To his house the bodiless
Come to barter endlessly
Vision, wisdom, for bodies
Palpable as his, and weighty.
Hands moving move priestlier
Than priest's hands, invoke no vain
Images of light and air
But sure stations in bronze, wood, stone.
Obdurate, in dense-grained wood,
A bald angel blocks and shapes
The flimsy light; arms folded
Watches his cumbrous world eclipse
Inane worlds of wind and cloud.
Bronze dead dominate the floor,
Resistive, ruddy-bodied,
Dwarfing us. Our bodies flicker
Toward extinction in those eyes
Which, without him, were beggared
Of place, time, and their bodies.
Emulous spirits make discord,
Try entry, enter nightmares
Until his chisel bequeaths
Them life livelier than ours,
A solider repose than death's.
Friday, 15 December 2017
Sculptor Sylvia Plath For Leonard Baskin
A Prayer for my Daughter【W. B.Yeats】(1865-1939)
Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory's wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,
Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I have walked and prayed
Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.
I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.
May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger's eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.
Helen being chosen found life flat and dull
And later had much trouble from a fool,
While that great Queen, that rose out of the spray,
Being fatherless could have her way
Yet chose a bandy-leggèd smith for man.
It's certain that fine women eat
A crazy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.
In courtesy I'd have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have played the fool
For beauty's very self, has charm made wise,
And many a poor man that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.
May she become a flourishing hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And have no business but dispensing round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place.
My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
If there's no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.
An intellectual hatred is the worst,
So let her think opinions are accursed.
Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
Out of the mouth of Plenty's horn,
Because of her opinionated mind
Barter that horn and every good
By quiet natures understood
For an old bellows full of angry wind?
Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven's will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still.
And may her bridegroom bring her to a house
Where all's accustomed, ceremonious;
For arrogance and hatred are the wares
Peddled in the thoroughfares.
How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?
Ceremony's a name for the rich horn,
And custom for the spreading laurel tree.
Monday, 4 December 2017
Alone
some people are so deep
you fall into them
and you never stop falling.....
~◆~
“ i took a night drive.
i needed to get away.
i needed to know
it's okay to go
and have no destination,
where time moves slow
or doesn't exist.
that life can be like this,
aimless wandering,
just breathing,
living,
driving forever underneath the stars.
~◆~
i sometimes think i'm too in love with alone. who could i love more than this peace?
sometimes, full.
sometimes, black.
sometimes,
forever and ever alone....
~Ava~
finding your sacred place
"If you follow the crowd, you will likely get no further than the crowd. If you walk alone, you're likely to end up in places no one has ever been before. Being an achiever is not without its difficulties, for peculiarity breeds contempt. The unfortunate thing about being ahead of your time is that when people finally realize you were right, they'll simply say it was obvious to everyone all along. You have two choices in life. You can dissolve into the main stream, or you can choose to become an achiever and be distinct. To be distinct, you must be different. To be different, you must strive to be what no else but you can be."
~Alan Ashley Pitt~
“When you follow the crowd you lose yourself, but when you follow your soul you will lose the crowd. Eventually your soul tribe will appear. But do not fear the process of solitude.”
~ Unknown~
Wednesday, 29 November 2017
~Rumi~
You have seen the sun set, so watch it rise.
Does setting bring any harm to the sun or moon?
What seed ever fell to the ground without growing?
Why doubt that the seed of man will grow when it is sown?
You think I have been lowered into the ground, don’t you?
But under my feet are the seven skies.
In this ocean, there is no dying for us.
In this ocean, there is no grief, no mourning.
In this ocean there is all the love you can accept.
This is an ocean of goodness and generosity.
Lay down your you-ness and come,
let me lay down my I-ness and come
Let us meet in the ONE, and dive into the river of truths.
This river, holding whatever is good and beautiful.
(Rumi)
The art of Dying....well !
