sunflower | idealisticrebel

The Awesome power of Mother Earth.

This sunflower was growing in my daughter's backyard. It gave off so much beautiful energy I had to take the photograph. Copyrighted 2007 by Barbara Mattio

This sunflower was growing in my daughter’s backyard. It gave off so much beautiful energy I had to take the photograph. Copyrighted 2012 by Barbara Mattio

This statue is in the gardens of the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2012

If you want to find beauty and peace, close your eyes and spin around. Open your eyes and you will find it everywhere. Once you find it all around you, then look inside and you will find the beauty of your soul, composed of pure white light. If you don’t really want to find beauty, then you will find what is dark and ugly. I, for me and my life choose the beauty. And I rejoice in the choice every day. Even on the bad ones because beauty is just around the corner.

Sunflower grown by my daughter, Elizabeth. Photograph by Barbara Mattio

Wild Geese

“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—-over and over announcing your place in the family of things.”

————-Mary Oliver

Life is not a Hallmark card and there are times we get to the edge of the cliff. We are weighed down with grief, loss, confusion and feel lost. The entire world is looking for us. We have much to live for and we need to immerse ourselves in the full experience that is awaiting us. Our humanity is what is waiting and we can walk tall and respond to the call of the world.

This human life is frail and we miss many simple acts of kindness and compassion. There are days when someone speaking kindly to us at the bookstore is what gets us through. So I believe that each day that is not a struggle for us is a day for random acts of kindness. The thoughtful gesture, the person who looks us in the eyes and really “sees” us, the brush of a hand, a human hand that reminds us we do really exist. Be the stranger who reminds someone that they are part of the human family.