“In a very real sense, we’re all made out of sunlight.”
~ Thom Hartmann

Everything feels renewed today. Open and alive. After nearly 6 months without a dribble of rain, we finally received a good downpour yesterday morning, bringing close to an inch of rain, and apparently another shower early this morning. And I could literally feel the energy radiating from the plants and birds as I sat in this morning’s slow sunrise.

Thom Hartmann writes: “Sunlight – radiating heat, visible light, and ultraviolet light – is the source of almost all life on Earth. Everything you see alive around you is there because a plant somewhere was able to capture sunlight and store it. All animals live from these plants, whether directly (as with herbivores) or indirectly (as with carnivores, which eat the herbivores). This is true of mammals, insects, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and bacteria . . . everything living. Every life-form on the surface of this planet is here because a plant was able to gather sunlight and store it, and something else was able to eat that plant and take that sunlight energy in to power its body.” read more

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunity and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life, but this.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

I loved watching the sun play on the clouds this morning, with brilliant hues and little rainbows of color. A lone seagull hung out with me, playing above in the light winds. And it gave me a bit of extra time to wake up, as I didn’t get the best night’s sleep. The cat kept waking me up, scratching at the end of the bed, wondering where her most favorite human had gone LOL. read more

“Human Beings, indeed all sentient beings, have the right to pursue happiness and live in peace and freedom.”
~ Dalai Lama

I came to the computer this morning, prepared to write about freedom, when indeed, every photograph of the sun I took today, held the message of peace.  How perfect to have found a quote by the Dalai Lama that held both messages 🙂

So today, Spencer will head off island for nearly a month, beginning with a yacht delivery, from the VI up to Florida, followed by a couple weeks vacation. He’s crewing for an old friend, Harold, whom we’ve known since our earliest days here on island. Last night, Harold held a wonderful going away, send off party on the spectacular, 112 foot power yacht, catered with mounds of sushi and a well stocked bar. read more

“Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one’s liberty.”
~Henri Frederic Amiel

I awoke this morning with a song in my heart. So much to be grateful for, including the sunrise, every so gently diffused by the clouds. It gave me a little extra time to sit and be, before the brilliance put spots in my eyes, my signal that it’s time to go inside ….

So yesterday I was described as “persistent”. As a teacher or coach, I sat and asked myself this morning how this has come to be?  How did I learn to be “persistent” (assuming that persistence is a good trait LOL)? How do I teach that? read more

“If you have a good idea, use it so that you will not only accomplish something, but so that you can make room for new ones to flow into you.”

~ Deng Ming-Dao from ‘Everyday Tao: Living with Balance and Harmony’

What a beautiful clear day it is here in the VI. A great way to begin the week anew. I spent yesterday, working with Spencer, clearing out paperwork for the first quarter of the year. It will leave him with a clean desk, and a clean slate, as he heads off island for a month on a yacht delivery then vacation. read more

“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with – that’s poverty—but it’s how efficiently we can put first things first. When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it’s clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar.”
~ Victoria Moran

I love this teeny-tiny red sun, peeking out from behind the clouds this morning. It doesn’t have to be grand to be spectacular. As yesterday I wrote about letting go, it seemed that this thought echoed loudly throughout my day. read more

“Everything changes, nothing remains without change.”
~ Buddha

The sky today was such a perfect example of Buddha’s quote. The weatherman say it’s supposed to be mostly sunny, although you wouldn’t have guessed it upon first greeting the morning skies. Good news for Adult Parade down at Carnival 🙂 In each blink of the eye and flash of my camera, the clouds had changed.

Yesterday, I was talking with a friend about relationships. Isn’t it within our relationships with people that we can experience some of the biggest highs and lows in life. She and I concur the suffering we sometimes experience in our relationships is a result of our not recognizing that the relationship has evolved. Not deeply recognizing and honoring where the other person is in THIS moment of time. Not in our moment of time, or our mutual historical time together. People change! read more

“When you’re smiling….keep on smiling; The whole world smiles with you. And when you’re laughing….keep on laughing, the sun comes shining through.”
~ Louis Armstrong

I sat for quite a while, basking in the beautiful warm glow of this morning’s sun rise. I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep last night … The wind’s switched around, which for whatever reason, brings mosquitoes, and they were bugging me galore. I’ll admit, I woke up groggy and crabby… read more