Buddhists call these three ‘the messengers of God’: old age, sickness, death — three messengers of God. Why? — because only through these experiences in life do you become aware of death. And if you become aware of death and you start learning how to go into it, how to welcome it, how to receive it, you are released from the bondage, from the wheel of life and death.
(Osho)
Death is different from what
Anyone knows, and luckier
(Walt Whitman from ‘Song of Myself’)
Life and death are one — one phenomenon, one energy. Life is the manifestation of that energy, and death is again relaxation. Life is coming to a form, and death is moving again into the formless. The end and the beginning meet. Life is not separate from death, death is not separate from life — they meet and mingle. Even to say they meet is not right because the mind immediately brings: “If there is a meeting then there must be two.” It is not a meeting, it is one phenomenon.
(Osho)
We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere. To practise death is to practise freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.
(Montaigne)
Whenever anybody dies anywhere, death knocks at your doors too. And not only a human being: a dog dies, a crow dies, or a leaf becomes pale and dies and drops from the tree – you are dying, because we are involved in each other, we are parts of each other, we are members of each other.
(Osho)
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
I have sent up my gladness on wings, to be lost in the blue of the sky.
I have run and leaped with the rain, I have taken the wind to my breast.
My cheek like a drowsy child to the face of the earth I have pressed.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die. ….
Whoever rightly understands and celebrates death, at
the same time magnifies life.
(Rainer Maria Rilke)
This life is going to end in a few days, or in a few years. It is not something to cling to. Each moment death is coming closer; before death grabs you, you have to figure out something which is eternal, which is immortal.It seems obvious that death is the end of life; that is not true. Death is only a beginning of a new life — a refreshment, a rejuvenation. The old body is tired. You need more experiences to become mature. You have to move through many other forms of life, and there are millions of forms of life.
Death can be sweet if you move from one body, one existence, one form, with pure awareness into another and higher. Then it is sweet, really sweet.When you encounter death, when you see it face to face, when you don’t avoid, when you don’t dodge, when you don’t escape, when you don’t create a cloud around you, when you face it, encounter it, the fact of death,suddenly you become aware that death is life. The deeper you move into death, the deeper you move in life because, Heraclitus says,the opposites meet and mingle, they are one.Death makes one understand fear, but it is not the death of somebody else, it is your own death, and that too with the condition that you are conscious.
(Osho)
What is dying?
I am standing on the seashore.
A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object and I stand watching her
Till at last she fades from the horizon,
And someone at my side says, “She is gone!” Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all;
She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her,
And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her;
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “She is gone,”
There are others who are watching her coming,
And other voices take up a glad shout,
“There she comes” – and that is dying.
("The Sailing Ship"’
Bishop Charles Henry Brent)
Friend, hope for the guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive.
Think … and think … while you are alive.
What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death.
If you don’t break your ropes while you’re alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will rejoin with the ecstatic
Just because the body is rotten –
That is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
You will simply end up with an apartment in the
City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next
Life you will have the face of satisfied desire.
So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is.
Believe in the Great Sound!
Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for,
It is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that
Does all the work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.
(Kabir ‘The Time Before Death’)
There’s no decision in death. People who know that there’s no hope are free. The decision’s out of their hands. It has always been that way, but some people have to die bodily to find out. No wonder they smile on their death beds. Dying is something they were looking for in life. Their delusion of being in charge is over. When there’s no choice there’s no fear. And in that, there is peace. They realise that they’re home and that they’ve never left.
(Byron Katie)
And if, in the changing phases of man’s life
I fall in sickness and misery
My wrists seem broken and my heart seems dead
And strength is gone, and my life
Is only the leavings of a life:
And still, among it all, snatches of lovely oblivion, and snatches of renewal
odd, wintry flowers upon the withered stem, yet new, strange flowers
such as my life has not brought forth before, new blossoms of me —
then I must know that still
I am in the hands of the unknown God,
He is breaking me down to his own oblivion
to send me forth on a new morning, a new man.
