Currie's Gratitude 30 September 2013

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time. [Henry David Thoreau]

It does amaze and astonish me the power of water. It’s really quite clear and sensible, yet it’s also capable of taking my breath away. We are mostly water. The Earth is mostly water. And yet to a fish, what is water?!

A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water. [Eleanor Roosevelt]

I love this. Same as the one about dancing backward in high heels about Ginger Rogers. Sometimes simple just makes sense.

In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it. [Lao Tzu]

Lao Tzu also said: Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it. Both of these ideas resonate with me. They give me a sense of firmness, like the feel of solid ground BEneath me. Whether it’s a great body of water or a tiny puddle, a storm or that droplet clinging to a leaf, water is where I look for strength.

Water is a holy wonder. Utterly.

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 29 September 2013

What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.  [Mark Twain]

I never really saw it this way, did you?! And when I think about it, I see how very true this is. There is so much that goes on inside my own head, known to only my small birdbrain, and yet I often live and BElieve as though this were obvious to the World as a whole.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.  [Winston Churchill]

Well this one is pretty much a given. I am daily, and often multiple times each day, aware that just the tiniest tweaking of my attitude CAN indeed bring HUGE changes. Little things…

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.  [Helen Keller] 

I don’t entirely subscribe to DOing so little alone, yet I know how much more CAN BE accomplished when we work together. When we cooperate. When we collaborate. And when we encourage and BElieve in one another. My preparations to move have shown me both sides of this lovely coin.

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.  [Charles M. Schulz] 

So sweetly true… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 28 September 2013

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. [Elisabeth Kubler-Ross] 

There is no explanation needed for why I so love the word Light. It deLIGHTs me. It has a multitude of meanings and applications, NOT one of which is in the least bit troubling for me. I love that in a word. I’d like for that to BE something I could say of myself, too. Perhaps one day…

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.  [Martin Luther King, Jr.] 

It is no small thing to equate Light with Love, especially in terms of capabilities.

It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness. [Eleanor Roosevelt] 

While I agree, when I look at my BEhaviour in certain situation, I still DO a little too much of “cursing the darkness.” I have noticed this especially with some of the details of my move AND the dealings with “the public” out in the wider World. I’m going to light more candles though. Starting Here. Starting Now.

To love beauty is to see light.  [Victor Hugo] 

Simpler says it the very best… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 27 September 2013

Let's face it. No kid in high school feels as though they fit in.  [Stephen King]

I’ve puzzled til my puzzler was sore, so I won’t EVEN try explaining WHY “fit” is among my favourite words. I’m just going to go with it.

What Stephen King said, yes, I get that. And I would extend it far BEyond high school, too. At least in my own experience of the odd desire to fit in. I’ve never really “fit” anywhere, for more than a few blinks. Still, fitting inside my own skin and BEing ME, Now, Today, at this point in Life feel exquisitely delicious.

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. [Thomas Merton] 

I think this is the sort of “fit” I’m particularly fond of. At least in the BEing made-over to “fit” someone else’s idea of how I should BE. Or DOing something similar myself…

Instead of being concerned that you have no office, be concerned to think how you may fit yourself for office. Instead of being concerned that you are not known, seek to be worthy of being known. [Confucius] 

As always, Confucius was very VERY spot-on… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 26 September 2013

Yawns are not the only infectious things out there besides germs. Giggles can spread from person to person. So can blushing. But maybe the most powerful infectious thing is the act of speaking the truth.  [Vera Nazarian]

It’s true, at its core a giggle is a force to reckon with. It can BE near impossible to suppress and overwhelmingly difficult to contain. Think of it. That fancy dinner, catching the eye of a sibling, the flash of an inside understanding, and woe BE the one with a mouth full of milk…

Okay, mayBE that is just MY story…

My favorite sound in the whole world is your giggle, Anastasia.  [E.L. James]

When it comes to favourite things, cherished memories, those moments that slip through the memory even more than through the hand, I remember giggles. I remember them like they are LIVE and Right Now in my brain. I remember…

A child’s giggle. The snorting dance when a dog “giggles.” These are the treasures that require no boxes, no bubble wrap, no space at all to hold onto forever and ever.

