Expectations

♥ It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the very best, you very often get it. ♥ ~ Somerset Maugham 

Sweet Felicity was there that day, I remember it all too well. To find beauty so unexpectedly...And so, of all the photos I possess, I heart this the most. The greens and the verdant lushness of it all are so uplifting...never fails to make me smile. I live in the city you see. A 20 minute walk from my home confronts me with all the unpleasant noises and callousness of frantic city streets. None of these rolling terrains and conifers....


So even at the risk of being redundant or self absorbed, I post this once again to be reminded of a simple fact of life..."that when one expects to find felicity...felicity has a way of presenting itself." 
In truth, it has always been that way with me. Even moreso today, I shall have it no other way. 


And to you, my dear friend. I am thinking of you.  Life is hard enough and I know your burden is great. This is reality. But when you willingly draw dark sceanarios of a foreboding future for you, then I am afraid..I am afraid..you condemn yourself to a future of your own doing. 


Your expectations..that reel of film to a conflicting future you speak of...will come to pass. It will happen. Your tears will flow, endlessly. So stop it. Take responsibility for happiness- make a change. We all live in a dream world of our own doing. The question is, "How far removed from reality have you gone?" 


Come back from the past, swim back from the future. 
The present is here...
love yourself...

Interesting Finds: THE TRUTH ABOUT MARIE ANTOINETTE

The Blue Gate

Blue gates remind me of "Alice In Wonderland." Of course, it was a blue door she was faced with in the story. Nevertheless, it was of such significance to be affronted with the question of whether she would open it or not. What lies beyond doors is always of great interest, isn't it?

I pass this gate almost everyday. What lies beyond is a pretty wonder. One thing is for sure, whoever lives within these fresh breathing walls of ivy green have much loveliness in heart to share. You can actually tell if a homeowner is happy by the profusion of vines circling and swaying all around. And, wow, with a blue gate like this, it all the more says as I pass by, "Hello there neighbor, be happy!" 


And so, hearing that, then such I become. 

Charm

"Love this pic!"

Sometimes, a picture just says it all.

Where One Ought To Be

"Trust that through simplicity, 

your frazzled and weary soul 

can discover the place 

where you ought to be. "

~ Simple Abundance

Art by: Roselle Quin

GRATEFULNESS FRIDAY

♥ Woke up to see the sun gently break light into the day. Misty cool air, sun soaked pink jasmines, prisms of light filtering through leaves, steamy coffee by my side, and the cacophony of bird tweets' surround my home. There is something so blessed about the day. ♥ I love January mornings! ♥ 

~ My FB Status Update

GRATEFULNESS FRIDAY

I must tell you, there were moments this week when I whirled around and saw what plainly needed to be fixed and bought and had. Within me dropped quivers of doubt, specks of sad and dots of hurt. Ah, but something now is different. For in spite of the brooding sentiments threatening to well over, I chose to breath, relax and refocus - not letting the fickleness of emotions to reign over!  I chose happiness this week and will well end it with happy. This alone is something to be grateful for.

~ things and moments to be grateful for ~

• Time alone in a coffee shop reading my current favorite book and taking notes. 
• Oh, and also for the pressed brewed coffee and prosciutto 
• The sweetness of my husband. His silly words and teasing and kisses. 
• I am grateful that he will be, finally, on his way home tonight! 
• The little shop that sells pretty clothes for a song! My new finds are lovely!
• Friends who say I inspire!
• Our new computer with its wide screen! So much easier to use than my small laptop!
• My new Starbucks notebook!
• My househelp. She makes my life so much easier!
• My boys..always my boys. 
• And the little gift one of them gave me! So precious!
• Not to forget, the inspiring blogs that lift me up!
• These cool nights so perfect for cuddling!
• and these pretty breezy January mornings we have been having!

~ Grateful for todays find:
About Porches -  Between Naps on the Porch
How to make a "book wreath" by: Living With Lindsay

Heat

" Twirling her ( dry ) hair into thin braided strands, she
wearily muses how easier it would be to succumb to the inertia of this stifling hot mid- morning tropical summer heat and just....scream.

But could she, would she dare shatter the impermanence of this afternoon's solid silence?

For save from the faint buzzy distant roar of a green chartered plane, cruising 30 thousand feet against the cloudless azure of her pacific skies , everything is a hush. What a perfect day to frown. And to think the most deplorable thoughts too!

Hot and sticky and emptied of ideas, she decides to blog with nothing to say, nothing, at all, to say, but blogs on, she does, anyway.

She thumps with a frown - a small one - her eyes lazily swooping over scattered manila envelopes, and documents, and parcels of whatevers' that need to be sorted and tidied and filed, much like in her life.

"No art in said task," she sighs. No pretty. No charm. No glam.
But such is life. And in the heat of it all, and in the mess of it all, living is its own beauty.

So on with it she goes...

Though she does think of tweezing her eyebrows first."

Ordinary Days of Birds and Lovers

" Those wooing lover birds are outside my window once again, singing their sweet refrain and scandalously flirting in courtship circles. Both are oblivious to my surreptitious peeks. Either that or they don't mind. Such feathery show offs they are! "

I was supposed to go out today. Propped up in bed, he asked if I wanted to join him. It would be work, yes, but it's a Friday. Later on we could drive up to our favorite pine hills where he tees.

A little smile twined my sleepy lips. Another adventure, how seductive! And then it slowly dawned on me, the fridge and the pantry desperately need to get stocked! A menial list of mundane tasks that can't be left undone (because I'd left them well undone long enough) paraded through my foggy mind. No escaping the prison of ones procrastination eh? Yours truly never learns, tsk!

Reluctantly, I declined and faintly whispered, "no....can't...not today."

I could tell he was a bit disappointed. Not as much as I was. I don't normally say no to a good time. Not me. Specially, if it's a chance to take off from this sweltering city. But tasks are tasks and like neatly lined red fire ants, they await me with itchy clamor - today.

Needless to say, this is obviously going to be one very ordinary Friday for me.
Which is fine, ok, cool.

I have my noisy lover birds for company anyway.

" tweety tweety tweety tweet...
and the sparrows chirp on..."

click to view more pics

YES

" YES to..."

- morning walks and iced mint tea
- listening intensely
- hugs for no reason but just to
- chocolates and pralines and real roses
- stretching limbs and brains
- breathing slowly with intention
- flower weeds in vases
- odd leaves on my wall
- afternoons at the park with a book ( of secrets)
- afternoons at the park with a "pooch"
- doing nothing - at all
- kissing long and languid
- wearing yellow and orange and blue
- silk screen sunflowers on my "buri" hat
- walking barefoot in grass
- tiger prawns for dinner
- alfresco in my little garden - all the time
- mmmmmargaritas on a Friday evening
- indulgent massage on a Saturday
- long talks
- giggles giggles giggles
- painting the sea
- two piece swimsuits ( for the fist time yaiks!)
- scuba diving and me ( for the first time eeks')

Yes to...summer!


previous post: "Perfect Timing"