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Motivation Mondays: Grow & Blossom
“Challenge yourself, grow, blossom, and become who you were meant to be. Don’t ever stay at a job solely out of convenience or comfort. Aim higher, even if that means pursuing another job that’s just one step closer to your ultimate goal.” Carolyn Aronson
Motivation Mondays: Grow & Blossom
A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love. Max Muller
Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so. Doris Lessing
If you want to be truly successful invest in yourself to get the knowledge you need to find your unique factor. When you find it and focus on it and persevere your success will blossom. Sydney Madwed
How Do we Grow and Blossom? With summer upon us and blooms blossoming everywhere, we can’t help but imagine how these abundant changes impact our lives. We hear the adage to bloom where we are planted and for good reason. When we invest our time and effort into planting fertile seeds in the ground, we expect them to bear fruit. By the same token, when we put great effort and commitment into projects that matter to us, we reap the long term rewards that come with our hard work. But we must be vigilant and patient. We cannot plant and let our eyes wander or abandon our ship for more verdant terrain. Like the peach tree and the many flowers we see blooming their colorful hearts out, it took time and effort to get there. So, put in the time and nurture your work to help its growth. An important caveat to remember is that everything happens for a reason and in perfect season. Don’t fritter away your effort by watching the clock. Do the work and let the rest follow.
From Blossoms BY LI-YOUNG LEE via poetryfoundation
From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.
From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.
O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.
There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
Li-Young Lee, “From Blossoms” from Rose. Copyright © 1986 by Li-Young Lee.
Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions Ltd., http://www.boaeditions.org.
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Elizabeth Appell
Motivation Mondays: Grow & Blossom
Be honest, be nice, be a flower not a weed. Aaron Neville
When the flower blossoms, the bee will come. Srikumar Rao
Just imagine becoming the way you used to be as a very young child, before you understood the meaning of any word, before opinions took over your mind. The real you is loving, joyful, and free. The real you is just like a flower, just like the wind, just like the ocean, just like the sun. Don Miguel Ruiz
Why Commit to Blossoming? It started with that poem above; From Blossoms BY LI-YOUNG LEE. It was posted on the wall of my local yoga studio and I made a copy for myself because the words spoke to me on many levels. There was a wistful yearning to the poem and it was a keen visual reminder of the growth of things we enjoy and remember. Summer time peaches are sweet and juicy and very satisfying… the smell and taste linger. If we pause to ponder where our delightful experience came from, we would, like the poet, recall the love, time, and effort the farmer placed on producing the succulent fruits we enjoy. The same applies to our lives and goals. We set out with a vision, apply our skills and do the heavy lifting to reach our goals; when we do bear fruit, it is a sweet reward for our gardening effort. Our work will produce a harvest for us and others to enjoy so, don’t give up. Grow and blossom where you are planted.
The details for Motivation Mondays are below. Join in! The themes for APR 2018/MAY 2018 are:
05/06 – 01 May Day, 03, National Day of Prayer, 03 World Press Freedom Day, 04 Star Wars, 05 Cinco De Mayo
05/13 – 13 HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, 16 Ramadan starts, 19 Armed Forces Day,
05/20 – 20 Pentecost Day, 23 World Turtle Day, 24 National Brother Day
05/27 – 28 Memorial Day, 30 World MS Day, 31 World No Tobacco Day
06/03 – 05 World Environment Day, 06, D Day, 08 National Best Friend Day,
06/10 – 13 St Anthony, 15 Eid al-Fitr,
06/17 – 17 Father’s Day, 18 Int’l. Picnic Day, MTV Movie Awards 19 Juneteenth, 20 World Refugee Day, 21 Summer Solstice, Int’l. Yoga Day, World Music Day
06/24 – 24 St John the Baptist, 26 Day against Drug Abuse/Illicit Trafficking
Are You Looking for Ways to Stay Creative in 2018?
– Join the Daily Post Post-a-day or Post-a-week Challenge.
— Join the BlogHer Writing Lab
More Below! Read more…
Photo Challenge: SUMMER SOLSTICE
“This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath.” Margaret Atwood
Photo Challenge: SUMMER SOLSTICE
The summer solstice is a time for strength and vitality for action and movement. Carole Carlton
One way of celebrating the Solstice is to consider it a sacred time of reflection, release, restoration, and renewal. Sarah Ban Breathnach
In June, as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them. Aldo Leopold
The Summer Solstice is upon us! It is a time to look back and reflect on the first half of the year as we enter the second half. Are we enjoying a midsummer night’s fantasy or are our dreams translating into action? Enjoy the collection of some of my most favorite Summer pastimes and come back for more thoughts on this time of renewal. This is also the International Day of Yoga… so go outside and stretch. Take a class. Grow!
