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Archive for the category “inspiration”

28 Nov 2015

in a blue sky day

Woke up mid-dream

last night

(last night = wee hour morning)

Awakened by

broken sad mourning
My whole life

this date has been a celebration of life

My dad’s life –

a soul who entered this realm November 24 –

74 years of love ago
Today, this date brings tears

and morning mourning

Followed by blue sky

Up on the red roof

Fully alive

Generating compost

Organic buzzing be garden community possibility
Lost key

Kitchen studio

Boots on ladders

Roast beef sprout ciabatta

Pirates of the Carribbean

Stories of lobsters racing in

crusty rolls of butter
Once, years ago, I found my too soon gone Grandma

Today, in a swing overlooking a river

graced by such beautiful bridges

touching sky whilst grounding feet

step by stepping ever overwater

beneath sky,

I felt my daddy…
I sensed him smiling down upon November

gently holding my heart

and I couldn’t help but feel

the way he gently

firmly let go

of my pink stripe

banana seat bike

as I rode down the hill

of Kosta Drive

all those years ago
That moment I knew he knew

I could do this myself

And gave me the beautiful gift

of setting me

and my bicycle free.

🚲
Robin OK

Muse of Collaborative Completion + Visionary for Creative Collaborative ReTREATS

What is your incomplete creative project? Let me help you breathe it to life!

Phone: 513-659-3356

email: laughndream@gmail.com

website: laughanddream.com

💜

Don’t miss the 5th annual Creative Collaborative ReTREAT, Sep 30-Oct 2, 2016!

Website: creativecollaborativeretreats.com

email: creative.collaborative.us@gmail.com

In a day of goodness

We splashed this city all over outselves

Stopped to smell the lingering roses

Went home happily full from our adventures

Life is bittersweet

full of separation, loss, grief, and hurting hearts

full of friendship, adventure, kindness, beauty and truth

I love you

I miss you

I hurt

I laugh

Life is good

💞

I want my grief

to be brilliant, fast and gone.

Like Mozart. Or Stevie Ray.

Like fireworks. Boom! Flash!

Ooh, ahh. OK, done. Let’s go.
I want my grief to be brave.

Hurts more now, heals faster,

Grandma said, pouring salt

On a skinned knee.
I want to stand up to grief,

Stand it down, like the

Tiny man, big tank

In Tiananmen Square.
Because. Because if I am brave,

Bold, salty, open enough

The tank, the bleeding, the tears

Will stop sooner. I tell myself.
But grief laughs. Humbles me.

I lose keys, break cups, get lost.

Asked at CarMax Why are you

Selling this car? I burst
Into an embarrassment of tears.

A friend says, One doesn’t have grief,

Grief has you.

We wrestle, to the mat. I’m pinned.
But sometimes I break free.

Break patterns instead of dishes.

Start to write myself a new story,

To fling myself toward yes,
Begin to say, Oh. Now this. . . . Observe

What life brings. Reframe. Say,

I’m not wrestling grief,

We’re dancing.
So, I put my right foot in . . .

And turn myself about.

💔

I Want My Grief by Peg Runnels

Posted in Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, community, connection, Dreams, find art at pinterest, Freedom, friendship, Grieving, healing, inspiration, laugh, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, mystery, Passion, People, Reflection, Relationships | Leave a comment

24 Nov 2015

it was bouncing around in my brain this morning – Linda Clark

Getting it Right—Write!

I have a notion

I must confess

A notion you see

That has me quite obsessed
It sits in my head

both day and night

it haunts my dreams

and gives me great fright
It rules my thoughts

this little notion

stirring up doubts

and causing a commotion
It wiggles and niggles

in my brain

with a feverish pitch

it drives me insane
This obsession you ask

what could it be?

My obsession is a task

I seek endlessly!
To get it right

To do my best

To show I’m bright

I can pass the test
This feeling to get it right

Is ever so strong

I work day and night

To not get it wrong
I was given great insight

About this “getting it right”

I just learned recently

A truth that has finally set me free
It’s not it at all

about getting it right.

It’s about happiness and light

and letting your soul shine bright
No have to’s

No pressure

No should’s

Did me a world of good!
So no longer will I labor

to get it right

I will do my best

to give it a rest!
So In my chair I sit and write

No longer will I yearn

or worry with concern

it’s quite easy once when you learn
I will change my mantra

and simply ignore

those three little words

I was obsessed with before
What’s my new mantra

you might ask

I’ve changed my word

just a small task
I am no longer worried

about that word right

I will feed my soul

and simply WRITE!!

🌀

Linda Clark

We seldom notice how each day is a holy place
Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,

Transforming our broken fragments

Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.
Somewhere in us a dignity presides

That is more gracious than the smallness

That fuels us with fear and force,

A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.
So at the end of this day, we give thanks

For being betrothed to the unknown

And for the secret work

Through which the mind of the day

And wisdom of the soul become one.

