trial 2026

Im just trying this out.

Health Goal: Building Stamina Age 53

 One way I'm coping with this continuing pandemic pandemonium is by solo - cycling. ✌ Tall words, wow, lols! 😄...Ok, maybe not entirely all solo just yet (?) Mostly, I bike around with my husband, but I've had significant rides were I went at it alone - so proud!  

--- I speak for myself when I tell you, city biking isn't easy ( as it looks). It's surely so not for the faint of heart. Hats off to cycling commuters who brave the perils of  mad swerving cars and bike lane hogging vehicles!  

As for me, I just want to seriously be super strong enough and street 'smarter' enough to intrinsically ease myself onto longer adventures without that constant worrying edge that I might swerve wrong or fall flat, which thankfully hasn't happened. 

And while there's an adolescent like thrill in  navigating busy streets, I have to realistically admit this cycling thing is proving to be a heady challenge in this choked up concrete jungle where we live. 

--- From pictures and videos posted online, cycling in more rural settings appears challenging, but at the same pace, a great deal more leisurely relaxing with landscape rewards of the picturesque.   

I must note one significant positive point about my area though; Street dogs in our hood ( make that - the increasing population of street dogs) don't mind cyclists. The poochies are  super cool and so used to the general havoc, sounds, and chaos of our streets that they don't give riders a passing glance. That's thug life for all!

Going back to me, I was 20 when I last went cycling with my then boyfriend. We'd insanely circle around the PICC grounds in a rental clunker (come rain or shine without a care) and have a total  blast! I thought I'd simply pick up from then and it would be the same super breezy experience at 53. Not quite. There's a clunker still, but it sure isn't the bike!😀

-- Of course, the  boyfriend and I got hitched. It's been 33 years. 

Life was life until the world went pandemic with lockdowns worming through sanity. Cycling is a breakthrough light that pierced this  menacing circumstance.

But here's the thing -- 53 is a long ways back from my 20's. 

Honestly, those decades...it's not like I used up my youth in the gym. I'd do walks and runs in the evenings, plus some yoga or cardio, but I won't pretend I was one for seriously exercising. When it comes to sports, unless it's swimming, which I'm pretty good at, any other activity made me feel awkward and ungraceful. At least, that's how I perceived it all those years. 

So here I am at my age hell bent on defying my limitations!! Cycling isn't just easy free push and pedal, it turns out. I didn't realize  there were specific skills  for starting and stops, plus tough nerve for traffic, and super strength for inclines. I can haggle the first two, but uphill is tricky to conquer. I need a whole lot of strengthening up. I mean, I need clunkers and clunkers of energy! Here's the plan. 

One month goal: September 23 to October 23, 2021--

Exercise 6 days a week. ( I've done it before can do it again - better! ) 

1. Stretching yoga everyday

2. Conquer 5 kilometers on weekdays concentrating on uphill climbs nearby. 

3. Walk 3 kilometers minimum 4x a week

4. 45 minutes stationary bike everyday for the next 2 weeks

5. Weekend bike 15 to 20 kilometers.

6. Strength building band exercise as well as  lifting 4x a week for muscle

Diet: Less sugar, less fried,  rice once a day, no meal after 6 pm,  Drink protein 

-- It's a plan. 

No Burgers in the Mountains

It's not easy being grateful nowadays. I remember a time when I would wake up full of life and bursting with  instant gratitude! The last time I felt this way was...um.. honestly,  2 years ago.  

Yes, full of life and brimming with a tinge of " let's get going attitude"....I'm like that, or, was like that -- a bit bubbly, a bit rose rimmed, and I guess, quite dreamy elevated.

 Not for a long while now. 

Instead,  I open my eyes to a fog of trepidation followed by bewildered wondering; -- So, what inane crap will unfold in  this world today, huh? -- 

Just this morning, there was that stupid news that a "nuclear war" was averted last year. The mad media is all about insanity. The devilish salacious hunger and preoccupation with doom is almost ridiculous. 

I told my husband it would be a good time to be a monk; "You, know, I can see me way up in the mountains with my prayer beads and silence," I sighed. 

Nope. You won't last -- no burgers there. You love your burgers, he quipped.  

