Dirty Dolly Design

We always felt really comfortable coming home

Often she told us,

“A happy home is not a showpiece,

it’s a celebration

of where you have journeyed

and of

those who have journeyed

with you.”

She must have believed it

because we always felt

really comfortable coming home.

Even with eyes wide open love can be blind!

You can fall in love when you lease expect it!

Just another thing to be grateful about.

One Year on... still in love, more grateful!

Happy Birthday Baxter, our dashing smooocher! A lover not a fighter!

... the most valuable times.

I love nights like this, when we just hang out till midnight creeps up to surprise us.

No matter how old I get I'll always remember just sitting with you,

listening to all your stories, laughing and losing track of the hours.

One day we'll be proud of ourselves for using our time so wisely.

The truth

The moment you completely accept the truth,
no matter what it is,

all the bull fades to irrelevance.

And ain't that a load off!

It is so fitting that Spring is knocking at our hearts, look at all those beautiful buds out there.... busting to burst.... new life, new starts, new hope and another chance to love life and each other all over again and again and again.

Get it over and done with!

She was always living on the brink of a catastrophe.

Sometimes we found ourselves wishing one would happen,

just so it would be over and done with

and we could all start enjoying ourselves again.

Keep calm and carry on

These days her heart aches pretty much all the time.

She carries on by shifting her focus away from the empty spaces.

It really works for a moment.

So she'll get through today one moment at a time.......

Now I'm waiting for Spring

"I really, truly do want to start living", he said,

"but it's just so hard while I'm waiting
for that frozen still feeling to pass".

...waiting for winter

The dreariest thoughts weighed me down while I was waiting for winter.

But then she saw them....

She always finds something simply extraordinary to buoy our spirits even on the bleakest days.

....and that's how I learned ...

it's hard to whinge with a smile on your face.

...a world full of individuals....

I complained to her that I had taken a hard blow that day.

And all she said was: "The resilience of the human spirit never ceases to amaze me."

I know she considered this a good thing
but I just couldn't help thinking about all those
billions and billions of human spirits out there,
and about how they just kept on keeping on, in spite of all their blows.
The more I thought about a world full of individuals,
each with their very own individual hardships,
the better my life looked.

Perhaps a little birdie tells her.

How is it she always seems to know?

She knows just what to say, and when to say nothing.

She knows when to hold you tight

and when to let you fly.

Perhaps a little birdie tells her.

Suddenly I'll Seem to Know a Lot More Then.

Right now they don't listen to anything I have to offer.

I don't mind because I know that I won't know much at all

till they are much older and have made a few of their own mistakes.

Suddenly I'll seem to know a lot more them.

Clogging up the paperwork....

I remember him saying,

"It's better to give a little of what you have now,

rather than promise a lot of what you may not have later.

IOU's clog up the paper work and clutter the mind."

... no need to let that go too.

I sat quietly with the old woman today

while she told her stories of love and loss.

She told me of war, of how it had claimed her first born son.

It had been a long, long time since she cradled him,

crooned and cuddled him.

She could fix anything then,

every tear, every pain, every fear dissolved with her very presence.

As she inhaled deeply she spoke of the warm scent of her new born boy;

his softness, his need, his love.

I could see in her misty eye that she still felt where his warmth had been so very long ago.

She told me she can still feel that first flutter in her belly and hiccup at her breast.

It's a private bliss, hers to recall forever.

She'll keep that fragment, there's no need to let that go too.

... love life all over again ... anyway.

Some memories are cold and hard and sharp,
and no amount of sunny thoughts can erase the chill completely.

And that's just the way it is.

So you have to get out there and love life all over again ... anyway.

... easier to love.

She saw the best in us, all of us, no matter what!

So naturally she brought out the best in us.

I guess that made us easier to love.

...the way to happiness.

She knows the way to happiness.

She has it all mapped out.

But right now she's just way too busy

fussing with the details of every one elses lives.

So she can't seem to find time to follow her map.

Private magic ....

When she is sure no one is watching,

she'll stand slowly in her long, straight way.

Poised on tippy toes she'll unfurl her gossamer wings.

It's a sight to see their full span stretch and flutter.

With effortless poise she leaps into the air.

And off she soars! Gliding gracefully on a breeze.

Singing her happy song.

The sight of her will steal my breath away, time and time again.

She has a lot of private magic like that!

Who can resist beautiful David Delamare fairy images.

http://www.daviddelamare.com/

If you had magic for just one day ...

If you had magic for just one day,

and you could magic away all the things in your life

that did not bring you a scrap of joy.

What are the things that you would be left with?

No one is watching ....

They're watching.

They're listening.

You've been hurt before and you will be again.

Now dance, sing and love anyway!

... one of your good days?

Don't you just love it when you have

one of your good days and you are grinning and skipping - full of beans?

Have you ever noticed that those are the days

when nothing but ordinary stuff happens?

It's just seems that with a heart wide open

every thing seems lighter and brighter

and whole lot less serious.

Letting the Muddy Waters Settle ...

"Sit back and find the discipline not to react;
let the muddy waters settle till the appropriate action becomes clear?"

She always appeared so graceful with her emotions and with mine,

so she must have practised this technique time and time again.

Catch a moment .....

Sometimes, for a split second,

the world stops whirring and whirling,

and you get a chance to just catch a moment

and privately savour it a second longer

before someone presses the fast forward button again.

Our bright star...

When they'd ask me if it was cold in her shadow,

I'd tell them that I knew there was a shadow

but we were always kept playing on the sunny side.

Keep your eye on the shiny bits.

I told her I liked him because he was

a "what you see is what you get" kind of guy.

And she said, " Everybody has shiny bits and murky shadows

that you can't see from the outside.

