Michelle Ward's Street Team Challenge 35

This is terrific Michelle, I have been thinking of signs in the last few days, because I believe to be guided always...if I pay attention that is...so I find your challenge on the very last day...that must be a sign on itself! Thanks my friend.

When I think of signs of symbols I have a few that are with me often, one close to my heart is The Dragonfly. These little creatures seem to point out areas in my life where I am not feeling connected, dragonflies show up to remind me of the lightness of being during times when I experience stress. For instance, my wallet was stolen last month out of my purse! --------Why only the wallet?...I have no idea, but it was my favorite, embroidered with a beautiful dragonfly. She took off in the hands of a stranger with it all my credit cards, ID etc.--------- It was not an easy time, but just focusing on the dragonfly I was able to handle the situation and make some changes, I decided it was an easy lesson if you consider that I no longer carry more than one or two important cards and all the charges have been reversed. The lesson for me is to lighten up a bit and to take responsibility for the part I play in this type of situations. I had left my purse where people could get to it...as simple as that. Dragonflies come to me in the most unusual places, 4 years ago feeling low, I was surprised by a small dragonfly on Halloween inside the house...how unusual is that? I had a conversation with the little one (dragonflies are good listeners) at that time she said, I had nothing to fear, solitude is not the same as loneliness...solitude is the gate for creativity... I agree with her and appreciate the reminder.
A couple of years ago, I saw this lovely creature drowning in our pool, I had never touched a dragonfly and her damped wings felt on my palm so cold until she started to move slowly with a shiver, she sat there feeling the sun on her back, this time I was the one talking to her, thanking her for all those other times when her or her sisters come for a visit in my garden, for their playfulness and endless hours of inspiration, for lending me their mystery so I can dream, paint and create. They are powerful medicine, some have said that they remind us to look beyond the illusion or masks we wear, to "get real" with ourselves and to release of any restrictions we have put on ourselves so we can fly, checking in with our habits, causing changes, forgiving, allowing.

I have met other people with the same Totem, dragonfly people like me, they make great friends. I know one thing, if I could grow wings, they would be like those of a dragonfly.

~ Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. ~ Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us. ~ The deepest experience of the creator is feminine, for it is experience of receiving and bearing. ~ The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens. ~ The only journey is the one within.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke


I would lead you, and bring you into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause you to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
~ Song of Solomon 8:2


In my daughter's eyes I am a hero
I am strong and wise and I know no fear
But the truth is plain to see
She was sent to rescue me
I see who I wanna be
In my daughter's eyes...

It's hangin' on when your heart
has had enough
It's giving more when you feel like giving up
I've seen the light
It's in my daughter's eyes...

...When I'm gone I hope you see how happy
she made me
For I'll be there
In my daughter's eyes

Martina Mcbride - In My Daughter's Eyes

They're playing your song

www.alancohen.com

" When a woman in a certain African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they pray and meditate until they hear the song of the child. They recognize that every soul has its own vibration that expresses its unique flavor and purpose. When the women attune to the song, they sing it out loud. Then they return to the tribe and teach it to everyone else. When the child is born, the community gathers and sings the child’s song to him or her.

There is something inside each of us that knows we have a song, and we wish those we love would recognize it and support us to sing it... If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the center of the village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them. The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that would hurt another.

A friend is someone who knows your song and sings it to you when you have forgotten it. Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused. "

"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them -- every day begin the task anew."

Saint Francis de Sales

"Life is showering its gifts upon us at this very moment. There is a force of love and light that is streaming, rushing, pouring toward us from all angles at all times. All we have to do is to let it in. Blessings are being offered to all of us without condition or limit. It's all already given to us. The keys to the Kingdom are ours whenever we are willing to accept them. What we have to lose is fear, lack, limitation, and sorrow. What we have to gain is peace of mind, success, health, and love. We do not need to become anything that we are not already. We need only say, "Yes!" to what the Universe would just love to give to us..."

~ Alan Cohen

Dreaming

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

-Kahlil Gibran



"I dreamed I spoke in another's language,
I dreamed I lived in another's skin,
I dreamed I was my own beloved,
I dreamed I was a tiger's kin.

I dreamed that Eden lived inside me,
And when I breathed a garden came,
I dreamed I knew all of Creation,
I dreamed I knew the Creator's name.

I dreamed--and this dream was the finest--
That all I dreamed was real and true,
And we would live in joy forever,
You in me, and me in you."

— Clive Barker (Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War)

Spaces

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Kahlil Gibran

INSIDE GRAY GARDENS

...Then there was the garden, named by former owner Anna Gilman Hill, author of "Forty Years of Gardening." We had to take everyone's word that there was actually a garden there. Happily we found Hill's book and a cache of old photographs showing the garden as it originally was, surrounded by dunes, just a few yards from the sea. "It was truly a gray garden," Hill wrote in her book. "The soft gray of the dunes, cement walls and sea mists gave us our color scheme as well as our name." She allowed "only flowers in pale colors" inside the walls.

From

How I Fell in Love With Grey Gardens

Sally Quinn

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 16, 2009

This captivating place ~with gorgeous photos~ inside Gray Gardens, before and after from the New York times, Homes and Gardens...The Secret Gardener