 

Thing is, it's actually true. 😀

------------------------------------------------------------

* Photo taken 2018: Central Park, The Quin Hotel, Manhattan,  and Metropolitan Museum

How To Stay Sane (In this Crazy World )

How to stay sane?!? Like, what I mean is, how can you maintain a certain modicum of groundedness when literally inundated by an unprecedented assault of mania, left and right? Don't tell me to shut-off the news, or lay off  social media, or take to the current hermit lifestyle till this pandemic settles; not happening. 

Last night people up a floor were having a good time; waft of ciggie's, lots of laughs, some loud over excited convo about whatever, then more fake laughs. It almost felt like a normal Saturday evening if it weren't for the fact that our Covid numbers are insane, businesses are dying - stock market is  dead, and the government is certifiably unhinged! -- 

Check out the numerous depression,  anxiety and health groups online and you'd be shocked by the indescribable volume of people desperately seeking help. Only, there isn't any real - help. 

It's like a bug in your brain, everything that's happening, crawling...clawing...hatching eggs of doom and desperation as we go on trying to keep a straight face to the world. 

Advice on how to keep faith is everywhere, It might as well fall on deaf ears. Talk is cheap. What we need is to hack  resilience...now. We need to muscle our brains so we don't do stupid out of anxiety, confusion, fear, and loneliness. Drugs and drama or drinks won't get you out of a pandemic funk. 

This is why I do AFFIRMMATIONS. I'm not a pro, but it gets me somewhere above all the crap. 

I'm not religious either - but I take spirituality seriously as tea. I believe that you can genuinely rebuild your mind, as well as, softly relax its sore spots by instructing those grey cells what it needs to concentrate on. You ought to juice up the brains with the truth that power is within to stay strong! 

Today's affirmation prayer centers on how "The Power to Say the Right Word"  can lift your mind and soothe your tired soul. Whisper it to yourself. Feel how the ripple of syllables works wonders  to  restore your senses. Let it clarify your mind like only a fresh sweet river of thought can do. Try it.

Be refreshed. Visit: The Lady Prism's Sanctuary 

I'm Back ( Grateful for Sweet Memories )

Just like that here I am - once again! 👧 I'm back to writing my heart out, simply because I've missed it ever so dearly. 

It's been years and so much has happened, none of which was ever recorded in this site. My bad. 

I wish I did write everything: the good, the great, the silly, the teary, the struggles, the laughs, the sweet darling memories I've accumulated, including these pictures taken in Singapore circa 2018, which is pre - friggin' pneumonia, pre- pandemic, pre - succulent, pre - fresh new book hoarding fever, pre - online shopping madness, and pre - cycling everywhere craze! It was my 50th birthday family trip, and yes, I gratefully remember it well.  

Of course "vlogging" is all the rave today and maybe I'll get there soon - maybe. Then there's "Tweeting" which I never warmed too, but come to think of it, perhaps I was doing it all wrong. 

Oh well, here in this little cyber home, I feel the familiar charm and wonderment that accompanies typing out one's thought as opposed to merely "IG-ing" or "Facebook-ing". There's a cozy feel none of the other platforms possess. 

A bit of dusting needed though - to reflect my current life. The header photo will most likely be replaced by something that shows my current age. I was 48 there and now I'm 53. Big gap, I know.

Anyways, the goal of writing is simple: to record and to inspire. Speaking of inspire, my Lady Prism Sanctuary blog will undergo a fresh update as well. It will house my prayers, devotionals, and intimate studies of the great Saints. 

I hope whoever reads my pages find an Easter kind of joy blossom within their heart and soul. Till later. 💔💓💔

"THE DELICIOUS TRUTH ABOUT GETTING OLDER!" :D

...is that you have toothily- nibbled a chunky part of life enough to know the good stuff! Yep, I have nibbled, munched and digested year after year's sizzling sizable meaty portion of days. Some  years I imbibed to the brim with gusto', others I puked to the gut. If you are my age, by now we both know life is all slightly piquant, a little bit pickly, maybe bitter a bite or two, bland sometimes, and all too sweet and spicy- a whole saucy cauldron of boiling umami! 

No, this is not about food, - although I'd have to admit, the pic below was truly cathartic yumminess...- but more of a tasteful conclusion that older means....
you finally know what choiced - cuts are, the best portions of life to go for! 