And, you usually see what you look for, at first.

But eventually it all gets a turn to bubble up to the surface

and you can't help but glimpse it then."

So I decided, right then and there,

that if I was going to live happily every after,

I had better keep my eye on the shiny bits.

Her kind little message.

She just knew which kind little message to give each and everyone,

so they could tuck it into their heart pocket and keep it safe there, forever and ever.

I take mine out on cold days when I get lonely.

It's a bit tattered these days but it still makes me feel warm and special.

...life's journey.

"I have not lost my passion for life's journey!" she exclaimed fearlessly.

"But now, without a sense of urgency," she went on,
"I get a new perspective with every step I take".

She may have grinned with her tongue in her cheek when she told me;
" Sometimes the texture and beauty along the way will
take my breath away and I'll miss my footing on the stepping stones."

.... all this time I thought it was arthritis and sherry that took her balance.

Discover a new perspective on your own life journey. From my book
Your Shelter and the Soul Within
http://www.annieedelman.com.au

Today's post was inspired by http://danceofapaintedlady.blogspot.com/

June 19. Stepping Stones.

... nothing left to say.

Some times at an ending,

there's just a great big space,

and it's not sad,

it's just that there's nothing left to say.

Don't tell the grown ups .....

It's days like this when my head is a whirl with pirates and pearls

and golden treasure with milky chocolate inside,

and my heart is dancing to songs of dandelions on a breeze.....

yes it's days like this when it is really really hard to get on with the serious stuff.
Don't tell the grown ups but these are my favourite days.

Room for some new good stuff...

It’s pretty sad to know

that it is all the bad stuff that holds us together.
Sometimes I wonder if we let some of it go

there might be room for some new good stuff.

I was always a sure bet ...

For a someone who didn't have much use for material things,

she certainly gave up a lot for a little security.

I'm sure she confused security with love

and I'm not sure if she ever did work out the difference.

If she did manage to figure it out, it was a lifetime too late for us.

...security can trap you in a place that love can't get to
but love will set you free,

I loved her,

but that just set her free from me.

...she was dearly loved by so many
but the love of many can't touch you till you can be touched by the love of yourself.

I know she loved me ... just not enough to gamble with ....
shame, I was always a sure bet!

Demons from the past ....

We all have demons from the the past.

The trick is not to let their musty fumes hijack you

from the moment you could be enjoying right now.

Her mother should have warned her about days like that ...

My mum would get very annoyed when she had one of her bad days.

She'd run late and get all flustered and put her g-string on side ways.

She said her mother should have warned her about days like that,

but I guess Grand Ma only ever wore sensible bloomers.

Burst bubble syndrome ...

"Why do I get so nervous when everything in life is so perfect." She asked.

"You've just got burst bubble syndrome." I told her,

"Its the thing that keeps us from taking all the good stuff for granted."

Keep enjoying the magic .....

I was really self disciplined when I was younger.Whenever my galloping heart was light and giddy with a carosel of shiny distractions I'd focus hard, be all serious, and do the grown up stuff anyway.

Now that I'm older I know it's better to keep enjoying the magic and save some for later because there will be days when you forget where you put your pixie dust.

36. We don't need to search for something we already have...

She warned me,
“Don’t be swept up by the feeling that we have to keep on pushing

and rushing and working and toiling really, really, really hard to be successful and happy.”

She told me, “Happiness is simple and it is always there.

We don’t need to search for something that we already have,

we just need to notice and enjoy."

Through all the changes in life, the things that bring me comfort and joy remain pretty much the same, maybe it's time I climbed up into the attic and dusted of some of those simple pleasures.

35. All the amour I'll ever need...

Self respect sometimes came at a price

but it was one of the few things worth fighting for.

That was what he told me.

He also said to wear my self respect always

because it would be all the amour I would ever need.

But he never got round to telling me where to get it.

When I'm a Grandma ....

When I'm a Grandma there'll be special times when I'll sit with the children under the moon light and I'll tell them stories. Tales of pirates and princesses.

They'll know that Daddy was a hero and we never quite figured out how he came to be so clever but we think it's because of his old soul that's been around learning stuff before he was even born.

And Mummy was an exotic soldier who's ancestors once ruled the world. They'll be proud to know of her secret shiny sword with the power to slay the meanest dragon of all.

I'll tell them about the magic fairy that lives in their Aunty's ear and shows her how to look deep into the hearts of people and understand the stuff she sees there.

I'll tell them our stories of love and broken hearts, of power and success, of our journeys and celebrations.

When we go inside to make cupcakes and blow bubbles we'll all feel deep in our hearts that we are part of something big and sound and special.

33. Just like you always did ...

It's really hard to believe all the stuff people say when a special person dies, like them never really being gone and they'll always be with you ... blah blah blah.

Then I catch myself chating to you, and you are solving my problems, making me feel like I came up with the answers all by myself, just like you always did.

32. A broken heart keeps on beating...

I know how much a broken heart hurts while it just keeps on beating.

Even now the scar feels so cruel.

But I’ve heard that light passes most easily through shattered things,

so I guess that’s why a broken heart can leave us just that little bit more enlightened.

Maybe that's why we feel compelled to shield the hearts of our babies

but if we lock them away how will their love ever shine through again?

31. It's just not your turn....

When I told her about my longings. She explained,
“It’s just not your turn at the moment, one day your turn will come.”

And suddenly my sadness was gone and my yearning was eased. That‘s when I knew that I must throw myself into loving my life, right now, as it is today, because when my turn did come along I wanted to be ready. I even felt happy for all the others to have their turn.

She was always told to act her age.
Which she usually did, but not for long because she would bore herself silly. So she would reinvent herself. Then she became my new friend who I already knew quite well.