WELCOME
TO
WEDNESDAY'S WORD
The WORD for Wednesday, January 26, 2011 is
HOME
Home is many things to many people, and I think Dorothy got it right when she made her observation that, "There's no place like home." I spent a long time thinking about what defines home to me, and much to my surprise, I found that home means many things to me. I flipped my journal sideways and wrote down all the things that home means to me. Then I added a layer of water soluble crayons and gesso on top of what I had written.
I thought about my house as home. I thought about the earth being my home. I thought about my final spiritual home and the promise of eternal happiness. I thought about being at "home" no matter where I am, and I thought about the homeless people everywhere who must embrace that concept for their very survival.
For me, "home" is synonymous with "comfort." Home is the place where I can run around in my pajamas all day. Home is the place where I don't have to wear a bra. Home is where I hang my art. Ultimately, for me, home is the place where I feed my spirit and feel most comfortable just being myself.
"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." ~Maya Angelou
"My home is in Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world." ~Billy Graham
"I'm the type who'd be happy not going anywhere as long as I was sure I knew exactly what was happening at the places I wasn't going to. I'm the type who'd like to sit home and watch every party that I'm invited to on a monitor in my bedroom." ~Andy Warhol
"Where thou art, that is home." ~Emily Dickinson
What does home mean to you? Remember to "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"
The WORD for Wednesday, January 19, 2011 is
WORRY
How much of your precious energy do you spend in a state of worry? I know people who seem to have taken it up as a hobby, and years ago, I have to admit that I took on worry like a second skin. As time, experience, and knowledge have been gifted to me, I have learned to eliminate worry from my daily activities.
Worry implies two things to me now. A state of worry implies that I'm living in the past or the future, both of which are meaningless. Learning to live in "now" was one of the key elements in escaping the bonds of worry. I now realize that "everything is as it should be". I have learned to pray and I have learned to "let go and let God" - a phrase that has been made trite by it's repetition but is so freeing in it's deeper meaning.
Are you constantly worrying about things you have no control over? Do you worry to the point that you're physically ill? What good has worry brought into your life? Are there ways you can learn to let go of worry? Can you create a place in your mind to help you learn an alternative to worry? What's the opposite of worry to you? For me, the opposite of worry is inner peace, and today, that's what I wish for you. Remember to "Celebrate, LOVE, and create!" - worry can't survive in that environment!
"Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but it gets you nowhere." ~Glenn Turner
"Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow." ~Swedish Proverb
Some of your hurts have been cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But the torments of grief you endured
From the evil which never arrived. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
The WORD for Wednesday, January 12, 2011 is
TIME
What exactly is time? We frequently describe it as something we don't have enough of, are running out of, or are trying to find. We cherish the shadows of time gone by and we eagerly anticipate the time that we expect will come our way.
We try to get a grasp on time with clocks and calendars. I wonder how much time we spend counting the minutes, hours, and months until yet another year is counted down. Does time feel flexible? When we're having fun doesn't time go faster than when we're sitting in a cube waiting for the minutes to click by to 5:00pm and escape from the job?
"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." ~Carl Sandburg
"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils." ~Louis Hector Berlioz
"Time is a figure eight, at its center the city of Deja Vu." ~Robert Brault
"And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you..." Pink Floyd
What does time mean to you? What immediately comes to mind when you think of time? I hope you can find the time to give it some thought. Until next time, "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"
The WORD for Wednesday, January 5, 2011 is
LOVE
I've chosen LOVE as my focus for 2011. Love has many faces and wears many hats. Love is easy at best and frustrating at worse. Love is many things, but . . .
What does LOVE mean to you? Who are the people you LOVE? What other words come to mind when you think of LOVE? What images pop into your head when you hear the word LOVE? If you created your own symbol for LOVE, what would it look like?
"Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting." ~ Mother Theresa
"There is no remedy for love but to love more" ~Henry David Thoreau
"Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that." ~Michael Leunig
"There is no remedy for love but to love more." ~Henry David Thoreau
"Love is a Battlefield" ~ Pat Benetar
"Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is." ~Gary Zukav
