Total Pageviews

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

2023 Quotes I LOVE

 2023 Quotes I LOVE


The Believer's Freedom
"No one should seek their own good, but the good of others." Corinthians 10:24


“And I saw a river over which every soul must pass to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, and the name of that river was suffering … and then I saw a boat which carried souls across the river, and the name of that boat was Love.
-Saint John of the Cross
(Thank you, Steve)


“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.
It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”
-Pope John Paul II
(Thank you for sharing this powerful quote, Lauren.) 

Friday, January 5, 2024

Things I've Learned in 2023

 

Things I've Learned in 2023

  • When I focus on breathing, I can finally stop thinking and be present. I am working on lingering here for longer periods. Asking myself Eckhart Tolle's question helps blank my mind, "I wonder what I am going to think of next." 
  • Watermelon Meow Meow is a funny song to play for kids
  • Giant Ponchos are key for enjoying concerts in the rain. We were totally prepared.
  • On Ponchos- I realized there is more than one reason to wear a poncho. Yes, they will keep you dry, but....did you know that it feels like you are wearing a cape thus making you feel like you are a superhero? Nobody can see you take your hand warmer out of your gloves and shove it into your pant legs. You are hidden when you awkwardly tuck your many layers of shirts into your corresponding layers of pants. A hidden place to exhale. You are free to own your white girl dance. It is a bubble of comfort. It blocks out your peripheral vision while wearing the hood, so you feel like you are the sole audience member at the concert. Lastly, you can hide inside of it! Where's Kelly?
  • Stay off Guanella Pass during peak leaf-peeping season, especially on the weekends during the middle of the day.
  • Honey Pot > Tampons (Thank you, Beth) If anyone wants to learn more, I am happy to share why I will never use tampons again.
  • Alcohol is normalized poison- I gave it up on July 11th, 2022. I am more than one year sober at this point. 
  • The Crested Butte wildflowers during peak season are gorgeous. If you can experience them firsthand, I highly recommend it. If you are planning to camp during that time, be ready for camping with mosquitos.
  • My iPhone 14 can take pictures of stars in the night sky! SOOOOOOO COOOOOOL!

The night sky in Eleven Mile Canyon, CO
  • Bonfire Burritos are sold in the frozen food section of Safeway
  • Never put a child's dance costume in the washing machine. #oops Nice work, Maya and Kel.
  • Duh, Kelly- Don't go outside during hail storms. Double duh.
  • Uno FLIP is loads of fun!
  • I love Kava and Kratom! Linz and Tat do not like to drink Kava and Kratom. #Dirtwater #AirportVomit
  • Never use Turro in NJ- only in CO #CarRentalExperienceFromHEDoubleHockeySticks
  • Tat and Linz are a ridiculously good team at charades
  • Operation Underground Railroad is a non-profit organization that leads the fight against child sexual exploitation and human trafficking worldwide. It rescues and supports survivors, provides aftercare, and educates the public through various initiatives and stories of hope.
  • Katie is freakishly good at Foosball.
  • The free app Yuka is a game changer at the grocery store- Thanks, Juleh!
  • I have renewed and continue to strengthen my relationship with Jesus. Thank you to Lauren Tracey, Marissa and Randy, The Chosen, Mom (through Grandma Josephine), and Katie
  • Thank you for the tank top and necklace, Mama.
  • Kaskade has an awesome Christmas Album on Spotify
  • I Farted on Santa's Lap is an actual song...lol
  • She is a hostage. Her mother is dying of cancer. Yet human beings think it is okay to rip down her missing poster. Watch Noa's story here and make her feel human to you.
  • Home Grown Tap and Dough offer a PALISADE PEACH PIZZA (seasonally)!
  • If you attend a concert at Ball Arena, dress warm and bring earplugs.
  • "Earplugs" is one word.
  • If you buy tickets to see Lauren Hill and you end up 3 hours late to the concert...don't worry! She won't be on stage yet.
  • New Artists I have discovered and have been listening to this year- Mihali, Sensi Trails, The Steeldrivers, Ashh Blackwood, Oliver Anthony, Dierks Bentley (Sun Sets in Colorado-Thanks, Linz.), Mayestra (Culture of Love)
  • Jack Johnson came out with a new album
  • I love the feeling after a good cold plunge! I worked my way up from 10 seconds in the shower to 3 minutes. Thank you to Rich Eagan for the encouragement. He sent me a video of his 4-year-old daughter cold plunging. Now my motivation is if Sienna can plunge, so can I! Deep breathing helps a lot- thanks, mom
  • Uno No Mercy- is insanity! Fun too!
  • My family is a bunch of prepared campers. I already knew this, but this year they refreshed my memory after showing me their ice maker- Jax & Fred.
  • One of the best meals of my life was eaten on a paper plate with a plastic fork.
  • My Mom is a hand model...didn't she tell you?
  • My dad is mysterical.


