Little Princes
Conor Grennan
One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal
In search of adventure, twenty-nine-year-old Conor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal.
“Little Princes” is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, “Little Princes” is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.
– From Goodreads
Blue Pool
Yuri Shimojo
Someone told me “You are lucky to be an artist because you can reflect your fate in your art, like Frida Kahlo did.” This was around the time when I had lost all my family in this world. I was 29 years old. I don’t have the courage she had. She appealed to all as if she was a heroin in a dramatic tragedy, and always faced her fate. The truth is that I am not able to become like her. Because I am too happy and I appreciate being happy.
–From the journals of Yuri Shimojo
Artist Yuri Shimojo divides her time between Tokyo, Brooklyn and the island of Maui. View more works on her website.
Bloom
Taryn Davis
Flickr photo by wasoxygen
And as the light continues to creep in, amongst all odds and obstacles, it grows and grows, closer and closer to the surface.
I‘ve had a fascination with the lotus flower for quite some time (and actually wear a pendant of it around my neck daily).
I feel like we’ve been buddies for some time.
Once, from a distance, where I watched in amazement at its capabilities…
And then, as kindred spirits who shared in one’s mutual growth from the “below”.
You see, the lotus flower starts in the nastiest, murkiest, grossest part of the pond…the bottom (sound familiar?).
Slowly, bit by bit, sun will seap though the dark waters, showing the flower a glimpse of its light.
It takes just that tiny bit to provoke the lotus to slowly (marathon not sprint) rise and rise…
The smallest beam to entice its curiosity to see what’s beyond its comfort zone of sludge.
Just like the skies, some days are gloomier than others, and there may be a halt altogether in this lone trek to something brighter…something better than the place the lotus has lay dormant in for however long.
But that does not kill the lotus, but allows it to strengthen its roots, to rest for the journey ahead, and to have that moment to look down and see how far it’s come (maybe not the flower itself…but you catch my drift).
And as the light continues to creep in, amongst all odds and obstacles, it grows and grows, closer and closer to the surface.
Until the day comes, that it breaks through…blooms open…and unveils itself as one of the most beautiful flowers the pond (and the world that surrounds it) has ever seen.
It’s a story some of you may have heard. But one part they leave out, time and time again, is the fact that the mud was necessary for its journey…its blooming.
And even more than that, once it’s reached the brighter place, the surface where it can breathe, there isn’t one bit of evidence that the sludge, that at one point was all consuming, was even there.
You see, just like the mud, the grief, pain and angst are necessary.
The pauses (that sometimes feel like failure) are the moments we can use to reflect on just all we have pushed ourselves to do. And even more, the time needed to refuel as we continue to push even farther.
And once we’ve let the sun play its part and we reach a place of air, light, and beauty…the painful parts will not have seemed as if they were even there the whole time…because they weren’t and they aren’t.
They play their part and will always be there with our roots, but the bloom will not be tainted or tarnished…just more strong, more resilient, and more thankful for all its come from.
–Reposted with Permission from Widow’s Voice Blog, a program of Soaring Spirits International. Taryn Davis is the founder of the American Widow Project. You can also find Taryn on A Love Interrupted and Transcending with Taryn.
Gold Dust
Tori Amos
Sights and sounds
pull me back down
another year
I was here
I was here…
How did it go so fast
you’ll say
as we are looking
back
and then we’ll
understand
we held gold dust
in our
hands
More by Tori Amos
Youtube Post by JanuaryG1rl
Healing Quote of the Day
Photo by Santiago Nicolau
What keeps you going isn’t some fine destination but just the road you’re on, and the fact that you know how to drive.
Walden
Henry David Thoreau
All change is a miracle to contemplate, but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.
More about Henry David Thoreau
Roots
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican painter who suffered from illness and physical trauma most of her life. In spite of contracting polio at the age of six that permanently left her right leg damaged, Kahlo participated in soccer, swimming and boxing. In her teen years, a serious bus accident would lead to years of chronic pain. Kahlo used painting to process her pain during times of recuperation and healing. She said, “”I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.”
Learn more about Frida Kahlo
Elegy in Joy
Muriel Rukeyser
Photo by USFS Region 5
We tell beginnings: for the flesh and the answer,
or the look, the lake in the eye that knows,
for the despair that flows down in widest rivers,
cloud of home; and also the green tree of grace,
all in the leaf, in the love that gives us ourselves.
The word of nourishment passes through the women,
soldiers and orchards rooted in constellations,
white towers, eyes of children:
saying in time of war What shall we feed?
I cannot say the end.
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.
Not all things are blest, but the
seeds of all things are blest.
The blessing is in the seed.
This moment, this seed, this wave of the sea, this look, this instant of love.
Years over wars and an imagining of peace. Or the expiation journey
toward peace which is many wishes flaming together,
fierce pure life, the many-living home.
Love that gives us ourselves, in the world known to all
new techniques for the healing of the wound,
and the unknown world. One life, or the faring stars.
More poetry by Muriel Rukeyser
The Rising
Bruce Springsteen
Can’t see nothin’ in front of me
Can’t see nothin’ coming up behind
I make my way through this darkness
I can’t feel nothing but this chain that binds me
Lost track of how far I’ve gone
How far I’ve gone, how high I’ve climbed
On my back’s a sixty pound stone
On my shoulder a half mile line
Come on up for the rising
Com on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight
Latest News and Music by Bruce Springsteen
Youtube Post by OffensiveHonesty
Healing Quote of the Day
Photo by Romel Muirragui
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.