I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person.  [Audrey Hepburn]

Absotively Posolutely! 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 25 September 2013

Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky. [Rainer Maria Rilke]

I just love how this captures the essence of growth in love. For most of my Life I have seen how love restricts and disengages growth. To realise that distances and differences remain and evolve, well that’s pretty much a magic key.

You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul. [Swami Vivekananda] 

I always had this inside-out and upside-down. I tried to BE spiritual. BE more evolved. BE wise. BE fill-in-the-blank any old way… Yet especially at this point in my Life, there is a dawning realisation that it IS an inside job. And no force or determination to have it my way will change that one bit.

Ahhhhhhh… Breathe in the grace of that one.

We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. [Max de Pree] 

Another long-held misunderstanding, Now I know better. And I hope I DO better as well… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 24 September 2013

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.  [Elbert Hubbard] 

I love this idea that those who REALLY know me, in all my weirdness, with my quirks and peculiarities, and even my long list of failures and screw-ups, still love me, still call me friend, and don’t just turn tail and run.

Of course, I love BEing one of those people, too. One who loves her friends even more when I know them. It seems far simpler on my end, but then it’s really NOT a thing I spend much time pondering…

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares. [Henri Nouwen]

I’ve long been a fixer-upper, a sort of first-aid friend who wants to DO something. It has taken a lot of others’ DOing to BE aware that BEing is far more valuable. Still, I have little patience for watching others’ suffering and struggle. But I am getting better. Perhaps simply by BEing more intentional in that regard.

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]

Yes. 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 23 September 2013

There's a tremendous difference between alone and lonely. You could be lonely in a group of people. I like being alone. I like eating by myself. I go home at night and just watch a movie or hang out with my dog. I have to exert myself and really say, oh God, I've got to see my friends 'cause I'm too content being by myself.  [Drew Barrymore]

I think about contrasts. Is it lonely BEing alone?! Is BEing alone a “negative” thing?! Isn’t aloneness often exhilarating and enJOYable?! I have come upon a variety of answers though NOT all fit all the time.

However, hanging out with Gracie, my constant and one true companion, this has allowed me to put loneliness, alone time, Solitude, and BEing Me, whether alone or among others, into a perspective I can [and DO] live with very contentedly. Now…

No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does. [Christopher Morley] 

I’m thinking Christopher knows what he’s talking about. And quite frankly, I think most of the dog people I know recognise his brilliance in this observation.

Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement. [Charles M. Schulz] 

NOT that this is a complaint… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 22 September 2013

I thank you God for this most amazing day,

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees,

and for the blue dream of sky

and for everything which is natural,

which is infinite, which is yes.
[e. e. cummings]

Such a BEautimous way to BEgin a day, Yes?! I love the word YES!! Saying it. Hearing it, too, though I especially love saying it. While I am often reminding myself that NO is a complete sentence, YES is complete JOY. At least I find it to BE.

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, 'Oh yes - I already have everything that I really need.'  [Dalai Lama] 

So sad, yet so true. Discontentment was the reason. Now I get it. In my discontent I did indeed BElieve wholeheartedly that if only I had MORE and MORE and yes, even MORE, THEN I could BE happy, satisfied, complete.

Though Now I know that I’ve always had EVERYthing, EVERY. SINGLE. THING. required for my happiness. And especially Now I am able to say: Yes, I have all I need!! Beautimousness!!

The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure. [Joseph Campbell] 

YES!!

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 21 September 2013

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering. [Ben Okri] 

It is a remarkable thing, our creative capability. I’ve often overlooked the magic of BEing creative. I’ve even called it an imposition and let it overwhelm me. On the other hand, I know it has saved me, time and again, something both gratifying and humbling.

We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone. [Orson Welles] 

While that might at first seem unnecessarily harsh, I think it is simply true. Without love and friendship, Life is rather hollow. Those who touch us and those we touch make all the difference in a Life.

What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is your thoughts and acts of the moment that create your future. The outline of your future path already exists, for you created its pattern by your past. [Sai Baba] 

This one thing, all by itself, is  the most significant realisation I have had in all my Life. Now truly is all I ever have. It is all too easy to BElieve otherwise… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 20 September 2013

Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory. [Alan Alda] 

I haven’t always been bold. I’ve been a risk-taker. I have acted foolishly. I have screwed-up in extreme and ridiculous ways. But I never considered what I did to BE bold.

