Joyful Anticipation

     My life is really mighty fine, in the "run of the mill" day-to-day smooth flow. I have few complaints. However, I do find it extra enjoyable when I have some "big" events to look forward to.
     There are some annual events that I experience with joyful anticipation: both the start and end of tax season, March Madness, and opening day of baseball season, to name a few. Already for this year, I've planned at trip to eastern Canada, and I'm about to sign up for a five-city baseball tour including a bonus trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. For this baseball nut, that's a died-and-gone-to-heaven trip. In a few days, my son's Golden Retriever, Dusty, will take up residence with us for an undetermined period of time while my son travels to Australia. I haven't had a pet since I was growing up in Pennsylvania, and I adore Dusty, so this is a time of great excitement for me.
     Joyful anticipation of these upcoming events in and of itself is great, but there's also a bigger purpose behind it. It holds me in the mindset of "there's even more good to come!" That's an important place to be as creators of our own experience. When we hold ourselves in that place of allowing, the Universe has to deliver. Or if you prefer, as Jesus said, it is done unto you as you believe.
     Fun, Fun, Fun! Life is good!
            Leta

Darkness & Light

     My experience of the last few days has included deep darkness, including a big soul-rinsing meltdown, and brilliant light, in the form of a complete answer to (what was for me) a huge prayer. Too often I'd like to skip the dark lows and stay in the bright highs. However, I realize my life would be incomplete without both. Each is necessary so that I can recognize the other. The dark lows are a blessing in that they remind me that I've landed in a place where I don't want to remain. This is summed up nicely in these words by May Sarton:

Help us to be the always hopeful
Gardeners of the spirit
Who know that without darkness
Nothing comes to birth
As without light
Nothing flowers.

Love and Peace,
     Leta

Joyful Words

     Today I begin my third annual three-month stint as a tax preparer. I'm a "numbers nerd" and I truly love the work. In today's political/tax environment, there is always much to learn, and I find that very invigorating.
     Last year this time, I was deep into writing WHOA! (See tab above.) Each morning I would wake up early and spend 30-45 minutes writing. It was very spiritually satisfying, in addition to eventually creating a book. I expect this tax season that I'll be using this blog more as my writing outlet--gotta keep the words flowing.
     This morning I found two pieces I particularly like...

From "A Grateful Heart": Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves for we shall never cease to be amused. --Anonymous
-and-
Today's "Note from the Universe" by Mike Dooley:

Life is not what you see, but what you've projected. It's not what you've felt, but what you've decided. It's not what you've experienced, but how you've remembered it. It's not what you've forged, but what you've allowed. And it's not who's appeared, but who you've summoned.

And this should serve you well, beloved, until you find what you already have.

Yeah,
The Universe

Enjoying the old song "I Feel Good!" stuck in my head,
      Leta

Wonders

     One of my yoga students gave me, as a parting gift, the book titled "A Grateful Heart," edited by M. J. Ryan. It is a compilation of quotes, poems and musings on gratitude. The writings are, interestingly enough, grouped by season, so I am currently within the winter writings.
     Here is a favorite of mine by Kathleen Raine:

I've read all the books but one
Only remains sacred: this
Volume of wonders, open
Always before my eyes.

     We have a great tendency, particularly if we are older, to think "I've seen it all," and so we don't notice the everyday wonders of life. Or something like yesterday's (first-of-the-season) winter storm in Wichita makes us cranky and out-of-sorts. Hurts of one sort or another cause us to close off our hearts to the joys of a "common" day. It's great to be around young children who are still living in the state of wonder. I'm thinking that we become old because we lose that sense of wonder. Hmmm... there's something to wonder about!
     With open eyes and heart,
            Leta

