Can extract sunshine from a cloudy day!

Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness. Carry a vision of heaven in your hearts, and you shall make your name,your college, the world, correspond to that vision. Your success and happiness lie within you. External conditions are the accidents of life, its outer wrappings. The great, enduring realities are love and service. Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulty. ~ Helen Keller
L❀VE ♥´¯`•.¸¸.• ♥ •´¯`•.¸¸.♥Fiat Lux ♥´¯`•.¸¸.• ♥L❀VE ♥´¯`•.¸¸.• ♥ •´¯`•.¸¸.♥Fiat Lux ♥´¯`•.¸¸.• ♥

Thursday, December 27, 2012

2013- A Year That Promises Sparkles

Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥¸¸. ,•ღ. ℒℴνℯ •ღ. ℒℴνℯ♥¸.•*”Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥¸¸. ,•ღ. ℒℴνℯ •ღ. ℒℴνℯ♥¸.•*”Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥
She who leaves a trail of glitter always sparkles! ( and is never forgotten too, haha!) And that's what 2013 will be for me - a - trail - of - sparkles! I am setting out to make the coming year a jolly, joyful, mirthful, laughter filled year. I dare declare it my jubilee year; 365 days of purposely planned and carefully crafted effervescent days of  joy.- I mean that - or my name isn't Lady Prism, haha!

The way I see it, you and I are both vessels of light. I am - You are- light incarnate! We are meant to shimmer and  radiate. Whatever religious affiliation, ideology, conviction, race, color or creed, Christmas is for all. It is the rekindling gift of light by the Christ, our Redeemer, offered to every single living thing on earth, be it man, woman, child or creature. Let everything that has life praise the Lord, the Good Book says, for He has come to give us joy, a joy the world cannot give.

The Christ of Christmas I know is the spirit of the loving Nazarene, a beacon of love and light, who without earthly political agenda set out to boldly speak of hope, forgiveness and redemption. His message was one of living on higher ground through the practical application of kindness towards self and neighbors. Such a very simple, plain preaching devoid of religious hysteria it was hard to take then, and hard to take now.

And as we are reminded by the season to live in joy, I am personally filled to the brim with a hope of having my light within rekindled luminescent.  A happy me means a happy community of those around me.  I want my happiness to flow because I want my joy to touch you. Being happy takes conscious effort. It takes work. It takes loving discipline; a positive focusing of thoughts hinged on faith. Whatever is good, whatever is lovely, whatever is worthy of praise, think only of those things, the Good Book says.

Being happy takes planning, organization and  execution. The world created out of chaos was formed into order, so should our lives be. It takes sacrifice at times, a giving up of temporal enticements that appear exciting at the present moment but lead nowhere except to  the inner enclaves of spiritual destitution and moral disaster - for if the light in you is darkness, how terribly dark it will be.  Happiness takes courage and a dash of bravery too! It takes giving up and  letting go. It takes an open heart and an open mind. Happiness is not only being with people, it is at times wrestling with a loneliness so deep, facing whatever need be, then plodding on until the clouds break through and light bursts forth again. Happiness is consciously casting out whatever dark thoughts that assail the spirit during downtrodden days, believing that we are never truly alone. Happiness is the mastery of patience, the generosity of understanding, and the charity of forgiving - everyday.

These words I write simply because in times when I feel less than shinning, it would do well to refer the fact that I am a person who chooses to be happy. I am created for joy. My happiness does not hinge on objects to own or people to possess. It isn't hooked on how I am perceived by others either looked up or looked down upon. My happiness is not flared by the grand theatrics of a howling, drinking partying crowd, nor seduced by ominous racks of designer must haves. It isn't rocked by despairing days or rendered arrogant by triumph. My happiness stems from a confidence that I am esteemed by a God of Love and, that my worth is far above rubies. My fave Max Lucado book says it all - God wants you, just the way you are. And this, this is the happiness that makes me sparkle. This is my light. A light that you and I both share, magnificently lit from an everlasting radiant Divine source that kindles from within.

“You are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 

~ Matthew 5:14


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

The Gift

Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥¸¸. ,•ღ. ℒℴνℯ •ღ. ℒℴνℯ♥¸.•*”Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥
 Hiked off to the beauty parlor just after this hatty photo was taken (oweee' haha!). I feel so sparkly tootsie' as the nice lady made sure my hair got all the pretty pampering it (desperately) deserved.

When I came in my roots were all but bare pronounced with strands here and there jutting on ends like misshappen twigs in trajectory. The young miss seriously contemplated what probably appeared like an obtrusive swallow's nest atop my head, then turned to a senior stylist and openly discussed the acute condition before her. After exchanging random numbers of what I believe were mysterious mixes of shades and exact procedures for "reviving" my limp crestfallen mane, my good lady intently explained what was to be done in the hopes, most likely, that I would comprehend the gravity of what she has to deal with, haha!

