Tag Archive | life

We All Shine On

Oct8

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“Who in the hell d’you think you are?
A super star?
Well, right you are
Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on”

Last night I found it difficult to sleep, I kept twisting & turning and for some reason I was so unbearably hot. I put on two fans and the air conditioner and was still way too hot! My face was really hot and I felt all hot inside and just couldn’t get cool. My head was throbbing with migraine-like head pain and my vision has been so blurry. My chronic pain condition can do these things to me. Today was a busy day, I had plans to get up early and do stuff. It’s also Tara Day. Every month, on the 8th day, it’s Tara Day. She’s the female Buddha. So I went to the center for the chanting to her, then to the usual Thursday meditation class.
Tara is to remind us that a woman can accomplish things as well as a man (even better! Lol jk! ;-D ) 
 I knew I would be too exhausted to get up early today and it was disappointing. With my throbbing head and very little sleep, I wasn’t even sure how I would get out the door for the Tara chanting and meditation. But I did! 
I got out of bed at 5:00AM after no sleep and looked out the window. I was already joyful, even with a throbbing head and my disappointment. But when I looked out the window at the dark sky, my joy deepened. I saw faded white clouds and a beautiful moon with a star close to it! Then I looked to the other side and saw a sky full of stars! All twinkling for us all!
I’m happy for my little sleep because I wouldn’t have gotten up to see the sky! Well worth it. So much joy surging through me then & now.
What a happy girl I am!
I even got a picture! My phone camera usually can’t reach the stars and the moon doesn’t usually look good in my pics. But the moon looks so cute, a little crescent moon! 😀 And a sweet star!  
I won’t let my pain stop me too long or hold me back too much. I feel so connected to the world around me, when I look up to the night sky and moon, I feel as one with it.

I came upon this song tonight sung by John Lennon. I used to hear it often. It’s perfect for my post tonight! 

Instant Karma – mobile

Instant Karma – desktop

Here is Tara’s mantra:

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE

And this is one of the praises of Tara:

“Homage to you whose face is like
One hundred autumn moons gathered
And blazes with the dazzling light
Of a thousand constellations.”

Isn’t this just beautiful!

Remember to keep shining your light into the world!  
And remember, just like that moon and that star up in that dark, dark sky, your light is vibrant enough to shine and even in the blackest places.
Keep going even when you don’t feel like it. You can rest but always get back up!!

❤

Much love to you! 😀

And Happy Tara Day! 

Xoxo Kim

All the boy heard was the love…<3

Oct7

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(my sweet, silly, funny, loving little pomchies!! ❤ )

I read a novel a while ago called “Keeper of the Keys,” by Perri O’Shaughnessy, about a man whose wife disappears and he has a very painful and mysterious history with constantly moving with his mom to different houses and never meeting his dad who died years ago. After his wife disappears without a trace, he visits each house he lived as a boy, trying to find the secrets to his past that his mom keeps hidden. The fact that he did not know his dad growing up, and that he feels he never had a real home, contribute to his emotional anguish.

His mom paints a very negative image of his dad who is dead.

He visits his dad’s memorial and on pages, 193-4, it says this:

“He felt vast emptiness, surrounded by the dead and his own dead hopes. Every boy without a father probably harbors a secret illusion that his father would have been one of the good guys, if only. He’d load up a camper with canned food for trips to Yosemite to climb to Glacier Peak or Alaska to catch halibut, waking his son at five in the morning. Or maybe he would be the guy who dragged his boy off to museums to study the dusty Indian exhibits, who went on and on about the tar pits, and all the groggy boy heard, all the boy had to hear, was his father’s voice, not what he said. All the boy heard was the love.
The time they spent together would embed memories so deep, even if the man died, the boy could spend the rest of his lifetime savoring and honoring him.” 

This is heartbreakingly beautiful. The man is in agony over never knowing his dad. But isn’t it a beautiful concept? 

To have a relationship so loving that no matter how short lived it has been, it will still have the most incredible impact on us years and years later. Forever. 

