Just Jazzy 296

Jazzy Does 100 Days of Happiness 83

Happiness is stumbling upon a happiness mantra – Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
– may all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my life contribute in some way to that happiness.

Have a safe and happy last day of August long weekend Sunday.

Peace For Another January

Monthly Peace Challenge: The Neuroscience of Peace

What one thought will you focus on this year to bring more peace?  Call it a mantra, a resolution, a pebble in the pond of your consciousness that will send out ripples of peace throughout the year.

I have a female brain.  I’ve decided to blame it for the fact that some days I can’t seem to focus on one thought for five minutes, so choosing a thought to last a year is a daunting task.

My mantras change with the weather.  But they’re all good ones.  Here’s a list which skims the top of the many different ones that go galumphing through my head.  I know, that doesn’t sound very peaceful, does it?  But if I can grab hold of a calming thought and breathe it in, I can also breathe it out.  May you find some small thing here to soothe your soul.

1.  Everything you go through, grows you.

2.  You were given this life because you are strong enough to handle it.

3.  Choose to see the good stuff.

4.  Let it out or it will eat you away.

5.  Feel everything deeply, both the pain and the joy.

6.  Find the calm in the storm.

7.  Be still and listen.

8.  Create something beautiful.

9.  Do small things with great love.

10.  Laugh.  Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

11.  Just do it.  Because why the hell not?

12.  Do not let the world make you hard.

13.  No one heals themselves by wounding another.

14.  Try being informed instead of just opinionated.

15.  Don’t waste the rain.  Play in the puddles.

16.  Choose kindness.

17.  It’s okay to make glorious, amazing mistakes because that’s how you learn.

18.  Be grateful.

19.  Your life has purpose, your voice matters.

20.  Tell your story.

namaste

my soul honors your soul

I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides

I honor the light, love, truth, beauty and peace within you

because it is also within me

in sharing these things we are united, we are the same,

we are one

Life Is An Echo

All of this is true, but that last sentence is the kicker.  I should make it my mantra so I’ll never forget it.  If I can’t trust anyone, it means I can’t be trusted either.  If I think someone is not telling the truth, it’s because I would also tell that lie.  The things I don’t like in other people are exactly the things I hate about myself.

Funny how that works.  Funny how it takes some of us our whole lives to figure it out.

Getting Some Air

Ever had some crazy dramatic thing happen in your life that you’d just like to erase from your memory because it’s too stressful to think about?  I don’t believe I’m a horrible person, but I’m not proud of the fact that I have contributed to something that has come back to bite me in the ass.  Idle talk and meddling and the proverbial grapevine will get you every time.  I think my new mantra needs to be ‘shutup shutup shutup’ or something along those lines.  It starts out with little things and gets blown up into big nasty things when you can’t let the little things go and keep your big mouthed opinions to yourself.  I am so done with it all.  Not with being sympathetic and empathetic (or just plain pathetic) but no more fanning the flames.  And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

http://www.free-stockphotos.com

Last night I came home from work and poured myself a glass of red wine to lighten the mood.  Several hours and an empty bottle later my mood was quite improved.  The bottle had already been opened – I’m not a total lush.  Just a partial one.  I watched a Jennifer Aniston movie (Picture Perfect) because she’s a much better actress than she gets credit for, and because everyone needs a feel-good, happy ending chick flick every once in awhile to stay sane.  Then, because there was still a bit of wine left to finish off I watched “Fierce Creatures” starring the cast from “A Fish Called Wanda”.  Much weaker plot but still had it’s own laugh out loud moments.  Perhaps by that point a serious documentary might have made me laugh, who knows.

Today I’m making Pulled Pork in my crock pot with my recently acquired Epicure spices.  I really think that should have a different name.  Sounds like something from a Monty Python skit.

I am continuing to read strange things on my kindle, and seriously need to cool it on the 99 cent specials.  Although there’s always the possibility that eventually something will be SO strange that it will warrant commenting upon in a positive fashion, rather than just thinking to myself “omg that was a complete waste of time and brain cells”.

Speaking of brains, I’m keeping mine from going completely numb by playing “Words With Friends” (a much nicer past-time than the real life gossipy version of words with friends) and a couple of other scrabble-like games on Facebook, plus a game in which I have to locate random objects in different pictures.  I’m trying to improve my powers of observation, being the kind of person who can stare right at something for five minutes without really seeing it.  Or with a brain that doesn’t compute to me what I’m actually looking at.  You might think I’m having deep thoughts and that’s perhaps true part of the time.  The other part there’s just nothing going on at all.

Empty head and a closed mouth.  Lofty aspirations.  Wish me luck.  I think I can do it where it matters.