Sunday, January 15, 2023

Things I've Learned in 2022

 Things I've Learned in 2022

This list is short. I definitely learned a lot more than this in 2022 but failed in my recording. It's better than nothing! 


1. Use Massa flour to thicken sauces or chili
2. Butterflies drink turtle tears.
3 Master bedroom…what an f’ed up word choice.
5 During an Uber/Lyft rate surge- just wait 10-15 mins and it should go down.
6  I am looking at my tax return… it turns out I had to pay capital gains tax on the profits from selling my condo. $3,090
That’s because it wasn’t my primary residence for 2 of the last five years. ðŸ˜Ģ
That’s after I already paid $4777 as an exit tax from not living in NJ.
Lesson learned: if you can... live in the property for 2 years right before you sell.
7 I like teriyaki sauce on edamame…a lot
8 Snoopy is a beagle
9 Campgrounds = humans with kids
10 SUP-ing in the wind on a lake is brutal!
11 Honey helps mosquito bites (Thanks Aunt Rose Marie)
12 Puffs makes tissues infused with Vicks…yes, I inhaled the whole box
13 foam rolling and harem pants don’t mix
14 Speak up
15 Listen
16 Know your audience when sharing personal information
17 I have a serious coffee addiction
18 Colorado has Duch Brothers Coffee and it's damn good! 
19 Keef Cola- LOL
20 HUNO- high Uno- so much fun
21 We are all craving human connection but are very, very disconnected. 
22 The Matrix is real
23 Friends that let you go because of your views on COVID/vaccines, weren't really your friends to begin with. 
24 Driving through a mountain pass in the dark during a snowstorm made me truly understand the phrase, "It scared the shit out of me." I felt like I was going to shit myself, but I didn't. I haven't felt that way since naively getting into an unmarked "taxi" in Bangkok. Lessons Learned. 
25 To securely book camping reservations in Colorado for summer, book the week, then release the dates you don't want. Recreation.gov...I have a trick! 

Funny Moments of 2022

 

Funny Moments of 2022

😆

Katie for the win this year. You can tell we didn't go out much. 


Kayla: There are a lot of people out here. It doesn’t feel wrong.
Kelly: It’s halftime. 
Kayla: We are going to make it to our seats in time for the 4th quarter. 

Kayla: You could’ve gone a little lighter on the real first aid part of the first aid kit. Did you need to leave it all in here? Honest question. 

Kayla: No one needs to know about this. How many complications happened for us to have to get to our seats?  We came in at gate nine and actually need to gate 10 but went in the wrong direction to circle the stadium.
Jan. 9th 22

1-28-22
Me: They can’t hear you
Katie: Yes, they can because I can hear them and I am deaf. 


