Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts

07 August 2014

Life Is Too Damn Short….



While designing the above image, I remembered a strand of Longfellow's "A Psalm Of Life". If you, too, are muddling your way through loss, grief, broken-heartedness, or end-of-life issues, it will be well worth your time to read the brief poem here.  I like HWL's turns of verse from dark-to-light and confusion-to-hope, every word a reflection of his own struggle to make sense of the unexpected death of his young wife and child.

Yesterday marks four calendar weeks since my beloved friend and confidante Beverly died; Saturday the ninth makes it a calendar month.  As the song says,



Life is short, my friends, very, very short.  One minute you're running downfield, making your play, and bang, out of nowhere, there's the Referee, waving a red card at you.

Bottom line:  You matter, your life matters.  Whoever you are, big or small, famous or unknown, YOU are beloved of God and no matter how successful or wasted your life has been, He can use you to encourage, inspire, and revive others.

Life IS short and your Red Card is coming.  Eat dessert first, laugh more, hug more, dare to love when you might lose the one you love.  Stop giving a damn about naysayers, whiney-babies, and other time-wasting folk who drain and distract your energy with "important" or "urgent" bullshit.  Do this instead:


Live your life high, wide, and handsome.


Yee-haw!

Mi querida amiga Beverly, te echo de menos profundamente.  Mi vida tiene un agujero en él y sólo él quien es Todo y Santo puede llenarlo.

26 March 2014

Welcome, Spring!

Bright yellow jasmine makes even a grey day sunny.
~ Click to enlarge image. ~
(You are welcome to use this image as a *personal* screensaver.)

Today was cold and grey and rainy and windswept.  Yet….

14 February 2014

Happy Valentine's Day!

A small Valentine gift for all our friends, clients, colleagues, and followers.  Remember to add chocolate -- or whatever sweetness brings you joy!

Best advice we ever heard when feeling forlorn and forgotten on Valentine's Day, "Be your own Valentine!"  So, stop your scoffing and sniveling and Snap Out Of It!  You are beloved and lovable, don't doubt it for a moment.  Treat yourself well and others will, too!




30 December 2013

A Fresh Year, New Chances, New Choices...



Yes, we're posting another welcome to the new year!

Why?  Because the last few days runneth over with an abundance of joys, some minute, some majestic, and all magnificent:   a chilly but serene walk around the lake as the sun slipped into a gold horizon; new-found old friends; an authentic Ethiopian jebena for making spicy, molten coffee; a brother-in-law who will soon leave the hospital to greet a new year with his wife and children; the generous neighbours who haven't yet taken down their Christmas lights; the jingling harnesses of the coach-&-horses as holiday-makers make one more chance to revel; the friend who invited me to share her Christmas celebrations.  Life is good.




However you welcome your new year -- sleeping through the toll of midnight, dancing in the streets, toasting champagne, or in quiet candlelight -- here is our New Year's toast to java-pals & Twitterverse compadres.  May yours be a safe & glittering 2014!

See you on the patio in 2014! ;-)




31 March 2013

Happy Easter to All Our Java Pals!

From darkness, Light.  From despair, Hope.  Do the Happy Dance, because we have a new beginning!



With both its somber rituals and its light-hearted frivolities, Easter refreshes me and reminds me again of my "life raft" scripture:

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)

Rejoice!

01 January 2013

Full Speed Ahead - It's a Whole New Year!

Right now, you're either welcoming the new year with a fresh heart and clear head, you're feeling a bit fuzzy around the edges after a night of festivities, or during the first few wobbly days you'll need a gentle reminder that it is a new year.  We can help...


31 March 2012

Lo, the Winter Is Past...

Free Screensavers!

Photo & Design by Gitanajava Productions, copyright 2012.
Free for personal use ONLY. Original at http://tiny.cc/JASMINE.

Photo & Design by Gitanajava Productions, LLC, copyright 2012.
Free for personal use ONLY. Original at http://tiny.cc/GATE.

Our lives have seasons, passages of change we endure or enjoy.  One season, we dance gracefully through; the next season, we crawl or braille our way slowly, excruciatingly.  I've been in a long winter, punctuated now and then with hints of spring.

Just a quick word of encouragement to you, my reading friend, and for myself, too: