My Little Journal of Positivity

So, I attended a ceremony last night.

It was the first event of its kind where
I honestly felt or perceived some sort of
"difference" during the experience.

During the meditation, we were encouraged to
encounter a golden man in a field of grain,
and there to receive a message and a gift.

And then my brain instantly said,
"But it's not a man. It's a deer."

I'm still deciphering the full message but
it involves paths and validation. There's
a lot of difference between the following:

"You are on the right path now."
"You are on the right path."
"You are on the path."
and
"You are the path."

My gift, though, was clear and three-fold.

When the deer fell over, shot through
with a silver arrow for the renewal, first
there was a hide, laid out flat, minus head.

The hide then disappeared, to reveal a
still-beating heart, garish red and blue in
its animation, invisibly connected in mid-air.

Before I could pick it up, the heart also
disappeared, and there beneath it rested a
fragment of antler, which was mine to keep.

The antler?
Grows, branches, falls off, and regenerates.
Changes composition during annual cycle.
Differs even between base and tip.
Is used as part of fighting by males, but
caribou and reindeer females also have them.
Represents the essence of deer in our minds.


Thank you for all my gifts, seen and unseen.

These days I'm happy to say
I'm amazed that I'm still around
And the weight of the world is off my back
When we fell, we got up
And crawled out the cracks
Excuse me if I take some comfort in that
Happy today, happy to play
With the weight of the world off of my back
-Elton John, "Weight of the World"

Note to self:


1. Write it down.


2. Send it to other people in writing.


3. Ask them to acknowledge they've seen it.


4. Get it in writing that they've agreed to it.


5. Be prepared for this to not always work.

Count your blessings. Count your problems too.
Make the former outweigh the latter.
For example: wake up.

Get regular exercise, eat healthy food, get enough sleep.
Failing that -- get sick. ;)

Sooner or later, the future will be here.
You'll find me there.

Thank you, Kate Donohue.

Keep walking,
though there's no place to get to.
-Rumi

No, that don't make me a hawk... but
if you watch the helicopters bring in the
wounded boys, then you go into the wards
and sing for 'em and try to do your best to
cheer 'em up so that they can get back home,
it might make you a dove with claws.
-Johnny Cash

Man is eyes, the rest is only flesh:
But the true eyes are those that see the friend.
Merge the whole of yourself in your eyes,
Go towards the vision,
go towards the vision,
go towards the vision.
-Rumi

Keep all your insurance up to date.

Write it down, write it out, write it up,
or do without. Picture this, or imagine that.
I may dream of many things, but few come true.
My achievements may be few, but you see me try.

( Image behind cut )


I have been very lucky in my life.
I give thanks for my many blessings.

Thank you, Johnny Cash.

You say grace before meals. All right.
But I say grace before the concert and the opera,
and grace before the play and pantomime,
and grace before I open a book,
and grace before sketching, painting, and swimming,
fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing,
and grace before I dip the pen in ink.
-G.K. Chesterton