a bit of wisdom from john roedel

came across this man's writings on fb and after checking his page, found this gem:

I have now taken 47.5 lumbering trips around the sun to observe the human experience and here is a brief recap on a little I have learned so far:

The angriest people are usually
the ones who are the most afraid.

Empathy is a very under-taught
subject in our schools.

People who can’t laugh at themselves
make for terrible comedians.

If you mix Daiquiri Ice and Chocolate
ice cream at Baskin Robbins you’ll know
exactly what heaven tastes like.

Not enough people take the time
to jump in puddles.

We somehow normalized giving
our guns baby names and naming
our babies after guns.

The inside of our eyelids play
the same monster movies over and over.

Dandelions aren’t weeds. No, they aren’t. Stop arguing with me.

A womb is a temple of miracles where souls and bodies form the most perfectly strange communities.

By the way, hospice beds are the exact same.

Politics make for terrible eyeglasses
to see the world through.

There are not enough books written about lighthouses and way too many about vampires.

We take part in so many things that
don’t bring us joy all in the name of “tradition”.

The best naps happen during rainstorms.

Our cell phones have more plans
than our actual lives.

We fetishize butterflies a little
too much, I mean, come on.

Kissing is magic. If a kiss doesn’t
feel magical then it isn’t one. It’s just
lip chores.

We choose if the holes in our hearts
kill us or turn us into woodwind instruments.

Rivers have taught me as much about God
as Sunday School ever did.

If we stare up into the stars long enough
we will feel this little tug on the threads of
our spirit. It will be like the pull of a magnet.
We are drawn upwards. We are attracted to
the expanse. We are being called to return
where it is we came from. We come to know
that everything out there in the endless field
of celestial delights came from the same burst
of creation that eventually formed us. And those
thoughts are gently pulling on us every time we
gaze up into the night sky.

Trees make really wonderful life coaches.

Whenever we hold hands with each other
our pulses try their best to synchronize.

There should be an Olympic sport
that is all about untangling extension cords.

Eating a hamburger while sitting
on the hood of a car is something
people should go do more often.

Our memories should never have
walls to them. We should be able
to visit them without getting stuck.

We treat grief like it’s a summer storm
-as if it’s a temporary event that will
quickly pass. It won’t. Grief is a comet.
It terraforms our world.
Grief doesn’t always destroy us - but it
changes the shape of our continents.

We hide too much beautiful art in places
where we only people who don’t care
about art can afford to see it.

I think whomever created pulp-free orange juice didn’t quite understand what orange juice is.

Sex in movies makes people cringe more than
mass murder in movies and that probably makes the angels weep.

Mothers should be given 10% discounts. Everywhere.

The best name any flower has ever
been given is “Baby’s Breath”.

Kindness is elemental.

A slow drive down a dirt road with the exact right song playing can be a baptism.

I’m hopeful that we have finally
reached the saturation point
of reality tv shows involving
angry neighbors and retired judges.

Although, I can’t quite prove it yet, I think every gust of wind is a ghost trying to win a race.

Our hearts are sponges. What we put in is what squeezes out.

When we fall in love we don’t actually fall. We float. We become weightless.

We have turned the expectations of other people into anchors that we wear our our necks. We are curving our spines by trying to fit in.

Airplanes look they shouldn’t work but somehow they do and we just get over it ~and that is the kind of shoulder shrugging we should do for people who live their lives in ways that we don’t understand.

Listening to new music is an easy way to turn our minds into gates instead of bank vaults.

People are good - some of them just forget it.

We put way too many people in prisons, boxes, their places, in timeout and in hell.

If the universe can still be expanding after all this time then I should willing to do the same. Every morning we become a newborn galaxy. Every breath we take is a baby sun. Every word of kindness we speak can build a new Earth in someone else’s heart.

Nobody can tell you how to heal.

There should be more cupcakes. I know
there are already a bunch of cupcakes, I
just think there should be more.

~ john roedel (johnroedel.com)

the "too much" woman

 “There she is. . . the “too much” woman. The one who loves too hard, feels too deeply, asks too often, desires too much.

