Daily Archives: November 17, 2016

Dance like…

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I recently posted a piece in which I encouraged people to train themselves in finding a blessing or blessings in every day, and several commented that it was not always an easy task. And I agree that it is challenging at times, but I remember after I retired in 2001, when I was dealing with some very difficult pain-filled days and diappointing realities, that I found a way to turn around my choices to be angry and feel sorry for myself. It came after an eye-opening encournter with a homeless man. If he could sit there homeless and with no legs in a wheelchair and smile warmly at me and ask God to bless me, I decided that regardless of how bad a day I had had, at the end of it I would deliberately sit until I could write down 5 things that had blessed me, warmed my heart, or at least made me smile that day. And admittedly they weren’t always earth-shatteringly great blessings, but even if it was just the sweet song of a bird, or a pretty flower in my yard, or autumn leaves falling, I managed each day to find at least 5 good things that had happened in the course of that day’s time. Then after a year or two if became a challenge to look for those kinds of things as my day unfolded. Finally it became a habitual and daily mental practice. So it can be done and even if it’s only in your heart, pretty soon you’ll find yourself dancing like noboby’s watching!

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**Images found on Pinterest; collage by Natalie

1301. The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand. ~Frederic Lawrence Knowles

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The moon is at her full, and riding high,
floods the calm fields with light.
~William C. Bryant

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The moon–what is it about the moon that fascinates mortals like me? It seems that mankind and perhaps creatures alike have always been captivated by the moon. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to find image after image and tale after tale about the orb in humanity’s art, music, and literature. For example in 500 BC Homer wrote in the Hymn to Selene, “there she shines, a symbol, a sign for humanity.” And it’s not just the recent “supermoon” but all the moon’s phases that have and continue to excite as well as stir the imagination. Over the centuries, the moon has been given many names, and it appears in countless myths and legends from every corner of the globe. Interestingly, though mankind has often talked about the man in the moon, many of the names given to the moon indicate that it was thought by many to have been a feminine entity/deity. It has also been said that perhaps the sun, the moon, and the stars “exist that we might know how high our dreams can soar.” And in a way I think that may be true as it does keep our eyes pointed upward where we gain a sense of the grander scale of things and away from the temporary and limited realm of worldly things. Man may have set foot upon the moon’s “fabled surface,” but for me its fascination as a thing of mystery and mysticism hasn’t diminished a single iota. I still can’t sit under it at night and gaze heavenward without gaining a perception of tangible sanctity. The light that emanates from the moon seems to me to be not unlike the “holy light” that comes from human hearts in random acts of kindness and/or sacrifice.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ~Genesis 1:14-15  ✝

**All images taken by media outlets in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area. Notice in the upper right hand of the collage, the plane that had departed from DFW airport crossing the supermoon.