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare, 1564 – 1616
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. via poets.org
READ: DailyOm -The Summer Solstice
“It is Summer, it is the solstice the crowd is cheering, the crowd is laughing in detail permanently, seriously without thought.” William Carlos Williams
Photo Challenge: SUMMER SOLSTICE
Chair Yoga | Happy Yoga with Sarah Starr Cascading River
Green was the silence, wet was the light, the month of June trembled like a butterfly. Pablo Neruda
Not only is it Summer Solstice, there is a Full Moon. May love surround you like sunshine on a sunny day. William Shakespeare
It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside. Maud Hart Lovelace
Both the Winter and the Summer Solstices are expressions of love. They show us the opposition of light and dark, expansion and contraction, that characterize our experiences in the Earth school so that we can recognize our options as we move through our lives. Gary Zukav
Today is the Summer Solstice: Where are you on your journey? What more does the summer hold for you? We ought to be making headway on our goals… Don’t despair. You have 6 months left to accomplish your 2018 goals.
A Summer Night by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard
I feel the breath of the summer night,
Aromatic fire:
The trees, the vines, the flowers are astir
With tender desire.
The white moths flutter about the lamp,
Enamoured with light;
And a thousand creates softly sing
A song to the night!
But I am alone, and how can I sing
Praises to thee?
Come, Night! unveil the beautiful soul
That waiteth for me. poets.org
More Below Read more…
Motivation Mondays: Wonderfully Made
“There are still so many questions to answer about the workings of the human body and, most mysterious of all, it is influenced by our state of mind.” Craig Venter
Motivation Mondays: Wonderfully Made
If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred. Walt Whitman
In order to experience everyday spirituality, we need to remember that we are spiritual beings spending some time in a human body. Barbara De Angelis
Did you know that to be born in a human body is a 1 in 400 trillion gift of life? The sheer combination of factors and scientific engineering that it takes to create a human life is mind-boggling. If we stop to take stock of every single action, muscles, connective tissue, mental and physical energy coursing through our bodies, we’d be impressed. Each of us is a masterpiece wonderfully made and we need to remember that with gratitude for the life we have. When we are able to pause and value our life, we will grasp the importance of valuing others lives too. We come into the world with a unique set of gifts, and we use them to make a difference in the lives of our friends, families and strangers. When we operate from a place of awe and gratitude for the gifts we have, we work at using them in the best possible way to uplift others and the world. How? When we perform our duties with pride and commitment, we elevate all around us and that energy continues to ripple out to the world. It is our responsibility to serve with passion and compassion and all of us can do our part.
READ: 100 Very Cool Facts About The Human Body
Amazing facts you didn’t know about the human body!
Fearfully And Wonderfully Made! by Melissa Muchemwa
You are flowery beautiful
and kindly cheerful.
you do your own thing;
and you are your own song
You got your own style
and your own smile.
You are absolutely Unique
Everyday of the week.
“The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Motivation Mondays: Wonderfully Made
Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn’t that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you. Marilyn Monroe
Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me. Steve Jobs
Why is there so much hate in our world? Recently, a friend shared a message with me that someone sent her. It was from a member of an online group I’m in. It was so hateful and ugly that it made no sense to me why anyone who feels that way about me or another person online would choose to be around me or that person. Why poison yourself with such hypocrisy? Why pretend to be a team player when you are a hater? Why wallow in all that hate over Twitter shares? We are all fearfully and wonderfully made yet, some can’t let the hate go. The saddest part is that these petty hatreds can grow into monsters. Soon, the person starts to imagine things the other person never ever thought of doing or thinking, and then, the hatred escalates into something else. Let it go. We are all here on this earth to learn and grow. We all have our fault-lines and that is what humanizes us. Compassion and direct communication can clear the air. Try that first and see how freeing it can be. If it doesn’t work, remove yourself from the situation. Don’t become a troll. We are all guests on this planet and the best guests remember to be grateful and principled. We live and we die by our principles…
READ: 100 Amazing Facts About the Human Body
Human Body: 30 Unbelievable facts about human body
The Summer Day by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean–
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
The details for Motivation Mondays are below. Join in! The themes for APR 2018/MAY 2018 are:
05/06 – 01 May Day, 03, National Day of Prayer, 03 World Press Freedom Day, 04 Star Wars, 05 Cinco De Mayo
05/13 – 13 HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, 16 Ramadan starts, 19 Armed Forces Day,
05/20 – 20 Pentecost Day, 23 World Turtle Day, 24 National Brother Day
05/27 – 28 Memorial Day, 30 World MS Day, 31 World No Tobacco Day
06/03 – 05 World Environment Day, 06, D Day, 08 National Best Friend Day,
06/10 – 13 St Anthony, 15 Eid al-Fitr,
06/17 – 17 Father’s Day, 18 Int’l. Picnic Day, MTV Movie Awards 19 Juneteenth, 20 World Refugee Day, 21 Summer Solstice, Int’l. Yoga Day, World Music Day
06/24 – 24 St John the Baptist, 26 Day against Drug Abuse/Illicit Trafficking
Are You Looking for Ways to Stay Creative in 2018?
– Join the Daily Post Post-a-day or Post-a-week Challenge.
— Join the BlogHer Writing Lab
More Below! Read more…