Katie: There is nothing to watch
Kelly: Let’s just watch YouTube.
Katie: There is nothing on YouTube. It’s Saturday!
1-29-22 

Could we please stop looking at our fingernails? Oh my God, we are never going to get friends.
Katie 1-30-22 (@NFL Championship football game)


Kelly: Does the bite on your chin hurt?
Katie: Whiskey
2-2022


3-4-22 Sean
I’m an old-fashioned kind of sir.
Nothing really brings up trauma because I am too traumatized.
Beauvallon Chronicles 3-4


3-17-22 Katie
There are crowds to get up Mt. Everest. Can you imagine? I am finally given time to do this climb, and I HAVE TO STAND IN FUCKING LINE. A mountain is the one place you should not have to stand in line. That just shows how many people are doing steroids.

3-25-22 Sean
He lives in Washington-tucky
There is something between virgin and gay

3-26-22 Ryan
I used to have a thing for Tina Turner.

4-14-22
I’m a slut for truffle
Elmers

Kelly: This shirt is so tight. I only have one boob.
Katie: Kelly, all lesbians only have one boob. 4-15-22

4-24-22
I only like things with a motor on them. So, if you’re going to spend money on a hoverboard just buy an ATV. Katie 4-24-22


Me: What is bad chocolate?
Katie:  Reese’s Cups- I want real peanut butter & chocolate

Me: What is bad ice cream?
Katie: No ice cream

Me: What are bad salty snacks? Like avocado oil chips? 
Katie: Any chips you’ve ever chosen. 

Me: What is bad candy?
Katie: Anything that’s healthy

Hahahaha  
Beth May 18
He’s a world champion poker player!--


Katie, I found such a great addition to our stuffed peppers for tonight!
It better not be Molly. 
6-12-22


Katie: Can you put on Mariah Carey?
Kelly: I have never heard you say that before.
Katie: Oh yeah, I meant Whitney Houston! 
hahaha
6-30-22

7-1-22 LM
I'm not bougie. I have fungus on my toe! Kelly, do not write that in your thing. Stop that!
NM: I've got a pair of needle-nose and some Rumplemintz. 


7-4-22
We don’t like your teacher voice. 
(Katie after I yelled at Ruca for eating her poop.)

7-15-22 RT
That's like trying to submit your dissertation after working on it for a week.
It’s like spelling overwhelmed, ou…
Just the fact that you started it and ended it with the right letter isn’t enough.

Tossing hair off her neck and sweating over a mile high at the Rockies Stadium…
“Ugh, I just need skittles or something!” 
Hahaha 7-22-22 Katie


Aug. 17th
I have been having 100g or more of protein a day and lifting weights. Grrr. That means I have so much testosterone running through my veins probably. I just want to shoot bows and arrows with Joe Rogan.
Katie 

Sept. 3rd Chataqua Auditorium- Rising Appalachia concert
After eyeing a row full of lesbians in front of us.
Katie to Kelly: What would a lesbian be doing right now? 
Kelly: (shrugs)
Katie: Zooming in on her cat. (points to lesbian zooming in on her iPhone pic of her cat. 
Both: LOL

10-11-22
I think I have a headache in my 3rd eye.
Katie 

10-20-22
Kelly: Let’s play Kings in the Corner.
Katie: Are we going to be able to do this without calling your mom?

11-13-22 Lindsey (while playing "Huno" in a cabin)
Kelly: Que color?
Lindsey: Seven
both: LOLLOL

11-14-22
Kelly: Do you have any gum?
Katie: Kelly, I have skinny jeans on!

12-3-22
I find social media to be a soul-sucking void of meaningless affirmation.
Wednesday Adams 


Brooklyn, Hunter, and Cole = very funny kids
Funny Moments of 2022 from The Diem Team

1-12-22 Jackie
While I was snooping I came across this gem (see photo).
I asked Brooklyn if he wanted to wear that or if she made him and she said, “ He wanted to touch my crystals, so I made him dress up in three outfits.” 😂😂
BUT at least she let him touch the crystals and didn’t say no after he dressed up … like some people … ✏️

All three kids were crying with the gym teacher by the bus. The gym teacher called me and said, “I think they are upset because of the Aunt that was here when they faked a stomach ache.” They are all hysterical crying and the whole school now knows they faked a stomach ache to spend the day with you.
3-23-22

Brooklyn: Next year, I’m going to be 10 years old, Aunt Kelly.
Me: Brooklyn, you just turned eight years old. Are you going to skip nine?
Brooklyn: because 789! I don’t want to walk around being afraid of being eaten!

