AOM Meditations: 110620

~*~

 “To play is to listen to the imperative inner force that wants to take form and be acted out without reason. It is the joyful, spontaneous expression of one’s self. The inner force materializes the feeling and perception without planning or effort. That is what play is.”

~Michelle Cassou and Stewart Cubley 

(in Life, Paint and Passion)

~*~

Live life fully while you’re here. 

Experience everything. 

Take care of yourself and your friends. 

Have fun, be crazy, be weird. 

Go out and screw up! 

You’re going to anyway, 

so you might as well enjoy the process. 

~Anthony Robbins

~*~

“How would your life be different if...

You decided to give freely, 

love fully, and play feverishly?  

Let today be the day...

You free yourself from the conditioned rules 

that limit your happiness 

and dilute the beautiful life experience. 

Have fun. 

Give - Love - Play!” 

~Steve Maraboli

(The Power of One)

AOM Meditations: 110420

 ~*~

"Happiness is not the endless pursuit of pleasant experiences - that sounds more like a recipe for exhaustion - but a way of being that results from cultivating a benevolent mind, emotional balance, inner freedom, inner peace and wisdom. Each of these qualities is a skill that can be enhanced through training the mind...

For just a few moments, thoughts of the past are suppressed, the mind is not burdened with plans for the future, and the present moment is liberated from all mental constructs. This moment of respite, from which all sense of emotional urgency has vanished, is experienced as one of profound peace. For someone who has achieved a goal, completed a task, or won a victory, the tension they have long-carried with them relaxes. The ensuing sense of release is felt as a deep calm, free of all expectation and fear. This experience is just a passing glimpse brought on by a particular set of circumstances. We call it a magic moment, a state of grace. And yet the difference between these flashes of happiness seized on the fly and the immutable peacefulness of the sage, for instance, is as great as that between the tiny section of the sky seen through the eye of a needle and the limitless expanses of outer space. The two conditions differ in dimension, duration, and depth. Even so, we can learn something from these fleeting moments, these lulls in our ceaseless struggles; they can give us a sense of what true plenitude might be and help us recognize the conditions that favor it."

~Matthieu Ricard

AOM Meditations: 102320

Multnomah Falls, Oregon

~*~

“Life is a series 

of natural and spontaneous changes. 

Don't resist them; 

that only creates sorrow. 

Let reality be reality. 

Let things flow naturally forward 

in whatever way they like.” 

~Lao Tzu

~*~

“Understanding is the first step to acceptance, 

and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” 

~J.K. Rowling 

(Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

~*~

“For after all, 

the best thing one can do when it is raining 

is let it rain.” 

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

~*~

"...when you let go of your expectations, 

when you accept life as it is, 

you're free.

To hold on 

is to be serious and uptight. 

To let go 

is to lighten up.” 

~Richard Carlson, 

(Don't Sweat the Small Stuff)

AOM TV: The Healing Power of Nature! by After Skool

After Skool

The Healing Power of Nature!

YouTube Direct Link: https://youtu.be/u8cPbYtylb0

Parting Shot: 050720

Peace Be With You

((((HUGS))))

AOM Meditations: 042320

Moonrise; Catalina Island, California

by Leah Berman

landscape photos & looping videos in nature (website link)

Thanks to our Friend, David, for sending us this beautiful art

~*~

“Loneliness is the poverty of self; 

solitude is richness of self.”

~May Sarton

~*~

“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.”

~Arthur Schopenhauer

~*~

“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

~*~

“I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.”

~Rainer Maria Rilke

(Letters to a Young Poet)

Loving Nature Naturally: 052119

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. ... There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter."

~Rachel Carson

(Silent Spring)

Change the World for the Better?

Perfect Colors of Polihale, Kauai, Hawaii

~*~

Change the World for the Better?

Is it possible to change our world for the better? 

The world has certainly been a lot worse in the past than it is today and this proves to me that it is possible for things to get better. For example, civil liberties has expanded and I hope it will continue. I look back at the changes  that have come about just during my 60 trips around the sun. WOW! There have been some MAJOR changes that have made the world a better place for more of us. We still have lots of work to do but we have come along way in a relatively short amount of time. Looking back to where we were in the past and seeing where we are today should inspire and motivate us all to keep pushing forward.

Do you want the world to be a better place for all of us? 

