JOY TO THE FISHES & THE DEEP BLUE SEA

"Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves

 to recognize how good things really are."

Marianne Williamson

I have a gift  - a talent - something I took for granted for so long because I thought it came easy peasy to every body.

I know how to access my JOY.  I know what it feels like in my bones - I know how it feels to open my heart.   I know how to shahahare it and spread it so others feel it too.  

It's something I practice daily.  I jump for joy.  I dance.  I sing.   I laugh in the sea.  I lay back in the water and let her hold me gently.  I open my mouth and make a sound - hahaha.   I hear it with my ears submerged under the water.  Feeling vibrations in the waves as I flow.

I didn't realize that peeps have become disconnected with their joy.  Misery does love company and peeps love to complain and focus on the one gray cloud in the sky rather than the vastness of  blue and the occasional white cloud ballet.

Most people think that JOY is something outside of us - to be found or acquired.  Actually, it's an energy we knew how to access as children and over the years, we forgot.

JOY is a fire from within. An energy of HAhaHAppy that gets ignited by touch, smell, sound and memory. It's a feeling - a birthright - that we get from the simplest of things.

JOY is about finding the pleasure right NOW. Accepting ALL that is in our lives with grace. Surrendering to the circumstances with gratitude.   For me, this means focusing with an attitude of gratitude on everything that is within and surrounds me. Enthusiasm for my time RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW on this heaven on Earth. Joy at the simple pleasure of being alive and breathing.  Joy at the freedom I have to rise and stretch.  Joy at putting my fingers in paint and plastering a piece of paper with color.  Joy at the opportunity to sing with the birds in the early hours of dawn.  Joy to move and shake and dance - woohoo.

I've spent the last ten years of my life remembering how to shift my focus from outside of me to within. Learning to redirect my energy and attention to a vibration of gratefulness for all the abundance I am blessed with.  Doing this with kindness and compassion for me as I delve deeper into the OMazing miracle of life.

This last week, on Day 12 of Oprah & Deepak's 21 Day Meditation - the theme was Living Laughter.  Deepak shared that: "pure, innocent laughter is the most obvious sign of the joy we feel in our hearts. It is also a powerful and instant way of spreading that joy all around you."  

This gift is so easy and yet so difficult to achieve.   It is so much easier to complain and stay in the negativity. It takes work to shift this mindset and raise our altitude.  It takes just a MOMent to open the heart and share our true nature.   There is no other way to the LOVE that we are.

This spiritual discipline of HAhaHAppy - LAUGHTER - keeps me in the flow of bliss.  I connected to this truth years ago.  I saw people's eyes light up with laughter and I wanted this magic in my life.  I wanted the lightheartedness of spirit that I felt and the energy of ecstasy that I witnessed.   As I let go of things that no longer served me and became a Master at the Art of Doing Nothing, I built my laughter muscle.  I remember recapturing the feeling of childhood and expressing my joy through laughter. It felt so good to relax muscles and organs and just be free to express my heart's haHAhappiness.  Today, the joy i feel in my heart shows up as laughter on my lips - a deep appreciation for all that I have and am in this moment.

"Joy to the World, all the boys and GIRLs.

Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea,

Joy to you and me."

- thahahank you Three Dog Night (see video below)

Sustainability is Key

On Friday, flying home from Germany, I had the opportunity to watch Happy Feet.  Again.  I forgot what a great little movie this was.  A penguin using his dancing feet to create movement that causes chahahange. Mumbles the penguin remained true to himself and found that people responded to his passion.  Here was a penguin who believed he would find answers and help his tribe thrive by being himself.

Germany was a culmination of seeds planted long ago by who I was then and am still becoming.   After hearing the Dalai Lama live in Fort Lauderdale in 2004, I walked out of there with his words on my mind.  He asked the audience how can we have peace in the world when we do not have peace within our families?

At the time, neither of my parents were talking to their siblings and I had peeps in my family that I knew by title but not by person.  For example, my aunt.  She and my Mom, her sister, were barely talking - thinking they had nothing in common.  I found that what they had in common was me.  I called my aunt - told her I wanted to get to know her better, and flew out to Germany to do just that.

