Category Archives: Journal

LONGING

Black and white portrait of tired little girl with sad eyes. Shallow DOF

 LONGING

 

I long to return where my heart’s song began

The quaint city by the ocean I once knew so well

How I long to play along her sugar white shore

Swim in her ocean as deep and as blue as my longing

I long to jump up and down amidst her ocean floor with it’s scattered sea shells that tumble and stumble, all the while, tickling the tips of my toes

Crash about in her ocean waves as if I were a discarded cork, bobbing freely, just me…

 

 

©2011  Angela C. Soelzer Ragosa

 

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There’s No Such Thing As An Uneventful Day…

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“Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy, or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s-syndrome child. Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kin

dnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example. Each smallest act of kindness—even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile—reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will. All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined—those dead, those living, those generations yet to come—that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands. Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength—to the very survival of the human tapestry. Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in this momentous day.”
― Dean Koontz, From the Corner of His Eye

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Be…

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“You don’t have to let the surroundings and occurrences of your world bring you stress. You can choose to give them love and appreciation.

Instead of handing out judgments about every little frustration, annoyance and disturbance, you can exude peace and positive purpose.

Instead of letting life get to you, let real, authentic joy flow forth from you.

You are perfectly capable of being ever peaceful, even though you may not always be in peaceful surroundings. You are easily and naturally able to be continually positive, regardless of what may come your way.

The quality of your life in every moment is your decision. Peace is not a place or even an external condition, but a choice of how you are.

Let go of conflicting thoughts about how life is supposed to be.

Live life simply and purely as you choose to be.”

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Letter From a Mother to a daughter…

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Letter from a Mother to a Daughter: “My dear girl, the day you see I’m getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through. If when we talk, I repeat the same thing a thousand times, don’t interrupt to say: “You said the same thing a minute ago”… Just listen, please. Try to remember the times when you were little and I would read the same story night after night until you would fall asleep.

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Quotes: Interesting Perspectives…

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“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.”

― Henry James

Writing is a concentrated form of thinking…a young writer sees that with words he can place himself more clearly into the world. Words on a page, that’s all it takes to help him separate himself from the forces around him, streets and people and pressures and feelings. He learns to think about these things, to ride his own sentences into new perceptions.”

Don Delillo

 

“There is only one page left to write on. I will fill it with words of only one syllable. I love. I have loved. I will love.”

― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife

 

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

― Dr. Seuss

 

“Under the seams runs the pain.”

― Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red

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:: Shine On:: by Julie Henderson

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Everyone and everything are moving around me at light
speed. I am sure that some days I must look like one of
those die hard monks in Tiananmen Square, standing at the
epicenter of a busy intersection like an anomaly exhibiting
her humanity. My arms are at my sides, my posture is
upright, my eyes are closed, and I have a look of peace

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STRAWBERRIES…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was standing at my kitchen sink, famished & thinking how delicious these strawberries and red seedless grapes were going to taste and as always a little preparation was in order; this time it would be rinsing… I carefully rinsed my berries and grapes when uh, one more step, hull the strawberries… All of my life I have dreaded hulling out strawberries, I have no idea why except I’ve always found it to be so frustrating. With this in mind, I picked up one of the ruby red strawberries and simply sliced off the top…no frustration, no dread building, no resenting the next one to come because with it too, I took my paring knife and with another clean stroke down  “wa la” the deed was done. It then dawned on me, if I have lived my entire life resenting hulling strawberries just because I had not yet found a better way, clearly, I needed to tune in… btw, the strawberries , grapes with cheese & crackers tasted so good!

10 Thoughts on Whole Living

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Thriving

1.  Just as a seed contains all it needs to sprout, so are you already equipped to thrive.

Growth

2.  You can’t grow without pushing your limits.

Lessons

3.  See your mistakes not as personal flaws, but as the source of your most valuable life lessons.

Empowerment

4.  Think of money as energy; use it to empower, not control, your life.

Resilience

5.  Every moment of suffering brings an opportunity to build resilience

Rewards

6.  With each challenge comes new growth. Engage in rewarding efforts.

Focus

7.  Missteps are part of any process. Stay focused on where you’re headed.

Direction

8.  Find your direction in life by looking where you want to go, not where you don’t.

Worth

9.  Know your worth — and accept nothing less.

Dreams

10. Make this the day you stop dreaming and start doing.

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Walking Wounded

 

“The real voyage of discovery consists

not in seeking new landscapes

but in having new eyes.”

by

Marcel Proust

 

I consider myself to be among the walking wounded (as I believe… we all are)… and if we as a people have never felt the infinite void caused by losing a loved one… perhaps a Sister, Brother, Mother or Father or quite possibly, your Mother and your Father within a span of six months as I recently did…or you’ve not yet felt the sting of personal failure, the humility while asking for financial assistance, or needing a handout of food and/or possibly food stamps in order to feed your belly that’s been empty with an ache which seems like an eternity… or had to ask for help feeding yourself because you’re too sick to lift the fork. We all get a turn if we’re blessed to live long enough and that’s a fact… I used these examples from which I pulled from my own personal experiences in life; which indelibly shaped and molded who I am today at this very moment. From these many experiences I’ve come to realize life isn’t always easy, in fact, there are times it felt like a cruel joke, a nightmare that I could slap myself out of… but, if we are willing and prepared to see beyond the hurt, the loss, the pain, the embarrassment, humiliation and setbacks… It is then we are able to see that each breathe is a privilege beyond compare… I for one intend on enjoying each and every beautiful reprieve life offers me, vowing to view each and every loss of a loved one with the acknowledgement of how incredibly blessed I was to have spent time with them, loved them, been loved by them, cared for them to the end… I choose to view set-backs as temporary roadblocks; as an opportunity to shine my brightest.

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One More Time

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One More Time

Marked by the Muse

“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
— Maya Angelou

Today, trust that you can create the change that is calling within you one more time.
You can create your dreams come true one more time.
You can trust your creative spirit is leading you one more time.


You can have faith that what you envision is in process of becoming one more time.
You can gather the courage to create what your inner whispers are urging one more time.
You can take one more step one more time.

 

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