We Are Bubbles

     Today I attend a memorial service for the wife of an attorney friend for whom I worked for many years. Also today, my husband travels to meet up with life-long friends to eat, drink and be merry in celebration of the life of one of their group who recently succumbed to cancer.
     I have been listening a lot lately to the wisdom of Abraham-Hicks. Several of the Q&A topics discuss death, which Abraham clearly states does not exist. We are eternal beings. When we leave our bodies, our consciousness/energy simply returns to the universal, to a state of bliss.
     As you can tell, the end of earthly life has been in my consciousness quite a bit lately, and a variety of emotions have stirred. Spirit has such a clever way of bringing things to my understanding... so back to this blog's title...
     I was at the pool getting ready to swim laps and on the surface of the water, I noticed a bubble. It floated around for a while (our earthly life), and then mysteriously (who knows why we pass exactly when we do), it popped. The air that was in the bubble did not disappear, it just blended back into all the room's air. The water molecules that contained the air briefly simply blended back into the pool water. The bodies that "contain" our consciousness are designed to go back to the earth from which we came. Note that some bubbles last longer than others, the same with individual lives.
     Abraham talks about how those who have passed haven't gone anywhere, they are still around in consciousness and we CAN communicate with them. However, most of us are so freaked out and upset about their absence that our energies don't match up, because they are in a state of bliss. When energies don't match, communication cannot happen.
     I am not discouraging grieving, nor am I suggesting that the absence of someone we have loved is not difficult. I'm simply offering a perspective that may be new, and possibly comforting. It has been comforting to me.
     May peace expand within us all,
             Leta

The Adventure That Is 2018

Mike Dooley, in his "Notes from the Universe" suggests this "adventurous alternative" for approaching the new year:

1. Give thanks that your life is exactly as it is.
2. Decide that 2018 will be the happiest year of your life yet.
3. Every day, follow your heart and instincts down new paths.

Sounds like fun to me! Happy Adventures!
       Leta

2017 in Review

     I just went through my Win List for 2017, an annual review that I love doing as a reminder of how awesome my life is, and how it continues to get even better.

• Health: I recovered early in the year from pneumonia, and unlike last Christmas, I was healthy & well for Christmas 2017. I had successful cataract surgery in May, enabling me once again to drive in the dark comfortably.
• Creativity: The BIGGIE--I published my second book, WHOA!, via createspace. A year's work went live on Amazon in October. Visual art became a fixture in my life for the first time, inspired by a Paint the Town adventure with girlfriends where I learned how paintings "happen." It was a game-changer. I subsequently did Zentangle drawings for my book, and took an acrylics painting class in the fall, and set up a dedicated painting area in the woman cave. I also started a three-person writer support group. 
• Milestones: I passed 1,000 hours of yoga teaching. For the 20th year in a row, I swam over 100 miles/year. Dennis & I celebrated our 31st anniversary. I signed up for Social Security!!!!!!!! I ended my yoga teaching gig (over 4 years) at the Body Studio. I completed the second season of tax prep work, which funded much of the fun under "Travel."
• Family: We had several great visits to Fort Collins to see our sons. Caila joined us as Derek's girlfriend. We enjoyed getting to know Aliza (Eliot's girlfriend) & Paisley (daughter) even more--Aliza is an accomplished painter, a joyful connection for me as a rookie. All five of them came to Wichita just after Thanksgiving, a time for the sons to show the girls their "roots." We had another super Christmas all together in Fort Collins. My Miller family back east is all alive and doing well. 
• Travel: I organized & enjoyed a trip with travel bud, Lanie, to the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver). A big driving trip back east included Camp Good Life, two new-to-me baseball stadiums and lots of family & friend fun. The annual Chicago/Cubs weekend with Cricket was in August. Dennis & I made trips to St. Louis for the annual Pockets reunion and Thanksgiving with the Hardin family. A trip to Minneapolis happily reunited me with grad school friends & got me to Target Field. I hosted another successful retreat experience at Timber Creek Retreat House in October.
• Miscellaneous: We got new windows in our house, the last "major" necessary renovation complete. 

Loads of GOOD! Looking forward to even more in 2018!
        Leta