Grace in Blossoms

Bloom in Grace

"Every time a flower blossoms,

God demonstrates His grace."

- Marianne Williamson

"Choose grace" instead of Fear ! My new mantra.

Mantra (Sanskrit) literally a `sacred utterance' in Vedism

Cradle them into calm before you move forward

Something I have noticed is that the feelings that surround many endings - the regret and longing for things to be different - are important and worthy of tenderness. Like a child rocking gently in a loving mother's arms, the good rest that comes after you cradle those feelings into calm, simply prepares you for the path and the open door beckoning you forward... your heart belongs to you again and you are ready to walk through into the newness that awaits you...

Open Door

"When one door closes, another opens;

but we often look so long and so regretfully

upon the closed door that we do not see

the one which has opened for us."

-Alexander Graham Bell

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Saved By Beauty

Forty years ago, Roger Housden discovered the poetry of Rumi and Hafez, read tales of exotic Sufis, and was carried away by the music and wisdom of a culture that reached back over three thousand years, ac culture that gave us our word for paradise. Longing to see is the Iran of his imagination continued to exist, or whether it had been lost forever in the revolutionary zeal of the last thirty years, Housden sets off on a journey to discover a country filled with remarkable contradictions. "This books is a pilgrimage, a prayer, a heartfelt reminder, a poet-traveler's window into the eternal soul of Iran." --Jack Kornfield



More info at: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307587732

Laughter

At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities. ~Jean Houston

- When have you last enjoyed some good levity? Can't remember.
- Besides releasing endorphins how does laughter liberate?
- How can you try to cultivate more positivism in your life?

Rumi

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.

This drunkenness began in some other tavern.
When I get back around to that place,
I'll be completely sober. Meanwhile,
I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.
The day is coming when I fly off,
but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?

Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

This poetry, I never know what I'm going to say.
I don't plan it.
When I'm outside the saying of it,I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.

— Rumi

Signs you have inner Peace

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I have a long way to go.

I also believe happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And... once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it ~Elizabeth Gilbert