Nowadays, well, I am bolder. Sometimes bodacious even. I go all-in. I lean forward into Life’s unknown. I LIVE.

Sometimes I get so bold and I'm so confident about what I'm doing that I actually try to be more of a dork because it's a really liberating feeling to experience what it's like to not care.  [John Mayer] 

I’ve learned to love my dorkiness. My odd way of Life. Going to sleep BEfore the 5 and 6-year olds in the front house. Waking long BEfore the sun. Writing each morning. Sharing some of it. DOing Life the way I DO Now. I don’t apologise for it. I accept it. I embrace it. I LIVE IT, boldly.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. [Helen Keller] 

This is a remarkable philosophy. And one I’m embracing with gusto. 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 19 September 2013

Don't believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you'll see the way to fly. [Richard Bach] 

I think it would BE amazing to BE able to fly. And yet, who is to say I canNOT DO so already?! I limit myself in so many ways, without realising it; I may very well BE DOing so Right Here and Right Now.

I know that what I know [or think I know] limits me in myriad ways. This is brought home to me daily. What I DO Now, intentionally, is to affirm that I DO NOT KNOW. That I am only guessing, assuming, or relying upon what I have BElieved or been told.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying. [Friedrich Nietzsche] 

I am always amazed to learn about animals who are born walking or standing… It gives me great comfort to know NOT ONE of us was born walking. Or able to stand. Yet if we are willing to learn, to grow into our capabilities little by slowly, just imagine where we might soar and what we might DO…

This is what I’m thinking… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 18 September 2013

Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. [Harriet Tubman]

Always remember… isn’t this so BEautimously elusive?! Don’t we all have short [or longer] lists of always remembers?! This is one reason for my deLIGHT in the word. Remember is a gift, a skill, and, when embraced with deep integrity, capable of blessing us BEyond imagination.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. [Benjamin Franklin]

This is one of my ever evolving aims. A goal set and reset. And one which I seem… yes, daily to fall short of realising. MayBE I am BEing too harsh… Perhaps I have forgotten where and when I hit the mark. In any event… Remembering to say only a little, and only what is essential, this gives me focus and direction.

If by chance some day you're not feeling well and you should remember some silly thing I've said or done and it brings back a smile to your face or a chuckle to your heart, then my purpose as your clown has been fulfilled. [Red Skelton]

And still people wonder that I dreamt of BEcoming a clown… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 17 September 2013

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…who errs and comes short again and again; …who…if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. [Theodore Roosevelt]

I don’t think of myself as daring or particularly brave yet I’ve been acknowledged as both. I didn’t understand why until I read Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly, which has this quote as its springboard.

I DO think of others’ bravery. I see their leaps of faith. I am inspired by their willingness to follow their dreams, their hearts, their very essence. In quieter moments I am BEginning to see where I fall on this spectrum. This encourages me. Makes me a little bolder.

When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. [Audre Lorde] 

Another great inspiration of mine. These words invite me to speak my vision and see it through, no matter how “impossible” others insist it may BE.  

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 16 September 2013

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do. [Helen Keller]

I’m noticing I’ve had my internal telescope turned round. That I’ve been focusing far more on my canNOTs than my CANs. I’m “earning” a PhD of sorts in CAN. I no longer BEgin from canNOT. Such freedom!!

While I don’t set “S.M.A.R.T.” goals anymore, I DO have One “Brilliant” Goal which is this:

DO What ONLY I CAN DO

BEcause, you see, that is WHY I am here on Earth in this Currie-costume. No one else has quite the same mix of this-and-that.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'  [Eleanor Roosevelt]

As I’ve been readying myself for my move, I have been noticing a LOT of things I simply did/could NOT see BEfore. Peculiarities of Currie, I call them… These are teaching me a great deal about my CANs.

Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can? [Sun Tzu] 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 15 September 2013

When you're in the muck you can only see muck. If you somehow manage to float above it, you still see the muck but you see it from a different perspective. And you see other things too. That's the consolation of philosophy.  [David Cronenberg] 

Float resonates in my thinkingandfeeling. It’s a concept so simple and yet quite difficult to grasp immediately. I remember learning to float and trying to help others to learn to float. It is something which demands a first-hand experience. No YouTube video is going to DO the trick.

