept of focusing on what we love instead of what we do not or focusing more on what we love and less on the things we do not like. I often think of politics when I think of this because often, we, both politicians as well as just “ordinary” citizens, tend to bash “the other side” and those who support it. Constructive criticism is definitely a positive thing, usually but I still think it’s most often best to focus our energy on the strengths of what we are promoting than on criticizing something or someone else. Of course, this can apply to anything, not just politics. 

I share this sentiment often and here it is again! 😀 It can never be stressed too much!

I have lots of blog & messages to catch up on and will soon! Probably Monday because it’s a busy weekend at work!


Much love,


Xoxo Kim

Inspiration ❤

Jul21

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“‘You’re a good mother,’ Addie says suddenly. I look down at her, shocked. ‘I see that now,’ she continues, eying me with a hint of surprise. ‘You put up with a lot of crap, mainly from your husband, but somehow you manage to keep things together. You wanted to slap that woman in the bathroom, and maybe you should’ve, but I can’t really fault you for having self-control.’ As the elevator doors open, she steps inside and turns to me. ‘Parents can really screw their children up, but I think you’re the kind of parent who makes her children have better, happier lives. I wish all parents were like you.’ I stare at her, shocked by this sudden outpouring. ‘Are you coming?’ she adds. ‘I really think we should get home now.’ She looks around at the elevator’s interior. ‘These things are so shiny and neat. And so full of potential.’”

I read a fiction book called The Death of Addie Gray, a supernatural thriller about a nine year old little girl who suffers an accident while out with her mom one day and is in a comatose state for nine months. She finally wakes up and her mom is beyond thrilled, of course, what mom wouldn’t be when her baby wakes up after nine months being comatose! She wasn’t expected to ever wake up and the doctors kept encouraging the family to have the life support terminated.

But when Addie wakes up, she claims she isn’t Addie, that she’s another girl, an older girl.

There won’t be any big spoilers here, just so you know.

So this mom has to face the possibility that just maybe the soul of another girl inhabited her daughter’s body while her daughter was comatose and that maybe her daughter’s own soul has vacated the body.

This mother is not very spiritual and doesn’t really believe in ghosts and stuff of that sort so it’s difficult for her to entertain these thoughts. It’s a horror novel written by author Amy Cross.

The quote above is out of the book.

It’s one of my favorite scenes in the book because it’s so inspiring how the one character, a young girl, beautifully, genuinely compliments this woman.

And what greater compliment for a mom to receive than being told she’s a great mom! 😀

I find it inspiring for two reasons. One, it’s always inspiring when a woman\girl genuinely compliments another! We really should consider doing that more often, wouldn’t that be great?! Also, it’s inspiring to see that this woman is a great mom who contributes to her daughter’s happiness and helps her grow and lavishes nothing but love onto her. We can do this for everyone we encounter whether or not we are a parent. Let’s help others grow, focus on their strengths, accept their weaknesses, build each other up, like a mother does for her child.

This is a horror novel, gory in some scenes, scary but also inspiring in some ways. The mother’s fierce love for her daughter is evident all throughout , she puts her daughter first during the nine month ordeal and after she wakes up. Every waking second is spent making sure her daughter is safe and healthy, before, during, and after the nine month long nightmare.

So even in gory horror novels and movies there may be little gems of inspiration scattered about.

Also, I love how the character , quoted above, is in awe of elevators , a mundane aspect of life we probably think nothing of each day. This reminds me to give thanks more frequently for inventions & discoveries we encounter each day but often overlook. Imagine if air conditioners , cars, cell phones, elevators, seat belts, public transportation, fans, Internet….were never invented. Imagine if electricity was never discovered. Let’s look at the world with new eyes and give thanks for everyone & everything and lavish love onto everyone we meet. 💕

😀

Much love & light to you,

 

Xoxo Kim

Live 💟

Jul20

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This is a picture I took of the TV screen when I was watching a movie called something like “Hitcher.” (I put the stickers on) I don’t really like the movie but this is an inspiring quote. The movie is gory and full of violence.

The handwriting is terrible, isn’t it?! (If it’s an adult’s) Lol! My own handwriting is atrocious and embarrassing so I can say that. 😉

I love how this says “Live to live another day.”

It’s so simple. I often see posts, quotes, suggestions….for “finding” or   “creating” our “purpose” or “reasons for living” but to me, the reason to live and my purpose is just to live, to see another day and all the beauty it brings. 

We don’t need a  specific purpose or answer, in my opinion. It’s great to have passions and interests, family, friends, goals, dreams, plans, talents, jobs, questions, pursuits…. But I don’t think any of those are our reason for living. First of all they may not always be around or around in the same way. People, pets come and go, we can lose jobs and our ability to do certain things, our plans and interests can change….but we still have purpose and a reason to be. And even if we have people and things around forever and maintain the same interests always, they are only part of us, not all of us.  We have a reason & purpose all on our own. 😍

Let’s live to live another day. No matter what we have or don’t have or what is happening within or around us. 💗 This especially inspires me because I struggle with severe suicidal depression and when I’m having an episode, I usually do not see a reason to go on living. I often ask myself “Why go on?, Why live?”

This reminds me to live to live another day. Each day is a gift even when it doesn’t feel like it. 💝 I hope if you share my struggle you will choose life. Always choose life. 💓

And if you don’t struggle with suicidal inclination like me, I hope you still find it inspiring. There are various interpretations to things and ways to be inspired. 

Much love & light today and always…

 

Xoxo

💕 Kim