10 Life Changing Tips Inspired By Rumi

10 Life Changing Tips Inspired By Rumi

By Robert Piper

Here are ten life changing tips inspired by quotes from the great Sufi poet, Rumi:

1. Challenge Fear

"Run from what’s comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious."

2. Be Bold

"Do not be satisfied with the stories that come before you. Unfold your own myth."

3. Have Gratitude

"Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life."

4. Take Action

"Why should I stay at the bottom of a well, when a strong rope is in my hand?"

5. Have Faith

"As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears."

6. Embrace Setbacks

"If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?"

7. Look Inside

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."

8. Learn From Suffering

"The wound is the place where the Light enters you."

9. Don't Be Concerned With What Others Think Of You

"I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think."

10. Do What You Love

"Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love."
Rumi

If I feel depressed I will sing. 

If I feel sad I will laugh.

If I feel ill I will double my labor. If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.

If I feel inferior I will wear new garments.

If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.

If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.
 
If I feel incompetent I will think of past success.
 
If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.
 
Today I will be the master of my emotions.

Og Mandino~

Artist unknown~

Happy 4th of July Happy Independence Day

Another hot, dry day

Hot, Hazy, Lazy Days of Summer are here in full force... and there's a Whole lot of 'feeding' going on around here

What kind of moth is this?

The White Egrets are so beautiful and have been hanging out in front of the house 'feeding'

My Conflowers are in full bloom and the bugs, bees and butterflies have been feasting

Puppy-sitting--Meet Blue--oh he is such a cutie!!!

Momma and Daddy Bluebird are busy feeding mealworms to their babies

Barn Swallows feeding babies

and Moi feeding my hoarding habits with delicious, luscious fabric :D

Conjuring Rain

well---trying, anyway, and without ANY success, I might add.  :/  We desperately need some of the rain that so many seem to have more of than they want---please please send it to Ships Landing. 

Dare I say that Bayley is doing better?  (fingers and toes crossed, knocking on wood)  We've had to rearrange his vaccine schedule and drop one of the antibiotics AND add a VERY EXPENsive antibiotic injection.  His skin looks better than I've seen it in, oh, maybe ever??  *sigh*  AND he has been free from itching, scratching, and vomiting for several days now.  In spite of all of the aggravations of 'diva' doctors, I'm just so relieved for him to have some relief from the itching.  I've ordered hand-held shower heads and a grooming table to make it easier on my aging knees and back to bathe him as often as he has to be now.  I'm hoping they will arrive tomorrow.

My creative muses have been popping up and I'm being drawn to the sewing room.  Soon, maybe??? 

Bayley

(June 8, 2012)  Bayley's a mess. He's allergic to 24 out of 50 allergens, he's now getting a vaccine shot (by me :/) every other day; his skin/itching is much better BUT he's getting 2 different antibiotics for a month/2 different antihistemines twice a day, a staphage lysate shot twice a week...and it's too much for his system. He's not eaten the last two days except for the canned food 'balls' that I put his meds in, his water intake has dropped the last two days, and his hind quarters have gotten really week (now I'm crying). Just sent an email to the Dermatologist asking how to proceed.

June 9, 2012 -- Update---Still have not heard anything from Dermatologist.  I even called a couple of times and still NOTHING.  (See why I have NO FAITH in human doctors OR animal doctors...

 

 

June---Bayley Update

  

We are headed out on a 'family road trip' :), Randy and I, along with Bayley and Marlee.  There was a screw-up with Bayley's cultures at UT so we have an appointment today with a Dermatologist that was formerly the head Dermatologist at UT and now has a private practice.  I'm not making any headway at all in resolving his skin issues---poor little fella is still covered in itchies all over his little stomach.  Maybe today we will begin to get some answers for him.

The birds have been busy here at Ships Landing raising babies, and the blooms are prolific on my Bergamot.  The butterflies love those blossoms.  The Crepe Myrtles are starting to bloom as well.  I have a Mimosa tree in the yard and for the first time, it has blossoms on it.  :)  I hope to capture a picture of it before the blooms 'fly away'.  :)

Happy June from Ships Landing

Bayley

I'm headed to University of Tennessee Vet School with my precious heart, Bayley, in a couple of hours.  He is scheduled for more extensive allergy testing---and it has been just within the last two weeks that I've noticed that his little head and face on the left side is lopsided.  Having already had one wienie darling with a brain tumor, my heart clutches when I look at Bayley ---that's not to say that this is the problem with him, but I can't help being alarmed.  Hopefully, the vets at UT will be able to figure out if it is anything serious.  And maybe, just maybe, they will be able to help him with his severe itching.  Calling on all Pet Angels and Fairies to surround us today.

