Donna Taggart - Jealous Of The Angels (Official Music Video)

The Train

At birth we boarded the train and met our parents, and we believe they will always travel by our side. As time goes by, other people will board the train; and they will be significant i.e. our siblings, friends, children, and even the love of your life. However, at some station our parents will step down from the train, leaving us on this journey alone. Others will step down over time and leave a permanent vacuum. Some, however, will go so unnoticed that we don't realize they vacated their seats. This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes, and farewells. Success consists of having a good relationship with all passengers requiring that we give the best of ourselves.

The mystery to everyone is: We do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. So, we must live in the best way, love, forgive, and offer the best of who we are. It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life.

I wish you all a joyful journey ~

Daniel Bovino

Ray LaMontagne - Such A Simple Thing (Official Audio)

Secrets of Life

 

The secret of a full life is to live and relate to others as if they might not be there tomorrow, as if you might not be there tomorrow. It eliminates the vice of procrastination, the sin of postponement, failed communications, failed communions. This thought has made me more and more attentive to all encounters. meetings, introductions, which might contain the seed of depth that might be carelessly overlooked. This feeling has become a rarity, and rarer every day now that we have reached a hastier and more superficial rhythm, now that we believe we are in touch with a greater amount of people, more people, more countries. This is the illusion which might cheat us of being in touch deeply with the one breathing next to us. The dangerous time when mechanical voices, radios, telephones, take the place of human intimacies, and the concept of being in touch with millions brings a greater and greater poverty in intimacy and human vision.

― Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947

Feels Like Home

Diana Krall featuring Bryan Adams

I am watching

They warned me your childhood would whizz by in a flash
They warned me and I laughed,
because then,
each day felt like a lifetime.
Each sleepless night was a year, each hour of the day was an age.
All my energy was consumed, with keeping you alive, happy, thriving.
Your smiles became my goal, your laughter my reward, your tears my every waking concern.

And here we are my love, you have grown.
I remember all the firsts, but I have no idea when the ‘lasts’ happened...
Where was I?
The last time you snuggled into my lap to read.
The last time I lifted your warm little body to mould into mine, that fit, just right.
The last time you crawled into my safe space, in the dark of the night.

They warned me your childhood would whizz by in a flash,
And I laughed.
But it did, my love,
It did.

And now I watch you grow evermore strong and I vow to drink in every tiny detail,
lest that go by in an instant also.
I may not remember all the ‘lasts’ my little one,
But I am watching for every ‘new’.

I am watching.

Donna Ashworth
Art by Lauri Blank  

Bryan Adams - Here I Am (Classic Version)

 Amazing ♭♮♯♭♮♯♭

Here i am - this is me

There's no where else on earth i'd rather be

Here i am - it's just me and you

Tonight we make our dreams come true

It's a new world - it's a new start

It’s alive with the beating of - young hearts

It’s a new day - it's a new plan

I’ve been waiting for you

Here i am

Here we are - we've just begun

And after all this time - our time has come

Yeah, here we are - still goin' strong

Right here in the place where we belong

It's a new world - it's a new start

It’s alive with the beating of - young hearts

It’s a new day - it's a new plan

I’ve been waiting for you

Here i am

©2022 Badams Music Limited

DON’T MISS ME MORE

DON’T MISS ME MORE

Don’t miss me more than once a day,

For life is moving fast.

Don’t wish all of your time away,

Dreaming of the past.

Don’t waste the moment looking at,

The things I left behind me.

I’m not within those walls or boxes

The heart is where you’ll find me.

Don’t dread to say my name, sweet one,

Don’t fear the wrath of sadness.

Just take the love you had for me,

And turn it into gladness.

Don’t worry when my birthday comes

Don’t feel me missing more.

I’m filled with love you’re sending me,

Just as I was before.

Some days your anger will rush out,

Your tears will find their way.

To me, wherever I am then.

I’ll soothe them all away.

When I am gone don’t miss me more,

Than once, or twice a day.

There’s so much life to live, my love.

I’m with you, all the way.