🔹

John O’Donohue

http://www.creativesoulsart.com

Posted in attitude, awareness, be, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, compassion, confidence, connection, courage, determination, Encouragement, Gratitude, healing, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Passion, Peace, People, Poetry, power, Proof, soul and spirit, Trust, truth, voice, Vulnerability, words, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

23 Nov 2015

I am so much more than I ever thought I was – Sherri Yerkes (speaking from the heart)

So several weeks ago now, Robin Ok called to connect on the upcoming Creative Collaborative Retreat 2015.

http://www.creativecollaborativeretreats.com

I still remember her words, “I signed you up for some things that you can say ‘no’ to these if you want….

How exciting! My heart already was saying a great, big, fat ‘yes’ – before I even heard the list, which ended with a session on poetry!

Oh joy!!! YES!!! Ideas poured in…

The retreat weekend came – 13-15 of this month and it was everything, and more, than expected!

Beautiful, powerful, connecting, art-full, musical, spiritual, abundant, accepting, empowering – on-and-on I can, and will, go. I was overwhelmed with love and joy on many levels, but my greatest bit of on-going-bursting-out-all-over joy is from my poetry session.

New words were framed, created, brought out of heart-hiding into beings of light, onto old inspiring paper and into the hearts reading and listening. We shared our poems at the end of the hour – no one left with dry hearts or eyes.

Poems (words) are living things. They touch us, heal us, bring us joy and create space inside us as we bring forward what was inside and allow new thoughts to be born, creativity always creates anew inside and outside of ourselves. We give to receive and in receiving we give back again.

This magic has taken root in some great and powerful ways, I am so amazed at the beauty, the power, the courage, the immensity of these poets – new and seasoned veterans – all old souls.

I am so grateful to have been able to share this session, which helped connect these amazing, gifted women with their inner, living, beautiful poetry. I believe poetry lives inside each of us. The need for beauty is essential for us to live, discovering, excavating that beauty is our life-long, ever-changing, most-challenging and surprising gift.

Check out Barbara Endel’s new, amazing poetry blog –

https://poetintrainingblog.wordpress.com

🔥

This poem came to me yesterday…kinda summed it all up:

Our poems

Are like the wart-hogs

In the zoo

It’s hard to say

Why there should be such creatures
But once our life gets into them

As sometimes happens

Our poems

Turn into living things

And there’s no arguing

With living things

They are

The way they are
Our poems

May be rough

Or delicate

Little

Or great
But always

They have inside them

A confluence of cries

And secret languages
And always

They are improvident

And free

They keep

A kind of Sabbath
They play

On sooty fire escapes

And window ledges
They wander in and out

Of jails and gardens

They sparkle

In the deep mines

They sing

In breaking waves

And rock like wooden cradles.

💞

Living Things by Anne Porter

Living in astonished and passionate gratitude for each of you. Thank you for allowing me to inspire you…thank you for inspiring me!

If you do nothing Nothing will be done.

Sounds like we should know this,

right?

It’s just fascinating to me to see

the result of a decision to create a newsletter dedicated to good news,

then to commit to creating that publication for one full year.

8 full years later,

as I ended that project,

to make way for new projects,

there were over 135 issues

on a website devoted to that good-news thing.

4 years ago I decided to begin a daily poetry and quotes blog,

I now have almost 2000 blog posts.

December 2012, I committed to a poem a day.

11 months later,

I had over 700 poems written.

It’s crazy cool!

And it has been a huge lesson to me,

Dreams and Ideas are great,

but only the commitment, focus

and actually acting on the idea,

will call it forth into the world.

All those words, ideas and poems would still be inside me somewhere,

if I had not said, yes, to DOING it.

Nothing gets done without the work.

Intention and action go together

in order to build the house,

in order to change the world.

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, Blog, Choice, connection, courage, create, Encouragement, Faith, Gratitude, Growth, Habits, Happiness, inspiration, intimacy | Leave a comment

22 Nov 2015

a graceful feeling

Anything that you learn becomes your wealth, a wealth that cannot be taken away from you; whether you learn it in a building called school or in the school of life. To learn something new is a timeless pleasure and a valuable treasure. And not all things that you learn are taught to you, but many things that you learn you realize you have taught yourself.

― C. JoyBell

I spent my weekend with my amazing friends, Kitt, Mike, Rebecca and Christian Haberman, in Louisville.

I sum this powerful time of connection and sharing with this:

I learned things. Lots of beautiful things. Things I will have with me always. (Happy Sigh) I am so grateful for all of the great people I have in my life.

I stayed in the room below (Lesley Haberman being all grown up and off in college) and got ready with these messages before me, reminding me, filling my heart. Messages written by a beautiful, teenage girl to remind herself….remember…remember..

💞

Thank you, Lesley, thank you Haberman Family. Love is so very good to us!

What a beautiful world…

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, be, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, Choice, commitment, community, connection, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, Freedom, friendship, grace, Gratitude, Growth, Habits, Happiness, healing, inspiration, Life, Love | Leave a comment

21 Nov 2015

what we choose lives on

For everyone you touch, you also reach everyone they will ever know… and everyone they will ever know… and everyone they will ever know… So for the rest of all time, your kindness will be felt, in waves that will spread, long after you move on.

