I love seeing pictures of people jumping for joy. Happiness that cannot be bottled up, it expresses itself in vertical leaps.
Children leap, skip, and splash about in life.
May I unbottle my inner child, and laugh, breathe, and jump for joy my whole life. God willing, I can. I will. I must.
Jump with me.
This works on multilevels! Plus the blue looks beautiful.
“The photo is taken near Andaman islands while diving with a unique elephant, who likes to swim in the sea. It is one of the brightest experiences I’ve ever had.” ((Mike Korostelev)
Don’t miss other fantastic photos: The year’s most breathtaking travel destinations, from National Geographic’s 2015 Traveler Photo Contest
The song that makes you think has to be “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell.
Most readers probably are unfamiliar with this beautiful, but slightly melancholy song that looks at life from both sides.
As you get older you start to see life from both sides, and clouds even have two sides. When I was really young I didn’t care too much about weather because I loved it all. Just let me go outside!
takes guts
If it was sunny, I ran around, I rode my bike, and I hung out in the yard playing kick the can until I had to go to bed.
If it was raining, I didn’t swing from trees (literally) but it didn’t dent my activities much. I really many fun recesses and lunch breaks at elementary school when the rain seemed to fall in sheets and I loved it. My school had gravel fields and the rain made big puddles, and being the Huckleberry Finn type I was, it just made me dam the puddles and then link them together to make lakes. When the bell rang I broke the dams, and sloshed into the school!
If it snowed I threw snowballs, tunneled in the snow, made forts, and tobogganed.
How did this get in here?
A simpler time certainly.
I digress, Both Sides Now is a song that makes you think, see what I mean?
Listen to the song here – just click to open the window and think about your own ice cream castles in the air. Lyrics is all in folk music, as you will see.
sand between her toes
Seize A Moment to be Still
Stop reading, planning, doing…. just for two minutes.
Seize a Moment and be Still
Are you mindful, or mindless of the moments slipping away?
Can you taste the food that you are chewing or
are you checking your email, mindlessly consuming.
Seize a Moment to be still
Breathe deep and feel your chest rise, and slowly fall,
Feel your attitude, are you tense? poised?
See the wind toss the leaves and move the grass.
Seize the Moment to be still,
Give your thoughts a moment to breathe
Let go, and let some gladness in life into your heart.
Seize the Moment to be still,
Count your blessings, and smile.
Sunny daze
I’m fighting and losing the battle, I’m turning into Mr. Wilson from Dennis the Menace – albeit slowly. I’m not there yet but I can see it coming, I want peace and quiet, and easy listening music! But the little kid in me still breaks out now and then – yahoo!
I’m not a kid anymore but still find my moments. I was out for walk the other day and the wall beckoned. A cement wall with footing a little wider than my foot edged a property – I could walk on the road or I could walk on the top of the wall.
I walked on the top of the wall, this is kid stuff. Part of me knows the fun of making dams connecting rain puddles, swinging on tree branches, and rolling on the grass. You know, jumping on and off stuff, skipping along instead of walking – the light hearted attitude of the simple life when we were knee high tadpoles.
Yes, I have my Mr Wilson tendency moments but part of me reverts to the little boy still inside me.
overlooking Okanagan lake
Spring makes me optimistic, and we all need that idea of more warmth and sunshine after winter’s long cold night and shorter daylight.
I had to face up to lack of success recently, not failure. I am learning to see the positive and accept the gift that not always succeeding brings.
I think it is sad that we shy away from doing or trying new things because we don’t already know we will succeed or believe that it will be easy for us. Isn’t that robbing ourselves of kajillions of options?
The tragedy is not failure, the tragedy is not attempting. – Theodore Roosevelt
Recently in Toastmasters I competed in a speech contest and was not chosen to compete past the Division level. I walked away that day fighting the dark cloud on my shoulder called disappointment. Actually for me I had achieved a great deal. I have been a Toastmaster for years and never competed before, so I was in new territory, THAT”S FANTASTIC for me. I was encouraged by everyone and many people enjoyed my talk. I examined the results and realized I had achieved something positive. I know now the amount of rehearsal, and dedication it will take to get past this level of competition. I also learned the importance of vocal enthusiasm and variety.
sunsets were 5 Star
The clouds wanted to push their way in and rob me of my being thankful for certain but I remembered in time that here also was an opportunity to smile and encourage others to push their boundaries.
Life is not all about winning, it’s mostly about enjoying the journey and I grew as a result of my experience, I’m still going to celebrate, and I have grown.
I can see the Sun through the clouds, it was there all along – how did I forget?
Life and Random Thinking 