(DH Lawrence (from a poem he wrote as he was dying)
When your time comes to die, be not like those
whose hearts are filled with fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray
for a little more time to live their lives over again
in a different way.
Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.
(The Teaching of Tecumseh)
Give us strength. Strength to hold on
and strength to let go.
(Michael Leunig)
In trying to avoid death, one goes on missing life.
Live life! In living life, death is avoided.
You welcome death. And unless you can welcome death, (please close space between this and next line)
one thing is certain – you have not lived.
(Osho)
Death and love go together; they are aspects of the same energy. When death fulfills your love, and when in love you are ready to die – when they have the same taste and the same flavour – then for the first time you have really become aware of the mysteries of life, love and death.
(Osho The Revolution)
Until we know that death is as good as life, and that it always comes at just the right time, we’re going to take on the role of God without the awareness of it, and it’s always going to hurt. Whenever you mentally oppose what is, you’re going to experience sadness and apparent separation. There’s no sadness without a story. What is it. You are it.
(Byron Katie)
Monday, 18 September 2017
ON THE DAY I DIE ~Rumi
On the day I die, when I'm being carried
toward the grave, don't weep. Don't say,
He's gone! He's gone. Death has nothing to do with going away. The sun sets and
the moon sets, but they're not gone.
Death is a coming together. The tomb
looks like a prison, but it's really
release into union. The human seed goes
down in the ground like a bucket into
the well where Joseph is. It grows and
comes up full of some unimagined beauty.
Your mouth closes here, and immediately
opens with a shout of joy there.
------------------------------
One who does what the Friend wants done
will never need a friend.
There's a bankruptcy that's pure gain.
The moon stays bright when it
doesn't avoid the night.
A rose's rarest essence
lives in the thorn.
------------------------------
Childhood, youth, and maturity,
and now old age.
Every guest agrees to stay
three days, no more.
Master, you told me to
remind you. Time to go.
------------------------------
The angel of death arrives,
and I spring joyfully up.
No one knows what comes over me
when I and that messenger speak!
-----------------------------
When you come back inside my chest no matter how far I've wandered off,
I look around and see the way.
At the end of my life, with just one breath left, if you come then, I'll sit up and sing.
------------------------------
Last night things flowed between us
that cannot now be said or written.
Only as I'm being carried out
and down the road, as the folds of my shroud open in the wind,
will anyone be able to read, as on
the petal-pages of a turning bud,
what passed through us last night.
------------------------------
I placed one foot on the wide plain
of death, and some grand
immensity sounded on the emptiness.
I have felt nothing ever
like the wild wonder of that moment.
Longing is the core of mystery.
Longing itself brings the cure.
The only rule is, Suffer the pain.
Your desire must be disciplined,
and what you want to happen
in time, sacrificed.
~Jalaluddin Rumi, The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems~
Saturday, 26 August 2017
COMING FORTH INTO THE LIGHT
I was born the day
I thought:
What is?
What was?
And
What if?
I was transformed the day
My ego shattered,
And all the superficial, material
Things that mattered
To me before,
Suddenly ceased
To matter.
I really came into being
The day I no longer cared about
What the world thought of me,
Only on my thoughts for
Changing the world.
COMING FORTH INTO THE LIGHT
by
~Suzy Kassem~
Tuesday, 22 August 2017
Shannon L. Alder Quotes
1. The moment you realize that the person you cared for has nothing intellectually or spiritually to offer you, but a headache.
~
2. The moment you realize God had greater plans for you that don’t involve crying at night or sad Pinterest quotes.
~
3. The moment you stop comparing yourself to others because it undermines your worth, education and your parent’s wisdom.
~
4. The moment you live your dreams, not because of what it will prove or get you, but because that is all you want to do. People’s opinions don’t matter.
~
5. The moment you realize that no one is your enemy, except yourself.
~
6. The moment you realize that you can have everything you want in life. However, it takes timing, the right heart, the right actions, the right passion and a willingness to risk it all. If it is not yours, it is because you really didn’t want it, need it or God prevented it.