There she is taking up too much space, with her laughter, her curves, her honesty, her sexuality. Her presence is as tall as a tree, as wide as a mountain. Her energy occupies every crevice of the room. Too much space she takes.

She is dangerous.

And there she goes, that “too much” woman, making people think too much, feel too much, swoon too much. She with her authentic prose and a self-assuredness in the way she carries herself. She with her belly laughs and her insatiable appetite and her proneness to fiery passion. All eyes on her, thinking she’s hot shit.

Oh, that “too much” woman. . . too loud, too vibrant, too honest, too emotional, too smart, too intense, too pretty, too difficult, too sensitive, too wild, too intimidating, too successful, too fat, too strong, too political, too joyous, too needy—too much.

She should simmer down a bit, be taken down a couple notches. Someone should put her back in a more respectable place. Someone should tell her.

Here I am. . . a Too Much Woman, with my too-tender heart and my too-much emotions.

A hedonist, feminist, pleasure seeker, empath. I want a lot—justice, sincerity, spaciousness, ease, intimacy, actualization, respect, to be seen, to be understood, your undivided attention, and all of your promises to be kept.

I’ve been called high maintenance because I want what I want, and intimidating because of the space I occupy. I’ve been called selfish because I am self-loving. I’ve been called a witch because I know how to heal myself.

And still. . . I rise. Still, I want and feel and ask and risk and take up space.

I must.

Us Too Much Women have been facing extermination for centuries—we are so afraid of her, terrified of her big presence, of the way she commands respect and wields the truth of her feelings. We’ve been trying to stifle the Too Much Woman for eons—in our sisters, in our wives, in our daughters. And even now, even today, we shame the Too Much Woman for her bigness, for her wanting, for her passionate nature.

And still. . . she thrives.

In my own world and before my very eyes, I am witnessing the reclamation and rising up of the Too Much Woman. That Too Much Woman is also known to some as Wild Woman or the Divine Feminine. In any case, she is me, she is you, and she is loving that she’s finally, finally getting some airtime.

If you’ve ever been called “too much,” or “overly emotional,” or “bitchy,” or “stuck up,” you are likely a Too Much Woman.
And if you are. . . I implore you to embrace all that you are—all of your depth, all of your vastness; to not hold yourself in, and to never abandon yourself, your bigness, your radiance.

Forget everything you’ve heard—your too much-ness is a gift; oh yes, one that can heal, incite, liberate, and cut straight to the heart of things.

Do not be afraid of this gift, and let no one shy you away from it. Your too much-ness is magic, is medicine. It can change the world.

So please, Too Much Woman: Ask. Seek. Desire. Expand. Move. Feel. Be.

Make your waves, fan your flames, give us chills"... 

-Ev'yan Whitney

there is light inside me

 there is light inside me

i have the words tattooed on my body as a reminder 

because sometimes i need reminded 

of who i am, that i am good 

and that i can trust myself and the people i love

and that even when i'm by myself

i'm not really alone.

letter to my love - seeking clarity, context & contentment

in my sadness over your leaving i have to question why our parting always causes me such sorrow when i know we'll be together again.  but the truth is, i don't KNOW this.  so obviously some of my sadness is fear based.  a lot can change in a short time and that scares me.  i've had hard lessons in this.  this is just some of why our parting is so sorrowful for me.

looking over the situation and my feelings, here is what i think...

when we are together i feel genuinely happy.  not just because of the attention and company, but for a short time i feel purposeful and alive.  when we are together i am able to do what i do best, that being to love and care for you.  when together i matter, you matter and we matter as a couple.  when we part ways i am forced to look at what is missing in my life and how it feels unfulfilled much of the time without the presence of my companion.   i love hard and sometimes that can suck.

what i want is to be that woman who doesn't need much of anything from anyone or who doesn't need another person to fulfill her, but you can't run from the truth of who you are.  and does that woman actually even exist?  i'm not so sure.  

love is the greatest gift you can give or receive. it truly is what life is all about.  this i KNOW.  loving IS living and without it we are only existing as a cog in the wheel of life, going round and round.  

it's hard letting go every time we part.  i want it to be easier but the only way i see it being easy is if i didn't love you.  so maybe it's just something we both have to live with and perhaps i should stop being so hard on myself. 

i am learning or in the least i'm trying to adapt to something different with you, the man i love and whose love i am deeply grateful for.  i am trying to live for the moments, not so much for the future and not just in regard to our relationship.  please have patience with me.  

