the thing about blogs is they tend to multiply like rabbits and then leave me scrambling after them as they hop off in every direction, nearly impossible to catch.

My first blog ever was here at bright heart singing. I still consider this blog my “home sweet home” — a place for me to rest, sip some tea, and reflect on the beauty and the challenges of life. But I also have heaps of behind the scenes blogs — one for every research project — and a few professional blogs depending on what “hat” I am wearing. The behind the scenes blogs are invaluable for collecting the raw material and hyperlinks necessary for any project. The professional blogs are also necessary but require me to “speak” in a different voice and in service of different purposes. Lately, all these other writing spaces have elbowed out my contemplative practice here.

I also have been worried about how much of my inner life belongs “out there” on the internet. Of course, I only blog about what is safe for me here and elsewhere on the net. But what should I do when I struggle with the “tough stuff” that should be kept private? Drop out of blogging until I am past the challenges? Make light of or keep silent about what is going on? And if I did keep silent about the bad and only wrote about the good wouldn’t my blog be “Polyanna” saccharine?

So I have asked myself, “why do I blog at all?” Obviously, my professional blogs have professional purposes that meet my communication needs. But what about my sweet home here? While there are several reason for me continuing here, the number one reason — by a long shot — is for my daughter. I want to leave behind a record of the soul level conversations I have with myself as I negotiate my life. When my daughter is 50, if I am still alive, I will be 88. This blog, bright heart singing, is my time capsule for her. I hope it will be another way I can walk with her through her mid-life journey.

But, also, I want to have you along as well, keeping me real, bringing me back again and again to this place to keep me company as I make my own journey. I benefit from your comments and your company. In an attempt to keep my conversation real, and create a more well-rounded written record by giving me the space to discuss the challenges along with the blessings in my life, I will experiment with the WordPress password protection for my entries that are more private and only for my regular readers, close friends, and — ultimately — my daughter. (Please ask me if you would like the passwords to my entries by leaving your email address in the comment section).

So here’s to my writing bright heart singing and to you recording your journey in a way that feels just-right-for-you. Who knows what our lives will look like 38 years from now when my daughter turns 50?

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Photo credit:  Photo by jamm at bright heart singing

bright heart singing, copyright 2010 – jamm. Creative commons attribution, non-commercial sharing only (translation: feel free to quote me in context or use this entry but please always credit me for my work, thanks.)https://brightheartsinging.wordpress.com

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My cat
is on the roof
AGAIN!

My cat
is on the roof
AGAIN!
Feline footfalls
create fleeting thunder
rolls over my slumbering bedroom ceiling.
My alarm clock complains,
“but it’s only ten after five
in the morning.”
as it turns its clock face to the wall
trying to pretend it can go back to sleep
for two more hours.

Meanwhile, on the roof, the adventure continues…
Supercat leaps from peak to peak,
“With lightening speed, I run across Danger Ridge,
and skulk behind Chimney Bluff.
No bird can escape my eagle eye.
No squirrel goes unchastized by the swish of my tail.
Perched high above the world,
I fearlessly patrol
on the look out for intruders.
No one escapes Supercat.
I am mighty and invincible!

Suddenly,
Supercat is struck by fierce hunger pains.
“Meow… I am wounded … and must crawl home.
I can’t find my way down.
I am going to die!
I want my mommy.
“Meeoooooow!”

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*******       bright heart singing                          credits and links             *******
**********************************************************************

Photo credit:  Photos by jamm at brightheartsinging.wordpress.com

bright heart singing, copyright 2010 – jamm. Creative commons attribution, non-commercial sharing only (translation: feel free to quote me in context or use this entry but please always credit me for my work, thanks.)https://brightheartsinging.wordpress.com

 

The world shines about me,
luminous as the moon, smiling like a rose,
and a sweet benediction
flows through everything existing.
How beautiful life is.
— Hamza El Din

Now that I am here
in these shoes
walking this footpath,
my ears are filled with the”plop, plop” sounds
of raindrops falling off rose petals.
I marvel at this thirst-quenching symphony,
this fragrant cacophony.
I raise my hand to high five The Blossom Maestro,
but instead of slapping skin with a Holy Rosey Hand,
I only see a butterfly flutter by.
How could I have not heard these rose-drop performances before now?

— Jessica Motherwell, Raindrops off rose petals, June 2010

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Photo credit:  Photos by jamm at brightheartsinging.wordpress.com

Poem credits: I found Desse Barama (Peace) by Hamza El at http://www.americanistan.com/id24.html

bright heart singing, copyright 2010 – jamm. Creative commons attribution, non-commercial sharing only (translation: feel free to quote me in context or use this entry but please always credit me for my work, thanks.)https://brightheartsinging.wordpress.com

After days of brain fog and physical exhaustion, I have come home to a calm mind. I feel lucky that I was given the opportunity to take a mental health “p.j. day” over the weekend where I could just lie down and recover from the travel stress and the never ending pile-up of work since I have returned. Plus, I have been able to catch up on emails (Happiness is Inbox zero!) and resolve a few of the issues that I have been struggling with. My heart is lighter. Hello Calm Mind and Heart’s Ease, you are both very welcome back into my life.

Sometimes when I am wanting to blog but cannot focus my thoughts, I scroll through my photo library and see what images seem to mirror my interior landscape. I took this pic of a solitary sweet pea set against craggy rocks one calm-after-the-storm morning. The rain drops were barely dry by the time I took out my camera on this seaside walk. While there is no shortage of colour and contrast in this image, the overcast sky holds the upper hand, as it throws a moody, grey blanket over the whole scene, and keeps the energy subtle and contemplative.

I don’t have much to say about the sweet pea in me, but I am glad of this calm after the storm, the lingering overcast notwithstanding.

May Calm and Ease also come to visit you today. Shalom.

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Photo credit:  jamm at brightheartsinging.wordpress.com

bright heart singing, copyright 2010 – jamm. Creative commons attribution, non-commercial sharing only (translation: feel free to quote me in context or use this entry but please always credit me for my work, thanks.)https://brightheartsinging.wordpress.com

Well my daughter and I made it back from Knoxville. The trip was happy, tense, exhausting and educational. But now I have so much work that has piled up while I was away. So while I alternate catching up on my lack of sleep and my HUGE pile-up of work, I’ll leave you with this silly joke that I learned this week:

Question: Why did the 1/5th go to the psychiatrist?

Answer: Because he was 2/10ths.

May you avoid being 2/10ths and instead enjoy the day. Wishing you Love and Peace.

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*******       bright heart singing                          credits and links             *******
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Photo credit:  jamm at brightheartsinging.wordpress.com

bright heart singing, copyright 2010 – jamm. Creative commons attribution, non-commercial sharing only (translation: feel free to quote me in context or use this entry but please always credit me for my work, thanks.)https://brightheartsinging.wordpress.com