Free Book Friday - The Peep of Wilde Chicz

Come visit the crazy world of the Wilde Chicz.  They are cartoon styled lady birds with lots and lots of ATTITUDE!!!!!  These birds are full of fun and whimsy.

Free download code:  LZ26Y

Good until July 6, 2014

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/445507

Enjoy!!!!!

Monday Meditations - The search for the mystical stone

Arrange your meditative space for your comfort. Focus on the photograph or pick up your favorite crystal or stone and hold it in your hand. Take a deep breath and begin relaxed belly breathing.

Today you are looking for a special stone. A stone that has a hole that goes all the way through from one side to the other.  A stone that when held to the eye can frame the moon, the stars, or anything that one would want to capture for a moment and hold within the stone.

Stones with holes were considered magical.

The day is warm and the morning mist is rising with the rosy glow of the sun. The rocks are abundantly spread over the sand and beneath the surface of the water. You are greeted by the dry muted hues and the wet rich deep reds, blacks, and pinks of speckled granite, basalt, and a wonderful variety of other rocks. Pebbles the size of the tip of your pinky finger occupy the same sand as boulders that would take many people to move them a fraction of an inch. They all sit and wait for inquisitive fingers to trace the worn patterns on their surface or to pry them from the sand or the heavy wet mud.

You zigzag along the shore often stooping or bending to get a closer look at a new treasure. You pick up an oval pebble and a larger egg shaped rock. Both are smooth and worn clean by the tumbling action of the water and the sand. You feel a connection to the stones. Like the stones life has cleaned and smoothed many of your own raw edges. You like the feel and weight of these two stones and tuck them into your pocket. As you walk you feel the differences in the rocks through the bottoms of your shoes. You welcome the comfort and protection they provide. You arrive at an area of warm smooth dry sand bordered on both sides with well worn pebbles and stones. You make yourself comfortable on the sand and begin to run your fingers over the nearest stone offerings.

A darkened spot barely visible set inside the outer edge of a gray stone catches your eye. Most of it is buried in the sand beneath a larger flat white rock. A small oak stick comes in handy to pry it loose from the others. You tap it lightly with the stick and the center releases the gravelly sand. The sand sparkles in the bright golden light as it returns to dust the other stones. You lift the stone to your eye and love how it frames the lake, the sky, and the other countless stones. It is the perfect shape and size. You feel happy and content knowing that you hold a miracle of nature in your hand. It has been worked, molded, and worn by wind, waves, and sand. You feel a sense of wonder and peace as the stone warms in your hands.  You treasure this moment enjoying the sparkling sun on the water, the gentle pine scented breeze, and the sound of gently rippling waves as birds sing to welcome the new day.

Once again you sit rock in hand knowing you may save the memory of this place and continue this journey. Slowly you open your eyes and peacefully return to your own place and time.

Monday Meditations - The Rock

Arrange your meditative space for your comfort. Focus on the photograph or pick up your favorite crystal or stone and hold it in your hand. Take a deep breath and begin relaxed belly breathing.

The day is mildly warm. You pause and listen to the birds warbling and chirping in the secluded branches of the pines and cedars. The sun warms your shoulders and back as you breathe in the fresh clean scent of sun soaked pine.

You raise your eyes to the puffs of white clouds that float silently in the summer blue sky. The water is calm and seems to go on forever meeting and blending with the gauzy clouds. Your gaze returns to the rocky shore. Scattered at your feet are rocks; all colors, all shapes, and all sizes that were dropped as gifts from the melting glaciers long, long ago.

You breathe in and out with every step, pausing, breathing, gazing at the variety of rocks around your feet. Flat stepping stones carry you across the reflective shallow pools that puddle around the bases of the huge sun baked boulders.

You find a rock that captures your interest and take a seat on a nearby boulder. It just fits in the palm of your hand. A map of continents takes shape on the flat bottomed side of the heavy rock. It is rough and flecked with gray, black, bluish green, and white. This rock intrigues you with its white patterns that run like rivers on its surface.

Slowly you rotate the rock in your hand. Each side tells you a different story; each side links you to another time of peace, calm, and contentment. Your finger traces the river which seems to open up into a lake scattered with islands. You look away at a dragonfly hovering close to the surface. It summons an old memory.

The paddle is in your hands as you sit in the bow of the canoe. Rhythmically you sweep the paddle through the water, raise it, and pull it forward through the air. You pause watching watery drops fall from the edge like glistening strings of diamonds. You dip it once again into the water. Each stroke releases scores of cascading diamonds that create rainbows in the air. You feel the breeze as each stroke pushes you forward.