 

notes to a born self

 from kamal ravikant, an excerpt from "Notes to a Born Self" ~

- You are worthy. The sooner you accept that, the sooner life will zing.

- Break rules. The rewards greatly outnumber the punishments.

- Everything is an experience. In the now, that’s it.

- Good and bad are labels. Be with the experience, not the label.

- You are special. Treat yourself well.

- I repeat: you are fucking special. Don’t accept less from anyone.

- Love requires risk. It’s worth it.

- The more you close your heart, the more it gets broken. Funny how that works.

- Your mind is not far removed from a monkey. Don’t trust it.

- Your inner self, the quiet and deep part within, trust that.

- Every day, spend time in gratitude.

- Every day, create something.

- Love yourself. It works wonders.

I am a later version of you. Before I know it, there will be a later version of me. And before he knows it, no more. Poof, a wisp of stardust, gone. Leave behind a life that mattered. I love you.

lucky me

i'm lucky enough to have fallen in love with someone who wants to know all the little things about me, like my favorite color and how i take my coffee, who loves to see me smile and hear my laughter, who makes me question why i thought i could live without love and who would never do anything to intentionally hurt me or anyone.  i'm lucky enough to have fallen in love with someone who sees my flaws and still thinks i'm perfect just the way i am.  

i'm lucky enough to love someone whom, when we make love, makes me feel as if i'm being rewarded simply for being me.

love love love

sitting here on this sunday night in the stillness.  i am thinking about life, mine in particular.  i know i've thought this, felt this and probably said it a thousand times, but when it boils right down to it, te only thing that matters, is of any real spiritual or soulful value in life is love.  

i belong to facebook group called "the three blessings".  members usually post daily at least three things they are grateful for or feel blessed by.  sometimes i struggle with three things.  most of the time i can make a list much longer.  tonight i kept it simple.  my three blessings were:

love

love 

love

it's so simple and covers everything.  it's not just the love i receive.  it's that, too, but it's more.  there is so much love in the world but so often what we seem to focus on are the ills of society.  (guilty!)  however, i bet if we just stop and consider all the love that exists in the world, we couldn't even fathom it. 

i feel blessed by love.  the love between my kids and i, the love between siblings, the love i've shared with coop and mark, the love shared with my animal companions.  

but tonight...tonight i am feeling especially blessed by the love of the man in my life.  and sometimes the love in me is so big i don't quite know what to do with it.  i never used to love so hard, but life and loss in particular have taught me to give in, embrace and experience it completely.  

is it scary?  yeah, it is for me because life has shown me what incredible loss feels like, so there is always the element of fear.  but i also know that it's worth the risk.  if we've never truly loved we've never truly lived.   

tonight i go to bed with a grateful heart for all the love in my life and in the world.  

demons

DEMONS

 i like to think i live alone, but i don't.  they are always with me.

sometimes they rest, but i know it's just a temporary reprieve. 

all it takes is one small thing and they swoop in and before you know it i become mistrusting, indecisive, needy, unworthy...all the things that make me hate myself.

i like to think i'm strong enough to conquer them and the thoughts they feed me.  i wish i believed i was.

obviously i'm not.

with thoughts of jason

"And so you see, I have come to doubt All that I once held as true; I stand alone without beliefs. The only truth I know is you."

i am not old

I am not old… she said

I am rare.

I am the standing ovation

At the end of the play.

I am the retrospective

Of my life as art

I am the hours

Connected like dots

Into good sense

I am the fullness

Of existing.

You think I am waiting to die…

But I am waiting to be found

I am a treasure.

I am a map.

And these wrinkles are

Imprints of my journey

Ask me

anything.

Author: Samantha Reynolds

tarnished glory