With this thought, I now dig in to the coming months of my very new delectable year. I hold the power to pepper and spice, slice and dice, broil, grill, saute my days! 

50 is zesty....it is delectable, mouthwatering, appetizing, tasty, flavorful, toothsome, palatable, succulent, luscious, scrumptious, delish, yummy, finger-licking, lip-smacking, melt-in-your-mouth, 
delightful. exquisite, lovely, pleasurable and .....divine! 

I look forward to days where I can be described as..."A delicious vivaciousness stole over her."

Nugget Thoughts and Seneca

This was taken April last year at the Jacuzzi Winery if I'm not mistaken ( or was it the other winery, actually).  I believe lovely pictures are captured pieces of one's inner heart heaven. I say this because of the realizations the first couple of months of the year have dished me.

We are on our own journey in spite of all relational companions we have with us. This sounds like an archaic thought, common knowledge I suppose. However, when the raw spirit of a certain truth springs in you, there comes attached a nutty nugget that pushes you to grow.

And in there spouts the niggling question: how much growth have I accomplished? The question doesn't bid the term - 'success' - which is trite, subjective and relevant to materialistic perceptions and prejudices. It is inner growth, a genuine by -your- guiding strength assessment of how much of life I have shaped to the degree that I can stand on my own influence.

How many thoughts are my thoughts, not mere parroting of others. How much brawn is of my own, not merely siphoned from another (which reduces one to a social parasitic crutch). How much of my laughter, smile, joy and happiness stems from my own storage of juice of goodness, not funneled from bleached circumstances and organized events.

And as Seneca has said, : "I will keep constant watch over myself and - most usefully - put each day up for review. For this is what makes us evil - that none of us looks back upon our own lives. We reflect upon only that which we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future descend from the past."

2018 The Year of ZEST!

RoselleQuin #ootd #maldita #michaelkors #skagen #evernew #guess

It's going to be "art a day" no if's no buts!

2018 has a zesty come on for me with all the juiciness and overflowing feels of creativity.  I've stomped the dust off my boots from all eeks' of the past; forward and inspired is my aura.

Let me thank you though, 2017!!You were such a sweetheart of a year, truly. Not that you didn't have a freak side...but so what? The entirety of your days was magnanimously love filled. Yes, and I feel the charm bomb flooding through the coming days and months! It is sweet and spice and every conceivable nice. And if there are sour days, well, heck'...I'll sit them down and talk them to behave. Life's short to be moping about or complaining, specially now that I'm a couple of months to half a century, eeeeks..that sounded archaic, hahaha! 😀

#rosellequin #rosellequinart 

 Anyways, I have got me the young feel vibes so I'll ride on that. It's health and fun and art and gratitude, and just pure love. Got no time for anything else. Ciao!

' Coffee and Felicity! :D

“The thought of two thousand people crunching celery at the same time horrified me.” 

― George Bernard Shaw

Alas, I will never be a vegetarian! There, I've said it. I've no war against greens, in fact, I'm dear fond of the lot - well most, but lettuce sanctimony isn't one of my noble virtues. 

I did try once or twice, but square things about yourself, you ought to face. The silk smooth glide of a fluffy  tomato-basil omelette is a sample of  luscious temptation. Unjustly depriving myself is a thought too terrible. Truly, I am carnal, sigh! 

Oh, I do admire my vegan and vegetarian friends. The ones with years have proven the merits of their chosen lifestyle. They posses a certain calmness - a lightness -  and are true founts of nutritious wisdom. I've become a more sensible, more aware eater because of them. 

It was a rather stale afternoon, laced with stifling heat that prompts stodgy headaches when I stumbled on the archived picture above. Why ever do I take food photos, one would never know, except to reason that it provides a sort of offbeat delight.  

That warm lovely tomato crepes with that creamy fresh asparagus topped on toast touches a bouquet of bucolic memory for me. I am raptured back to that sonorous breakfast morning, to that rich black coffee sip, to that person and our affable companionship, and to the whole of it delectably good and well. A pretty frame of a sumptuous life, you could say is - love and thrice felicity.

“Pursue that which is not meddlesome.” ― Lao Tzu

“If I had just a little bit of wisdom I should walk the great path and fear only straying from it.” ― Lao Tzu

“Failure is an opportunity.