#notesfromtheuniverse http://www.tut.com/Inspiration/nftu

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Beliefs, Change, Choice, commitment, connection, find art at pinterest, Freedom, friendship, giving, inspiration, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, mystery, nature, power, Reality, receiving, Relationships | Leave a comment

18 Nov 2015

create new pathways

And here’s what made it happen…
They tell me –

Not to…

Don’t…

Forget the writer,

leave her be,

Focus on some other things,

words need not be free
They say no need to share adventures..

Stuff the stories,

hide your truths

Don’t capture the experience, it’s really of no use

They say

other things need my attention, my energy,
For God’s sake, earn a wage –
I’ll tell you what that does for me –

…finally, finally…finally –

sends me to the page
And all the walls and stops crash-tumble-trickle down
I sit furious-

typing –

damn punctuation, tense, pronoun
Does it really matter if they she he we agree?

It’s time to tell my story – for once, for now – for ME

💜

– Robin OK

http://www.creativecollaborativeretreats.com

And then there comes a moment

when all you have suffered

all you have learned

all you have lost and found

rise up and become

and suddenly you are

here

you are

who you dreamed of being

so many years ago

suddenly you have arrived

at what you caught glimpses of

for so many years

and the search,

the free fall of broken dreams,

broken hearts

broken everything

tumbling down rabbit holes

stumbling over the feet

of your own lack of knowledge

is over

you find yourself on solid ground

stable

steady

raising your Ebenezer

those tributes to God

for all the mighty stones of help

building this foundation on the solid rocks

you know so well

and though the pilgrimage may continue

though the journey is definitely not over

though life is fragile

and security an illusion

there is a new sureness to your step

a trusting unshakable

a calm in it all

a new assurance of provision

a new traveling song to be sung as you walk forward

always forward

always pilgrim ready for new adventures

forgetting the names of what lay behind

you press on to your calling

the prize set before

reveling in the mercies ever new

for each new day

there is no stopping now

you have found something

which cannot ever be taken

you have arrived here by your own determination

reached a place

both spiritual and physical

a place of such magnitude

the light shines from every angle

it has sealed up the oldest sores

bound up the deepest wounds

satisfied the deepest longings

changed everything

settled old scores with finality

no longer will you settle for less than you deserve

no more will you tolerate anything less than your best and highest offerings

you must be all you can be

gratitude fills you for this place

a place so lovely

it can bear up

even under the weight

of our hearts wildest desires

with just this simple name

it resounds inside our souls like a bell –

home

yes, beloved,

you are home.

right where you belong.

❤️

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, community, connection, courage, create, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Gratitude, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Passion, Patience, perceptions, Relationships | Leave a comment

17 Nov 2015

even on the hard days

Respectfully given,

exalted being

full of grace,

remember to forget:

surrender struggles to catch it’s breath,

then falls soft

as evening prayers at twilight,

gathering into the corners of our hearts

before falling full

onto the center of our living circle,

free and happy as a Friday night.

next morning’s sun fills us,

each day, each season.

nurture moves with grace,

evolving slowly thru

our caring hands,

our grieving hearts,

our shared experience,

our acts of courage,

the healing salt of our tears,

the energy generation of our joy.

with pieces of our true love,

we fly flags,

of prayer,

of peace,

of poems,

of our own making

to heal the worlds –

within us/

without us.

we allow –

simply complex.

we understand –

clearly unclear.

we stand and fill our world with

the beauty,

the mystery,

of sound,

of hum,

of laughter,

of voice,

of music,

protecting us

from lesser gods,

the terror all around.

love is the shield,

love is the answer,

love is the choice,

love is our glory,

our salvation,

crowning us

sons and daughters

of the King.

at times,

in spite of our broken pieces,

our refusal to believe,

even our darkened hearts.

–

astonishing,

isn’t it?

❣

A sob in the night

awakens us from dreams,
a crack opens in the wall

and in seeps the dark stream
with pieces of broken things in it,

and blood, and our own ragged edge,
and in seeps the light,

and the voice singing.
We want to pull the wall around us,

the sorrow pouring in,
but it is breached now,

it is only an illusion,
and we are out in the dangerous light,

the fragile street,
tender as everyone else,

ready to duck, ready to weep.
We are all refugees now,

foreigners, except to foreigners.
It’s the egg that is cracked,

the stone rolled away.
If there is a place for love,

for your own brave soul, this is it.
The cord in another’s heart

knotted in yours,
the hand reaching for you

you can reach out to.
Terror and the stillness,

and the voice singing.
__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

and for each person in this world 🙏🏻

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Change, Choice, connection, courage, create, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, friendship, fun, grace, Gratitude, Grieving, Growth, healing, home, Hope, Imagine, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Patience, Peace, People, perceptions, Poetry, Prayer, receiving, Relationships | Leave a comment

03 Nov 2015

epic

Life is an epic journey

A pilgrimage

Not for the faint of heart

Without the challenging parts of the path

We grow weak

Without those things that can kill us

We grow bored

We need life to be interesting

challenging

changing

to feel alive

Yes, life is a crazy sort of journey

Welcome to the great adventure

💃🏻

Wild Mercy
The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wildness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands.

– Terry Tempest Williams

Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert Dwellers