Quite a "rare" thing for me to visit the shop as I prefer to style myself by my lonesome self - sometimes good, sometimes bad. Took all two hours to get me all together, but wow, oh yes, I was so pleased with the aftermath, couldn't help but faintly swing my head every now and then loving the lemony scent and feeling the delicate silky feel of hair brushing skin. I wish I had a pic of that moment of new me, hehe! A little simple pampering truly makes the spirit glad.

2013 is a year for the sparkles! Oh yes, it is! That's my word for it. --> Shine and Sparkle! I am wiping the slate clean, starting beautiful   and positive, more than ever before! With passion I am very very grateful for the blessings of 2012, and somber in humble acknowledgement of those moments wherein I knew I could have done or acted wiser. -- Now when it comes to gifts, it bears acknowledging that one of the greatest gifts I am truly thankful for is - my husband of 23 years and 8 months. Nothing can be of more value than to be with someone you saw through your young 20's, someone who grew up with you through the best and the bad, someone whose presence is constant, stable and reliable. I have many dear friends and I love them all, but as the good book says, there  is that one friend who stands closer than a brother; a friend who will give his very life for another. I am blessed that in my life I know I have that kind of friend in him.

And then of course I am also grateful for my two grown boys. Both in their early 20's, they are proving to be such good friends to me as well! I am much pleased and happy that they have weathered the tumultuous teen years intact (haha!) and are now braving to create lives of their own. 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

On Higher Ground



Each of us makes our own weather, 
determines the color of the skies, 
and the emotional universe which we inhabit. 
~ Fulton J. Sheen

Possessing a cottage by the sea, living lulled by wavy foamed lazy waves and taking leisurely walks in warm sugar bleached sand is a romantic notion that buoys my Piscean  fancy. -- The cottage: stony rustic with wistery climbing bounganvilla on its tiled clay roof, or vintage white timbered with a white porch facing the waves, or tropical quaint bamboo(ed) `with latched windows accented with dangling yam purple orchids and mango yellow flowerbells -- 

Or it may not be the dream of a sea but of an idyllic provincial cottage (a happenstance convenient10 minute drive to the city, haha!) complete with trellises of sweet yellow bells and fun hello's of friendly neighbors. 

---- little whimsy dreams because in reality I live neither by the sea.....nor  in some seductive romantic back road inn..fronted by a landscape of bliss. ♥¸.•*”Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥¸¸. ,•ღ. ℒℴνℯ •ღ. ℒℴνℯ♥¸.•*”Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥¸¸. ,•ღ
There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot,
 but there are others who with the help of their art, 
their intelligence, transform the yellow spot into sun. 
~ Pablo Picasso  

  Nevertheless, I wear this weather of blue skies in the inner insides of me and have colored my homes ( yes, each one I've lived in to where I am today) with the strokes of my emotional universe --> being that what I described above . And it delights me when friends smile and coo' "what a pretty space you've created" ( I have to articulate this because sometimes I forget and grumble and fret so).





 This is how I want to live forever and ever -- > taking a yellow spot and transforming it into the sun --> taking something mundane and working my miracle to make it come alive. Each day to live this way would be such a pleasure.   
 ♥¸.•*”Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥¸¸. ,•ღ. ℒℴνℯ •ღ. 
  
A tender reminder this is for me --> to trust that I am guided in my path. In moments of doubt and questioning; when a bite of fear sinks deep in my soul and I let slip how very well I am infused with strength that comes from above, it would be well to acknowledge the oft evoked phrase that goes "...we have not been given a spirit of fear but of love". 

Yesterday I was very much uplifted by what I chanced at a women's devotional website.
 
"My heart has no desire to stay
where doubts arise and fears dismay
Though some may dwell where these abound,
my prayer, my aim, is higher ground.


Lord lift me up and let me stand,
By faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found;
Lord plant my feet on higher ground." 

 Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥¸¸. ,•ღ. ℒℴνℯ •ღ. ℒℴνℯ♥¸.•*”Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥
  
Today's musing leads me to the following insights:
1. We each make our own weather.
2. We determine the color of our skies.
3. We determine the emotional universe which we inhabit.
4. We can transform even a spot into something pretty
5. We are a spirit of LOVE
6.  We can live on higher ground.
 Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥¸¸. ,•ღ. ℒℴνℯ •ღ. ℒℴνℯ♥¸.•*”Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥

- all photos and paintings by me :D