If you blame someone else,

there is no end to the blame.

Therefore the Master

fulfills her own obligations

and corrects her own mistakes.

She does what she needs to do

and demands nothing of others.” 

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Those who know don’t talk. Those who talk don’t know. Close your mouth, block off your senses, blunt your sharpness, untie your knots, soften your glare, settle your dust. This is the primal identity. Be like the Tao. It can’t be approached or withdrawn from, benefited or harmed, honored or brought into disgrace. It gives itself up continually. That is why it endures.” 
― Lao Tzu

“She does not show herself, and therefore is apparent. She does not affirm herself, and therefore is acknowledged. She does not boast and therefore has merit. She does not strive and therefore is successful. It is exactly because she does not contend, that nobody can contend with her.” 
― Lao Tzu

“Whoever is planted in the Tao
will not be rooted up.
Whoever embraces the Tao
will not slip away.
Her name will be held in honor
from generation to generation.

Let the Tao be present in your life
and you will become genuine.
Let it be Present in your family
and your family will flourish.
Let it be present in your country
and your country will be an example 
to all countries in the world.
Let it be present in the universe
and the universe will sing.

How do I know this is true?
by looking inside myself.” 

“The Master is her own physician.

She has healed herself of all knowing.

Thus she is truly whole.” 

― Lao Tzu   

“Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.” 

― Lao Tzu

Setting the Tone for the Next Three Months

My will shall shape my future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in  the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key.  ~ Elaine Maxwell

Perhaps I should start filling up that travel and eats page in the bar above, because here I am with a cup of sweet hot decaf coffee typing away, till later I presume. Those travel articles will have to wait for a moment. Right now I prefer inspiration to prod me towards action. I'm in my

rubber shoes you see, geared up good and quite willing to start my exercise regime.

Quite willing. I say, because, let's face it, I'd rather be doing something else than huff and puff. No, it isn't easy and I am my own worst enemy at times, but I have a goal, and am internalizing how powerful I would feel once I hit that glorious day I can say I am the fittest I have ever been!

Going for my core desired feelings in terms of wellness is important to me. I want to feel...

1. Strong and fit
2. Dedicated and Unfailing
3. Goal inspired and Conquering

The whole three months, no matter the holidays, will be a pivotal succession of first phase goals achieved, is what I have in mind. I will not allow anything or anyone to distract me.

No world affair can sullen me, no political catastrophe can disturb me, no personal drama can sidetrack me, no obtrusive person or event can divert me. No. I am not available for any type of shenanigan that will not benefit my goal. This goes for all other parts of my life as well.

" One discipline always leads to another." ~ Jim Rohn

A Fresh Perspective

Years of writing and it never dawned on me till now that I could possibly be doing this blog thing wrong, haha! I never fancied myself a lifestyle blogger - never aimed for that either. I went the path of self - analysis and it's accompanying revelations. I guess, I am at heart, still the academic, zeroing in on internal musings highlighted by cubes of photo portraits that give a simple sense of where I am or have been. 

Going through my mounds of travel photos, eats and coffee hangouts, smack dubbed me with the realization that I am possessed with a plethora of writing cues to dig from. I could have done hotel revs and fancy dining revs instead of just keeping it all neat tucked in my social media FB and Instagram account. 

I could have talked about that lovely great time I had by the Park Royal Clark Quay Hotel pool just lounging on my own and taking in a drink...or that romantic candlelight dinner by the river where the Italian chef asked us if everything was to our liking ..or the beautiful evening boat ride that was short of the memorable moment in my life.

I could have written about the lovely fine dine San Francisco dinner my husband and I had...or the pastries at Mara's Italian place in Little Italy...or that Sonoma wine tasting trip that rendered us both tipsy haha! 

I could have talked about where to eat and where not to eat in Hong Kong,,or how windy it was in Las Vegas...Oh goodness, just a sample! 

Well, it's not too late. Tomorrow I'll start organizing my topics in relation to my health and beauty journey, my travels, my restaurant experiences, my recipes.... I have to say  goodbye to the old style me....This year ushered in a lot of new adventures...new perspectives..the old seem to be fading..away...making room for all the fresh new things life comes a - bringing. 