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.  [Alan Watts] 

It’s funny, isn’t it, how a concept like floating can infiltrate our lives in such essential ways?! Whether we’re negotiating the “muck” of Life or grappling awkwardly with ideas like Trust and Faith, floating is a part of the equation. It is simple yet entirely essential. Even if we think ourselves “above it” all, we’re all floating all the time. To some extent.

Life is a tide; float on it. Go down with it and go up with it, but be detached. Then it is not difficult. [Prem Rawat]

Yes.

I love you, Currie   

Currie's Gratitude 14 September 2013

We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God. [Martha Graham] 

Life is Practise. It is always in progress. Under construction. In renovation. Expectant. Hopeful. Possible.

Life is learning. It is a new skill combined in an old way or an old habit repurposed imaginatively. Unexpectedly.

Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave. [Mary Tyler Moore] 

I have been practising at making mistakes. Encouraging failure. Trying NOT to manage or bother myself with the HOWs.

I try things out. Or on. Sleep on them. Wait a few days, weeks, more BEfore acting. Just to BE able to DO this is freedom. JOY. Hopeful BEyond my wildest dreams.

Practise may well BE the way to Carnegie Hall, yet it is also how I have learned to live Life. To BE Present in My Life. Nothing is forever. Things come and they pass. Other things come, too, to pass. It is a dance. Danced over on stages far past where I can see.

Live. BE great. Don’t wait. Don’t worry. So what if you trip over your feet?!  

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 13 September 2013

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle. [Albert Einstein] 

I’m a big fan of Keeping Life Simpler. I look for bottom lines and try always to reduce things to their most basic. I am NOT saying I don’t enJOY nuance and depth, BEcause clearly I DO, but I like things to BE as simple as possible. It’s easier that way, to really FEEL Life and BE alive in it Right Now.

Sometimes I complicate the most basic. I invent and I pretty much always overwhelm myself in the process. So lately I have been practising living like Einstein talked about. And the funny thing is there are many more miracles than I’d ever imagined…

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you. [A. A. Milne]  

This is my idea of companionship. To BE. To last. To NOT leave BEhind nor BE left BEhind. I know if you unpack all that it might sound a bit odd, even scary, but I don’t mean it to BE. It’s just what I think would BE the best design.

How about you?! How DO YOU live Life?! 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 12 September 2013

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities. [Dr. Seuss]

The other day I wrote about feeling overwhelmed. About getting lost in the HOW of my move’s details. Of details that I think insignificant. This is BEcause I lost my beam on Laughter. It is always there, the ability to laugh, even in the midst of tears and frustration. It’s essential. I love when Dr. Seuss and I are on the same page.

Most comedy is based on getting a laugh at somebody else's expense. And I find that that's just a form of bullying in a major way. So I want to be an example that you can be funny and be kind, and make people laugh without hurting somebody else's feelings. [Ellen DeGeneres]

The thing about Laughter is it can BE used incorrectly. It can BE unkind. Hurtful. Damaging. I often cringe at my having laughed AT someone. It is Laughter I canNOT take back. Ever…

We don't laugh because we're happy - we're happy because we laugh. [William James]  

Simple. Science. I love how that works… Every. Single. Time. 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 11 September 2013

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.  [Khalil Gibran]

Understand… a BIG word, or at least I have always thought of it that way. It was one of the first “big” words I learned to spell and write. I know that sounds silly, but it’s true. I love the word, too, for how delicious it always feels to say it.

As for its meanings, well, there’s simply NOT enough room or time to fully unpack it.

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. [Confucius] 

Why I love this word so much has a LOT to DO with the above. I am someone who has been eagerly learning and exploring the World from the word GO, and I am particularly taken with Learning By DOing. I can read directions. I can watch a gazillion YouTube videos. I can think I get it, but only, and I DO mean ONLY by DOing a thing, and often DOing it badly, DOing it wrong, and DOing it awkwardly, can/DO I LEARN.

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]

Perhaps my most favourite use of the word…

I love you, Currie  

Currie's Gratitude 10 September 2013

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. [Friedrich Nietzsche]

I’m a strong proponent for NOT fussing or fretting about the HOW of things. It’s taken a long time to wrap my birdbrain round WHY NOT to spend inordinate amounts of time on HOW, but there you go. Life holds many missions for us. This is one of mine.