Jackie-Brooklyn can you get me a cookie if you're taking one?
B-Sure
Jackie-Ok thanks, can you get me the gooiest one?
B-Huh
Jackie-The lightest one B
B-Ok, here mommy this is the lightest. All the others were a little heavier.
9-3-22
😂😂

It’s raining here but some guy is outside blowing leaves. Fred’s looking out the window at him and Cole looks up at him, pats his back, and goes, “Don’t worry daddy, someday that will be you.” 10-1-22

“Boys, what did you learn at church?”
"How God got killed and they stabbed him onto a cross” (while acting it out) 11-8-22

ðŸ˜ģ

Saturday, January 14, 2023

2022 Quotes

 Quotes of 2022

Here are quotes I came across while reading, listening, and scrolling. They felt meaningful enough to me to take the time to capture them. Enjoy! 


Book: Interpreter of Maladies
Story: The Third and Final Continent
“…there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.”

Wisdom From Higher Dimensional Beings 166
"Be different. It is not the primary function of a society to create norms from which everybody can hope live to up to. The true function of a society is to embrace all of its elements. So if you do not fit into your community, then you are giving others the opportunity to see the strength that is inherent in a diverse culture. Being like everyone else may allow you to live in comfort and may prevent you from experiencing raised eyebrows and dirty looks. But when you are not who you really are, you are in no way serving the greater good. There is no bigger role for you to play than the role of being yourself. Anyone who cannot see your value probably does not see their own either. There's always room for that that is unusual in every society. Not everyone in that society will recognize the value in your uniqueness. But the more you are unwilling to fit in, the more you are giving others permission to be who they are. Slowly, but surely all in your society will take off their masks, will step out of line, and will dare to be who they really are. Be different without being defiant or rebellious and you will not create the need for anyone to push against you. Be different and love yourself unconditionally and you will find others will do the same."

“Each one of us matters, has a role to play, and makes a difference. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.”

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin


101 Ways to Transform Your Life by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
#7 Write down this ancient truth and reread it on a daily basis. When you seek happiness for yourself it will always elude you. When you seek happiness for others, you will find it yourself.
#12 Work at being content with who you are rather than pleasing others by being unauthentic.  Say to yourself, I am what I am and it is okay as long as I am not hurting anyone else in the process. You have a right to be who you are and the only morality you have to be concerned with is whether somebody else is being hurt by you being who you are. You don't have to apologize for anything or anyone. You don't have to apologize to anyone for anything that you are.  It is a wonderful affirmation: I am what I am.
#80 Examine everything that offends you and see if you can get your ego out of the picture. When you are offended you are actually thinking this is awful. How can God allow it? Release your ego. Then react upon that which you are for. Then there will be no need to fight. Everything that you are for empowers you. Everything you are against weakens you. Whenever you have to fight something you are weaker from the effort.
#100 Demonstrate tolerance and love by ignoring what may have transpired in the past. Avoid the inclination to make someone else wrong by pointing out the fallacies of their point of view with examples from their past. Let go of the desire to win and cultivate the desire to communicate.