" Discovering The Sweet Potato Soul Lady " :D

I feel strangely ill touched today like coming down with colds. Chesty feels, acid reflux, muscle aches and lethargy seeping in. All the icky ugh works and I know where this is heading. Must shake the feeling! This lasts a day or a couple of days so I need to take in lots of fluids and sleep it off. A good yoga stretch and some light cardio to break out sweat will probably make me feel better later.

Memorably Singapore last August 2017

Right now, I'm sipping organic Echinacea Tea which I bought from my favorite organic  store,  Healthy Options but is available online as well. The brew is calming my senses and unclogging my sinuses. I'll lay off on the coffee and stick to caffeine free tea for the rest of the week. For good measure I'm mediating later. I don't have candles but calming music will ground me. 

Regrettably,  I slacked off from my workout which was gaining ground a week ago. At seven am today, before the husband left, he candidly reminded me of my routine and added I looked svelte the last time we went out last Friday. Flutter eyes me, haha!

It's only Tuesday and I  sure can see what three days of junk food binging can do to my body. Mcdonald's had that new garlic parmesan spicy chicken burger, and on a whim, yesterday, I impulsively had to try it! Can you believe that?!?

What on earth is wrong with me? All my niggling crazy habits drive me crazy!

BUT, I'm glad my body still visibly responds to the effort I put in. Not as fast as my younger years, need to keep that in mind! What to do is make sure I get consistent, consistent, consistent! Yes, as consistent as I've been with my acne treatment which is about already clear, thank the good Lord!

I looked disastrously creeps last month and remember the moment I couldn't believe how hormonal dried and pimply my skin had developed. The doc said it would take about four weeks regular application of dermatologist prescribed magic serums for my condition to improve. True enough, it did! I have never had skin as good as I do now!

Which got me thinking that if I would apply the same four week method to about anything I want to do, heck, I believe I'd get there! There being the point of whatever it is I want to achieve. 

Tea collection

Reminds me of Danielle Laporte and her "desire goals" approach. Like how do you want to feel at the end of the day, the week, the month, the year? Then wrap your effort around your core desired feelings. I'll get to that in a private journal later. 

Right now, up above's a picture of the Sambal Tuna  I cooked up a month ago. A reminder that I'm capable of decent healthy meals and have no need for craving junk food.

On the subject of food, there's a Youtube lady I find wonderful! I found her channel yesterday while searching for healthy prep meals. She goes by the name SWEET POTATO SOUL! How lovely is that, haha!

When I say amazing, I mean she is totally amazing! Sweet potato may be so much younger than I am but I just connect with her vibe! Here's a sample video from her channel. 

She makes me want to become vegan! Realistically, I don't  think I  can give up a few slices of meat and fish, but she inspires me to rewire my brain and retrain my taste buds. Everything she cooks looks delicious! Plus, I adore her cute cozy no fuss kitchen with its well stocked herb collection. As I take note of one meal after the other, I realize how much I truly want my lifestyle and food choices to diversify.

Really, I treasure the phenomenal people the divine heavens reveal to me, whether online, through a book,  or in my walking life. Every soul I meet  addresses an answer, a help, a lesson that prods and pushes me towards the attainment of my life goals and the revelation of my higher self. 

"Treat Your Mind with Respect"

“Most of what passes for legitimate entertainment is inferior or foolish and only caters to or exploits people's weaknesses. 

Avoid being one of the mob who indulges in such pastimes. 

Your life is too short and you have important things to do. Be discriminating about what images and ideas you permit

into your mind.  

If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest. 

It is the easiest thing in the world to slide imperceptibly into vulgarity. But there's no need for that to happen if you determine not to waste your time and attention on mindless pap.” ― Epictetus, The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness and Effectiveness

Mindless pap is what I'd call it, because what better way to phrase trifling distractions that otherwise shape - shift an otherwise productive mind? It's about time we ditch all the crap the dark side this world dishes out - constantly - and get focused on the unfolding of everything constructive.

 Let's rebuild hope. Let's rebuild common sense, because frankly, I miss my urban mind; That mind that pushes up daisies from a concrete slab, that mind that aspires and surges and lifts inspite of the world's degeneracy. 