This reminds me that it’s a great way for all of us to be with all those we are close to, everyone around us. To be so loving that we have a tremendous impact on someone even years after we are gone, no matter how our relationship ends. Whether it ends in death, just drifting apart, even a falling out, the good things we shared or did will still remain in memory. In this fantasy of the man, this boy’s relationship with his daddy is so loving, so beautiful that the man can die right then and for the rest of the little boy’s life, he will still remember and honor him. His love will outweigh the pain of his loss. He will still feel the loss and the pain but love will keep him going. 

Let’s create positive memories of each other and put mostly loving energy out into the world. Our energy affects those around us even if we aren’t always aware. 

When we are full of love and light inside, it really doesn’t always matter what we say, or if we say anything at all, people will only hear/feel our love.

I know what it’s like to be near someone who is so loving that it doesn’t matter if the person isn’t saying a word. I am enveloped in that soft, sweet, gentle love. We all have love in us, we all just don’t always act on it or allow it to be the main thing we feel and live each day.
But we can work to be better and better with it.

One of the people, I have been near who displays this kind of loving energy is an old lady I knew for years where I work. She’s a customer who comes occasionally. 

Some years ago at work one night, a man I do not and have never known, held a gun to my chest and said he would kill me and took all the money(I have nothing against him and hope he is doing well wherever he is and hope he’s no longer in that dark place he found himself in that night.). I was alone. This lady did not know me well but she was so concerned when she heard and she came the next night and asked me if I want her to walk me home that night. She would have had to walk back to her house herself after 10:00 at night for over 20 minutes! She is very small and old. And she would have done this for me! Isn’t that so sweet! Of course, I told her no but expressed my gratitude. And I will never forget that sweet act of kindness as long as I live.

Another day she heard another customer complaining that my service was too slow and it’s a man’s job, not a “little woman’s” to be working with water ice that is really hard to scoop. This lady told him in a sweet voice that I have been working there for years and always did a good job and know what I’m doing. I love how she came to my defense but not in an angry way against him. She was sweet and pleasant but firm. She defended me with compassion, not contempt for him.

She also gives me tips a lot when she comes. 

Those are indications of her loving ways. But when I really noticed her loving energy was when I felt it one day, not through her words or actions but just in her being, her essence. She was standing at the window and I just felt so enveloped, so immersed in her love. She is so gentle but her love is so powerful. 

Even if I never met her til that day at the window, I would have known her love even without her uttering a word to me.

We all have this ability to draw someone in, bathe others in our love, and at some moments, we probably do, but not all of us have developed and practice it in general. Some people are naturally more loving but even those who are less loving now, can develop it with practicing Lovingkindness to everyone everyday.

I hardly know this lady. I don’t know her name. She doesn’t come a lot to my workplace. She lives across the street. But I know her love so well. She is adorable and funny! 

One day I walked into the bar my boss owns, to give the cash back at the end of the day and the little lady was in there dancing and singing karaoke! She was singing that Oldie song “splish splash I was takin’ a bath!” lol it was so cute and funny!  

And she may not always act lovingly. She may get angry and disappointed and act less than kind occasionally, but if this is true, that doesn’t make her a less loving person as a whole. We can build our self up to be the best we can in each moment, even if we falter and aren’t always kind. But the more we practice and think lovingly, the more frequently we will act and feel loving. 

Some of us may be more receptive to one person’s energy than others are.  Even if we don’t always feel a person’s loving energy, it doesn’t mean it’s not there or that no one else feels it either. Some people just don’t sense energy much. And I think there are people with “matching energy” and when we meet those with energy similar to our own, we may click or have a deeper connection in some way than with others. But we all have energy and it’s good to make it positive. 

It doesn’t matter how long we know someone or have someone around. All the matters is the love we put out into the world. And the love we show those around us. ❤ ❤

Also check out Splish Splash, sung by Bobby Darin, a golden oldie! ;-D

Splish Splash – mobile

Splish Splash – desktop

It’s bound to put a big bright smile on your face, maybe even have you dancing around the room singing along!! ;-D

Lotsa love to y0u!! 😀 ❤ ❤

Xoxo Kim 😀

Best Days <3

Oct5

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“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

This post is about a day that I can say with complete certainty is one of the best days I ever experienced. I can’t say I have one day that is “the best day of my life.” I have occasions many days that I can say qualify as “the best.” And I don’t think there should be just one or a few days that are the best. I want to make every day as best as possible. Some will be better than others. Some will even suck for the most part and that’s quite alright!