~
7. The moment you realize the ghost of your ancestors stood between you and the person you loved. They really don't want you mucking up the family line with someone that acts anything less than honorable.
~
8. The moment you realize that happiness was never about getting a person. They are only a helpmate towards achieving your life mission.
~
9. The moment you believe that love is not about losing or winning. It is just a few moments in time, followed by an eternity of situations to grow from.
~
10. The moment you realize that you were always the right person. Only ignorant people walk away from greatness.
~
11. Sensitive people are the most genuine and honest people you will ever meet. There is nothing they won’t tell you about themselves if they trust your kindness. However, the moment you betray them, reject them or devalue them, they become the worse type of person. Unfortunately, they end up hurting themselves in the long run. They don’t want to hurt other people. It is against their very nature. They want to make amends and undo the wrong they did. Their life is a wave of highs and lows. They live with guilt and constant pain over unresolved situations and misunderstandings. They are tortured souls that are not able to live with hatred or being hated. This type of person needs the most love anyone can give them because their soul has been constantly bruised by others. However, despite the tragedy of what they have to go through in life, they remain the most compassionate people worth knowing, and the ones that often become activists for the broken hearted, forgotten and the misunderstood. They are angels with broken wings that only fly when loved.
~
12. If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you're allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind.
Never rearrange your life in order to meet Mr. Darcy half way. If he couldn’t see your worth at the moment you met then he won’t two years later. May the halls of Pemberly be filled with his regrets and your life filled with thankfulness because of this revelation.
~
13. Before you can live a part of you has to die. You have to let go of what could have been, how you should have acted and what you wish you would have said differently. You have to accept that you can’t change the past experiences, opinions of others at that moment in time or outcomes from their choices or yours. When you finally recognize that truth then you will understand the true meaning of forgiveness of yourself and others. From this point you will finally be free.
~
14. There are no coincidences in life. What person that wandered in and out of your life was there for some purpose, even if they caused you harm. Sometimes, it doesn’t make sense the short periods of time we get with people, or the outcomes from their choices. However, if you turn it over to God he promises that you will see the big picture in the hereafter. Nothing is too small to be a mistake.
~
15. Your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in.
~
16. I have always found it odd that people who think passive aggressively ignoring a person is making a point to them. The only point it makes to anyone is your inability to articulate your point of view because deep down you know you can’t win. It’s better to assert yourself and tell the person you are moving on without them and why, rather than leave a lasting impression of cowardness on your part in a person’s mind by avoiding them.
~
17. Anger, resentment and jealousy doesn't change the heart of others-- it only changes yours.
Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, "What else could this mean?
You chose.
You chose.
You chose.
You chose to give away your love.
You chose to have a broken heart.
You chose to give up.
You chose to hang on.
You chose to react.
You chose to feel insecure.
You chose to feel anger.
You chose to fight back.
You chose to have hope.
You chose to be naïve.
You chose to ignore your intuition.
You chose to ignore advice.
You chose to look the other way.
You chose to not listen.
You chose to be stuck in the past.
You chose your perspective.
You chose to blame.
You chose to be right.
You chose your pride.
You chose your games.
You chose your ego.
You chose your paranoia.
You chose to compete.
You chose your enemies.
You chose your consequences.
You chose.
You chose.
You chose.
You chose.
However, you are not alone. Generations of women in your family have chosen. Women around the world have chosen. We all have chosen at one time in our lives. We stand behind you now screaming:
Choose to let go.
Choose dignity.
Choose to forgive yourself.
Choose to forgive others.
Choose to see your value.
Choose to show the world you’re not a victim.
Choose to make us proud.
~Shannon L. Alder~
Wednesday, 10 May 2017
~Rabia al Basri~
I saw myself in a wide green garden, more beautiful than I could begin to understand. In this garden was a young girl. I said to her, "How wonderful this place is!"
"Would you like to see a place even more wonderful than this?" she asked.