Everyone is in perilous danger because sickness and violence has morphed into a bizarre form of entertainment. Bloody deterioration assaults our every day and the stigma notches by degree - per hour. Like  the "Mad Piper" of lore, a collective voice of evil lures us all into a pool brimming with contaminants of pessimism. 

Fight back by treating your mind with the respect it deserves. Take no heed for anything that could draw cynicism, including dispirited talk and the drivel of mindless activities. Be wary of witless company. Better to befriend your soul - the succor of Nirvana, than to parcel illumination away by entertaining habitual bunglers.

“Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do. Hold to your true aspirations no matter what is going on around you.” ~  Epictetus

Core goals for the week: vitality, energy and clarity sunrise after sunrise.
Core desired feelings: fierce, intense, potent, vivid, formidable and spirited.
What I will NOT do: Read or listen to the news. Nothing inspiring there. Slack off. Take no you cant have that or do that or be that for an answer.
What I will do: "CONQUER"
Archetype: Athena

Affirmation: You must find the place inside your self where nothing is impossible. - Les Brown

The Dawn with Questions: Whines, Caprices and Fizzled Messages

This Tea pic taken at Shangrila Hotel BGC

“No one can lose either the past or the future - how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess? ... It is only the present moment of which either stands to be deprived: and if this is all he has, he cannot lose what he does not have.” 

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

All these thinkings at two minutes to one in the morning! Always, always something on my mind. I am adrift in thought, considering the merits of the present, the future and what may be. I sit here, in the midst of breaking dawn sipping my lavender tea mulling my questions. What sort one may  ask; big questions, small questions, grand questions, minuscule ones - it doesn't matter what kind, as long as they are

right.

The questions hold the key to clarity. If one asks the right questions, the correct answers come begging. If the mind throws out whines and caprices, like a weathered bent antennae, fizzled messages assail the cerebral.

Being a step in years from one young, naive and wondering, there is conscientious method to my themed queries. A mind behavior, precise and particular. Should I choose one path from the other? Should I consider one goal from the rest? Should I just go for it all?

At one am close to two on a Wednesday pre-dawn moment, one is apt is realize how good life is when saddled by questions, which either way,  bestows nothing less than appealing answers.  

“It loved to happen.” 
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

2:14 am

Wednesday

Sipping tea - still.

Nibbling on Quadratini Dark chocolate wafers.

Finding Romance Every Day

 "Living Romantically Everyday" By: Barbara Taylor Bradford

Listening to: The Magic Flute Queen of the Night Aria

The swaying fact that I'm a hopeless romantic used to embarrass me - gravely. Oh, believe me,  I was once told I blabber in poetry instead of stomping to the point. Or that, I was too far up there, floaty - my aspirations Seussian and levitated as a gather of disoriented ghosts. I was unacceptably too vainglorious in pursuit of  fluff and vanity - pomposity most likely with ambitions much too grand for me.   Better walk on earth, come down and soil your step -  who are you to dawdle in luxuries of thought? 

 Often I would murmur the same ruthlessness - that I'm nothing but little pieces of wreckage.  This mini mental flagellation was the harshest impediment to my true being.  

 Then I grew up, and wised up! To date, I have gloriously dismissed   illiterate opinions affronted me. I continue to walk, no, make that - sashay- my way with feet always an inch above ground without abandoning my mind to the materialistic sways and manic caricatures of conceited society. Consumerism is anti-thesis to purity and profane to my taste. My soul prefers the ethereal. A life of elegant subtlety with hints of ephemera impressed in  candid creative living. I wear laughter.  :D

“You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think. ”― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love:

The purpose of life as a woman is to ascend to the throne and rule with heart.”

― Marianne Williamson

Time is my spirit friend and the flowing of moments became as an orchid infusing fragrance that overcame my essence. I realized soon enough that I am who I was created to be - someone who sees stardust in specks of floating dust, someone who favors frills and lace and silver linings in the face of commonplace, someone assuredly plain and figuratively nobody enough who can rouse romantic living!

To complement my being, time offered kindred souls:  they who see baubles and filaments of inconspicuous luster in the crevices of mornings, afternoons and evenings.

Ah, these wonderful beings... they see the splendor of existence, they evoke it, live it and bewitch it as well.

