Well_Being

Flip Flops

"Flip Flop I was taking a bath," I think that is the song.
Or is it "Splish splash I was taking a bath"?
I think this was the song.
Hi, it is summer and it is hot.
A lot of humidity in the day here today.
I went out there to do some yard clean up.
We had a really bad storm here in Newtown, CT.
It was actually a tornado a micro burst or macroburst or something like that.
There are branches down everywhere.

How long can you smile?

Can you consciously keep a smile for a day? for an hour? for 3 minutes?

I’ve tried this, and it does take effort.

Even consciously returning a gaze with a smile.

There are those rare people who always seem to have a smile – they actually always seem happy.

At the supermarket, anywhere where there are strangers, it is kind of fun and interesting to hunt for visually happy people.

Sometimes the earth seems more beautiful than ever, like when the sun lights up the fall leaves, from behind – the leaves literally glow.

The light is always changing, so that what five minutes ago was a dark, drab patch, is now sparkling with bright leaves that decide to shine.

When the light is just right, any scene becomes lit like a theater stage.

I just have to be still outside, and beauty comes to me – or perhaps I tune in. A squirrel comes by, or a chipmunk, or a hawk.

I love stained glass windows. The colors are so luminescent, especially deep blues with glints of deep red. The windows glow.

The fragments of glass set in lead, all fit together, like a poetic puzzle. All the glowing pieces are bordered in dull silvery lead, as if someone outlined everything in the picture.

They are huge and intricate, often mounted high up. Sometimes I go into a church just to be inspired by the stained glass windows, and smell the incense, and see the candles.

Today I am feeling better than ever.

I build the bridge that completes itself.

I expect good things to happen to me today.

I look forward to being happily surprised.

Why is today so special?

Because it’s right now.

I am like a great tree out in the sun.

I feel young, alive, like an explorer once again.

I feel really, really great.

Let good things find me today:

A butterfly, a surprise lunch place,

A nod from God that all is well.

I am open to flashes of inspiration and enthusiasm.

One of the most popular games with my children was to write on the child’s back, and have them tell me what I wrote.

It starts really simple, like writing an “A” or an “O”. Then I’d draw some symbols like a plus sign, a box, a triangle, or even a tree.

Then more challenging was writing a word or a phrase.

This is really fun, sensing what someone is writing on your back. It could be your arm or leg, too. But we used the back.

We would reverse roles, too. And I would guess what they were writing.

I am alive, here, right now.

I am worth it.

I breathe this delicious air. The air that Jesus breathed. The air that Buddha breathed. The air that makes fire.

I am worth it.

What surprise do you give me today? What’s for lunch? For dinner? Who will visit? On the phone. In my thoughts.

Will you give me the soothing pitter patter of rain? Or the sun which sends shadows everywhere? Or perhaps the gentle snow?

I am worth it.

So many inventions in my time that appear – for me – television, smartphones.

I talk to plants. I mean, I don’t do this every day, but I have talked with some plants. I read how to do this in a book, The Secret Teachings of Plants, and I decided to try it myself.

I move my awareness to the middle of my chest. It’s usually in the middle of my head. I see it like a ball of white light moving from my head to my heart. I close my eyes, and tell the plant, “I want to speak with you and learn from you.” It also helps if I imagine myself filling the plant – into its leaves, into its branches, into its trunk, into its roots.

Many years ago, there was a day when I wanted my two young children to pick up sticks and branches in the yard.

They didn’t want to do it. They saw it as work - my work.

So I told them the branches are really lambs, and we need to bring them together over there in a pile. That worked wonders. They were very happy to bring all these stray lambs together. A little “baaaa’ing” helped too.

I am on the beach.

The sand feels warm and inviting on my feet.

I love the “swish, swish” of the waves.
The pebbles are tumbled, soft clear white.
The seashells call to me to look at them.

A child is making a sand castle, with a red, metal pale.
Another child is blowing bubbles.
A single bubble floats by me.

I am happy.
I see myself in the bubble, happy, along with this whole beach, sky, and ocean, in that little bubble.
It floats away to carry my happiness beyond me.