Pain body remnants of past pain that are still alive that have accumulated inside of you as a little entity. The personal plus the collective part of it is the collective pain body.
Ekhart Tolle the Art of Presence 

“We are a group of beings sharing consciousness. Sharing our hearts. Sharing the road maps of our journeys. What we are here for is a transformation of being, not the collecting of experiences. For no matter how many experiences we collect, it will never be enough. But we the experienced will always be a breath away from this moment.”
Ram Dass 

Bringing the human race together
We have discovered that the greatest strength humanity has is their ability to listen to one another and understand where the other is coming from. This ability that you have is what gives you compassion and that compassion helps you tap into the unconditional love that makes you source energy beings. The opposite of what we are talking about here is also present on planet earth. You do have plenty of people who are unwilling to see or even attempt to see her another’s perspective. We find this to be what polarizes you on many issues. 

′′ You don't need coffee; you need sleep.
You don't need nicotine; you need to walk.
You don't need to get drunk; you need to laugh out loud.
You don't need wild sex; you need connection.
You don't need to scream; you need to express yourself.
You don't need to be tragic; you need to listen.
You don't need synthetic drugs; you need art.
You don't need stimulants; you need a hug.
You don't need TV; you need poetry.
You don't need to buy; you need Nature.
You don't need to judge, you need empathy.
You don't need religions; you need questions.
You don't need a partner; you need self-love.
You need yourself.
I need me.
Above everything, you need inner peace, which requires harmony between the inside and the outside.
Do what you believe and believe in what you do."
Painting by Vasil Woodland

“We are so frightfully  concerned with our own deaths, we sometimes forget the purpose of our lives.”
Many Lives Many Masters
Brian Weiss

“What you most fear is what will most plague you. Fear will draw it to you like a magnet…
Thought is creative.  Fear attracts like energy. Love is all there is... Love is the answer.”

...“We would see, that when others suffer the collective human body is set back from the progression of our species. A world without caste would set everyone free.”

-Trevor- This Place Satsang
Where we come from is where we go
Don’t ya fight with what you don’t know
Live the song and then soon we’ll flow
Water that seed and it will grow
On a journey to see that place
Take your mask off and see your face
Let it all go and then embrace
Cook it up now and get that taste
What your seeking is inside you
Always one it was never two
What to follow and what to do
Sit and rest in the absolute
We will go there when we are called
Love is mighty it will not fall
Like a mountain, we’re stand-in tall
All in one and the one and all

“It’s not the problem or the pain, it’s our resistance to it that harms us.”
-Peret

Codependent No More
We can be gentle, loving, listening, attentive, and kind to ourselves, our feelings, thoughts, needs, wants, desires, and everything we’re made of. We can accept ourselves—all of us. Start where we’re at, and we will become more. Develop our gifts and talents. Trust ourselves. Assert ourselves. We can be trusted. Respect ourselves. Be true to ourselves. Honor ourselves, for that, is where our magic lies. That is our key to the world.”

“Yoga is stilling the fluctuations of the mind. Then one abides in their own true nature.” -Chopra's app

"Expectations are premeditated resentments." 12 Step Program

The thing you love least about yourself is your ceiling for love. -Aubrey Marcus

“The resistance against something exasperates any and all fears about it.” Ram Dass

Book: The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
Solidarity is identifying with one another without feeling like you have to agree on every issue. It’s unity, not uniformity. It’s listening without rushing in to fix the problem. It’s going deeper than typical ways of talking and sharing—going down to the place where souls meet and love comes, where separateness drops away and you know these women because you are these women.

Jack Kornfield’s analogy. He says when you start to meditate your mind is like a puppy you’re trying to house-train. You place it on a piece of newspaper. “Stay,” you tell it. “Stay.” But does it stay? Of course not. It wanders off, and you have to bring it back. It doesn’t help to punish the pup. The pup learns by being gently brought back over and over again.


Sue Monk Kidd
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
The first step toward lyricism is simply acknowledging our creativity. Second, we must explore it. Ask yourself, “What is my deepest passion, really? What moves me profoundly?” And let the answer float up from the truest, most vulnerable place in your heart. Greet this answer like it is your own newborn self being placed in your arms. Love it. Bond with it. Feed it. Don’t push it aside, minimize, make excuses, and starve this thing of beauty, because this answer is the window into your creative life.