They liberate charisma and cast potent spells into a moment, a person, an environment, a circumstance. They are the brave energy waifs of the world, warriors of ambitions, planters of visions, and Merlin's of execution who evoke inspiration. From them I cull knowledge on how to find a unique manner of being, a way of every day romantic living that is deliberate, focused and effective.

The first of them is my husband who endlessly reminds me of my power. A lesser man wouldn't do. Anais  Nin said it for me: 

“I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.”

At a winery in Sonoma Valley

Anais Nin dared to be exotic at an inconvenient era.  Saint and sinner, she lived a controversial telling tale of existence both twisted and sublime, of truth and mad lies penned in fact and fiction  that revolutionized a generation.

Elizabeth Gilbert awes me with the tidal changes in her life. The woman  adroitly surfs emotional waves and steers through her swirling life current with its ripple of changes that would render faint on me. She sees it all as - brave art. A  creative big magic maneuvering of sensations and actions that evokes a kind of adaptable attainable wisdom that renders meaning to everything. 

Sexuality expert, Dr. Esther Perel unearths relational complexities and grants decisive clarity to the most hidden agendas of long term relationships. Her practice bestows the best insights to questions on sexuality encouraging her personal patients and mesmerized worldwide audience to reconsider their current phase with the goal of becoming a more revived, fulfilled and relevantly happier individual, spouse, partner  and couple.     

To cap it, Queen Rania of Jordan is the only queen of a kingdom I would emulate. She is indeed, queen of her life, pursuing leadership in a manner I can't compare with anyone. The Jordanian queen is a fresh breeze on this earth, championing the cause of refugees, working for education, as well as, all manner of causes that benefits her country and inspires the world. I must say, there is nothing more romantic than a life lived this way. 

There are others I want to mention but this will do for now.  Finding romance every day is no sissy task. To deliberately create beauty and find beauty is what gives meaning to our lives. It is what we were  created for. To accept less and expect less and apathetically live  less than the goal of making the best in spite of the world's seeming darkness is to give up on life. 

AS LONG AS THERE ARE ROSES

“Until we have met the monsters in ourselves, we keep trying to slay them in the outer world. And we find that we cannot. For all darkness in the world stems from darkness in the heart. And it is there that we must do our work.” ― Marianne Williamson,

Cheesecake! Unfortunately, I've reached my quota for the year.
No sweets till Christmas. 

Mexico unbelievably suffered an earthquake - again! I am seated here with my coffee caught half way between lip and mid-air, sad and gravely sobered. 

The United Nations heard a seething speech on how certain rogue nations are likely lined up for err...roasting. No sweet feels there. Sometimes ballistic words need to be launched to target a meaning. Remember humanity, there is no rising from the dead in the event of a nuclear war, right? Who will carry the conscience?  

GAIA is traumatized! I can't bear to mention everything, and I'm not CNN anyway, but - the way catastrophes  and other calamities puss the planet this exact moment, you'd think a galactic virus had been beamed from space paralyzing our common sense to thrive! 

The world is a Shamalan movie meets Freddie Kruger, and unless you're darkly holed up in your own shades of grey self - cave, I've no idea how this universal dyspepsia could escape anyone. 

Doesn't mean we give in to despair though. No. Never.  As long as there are roses there is hope! As long as there are fields of flowers, and farmers of flowers,  and merchants of flowers, and establishments with flowers, and homes laced with flowers, and folks holding flowers, it means one thing: that the world is still partnered with love! 

Despite despots and despair the world breathes through people with an emphatic spirit of ascension. The brave ones that do battle with body, mind and soul. They dare look within their darkness to carve out a way for light.  Their transformation is so luminous, they evolve from mere breathing beings to somnolence of light. To meet them is to change,  and I have met some of them. 

Who are they? Where do you find them? 

Exactly, I cannot tell. One thing I know, they are not to be found in fancy restaurants, or in noisy bars, or in podiums of preachiness. They simply wander into your life when you are quiet and ready.  And there lies the secret. That in the midst of this world's chaos, you must invite the pure part of the mind to be your guide. You must allow it to walk you through distractions and forebodings until you have carved out your own pool of light. 

There, they will meet you, in your luminescence, bearing roses.  

“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of
Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.”
― Rabindranath Tagore