A Dog's Purpose...

Health

A Dog’s Purpose? (from a 6-year-old)

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa , and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker ‘s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, ”I know why.”

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. It has changed the way I try and live.

He said,”People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The Six-year-old continued,

”Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

✤ Live simply
✤ Love generously
✤ Care deeply
✤ Speak kindly

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

❊ When loved ones come home, always run to greet them
❊ Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride
❊ Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy
❊ Take naps
❊ Stretch before rising
❊ Run, romp, and play daily
❊ Thrive on attention and let people touch you
❊ Avoid biting when a simple growl will do
❊ On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass
❊ On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree
❊ When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body
❊ Delight in the simple joy of a long walk
❊ Be loyal
❊ Never pretend to be something you’re not
❊ If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it
❊ When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently

By: Karen McNeill

Unfolding

UNFOLDING: Decided to share an excerpt from my book "The Dance." It's a piece that takes me back to what I need to remember again and again:

“When we believe that we are by our very nature deeply flawed- self-indulgent, selfish, judgmental. . . sinful- our efforts to fulfill our soul’s longing to live fully become efforts to control, chastise, reshape, improve and change ourselves. Believing we are by nature lazy and unworthy we believe we will not change, will not become the people we want to be unless we are pushed or forced by suffering to do so. Given this belief the methods we use do not cultivate mercy and compassion for ourselves but rather foster a hardness towards our own suffering and the suffering of others who are failing to curb, or rise above their basic nature. And in the face of these methods we do not learn to . . . dance, or dream or be all we are. We do not really learn to love fully or allow ourselves to receive love freely. We’re too busy surviving.

In the poem “It Felt Love” translated by Daniel Ladinsky in The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master, the 14th century poet Hafiz talks about another way of learning, a way based on the assumption that to grow is to reveal the innate beauty we hold within, a beauty best brought forward by tender encouragement.

How

Did the rose

Ever open its heart

And give to this world

All its

Beauty?

It felt the encouragement of light

Against its

Being.

Otherwise

We all remain

Too frightened.

If we believed that we were in our essential nature compassionate, gentle and capable of being fully present our task- living our soul’s longing for deep intimacy- would be a matter of finding and placing ourselves within the warmth of the internal and external “encouragement of light” in our lives so we would open and open and open to all we are. I am not suggesting that this is easy- especially for those of us who have spent a lifetime surviving the sink-or-swim school of self-improvement. Often we don't even know where these lights of encouragement are in our lives.”

May we each discover and receive fully the lights of encouragement- inner and outer- in our lives. For surely allowing ourselves to be who and what we we- unfolding- is why we are here and how we offer our beauty to the world.

Oriah (c) 2012

Harvesting Lavender

The mornings have been soooo beautiful.  I find myself getting up a little earlier every day so I can have these delicious morning hours with nature. 

We're headed into Summer and my Lavender is gorgeous.  The bees have found the blossoms and are feasting, becoming inebriated on the essence of Lavender.  Baby birds are hatching right and left, and the air is abuzz with chirps and buzzes and croaks of new 'life'.  It makes my head spin with all of the activity, never knowing which direction to be looking and listening, swiveling like one of those toy animals whose little heads bobbled all about that used to ride in the back window of cars in days gone by.  :)  I am intent on soaking it all up like a sponge.

Michele's sister-in-law needs our help.

http://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2012/05/praying-for-miracle.html

Belated Happy Beltane

Our resident Red-Tailed Hawk

Either a Cliff Swallow or a Rough-sided Swallow

Is this not the most precious thing---he delights me with his songs

We've had company and I missed posting yesterday on May Day. (Thanks for your help Sherry ;)--(our guest headed back to Texas today) The mornings have been delightful; by mid-day the temperatures are already in to the 80s.  It is only the beginning of May, right?  Doth high temps so early in the Spring portend even hotter, more humid Summer days in the offing?  :/

I nestled some petunias and marigolds in one of the flower beds yesterday morning.  I ventured out this morning intending to extend a flower bed so I could give a few more 'tunias and marigolds a spot for the Summer.  I made progress, not as much as I wanted, but hey, I have to take LOTS of little breaks along the way :), especially with it heating up so quickly.  Add the humidity and I have to retreat into the house.  :/

Bed changing, bathroom cleaning, and laundry are screaming for attention.  Happy Beltane!