Walt Whitman (preface to Leaves of Grass)
Reexamine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.

In general, people are not drawn to perfection in others. People are drawn to shared interests, shared problems, and an individual's life energy. Humans connect with humans. Hiding one's humanity and trying to project an image of perfection makes a person a person vague, slippery, lifeless, and uninteresting. -Robert Glover


Comfort is a drug. Once you get used to it, it becomes addicting. Give a weak person consistent stimulation, good food, and cheap entertainment and they'll throw their ambitions right out the window. The comfort zone is where dreams go to die. @astraltruth


Maya Angelou's "And Still I Rise"
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
...........................................................
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I rise.


Make friends with pain and you'll never be alone. Cam Hanes

..."I pounded pillows. I poured the anger into my journals. I let it come. Yet anger needs not only to be recognized and allowed; like grief, it eventually needs to be transformed into an energy that serves compassion... Anger can fuel our ability to challenge, to defy injustice. It can lead to creative projects, and constructive behavior acts that work toward inclusion. In such ways, anger becomes a dynamism of love.
Sue Monk Kidd's The Dance of the Dissident Daughter

"[The female soul] resides in the guts, not in the head. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

In that experience of being formed anew, I may often feel torn asunder; old aspects of my self-conception must die in order for my new transformation into selfhood to take place. Penelope Washbourn

Patriarchy had created a world where the spirit is split from body, humans from nature, and natural from the divine, and I could feel those splits in myself.
I mourned those gaping holes. During those isolated days, I sometimes stood before the mirror, inwardly saying the first of many goodbyes to the woman I had been.
In crossing the unexplored gorge (an act that cannot be accomplished in several days)...Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter

Wolf
The world of men is dividing into egalitarians and patriarchalists--those men who are trying to learn the language and customs of the newly emerging world, and those who are determined to keep that new order from taking root. The former group welcomes these changes, seeing that though they are painful in the short term, over the long term they provide the only route to intimacy and peace. But the latter group sees only loss...The patriarchalists' worldview, shared by women as well as men, is battling the emerging egalitarian worldview, which is also shared by people of both sexes. Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter

Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter- Sylvia Plath's Diary...
describes graphic battles with the Minotaur whom she described as an "inner voice," "a demon of negation." He would seize her, saying, "Oh, you can't teach, can't do anything. Can't write. Can't think." He robbed her of confidence, froze her into a "quivering jelly," and pressured her to run away from tasks where she would be fallible and flawed. Finally, she described how she mobilized herself to battle him:
I cannot ignore this murderous self: it is there. I smell it and feel it. ...When it says: you shall not sleep, you cannot teach, I shall go on anyway, knocking its nose in. Its biggest weapon is and has been the image of myself as a perfect success: in writing, teaching, and living. ...My demon of negation will tempt me day by day, and I'll fight it, as something other than my essential self, which I am fighting to save.

Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
By blindly following the script, we tend to become what Ursula K. Le Guin calls "male constructs" or, in Madonna Kolbenschlag's words, "formula females." It is sort of like filling in a paint-by-number canvas, creating ourselves within the outline of stories, wishes, and mindsets projected onto us by a faith and culture that have been shaped and regulated by men. By blindly following the script, we forfeit the power to shape our own lives and identities.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frighten us.” Marianne Williamson. Found in the Book: The Opening by Randy Ferguson

Patience visited me
And it reminded me
That good things take time to come to fruition
And grow slowly with stability

Peace visited me
And it reminded me
That I may remain calm through the storms of life
Regardless of the chaos surrounding me

Hope visited me
And it reminded me
That better times lay ahead
And it would always be there to guide and uplift me

Humility visited me
And it reminded me
That I may achieve it
Not by trying to shrink myself and make myself less
But by focusing on serving the world and uplifting those around me

Kindness visited me
And it reminded me
To be more gentle, forgiving, and compassionate toward myself
And those surrounding me

Confidence visited me
And it reminded me
To not conceal or suppress my gifts and talents
In order to make others feel more comfortable
But to embrace what makes me, me

Focus visited me
And it reminded me
That other people’s insecurities and judgments about me
Are not my problem
And I should redirect my attention
From others back to me

Freedom visited me
And it reminded me
That no one has control over my mindset, thoughts, and wellbeing
But me

And love visited me
And it reminded me
That I need not search for it in others
As it lies within me.