I ended up working in her new restaurant and sharing the couch with my new cousin, Blitz, a black Doberman.  I got to know my aunt as an adult and peer - as a friend and a niece.  I worked hard - listened to stories - shared moments.  The past came to meet us in the present where we could shine the light of love and make a change.   After 11 days, we definitely respected one another and found out that we truly liked each other as well.

First reunion in Germany - Mom, Auntie K and me

One seed planted and sustained with love and phone calls and emails.  Soon, another seed was planted.  I called my Mom on my birthday and thanked her for giving birth to me.  I invited her to Romania so we could visit my grandmother, my mama's mama.  Before leaving Europe, we stopped in Germany so the sisters could meet again.  And talk about the mother that they were estranged from.  Another seed was planted.

My aunt made the trek to Florida.  She came to enjoy the beach and the fabulous biking weather.  She came to know me and LoverBoy a little better.  She was even blessed to be here to witness and experience Hurricane Katrina.  More love, phone calls, time together and faith.  More seeds planted.

Me in Romania with my Grandma and her girlfriends

Two years later, Mom and I rented an apartment in Romania.  My grandmother joins us as does my Aunt.  It is a trip down memory lane - seeing places of their childhood and listening to their mother tongue.  We took a little excursion into the mountains to get a new sense of this place, these women and their experiences.  We spent two days in a old chalet - talking and eating - sharing stories and secrets - listening to details that had been missed and filling in the blanks that our bodies created to protect us.  A huge healing occurs - a shift - a peaceful surrendering to a new way of life.  

Two years later, the women agreed to meet in Vienna, Austria.  The matriarch of our family, my Mamama and her two daughters (my Mom and Aunt) and I rented an apartment for a week of family fun in Vienna. Again, we shared stories, we laughed, we cooked together and we mended part of the past.

The Sisters and Doggess Goddess Debby

Going to Germany this week was the blossoming of all the seeds of love planted in this family and getting to know the newest member of our family, Miss Debby.  Again, pieces of the puzzle were discovered as we weaved the fabric of our family lives and saw how each generation had left its mark on the next.  For me, I deeply desired this feminine healing of the family - this ability to connect and know we lived common history and are creating herstory.

What I've learned to be true is that seeds sprout in their own time. For me, sustainability of these seeds required discipline and focus. I found patience - a knowing or grace that things hahahappen in their own time instead of mine.  I found love - an open heart to however things appear on the surface.  I found faith - all the juicy stuff hangs out just below the surface enticing me to be in it for the long haul.

This week I felt a shift in the feminine in my family.  A beautiful chahahange of vibration as we let go of the past with compassion and accepted the present for what it is and opened ourselves up to the possibilities of the future.  We did this by laughing and crying and sharing and listening and eating, of course.  Yummy eating at my Aunt and Uncle's Restaurant, Wildhof, in the middle of a forest, about 15 minutes from Frankfurt.

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

 OUR TRUTH - ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

  "I am so blessed , I am so blessed, I am so grateful for all that I have."   

                                                                          - Karen Drucker

These words are the lyrics to Karen Drucker's song (see the whole song in the video above). The words of this song set the tone for my day, each and every morning.  I focus on what is truly important - how blessed I am and grateful for all that I have.

2014 is my year of Gratitude.  Checking in, halfway into our year - I've shed so many skins, loosened so many layers and let go of all things that I have no control over. The weather, the news, traffic, other people, death, aging....  

What I can control - what I have 100% autonomy is my ATTITUDE.  I choose how I will respond or react to any situation that crosses my path.  My research, over the years, shows me that the only attitude that really works and gives me what I want (health, happiness, abundance) is GRATITUDE.   Here are more things that my gratitude research reveals or 3 things that I know to be true about gratitude:

Truth:  GRATITUDE IS A MUSCLE

Gratitude - saying thank you on the INside and out - to each and every thing that comes my way, no matter what it looks like when I receive it.   

This was not allways my way.  

I would go from experience to experience without taking the time to digest and savor.  

Now, I stop and breathe and process all the juiciness that is in my life.  Expressing gratitude when I first wake up for the legs that let me stand, for my heart that beats, for the arms and hands that let me move and feel.  Singing gratitude for what my eyes see and my mouth tastes.

When I get lost in my thoughts or lose my focus, I stop and breathe and get down on my knees and get gr8full - counting my blessings and thanking the Universe for all the chaHAhallenges and opportunities in my life to LOVE.  

