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“When I stopped seeing my mother with the eyes of a child, I saw the woman who helped me give birth to myself.”
Lifetime, institutional bureaucrats
don't believe in 'magic.'
The realm of the unknown and unquantifiable,
is unsafe to their
procedure and result oriented mind.
How sad,
that they will go through their lives,
having missed the beauty and depth
of humanity;
and never experience the 'magic.'
Theirs is a constricted world;
based in a false sense
of safety and security.
In the end,
Numbers and formulaic strategies
are just that...
logical entities.
In the end,
it is our humanity,
in all of it's intricacy and complexity,
that remains and whispers to us,
"Have you seen the magic? Do you see it now? Can you feel it?
What does it reveal to you? What lessons have you learned from it?
Who are you, because of the magic?"
Why wait till the end?
“Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.”
-
“At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.”
Jean Houston
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw.
"I just wanted to be sure of you."
A.A. Milne
“Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Today, the wisest and most skilled social worker I know, completed her final working day at ‘The Casino.’ During her 9 dedicated years, she created healing changes for patients, families, and co-workers. Her innate talent and gifts are countless and they leave a reverberating effect. With judiciousness, empathy, and a savvy shrewdness she taught me that barriers exist, only to be surmounted.
The field of social work and the
G.D….take time to rejuvenate and nurture your spirit…I look forward to witnessing your new blazing trail…Here is a quote, in honor of you:
“The visionary is the one who brings his or her voice into the world and who refuses to edit, rehearse, perform, or hide. It is the visionary who knows that the power of creativity is aligned with authenticity.”
Angeles Arrien
“You think you can
Depend on tails.
You don't expect tails
To go wrong.
The last time I looked
It was right there.
Now when I look there,
It's gone.
It was always
Just behind me,
Always tagging along.
A little something
at the back...
I thought it was there,
And it's gone.
I assumed it was
Attached to me,
That it actually
Hung true.
I'd hoped it was stuck
Very firmly on.
Maybe we needed
Some glue.
It used to trail
Right behind me,
Always tailing along.
My little extra
At the back...
I thought it was there,
Now it's gone.”
by Hallie
Eeyore "Lessons from the Hundred-Acre Wood"
photo by grassrootsmsw“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
We have come to our real work.
And that when we no longer know which way to go,
We have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled, is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.”
-Wendell Berry-
"We all start out with no discipline, no patience, no perseverance, no determination. We all start out at zero. People say, ‘You have talent.’ No, the gift is to realize that we all start out even. Whether we messed up or put our best foot forward, with these four qualities, we take care of our mental, physical and spiritual health each day. Am I the best in the world? No. The question is: Am I the best I can be?"
Edward James Olmos
photo by grassrootsmsw“This bridge will only take you halfway there, to those mysterious lands you long to see. Through gypsy camps and swirling Arab fair, and moonlit woods where unicorns run free. So come and walk awhile with me and share the twisting trails and wondrous worlds I’ve known. But this bridge will only take you halfway there. The last few steps you have to take alone.”
Shel Silverstein
“But the adult is not the highest stage of development. The end of the cycle is that of the independent, clear-minded, all-seeing Child. That is the level known as wisdom. When the Tao te Ching and other wise books say things like, "Return to the beginning; become a child again" that's what they are referring to. Why do the enlightened seem filled with light and happiness like children? Why do they sometimes even look and talk like children? Because they are. The wise are Children Who Know. Their minds have been emptied of the countless minute somethings of small learning and filled with the great wisdom of the Great Nothing, the Way of the Universe.”
-Benjamin Hoff-
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
Leo Buscaglia
A kind full presence is one of the greatest gifts we have to offer another. Whether it is our child, a loved one, or one of our clients/patients.
Today, the simple act of bringing a sandwich to the spouse of a patient, brought out the most beautiful and radiant smile...
"How did you know I hadn't planned for my dinner tonight?" he asked.
His words and reaction struck me so deeply and tenderly. What seemed effortless on my part, meant so much more to the receiver. In one swift moment, our connection deepened and reached another level of understanding.
We may not always know how or when we can help another, but if we come forth with kindness in our beings, we allow these opportunities and gifts to be possible.
“If your heart or spirit holds a frail seedling, protect it at all costs. Often we hear that it is good to trust, and that it is wicked to distrust, and so we put our tenderest being in the hands of those who are unable to hold us gently, because they themselves were never held so.”
C.P. Estes
"I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long."
“Live life fully while you’re here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You’re going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don’t try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.”
-Anthony Robbins-
All Fathers have their own history…
Their own unique life narrative…
developed and created
who they are.