But some days really stand out to me as the absolute best! And Monday, June 1st, 2015 is one such day!

Why do I remember the date? I’m really not sure. Maybe because it’s the first day of the month? Nothing significant happened at all. I wasn’t on vacation. In fact I was at work! How many people can say one of the best days of their life, was at work during the work hours?! Lol But I can! 

There was no “socially acceptable” (for lack of a better way of putting it) cause for celebration. It wasn’t a holiday (that I know of), no hanging out with friends, no graduations, weddings, engagements, job promotions, childbirths, amazing news,…that I was somehow associated with.

It was just a slow, calm, rainy night at work. I was alone, drinking hot tea, reading my zombie-like/apocalyptic thriller which I was loving to pieces. It’s my favorite! I was listening to a few great songs over and over, including Len Barry’s Bristol Stomp. I probably had a headache (because when do I not have a headache?), I did not have much money (because when do I ever?), my grief was still somewhat new (I lost a coworker, who I was close with, to unexpected death in February) it wasn’t my favorite kind of weather (except the rain and it was cooler that night than it has been), it was bordering on Summer. I’m more of a Fall/Winter kind of girl, it was quiet and still and I was waiting for a mystery thriller novel to come out that was to be released in eight days. 
Book 2 of a series by Dr. Carey Baldwin, and I waited seven months for that thing to be released!! Seven months! (and I’m in the middle of another seven waiting for the next! January 2016!) I could not wait! I was so happy that day knowing in just over a week, it would be in my hands (or on my Kindle app to be more accurate). I read it in less than one day!  It’s not a novella or anything, I just read it non stop til it was through. (And so did a few others because when I looked there were already four reviews for the book, just a few hours after it was released! So, it appears I’m not the only fanatic who waited up all night til it showed up on Kindle then devoured it all in one sitting!)   

So my point is that nothing significant at all happened. And the conditions were not perfect to me. Like I said, I had no money, it wasn’t like it was my favorite season, I wasn’t at home being able to do whatever I wanted or on a big fun-filled vacation…yet I can safely say it’s one of my sweetest, most cherished memories. One I will always keep with me.  

I did not want the night to end. I remember I stood up and looked at the clock on the wall hoping it wasn’t nearing 10:00pm because then I would have had to leave. I wasn’t obsessing over the time. I was being mindful that night. But I stole a glance as I leaned against the counter in the store I work at. I remember the exact moment it happened. It was just after 8:00pm. The moment I declared, just in my head though, this to be one of the best days of this life of mine. I even smiled to myself and felt awe at the fact that I can find so much beauty in simplicity and monotony. And as is typical of me, I also felt amused. 

This can seem pathetic of me or absolutely wonderful depending upon the way we look at it. 

Pathetic version: “seriously?! This girl must have nothing going on, must have a very boring life for a night at work with nothing happening to be the best! Omg, How sad!”

Or!

Absolutely wonderful version: “seriously?! This girl must have an amazing life to be able to take an ordinary day, rainy, at work, nothing big going on and STILL find wonder in everything!! Omg!”

Lol

See?! All how you look at it! 😀

Let’s go with option number two though!? ;-D

My whole point? Any old day can be the best and our conditions do not have to be perfect to us, at all to be happy, thrilled, serene, to find love and joy and feel that this moment is absolutely, without a doubt, perfect. We can be in pain, broke as a joke, at work!, with nothing of importance (in a social way) going on and it still be the best!! It’s all about mindfulness, gratitude, and attitude! 

I can’t say for sure what makes a day “one of the best,” really. There were other great days I was in a fantastic mood, reading something sweet or doing something else fun, even in conditions that were more “perfect” to me. Weather I like better, more money that day, something blatantly thrilling happening, out shopping, on a fun vacation, out at a restaurant….and were still beautiful days but did not necessarily stand out to me as “the best” or as great as that day. It’s not always something that can be identified or defined. But attitude and mindfulness and gratitude definitely play a big part. 