My upcoming move, its details and fine print points, well, they all overwhelmed me yesterday. In good ways, really, but in the process I lost focus on WHY I am moving and got mired in the HOWs that were popping up like the weeds after a good rain.

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. [Michael Jordan]  

Brilliant, right?! Granted I am no basketball phenom, just a girl, suddenly 60, finally realising a dream I’ve had to live in an intentional community, to live as simply as possible, and to BE of Service and Make A Difference.

So, if there are failures or ridiculous things that must BE dug up when asked for, and even if I have to Let Go of anything I canNOT easily pack up in the finite number of boxes, the WHY of this move is all I am focusing on. 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 9 September 2013

We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity… [Max de Pree] 

We NEED to DO this so we can RECEIVE this. “We” implies, perhaps even demands, that what is given is received. While I can give others space to grow, BE, and exercise diversity, if WE DO those same things, WE are assured of receiving.

…We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion. [M.d.P.]

Like I said BEfore…

Still, it is this receiving thing that gives me trouble over and over again. EVEN, it seems, when I DON’T receive I have “trouble” with receiving. But that’s an entirely other kettle of fish hooks.

Receiving is an art. It requires certain skills. Timing. So much more [which probably underlines why I have such difficulty there…]

The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises. [Leo Buscaglia]

This simplifies it. This makes the sort of sense I need to make of this…

I think Receiving is about one’s capability. Willingness. Commitment. Even intention.

All that… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 8 September 2013

A friend is a present you give yourself. [Robert Louis Stevenson]

I had a card with that quote on it, and I realise that HAVING my “stuff” is NOT essential. I will NEVER forget those words. I will ALWAYS remember their truth and application.

I’ve come to know myself as someone always preferring to give. It is NOT that I don’t enJOY what is given me, it’s just that I am more comfortable giving. [I think it explains a LOT of my lack of success in jobs where I had to sell… it also clarifies WHY I am so resistant to DOing what is necessary to sell my art.]

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. [Winston Churchill]

Who knew there could BE such wisdom in just a few simple words?! I’ve been dancing uphill and backwards with my “get” for a few years Now. Taking my sweet time to accept there was something I COULD DO to help myself.

And Now, within inches of grasping hold of HOW to make that work and BE enough, I’m focusing solely on the “making a Life” part. Giving what ONLY I CAN give.

… accept whatever comes… meet it with courage and the best you have to give. [Eleanor Roosevelt] 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 7 September 2013

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity… [Amelia Earhart]

This is one of those things that often confounds me. I “think” I am thinking or pondering about what decision to make [or IF it’s time to make a decision at all] and right smack dab in the midst of my dithering I am deciding…

DO or DO NOT, Yoda says…

… The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward. [E.A.]

We are all making decisions all the time. Sometimes we know this. Sometimes we don’t. Or at least sometimes we are unaware of it.

Recently a friend said something to me about deciding to know what I really want. REALLY WANT… At first I sort of brushed it off. I mean, that was elementary stuff, but Now, and for awhile, I’ve found it compelling.

The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want. [Ben Stein]

Alrighty then… This is empowering and encourages me to take a breath, take a beat, and decide.

Seems the REAL decision is how to Live and BE. Right Now. What DO you think?! 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 6 September 2013

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. [Viktor E. Frankl]

This is one of a precious few Always-&-All-the-Time Guiding Principles in my Life. I came to it late; which, if nothing else, taught me that choosing to BE the victim of circumstances is woefully misguided and flat-out wrong. But I THOUGHT it was working for me…

To choose my attitude, in every circumstance, NO MATTER WHAT, is profoundly encouraging. And, it can also BE difficult. Counter-intuitive. Like driving with my eyes on the rearview mirror.

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. [Confucius]

Apparently I was absent when this lesson was BEing delivered. Yet knowing it Now isn’t a wash. In fact, it informs how I roll. I spend my days, my Life, DOing what I love and what only I CAN DO. I surely think that should BE an option when filling out forms.