The Universe works in mysterious ways and what I see is not always what is.   

Being in gratitude allows me to chaHAhange my perspective - have aHAHA moments and appreciate this life I have.

Before I go to bed, I get quiet and do a Pussy Ritual.  

I put my hands on my core - my sweet spot (the sacred space with 8000 sensory nerve endings designed for pure pleasure ) - I meet up and I feel theall the pleasure in my life and I give thanks - 12 times.  12 things that I acknowledge that brought me pleasure and I am truly greatFULL for.  12 things that I love about myself and how I be in my world.   12 people that touched my life today.

I flex and strengthen this attitude of gratitude.   I work it out by putting words on paper and writing thank you notes or doing a Act of Random Kindness (ARK).   I expand my muscle by knocking on a neighbor's door or calling a friend and just listening.  I cultivate gratitude by sitting in the grass and taking in the nature that surrounds me - hugging a tree and talking to the squirrels and being One with my surroundings.

Truth:  GRATITUDE IS A MULTI SENSORY EXPERIENCE

Gratitude is more than the words we say.  It's a feeling - deep inside - of reverence and irreverence for life.

It's feeling GREATfull for the smell of a fresh peeled orange in the morning or squirting lemon in my glass of water.  It's feeling pleasure for the cotton modal fabric I adorn my body with and the lotus flower that sits on my tush when I put my yoga pants on.  

It's tasting the dew on a leaf outside my door as I prepare for a walk with .  It's breathing in the sunrise as the clouds dance and change colors.  It's touching my cat's fur and feeling her purr in response as we dance, fingers to fur.

Using my senses to experience gratitude heightens the experience.  It keeps me in that delicious vibration of aBUNdance as more comes my way.  It brings me delightful and pleasurable experiences.

Truth:    WHAT I FOCUS ON, I GET MORE OF

As my understanding of myself shifts - my perspective chahahanges.  As my attention resides with what is good in my life, I find myself noticing more all the little things I take for granted.   

I focus on my breath and being healthy.  My world expands so I find the right teachers and arenas to make small adjustments for optimal alignment and balance.

I focus on my family - all the Wee Ones - I get to see them all in one weekend - six nieces and two nephews, three sisters and two brothers.

I focus on my ability to laugh, at myself, and with myself.  
I focus on the joy of being outside in nature every day.  
I focus on the freedom to be and do, in my pleasure.

It took the lens of GRATITUDE to see all the yummy and exhilarating life lessons that have created me, Goddess Diana, the human bean that I am becoming. Looking at THEN and seeing how it has shaped NOW. And finding the gifts of THEN in the NOW. 

I am so grateful for THEN. I am so blessed for where it has brought me NOW.  I am so grateful for this PRESENT.

Zest for Life

When I get up in the morning at the crack of dawn - the first thing I think about is - I am breathing - I am alive - Today is a beautiful day.

I am up at 4:44 am.  I lay in bed and give thanks for my breath and the fact that I am alive and able to move.   I pat my arms and legs and belly and head.  Woohoo!!!

My doggessGoddess GingerMama awaits me on her couch - belly up and tail wagging - time for hugs and loving touch.    I put on my sneakers and out the door we go.   

We start our journey through the neighborhood and serenade the moon as the stars twinkle their love to us.  We chat with the squirrels and listen to the birds communicating through calls and songs.

I love this early morning time - when there is stillness in my community and it just me and Nature (and the other dogs and their owners who are up and about).   I love walking and smelling the trees and exchanging energy with the Earth.

Slowly the sky shifts - the clouds dance - and a canvas of pinks and purples and oranges and blue emerges.   The air is fragrant with plumerias and gardenias and magnolias.  A hint of night blooming jasmine remains.    

I make a wish - I put a desire out into the Universe and then I haHAha and release it.  

We walk for an hour - walking, running, jumping -  getting my heart pumping and my blood circulating.

This is how I start my day.   I feel so blessed and lucky.  

And the best part is that I may get the opportunity to do it all again tomorrow.  Woohoo!!!

DoggessGoddess GingerMama

The Art of Asking

I'm asking for help - knowing I cannot do this PEACE process alone - reaching out to my community and asking for things beyond my wisdom and know-how.