“Goodness is easier to recognize than to define.” ~ W.H. Auden

We often tend to think that a “best day of my life” has to be something tremendous like our wedding day, having/adopting a child, getting engaged to be married, graduating some school or program, vacation days, holidays or some dramatic celebration, winning the big lotto,…and it’s fantastic to have those as some of our best days but it’s also ok and amazing to declare a simple, ordinary day as one of those best days! Let’s not hold back waiting for more or better or the perfect conditions, to be happy and consider this day the greatest day of the year/our life! This day is ours to cherish. ❤

“Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.” ~ Mary Irion

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I found this image here:
Tina Lewis Rowe – Insights, Information, and Inspiration 

We may think of normal days as boring or plain or mundane and feel the need for something more. It’s ok to want and work for more. But let’s remember to cherish those normal days and keep in mind that one day, we may wish with everything we have in us, that today was just a normal day. People struck with tragedy, illness, pain, violence today….may wish that today was just like any other day. No matter what happens today though, we can find some good if we try. 

And even if a day is really shitty, there can be some happy moments to seize and hold onto! Let’s remember those ones! Let’s create memorable moments each day or most days. Then we can look back and say “Yes! That was the best!” even if we don’t remember the date. Each day, for most/many of us, is probably so mundane, so ordinary, even if it’s fun and happy, that it slips our memory when it ends. If nothing “big” happens, it’s unlikely to stand out later. All those little pleasant moments slip away into oblivion never to be held again. The scent of the flowers that caress our noses as we walk to a store, the comfort of our child or puppy/kitty curling up on us to sleep, sitting in a cafe with a sweet friend, belly laughing at a hilarious joke or something we read or remembered or saw on tv, drinking hot tea, reading a wonderful book on a cool night…these things we appreciate then they’re gone. So let’s be more mindful of them while they are occurring. They are so fleeting. Let’s grasp them. Imprint them into our hearts forever. Make it a point to remember. Take pictures. Create gratitude lists. Publish blog posts/statuses about them, scrapbooking, journaling…or just be genuinely mindful and then we can always remember. 

“Life isn’t perfect but it has perfect moments!”

❤

Much love to you,

Xoxo Kim 😀

You’ve got LOVE mail!! <3

Oct4

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“No stars are out tonight but we’re shining our own light.”

In the novel I previously wrote about, “The Last of Her Kind,” one character, a young woman, who I wrote about here,loves Mick Jagger and she heard that he was receiving “hate mail” so she decided to send him LOVE mail!

She writes this:

“I understand that you have received a lot of hate mail and even THREATS AGAINST YOUR LIFE. This has really freaked me out and has made me decide to write you LOVE MAIL every day. I don’t want you ever to forget that your true fans cherish and adore you and will always stand by you.” (pp. 170-1)

I just LOVE this concept! Not just sending someone love mail, that too, but bringing light and positivity into places where there is a lot of darkness and pain or negativity. It’s great to be positive in general but it’s especially important to bring light & love to places where it’s really lacking.

I love how this character decides to take action to bring love to a place that she knows needs more. She is kind enough to reach out and remind the man that people still love him. He may or may not need that reminder or even care about all the people who loathe or even love him. But it’s still good to see someone putting love out into the world. It’s the best we can do. ❤

If we see someone receiving unpleasant messages on social media, let’s make it a point to write that person positive or encouraging messages. If we meet or know someone who is hopeless, let’s attempt to bring some sense of hope to that person. Maybe it won’t work but maybe it will and at least the person will see someone cares. Let’s brighten a dark room with the light of our smiles. Bring our own sunshine to a rainy day. Send healing energy to someone sick or in pain.
Let’s remind people that for all the negative they encounter, there’s so much more positive.
Like the character in the book reminds Mick, while there’s so much hate directed at him, there’s also so much love.
Let’s focus more on the LOVE. ❤
Wherever we see that positivity, inspiration, light, or love is lacking, let’s bring our own to those places. ❤

And remember when someone unnecessarily criticizes us, writes us a rude message, doesn’t like us, wants to see us fall…there’s way more people who do like us and ones who would if they knew us. There’s more who want to bring us up and see us succeed. It’s sometimes easy to focus on the one or few unpleasant comments or remarks or experiences. But there’s more love in the world than negativity.

Also, as I mentioned in my other posts about this book, on pages 79-81, there is a r*pe scene in case you read the book and want to skip it.

And here’s a sweet song:

All I Need – Jack Wagner – mobile

All I Need – desktop

Lots & lots of LOVE & hugs to you, whoever you are, wherever you are!! 😀

Xoxo Kim ❤

Yin-yang

Oct2

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In a previous post,Embracing the Light,I mentioned I’m reading a novel called, “The Last of Her Kind” about two girls who were best friends in college for a couple years then had a bad argument and ended their friendship but the woman telling the story, many years later, still thinks of her former friend very frequently and is still impacted by her friend even though she has not seen her in years. She seems to no longer have any hostility for the girl who was once her best friend.

This isn’t a book review. I’m still reading the book, I haven’t reached the end yet. It’s a very great book, incredibly realistic and deep. There are beautiful scenes in this book. I will share one here.

But first I will again mention like I did in my other post, that there is a brief rape scene in the book. Whenever I write/talk about books that I know there is sexual violence in, I caution people in case anyone wants to avoid that part. I know it can be extremely traumatic for some people to read if they have experienced some kind of trauma. So on pages 79-81, the narrator talks about when she was raped by a stranger in a park, as a college girl. The worst of it is on page 80 in the book I’m reading. I think it’s a good idea if we all caution anyone we tell about a movie or book that has a scene like that. Even if people stop reading/watching after they begin,it can be too late and post traumatic stress or flash backs or any distress can already be triggered. Or some people feel that once they begin something, they have to complete it or may not realize after they begin reading/watching, how bad it will be. It’s always good to try to help in any way we can and a simple caution can help prevent a serious trigger for someone. They may still read/watch anyway and that’s up to them but it’s good just to let them know. 

(there won’t be any really big spoilers here but if you prefer not to know anything more about the book you may not want to continue reading if you plan to read the book)

Anyway, here is one of the beautiful scenes I will share out of this book:

“She lit a few candles around the room and she lit some joss sticks and she got out her guitar. I listened to her sing and wondered when she had become so good. Her voice was assured and pure and vibrant with feeling. The songs she sang were mostly songs she had written herself, and they were about love and pain and what was right with the world and what was wrong with it, and for all she had suffered she praised the wounded world and sang of her tender feelings for man, she sang angelically of hope and forgiveness, and I was blown away by this kid’s wisdom and goodness, and I was proud. Maybe my little sister didn’t have to go back to school. Maybe she knew everything already.” (pp.181)

How beautiful! The narrator, Georgette, has this to say about her little sister. 

Her sister is severely mentally ill and struggles with substance addiction and some physical illnesses,she cannot have children, she was also abused as a child and had, and still in some ways has a very difficult life. She has recurrent psychiatric hospitalizations. She doesn’t have a complete high school education. But she is full of deep wisdom, and often is able to keep hope and wonder alive and not only praise the good in the world but celebrate the bad with the good through her music, writing, and just in her being. She has a kind and gentle heart. 

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This is only a fiction book but there are real people like this too. Those who choose to cherish the good and use the negative aspects of life to their advantage by creating whatever it is they feel a calling to create…music, artistic material, singing, dancing, writing….or anything. We can take our pain and struggles and allow them to deepen our empathy and compassion for others. And we can take all our pain and joy and beauty and create something. Even something as simple as a blog post or message to help inspire or uplift others. 

Life doesn’t have to be perfect or without pain to be good. Life is beautiful even with the pain. Sometimes we may forget to celebrate the good when we’re too consumed in the pain, negativity, or distress and it’s great to have reminders.  

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(the sky wasn’t really this bright & pink, I put an effect on it but it’s pretty isn’t it?!) 😀

The world is full of bad but it’s also full of good. When we see on the news or are involved in tragedies like massacres or hurricanes and tornadoes, floods, fires, accidents, sickness….we see/feel/know the devastation. But we also see/feel/know the love and compassion of others, even strangers, that comes pouring in to those in need. We see people volunteering time, donating money and other material objects, offering to help, and just sending positive comments and well wishes. For every rude comment we receive on social media, we receive many more loving ones. 

❤

There is more love, more light, more good than pain. And it's all what we focus on that will stand out. We don't have to deny the negativity, we can help it when we can and accept it and use it for good when we cannot help or prevent it. 

This beautiful scene is a great reminder to bring more hope and forgiveness to the world, more love and light and acceptance. We can't all sing and play instruments and write songs like this girl but we all have some way to bring beauty to the world even if it's just a warm smile or positive attitude or just sharing an uplifting quote. 

We all have the ability to put more light out into the world. ❤

Much love to you! 😀

Xoxo Kim 

The Most important relationship is…<3

Sep25

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~Be someone who makes everyone feel like someone.~ ❤

Recently, I was at the synagogue with my good friend, Mike, for the Jewish new year. I met him in college years ago and we are still good friends. His family warmly & lovingly invites me to their houses often for their holidays. 

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(my friends, Jim, Charlie, Mike, and me in New York City, a few years ago one sweet Spring day <3) 😀

We attended a beautiful event at the synagogue a few weeks ago where we sat under the stars at night drinking tea and singing and connecting, and the rabbi asked us which relationships in life are most important and there were various answers. The obvious ones were of course, our relationships with friends & family. Other answers were coworkers, God, our own self, the synagogue family. I was thinking that our relationship with everyone is important. Not just our longterm relationships but even just brief encounters with others each day. I did not say this out loud but one man volunteered his answer which was extremely similar to my own. He said our most important relationship is the one we have with everyone, just in general. 

I couldn't agree more. My most important relationship is the one with whoever it is I'm currently engaging with whether that someone is a friend, a family member, someone I am close with, someone I hardly know, a customer at work, a coworker, a sales person, a bus driver, an animal/pet, an insect, a person I would rather not be around, a doctor, a boss, a person I meet walking up a street or in a park or in traffic….whoever I am right here with, right now. It's important to give that person my full, undivided attention. It's important to be mindful of what is right before me in this moment.

It's all that matters. Let's listen, truly listen when someone is talking. Let's not zone out and think about future plans or food or our phone or whatever we may want when someone is in our presence and attempting to communicate with us. Even if what the person is saying doesn't interest us, it's important to that person so we can make it important to us. This won't always be easy, mindfulness takes practice and our minds tend to stray now and then. 

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Right now is our most important moments. And whoever is with us is our most important relationship at that moment. (in my opinion. I understand someone else may have a different view.)

This takes me back to 11th grade when our English teacher told us that every encounter we have with someone, no matter how brief, even someone we may never see again, is a relationship worth nurturing the best we can. He gave an example of a seemingly trivial encounter, with a bus driver.

But he explained the importance of even an encounter like that. Getting on a bus, putting money in, is part of our life and it’s good to make it a positive part. Be friendly to the bus driver. 

I did not completely realize the wisdom of what he told us back then but I felt that it is somehow important. Now I know. 

One little encounter can have a profound effect on someone. For better or worse. We have the ability to choose words, gestures, actions…that can lift someone or potentially drag someone down. Let’s choose to lift others up. 

Let’s make everyone feel like someone. 

❤ 😀

Also, this is one of the songs we sang at the synagogue. “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by the Byrds. It was beautiful to hear all the people singing together. 

Turn! Turn! Turn! – mobile

Turn! Turn! Turn! – desktop

Lotsa, Lotsa love to you! 😀

Xoxo Kim ❤

Universal Love & World Peace <3

Sep25

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Only Love Can Bring World Peace – mobile

Only Love Can Bring World Peace – desktop

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, a Buddhist monk and meditation master, in this video above, speaks of Universal Love and the nonsense of war and nuclear weapons. 

He explains how the only way to put an end to war & violence around the world is the practice 
of Dharma, which is Buddha’s teachings, but he also explains that by Dharma, he just means love, patience, and respect of others. Buddha’s teachings are grounded in love. He mentions that he doesn’t preach this because he’s a Buddhist, although that he is. This message is not exclusive to Buddhism and not something to only be carried out by Buddhists.

Anyone irrespective of religious views can share and live this message. 

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Here, Geshe-la explains that LOVE is the most powerful nuclear explosive. It can destroy enemies. Now, at first this may seem horrific as if we want to blow up our enemies! But when he says destroy “enemies,” he is not referring to persons or any living sentient being, he is referring to the concept of enemy. Let’s destroy the concept of someone being our enemy. This doesn’t mean destroying someone who is flesh & blood.

