“Hello, sun in my face.
Hello You who made the morning and spread it over the fields… Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness,
in kindness.”

~Mary Oliver

One of my favorite Artists~Betsy Pease Gutmann
Text & image source: Rest in the Arms of Angels https://web.facebook.com/Rest-in-the-Arms-of-Angels-164081253667227/

As we settle into bed waiting to fall asleep,
there are often two tracks our mind can take.
Tonight, let’s not get on the train that replays our worries,
challenges, weaknesses or mistakes.
Instead let’s board the train that replays our blessings,
our strengths and our dreams for the days ahead.
If your mind gets off-track, bring it back to more positive thoughts
and fall asleep inviting dreams of confidence and hope.

Text & image source: Begin with Yes https://web.facebook.com/beginwithyes/

“Perhaps it takes courage to raise children..”
John Steinbeck

(a bluebird nest with two remaining eggs that never made it / Julie Cook / 2017)

Perhaps it does indeed Mr Steinbeck,
perhaps it does take courage…..

It should come as no surprise that no matter whether you’re young or old,
Republican or Democrat,
Christian or Muslim,
Jew or Baptist,
liberal or conservative,
black, white, brown, red, yellow…
alive or even dead…
the one single thing that I think is safe to assume for every last one of us,
a matter in which we may all find common ground…
and is surely a topic which we can each unite upon is…..

the single fact that we have all have had a mother!

Oh we’ve had a father too, but since today is earmarked for all things mothers…
mothers shall be the focus.

Mothers and motherhood…

It’s complicated.
Ask any mother….

And…

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;
the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
Plato

(a misty moonlit evening in Georgia / Julie Cook / 2017)

Who among us, no matter where on the planet we may be, doesn’t glance
upward in the nighttime sky gazing almost longingly toward a full moon.

It’s as if that illuminated orb, in that vast inky night sky,
beckons hypnotically for our attention.
Calling all nighttime wanderers to cast their gaze heavenward as thoughts
hauntingly wonder, as well as wander, under the spell of melancholy mixed with awe.

For it is in the darkness that we innately yearn for the comfort of light.
Welcoming light
Guiding light
Directing light
Reassuring light

We have been called, each of us, to be that same comforting light cast outward,
illuminating a frighteningly dark world.
As we…

“In your daily life,
let your destined visions
be farther than your gifted sight
and your ultimate joy
be vibrant than your demeaning worries.
Think big, dream big.”

― Israelmore Ayivor

Text & image source: Harmony https://web.facebook.com/Harmony-578149188866564/