A fish breaks the surface of the water and returns to it with a splash that offers up more glittering watery diamonds that pitter patter down creating ever expanding circles. You follow the fish to the old trees hugging the shore. Their dangling branches and leaves kiss the water and offer you their cooling shade. Tiny fish dart between their ancient roots as limbs creak with each light breeze. Your eyes shift their focus as the lake bottom becomes a mirror, reflecting the tree and the sun glittering through the leaves. Rested you paddle on following the shore knowing that there are endless areas to explore. You pause again dipping your hand into the cold spring fed lake. You take a sip, and then allow the water to fall through your fingers like a dripping string of diamonds back into the water.

Once again you sit rock in hand knowing you may save the memory of this place and that you may return. May you peacefully return to this place and time.

My Sunday Funnies - Cats and Mice Series

First Published in FMAM: Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine Fall 2003

Free Book Friday - Meditations: Between the Light and the Storm

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/215282
Good morning!  Here is the code for a free download of my book - Meditations: Between the Light and the Storm

Free Code  NM36A good until July 11, 2014  Enjoy!  Feel free to share this with your friends.

Meditation Mondays - Inner Glow

Arrange your meditative space for your comfort. Focus on the photograph or pick up your favorite crystal or stone and hold it in your hand. Take a deep breath and begin relaxed belly breathing.

Each of us has our own inner glow that we create day by day. Much like a geode our hard outer shell is formed first. As the world seeps into our hollow geode, our inner form, our inner being begins to take shape. We follow our internal path and discover a rich variety of crystals. Some are rough and jagged, some polished and worn smooth like a worry stone, and some fractured and broken. Each holds its own value. Each holds its own experience. Each holds a key to our unique being.

We follow the winding path between the crystals to our glowing center and feel the warmth buried deep within our spirit. Our inner glow begins to spread from our heart out to our arms, hands, and fingertips. It warms and fills our belly and moves down our legs, feet, and toes. The warmth rises pinking our cheeks as a golden glow encircles our head. It rises and falls like a silver fountain until we are gold and silver shimmering spheres.

We sink deeply into the warmth of our joyful memories. They glimmer on the facets of each crystal. We trace them one by one until we come to the one that glows with the warmth of summer. We listen to forgotten sounds and voices. We absorb the summer scents of suntan oil, warm sand, and hot charcoal. Our eyes are filled with the bright colors of beach towels, swimsuits, sand toys, cups, and patterned plates. Baskets overflow with food.

We feel the warmth of the sun on our shoulders as we wade ankle deep in the fresh water. We scan the bottom for sparkling bits of quartz, granite, worn colored glass, and interesting shells. All of our cares have melted into the warmth of the memory. We feel a lightness as a warm breeze frees our spirit. We come to a large granite bolder and sit on the flat warm surface allowing our legs to swing as our toes dangle in the gently lapping warm water. We reach into our pocket and pull out the treasure we found.

It is perfectly smooth and flat, almost oval. It fits in our hand comfortably. We feel the curve and balance as we toss it lightly into the air. We watch the waves as they begin to grow and gently roll in one after the other. We get our hand ready to toss the rock. Our aim is to just kiss the tops of the incoming waves. We shade our eyes and ready our hand for the next cresting wave. As we swing our arm sideways we let out wrist snap sending our stone to skip through the tops of one, two, three waves. It was a perfect skipping stone. Our stone will settle on the lake bottom to work its way once again toward the shore.

We pack our memories up for another day carrying the warmth with us we slowly allow ourselves to return to this place and time. 

The Beauty of the Art of Engagement

Today began with snow on the ground again… and many moments of wonder.

One of the wonderful things I get to do is to work with ACT - Artist Creating Together.  Today was the first day of a two day art festival bringing together main stream students and students with disabilities.

This was the magical moment for me.  A young elementary student in a wheel chair was not engaged with the art project and the student with her did not know how to foster that engagement… I knelt down next to her wheelchair and held up three markers.  She had not wanted to hold any of them.  She waved her hands and as I watched her eyes I started to eliminate markers.  The red one caught her interest.  She did grasp it and drop it and grasp it and drop it.  I had a metal cookie sheet for her to work on.  She began to drum her fingers on it, another moment of purposeful interaction.  I offered her the pink marker and she made three very pale marks on her project.  As I talked to her she turned her head and looked at me.  Her eyes became clear and bright.  She reached out her hand and touched my hair.  None of these movements were easy for her.  Success!

How do I know we had success?  She knew that I saw her, that I looked into her eyes and saw her as a person, a person as unique, as the same, and as different as each and every one of us.  The student that was working with her got to observe an interaction that will hopefully give her the ability to assist instead of to do for her, to offer choices, and to be awed by what can happen when we slow down, take a breath, and allow life to open doors that we assume are shut forever.  

The arts create the ability to make choices.  The ability to make choices, no matter how large or how small, empowers us.  In many school situations these students do not get art, music, or physical education classes.  These are the classes that allow them to participate on a free and open level.  My hope is that this will change. 

We are all artists, dancers, actors, and musicians.  We all need to make those small steps and move out of our comfort zones.

Hugs to all,
m