Even if other people consider us their enemy, we do not have to return those thoughts and feelings against them. 

I can be someone’s enemy without that person being mine. 

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If we all think this way, there will be no more enemies in the world. Even if just some of us think this way, there will be more love in the world and less violence and hostility. Even if it’s just one small part of the world, that is incredible! We are made of energy and our energy goes out into the world around us, let’s make it loving energy. Let’s summon all the love we can and destroy the whole notion of enemy.

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Oh, my! My heart just wells up with love and gratitude for this adorable little man & his beautiful message. ❤

It's ok to love our country and our culture but we are not better than anyone else, we are all equal, all one. Some countries have more advanced governments and more human rights applied and cleaner water and more food available but their citizens are no more deserving than the citizens of any other country. 

Borders and boundaries and governments and organization are all “man-made,” even though in some cases they may be necessary. We don't have to use them or the concept of them as a weapon against each other.  Even if we don’t do anything practical to help people in other parts of the world, like travel or donate money, just deepening our compassion and empathy is good. It emits positive energy into our world and inspires us to act more lovingly in general.

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(this isn’t my picture, I don’t know the source)

Let's not just think of our own community members as our brothers and sisters and not just think of our selves as citizens of our own country but citizens of the whole world. That's what each of us are.

Let's forget the enemy. Not forget our enemies as the people they are but forget their role as enemy to us.

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❤ ❤

All of these pictures of Venerable Kelsang are screen captures I took of parts of the video above.

And here is a lovely song about universal love:

What the World Needs Now – Dionne Warwick – mobile

What the World Needs Now – desktop

Love sweet love. ❤

“No not just for some but for everyone.” ❤

An Oldie and goodie! ❤

😀

We may not always live up to this even if we think it's a sweet message. Sometimes we may act selfishly, argue negatively, act in an unkind manner. But we can acknowledge this and try to be better and better. It's ok to fall as long as we keep getting back up. ❤

😀

Much love to you,

xoxo Kim ❤

Another Fall in Philadelphia <3

Sep23

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So, it seems I have this tradition each year now where I post a blog entry called something along the lines of “Another Fall in Philadelphia” and share Hall & Oates’ song, “Fall in Philadelphia.” lol Hall & Oates are the best! And they are Philadelphia boys! Like me! (except I’m not a boy…)

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And they attended Temple University! Like me again!
I am thrilled every year when it’s about to be Fall!
I love the whole Fall theme, pumpkin spice and everything nice! Pumpkins, hot cocoa, tea, hayrides and crunchy leaves, haunted houses and the Eastern State Penitentiary! Cool nights & hoodies! Crisp air and Halloween, the bright colored leaves all around! The whole thing! 

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So in honor of this lovely season on its first day, here are some sweet Autumn quotes! As well as some of my pictures, the best Fall-like pictures I was able to get. It’s not exactly lookin’ (or feelin’) a real, real lot like Fall out there yet. It’s cooler at some points and there are some signs of Fall but it’s not raining crispy colored leaves all over just yet. And it’s hot as hell outside but I’m loving every second! 

Here goes!

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“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” ~ Jim Bishop

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“Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.” ~Carol Bishop Hipps, “October,” In a Southern Garden, 1995

I love all four seasons. Summer is my least favorite (I don’t like the heat waves and humidity at all but regular summer days are lovely) and Winter is my favorite with Fall right up there with it. But I agree that Summer & Winter have “opposing miseries” and Fall is perfect. Winter & Summer can both be painful, one with the scorching heat and sticky haze, the other with the blasting cold and slippery ice. Spring is beautiful too with lovely qualities that the other seasons don’t have much of but can tend to be like Summer in its excessive heat. Autumn is just flawless for sure! ❤ 

“No spring nor summer’s beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face….” ~John Donne, “Elegy IX: The Autumnal”

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“Oh how we love pumpkin season. You did know this gourd-ish squash has its own season, right? Winter, Spring, Summer, Pumpkin…. We anxiously anticipate it every year.” ~Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, October 2010

So do I! All year! 

