Oneness

     These words are from the pen of Ron Fox:

"Too often we mar our relationships by seeing separation. We isolate ourselves. We build prisons around our hearts. The basic message Jesus was trying to teach was about our oneness, not just with Spirit but with one another. He challenged us to see divinity in all people. He taught us to treat all people with love, honor, and respect."

     How unfortunate is it that much of the perceived separation we experience nowadays is encouraged by religious beliefs?
          Leta

Success and Peace

These words are from Mark Nepo's work, The Book of Awakening:

Much of our anxiety and inner turmoil comes from living in a global culture whose values drive us from the essence of what matters. At the heart of this is the conflict between the outer definition of success and the inner value of peace.
Unfortunately, we are encouraged, even trained, to get attention when the renewing secret of life is to give attention...
The longer we try to get attention instead of giving it, the deeper our unhappiness...
It leaves us with these choices: fame or peace, be a celebrity or celebrate being, work all our days to be seen or devote ourselves to seeing, build our identity on the attention we can get or find our place in the beauty of things by the attention we can give.

     While I like to consider these points by Nepo, I don't necessarily think success and peace are mutually exclusive. What if we can simply be happy with whatever our lot in life is? That's wildly successful as far as I am concerned.
     I love Dr. Chris Michaels' definition of success: 1. Have fun.  2. Learn something  3. Help someone along the way. That's an easy-to-do success, and I can be very peaceful and happy with that.
     Simplify, simplify,
          Leta

My Dad, Your Dad

     My dad passed from earthly life in 2000. I think of him daily and still miss him very much.
     I want to offer a Father's Day gift suggestion that I expect your dad will like. Pick an outstanding quality that he demonstrates and tell him how much you appreciate that in him. This isn't hard, it will come to mind right away.
     For my dad, that quality was GENEROSITY. He was always willing to share what he had, both monetarily and otherwise, with others. He gave of his time to such things as going door-to-door collecting for the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association. I do not ever remember him telling me he didn't have time for me. I owe my investing prowess and business savvy to his generous guidance. (Also my good looks and beautiful silver hair, hee hee!)
     My dad frequently said, "The Miller family has been incredibly blessed." That was, and continues to be the truth. He felt it his blessing to share his blessings. I love you, Dad!

Life Does Go On

     From Maya Angelou: "I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow." (See my previous post about Tanya Tandoc's murder.)
     Ms. Angelou's words are ringing true for me relative to the shock of Tanya's death. We simply have to "pick up the pieces" and move forward after such a horrific event. What choice do we have? Well, we do have a choice, to hang in misery, or go back to life and know each day does get better as we heal. It's a brave choice, to go back to full-out living.
     One of my favorite daily items for "keeping things in perspective" is the Astronomy Picture of the Day (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html). These are astoundingly beautiful photos of astronomical phenomena. I love the beauty, but I am also reminded daily of the incomprehensible vastness of our universe, and that there's something WAY bigger than me that has everything under control. If It can create galaxies, It can handle my small requests. I find it comforting to believe that even though my human perspective is so limited, there is some "rhyme and reason" to events in human life that are beyond my current understanding.
     Enjoying Monday and our beautiful universe,
             Leta

A first I wish had not happened

     For the first time in my life, a person I know personally has been murdered. Tanya Tandoc, owner of Tanya's Soup Kitchen, bellydancer, generous spirit, loving woman, was killed last night. And to make matters even worse, we know the suspected killer who has confessed.
     This event has stunned Wichita, as Tanya is very-well known and loved here throughout the city. I've felt all day as if I've been punched in the gut, and I doubt that feeling will leave me soon.
     This event requires two things of me, both challenging. One is to continue to believe that people are good, no matter what the appearances are. The other is to remember how fragile and not-guaranteed life is, and to live it to the fullest each day we have here on Planet Earth. And there's a third thing, not so challenging... let everyone you love know it loudly and clearly!
     I love you, my readers, friends and family!
              Leta

Lilies

     I love lilies, and I have many of them in my garden. This is the time of year they bloom. They are a beautiful reminder of my favorite passage from the Bible. It's in Luke 12:

27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

     And this passage is my ongoing reminder that there's something bigger than me that has everything in divine order, and I need not fuss or worry about a thing. All I need do is keep in fit spiritual condition, and that is certainly my pleasure! And, yes, gardening helps me with that.
     In love and beauty,
          Leta

In our front yard