You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path… [E.O. Wilson]

Doesn’t that seem to BE REALLY simple?!  Simple is good. VERY good…

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 5 September 2013

Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity. [W. Clement Stone]

Just yesterday I was having a discussion about DOing the right thing. DOing the thing that I want to “leave BEhind me” when I go. Sure, there are a gazillion other options, ways round it, advantages to play, and even some disadvantages to protect myself from; but I am ME. I DO things that leave me with a feeling of integrity. And after all, I DO spend the whole of my Life with myself…

The idea of magic is less about vanishing acts and rabbits up my sleeve and more, mayBE even ALL about knowing how to live a Life that is Enough, peaceful, and Right for ME. How often have I, with my x-ray vision, seen what YOU, he, or she SHOULD DO when I haven’t even considered my own circumstances?!

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it… [Jean Anouilh]

Simple measures, clear parameters. These are the magic tricks in my bag.

…Begin, and then the work will be completed. [J.A.]

BEing intentional. Envisioning without knowing HOW. This is where magic takes flight. 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 4 September 2013

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it. [Anais Nin]

I often feel like an imposter when I tell someone I am a writer. Or an artist. Most people, upon hearing that, want to know what have I published and just what sort of art [i.e. paintings, sculptures] I DO.

The reason I am a writer and an artist is that I canNOT BE anything else. I canNOT. I’ve tried to lose myself in work, through many keep-myself-busy-activities, and even DOing the normal and accepted stuff. Ultimately, I always come back to making art.

I’ve been published, but that is NOT why I write. I’ve sold my art and yes, I have a website where I sell it, but that is NOT why I am an artist.

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.  [Thomas Merton]

The profile of me on this blog and elsewhere BEgins: An artist with the soul of a teacher, I live Right Now in Gratitude… somehow I think that sums me up pretty well. In a mere 14 words. Hmmmmmmm… something to chew on says she who tends to go on and on and on… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 3 September 2013

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.  [Emily Dickinson]

Words. So often I have heard that, slung at me in anger: THOSE ARE JUST WORDS!!!! and I shrink back, feeling insufficient and like all the power has left me.

For me, words are everything. Well, NOT every EVERYthing but a LOT. Words are what hold me together sometimes, NOT words that I speak, words that I feel and live and breathe. You’d have to NOT know me at all to NOT know that…

We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out. [Winston Churchill]

If I had a nickel for every word I’ve wished I said… On the other hand, sometimes I have so many words playing round my heart and mind that I forget that I never actually said some [or heard them] and am thus reacting to an entire fantasy that never even existed…

Still, I have spoken, or written, some words that I have wished I’d NOT. That I even Right This Minute wish I could take back, delete from existence. But that’s the thing about words. Our words. They have impact and power and intention. Even when we wish otherwise.

Even then… 

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 2 September 2013

Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?  [Sun Tzu]

What if every morning we BEgan with this thought?! What if we all, each and every one of us, dared to DO all we CAN and BE all we ARE?! Imagine THAT World, my friends…

Even just imagining ME, all by myself, DOing all I CAN and BEing all I AM is enough to knock me over. In fact, lately, with the Time I have at Present to BE reflective, I have seen a LOT of Time that slipped through my fingers. I’ve dithered, regretted, rewritten the Past, and held onto resentments… Imagine what I COULD have done…

You have many years ahead of you to create the dreams that we can’t even imagine dreaming. You have done more for the collective unconscious of this planet than you will ever know. [Steven Spielberg]

Wise words. Thought-provoking words. Words you and I perhaps would wish BEstowed upon us… And yet they are ours for the absorbing. For the desiring. For the taking. Right. This. Minute.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]

The dreams I used to dream aren’t the same as I dream Today. That’s just a fact. Life changes our dreams.

I love you, Currie

Currie's Gratitude 1 September 2013

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. [Martin Luther King, Jr.]

What I can SEE and what I know, trust, BElieve, and have faith in are rarely all the same. For instance, I can SEE Right Now that there are “unforeseen” delays in making my move. Things are not progressing on MY timetable or WHEN I WANT them to.

And still, I know all is well and all will BE well. In other words, Currie’s timetable does NOT equal Life’s or God’s timetable. So BE it.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.  [Mother Teresa]

I have learned many important things these past 7 years. I have learned to BE alone. I have learned to BE quiet. I have learned to SEE BEyond what is right in front of my nose. And most of all I have learned to live in faith and trust, always, always, always…

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. [Henry David Thoreau]

So very true…

I love you, Currie