This HAHA practice makes me so happy - getting together and laughing and making our muscles strong and changing our vibration and sharing our enerchi.  I want to expand my practice.  I'd like to reach more people.

I am asking for assistance in creating a movement - a laughter movement - looking for expertise in creating a non-profit organization that will teach stress relief techniques through laughter, conflict resolution through laughter, haHAhappiness moments through laughter.   Building a school of thought and movement that brings levity to life situations.

I am asking for assistance in getting more people certified as laughter leaders in our community so we can have more laughter circles in more places more often  -creating a wave of HAHA enerchi.  I am asking for financial support so I can offer scholarships to peeps who want to share laughter as their JOB - Joy of Being - and at this moment cannot.

I am asking for assistance in exchanging my energy for your expertise to reach out to busynesses who can benefit from stress relief techniques that are easy peasy and hands on eyes wide open.

I am asking for help in forming and filling a Board of Directors who can help me lead this Movement of Laughter and Love.

I am asking for the next steps that do not come easy to me - the left brain steps that evade me as I delve deeper into my right brain techniques.

I am diving deep into the arms of my community - being vulnerable and asking for help - so we can grow this HAHA movement and help ourselves and others and send aloHAhaHA energy everywhere.

Check out this TED video of Amanda Palmer - the Art of Asking

FAITH

Yesterday I watched a small bird, flying VERY fast, disappear into the canopy of an oak tree. So dense were its leaves, that it was impossible to see what happened next, though I can tell you it remained inside.

I wondered about how the little bird found its opening through the leaves at such a speed, and then manage to gently alight its fragile body on the branch it chose to land, all within a FRACTION of a second. Not to mention the impossible to imagine flying maneuvers required, the banking, the curling, the vertical and horizontal stabilizations, the deceleration and landing.

Memory? Calculation? Not in that tiny brain. Instinct? Maybe, but how does instinct know which way the branches of a tree have grown, when no two are the same?

That little bird JUST KNEW. It knew... in spite of NOT being able to SEE HOW things would work out... that if (and only if) it stayed the course, THE DETAILS would be taken care of... that an opening would appear and a twig be found. In fact, had she slowed down ENOUGH to carefully and logically inspect the tree first, the prudent thing to do, she would have fallen to the ground.

Kind of like us reaching our goals. Neither memory, nor calculating, nor instincts are the deciding factors, but faith.  

I found this story on the internet and loved it so much - the truth of the bird just knowing - without seeing and without details and trusting the branch would be there.

Growing my laughter muscle has helped me be in this space of faith - knowing that I can laugh when I know not, when I cannot see and when I am not sure.  Laughing opens my heart and reminds me to have faith that all is well and hahahappens in its own time.

What a powerful Art to practice - FAITH.  Woohoo!!!

One Million Acts of Kindness

When I woke up this week and looked out my front window I had a pleasant surprise - one that made my heart sing. Bogart in the driver's seat and hundreds of messages of Peace & Love. This is the Kindness Bus and it's been rolling around Hollywood, Florida this week.

Dog God Bogart at the front seat and his friend Bob drive from city to city with a message of kindness and peace.  Since mid-October 2012 and beginning in New York City, Bob and Bogart have been riding the Kindness Bus around the perimeter of the United States. A 9,000 mile ride of one year duration will end in New York City in October 2013.  Bob and Bogart  visit schools, addressing school bullying, cyber bullying and adolescent suicide. 

Bob and Bogart live on this bus - their intention to save kids lives - to raise awareness and make this world just a wee bit happier and safer for children and women.  Their campaign - ONE MILLION ACTS OF KINDNESS

I met Bob and Bogart a few months ago when they first parked their bus on my swale under our palm trees and nested for the evening.  The next morning I woke up with GingerMama and ZekoMeow and we circled the bus, sniffing and smelling all the miles it had come from and reading all the beautiful messages of love.

 In fact, I made a movie so you can see what we saw too:

 Bob and Bogart are able to do this ride across the United States spreading the word of KINDNESS by donations.  Every penny counts in getting this message across.  Check them out here and give a little or give a lot.  Keep the Kindness bus rolling.

PRAYERS ANSWERED

Last week I prayed for HILARITY and shaHAhared with you how it feels to have it in my life.   I immediately got an email from WSM Andrew who shaHAhared Dr. Orloff's blog and her topic Celebrate Laughter.    