Words by Tahlia Hunter
Artwork by Jungsuk Lee

I’ve learned without exception, that when people drop their fear, guilt, resentment, attachment, and judgment (all their primary sources of pain and separation), what they discover is that who they are, is love itself. They experience a deep, organic adoration for themselves and every human being on the planet.
Randy Ferguson
The Opening 

Saturday, January 1, 2022

Things I Have Learned in 2021

Things I Have Learned in 2021 

I have definitely learned a lot more than this in 2021, but these are the things that actually got written down. 

1. Biceps have two heads.
2. Honeybees fly 80,000 miles to 2 million flowers to gather 4 lbs of nectar to make one pound of honey.
3. The Earth spins at about 1,000 mph.
4. Ruca is the best beer pong ping-pong ball retriever in the land.
5 Noodling- A form of fishing in which a crazy person runs into a lake and searches for holes on the bottom with his foot. Then he inserts his finger into the hole and lets something bite it.
6 always have at least 50% iPhone battery when shopping for an Instacart order. 55 items may actually be 75 units and a heavy maxed out shopping cart.
7 “paradise” is a Persian word for garden ðŸŠī
8 Aquaphor isn’t for moisturizing. It is for healing. Thank you, Katie. My dry hands thank you.
9 If you run out of Paulo Santo at home just go to a Trevor Hall concert at Red Rocks.
10 The spelling of Daiquiri has an I after the a!!!! Thank you Daiquiri Deck.
11 EGR = Extra Grace Required  Thanks, Liz. I think we can all give each other a little more grace these days.
12 People in Maine host maple syrup barn parties. I must attend one of these!
13 Realization: I feel guilty to have recently purchased 3 books through  Amazon. I love bookstores. The quiet, the scent of new books, the readers stashed away in every corner. The overpriced coffee shop inside. If we don’t support local bookstores, they will no longer exist. It is sad that by local bookstores, I mean monopolies like Barnes & Noble with its Starbucks sidekick. What could possibly take over Amazon?
14 Not every mug is made for coffee drinking.
15 I drink too much coffee.
16 I have no idea what is real.
17 #TDLIATL  the dumbest lesbians in all the land
18 My former 4th-grade students in NJ have so many interesting names that I am only now learning the meaning of. 
Soham means I am; I am He-the presence of divinity of each soul; The presence of divinity of each soul. (Beautiful!) 
Divya- devine
Ishani- lord master ruler
Nidhi- treasure
Aarnav- ocean, wave, stream, sea
KrishnaOne of the most popular gods, the eighth and most important avatar or incarnation of Vishnu
Pranav- praise, salutation
Gupta (Sanskrit Origin) means 'one who is bound by duty to protect or govern', implying a King. 
Patel (Gujarati Origin)is a Hindu community of wealthy farmers and merchants. It originally meant 'village-chief'.
Singh, (Sanskrit Origin) the most common Indian surname, is Sanskrit for 'Lion-hearted'.
19 I am transitioning and struggling with crossing over from the must-do to the May do side.
20 I’ve become a part of the Great Resignation. The pandemic has caused us to genuinely reconsider what matters most in life and how we want to spend our days going forward.  Lewann Babler, Elephant Journal
21 It is really messed up that we take puppies away from their mama and siblings. If the puppy moms could talk, what would they say?

2021 Quotes

 Quotes From 2021

I love words. Here are some I read, received, or heard & resonated with. 

