When everyone gets what they want

"I just thought of what I want on that magical day when everyone gets what they want", I said, "I want me. I want me solid and steady and clearly defined; living inside my own skin.  I want me. Whatever I am. Whatever I turn out to be."

-The Cracker Factory

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt

That quiets the soul

Sitting, barefoot

armed only with camera 

and eyes that scan,

see

the beauty of things

that quiets the soul.

Let me out of the noise

my own head makes...

Whispers from the sea - for CM

Be SHORE of yourself

Come out of your SHELL

Take time to relax and COAST

Avoid PIER pressure

SEA life's beauty

Don't get TIDE down

Make WAVES

Make a wish upon a STARFISH 

Put the lime in the coconut

and remember:

Drinking rum before 10AM makes you a PIRATE,

not an alcoholic... ;-)

Lamentation

"Could I walk out to sea,

way beyond these breakers

We have no place among

the movers and the shakers

Yours is the only throne

I'll ever get down on my knees before

You have the whole of me..."

- Tree 63

A million lights

Gone fishing

When words cannot convey your loneliness...

When being still is no longer a comfort

And being busy not a distraction

When all life seems just one long aching yearning

Of times had and a home not seen.

Then, be stiller still and know...

Birds talk to me

Wondrous thing

"The serenity of the lulling ocean is a wondrous thing to behold...

more precious than the gems coveted and covered in platinum or gold."

- Oksana Rus

The Echo of a Soul

"Let me be a free man.

Free to travel,

Free to stop.

Free to work,

Free to trade where I choose.

Free to choose my own teachers,

Free to follow the religion of my fathers,

Free to talk, think and act for myself,

And I will obey every law or submit to the penalty."

- Chief Joseph

Seething

"The desert and the ocean are realms of desolation on the surface.

The desert is a place of bones, where the innards are turned out, to dessicate into dust.

The ocean is a place of skin, rich outer membranes hiding thick juicy insides, laden with the soup of being.

Inside out and outside in. These are worlds of things that implode or explode, and the only catalyst that determines the direction of eco-movement is the balance of water.

Both worlds are deceptive, dangerous. Both, seething with hidden life.

The only veil that stands between perception of what is underneath the desolate surface is your courage.

Dare to breach the surface and sink." 

- Vera Nazarian 

The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Raise

"Raise your words, not your voice.  It is the rain that grows flowers, not the thunder."

- Rumi

Being the Beloved

"Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection.  Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection.  When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions.  The real trap, however, is self-rejection.  As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody."... My dark side says "I am no good...  I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected and abandoned".  Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved."  Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence."

- Henri J.M. Nouwen