Designing and shaping:
their strengths, their weaknesses;
their views, their insights;
their survival mechanisms, their coping abilities.
into their psyche,
long before we arrived,
as their children.
The curtain rose…
They found themselves center stage,
in the role of ‘father,’
and the script had yet to be written.
we may gurgle and
reach our chubby arms out to the familiar face of ‘Dad,’
when he reaches into our crib,
to relieve us from a soggy diaper.
we begin to perform acts
that trigger smiles
on our father’s faces.
create reactions.
Our journey of yearning for
approval and acceptance
LAUNCHES…
we start to develop our distinctive identities,
and LOUDLY stamp our feet,
for acknowledgement of our individuality.
to be seen and heard,
in our new, self-found,
audacious character.
All the while, seeking and yearning
for support and veneration.
is baffling to our fathers…
Time has made them forget,
that they too,
were once the child of a father.
Child and father; Father and adult child,
Reframe their thoughts and opinions?
because he wants to protect.
Maybe a father lets you fall flat on your face,
because he wants you
to learn,
and TRY AGAIN.
lets you find your own way,
by allowing you to make mistakes…
Even if his heart hurts silently,
for your pain.
admonishes your life choices,
because he has your best interests at heart.
Maybe a father doesn’t want to watch you
recreate his own mistakes.
to shine and succeed.
Maybe he doesn’t know how to express that.
Or maybe,
we children,
are too determined and willful, in our self convictions…
We can’t hear a father’s pleas and heartfelt hopes.
that one day,
Father and child can recognize
each other,
as equal adults;
With their own valid reasons and purposes.
Father and child will just sit,
And REALLY listen.
Just listen,
and honor that, which is the other’s story.
can lead to a profound and transformative opening.
Healing, deep wisdom, and rites of passage
Await.
may be discovered…
In their
individual and collective,
deep rooted,
and long standing
LIFE STORIES.
"I am a fox," said the fox. "Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. "I am so unhappy." "I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not tamed." "Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince. But, after some thought, he added: "What does that mean, 'tame'?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It means to establish ties." "'To establish ties'?" "Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..." "I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower... I think that she has tamed me..."
"Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox. But he came back to his idea. "My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life . I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the colour of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat..."
The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time. "Please, tame me!" he said. "I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand." "One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me..."
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near... "Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry." "It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you..." "Yes, that is so," said the fox. "But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince. "Yes, that is so," said the fox. "Then it has done you no good at all!" "It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added: "Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret." ...
"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." "What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember. "It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important." "It is the time I have wasted for my rose..." said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember. "Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose..." "I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“Becoming and being are the yin and yang of our lives. One inner one outer. Today, we value becoming to the exclusion of being; we applaud human becomings. The secret is balance.”
-Author Unknown-
Transformation contains both
change and constancy,
movement and stagnation,
development and decay,
life and death,
grief and bliss.
Embrace
these uneven rythyms,
as ultimately and unexpectedly,
they unite;
creating our whole SELF.
We cannot understand
emptiness,
if we haven't experienced
fullness.
We cannot expand,
if we haven't encountered and felt
contraction.
Balance the paradoxes
within yourself.
Accept it in those
you meet.
If we acknowledge
these truths,
all things
can come into focus,
bringing
vital clarity.
-grassrootsmsw-
-Claudia Ghandi-
“Who’s your daddy?”
I am thinking of you today… your birthday. I miss you, beyond what I can put into words. When I long for your presence, I find solace in the beautiful poem that your dear friend, Barry Morrow, wrote the day you left us:
“Late this afternoon, while the world kept on spinning, in a wooden house in a small corner of
All in time.
It seems certain that one day science and religion will agree: From the stars we came; to the stars we owe all of life's creation, and from thence we shall return. Because we are Stardust. We are Golden. And we will meet back in the Garden.
All in time.
Dear Hearts and Gentle People, hold close to that which was Barry, and tighter still to that which is Sheri, for she carries upon her slender shoulders, for all of us, a great and abiding sorrow.”
-Barry Morrow/Nov. 9, 2004-
Still waiting for the white horses B…and letting it be…just BE…and only you know why. ‘All in time’, I imagine.
My dearest and most faithful guardian…thank you for having shared in my life and eternally changing it. You tended to wounds with compassion; you nourished the empty spaces; you gently cultivated what felt lost; you unknowingly played a role that was needed and historically malnourished; and you revealed the beauty of unconditional love and trust.
I cradle all the gifts you imparted to me, and I hope to pass them on in my life… always, in honor of you, my dear BAAAZZZER.