Donna Ashworth

From ‘LOSS’ 

We Made It

We knew it wouldn’t be easy, didn’t we? Nothing ever is. But we knew the pain was a sharp edge, digging into us deep, and now, looking back doesn’t seem so bad. Because we did the healing, went straight into it with fists clinched, eyes wide open, and some of us were kicking and screaming. But we didn’t give up. So we stand here now, hearts whole, hands filled with peace, scars that tell a story of how we got here. We didn’t back down. We didn’t back down. Now it’s part of our story, but we don’t tell it about the time someone hurt us more than we could  ever imagine, we tell it about the lessons that made us stronger. We fought for ourselves. We may bend from time to time, but we don’t break anymore. We don’t break. And we knew it wouldn’t be easy… nothing ever is… but the pain is no longer a sharp edge reminder. We replaced the pain with the healing, changed the plot of our story.  We re-routed our journey. Now we say, “I learned a lot about myself during that time of my life, but mostly I learned about the person I’ll never be again. I’m stronger now. I made it. I’m still standing. And I wouldn’t go back for anything.”  Inhale your peace. You earned it. It was never easy, but you were always worth it. 

Stephanie Bennett-Henry
May 5, 2022
https://stephaniebennetthenry.com/2022/05/05/we-made-it/

The Eternal Soul

 

When I am filled with joy
or sadness, with feelings
of pleasure or pain,
with accurate thoughts,
perfect definitions,
accurate arguments,
the eternal soul is far
from me.

When I look for spirituality
as a way of salvation
and peace for my conflicts,
uncertainties, misfortunes
and strays, the eternal soul,
even understanding,
moves away.

When I seek the power of magic
by dominating the ether,
traveling through the astral
worlds, collecting visions
and supersensations like a
pirate adventurer dominating
the subtle seas,
the eternal soul sighs
patiently.

When I empty myself
of moral rules,
concepts and classifications,
the desires to be something
else and finally get in touch
with what is most true in me,
the eternal soul welcomes me
in its infinite tenderness.

And I, tiny as a grain of sand
in the desert of this world,
no longer seek words,
thoughts, or feelings.

Because the eternal soul
is not defined: It simply is.

And we are One.

Krishnamurti, The Eternal Soul

Photo: Hither Green Cemetery, UK, Yersinia Pestis, flickr

Happy Birthday Leo Tolstoy

 

If, then, I were asked for the
most important advice I could
give, that which I considered
to be the most useful to the
men of our century, I should
simply say:
✨
In the name of God, stop a
moment, cease your work,
look around you."

🌻 Happy Birthday Leo Tolstoy,
9 September 1828

Credit to: https://www.facebook.com/esquinapoetica

Change The Way You See

 

CHANGE THE WAY YOU SEE

I don’t have crow’s feet,
I have happy happy memories of laughing with friends until the tears flowed.

I don’t have frown lines,
I have the marks of my frustration and confusion, which I battled through, smiling in the end.

I am not going grey,
I have shimmering highlights of wisdom, dashed throughout my silver hair.

I don’t have scars,
I have symbols of the strength I was able to find, when life got tough.

I don’t have stretch marks,
I have the marks of growth and the marks of motherhood. My womanly evolution.

I am not fat,
I bear the evidence of a life filled with abundance, blessings and good times.

I am not just forgetful,
I have a mind so full of stories, memories and moments there is scarce room to hold much else.

I am not old,
I am blessed, with a life of great length, something not everyone can say.

Don’t change the way you look my friend,
change the way you see,

change the way you see.

Written by Donna Ashworth
https://www.facebook.com/ladiespassiton

Art by the FABULOUS Lisa Aisato #lisaaisato 

The word ‘vakkar’ means beautiful 

Sadness Today

   

 

Rest in Peace Your Majesty

The following was copied from: https://www.royal.uk/coronation-day-speech-2-june-1953

A speech by The Queen on her Coronation Day, 1953

Published 2 June 1953

Throughout this memorable day I have been uplifted and sustained by the knowledge that your thoughts and prayers were with me.

Her Majesty The Queen

It Was Never About Your Body

 

It Was Never About Your Body It’s how you feel
about your body.
It’s about how society has told you you ‘should’ feel
about your body.
If no one told you you were too big or too anything, if you grew up looking at images of real, diverse body shapes, you probably wouldn’t feel like you aren’t enough today.
We judge ourselves on a ridiculous notion that women ‘should keep their figures’.
It’s old-fashioned.
We are better than that.
And actually, if we are looking to ‘keep our figures’ then we need to first identify what our particular figure is.
We are not all made the same.
Some of us are tall and slim, some of us are small and wide, some of us are curvy and some of us aren’t. Some of us change a lot and some of us don’t.
We are all beautiful and if you don’t believe that, you haven’t looked at women with clear vision.
We really are.
The greys, the dimples, the rolls, the wrinkles...
They don’t change who we are.
Our eyes and our smiles are the only real markers of who’s inside that skin.
The perfect body, like the perfect day,
is something only the beholder can call.
Don’t leave it too much longer to do that. Donna Ashworth
From ‘LIFE’ Art by Lynn H Weatherford