Enjoy! 


“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
Theodore Roosevelt

If we let go of the list of things that we want to accomplish and acquire, we would be living our dream. BB The Gifts of Imperfection

Part of being in your power and shining as brilliantly as you were meant to has to do with how well you listen to your life. The real way to glow always has to do with being in service to what’s guiding you rather than trying to be in control of it. Chani Nicholas

Lao Tzu: Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend.

When you go against the flow, you suffer. 

When you go with the flow, you enjoy the ride.

-Dark Night of the Soul article

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” –Rumi

"The meaning of life is just to be alive". - Alan Watts

From Ed
Ernest Hemingway showed us that safety is an illusion and that life is a wild adventure or nothing at all.

We are all mayflies and we don’t even know it. Irene Muldowney
7-25-21

“Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose to our lives.”  BB

“Feeling discontent is exciting. Discontent is the nagging of the imagination. Discontent is evidence that your imagination has not given up on you. It is still pressing, swelling, trying to get your attention by whispering: Not this.”
Glennon Doyle

The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can't be organized or regulated. It isn't true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth. Ram Dass

When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent...you sort of understand that it didn't get enough light, and so it turned that way. Ans you don't get all emotional about it. You just allow it. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying "you are too this, or I'm too this." That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are. -Ram Dass

If someone is falling behind in life,
you don't have to remind them.
Believe me, they already know. 
If someone is unhealthy, they know.
If someone is failing at work, they know. 
If someone is struggling in their relationships, with money,
with self-image...they know.
It's what consumes their thoughts each day.
What you need to do for those who are struggling is not to reprimand, but encourage.
Tell them what's good about their lives,
show them the potential that you see. Love them where they are.
When we can't see clearly for ourselves, we need others to speak greatness over us.
People don't need you to tell them
what's wrong with their lives, they already know.
They need you to reassure them that they can still make it right.
-Brianna Wiest-
The Minds Journal

We have to create culture, don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you're worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you're giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told 'no', we're unimportant, we're peripheral. 'Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.' And then you're a player, you don't want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.

Terence McKenna
 
The flow is at the intersection of discipline and surrender. Jason Silva

Here are some inspiring words from Albert Einstein: 🙏ðŸ’Ŧ

“I didn't arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.”
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to point of visibility. There is no matter.”
"Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but modes by which we think.
Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, determined by the external world."
“Time does not exist – we invented it. Time is what the clock says. The distinction between the past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me."
"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.”
"A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
"Our separation from each other is an optical illusion."
“When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected. The greatest tragedy of human existence is the illusion of separateness.”
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.”
“When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.”
“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.”
“The ancients knew something, which we seem to have forgotten.”
“The more I learn of physics, the more I am drawn to metaphysics.”
“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike. We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. It is entirely possible that behind the perception of our senses, worlds are hidden of which we are unaware.”
“I’m not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books.”
"The common idea that I am an atheist is based on a big mistake. Anyone who interprets my scientific theories this way did not understand them."
"Everything is determined, every beginning and ending, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."
“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It will transcend a personal God and avoid dogma and theology.”
“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”
“Everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you can not help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”
"I am happy because I want nothing from anyone. I do not care about money. Decorations, titles, or distinctions mean nothing to me. I do not crave praise. I claim credit for nothing. A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future."

"We are caged by our cultural programming. Culture is a mass hallucination, and when you step outside the mass hallucination you see it for what it’s worth."

"Ego is a structure that is erected by a neurotic individual who is a member of a neurotic culture against the facts of the matter. And culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivized consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviors are acceptable.”

"Unexamined cultural values & limitations of language have made us unwitting prisoners of our own assumptions."

“Personal empowerment means deconditioning yourself from the values and the programs of the society and putting your own values and programs in place.”

~Terence McKenna

Never underestimate the power of your presence. We can bring joy to others just by showing up.
Evelyn Lynch