Tuesday's Thought

"Enlightenment is understanding that there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nobody you have to be except exactly who you're being right now."
_____ Neale Donald Walsch

TATTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This blog has a little bit of everything and I would like to start of with my health. I am feeling better with each passing day and physio is going well. I am feeling so well that I am able to enjoy tatting again which brings me joy. I have a older student who comes to the house regularly and she is so eager to learn tatting that teaching her is a feel good moment. The last time she was here she brought a pattern for a doily that she thought she could do but it is a bit advanced for her so I am going to surprise her. I am making the doily for her because I know how much she will appreciate a piece of tatting. This is what it looks like so far.




Last but not least here is our thought for the day.
"We too should make ourselves empty, that the great soul of the universe may fill us with it's breath."
_____ Lawrence Binyon

Weekend Wisdom

"Wealth and honour are what people want, but if they are the consequence of deviating from the Way, I would have no part in them.
Poverty and disgrace are what people deplore, but if they are the consequence of staying on the Way, I would not avoid them."
_____ Confucius

Friday's Inspiration

"We choose our joys and our sorrows long before we experience them."
_____ Kahlil Gibran

Thursday's Thought

Harmony Square, Brantford

"In the root and stem of your own psyche, there is an accumulation of bad habits. If you cannot see through them and act independently of them, you will unavoidably get bogged down along the way."
_____ Yuansou

Thoughts to Ponder

"The secret of health for both mind for for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future,
nor to anticipate troubles, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly."
_____ Buddha

"The day is always his, who works in it with serenity and great aims."
_____ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspiration

"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
____ The Bible

Fabulous Friday

"The effort of the genuine spiritual seeker should be to cultivate love until the mind becomes saturated by it."
_____ Bhante Y. Wimala

Life and Inspirations

I am recovering from my surgery and doing a bit better each day. I am finally getting over my wound infection and my aggressive physio therapy is paying off. I am so happy to be putting this behind me. For the next little while the pictures on this blog will be of the gardens of the City of Brantford where my partner Gregg is a horticulturalist. I hope you enjoy them. Any questions just make a comment and ask and I will answer as soon as possible.

"If you are waiting for anything in order to live and love without holding back, then you suffer."
_____ David Deida

"Here-and-now contains eternity."
_____ Taisen Deshimary

Almost Ready.

Tuesday's Inspiration

City of Brantford, Park garden

"Life, we learn too late, is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour."
_____ Stephen Leacock

Monday's Inspiration

"Our mind is like a clear glass of water. If we put salt in the water, it becomes salt water; sugar, it becomes sugar water. But originally the water is clear. No thinking, no mind. No mind, no problem."
_____ Seung Sahn

Weekend Inspiration

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change,
_____ Buddha

Some Inspirations

"If your compassion does not include yourself, it is not complete."
_____ Buddha

"Most of us go through each day looking for what we saw yesterday. And, not surprisingly, that is what we find."
_____ James A. Kitchens

"Be the master of the mind, rather than mastered by mind."
_____ Zen saying

HappyEarth Day

Happy Earth Day. Today's inspiration is one of my favorites.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
_____Gandhi

Good Morning Sunshine

I would like to thank all of you for your kind thoughts, prayers and positive thoughts. They were a great source of strength as I went through my surgery. The surgery went well and after a horrible and negligent stay at the hospital, I am recovering well at home. Your inspiration for today really rings true with me.

"Everything hinges upon how you look at things."
_____ Henry Miller

Bye For Now

"Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion."
_____ Thich Nhat Hanh
Bye everyone I am off too surgery. I hope to return in a week.

Time Off For Surgery

I hope everyone is enjoying the daily inspirations as much as I am. I will not be posting any for the next week or two as I am having much needed hip replacement surgery. I am looking forward to this surgery as it is something I have needed since September of 2009 and the pain I have been in since then has been horrific. I am looking forward to being able to sit in a bit of comfort and tat again as I have missed it greatly.

Until then here are a couple pictures of the Hawaiian coastline that I like to look at and think about the more positive things in life.I hope you will enjoy them too. See you soon.

Friday's Inspiration

Plumeria

"Walking is Zen, sitting, too, is Zen. If I speak or am silent, tarry or hasten; everything, in its true nature, is stillness."
_____ Shodoka

Thursday's Inspiration

"From the pine tree learn of the pine tree, from the bamboo learn of the bamboo."
_____ Basho

Wednesday's Inspiration

Towel Elephant

"Friend, hope for the truth while you are alive. Jump into experience while you are alive! What you call salvation belongs to the time before death. If you don't break your ropes while you are alive, do you think ghosts will do it after?"
_____ Kabir

Tuesday's Inspiration

This is how they left us clean towels one night on our cruise.