I'm sure most of us would say yes to this question. And if yes - quit your whinin', get off your butt, and do something to help make a positive difference in the world. : )

So how do we go about changing the world for the better? 

There are probably billions of answers to this question. I'll narrow it down to what I see and you can decide whether you agree with me or not. It's okay if you don't, because each of us sits in a different spot around the Perspective Circle. We need to hear from all sides.

I believe the world can be better if we all Love each other more. I believe we need to make it our responsibility to take care of each other. I believe that is why we are here - to look out for and take care of each other. I firmly believe we are all brother and sisters - in the immortal words of Sister Sledge, "We are Family!"

So how do we Love each other more?

The first step toward a more loving world is for each of us to love ourselves more. This is key. The more you love yourself, the more you are able to love others. As Jesus stated, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

So how do I Love myself more?

That is the question. I don't have an easy answer or quote for this question. It is up to each of us to look within and find that answer for ourselves. The Love is within us. It has been and forever will be. We just have to let go any and all obstacles that block us from connecting to the Love within.

I'll stop here and let you think about these things. I'll continue with this discussion in the coming days, months and years. 

Meditations: "On Clothing" from 'The Prophet' by Kahlil Gibran

Iris Bachman Photography

~*~

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, 

yet they hide not the unbeautiful.

And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy 

you may find in them a harness and a chain.

Would that you could meet the sun and the wind 

with more of your skin and less of your raiment,

For the breath of life is in the sunlight 

and the hand of life is in the wind.

Some of you say, 

"It is the north wind who has woven the clothes to wear."

But shame was his loom, 

and the softening of the sinews was his thread.

And when his work was done he laughed in the forest.

Forget not that modesty is for a shield 

against the eye of the unclean.

And when the unclean shall be no more, 

what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?

And forget not that the earth delights 

to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

Kahlil Gibran 

'On Clothes' from The Prophet (link)

Parting Shot: 121718

Let's Take a Moment

To Inhale this Beautiful Scene

“Breathing in, 

I calm body and mind. 

Breathing out, 

I smile. 

Dwelling in the present moment 

I know this is the only moment.”

~Thich Nhat Hanh

I wish you a most beautiful day, my Friend

((((HUGS))))

AOM Meditations: 092718

~*~

“Hurt people hurt people. We are not being judgmental by separating ourselves from such people. But we should do so with compassion. Compassion is defined as a "keen awareness of the suffering of another coupled with a desire to see it relieved." People hurt others as a result of their own inner strife and pain. Avoid the reactive response of believing they are bad; they already think so and are acting that way. They aren't bad; they are damaged and they deserve compassion. Note that compassion is an internal process, an understanding of the painful and troubled road trod by another. It is not trying to change or fix that person.”

~Will Bowen

(Complaint Free Relationships)

~*~

“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies. (from "Loving Your Enemies")”

~Martin Luther King Jr.

(A Knock at Midnight)

~*~

Want to Love others better?

Love yourself more.

For you can only Love others

To the degree that you Love yourself.

Love is not something you learn to do

Love is who you are at your very core.

~AOM

AOM Meditations: 092418

“Autumn is a second spring 

when every leaf is a flower.” 

~Albert Camus

~*~

“Fall has always been my favorite season. 

The time when everything 

bursts with its last beauty, 

as if nature had been saving up all year 

for the grand finale.” 

~Lauren DeStefano, 

~*~

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious 

as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."

~Nathaniel Hawthorne

~*~

“That old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air ... Another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year's mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.” 

~Wallace Stegner

AOM Meditations: 052518

The Rhodora Flower (Rhododendron canadense)

Thanks to a Friend of AOM for sending us his favorite poem

~*~

The Rhodora:  On being asked, whence is the flower

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,

I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, 

Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,

To please the desert and the sluggish brook. 

The purple petals fallen in the pool

Made the black water with their beauty gay; 

Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,

And court the flower that cheapens his array.

Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why

This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,

Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,

Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;

Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! 

I never thought to ask; I never knew;

But in my simple ignorance suppose

The self-same power that brought me there, brought you."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

~*~

I added the following quote
To go with my discussion in the Music section.

"Your duty is to be and not to be this or that. ‘I am that I am’ sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in the words 'Be still’. What does stillness mean? It means destroy yourself. Because any form or shape is the cause for trouble. Give up the notion that 'I am so and so’. All that is required to realize the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that?"

~Sri Ramana Maharshi