The Name of the Room is Remember

The time is ripe for looking back over the day, the week, the year, and trying to figure out where we have come from and where we are going to, for sifting through the things we have done and the things we have left undone for a clue to who we are and who, for better or worse, we are becoming. But again and again we avoid the long thoughts….We cling to the present out of wariness of the past. And why not, after all? We get confused. We need such escape as we can find. But there is a deeper need yet, I think, and that is the need—not all the time, surely, but from time to time—to enter that still room within us all where the past lives on as a part of the present, where the dead are alive again, where we are most alive ourselves to turnings and to where our journeys have brought us. The name of the room is Remember—the room where with patience, with charity, with quietness of heart, we remember consciously to remember the lives we have lived.

~ Frederick Buechner, A Room Called Remember: Uncollected Pieces

Beginning Today

 

Beginning today, I will no longer worry about yesterday. It is in the past and the past will never change. Only I can change by choosing to do so.
Beginning today, I will no longer worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will always be there, waiting for me to make the most of it. But I cannot make the most of tomorrow without first making the most of today.
Beginning today, I will look in the mirror and I will see a person worthy of my respect and admiration. This capable person looking back at me is someone I enjoy spending time with and someone I would like to get to know better.
Beginning today, I will cherish each moment of my life. I value this gift bestowed upon me in this world and I will unselfishly share this gift with others. I will use this gift to enhance the lives of others.
Beginning today, I will take a moment to step off the beaten path and to revel in the mysteries I encounter. I will face challenges with courage and determination. I will overcome what barriers there may be which hinder my quest for growth and self-improvement.
Beginning today, I will take life one day at a time, one step at a time. Discouragement will not be allowed to taint my positive self-image, my desire to succeed or my capacity to love.
Beginning today, I walk with renewed faith in human kindness. Regardless of what has gone before, I believe there is hope for a brighter and better future.
Beginning today, I will open my mind and my heart. I will welcome new experiences. I will meet new people.
I will not expect perfection from myself nor anyone else: perfection does not exist in an imperfect world. But I will applaud the attempt to overcome human foibles.
Beginning today, I am responsible for my own happiness and I will do things that make me happy, admire the beautiful wonders of nature, listen to my favourite music, pet a kitten or a puppy, soak in a bubble bath.
Pleasure can be found in the most simple of gestures.
Beginning today, I will learn something new; I will try something different; I will savour all the various flavors life has to offer me.
I will change what I can and the rest I will let go.
I will strive to become the best me I can possibly be.
Beginning today.
And every day.

♥️ Penny White, Beginning Today

Credit to: https://www.facebook.com/esquinapoetica/posts/pfbid0vjsBW2wcU9sor5qWbZxeHexUA5tkhkYDzSRimQXensKrBmh1Q5qH8C9AV2Ts2Lxcl

Joy

 

Joy does not arrive with a fanfare, 
on a red carpet strewn with the flowers of a perfect life.
Joy sneaks in, as you pour a cup of coffee,
watching the sun hit your favourite tree, just right.
And you usher joy away,
because you are not ready for it.
Your house is not as it must be,
for such a distinguished guest.
But joy cares nothing for your messy home,
or your bank-balance,
or your waistline, you see.
Joy is supposed to slither through the cracks of your imperfect life,
that’s how joy works.
You cannot invite her, you can only be ready when she appears.
And hug her with meaning,
because in this very moment,
joy chose you.

Donna Ashworth 

Art by Inge Löök Oy Ab

Credit to: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069505335894

To Love Someone

 

To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be.
The people they're too exhausted to be any longer.
The people they don't recognize inside themselves anymore.
The people they grew out of, the people they never ended up growing into.
We so badly want the people we love to get their spark back when it burns out; to become speedily found when they are lost.
But it is not our job to hold anyone accountable to the people they used to be.
It is our job to travel with them between each version and to honor what emerges along the way.
Sometimes it will be an even more luminescent flame.
Sometimes it will be a flicker that disappears and temporarily floods the room with a perfect and necessary darkness.

~ Heidi Preibe

Credit to:
https://www.facebook.com/esquinapoetica/photos/a.1605387123043816/3132417750340738