"The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world."
_____ Marianne Williamson

Monday's Inspiration

Our Sago Palm

"To the right, books; to the left, teacup. In front of me, the fireplace..... there is no greater happiness than this."
_____ Teiga

Friday's Inspiration

"The wise man knows it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world."
_____ Zhuang Tzi

Thursday's Inspiration

"If you choose a job that you like, you will never have to work a day in your life."
_____ Confucius

Wednesday's Inspiration

"If a man speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows him as the wheel of the cart follows the beast that draws the cart. If a man speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy follows him as his own shadow."
_____ The Dhammapada

Tuesday's Inspiration

"There are those who discover they can leave behind destructive reactions and become patient as the earth, unmoved by fires of anger or fear, unshaken as a pillar, unperturbed as a clear and quiet pool."
_____ The Dhammapada

Monday's Inspiration

Water

"I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness."
_____ Abraham Maslow

Weekend Inspiration

Martha Washington Geranium

"We all carry within us our places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. Our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to transform them in ourselves and others."
_____ Albert Camus

Friday's Inspiration

"If you want to see the heroic, look at those who can love in return for hatred. If you want to see the brave, look for those who can forgive."
_____ Bhagavad Gita

Thursday's Inspiration and Tatting Too

"The art of living..... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive."
_____ Alan Watts


I finally managed to get some time to do a bit of tatting and this cute butterfly is from Lady Shuttlemakers new book ..The Exquisite Collection of Tatted Butterflies II Original Tatting Book (click here) If you are thinking about buying this book I would recommend it as the Butterflies are wonderful and Lady Shuttlemaker does a great job writing and illustrating patterns so you can understand them easily.
I have not been able to do much tatting since December as the pain I have been living with makes it impossible to concentrate on anything on anything for any length of time. As you may remember I had hip surgery in November, well unfortunately the surgery did not help and I have been in incredible pain since then. I am finally booked for a hip replacement on April 13. I am looking forward to the surgery and being able to returning to a more normal life and being able to enjoy tatting.

Wednesday's Inspiration

"Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well."
_____ Gandhi

Tomorrow after a long absence this blog will be showcasing some tatting. Happy tatting everyone.

Tuesday's Inspiration

Double Hibiscus

"The first step to the knowledge of the wonder and mystery of life is the recognition of the monstrous nature of the earthly human realm as well as its glory, the realization that this is just how it is and that it cannot and will not be changed. Those who think they know how the universe could have been had they created it, without pain, without sorrow, without time, without death, are unfit for illumination."
_____ Joseph Campbell

Monday's Inspiration

"He who thinks to reach God by running away from the world, when and where does he expect to meet him? We are reaching him in this very spot, now at this very moment."
_____ Rabindranath Tagore

Weekend Inspiration

"As a mountain is unshaken by the wind, so the heart of a wise person is unmoved by all the changes on this earth."
_____ Buddha

Friday's Inspiration

Interesting shot of our backyard.


"You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something that nobody else has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that God's creative principle works in you."
_____ Paramahansa Yogananda

Thursday's Inspiration

"Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control. We can love and care for others but we cannot possess our children, lovers, family, or friends. We can assist them, pray for them, and wish them well, yet in the end there happiness and suffering depend on their thought and actions, not on our wishes."
_____ Jack Kornfield

Wednesday's Inspiration

Orchid display at the Royal Hawaiian. Made by stringing orchid blooms onto bamboo skewers.

"Doubt everything. Find your own light."
_____ Buddha

Tuesday's Inspiration

Ali admiring the wave petunia's

"If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset."
_____ Krishnamurti

Weekend Inspiration

Bougainvillea which you see growing everywhere in Hawaii

"Once we recognize that thoughts are empty, the mind will no longer have the power to deceive us."
_____ Khyetse Rinpoche

Friday's Inspiration

Foxtail Fern in planter painted by Clyde

Sorry Thursday's inspiration was missed but I had to have an urgent MRI done. I am going to find out on Monday if and when I will be having hip replacement surgery done. Here is today's inspiration.
"To live here and now you must train yourself. In the seen there will be the just the seen, in the heard just the heard, in the sensed just the sensed, in the thought just the thought. That is the end of sorrow."
_____ Buddha

Wednesday's Inspiration

"Do not be afraid to take a chance on peace, to teach peace, to live peace.....Peace will be the last word of history."
_____ John Paul II

Monday's Inspiration

"Meet the transient world with neither grasping nor fear; trust the unfolding of life, and you will attain true serenity."
_____ Bhagavad Gita

Weekend Inspiration

A look through the palm leaves.

"I claim to be no more than the average person with less than average ability. I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith."
_____ Gandhi

Friday's Inspiration

"Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame."
_____ Benjamin Franklin

Thursday's Inspiration

"You hold in your hand an invitation: to remember the transforming power of forgiveness and loving kindness. To remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible."
_____ Jack Kornfield

Wednesday's Inspiration

Pacific Fan Palm, this one is growing in the ditch.

"To see clearly is poetry, philosophy, and religion, all in one."
_____ John Ruskin

Tuesday's Inspiration

"There is only one world, the world pressing against you this minute."
_____ Storm Jameson

Monday's Inspiration

Coconut Palm and ferns, first signs of life in the lava flow

"The lesson that life reappears and constantly enforces is 'look under foot.' You are always nearer to the divine and the true sources of your power than you think."
_____ John Burroughs