In response to "So Much Happiness" by Naomi Shihab Nye

Words to images
Images to memories
Memories to smiles
Sneaking across my face and twinkling in my eyes
Happiness sneaks up like a mischievous wood nymph
Dancing through the glacier lilies
and pirouetting on snowflakes
While sun beams put a spotlight on this miraculous performance
that warms us to grinning.
Can everyone feel such happiness?
Can everyone afford tickets to the wood nymph ballet?
Does sorrow scare the dancers and shroud the spotlight in shadows?
Happiness and sorrow are eternal and we would not know one without the other.
The spotlight is only visible because of the shadows.
To let happiness dance maybe we just have to welcome the shadows and move them into a good stage position.

"So Much Happiness" -Naomi Shihab Nye

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there is something to rub against, a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,
something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change.

But happiness floats.
It doesn't need you to hold it down.
It doesn't need anything.
Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,
and disappears when it wants to.
You are happy either way.
Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house
and now live over a quarry of noise and dust
cannot make you unhappy.
Everything has a life of its own,
it too could wake up filled with possibilities
of coffee cake and ripe peaches, and love even the floor which needs to be swept,
the soiled linens and scratched records...

Since there is no place large enough
to contain so much happiness,
you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you
into everything you touch. You are not responsible.
You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit
for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,
and in that way, be known.

Dreams come alive with community!

communities are support, companionship, human, felt.
when i meet people, to expand my community, i am excited to learn what makes them unique. van gogh style artist, hide tanner, one that speaks through quotes, amateur documentary makers, knitters.
The people of this month bring me new ideas, inspiration, a push to look inside and see what makes me unique. Then a push to bring the unique outside and let it be part of the community of inspiration!

and community need not be exclusive to people. inspiration is everywhere. A vine teaches many lessons- growing in it's own skin, rooted, reaching for the sun, light, truth, warmth, nutrients to make it grow.
it can't go up alone.
it can't complete it's journey on it's own.
it needs the support of it's community, a neighbor plant, a fence. Always remaining unique to itself, there is still recognition that it can't complete it's journey without the help of it's support system.

and at times when the journey seems tangled and impossible, when the warmth is out of sight,
it keeps trying, growing, searching, leaning, twisting, turning and

there,

back in the open, ready to push forward. to grow fruit. to produce a flower. to give back to the community after uniting all the elements within itself.

give and take.
healthy balance.

thoughts for this moment brought to you by the inspiration of my community :)

Well lived

Waterton Lakes National Park is nestled in the south west corner of Alberta. It's a stunning portion of land, where the prairies of Canada meet the Canadian Rockies. Driving along the open sky roads of the plains, suddenly a wall of the most fantastic peaks soars to the very sun that guided your path. i live and work here and feel endlessly privileged at my luck.

Today however, it's raining. So i'm not outside enjoying the views (though i do think it's lovely to get all suited up and head outside in 'bad' weather!) Instead I'm inside on this computer, looking at things that are happening around the world and feeling my inspiration bubble.

today i visited these 2 sites:
jamghatfamily.blogspotcom
http://reconsidercolumbusday.org/

and now feel the burn to get out of my little house and make something happen! Cuz there are so many folks pushing for justice that's needed. Social justice makes my heart pound harder. I don't feel involved in anything right now, but when I am involved in pushing for something i believe to be right, i feel my day is well lived.

Knitting, hiking in these beautiful mountains and laughing with friends also makes a day feel well lived :)

What do you do that makes your day feel well lived?

loves
Lauren

The Guest House

This is a current favorite by Rumi-

"This being human is a guest house.
Every moment a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.
Still, treat each guest honourably.
They may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame,
the malice...
meet them at the door laughing
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond."

Loving each heart,
Lauren

Water! Wowter!

Rolling with the river, around each stone and obstacle
The droplets gain momentum as more join in the journey
Through varied landscapes they pick up pieces
Of purity, pesticide, passion, and power
Moving through stories, carrying the past to the future
Feeding all the roots; growing evolution

A little poem I thought up with water on the brain :)
Flow On!

Clean Bin Project

I just watched a documentary made by a Vancouver based couple, called the Clean Bin Project. They challenged each other not to buy any stuff for one year and not to produce any waste for the year. They replaced their 1 garbage can with 15 recycling bins for different items, expanded their compost, grew a huge garden and had fun discovering new recipes for deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, crackers, cleaning supplies and all kinds of things we normally 'just buy'.

Producing no garbage meant choosing food items that were not wrapped in garbage/ non-recyclables. It meant buying cheese from the deli, cut off the block and put in the container they brought to the store.
It meant not buying chips and it meant giving up a few items they liked.

BUT

it meant gaining a sense of responsibility and connection to the worth of the items that sustain our lives. It meant discovering news ways to exist and it meant honing new skills to subsist.

After 365 days she had about 4.15lbs of garbage and he had 3.8lbs. not bad.

I've challenged some co workers to the challenge, starting July 1st, Canada Day.

Living a life of over-consumption and garbage production is Outdated. It's time to evolve to the next way of living. Creatively and responsibly.

Have fun!

Water words

During a weekend of water words and flowing people, we were asked to write a question. i wrote this. it might only make sense to me!


burning need.
passion is fire
fuelled by water.
pulsating heart
is sunshine for my belly seed of change.
listen.
trust.
mycelium style growth for change


Water is passion!