As she puts it:

"True laughter is a surrender 

to hilarity; a sound, a smile, 

a heart opening."

This week I pray for lucidity and in my life appears WSM Bob and his dog/God Bogart.  Brother from another mother Bob and Bogart travel on a bus all around the perimeter of the United States.  9,000 miles biking and bussing and shaHAharing their powerful messages.  They stop in different cities to meet peeps and raise awareness to his goal of One Million Acts of Kindness. 

For two evenings, Bob parked his bus under my trees and vibrations of love and good chi were felt in my neighborhood.  It was so enlightening to wake up in the morning and see Bob and Bogart's bus and all these beautiful messages of hope and faith and LOVE and TRUTH and haHAhappiness in front of my house.

I love how we just have to ask and be greatFULL and the Universe showers us in aBUNdance with messages and peeps that remind us of our purpose and the WHY of what we do.

I was so inspired by Bob and his bus, I made a little movie:

Bob and Bogart plan on coming back in 2013 and laugh with us at TY Park.

Until then, check out their website or like them on FaceBook and order their cool stickers or their book or make a donation to keep Bob and Bogart riding on that wonderful bus.

What is Laughter

This poem was written by Hafiz, a 14th-century Persian mystic and poet.  His works left a mark on Western writers such as Thoreau, Goethe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson (who called him a poet's poet).

What is laughter? What is laughter?

It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!  

It is the sun poking its sweet head out

From behind a cloud

You have been carrying too long,

Veiling your eyes and heart.

It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure

That is your Real body - called Truth.

It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight

To embrace everyone and everything in this world.

Laughter is the polestar

Held in the sky by our Beloved,

Who eternally says,

"Yes, dear ones, come this way,

Come this way towards Me and Love!

Come with your tender mouths moving

And your beautiful tongues conducting songs

And with your movements - your magic movements

Of hands and feet and glands and cells - Dancing!

Know that to God's Eye,

All movement is a Wondrous Language,

And Music - such exquisite, wild Music!"

O what is laughter, Hafiz?

What is this precious love and laughter

Budding in our hearts?

It is the glorious sound

Of a soul waking up!

~ Hafiz ~

(I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

Power of the HA

  THE POWER OF THE HA

I find the more I LAUGH,  the more I increase my capacity  to LOVE.    It's easier to go with the flow  & ride the waves. With the weather shifting and winds a blowing exploding with ebulliency expending enerchi efficiently I find myself outside feet naked touching the Earth HahaHA It feels so very good, very good, Yay Cool and firm, fragrant and wild sitting with GingerMama talking to squirrels  enjoying trees Keeps me grounded Gives me courage to LAUGH out LOUD by myself until my peeps show up and play with me Life is full of surprises My chaHAhallenge is to stay in pleasure MOMent to MOMent laugh at myself OUT LOUD just BEcause I can Building my HAHA muscle HOHO HAHAHA  ChaHAhanging the way I look at things Attitude Adjustment Giving gratitude and gaining altitude Feeling my LOVE muscle grow. Woohoo

Spring is in the Air ???

I was so wishing it would start warming up today.

Walking with GingerMama in 55 degree weather in South Florida kind of boggles the mind. Mixes up the body pretty good too.

My OMazing Sister Goddess Christina was here with Wee Grace at 7:30 a.m., bright eyed and ready to walk through the park and sing to the trees with me.

We have a Walk and Talk before Laughter Yoga - it gets my motor humming and my ears tuned.

Today, I wore my 4th of July Pants and my Bicycle Therapy shirt. It's almost as if I am prodding the Universe to hurry up and warm us up.

I am still feeling a little queasy as my core muscles and organs shrink back into place. I took off my shoes - the ground is warm and healing - I feel grounded and at peace although my rollercoaster has not stopped. Tee hee ~@~

As we created our Circle and held hands and OM'd together, the Universe left us a gift. As we opened our eyes and saw each other smiling - we noticed a white feather in the center of our circle - an opportunity to set intentions of peace and love and healing.

All is well in the world today.

What a blessing to BE and LAUGH.

What groovy vibes we choose to create.

Woo hoo~!~

And the yummy ripples they create.

(Check out Ripples Project)

Tee hee ~@~

Thank you Mama Earth for the healing & love you provide.