“October’s poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.” ~Nova S. Bair

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“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

Isn’t it something how someone can be just so THRILLED over weather and a season?! I couldn’t be happier if I just won a free shopping spree! 

Lol 

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The last Philadelphia Summer sunset til next year. Beautiful, isn’t it?

I will miss all the little flying insects and pretty flowers. </3 ❤

And here it is! Hall & Oates' thrilling song!

Fall in Philadelphia – mobile

Fall in Philadelphia – desktop

(I absolutely love the container of oates! hilarious!!) ;-D :-p

Unfortunately it’s not the most cheerful song about our wonderful city!

It’s about how it’s all dreary and gray and their house is falling down, and we’re all hopeless and people are getting rich selling dope and a boy named Johnny is getting his ass kicked, and they want to escape out into the country. Anywhere but here. 

How rude! 

What a lovely picture they paint of us!

;-D

Oh, well. It’s still has my heart. ❤

And here's another one of my favorite songs, a sweet love song sung by Paul Davis, perfect for Fall nights!

 Cool Night – mobile

Cool Night – desktop

Also, today is my mom’s b-day! She loves Fall and how her special day is on the first day of Fall! She said her name should have been Autumn but instead it’s Lee, short for Leona. She’s named after my grandmom. My sister and me bought her a big vanilla scented candle. Vanilla is her favorite. ❤ At least it cheered her up! She wasn't happy because my little sister and me got into a stupid, trivial argument today (I started it…oopps! Sometimes I can totally be an asshole but at least I’m honest about it, right?!)!

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So Happy Fall to you!  😀

Xoxo Kim 

P.s. Thank You so so much to everyone who reads, likes, shares, follows, lurks, “likes”, reblogs….my content! I deeply appreciate it! When I set up this blog account three years ago, I never expected to have even just a few people read it but I always knew even if just one person comes across my content once in a while, that would be amazing. If just one person is uplifted or inspired that is good enough.
And when we post something it’s here forever so even if no one sees it til years later, it always has the potential to be seen. And that’s good! 😀
But I’m so honored and filled with gratitude for all those who visit here. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! ❤ 😀 Hugs & love to you! ❤

I Am your Mirror

Sep22

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“We are pain and what cures pain, both. We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours. I want to hold you close like a lute, so that we can cry out with loving. Would you rather throw stones at a mirror? I am your mirror and here are the stones.” ~ Attributed to Mevlana Rumi 

What a beautiful quote! I think it conveys a message that we have the potential to do, be various things, even opposites. We can be positive or negative, loving or selfish, warm and caring or cold and distant. We are the source of our own problems but we are also the source of the solution to those problems. We have gifts and the ability to share those gifts.

I feel that it’s a quote about interconnectedness and Oneness. Underneath, we all share a basic sentience or experience. We all have very similar qualities and not just humans but animals and insects as well. All sentient beings have needs and desires, interests, are capable of pleasure and pain, joy, and suffering. What we see in our own self, if we look closely, we can see it in others. And what we see in others, we can find in our own self when we look deep within. 

The end of the quote about the mirror seems to indicate that we are very similar and maybe how our actions even against our self can affect others or our actions against others can affect our own self. It also seems like someone offering to take on someone else’s pain. That is beautiful selflessness! Don’t hurt yourself, hurt me if you must hurt someone!

I love the quote and what it seems to mean and there are probably so many, many interpretations we can come up with. I think it just flows beautifully even without thinking about the meaning.

It also reminds me of this:

“Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something.”

Again, a message that conveys that underneath, deep within, we are very similar, we are one. Never feel alone, whatever you feel, pleasant or unpleasant, joyous or painful, someone somewhere is experiencing something or has experienced something quite like it. This can deepen our empathy & compassion. Let’s remember how it feels to be happy, accomplish something, have something pleasant happen to us and be happy for others just as we would for our own self. And let’s recall how it feels to be in pain, scared, anxious, to be filled with sorrow and want to help heal & uplift others as much or even more than we want our own pain soothed. Let’s remember how it feels and refuse to inflict that upon someone else. But let’s show compassion & deep understanding to those who attempt to inflict pain upon us.

“…Would you rather throw stones at a mirror? I am your mirror and here are the stones.”

xoxo Kim ❤