"Oh yes," I answered. Then taking me by the hand, she led me on until we came to a magnificent palace, like nothing that was ever seen by human eyes. The young girl knocked on the door, and someone opened it. Immediately both of us were flooded with light.
Only Allah knows the inner meaning of the maidens we saw living there. Each one carried in her hand a serving-tray filled with light. The young girl asked the maidens where they were going, and they answered her, "We are looking for someone who was drowned in the sea, and so became a martyr. She never slept at night, not one wink! We are going to rub funeral spices on her body."
"Then rub some on my friend here," the young girl said.
"Once upon a time," said the maidens, "part of this spice and the fragrance of it clung to her body -- but then she shied away."
Quickly the young girl let go of my hand, turned, and said to me:
"Your prayers are your light;
Your devotion is your strength;
Sleep is the enemy of both.
Your life is the only opportunity that life can give you.
If you ignore it, if you waste it,
You will only turn to dust."
Then the young girl disappeared.
Monday, 8 May 2017
Random quotes
The most incredible architectureI s the architecture of Self,which is ever changing, evolving, revolving and has unlimited beauty and light inside which radiates outwards for everyone to see and feel.With every in breatheyou are adding to your lifeand every out breathe you are releasing what is not contributing to your life.Every breathe is a re-birth.
~Allan Rufus ~
“Within every woman there is a wild and natural force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity and ageless knowing. Her name is Wild Woman but she is… An endangered species.” — Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
“The Wild Woman speaks with her own voice. Walks her path fiercely. Talks with grace and dignity. She dances to the rhythm of her own drum.” — Wild Woman Sisterhood
“She is delightfully chaotic. A beautiful mess. Loving her is a splendid adventure.” — Steve Maraboli
“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable, beautiful and afraid of nothing as though I had wings.”— Mary Oliver
“Let us dance in the sun wearing flowers in our hair and let us huddle together as darkness takes over. We are at home amidst the birds and the trees for we are children of nature.” — Susan Polis Schutz
“Take a stand and speak your truth. Realize you are worthy of being loved and don’t let anyone treat you less than. It is up to you to respect and protect your spirit. This is your life and your journey, make the best of it. Don’t let anyone stand in the way of your happiness.”— Melanie Kouroulis
“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”— Thich Nhat Hanh
“I must be a mermaid … I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”— Anaïs Nin
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” — Helen Keller
Thursday, 4 May 2017
Why we shout?
A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled and asked.
‘Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?’
Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, ‘Because we lose our calm, we shout.’
‘But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner.’ asked the saint
Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples.
Finally the saint explained, .
‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.
What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small…’
The saint continued, ‘When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that’s all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.’
He looked at his disciples and said.
‘So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, Do not say words that distance each other more, Or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.Love may end up in divorce courts.’
(A whatsapp share)
Sunday, 12 February 2017
दश्त-ए-तन्हाई
दश्त-ए-तन्हाई में, ऐ जान-ए-जहां, लरजाँ हैं
तेरी आवाज़ के साए, तेरे होंठों के सराब
दश्त-ए-तन्हाई में, दूरी के ख़स-ओ-ख़ाक तले
खिल रहे हैं तेरे पहलू के समन और गुलाब
In the desert of solitude, love of my life, shimmering
Are the shadows of your voice, the mirage of your lips
In the desert of solitude, distant, past the burnt stems
Bloom on the jasmine and the rose of your aspect.
उठ रही है कहीं कुर्बत से तेरी सांस की आँच
अपनी खुश्बू में सुलगती हुई मद्धम मद्धम
दूर उफक पर चमकती हुई क़तरा क़तरा
गिर रही है तेरी दिलदार नज़र की शबनम
From desolation somewhere rises your breath's warmth
Smoldering in its own fragrance, softly softly
Far, from that brilliant sky, shining, one by one
Fall the dewdrops of your tender loving gaze.
इस क़दर प्यार से ऐ जान-ए-जहां रक्खा है
दिल के रुखसार पे इस वक़्त तेरी याद ने हाथ
यूँ गुमाँ होता है गरचे है अभी सुबह-ए-फ़िराक
ढल गया हिज्र का दिन, आ भी गयी वस्ल की रात |
Why does it feel now, love, that you traced
The contour of my heart with the finger of your memory
That the stretch of the morn of separation now passes
The day of parting wanes, comes the night of union.
A song of union with not only love, but also with the truth that lies beyond this tired life, the eternal night of union.
यूँ गुमाँ होता है गरचे है अभी सुबह-ए-फ़िराक
ढल गया हिज्र का दिन, आ भी गयी वस्ल की रात |
Saturday, 11 February 2017
Road to togetherness
Once upon a time
He ~Said to
She~*~
सुन :
:
पता है ,यहाँ से बहुत दूर,गलत और सही के पार,एक मैदान है,मै वहाँ मिलूँगा तुझे(Pata hai, yahan se bahut door, galat aur sahi ke paar, ek maidan hai, main vahaan milunga tujhe)
She elaborated
You mean.....
"Away beyond all concepts of wrong-doing and right-doing,There is a field.I'll meet you there..."
And...
He ~
and
She ~*~
were not fit for this world....
Hence they died living their own separate existence...
End of story....This lifetime....This Dimension...
Perhaps.... Maybe
©Deepika.dk~*~
The Gypssy Soul
P.S here the © belongs to
He ~
n :
She~*~
Wherever and "IF'
they exist
Wednesday, 14 September 2016
Once upon a time ~ story teller
Once upon a time two brothers who lived on adjoining farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side by side, sharing machinery, and trading labor and goods as needed without a hitch.
Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence.
One morning there was a knock on John's door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter's toolbox. "I'm looking for a few days work," he said.
"Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there. Could I help you?"
"Yes," said the older brother. "I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That's my neighbor, in fact, it's my younger brother. Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll go him one better. See that pile of lumber curing by the barn? I want you to build me a fence - an 8-foot fence - so I won't need to see his place anymore. Cool him down, anyhow."
The carpenter said, "I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you."
The older brother had to go to town for supplies, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day.
The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing.
About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer's eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped.
There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge... a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work handrails and all - and the neighbor, his younger brother, was coming across, his hand outstretched.
"You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I've said and done."
The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle, taking each other's hand. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox on his shoulder. "No, wait! Stay a few days. I've a lot of other projects for you," said the older brother.
"I'd love to stay on," the carpenter said, "but, I have many more bridges to build
Thursday, 12 May 2016
Making peace with self
I will make peace with my body.
My body deserves love.
Thighs, thank you for carrying me.
Belly, thank you for holding in all my organs and helping me digest.
Skin, thank you for shielding and protecting me.
I feed my body life affirming foods so that I can be healthy and vital.
Taking care of myself feels good.
I am perfect, whole, and complete just the way I am I feed my body healthy nourishing food and give it healthy nourishing exercise because it deserves to be taken care of I love and respect myself.
It’s okay to love myself now as I continue to evolve. My body is a temple. I want to treat it with love and respect.
My body is a one of kind gift.
Life is too short and too precious to waste time obsessing about my body.
I am going to take care of it to the best of my ability and get out of my head and into the world.
If I binge today, I can still love and accept myself, I don’t have to beat, berate and starve myself right afterwards, and I still have the very next moment to jump right back into recovery.
I will not give in to the voices of my eating disorder that tell me I’m not okay. I will listen to the healthy voices that I do have, even if they are very quiet so that I can understand that I am fine. I am fine.
The last thing I should be doing is rejecting myself. Accepting myself as I am right now is the first step in changing, growing and evolving. When I reject myself, I cannot grow.
When I smile, I actually make other people happy.
My life is what I make of it.
I have all the power here.
My body is a vessel for my awesomeness.
My body can do awesome things. It’s not about working on myself it’s about being okay with who I already am.


