10.14.24

Thought

Hugging is a beautiful Western custom, and we from the East would like to contribute the practice of conscious breathing to it. When you hold a child in your arms, or hug your mother, or your husband, or your friend, if you breath in and out three times, your happiness will be multiplied at least tenfold.

If you are distracted, thinking about other things, your hug will be distracted also, not very deep, and you may not enjoy hugging very much. So when you hug your child, your friend, your spouse, I recommend that you first breathe in and out consciously and return to the present moment. Then, while you hold him or her in your arms, breathe three times consciously, and you will enjoy your hugging more than ever before.

– Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step  

Quote

Louis L’Amor on endings: 

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished, that will be the beginning.”

Moment of Gratitude 

I’m grateful for brief opportunities to unplug from the internet and constant news cycle to reset.

What are you grateful for today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

10.7.24

Thought

Were there a force, capable, of changing this changeful world –

For the good

Reversing this concerning descent into madness and negativity

Tell me – would that agent of change… would it be Love

Oh, I know, it’s a heavily burdened word, Love

So many associations. So many expectations. Running the gambit from dark memory to sheer whimsy.

Clear all that, shall we

Shall we redefine it – Love – as simply:

Intelligence and compassion applied fanatically

Then, can that drive all action

Let me know

If so, I’d say, you’re loving your whole world

And is that, perfection.

– James Zealous, Love Poem  

Quote

Shakespeare on thought: 

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”

Moment of Gratitude 

I’m grateful everyday for the opportunity to sit and just be.

What are you grateful for today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

9.30.24

Thought

We as humans have evolved to develop a sophisticated ability to rationalize, analyze, and think because it simply helped us survive. Our minds do an incredible job to keep us alive, but it does not help us thrive. It is concerned solely with our safety and survival, but not our fulfilment or joy.

None of this is wrong by any means. The mind is simply doing what it was designed to do. When we don’t understand that its only duty is to help us survive, then we will get angry and frustrated with it. All conflict is derived from an innocent misunderstanding. Our mind’s duty is to keep us alive. Our consciousness’ duty is to help us feel fulfilled. Your soul is the reason why you’re even on this journey in the first place – to find peace, love, and joy for yourself.

– Joseph Nguyen, Don’t Believe Everything You Think  

Quote

Jonathan Safran Foer on thought: 

“I think and think and think, I’ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.”

Intention of the Day 

My intention is to stay calm and centered as I make conscious choices today.

What’s your intention today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

9.23.24

Thought

The expression “scented colors” is frequently met with. And finally the sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would try to express bright yellow in the bass notes, or date lake in the treble. The explanation by association will not suffice us in many, and the most important cases. Those who have heard of chromotherapy will know that colored light can exercise very definite influences on the whole body. Attempts have been made with different colors in the treatment of various nervous ailments. They have shown that red light stimulates and excites the heart, while blue light can cause temporary paralysis. But when the experiments come to be tried on animals and even plants, the association theory falls to the ground. So one is bound to admit that the question is at present unexplored, but that color can exercise enormous influence over the body as a physical organism.

– Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Quote

Marcus Aurelius on self worth: 

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.”

Moment of Gratitude 

I’m grateful for time to unplug.

What are you grateful for today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

9.16.24

Thought

She is a queen

A goddess with a briar rose tiara in her untamed hair

And a sword on her hip

Just try and stop her

And passion-like vines reach out for a hand

Tendrils of rage

Unravel, untangle

It is astounding

It is like magic

Each day unfolds a new leaf

And deep within it

A synchronized dance of old roots and new growth

Watered carefully wit the sea salt rain of yesterday.

– Excerpt from Sarah Tea “Brujita”

Quote

Nietzsche on creation: 

“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”

Moment of Gratitude 

Today I’m just grateful.

What are you grateful for today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

9.9.24

Thought

But the whole point about biology is that the earliest forms of life, mainly plants, were related to the light of the sun. All life on Earth is dependent not on merely terrestrial events, but on our relation to the sun and the wider cosmic environment. Even carbon and the other chemical elements on which biological life depends is fallout from exploding starts. Biology on Earth is rooted in a much larger ecology. I don’t think the evolution of life on Earth can be regarded as merely terrestrial, merely biological in that sense. Every human culture has recognised the importance of celestial influences of one kind or another: the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars, the sky. Influences from outside the Earth are working on us all the time. The transcendental object may be located or channeled through the sun, other stars, planets or constellations: something to do with the astronomical environment.

– Rupert Sheldrake, The Evolutionary Mind

Quote

Picasso on the transformative power of creation: 

“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.”

Intention of the Day 

Today my intention is to show loving kindness to everyone I interact with.

What’s your intention today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

9.2.24

Thought

Well I’m a product of my experience, surely, of what I have seen and known of the world. I’ve had, by the way, what I think of as a very fortunate growing up. On the basis of my experience, trusting my own perceptions, I don’t see any validity in the separation of man and the landscape. Oh, I know that the notion of alienation is very widespread, in a sense very popular. But I think it’s an unfortunate point of view and a false one, where the relationship between man and earth is concerned. Certainly it is one of the great afflictions of our time, this conviction of alienation, separation and isolation.

– N. Scott Momaday, The Magic of Words

Quote

Osho on creation: 

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”

Moment of Gratitude 

I’m grateful for long road trips and country roads.

What are you grateful for today? 

Happy Monday,

Val

8.26.24

Thought

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free? If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead. You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.

And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed. For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride? And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you. And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

– Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Quote

Rumi on self sufficiency: 

“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”

Moment of Gratitude 

I’m grateful everyday for the opportunity to learn and to create.

What are you grateful for today? 

Happy Monday,

Val